Letters from home
Happy new year! It is 2019, and I haven't blogged in over a month... what can I say? What has been happening in our lives? Well, here are excerpts taken from my letters to Hannah...
November 9th: The house is very quiet during the day without you. I decided I wanted to paint your room before John moves in. We've decided on "fiesta blue", with navy blue drapes. I think it will look nice once we're done. Josh is eager to do some more painting, and I'm thinking we'll do it this weekend. John will be happy the sooner we're done; he slept on the floor in your room last night.
Speaking of John, he still hasn't found his drivers license, so I've had to drive him to seminary every day this week (besides Wednesday...) He's going to search the drama area today hopefully - I'm wondering if it dropped out of his pocket when he was changing into his costume for the play Friday night. I hope we find it and don't have to pay to get a replacement!
November 16th: I finished painting the bedroom Monday, and John moved in, kind of. He moved in Monday night, and we weren't sure if the paint was totally dry or not, so we told him not to put any furniture against the walls quite yet, so the bed is in the middle of the room, with the bookshelf at the head of the bed... He finally set up the desk in one corner with his computer. I'm hoping on Saturday he will have some time to arrange the furniture properly and finish moving his stuff out of the other bedroom.
Auditions for the musical were this week - workshop on Wednesday, auditions yesterday and call backs today. Next week there is no school because of Thanksgiving, but hopefully they can see the cast list online so they don't have to wait until the following week. I don't think Josh auditioned; he just wants to do tech.
John still hasn't found his license in spite of searching everywhere we can think of. We mailed a form and a check to the DMV for him to get a replacement, but I don't know how long that will take. Theoretically we could have gone to the DMV to get a replacement but between school and drama stuff, he has no time during DMV business hours. [Eventually we mailed a request for a duplicate drivers license and got a replacement ...and a few weeks later when I was looking for something behind Josh and Peter's bunkbed, I came across John's old license.]
November 19th: We're preparing to leave for Missouri tomorrow, but I'm feeling really tired. I received a call from a sister I minister to last night at 9:30. She was in a lot of pain and wondered if I could drive her to the hospital. I didn't get home to bed until about 2:30am. But, after CT scans, blood work, xrays, an ultrasound, and an entire bag of saline as well as a few doses of morphine, she was feeling better. The doctor wasn't sure but thought it might be a problem with her kidneys and she wasn't drinking enough water. I was grateful that the boys didn't have school today so I could sleep in a bit.
November 25th: This week has been an adventurous one. On Monday, I was feeling tired from being up late the night before, but it wasn't until that afternoon that I began really feeling sick. My stomach got progressively worse until I finally threw up. I ended up going to bed early that night and leaving your dad and the boys to finish packing and getting ready to leave on our Thanksgiving trip the next day.
Tuesday morning we got up early (6ish) and were on the road an hour later. I still wasn't feeling really well. We stopped for lunch at Freddy's, a hamburger place at some little town in the middle of Kansas, and I could only eat a cup of applesauce and some soda. We arrived at Kristy's place in time for dinner, and I was feeling a little better then - I managed to eat a slice of pizza. The next day I felt much better - my stomach had finally settled.
Your dad found stuff to do outside the next day - playing with the giant tree in the backyard trimming branches and stuff. He drove the little boys around on the little lawnmower tractor thing. We saw the bees (and told them hi for you)- although most of them were dormant. We also shot bows and arrows and an air rifle down on the lower level. I spent time chatting with Kristy and playing with her kids. Kristy and I went for a walk around a lake nearby. Heather and her kids came that day, so the house was kind of crazy and loud. That evening Dad started working on pies.
Thanksgiving day Heather and family came over again. Your dad spent pretty much the entire day making pies and rolls. We ended up with two pumpkin pies, an apple pie, a cherry pie, a chocolate cream pie, and an OREO pie. We were joined for Thanksgiving dinner by Michael's mother, two brothers, a sister-in-law and a niece. After dinner, your dad and I went for a walk to work off some of the food stupor. On the way back, we were picked up by Kristy and Michael in their van, and they took us to see the house that Heather and Tejay are building. That house is huge. They have the frame done, the roof and most of the outside, but the drywall wasn't up on the inside yet. One cool feature that they are putting into the house are two "secret" rooms - accessible from panels in the kids' rooms. I think one panel will be behind a mirror, and another will be in a closet or something. We came home to eat pie (we stuck a candle in one for your dad and sang happy birthday to him.)
On Friday, Heather and kids came over again. In the afternoon, Tabitha and her family came over too. I think we counted 22 kids in the house at once! Luckily, some played in the basement and others went outside. Michael gave them rides on the tractor thing.
Yesterday we got up early, ate breakfast, said goodbye to everyone and drove home. As fun as it was to see my sisters and Tabitha and everyone, it was great to be home again, sleeping in my own bed.
December 2nd: I kept waiting for something to happen this week to write about... and nothing really happened. I'd been trying to write letters on Fridays, but this past Friday I was busy... I made the menu plan and shopping list for December, went to the library, got an oil change, did all the grocery shopping, put all the groceries away, including dividing the meat, and then I pretty much crashed.
Saturday morning we did ministering interviews. This quarter, we had two days - a Thursday evening and a Saturday morning, and had people sign up for a time that would work best for them to come to the church and meet with us. We had refreshments available, and met with one after the other - theoretically. We had a couple gaps on the sign up list, and a couple people forgot, but for the most part, it was a lot easier than making twenty different appointments and driving all over to meet with people. I have two more people I still need to talk with this quarter - one who forgot, and one who hasn't been to church in a year or two so never saw the sign up list, but I have all of December to meet with them. :)
Today, I got to help teach a combined RS/EQ meeting introducing the new Come Follow Me curriculum with [the Primary President and YW President]. The bishop billed us as the three "superstars" of the ward, which was actually very intimidating. How could we live up to such high expectations? Anyway, the lesson actually went pretty well. My part was about how the curriculum is home-centered, and the importance of teaching the gospel in the home. Our family scripture for this week is one of the scriptures I shared - Deuteronomy 6:6-7, which is God's instructions to the Israelites to talk of God and his commandments all the time. This was in contrast to Alma 31:23, which is about the Zoramites who stand on their pedestal each week to thank God for making them better than anyone else, and then going home to never speak of their God again for the rest of the week. Where on this spectrum are we? and where should we be? I'm actually really excited to get into the new curriculum. I think it will be great.
December 7th: I spent this morning at the Clark's home helping to make a gingerbread house, with real gingerbread! Being there with all the Clark children reminded me of home when I was growing up, with all the chaos. :) Kylee Gomez was there with her baby (he's adorable!), and Ruth Sheier was there to show us how to do it. It was a lot of fun.
And then I came home this afternoon to notice that our glass cook top is broken! There is a hole towards the front with big cracks radiating out from it. I have no idea what happened - if something heavy was dropped on it or whatever, but I can't use the stove until it is fixed. [I found out later that Peter had dropped the iPad on it.] I've been on the phone trying to get someone to come out and fix it. It is under warranty, but apparently they don't have any service people in our area to come fix it... so I got transferred to someone else, and got into phone tree hell. I ended up leaving a call back number with the promise "We'll call back and you will not lose your place in line!" We'll see how that works.
John and Josh are at the Thespian Convention this weekend. They left yesterday morning and will get home Saturday afternoon. Last night it was really quiet with just Peter and your dad and me at home for dinner! Tonight Dad and I plan to go to the temple, so Peter will be all by himself. Dad reminded me last night that this is going to be what our family is like in just a few years - just him and me and Peter for another year or two, and then just the two of us.... It's kind of depressing actually.
December 16th: At church today, the primary had some special visitors come to tell the kids about the birth of Christ from their perspective. Your dad got to be a shepherd, and I got to be an angel... We went in one at a time to tell our story, and then we handed out a small gift to each of the kids. My "gift" was a tiny coloring page rolled up like a scroll and tied with a silver ribbon. The kids all seemed entranced. I think it was a pretty cool activity.
In choir, we are busy preparing for the Christmas program next Sunday. We're singing Silent Night (in Spanish) and Joy to the World. I'm also singing in a smaller musical number - an octet, some hymn from the 1960s hymn book, called "Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light". It has all sorts of cool (complex) harmonies and stuff, so it has been a challenge to learn. We get to sing it a capella, which will make it that much more challenging.
I think we are close to being ready for Christmas. Dad has done most of the shopping this year, but we still need to get some stocking stuffers. John and Josh have finals this week... I hope they have caught up on all the homework and stuff they needed to do. I talked to April this past week and they are planning to come down on Christmas Day and have dinner with us, so that will be fun.
December 21st: The boys are out of school today. The last few days have been a whirlwind of Christmas shopping and visits, trying to get everything ready for Christmas while the boys were still in school. I think I'm ready now... I took the boys to the library today and took Josh to the bank so he could deposit a check he got this summer from working for Bro Wastart. Right now John took the other boys to do their Christmas shopping, and when they return we plan to make rice krispy treat Christmas trees. I don't think we'll be making gingerbread houses this year, but we'll see. Sometime in the next couple days, I need to get them to clean their rooms, but for now, we're having fun.
This Sunday we will just have sacrament meeting. I'll be singing in the choir and in a smaller musical number (I think I told you about that already.) We plan to have April and family come Christmas day for dinner. The stove top is still broken - we can't use two of the burners, and I have no idea when we'll get that fixed. The guy came and looked at it, took some measurements and said he'd order the part and it would take about a week to come in... and that was a week ago and I haven't heard anything from him since. I'm hoping we can prepare Christmas dinner with just the two burners... of course we also have the oven, the microwave, the crock pot, the instant pot... Darn first world problems...*sigh*
December 30th: This week has been odd, with Christmas Eve, Christmas, and then one day back to normalish - with your dad at work and the boys doing their normal non-school day things (sleeping in late, being on electronics most of the time they are awake...), and then your dad was sick and stayed home the next two days. I don't know why that made things feel different to me since he stayed in his bed most of the time, but it did.
Friday morning I took the boys to the dentist. They had to be there at 7am, so that was kind of painful for them. Peter went back to bed after we got home again and slept until noon. Amazingly, none of them had any cavities, although all three have been referred to an orthodontist for braces. I guess I'll have to get over my fear and dislike of orthodontists so they can get their teeth taken care of... Peter's at the very least since he has two rows of teeth in some spots and another tooth that is pointing sideways...
Later Friday morning, I took Josh to his first visit with the neurologist. John came with us so he could share what he saw when Josh had the seizure during seminary. The results were about what I figured they would be. He'll get to do an EEG - the test where he can only sleep for 4 hours the night before, and then have electrodes stuck to his head while he tries to sleep, and then an MRI - the test where he'll get to lie perfectly still in a big loud clanky machine while it takes pictures of his brain. After that we'll go back to the doctor and see if they learned anything. I hope they can figure something out. Josh isn't supposed to drive until he hasn't had a seizure for at least six months, but since he hasn't really started working towards his permit that really isn't much of an issue yet.
Yesterday (Saturday) I took down the Christmas decorations (yes, I know it was earlier than normal). I also rearranged the furniture in the living room. The TV stand is now in front of the playroom window, and the couches are on the other two walls. I think it feels more open this way.
John gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting today. You know John, we didn't know he was speaking until we saw his name in the program. But he did an awesome job. His topic was revelation and he based his talk on Matt. 7:7, about asking, seeking and knocking.
January 6th: The boys had this past week off of school, but they go back on Tuesday. It will be an adjustment to go back to getting up before the crack of dawn, but I'm sure we'll deal with it. Maybe the boys will start going to bed before midnight. Maybe.
I think we mentioned we started studying the scriptures from the "Come Follow Me" as a family on Sunday evenings. It was neat to go through the lesson as a family and discuss it. In Sunday School today we talked more about conversion and faith, and it was kind of cool to be able to share things that I had thought about as I studied the lesson throughout the week. I've started writing in a scripture journal more regularly, and I think it helps me focus my thoughts as I'm reading and pondering.
On Friday I took Josh to the hospital to get an EEG - the test where he can only sleep four hours the night before and then go in and have wires attached to his head and have lights flashed at him and then try to sleep. The same lady who did mine six months ago did his. She said it looked normal, so I don't know if they will learn anything from it. I hope they do.
Yesterday your dad and I went to IKEA for the first time ever. That place is like a humongous maze! I kind of felt like we were swept along with the tide through the building, and it wasn't until we reached the self serve warehouse place at the end that we were like, "okay, what did we decide we wanted again?" It seemed too hard to go backwards through the place to look at the things again and decide if this really goes with that, or if we liked this style or another. Anyway, we got a new TV stand and a book shelf. Our old TV stand felt like it was falling apart and it never did really fit our flat screen TV - it has always been at an angle.
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So that is what has been going on here... Hopefully I will do better with the blogging in the coming year!
John and Josh are at the Thespian Convention this weekend. They left yesterday morning and will get home Saturday afternoon. Last night it was really quiet with just Peter and your dad and me at home for dinner! Tonight Dad and I plan to go to the temple, so Peter will be all by himself. Dad reminded me last night that this is going to be what our family is like in just a few years - just him and me and Peter for another year or two, and then just the two of us.... It's kind of depressing actually.
December 16th: At church today, the primary had some special visitors come to tell the kids about the birth of Christ from their perspective. Your dad got to be a shepherd, and I got to be an angel... We went in one at a time to tell our story, and then we handed out a small gift to each of the kids. My "gift" was a tiny coloring page rolled up like a scroll and tied with a silver ribbon. The kids all seemed entranced. I think it was a pretty cool activity.
In choir, we are busy preparing for the Christmas program next Sunday. We're singing Silent Night (in Spanish) and Joy to the World. I'm also singing in a smaller musical number - an octet, some hymn from the 1960s hymn book, called "Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light". It has all sorts of cool (complex) harmonies and stuff, so it has been a challenge to learn. We get to sing it a capella, which will make it that much more challenging.
I think we are close to being ready for Christmas. Dad has done most of the shopping this year, but we still need to get some stocking stuffers. John and Josh have finals this week... I hope they have caught up on all the homework and stuff they needed to do. I talked to April this past week and they are planning to come down on Christmas Day and have dinner with us, so that will be fun.
December 21st: The boys are out of school today. The last few days have been a whirlwind of Christmas shopping and visits, trying to get everything ready for Christmas while the boys were still in school. I think I'm ready now... I took the boys to the library today and took Josh to the bank so he could deposit a check he got this summer from working for Bro Wastart. Right now John took the other boys to do their Christmas shopping, and when they return we plan to make rice krispy treat Christmas trees. I don't think we'll be making gingerbread houses this year, but we'll see. Sometime in the next couple days, I need to get them to clean their rooms, but for now, we're having fun.
This Sunday we will just have sacrament meeting. I'll be singing in the choir and in a smaller musical number (I think I told you about that already.) We plan to have April and family come Christmas day for dinner. The stove top is still broken - we can't use two of the burners, and I have no idea when we'll get that fixed. The guy came and looked at it, took some measurements and said he'd order the part and it would take about a week to come in... and that was a week ago and I haven't heard anything from him since. I'm hoping we can prepare Christmas dinner with just the two burners... of course we also have the oven, the microwave, the crock pot, the instant pot... Darn first world problems...*sigh*
December 30th: This week has been odd, with Christmas Eve, Christmas, and then one day back to normalish - with your dad at work and the boys doing their normal non-school day things (sleeping in late, being on electronics most of the time they are awake...), and then your dad was sick and stayed home the next two days. I don't know why that made things feel different to me since he stayed in his bed most of the time, but it did.
Friday morning I took the boys to the dentist. They had to be there at 7am, so that was kind of painful for them. Peter went back to bed after we got home again and slept until noon. Amazingly, none of them had any cavities, although all three have been referred to an orthodontist for braces. I guess I'll have to get over my fear and dislike of orthodontists so they can get their teeth taken care of... Peter's at the very least since he has two rows of teeth in some spots and another tooth that is pointing sideways...
Later Friday morning, I took Josh to his first visit with the neurologist. John came with us so he could share what he saw when Josh had the seizure during seminary. The results were about what I figured they would be. He'll get to do an EEG - the test where he can only sleep for 4 hours the night before, and then have electrodes stuck to his head while he tries to sleep, and then an MRI - the test where he'll get to lie perfectly still in a big loud clanky machine while it takes pictures of his brain. After that we'll go back to the doctor and see if they learned anything. I hope they can figure something out. Josh isn't supposed to drive until he hasn't had a seizure for at least six months, but since he hasn't really started working towards his permit that really isn't much of an issue yet.
Yesterday (Saturday) I took down the Christmas decorations (yes, I know it was earlier than normal). I also rearranged the furniture in the living room. The TV stand is now in front of the playroom window, and the couches are on the other two walls. I think it feels more open this way.
John gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting today. You know John, we didn't know he was speaking until we saw his name in the program. But he did an awesome job. His topic was revelation and he based his talk on Matt. 7:7, about asking, seeking and knocking.
January 6th: The boys had this past week off of school, but they go back on Tuesday. It will be an adjustment to go back to getting up before the crack of dawn, but I'm sure we'll deal with it. Maybe the boys will start going to bed before midnight. Maybe.
I think we mentioned we started studying the scriptures from the "Come Follow Me" as a family on Sunday evenings. It was neat to go through the lesson as a family and discuss it. In Sunday School today we talked more about conversion and faith, and it was kind of cool to be able to share things that I had thought about as I studied the lesson throughout the week. I've started writing in a scripture journal more regularly, and I think it helps me focus my thoughts as I'm reading and pondering.
On Friday I took Josh to the hospital to get an EEG - the test where he can only sleep four hours the night before and then go in and have wires attached to his head and have lights flashed at him and then try to sleep. The same lady who did mine six months ago did his. She said it looked normal, so I don't know if they will learn anything from it. I hope they do.
Yesterday your dad and I went to IKEA for the first time ever. That place is like a humongous maze! I kind of felt like we were swept along with the tide through the building, and it wasn't until we reached the self serve warehouse place at the end that we were like, "okay, what did we decide we wanted again?" It seemed too hard to go backwards through the place to look at the things again and decide if this really goes with that, or if we liked this style or another. Anyway, we got a new TV stand and a book shelf. Our old TV stand felt like it was falling apart and it never did really fit our flat screen TV - it has always been at an angle.
*********************************************
So that is what has been going on here... Hopefully I will do better with the blogging in the coming year!
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