Where did November go?
It is a problem when I don't keep up with the blog on a weekly bases. I do have photos to help me remember certain things, but much gets lost week to week in the busyness of life. (For which I am sure you are all grateful for. There is already so many photos of so many things and words about them all. Hopefully, something will be useful to some one or two of my descendants in the future.)
My calendar for November shows that I was busy most days, going here and there--often taking Jena to a variety of her activities. So, I will give a general update on everyone--
Jena: She is attending the RISE program twice a week, usually on Tuesdays and Fridays. She loves it. She is also doing FHE with her ward on most Mondays, a dance class on Tuesday evening, Institute on Wednesday in Bountiful, and Friend to Friend theatre class on Fridays in Centerville. She is still looking for a job and spends an hour a week with Jeri, her job coach, doing applications and having a few interviews. She usually attends the temple with us on Thursday mornings.
Tosha and family are still in Tacoma. Niki started middle school which means an earlier start to his day to catch the bus. Tosha is still doing event setup and organizing usually on the weekends. She is amazing at it. She also manages their social media presence.
Ben is still living at home. He attends Journey House, the Clubhouse in Davis County, five days a week. And occasionally he does their recreational activities after hours.
Scott and family are in Ovo Valley and still loving it there. Scarlett also started middle school. Scott still works for Benner Health and is also working on his MBA which he hopes to complete in April of next year. Chantel continues to serve as a fitness and nutrition coach which she does mostly online.
Jessica and family are busy with life as well. Jessica, who works at the Salt Lake County program for young adult homeless individuals, also started back to school at Weber State to get her master's degree in social work.
Gary pointed out that they--Jessica and Scott--following in my footsteps. I actually hadn't thought of it in that way, but I guess they are actually following my example of following my dad. I was about five when my dad received his masters degree from University of Idaho. For some reason, my parents took us kids--3 or 4 of us five years and under--to the graduation. I am sure it wasn't fun for my mom. However, I have one clear memory of that experience--I can remember the "hoods" and thinking to myself--I am going to do that someday so I can wear that hood. Weird for a five year old--I am sure I had no idea what "getting a masters degree" even meant. But that thought and image stayed in my mind and as I got older, I set up goal on getting a master's degree and as it turned out, I ended up getting two--one in school psychology in 1987 and one in social work in 2017. And I made sure to take a photo of the hoods, both times. Maybe you will want to follow our example and get a master's degree. There are lots of ways to get knowledge, to work, and to grow---you need to figure out the best way (and healthiest) way for you as a person.
Gary missed serving in the temple during the closure for cleaning and repairs of the Syracuse Temple. We continued to go to the temple by serving in the Layton, Ogden and the Saratoga Springs Temples during the break. Gary has been working hard on the outside of the house--fitting our rain gutters with leaf guards, trimming brushes, and making many trips to the dump and the DI. He arranged for some neighbors to help carry up some old furniture that we no longer need (bye to Scott's old heavy dresser) and our old freezer. Excellent progress as we continue to settle back into our house. He also continues to solve family history problems in FamilySearch and FindAGrave.
Organizing the basement and de-junking our storage room have been my ongoing project the past several weeks. I have made progress and filled the trailer and Gary's truck a few times for DI and dump runs. Carpets are being cleaned downstairs on Dec. 8 so I have a deadline now to finish the reorganization of the storage room. We have TOO much stuff, but it harder to get rid of stuff than it should be. Having a space for something is not a good enough reason to keep it. One hard thing (which I am still working on) is my collection of art work. I loved these pieces enough to buy them to begin with and many have hung in our houses from West Jordan through Hong Kong and Plano and now here---but I have added other things and the rooms have been reorganized for other purposes. Some pieces I have kept thinking my kids might want them--but no, they have their own style and taste in these things as they should. Others I have kept to switch out--and sometimes I do, but is that enough of a reason to store something and will I continue to do that as I get older? Some pieces were from my dad and I want to keep them but where should they go? Decisions, decisions, as each piece brings memories and feelings...............and I haven't even begun to sort the boxes of photos I have to organize and to share with my kids. That is the project for January.
I have also been busy with Utah Shattering Silence Coalition. We have had meetings and more meeting this month as we have tried to connect with other people involved in the systems in our state involved with treating those with severe mental illnesses.
I continue to recover from my bypass leg surgery. I am a bit frustrated because I can't seem to get past 2 miles or 45 minutes of walking each morning. If I try to add even a few more minutes or a bit longer distances, I can't seem to manage a regular day without my leg swelling and hurting. I have decided to stick with the 45 minutes for a couple more weeks and then try again adding more distance to my walk. We had our first snowfall today so will be trying out the indoor track at the Syracuse Community Center this week if the snow is still on the ground in the morning.
That is our summary so you can skip the next few posts which have more details. Life is ramping up for the holidays already so I hope I can get November recorded before all of that starts...
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