I spent most of yesterday in Ogden. Carol had an errand and time to kill, so she asked me to join her. I was already going to Ogden because we picked up a trailer load of wood from friends who had no need for it. So, I went early with Carol and we had a fun afternoon going to a movie, lunch at Zupa's and visiting a new store called "At Home". It's in an old Lowes building, so it's huuuuuuuuge! Think Taipan in organized rows and shelves. There were rows of green pillows and rows of orange pillows and rows of lamp shades and rows of picture frames. HUUUUUGE, I tell ya! AMAZING store. Average prices, nothing to brag about, but! the inventory was amazing... everything from furniture pieces to decorative accents and an entire section of holiday galore! We didn't have much time to spend, so we're going to go down again next week when we do! I was happy and sad about this. My foot has not stopped burning since all the cooking on Monday for the YSA dinner, so my foot didn't mind at all that we only had a few minutes. A new thing to look forward to on a day that, hopefully, I'm up for it! Oh my heck, though! I am so ready to decorate for Christmas! This really made me excited. I took a picture of this little Santa and sent him to Marilyn because he made me think of her. She loves whimsical things and he fits! Could he be any cuter?! This house is going RED AND GREEN in less than three weeks!
By the time Carol dropped me off to meet Doug and ZJ, I was starving and getting shaky, so we stopped on the way home for a quick drive-thru burger and raced home to get straight in the hot tub. My foot thanked me and our cold bodies really appreciated it! It was cold outside!
It's definitely feeling like fall now! FINALLY! HAPPINESS! The leaves are turning and falling, which by now, they usually are down totally. Such strange weather. It's sure changed over the decades. We are anxious to see what winter will bring. I'm hoping that my back yard is a winter wonderland all winter because last year, after we bought the home, we only saw one storm. BUT. I'm still thankful for the good weather we had while we were moving! We were not even running the heat in February! Sweet! It's on this morning, though! That's for sure!
Grace's Bella Voce (bella-vo-chay) singing group has their first performances this week. It's been a crazy week for her. On Tuesday night, she'd told me that she was staying late after school for extra dress rehearsals. What she didn't tell me was how late. After school "late" means she takes the activity bus home and it brings her right to our door, instead of the busstop which is in North Logan. (When we moved, we changed school districts, as well, but because Quayd and Grace are in high school, we drive them to the old district and they ride the bus the rest of the way.) The time had changed. It was dark. Grace had YW. At 6PM, she was half an hour late. I drove up and down the road to the bus stop, in case she'd been dropped off there and it was so dark and cold, I didn't want her walking, alone or at all. At 6:30, we were starting to freak out. Her phone went straight to messaging. She didn't text back. It was so not cool. ZJ was texting friends to ask. We were seriously concerned.
I finally called the principal at home, who lives just a few blocks away and lives in our stake. He was concerned because it was so late that the busses were done. He started making calls and getting no answers at the school and from the Bella Coach. He even offered, but, Doug finally drove to the school to walk around and see if he could find anything out...if she'd left? on the bus? with friends? We were all stressed! We had decided that once Doug got to the school, if she wasn't there, we'd call the police. It was that bad.
Doug arrived at the school and walked straight to the choir room. "Hi, Dad! What are you doing here?" She was fine, having a great time! Her phone had died. (She needs a new one really bad!) They practiced till 9:30 every night this week. We'd just not gotten the memo because she sent it on Messenger instead of texting it to me. SUCH RELIEF! That was a fright! I makes me sad that we do live in a world where we have to be concerned so much more than when we were kids! With all of technology, sometimes it's better communication, but with too many options!
Speaking of Bella, Grace shared that there had been lots of drama this week. She was sad that some of the girls are upset with other girls and there are some talking about quitting and so on. I explained that whenever you have a large group of girls, especially at their age, there will be drama. We then talked about how important it is to stay out of it. I shared that Miss Marilyn has a nice way of staying out of drama. If she hears the gossip or drama, she says, "That's really unfortunate" and changes the subject to something more pleasant. We talked about what her possible responses could be. She decided on, "That makes me sad, but I don't want to talk about it anymore." OR "That makes my heart hurt" and just to walk away. I hope she captured that listening in, participating and absolutely repeating it will only make it worse. I also hope that she understands that once this stressful week is over, things will calm down again. Girls, teenage girls, teenage drama. ugh. I was proud of her because she did not want to be a part of it. She said that she'd just gone to a corner and did some homework to stay out of it. Go, Grace!
Today, I've got bills to pay and planning to do and errands to run. We are hosting a sibling dinner this weekend and I'm very excited about having the family together! We also had a trailer of wood to unload and stack! I'm looking at the calendar and it's beginning to feel a lot like the holidays! LOVE IT! LIFE IS GOOD!!!
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