Life according to Angela – Page 79

Our First Teen Party

Our first teen party involving boys and girls took us by surprise one night in early 2015. Daniel asked if he could invite some friends over to play games in an hour. I assumed that Daniel was having another game night with the guys, which happens often enough. Daniel went to parties all the time with boys and girls, but never at our house. I had decided that our house was never going to be a magnet for teens. Among Daniel’s friends, you will find homes with a media room, pool, trampolines, ping pong, and pool tables. We have lots of books and a piano. I thought that ours could be the “bakery house” and I began preparing chocolate chip bar cookies to serve in an hour.

Soon the doorbell rang and in walked a girl with long blonde hair with some pink or purple streaks through it. I was so surprised that I just nodded to her from the sink, speechless until I finally spurted out a little hello as she disappeared down the stairs. Mark and Timothy hurried to me in tandem, eyes wide, and nostrils a little flared. “Who is THAT?” one whispered, clearly amused and looking a little mischievous.

Collecting myself, trying to make it sound like it was no big deal, I said, “That’s just Gamuhmuh (mumbled)… or somebody.” The truth was, I didn’t know this girl that just walked down to our basement with our 15-year-old son. I was unprepared to see girls coming in the house. No way was I ready to go downstairs to introduce myself, but I tried to listen for hints of what was going on. Now and then I heard the girl laugh. Everyone but this girl was a half an hour late to the party. I wondered if anyone else would show up. I was grateful that I had some cookies baking in the oven. This, at least, would be a way that I could naturally enter the conversation as I served cookies later. How could this girl have such an unsettling influence on me? Who was the adult here?

More kids showed up at the door, some familiar, but others strangers to me. My confidence wavered a little as each rang the bell, but I put on a confident face and smiled and waved from the kitchen as their heads disappeared behind the banister as they walked downstairs. When the sounds of male and female laughter continued to drift upstairs, I felt relieved that they were having fun. I began to think that it could be nice having Daniel’s friends over at our house for a change. I prepared the cookies on a plate and invited them to come upstairs.

I tried to remember all the things that make teenagers cringe about their parents. I decided to be the present, but silent type and try not to be one of them. It took me five minutes to fail with that plan in an uncomfortable attempt to joke around with one of the boys. Yes, I reminded myself, I would need to be the present, silent type of parent for sure. As they ate their snacks in the kitchen, I sat in the next room trying to be invisible. We were watching a movie, but all I could focus on was the flirting going on in the kitchen. The memories of my teenage attempts at interaction at game parties came back to me with clarity: I had been just like these kids. My hair had been bigger, but I was the same. And the empathy of the moment caused me some pain and a little amusement. It is hard to be a teenager.

There have been many parties, movie nights, and kids hanging out at our house since then. In the early days, I did bake, but I don’t always do that now. That first night, I learned from Daniel that they loved the baked goods; the girls liked my decorations; the house smelled good. It was a pleasant surprise to see that having a few girls over to the house made Daniel more aware of my efforts in homemaking and entertaining. I basked in the praise and the satisfaction that we can host a fun night for teens at the Ross home.

The Engagement Ring, 1995

When Richard proposed, he gave me a diamond solitaire. He said that we would reset the diamond in a setting that I chose. I had never thought about wedding rings and the diamond was more than I would have chosen for myself. It was beautiful. One day someone came up to my counter where I was working at the mall and caught me admiring it. I didn’t see them there because I had hypnotized myself with the patterns of light reflecting from the facets of the diamond. When I looked up, startled, the customer just smiled and said something like, “My, what a pretty ring you have.” My face probably became ashen and then crimson within seconds.

Richard and I shopped around at several jewelry stores to see what we wanted. I decided that I wanted a simple wedding band with small diamonds to go with the solitaire. The jeweler that Richard had used was in Salt Lake City, so after we decided what we liked, we needed to travel there to have the setting made.

We left campus on a dreary January day as soon as our classes were over, around noon, to drive to Salt Lake City to make the final arrangements for our wedding rings. We were in Richard’s small red Toyota hatchback. As we drove north, the weather grew worse. Wet, slushy snow was falling and we hit a patch of ice on the freeway. We slid, spinning, from the far right lanes, across the freeway, to land on the far left side, our car facing oncoming traffic. I don’t know how we were so isolated that we didn’t hit anyone and Richard was able to right the car before we were hit. This happened one more time on that trip, with nearly the same spin and the same miraculous result of no harm.

I was young and that feeling of invincibility hadn’t worn off. I knew that we had been in a scary situation, but I didn’t marvel enough at the time how we had been protected.

The day’s adventure continued when we stepped into the jeweler’s shop and selected the setting, a wedding band, and Richard’s ring. The jeweler quickly set my diamond in the new setting while we waited. I had gathered almost all of my savings from the bank and carried it in cash to buy Richard’s ring. When I handed the man the cash, he seemed uncomfortable to handle it and excused himself to try to find some change at the restaurant next door. I didn’t have a credit card and his behavior made me feel foolish and immature, like a little girl who had broken her piggy bank full of pennies and nickels and dumped them on his counter. That wasn’t far from the truth. It was my savings from my childhood. I learned that day that when you’re buying fine jewelry, it’s best to use a credit card.

Richard reassured me that it was okay. He was good at that. As we drove back to Provo, we didn’t have any more trouble with ice. We were one step closer to being married and after my mortification over the cash was over, I could enjoy the new ring on my finger.

Bags for Every Occasion

Bags for every occasion

Let me confess to you my naïveté about women’s handbags of any kind. I didn’t know that there was a world of high fashion bags until I was in my late twenties. Petunia Pickle Bottom bags weren’t invented when I bought my first diaper bag. When I became a mother, I went down to Kmart and bought a mint green diaper bag with pastel animals printed all over it. I had no opinions about diaper bags until I got home from that shopping trip.

Someone looked at my new bag and said, “I’ve always felt that the bag should reflect the taste of the mother, not her baby.”

“Ouch,” I thought, and never felt good about that bag after that.

There was a Louis Vuitton purse in my mom’s closet in 1997 that was a hand-me-down from my Great-aunt Susan. My mom didn’t like the purse and gave it to me. I was looking for a bag that could hold diapers without looking like a diaper bag since my mint green bag was juvenile, apparently. After a few months I realized that this cavernous purse without pockets didn’t suit my needs. It wasn’t attractive to me, so I donated it to charity along with some worn out clothes. Later, I learned that the bag was worth hundreds of dollars. (Facepalm.)

One of the most important bags that I have carried as a mother is the church bag. In the mothers’ room at church I learned from other women that plastic bags, multiple changes of clothes, and blankets were necessary for the newborn. When babies became toddlers and didn’t want to sit still, the church bag carried anything that would entertain.

For a typical week at church when the kids were young I would load my long-handled, fabric church bag with our Baby Bible, a bag of dry cereal, sippy cups, extra pacifiers, diapers, wipes, and toys, toys, toys. We had child-sized etch-a-sketches, magnetic paper dolls, fabric swatches to make dresses on princesses, sewing cards with laces, Bible cards, Book of Mormon games, puzzles, and markers that wouldn’t mark anything but their allotted book.

When Mark was born, Richard sat on the stand each Sunday with the bishop during sacrament meeting. I had 4 children to keep quiet on my own, so I got more inventive. Into the church bag went Great-grandma’s heirloom costume jewelry and porcelain dog. I let the children hold these if they were very good. Many children can hold precious things carefully, and this is an exercise in reverence. I filled plastic Easter eggs with small surprises. I purchased handfuls of hand puppets and finger puppets. I cut out felt books of stories from the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

I wouldn’t carry all of my tricks at once. I would rotate them in and out of the bag week by week. If I took the time to load the bag with plenty of quiet activities, not cars and action figures, the kids were more reverent. I learned that cereals with a lot of sugar were not a good idea because the kids would be grumpy after they ate these. I tried to serve snacks in the hallway before sacrament meeting so we weren’t crinkling wrappers and the kids didn’t learn to expect food when we sat in the chapel. These ideas, typed out in front of me now, seem like basic wisdom, but I they were hard-earned.

I have carried many bags over the years, but the diaper bag and church bag have been the most important. When I hear a young child upset at church I still look in my bag to find something to entertain. Unfortunately, my church bag just has pens and paper in it now. And it still doesn’t reflect my incredibly classy taste. Also, to those young mothers who have a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag, good for you. All of you. A good bag, well-stocked, whether it is pretty or not, can make all the difference.

Books!

Some books we read and what it did for our family

I learned from my mother to make time to read to children. My favorite memories of my mother are when she read to us, and my picture of motherhood wasn’t complete without reading books aloud. I haven’t been good about early bedtimes, perfect nutrition, and many other things, but I have been good about reading aloud.

There are some books on our shelf that I could probably say from memory: The Muppet Babies Book of Shapes; The Pokey Little Puppy; The Cat in the Hat; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. So few Caldecott and Newberry Award winners were among our favorites from early childhood! The Three Little Pigs, The Little Golden Book of Sounds, The Egg Book, and other simple stories were enough to keep our little people happy. Library trips would bring lavishly illustrated and poetically versed books to our home, but these weren’t the favorites of the very young. It was just Hop on Pop and The Three Little Kittens for us.

Reading calmed my children, gave us time to snuggle, and became part of the bedtime routine. One day in Texas I discovered that I could read to the children and think about other things at the same time. This time of mental escape when the kids were quiet and happy was a blessing. Although my mind sometimes wandered during the early years of Dr. Seuss books, I kept reading because my mother had done the same for me and I loved her for it.

Treasure Island, Johnny Tremain, The Hobbit, Tom Sawyer, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy are some of the books that I introduced to the kids at a young age. I noticed that my children have returned to these books on their own to enjoy them again. It doesn’t matter how old the children are, if it’s a good book, they’ll sit around and listen to me read it.

Some of my instinct to gather my children close around me is helped by good literature. I have grown closer to my children by giving 20 or 30 minutes at a time to read aloud. I’ve traveled through the stories with them and watched their wonder and laughter. As they grow older, I see that reading aloud is a good catalyst for conversation with kids who don’t feel like talking.

I hope each child carries a memory of me reading books aloud. I hope that when they think of me, they see me with a book not too far from reach. My personal reading has helped me in my parenting to be more informed, centered, and entertained. I’ve filled the house with books, ready for discovery and rediscovery. Having a house full of well-read books is one way that this quiet mother says, “I love you.”

When I asked the kids in 2015 which books they loved best from early childhood, this is the list they came up with:

A Bargain for Frances

Another Monster at the End of this Book

Are You My Mother?

Black Beauty

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Chrysanthemum

Corduroy

Dinosaur Days

Fire, Fire!

Firetruck

Goodnight Moon

Guess How Much I Love You

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

I Can Dress Myself

Jessica

Little Golden Books (any of them)

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Muppet Babies Be Nice

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

Richard Scarry’s Busy Workers

Royal Diaries Series: Queen Elizabeth

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch

Tell Me Again about the Night I Was Born

The Dot

The Hobbit

The Little Red Hen

The Lord of the Rings series

The Pea

The Quiltmaker’s Gift

The Raft

The Ugly Duckling

The Very Quiet Cricket

Tiki Tiki Tembo

The Austin Backyard

The Austin Backyard, 1998-2005

The jingle of the swings’ chains was a natural accompaniment to outdoor play in our Austin yard. Backs arching, toes reaching above the fence, eyes trained to catch glimpses of the field beyond the fence, Paige and Daniel soared. Days in Austin felt heavy with moist air and heat. Clouds, creating a blank white, arching cover on the skies, were a blessing because they shielded us from the sun.

When Paige began school, the poem, “The Swing” by Robert Lewis Stevenson was her first memorization project. She recited it on the swing with natural soaring expressions as her toes reached for the clouds.

There was a bucket swing for babies, with two holes for chubby legs. Baby Timothy’s feet, socks dangling from his toes as he kicked in his swing, are a detail from memory that I can only associate with him.

Parents of the neighbor children joined us to visit while their children played, our conversations sometimes interrupted by requests for an “underdog” where a parent would run beneath the child, lifting the child on the swing high above the head. For those moments when our children were in the swings, they were happy and their needs were simple.

In summer, the three crape myrtle tress along the back fence erupted into vivid pink blossoms; this vibrant color gleaned from such poor, shallow soil and heat was a miracle of Texas ingenuity.

Late afternoons and early evenings were best for backyard play because our west-facing house created full shade at this time of day. The heat wasn’t the only challenge in Texas. There were also fire ants. The swings kept young feet safe from the fire ants lurking in the dirt. These ants, with their mob-like dynamics of swarm-and-sting were the perpetual enemy. Turning on the hose was the fastest, surest way to remove fire ants when they bit and stung little feet and legs. Daniel’s reactions to ant bites were the most severe, and sometimes he would have pussy blisters between his toes. Sometimes the kids put on their long rubber boots to avoid ant bites as they played.

The large cement patio was always littered with sidewalk chalk, balls, and child-propelled vehicles. There was a plastic play house with a half door and windows with shutters. The patio was like a stage, elevated enough that we could see it from the field behind the house and the street, Bratton Lane beyond the field. Coming home from errands on Bratton Lane I could look to the patio and see our children playing outside.

As the children grew, we decided to add a trampoline to the yard. The swing set was dismantled when we moved to Arizona, in hopes that it would be rebuilt someday, but it wasn’t. There wasn’t enough space in our new yard. I called this one of the casualties of our move.

The trampoline remained a part of our yard in Arizona, but it became a casualty of our move to Utah. During the move, we unpacked the swings and placed them on the garage shelf, like a memorial. The hope that they will be used again dims each year. You will also find our trampoline poles in a pile in the backyard, the once happy trappings of childhood play, now just a haphazard monument to those earlier days.

Our yards in Arizona and Utah were beautiful and unique, but playing in Austin on the swings against the pink canvas of blossoming trees was a wonderful beginning.

Wasatch County field trip

Mark and I continued our quest to see new Utah counties by visiting Wasatch County. We went to Midway and Heber. It was a lot colder there than in Salt Lake and we drove past a small ice castle at the Homestead that was pretty. The Midway ice castle display wasn’t open when we were there. The Heber Railroad is closed most of January so we added that to our list of things we want to do another day.

Mark liked the Jordanelle Reservoir in its frozen beauty. We visited the Homestead Caldera and would have gone swimming except I can’t find my suit. So we just touched the warm water and said we will come back another day.

Richard finished his scuba training at the caldera just a few months ago and can’t wait to go back. In contrast, I can’t swim but have made a resolution to change that this year. Lucky me, life vests are required in the caldera.

Wasatch County is a beautiful place. Mark liked the old fashioned houses and all of the animal statuary in yards. I liked the tiny houses, too, and the ice skating rink in Midway called to me. How I love to skate.

Going on journeys to new places is one of my favorite things to do in “home” school.

Daniel, lately

Daniel got asked to the Sweethearts dance this weekend. Now comes the hard part: How to answer “Yes” to the dance in a creative, thoughtful way.

We attended Daniel’s rescheduled Christmas choir concert at the high school on a bleak midwinter evening in early January. I am always impressed by the choirs at Jordan High. The bell choir and Christmas songs were a welcome treat after two stark school days after a long winter break.

I appreciate Daniel’s chauffeur skills in the afternoons for his brothers. I like watching YouTube videos of Victor Borge with him, and I enjoy seeing his friends show up at the house for a movie night or study session. He is a good friend.

What I learned as I taught

I taught the Boy Scout Merit Badge class about Animal Science this week. Most of the Scouts were no longer teenagers. They were Scouts with disabilities and it was a stretch for me to prepare for a group with such diverse needs. The things that worked best were storytelling (my lizard story and my sheep story) and using pictures I projected on a huge screen. I invited a young girl in my neighborhood to come along with me to teach a portion of the lesson about chickens and they LOVED hearing her speak.

These are a few things that I observed that night.

1. Smiling is contagious.

2. The Scoutmaster of many years was leaving them and a new Scoutmaster was being assigned. When the announcement was read, many Scouts came out of their seats to hug the man who was leaving. The Scoutmaster could hardly speak because he was so sad to go. I found myself wishing I was less inhibited about showing appreciation for people.

3. The young men who serve each week as “buddies” for these Scouts are the ones learning the most powerful lessons, not the Scouts to whom they are assigned. I hope my sons get a chance to serve in this way someday.

4. One Scout walked in carrying a DVD about the Church. With an enormous smile, he came up to individuals, one by one, to show them his treasure. “Look!” he would say, with such enthusiasm, that each of us felt excitement for his movie, too. If that’s not the essence of what we ought to be doing with our associates in sharing the gospel, I don’t know.

5. Rarely have I felt such connection to people so quickly as I did in that room.

6. I observed the leaders who come each week and saw a calmness in their countenances. I think this must come because they were in a place the Savior would choose to be and doing the things the Savior would be doing if he were here.

7. Little Avery, a fifth grader, showed more poise under pressure than I see in most adults. We can ask children to do hard things.

8. I still love teaching science.

Calm down.

This is what I need to do to calm down. It involves several things.

Keep my relationship with my Heavenly Father as my first priority.
Breathe more deeply more often.
Allow for differences in approaching a problem.
Don’t interpret positives as negatives. Instead of wishing more could be done, see every small act as a positive.

Christmas 2015

1-DSC_0039 — Nativity kids at my parents’ place in Spring Lake on Christmas Eve

1-DSC_0021 — The smallest shepherd with his sheep. This is my nephew and this is my favorite picture from Christmas. Richard got a new camera. so we have no photographs of him because he was the photographer.

1-DSC_0036 — No worries, this angel is pretty cool. This is the last photo of the younger boys because they received video games for Christmas and we didn’t see much of them after that.

1-DSC_0045 — Paige was with us again and Daniel was the piano man providing background music.

1-choir — Richard and Daniel participated in the ward choir. Photo from Janine Clarke

1-DSC_0052 — View from the front porch on Christmas morning

1-DSC_0051 — We had no place to go, so it was great.

1-DSC_0055 — Sitting in this chair, bundled up and cozy, I watched the entire Roosevelt documentary series over two weeks. 14 hours, people. Richard and Paige joined me for the last 10 hours. I often bundle up like this in the house.

Paige's paint doodles — Paige’s paint doodles

1-DSC_0073 — For the upstairs tree we used mostly red and white ornaments and it was one of the prettiest trees we’ve ever had.

2-DSC_0053 — Richard was eventually able to dig us out.