there’s nothing wrong with kids that trying to reason with them won’t make worse

Sunday, January 21, 2018

The end of 2017

We made gingerbread houses, Lia's came complete with a library

The boys got lazer tag
My college kids came home for Thanksgiving


There were many, many bells concerts

Christmas Eve feasting

And nativity-ing


Zak's baby played the part of the baby Jesus

Jammies

and presents


and manly presents so he can fix the Saturn

2017 Fall


Some kind of avenging sword maiden?

And a ninja
united in driving their mother crazy

sophomore year

8th grade

5th grade

smiley bananna
In September Deanna got to experience a hurricane in Florida.  There was much cleanup after

hurricane cleanup

These two went off to school in Provo

I bought a fun toy for my birthday

soda springs dam, family hike

soda springs

hiking with the fam

Bells!  We are excited!

Soda springs with YW

McCauley warm springs

There are little fishes in the springs who come to nibble on your toes

tent rocks hike with John Baker 5th grade


hiking the bosque when the cottonwoods were golden



July/August

We fixed the sagging garage roof.  I used up all my swears on this project.  

The oven caught on fire

And Emma fixed it!

Emma swam for the YMCA in the breaststroke and the team medly

Zoo

balloon museum

coyote bait

Adolfs got married and of course this is my only picture

plaque says  "on this date in 1897 nothing happened"

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Sometimes people leave you

One of my all-time-favorite Sondheim musicals is "Into the Woods", with my favorite song being No One is alone.

Sometimes people leave you.
Halfway through the wood. . .

The entire musical has themes of love and striving and loss and reminds us that in the end, all we have is one another.

My favorite version of this song is sung by Bernadette Peters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLKbc2hvxk


June, 1986: (‘87, I’ve been informed)

It's a sunny day in Modesto, California and I am helping my mom to unpack.  We've only been in Modesto for a few days and I am angry to have been uprooted from my friends in Eugene, but I am helping because I am the oldest child and she needs the help.  In the door comes a lady from our church, whom neither of us has met, but she begins chatting with my mom as if they are old friends.  She has brought her daughter, who is my age, and she sends Carin and I out front to talk.
In the awkward way of teenagers everywhere we sit under the liquid amber tree out front and talk.  We talk about how horrible our families are (remember we are very nearly teenagers and forgive us, please).  Carin warns me that where her mother goes, weirdness and wacky things happen.  A story is shared of her mom losing her pants in the middle of a public mall, and we laugh, bonding over how weird adults are.   3 days later we are on a bus headed to Girls' Camp, and I find that I have exactly one friend on that bus; that friendship has continued.

Over the years there are sleepovers where her mom offers to take us TP'ing, laughter until I am certain I will loose bladder control, and Carin's freight train snore.  No joke, one year at camp one of our A-frame mates had a nightmare that a bear was eating her head and roaring because Carin was snoring so loudly.  Her Aunt Jeanie taught us to sew one summer and she made a lovely dress while I struggled with a skirt.  Later after my first year at college we tried again to make dresses which turned out much better, mostly because Carin wouldn't let me quit when I decided I hated buttonholes.

   Through our high school years we fought, reconciled, loved each other, couldn't stand each other--and there were, indeed, wacky adventures, one of which resulted in our writing a song about being lost in Planada, CA (go ahead, look it up) on the way to a priest/laurel dance.  In case you are wondering, the only signs of life in Planada were the bars. It ended up with us late to the dance, but laughing about the whole trip.We loved trips to the beach, to the temple, took little drives just to enjoy one another's company.  She let me use her washer/dryer when I was a completely broke new mom, she came to my baby's blessing, she was at my wedding, so many activities, she is a fixture in my memories even through the Air Force took us far and away from Carin in Utah.

   Our last time together was at Megan's funeral, 3 years ago.  I'd stashed enough frozen custard to feed an army in my sister's freezer and convinced Carin that she should come finish it with me.  My sister Linnea lived at that time on a row of identical condos, or maybe the paint was slightly different shades on each one, but still pretty much the same.  In any case, I led Carin into the open door of the condo, kicked off my shoes and walked upstairs thinking it was odd that the furniture had been moved around and the paintings were different.  I thought one of Linnea's roommates MUST be moving or something.  It took a good minute for me to realize that we were NOT in Linnea's apartment but we were trespassing in a complete stranger's home.  Frantically I chased Carin and my nieces  out of there, grabbing our shoes on the way out and skedaddled over to Linnea's place.  When we walked in I had to tell my sister of our misadventures and I turned around to see Carin, completely silently just laughing as hard as she could.  The wackiness is contagious, is what I'm saying.



The end of the song:

Someone is on your side,
no one is alone.



Life is better when you have a friend like Carin

Trek

Isaac and Talia went on Trek with the East Albuquerque Stake.  They pulled handcarts through the Jemez Mountains up above Cuba and got eaten alive by mosquitoes. 







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