Hello!
Well, almost a month has flown by. There is a lot to catch up on, so here it goes...
*The house: I am sad to say the house is not yet finished! When I wrote on September 30th, I had the highest of hopes it would be done in a week's time, but that whole week was two steps forward, one step back, and here we are four weeks later still creeping at the slowest pace toward the finish line! Maddening. The end of September/beginning of October, our house really was a flurry of activity between subcontractors and wonderful friends, neighbors, and family helping to clean up and move us back in. I did move back in on October 4th, but our washer, dishwasher, and oven were not working, plumbing wasn't finished, and loads of touch-ups loomed in front of us. Also, when we unboxed our beautiful new range, we found that the entire glass top (induction cooktop) was shattered! Not really an ideal situation to come home to! Thankfully, the electrician came the next week and got the washer and oven working. Praise the heavens. Then last week he came back and installed the electrical outlet for the dishwasher. It has been SO nice to have the use of a dishwasher again! The plumber is coming today and the final inspection is Wednesday afternoon. For better, or worse, the electrician will come back after the final inspection to fix what we know needs to be fixed, as well as anything else the inspector finds. Is this just laziness, or being smart with one's time??? We are still a ways out on the range, but at least all other kitchen appliances are working! We are so slowly getting settled. It is really cramping my style being so limited, so progress is slow. The kids have been good helpers, and Richard is doing as much as he can while also being so busy! Wonderful Stacie came on Friday morning and spent over two hours helping me. We got my Grandma's china unboxed and put away, she completely cleaned up and reorganized a storage room that had taken a beating, and she opened a new vacuum I had bought months ago and cleaned two chairs for me. It felt so good, and I was beyond thankful for the help, because I couldn't have done any of that on my own! I know it will all come together, but gosh, the pace has been really hard for me. All that being said though, we are happily back to living on the main floor of our house. The weekend I moved home was General Conference and it was so nice to be spread out in our family room and spend the weekend in there. The kitchen isn't totally put together yet, but we are eating at the island and making easy meals and it does feel so nice. I am grateful for main floor living, space to spread out, and light coming through big windows! At this point, if I had to guess, I would say the house should be 100% done by Thanksgiving! Ahh!!! I certainly hope so.
*Disneyland: Months and months ago, Rachel's dance studio announced an opportunity to dance in Disneyland over fall break. Of course Rachel said yes to this opportunity, and we have had it on our calendar for a long time. Rachel has worked hard at rehearsals for this since August and she has been so excited. The day after I broke my ankle and saw the surgeon for the first time and found out how long my recovery was going to be, I had extreme hesitations about going! But, lots of people talked me into it and assured me I could handle it! I only said yes because I knew we would have a lot of help from dance friends, and our next door neighbors who were also going to be in Disneyland. It was very far from an ideal Disney trip for us, but we did it, and we all managed to have fun (some more than others!) Here are the quick highlights: Rachel and I flew out Wednesday morning, the 16th, with Sara and her mom, Meri. Meri was beyond helpful in the airport. Rachel and I sat on the front row of the plane and the flight attendants were helpful with my crutches and our bags. I managed to get myself through the LAX airport, on and off a shuttle, in and out of an uber, and pick up my motorized scooter. That scooter saved me for the next 3 1/2 days and I am honestly so relieved to say I never ran into anyone and I never drove myself off a curb, I still get a chill down my spine when I think about that happening! Richard and the other kids flew down that night and made it to the hotel just before midnight.
Richard and the kids rode as many rides as they could. I did six rides, and other than that, the scooter was my ride! Rachel had a master class on Thursday afternoon and loved it. Friday afternoon they performed in California Adventure and rocked it. Saturday was a completely dance-free day. We rope dropped and Richard and the kids got on many rides that day! We spent the heat of the afternoon back at the hotel and then went back to the parks that evening. Rachel had a lot of fun with dance friends. We ate good food. Thursday night the three older kids and I had dinner at the Blue Bayou with Sara and Meri and had the greatest time. Saturday night, all of us, and Sara and Meri, had dinner at Cafe Orleans-yum. Our next door neighbors were also there Thursday and Friday. We met up with them both days (they are Disney pros) and had delicious ice cream with them and did some rides together. There were definitely some low moments with tears shed, but all things considered, I think we pulled off a successful Disney trip. Here are everyone's highlights:
Gretchen: Soarin', Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dumbo, Autopia
Rachel: "Dance, rides, food. There. I'm not getting specific." Direct quote!
Bridget: ribeye at Blue Bayou, pretzel cheesy garlic bread, Cafe Orleans, Incredicoaster, Radiator Racers, Pirates of the Caribbean. This was clearly a great food trip for Bridget!
Marshall: Guardians of the Galaxy, Radiator Racers, Incredicoaster, and churros! Marshall could live off of Disneyland churros.
Jenny: Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, this was the first ride we did in the park and we were all together, loved it. Watching Rachel dance (I cried). Listening to Grizz count her steps as she and I were leaving the park on Saturday. Soarin' with all my kids.
Richard: watching Rachel dance, Pirates of the Caribbean, Runaway Railway with Gretchen (they rode this a couple of times by themselves).
And as a side note, this is the first time we have had kids old enough to send out on their own! Sometimes when I was busy with dance and Rachel, Marshall and Bridget would go off and do the big rides and Richard and Gretchen would stick together. That's a pretty big milestone!
*Gretchen: Grizz is rocking 2nd grade. She is a whizz at math and is rocking reading. She does her bit of homework every night without complaint. She is loving dance and tells me all about their Christmas dance and their competition routines. I cannot wait to see her on stage! She needed tan jazz shoes so a couple of Saturdays ago I took her to Pat's Dancewear, where my Mom used to take me! Grizz has the tiniest little feet. The cute girl who was helping us kept commenting how tiny she was. Small Bear Cub! Speaking of small, Gretchen was repeatedly asked her age when she would get on a ride at Disneyland. It became comical. Sometimes they even asked her twice on the same ride, just to verify that she was okay to sit wherever she was sitting. It made us smile every single time. Gretchen remains our social butterfly. She loves playing with neighborhood friends and school friends. A couple of Fridays ago, the elementary school had their fall carnival. We did this last year with Rachel in a wheelchair, and the girls begged me to go, but I had zero desire to hobble around there. I pawned Rachel and Gretchen off on friends, and they both had a ball! Gretchen played with the Hope girls in Mrs. Hope's classroom after school, then they picked up their younger sister from daycare, got pizza for dinner, went to the carnival, and then ended the night at Chick-Fil-A for shakes. Best day ever for little Gretchen. She came home on Cloud 9. The whole seven weeks I lived with my parents, Gretchen slept in my bed with Richard. :) When I moved home, she was good at sleeping in her bed for a few nights, but it has definitely been an on-again, off-again struggle the last couple of weeks. In California, Rachel, Gretchen, and I all shared a bed...a queen size bed...that was fun. :) Oh, speaking of sleep, we were at Bridget and Rachel's Halloween piano recital on Friday evening and Gretchen fell asleep on me! I loved it. I don't know the last time that happened. Bear Cub forever! Since before I even moved back home, Gretchen has been talking about The Wild Robot. Her teacher read the first book to the class this fall and Gretchen loved it. The movie came out a few weeks ago and Grizz and I had a Thursday night date to the movies. It was an exceptional movie and I loved my time out with her. Side note: I completely underestimated how many stairs I would need to get up to get to our seats. I was in a full blown sweat after crutching up 12 stairs. I was proud of myself for getting up, but there was zero way I was crutching down. So, when the movie was done, I scooted down all 12 stairs. It was a lovely little low moment in my life. Gretchen was a good sport about it.
*Rachel: Rachel is rocking her busy life. Dance Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, piano on Wednesday, and if she can finagle it, a Wednesday evening hangout with friends. Thankfully, her teacher this year gives very minimal homework. It was so fun to watch Rachel perform in Disneyland. They learned the dances in August, rehearsed just once a week, and then put them on the stage in October. Considering how many hours they put into competition pieces, this was not a lot of rehearsal time, but they all shined on the stage. My heart was soaring watching Rachel. She has the best facial expressions and I love it. Rachel also had fun at the school carnival. She went home with Eily after school, and then went to the carnival, and then they came back here to hang. Because of student council, she also had a 30 minute time slot of selling tickets at the carnival and had a lot of fun doing that. Rachel rocked her piano recital on Friday evening. She played a very dynamic song and she played it in a very commanding way! One other thing I have to write about Rachel, Rachel has been hoping and hoping for a temple in Wisconsin, specifically Milwaukee. We have told her for years that a temple in Wisconsin probably will not happen any time soon, but cute Rachel has held out hope. Well, you better believe Rachel was beside herself with excitement when President Nelson announced a temple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We were all thrilled, but I was especially happy for Rachel. She has been begging me to pay her her allowance so that she can pay her tithing so the temple can be built. :) Of course, whenever it is done, we 100% plan to go to the open house!
*Bridget: Bridget is loving jazz band. Seriously loving it. She isn't always loving that Marshall is her ride to jazz band and doesn't always leave as early as she would like, but she hasn't been late yet! The band concert was a couple of weeks ago and it was fun to see her up there with jazz band and the 8th grade band. Now that their fall concert is behind them, they dove into Christmas music last week and she is so happy about it. Bridget also had her piano recital on Friday evening and played beautifully. I don't think she made one mistake. I hear her practice at home, but every time I watch her play the piano at a recital, I am blown away by this beautiful touch she has with the keys. It is just gorgeous. And I love it. Bridget is still thriving at the farm. A couple of weeks before I broke my ankle, I started to feel like the girls didn't need our help at the farm anymore. The chicken watering situation has greatly improved, and I felt like they could tackle it on their own! Melanie was an angel and covered the farm for seven weeks straight (including everything with the state fair) with the girls. To pay her back, I am taking all of October, but all I do is drop the girls off and pick them up! Praise the heavens!!! On Saturday my Dad came to help clean out our garage and I had him throw away my pair of farm boots and two pairs of shoes I had been wearing at the farm...good riddance! But, B loves it, and it is her happy place. Last Monday evening she took a picture of every goat and came home and showed me all of them. The Garlicks have been building a new milking shed for over a year and it is finally finished and Bridget loves it. B has had some fun friend hangouts lately. She even went to the school carnival with junior high friends, and ended up with a fun group she isn't usually with and had a ball. She went to Cambria's family Halloween party a couple of weekends ago, and per the usual, those two had the time of their lives. On Friday night she went to Avery's birthday party and also had a great time. Growing up! On Saturday I was able to take her to the temple to do baptisms and that was so great. Love her.
*Marshall: So much going on in this kid's life. Marshall got a second MRI of his leg at the beginning of October. It showed huge improvement, but was not completely healed. Richard estimated he needed two more weeks, and so far, that has seemed to be true. He hit the two week mark when we got to Disneyland. He did a lot of walking those three days, and reassured us he was fine. Last week he ran one mile around the track Monday-Friday and was pain free. This week, he has bumped up to 1.5 miles, and reports that he is good. He is very happy to be back at it. Marshall survived his first term of his sophomore year. He didn't quite pull off a 4.0, but before and after, we assured him that there is nothing wrong with an A-! Marshall has also become quite a social butterfly, and it really does make me so happy. He has gone to birthday parties, surprise parties, hangouts after XC practice, and the most recent was his day date for the Sadie Hawkin's dance this last Saturday. The dance isn't for a couple of more weeks, but it seems the current trend is to do the "day activity" on a different day! Anyway, they all got together and painted self-portraits of each other. :) Marshall's portrait is currently displayed in the kitchen, and he tells me his painting of Camile was "not good". Such a fun activity for these kids though! Richard, Marshall, and Marshall's friend Gabe, did go to the Arizona game that was in Provo a couple of weeks ago. Huge win for BYU and all three of them loved being there.
*Richard: Richard is very happy to have his wife home, though so much still falls on his plate. :) He has put Gretchen to bed every single night-for two reasons. One, and the most important, she wants Richard to put her to bed (it is quite cute to peek in on, they read each other books). And two, her room is SO messy, I literally cannot get past the doorway with my boot and crutches. He has also given a lot of help with meals and cleaning up the kitchen. And laundry. Bless him. He is also in the middle of installing all our window treatments-some of those have been easy, and others have not! Obviously, Richard is super happy with BYU football right now. What a season they are having! BYU played Oklahoma while we were in Disneyland so he was keeping a close eye on the game as we navigated Disney and the walk back to our hotel. We were all just crawling into bed for the night when BYU had that amazing touchdown pass to win the game in the final minutes. So exciting!
*Jenny: Man, I am here! I cried a fair amount of tears for the seven weeks that I lived with my parents, but those tears have definitely continued at home! I have days where I am okay. I am content with my current limited abilities and I am hopeful and optimistic, and it is easier to remember that things will get better and easier each week. But then I have days, more often then I would like to admit, that are so hard and discouraging. It takes me a long time to do anything, and that is frustrating. I get easily overwhelmed by how unsettled our house is and how little I can do about it. For someone who likes control, productivity, and order in their life, this has been very hard. I have cried, a lot! But, I and we are getting things done. My parents have been a HUGE help, and Richard and the kids too. I know I will get better and our house will come together, it is just challenging to be in the middle of it. Physical therapy is coming along great. I am still wearing the boot and walking with crutches, but by the middle of October I could tell I was walking more normally. The last few days I have been taking some steps around the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom without my crutches. Putting weight on my foot has not been painful. It is the motion of rolling through and walking that causes me to wince a bit, I am attributing this to still stiff and tight tendons, ligaments, and muscles. So fun!
To conclude, I need to write about something very special. A few times through our remodel I thought of my Grandma Yancey and how happy this major home renovation would make her. They were just fleeting thoughts, but they always made me smile. Then, in July my Mom told me that my Uncle Bob and Aunt Anne Beale, who have had my Grandma's piano since 2016, were ready to part with it. I immediately reached out to my Uncle Bob and after working out a few things, we found out the end of July that the piano could be ours. I was overjoyed! Bob and Anne Beale have been so kind to hang onto the piano as our home completion date has just dragged on and on. By the second week of October, I felt like things were settled enough that we could bring the piano in! I reached out to the same company who moved our piano upstairs at the beginning of the remodel and we set the date! In the handful of days leading up to its arrival, I thought of my Grandma often. I started to feel that the piano was always meant to be here, but Bob and Anne Beale were just watching over it until the time was right for me to take it in. On Saturday, October 12th, the movers picked up the piano from Bob and Anne Beale and drove it here. They brought this gorgeous piano in so carefully and reattached the legs and positioned it right where I wanted it. It took a bit of time to get everything settled, but I was just so happy when it was all done. As soon as the movers left, Rachel and Gretchen came running in (everyone else was gone). They played a few songs and spent just a handful of minutes with it before going back to playing in the loft. When they left, I just stood in the living room (with the help of my scooter) and took it all in. I took a few pictures and sent them to my uncle and my Mom. Then, I sat down to play. I have one song from my teenage years still partially memorized, so after running through that a few times, I wanted to play some other songs. When our music cabinet was moved to the living room in the beginning of October, all of the music was taken out and was left in multiple stacks all over our bedroom floor, piano music and clarinet music everywhere! We hadn't put the music back in because we weren't 100% sure where we wanted the cabinet. Anyway, I called Rachel into the living room and asked her to run upstairs and find a hymn book for me in my bedroom. I didn't necessarily want to play hymns, but I knew that would be way easier for her to find instead of a random piece of sheet music! A couple of minutes later, she came back down and handed me a simplified hymnbook. I was bummed! I asked her if she could find a regular hymn book and she told me she looked and couldn't find anything else. I begrudgingly took the book, opened to the middle, didn't like the two hymn choices there, so I opened to the front, looking for a table of contents. What I found instead, literally took my breath away, and then I cried. The book Rachel brought me is the simplified hymn book my grandparents gave me when I turned nine. (We have a couple simplified hymn books.) Right inside the front cover, in my Grandma Yancey's handwriting, was a note to me on my 9th birthday. To see the words, "To Jenny" in her handwriting, as I was sitting at her piano, that had just been delivered to my home, was the sweetest moment to me. I just sat there and cried. I just feel like she orchestrated all of this, and I am so grateful for it.
I have so many memories of my Grandma Yancey and this piano. And I have memories of me at this piano. I started taking piano lessons when I was five from my Grandma, and this is the piano she used to teach me. I have countless memories of her playing the piano and me dancing around the living room. When we lived with my grandparents before we moved to Wisconsin, I played this piano a lot. One night, my Grandma fell twice during the night and both times my Grandpa asked me and Richard to help get her back in bed. The second fall was early in the morning. Once we got her back in bed, I sat with her until she fell asleep and until I felt I could call my Mom and have her answer. Once I knew my Mom was coming and my Grandma was sleeping, I went to the living room and played the piano until my Mom came, it was all I could think to do to calm my worried heart. I am crying while I am writing this! I just feel like this is a huge hug from heaven, from God, and from my Grandma that came in a really, really challenging season, and I am beyond grateful for it. This beautiful piano gets played every day, multiple times a day, not just from our girls who are taking lessons, but from all of us. Even Richard and Marshall have sat down to play it and it just sounds beautiful. I am so thankful.
And on that note, I will end yet another lengthy email. Love each of you, very much.
Love,
Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)
