Ian

Florida got hit with a huge storm, hurricane Ian. Catagory 5. It did a lot of damage on the coast. I can’t believe how everything is under water. Over 2 million homes are without power. 

We had a windy, howling, night but were mostly unscathed. 

Unfortunately we had a pipe problem over the other bathroom. This summer we were advised to repipe the whole house. It was going to be super expensive and one of us didn’t want to so we rolled the dice and we lost. 

Now we have another repair to do:( 

Josh our neighbor came over this morning to help us out, we can’t get a plumber until tomorrow. 

And here we are.

I am very grateful for the safety we enjoyed from the storm and that we were able to sleep last night and that we have power and nothing is flooded .

Preppers

 School is out for the rest of the week. The temple is closed. The airport is slowly cancelling all flights. Store shelves are empty. The parks are closed.

We took H & E to the airport and they safely made it home. E with a fever:( I am sad to have them leave. 

Anna and the boys can’t fly in. I am sad about that too, I was looking forward to a few days with them. 

Rob turned on the generator ✔️ (it works)

Filled a gas tank ✔️

We got some groceries, did all the laundry and trimmed some bushes ✔️

I guess we are ready. 

I finally got all my statistics work done, I had lots of technical problems. I am found week one more fun than I expected & just as frustrating as I thought but the frustration was mostly technology related. 

We watched Death on the Nile tonight. I liked it. 

Last day

 We started the day with a movie. Then went to Typhoon Lagoon. We wanted to go to the beach but with the incoming hurricane there are strong rip currents and we didn’t want to lose Ezra. 

The water park is always fun. We rode the slides and the lazy river.

Ez loves “driving” the hot dog truck. 

Sunday

Rob’s quarantined in his room. Dumb Covid. Val also has it:( Everyone else seems fine. The good news is he’ll be here all week so he can go to senior night for band and see Deo and Arrow. The bad news is a) he is sick although feeling better already and b) he has to take vacation time and try to do some work here without his computer. 

The rest if us went to church, swam, watched a toddler movie.

This was my view during sacrament. We have a cute new couple that moved into our ward and they have a little guy named Henry. Henry and Ezra became friends!

Best little pool boy!

35 years in the making: 6 senior portraits in my living room. Proud of all these good people that I am mom to.

Cute Hannah and baby Poppy💕

 

Waiting

 

I’m laying awake in the pink room waiting for Grace to get home. It’s 1am, she asked if she could go back to the DAmicos after the dance  for a movie and I said yes. I said yes knowing it would be late late and that I would be tired. I want her to squeeze every drop of joy from life, enjoy all the good things that youth and health and nice friends have to offer. 

I want her to store up memories that will fill her heart with happiness. 

There is a wistfulness to senior year. A letting go that literally breaks a mom’s heart. You know the moments are fleeting and that one day, too soon, your baby will be off in the world. Ready to make a house of straw or sticks or bricks and your poor job will be done. 

It aches a little more each time because now you know the empty spot that will stay behind. If you’re lucky that spot is filled with your own happy memories. If you’re human it’s also filled with regrets. 

You can’t move back. Only forward. 

This time there is an extra something. An uncertainty. When I look at my Gracie girl I don’t see the vigor and health of youth. I don’t see the anything.is.possible gleam in her eye. There is an element of it, a hope that maybe she will get there. There is a prayer, a plea, a cry in the dark of the night that all the world will be her oyster. 

But I see the dark shadows under her eyes. I mourn the things she can’t do because she is too sick, or too tired, or in too much pain. And those unwelcome and unwanted realities are there walking side by side with the hope.

It seems so unfair. It is not what I want for her. She is our brightest star, her intellect is sharp and keen, her potential is so big. Why is she bridled with these burdens?? Why can’t our every effort, our every prayer be answered the way we want??

Of course I know. 

I don’t like it, but I know. 

Unfair is the name of the game. And I thank God that it is; otherwise His perfect Son would not have willingly accepted the most unfair thing of all. We would not be cleansed by His atoning sacrifice. Our sins would not be washed cleaned with His spilt blood. Our meager effort would not be yoked with His perfect one -bringing us back to Him. 

I don’t know why. And to be transparent I still don’t like it or want it but I TRY to have faith, I try to believe, I try to praise Him in the middle of the hard, the disappointment, the helplessness.

That’s what keeps me awake when I should be asleep. 

And then, a gift. I was scrolling (as one does) and Dave Butler posted this. 

I read it and I cried. The Spirit spoke to me. “I have redeemed thee”, not just me but my Grace… and my sister, and my friend, and my child, and all of us… 

I felt seen, and comforted. 

I will continue to pray for the miracle. I will remain hopeful for the ending I want. 

…and I will continue to pray in gratitude for the miracles we do get. I will ask God to show me His hand, to be with me in the struggle. I will pray. 

I will pray “thy will,”…make my will thy will. Help me trust in thy love. Help me find peace in the unfair and when every natural instinct in me screams no! help me be more than what comes naturally,  help me become more like Thee. 

The refiners fire is painful, I am grateful that we do not walk in it alone. 

HOCO

When we got home we took a three hour nap and then I got up to clean and get ready for a pre-party at our house. Hannah helped. 

Unfortunately Rob was not feeling well yesterday and today he went for a Covid test and it was positive. Val has also been sick for a couple of days and she too tested positive today.  So this puts a huge complication in our week, also we have a hurricane headed this way so there is that. 

Anyway Lettie came over to get ready and then we went to the D’Amicos for pictures and then Grace and a group came here for OG.

 Hannah and I had fun helping them get ready and watching all the photo fun. 

Rob is quarantining in our room and I am sleeping in the pink room. Just in case and so I can hang out with Ez and Poppy (our 10 week old growing in the womb grand baby). He will have to work from home this week and will fly out next Sunday instead of this Monday. 

Steve took lots of pictures so hopefully we will get some better ones soon:)

After the dancers all left H and I went to Walmart to get some hurricane supplies. There was a limited selection but I think we should be fine. Sawyer is worried about H & E making it home, I think they should be okay with a Tuesday departure. Anna is bringing the boys on Wednesday and she was able to switch her flight out from Thursday morning, that will definitely be cancelled, to Wednesday night🤞. Lucky boys get to come to Covid house and hurricane watch. I told Anna I’d try to throw in a shark sighting or something so they don’t get bored! 

Cruise overview

This was overall one of my favorite cruises for sure. Alaska has been a bucket list item for me and I would definitely come back. I loved all the aspects of the cruise. Our ship was nice and not at capacity so we could always find seating. The food was on par with other cruise food, which means it was good, not great, but no one was hungry and we enjoyed it. Bigger ships have more to do and they have the big production shows which are fun, our shows were good too. I especially liked the Tango show.  We brought our own stuff to do and also took advantage of the games and activities that were on board.

We saw lots of animals. I would have liked to see more but that is a timing issue. It takes patience and time to see animals in the wild. We were patient but the time was limited. Maybe if we come back to Alaska we will do a cabin and spend more time. 

The travel has been cumbersome. Getting to anchorage was fine but long. We flew to Minneapolis and got a quick connection then had a long flight to Anchorage. Going home has just begun but I know it’s not going to be awesome. We docked, went thru customs, Ubered to the airport, and now we wait 4 hours for our flight to Seattle where we will go thru customs and then wait 5 hours for our red eye. We will try not to be grumpy but we probably won’t be successful. 

Our internet in the ship wasn’t awesome. I paid for the internet because I started my class and I wanted to keep in touch with Grace. I was able to work, but we couldn’t FaceTime or call. Mostly we texted. She’s been having blood in her vomit so Hannah took her to the ER yesterday, and today to the GI, and next week she will have an endoscopy. I hated being gone for all of that and there is a fair amount of Grace worry at all times. 

I loved being with Val and Dani and we spent a lot of time chatting. I loved getting to know some of the other passengers. I loved our balcony room and Rob and I loved laying in bed at night with the curtains open watching the ocean and seeing the land when the sun rose in the morning. 

I was super sad to say good bye. I try really hard to be happy in the present but sometimes it’s hard to be far away. 

If Grace had not been sick I would have given the cruise a 10. 

I am excited to get home and have a couple more days with Han and Ez, to see Lu, and to have Arrow and Deo come next week!

Update: it’s 12:30am Seattle time, which was the last place my phone updated the time. Did you know Alaska has its own time zone? It’s true. 

Anyway our travel day is not over. In 2 1/2 hours we will land (said optimistically) and then we will just have a short Uber home. I will say it’s been a super long day but it hasn’t been as terrible as I thought this morning. 

Update #2. We woke up yesterday at 7am. We arrived home today at 7am. Was it worth it? Yes. Is there a better way? Probably. Now it’s time for some sleep.

I stayed awake the whole time, Rob is sick and was able to sleep. 

Ship Shenanigans

When we were not at port we had a lot of fun on the ship.

We had a great travel group. We had dinner together all but the last night, we went to the shows and we played lots of games.

Cruising is relaxing and fattening, my favorite part is having a lot of time to spend with the people you love. 

We met a lot of people who were members of the church, which was fun and surprising.

Dani signed Abba up to sing karaoke one night. He didn’t know but was a good sport and a good singer!

Seeing the wildlife was one of my favorite parts. Greg saw the most, which was awesome! We tried to see the northern lights a couple different nights but had no luck.

This may have been my favorite cruise ever. The boat was small but the waters were calm and the scenery and wildlife was outstanding. Also I liked the crispness of the air and not being hot!