Week 48

{November 28 - December 4}


Kanyon had basketball practice on Monday night, and after he and Ammon got home from their practices, we had Family Home Evening. We talked about the boys making their lists of what they wanted for Christmas, and we discussed our family Christmas service project. In previous years, we've hosted a family (buying clothes and a meal for an entire anonymous family) and we've participated in the Christmas is Sharing program numerous times (where you take tags off trees at stores in town, and purchase specific items needed for people in the community). This year, we wanted the boys to be more active participants in the giving, so we decided to do a 12 Days of Christmas activity for a family that Josh felt inspired to share the Spirit of Christmas with. The boys liked the idea, and we talked about how we'd start on the 1st, and do random days until the 24th. The boys would help deliver the items, and help purchase a few things, and Josh & I would purchase the majority of the items. We asked them to keep it anonymous, and not tell anyone who our family was, because keeping the secret was part of the fun. They were glad to go along with the Christmas service project, and we were excited, and started making plans for ideas that we could give for each of the 12 days.

At preschool on Monday afternoon, one of the students was sorting a giant box
of animals into random piles/lines based on the type of animal it was.
It made my heart so happy to see OCD prevalent in a young child! It's exactly
what I would've done with the box of random animals, too!

On Tuesday night, my college mentor called and said I was officially all set to start my student teaching in January. Yay!


On Wednesday evening, Kanyon and Ammon both had basketball practice. Ammon dropped off Kanyon before going to his own practice. I went in to pick up Kanyon after an hour, and dropped Jonah & Micah off at Scouts. They were going to get a ride home with Ammon because Josh and I were planning to go to our last Swing Dance Class, but then he got injured at work that day, and ultimately decided he didn't feel up to dancing on his hurt leg. He'd been trimming trees alone at the golf course, specifically some of the old willow trees along #9 fairway. He was on a ladder with his chainsaw cutting through the trunk of one of the old willow trees, when the tree fell a different direction than Josh had planned. He shifted his body at that moment, to try and get down from the ladder quickly, but his foot slipped through the rung, and his body fell backwards. His knee was wrapped around the rung, and his body was laying upside down on the ladder. It knocked the wind out of him and he laid there for several minutes in that awkward, painful position before being able to get enough breath and strength to pull himself back up. It really shook him, and as he told me about it that night, I told him I'm just so grateful that the tree didn't fall on top of him and pin him, and he admitted that he felt the same, because he thought when he first fell that that's what would happen. Every winter, he cuts trees at the golf course alone, and he always puts himself in scary situations just to cut a stupid old tree down. He's had several incidents over the years, some that have injured him, but none that were too severe. He's already had an accident earlier this fall at the golf course while cutting trees, too, but thankfully there was someone out working with him that day, so he was able to get help to recover quickly. I made him promise not go cut down anymore trees at the golf course until someone else was around!

When Kanyon saw this picture on our ladder
a few days after Josh's incident, he said
"that kind of looks like what happened to Dad".
We got a good laugh out of it, but Kanyon
was totally right!

Thursday was the first day of December, and our first day of delivering goodies to our 12 Days of Christmas family. Josh was gone on a bus trip to Challis, so I took the younger boys and we did it by ourselves. We figured out where to park, who would take the package to the porch, and where they needed to run to remain unseen due to street lamps and neighboring houses. Then I took the boys to the movie theater afterwards to watch Fantastic Beasts (written by JK Rowling, the author of Harry Potter); we all liked it. The boys were kind of scared at one point, but I thought it was exciting and I really enjoyed the film.

We decided to go get a Christmas tree on Friday morning. We drove up above Williams Lake road, went around the lake, then kept driving on the road up into the mountains. It's the same place we went last year, but there was less snow this year, so we made it up the hill further. We stopped and looked at several trees this year, and I found the perfect one about 25 yards below the truck. It was the first time we've taken the tree I picked out! And it was great to have it be so close to the truck, too, since Josh's leg was still bothering him. We got another pine this year--we used to always get fir, but last year Josh really wanted a pine and we all liked it, so that's what we decided to get again this year. On Friday evening, Ammon had his first varsity basketball game at Challis at 7:00. Josh didn't drive the bus, so he got to drive with me in the car, which made me so happy! The other boys decided to just stay home, so it was like a date night for the two of us! Unfortunately, our boys team lost the game, but it was definitely an exciting game! At one point, Ammon got pushed down, and we all thought he'd hit his head (because he fell backwards), and I freaked out big time and was screaming at the refs! Thankfully, his hip hit the floor first, and he was able to get up off the floor by himself. His hip hurt the rest of the night, but that's much better than his head!

The tree I picked out

The boys watching dad cut it down

Josh let Ammon have a turn at cutting it, too

Heading back with our new tree!

Saturday afternoon, Ammon had another basketball game at Darby, Montana at 5:30. The boys' and girls' teams went together, so there was JV and varsity games for both teams all afternoon. Josh and I drove up together again, which was awesome, and we picked up Hannah on the way so that she could come watch, too. We were able to watch 3 of the 4 games. The boys' varsity game was SUPER close, and the boys looked so much better than they had the previous night, but unfortunately, in the 4th quarter, they began to get behind the other team's score, although they had been the scoring leader the majority of the game. Darby has the BEST concession stands EVER, which was great, because I just started the no-sugar, no-carb diet that day and I was glad I could eat at the school without having to leave the games to go get something. Ammon drove home with us, and was bummed to have lost the game, but we were so proud of him and the rest of the team for their strong efforts!

Tied in the 4th quarter. This is where the game began to turn around,
and unfortunately not in our favor.

I was in charge of Sharing Time in Primary on Sunday. I'd been asked to be in charge of the program at the Ward's Christmas party the following week, so I used the time in Primary to have the children practice the program that I'd written and prepared for it. It was kind of stressful, because we ran out of time in Senior Primary to run through it all, but Camille had helped teach the kids the songs the previous few weeks, and she was a great help to me during the practice, for which I was so grateful. Sunday was also Fast Sunday. I won the monthly contest against Gina! Yay! We had tithing settlement later that afternoon, and then we went to the Hobbs' house after for treats! Gina makes such delicious treats, and she spoiled us with Peanut Butter Balls, pie, and cookies that night! We stayed and watched the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional with them--which we've never watched before; that was so nice of them to share the experience with us. When we got home, we decorated our Christmas tree. We put the tree in the family room this year, and put it right next to the central wall so that it could be taller (we have vaulted ceilings). We decided to put blue lights on it with silver, blue, and pink decorations this year. I put the lights on, and the 3 younger boys decorated the whole rest of the tree, which was fabulous; they did a great job! And we all loved the way it looked when it was done.  

Watching the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional at the Hobbs' home

The boys did a wonderful job decorating
our Christmas tree!

Roles, Redford, and My Rock

In January, Josh was gone several weekends. Now that he drives bus for the school as his 2nd job (thanks to ObamaCare, he needed another job that offered insurance), he occasionally drives for school athletic trips. And since Salmon is so isolated, sometimes those trips are all-day, or overnight, or several days and nights. In January, he was gone several weekends in a row due to wrestling meets and Jr. High basketball games. 

 

I don't sleep good when Josh is gone. I miss his warm body in bed next to mine. I miss his sleeping noises that are like a white-noise machine at night for me. I miss the security that having him home gives me. My king-size bed feels so empty, and it's hard for me to fall asleep and feel comfortable when he's not here. 

 

So on those weekends when he was gone, I stayed up late watching movies to help me fall asleep. I picked a few movies from our dating days to watch--older flicks that I haven't seen in years--and DVR'd them in advance so I would have something to watch that helped me feel closer to Josh in his absence. These two movies had real significance to me during our courtship:

 

 AND

This is why: One weekend after we were engaged, Josh drove down to visit me at SUU in Cedar City. My roommates were going to watch "Out of Africa". I had never seen it, and they said it was good. So we all piled into one of my roommate's rooms to watch it on her TV. Josh absolutely hated it. It was a very slow love story and it completely bored him, so after about an hour or so, he couldn't take it any more, and we quit watching it. He's never forgiven me for making him sit through it! And we never even got to watch the ending! So, 16 years later, I finally watched it by myself, and all the way to the end this time! It was long, and I ended up watching it over the course of two days.

The movie "Up Close & Personal" was one that we rented and watched while we were dating. It was a fabulous movie, and its theme song "Because You Loved Me" became our love song while we dated. I loved the movie so much, I even bought the video (and still own it). It also took me two days to finish watching it in January (I fell asleep at night watching it, then had to finish it the next afternoon).

After I had seen both, I started thinking about the similarities between the two movies.
They both:
1. made me cry.
2. had strong, independent female characteres
3. had plots that included the female character moving to a new place and making a life for herself.
4. included the strong females meeting a man that helped shape their new life
5. had Robert Redford as the main male character.
6. had marriage proposals presented by the women to Redford.
7. {Spoiler alert} ended with him dying in an accident.
8. concluded with the woman becoming successful.

I enjoyed watching both films, and viewing the sad chick flicks validated my lonely feelings for Josh. I appreciated the stories and the portrayals of these strong women and unapologetic men. But then, for weeks afterward, I couldn't stop thinking about what the point of both of these movies were. Was it to show that women are weak when men are in their lives? Or was it to show that women can be strong and independent despite men's involvement with their lives? Was it to show that without men, women wouldn't advance as much in their careers? Or was it to show that women can be just as strong as men?

I initially watched both because I was missing Josh, and perhaps I was reading too much into the intentions of the films since I was feeling lonely. Both of these women experienced loneliness--both while their loves were alive, and then again when they died. Both women suffered setbacks because of loneliness, and then ultimately, both women lived through their hardships to become successful. In "Out of Africa", after losing her plantation in Africa, and her marriage, and the love of her life to death, she still became a successful author. In "Up Close & Personal", after sacrificing so much to support her sister, and losing her identity at times, and the loss of her husband to death, she still because a successful national news anchor.

So when I was trying to think of what the lesson was in both of these films, and the similarities between the story lines, I started thinking about how I am like these women. I am an independent girl who likes doing things on my own. I like to have things done my way, and being in control of situations. I am successful in my current career of teaching elementary music. I consider myself a very capable girl. But, although I pride myself on being independent, I'm also very dependent on Josh--not in my career or in my church callings or in my activities; rather, I'm emotionally dependent on him. He is my rock, and I rely on him to listen to me, and help motivate me, and be my companion. He levels my major mood swings: he lifts me up and he calms me down, he talks sense into me and helps me understand complicated issues, he works together with me to raise our children, and he loves me and is a good example of patience and kindness, and being with him makes me a better person.

After all this pondering, I came to the conclusion that for me the lesson in both movies is this: women are capable, very capable, of becoming the person they want to be, with or without men's involvement. But when women open their hearts to love, and when that love is reciprocated, their lives become enriched and have so much more depth. Life has so much more meaning and purpose when love fills our hearts.

When Josh was gone several weekends in a row, I missed him. I got by just fine without him being home--I got everyone to their appointments, I made meals, the housework got accomplished, the house stayed warm, and things got done. All those same things get done when he's home, too, but when he's here, even the simplest tasks have more meaning. Because when he is with me, my heart feels so much more full, but when he's absent, my heart feels so...void. 

Strictly

Tonight, I watched one of my favorite movies of all time:I love this movie!! What's not to love about it?!! It's full of comical 'cliche' humor and quirkiness, beautiful music, gorgeous costumes, excellent dancing, a very hot actor, and an inspiring story. And I also love this movie because of the memories it evokes within me...

"TIME AFTER TIME"
The song is played over and over in the scene where he is trying to teach her to dance, and I've loved the song ever since I heard it on the movie 15 years ago. Last fall, on the way home from my grandmother's funeral, my friend Kimi and I sang it over and over in the car on the long drive until we got the words and the parts down perfectly. It was one of the best car rides of my entire life. When I hear this song, I think of mastering it with my girlfriend Kimi.

"PERHAPS, PERHAPS, PERHAPS"
This song is played during a very romantic dancing scene. It makes me think of my favorite 'slow' dance experience ever, which occurred the summer before my senior year in high school. I was attending "Engineering State" at USU, and on the final night of the week-long event, a dance was held. On one particular song, my friend Nate Ward asked me to dance with him. I've never forgotten that one memorable dance. He was an incredible dancer, and moved effortlessly with the slow song. His legs and arms and body were so in tune with the music; it's indescribable to explain. It was just the best slow dance of my life for sure! When I see that scene in the movie accompanied by that song, I think of that one perfect dance so many years ago with my old high school friend Nate.

"LOVE IS IN THE AIR"
This song is the final number of the show, where the whole audience is dancing on the floor in celebration of the finale. As the movie wrapped up, I couldn't help but think about the first time I watched it. During my sophomore year of high school, a group of us drama nerds gathered in Mr. Bahr's backstage room and watched it together. I had so much fun viewing it back then with my fellow theatrical friends! We watched it multiple times during the course of my high school years, and I have fond memories of doing so. When I see that scene of happiness coming together at the end of the movie, I think of my high school drama years, and of what a wonderful time in my life that was.

For me, Strictly Ballroom is strictly timeless and happiness! And tonight, it was exactly what I needed!

3-D

I was so excited when "Alice in Wonderland" came out! I convinced Josh to go with me to see it, since neither of us have watched a movie in 3-D and I wanted to experience it so badly! We don't have a movie theater capable of 3-D technology in Salmon, so we drove to Hamilton, Montana to watch it.
To be perfectly clear, Josh had no desire to watch the movie. He hates the story of Alice in Wonderland, he doesn't like Tim Burton creations, and he's not a fan of Johnny Depp. I, on the other hand, love the story of Alice, LOVE Johnny Depp's acting, and think that Tim Burton is a creative genius.
Josh was such a loving husband to go with me, after only a little bit of gentle persuasion! I was glad he came, especially since we had to make the drive home in the dark through a heavy blizzard, turning the 1 & 1/2 hour drive into a 2 & 1/2 hour drive. But I think it was totally worth it (Josh disagrees with me on that matter)!
I thought the movie was awesome (Josh thought it was mediocre). I loved the story, I loved the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts characters, I loved the special effects, I loved the magical creations produced, I loved seeing it in 3-D. I just loved it all!!! I would totally recommend seeing this movie!!! Josh's review, on the other hand, is that he wouldn't have wasted his money on seeing it (good thing I paid for the date, huh!).
Josh and I have such different tastes in movies, which is why I usually go with a friend instead of him! And now you know which one of us has the better taste in movies....that would be MWAH!!!