Happy New Year! 2021 Should Be a Good One!
We are deep into several days of babysitting Abby and Gwen right now, and I'm feeling very appreciative of several things:
- I am grateful for Amber and Weston, who are doing such a good job raising these two little precious girls
- I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a grandparent and to be so involved in their lives
- I'm grateful for gaining a new (or refreshed) perspective on what it takes to love, nurture, teach, lead, feed, clothe, clean up after, and to be a good example to young children
- I have more appreciation for my husband and how kind he is while assisting me or the girls with things that come up throughout the day
- And I have more appreciation for the quiet evenings when they are fast asleep and we have "grown-up time" before falling dead asleep ourselves!
(Scott reading to Gwen - "If you give a mouse a cookie")
Tuesday: I completed a Christmas project that didn't quite get done leading up to Christmas, but one that will now help me in years to come. I needed to make a few more stockings for our growing family. So I made 4 additional ones and now we have enough for all of our children, their spouses, and their children (especially one that is due in just a few months). There are even a couple extra stockings to spare. Just in case. :)
Meanwhile, Amber and Weston drove 1.5 hours south to Lava Hot Springs on their first day, choosing to have a short drive up front - in order to relax for a minute before driving for the next 3 days straight. They just celebrated their 7th anniversary on Dec. 21st, but chose to postpone their celebrations until this road trip together.
Day 2: They drove from Lava Hot Springs to Fort Collins, CO. (7.5 hours)
Day 3: They drove from Fort Collins to Amarillo, TX. (7.5 hours)
Day 4: They drove from Amarillo to Shreveport, LA - the final destination. (8 hours)
Today, Sunday, they are getting Weston settled into his AirBnB lodging, where he will reside until early May. He begins his last externship TOMORROW. They also had plans today to visit their friends, the Judds, whom they met back in San Antonio where the two men were in optometry classes together at UIW. The Judds are now working on site at the same optometry clinic in Shreveport, so they will get to see each other often. Weston will be spending this last rotation as an actual doctor there on site, instead of being an assistant or just shadowing the doctor.
Tomorrow, Monday, Amber will begin her trek home to Idaho by flying from Shreveport to Salt Lake City, where she will catch a shuttle to get back up to Idaho Falls around 8:00 p.m. Abby is counting down to when her mom will be home once again! We all look forward to her return, even though I know how hard it will be to say goodbye to the love of her life in order to return to the other loves of her life (her children). I've had to do that myself more times than I can count. It's not easy.
Thursday: Scott and I worked hard on some final steps in our bathroom shower. He let me take over with some of the more detailed work, such as applying a careful top layer of thin-set mortar in some places that needed it.
I used my fingers to delicately smear some goo in the cracks and crevices, and in areas that needed a smoother surface, or that needed to be built up a little bit more. He complimented me on how little mess I left behind, ha ha.
I paused for a while mid-morning to have a much-needed video chat with Chelsea over in Denver. We got caught up on all the holidays and goings on. It was a relief and a joyful time to get all caught up. It had been an extra long time since our last video chat!
Once the painting was done, we scrubbed a little bit more around the tiles and even on some specific pebbles on the shower floor to get some residual thin-set grunge off. Then it was time to seal up the "grout". We just used the thin-set as our grout because when it dried, we noticed it matched the tiles beautifully! Scott double-checked to make sure this was okay to do, and it was. Thank goodness, because it saved us an giant extra step overall!
Scott also applied caulk along the wainscoting trim and the walls, and in some corner cracks and gaps.
Voila! Here are some final before and after photos: (Don't mind the rugs - they will be replaced by Tuesday)
The FINAL-FINAL steps are:
I'm waiting for our new bathroom rugs to arrive from Amazon. They will be black. Nice and classy.
I need to paint the wainscoting trim white (it has some dings & smudges, and needs some unification).
I plan to paint the bathroom door white again, too. Next to the new wainscoting, it looks sad and almost a yellow-white tone.
And that's it! Well, I'm pretty sure anyway . . .
Friday: The girls arrived back at our house, being safely delivered by Weston's mom, Kathy shortly after lunch. Gwen wanted to build a tent-fort downstairs right away, so Papi helped get that checked off her to-do list.
Notice how blurry Gwen is in each picture. It's because she was so excited and loves to jump up and down and giggle when she feels this way. :)
Abby wanted to try it out for the first time though, so we gave it a whirl. After laying out each card and trying to figure out the pronunciations, we decided to send a couple short videos to her parents so they could ooh and aah over our "amazing" progress.
Click here to watch.
Later, before bedtime, the girls were able to do a video chat with both their Mom and Dad. (Not sure why Amber was covering her mouth here, she might have just been laughing when I took the sneaky picture)
Gwen was in my cart, and she chose raspberries, carrots, and broccoli. She really wanted 2 vegetables. I was not about to tell her no. :)
I tell you what, those girls have been eating up those fruits and vegetables really well! I've had to even slow them down so they don't eat too many!
Later, we went to Rigby to have dinner with Scott's parents. We had a tasty meal of prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and rolls. The girls had very good manners and had fun playing with all of Grandma's stuffed animals downstairs after they were done eating.
Grandma Harmon (Coy) and Papi enjoyed reading some stories to the girls.
Meanwhile, Jake and Hannah were having some fun touring all over Seattle with her Dad and other family members up in Washington. Jake said it was rainy and blustery, but they had fun anyway!
They even made a brief stop at the corporate headquarters for Starbucks. A very fancy building with a very fancy menu inside. I would love to eat there! I picked out several things on the menu to see if Jacob would order them for me. :)
When they fly home to Provo on Tuesday, they will be moving into their new apartment right away. I'm so happy for them. They are such a great team together, working hard, doing well in school, graduating soon, and starting their little family! :)
Sunday: (today) I had a nice visit with Benson this morning before church. He has enjoyed growing out his beard for a week, just in time to have to shave it all off to return to work tomorrow.
Benson also sent me these two photos - a before and after under the hood of his car (2014 Ford Focus SE). Yes, he cleaned it all himself. And yes, he really enjoys that sort of thing! Go figure. A mechanic, enjoying clean engine parts!! He said it only took about 20 minutes. He uses an all-purpose cleaning spray, a little scrubby brush, and a pressure washer on a low setting.
One more thing - while I was making pancakes tonight for dinner, Gwen was getting into a little bit of mischief. So Scott scooped her up onto his shoulders to keep her hands out of trouble. What did she end up doing for quite a while? Gently rubbing Scott's bald head. :)
Click here:
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