Bored

It's that time, again, when boredom strikes. It's not that I really have nothing to do, it's just that I want to be doing something that feels like leisure rather than work, and everything on my list is just work. I need a break before doing work. I already baked rhubarb streusel muffins. I already tied my tomato plants to their trellises. I already weeded. I mean, come on—I'm getting dangerously close to actual work here. Next week we're putting in the grass. Maybe that will prompt me to work again. Or maybe we'll have a baby. That could also be exciting enough to stave off boredom for 48 hours or so. But then Mom will come, and who gets bored when Mom is around? Not this guy. :)

Vacation 2012

This year our summer vacation took us to Utah to support Marquie (James' baby sister) in her wedding.  We tried something different this time and took James' truck.  The gas mileage wasn't great but it seems like everyone was more comfortable.  This won't work again in the future but it went well this time.  We arrived in Utah just in time to enjoy the Workman family reunion.  It was fun to see extended family that we haven't seen in such a long time (most of whom I have never met.)

Sunday was Mother's Day and it was great to get to spend it with one of our mothers.  We haven't been able to do that in years.  James took over and put together a great mother's day celebration.  It was a great evening of celebrating mothers.

Then, we spent the week planning and preparing for the wedding and reception.  Well, James did that while the boys and I played and relaxed and tried to help him as best we could.  Saturday was the wedding and it was beautiful and wonderful.  It was incredible to have all of James' family in the sealing room at the same time.  Being sealed as a family for eternity is such a great blessing.

On Sunday we were fortunate enough to attend James' cousin Ryan's farewell.  He is headed off to serve his mission in Thailand.  It was great to have so many wonderful things going on to celebrate with family while in Utah.

Monday was Jacob's birthday!!  He turned 6 and was so excited to celebrate his birthday in Utah with his cousins.  We spent the morning making his cake.  He was apparently really excited to have an icebox cake.  I only knew this because I heard him telling his aunts and cousins that he was going to have a really cool cookie cake that his dad makes.  It took us awhile to figure out what he meant and by then it was too late to make it the day before, so we relaxed in the morning and made the cake!  Then, we had lunch with my sister and spent a little time at IKEA.  For some reason our kids love IKEA, so that worked out well!  Jacob even got to play in the kids place at IKEA which was great!  We did a little more shopping and then headed up the canyon to have a barbeque with cousins and aunts and uncles.  It was a fun mixture of the boys' cousins and James' cousins.  It was so much fun and the weather was perfect again.  Maybe I should just say that the weather was perfect the entire time we were in Utah.  Jacob seemed to have a great birthday and that was the goal!

We stayed a couple more days and enjoyed time with family before heading home.  We had so much fun seeing family that it was hard to leave.  Overall it was a great visit and a great trip!

Español y el Espíritu Santo

Today I taught my last music class of the semester almost completely in Spanish. It was a strange feeling—I've dabbled in language and had conversation with other students/people in French and Spanish, but I stood and delivered today in a completely foreign language. We played a quiz game to prepare for the final, so I repeated a lot of phrases like "What is . . . " ("Que es") and "What is the difference between . . ." ("Que es la diferencía entre") and my personal favourite, "True or false . . ." ("cierto o falso . . .") Once I got past those, though, I had to tackle music and geography specific vocabulary like rhythm (ritmico) and Middle East (Oriente Medio,) and that took a little more thought. I spoke slowly and even gave some responses in Spanish when they didn't know the answers. That just made them mad. Pobrecitos . . .

My endeavour was fueled by a learning community the Spanish teacher and I taught this semester. Our students are enrolled in Non-Western Music and Spanish, and they take both together. As a result, she attends my class, and I attend hers. I certainly didn't study well this semester, but I'm confident that I mastered more Spanish than any other person in the class. It was definitely a worthwhile project, and I wish I could continue my Spanish studies. Or take up another language and learn just enough to get myself food, water, and a bathroom.

The sad part of the experience is that those students, along with Profesora Dickerson are leaving for Ecuador next week, and I'll not be accompanying them. It just breaks my little heart, but I'll be at the wedding, to be sure. We had originally planned to take the trip during Spring Break, but because of financial deadlines and some lag on the part of travel agencies, we had to push it back to May. This all went down in August, and as soon as it was decided that we had to postpone, I felt terrible about it. I knew that I couldn't go on the trip. I tried to get another instructor to teach and accompany, but they wanted me to teach it and not go if that was necessary. I was so unsettled, almost angry at the change and the way I felt about it. Nonetheless, I complied with the promptings, and withdrew from the travel portion of the course.

Of course, several months later we learned that Marquie would be married during the exact same week as the Ecuador trip. I would have missed it completely and I would have been locked in to the trip financially and contractually. So, as fun as it's been to practice my Spanish and party like a linguist, I won't get to practice it in the famous market of Otavala while I haggle for native Andean instruments or the world 's most perfect molcajete. And you know what? That's alright with me.

Estoy bien y soy feliz.