Familiar Angels

Harold Wood (My Great Grandfather)

Today was the third of five family reunions this summer.  I know people don't usually say they love family reunions, but I do.  I really do love them.  We got ready and when Sierra got to our house this morning for a ride down, we said a prayer and hit the road.  Once we got to Holden for the Harold Wood family reunion, we had a ton of fun.  There were tables full of yummy food, tons of crafts for the kids, fun games, a speaking portion where three of the five of their surviving children spoke about their memories as kids and youth, and a massive genealogy project of filing copies of old (and I mean OLD) family pictures for each of us as keepsakes.  It felt so nice to be surrounded by family--many of whom I had just met today--and I could help but feel that connection to our rich heritage in that town.

One experience is particularly noteworthy and is still somewhat emotional for me relate.  Many people brought their four-wheelers so people could have fun all around Holden, not just at the town pavilion.  It was a great idea because it got all the guys involved in our family history scavenger hunt just up the hill at the town cemetery (anything that involves riding a four-wheeler is a good idea to a guy.)  Anyway, at the beginning of the day an announcement was made that children could only ride with a person 16 years+ of age.  We didn't want any accidents.  Everything was going well and after the scavenger hunt people intermittently took turns riding around the area on the 4-wheelers.

Well, time passed and parents became less cautious of their children as it was an extremely small town and all the kids were playing and having fun.  I was one of those parents.  Juan, however, was a little more aware and when he spied Siena getting on a four-wheeler with a cousin not too older than herself, he told her not to go.  Later, he saw her doing the exact opposite of what she was told and got a bad feeling.  He jumped on a four-wheeler with Ezra and followed the two young girls.  When he caught up to them, they were told that they had to return to the pavilion and return the four-wheeler.  He started following them back down the hill to make sure they were safe.  As they made their descent, the cousin told him that they were going to make a quick stop at Grandma's house on their way.  He told them that that was fine (the house was a hop and a skip away) as long as they went directly to the rest of the group afterward.  They did that, but on their way down the hill, they must have turned a gravelly corner too fast because the four-wheeler flipped.  The cousin was thrown from the ATV and Siena was pummeled and pinned to the ground with the machine on top of her.  (This part was told to us by Siena as we were all down at the pavilion and out of sight.)  All I know of what happened afterward is that Juan looked up to spot their four-wheeler to make sure they were coming back and what he saw was spinning wheels, turned  upside down.  He frantically rode up to them on the four-wheeler and arrived at the same time that another nearby rider arrived. Siena had managed to get herself out from under the four-wheeler by the time Juan arrived. Juan immediately checked her body for damage. Miraculously, she walked away with a few scrapes and aches, but nothing serious.  Her cousin was perfectly fine as well.  When I heard the news, it was told to me very nonchalantly. I really didn't let it sink in what had just happened.  It was scary to me, but not anything to be too upset with because I saw that she was okay.  However, in the hours that have passed I have started to realize the miracle that it truly was that she was left whole after what had happened to her.

(As an aside, I have known for many years and have been warned for even more years that four-wheelers are more dangerous than other ATVs because they make the rider feel more comfortable than if he were on a 3-wheeler or motorcycle and therefore he will take more risks.  And here's a startling statistic from the Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in April of 2011:

          "Although only 15 percent of ATV riders are children, they account for 27 percent of ATV injuries, and 28 percent of deaths."

It's not a comfortable statistic and it most likely would have changed how I monitored my kids today.)

The most important thing I was witness to was the fact that not only was our little prayer this morning accepted, Juan was offered a call of warning, he acted on that prompting, our Siena did not contribute to that statistic, and I felt a peaceful feeling that our family was surrounded and protected by those same people whose pictures we had just collected.  Most of the relatives in those pictures are laid about 300 feet from where the accident took place.  I have no doubt that familiar angels were among the mayhem on that road... protecting, as I know they do.  And recognizing the blessing of my family, immediate and extended, I am profoundly grateful for them all.

Smatterings

We've gotten settled into our home, but not quite into the neighborhood yet.  We've been just as introverted as the neighbors seem to be, but everyone is still friendly.  The kids and I have grown close to our next door neighbors, Sandra and her little girl Sophia, but they've got a tragic situation of a surprise divorce to deal with and they had to move, (which actually happened today.)  I love them and wish we could see them every day.  Despite the challenges in her young and fragile life, Sophie is always smiling.  She has such good manners and is just pleasant to be around.  Her mother has been dealt such a hard card right now and I wish I could just let them stay with us, but that wouldn't work because they have 4 children and we just don't have the space.

Speaking of people living with us, I'm really excited for the most recent change that has taken place with us.  We happen to have an extra bedroom and bathroom in the basement and were able to find someone who could use it.  Luckily, they're family and we don't have worry about the kids getting along too much.  They've lived with us for about a week and a half now and it's just going so well.  I can't believe how easy-going the whole situation has been because I've heard things like this can get sticky.  Oh well, we're just lucky enough NOT to be the statistic in this case.

In other news, we've been attending the Spanish Branch Ward (we're surely back in Utah now!)  Although I don't quite feel welcome yet, I think it will be a positive experience.  It is what you make it, right?  I just got called to be a teacher in the Primary for the 7 year-olds.  Tomorrow's lesson is on the importance of tithing and I'm just so excited for it.  Teaching in the primary is so fun and there is so much creative license for those lessons.  I love the new teaching method, (Come, Follow Me,) and I can't wait to finish off the year with my pre-baptism kids.

As with anything, I think the neighborhood and the Spanish ward experiences are going to be whatever we decide they'll be.  I hope I can have more drive to go out and meet people though.  In a place so highly populated with people just like you, it's hard not to stick to your own schema.

Searching, Buying, Renovating, Moving... BAM!

Okay, it's pretty clear by now that we were in a massive house hunt and it had happened over the course of an entire year.  (This post recaps what had happened over the course of that year.)

Well, the good news is that we were able to purchase the home.  The better news is that it has happily surprised us with a bunch of features we were unaware of until we moved in.  The best news is that we are as unpacked as we can get right now (craft room is still in boxes because we will be renovating that next year.)

I once read an article a woman wrote about her level of happiness and how it depended so much on moving into a better/bigger/newer home.  It really reminded me at the time that I was so focused on the goal of owning our own home and being able to splash paint on a wall that I was missing out on the blessings of each rental we had been in.  I have since tried to keep that in perspective, and that has truly helped me, but I will say that being able to put so much time and creativity and personal touch into this home has been thrilling to say the least.  I don't know if it's because of nostalgia (it feels like I'm playing house in Grandma Wood's old tree, trying to make every nook have a "household purpose",) or if it's because I have really felt so liberated with letting my imagination run wild with the possibilities that await to which I now have access.

With all the chaos of packing aside, our renovations were the main time-sucker.  We knew we only had three weeks until we had to be out of the rental house, and given the amount of renovations--besides the moving!--we were going to be pushing our time limits.  So we started with the kitchen cabinets.  Working all day, every day for a week and a half, I taped and de-glossed and taped some more.  The prep work was the majority of the project.  Juan and his dad spent every night helping with hardware removal, primer, coats of paint, re-installation, and a side-job of painting the upstairs brick fireplace.  It was a massive undertaking: I'm sure that between the three of us, we put in over 100 hours of work on just the cabinets alone.

The next big project was painting.  Sierra helped me do that because she's a pro.  She taught me how to "cut-in" and how to be more patient with that job.  We had both kids' bedrooms, the bathroom, the hall closet, and the laundry room to paint.  It was a lot more work that I expected, but it turned out so much better and it was a ton of fun to spend so much time with my sister.

Moving on, we had carpet to rip out in the kids' bedrooms and the living room.  Sierra helped me with that and you can imagine that 30+ year-old carpet pads are not a pretty sight.  There were piles of dust and debris everywhere!  It was worth it though;the house smelled infinitely better after the carpet guys installed the new carpet--the one thing we didn't do ourselves.

We had some encouragement from friends and family to tackle the laundry room and upstairs bathroom while we were on our renovation "high" so we took a few deep breaths and got back to work.  It was such a good choice.  The Before and After of both rooms was incredible.

After all the dust had settled, we still had a tiny bit of that excitement left so we just changed a few minor things: we took out the microwave above the range, vented out of the house and installed a range hood, updated the old kitchen sink faucet, installed some simple, new light fixtures inside and outside, and changed out some pendant light covers.  It was a nice facelift and it didn't cost too much.  Actually, that was the most exciting thing: we stayed within our reno budget!  We did a lot of compromising and bargain hunting, but we did it.

Now that we are back to school and back to a normal routine, things are slowing down a bit; however, the changes have not stopped completely because just yesterday I spent a day ripping out grass in our back yard to make way for some garden boxes.  It's going to be a while (possibly a very, VERY long while) before we say, "Enough" because we have so many ideas we'd like to try.  I guess that is the fun of home ownership though and it's safe to say that that's still pretty exciting to me.

(Pictures can be found HERE in the July 2014 folder.)