Easter and a New Assignment and Why I'm an Idiot

You know, getting through school and passing that child life certification exam were really stressful things. It was a tough winter! And what a relief to get it over with. So I found it hilarious that just as I was finishing all that up my bishop asked me to come speak with him on a Sunday afternoon. I could feel in my gut what I was about to get asked to do, and I wasn't wrong. I got called to be the new young women's president, and if I accepted, I would begin my service the day after I sat for the child life exam. Isn't that so funny? I mean, in some ways, it was just perfect. I had been praying for help for months, and feeling like I was getting it! And then immediately it was my turn to pass that help along to a great group of teenage girls in my neighborhood. Also...out of the frying pan and into the fire, right? But in all honesty, I was excited to take on this new (and old, since I did it already 25 years ago) position. 

Here is our young women's group on one of my first Sundays. It was delightful because somehow we were all on the same brainwave and we all dressed in green. We have four leaders and normally five girls, but this week it was just four.

One of the first activities we had was going bowling at the union building up at the UofU. For some reason I just love bowling shoes. We are silly.

Next topic - Easter. And this is weird but the story begins with Halloween. Many years ago I saw an instagram post by my friend which showed off her Halloween decorations. And it was like a light switching on in my head. I had always wanted to get into the fun of Halloween but always really hated the decorations I had, and couldn't find stuff I liked. Then I saw Tawnee's creepy collection of things from nature and I suddenly knew what kind of decorations I liked. Now I really look forward to getting out our stuff each year. 

Kind of the same thing happened with Easter. I'd like to be making a bigger deal out of Easter. It's an important holiday in our family, and I want to do a better job of making it special. Only...I really detest most Easter decorations. I'm just not a pastel and bunnies kind of person. But I had inspiration hit one day as I was doing some dusting and was cleaning up my inherited collection of painted wooden eggs my parents brought home from Russia. They are all sorts of deep red and black colors, and....

I just realized something. This is actually such a dumb post. Who cares about my Easter decor. I'll just say that I figured out what I like, and it's dark red eggs, like Greek Orthodox-style eggs. 

Sigh. I'm so silly.

We invited Troy's mom over and we made a Middle-Eastern-ish feast, with grilled chicken, hummus, sweet potatoes, flat bread, cucumber chickpea salad, and chocolate. Naturally. I think that's my vibe. Mediterranean/Greek/Middle Eastern vibe for Easter. I like it. 

Okay and here's why I'm an idiot. (Besides writing posts about holiday decorations.)

Like I said, I'm the new young women president in our ward. And I like to think that I'm a good fit for the job - I'm experienced with kids, I'm really organized, and I like to get things done. You'd think I'd be perfect for this. But instead I'm learning a lot about myself and where my weaknesses are. Ain't that just the way. That's kind of what callings are for sometimes I think. We are given new and challenging responsibilities that stretch us and force us to grow. Here's my problem - I'm way too controlling and stressed out. I want everything to be perfect and I'm willing to do the work. But that's not what is really needed. What is needed is for me to trust other people, both the leaders and the kids, and to really show up for them and not worry so much about perfect details. Those things will work out.

This point got driven home HARD in the spring when we had a fundraiser dinner to collect money for a summer trip for the youth. The kids were in charge of making objects that could be auctioned off. The organization of this event occurred just at the changing of the presidency, and it felt like the details slipped through the cracks a little. But don't worry, I'd SAVE IT!

First, I decided to gather items for some crafts I thought would be cute, and have the girls create them at an activity. Not only were the items not as cute as I was hoping, in fact they were awful, but I only had one girl show up to the activity. I panicked and made all the crafts at home by myself. Then I proceeded to mentally stress out about the auction having no actual auctionable items. 

What do you think happened? First of all, all the kids showed up with plenty of things to add to the auction. Some were great, some were funny, some were a little wonky, but they were there. And they all sold well at auction. And my items? An absolute flop. No one bid on them, except one lady who felt bad and bid $3 on all of them. So pathetic. And...a perfect example of the lesson I need to learn in this calling. Trust the kids. Don't take everything on myself. And never never make home decor crafts again because my ideas were truly laughably hideous. I was giggling to myself (with a pretty good blush) all night long.

Lesson learned. Hopefully. Actually now that a few months have gone by I can tell you that I have continued to have these joyous "learning experiences" but I'll get it figured out. Someday. Probably just in time to pass my job on to the next person!

Spring Updates

The snow melted for the last time, and spring started to make its way into the valley. We had a few fun things here and there  -

For one thing, a very cute gal that Romney met in pre-kindergarten got engaged. Her name is Katherine, and she and Romney stayed buddies through several years of elementary school while she lived in the neighborhood. Then they moved to St. George, where they eventually landed in the same neighborhood as my brother Peter. So we have stayed in touch. I am especially fond of her mom, Marsha. So it was a real treat to get invited to a SLC-based shower for Katherine, although Romney and I did have quite the adventure when I thought I typed the correct address into google maps. I did not, in fact, type in the correct address and Romney and I ended up in a literal gravel pit in the distant hills of the middle of nowhere, USA. So we were a bit late to the shower. 

Also in March was our trip to see The Prince of Egypt. That was a Christmas gift I had a lot of fun with. Instead of just tickets I got everyone a funny Egyptian pen and a little trinket of some kind. We all enjoyed the play a lot, although maybe not as much as we were hoping to. I think our expectations were a little high.

 

The thing I may have been the most excited about was discovering that one of the General Authorities of our church was seated a few rows behind us. He's a wonderful man and I kind of wanted to go talk to him, but he was being slightly surrounded already, so instead I just snuck a little candid photo of him. Like a weirdo.

For ages and ages I have been promising Emma that I would make her a quilt. We finally had a chance to go fabric shopping over spring break. She picked out everything, including the pattern and every last color of fabric. I was very impressed. She had a very clear vision of what she wanted. I guess she loves gardenias, so she picked out a pattern that had some large star shapes on it. She wanted the large stars to be white like gardenias on a background of blue, with lots of tones of green and purple. She did a great job picking everything out. As I type this it is early July and I'm almost done with the quilting, then all I have to do is the binding. I'm excited to get it finished up for her.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Emma also got her first job - she joined the performing arts crew at This is the Place Heritage Park. She spent the whole spring going to weekly rehearsals, memorizing music and dances, and getting fitted in pioneer garb. She has been loving it so much. It's just her vibe. Romney worked there all spring as well, but moved on to other jobs early in the summer. (It's a long story...and not a pleasant one, but she's much happier now.) I'm sad Emma's perma-ride disappeared but I'm happy for both girls to be working in jobs they like so much.

 

Lastly, our family has found ourselves at the movie theater a lot lately. It feels like our theater attendance has plummeted since 2020, and it's in part to the fact that we just haven't been interested in most of the movies coming out. Of course there have been a few like Dune and a new Marvel here and there, but definitely not all of them. But some great stuff has been coming out this spring. Sadly, Emma is almost always completely uninterested in joining us. In fact, I think she loves it best when we all leave the house and she gets it all to herself. 

I think one of the most fun movie outings we saw was a re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark. So fun to see it on the big screen!

 

Child Life Month

March marked the 9th month of me working as a child life specialist. This is significant because when I was first hired, 9 months was with the deadline of me getting re-certified. At first that seemed like it wasn't going to be that tough, but as the months went on and the classes went on (an on and on...) I was a little doubtful that it was going to happen. In fact, it was going to be by the skin of my teeth.

Lucky for me, the hospital adjusted its time frame on un-certified child life specialists from 9 months to 18 months. Although this relieved a TON of stress for me, I still just desperately wanted to pass. I mean, it had been hanging over my head for close to a year! I just wanted it over. So a lot of time in March was spent in pouring over the books. I felt like the more I studied the more stressed I felt about remembering it all, and the more I felt like I needed to add to my reading list. Nothing to do but keep on reading, highlighting, and making flashcards. I think the stack was 6" high by the time I was done.

In the meantime, there was a lot going on at the hospital! It was officially Child Life Month, and we celebrated with  a lot of perks and treat. For starters, we got to wear jeans on Fridays (though I don't work that day), and we got a few lunches catered. We got treated to new t-shirts and cute sippy cups and all sorts of fun. We had a few dress up days - St. Patrick's Day for one. (Themed t-shirts have become a very big deal, and all my coworkers have stacks of cute tee's for all the holidays. My office mate talked me into getting a chicken-themed St. Patrick's Day shirt, and I shall that I felt so dumb wearing it. (Feelin' Clucky!) I think I'm going to take a pass on holiday shirts from here on out.

One of our days was a "throw back Thursday" and we could wear any t-shirt we wanted that was any sort of throw back. I went with a sweatshirt that had a '67 Ford Bronco on it. (Best I could do from Smith's Marketplace late the night before.) My cute office mates Ashley and Becca went with their beloved 90's designer, Lisa Frank. I wouldn't have known her name, but seeing her art brought back a flood of memories. They were so cute - jelly shoes, butterfly hair clips, the works. So cute. I'm not up for stuff like that. 

Other happy things happened at the hospital - for one thing, my niece who is in medical school had a one-day rotation in the NICU and let me know she was there. Of course I zipped right up to the fourth floor so I could get a hug. I sure love her. 

Well finally the dreaded day came. March 22. I was so nervous I could barely sleep. Finally it came close to the time to go and I made my way up to the UofU testing center so I could take my dreaded certification test. I would like to say here that I have a lot of faith in blessings. I received a priesthood blessing from Troy, and in it he said that that I would find the answers to be obvious to me. I put my faith in that, and could only trust that I had studied enough and would get the help I needed. 

One hundred and fifty questions. Four hours. What a marathon. But to tell you the truth, once I sat down and took a deep breath and opened the test and answered the first question, I felt so much better. I'm not going to say that I found the test to be easy - it wasn't. But I did feel certain of my answers. They actually did feel obvious to me. I forced myself to reread through the entire test twice just to make sure. But I felt confident when I hit that submit button, and what a relief it was when I immediately got notified that I had passed. To be totally honest, it's possible that I only just barely passed. And it's possible that I got 100%. I will never know. They don't tell you!! It makes me a little nutty thinking about it, but I'm trying to just let that go and be so so so grateful that I passed. 

Everyone asks me how my job is different now. Did I get a pay raise? Did my schedule change? Was I given more responsibility? Nope. The difference is now that I get to keep my job and not get fired. I can't imagine a better way to celebrate Child Life Month.

PHEW and Thank Heavens and PHEW PHEW PHEW.

Never Too Old

There isn't a whole of narration to add to this post. The pictures sort of say it all. 

In the middle of March, we got one of our better snow storms of the year. It wasn't great - a year ago in April I think we got 18" or so, and this was only about six. But this was enough for my big kids to get the urge to go and play - they went digging through the bins of winter wear to find boots and gaters and started on a fort. 

It turns out that when your big grown up adult kids do things that they used to do when they were little, it's extra adorable. Troy and I kept peeking out the back window to check on their progress and it made us smile to see them working together out there.

Emma was not interested in participating, but she made them her special hot cocoa when they finally came inside to warm up. The fort was only half way done, and they swore they would get back to it the next day. It was no surprise, however, that regular life took over and the fort was left to melt away in the sun as the spring weather came back like it always does in March. 

Adding to the Flock

Our chickens by the numbers:

Total ever owned: 51

Total roosters we've had to give away: 15 (So far. This new batch of chicks has roosters yet to be unveiled, so to speak.)

Total chickens who have passed through the veil of death: 17 (including two teeny chicks we couldn't get to thrive this year - rest in peace, Tiptoe and Wobble.)

Total current chickens in our flock: 19

And for the record, 19 is really more than we can handle. Our 11 new chicks are already very teenagery in their appearance and behavior and are practically bursting out of their brooder in the garage. We need to get them out into the actual chicken coop and run, getting acclimated to the old chickens, and figuring out which ones get to stay (the gals) and which ones will have to go (sorry guys).

Here's the tough part. It's almost time to send some of our old lady chickens to a retirement home. And no, that isn't a euphemism for killing them. I can't bring myself to do that! Which proves that I'm just not ever going to be a true farmer. I found an ACTUAL farm that takes old chickens and lets them roam free to eat bugs and weeds. I'm pretty sad about letting them go....in fact I haven't done it yet. But also we do actually want eggs from our flock. So I guess this is the way it goes.

Welcome to the family Ripley, Sigourney, Uma, Prim, Ibbie, Fifi, Jane, Lizzie, Edelweiss, Wisteria, and Diana. (Try guessing who named who.)

We are trying a couple of new breeds this time around - D'uccles, which we have had before but weren't able to raise to be adults, and a couple of non-bantam breeds; Easter Eggers and Americanas. Apparently they are both known for being incredibly sweet. So far I do think these chicks are a lot more calm and willing to be held. It's been a couple of years since we have had chicks and it's been super fun to have them around again! We actually kept them in the living room for their first 10 days or so - mostly because we didn't clear out a space for them in the garage right away. But also because we decided it was delightful to have them close by to keep an eye on them and enjoy their little cheep cheeps.

Here is my teen girl with one of my teen chickens, Jane:

 

And for whomever was trying to guess on the names:

Troy - Diana, after his favorite singer, Diana Krall

Rachel - Jane and Lizzie, after the Bennett sisters from Pride and Prejudice, and Ripley after Ellen Ripley in the Alien movies. (Troy and I picked that name a long time ago.)

Chase & Romney - Prim (Primordial), Fifi (Colossus the Fire Dragon), Ibbie (Cannibal), all named after roller coasters at Lagoon. Sigourney and Uma after the actresses.

Emma - Edelweiss and Wysteria. I think we are going to call them Edo (Ay-doh) and Wisty. 

Names will stick if we are able to tell any of them apart!