The most wonderful time of the year

So the kiddies returned to school yesterday, and my oh my...the peace.
I am so not the mom who cries as they leave, reminiscing on how fast the time has gone. I'm thinking more like, about time.
I love my kids tons and love being with them, just not-every-hour-of-the-day-can't-go-to-the-bathroom-without-""MOM!"-being-with-them.

When I went to pick them up from school I ran into another mom from my ward and we exchanged feelings on the start of school. "It's so quiet!" she said, "I got SO much done!"
I was like "umm, me too."

I totally took a two hour nap.

My sick hobby

A favorite pastime of mine is to take pictures of Subarus with Obama stickers on them. It drives Peter crazy. (To say Peter is right-winged is kind of an understatement)
Peter's Subaru is bottom pic.

Visiting my parents

Yellowstone

Things Peter checked before I flew to California

--My cellphone
--The cellphone charger
--Driver's license
--Not one, but two copies of my boarding pass
--water bottle (I might get stuck in the desert)
--Extra cash
Did I bring any liquids over 3 oz? Park in the red zone. Go straight through security. You don't have to wait in line. Are you sure you have enough cash? Put one boarding pass in suitcase and one in purse in case you lose one. Don't forget where you parked. Put your parking ticket on the dash, not in your purse. You might lose it. Double check your departing gate at the airport. Sometimes it changes. No, don't put your suitcase in the trunk, put it in the back seat. It is faster to get out.

My husband loves me.

I'll get off my soapbox now...

In my last post I listed the books I checked out from the library. I only ended up taking a couple to Yellowstone with us and read only one.
Apparently the wrong one.
I read (or rather read and then skimmed the rest) of "The Patron Saint of Liars" by Ann Patchett. It sounded good. It was about a home for unwed mothers. A woman shows up planning to give up her baby though she is married. On the back cover it talks about how the home proves "healing" for her. New York Times writes that the author is a "startlingly wise young writer." So sounds good right?
Wrong.
I was thinking surely the young woman shows up at this place because she is in an abusive marriage or some other sort of scandal. Nope. He is a just an ordinary decent man who loves and cares for her and she takes off without so much as a goodbye. She does not tell him she is pregnant, or planning to give away their child. She just leaves him desperately frantic and alone. And why does she do this? Because she doesn't "love" him.
So from that point on I was skimming. Not because I was intrigued, but because I was hoping for some deeper meaning--some moral message or pivotal moment where she realizes what a fool she has been and makes it right. But there is no such moment. Does someone really think this was "startlingly wise" literature?
Last week I ended up getting a movie series from Netflix because it was looking juicy (which it totally was). It was called the "Forsyte Saga", if you happen to have seen it. Very dramatic and I thoroughly enjoyed it for all of it's soap-op-rah like twists. The actors were awesome and the costumes incredible. I really did enjoy it. But Peter didn't and I really can't blame him. He was thrown off right at the beginning when a man leaves his perfectly decent wife and beautiful child for the governess because he has decided that they are in "love". Then the rest of the Saga revolves around two characters, a husband and wife whom she married under pressure from her mother. He cares for her deeply and may even love her (in a warped possessive kind of way) and he spends a great deal of energy trying to please her but she never warms up to him. All he wants to know is why she can't just be a wife to him. I wondered that too. Why couldn't she?
In India and other countries people have arranged marriages. Their parents decide who is best and that is who they marry, out of respect. Most parents love their children and want them to be happy. As a general rule these marriages are solid and they grow to love each other very much. They are, in fact, more statistically likely to endure than conventional marriages. No doubt there are terrible exceptions but you see where I am going with this. I think any two good people can make a go of it.
In the tax business we see a lot of ugly (and I mean ugly) divorces. People who have wonderful children and adored each other at one point in their life. Then one year he comes in and says she left him for somebody else who was more exciting and distracting from her dull life. They are losing everything and have nasty lawyers and he can hardly pull himself out of bed in the morning. (Poor Peter who considered therapist as the occupation of his nightmares thought he would be safe in taxes--silly man).
I know not every marriage is a match made in heaven. I know there are times where people truly have to get out. But I also know that there are a lot of divorces that cannot be justified.
After 14 yrs. I can recall moments where I wondered just what we'd gotten ourselves into. It has not always been easy, but sometimes when you are truly committed to something and you work at it, things will eventually work themselves out. Not to overlook that also, as a Mormon, I can't overemphasize the support it was to us to believe that the vows we had made to each other were forever, and before God.
Do we live in a constant state of passion? I wouldn't exactly call it that, but I love my man more than anything. He isn't perfect but he tries really hard and in the end that is all that matters to me. He is the one I daydream about and can't live without. Sometimes I don't think I deserve him and sometimes I want to beat him. Ask any happy couple, they know what I mean. Welcome to marriage, folks.
Besides any smart woman knows that a good man only wants two things, and one of those is a good hot meal once in a while.

Just sharing my joy

I am in love.
With my library.
There are those in Springville who shall remain nameless but nevertheless are very outspoken on their disdain for our library.
They ought to move to Tehachapi, CA where there is a truly sad library. Somehow, someway, when the library funds were allocated Tehachapi was shafted--BIG TIME.
I spent many hours combing those shelves in dire want of a good book. There were the occasional diamonds among the dirt but that was very seldom. I took to reading young adult books--Newberry's in particular. I read most of them and some were very good, but mostly I was still left wanting and they ran out fast. I had this weird lurking fear that I had read all the good ones, that there were simply no more out there. Someone thought of everything there was to write.
I took to buying books, but hate to do this unless I KNOW I am going to love them and want to reread or reference them. Plus living 45 min. away from the Barnes and Nobles put a damper on that. I did the Amazon thing quite a lot but I needed to hold a book (stroke it, smell it, thumb through it) to contemplate if it is worth buying. Besides, I'm not planning to open a library in my house and if people see the ridiculous amounts of reading I do they may get the wrong impression and assume I'm smart. That could be embarrassing.
Then I moved to Springville. The library here is also somewhat inadequate for the area, but do you hear me complaining? When I am searching for something a good deal of the time they actually *gasp* sputter sputter--have it! Row after glorious row of books just waiting to be read ( and cuddled, and smelled, and fondled) and it is all FREE!!! That isn't a novel (no pun intended) idea I know, it's just that with all the money that goes out so fast my head spins here is a true joy that costs me absolutely N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Nathaniel's best friend Cameron came out from California and we stopped off to do some book browsing at the library. We were there for 20 min. and Cameron swore he had never spent so much time in a library; what could I possibly be doing there for that long? No offense to you Debbie on your deprived child. I still love him--and you.
We are heading to a cabin in Yellowstone tomorrow and the girls and I went and stocked up on books and movies. I got five movies for a week and it cost me $1.25.
I almost cried.
There is going to be some kind of vote coming up about expanding our library here and you bet your boots I'll be voting thumbs up on that one, but in the meantime I'll reminisce about the first time I entered that beautiful building on Center street and be grateful for what I have.

My book picks for today
"The Great Divorce" by CS Lewis (supposed to be incredible and only 146 pgs. if it gets too mind-boggling for us simple-minders.)
"The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Barnoness Orczy (one critic says arguable the best adventure story ever published)
"Cry, The Beloved Country" by Alan Paton (South African history--maybe Peter will be interested if it ends up being good)
"Angle of Repose" by Wallace Stegner (historical fiction of some kind)
"The Patron Saint of Liars" by Ann Patchett (woman enters home for unwed mothers, only she is wed. Sounds juicy...)
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith (had a heck of a time finding this one-- do you know how many Smiths there are? Story about girl coming of age living in Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 to 1919. Privation and suffering--right up my dark alley!!)