About Us

We got a little lost and off-track among all the adorable baby updates.

For those of you interested, here's what life looks like for the Provo Dentons right now.
I'm working 30+ hours a week at the library still in the Music Special Collections vault. I sit in there by myself with all the antique manuscripts and rare editions of music scores and books. Some of my projects include: measuring items in disrepair for preservation boxes, ordering the boxes, assembling the boxes, boxing the items, and labeling them; delivering and retrieving parts of our Ulrich Drüner collection to and from Book Repair to be bound and/or put into folders; creating labels for boxed scores, retrieving and prepping materials for patrons; and generally keeping things in the vault in order. I've also had the opportunity recently to work a little bit with Jennifer Paustenbaugh (head university library administration), Russ Taylor (library administrator over Special Collections), and Gordon Danes (Special Collections Curator). Lately, administrators have proposed some changes to the BYU Music and Dance Library that will drastically alter the School of Music faculty and students' ability to conduct research and access materials. Some of my coworkers and I took it upon ourselves to gather data relevant to these changes and present it in a formal meeting with the administrators. Although we still don't know the outcome, we felt that we surprised (maybe even impressed) them with our comprehensive statistics and wide perspectives. We were also able to provide them with a Google spreadsheet with the thoughts and feelings of over 150 of the SoM faculty and students regarding the proposed changes. In the weeks since that meeting, I've sort of filled the roll as diplomat, trying to keep a constant, open and amiable dialogue going with the administrators, even if they don't respond back. Hopefully, they see the concerns and will make decisions that will cultivate and expand one of the nation's top university music libraries, rather than destroying it altogether.
Tucker is busy, as always. He's on track to graduate in April with a degree in Spanish translation and interpretation. Because he's also doing all the seminary stuff, he was granted an exception to count his seminary classes as the required "applicable minor," but he also has to add some religion class credits. So instead of just working and lesson prepping this summer, he's also taking 3 religion classes - Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith's Translation of the Bible, and the 2nd half of the Doctrine and Covenants. The high school where he teaches offers Summer Seminary for students who need to make up missed classes or who just want to come hang out so he's also been helping teach that a little bit. For the several months, he was also working 10 hours every Saturday managing a storage facility. Unfortunately, this left very little time for homework and basically no time for family. So after we talked about it, he handed in his 2-weeks-notice and worked his last shift last weekend! In turn, I'll be working 8-hour Saturdays, which will give him time for homework and us time for family activities in the late afternoons and evenings. Tuesday mornings, he attends seminars and classes for seminary teachers in the area, and Wednesday and Thursday mornings, he spends in his office at the high school studying and preparing. He's also been asked to help cover extra classes in the fall for a coworker who will be dealing with some health concerns. So he's a busy, busy guy. I've started going with him to decorate and organize his classroom and office. I'm really excited about a couple of the projects and will be sure to post pictures.
Between all of that, we juggle the baby toddler. She's on a better nap schedule now, but of course, teething and shots mess all of that up. I'm trying to introduce her to more fun things now that she's starting to be able to do little activities by herself. She loves books and swimming and playing the piano. She got her 12-month shots on Tuesday and hasn't been feeling very great since then. I didn't go to work on Tuesday because all she wanted was to be held and rocked, and then she developed a little fever. Wednesday, her legs were really sore, and she slept a lot. This morning, she had a fever again and every little thing would just maker her cry big, sad tears. So hopefully she starts feeling better soon because it breaks my heart seeing her so miserable.
One of the biggest things going on is that my 21-yr-old brother is living with us. He moved up here to get a job and find an apartment before starting at UVU in the fall. While we don't have much space (he sleeps on the floor in our small living room), it's been fun having him around. Annie loves her "Tio," and they're getting to be really great friends. He's been helpful around the house, and it's nice having an extra adult around to leave the baby with so we can escape for quick date-nights to Coldstone. He finally got a job a few weeks ago at Krispy Kreme (yes, he brings home doughnuts) and is already doing a great job there, impressing the managers and such. So if any of you single ladies are looking for a tall (6'6"), handsome, easy-going, helpful, kind, hard-working guy who's good with kids and brings home free doughnuts, you know where to look. ;)
As for me, things are going pretty well. My phone is broken, which is a bummer, but not catastrophic, and it's actually pretty nice aside from the occasional inconvenience. I've been reading a lot more, which makes me happy. And I try to keep my toes painted because summer + painted toes = happiness. I'm also teaching a couple voice lessons a week, which I enjoy a lot more than I thought I would. My biggest "thing" right now is food storage. I've been feeling for awhile that even though we live in a small apartment, I should try to get some sort of emergency storage together for my little family. So I did a lot of reading and research and found a lot of good ideas and charts and recommendations. And then I compiled them and personalized them for us and made some awesome spreadsheets to help keep me organized. I even ordered some can shelves from Target that arrived yesterday and a commercial water filter from Amazon Prime Day. I feel like even if I can't devote a lot of money and resources and space to this, at least we'll have a little something. And it now seems a lot more doable now that I'm organized. I'll be sure to expand on it later.