Abe update and Lydia anecdotes

First, the news on Abe: He made his quota! We are so thrilled and proud of him. He has worked for this particular promotion for three straight years. When he started at Qualtrics, he literally began his career over. Friday marked the day when Abe not only sold his millionth dollar of Qualtrics software, but it also marked the day when he finally made it into management. That has been his goal since day one, and he made it. He has worked so, so hard, and God has been so, so gracious in helping him achieve this goal. We feel grateful, thankful, and blessed.

This weekend we have all been exhausted, but that’s good because it’s General Conference. We are tethered to the TV all weekend long. Yesterday I taught Lydia how to embroider during the first session. My thought was that she could quietly embroider in front of Conference, but instead we had a lot of meltdowns whenever she made a stitch too big (in her mind). I spent a lot of Conference ignoring conference and giving pep talks about how in embroidery you can always undo your mistakes and try again. That’s a good life message, but I wish I had heard more of conference.

Guess what though? I get to try again today. 🙂

Lydia had a hard play date with our neighbor. The little neighbor boy, Eli, is a little rambunctious. He is very cute and has a lovely vintage-boy quality about him, but after yesterday we have decided (again) that we need to limit the kids’ time with him. Lydia was playing outside with Eli and his little sister when Eli demanded a treat. Lydia came in a begged for some applesauce packets to give to Eli and Chloe. I let her take some outside where Eli summarily rejected the packets. Instead, he yelled, he wanted a treat. Applesauce is not a treat. Then he took a pocket knife out of his cowboy boots and threatened to cut Lydia if she did not bring him a treat.

She came back in the house shaken. While I went to explain to Eli that he can’t talk to Lydia that way, she ran to her room, locked the door and sobbed. I felt so sorry for my sweet girl. Finally, when Eli understood that Lydia wouldn’t want to play with him again because he had scared her, he apologized and promised repeatedly that he wouldn’t ever show her his knife again. They played again for a little bit and then I sent the neighbors home.

Also, I played the piano for the first time in a long time yesterday. Lydia came and curled up in my lap while I played. Then she slipped onto the floor under the piano. I heard a lot of rustling but wasn’t really paying attention until she got very quiet. Then I peeked under the piano and discovered that the sweet girl had unzipped her harp cover, climbed in, zipped herself inside and fallen asleep listening to the music. It was, quite possibly, the cutest thing I have ever seen.

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