There's a lot to catch up on, and I know I'll never get there, so I'm going to pull some excerpts from letters I've been writing to my neighbor who's on his LDS mission in Argentina. I type these letters at various places while my kids do their thing--music lessons, ice skating, that sort of thing.....
From a letter dated April 12:
Alana turned 9 last week. I can hardly believe it. The day we brought her home from the hospital, I wore a sundress. It was that summer-like. This year, it’s still snowing from time to time. Really, really, REALLY ready for warmer, sunnier weather. The photos of her opening her presents were still on my stolen camera, so those are gone forever. Tristan suggested that they re-wrap the presents and re-create it, but it wouldn’t work. We had her birthday party at Classic Fun Center down in Sandy, where the kids got to skate, play in the inflatable bouncers, shoot at each other in the Blast Zone, and play laser tag. They had a good time, and I got great pictures from that. Alana opted for chocolate cheesecake for her cake, so I totally cheated. I bought an Oreo crust and filled it with cheesecake filling that you can buy in a tub. Then we shaved a chocolate bar on the top to make it pretty. So easy and she loved it!
I’ve given away more stuff, including several boxes of books. Bruce looked at me really funny and asked if I was feeling all right….I was giving away books, and I bought Velveeta! A couple of friends came and helped me get started in one of my craft rooms. It’s really fun to work with other people. “Erica, are you really going to patch those pants?” “And what project is that for?” It made the decision-making process much easier, and it’s always nice to have company when working on stuff like that.
So, in my discouragement, I was pretty down. National Scrapbook Day is this coming weekend, and I’ve only got 3-4 people coming. It’s been FOREVER since I’ve had such low attendance at one of my big scrapbooking weekend things. I’ve had as many as 18 people there in the past. The leads from the Expo aren’t panning out real well just yet, plus the stolen CM money, and I’m struggling some. However, I have to tell you, I got a phone call out of the blue from a woman who needs supplies, including a new album and pages and such. I have no idea where she got my name and number, but I love those kind of phone calls! I think God’s trying to reassure me a bit. Or I could be reading way too much into it, but I’ll take the little things. (Note today: This same woman has now "opted out" of my emails. Our last exchange was a bit odd with her questioning why she had to pay shipping when I had the things here.....because *I* had to pay shipping to get them here)
From April 26
National Scrapbook Day worked out just fine. I had one gal cancel at the last minute, and another sign up, so I had 4 people there. While the bigger events are good for my bottom line, this was very relaxing. My profit margin is smaller with smaller groups, but I made up for it by making lots of things from scratch, including the meatballs for the meatball subs (I probably would do those for a big group too because Shannon eats them too and store-bought are generally not gluten-free).
Easter was great. Tristan had to be at church at o’dark thirty because the bells were playing at all 3 services, starting at 7:30 am. The music is always amazing, with the beautiful hymns of praise. I just love it. We all wore our Easter bonnets in support of our minister who’s still battling ovarian cancer. I found the girls’ hats at the dollar store, and mine at Ross. Then I decorated them with ribbons and flowers, plus butterflies and birds for the girls. Lots of fun, though I’m sporting a nasty burn from the tip of the glue gun on my finger.
The rest of the day was so relaxing since we didn’t have to be anywhere else ALL DAY. I know! Stop the presses! We did NOT drive back across town a dozen times for various kid-related activities. We watched the movies that the Easter Bunny brought (Voyage of the Dawn Treader, based on the CS Lewis book, and the 7th Harry Potter), had a turkey dinner, and just enjoyed a relaxing day. We get so few of those anymore and I hate it.
Bruce’s paycheck was shorted a week’s pay. His manager put 4.9 hours rather than 44.9 hours. Ouch! They got it straightened out, but when he asked if they could go ahead and pay him now rather than adding the hours to his next check, the payroll department got a bit snotty, like they’re doing him some big favor (“one-time courtesy”). Say what? It’s not like Bruce did anything wrong, so why are they acting like they’re helping him out of a jam? Hopefully, it won’t happen again, so this “one-time courtesy” will truly be a one-time thing. In the meantime, we’re hanging in there. We’ve got overdraft protection for just such events, so all our bills are being paid…..just with a bit of interest.
I subbed a couple of days this week; once in first grade and once in 6th. I really need to remember to wear jeans when I’m doing 1st grade. We were planting grass, so I had a 50 lb bag of soil, plus a bag of grass seed, and we’re filling these tiny cut-off milk cartons. We were able to do it without too much mess, but it still made me nervous. It’s funny….this is a class I’ve had several times before (it’s Miss Pace—Alana’s former 1st grade teacher), so I know them pretty well. Some of them drive me completely insane, but when the art teacher started to pick on them a bit, it got my back up. She just isn’t very nice! Great art ideas, but not nice to the kids.
Dad spent a night in the hospital last week. He had a bit of a cardiac incident. His heart was racing and wouldn’t slow down. When they got to the ER, it was about 170 beats/minute, which is not safe at all! When your heart beats that fast, you start potentially throwing blood clots that can lead to a heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism…none of which are good for you. They gave him some medicine and that slowed his heart down too much, down to like 30. So they gave him something else……which made him dizzy or something, so they kept him overnight just to be sure his heart would behave itself. He’s supposed to see the cardiologist this week, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he needs a pacemaker in the near future.
Got this in an email from Bruce, titled “Blame it on Microsoft”
• INSTALLING SPRING...
███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 44% DONE.
Installation failed. Please try again.
404 error: Season not found.
Season "Spring" cannot be located.
...The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable in Utah.
Please try again.
Funny, huh? The weather is nice today, but it’s not supposed to last. We’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow and a nighttime low of less than 30! Brrrr!!!
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