Sunday, August 30, 2015
In answer to Riley's email. No, it's an old bike. He acutally complains about the lameness of his bike. But he knows he can make it to school in 3 minutes, 16 seconds on it.
However, I LOVE MY BIKE!!!! There aren't any pictures this week. Sorry. I intended to send some. But the light was always fading and I wanted to BIKE. Dad and I made it up to Vivian Park a couple times. I went out with Cambry once and Dad took Elise and Aleah each out last week. Oh, it's so much fun. I added SIster J as a friend on FB to see pictures from the last transfer meeting. Her profile picture is President J and her on a tandem bike, smiling happily. And then Friday evening Dad and I went up to Vivian Park and ran into Bro and Sis B who had rented a tandem bike from BYU. Of course. The coolest people know how to have fun that way.
Cambry really didn't love her ride. The front seat can only go down so far because the handles are on the post. So she had to ride in the front. And Dad's seat hurt her bottom. She couldn't wait to get home. We also dropped the chain linking the petals on the way up the Orem Center Street hill. But we got it back on and petaled the rest of the way up the hill. I had fun. I always have fun.
PS - I only saw you once in the transfer meeting photos on Sister J's FB. You were sitting in the back next to Bro T who was holding a camera and talking to you. You looked good.
Oh! I wanted to tell you something funny that happened this week. I invited JS to come to book group with me a few months ago. She was finally going to come this month. She texted me Tuesday to ask when we met on Thursday, our usual evening and I realized that I had forgotten to forward the email that we had to change when we met this month. I forwarded that email to her and CD at the same time offering them a ride to book group tomorrow and C happily accepted the ride. I thought no more of it, other than, "I gotta finish those last 50 pages ASAP."
Later that evening after dinner, since there weren't any bishop appointments, I went for ride with Dad. It was lovely.
When I got home, Aleah said, "You missed book group." What? No, it's tomorrow. Why would C come to the house looking for me? Um. Because it was moved to Tuesday night.
I totally stood C up and deprived J of her first meeting she could finally make.
And what do I have to say for myself? That was such a good ride!
Hahahaha.
Love you,
Mom
Dear Riley,
There is something magic in having the kids back in school: I magically feel wiped out all the time again!
I’m sitting in the front room at 9:35 wishing I could have done more today; I mostly feel like I was pushing mud. Sacrament meeting was so good (AND we were on time!). We have a young family who moved into the Tennis basement and Dad assigned them topics after having a discussion with them in their home earlier in the week. They shared very personal stories pertaining to their assigned topics. I asked Dad afterwards if they had shared those stories with him before he chose their topics. Nope. It was just the Spirit. It’s cool like that.
I visit taught a couple of sisters and we stayed a long time. I love the sisters we teach and teaching with Sister K. They have all been a blessing to me over the years in so many ways.
And tonight we had M and L over for dinner and back to school blessings. I had prayed that E would be able to influence the things Dad said to them. I felt witness at one point in L’s blessing that my prayer was answered. Oh how I love those two. And oh, how I miss my brother at times. It’s been a year yesterday since he passed. His birthday is Friday and we are going to have some sort of party this weekend. (I say as I try to type through tears with a cramp in my throat from suppressing a sob. -- Love is easily recognized when it’s transformed into mourning.)
Then tonight Grandma and Grandpa P dropped by for a little dessert after just pulling into their home from the final clean-up at Grandpa K’s. The house is sold. Grandma said she wasn’t sad when she was there, but she was weepy all the way home.
So it’s been a big day. Which followed a long, full week of school. And I have to get to bed soon. I’m sorry.
So I already told you that I have tandemania and ask Dad every night, “Do you have anything planned? Wanna go for a bike ride?” He rides faster and a little tighter than I would dare on my own. But together it’s fun!
The kids are getting homework and deadlines and it feels real now. ugh. Cambry starts classes tomorrow. But she is so excited for her classes this semester; they are the ones she’s waited to take at the end and they have sat like a tempting dessert on her course requirements.
Parker is doing well. But he surely feels the weight of his class load. There is always something waiting for him. He’s still doing chess club where he’s president and book club too.
Elise is doing well this year. She seems much more confident and I hear about a lot more friends. She made the comment that her back to school blessing was all about friends this year. I guess God is perfectly aware of the developmental stage of his children. Elise is getting so good on the piano. She sits down to sight read many pieces and can do justice to them. She learned Arwin’s Vigil from the Piano Guys for spring festival but had to cut it short as there wasn’t time to learn the entire piece. She had memorized the entire song and realized that is a blessing to have that in her head wherever she goes.
Aleah is not at ease in her classes. I’m not sure what needs to happen to help her. She feels insecure with her English teacher’s math presentation. And I think she’s still trying to understand the expectations in Chinese. But I’m confident she’ll do well. She cares about things, cleans her room regularly (without being asked) and is a great Chinese student I’ve been told many times.
I put all three girls in dance classes this year. They absolutely love it. Josie makes connections and she shared first, second and third positions with me last week on the way to the car. Elise is stretching every day trying to get her splits complete as challenged by her teacher. Aleah loves, loves, loves dancing. I think she loves it more than anything else she’s done. And I’m putting Elise and Aleah in volleyball camp with the community. Might as well, right? (since I really want someone to play sports for me!)
I also started preschool, home preschool (except all my stuff has been pillaged and is now incomplete, grrr.) of course, for Josie. She is really ready and needs the engagement. I had her searching out A, a and 2 on the way to work. She was finding them and then she said the funniest thing: “Ha, ha. I don’t have to watch where I’m going because I’m not the one driving the car. If I look for letters, we won’t crash.” I wondered if she is a quiet backseat driver back there all the time and just realized that she CAN enjoy the scenery after all.
Dad is doing well. I like seeing his smile more often. Biking has taken some of the stress off for him. He bought parts for the bike like brake pads, a speedometer, quick release pins and a new gear shifters. We didn’t even talk much on Friday’s ride. But being out together doing the same thing is enough. He made us sourdough -- two loaves! -- for our dinner. They were the prettiest, tallest loaves I think he's ever made. And they were so tastey. There will be two loaves waiting for you on the counter when you come home. I promise.
Well, son. I look forward to hearing from you. I hope the work is going well. I hope you’re serving your companion and listening to those little whispers you can only know later really were the Spirit. God loves the people in your mission. He loves your companion. He loves you.
We love you and we pray for you all the time. Keep up the good work.
Love,
Mom
PS - We picked Grandpa's little farm down the street while they were in CA. It took us an hour to do a gleaning, not even a solid pick. And though I got a lot done yesterday, I have this stack of to-do produce which makes me feel inadequate. Poor Grandma! I'm fermenting cherry tomatoes hoping they are as good as everyone on the culturing blogs says they are.
In cleaning up, I ran across this. The Shakespeare quote made me cry. I kept it.
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