Your Job Must Be So Easy

Before working at the Madison Library District, I have always assumed that to be a librarian must be the best thing in the world! Think about it; you get to read all day, you’re surrounded by books, peace and quiet all the time. HA! All of those are a total lie! Here’s what I have found myself doing as a librarian. I can’t read all the time, I have too much stuff to do, and when I do find that I have extra time they prefer us not to read during our hours. I AM surrounded by books which has been amazing but now that I am no longer a page my time among them is limited. The biggest lie of them all is peace and quiet. Since I have been working here the police has been called I believe 5 times, and most of the time our patrons are more noisy then they should be. This brings me to my current adventure as a librarian.

It was my turn to work a Saturday, mostly because I was making up hours for being home sick because of the kidney stone. Grant was just about to drop me off when I get a call from the Co-Director of the library.

“Hey this is Miranda, are you at work?”

“Just heading in.”

“Well, we have some serious flooding issues. When you get in can you have Cathy call me?”

To be honest, that’s what I believe she said, it was so hard to hear her. I kiss Grant goodbye and walk into the library where I was met by Terri.

“We have an emergency! The adult section is flooding badly! Grab all the bowls you can!”

I take my armful of bowls and almost run to the adult section. It was bad! It looked like it was raining in the library. So many leaks in the ceiling it was impossible to count. There were so many little bowls and cups and pictures, and garbage cans on the floor trying to get as many of the leaks as we can. 

Of course the damage was already done. We had a lake in the middle of the library and about 50 books were damaged. Luckily the computes weren’t wet and we were able to put trash bags over them to prevent that. 

As time went on we got smarter. Our tiny bowls became buckets and both the Director and Co-Director of the library were here making the necessary S.O.S. calls that needed to be made. 

We were probably there a good half an hour trying to stop the rain and soak up the lake by the time help had come. We had a firefighter and a plumber, and husbands came with shop vacs so we can suck up the lake. We figured out if we took the ceiling tiles out the leaking would stop. Eventually we found out that one of the drains had completely detached and thus the leak? I don’t know if that’s the right word because when I think of leak I see just one or two but this was a huge hole in the ceiling! Our firefighter did the best he could to reattached the drain, our restoration company came to the rescue, finally there was nothing left for us to do, with the lake that is.

We did a little of work in the back of library and then Valerie (our Director) gave us a thumbs up and we were free to go home and get paid for it! Woot Woot! So if you can’t already guess, working at a librarian is never as easy as it seems.

In a not so related topic, my parents made a surprise visit this weekend as well! My mom drove in Wednesday night, and I might have been in the middle of going to the bathroom when I heard a loud knock at the door. Who in the heck would be knocking on our door at 10:30 at night?!? Then I hear Grant say, “Shar, your mom is here!” What?!? It was a lovely surprise and so nice to see my mom and Rosamund, my youngest sister. Then the next morning I get a phone call from my mom asking if I can go with her to Salt Lake (4 hour drive) to pick up my dad from the airport so he can surprise the rest of the family as well.

I guess I should mention why they were even here. One of my little sisters, Alex, was homeschooled and just received her degree, and being homeschooled never got a graduation ceremony. So they made the long trek out here to surprise her and have a small family graduation ceremony just for her.

So Thursday night my mom and I made the long trek to Utah to pick up my dad and back and around 3:30 a.m. we pulled into Rexburg. We were able to have them all Friday and have a great little ceremony for Alex that night. The next morning, right before the water disaster at the library, we said our goodbyes and they headed BACK to Utah to visit my sick uncle.

So yeah! Family here for the weekend, a water adventure at the library… I think that was a successful and fun weekend! 

Grant, Charlee, and the Kidney Stone Campout

"Grant, I need to go home!"

"Huh?" came the sleepy reply.

"I need to go home! I am passing a kidney stone and I hurt so bad, and I'm scared." I cried.

"Scared?" Grant asked still trying to wake up.

"Yes, scared. I had to walk all the way to the latrine and I was scared." I answered still balling my eyes out struggling to close the tent door. Arms came from behind, wrapped around, zipped up the tent and then held me.

"Oh Char, why didn't you wake me?"

"I dont know, I just thought you would offer..."

"I was sleeping. Honestly I didn't even comprehend you were gone."

"I know, I just..."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Can you give me a blessing?"

"Of course."

About 12 hours earlier

"Call me when you need me to pick you up" I said

"Okay, I love you!" Grant replied, gave me a kiss and headed to his bio lab.

I had about two hours before Grant came home and we would begin getting ready for camping. Yes, I went camping while passing a kidney stone. That is what makes it an adventure. In those two hours, lets see, I did the dishes (yes one productive thing), played an hour of Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, (not so productive) and ordered the American Set Assassins Creed (to be less productive!) Haha, let me tell you, my game is Skyrim. I often play it when Grant is doing homework or if I am home alone. Grant's game is Assassins and lately I picked it up and well finished whatever left he had on it. So feeling a little guilty and AS I was playing, I stopped for a brief moment to buy him some more games that he can play. I bought it on my mom's amazon account so that he wouldn't know and I could surprise him. We both are TERRIBLE at keeping secrets from each other. The only thing Grant ever kept a surprise was the day he asked me to marry him. (He as a lot of pride in that!) So I found myself sitting on the couch next to him... and I spilled the beans. We just get too excited and can't wait to tell one another.

Grant did his homework and then around 4 p.m. we had a bit of shopping to do before heading into the wild (which actually turned out to be not so wild). We got home around 4:45 and started making our yummy tinfoil dinners. We cut up potatos, carrots, mushrooms, and hot dogs, mixed them all together and added the flavor: olive oil, seasoning salt, ground pepper, parsley, lemon pepper, and crushed red pepper. Packed up Chief (which is the name of our Grand Cherokee Jeep) with our new sleeping bags, tent, and camping chairs, food and clothes and headed out.

Now Grant has been wanting to go camping since we moved to Rexburg and finally the weather allowed us. I was getting a little scared because it was April, which in Rexburg most of the snow is still on the ground and we were only hitting high 60's, for me is NOT warm enough to go camping. Grant was ready to set out. I was able to tame to mountain man in him long enough for the weather to hit high 70's. Then I let him loose, which was not a mistake. We had the most amazing time, that is until 12 am in the morning.

We decided to try a place that was pretty close since it was a weekend camping thing. It was called Warm Slough. Here is my rating out of 5 (5 being the highest), I would probably give it a 3.2. We liked how close it was (which turned out a blessing a little later), and it was pretty enough. It had the river running through most of it, ENOUGH trees but we both decided that we like the REAL woods, mountain woods, and mountain smells. Where we were was more fieldy, literally we looked into a field, but our least favorite part was the company. It started out as fine. we had semi-close neighbors and there were groups of the younger (teenagers and collage students) generation coming and going. Most of them didn't bother us until it was around 9 where a bunch of what we assumed as college kids build a gigantic fire and blared their music which we could hear just fine from all the way across the field.

But I am getting ahead of myself. We really had a blast. We found a pretty decent camping spot, the last I might add. We parked Chief and started setting up camp. It might appear so simple and stupid of us to get excited but this was the first time using our new camping things for their designed purpose: camping. We learned a few things: bring pillows. Sleeping on rolled up blankets and backpacks aren't the best thing in the world. Paper towels and washing water; some campgrounds have spigots for water this one did not and we often found our hands ashy or greasy from our food with no place to clean it up except for our pants. We also forgot trash bags but luckily we did have plastic bags to place our trash in. Last but not least, tampons. Yeah... I was passing a kidney stone on my period. It's really been a wonderful experience.

After setting up camp we checked out the river and found the latrine which was a good distance away. Gathered up wood on the way back and started our fire for our dinner. THAT took a little while because we had to build it up and then wait for it to burn down so that we could cook our tinfoil dinners on the coals. We chilled during that time, explored the woods behind us, grabbed some more wood for the fire, played guitar, took a ton of pictures and soaked up the smoke and sun. It was delightful. Another thing that was delightful was our food. They turned out fantastic. After our delicious food we roasted marsh mellows and just sat and enjoyed the fire. We talked a lot. Mostly about past camping experiences. I love my husband so much. When you find a person you can just sit and talk to for hours its a good sign that he OR she might be the one. I found my one and have claimed him as mine. "I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy!" -the famous Dory.

Around 10 we decided it was a good time to go to bed. We have become old people since we have been married, though I don't think waking up at 6 will never be appealing for us, but going to bed early has. We climbed into our wonderful tent and into our warm sleeping bags, and rested our heads... on the not so very comfortable make shift pillows. Our loud neighbors kept us up for a bit but honestly sleep found us some how until later that night.

I woke up in so much pain in my bladder, a lot like a bladder infection feeling. I knew that my kidney stone had made its way down and was almost out. I was also surprised because I was on oxycodone and didn't think I could be in this much pain while drugged. I turned to Grant and had to say his name a few times before getting a response.

"I am going to the bathroom." I stated, but I really should have said, "I'm going to the bathroom and would like for you to come with me, because its dark and the walk to the latrine is far, and I'm afraid I will be on the disgusting toilet for a while." But I didn't.

"Okay," I got a sleepy reply and that's all I got. Grant has trouble waking up during the night,

I sighed, a little disappointed (which is unfair, I know) and put on my shoes and made the long scary walk to my most desirable destination, a stinky latrine, to pass my kidney stone. I was there for only about 10 minutes, nervously waving my phone light around looking for spiders. At last I couldn't take it anymore. Still in pain, I walked back to the tent and...

"Grant, I need to go home!"

"Huh?" came the sleepy reply.

"I need to go home! I am passing a kidney stone and I hurt so bad, and I'm scared." I cried.

"Scared?" Grant asked still trying to wake up.

"Yes, scared. I had to walk all the way to the latrine and I was scared." I answered still balling my eyes out struggling to close the tent door. Arms came from behind wrapped around, zipped up the tent and then held me.

"Oh Char, why didn't you wake me?"

"I dont know, I just thought you would offer..."

"I was sleeping. Honestly I didn't even comprehend you were gone."

"I know, I just..."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Can you give me a blessing?"

"Of course."

He gave me a wonderful blessing, asking Heavenly Father to calm my emotions and help me cope with the pain. I felt almost immediately better. Grant asked me several times what we should do but I didn't want to have to decide, which doesn't make sense because Grant doesn't know how much pain I am in, only I do, so it is me that needs to make the call. So after 5 minutes of him asking and asking, my weird pride gave way because I was still in pain.

"Lets go home."

And home we went. We packed up the car, tent and all under 10 minutes and made the short trek home. After that I was probably on the toilet for about another hour before the pain faded away. Grant stayed up waiting for me, doing all he could do which wasn't much, but I still loved him for it. I'm sure I passed the kidney stone in that awful latrine but had an hour of pain afterwards before it disappeared. YEAH! It's gone! Plus I had a wonderful time camping with my handsome husband! Was it worth it? Yes, definitely yes!

NOW time for pictures.

The Little Boat's BIG Adventure

Like I said not quite finished, we just need to word the last three. My favorite has to be the second to last with the monster. It turned out pretty good I think! :)

It's a Two A.M. Kind of Thing

What I was really doing was looking for a better way to write in my journal. I suck at it. I have probably five different journals, starting at the age of 8 till now, all unfinished and spotty. What makes me think that I will be better at a blog? (I do have 2 of these as well.) Who knows. It might just be the same but it's worth a shot.

Grant, my husband, and I just finished a children's book that he has to do for his Infant and Toddler's class, and it was a blast. We were laying in bed, both our minds racing so sleep wasn't coming anytime soon. (Must I also mention that I am on oxycodone for kidney stone removal?) I wanted to record how much fun this night was, for my future kids and well lets be honest, for me too. This idea popped into my head, "Start a blog!" Okay then! I'll start a blog. Its May, so not the best time to set new years resolutions but maybe this one will stick.

My name is Charlene Ward. I am recently married to Grant Ward. We're both twenty-three, both have the same favorite color, which is blue. He's a handsome tall red head, I'm a short spunky burnette. We both love corgis and really just love living life! We have a great LONG love story so remind me to tell you it some time. We also have to many plans to count and this is going to be a great opportunity to get them all down.

Now, it is late and the whole idea behind this blog was to get down our great activity we did tonight.

I have only a short 15 minutes for a break, just enough time to pick up Grant, give him a few kisses, and have him drive away with the Jeep. I guess we also have a little time to exchange a few words. He explained that for his class (mentioned above) he needed to make a children's book. Us being both artists we knew it would be fun. He showed me this short story of a boat on Pinterest. He explained that he would do some watercolor background, I chimed in that I could do an ink boat and details to his watercolor and BOOM masterpiece made! It was then time for me to head back to work.

I love my job. I work as a librarian at Madison Library District in Rexburg, ID. For my long 5 hours I sit at a desk, such tedious work I know. I am mostly over of the ordering, that could mean books, office supplies, or fun stuff for the library. This takes up about an hour of my time so I find myself with a lot of free-time. (Which is another reason I thought this blog would be good. That way it LOOKS like I'm doing something.) Don't worry, I don't fool around. I can usually ask another librarian what they need help with and there ya go, time is filled. However, I had finished my work and with no librarians to ask (I close Wednesday nights) I had an hour and half to find something to do. BUT! This is not relevant. It doesn't matter what I did, I'm getting carried away.

Grant picked me up from work and we came home to our beautiful but small apartment. I wasn't feeling so great (remember I am passing a kidney stone) but I knew that Grant had tons of homework so I offered to cook dinner. It was just a basic white rue sauce over cooked noodles. While I cooked, Grant worked on his water-coloring. He's really great at it, and yes pictures will be provided. When dinner was ready we sat down to eat, put in The Lady in the Van. It super good by the way. After we finished eating we focused on our children's book, with the Lady in the Van playing in the background. It was delightful! Art just does something to you that is almost impossible to describe. I didn't focus on how bad I felt and suddenly had more energy then needed (clearly, its almost two-thirty in the morning).

We didn't finish the book tonight (just a little more script), nor the Lady in the Van (which I highly recommend) but it left both of us content while laying in bed ready, but not quite ready, for bed.

I will take pictures of the book at a more decent hour. But until next time!