Settling in...

Well, the last month has been pretty tumultuous. :)

I had a very nice day in Burley on the day of my sister's funeral. Buzz, Betty, Dal, Jane, Edith, Al, Howard, Gloria, and I spent a couple of hours at the mortuary that morning. After the services at the cemetery, we enjoyed a long afternoon at the church where Peggie's ward provided a meal. A few nieces, nephews and others were there, as well. It was a sobering, but also a healing time for our family. However, Elaine's kids aren't doing so well...

The day before I went to Burley for Elaine's funeral, I got a call from Keaton. I expected that he would stay in the mission field while options were explored for helping him deal with some pretty serious issues of depression. On Saturday afternoon, the stake president called to let me know that Keaton would be in Salt Lake on Tuesday morning...

Funny story... that trip to the airport on Tuesday morning. I taught piano lessons that morning from 7:00 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. Then my visiting teacher came over around 9:40. I told her at 9:55, thanks for coming, and now I need to get the sheets on Keaton's bed, and head to the airport. We were still visiting at the door when Devon called to see why I hadn't gotten there yet. He said I told him I'd pick them up at 9:30. I said, no, I'll be there at 10:30. Keaton's plane doesn't get in until 11:00... AAAAAAHHHH - ELEVEN!! I jumped in the van at 10:05, picked up Devon, Alicia and the girls (Devon had to put their car seats in the van etc), stopped at Macey's for a balloon bouquet that Devon had called ahead to order, and we got to the airport at 11:10... (I asked Devon if he wanted to drive, but he has most of his points taken care of and could not afford to get a speeding ticket, so if we had to speed, nope, he wouldn't be driving. Yeah, I'd say we broke one or two speed limits...) I jumped out of the van curbside and I walked into the airport just as Keaton was walking toward the first baggage claim area... Poor Ava never did get out of the van. She had looked forward to seeing the planes etc. And Alicia was hidden in the back seat by that big bouquet of balloons all the way to Salt Lake and back... I don't want to ever have to hurry again - EVER!!

The next weekend, we girls had our much referred to (in other blogs) TOFW weekend. Jaron is obviously not too keen on the "you had to be there" reporting of that weekend. But you really did need to be. We were at IHOP for 2 hours late Friday night. ALL the food was late being served. And then the waitress admitted that Tressa's hadn't even been ordered - as well as part of Kindy's order. After another long wait, we learned they were actually out of crepes - the thing Tressa ordered. (How do you run out of crepes at a restaurant?) And it seems there were not the toppings or fillings etc. that others had ordered. All of us ordered breakfast foods. My poor pancakes looked like the first ones of the batch that I usually throw away - unless I give them to Spiche. Others had burnt tasting hash browns and other entrees that were way subpar. It was after midnight when we left. However, because of all the delays and errors, we did get ALL of our meals for "free." Understanding that most of the problems belonged to the cooks in the kitchen, we still left our waitress a tip. And we certainly paid a lot in the time we spent. (Ladies in the booth next to ours were also having trouble being serviced. The next morning they sat behind us at the Event, and reported that one of their group never got her order, either. They were also there almost 2 hours...) And then on the way out, a group of 8 guys were sitting in the middle section of the restaurant. I think it was Alicia that reported that they were goggling at Kindy and one of them told the others that she didn't have a ring on her finger! See... you kind of had to be there. But we laughed a LOT.

OH! And all of that was even "funnier" because we had hiked the entire campus to find a place to find food before the Friday evening event. We finally ended up at the Student Junction, where on-campus students eat. The cashier spoke little English. He sent us into the cafeteria first, leading us to understand we would pay later. That obviously wasn't right. (Although we realized later we could have gotten anything we wanted and walked out without paying - no one asked to see proof that we had paid). So we spent $7.00 for sandwiches that we barely had time to inhale before we had to hoof it back to the hall for the TOFW event. Oh! the cashier clapped his hands and thanked very much those who were able to give him exact change!! My friend, Pam, was especially done in by all our "trucking" - looking for food...

Fortunately, the actual TOFW event was wonderful... As reported by the girls in their blogs. (Even the meal served at noon on Saturday was wonderful. Catered by the Lion House pantry).

On the heels of these other events, I have been diving into the new school year. Our new principal has really pushed to get the Star Reading schedule set and running much earlier than was the case last year. So I have been kind of just hanging on for dear life to get to the end of this school week. 'Didn't even have any more wiggle room to reschedule my classes etc. (because of the other rearrangements I've already had to make in the past 3 weeks) to play the organ for Orlynn Sheen's funeral today. So Keaton did that for me! He said it went fine. But I forgot to clue him in to whether or not he should play while the casket and family entered the chapel etc. So he played it by ear, and evidently did okay!

So there you have it, Jaron, and anyone else who feels they missed out on something. Does anyone feel better now? :)

BTW, the past week or two have been much better for Spiche. Gregan reasons that she has had access to a computer, and has been following the ongoing debate concerning her imminent demise, and has perked herself up to delay the inevitable. And that's okay. I'll probably even refill her prescription in the next couple of days. I appreciate the dialogue and the point that we have reached. 'Just taking things a day at a time now.

Well, THIS has certainly turned into a very LONG blog... So until later... :)