So, yesterday Glen made it back from his 12 day camping absence and Hannah moved most of her stuff from Reno to Fallon. Which means my living room (and front porch) now like this:
Glen had gone from Young Women's Camp at Buck's Lake, California to Camp Fleischmann, which is north of Lake Almanor, California. Last weekend was a scouting "Ordeal" (I still need Glen to explain to me again what that was) which was followed by Woodbadge (a week long camp for training adult scouting leaders). At Woodbadge Glen was the Chaplain and taught a class(es?) on interfaith worship in scouting. He had a great time, but he's glad the stress of teaching at Woodbadge is over.
After he got home last night, he looked around, saw the obvious change from pinkish to green walls in the back entry, but it took him a while to notice that our bedroom and living room were different colors. It was quite funny how he kept wandering around trying to find something that was different.
On Wednesday, I attended the last Financial Peace University class. It was on giving. We can't help others if we ourselves need help. Very inspiring.
Friday was Alex's last Driver's Ed class. Now he just needs some time in the car with Mr. Thomson, then he'll be able to get his license. I've spent some time in Glen's classroom these past 2 weeks waiting for Alex to be done with his class each day. It's a bit weird without the students there.
Friday night was Michael and Alicia's wedding reception here. At their reception in Mexico, they had this big dance to a montage of songs, so they performed for us, too. Quite fun. I had "All the Single Ladies" stuck in my head for the rest of the night. :)
...the mouse will play... if you call painting several rooms in my house playing.
Glen left Monday morning for Young Women's Camp. On Thursday Hannah went to Reno for a few days and Alex went to an Aaronic Priesthood Encampment, which is a huge deal that happens every 4 years.
Alex is 5th from the left in the back row, right next to the sign
8-man skiis take cooperation and coordination. Alex is 2nd from the left
That means I had 2 1/2 days all to myself. I finally felt like being productive after a few weeks dragging my feet. I painted my bedroom. I painted the small hall. I painted the living room. They are all now painted a blue-green called Summer Shower Green, which I used in a back bedroom last year. I don't know that computers do paint colors justice, but it looks like this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/571183165221340513/
Those walls used to be a very similar color (Verde Gris). So much so that Hannah didn't realize anything had been painted. Alex only knew because Saturday afternoon he saw me with paint brush in hand doing a few touch-ups. I actually think I prefer the Verde Gris, but it was time for a change.
None of us think Glen will notice when he gets back. But I did have him bring in a ladder for me before he left in case I got around to painting, so he might notice.
This week will be a hot one...just in time for the first day of summer on Wednesday. Stay cool everyone!
On Monday, Glen and I traveled to Carson City to meet with someone at the Nevada PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) office. It's hard to believe (at least for me, at any rate), but it looks like Glen will only be teaching for 2 more years. That will give him 30 years in the system with him retiring at the ripe old age of 56. I told him that that was too young to retire, so he's thinking about what else he can do when he's done teaching. I picture him working in a hardware store. He can't picture that.
Part of our Financial Peace University homework for next week was to discuss with your spouse your retirement plans and dreams. I don't know that we've come up with anything concrete in our discussion. It's hard for me to picture it all. Besides just being with family, we've said since we were married that we wanted to serve some missions, do family history, and work in the temple. And? I feel like there should be more to our plan, but that's about it at this point. We have a bit to figure it all out.
Since it was D-Day on Tuesday, Glen and I went to watch the John Wayne movie "They Were Expendable" at the old movie theater . (At the beginning of July they will be playing "Independence Day"--the first movie, and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is slated for the beginning of August). Neither of us had seen "They Were Expendable" before. I really liked it...though we wish we could have found out what happened to the nurse.
The suffering so many endured made me think of the book I recently read about Shackleton's ordeal in Antarctica ("Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic" by Alfred Lansing). What people can endure and survive is mind-boggling.
Thursday was Dad Perazzo's 85th birthday, so we all gathered in the evening for cake and ice cream and sharing stories about Dad. Happy Birthday Dad!!! You and Mom raised a great family!
Dad surrounded by his children: David, Teresa, Alan, Glen, and Kathy
And Friday marked the end of the school year for Hannah, Andrew, and Denise. Congratulations on surviving another year!
In case you can't see the video, she posted these words to go with it:
So I'm pretty bad at keeping people updated, so here's what I got:
A couple months ago I took over for a math teacher at Swope Middle
School as he went on medical leave. After all the lesson plans,
accepting late work, and being at the school till 9 pm on countless
nights, I learned just how freakin' crazy every single teacher out there
is. But part of me gets it. After making room S-6 my home,
spending all day with these witty kids, and being able to be myself as I
taught, something started to feel worth it. Hahahha, never going to do it again though. That was the craziest job. Loved it, good experience, moving on. Thank you so much, Swope Middle School.
Did you catch how she just called her Grandma Perazzo, her father, her Aunt Denise, her Uncle Gary, and all other teachers crazy? (Aunt Kathy and me included?)
And she posted to YouTube a video of a song that she wrote, using Michael's words, called "Tall: A Song for Adam Reed Perazzo." He passed away 5 years ago on June 2nd. We love you and we miss you Adam!
Adam at Alicia's wedding
So today is the first day of Young Women's Camp. Glen and Kathy headed out at 5:30 am...in the rain. The snow level isn't supposed to get as low as Buck's Lake California, where they are going, but it's probably raining. :( I'm so glad I'm not going. I told Glen I sometimes feel guilty about not liking camping and not wanting to go to YW camp, but then yesterday I told myself that there are people who wouldn't want to teach seminary (and I do). So I guess we all have our little niches. Camping is not one of mine.
I have not been too motivated to do summer projects yet. I'm hoping I'll get in gear this week and get something good accomplished.
So, we just ended our first week of summer vacation. I don't know what Glen originally had planned for Memorial Day, but our dryer broke. Thanks to YouTube, a few hours, and a soldering gun, he was able to fix it! Amazing. Thanks, Glen.
Then Tuesday morning we got a call asking if our roofers could come and start roofing. Well, sure. Why not. I didn't think they'd be coming for a few weeks. So we now are the proud owners of a new roof! We knew there was a tiny leak by a skylight in the living room. They not only fixed that (just a small part of a 2x4 had to be replaced, thankfully), but they took down the broken swamp cooler and patched over the 2 different holes we had for the old swamp coolers (we now have a window side-mount cooler instead of a roof-top one which is much easier to service). Our nephew, Tyler, was one of the workers, so that was kind of neat.
before (swamp cooler water damage)
after
before
after
Wednesday night's Financial Peace class was great because Glen's schedule let him accompany me again. The topic was insurance. It was very helpful and not boring at all (they mentioned a few times that people find the topic boring...and I have to admit that class had less students than usual).
I really highly recommend that everyone take the Financial Peace University class. It can be taken online if you can't attend a live class. It's really great stuff.
Alex's report card came in. Straight A's with a 4.5 GPA. He's ranked #1 out of 263 (but we don't know how many others are tied for 1st place). Congratulations again, Alex.
Besides our roof, Tuesday also brought Glen's sister, Teresa, and her husband, Matt, to
Fallon. They recently finished their Church proselyting mission where
they spent 1 year in Iceland and then 1 year in Boston. After visiting
their children, they are now here (on and off) until they start their
1 year temple mission to the Halifax Nova Scotia Temple in October. We are so
excited to have them here!
We are also excited to finally have our nephew, Michael, and his bride of 14 months, Alicia, in Fallon for the summer. We just got to meet her for the first time since we couldn't make it to the wedding in Mexico and it took 14 months for her application to come to the United States to be approved. But she is finally here! Since Michael and Alicia stopped off in Utah before coming to Fallon,
Andrew, Heather, and Henry got to meet Alicia before we did.
Henry, Andrew, Heather, Alicia, and Michael
We are looking forward to a summer filled with family fun!
