reunions--of a sort

It’s amazing how amnesia always seems to strike when I sit down to write this blog—during the week, I make constant mental notes to myself about funny little anecdotes to include, and by Sunday evening they have all vanished.

Possibly the most interesting event of the week occurred at its beginning: Monday morning, my mom and I decided to take advantage of the labor day sales by going to Dillards to look at their clearance kids clothes. We had just walked in the door when my mom asked, “Hey, isn’t that the Eves?” My first thought was, It can’t be. Why would they be in Provo? (Especially since we had just seen them on Saturday). But, as it happens, it was. Robert had promised Trisha that he would take her shopping on Labor Day as part of their 35th anniversary celebration. Their options were Provo or Las Vegas, and since the stores here would open a full hour sooner, given the time change between Utah and Nevada, they opted to come north. We had a nice chat and agreed to meet up for lunch, after our respective shopping trips. We found some nice Stride Rite children’s sandals (for next summer) on super clearance, and apparently Trisha found some bargains as well . . . We had lunch at Demae, a Japanese restaurant owned by some friends of my parents (and pretty much the only restaurant my parents willingly patronize). We enjoyed some fabulous food, Poppy got to feed Andrew (before Andrew turned too squirmy), and I think everyone enjoyed the meeting. Andrew and I were supposed to go to a barbeque that evening at my friend Karin’s house, but since Andrew’s nose had been dripping like a sieve all day, I assumed he was coming down with a cold, and it wasn’t fair to spread that to all the other little kids who would be at the shindig.

As it turns out, I was right. Not only did Andrew come down with a cold, but he generously shared it with me, which would explain why not much happened mid-week: we didn’t really go anywhere (except maybe to the grocery store and Costco).

Friday was a day of celebration for me: I finally finished the Instructor’s Manual that has occupied most of my free time for the last seven or eight weeks. Now I can enjoy my brief break, drive cross country with Dan, and then resume work on my dissertation.

Saturday morning we met up with a large family group at an IHOP in Salt Lake City. My mom and her three closest (geographically, that is) sisters have a tradition where they periodically meet up for breakfast. This time, my mom invited all her children that are in Utah, and their respective children. This meant that she had three of her four children with her (plus Jeni’s husband Samuel, and Jared’s wife Mitcee), and six of her eight grandchildren, along with her three sisters—so it was a pretty wild bunch. My aunt Dahnelle was pretty funny, as she clearly enjoyed playing with the kids who were there, but insisted that she doesn’t want grandkids. (She said she offended my cousin, her daughter, by telling her to let her know at least six months before they planned on getting pregnant so she could find a new job, sell her house, and leave the state). She explained that she would be emotionally vested in her own grandkids, but with other people’s grandkids she doesn’t care, so she can enjoy them.

Saturday evening I ditched Andrew with my long-suffering mom (who has four days of Andrew to look forward to at the end of this week, poor woman) and went to see Hairspray with my friend Karin and her mom. We’d agreed to meet at the Cinemark in American Fork (I thought), as it was a compromise between my home in Provo and hers in Alpine. (Incidentally, it strikes me as funny that both of us are graduate-educated women--I have a Master’s in English and am ABD in a PhD program, she is a Physician Assistant—and both our husband’s have just completed graduate degrees, and yet both of us have moved in with our parents!). Karin had given me some instructions over the phone on how to find the theater, but the directions were confusing to me, so I just checked the address for the theater with the showtime we’d agreed on and went there. We were supposed to meet at 3:30, as the movie started at 3:45. By 3:45, they hadn’t showed up, and I was beginning to think I had the wrong theater. I tried to call, but first the public phone ate my quarters, and, once I got a refund from the ticket clerk and tried again, no one was home. I was just about to give up and head home when I spotted them—they had actually gone to a different theater, but it turns out that Hairspray wasn’t even showing there, so they hoped that I’d shown up at the right theater. We missed the previews and ads and a few minutes of opening credits, but we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the movie. I’m not sure I can recommend this to squeamish guys (read: most of my male acquaintances who can’t stomach musicals), but the movie was really quite wonderful: upbeat, clean, with a good message and a nice romantic element. The basic message seemed to be about accepting people for who they are—not for their skin color or their body size. More importantly, all the actors just seemed like they were having fun in the movie, which meant that it was hard for the audience not to enjoy their clear exuberance as well.

That pretty much sums up our week. For the third week in a row, I missed most of at least one of my meetings because I was in nursery with Andrew. (He did okay during Sunday school, but as they were saying the prayer in Relief Society to open the meeting, I could hear someone in nursery crying as if their heart would break. Of course, it was Andrew, so as soon as the prayer was over I rushed in to rescue my poor fatherless boy. Thank goodness Dan will be here next week!)

I asked Dan if there was anything to report from his end, but he says not really. Aside from the observation that the Young Men’s president (who is also a member from State College assigned to the Huntingdon branch) made: after Dan leaves, he will be the *only* returned missionary in the branch.

We hope this week finds you happy and well and enjoying your family. Our six week separation has really made us appreciate how blessed we are when we’re together! (Sorry if that’s cheesy: it also happens to be true).