Enough Already!

 

                The worst sound, for me, is to hear my daughter cry and not being able to do anything about it.  Fortunately for us she does bounce back quickly.  It’s been a tremendously hard year for everybody.  This week has come with new personal challenges as well.

            Jenna started school yesterday.  Her Utah friends are in their second or third week but her local friends won’t be starting school until next week.  Everything online as of now.  Jenna has run into a few snags but has been able to figure them out on her own.  I don’t think returning to school online has been the most stressful thing for her.

            I haven’t gone into much detail about her friends as I know there was a time when she had friends reading different posts from my blog.  That may or may not continue.  I don’t know.  As with in West Valley, most of her friends come from broken homes.  There is one friend who has mostly lived with dad but her visits to mom seem to come more often and for longer periods.  This time she has asked Jenna if she would care for her dog while she is out of town.

            We brought the dog to our house last night.  Bouncy and excited like a puppy.  Jenna, who does not have the best sleeping patterns as it is, was crying and uncertain what to do.  Roland managed to get the dog to lay down for twenty minutes or so.  We ended up taking her back to the empty house.

            We had signed up to feed the missionaries tomorrow night.  I had mentioned here that Roland had wanted to make nice steak dinners for them.  I figured the only way we were going to do that was to bring it to them – which it appears we will end up doing as the air is too unhealthy to feed and visit them outside.  Jenna loves having the missionaries over.  Taking dinner to them is just not the same.  And so she has cried about that.  Chances are they won't be able to keep their appointment with us anyway as other missionaries have had to be evacuated from various cities.  I'm certain that they are under mandatory restriction to stay inside.

We retrieved the dog this morning after we went to Dollar General to pick up a leash, flea collar, and toy.  Jenna got a blanket from her friends room.  I drove the car home while Jenna walked the dog – or was it the other way around?  It appeared that the dog had been pulling Jenna.

We are hoping that the dog will have more time to get used to the surroundings than what she did last night.  I had actually been looking forward to watching her chasing chickens this morning.  It’s still smoky outside.  It’s a health hazard for people.  Would imagine it would be a health hazard for pets as well.  The walk from her friend’s house to ours doesn’t seem to have worn the dog out at all.

The sun has appeared to orange, red and yellow as it rises.  Thus far this morning does not seem quite as smoky as last night.  The mountains are more visible – though not fully exposed.  Outside still feels like a science fiction movie.