Big!

Jeff, Jay, Rose, Amber, and I each had at least one Big Thing happen this week.

Even my neglected garden managed a Big Thing this week: I swear this giant pumpkin appeared overnight. How big will it be by the time it turns orange?

Big Things for the White Things:

Jeff ran 60 miles this week--that's the most miles that he's run in one week in over a decade. The best part of that achievement isn't the number of miles; it's what they represent: Jeff is feeling healthy and energetic and good--the best he's felt in at least 5 years. Every time he deals with a bout of his dysautonomia symptoms, he learns a little bit more about managing his condition, and the techniques he's doing right now are working! I know his health will always be unpredictable and what may happen even next week is unknown, but his current health is worth celebrating right now!

Amber is in the beginnings of orthodontic care. After a few weeks of spacers, she had a palate expander put in on Thursday this week. I had a palate expander as a kid, so I know all too well what a medieval torture device it is. I do not like turning the key on the roof of her mouth each night to exert more pressure on her poor mouth! But our trustworthy orthodontist assures us that expanding her palate now will allow her teeth to stay in place for the rest of her life post-braces. It worked for me too! It's just not a fun process. We have to turn the palate expander key once a day for 20 days, then it has to stay in for another 8 months to get everything to heal in its new shape. Ouch. Sometime during the next few weeks, Amber will get braces too.

Rose got her first-ever contact lenses on Friday! She had the eye appointment where we ordered contacts two weeks ago. Since there was no school on Friday, September 4th thanks to Labor Day weekend, it was a perfect time to go in for her contact lens lesson. It took her 15-20 minutes to get the first contact in, but the second one was only 10-15 minutes. They had her take one contact out and put it back in again before we left. Rose drove me home with her new 360 degree crystal clear vision! In the two days since then, Rose has gotten better and better at placing and removing her contacts. She said it only took her two tries to get them out last night. She's glad because she did not want to get up half an hour earlier to get her contacts in before early morning seminary next week! Rose likes being able to run without her glasses fogging up or sliding down her nose. I like that even though we had to pay a fitting and measurement fee, our insurance covered a yearlong supply of contacts for Rose.

Jay was officially accepted to Southern Virginia University on Friday!! He finished the application this past week, and the admissions office scheduled a phone call for Friday at 11am. I was at the grocery store during his call, but Jay was waiting for me in the garage when I got home. He told me the news while helping me unload the groceries: 

"I am officially accepted to SVU!" he announced joyfully. "And they are giving me a $10,000 per year academic scholarship, $1,000 per year for being a seminary graduate, and $1,000 per year legacy scholarship, since my parents graduated from SVU. When I return from my mission, I will also be given another $2,000 per year for being a returned missionary. All of that makes SVU the same cost for me as BYU!" 

Jay has never shown this much excitement about a specific college. I have had several conversations with him making sure he understood that we trust his judgement and don't want to pressure him into any school, and we would do our best to help him pay for his college education. But Jay never wanted to say which school he was most interested in. He admitted to liking SVU for sure, but he also liked several other schools too. Rose said she saw him finish his call with the admissions office, and when he hung up the phone, he did a fist-pump-jump and said "YESSSS!" 

Jeff and Jay will return to SVU in November for an official recruitment visit, where Jay will meet the cross country coach and team, and experience SVU in all of its mid-semester energy. This second visit is not necessary, but it will be so useful for Jay to meet coaches and professors and students, and get a real feel for the school. When we went as a family back in June, we saw the buildings and the campus but since it was summer we didn't get to see the people, or SVU-in-motion, which is worth seeing so Jay can have all the information he needs to make this big decision. Jay's current plan is to serve a mission before going to college, but having all of this squared away in advance will hopefully make everything easier down the road.

Yay, Jay!!!

Shaina...as for me, I almost couldn't think of a Big Thing that happened to me this week, since I am the stabilizing background person of our family. But then I remembered...I got another job! Sort of. Back in early August, I applied to be a substitute teacher in the Sunnyside School District. Now that Amber's school schedule is the same as the rest of the family, I have the ability to sub. With college and missions pending, every dollar counts! So I filled out the substitute teacher application. And heard nothing for weeks and weeks. Then this week on Tuesday, September 1st, I received an email inviting me to the emergency substitute teacher training. People like me who don't have a teaching certificate have to complete an "emergency training" to be allowed to sub. The training is coming up next week.

During summer break before the school and coaching season grind hit, my newfound seven-plus hours home alone each day looked long and luxurious. Amber's elementary school started at 9am, so my day was much shorter until now. This school year, Amber leaves for school with Jeff at 7:15am. I don't have anywhere to drive or any drop-off to do. Suddenly my house is empty a little after 7am each weekday, and I don't have to leave for cross country practice until 2:45pm. That's 7.5 hours! I thought it would feel so long...but with everyone gone, more of the yardwork and housework falls to me. Add onto that any personal pursuits like piano and lifting weights, and so far my days have felt super full, even with the extra 2 hours in the morning! 

We'll see how much I manage to sub this year. I'm hoping to squeeze in one day per week, but I'm not going to force myself to do anything too stressful during coaching seasons. Jeff is perpetually burning the candle on both ends during the entire school year, so I need to not be a total basket case in order to keep our family and home life positive and stable. I don't like posting about the future, because writing something down feels so final and committed, but subbing was the only recent big thing I could think of to share for myself! So my big thing is that I may or may not be a substitute teacher. Haha. 

I made some pretty good dinners this week: lemon cream tilapia pasta, with dairy-free creamy lemon sauce that even all of my dairy loving skeptics adored. I felt proud of this invention, since kitchen experiments don't always turn out so well.

My tomato plants are at war with the pumpkins for world dominion. They are in brutal combat, but the pumpkins have the higher ground (literally--that's the pumpkins one step above the tomatoes).

The first cherry tomato harvest: SO SWEET AND JUICY! My sweetest tomatoes ever, all thanks to the seedlings my friend nurtured and gave me.

Jay attended the traditional "Senior Sunrise" on Wednesday morning at 6am. That meant I was on seminary drop-off duty for Rose and one other kid we drive. True to form, I decided to go running on the track during seminary. I didn't realize that I would have a perfect view of the seniors watching the sunrise in the field. It was cool and cloudy, so there wasn't much of a sunrise...

...but there was a small segment of rainbow!

I poached this picture (and the picture below) from the local newspaper. Photo credits: Job Wise, Sunnyside Sun.

Jay, with a few friends at Senior Sunrise. Jay said he was underwhelmed at the event, haha.

The local paper did an entire page about our Grizzlython this week! There were only about 10 pages total in this issue of the weekly paper, so it was huge coverage! Rose is clapping in the background of the picture in the middle.

I poached this official Golden Apple Award picture off the school district Facebook page. Jeff is in red on the right.

Amber had two orthodontist appointments this week, so I sat in the funny log throne-chairs in the waiting room two times.

I couldn't get a good picture of it, but Amber has a palate expander in there--a metal bridge across the top of her mouth. The orthodontist assistant gave me a detailed training lesson on how to insert and turn the key in the expander. Ouch.

Friday morning we had a full rainbow across our backyard! I sent this picture to my dear friend Laurs, who is gay, since rainbows always remind me of her. She texted back: "Is the rainbow god's promise to not flood the earth or that he loves the gays? Or both?" 

My response: "I think it's simply a sign of his love. No qualifiers."

I also sent her Jeff's take: "the rainbow is a sign that God won't flood the earth because he loves the gays!"

Even though it was pretty lighthearted, it was nice to share a little bit of God's love with my sweet friend. It's been a while since we've been able to talk about any religious topics together, so this felt good.

Soon a double rainbow appeared on one side.

I was amazed that I could see the colors of the rainbow ON the trees at the bottom. It made me wonder: How often have I been inside a rainbow and not known it? Perspective matters! I pondered that off and on all day.

Rose, doing battle with her contacts at the eye doctor. I felt a little bad sneaking this picture, but it's kind of a cool picture, right?

Triumph! No glasses!

I told Rose I needed to take a picture of her new contacts, haha.

Cross country practice on Friday: while running in town, the kids found a random coconut on the side of the road and cracked it open after the run. Not sure how or why a coconut was on the roadside in Sunnyside, but it was funny watching them try to open it.

Rose and I enjoyed a moody cool fresh long run together on Saturday morning. That 9 miles was the second farthest I've run in one day in over a year. Rose did great! 

When we got home from church today, two adorable golden puppies were waiting for us. I don't know where they came from, but they were sure happy to see us! The puppies were so happy, un-traumatized, and clean that it seems unlikely that they were abandoned. So we're simply enjoying them while they're here.

Amber was in heaven and she played with them for 2 hours. Their golden fur, soulful deep brown eyes, and freckled white paws reminded me of my childhood dog, Sunny. Before I knew it, I was petting the puppies and hunting through our house for some dog-appropriate food.

I microwaved up some frosty old frozen meatballs and gave 7 meatballs to each pup. Ever since 8 years ago, when a tragic starving dog was expiring in our flowerbed for a whole week before I finally broke down and fed it, I always feed hungry animals when they stick around our yard for a few days. Jeff said he saw these two puppies chasing the neighbor's escape-artist goats in our yard for the past two days, so these doggies deserved some meatballs.

Amber is an animal girl. She wants a pet so badly. We always tell her to wait until the next dog wanders into our yard. Suddenly we have two...for now! I am so conflicted about pets. I loved animals when I was a kid, but now they are just too stinky and dirty for my everyday life. If we actually had a dog, even an outdoor dog, would I ever feel totally clean again? I'm not so sure. Plus, I have had so many bad experiences as a runner being chased and attacked by other people's dogs, I dislike the burdensome responsibility of owning a dog. But Amber adores animals and her siblings are going to leave her alone at home for 4 whole years very soon!! Like I said, I'm conflicted.

Even my anti-pet-hair cold heart melted and I spent a while outside petting the puppies with Amber. Then I went inside and washed my hands to the elbow and changed my clothes.