All About Shanna

As you know (I already mentioned it, of course!), Shanna came home on Tuesday, and this week has been all about her!

I took time off work and have just spent every minute I could with her! I’ve already talked about Wednesday (our veg day), but Thursday we had business to take care of. Almost all of the clothes she took on her mission were left, threadbare and worn, in Spain. So on Thursday Sage, Shanna, and I headed out. We didn’t do a ton of shopping, but we came up with a few basics.

We took time out for lunch at a yummy bistro, and it was the first time Shanna had really felt like eating—it was good to see her finally eating!

Most of Friday was spent unpacking the boxes Shanna had packed and stored away before she left. I guess I should say I watched while Shanna unpacked! (smile) Actually, I didn’t watch. . . while we visited I worked on the album for her Happy Halloween Homecoming party this week.

Friday night, Shanna had her first date in 18 months! She had a blind date with the nephew of a friend, to help her make the adjustment back into that whole social scene.

Sage came over to help her get ready, and Sara and her children showed up for the finishing touches—you would have thought it was prom or something! And everyone was here for dinner when the date showed up! He was a great sport though!

We even got a photo—although I’d been given strict instructions not to take one! Thankfully Sean grabbed his phone camera and took a shot, without any prompting at all from me!

The date went well, and our Shanna is transitioning nicely. We went to yoga together this morning, and this afternoon she drove a car for the first time—and survived! She went off on her own to visit some friends, and I got to spend the afternoon at the hospital with Leslie. 

This week is ending much too soon, and I’m sad—next week I'll have to start adding real life into the equation--but I'll still be spending as much time with Shanna as possible. This week has been absolutely delightful!

She's Home!

After eighteen very long but glorious (because we knew she was doing a good thing) months, our Shanna is HOME!

It’s been a wonderful 24-plus hours! Shanna arrived in the Salt Lake City Airport last night, a little before 9 p.m., leaving her beloved Spain behind but coming home to her beloved family!

I can’t describe the moments of anticipation as we waited at the airport for our first glimpse of her. Because of security, we couldn’t go to the gate, so we all (family, cousins, friends, former mission companions, even her former mission president and his wife) waited impatiently in the baggage area, at the bottom of the escalator.

We asked people as they came down to collect their baggage if they had been on the flight from Atlanta (Shanna’s connecting flight), and when the first few passengers started arriving, we cheered, and the excitement mounted. Her nieces and nephews began chanting, “Go, Shanna. Go, Shanna,” and waving the posters they’d made earlier. (We had all gathered as a family and had dinner before going to the airport.)

In all of the anticipation, we actually almost missed her. For a brief moment, when she stepped onto the escalator to come down, we didn’t recognize her. It’s terrible to admit, but we were kind of anticipating a tired, droopy sister missionary—but she looked gorgeous! Her hair has gotten longer, she’s lost a little weight, she had on a pretty purple skirt (one of the few outfits that made it home, we found out later; most were worn out and were left behind), and she had a wonderful, peaceful presence. It took us a split second to recognize her, then a cheer erupted!

And then the party began!

After everyone hugged her and chatted at the airport, family members and three of her former companions headed to our house. Shanna had made one request of her first night home—she wanted to watch the movie Twilight. So that’s what we all (including Sterling and the sons-in-law!) did.

We didn’t actually hit play on the DVD player until past midnight (we had to get at least a couple hours of catching up in before being quiet for a movie!).  By the time the movie was over and we chatted a little bit longer, it was 4:30—I finally headed to bed. Sage and Shanna took her three companions home, and then, after they got back, stayed up and talked until past 7 this morning!

Needless to say, we were all kind of tired today, and the morning and most of the afternoon was lazy and laidback. I hardly ever veg—I always need to have something in my hands, some project to work on. But not today! I spent all day just enjoying being with Shanna. I didn’t work, didn’t putter, didn’t even stamp!

Around 3, we got up enough energy to take that drive up in the canyon. There was some color left, and I loved watching Shanna just sit back, close her eyes, smell the pine-scented autumn air, and drink it all in!

She seems so happy! While she’s concerned about what happens next—school, job, money, all those material things that we all have to think about—there’s a maturity and peace about her that I love!

Time Out From Puttering

My plan today was to putter, something Mom Heather loved to do, just spend the day doing odd and end jobs that have needed to be done forever. I was looking forward to that—we’ve been gone so much lately that the puttering list is pretty long!

But my puttering urge battled my “get out and see the leaves” urge this evening, and the leaves won!

I’m so glad!

(As an aside, more than a year ago Sterling bought a stripped down Jeep. He wanted it so he could plow the driveways of some widows and single ladies in our neighborhood who can’t do it themselves. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea—until he took me up the canyon last fall and I got to see the changing leaves with the wind blowing through my hair. I fell in love with the Jeep then and there—he should definitely keep it forever.)

So today I headed on my drive alone—Sterling couldn’t come because he had church meetings.

If you’ve never seen leaves changing in the mountains, I don’t know if you can understand the beauty of what we enjoy almost every autumn.  It’s difficult to describe, but it’s breathtaking. And today was even more beautiful than usual. Partly because it had snowed a few days ago, so you could see snow on top of Mt. Timpanogos, just above the colorful leaves. And partly because I was alone, driving in our Jeep with the top off, and just soaking it all in.

I was so overcome with the beauty of Mother Nature, the peace and tranquility and majesty of it all, that I actually had to pull over and wipe away a few tears. I took only one photo, and it doesn’t do the scene justice at all, but I had to share it with you.

I’m only hoping that it will last just four more days. (The colors come and go very quickly!) Shanna comes home Tuesday (I’m not excited or anything!), and I can’t wait to drag her up there and share what she’s been missing for the past 18 months!

Ending Summer on a Powell High

Warning: If you don’t want to read about Lake Powell again (we also took a family vacation there earlier this summer!), just skip this post! (smile)

Everyone who knows me well knows that Lake Powell is one of my favorite places! It’s always my first choice for a family vacation, and we try to go a couple of times a year—it’s quick, easy, and close!

We’ve ridden through a storm or two and seen Mother Nature wreak havoc down there in a matter of minutes, but we’ve never seen quite the fury we experienced yesterday—I hope it’s a day we never have to repeat!

The wind was absolutely incredible, throwing everything around, snapping thick ropes, and making what is usually a fairly easy, smooth process extremely difficult! Breaking down camp and getting ready to come off the lake was scary, and although I never feared for my life, I was certainly stressed. Thankfully, although we were drenched and exhausted, we finally got everything cleaned up and packed up safely.

And it was definitely worth it, because the weather before that was as perfect as we’ve ever had on Powell—even Sterling fell in love with the lake this time!

We really had a great time! Sara and Sean and their family were the only ones who could come, but they hadn’t been for two years, so it was a treat to see their children enjoy it all. The Douglass kids are like their mom and dad, always up for an adventure, and they loved every minute of it. Stella, the youngest, had no fear. She was a goer the entire time, and we were all on constant “Stella alert.”

I didn’t spend much time in the water—I spent most of my time with the kids (helping with homework, taking photos, reading books, crafting), cooking, and (of course) stamping. I finally finished the box invitations for Shanna’s Happy Halloween Homecoming party—got the idea straight out of the current US/CAN Idea Book & Catalog (the Happy Halloween box on page 20).

All in all, it was a great way to end the summer! 

My Flowerful Brooch

A couple of weeks ago at the Cincinnati Regional, I wore a brooch that I’d made with the Stampin’ Up! Flower Folds die. I bet I had a few dozen demonstrators ask me how I’d made it, so I’m breaking my own rule here—I’m posting instructions for a project. (Normally I don’t do that, but just this once. . .  )

 

For this brooch I started by cutting out four flowers of the same size. I folded each of the flowers in half, then I laid each of the flower halves down, with one half of the petals overlapping onto the previous flower half, almost like weaving the flower petals together.

After you have the four flower halves interlapping, I loosely tacked them together, with large stitches. I know some people use the sewing machine, but I'm too lazy to get mine out (smile), so I handstitched mine.

Then I repeated this several times, making as many different little flower pieces as I wanted. For this brooch, I made two each of the three smallest flowers from the die, so I had a total of six flower pieces.

When I finished the flower pieces, I layered them on top of each other, kind of overlapping and random. I call it skillywampus. (Good luck finding that word in the dictionary!)

Next, hot glue a small circle of felt over the stitching on the back and secured pin (or hair clip or whatever). Finish off  the flower by adding the flower center—on this brooch I used an antique button from Mom Heather’s button collection.

Using fabric with our Big Shot and dies is very popular, and this is such an easy project (I just used scrap fabric from projects at my house--pillows from my back porch, curtains in my stamp studio, and my apron from last year's convention)—I noticed several people at Founder’s Circle with similar pins, hair bows, and other things. There’s really so much you can do with this!