Manners

 We have a copy of the 52 Modern Maners.  Today B was reading the "Be a great houseguest" page. He asked me what it meant by hostess gift.  I tried to explain it since we have never stayed with anyone but family really.  He was still confused for a while.  It turns out that he thought the "small hostess gift" was a small baked good by the company Hostess.  He's a delight.

P came back from AP reader camp.  lP came back from FSY camp.  They each had funny stories to share.  lP had counselors who delighted her and lots of funny pictures. All are safely gathered in except the two that grew up.

We had fallen behind on our scripture stories for the old testament.  With my different schedule we were trying to catch up.  B and L wanted to skip ahead, but we persisted.  We read/signed/voices almost every day the last week and are getting close.  Last night P signed 7 panels for me to voice so we would get caught up.  

I love the culture of our family.  We are nice to each other.  We sign.  We work things out.

lP's band is going to London for the New Year's Parade in 2027/2028.  She'd like to go.  Luckly she already has a little job and is saving money for that.  I told her to save $2000 and we'd make up the rest. It's a pretty big deal.  I've never gone to London.  She didn't go on the trip this past year because... but also with the hope of going with B when they are in high school together.  Now she's got a big goal, B doesn't even want to go because it costs money.  That's life.

Summer beauty

 P made us a rain barrel! We had a really nice lunch at Ro's Grille when we drove to pick up the rain barrel.  

lP and B are at a camp for the youth orchestra this week.  lP's oboe teacher let us know about it each year but it was always the same week as a church camp.  This year it worked out and I was glad to send B as well.  They have been having a good time.  The music they are playing is very challenging, great literature.  I'm so glad they have had a chance to go.  Yesterday they had their chamber ensemble concert.  lP played a trio with 2 flutes.  B played in a jazzy quintet.  

The J's invited us to come pick their blueberries which L and I did one day while lP and B were at camp.  Blueberry pies, frozen blueberries, fresh blueberries, it has been grand.  The 90 minutes of great conversation with sister J was awesome.  When we were prepareing to leave she and her daughter surprised us by giving us what they had picked as well.  It was such a beautiful morning.

P is away at AP reader "camp" for Computer Science.  He has had some dissapointments recently and I'm so glad for him to have this chance to shine.

Today lP and I will attend a tea party with the S ladies of pie day and Christmas scavenger hunt fame.  I was just telling HS that so much of the beautiful things I have enjoyed living here are because of her awesome contributions to social gathering and adventure.  

lP goes to FSY next week.  Life is so good.

Clinic placement

 I started doing a rotation in a clinic.  I see clients aged 1-65 and really enjoy it.  My supervisor is really cool and I am looking forward to having her guidance for the next 2 months.

P is doing an awesome job of managing everything I am not getting done.  He's so good at getting the kids to their appointments and making dinner on nights when I have class.  I'm so grateful for him.

Good times

 We've been having such a good time with M.  Here she was arm wrestling B.  He said everything hurt.

I took the ladies group kayaking in April and again in May.  

School break was nice but back to the books.  I have a placement in a town 50 minutes away.  That's rough but I'll survive and learn.  I got all As last semester and I'm already writing my paper that is due in 10 days.

P has been accepted as an AP reader for computer science.  This is a big deal and I'm so glad for him.

May party

 We invited friends to come dance the maypole.  This was a learning experience for sure.  So many things were awesome and I hope to do it again each year.

I got spools of tulle which created a beautiful display while the pole was waiting but didn't work as well for the actual weaving because it stretched.

We had 5 families join us and enjoyed a potluck and burgers.  The kids played wiffle ball in the back yard and it was so beautiful.  

I'm so grateful to have these beautiful memories and good times.  My life is so full of beautiful times and good people.

Ropes Facilitator

 In May I was asked to become trained on the ropes course at the local church owned camp.  This involved 3 days of training 8-5 and making sure I was available to go to camp.  This worked out perfectly with my semester break.  I've enjoyed this so thoroughly and learned a lot from it.

This is the view from the mid-zip position I was trained on.  Here I would use a brake mechanism to slow the participant down and get them to the platform.  There is a rope attached to the brake that they are instructed to grab that allows me to pull them in the last little bit when they can't touch the platform yet.  I connect them to a "pigtail" on the pole the platform is built on, then transfer their trolley and smart snap hardware to the second zipline for their trip to the ground.

This was me atop the rappeling tower where I recieved climbers and sent them down.  I'm glad I got some good practice at this station during camp.  This is where I developed better visual comfort with heights and confidence in the equipment.

To enter the course participants need to climb this rope ladder.  This is the hardest physical task of the course.  If you can't do it, you are going to come back down and then you will never have to face the other difficulties.  If you can do this rope ladder then nothing else will require more strength.  The other challenges on the coures are 40 feet in the air so that challenges every task in the ropes course. This sweet sister trained to do ground belay but still tried to go up.  She wasn't able to complete the climb but in her own words, it was important for her to try hard things so she could support her young women.  She was so brave.

Working with the ropes course group was lovely.  They all shared this value of wanting to support the youth; giving their time, comfort, physical, and mental energy to learn these skills.  Working together, communicating, learning a little about each other was so good.  At the start everything was so novel and we took pictures of each thing we did.  Wow, I did this!  By the end it was no big deal to get the equipment set up and go do your job.  It was still thrilling to be judged capable of this responsibility because my brain loves that approval, but it wasn't like I had to get pumped up to do the job.

Some memorable times: 

I was on belay for someone and they were struggling.  While on belay there was a ruccus and all the other training team was chatting about it and looking.  It was tempting to put the brake hand down and look too but I kept my eyes on the climber, talking to them, supporting them.  That is what "on-belay" means for me.

I did the "leap of faith" a few times and it always seems like no big deal until you're up at the top and have to stand on the platform, then step off the platform.  Even knowing the rope is on your back it is still hard. I found that I needed to keep my eyes on the red boy to avoid feeling disoriented.  I could get to the platform, get to my knees, then to "mantle" I had to close my eyes because in the moment of standing I couldn't keep my eyes on the ball. That was wild to go up then close my eyes to stand. 

A girl was stuck on the "leap of faith", unwilling to jump.  The safest place to exit this is from the top.  Any other point will have greater likelihood of crashing into the pole.  She was up there sobing for many minutes before the facilitators finally pulled the rope to lift her off.  She clung to the platform.   While on the pole a group of onlookers were consoling and cheering for her.  After she was brought down they couldn't go to her because they didn't have helmets to enter the course area.  I asked the girls waiting to be sent up the ladder to go console her since they had helmets.  Only one went, but I hope that was a good experience for her to leave the group and console someone. I asked her leader the next day if she was fine and she said the girl was totally fine afterward.  

While at mid-zip I had to rescue 2 boys.  The first boy's safesnap strap was too short causing it to pull the trolley sideways and ride on the plastic rather than the wheels.  He didn't make it to to brake zone so I couldn't pull him in.  I had to clip onto the cable and climb out to him, give him a rope (I was supposed to clip a lobster claw to his trolley) and tow him in.  This really tested the limits of my strength.  I was taking smaller and smaller pulls before I reached the platform, but we made it!  The second boy forgot to grab the rope so I climbed out again.  He was much smaller and his trolley was not binding on the cable.  The second rescue was so much easier but I was getting tired so I switched out.

On Monday of camp it rained hard as we were inventorying the equipment.  There was a break in the rain so we set up.  Then it started to rain and kept raining.  I couldn't believe we were doing it in the rain but we did.  Afterward we strung up the equipment in the rafters of a work shed to let it airdry overnight with a fan.

There were so many talk moments in this experience.  As a facilitator it is your job to help the participants experience the course.  You're there to keep them safe so they can have the courage to do hard things.  As a parent I am doing that everyday.  

I learned to shift my gaze and get comfortable seeing the ground very far away.  I say "I learned" but it came with time and exposure.  At the beginning my eyes took a second to focus and in that second I felt off balance for a moment.  With exposure my eye muscles strengthened and my ability to switch instantly to seeing far away improved.  With that instant switch I no longer felt uneasy.  Perspective.

Trust the equipment.  You don't have to worry about falling.  The safesnap/carabiners will keep you from falling.  Focus on what your hands and feet are doing and don't worry about falling.  

There are many lessons in the ropes course.  It is an alegory of this life.  There is strength to be found and opportunities to bless others in the expeirence.  It has been a privilege to join this team, AND now I get ot go to camp forever!

The Saturday before camp our family was invited down to expeirence the course and so I could get more practice.  The kids had fun.  P said I was awesome.  It has been a great thing.  Grandma Buffy!

Ropes

 I finished the semester strong.  I'm pretty sure I got As but more than that I did a lot of hard work and learned a lot.  I'm proud of that.

M is home for a month.  She's been doing rowing, lifeguard, bioengineering, doing well in classes. I'm amazed at her success.  But really, I've known that's who she is all along.  Still.  It amazes me.

I was intited to become trained to run the ropes course for the church camp.  What a thrill.  I love learning, helping, being outdoors.  This is all that!  I jumped off the leap of faith twice today.  Tomorrow we'll do climbing wall and zip-line.  So cool.  I can't believe I get to do this.

P is so good to me.  He supports me in every good thing and takes up so much of the things the family needs in my absense.  I'm so grateful for him.  

I'm glad I'll be done with night classes for a few months.  1 more year until I graduate!  It has been awesome so far.

 UPDATE: I finished the ropes course training and even rappelled off the 40' tower.  I was trained in the mid-zip position which included free climbing a pole with lobster claws, zipping to the midpoint using a grillon and hand brake, receiving and sending participants, setting up the rappel tower, belaying, and running the pamper pole.  It's pretty amazing all they trained us to do in 3 days.  With 20 people getting trained there was a lot of time waiting for your turn but there was also a lot of chance to see the same thing done over and over again.  I thought I was being trained to just put on harnesses, instead, I'm now trained to run major elements of the course.  Heavy.  I can do hard things.

The sweet thing about this is it is a way to always go to camp.  It also puts our family on a list of folks to attend family camp-outs for training.  I am so humbled to be given this opportunity.  It's such a tender mercy to have a role but not be responsible for organizing camp, or people.  I'm serving as primary president right now so this is kind of a sneaky side calling.  I'll get to be there helping youth one at a time, then sending them on.  Nice.

Holy Week and Easter

 I've been seeing clients at the clinic for my program.  All of my areas of study are coming together now that I have clients.  The paperwork, assessments, planning intervention, and code of ethics all hit the road in clinic.  

I left my job in March to do the extra work that clinic would require.  It has been good because I have time now to work on projects and take care of family appointments.  I was so strapped for time in January and February.  Because of holidays and weather days, I kept having to go and work Fridays.  It was frustrating to never have time to go to the Dr., get an oil change, go to the bank; all that stuff that needs to be done, on top of my school work, and seeing the children.  I came home each day from 3-5 to see them and make/share dinner.  I had night class 4 days a week.

I had a group paper and I worked so hard on that paper.  I was waiting for my group members to do anything with it and they never did.  Unfortunately I forgot to put it through Chat GPT to find all the punctuation errors. I felt embarrased that I let them down, but also annoyed that they didn't do anything to help the paper be better.  Oh well.  Our next paper is individual.  I already wrote it, and ran it through Chat GPT.  It's ready to turn in.

B and L are playing Machi Koro this morning.  They are such sweet companions.  I'm grateful for them.  They get along really well.  lP often joins in on their shenanigans and that is very sweet.

We watched conference yesterday and it is so strange to have everyone able to sit still.  For 20 years conference has been a struggle.  Now we're able to enjoy it together, even learning new signs as we watch it with the ASL interpreter.  We have a tradition of eating the 72 hour kit treats during conference.  The kids like that.

P and I sang in a choir with the H and M stakes.  It was so glorious.  We had this lovely backdrop at the H stake center.

In the spring our cherry tree bloosoms and it is gorgeous.

We had such a nice time visiting Florida.  G is so fun to hang out with.  I'm glad we got to spend a lot of time with him.

When someone in our family gets a job we go out for dinner.  lP chose Panda Express so we went there to celebrate her new job.  She's worked 3 days so far.  It's such a cool way for her to have that experience.

Our back yard is so fun.  We have a nice porch right off the back of the house and this big bradford pear tree that shades us in teh summer.

In the back yard we have a trampoline, slack line, and 3 swings.  It is so fun to hang out there.

We had a nice Easter feast.  lP leaned out of the picture.  That's life.  She decorated this carrot cake.  I feel so blessed to have this wonderful family.

M will be an RA

 M applied to be an RA in and also signed a lease for an appartment in October.  At the end of February she was told that she didn't get an RA spot.  The next week she found out that she was moved up and got an RA spot! I made a facebook post to try and sublet her lease.  M found a person to sublet the lease and walked them through the process all by herself!  I gladly paid the $350 fee and she is all set!

Big day for lP

 Yesterday lP got invisilign on her teeth to close her open bite.  After I took her back to school I went by a shop for a replacement purse.  I noticed that they were hiring and asked about the position.  It would be a good job for lP with limited hours and wholesome environment.  When lP got home (walking) I told her about the job and she asked to have a little time before going to interview.  I described what would give them a good impression, especially to be confident with the machine.  She met with the ladies for 45 mintues and they invited her to work there!  What a day.

March has a lot going for it

 I started seeing patients at the clinic for my program.  Knowing this would be more time than I could add to my schedule I gave notice in February to leave my campus job.  I enjoyed many things about working, but it was a lot of stress.  I learned that I need to be very careful about falling into office drama.  

My two patients are working on memory things and that is exciting to learn how to plan therapies. I have been interested in Music Intonation Therapy and I get to use it with one of my clients.  All the paperwork involved with planning and documenting therapy sessions is a lot.  So far I'm keeping my head above water.  

I put in a lot of time working on creating a memory resource for my patient with Broca's Aphasia.  I was telling P that I needed him to write 96% on a paper for me on doing this self assigned project so well.  He wrote me a very nice card and even put one of his A+ shiny smiley face stickers on it.

Friday night we celebrated Spring Break by having a smores cook out and trampolamp out.  The 3 peas tried to sleep on the trampoline.  They came in at 1:45am.  I'm proud of them though.

Our friends the S family are so cool.  They hosted a pi day party and it was so lovely.

Today I am flying to Jtown for a conference on Early Hearing Detection Intervention.  My parent advocacy job is paying for me to go.  P will drive down to Fl Monday with the kids.  Wednesday they will come and pick me up.  I can't believe how awesome the timing and location is for me to go on this trip.  Yay!

On the flight in to Jtown a person in my row was also going to the conference so we shared a lyft to the hotel.  When we got her I met several members sitting at various tables.  It has been truely amazing.  When I went to a conference in Atlanta for Language First it was fun, but I didn't know anyone.  Here I already feel like I have 6 people I can hang out with.  I even got the contact for the Early Intervention providers in Amerian Samoa.  P told me to do a lot of networking and I'm definitely doing that.

P picked me up from the hotel and we went to Taco Louie's to experience the carnitas.  We walked along teh beach afterwards and enjoyed time together.

The hotel had a rooftop pool.

Thursday I attended a tour of FSDB and got to see my friends JH and TS.  I love those ladies.  

We went to Vilano and played on the rocks.

We went to Satchel's and ate yummy pizza and enjoyed the eclectic decor.  Grandma and Grandpa let the kids each get a toy from the lightening salvage store. B got an etch-a-sketch.  L got spy glasses. I got a lunch bag full of finger puppets beause I'm going to be an SLP.

We went around town getting pictures with classic awesomeness like Albert and Alberta.  I love my family.

Baby Roo

 I'm reading Whinnie the Pooh with L and B.  B is enjoying it a lot more.  He is so delightful and really enjoys these stories.  Last night we read about how Rabbit was acting nimby about Kanga and baby Roo.  Rabbit contrives a scheme to kidnap baby Roo to get Kanga to leave the 100 acre woods.  It's horrific.  In the end Rabbit and Pooh end up friends with Kanga and Roo, while Piglet who was most roped into the scheme gets the most blame.  

I was discussing this with L today on the way to school; acknowledging that it was a horrible idea, and that hate comes from ignorance.  Once Rabbit knew Roo, they were friends.  God knows us, and loves us.

I like myself

 Someone asked me today if I was keeping busy in my calling.  They said "Doesn't it seem like there is always more you can do?"  My reply led to a larger response about how I like myself and I don't suffer from the common malady of inadequacy.  I was raised by a fantastically competent woman who told us lots of stories of people being mean to her.  What I took from those stories was that my mom was not perfect, and that those people were jerks to be critical of her rather than helpful.

In my own life, because of my mother, I am very capable, and feel good doing good.  I don't feel inadequate, or like I need to be doing more.  In my current calling I am super aware that there are at least 30 other women in the ward that could do this calling and do a great job.  I just happen to be the one doing it right now and I'm not trying to "impress" anyone, just do my best.

The 4 agreements are very important.  Learning to do your best, take nothing personal, assume nothing, and not use the word for poison, help me be happy.  When I break these agreements I do suffer from self doubt and worrying that people will hate me.  These outbreaks of worry are always less than a few hours, then I stop caring if someone doesn't like me.  That's their problem.  I like me.

When our ward was reorganized we were paired with the Spanish Branch.   I wanted to create a bilingual resource, but by the time I got it done, we aren't paired anymore.  Oh well.  I am pleased with it.  Now I can work on my spanish.  I read the English phrase then I read the Spanish and do sign language at the same time.  If I can't figure out the spanish well enough to put signs with it, I probably don't know the word for real.   

December

 We had an awesome family trip to Florida

Family

Seaworld

St Augustine

Family Fun

 In November we have gone on hikes, practiced for performances, written music, taken tests, given tests, and started a new ward.

L is doing a spelling bee for school so we've been having family spelling bees to help him practice.

Thanksgiving was fun.  We had a lot of good food but not too much.

We took this lettuce picture for M so she wouldn't miss us while she is traveling with friends.

G is visiting and we've been able to get a lot of important medical appointments taken care of while he is here.  The 3 peas are enjoying having him around and playing video games with him.

L and B love to read.  We love it when they want to stay up all night reading and don't remember to eat.

We have a lot of instruments and sometimes the kids want to try something new.  lP and B were fighting over the clarinet and then lP said "Don't we have 2?" Why, yes.  We do.

This was our hike on Saturday when we took lP to a birthday party out of town.  This is called Spring Cave.  It was very cool.

We enjoyed this walk along the river.  There were tons of molusks and bivalves on the shore.  I think the water is low because they release the dam waters in October.

Our stake was re-organized from wards shaped like strips of bacon, to wards shaped like hash-browns.  I was asked to be the primary president which has been a huge challenge.  Things are starting to settle down but it is still a lot.  The kids are great and the teachers are wonderful. 

We're looking forward to visiting family in December and plan to go big with a trip to seaworld.

October flies by

 lP was in cross country and Band.  We had the primary program, then conference, then the ward was re-organized, then there was stake conference.  I was called back to primary and it has been a lot of stress trying to call so many teachers.  We almost have all the teachers which is nice.

I have been doing well in my classes.  The children are doing well, though they all stayed home today with minor cold symptoms.  We have been very healthy in October.  Yay!

So here we are half way through November. G will be visiting soon and I'm excited about that.

September fun

lP plays in the front ensemble in the marching band.  She also runs cross country!

The boys have discovered reading for recreation.

B plays in the middle school pep band.  They have 6 games this year.  

The funny quote book is a source of amusement and a treasure.

A neighbor was discarding this chair so we brought it home and cleaned it thoroughly.  Now lP sleeps on it.  She has long wished for a chair like grandma L has and now she finally has something like it.

I went to a conference in Atlanta and enjoyed hiking Stone Mountain.  It was steep!

On Labor Day we kayaked a nice river that was shady and slow moving.  We hiked up to this spring and it was really pleasant.

 

Busy as all get out

L has one of his cough cycles going.  It's so frustrating that he gets sick and stays sick.  

lP is so busy with cross country, band and competition band.  She's constantly missing one for the other.  Serving 2 masters is hard.

I have class Monday night, and Wednesday night.  I have work Thursday night.  Friday is football games.  Tuesday is my only night home during the week.  It is rough.

There are several classmate/co-workers who want rides and it isn't a big deal to give rides but it is extra time and stress to accomodate them.  They don't have kids or cars so they don't see how waiting for them makes me late.  

I got to go mountain biking with my friend A on Friday.  I started an "Active ladies" group last year and it has been a source of joy to be able to have a group of women who like being active.  We have gone caving, kayaking, mountain biking, hiking, walking, swimming.  I love that connection.

We're planning the primary program right now and it is a bit tricky trying to figure out how to fit 65 children + teachers into 50 seats.  My expectations are at ground level.  I think it's going to be great.

This weekend I'll go to Atlanta for a conference about sign language and hopefully connect with other people that share my dreams.  But part of me thinks I may end up doing medical SLP work because I'm good at anatomy.  Nobody seems to want total communication for deaf children so maybe I'll just go do something else.

M is at college.  G is in Gtowne figuring things out.  His medical withdrawals have put a snag in his financial aid.  I've made some suggestions and offered help, but he has to decide to do the work.

Parenting adult kids is tricky.  I miss them so much but am also glad they are out trying their best.

First week of school and work

 The children (3 peas) started school on Monday.  I started a job as a Graduate Assistant the same day.  Sadly, I was not there when they came home from school because my orientation meeting was 2:30 to 5pm.

At the orientation meeting our supervisor invited us to work out a schedule between the 8 of us.  5 people wanted the AM shift, and only 2 can get it.  Another mom J has the most seniority and was hired with the understanding that she could only work during school hours.  She is from Nigeria, studying materials engineering, and she has 2 children in school.

Over the past week I have made it a priority to be early/ontime each day to show the supervisor that she can count on me to be reliable.  My default is to be eagerly working, rather than just present.  But with the hope of securing that AM slot, I have made sure to get L off to school, dress professionally, and show up!  One day L forgot his medicine and I was so torn about what to do.  I would be late if I went to school as I had in the past when he forgot his medicine.  So I went to work.  As soon as I was done I went to L's school to give him some medicine.  He reported that he hadn't had any trouble.  

The graduate assistant position is with the freshman academy.  We'll man a desk for students to see their advisor, and in the tutoring lab.  We won't be tutoring, but will be supervising, and sometimes evaluating the tutors.  I originally approached the supervisor because I wanted to become a tutor for the CSD department.  Last year my classes were during the day and I wasn't ready to miss family time for work.  This year my classes are at 1-2 (Tuesday/Thursday), and 5-8 (Monday/Wednesday).  So I have most of the school hours to work. When she interviewed me this year she said I could offer a weekly session to CSD as part of my work schedule.

With M at college I'm working on switching the children's rooms.  lP is really not liking this.  She'll have her own room for 4 years though.  There will never be a good time, and there will be worse times.  So, now it is.

flights and adulting

G had an opportunity to travel to Utah as an FSY counselor.  He missed his flight because he was asleep when his grandparents came to pick him up.  It's so frustrating that being deaf and having sleep difficulties create such a terrible dynamic.  His grandparents were so helpful, taking him to tampa in the middle of the night to catch another flight to get there on time.  My brother picked him up and helped him get to the meeting.

M was working in Maryland this summer and we had a tight plan that involved her flying in the day before she was to move into her dorm.  Unfortunately there were bad storms at BWI and she was stranded for 22 hours with delayed flights, canceled flights, everything!  She was on a flight at midnight when they canceled it.  She called P who was already driving to pick her up.  Some moms heard her conversation with dad and adopted her.  They took her to the front of the line where a man gave up his seat on a 9am flight.  I was able to pack up her things and pick her up in Nashville, drive straight to Auburn and get her to the mandatory 4pm meeting.  What a day.

I'm grateful for the good things they are involved in and the kind people who helped them get there this summer.