Lauren

My Dad is a very thoughtful person. He knows that Lloyd’s favorite kind of pie is blackberry, and he listened to me complain about how incredibly expensive blackberries are (fresh and/or frozen)….

…… so he sent us some blackberry bushes.

Four, to be precise. He told me about a week ago about his surprise, so I was expecting some sort of large-ish box with some little pots/small sprouts. They were delivered yesterday in what I can only describe as….. a pencil box.

They’re so little! Little, but incredibly healthy!

We sent some ‘thank you’ photos to my Dad and Lloyd immediately started looking up what these little guys need in terms of soil and sunshine, yadda yadda yadda. Dad sent several articles, too. I just laughed, grabbed a spoon to dig some holes and plonked those babies in the only spot we’ve ever actually grown anything: the corner of the house where my miracle tomatoes did so well last year.

They’re as tall as a paintbrush now, and I can’t wait to document their growth! Bonus surprise: Dad ordered four plants, but they sent five!!

(Please don’t die, plants. Please don’t die.)

Hi.- remember me?

Lots and lots has been going on this month. A few weeks ago our pastor spoke about ‘May’hem – all the things that May has going on. I’m not even doing a bunch of things that other people are doing, but man, this treadmill is never ending. End-of year/start of summer/ ‘goodbye’ to college staff/ ‘hello’ and training for new summer staff/ ‘goodbye’ to some children and ‘hello’ to new/Concordia’s early childhood conference is this weekend and our center is helping / a project I’m helping a friend with. I realize that none of this is overwhelming, but each day I feel like I can’t get to the long list until after I’ve been in my room 9 hours. It will be fine, it will be fine……

There have been some bright spots, though. Last weekend Sam asked Lloyd and I for some help with some artwork he was making for his end-of-year stuff. (Talk about May-hem.) It was exactly what I needed. I’d already told Lloyd that I had a little apprehension about getting through Memorial Day weekend. (There was the Perfect Day in Omaha that ended with the phone call about my brother Phil.) Hanging out with Sam and helping was the perfect combination of goofing around and also being productive. Thanks, Sam.

Sam is an amazing artist. I am always amazed to see what he does and how he brings his vision to fruition. He’s made some crucifixes out of rebar, which are cool on their own, but for this one he carved wood pieces and epoxied them onto the ends. Short sentences make this sound like an easy process. It wasn’t.

He also worked with his students to make a twisted wire tree and we worked on the base. These were both gifts for a couple at his school who just retired. Nice work, Sam.

Ok. Off to spray some wasps, paint a corner of the hallway, clean my classroom, print some stuff, then hopefully a trip to Costco.

I know, I know, it’s been forever. For the memory archive, so much has happened: My uncle Norman died; Deborah’s dad, also; there was a big accident at the center but God was merciful and good; I’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis and osteopenia (I have an appointment on Thursday to come up with a plan); but the big problem right now…?

There’s a preschooler who sits at my lunch table and nearly every day he says, “I’m going to be a teacher when I grow up.” I always tell him that he’ll make a very fine teacher. Today, I found out his reason. It’s not because I’m such a glowing example of the educational world….. it’s because I get more lunch than he does.

Dang.

I don’t often put gas in my truck (since I only drive it 1 1/2 miles a day), but when I get to put gas in the Prius on the weekend, it’s exciting – because it means a trip to Costco! The Lincoln store always has gas that is cheap (around $2.50-$2.70 is a good price), but the Omaha location is CHEAP. I often text Lloyd about my conquest.

Lloyd likes cheap gas, too. He has the app Gas Buddy that tells you what the gas prices are around you, and he also has a Phillips 66 app that gives him 15 – 25 cents off per gallon.

Well on our way out to Colorado, we stopped in Denver for the night. (This time we stayed at a swanky hotel that had a barn door to the bathroom…. with a window, riddle me that.)

Anyway, the next morning we stopped at the Phillips 66 in Idaho Springs, just a couple of miles west of Denver. The regular price was something like $3.45 a gallon. Lloyd did the app thing….. and it was $2.12. I want to make sure you read that right: TWO DOLLARS AND TWELVE CENTS. I would have been more excited but I was already pretty heavily medicated due to the prospect of hitting icy roads in the mountains.

On the way back to Nebraska, Lloyd was calculating how much gas he needed to put in at the start of the trip so we’d have an empty tank in Idaho Springs. Same situation, and I felt like a criminal as we left the station. So cheap!!

I told my friend about it, and she also has the app and thinks it was a Thanksgiving promotion. Well, if it took $1.30 off each gallon – totally worth it.

Thanksgiving went well. Lloyd and I drove out to Colorado to spend time with my Dad. Keren, Kurt and Jacob also made the trek out, and it was so good to see them! The food was great, the people were delightful, and most importantly: the weather was good for travel. (There have been quite a few anxiety-inducing things going on in my life, so it was so nice to have dry roads.)

I didn’t take a lot of photos, which is a shame. In fact, the only real photos I took were of the neighbor cat who came over all the time. His name is Roland, and we all loved him. He is a rare black tabby, and was a true nut.

The other fun thing was Jacob’s brainchild. His actual job is building race cars – for REAL – and Dad always refers to his Subaru as his ‘race car’. Jacob had some stickers made up and we spent an evening doctoring the car.

(I was just a helper. Jacob was the expert.)

Dad thought it was funny enough. ‘36’ is the year he was born. I told him he’ll never wonder which car is his ever again.

Last week we had the weirdest ‘away’ weekend. Lloyd has/had been sick since the Sunday before, but on Thursday he said, “I need to go look at some stuff at an auction in Iowa. Do you want to go? Do you want to see if your sister can meet us?” I looked at his coughing, sniffing face and said, “What?”

It was a comedy of errors. I couldn’t contact Keren until later, and it was all up in the air. They bought a camper a while ago and we’d often said we should meet up for camping, but this was all last-minute and arranging for a campground where Lloyd and I could be in a cabin was too difficult and weird, so at 8:00 Friday night, Lloyd and I booked a house in Cedar Falls. (I never got the name right. I thought we were going to Clear Lake. Every town in Iowa has two names. Bear Lake. Clear Falls. Clear Bear…..)

Saturday morning, I drove His Grossness five hours east. We got to the house where he pretty much just stayed in bed in the basement. It was awesome seeing Keren and Kurt, and on Sunday, Lloyd was well ‘enough’ to do his auction things. Here’s a brief tour of the house, minus the basement. (Click HERE for more photos.)

It was the town high school’s building. They were landlocked, so they built a new school near the edge of of town and sold this one to a small Christian school. They purchased all new stuff for their new building, so this was all up for sale. Lincoln Lutheran was interested in some of it, so Lloyd was the scout. He traveled the place quickly with his Clipboard of Interesting Things, and I followed the 6,948 step behind him. (Not a lie.) Keren and Kurt looked around for a little while, then went back home. Here’s an automated video of the place, and Lloyd in his natural habitat. Sorry for the camera swinging around all over. (Also, the last photo is of my coat-carrying skills. The weather was cold and rainy, but it was hot inside the school, so we took off our coats. I dug through all the cabinets looking for a string bag to carry them, but no dice. I wound up with Lloyd’s coat tied around my waist and my own coat stuffed into the back of my sweatshirt. I am truly just a pack mule on these adventures.)

Afterward, I drove His Grossness home until it got dark, then he took over. All in all, a very pleasant weekend, in spite of the hilarious mishaps.