How it's going

I was talking to Olivia and Marianne called me but I stayed talking to Olivia.  Then Marianne called Olivia on a different phone but we kept talking.  Then I hung up with Olivia and called Marianne and while we were talking Olivia called Marianne.

It was not the first time something like that happened.

***

The main floor and the basement are now put back together.  The upstairs had been mostly put together but I came across a lot of stuff that belongs up there so it's now a mess.  And the garage has a lot of stuff in it still.

I feel like I'm paddling upstream here.

***

When I need someone to tell me to get rid of something, I ask Mark.  His answer is always yes.  Unless it's  Lego instructions.  Lego instructions for days.  And when I told Mark we had too many Legos, he said, "You bought them for me," and he is right.

***

I didn't feel like I had time to stop and do some ministering interviews but I stopped and did a few and I felt good after connecting.  Doing the right thing usually turns out to be...the right thing.  Who knew?

***

We have too many books.

But I want more.

But we have too many.

***

Yesterday I got an email requesting I fill out a survey about how my wrist is doing a year after the surgery.  It asked me to rate the difficulty I had in lifting 5 pounds, buttoning buttons, reaching a high cupboard, things like that.

Wow.

It made me feel super grateful.  Besides the kind of ugly, but I'm used to it by now, scar on my wrist, I don't even think about my surgery.  My wrist is fine.  When I think about all the ways my wrist serves me without complaint, especially in the last weeks, I am amazed.

I think I take this body, that gets tired and hurts sometimes, too much for granted.  It works hard.

And I'm grateful.

Call me Nero

It felt a little like I was playing the fiddle while Rome was burning, but Emma and I organized books by color.

I did it several years ago, with dire results because I couldn't find anything.  This time it is just the fiction shelves.  (And I will probably do it on the YA shelves too.)  I'm going to organize the Newberys by the year they were written.  Why would I do this when there are 12,000 other things crying for my attention?

I don't know.

The heart wants what the heart wants.

Don't worry about those ones tilting on the bottom shelf.  I was going to locate a book end but then I found some more fiction books to add after taking the picture.  No tilting books!

Also, Mark didn't work yesterday (at least he didn't get paid).  I kept telling him to slow down and I'm not an 18 year old boy when we were moving heavy stuff together and he was walking too fast.

He said, "It would be easier if you held that away from your body."

I said, "I don't have enough upper body strength."

He said, "You know how you could get some?"

I'd like to see him give birth three times.  I have strength!  Just not the same as his.

At last

Our painters finally finished and left on Saturday afternoon.  They were here working for 10 solid days.  

They said that we will miss them and that maybe we'd want to have a recording of them working in the house for ambient noise.  Funny guys, but no.  

The house is maybe 60% back together.  I worked diligently on Saturday and my back was aching and I was narrowing in on 13,000 steps (it's nice to have a fitbit; it helps you feel like a martyr).  Adam told me to stop.  I told Adam I would quit at 9:00.

Around 9:30, I was in the garage, getting stuff and Adam said, "It's after 9:00.  You are supposed to be done."

He was mowing the lawn.  Our lawn mower has headlights, if you must know. 

I said, "I decided to work until you're done."

Adam said, "No, stop.  I still have to mow the front yard and you have to stop."

So I did.  Adam came up a few minutes later (the front yard is small).  I said, "It's a good thing I'm a patient person or this would be really hard."

And Adam laughed a lot.  Because I'm not a patient person.  I want to be Samantha in Bewitched and twitch my nose and have everything organized again.

A good part of all the chaos has been that I've gone through things and discarded things and organized things and that all REALLY needed doing.

Here's one of the few rooms that is back to normal.  It makes me feel like I can breathe.

Today is a day to get a lot done!

Grateful Friday

They are supposed to be done painting today.  (They were supposed to be done yesterday but I'm feeling hopeful.)  I am looking forward to putting it all back together.

Wednesday we had lunch with Marianne and Robert and some of their kids.  It was right before sending Hyrum off to the MTC.  He and I shared a creme brûlée and I love that kid.  He's smart and funny and good.  He will be a great missionary.  I'm grateful for nieces and nephews.

Yesterday was cool and rainy.  A change is as good as a rest!  Emma and I took a walk in the late morning.  You can't normally do that in the summer without it being too hot.  It was lovely.

I am super grateful about my tooth.  My dentist was very doomsday about the whole thing.  "We'll see if this works, your body may reject the filling."  "You may need to get an implant, we'll see."

And my tooth has been hurting.  A lot.  I went to the dentist and had the bite corrected.  It helped a little.  It still has been hurting.  A lot.

I called the dentist again.  Maybe I need the bite corrected some more?  They told me to go to the endodontist.  

Because my default is often worse case scenario, I was pretty sure it was going to be bad news.  I was pretty sure they were going to say I would need the tooth pulled and I would need an implant.

But.

He had me bite and said, "That is the only place in your mouth where your teeth are meeting!"

He ground away and ground away at the filling.  He said, "No wonder you have been hurting!" (Which it must be said, was validating.)  Every time he had me bite, it would feel a bit better.  Finally he pronounced me as good as new.  And it doesn't hurt!  For the first time in about 2 months.  My. Tooth. Doesn't. Hurt.

I've never loved an endodontist so much (or at all, but still).

Two political science majors

Braeden and Anna are in Virginia right now, visiting her family.  They took a red eye from Phoenix to Philadelphia, where they had an 8 hour layover, then on to Charlottesville.  This is how you travel on the cheap and to out of the way airports.

They are young and in love and hardy.

(I would not look that cute if I hadn't slept.  I wouldn't look that cute if I had slept....)

Running on adrenaline and patriotism.  I would expect nothing less of my two favorite political scientists.

A pinprick

I woke up at 2:30 AM from a dream that I was lying in bed and furniture was falling on me.  Sometimes when I have a dream I wonder, where did that come from? and sometimes I don't.

All is not lost though.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  It's a tiny light, a pinprick, but it's there.  They started taping the basement.  Yesterday they prepped the crown molding with an enormous ladder and then about the time they were leaving, the paper they'd taped to the ceiling started to come down.  Two steps forward and one step back.

Also, I found my socks last night before I went to bed.

All is not lost.

Yesterday morning I escaped to Nola's where there are no painters.  I sat in her pristine living room and just let my shoulders drop.  We had what ended up being an intense conversation about empty nests and worries about children.  We both cried a little and she went to get Kleenex.  She returned with two boxes and presented them to me, "Pick your depression color."

I picked the purple box.

An hour later, we went to the $5 movie (Emma joined us).  We saw In The Heights.  I loved it!  Nola keeps trying to talk me into Quiet Place II and I keep telling her that is too scary for me.

The painters tell me several times a day, "Don't stress!"

Does that sound like a person who should watch Quiet Place II?

Still here

I am sure you are as tired of hearing about it as I am tired of living in it.  Mark needed insulin yesterday and we had to parkour to the kitchen (maybe an exaggeration but not really) and dig under the plastic to the fridge.

It is bonkers.

And the more I live in the upstairs (where I am putting everything back to normal), the more I love it. 

White trim is my love language.

In other news, I have no socks.  Zero socks.  How could I lose all my socks?  Good thing it is sandal weather.

Also, here's something: we have a bunny living in our yard.  Saturday it was nibbling on the lawn mower blade after Adam mowed and then it hopped away when it saw me.  Adam said it is living under a red barberry bush.  He said, "I wish it would go away.  Rabbits are destructive."

I said, "I would rather have the bunny than the squirrels."

Adam said, "Only if it would eat the squirrels."

What it comes down to is that we are animal lovers....