November 2023 Randoms

Josh had surgery on his neck in Salmon on Wednesday, Nov. 1. His arms have been itching and burning for years, and his dermatologist doctor friend in Idaho Falls (who he met on his mission and they've stayed in touch) told him in January that the burning was coming from pinched nerves in his back/neck. After months of going to different doctor appointments and having an X-Ray and going to physical therapy, Josh FINALLY got an MRI approved through his insurance in October to see the bones and nerves in his neck and upper back. A pain doctor specialist comes to Salmon once a week (also from Idaho Falls), and he met with Josh a couple of times about his itching/burning pain. The Dr. said the MRI showed the nerve canal in Josh's neck is narrowing, causing the nerve pain, so he performed a short surgery by placing an injection of steroids into the neck, to hopefully stabilize the nerve canal and stop the nerve pain. I couldn't get work off that day, but I used my lunch break to go pick him up from the hospital and take him home. He rested all that afternoon, because the anesthesia made him tired and groggy, but the surgery went pretty well. It took some time for the injection to take effect, but his arms did stop itching and burning as intensely. 

Amanda and Ryan came to Salmon on Friday, Nov. 3rd and stayed with us for the weekend. We went out to Bertram's on Friday night with them and John to celebrate Josh's upcoming birthday. On Saturday morning, she cut and colored my hair, and cut Kanyon's and Josh's hair, too. Josh hadn't cut his hair for over a year--it's the longest time he'd ever gone without getting a haircut! I may have cried a few tears because I loved putting my fingers through Josh's long, wavy hair, but after I adjusted to his new 'do, I loved it! It was an amazing transformation! 

On Saturday night, Amanda hosted the Salmon Idol event with me (it's now called the Sound of Salmon). We also did a half-time show in between the junior and senior shows. To prepare for the event, I created a trivia all about the 15 years that Salmon Idol ran for. I did a lot of research about past shows to come up with the questions. There were 30 questions in all, and Amanda and I took turns asking the questions and giving prizes to the winners who answered correctly. It was so much fun! There was also a dinner in between the shows as a fundraiser for the upcoming spring musical tour, and special musical numbers performed by my friend Darcy and her daughter Emmy. The Senior show was also amazing, and we had a fun time emceeing the Senior show together. We didn't perform any special musical numbers ourselves this time, but we had a lot of fun bantering on stage and talking to each of the contestants. Shay Woolf won the contest with a song by Whitney Houston. The performers did an excellent job, and we really enjoyed the show! It was an all-around great night!

We went out to celebrate the occasion afterwards
with Phil & Darcy and Emmy.

When Josh and I were at Quinn's Hot Springs for his birthday weekend, I did a lot of soul searching. I was thinking through all the hardships I'd experienced over the year, and I finally came to terms with my current situation. I realized that I could learn to live with the permanent damage done to my vocal cords from injuries sustained while working at the Leadore School, but what I could not live with was being treated poorly at work anymore and putting myself through mental anguish on a daily basis by staying in a toxic environment. I started working at the pharmacy in Saveway in March part-time after school and on weekends, and I went full-time in June after the school year was over. When I went full-time, the only other full-time tech quit because it was hurting her back. I was the only tech working with 3 different pharmacists in the months of June and July. It was very stressful and overwhelming, but I made it through, thanks to our many hot springs outings. In August, another tech was finally hired and my boss was outright mean to her every day. I started realizing that my boss was an unhappy, judgmental, narcissistic, toxic person--she'd been nice to me at first, because I was so badly needed, but as time went on, I started seeing a side of her that was so ugly. When I spoke up for this other employee, my boss also started targeting me. I hated going to work every day, punching in on the time clock, putting 10 hours in a terrible environment all day, and punching out. I kept thinking as I walked from my car to the front of the store each morning, "Is this all there is to life?" I became extremely unhappy. I went from a physically toxic environment at my teaching job in Leadore to an emotionally toxic environment at my job at Saveway Pharmacy. I felt broken; my body, my mind, and my spirit. Sadly, my brokenness was a result of both of my jobs in 2023. So, as I was contemplating my current life situation on that trip to Quinn's, I realized that I would need to end my job at the pharmacy sooner rather than later. I wouldn't survive much longer under the daily duress I was experiencing. And just two days after we returned from that trip, the opportunity presented itself. On Thursday, Nov. 9 there was a little hamburger lunch for all city employees and their spouses at the Sacajawea Center as an end of season thank you for all the seasonal employees.  Josh told me the night before about it and invited me to join him. Mid-morning, I was coordinating my lunch schedule with the male pharmacist for the day. I told him I might be 5 or 10 minutes over my daily allotted 30 minutes for lunch due to travel time. I didn't think it would be a problem because I usually only took 15-20 minute lunch breaks. He was fine with it. However, my boss overheard me, and she instantly blew up in my face. She said that any lunch times have to be pre-approved by her, and you can't just take 5 extra minutes without permission (which she'd never said before). It just seemed so ridiculous, because I worked 10-hour days without ever getting any breaks other than the short lunches I took, and it was a harsh reaction to my 5-10 minute one-time request. She wanted to know when I'd found out about the lunch, and I said Josh informed me just the night before. She said I should've told her about it when I found out about it, but James and I always communicate about our lunch breaks right before lunch happens on a daily basis--I'd never had to tell her my lunch plans beforehand. I told her that since she needs to know things "ahead of time" now, that I had a 15-minute phone call scheduled with my lawyer for the following day. She went even more ballistic at that point, demanding to know when I found out about this scheduled phone call. I told her it was re-scheduled 3 days prior, when I was on vacation. She said I should've told her then. "When you were at Disney World? To let you know about a 15-minute phone call?!" I asked. She shouted back, "YES!". I told her I WAS telling her in advance--and asked her what's the difference between telling her now with one day in advance versus two days earlier with 3 days in advance. She yelled, "I JUST NEED TO KNOW!" Her true colors were shining through. I wasn't going to put up with her irrational behavior anymore. Very calmly I said, "Well, I've got advance notice for you. Consider this my two week notice." She was finally speechless. And then I realized that she told me once that the state board of pharmacy only requires a 10-day notice, so then I said "actually, I remember you telling me once that the notice only needs to be 10-days, so consider this my 10-day notice". Then I walked out and went to lunch with Josh and I started to feel so free and less burdened of this heavy weight that had been dragging me down from working under the conditions that she created. She made the next 10 days pure hell for me, whispering behind my back, telling other coworkers lies about me, spreading knowledge about my past medical history with staff members. It was all completely unprofessional and I was appalled at her childish behavior. My last day there was the day before Thanksgiving. It was hard for me to start over, but it would've been harder on me to stay. As Josh was telling the boys about the experience, he said, "This should actually be a good thing. It has been a hard year for mom dealing with 2 different toxic employers! There is so much more to life than work, and if you can't be treated with basic respect and decency by an employer there is absolutely no need to subject yourself to that kind of treatment." SO TRUE! 

Josh bought a new motorbike for his birthday. One of his goals for the year was to purchase a new motorbike, because his other dirt bike was over 20 years old. He'd gotten it brand new in 2001 and it had been a trusty companion and a great bike, but he wanted something lighter, more maneuverable, and with better suspension. He bought it new from Myron; it was the previous year's model on clearance special. It was a great deal: it was cheaper brand new than other used motorbikes for sale that he'd looked at. He had Friday off for the observation of Veteran's Day (which was actually on Saturday), so he took it for the first time on a little camping/motorbike excursion with the camper van back up the East Fork. After parking the van at the campground, he rode the motorbike up to, around, and past Jimmy Smith Lake. He'd never actually been up to it before despite all the twins' camping adventures there with Ted. He was going to do some more riding on Saturday, but it was cold and windy, unlike the sunny weekend that had been forecasted, plus the new motorbike inexplicably came up with a flat tire Saturday morning, so he just came back home instead.

Grandma Kathy hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year. All of Josh's siblings came and arrived the night before Thanksgiving and stayed at their own Air BnB's in Salmon. It was nice to see everyone--we were only missing Coral & Eric, Ammon, and Jonah & Micah. It was the first time we'd met Gideon's youngest son Charlie (who was 3 months old) and Malachi's youngest son Calvin who is almost 1 year old! We got together at Kathy's house on Thursday at 1:00 for a very simple Thanksgiving meal of deep fried turkey, mashed potatoes (made by Josh), gravy, stuffing, corn, fruit, and rolls. There were zero salads! For dessert, Tiffany brought apple and cherry pies and thankfully I had made pumpkin pies, because Kathy told me not to bring pumpkin pies, because there would be plenty of pies, but then she discovered there were zero pumpkin pies, so I went home and brought them down to her house. Afterwards, we hung out at grandma's house chatting for a bit and our missionaries and Ammon called, which was so wonderful! Jonah was recently transferred to a town called Oshawa, an hour or so east of Toronto. He spent Thanksgiving in a YSA ward. Micah was doing well in his area of Santiago. Ammon hosted a Friendsgiving event at their apartment in Mesa. That afternoon, we were hanging around together outside watching Molly & Malachi's oldest boy Caleb and Jessalyn & Syler's son Rayden play with each other. They were riding little Strider bikes around the driveway and basketball court, and their interactions and stunts were SO adorable! It was delightful to watch/listen to them and it reminded us of when our boys were smaller. It made me miss my boys so much! It was my favorite part of the Thanksgiving day in Salmon! 

Josh resting while we watched the Macy's Day Parade that morning.

An extra table was set up in the living room for the meal.

The little kids ate in the kitchen.

Group phone call on 
Thanksgiving Day. Jonah called later.

Ammon hosted "Friendsgiving" in Mesa.

It was the first Thanksgiving they'd 
cooked and hosted!

Watching the little boys play outside.

 I thought Gideon's daughter looked so cute,
like a little teletubby with that hat!

After Thanksgiving, I started looking for new jobs, and I spent my days exercising, blogging, and re-decorating my bathroom! I suddenly felt inspired to deep clean parts of my bedroom, closet, and bathroom, and I was suddenly tired of my previous bathroom decorations of birdhouses. I switched to a Mediterranean theme and purchased a new shower curtain, new wall decor, new towels, and new comfy floor mats. I really liked the updated space. I didn't take any "before photos", but I downloaded these old ones from 2010 for comparison, from when we first moved into our home.

BEFORE

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

AFTER

Since we were planning to go to Arizona to visit Ammon again for Christmas, I didn't want to get a real tree in our house and have it dry up while we were gone. Instead, I decided to make a mini tree forest with the small artificial trees I've purchased over the years to decorate our home for the holidays. I put out one tree for each of our boys, and one tree for Josh & I--it was the tree I purchased from our very first Christmas together! I placed the 5 trees all around the piano and decorated them with lights and placed tinsel on the piano top in between them. I absolutely loved the look! I thought it appeared so festive! And I loved that the trees represented everyone in our whole family, even though 3 of our sons would not be home for the holidays. 

The 6-Pack's Missionary Calls

Jonah and Micah have been so lucky to have an incredible group of friends who are their same age, who share common interests, and who are also members of our same ward at church. Initially, it was Jonah and Micah, Erik O., and Nathan D. Then Tyler H. moved back at the end of their junior high school years (he moved away when they were in the younger elementary grades), and last year, Boaz O. moved here, completing the 6-pack. All 6 boys ran XC together, participated in the high school music program together, and they were leaders in our Young Men's program together. They went on dates together, had Bro's nights together, and all 6 boys even decided they were going to go on an epic post-graduation trip across the west together (more info coming in a later post). More incredibly, though: they all committed to serve LDS missions together, too. They can serve after they turn 18, and Boaz's and Tyler's birthdays were both in May. You can submit the papers before your actual birthdate, though, and they all decided to put their papers in at the same time. Leading up to submitting their papers, we had to do a TON of paperwork, have multiple doctor and dentist appointments, and have interviews with religious leaders. April was basically filled with these appointments and completing items on the paperwork checklist. 

The biggest transformation happened in April when all the boys decided to get a haircut. With the exception of Micah, the other 5 boys had grown their hair fairly long: especially Jonah and Tyler. Tyler was the first to get his hair cut, which inspired the others to get their hair cut to missionary standards, too. It was a sad moment for me to see Jonah's curly locks go, as it's been a part of his appearance for several years now, but I was proud of him for his decision and the reason behind it. We even donated the hair to a local lady who makes wigs for cancer patients, which was fulfilling, too. It had grown over 10 inches long!

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

The first Sunday after all the boys had cut their hair made quite an impact at church. Several people bore their testimonies about these young men, and how inspired they were by them. It was amazing how simple haircuts made the young men seem so much older already. It took my breath away when I first saw them all together with their new haircuts! In that moment, I realized the years of their youth were behind them, and it brought tears to my eyes.

BEFORE (this photo was taken at the end of January, 
and it was the last one I could find of the group with their long
hairdo's--unfortunately Nathan wasn't in the photo)

AFTER (this photo was taken in May on the day they all 
received their mission calls)

At the end of April. the Stake President submitted all 6 of their mission papers to the church on the same day; because even though they all finished the requirements on different days within 2 weeks of each other, he knew of their desire to get their calls back at the same time, so he held onto a few of them until they were all done before he submitted them all together. The boys knew there was a chance that some of the calls might come at different times, but they were wishing and hoping they would arrive together.

On the morning of Tuesday, May 10, five of the boys received the email saying their mission call was ready to open. They got the email within 5 minutes of each other. They were at school, and instantly started texting each other. The only one who didn't get his call was Nathan--and they were trying to figure out if they should wait another week (calls only arrive once a week) so Nathan could join them, or if they should just open the calls without him. Thankfully, an hour later, Nathan's call also arrived. The boys didn't open their calls at school, because they wanted to open them all together. All the parents were now alerted to the situation and were texting each other, and it was decided we would have a gathering that evening at the church for the boys to open their calls together in front of an audience, and a zoom link was created for family and friends who lived out of town. We all brought some goodies, set up chairs, and waited with anticipation for the moment that would change all our lives. There was a great deal of family, friends, classmates, and community members who joined the grand opening of the mission calls that evening, which was exciting. We planned to start at 7:00, but Nathan's parents were late, so we waited until they arrived before the event began. 

Tyler and his dad set up the zoom camera for the broadcast, which was awesome. Stacie also had a family zoom that she had going on her phone. I used my phone to make a Facebook Live post. You could literally feel the excitement in the air, and it was evident how excited the boys were!

After Nathan's parents arrived, the Bishop consulted with the boys on how they wanted to proceed. They decided to all open the calls at the same time on their phones, read the intro all aloud in unison together, and then take turns reading the locations and languages of their calls individually. 

L-R: Jonah, Micah, Erik, Tyler, Nathan, Boaz

Once they finally began opening their calls around 7:10, there was a lag in the internet, and they had to wait for 2 of the boy's phones to actually download the document. That was a little nerve-wracking, and they feared now they finally had this event all set up, that they might not be able to all access the online document to announce it together...it was a stressful few minutes, trying not to look at their phones that HAD downloaded the mission calls (and spoil the surprise) while they waited for the others to try and access theirs.  

Thankfully, it finally worked out that they all had access to their mission calls, and they began to read aloud together. It was an incredible moment that I will never forget--seeing these close-knit boys reading their calls simultaneously: "Dear Elder....".

"...You are hereby called to serve in.." They announced their calls from right to left. 

Boaz: Philippines, Urdaneta mission, speaking Tagalog, reporting to the Philippines MTC on Sept. 9.

Nathan: Philippines, Quezon City mission, speaking Tagalog, beginning Sept. 19 (home MTC & Provo MTC).

Tyler: Brazil, Recife mission, speaking Portuguese, beginning Aug. 8 (home MTC & Provo MTC).

Erik: Philippines, Tacloban City mission, speaking Cebuano, beginning Sept. 19 (home MTC & Provo MTC).

Three out of four already read were going to the Philippines which was amazing! And all 4 of them were going international. My boys were the last to read theirs, and by now I was on pins and needles!

Jonah was called to the Canada, Toronto, English-speaking mission, beginning July 18 (home MTC & Provo MTC). Everyone else had started in August or September, and when I heard July, I gasped--wondering how we were going to get everything done in time!

The last to go was Micah, and at this point, I worried that he would be called to a nearby statewide mission, when everyone else got to go international. I closed my eyes and waited with anticipation for the last call to be read...

Micah was called to the Chile, Santiago mission, speaking Spanish, beginning July 18 (home MTC then Mexico City MTC). In that moment I was relieved that Micah also got an international call. All 6 got international calls!! Then I was shocked that Jonah and Micah were going so far apart from each other. Two different hemispheres!! Then I was SO grateful that they would begin their missions on the same date. Identical twins starting on identical dates! Then I felt instantly stressed about trying to get everything done before then: with their impending high school graduation, their boys' trip to the coast, all the shopping and Dr. appointments and additional paperwork requirements. 

I was simply overcome with emotion, overwhelmed with so many feelings at once! It was a lot to process. But beyond all, I felt love, pride, and joy for these young men who had the incredible opportunity to do this together, and I'm so blessed that Jonah and Micah were a part of it! It's hard to put it all in words: it was truly was a moment I will always remember and forever cherish!

Stacie, Erik, and Mark Oliverson

Craig, Boaz, & Wendy Oswald

David, Nathan, & Leslie Deschaine

Tiana, Tyler, & Ryan Hilton

Kala, Micah, Jonah, & Josh Tolman

Some of the young girls from our ward
made this cute announcement on the dry erase
board, complete with stick-figure pictures
of the missionaries in their new locations!

The moms--we were all a blubbering mess by the end of it!