I made it home to Provo, huzzah! What a wonderful, wonderful thing it was to see my brother to pick me up, and to spend three nights with my sister Julie. I realized that the Vancouver trip was the longest I'd ever been away from ANY of my family. And now I have real empathy for home-sickness. :)
Flying home was quite a feat; I had to decide what was worthy to bring home from the assorted possessions that hadn't made the first cut going back to CO when my mom helped me move out of my apartment. One particularly funny moment was when Julie was helping me weigh my suitcase (Southwest flies two checked bags for free, up to 50 lbs each. Of course that's the way I'm going to go.) and I had to heave the bag off the scale fast enough for her to be able to see the weight before it quickly disappeared. She was kneeling on the ground and with a great heave and "ugggh" I hoisted the bag off the floor, and she yelled (because why would you speak softly in such an intense situation?) "SIXTY-SEVEN!" and then we both crumpled into laughter because my bag was 17 lbs too heavy and the whole situation was indeed rather humorous, with her on the floor and me hefting my bag around.
But I finally made it! I'm FINALLY home. In my home town. We've lived in this house for 13 years, which is amazing. I get to share our unfinished basement with my parents for the time being, as my brother-in-law, sister, and their two sons are living with us while he does an internship for his MBA. It's great to have such a full house! And who doesn't love waking up to the inquiry of a 2.5 year old, "Is Carrie waking up?"
So, with what have I been filling my days, you ask? I will tell you.
I am lucky enough, blessed enough, whatever you want to call it, to have gotten summer employment. But not just any job. Pretty much a dream job. A treasured teacher from high school hired me on to paint murals in his kids' bedrooms. I know, right? The hours are totally up to me, as long as I'm getting the work done, and I'm doing something that I LOVE (I usually don't even notice that I've skipped lunch until it is almost time to leave), I get to hang out/get entertained by his lively kids, and I have wonderful employers. It really is the experience and opportunity of a lifetime, thus far. It is so ironic because I usually tell people I don't like painting, but I guess that's usually a lie. Because I've found that I do.
Besides painting, I get to play with my nephews. Today we celebrated my nephew JJ's half-birthday, because his birthday falls on the day after Christmas. He's getting rather smart, pushing every possible button (he opens the garage door for Grandpa every day when he gets home from work) and stringing together quite intelligent phrases. Here's a conversation I had with him today.
(I was laying outside on a blanket in the shade, reading a book, and look over to see JJ smiling at me through the screen door.)
"Hi JJ!"
"Hi Carrie..."
"How are you doing?"
"I am doing well. Carrie doesn't have her shoes on."
(awkward pause) "Well, I don't need my shoes since I'm on the blanket."
(he opens the door) "I want to sit with Carrie on the blanket."
"Go get your shoes then."
"Does Carrie want to go get my shoes for me?"
"I don't know where your shoes are."
So he comes out regardless of his shoes, and we sit on the blanket together and laugh and have a grand little time. I love that little guy.
Indeed, I was outside reading a book. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, to be exact. I decided that I wanted to read all 7 before I go to Florida for a family reunion, so I've been hammering them out this last week. I don't care what anyone says, I still love reading Harry Potter. Maybe that's because I grew up with him. But I'm cramming them in so I can have a remainder of a summer to read other works of literature (To Kill a Mockingbird, summertime classic) as well as do those things all return-students need to do, like go through all their stuff and watch movies and other summertime things.
One crazy thing we did was paint our dining room and living room in one night. We started at about 7 PM and wrapped up around 2 AM. It was actually a lot of fun, despite being hot, sweaty work (our AC conveniently broke the same day).
My family and I (partly out of joke) started the "James and Taryn's Wedding is Only Eight Weeks Away!" Fitness Challenge today. Everyone sets their own parameters, but has to do it 6x a week, and the winner at the end gets a book paid for by the losers. Whether it sticks or not, who cares, our treadmill is getting his exercise. :)
I know this was a massive blog post, but hey, I like to ramble, especially at night when I know I'm supposed to be sleeping.
I'm in love with my summer. It is going wonderfully.
Until the next late-night urge to blog, may you eat lots of ice cream, enjoy the summer breeze, and wiggle your toes in the grass.
Word of the Day: yen \YEN\ , noun; 1. A desire or craving; yearn.
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