For several months, Richard’s extra time has been used to acquire, repair, and outfit two four-wheelers. It has been a serious endeavor, requiring lots of grease, parts ordered online, phone calls, a visit to Elko, and time. One four-wheeler is for his dad, and one is for our family. They are ideal for exploring Fish Creek. It was nice to see many of Richard’s siblings on this trip and to watch the cousins have fun together.
Our family has been in many places over the past few weeks. Last night I uploaded photos from the camera before Richard took it for another week away from home. Phew! What a summer. Here are some photos of the high adventure trip that Richard and Daniel made at the end of June in the Uintas.
I should be back to writing soon, once I get through some more stacks of laundry, camping gear, craft supplies, paint, and hardware. I have thoughts about my grandmother that need to be shared, some new Favorite Things to post, and adventures to winnow down to a few pictures and words. It’s good to be back.
We’ve been a family for 21 years, and Richard continues to remember and tell us about different jobs he has had. We’ll drive by a pizza place and he’ll say, “I worked at a pizza place once.” Or we will walk into a print shop and he can talk the lingo because he “worked a summer at Kinko’s.” Recently I found a paper where I had jotted down a master list of all the jobs he could remember one day. I am sure there are more, but this is a start.
I am thankful for Richard’s abilities and interests. I am thankful that he has a desire to work. I see his sacrifices for our family. For many years, he has left very early, before most of us are awake, to drive a long way and work a long day. We are a team, and while it’s his paycheck that pays for everything, I know that because I am home he doesn’t have to worry about many things. I can’t remember a morning when he didn’t kiss me goodbye before he walked out the door. When he comes home to a meal and an orderly house, it’s because I respect what he offers our family. The kids always leave the last cookie for Dad. It’s the least we can do for a guy who has worked so hard for so long.
?Richard read this post and told me that I missed one. He worked at another print shop, making the number an even 20.
This was our very belated 20th anniversary celebration, and the first time we have been away for more than a night from the kids… ever. It was a good trip and I won’t bore you with captions. Anyone who has been to Washington D.C. has the same photos. We stayed in a basement apartment a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol building. We rode public transportation and walked. We tried our first Nutella shake. We attended a concert in the Kennedy Center. We were cold and bought a blanket, stocking hats, ear muffs, gloves, a thermos for hot chocolate, and a scarf over the course of the week. We saw 7 airports, and were 24 hours late getting home because of a canceled flight. We spent the night in Denver, which was certainly not part of our original plan, but all well.
We were looking at monuments and great works of art, then last night I found myself back home making spaghetti. The memories of this trip will keep my mind occupied for a long time. Richard planned the trip and we filled every minute with discovery.
2004, 2009
One night when Paige was seven I was driving home from a Relief Society appointment and saw that someone had placed a yellow child-sized Jeep next to their trash can on the curb. I had always thought that child-sized cars were adorable and I began to have visions of our kids riding around in this little yellow jeep. Oh, I wanted this piece of trash!
I went home and asked Richard to go and get the jeep for our kids. He walked up the street and wheeled it home while I hid in the house, hoping our neighbors wouldn’t notice that we were going through their trash. When we inspected it, we learned that it didn’t have a battery and it had some electrical problems. Richard worked on the electrical parts and bought a new battery. Eventually he got it moving. The wheels were brittle and cracked from years of sitting in the sun and the plastic was old and faded, but it could go!
Paige and Daniel loved that jeep. The motor sounded like it was screaming when they pushed the pedal, and the cracking plastic wheels sounded brittle as they scraped along the sidewalk. I chuckled at Paige who made gutsy 3-point turns, shifted gears quickly, and pushed the jeep to its maximum speed. This quiet little girl was born to race! With Paige driving, she and Daniel would raise their hands high above their heads whenever they crossed a driveway and let out a loud squeal.
Our neighbor Natalie, who was 4-years-old like Daniel, joined the derby in the evenings with her own pink and white Barbie jeep. Paige and Daniel would take turns driving our jeep. All of the neighborhood friends came out in the evenings that summer. Tien, Sadaf, Natalie, and Daniel raced past the house with a clatter, screams, and laughter. Sometimes they raced bikes, scooters, and a tricycle along with the jeeps on the sidewalk in front of our house as the sun went down.
The yellow jeep was loaded into the moving truck when we went to Arizona, but it was damaged in the move and the kids drove it a couple times around the yard before it gave out. We parked it on our back patio and the kids would sit in it, imaginations turned on high, pretending to drive.
In 2009 we bought a child-sized truck so Timothy and Mark could have the driving experience. This truck was new and didn’t have the condition issues of the first jeep. It even had a working radio. Our favorite place to let the kids drive the truck was in the grassy field a couple of blocks west of our house. There we let them drive across the grass, around the paved path, and up and down the grassy hills. Timothy and Mark were excellent drivers, but Mark seemed to like to drive it the fastest. He would also turn the radio dial until he found a hard rock station, turn up the volume, and go tearing up the hills and down.
The children, each around age nine, grew out of the toy cars. Their legs were too long and buckled up to their chests when they sat at the wheel. Jeep and Truck memories only make me smile.
We’ve given our hearts to many projects this week. Mark and Richard spent every evening and all day one day working on a pinewood derby car. I once went to a fireside by Noelle Picus-Pace where she talked about coming in 4th place a the Olympics and how you almost want any place but 4th. That’s the situation that Richard and Mark faced last night. Mark didn’t understand how the race was decided, and knowing that he had won all of his races, he thought he had won first place. We tried to explain that it was all about time, but in his mind, he was going to win the grand prize. He was brave, but I watched his heart break when his name wasn’t read. I watched his heart break over and over as he tried to understand what had happened. I know it’s good for kids to learn to cope with disappointment, but it hurts to watch it.
On a lighter note, Timothy played some great baseball this week and he and a partner made a model of an atom. I have never seen students take the electron cloud so literally, but I like it.
And I made quilt squares. I haven’t perfected the art of sewing a “scant” 1/4 inch seam, so 7 of my 9 squares are too small. Surprisingly, I am not too flummoxed about this. I am leaning toward just starting over rather than reworking seven more squares. It’s a good project for me, because the seams are just a few inches and I can step away and come back. Instead of long stretches of time, I have many 15-minute intervals of time in my days. I have a sewing room, so I can walk in and out of my project without having to clean up.
The project room for the rest of the family is the kitchen, and it’s a big mess. Someday I will miss the projects strewn all over the hearth, island, table, and computer desk, but today I am just getting up the courage to face it.
When Timothy was younger, his coach in Arizona gave him the nickname of “Hoover vacuum cleaner” because he scooped up baseballs so well. He is still a ball-stopping machine as catcher and first baseman. I’ve heard a coach say that he is the best catcher among the city teams. He’s also a great first base player.
He’s also a consistent, strong hitter. More than that, I like to watch Timothy play baseball because he seems to have a good time doing it. He smiles, shakes off rough innings, and keeps a positive attitude. I love that quality in Timothy.
Richard is an assistant coach on Timothy’s team and Mark plays baseball at a different park on the same evenings. I’ve only been able to see Timothy play twice this season, but I’ve been to all of Mark’s games. We blinked and now baseball season is almost over. Wow, it’s been a quick one.
Time is something we can’t slow down, and it’s in the spring that I feel this the most. It’s Timothy’s last spring playing baseball. It’s Paige’s last month of high school. These moments are sifting through my fingers and I try to chase them and hold them down by describing them with words before they wander away on the wind.
I am thankful for this house and this neighborhood and to live in this state. But it doesn’t mean I don’t wish for more outlets, some ceiling fans, and hidden internet cables. Many of the renovations we have made on this house are not glamorous. There has been no high-style makeover and not even new carpet yet. But we (this is a loose term) work away at wiring, painting, repairing drywall, installing lights, building shelves in closets, fixing plumbing, and other things. We’re steady, but not very fast. We began in the basement and have completed most work there and this week we began the more difficult work on the main floor.
Richard and Rob spent a couple of days in the attic to wire for ceiling fans. This meant very messy work in tight spaces. I didn’t have the heart to take a picture of Rob, our treasured guest, just as dirty as Richard. It’s not something I want his wife Melinda to see. 😉
This summer the west-facing rooms will have ceiling fans with wall switches and this is a good step toward our goals for the rooms. Perhaps we will finish Paige’s room in time for her to move out!
Two baseball players made 4 baseball games a week plus a practices this fall. Richard and I have divided and conquered since the games fell on the same nights. I was Mark’s cheerleader, and Richard was Timothy’s assistant coach. It’s been a good season for each boy. Sitting outside looking up at the mountains changing color during the games make it seem like an ideal activity. Evenings where it was cold enough to huddle in blankets were rare this year.