Caldera Living Day 1 (CL Day 1)

Well, hello there, Summer Vacation! Today is the very first day of "freedom" and yesterday was the last day of the 2014-1015 school year. I am beat.

So I'm not actually in the caldera yet, but I will be soon. I don't even remember what my initials were for each blog post the last two summers (not sure what I did for 2012...before YELL) depicting each day of vacation, but this is my FOURTH summer of not working (fourth summer away from my beloved cave and being a National Park Ranger) and since the concept of having some slack time is still so NEW to me, I feel the need to post about it. Time to move from EXHAUSTED to RESTED.

This first day of VACAY is being spent doing laundry, running errands, meeting up with a friend, scheduling appointments, changing our address, and attending Round Table. My visiting teaching is done for the month of June! We trained a new ward Primary presidency last evening and...although I'm not out swimming and having water balloon fights and fishing at the pond like my care-free students on their first day of summer vacay, I am grateful I have time to LIVE. You know? Just time to do one load of laundry from start to finish and put it away. Time to chop up something healthy for a meal. And time to wash the dishes afterward. Time to stay inside our home long enough to accomplish one task before running off to another obligation, meeting, class, training, council, or appointment. This is a true luxury in my life. I realize some people are trying to bust OUT of their homes because that's where they are all day every day, but I'm still trying to bust IN.

ADDENDUM! Yeah, so I wrote the above earlier this afternoon and now I'd like to report something more. I drove my car over this curb (from a parked position which was lucky) and heard this awful scraping sound. One side of the curb had gravel rocks in it, but that thing wasn't exactly full of rocks, so my back tire really went for a dip! I stopped, got out, looked around the whole car, didn't smell anything, didn't see anything, didn't hear anything...then got back in and called my husband. He was working, of course, and didn't answer (he is a great, trustworthy employee). I texted him after leaving the voice mail to let him know there was no emergency..."just a concern."

So then I called Carl, our service adviser. I have blogged about Carl in the past. I've never met her, but Carl's wife friended me on Facebook (would love to meet her!). Carl takes care of us and we love him up with positive company reviews/surveys. I explained what I had done and he said everything was probably fine, but that I should take my car on the freeway and get it up over 60 mph to make sure. I did everything he said and called him back to report that all seems to be well. He knows I'm headed to YELL so the last thing he said was, "If anything happens tomorrow, no matter where you are, give me a call and I'll help you out." ISN'T THAT THE GREATEST?!? I appreciate that so much! I feel like that goes above and beyond. I mean, I don't think he meant to say he would drive out of state or anything, but he would ADVISE me or REFER me or COUNSEL me should I run into trouble. I think he's actually younger than I but I almost felt like he was acting like a father. He was acting like a friend, for sure. He knows how to keep this customer at any rate.

So then I went to Round Table this evening. My second counselor, Denise, sat by me for opening exercises. It was actually a Scouting Expo and as I wandered around to various booths, all these men came to chat with me (I'll use first names to assist with anonymity): Billy, Scott, Greg, Kinnith, John, Jeff...there were also some women: Betsy, Mindy, Jennifer, Janiel, and Barbara, and I love them all, but I was just thinking about the kindness of all these men who serve in Scouts and help boys grow into good men and I just felt really grateful for...MEN! Of course, my number one guy is K and we talked both before and after Round Table (he calls it Square Table), but the men I work with in the stake are fantastic. I also had to email Josh and Dan today and they are so willing to listen to me, act upon the things I suggest, and counsel with me (it's not like I call all the shots or run the whole show--it's a team effort).

It seems like a lot of people (women) enjoy male-bashing for whatever reason, but I just wanted to stand up for men here on the ol' blog and say how wonderful, thoughtful, and kind they all can be. I'm so impressed with the way they treat their wives with respect and honor. I'm impressed by the way they make their families a huge priority. I'm just so impressed.