A Lance Reunion (Finally)

Feels like same old, same old already. Get up at the BCoD (butt crack of dawn), hug the older kids, pray, get dressed, hustle the girls into clothes, make lunches, snarf down breakfast, play with Fergus, get distracted, yell at Evelyn to take her medicine for the umpteenth time, race out of the house at 7:42, clock in at 7:45. Somehow the time flies by, opening computers, prepping for 5-6 classes per day, 1 of each grade. Grabbing my fanny pack, making it to the front door only to realize my stop sign is still in the classroom! Race back and run to the cross walk to help all the cute kids over in safety. I enjoy dancing and making the kids smile. At exactly 8:45 back to the classroom just in time to welcome the first class at 8:55. The rest of the day is a whirlwind of helping kids learn the computer lab routine, log-in (a rather challenging dilemma), type in web addresses, and the log out with managing to push the power button. It is a delicate task. In my one 30 minute prep period I am expected to prepare lesson plans, decorate my classroom, make all the things needed like sub plans, seating charts, and keeping up on dozens of emails. Gracious. At least the time flies by. Each class spent half their time lining up and sitting back down with their mouths turned off, the hardest class lined up 7 times! 

Wednesday, I went to Central Elementary to shadow Mrs Raas. She’s taught in the computer lab for 10 years, an odd mixture of resigned obligation and snark. Her. First main piece of advice was, “You are paid mediocre…so be mediocre!” After 2 weeks on the job I understood her sentiment! We are only paid $15.50 per hour yet expected to teach 300-600 students without many resources nor support. Just thrown in without even a schedule to follow or list of duties. Yes, I’ve requested that…made one for any sub who takes my place for the day. Mrs. Raas had some good ideas: seating charts she made, have teachers assign students to desks, putting more fun free content on the school website, have the older kids log-in for the younger grades and pull up a typing program the younger kids can practice typing usernames/pass, and classroom management. I had more free time shadowing Mrs Raas so I used that time to work on the Reagan lab page, a seating chart in Canva, and classroom info sheets. I made it back just in time to teach Josie’s class before the end of school! Hooray! 

Tuesday the boys had open house so parents can meet teachers and chat about concerns. We went directly after dinner with Josie in tow. She had her printer camera around her neck snapping photos of odd things around the school, like Bob the eagle. Mr Gomez had a parent meeting for robotics at 6:30 about fundraising and tournament dates. The boys showed off their cool robot, so far they made a robot that can crawl over hurdles and maneuver around large foam dodecahedrons. The boys are very motivated to win and make it to finals in Texas this year! It is an exciting program. The boys have a hard time working together with Everett as Mr Know-it-all and Phillip with his slower pace. They’ve had several arguments near fisticuffs after school. 

Wednesday Everett had his first cross country meet out in Emmett. Dusty was able to attend! He sent photos and gave Everett a ride home. Everett said he barfed but made it to the end, beating his PR for this year. That is great. The next meet is a home meet, gotta make that one for sure. While Everett was barfing his guts out the girls all went to find Amelia a Homecoming dress to rent. We tried a place close to our home, all those dresses were not at all modest. She found a dress at another “shop” in Kuna where we found her birthday rental dress. She is going with her friend Jocelyn, no boys are asking so she took matters in her own hands! She found a fun blue dress! After a very quick dinner Amelia and I went to Columbia’s open house. Mrs Sene scheduled a parent’s meeting for choir students. Basically, just a review of dates and fundraising. Trivia night is just two weeks away! I spent the rest of the evening making trivia answer sheets. Thanks to Justin for getting the dishes done. 

I stayed late on Thursday finishing substitute plans and the seating charts. Then home to a scene of chaos as everyone was in varying packing stages for our Lance family camping trip. More accurately, everyone was watching TV, floundering to get the simplest tasks done like packing clothes for 3 days. Phillip spent an hour fussing over his missing jeans. He left them on the floor and probably got swept up in Everett’s dirty laundry. Then he was fussing with his broken ear buds. When we only had 10 minutes before scriptures and prayers he decided to start packing. I made a late night trip to Walmart for the last food items and many rolls of duct tape. 

Friday morning the girls and I had picture day. I got my new Reagan ID card with a snazzy new snapshot. Yay. Evelyn and Josie went sometime before lunch for their photos. The morning went by quickly. The tech figured out there is no power to the computer lab speakers. He at least got sound coming from the unit itself. I got permission to tape up the cords underneath the desks because the students were kicking the power strip off once or twice a day. I was thrilled mty sub arrived, no one signed up until 11 am! I was sweating bullets. She got a quick run down before the girls and I ran home at lunch to finish packing. I probably forgot 30% of what we needed to bring, I’m happy the rest made it in the van. Before driving off to Utah we stopped at Dollar Tree for gag gifts, and stuff for a “fun” family game. I convinced the family to participate in the gimcrack idea Aunt Nancy’s family had for their last reunion. Each family will bring 2-3 gimcrack, the kids can earn a token once they complete tasks. My poo-poo head siblings can think the idea is dumb but the kids will LOVE it (me too). We did not arrive at the campsite until after 9 pm. Josie drank too much yummy soda in the van…Justin pulled over twice by the side of the road for her to pee. She had an accident at Chik-fil-a because Phillip said she had to order before going potty. She usually has a very large bladder so that was abnormal. Mom flagged us toward the correct campsite, we were glad she was there! Dad’s awesome buff wagon helped us unload in just a few minutes. Phillip and Everett camped with Everett Lance in a tent near his family. Amelia and Lia had a tent all to themselves. That left Justin and I with the little girls! We hung out for a bit before heading to bed. Yulia’s air mattress sounded like thunder to my sleepy brain, dreamt of floods and thunderstorms all night. 

Saturday Joe and Kat made a scrumptious breakfast of Italian tomatoes and eggs. The boys loved chopping wood for the fire pit. Jacob had a goal to chop through a large log, the boys went at that task with gusto! They finally chopped out and freed a chunk Sunday afternoon. Jeffrey brought a fun axe throwing game everyone quite enjoyed. Grandma recruited Amelia and Lia to help her paint rocks for a fairy village. The rest of us went hiking to Doughnut Falls, just 1.5 miles away. Josie, Rachel, and Pasha almost expired from the strenuous effort. Josie whined most of the hike there. Evelyn, Hannah, Penny, and Emmie were dancing and singing their way up the trail. The last time we hiked to Doughnut Falls Amelia was about 7 months old! The old ladies straggled behind the boys with the whining littles in tow. James was up with the older boys. Rachel was delighted to get her shoes soaked in the frigid mountain water. It felt Heavenly. Rudy met us on the path back to camp! Our hike went longer than anticipated, everyone was starving by 1 pm when we got back to camp. After lunch Grandpa rounded the kids to play Grandpa Hide and Seek. He sits on a camp chair and everyone hides where s/he has a clear view of Grandpa. He looks for any movement spotting giggling, hiding children. Pasha was terrible at the game, so terribly funny running from tree to tree. I joined in the second wave of the game, Rachel sat on my legs. She was very quiet, content with a Kinder egg. The sun came out and illuminated her pants, so she was spotted. I stayed so my pink pants looked like flowers from that distance. Penny was the last one found! By that round Grandpa had us saying “beep, beep” and shaking trees! I sent the kids off with Walkie Talkies for a rousing game of Sasquatch tag. Jacob and Jeremy entertained us with twangy banjo and guitar music. The kids took a while to find the cute fairy garden hidden nearby. Then Miekka and I taught Penny, Hannah, Everett L., Josie and Rachel basic crochet chaining. Penny caught right on! Then it was dinner time, Justin and I worked hard to get a load of bacon and onions fried up, beans simmering, and coleslaw made. Yum. Nadia is like the happiest kid ever! She toddled around stealing drinks, rocks, spoons, all the fun things. Emma and Evelyn pulled the little around in Grandpa’s wagon for hours. Before dark the kids got to play the cheese puff game! The kids teamed up in twos, one donned a lovely silk hair cap, got a load of shaving cream sprayed on top. The other teammate had one minute to throw as many cheese puffs and stick in the shaving cream as possible. The teams switched for even more fun! We cleaned up dinner and tidied the campground before dark. Around the fire kids toasted marshmallows while Rudy entertained us with stories about growing up in Samoa. Mom updated us with her chaismic discovery of the church starting in Jerusalem, then Rome, then Palmyra, then Rome, next Jerusalem. She had some cool star updates, the constellations are telling a revealing story about our current times. We swapped stories for a good hour! That is the best part. It only sprinkled a little overnight. 

Sunday Jeremy made a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy. Grandpa suggested we take down the tents and head home early because a flood watch and rain forecast was quite certain. It took a few hours to get the tents emptied. John suggested we dry out the tents in the parking lot before packing them away. John started digging a trench for the spigot water to drain down the path instead of under the picnic table. He had all the kids digging, gathering pebbles, and filling the trench with stones and pebbles. We finally had our “zoom” meeting about the new For Strength of Youth pamphlet. The older kids had assigned sections to review. In between most sections Jeremy lead us in a song to help keep the Primary kids participating. Pasha just loves Phillip, he followed him like a puppy most of the time. I love watching Everett Lance snuggling Nadia or Natalya. The older kids then briefly outlined their summer activities at FSY, camping, and Jacob’s memorable trip to Copenhagen. We finished making the kid’s gimcrack necklaces. Amelia and I started making beaded bracelets. Soon Miekka got out para cord for fun chunky survival bracelets. It was so peaceful up there. Lounging around chatting, playing games, crafting, eating good food, and enjoying each other’s company. James and Miekka had Hawaiian bowls for the last meal. James grilled up chicken thighs, served on cabbage, rice, Hawaiian pasta salad, and pineapple. Gracious that was delicious. We missed Jared. Joe and Kat stopped by several times and Jeffrey came up for a few hours Saturday. We worked hard to get the campsite cleaned up before heading back to Mom’s home. I am so glad we did, it rained off and on all night. 

John, Courtenay, their kids, Hannah, Rachel, and Lia, our family, and of course Mom, Dad and Jeffrey all slept at their home. We crashed here and there claiming the best spots for sleeping. Evelyn, Penny, and Hannah were crazy! They had a butt party, mostly involving screaming and laughing until 11 pm. I finally had to put the kibosh on practically scaring Hannah  into silence. Uncle Jon came over for a late night chat with John, I butted in for a bit to hear Jon’s latest news and opinions. Josie fell asleep on my lap, that was so nice to have snuggles. 

Now we are headed home filled with lovely memories. Rain is rushing past on the windows as a definite feel of Fall creeps into the air. I planned to leave around 11 am. Instead the Ladies went shopping at a fun clearance store near Mom’s home. I got lots of fun leggings, shirts, and quite a few STEM toys to put in my computer lab. Rudy showed up with a GARGANTUAN pizza, it was demolished in 5 minutes flat. James, John, Justin, and Rudy gave Dad a blessing before we left. Dad’s knee is still causing excruciating pain, added with his hip and sciatica he is in a world of hurt. Broke my heart when Dad started crying as he described his pain and how nothing is working. I hope we don’t wait another 5-then years before our next reunion. We are talking about doing an informal family campout each year but then every 2-3 years a bigger reunion campout. That sounds like a doable plan.