Australia and Michigan

So Josh left on Mother's day to go to Australia for work and he was gone until May 22. It was a long time to be gone (again--he just did two weeks in CA at the end of March/beginning of April) and I was actually pretty annoyed that he was going somewhere so cool without me; scared too because he would be so far away and by himself a lot and it made me nervous. But, I fasted about it and felt much better afterwards. Still, it is so tiring to be the only parent and I really feel sad for single parents. The emotional weight is heavy, even when things are good. 

But, he had a great trip. The jet lag is real and he has been tired since he left but he had a successful trip from a work stand point and he got to spend the weekend in Sydney and had a great time. He went to the Opera House, botanical gardens, two beaches, went surfing, visited an art museum, and walked all over. In Canberra he toured the houses of Parliment and the war memorial and scootered all around the city. He saw kangaroos but no other unusual creatures. He ate good food and loved their accents and said everything was clean and the people were friendly. I have never had much of a desire to go to Australia but maybe now we'll go together someday. 

 

Meanwhile Lily and Emma had dance rehearsal, Lily went to the stake formal dance with Adi and Claire and had a good time, Brandon had baseball games, I planted our little garden, Curtis had his spring sports banquet where he earned a sportsmanship award and a scholar athlete award, Noreen came over for dinner and family night, I went to Waldof and had breakfast with my high school friend and we went to Brandon's band concert. 

 

 

 

There was also a tough situation with Emma and I was pretty worried about her and feeling so alone one morning but I reached out to Bishop Wiest and he came and helped me and I was so grateful. Emma has also been doing better so while I still think there is an underlying issue regarding her anxiety that we are going to need to address, for right now things are okay. 

Our house has also been under attack by bugs and I have to say that the ants are winning the psychological battle. First I found a few in my pantry so I sprayed and haven't seen them in there since but then they started popping out of my sink and I would find them in the dishwasher and on my counter around the sink. It is so gross and I got some traps but they still keep popping out of nowhere sometimes so we have some pest people coming next week. I also saw a cockroach in the garage and about died; I hate them so much and they totally gross me out so can't wait to get that figured out too. 

So Josh got home late last Thursday and we left early Friday morning to drive to Michigan. My sister has lived there for a very long time but we haven't been to visit her in 12 years. Her youngest got married in Utah May 17 but they had an open house this past Saturday in Michigan so we decided to go. It was nice to see my parents and my nephew and meet his wife and it was fun to be back at Debbie's house. I used to spend two weeks there every summer during college and when we lived in Dayton I would go see her pretty regularly but then we moved here and it got much harder. She has a big piece of property with a long driveway so the kids had fun climbing her big trees and drawing with chalk all over her driveway and playing on her huge play set. We had a good drive on Friday (I drove since Josh was exhausted) and we even made a stop at some waterfalls on the way which were pretty and right off the road. We got there for dinner and got Detroit style pizza (the original) and then talked most of the evening. 

Saturday we mostly helped get ready for the open house by setting up the chairs and tables, helping decorate them, making the fruit dip and spinach dip and labels for the food , putting the favors together and getting the drinks set up and such. Kristi made a really good cake that was pretty and Tatum was there too so the kids enjoyed some cousin time. The open house was lovely but not as many people came as I think Debbie was planning for because there were a lot of extra tables and food. Glen's mom came though and his two brothers and I haven't seen them since Glen's funeral almost 20 years ago so I chatted with them and there were some people from the ward that I knew so I tried to be social and friendly but it did get tiring. Afterwards we cleaned up and then Ethan made a fire and we sat around the fire and chatted for the evening. 

 

 

Sunday we went to church and then to downtown Ann Arbor to a peony garden but only a few of the plants were in bloom. They probably look amazing now because you could tell they were all about to pop so we just walked around a bit and saw UM campus and the stadium then went back to Debbie's to watch a movie, have dinner and play a game. 

 

We had breakfast Monday morning and then left about 9:30 and had an easy drive home. We didn't stop anywhere fun since we were all just anxious to get home and we did hit some traffic north of D.C. but we made it in good time. We got Five Guys for dinner since we missed our ward picnic and I was craving a burger and then got home around 8pm to get unpacked and cleaned up and ready for school the next day. 

This week has been pretty chill, which was good because I was so tired and not feeling great on Tuesday. I did make it to Brandon's last game but then I went home and crashed. Lily was home Wednesday while her school had graduation so that was fun and she got a lot done and then Curtis was home yesterday while his school had graduation. I made him come to Target with me and he got his last big project mostly done. It has been so nice to not have seminary and not do so much driving. In fact Lily scored a parking pass so she's been driving herself to school and dance and it is wild.

Next week is show week; can't believe it is here already!