Ever After
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  • August11th

    In an effort to be more consistent with recording the happenings of our lives for posterity and for our faraway family, I will try to do a periodic post entitled “Wish You Were Here” (WYWH). Perhaps it will just be a boring brain dump, but I’ve been feeling an urgency to write certain experiences down, so hopefully, at the very least, I can sleep easier knowing that I’m following through on that prompting.

    And so without further ado . . .

    Ariana: Sometimes I worry that Ariana gets lost in the shuffle. Vivi and Tad are younger and seem to demand a lot more parental interaction than Ari. This week, between spending lots of hours planning a birthday party for her; dentist (no cavities), orthodontist (started with rubber bands), and optometrist (got contacts); and school supply shopping, hopefully Ariana will feel way down deep in her gut that she is loved.

    13 Bday Invite_blog

    Vivi: Vivi is blessed with with an obedient spirit. When I proclaim it to be a nap day, she meekly says, “Yes, ma’am.”  Most days, my sweet early-riser 7-year-old needs a nap, and without it, she’s quite unpleasant and doesn’t abide teasing from Tad well at all. Vivi is also very sensitive about us laughing at her. Today as we parked at church, she said, “this is the same sparking pot as last week.” I chuckled and said that I thought we should call “parking spots” “sparking pots” from now on, but she took offense at the rest of us finding humor in her tongue twister.

    Vivi Sweater 2

    Tad: Oh, Tad. He’s a bundle of energy who defies my every request and who can’t keep his hands to himself. He loves to help in the kitchen and be my “tester.” We barely get one meal cleaned up before he is asking for another snack. He also has my acute sense of smell and says the funniest things. Example: Much to the dismay of our kids, we’ve cut back on sweets this past week as we try to detox from our vacation. (The drive back to TX was particularly bad.) BT sneaked some root beer after tucking the girls in but before getting Tad settled in for the night. Here’s the dialogue.

    BT: Night, night buddy. I love you.

    Tad: I love you too, Dad. What’s that breath smell?

    BT: I think it’s toothpaste.

    Tad: Naaah. It smells like root beer to me.

    Busted!

    Tad mall water fountain

    Lori: One highlight of my week was sewing the buttons on a sweater I knit for Vivian. Woo hoo! I finished a project! It is the first sweater I’ve knit since I was in high school. In addition to the fact that the sweater fits her, I’m also particularly proud of the alterations I made to the pattern (with my mom’s help). We figured out how to add a lace section to the bottom of the sweater. I love the wool/silk yarn I used, but the temperatures will have to cool down a bit before Vivi can wear it. I’m going to make her a simple dress to wear it with.

    Vivi Sweater 1

     

    BT: Maybe BT is as excited about fixing a broken sprinkler yesterday as I am about finishing a sweater, but I honestly can’t say. I love him to death, but he isn’t much of a communicator. I am alarmed that he says he wants to dismantle all of the garden areas in the backyard, and he isn’t composting anymore. For our entire married life, I’ve saved all of the non-meat scraps for his garden . . . until yesterday. He’s just so busy with work and church that he has little time for anything else. It makes me sad, and it makes me feel guilty that I can sneak in a few minutes of my hobbies here and there (mostly as I sit in carpool lanes or doctor’s offices) but he really doesn’t have the time or energy to pursue his. He never complains, though. I also don’t feel super inclined to take on the garden in addition to everything else that falls on my list.

    This week was also a transition week for us. It’s hard being back home when I’ve been at my mom and dad’s house for the last month. I miss being around family in the worst way.

  • August11th

    Some husbands lavish sparkly tokens of love and appreciation upon their wives. They take them on exotic, romantic trips. They spoil them with housekeepers and handymen.

    Bryan buys me no jewels (I bought my own wedding ring months after our wedding), takes me to Philmont Scout Ranch on vacation, and he wed the only housekeeper and handy(w0)man we’ll ever have. And for this I am *mostly grateful.

    As I write this, I am reminded of a talk Elder Richard G. Scott gave in General Conference a few years ago. He spoke of two occasions when he wanted to buy his wife something a little extravagant–a dress when they were newly married and a fur coat a little later on. On each occasion, his wife taught him a lesson that enriched their marriage and benefited their family: First was the principle of “we cannot afford it,” and second was “we don’t need it.”

    BT Rock2truly appreciate that I don’t have to worry about BT blowing money on frivolities. If he ever suggested that he wanted to buy me a fur coat, I’d freak out and suspect that he has a brain tumor. One specific thing I love is that on our thrifty, not-so-exotic, and even less-so-romantic adventures, he scours the landscape for heart-shaped rocks. It’s a fun tradition, and I hope that my kids will associate our collection of heart rocks with joyful provident living and creative expressions of affection. Being cheap doesn’t have to be boring or loveless.

    *Now, for the rest of the story: Sometimes I’ll read a cheery blog about someone’s perfect life, and I’ll come away feeling like crap because I know that I will never be the kind of wife/mother/person that will have things pulled together enough to enjoy perfect bliss. And because I don’t want this blog to be that blog for anyone, I freely admit that dear BT’s uber frugality sometimes feels like he’s subliminally saying “You are worthless” or “If you were a better wife, I might actually want to take you on a romantic, exotic vacation.” True fact. I really do think these things, and sometimes I really do believe these things.  But when I hit rock bottom, I can usually work through the destructive voices in my head in a rational manner. And when that doesn’t work, I go buy myself a nice skein of yarn and say, “Hey, BT. Yeah, you, the cheapskate over there in the free, circa 1985 t-shirt and $8 Walmart jeans. Look what you bought me today.” And then I blow him a big kiss, I feel much better, he has no idea where the heck all that came from, and we go about our mostly blissful lives.

    I am blessed. (And I have a lot of yarn).

    BT rock

  • August11th

    Grace

    Posted in: Ariana, Bryan, Lori, Tad, Vivi

    After our week of adventure at Philmont Scout Camp, we traveled through beauty (Gunnison, CO) and desolation (middle-of-no-where, UT) to reach family in Utah. We had planned to take our time getting there, but Bryan’s Grandma Jones wasn’t doing very well, and he wanted a chance to visit with her before he flew back to TX, so we made the trip in one day. As an added bonus, Bryan’s mom was in town, and Michelle (Bryan’s sister) and her children were able to meet up with us as well.

    Grandma Jones is one of the most pleasant people I’ve ever known, especially considering she is suffering from Alzheimer’s. She always seems to find humor and joy in even the simplest things, and although she probably had no idea who the gaggle of people around her were, she was warm and personable.

    Grandma Jones

    Fam with Gran and Grandma Jones

    Summerhays with Gran and Grandma Jones

    Graces

    Grandma Grace Jones was particularly tickled when she was reminded that two of her great granddaughters carry her name–Ava Grace and Vivi Grace.

    Sweet Grandma, we all love you and are grateful for the time we were able to spend with you. Thank you for your example of enduring gracefully and faithfully.