A Jolly Holiday in St. George

Lickity split, make a quick trip. 

I have a sweet friend in the neighborhood who is retired and bought a condo in St. George, close to Snow Canyon and the Tuacahn Theater where she volunteers as an usher. She ended up with extra tickets to the plays this year, and very kindly offered them to me. I was so happy to take her up on her generous offer. 

I picked up the girls a little early from school on Friday the 7th, and we made our way south. It was a good thing we went early - I thought I was giving us an extra hour and a half but there was some very slow traffic around Nephi that slowed us down to the point that we went straight to the theater and got there with only 20 minutes to spare before the show started.

Our first evening we got to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I'm sure that this is the play I have seen more than any other in my lifetime. I love it - I am sure I also know the lyrics to this better than any other show. This particular production was very showy and sparkly, and was a ton of fun. A couple of parts were a little over-the-top, even for a Joseph show, but overall it was a delight. The best surprise for me was taking the Pharaoh and making the character a woman. Infact, the pharaoh was Tina Turner, which totally worked. So fun.

We spent Saturday being lazy at the Romney's house, watching The Dark Crystal at Romney's request, as well as watching the Utes lose to UCLA. We ate a lot, went to a craft sale, and got to see Sheri briefly, as she was working a lot that weekend.

For the Saturday evening show we had one extra ticket, and Cara joined us to see Mary Poppins. Again, a really fun show. Of course the flying was amazing - she sailed by right over our heads. Burt was especially fun, and I enjoyed the sets a lot. But I have decided that Mary Poppins just isn't my favorite musical. I don't seek out the music from it ever, and love the old movie too much. So, I was grateful for these tickets and had a grand time, but I don't think Mary Poppins is going to be a tempting show for me in the future.

 

Sunday was a nice quiet morning, just being with family before making the drive back home. I guess all of our trips are about the same length, but this felt especially short. Everyone had other stuff going on, but it was just nice to be there, you know? And so nice of my friend to give us her extra tickets. What a treat!

Never the Easy Way

Somehow the driver's license process is never a smooth and easy road in our family.

Romney was actually pretty excited to get her license, and happily got her learner's permit not long after she turned 15. She started driving right away, and it wasn't long before she was somewhat comfortable driving. But then her crazy school/activity schedule hit and driving got pushed to the back burner. Like the back BACK burner. Her junior year was more insane than her sophomore year, and before we knew it, she was headed into her senior year having not driven in ages and without a license. It was time to get back in the saddle.

Chase had had a miserable experience taking drivers ed through his high school, and I was determined for Romney's experience to be better, so I found a private school. I think it is seriously the same school that my big sister used in 1986. The online lessons were a breeze for Romney. The problem was scheduling the driving time. By the time she was ready to do her driving times with the instructors, she had to retake the written test because it had been so long. Finally we got that taken care of, and then I learned that there are a LOT of people trying to schedule driving times each week. I had to get online every Wednesday at the stroke of 10am and start clicking on the open drive times as fast as I could. It was like trying to catch a fly out of the air. It took a while, but we finally got her three drives in. Yay! Time to take the road test.

Not so fast, there, shooter! I didn't realize that private driving schools can't administer road tests to their own students, please don't ask me why. I do not know. We had to hunt down other driving schools to do it, and you wouldn't believe how long the wait times were! Like, months out. Finally I found one in West Valley but they were only open in the middle of the weekdays. Sigh. So, I pulled Romney out of school, drove forever to get there, and sat in the lobby having a panic attack while she did her road test. I had to do this twice because the first one didn't go so well. Poor thing. She panicked when her instructor told her to "not do anything weird" when a semi truck pulled up behind her. 

Good grief it took forever. But finally FINALLY Romney got her license! Yay! 

Now to get her to start driving on her own. The first day she had her license she was super excited to do this but then had a miserable day of not finding a parking spot, leaving the car several blocks from school so she was quite late, then not being able to find the car after school so I had to come rescue her while Troy called the city to find out if it had been towed. It hadn't. It was just parked farther away than she had thought. So.....not a great start. She is warming up to it again though and I'm just so happy that she has the dang license. And I don't have to think about this again for two years. Or longer, us being us. Who KNOWS when Emma will get hers - when she's 25?

Just a Teeny Little Project

One does not simply move into a bedroom. Its broken ceiling and obnoxious walls must first be torn out, rebuilt and painted.

Chase hadn't even been gone for a whole week before we cleared out his old bedroom and ripped into it. I felt a little weird about it, like we were never letting him come home again or something. But of course we would be rearranging the house - our house is too small and our kids are getting too big to rope off any space to save for them. And with Romney already being a senior and planning on moving out in a year or so, we had no time to waste!

The plan is to have Romney move into the bigger bedroom after freshening it up. We were talking about just smoothing and painting the walls, but the ceiling really needed attention too - its layers of paper have been cracking and splitting for longer than I can remember, plus is has the weird sloping angle on one side. Why not just fix it all at once? Poor Troy. Of course it's so easy to say that but things are never simple with this old house. I've been trying to do as much as I can to keep the burden from being all on his shoulders. It still falls mainly on him, but believe me, I pitch in however I can and stick by his side. I hate it when I want to do something but it requires so much from him. Half the time I don't even realize how much I'm asking! Troy, you're so wonderful and I'm so grateful for you.

So here is the cleaned out room:

We covered the floor in plastic sheeting and boards to try to protect the carpet. First to go? The wretched boob light!

Troy let me take the first few swings at the ceiling. Man, what a mess. It was all lath and plaster and just got everywhere as we were tearing it apart.

Troy took over for an hour and we got to this point:

That was on the first Saturday in October. On Monday I did the rest.

 

Tuesday I spent hours trying to clean it up and get it all to the dump. Thank heavens for mini vans! In fact, Romney came with me to purchase the boards for the floor. As she and I were loading the sheets of MDF into the van, this dude walked by and called to us, "And THAT is why minivans are AWESOME!!" It was so funny. We laughed and flexed and heartily agreed.

This van load plus two green-cans full of broken plaster got it mostly cleaned up but of course we weren't done making messes. Next came using the sawzall on the beams creating the slanted ceiling. 

It's occurring to me that a play-by-play on our room construction might not be the most interesting blog post ever but hey, it's for posterity. We have started putting some new beams up into the ceiling to create a level surface for the dry wall to attach. Then comes drywall and repairs.... I'm so excited for this to come together. You know who else is really excited? That would be Romney. 

Actually Farewell

What a weird feeling, to drive away from your house with your child, knowing that you're going to drop him off someplace and just leave him there. And not see him again for a long time. There is a lot about my life that I just can't remember very well, but getting dropped off at the MTC? I'll never forget that. I remember first going out to lunch with my brothers and parents. Peter had to work so he took off after lunch. Adam and my folks drove me to Provo, and I remember wishing someone would just konk me on the head, rendering me unconscious, leave me at the curb in a heap, and drive away. I knew I wanted to go on a mission, and I knew that I'd be fine once I got there. I just hated the leaving part. I'm sure Chase felt a little bit the same way.

Before heading out, there were some sweet goodbyes in the days before Chase left. On Sunday, we had Troy's mom over for dinner and hugging. Sweet Grandma shed some tears as she gave Chase a last hug on her front porch.

Another very tender goodbye was with the Moore family. Father Moore, aka Bishop Bryan (I mean father as in the father of his family, not a religious kind of father, but yes religious with the term Bishop) has been an incredibly influential person in Chase's life. Not only has Chase been friends with their boys since he was about 3 and spent countless hours at their home, Bryan really supported Chase in preparing for a mission. We love this family so much. We decided to go out to dinner the night before Chase left, and he really wanted the Moores to join us. We went all out and went for sushi, splurging on the all-you-can-eat menu at Sapa. It was so incredibly delicious.

The post-dinner hugs were also very sweet. Except for their youngest, who gave Chase a squeeze and then said, "Well...bye I guess." We got a good laugh out of that. They have a son who is nearing the end of his mission now. Those boys won't see each other for a long old time!

Wednesday morning we spent some time packing. Probably we should have done it before that morning but hey, it took up the time!

I think the hardest part for me (and this is going to sound dumb) was watching Chase say goodbye to his lizard, Omnom. Chase got the lizard at the beginning of middle school. You wouldn't think a lizard could be sweet, but they totally can. And they've been together for seven years! 

After that, there was nothing left to do but put all the stuff in the car and drive away.

We picked up the girls from school, Troy from work, and made one last stop for some lunch at Zao. I know Chase was starting to freak out a little, so I told him to just put on Jurassic Park on his phone for one last time. Works like a charm, every time. The soothing sounds of roaring and screaming. Troy started laughing when he got in the car and realized that the movie was playing for one last FINAL absolutely really last time. 

We had been told that any prolonged goodbyes with hugs and like should not happen at the MTC itself, and to make a stop beforehand for that kind of thing. This is definitely a change from when Troy and I served missions. We would actually go into the MTC with our families, and have a big devotional-type meeting with all the other incoming missionaries. We watched a tear-jerking portion of a movie about missions, then the big goodbye came, with much sobbing. I think the leaders finally realized that this was horrible and that the band-aid method (RIGHT OFF!!!!) was much less painful and traumatizing. 

It had been suggested that the Provo temple was a good place for hugs and photos. It was almost comical seeing how many other families were there, taking pictures and embracing and wiping their eyes. It was kind of fun to offer to take photos of families so that no one had to be the photographer and miss being in the picture. I'm sure I drove my family crazy by offering to do this for so many groups. Sorry! I loved it. The best was when this other mother took a photo of our family in return for us taking their picture. Afterwards she asked how I was doing. "Oh, okay," I replied shakily. "You?" She promptly burst into tears, grabbed me, (a total stranger,) into a bear hug and said, "Not good! This is horrible!" Oh sweet friend. Whoever you are, I hope you're doing ok!!

We got back in the car. No one was really teary. I think we were all kind of in shock. We drove through the MTC gates, where there were many smiling missionaries directing the incoming traffic. We got sent to a parking garage, where some more friendly helpers were there to get Chase's luggage, take one last photo of us, and lead him into the first steps of his next adventure. 

The rest of us got back in the car, and all four of us promptly started crying. For about 30 seconds. And then we just felt peace and excitement. Chase has wanted to do this for so long and it was so time for him to go. I know this is going to be hard for him and in some ways for us too. But I also know that is the most absolutely right thing he could be doing. I'm so proud and happy.