A Great Deal Going On

The other day a friend asked for an update on what was going on around here. 

"Oh, nothing much," I said with a shrug. (Fully thinking that was so.) 

Then I thought of something I could tell: "Abe did just go to Ouray, CO this weekend with Aaron's daughter Josie and two of his friends. It's like this big ice-climbers' mecca, I guess. They even keep sprinklers on the rocks to keep up the ice. Abe went last year and wanted to go again, but they are poor college students and didn't want to pay for a hotel, so they just made it this crazy, grand adventure where they woke up at like two in the morning, drove five and a half hours, climbed all day, then drove back home. It was the first time for everyone he brought, and they all seemed to love it, so that was fun for him. ..."

And then, since my tongue was now a bit loosened: "Oh, and did I tell you Daisy is applying for graduate schools? Isn't that crazy: that we are old enough to have kids going to graduate school? It will be a statistics program, and she's applying at Utah State--which would be nice since she'd be up by us; and then also at BYU--which would be great too since she knows the professors and the area so well now. ..."

And then the floodgates were fully open: "Oh, and Penny went to the prom this weekend. The boy that asked her is just a friend, but when we first moved, she didn't even know if she'd end up going to any dances up here since she was new and didn't know anybody, so it was fun she got asked. They went sledding for the day date and then he picked her up for pictures and they went to Olive Garden, and then, sadly, before dinner even started, he started feeling super off and before long had such an awful migraine that they had to take him home after dinner! I'm sure he felt awful, and he'd spent so much on dinner and flowers and the tickets and everything. I told Penny we could come pick her up or do anything she wanted, but the group she was in had her come with them for a movie and then, by the time the dance started, two other girls who Penny knows showed up to go to the dance stag, so Penny didn't feel out of place with all the couples in the group, and she still ended up having a pretty fun time. Plus, I told her that now she'd always have a great story to tell about going to prom just like I do! [The time my prom date didn't show up--for those of you who don't know!]"

Notice the Hansie below:

Trying to pass the time while waiting to be picked up with some feverish piano (keyboard I guess) playing. She has one little melody she will play slowly and then ... over and over faster and faster and louder and louder. 

Her nice arm wound from the day date. Sledding with your coat off and sleeves rolled up, it turns out, isn't a great idea.

A very typical Penny face below:

We worried a bit that her dress was too simple, so Penny drove it down to my mom who sewed a string of rhinestones on.

Every girl loves a dress with pockets these days. In fact, there seems to be nothing that makes my girls happier than being able to say, about a dress, "And it has pockets!"

We pulled out the guitar while still waiting. ...

And when I finished all that rambling to my friend, I realized, a bit sheepishly, that my nonchalant "nothing much" wasn't quite correct. Or ... even remotely correct.

So I paused without mentioning Jesse's 30-hour project for a class at school, or the startling news that Goldie just finished a third of her mission and is probably finally getting transferred from her first area next week, nor any of the business with selling the Pleasant View house, or getting the engineering reports going on the farm, or the host of things happening in the lives of the many siblings and nieces and nephews Mike and I have, or the host of small things happening every day here with the half of my children who are still elementary-aged (or younger). (For example, Starling asking me the other day: "Mom? Do babies dream in mom's tummies?" I wonder!)

Anyway, "What's going on around here?"

Well. A great deal. :)

The End.