Reminiscing the Random

Many random things to remember....

I signed up to spend a morning at the Welfare Square Dairy, volunteering my time to help produce food for needy families. Yes, it takes up a big chunk of time, but if you ever have the chance to do this, I recommend it. It's actually quite fun, and also just fascinating to see the process of how the food is made and packaged. It's pretty overwhelming to see the sheer amount of food being produced, all for people in need. You can purchase it as well, but its main purpose is to give to hungry people. Nothing is wasted - even the uneven trimmed edges of the cheese I helped make got packaged up in order to be sent to the local homeless shelter. It's pretty amazing. I had never served in the dairy before - usually I had been assigned to the cannery. Imagine my surprise when I walked in the front door and there was my Uncle Mike! He's my dad's older brother, and also, I discovered, quite the celebrity at the dairy. He serves there four days a week! I had no idea. I have a lovely woman in my neighborhood who goes there once a week and she is well acquainted with "Elder Romney" or "Brother Miles" as he is sometimes called. I felt like I gained a little notoriety myself when the missionaries there found out that I was his niece. He's a good man and I love him.

One fine evening we were happy to be invited out to dinner with our dear Behunins and our becoming-ever-dearer Comptons, who are Nick's parents and the Behunins' besties. Being included is a treat.

[Sidebar: I'm recognizing that it is a little precarious to mention Nicholas so much in my blog posts - it could be a source of pain in the future but he's such a part of Romney's life right now that I can't not blog about him. I'm sensitive to the fact that most young relationships are not permanent, no matter how fond we are of this young man, and it could be really uncomfortable for him to be a big part of our family history here. However, a part of our family history he is, and I can't leave him out of the stories I tell!]

We went out for delicious Thai food, and right during dinner, Lynnette got a phone call from her daughter Eve. Eve had submitted her mission papers and was anxiously waiting for her mission call. Every mission call I know of arrives via email on a Tuesday, and I had been guessing that hers would take a week or two longer since it was right around the time of General Conference. But to all of our surprise, Eve was calling this Friday evening to tell her mom that her mission call had arrived! We quickly finished up dinner so that the Behunins could be with Eve when she opened her call. Many young people these days hold a big event when they open their calls - they invite all their friends and maybe go live on Facebook while they read their letter. But Eve didn't want that. She did invite the Comptons and ourselves to come in as well and listen to her read her call. It was incredibly special to be a part of that intimate group. She got called to the Hungary Budapest mission, Hungarian speaking. So cool. We were honored to be there.

Not much of a story to tell here. Emma got a haircut and her hairdresser, my friend Andrea, got a little bit excited about her curls. Deservedly so. When I saw these, I could not help but think of Ramona Quimby who kept getting in trouble for pulling the curls of her classmate Susan, just to watch them go BOING!!!!

During the time of the great Clown Photoshoots, Romney needed several shopping trips to gather the supplies she needed. While on one of these errands, we saw these comically large water bottles. They were ridiculous. But....her roommate Sydney is always hauling around water bottles and talking about drinking more water. So we got her one, as a joke. A joke except that Sydney loved it and began using it immediately. Her kidneys are well-flushed, I do believe.

A good friend in the neighborhood has a mother with cancer. They got some very bad news about her prognosis, and a couple of friends and I decided that the family needed to feel some love. So we "heart-attacked" their door, leaving notes of love and encouragement, plus a plant and a treat. We were trying to be very sneaky and all anonymous-like about it, but because it was two of my dearest friends, we couldn't help ourselves - we ended up chatting out by the front lawn for a while, completely forgetting that we were supposed to be under cover. The husband walked out the door and called out, "Hey, was this you guys?!?" I will never stop giggling as I picture the sight of three middle-aged ladies attempting to flee and scatter to our various minivans in a futile escape attempt. I hope it lifted their spirits a little. My friend's mother has since passed away, and I know it's been very difficult. We love them so much.

Wow. This post is getting long. But I'm not quitting yet!

I had to post these cute photos of Emma and her friend Pidge, who is one of the sweet juniors who basically adopted her. Our youth group at church has a fun event year - they call it Nerd Night. The kids can dress up if they want to, and mine usually want to. They all bring a treat that pays homage to one of their favorite bits of pop culture. We have done donuts decorated like the ring of power from Lord of the Rings - stuff like that. Emma loves making blue cookies in honor of Percy Jackson, and usually makes a flask of some kind of drink, adding sparkly (and edible) powder to make it look like some sort of healing potion or something. The kids love it. And this year Emma invited Pidge to join in. They dressed like elves, went to the church and spent the evening munching and playing games. I think it's adorable.

Moving Romney back home was an adventure....we really had hoped to have the back bedroom finished in time for her to come home for the summer. Despite working so hard all winter and spring, we still have a long way to go back there. Luckily Romney and Emma are both very good sports, plus they love each other a lot. We didn't want Romney sleeping on the floor anymore, so we had to do some major rearranging. It was a little rough, but actually the end result is quite pleasant for both of them. I'm grateful they are good at sharing a room. 

Lastly, we took a Saturday evening on the first weekend in May to go to Layton to visit our friends the Burnetts and go take a tour of the new Layton Temple. It had been built pretty much in the backyard of Mary's mother, and we have been watching it as it's been under construction. It's a very lovely place, and we were excited to go take a tour when it was done. What a lovely evening together, enjoying the clouds, the cool weather, our friends, the temple, and of course, a little dinner together after.