MaeLyn's Musings

(Another excerpt from a letter to Hannah) This week has been a busy one for us. John got his Eagle stuff submitted to the scout office on his birthday (after running around earlier in the week trying to get signatures and laboring over writing a statement of his life purpose), so that's all good. Now he just needs a board of review and he will be done! Also, we have been working hard trying to get John's visa application stuff ready. Emails were sent to seminary and institute people, notaries were visited, and birth certificates were procured - I managed to order and receive a new one, but by then the one they used to get John's passport was returned so now we have two, so if the one we submit with his visa isn't returned, we still have one. Also fingerprints were taken, twice. On Monday, John went to the city place to get them taken, but they informed him that they don't do that anymore, and they sent him to a website where he found out they do that once a wee...

(This is an excerpt from the letter I sent Hannah last Sunday) This week has been a very quiet one for me. The boys were at high adventure camp all week, doing ropes courses, river rafting, kayaking, hiking, shooting bows and arrows and rifles, having cooking competitions and other fun stuff, as well as getting sunburned and feasted on by mosquitoes. Meanwhile, I had plenty of quiet time at home to clean (which I did on Monday and it stayed clean all the rest of the week... imagine that!) and read and prepare the RS lesson I taught today and go for long walks, and paint. Yes, I did mention painting... but it isn't finished yet, and I'm afraid I kind of messed it up last time I worked on it, so I'm not going to show it to anyone yet. Tuesday evening we had a RS activity. We called it an "Instant Pot Night" but when we were passing out invitations before Sunday School last week, some of the men in the ward pointed out that here in Colorado, that could be misleading....

From this week's letter to Hannah... This past week hasn't been a particularly busy one. I'm still going out for walks in the morning, and John and occasionally Josh come with me. On Monday, Josh, John and I went to the little park behind the Thornton City buildings, and behind the Sam's Club - the one you can only really see from the freeway. It's a nice little park. On Tuesday the three of us walked from the Johns' neighborhood to the Savory ponds (near where the giant mushroom can is on Federal). On Wednesday we walked the normal loop around the library, and on Friday John and I walked the trail where John did his eagle project. It had rained the night before, so he wanted to see how effective it was. It looked like the wall definitely helped. There were other spots on the trail that could use retaining walls too - places where the mud was an inch deep, but the area where the wall was looked pretty good. On Independence Day, we enjoyed talking with you. It wa...

On Saturday, John had his eagle project. He chose to build a retaining wall for the city of Thornton to help keep mud off a trail. Early on, he realized that he was going to need a lot of bricks - like 400 bricks. A major endeavor for him was asking multiple Lowe's and Home Depots for donations of retaining wall bricks. A sand and gravel place donated the 1.4 tons of pea gravel he needed for the foundation, and between six different stores he got 425 bricks (he expected some would break in transition.) On Thursday, John and two people from the Thornton Parks and Rec Department went around to all the stores that had agreed to donate bricks to collect the bricks and put them on a flat bed truck. That took several hours. On Friday, John went to pick up the gravel and had that loaded onto a Thornton truck. Finally on Saturday we showed up at the site at 7am. (Or the men folk did, anyway... I was walking a dog, but I joined them later.) The trucks from the City of Thornton deliver...

Josh had his eagle project on May 11th. His project was to install sprinklers in flower beds at various parks throughout Northglenn. He had the sprinkler materials donated by our local Lowe's. People from the City of Northglenn demonstrated to him how to install the sprinklers, and then the day arrived. We met at a park where Josh showed the group how to install the sprinklers. Then we divided up into four groups, and each group received the materials they would need and a map to the parks where they would install the sprinklers. Steven was in a group with the two Tanner boys. The first park they arrived at already had flowers planted in the flower bed! They had to very carefully dig the dirt out and onto a tarp, install the sprinklers, and then carefully shovel the dirt back in, with the women who had planted the flowers watching very closely. The second park they did didn't have flowers planted and went a lot faster.  The Bishop and his son installed the sprin...

Last week we got to dog sit for a friend of mine, who went on a three day vacation with her family, leaving a 7 month old puppy behind. We didn't think it a good idea to watch him at our home - our house isn't dog-proofed, and the hyper puppy would have terrorized our poor cats. Instead we went over to his house three times a day to clean up his cage and walk the dog. Have you ever tried to walk a dog who didn't want to be walked? As energetic as this puppy was, he was more interested in investigating an interesting smell in the grass, or selecting the perfect stick or pine cone to gnaw on than in walking. Maybe he was just watching another dog. Maybe he just wanted to roll in the grass in the shade for a little while. But one thing is certain... unless he was chasing a ball, or even better - a rabbit or a flock of birds, or maybe coming for a treat, this dog wasn't terribly interested in walking. I think he was lonely, missing his family, bored of being in his caged ...

June 11, 2019 is a day that Josh and Peter might be happy to wish never happened. Both of them got braces that day. Josh will likely have his for 18 months, while Peter is looking at 2 years. Josh gets to wear rubber bands on his teeth, and Peter has an expander on his top jaw that we get to turn with a key every day from almost a month to widen the jaw. Meanwhile they are learning new ways to eat, what foods they should avoid entirely, and which they merely have to cut into bite sized pieces before they put them in their mouths.  Peter, who wasn't eager to have photographic evidence of the braces, is mourning that his vampire fangs will be pulled back in line with his other teeth. The baby canines didn't come out, so the adult teeth pushed out in front of them, higher in the gum... they look very much like vampire fangs. We finally had to have the dentist pull the baby teeth out before he got the braces. You can see the crooked teeth in this picture taken last year... An...

I actually included this video in the post about our vacation, but just in case you missed it. (And so I can find it again some day...)  Watch the video first and then scroll down for my thoughts... ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ So yeah, that is two of my children called to serve in the same country that I served my mission in. Hannah is in Sao Paulo South, and John will be in Sao Paulo West. While they are/ will be in Sao Paulo, and I was in Bahia in the northeastern part of Brazil, this is very exciting for me. I think Steven is a bit worried that the three of us will take off talking in Portuguese and he will be left out. What if all our children are sent to Brazil, and he is left the only one in our family who doesn't know Portuguese? The biggest question that is on everyone's tongue is, "Is he excited?" And the answer is yes, he is as excit...

Day 1 We woke up 3:00am and drove From Denver, CO to Fort Worth, TX. It was a long drive, and we were grateful that we had four drivers to take a turn at the wheel. Arrived at Jellystone park in the late afternoon, in time for dinner.  Besides Grandma Kathy and Grandpa John, Steven's Grandma Maureen was there... ...as well as three of Steven's four siblings with their families. His youngest brother decided to go to Florida with his wife's family instead. Go figure.  Day 2 In the morning we spent some time playing in a little park area. In the afternoon we went to the waterpark. The boys went down the crazy death slides, while I preferred the lazy river. That evening we relaxed with the family. Also that evening, John made a special announcement. Day 3  We went to see Steven's brother's new house in another part of Ft Worth. The boys help...