Last Semester Flashback

So I went to post on the blog since I hadn’t done so in a while and I found this post that I had written A few weeks after spring semester ended. It’s a pretty good read so I thought I would just finish this and then later do another post instead! So let us take a trip down memory lane. (July 2016 pretty far eh?)

Have I mentioned before that Grant and I can’t keep secrets? Well I’ve set a new standard for myself! A few weeks ago I found myself with a little overtime that I needed to take from my schedule. I usually work a five hour day but had a surplus of 4 hours. I could split it up if I wanted to which when talking to Grant we agreed that it would probably be best. However, in the thought process I had an idea. For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to do something big for Grant, who has worked super hard this semester to get straight A’s. Its cost him tons of extra hours of study time especially in his biology class, which by the way is an A! So I took 4 hours off on a Thursday, a day I know Grant has the most down time, right before finals week.

I had a few things in mind. One: he would come home to me, thinking I would be at work. Two: I would write him a letter, 9 Things I Love About You. Three: Then to top it off with a wonderful dinner of his favorite food. I tried to come up with something creative that we could do in small town Rexburg but came to the conclusion that those three thing would be good enough.

Once I got the permission to have most of Thursday off, I wanted to tell him so bad and so I simply told him I had a surprise. Randomly throughout the week I would say that, or he would ask, but I stood strong. I did start writing the letter during sacrament meeting knowing he would look over my shoulder and read it. He did know that sometime I would be cooking a big meal because he was there when we went grocery shopping. He didn’t know when, nor that I would be home, or the rest of the letter and let me say that was the best part.

I love doing these things for him it is one of the ways I show love. Have any of you heard about the 5 love languages? Just incase you haven’t, they are:

Words of Affirmation ,

Acts of Kindness ,

Receiving Gifts ,

Quality Time , (I wasn’t sure what to do with quality time but Grant and I go camping and spend some great quality time together.)

and Physical Touch .

If you want to know what your top love languages might be you can click on this link http://www.5lovelanguages.com/ Its interesting to see what is most important to you and your significant other, if you have one that is. If not, it’s a fun test anyways. I DO have a point here though. Grant’s top love language is Quality Time, so I knew that being able to spend a few extra hours with him would mean a lot. Acts of Kindness is one of the way I GIVE love… and receive too. It is my number one.

The day came, once Grant was at school I busied myself with cleaning the house and making the beginning preparations for dinner. I made him chicken alfredo pasta bake and homemade cheesecake. At 12 I went to work for one hour. (It was bliss by the way), came home finished cleaning the house. Around 2:30 he called me saying he was on his way home from school (I asked him too so that it would give me a heads up). We talked, the whole time he thought I was at work. Then I told him that I had to get back to work, mostly because I didn’t want him on the phone with me when he walked into the apartment. Around 2:50 I got antsy and hid in the bedroom with the cheesecake crust so I could continue to make it while hiding. :P I heard him open the door and as he passed the bedroom I jumped out and said, “Surprise” He was so happy to see me I could tell but the reply I got was… “I really have to go to the bathroom.” He dropped his backpack and rushed to the restroom. Haha it made me laugh. Just recalling that memory makes me smile still. That’s what is awesome about being married to Grant, is that I love making him happy and because he is happy I am happy. Of course he makes me happy as well. I also gave him the letter. Maybe I’ll share that with you another time.

So We Like To Camp...

So it’s been awhile. This summer has turned out more hectic then I thought. It’s going to have to be a quick update of our adventures since I last updated.

Camping is Grant and I’s thing. We do it as much as we can whenever my work or his school will let us. That is what we did Memorial Day weekend. Of course Grant had to go and slice his hand open before our escapade. I had just got to work and I saw I missed a call from Grant and then another call coming in. “Shar, can you come home? I cut myself real bad and might need stitches.” I zoomed home, there was my husband with a make shift bandage on his finger with it raised in the air, the blood from his face gone. We pulled out our tiny first aid kit and bandaged it up as much as we could. Neither of us could tell if he would need stitches or not so I called the wisest person I know, my mom! I sent her a picture and both my dad and my mom agreed that stitches weren’t needed. So we went to the store bought more gauze and tape and went camping. Since then it’s healed really good and is now only a gnarly scar.

Memorial Day weekend was the second time we went camping and our family came along with us. There is quite a few of us up here in the cold eastern part of Idaho. On my side I have my sister, Brittney, and my brother-in-law, Jordan, (who happens to also be Grant's brother, remind me to tell you that story sometime) and their two boys, Joshua and Jack, and two of my younger sisters, Josie and Alex. Then on Grant's side there is his sister, Sarahbeth, and her husband, Tim, with their two boys, Joshua and Gabriel, and his older brother, Derek. It was definitely a party! It was pretty cool to have everyone there. We’ve gone camping three more time since then twice on our own and then with family this great 4th of July weekend. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The weekend after Memorial Day there was the Grand Teton Marathon. My sister Brittney and Sarahbeth did the 5k, , Tim and Jordan, and my handsome husband did the 10k. Grant did great! Unfortunately the crew wasn’t clear on when you needed to turn and Grant and Jordan ran an extra mile or so before realizing the mistake. If they hadn’t done so their times would have been great and that’s the thing, they were great with the mile, think about how good they would have been without. Last but not least we had one run the marathon, which was Derek. We were all so proud of him. And me? Well I watched the kids. There were games and bouncy houses and food. Super easy job!(:

The next weekends went like this: Camping, more camping, a quick visit to Utah for a baby shower and bridal shower and that brings me to this weekend. It was WONDERFUL! Probably one of my favorite 4th of July’s in a while. We went camping with Tim and Sarahbeth from Saturday till Sunday. The weather was fantastic, not to hot not to cold. It was in the beautiful Island Park. There’s just something about camping that makes Grant and I happy, and not just us but those mosquitos that love to feed on us.  Around 4 oclock in the morning on Sunday Tim and Sarahbeth’s dog Coco joined us in our tent to finish out the night. Being the crazy animal lover that I am, I drank it up! I had a little glimpse of our little corgi coming camping with us and snuggling with us at night.

Sunday we went to Mesa Falls with more of the family. We were joined by Brittney and Jordan and their kids. Though we were tired and hungry (our sandwiches had soaked up the ice water in our coolers) I enjoyed the beautiful falls. Soon enough it was time to go home. Once home we showered of that smoky smell and took an hour nap before rejoining the family for pulled pork dinner!

Monday, the wonderful 4^th, little Rexburg had a HUGE parade (I mean like 2 or 3 hours long) which started at 10. Well, Grant and I didn’t get up till 10 but I’m proud to say we were at the parade by 10:15 showered and hair done! Quite a feat I might say AND the parade hadn’t started! It was so fun to have the nephews there soaking up all the cool cars, music, sun, and a ton of candy. I got my first sunburn of the summer. Again we all departed for lunch and our nap times and were back together come 6 for dinner and fireworks. Dinner and fireworks turned out perfect. Of course maybe a little fussing come bedtime but all in all I loved watching my little nephews glow with wonder at the fireworks. They are favorite. J

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!