August

 I started the month with a meeting with my Kindergarten team. The principal came and explained to us that the district was giving Kindergarten teachers 3 full paid prep days (at $500 per day) for every session of Kindergarten they teach. So since I teach 1 session I got 3 days. I was super motivated to spend the time in the classroom, but that meant I went back to work a bit earlier than I had intended. I felt so much better prepared from spending that 24 hours there, and the extra money will go right into our vacation budget. My foot got better and better every day and it was especially nice when I started taking my boot off and just walking in my normal shoes. It has mostly felt like a twisted ankle, but the pain has been better than it was before the surgery. As I am writing this in mid September its probably 90% better. 

As my foot got better and I wasn't in the boot anymore, Sean and I were able to go back and do an endowment session. It was so lovely to be in the temple together. Later that week we learned that they had made some more changes to the endowment and made it shorter. Sean and I went again the next Saturday morning and it was really neat to see the new changes so close to having just attended. Its about 20 minutes shorter which is amazing as it will allow us to go so much more often. 

Lizzie and I attended her friend Amelia's baptism and it was really special to support her friend! Lizzie wanted to wear her baptism dress  and I got this cute picture of them together. 

Brian and Jill's family went to New York City and we volunteered to watch puppy Watson. He is so so cute! Having a 4 month old corgi in the house was a good reminder of how much work puppies are. We all really enjoyed playing with him though including Oreo! 

Here is my classroom as it started to come together. Its amazing how much work all this set up takes! 

My dear friend Trish turned 50 and I offered to throw her a birthday party. We were going to have the party at her house, but at the last minute her son got sick so we moved the party to our house. It was a lovely party and we had lots of conversation and good food. We also played a 3 favorite things party. Everyone brings 3 favorite things and then writes their names on 3 slips of paper. Then the names are drawn and the things given away. So you go home with 3 little gifts. I got a BYU blanket, some scrub daddies, and new nail polish. I gave away pot holders and ice cream scoops. 

We haven't see our friends the Saffrons in awhile and Steffan works on Saturday afternoons, so we decided to just go up for a Saturday morning. We got there around 10, went and got ice cream then went to a trampoline park to play. It was a lot of fun and we were sad to only have a short time to visit. 

The food from Trish's party:

BreAnna Saffron runs a preschool out of her home and she built a little playhouse in the classroom this summer. 

I love when the girls ask me to do fun things with their hair!

We visited Sheels (a sporting goods store near our house) one Saturday. It was so much fun to wander around and look at all the fun things. We loved the huge fish tank, the yummy candy store, the ferris wheel in the middle, and the toy section and exercise equipment. 

Sean shared a fun memory of staying with his brother Eric at BYU when he (Sean) was about 12 and Eric was about 20. Eric took Sean to the mall and got him a huge jaw breaker. 

The ferris wheel was fun but it was pretty horrifying at the top when they paused to load more passengers. The buckets would shift when you shifted! 

I don't know what the real name of this fish is, but I think it should be Unicorn fish. 

And of course a good picture with Abraham Lincoln before going home. 

Cookie tried on his bumble bee costume. 

Brett crocheted a bearded dragon!

I took Brett to his walk around day at the school. We got his schedule and were able to walk around and see where all his classes were going to be and we found his locker. 

Becky Ford, a lady in our ward was doing all the little girls nails for back to school. I took Alana and Lizzie while Sean and Brett went to do baptisms at the Temple. 

The day before the first day I wanted to do something called practice donuts. We were going to get ready just like we would for school and then go get donuts and go play at the park. Brett found out last minute that he was needed to help with 7th grade orientation with the NJHS. So he went to do that and the girls and I went to a new park to play. We missed Brett and Sean, but look forward to taking them there sometime. 

Brett looked so grown up as he left for his 8th grade year!

These cute girls let me do their hair and picked out some fun back to school outfits. 

Lizzie started 3rd grade with Ms. Tuttle.

Alana started 5th grade with Ms. Pease. 

I started another year of afternoon kindergarten. 

Of course the night before school started the kids noticed that the ice cream sandwiches were soft. Here is a letter recap Sean wrote from that first week of school to some family:Sunday Aug 25, 2024 letter

Hi everyone!

We’ve certainly had an eventful week.

Brett started 8th grade. He’s happy to be back in the ALPS classes (gifted/talented group) with some of his friends from last year. In addition, he’s taking band (playing flute which he taught himself last year), ceramics, and a beginning engineering/technology course. He has continued with his astronomy hobby and the other day caught a great view of Saturn including its rings in his little telescope! We celebrated his birthday this week and he got lots of astronomy and crochet paraphernalia, which he enjoyed! We also took him to the Christa McCauliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove, where a team of his friends, Alana, Neil, Kaden, and I did a fun role-playing Star Trek-type experience.

Alana started 5th grade, and we’re hoping she has an easier time of it than Brett did in that grade. So far so good! Lizzie started 3rd grade with a teacher that Alana already had in that grade, so we already know she should be great. They were all sad to stop having 8 hours a day playing with our neighbors, the Ellis’. 

Jennie also said goodbye to the summer break and is happy getting back into the swing of teaching kindergarteners. It can be a rough start with some of the still-4-year-olds who need their shoes tied and couldn’t line up in a line to save their stuffy’s life. It seems like there is a bit more support this year for any kids who are making trouble or who need more resources, so it looks like the school year should be great all around!

My clinic at Granger is still going strong, with just some change in leadership recently for the better. Near the end of the year we always need to focus an extra amount on “population health,” the metrics of people (over 65 especially) who have had their wellness visits and mammograms and colonoscopies and vaccines, etc. etc. because a huge part of our salary is actually tied to whether we document all of that or not. An extra chore, for sure, but a good goal. I won’t be teaching as much at St. Mark’s Family Medicine Residency soon because they are hiring another attending, so instead I’ll have more time to work at Granger. In addition, I’ll be starting up teaching a couple of local kids some piano, so that should be fun.

On a fateful Tuesday night this week, though, Brett discovered his ice cream sandwich was…soft! This disappointing dessert turned out to be a harbinger of the death of our fridge. We evacuated the goodies as quickly as possible and used the neighbor’s cooler and freezer while scrambling to find a replacement. We ended up getting a great deal from a small local business and we’re happy to report our new fridge/freezer is successfully keeping a bunch of ice cream ready, just in time for family to come celebrate Brett’s birthday this evening.

Since it hadn’t really been a busy or expensive enough week, we went on Saturday to the Riverton Music where they were holding a sale on pianos that have been used at local schools. We’ve been talking about a grand piano for some time, and lo and behold there was an excellent dark red Young Chang that called out to us. The instrument chooses the musician, you know. So we bought that and it will be coming this week. Along with a couple of couches to replace our aging sectional that will not accommodate a grand piano in our living room. And we’re done buying things for the year. And probably next year.

-Sean and Family

Sean also tried a continuous glucose monitor to help him understand how better to help his patients with them. One of the highlights was being woken with a loud alarm one night because his blood sugar was getting lower. Not dangerously so, especially since he doesn't have diabetes. But I guess the alarm was super loud, I slept right through it! 

On Brett's actual 13th birthday, he went to school. Then we opened presents and went to Pizza Pie Cafe. 

Here is the simulation room from his birthday party. He is the coolest kid and I am just in awe of him every day!! 

As Sean mentioned in his letter, we bought a grand piano! It has been a huge dream of our for a very long time and I didn't expect to be able to fulfill it until many years down the road. With the purchase of the new piano we needed new couches and so this one had to be sold. It was sad to say goodbye to this couch that we have loved and used so so much, but a cute BYU couple came and bought it and they made me happy. 

This piano light was from Sean's upright piano growing up! We couldn't part with it so its on the shelf in the basement. 

The piano came first and we have loved it and used it every day!

The couches came and they were so comfortable but the loveseat had a problem. I called the store and they sent a replacement, but the replacement had the same problem. We measured and decided to go for the two sofas instead of the loveseat and its worked out way better. We have another seat and no giant gap. In the week that it took us to figure it all out, the couches went on an even better sale. So we returned the loveseat and got a sofa and they refunded us $180! 

We needed to find a good home for our beautiful beloved upright piano. I asked my Relief Society if anyone could use a beautiful paino and a new family in the ward was very interested. They just finished residency training and the dad started work at Granger just at a different location from Sean. Their oldest little girl is in the morning Kindergarten class in my classroom. They are the sweetest family and I know they will love it and take good care of it. It seemed like the best option to just wheel it down the street. So we borrowed the furniture movers and got some guys and pushed that piano down the road! 

Here's Sean trying out the new grand at the store. He said it was like wand shopping, the piano chose him! Its a 25 year old piano in perfect condition with a beautiful warm sound! 

Here we were trying to figure out where to put the piano. 

Our neighbor Kari came to try out the piano and it was magical to hear her play! 

Alana lost another molar at school and it was cool to see the edges of the new tooth pushing down.