Up and Coming Authors and Models
Amber went crazy decluttering her room yesterday, all Marie Kondo style. One item that Abby scored as a hand-me-down, was a cheerful and floppy beach hat. I said to her, "Abby you look so cute in that hat! Can I take your picture?"
This is what happened next: A very organic photo shoot. :) She did 95% of the posing all by herself.
Here is her second published book, entitled: "The Christmas Chronicles". It's loosely based on the movie, starring Kurt Russell, that they watched a few times during the Christmas season.
"That boy is going to take Teddy and Kate to the North Pole. That boy is a man. He is a nice man."
It is really fun to see the girls developing all sorts of gifts and talents as they grow up a little at a time!
As for the rest of the week . . .
Monday: I took the girls to Walmart to get some much-needed items, and then we picked up some lunch in the drive-thru at Wendy's. They enjoyed playing with their kids' meal toys for a long time - some play-doh along with their accompanying shapes and molds.
While I worked on dinner, Scott was having way too much fun playing with the girls in the living room. This is their new favorite thing to do with Papi. They call it the chasing game.
Click here to watch: (18 seconds)
And yes, Gwen was fine. She didn't get hurt. She just ALMOST got hurt! :)
And then, finally, Amber came home!! Hooray!! After 6 days of being apart, she and the girls were very happily reunited!
It will be a long haul for Amber and Weston, but they are also of the mindset to just jump in and get it done. Amber is hoping to take the girls out to Louisiana sometime between now and April, so they can see Daddy and spend a little family time together. Other than that, we probably won't see Weston until May, once he's done down south.
Tuesday: There were a few tears throughout the day, as Amber re-established herself as the Mom and the Queen. The girls were testing a few boundaries, just to see if indeed the rules still applied. And yep. They did. Overall it was a good day to be all back together.
I visited with Kylie for a bit, too.
She rescued another cat - an orange tabby. So that makes 3 cats and 3 dogs. :) She keeps busy with parenting all of them, teaching and training them. She also reported that their lockdown in Italy was supposed to end this past week and that she was looking forward to having more freedom to move around and be outdoors. She and Benson are working on some plans to go on a little trip together in February. I hope that they can get away together and spend some quality time away from work, pets, stress, and lockdowns. :)
In the evening, I had our first young women's activity at my house with the new 2021 group. We have 6 girls now, with a 7th interested in coming because she has friends at our church. We sat around the living room for a while, talking and getting to know each other. We discussed what kind of goals they would like to set for the year, and narrowed things down to one main area to focus on in their Children and Youth Program handbook. They want to set some goals in the Physical portion of the program.
This includes plans for us all to:
Try out some indoor archery
Possibly try some XC skiing
Definitely go roller skating (I'm so excited!!)
Walk along the river and pick up trash
Plant some flower seeds that can grow & be ready in time for Mother's Day
Build a birdhouse or a terrarium
And do at least one art activity while Amber is here - most likely do a watercolor painting
They really wanted to go to the animal shelter and spend time with the animals there, but when I called to double check, we can't come in groups right now because of COVID-19. So I set up a time for us to go do indoor archery instead. We are so excited!
Wednesday: I can't really remember what happened on Wednesday . . .
Thursday: Amber volunteered our services to take care of Azure for most of the day. My niece, Marissa, just found out she is pregnant with baby #2, and has been extremely sick - to the point of needing an IV. So while I kept Abby and Gwen here, Amber drove up to Rexburg to pick Azure up and bring her back to our house. She is 1 1/2 years old and is busy, busy, busy, ha ha.
At the end of the day, around dinner time, Marissa came to pick up Azure. She was feeling much better, thanks to a helpful IV and a nice restful day. She was in very cheery spirits and we are so grateful that she was!
Friday: I have been slowly navigating back into my family history research again, and it is fabulous! I love it so much! I love learning about EVERYTHING and everyone on my tree. I've been focusing on one of the shorter books that I took photos of last February when I spent the afternoon at the Library of VA in Richmond. This particular book is chock full of history and information about my people that immigrated from Switzerland and Germany as Mennonites, eventually arriving in the Lancaster, PA area, and a little later in Strasburg, VA where I spent some time in March of 2020.
Specifically, I'm researching my Funk, Hockman, Denlinger and Yoder lines that branch off from my Snider line (which is my maiden name). I'm learning about the overall Mennonite & Amish heritage in Lancaster, PA, and what drove all the thousands of immigrants from their homes in Bern, Switzerland, to the Alsace, France region, to Germany, and then to the U.S. in the early 1700's. My heart aches for their struggles, and yet I find threads of strength and resilience as they bravely traveled to safer places to put down some roots. For many, doing family history brings feelings of connectedness as they learn of all the struggles of their ancestors, learning not only what they had to endure, but HOW they endured. It is truly inspiring and comforting to know that my loved ones did the best they could with what they had.
Sometimes, I feel them cheering me on now. I feel their comfort and their encouragement. And isn't that the way it should be? As we go through hard things and learn valuable lessons along the way, shouldn't we then reach out to the next person going through something similar? To offer comfort, advice, and even to just let them know that they are not alone. This is what I feel so often as I read stories of my ancestors. There is always something that I can relate to in my current circumstances and then learn and grow from. :)
I stumbled on a website a couple days ago: The Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society. They have archives and online records and a beefy search option that I put to good use. I typed in some of my surnames from the Lancaster area, just to see if any results came up. I was surprised at how many records there are available!
Surname: Denlinger. 62 results.
I wrote an email to the researchers at the Historical Society in Lancaster, and I am eagerly waiting for a reply.
At the end of the day on Friday, Scott and I decided to be brave and go for a stroll along the Snake River by the waterfalls, and then go to dinner nearby. Even though I put on my thickest snowboarding socks, and several other layers of clothing, I was DYING!!
At one point, he said, "You should put your hood up to keep your face warm."
I replied, "I will have to cinch my hood up pretty snug to do any good on my cold face."
But I did it anyway.
Then I asked, "Do I look like a Goob?"
He answered, "Just a little bit."
So for the whole rest of the walk, I kept bringing that up, ha ha. He defended himself by saying, "I didn't CALL you a Goob, I just said you looked like one!" LOL
By the time we hit the halfway mark and crossed over the river, I was getting more warmed up. I realized at that point that I wouldn't die of hypothermia on January 8, 2021. Whew. That was a close one.
We made it to Smitty's Restaurant near the waterfalls and had a lovely dinner together before heading home.
Sunday: After church, we were all walking out to the parking lot together, when Gwen broke loose and took off. Several of us called to her to stop, but she didn't listen. She's three . . .
Saturday: I started the day with plenty of gumption, really I did. I was going to paint the trim in our new bathroom and paint the bathroom door, front and back. But then we got a call from a lady that I minister to in our ward at church. She needed us to come and help her move several heavy storage bins from her mom's place over to their storage unit. By the time we did that, ran an errand to Lowe's, and got back home, I knew I had lost all the steam that I once had.
I tried to regroup by eating some lunch and giving myself a minute to get my second wind. But it never came. I ended up in a deflated slump for the rest of the afternoon, watching House Hunters on HGTV for a while on my bed. I even felt a little grumpy. But eventually I was able to snap out of my funk and finish up the day in a better mood.
I took this photo of Gwen right before dinner. This pretty much sums up my entire afternoon. Be sure to get a closer look of her face. :)
Amber ran after her, into the middle of the parking lot, which was covered in ice for the most part. Gwen darted behind a couple of cars, and of course there was a panicked concern that someone might back out and not see her tiny little cheeky monkey self.
Next thing we knew, we saw Amber and Gwen laying in a crumpled heap on the ice in the middle of the parking lot, with Gwen crying and Amber moaning in pain. Scott made it over to them first, while I firmly led Abby over to our car as quickly as I could and told her to wait there, which she very obediently did.
As Gwen fell, Amber fell immediately afterwards. Gwen was fine. Amber was not. She hit the back of her head really hard. We helped her up slowly and got her out of the middle of the lot and over to the car. A couple people saw what happened and came hurrying over to check on us. As we got Amber into the car, she noticed that the back of her head had a huge goose egg and she was bleeding a little.
We decided to take her to the doctor immediately. Scott took over the care of the girls at home, and I drove Amber to the urgent care a block away. We had to call the office number to "get in line", while we waited in our car outside. For an HOUR. Finally we got in to see a doctor.
He diagnosed her with a hematoma, which is basically just a goose egg. He also said he didn't think she needed stitches. But he was concerned enough with a soft area in the center of the goose egg, so he sent us over to the nearby Mountain View Hospital to get a CT scan. He wanted to make sure there wasn't a fracture of any sort underneath the goose egg. We arrive a few minutes later, got the scan, and went back to the urgent care facility to have the doctor read it.
Diagnosis: no fracture. Whew! Thank goodness! She was in a great deal of pain while we waited for that first hour, and as often as she could, she would hold an ice pack on the back of her head. Ibuprofen also began to kick in, which helped she said.
This evening she was supposed to take the girls to the Whitworths in Rigby for their monthly dinner together. She had even spent time earlier before church making an amazing spinach-artichoke dip to take to the dinner. She said she felt well enough to still go, but there was no way I was going to let her drive, especially when she was feeling a little dizzy and woozy all afternoon.
So I drove her and the girls up to Rigby, had dinner with Amber and all the Whitworths, and then drove us all home. Scott didn't come because he had had another poor night of sleep, waking up at 4:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. So he didn't feel up to company. But when we got home, he helped me get the girls ready for bed, and even read them a bedtime story and tucked them in. :)
Amber is doing fine, even though she is in pain. The doctor says the swelling should be better tomorrow, but her head will likely be tender and sore for a while.
Meanwhile, Gwen has apologized many times in the sweetest and most sincere voice. She hugged Amber and while her arms were wrapped around Amber's neck, she would say, "I'm so sorry Mommy. I'm sorry I ran away from you! I'm sorry you got hurt on the ice! And I will listen better next time."
That is a painful life lesson to learn.
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