Cute picture of camp counselor E and his companion for the week Kiki. So cute!

I had trouble sleeping last night. I do sometimes now, which is a new and annoying happening. (I also have trouble staying the right temperature, right weight, and right mood so there you go.)

We also have some school complications. SVU called and offered Grace a private room and a meal plan and more $. She hasn’t said yes to them though.  In fact after one day in the woods she is thinking about doing the summer term in Idaho. So idk what she’ll end up doing.

I’m also having some school stressors that I am hoping to have sorted out tomorrow. 

Yawn

 When we got home from Disney we discovered a nail in our tire. That ruined out 0 darkthirty departure plans. 

I made an appointment online for the earliest time slot available, which was 10am. We got up, loaded the car, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, threw bedding in the wash and said goodbye to Diana and Tom then headed out for what we anticipated to be a quick patch on the tire before hitting the road.

A little after noon, and a new tire later, we had to go back to the house because Grace had forgotten a bunch of clothes and we were finally driving at 1pm.

Traffic on and off was bad. We had some rain. We only stopped for gas twice, ate in the car, and had one bonus bathroom stop. We were in Ltown seeing the end in sight about 3am and there was a huge accident, power lines down, road closed. We had to detour and finally got home at 4:15.

Starting in VA it was backroads and I saw so much wildlife. At least 20+ deer, several possums, rabbits, a fox. All of them darting across or standing near the road. It was wild.

Lincoln picking our his car snacks

Grace and I talked. She crocheted. We talked to Jenna, Hannah (twice), Ethan, and Val on the phone. Listened to two come follow me podcasts and 3 sessions of conference.

And I think we will be sleeping in this morning.

poems

I have recently added a new element to my scripture study. I like to look up a hymn and instead of singing it I read it like a poem.  The words hit different.

The hymn book always has scripture verses that go along with the hymn so then I click on them and read them too. It's been a very fun addition, like dessert after dinner.

 Savior, Redeemer of my soul,

Whose mighty hand hath made me whole,

Whose wondrous pow’r hath raised me up

And filled with sweet my bitter cup!

What tongue my gratitude can tell,

O gracious God of Israel.

Never can I repay thee, Lord,

But I can love thee. Thy pure word,

Hath it not been my one delight,

My joy by day, my dream by night?

Then let my lips proclaim it still,

And all my life reflect thy will.

O’errule mine acts to serve thine ends.

Change frowning foes to smiling friends.

Chasten my soul till I shall be

In perfect harmony with thee.

Make me more worthy of thy love,

And fit me for the life above.

Text: Orson F. Whitney, 1855–1931

2 Nephi 1:15

But behold, the Lord hath ^aredeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his ^bglory, and I am encircled about eternally in the ^carms of his ^dlove.

Doctrine and Covenants 95:1

Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I ^alove I also chasten that their sins may be ^bforgiven, for with the ^cchastisement I prepare a way for their ^ddeliverance in all things out of ^etemptation, and I have loved you

Animal Kingdom

We have so many friends that we wanted to catch up with, and so many things we wanted to do that it would have taken a 2-week-long pick-up-Grace trip to even scratch the surface. It would have been good-bye tour 2.0.

In the end I decided to keep it short and sweet. I for sure wanted to spend a day at the water park and to see the family. And I for sure wanted at least one Disney day since my pass is still active. We chose AK because it is the shadiest of the parks and summer is not the best time to be having a Dream Disney Day. It is hot. We went with Lettie and Ellie and Kristina and had a really amazing day. It was so much fun. We rode flights of passage (my favorite) and Navi river, and Kali River, and Dinosaur, and the Safari, we saw the Bugs Life show, and ate at Yak and Yeti.  We also wore our sunscreen properly and hydrated a lot.

I don't think it could have been a nicer day.  We enjoyed browsing in the shops and chat chat chatting. 

Minnie and Mickey were the cutest! We had a blast meeting them.  Ellie got their autographs and we all got hugs and kisses. We also met Kevin, but I have no photo. 

 

Typhoon Lagoon

 Monday we went to the water park. Tom and Diana went with us and we had a really fun time. We rode the rides and floated the river. Sadly we forgot how to use sunscreen properly but we were just a little toasty at the end. 

In the evening we went to dinner with Jess and the kids as well. The kiddos are so cute and fun. I’m sad that we won’t be seeing them so often now. We have never lived near family and it’s been really really nice. 

It was a lot of 🤩 fun!

My flight landed, so spoiler alert the story ends well. It was typically complicated. I got to the airport and got to my gate with no problems. Then the adventure began. Our flight was delayed, and delayed, and delayed. It turned out that the FAA called a ground stop (I think that's what it's called) and the whole airport was closed for several hours.  Planes circled and then were diverted to nearby airports. There was a problem with the radar, which was why everything was a mess. People were grumpy and I got to talk to some interesting folks who dealt with the delays in a variety of ways. 

Eventually everything was sorted out and I arrived in Orlando at 1am. Four hours later than anticipated. For the record I am happy to wait for the radar to be fixed, it just seems like there is always something when it comes to flying.

It is so fun to be back with cute Gracie girl! Today we went to Typhoon Lagoon. Tom and Diana came with us and everyone had fun.  They are looking forward to going back with Maverick now that they have passes. Grace and I rode the slides and floated the lazy river. We ate ice cream sundaes for lunch and we both got a little toasty. 
 

This cutie got to go to FSY today! So fun! She'll have a great time, I'm sure💖

We went out to dinner with Jess and the kids and then I had my teams meeting with Megan. It was a good day and a productive one...even if I forgot how to use sunscreen. 

Today is my favorite boy’s birthday. Happy 21st! He is in Logan Utah ready to start another week of FSY. Jenna threw a bday party for him a couple of day ago. 

Church was good today. Relief Society especially. After the meetings we ran home and changed clothes and then R took me to the airport. I’ve got a quick flight to Orlando and then in a few days Grace and I will drive back to MD. 

Today is Mom’s 79th birthday! Happy Birthday mom!! She’s having a family party this evening. Next year we will have to celebrate big 🎉!

Im trying not to be Bella Sawnn, of New Moon fame. 

Since I’ll be in Orlando for a couple days before we drive I tried to get ahead on school work. I feel like I did a good job. I got all the assignments done for one class. Did the reading and took the quizzes for the other two. I have a couple papers and a group project to do but I cut the load in half!

And lastly my new favorite picture of these two!

 It’s funny how things pop up right as you are becoming aware of them. I’ve been thinking about how to be a good mom of all grown children, and a good long distance grandma to more and more precious babies Just as I’ve really been working it out in my mind and focusing on being mindful and deliberate in choosing how to move forward, how to keep in my lane, and be there at the same time, I have seen lots of information pop up around me. 

My text book had the above example in it. I saw a tik tok about the importance of understanding that when your kid gets married the spouse isn’t joining your family, and your kid isn’t joining another family, they are making a new family. And when I was driving to the gym this morning I was listening to the Lisa Show and she was talking about time management- not in the being productive with all your time kind of management but in the making the most of each phase of life kind of management.

Interesting. Either this information has always been out there and I have tuned it out since I didn’t think it was relevant or it’s new info put in my path by a loving God who cares about even the smallest of problems.

We have baby birds!

From book club - for the record:)

Book art💕

Tonight we went to the river concert. It was the first week. We had a nice time and the soloist was amazing so that was super fun to listen to.

Poor Ezra cut his hand pretty badly and had to go to the ER:(

Guess what the first day of summer is like here. 65 degrees and  raining.

I remember summers as hot here so this isn’t typical. We have not had a hot sunny day yet. 

Moving back has been challenging. I miss Florida and the fun times I had with friends there. I also miss my MD friends because they are so far away from our little house in the woods. Having two wards of friends is nice. I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. Empty nest is like postpartum. It’s just so different than what your whole focus was but instead of 9 months growing a baby it’s been 35 years of taking care of those babies. 

Rob and I have never lived together alone. I think we actually get along better now. Which is good, and sad.

It’s funny because I talk with Grace as she’s dealing with her breakup, planning on moving out, and trying to figure out what to do with her life. Or I talk with Hannah about juggling life with two babies & being poor students. And I encourage them and let them know that things will get better & easier and that this is a normal part of life. Which it is and it will. Not that it makes the moment easier but it offers hope, hopefully. At the same time I have friends who have grown children and they tell me it’s sad at first and you feel lost and lonely and then 6 months down the road you are like “Whoo hoo!”  That doesn’t feel like it’s the truth but these are wonderful women, who love their children and are great moms. So… I guess it is. In any case here we are and I know I need to find joy in this new stage. And I am so proud of my kids who are grown and independent and doing so well in their lives, who are facing their own hard times with courage & faith. 

Also thankfully we live in a time of facetime, long distance phone calls that don’t cost a million dollars, and airplanes that miraculously move people across the country in just a few hours. 

 This face! So sweet:)

FYI: even when I get to “Whoo hooo” I’m still going to think the worst idea in the world is to have cute little grandchildren growing up far away from their Mimi. 

Also, I don’t want to go back in time. I just want to be with the kids and grands and family now at this stage, so I just do the best I can to make the happen as much as I can. 

Angel Day

Today marks three years since Tanner passed away. We miss him. The family got together in Utah to celebrate him. They had a swim party and dinner. Then they painted rocks. I wished I was there so I also painted rocks.

Rob got a telescope lens for his phone to take pictures of his birds. 

We got our driveway poured over today. It looks way better.

I went to book club tonight at Debbie’s house. We read the Second Life of Mirelle West, it was a good book and we had a very good discussion. It was fun to get out and visit with some old friends and to meet some new ones💕

 2 months old- she looks like a baby doll!

Yesterday was Father's Day.  We celebrated by going to church where they had treats for the dads after the meetings. We called our dads, and the kids called Rob. ✔

We had some lawn mower drama this past weekend. When we lived in MD before we had a riding mower. The house we bought in CA had astroturf. We thought we would live there forever so we sold the mower.  Three years later we moved to Florida where we had a small yard and a teenage son. No problem.  Later we got a service which wasn't too expensive (small yard). We thought we would live in Florida forever and that we had our lawn needs figured out. A short 5 years later we are back in MD and have a huge yard, a push mower, and a 53-year-old man who doesn't want to mow it each week by hand. (Which, for the record, I don't blame him. I also don't want to mow it (or own it but that's a different story)). New mowers are pretty pricey, particularly the kind R wants. What else is expensive? Moving, buying a new house in a high interest rate market, going back to school, having kids in college, buying curtains, building a deck, buying a car.... I think the picture is clear. R decided he could buy a used mower for half the price of a new one and that would work. He looked and looked and eventually bought one from a crook. When he got it home it didn't work and isn't safe. Two days of effort later and he and Pete took it to a Mennonite mechanic down the road to have it fixed. If the fix goes well then we will still have paid less than half of what a new mower would have cost (plus one weekend of angst). 🤞

Don't be fooled by the smiling face.  This little yellow mower may be a big yellow lemon. 

Got some new graduation pictures back! 

Some of the great dads in my life that I love and am grateful for. 

 Life in quiet. School is busy. We have lots of birds and squirrels visit us. There is a fox that passes through the yard from time to time, and yesterday we had a drop in by this deer.

Colleen and I went out to lunch today, Panera. Then I went to 5 Below. 

Grace went to the beach with her friends today. She’s soaking in these last days until she moves to MD. I love Florida beaches and can’t believe we don’t live there any more. I thought it was pretty perfect. We had a cute and affordable house. We had tons of friends and lived by family. We loved going to the parks and the beach and there was always something to do. I had a job I liked that made decent money and gave me summers off and we loved our ward. It was the perfect place to visit for family too. 

(Sigh) well all good things come to an end and so did our Florida chapter.

Tonight I had fun time with a Group FaceTime with the girls. We were just chatting and it was nice to see their happy faces.

My day was busy. Weirdly all my days go by quickly. I do a little laundry and clean something every day. Some days I spend more time on the phone than others. This morning I had an intake meeting for subbing in the fall. We are feeling a little poor and that is always an easy and flexible way for me to make a little extra money. 

I also went to the MVA and got my MD drivers license and changed the address on our car registration. 

Then I met Jennifer at Salsas and we had a nice lunch and visit. 

 When I got home I finished a paper I’ve been working on for three days and made dinner. 

Yesterday was mostly school work all day.

Monday evening we had the sister missionaries over for dinner. 

It’s summer, almost officially. It hasn’t been that hot yet here in Maryland. I think Saturday was in the 80’s, tomorrow is going to be stormy.  

This weekend was stake conference. It was exceptional. Michelle asked me to coordinate  dinner for the leadership between their training session and the adult session. She and I shopped a couple weeks ago for chips and water bottles and bags of cookies. I don’t have any club memberships right now and she does. Then I called Chick-fil-A and ordered 250 sandwiches. Saturday I drove up with Rob, made sure things was set up, went to pick up the sandwiches during the meeting and then helped clean after. It went smoothly. Luckily I have a lot of experience with driving to Chick-fil-A and with putting paper plates into the trash.

It was really fun to see friends from when we lived here before. Warm embraces and happy chats filled my afternoon and evening. I am going to love heaven when we are with everyone we have ever loved. That is something to look forward to! 

Besides that the talks were really great. Today we decided not to make the hour and a half long drive to the stake center and watched it on zoom instead. It was really good and again  I enjoyed the talks a lot. Music stinks over zoom but saving 3 hours of driving (round trip) is worth stinky music.

 

Killer whales have been going a little crazy. Lots of crazy stuff happens in our world. I feel like it is really in turmoil. 

I love my hammock and sit in it every day. Taco wanders our woods but he comes in when I do. He’s a pretty good cat, kind of dumb and remarkably clumsy for a feline. I do wish he was more affectionate. He curls up by me, or on me, but only on his own terms.

On fb I follow a door appreciation group. I liked this cheerful blue. I like seeing all the cool doors around the world.  (We will add that to the bird watching as evidence that I am old).

Rob is selling his fishing kayak. We may end up getting a boat eventually. 

One of my former YW posted this today and I loved seeing it!

Ethan finished a week in AZ. He’ll start week 3 of fsy tomorrow. It was fun to talk to him today and hear a little about his week. He’s been busy.

Blake broke up with Grace. This was surprising and she is sad but doing fine. I’m flying down to get her in two weeks and we will drive to MD together. I’m looking forward to having her home for a couple months. I’m also really looking forward to spending a couple of days in Florida. 

School continues to be challenging, and interesting, in equal parts.

In my free time I’ve been reading a book about a leper colony. Did you know leprosy was still a thing? Every year many people in the US are diagnosed with it. Who knew?

25

 Today is our anniversary. 25 years.  That seems long.  This last two months have been the first time we have lived together alone. So crazy.  It feels a little like being honeymooners. We just do chores together, sit down to eat dinner at our little table each night, look at the birds, watch TV at night, hang out.  It's quiet.  

Rob works in the yard and in the garage.  The other day he made these cute little bird feeders. They have a live edge and look really cute out in the yard.  The birds and squirrels like them. I study and talk to the kids on the phone. 

Throw back to family pictures in Florida the first fall we lived there. We've lived some fun places and made some really good friends along the way.

We've also been blessed with the best kids and grands.  Little Lana is starting to smile💕

And Darcy wore her first piggy’s!

I had an anniversary day planned for us but the ferry only runs Thurs-Sunday each week so we are celebrating on Friday.