Pioneer Romney, Conqueror of Maycember

As Romney was preparing to move home, she was on the hunt for a good summer job. Something with decent pay and plenty of hours. She had shown interest in following in her brother's footsteps and working as Aspen Grove. We were pretty excited about that. However, with her current relationships being what they are, she really didn't want to be away like that for the whole summer. Totally understandable. She was poking around on job lists when our good friend Shelley recommended that she look into working at This is the Place park. The job would entail dressing in pioneer-era clothing and working at the park interacting with guests and taking part in frontier-ish activities such as embroidery, making lace, baking in a wood-fired oven and other things of the kind. The job payed quite well and they said she'd have no troubles getting the hours she wanted.

So, in April, our girl got outfitted with some pioneer fashion and started going to trainings on the weekends. She looks so cute in her uniform. We decided a photo shoot was in order, and that it could only be made better by the addition of chickens. Very period appropriate.

 

When Romney made it through her finals, she was ready to start her so-called summer job. Only...the day she was supposed to start working on a regular basis, we had a full-on Maycemeber snow storm. I know a lot of people refer to May as Maycemeber because of how frightfully busy it is, but this year, it's because we got several inches of snow. I was grateful for the water but a little sad about my flattened flowers which had started to come up. Everything survived though. It was just so funny to be dropping her off at her summer job in the middle of a blizzard. Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was truly very cold and wet. The upside of that was that there were very few guests at all, so she had some quiet days to really learn the ropes of her first few assignments. 

Now that it's almost June, I'm happy to say that she is still really enjoying the job, even though she's expecting some really hot days in the uncooled old houses in the park. She has mastered the art of building fires in the stove as well as created some lovely samplers and is now ready to learn the art of lace tatting. Plus, she never has to work on a Sunday and is done every day by 5:00!

Tulip Fest

I have made an unexpected friend over the past couple of years. Her name is Cherie, pronounced sher-REE, and she's in her 70s, and will be sure to let you know that she's from California and she is Jewish. Even though she has joined our faith, she loves her Jewish heritage, which I love too. She talks about it a lot, and is outspoken about a lot of things. She loves to grab and manhandle my arms and shoulders, admiring their ...fullness? I believe that is the word she used. Cherie is definitely a little eccentric and unexpected and I just adore her. She loves me too. Especially my thick arms. 

Last year she mentioned how much she wanted to go to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point, and I don't remember why, but I couldn't get down there last year. But I made a solemn vow that I would take her this spring. She held me to it - every few weeks she'd remind me, though I definitely hadn't forgotten. And early in May, we made it happen. I picked her up, and we made the drive, chatting happily the whole way.

Here's what I loved about being there with her. First, she wanted to link arms with me the whole time, and just be close as we walked and talked. Also, she absolutely adored those tulips. She'd stop and gaze at them, and touch them, and even talk to them. "Hello, little beauties! I love you!" It was so delightful, and worth taking a day away from my to-do list to be with my friend and take her to visit the tulips.

Elder Update - 20 Months and Counting

Our missionary's time is winding down! As of this post, he has just over four months left. Can't believe it! He's had such wonderful experiences, and many of the friends he had taught have joined our church. He hasn't done any of the actual baptising himself until this April, when a friend he had found and taught asked if he would do the honor. We are so proud of the person he is becoming and it's a joy to talk to him each week, hear his stories, see the light in his eyes and the smile on his face. 

Farewell, Little Yellow Coop

In the early spring we got an announcement that a group in the neighborhood was wanting to do a service project and host a "Service Saturday." They invited folks to either sign up to help or sign up to receive some service. Considering all that we are up to this year, we decided on the latter. We had already rented one dumpster for dirt and debris from our construction project, but we had plenty more. In fact, we had put a tarp over our tomato garden and covered it in a huge mound of dirt. We figured we could rent another dumpster and use our helpers to get the dirt into it plus other yard waste. It was so incredibly helpful to have three gentlemen just show up and grab the shovels and wheelbarrows we had for them and get that dirt on out. What a relief! Plus, we had enough room to add tons of old branches from dead trees in our yard. And even enough room to load up the dismantled remains of our first chicken coop and the run as well, which we had built so frantically that October afternoon in 2019. It has been useless in our backyard ever since then, and it was so lovely to get rid of all of it, leaving a nice open spot to keep our trailer and canoe. I confess I felt a bit like she-hulk as I loaded up several wheelbarrow's-worth of rocks and bricks and heaved them into the dumpster. That is until my back began to protest. Turns out, I'm not she-hulk. 

 

Bob II

I think it's pretty clear that the house we live in has some special needs. And one of those really special things is that we have a weird setup for our dryer. The dryer vent absolutely has nowhere else to go but down into the basement, through the entire length of the house and out to the west-facing window of the basement. It's very long, which is not good for dryers. This means that we have had a LOT of dryer breakdowns. And we have gone through many dryers. It's just dumb for us to get a nice new dryer since our setup will just ruin it. Instead, we have found places that sell and repair used dryers. Consequently, we have had to a large amount of dryer moving. And it's no easy feat. Nestled into a tiny alcove, our dryer basically requires acrobats and strong-men to move it. I have found myself more than once crouching in front of the washing machine trying to bench press the dryer up and over my head and into the hands of my teammate and then scrambling back out underneath it while continuing to lift it....it's really hard to describe. Basically, it sucks. 

We have called on our friend Bob, basically our very own strong-man, to help us maneuver it around, especially in times when Troy's hernia situation prevented him from lifting dryers. Oh, do Bob and I have stories to tell about the awkward positions we have gotten into. Well, Bob moved to Bountiful. And Troy and I are getting old. And our dryer broke again. We decided we are now past the time we should be man-handling large appliances and went hunting for a Bob-replacement. We found it - in a very cool cart with a hydraulic shelf on it that can be raised and lowered easily. We had to add some lumber to the top of the shelf to make it the right height for dryer-loading, and once we did that, it was perfect. Except not as kind and funny as the real Bob. Man did it simplify our lives. It's a treasure. 

We named it....Bob. Naturally.

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.

Freshman/Senior Prom

Not to sound like an old person, but back in MY day..... I wasn't allowed to date until I was 16. But...my parents did let me go to a dance or two during my sophomore year when I was still 15. Because my birthday was in May and my big sister's was in October - she was 16 most of her sophomore year and got to date throughout. My parents were nice. But we don't really have that rule around here. Partly because our two older kids didn't really seem to have the opportunity or maybe even the desire to go on date before their junior year, plus....is a group going to a school dance really a "date" ? I don't think so. Which is good news because it wasn't too big of a deal when Emma let us know she was going to Senior Prom. Oh...uh...ok I guess? 

Here's the thing. She has been very blessed to develop some really lovely friends this year, and they're mostly all older than she is. Sophomores and juniors. They have all kind of taken her under their wings. Do some of them occasionally show up at our house and try to climb in through her window? Yes. Yes they do - although I think we have successfully convinced them that they are safe to use our front door. And it's been very sweet to see her light up and be so happy enjoying her time with her friends. So yes, when a prom group was put together, she took part, and I think had a really lovely time.

She did the asking - another freshman boy by the name of Chaudin, who is in theater and choir with her. His big brother is dating one of her friends, and they spend lots of time together. The girls planned it all out themselves - bowling, dinner, dance, ice cream. 

Here was an especially darling part. I was having a pretty busy week before the dance and needed to find time to take Emma dress shopping. Her sweet big sister offered to take her - Romney, Nick and Emma went shopping and picked out a lovely dress and shoes. Also, she spent the afternoon with her friends getting ready. I was a little sad not to help her with her makeup and have a chance to take photos, but I know she had so much fun and was thrilled to go to her first dance.

First Time I've Ever Liked Clowns

As I said in my last post, Romney enjoyed her photography class enormously. I'm sure it was her favorite class of spring semester. And she pulled off quite a spectacular feat for her final project. The assignment was pretty simple - she had to create a series of five or six photographs with a common theme. My guess is that she went way above and beyond what was required. She decided on a theme of clowns, and in her typical way, she got a very clear image in her mind of what she wanted and then really went all out. The theme? Clowns. Of all things, clowns!

Luckily she has many very willing friends who were totally game for being dressed up and covered in make-up and posing and just rolling with the whole thing. And I am here to tell you that the vision she had was amazing. I don't even know where to start with the photos - there are literally hundreds of them. I guess I'll just post her finished products, but I may add more later.

Aren't they amazing? They look a little darker here than they do on her camera reel, but you get the idea. Full makeup, extensive costumes, turning her bedroom into a studio with Troy's good lighting system and blacked out windows and backdrops and everything. They had so much fun.

One of the best photoshoots of all was the same night as Senior Prom at the highschool - more on this later, since Emma went ahead and had her first date all of a sudden - and I had kind of been wondering if Romney would end up going to a dance at East after all because Nicholas would want to take her. But neither of them really wanted to go, and they ended up putting together one of the bigger photoshoots that night. They were doing the double clown, their friends Cami and Judd, and so had to do two costumes and two make-up sessions and stuff.

As they were working, our front door suddenly burst open and in came a small troop of prom-goers. I think it was only 4 kids but it felt like more. They were fully decked-out in prom attire and they just let themselves into our house, led by Romney's bestie Anna. This actually made me so happy. There is something so very flattering about having a teenager feel like they are safe at your house, and welcome any time. It means a great deal to me that she feels safe this way. What happened was that one of the prom-attendees (Alice, to be exact) had injured her toe and needed medical care. So I pointed them to the bathroom for a good wash-up and several bandaids. And it was so fun to spend a few minutes with them and admire their outfits and ask what their plans were. I love that gang so much.

Here's Romney working before the promers descended:

And here's the mayhem in our kitchen:

Our house is small, and it can feel overwhelming when a lot of people are here, but I sure did feel happy seeing all these cute people doing their things and having a lovely night, toe injury and all.