A Series of Life-Altering Bits of News

 Elannah received her mission call to the Tennessee Nashville Mission (English-speaking), and she's very excited. As her parent, I'm selfishly excited that she's going stateside. The world is getting weirder and weirder, and I like that she will be closer to home should something even more weird happen. Plus, maybe her father and I will get to go pick her up when her mission is over. While she won't get the opportunity to live in another culture and learn to communicate in another language, she is going to another part of the United States with a distinctive culture and accent, so I'm sure it will feel a little bit like going somewhere exotic while still being able to hit up a Walmart on her day off.

Because her preschool para job ended when schools closed for the summer, Elannah applied for and was offered an outdoor maintenance job with the city. She is now in charge of pond maintenance for a golf course. It's a 40-hour-a-week job with pretty good pay, and that's what she wanted in order to save more money for her mission. She'll also build up her muscles before she rides a bike on her mission for 18 months (she was specifically told she'll be on a bike). After just one week on her new job, she is already very tan despite using sunblock and wearing a wide-brimmed hat; but she's always been able to tan very easily. I don't know where that gene came from, considering her ancestry is from very pale people of Great Britain and Sweden. 

We only have a couple weeks to go until Sophia's wedding. Sophia and I took a second trip yesterday to her venue to finalize decorating plans, and that helped calm her nerves a little. She's no bridezilla, but she knows what she wants. I'm very proud of her because she has worked hard to make things on her own so that she doesn't need to spend hundreds of dollars on items that can only be used on the wedding day. She's figured things out, including designing and printing her wedding invitations and putting together all the flower arrangements, among other things. She splurged on her dress, but it's the perfect dress; it's like it was designed to fit her exactly. Husband and I splurged on the photographer/videographer. We want her to have fabulous photos.

Joseph is finally taking driving school so he can get his license. He paid for it himself, which is only fair considering how much we're going to end up paying in higher insurance rates, but I'm proud of him for taking the initiative. He doesn't know it yet, but my in-laws are planning on surprising him by giving him one of their cars because...

...my in-laws are moving.

They recently went on a short trip to Indiana to visit two of their other sons, and when we picked them up from the airport upon their return, I knew they were going to move. Something just told me. It was so obvious to me that I had a hard time not casually talking about them moving during normal conversations and had to keep biting my tongue, though I did talk about it quietly with Husband. They themselves didn't figure it out until a week later when they called Husband and I over and tearfully broke the news to us that they had just decided that day that they were selling their house and moving. When we told them we already knew they were going, they were relieved that we weren't angry. Of course we aren't angry! It makes perfect financial sense for them to move, for one thing. They bought their house here at a steep discount nine years ago because it was a foreclosure in a buyer's market. Now it's a seller's market and the house has appreciated over 100%, so they will be able to outright purchase a home in the lower-cost market of their new destination in Indiana, have enough money to pay off debt, and still have enough set by to allow them to make a few more trips to Great Britain to see their other four children. With debt paid off and no mortgage to worry about, their British pensions will be enough to support them now that the exchange rate has rallied a bit in their favor. 

The other reason it makes perfect sense is that they'll be moving close to two of their sons who have never had the chance to live near their parents during their married lives. One of them--my youngest brother-in-law--has two little girls who will get to develop a close relationship with their Nanna and Grampy as they grow up. The other son--Husband's next younger brother--is so excited to finally share holidays and family dinners with his parents, something he's wished for for a long time. How can we begrudge him that joy when we've been lucky enough to have them close by for nine years?

While we will certainly miss their presence just down the street, their move does give us an excuse to make a road trip once or twice a year. I love road trips. After Elannah leaves on her mission, we'll only have the boys living at home, so I want to make more road trips even if Little Gary complains he doesn't enjoy long drives. Suck it up, buttercup. Mama wants to drive to green places and see new things while I still can.

It's Not Them, It's Me

 You know how when you're in one relationship after another that keeps going wrong in the same ways you eventually have to own up to the fact that it's not them--it's you? 

This is the relationship I have with beds. I have to own up to the fact that it's not them, it's me. I'm just not good at sleeping. I can't do these amazing beds justice. No matter how much I whine and complain about how tired I am, it's never the bed's fault.

We recently got a new bed. It's a Layla double-twin dual adjustable bed, and it's fabulous. The mattresses have a firmer side and a softer side, but the softer side is actually soft--unlike many other companies that claim to have soft mattresses that still feel like you're practically sleeping on a board. In the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I'm Mama Bear. I like mattresses so soft you disappear into a ditch every time you lie down. The soft side of the Layla mattress isn't quite that soft, but it's very, very comfortable. I do not understand people who love a firm mattress. 

The bed we had before--a Casper king with a pillow topper--was absolutely fine, but Husband found this amazing deal on the Layla adjustable bed and snapped it up. This way, we can raise the head of the bed a little, which helps both of us as side sleepers breathe more easily. We had tried a foam wedge under our Casper mattress, and Husband liked it, but I felt like I was sleeping on a hill, which did not help me relax during my sleep. I would slide down during the night and wake up with my feet hanging off the end of the bed. Now, with two adjustable mattresses, we each have control over how high we want to raise our heads and/or feet. Neither of us raise our feet to sleep, but it's nice to have the head raised a few degrees.

Husband also surprised me with a 20lb weighted blanket because I can't stand sleeping under light covers that make me feel like I'm being tickled. I loathe being tickled. Try tickling me and find out how swiftly my normally non-violent self becomes violent. While it is difficult to turn over in the night under all that weight (I also need a body pillow between my knees and to support my arm), it's a great blanket. It feels like being hugged. The problem is that, as it gets warmer outside, I get overheated under that blanket and have to kick it off, so then I am left under only a tickly sheet.

Despite sleeping in this wonderful, comfortable bed, I still wake up feeling like I've been up for 36 hours and have been clenching every muscle in my body while asleep.

I have issues. It's definitely me, not the beds. 

By the way, Little Gary got our Casper king bed. The bed takes up 2/3 of his room, but he's never slept so well.

Mildly Interesting Photos from My Phone

 In my attempts to become an accomplished woman of the Regency era, I have taken up needlepunch and embroidery. I've always been fascinated by the needle arts--especially lush embroidery like crewelwork--and when I saw people reviving needlepunch, I was totally on board.

My first attempt was not terrible, but it wasn't great, either. This, below, is an unfinished canvas. It's supposed to be a dandelion plant, by the way, and not a distorted happy face. Unfortunately, I couldn't find monk's cloth anywhere in my town, so I improvised with a tight-woven upholstery fabric I found at the fabric store. I used Chinese-made needlepunch tools I ordered cheap from Amazon to see if I enjoyed needlepunch before I invested more in some really good, more expensive needlepunch needles. The Chinese ones weren't terrible, but I quickly realized that I was using the wrong yarn. For standard needlepunch, you need a bulky yarn, like rug yarn. The problem is that I have collected enough worsted weight and sport weight yarns to reach to the moon and back, and I'm running out of room to store all that yarn. I would rather use up the yarn I have than buy even more yarn, though hoarding yarn is not unappealing to me. But whatever yarn you use, you really do need monk's cloth to do this right.

I started experimenting with using two strands of yarn in the needle before giving it up altogether because the loops kept coming out, which was very frustrating. Plus, the fabric was very difficult to punch through. I was frequently in danger of jamming the punchneedle into my thigh in my efforts to pop it through the fabric.

I then ordered a mini needlepunch needle from The Oxford Company (high quality) so I can use worsted and sport weight yarns. I also made a new frame by taking the canvas off of a sturdy canvas frame, removing all the staples, and then cutting up and nailing on some carpet tack strips I bought from Home Depot. 

Carpet tack strip has wickedly sharp little nails. I made sure they were angled away from the center of the frame so I can stretch and hook the monk's cloth on the nails (the monk's cloth finally arrived in the mail!).

Since I don't want to repeatedly puncture myself on the tack nails, I also bought some dense foam pipe cover from Home Depot, cut that very raggedly with the miter box and saw because I was too lazy to go all the way upstairs to get my scissors, and then wrapped the pipe cover over the frame. Once the monk's cloth is stretched onto the frame, the pipe cover will keep my arms and hands safe while I work.

I don't have any new punchneedle artwork to show you. Life got a little crazy, so I haven't managed to start one, but I'll show you when I do. I'm sure you'll be all agog at my accomplishment. Mr. Darcy will be sure to count me amongst his half-dozen accomplished women by the time I'm through.

In other news, I have been working on organizing my pantry. Again. It is a never-ending project despite all my attempts to train everyone in the house on where on each shelf different types of pantry items are to be stored. Hopeless. If they see a hole, that's where they shove cans willy-nilly regardless of my instructions. Either I have to be the one to put all the groceries away or I need to stop buying things. Both of those are probably good ideas.

Husband used some scrap board left over from the deck project to make me some extra shelves that sit on the back half of each of the main shelves. This makes it far easier for me to see what is in there because I'm not stacking cans so high. I'm still working on the bottom shelves, but you can see my progress.

I guess you can also see what I tend to keep in my pantry. It turns out I have an astonishing number of cans of pureed pumpkin. Huh. Who knew? Not I, until very recently. I still have a boatload of Indian spices I bought in bulk, and I'll need a spot for those. I guess I'll need to make pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie in order to free up some space.

In other other news, I walked into work one day a couple weeks ago and found a vase of lilies, a six-pack of Diet Coke, and a red plastic bag containing limes and a large chunk of ginger (to make ginger and lime Diet Coke, which is my favorite, but which Coca-Cola once again stopped making). The note was from Skyler's wife in gratitude for my being willing to edit Skyler's school papers so she didn't have to. Lol! They have a toddler and a new baby who cries all the time due to colic, so I'm sure editing school papers is the last thing she wants to do. I have a much easier job than she has at the moment. Skyler is an excellent writer and easy to edit, but I certainly wouldn't have the strength anymore to raise babies. At this stage of my life, I have chosen the grandmother option for child care: enjoy them thoroughly and then hand them back when they're cranky or have a dirty diaper.

I think that about covers the mildly interesting pics I found on my phone. Thanks for taking a glance at them. Enjoy the rest of your day, because I wish you all the best!

Little Wins and Great Satisfactions

 I didn't know it was Administrative Assistants Day last week until I walked into our daily morning meeting at work and was presented with flowers, candy, and a card on which every single one of the faculty had written a note of appreciation ("You complete us," wrote Tanner, who has an understated and dry sense of humor that makes me belly-laugh). What floored me was that it wasn't an afterthought, and the fact that they planned ahead and coordinated this little presentation was what made me very nearly tear up right in front of them--I didn't cry or anything, but I think they could tell I was truly touched.

Speaking of work, I normally feel like a fish who is trying to climb a tree--in other words, stupid and ignorant--when it comes to having conversations with the faculty about pedagogy or deep gospel topics. These guys are whip smart and highly educated in their field, and I cannot add anything new or very insightful to their discussions. I mostly just listen. They are also the cream of the crop of gospel teachers, as they have to beat out some intense competition in order to become seminary teachers; you'd be surprised how many wanna-be seminary teachers there are compared to how few actually make it through the program and get hired. While I love the guys on the faculty like brothers, I usually feel pretty ignorant around them--not that they ever treat me with anything less than respect and true camaraderie.

Recently, however, I finally got to speak to a subject about which I actually know something. 

One of the teachers, Neil, is moving to the East Coast after this school year is over to teach Institute (religion classes for young adults, ages 18-30) at a university, and he and his wife recently visited their new city and bought a 1960s mid-century modern home with a very large yard. They're having it remodeled (it needed some repair and updating) and putting an addition onto the back.  

I immediately expressed interest in his new house, so Neil happily showed me pictures. He said he and his wife want to go quite modern in their decor, so I brought in a stack of my more current Architectural Digest and Better Homes & Gardens magazines so Neil and his wife could get some inspiration for their house and their massive yard, for which he was very grateful. What surprised me, however, is that, instead of just taking the magazines home for his wife to look at, he sat down during some of his free moments and went through the magazines very thoroughly and then sought me out to discuss his ideas about decor using images from the magazines as inspiration. I am not an interior designer or decorator except in the most amateur of senses, but I have done a lot of study on the subject and some experimentation in my own house. I was able to give him a little lesson on the goals of mid-century modern design; what parts of his new home he should leave alone and where he might want to make changes; and some ideas about the best types of materials he could use for his various projects. He is also excited about color and has even come up with a color palette he likes, so we've talked about how to bring those colors into his house. I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed these conversations--not because I get to school him a little (or, rather, not only because of that) but because I love watching Neil's superbly analytical mind take on such a different type of project. I love having this connection with him. He's like an onion: for every layer you peel away, there are a dozen more underneath.

Today, during one of our in-depth dives into color, I mentioned a very basic truism about decor: go neutral with your expensive purchases, like couches and other big furniture, and pull color in through paint, throw pillows, draperies, and rugs--items that are far cheaper to buy and which can be easily switched out as your color tastes change. It was a true revelation to him, and he gushed for a full minute about how brilliant that idea is. It was nice to be in the position of blowing his mind for once. We also hashed out color options for the exterior of the house and how to have exterior colors speak to interior colors. I helped him think outside the Utahn houses-painted-mushroom-colors-of-brown box, and I saw his eyes start to sparkle with new ideas. 

Most satisfying. 

My other win today was that I learned how to create a flyer in Word and then came up with a flyer design for graduation ceremonies that even Husband complimented (Husband's bachelors degree was in Film Studies and Graphic Arts, which included a lot of graphic design). Thanks, YouTube teachers who are willing to share their knowledge for free! From YouTube channels, I have also learned all about creating informative Excel spreadsheets, which I had absolutely no idea how to do when I first started this job. Now I'm doing formulas and graphs and everything! 

If it sounds like I'm bragging, I am a little, but not because I'm thinking I'm all that. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm not the world's biggest loser. It was a rough week last week, emotionally speaking. 'Nuff said. 

The Beginning of the End to Covid Restrictions?

It was a red-letter day yesterday!

Yesterday morning, I went to the first work meeting I've been to in nearly a year where no one had to wear a mask or stay six feet apart--and this was at an inservice meeting for all the seminary and institute faculties in the valley, so we had a couple dozen people there.

Our employer has now stated that, in areas where the Covid vaccines have been made available to faculty and staff (and regardless of whether or not all employees have actually had the vaccine), we no longer have to mask up and physically distance in each others' company. When we're working with students, we do still have to mask up, per state policy, but we no longer have to do that around other employees. 

This is a vast improvement. It was so nice to see each others' faces and to clearly hear the region director speak because he wasn't muffled by a mask. There was a lot of laughter and happiness. 

I had been wondering how hard it would be for us to get used to being so close to each other again. Would we be hesitant? Feel residual guilt or fear? Turns out we got used to it pretty quickly. After the first few minutes, we all forget we'd ever been wearing masks and staying away from each other. I even got a hug from Denise, whom I haven't seen in weeks, and Jenie and I whispered quietly to each other on the back row, where we leaned close enough to hear each other. It felt completely natural by that point, as if we had never suffered through masks and social distancing for the last year.

Most of my colleagues have been vaccinated or have had Covid, or both. They jumped at the chance to be vaccinated as soon as they were offered the opportunity, though my employer did not poll who had and who had not taken the vaccine (and they have promised that they won't poll the employees about that in the future, either). My entire faculty have been vaccinated (and all of them suffered side effects ranging from mild and annoying to quite severe, though they have all fully recovered now), and I'm sure that most of the faculty and staff from the other seminaries and institutes in the valley have been vaccinated as well. I'm one of the very few holdouts, I think. 

My parents waited for and got the Johnson&Johnson one-dose vaccine, and it took them about a week to fully recover, although their reactions were not severe--mostly general malaise, but no bad fevers or chills. My mother, who is a praying woman, felt very strongly that she and my dad needed to wait for that particular vaccine to be available. I, myself, who am also a praying woman, have felt very strongly that I need to continue waiting. I don't know why, but that's what I'll do unless the Spirit tells me otherwise. 

By next week, anyone in our state who is 16 and over will be eligible to receive the vaccine, so I imagine the numbers of vaccinated will grow by leaps and bounds. Dare I hope that by the next school year none of us will be wearing masks? I might finally be able to start really learning the students' names because I can finally see their faces.

I Have a Little Too Much Time on My Hands at the Moment

 In a delightful turn of events, my 2 1/2-year-old grandson, Tyler, has learned how to send me Marco Polo video messages without his mother helping him. Sometimes, his mother isn't even aware that he's sending them. Today I got one such message, and I'm still giggling about it. He couldn't figure out how to turn the camera to face him, so I got a very up-close and personal look at his chubby little leg as he sat on the couch, but I heard him say over and over in his chirpy little voice, "Hi, Nanna! Hi! Hi, Nanna!" Then he must have realized his Mommy was coming back because he said, "Oh!" and the video ended. 

I immediately sent him a return video and gave him high-fives and fist bumps, which he loves. Sian says he often asks to re-watch videos from me. Could I be more in love with that adorable, precocious, mischievous baby? 

In an undelightful turn of events, my boss informed me that he had been mistaken in telling me I only had to wait four days after the last of Husband's symptoms before getting tested and returning to work. It's actually seven days, which means I can't go back until next week. Meanwhile, Husband, who actually had Covid, started back to work yesterday. I still don't have any symptoms (and neither has anyone else), and both Elannah and Joseph have already tested negative and can return to work. 

I am keeping myself busy by doing as much of my administrative assistant duties as I can from home. In my quiet moments, I do some editing and writing for Marco's website. I'm slowly getting my brain back into the content writing mode, remembering what I need to do for SEO and the algorithms. Marco is very good at cranking out content on a daily basis, and I'm good at editing. Sometimes I overthink the writing part, so when I'm mentally bogged down, I switch it up and do some editing. Marco can get content out quickly--and I'm very impressed with his ability to write so well in a non-native language (his native language is Italian)--but I'm still better at English grammar and sentence structure, so my editing powers come in handy at making the content more coherent and flowing. He's happy with my work, so we're good. I don't want to step on his toes.

I found some old photos. 

A webcam image from around 2010, when I first started my foray into content/website writing for a now defunct company. I had to talk to clients on the phone to understand exactly what information they wanted on their website pages--thus the headset. Gosh, I look young!

Also circa 2010-2011: Little Gary and his mama. Even though he is currently 13, Little Gary is still a very affectionate son. 

And here's a recent video of Tyler. Elannah had been delighting him by playing peek-a-boo and startling him, which he loves. After she was done, Little Gary kept up the game, but by that point, Tyler was only doing the courtesy laughs even though he was trying his best to sound very sincere. Sian told us that when Tyler laughs, he often shouts, "Nanna and Grampy!" so it sounds like he's contributing to the conversation. Of course, I'm delighted with that.

The Joy of Non-Professional Writing

 Husband is quickly recovering now. He's still fatigued, but all the flu symptoms have gone. None of the rest of us have had any symptoms thus far.

I'm not sure when I'll get to go back to work. My company is operating on a more stringent Covid protocol than the CDC's, so I may not be allowed back for at least another week, which is longer than Husband will have had to quarantine, and he's the one who actually had Covid! That's irritating, but at least they'll let me work from home so I can get some pay. Husband can go back to work on Tuesday.

I haven't accomplished much of anything during this enforced time off. I'm very disappointed in myself for that. I mean, there's always housecleaning and cooking of meals, but that's pretty mundane not very exciting. Why haven't I written a book yet? It's not like I haven't had the time! I've certainly had the time to watch way too many Saturday Night Live sketches on YouTube. I have a million things I need to do--especially as the Relief Society president--and all of them are hard and none of them are things I am anxious to do, so they feel overwhelming. Sometimes, you need to have a little success with something that's low-stakes in order to pump yourself up to do the harder stuff.

My friend, Marco, came to my rescue. I've known him since my mission to England in the early 1990s, where we both served in the same area and became good friends. He's an enterprising guy, and he has a lot of irons in the fire with his regular day job at a well-known software company, an adjunct professor of business at his local university (he does that for fun and not for the pay, which is terrible), and as the creator of some websites that he's been operating for a few years now, his most popular one being focused on his home town in Italy. 

Marco's most recent website contains little blurbs of about 200 or so words about why we do the things we do or use the things we use. For instance, why do we shake hands as a greeting? When did forks become popular? From which country and/or tradition did knights originate? You know, the kind of interesting little facts you can use to win a trivia game or pull out at a party to start a conversation or answer the unending questions from a curious child. 

Marco has asked me to help him with this website--both as an editor for his work and as a writer of some of the blurbs. It's good to get back to some writing and editing. It stretches my brain. I sometimes help the guys at work edit their school papers (they're all either getting their doctorates or obtaining certifications that will increase their pay), but I'm not missing the pressure and stress of professional content writing. It's fun to do something that isn't high pressure writing. While Marco has offered to let me keep any revenue generated by blurbs that I write, we both laughed about the idea of making a living off of this website--at least in the short term. You'd have to get hundreds of thousands of visitors to generate enough to live on, and while that can happen if you find the right niche and the right content and work like crazy to market it, I'm not holding my breath. For now, it's just a fun little thing to do.

I took the dog for a walk and my brain came up with a few good ideas that Marco didn't already think of, so I better get cracking.