Overheard at Macey's

I made the mistake of going grocery shopping at Macey's at about 7 pm on Friday. I naively thought that the store would be more deserted on a weekend evening. Yeah, I'm sometimes that dumb.

The store was packed. They were hosting some sort of tailgate party for the BYU game, plus it was the case lot sale, plus there were dozens of families there for cheap ice cream cones in the deli. I very nearly turned around and left when I realized how crowded it was, but I hadn't been to the store in over a week and we only had about a half cup of milk in the house. I decided just to take my time and do what needed to be done.

I ended up having a delightful experience. I got my own cheap ice cream cone and wandered around the store eavesdropping as I shopped. I learned a few new things.

I am not making any of this up.

From the two teenage boy checkers who s-l-o-w-l-y checked out my case goods during the breaks in their conversation:
"Dude you totally need to get out of the virgin lip club."
"Yeah, I know. It's so weird though, cuz like it's a good thing for boys to get out of the club, but girls are supposed to stay in the club. It's like they don't want to get out. When boys get out they have a party with their friends."
"My seminary teacher said it's good to kiss. We're supposed to."

What the heck?

From the two college girls wandering around the produce section:
"I don't want pesticides on my food. I like might grow another leg or something."

Huh? (These same girls were later complaining that they had to buy an entire bunch of celery when they only needed two stalks. Heaven forbid they eat extra celery!)

And from the disembodied voices of two employees chatting on the other side of the dairy case:
"The people in Guatemala don't know anything about Walmart. I asked them and they were like, 'What's that?'"

Seriously? You asked them all?

I think I'm going to shop at night more often.

Labor Day

I don't generally post things here about outings with my family. But that's just because they are so rare!
Yesterday we decided to take a bona fide holiday and go somewhere fun with the kids. We decided this around noon and packed a quick lunch, jumped in the car and headed toward the canyon. We drove about half of the Alpine Loop, stopped at Cascade Springs and finished the day at Bridal Veil falls. It was great.
We have found that spontaneous outings are often the best!

Lessons from the Lawn

I think mowing the lawn is a wonderful thing. The combination of fresh cut grass, gasoline and sweat is what good hard work smells like. I find that sweeping back and forth across the yard, making real noticeable progress with every pass of the blades, is rather cathartic for me. But I haven't always felt that way.

Three years ago when we found out my husband was deploying with the Army and would be gone for two summers, the initial response of many well-meaning friends was, "We'll mow your lawn for you." It was like a knee jerk reaction to hearing the news. And about half the time that first summer I did get help with my lawn. Our young men's group came by a couple of times. My friends next door or the neighbors behind us would often cross the property line and mow my lawn as they did their own. I enlisted the help of brothers and nephews a time or two. But people had their own lawns--and frankly, their own lives--to worry about and I found the task of mowing the lawn falling on my shoulders much more often than I thought it would.

Now, mind you, I knew how to mow the lawn just fine on my own, but every time I did it I would quietly cry. Not because it was hard but because having to do it after being promised by so many that it would be taken care of, made me feel abandoned, forgotten and extremely lonely. It came to symbolize everything that was so difficult about my situation.

The second summer of the deployment was a completely different story. By that point I had already made it through an entire year--the most difficult year of my life. A year that was fraught with stress and pain. A year that made me figure out who I am without my companion by my side. A year that taught me what I'm really capable of. Mowing the lawn came to symbolize my independence, my ability to take care of things on my own and in some strange way, my own strength to endure hard things.

I'm not about to open a yard care business or anything, but I don't mind mowing the lawn now. Sometimes I quite enjoy it. It's great to see how quickly my yard goes from looking like an unruly jungle to a neat and ordered space. In fact, at times it seems like it's one of the only aspects of my life that I can really control!