Throwing in the Towel

I've decided to throw in the towel on my blog.  I'm still writing letters every other week or so.  If you are interested in updates, let me know and I'll add you to my email list.

Celebrations

I just walked half a block down the street and around the corner to check on the lemonade stand Kate set up with her Dad.  I came home so hot and exhausted that I can’t get myself to do anything on my list but sit at the computer and write a letter.  In the long run, that’s probably the most important thing on my list anyway.

Kate has been wanting to do a lemonade stand since we lived in Philadelphia.  Lately, the requests have become more frequent and more persistent.  Somehow a lemonade stand does not fit into my subsistence level pregnancy existence, especially as the temperatures have been climbing, so I keep putting her off by telling her to plan it with her Dad.  So today...Dad came through!  Josh, Kate, and Jane went quietly out the back door, climbed the back fence, and disappeared down the golf course path.  A few minutes later they came back in the front door and the girls disappeared up to the art table to make a sign. The girls came down from the play room with a bucket full of golf balls we have collected in our yard and  sign that said “lemonade & golf balls for sale.”  Kate chose the spot for the stand right where the golf path crosses the road so that they could “sell to both cars and golfers.”  We mixed up some raspberry lemonade and golf ball cookies and sent them on their way.  They are red faced out there in the blazing sun, but they seem to be having fun.

We have had a crazy few weeks.  It all started with another dash to Houston to see Nathan before he headed out on his mission to South Korea.  We met the Houston Woodford clan at a blueberry farm on the outskirts of the city and spent a few hours working our way through rows and rows of blueberry bushes.  The farm had just opened  so the bushed were packed with berries.  We had a great time.  Our little family came away with 11 pounds of blueberries, which sounds like a lot!  Todd and Pam’s family blew us out of the water with 47 pounds of fresh blueberries!  We had a great weekend with the Houstonites.  Nathan is such a great kid!  His talk was wonderful--truth taught from the scriptures.  He will be a great missionary.  Look out, Korea, Nathan is on his way and look out, Nathan, Asia is about to capture your heart!

Kate the Indian turned six years old.  She was so excited about her birthday this year.  (I can’t imagine where she learned to love birthdays.)  Grandma Shelly flew in the day before the big day.  The party started when grandma arrived and wrapped up with an American Indian birthday party on the weekend.  We had crepes for breakfast and balloons on her chair to start things off the right way.  Kate requested that I bring frosted donuts with sprinkles as a treat for her class, birthdays ratchet up a level when your kids enter school.  I underestimated how hard it would be to find donuts with sprinkles.  Jane, my mom and I ended up going to four different donuts stores and spent most of the morning hunting before we had enough donuts for her class.  The kids ate the donuts faster than you could believe, except for Kate who came up to me with half on hers wrapped up in the napkin and said, “I didn’t know how yucky these were.”  I threw hers in the garbage trying to convince myself I was glad she didn’t want to eat it even after all that effort.

We had a fun Indian party on Saturday.  Kate invited a group of friends from school, church, and the neighborhood.  Josh was in town and on duty, Grandma Shelly was there to bail me out, as usual, and the girls were really well behaved.  Kate greeted each of her friends as they arrived then we transformed them into an Indian tribe with headbands, feathers, and war paint.  We played a few outdoor games, made dream catchers, went on a nature scavenger hunt and then ate upside down ice cream cones that we had decorated like teepees.  All in all, it was a huge success.  KTI was happy. The rest of us were exhausted.  What we don’t do for our kids.

Jane also had a birthday. She is four years old!  Conveniently, her birthday was on Memorial Day, so Josh was home.  Josh and Kate went out early in the morning to get balloons to tie on Jane’s chair.  We had toast with butter and hot chocolate for breakfast, as requested by the birthday girl.  Kate was determined to make it a special day for Jane.  She made a darling card, told Jane she would be her servant all day, and organized the celebrations.  We topped the day off with a outdoor barbecue with some friends from the ward.  Jane typically isn’t a big fan of little boys and the family we had over has four boys and one girl.  When our neighbor called Jane over to the fence to wish her a happy birthday, Jane ran over saying, “We have our boyfriends over!”   We finished off her big day with a “lemon meringue cake” and ice cream.  Any day that ends with ice cream is a success.

We have been reading Encyclopedia Brown with Kate.  When we started I asked her if she knew what an encyclopedia was.  The best explanation I could come up with was, “It’s like the internet in a book.”  That seemed to make perfect sense to her.  Kate loves the series. She loves to listen carefully for the clues and try to figure out the mystery. One day I noticed a big paper on our door.  When I investigated further I found this:

DETECTIVE

come when emergency

girl detective

not on Sundays

Her first case was a tiny baby bunny that showed up at our door.  It got lost in one of our thunderstorms and was huddled in a corner of our entry way.  I told her it was a perfect case for a girl detective and her dad.  They carefully scooped it into a box and then took it to a safe place in some tall grass on the golf course.  She has also found a few missing items around the house and is anxiously awaiting more cases.  Let us know if you need a detective this summer!

Kate finished her first year of Kindergarten.  She had a great year, a great teacher, and made great friends.  Her teacher says she is ready for the academics of first grade--Whew!  What a relief. They had a cute “Celebration of Learning” the last day of school where Mrs. Moore shared her favorite memory of each child.  She wrote this to Kate:

Kate--I loved watching you make up your own problems to solve.  Once I asked you to make up a story problem with a 2 digit, odd answer.  You were able to do it easily!

She also mentioned that she loved what Kate want to be when she grows up--an Indian, of course!.  Not bad to get a compliment on your math skills at the end of Kindergarten.  Kate was so sad to leave school.  We had a good 15 minutes of uncontrollable sobbing after we left because she was sad to leave her teacher.  That’s my tender hearted Kate.

 I have been keeping a mental list lately of things I like about Texas.  The temperature is going up so you have to work harder to keep on the optimistic side. :) I really like the birds in Texas.  We always have pretty birds singing outside.  I really like the breezes that blow through and ease the heat from the blazing sun.  I really like the stars at night that you can see from horizon to horizon.  I really like the friendly people.  I really like the thunderstorms that come through.  This week, however, Texas seems to be declaring war on my optimism.  The temperature went up into the 90s and my energy level plummeted.  Then we had a storm come through that swirled around our house in the middle of the night and pounded the windows on every side with hail.  Then we started being plagued by itchy bites in very unfortunate places on our bodies, places you would rather not have visitors.  I finally reached my breaking point and began researching what nasty little critters were causing us such grief.  Turns out we have chiggers in our yard.  It turns out everyone has chiggers this year.  We didn’t have much of a winter and then we had a lot of early rain and now we all have chiggers.  Chiggers are now one of my least favorite of God’s creations.  We declared war on them.  We washed all our bedding, all our clothes, and all of our people.  Then we had the yard sprayed and bought bug repellant.  We are now chigger free, at least for the time being.  Oh, Texas.  I think the people who live here have to either love you or hate you.  There are enough reasons to hate you that they have to go a little over the top trying to love you, and thus...Texas pride.

For the last two weeks I’ve been working my way through a tremendous list of things I wanted to get done before we left for the summer.  From wrapping things up for primary, to straightening out pediatric medical records, to taking dinner in to a friend to refinishing a cabinet for the baby’s room, to cleaning the house, we have been running at full tilt to get things done.  My mom has been my lifesaver.  She works like mad right along side me, entertains the girls, ignores the fire ant and chigger bites that could drive her mad, motivates me to pack the lunch before I flop into bed, braves the heat with a smile, magnifies my productivity,  and then reminds me when it’s time to stop and take a rest.  We are almost done with the dreaded list.  I just have to pack and be ready to head out Monday morning.

The girls and I are headed to Idylwolf for most of June, then down to Salt Lake for Woodford celebrations and gatherings at the end of June and beginning of July, then to Roosevlet for a bit, then back to Idlywolf for a few more days of paradise, and then, when my doctor demands I be back in Texas, we’ll head back home and face the heat of August.

Happy Summer!

Camping, Swimming, & Singing

I can tell I’m not going to be terribly productive today.  I got Kate off to school and started the laundry.  Now I’m ready for a nap!  I think I’ll attempt a letter instead.  My body can just sit here and my brain can do the work.

First things first, we are having a BOY!!!  Everything looked good in the ultrasound, so now we just have to adjust to the idea of having a little man around.  Jane thinks it’s cool.  Kate cried when I told her and has been less than enthusiastic.  We had a breakthrough the other day, however.  Kate and Jane were playing an imaginary game, the princess variety this time.  They came to a point in the games and had to pause.  The both stood still looking around the room for a minute, then Kate looked over at me with bright eyes and said, “When the baby comes, we’ll have a prince!”  They found a use for a boy after all.

I tried to come off Zofran this weekend.  I was feeling a little more normal. I could open the fridge without gagging and I hadn’t thrown up for a week.  So, I decided to see if things were better if I were carrying a boy.  I made it 24 hours...then I woke up with my body trying to expel all my innards.  It left me shaking like a leaf and completely wiped out all day.  Lovely experiment.  I wonder if my body thinks it can send the baby out that direction?  It certainly knows something is in there that shouldn’t be.  So, it’s back to Zofran.  Thank goodness for Zofran.

We went to Houston this weekend to watch Mikaela perform in her Spring dance concert.  We didn’t see a lot of Mikaela.  She was off studying for AP exams, putting on a huge dance performance and doing those things you do in High School.  It reminded me of what a fun but busy time High School is and it also made me grateful that I don’t have to go back.  The girls LOVED the dance concert!  They sat on our laps, completely mesmerized the whole time. Each of them took a flower up to Mikaela after the concert, which they thought was super cool and gown up, and then they turned back into little girls and melted down because they were so exhausted.

We had a lot of fun with the rest of the Houston Woodfords.  The girls played with Elise and met all of her caterpillars, they swam most of Saturday with Josh and Carson.  We talked Todd and Pam into buying an iMac, or at least offered moral support and encouragement while they decided to buy an iMac.  We played games, ate delicious food, and enjoyed a low stress Saturday.  It is nice to have some family within day trip distance.  Kate was bawling as we took her out to the car early Sunday morning. “I don’t want to leave!,” she sobbed.  Fortunately for her, we are headed to Houston again next weekend to hear Nathan speak in church before he heads off to South Korea on his mission.

Kate’s soccer season ended.  We missed her last game while we were in Houston.  I don’t think we are quite ready to add weekly practices and games to our schedule.  I have a hard enough time with a school system that tells me when I can and cannot go out of town. I don’t need a sports league adding to the structure yet.  Kate liked playing soccer.  Her favorite part by far was practice.  She is always up for learning whatever form it takes.  Games weren’t really her thing.  So far she has the Grandma Shelly competitive nature.  She came off the field one day really excited and said, “Mom, I was doing shirt math!  That girl is a three, that girl is a five, and that girl is an eight. 3 + 5 = 8!”  Soccer Sunny was speechless.  Mom Sunny nodded with approval.  We all have our strengths.

A couple of weeks ago, Josh took the girls camping.  He heard about a camp ground about 20 minutes from our house and from that moment on there was no turning back.  The girls were so excited.  They took hot dogs and marshmallows, headlamps, and sleeping queens and headed off on an adventure with Dad.  (I opted to stay home and enjoyed an evening of reading without a single interruption.)  The pictures speak for themselves.  It was perfect Daddy Daughter time! Overnight is just the right length for little ones.

I attended my first stake baptism as a member of the primary presidency.  It was on a Saturday morning, but I had to take the girls with me because Josh went to play basketball with BCG.  (I was very supportive and didn’t mention it at all: #%$^%!!!)  As the girls and I walked into the building it smelled like new mulch had just been spread in the gardens.  Jane said, “Oh, I think a hippo lives here!”  We all had a good laugh. I was a little skeptical of the stake baptism format.  Our stake has a lot of children; 17 being baptized that day.  This new mass baptism format seems rather impersonal to me and when they had to list off room assignments for five minutes at the beginning of the program I wasn’t terribly impressed.  It ended up being pretty amazing, however.  I think the Lord pours out his Spirit for those children.  It is not an impersonal ordinance for Him and He makes she they know that. It was a long meeting, but the girls were happy to be there.  Kate really felt the Spirit and identified it a couple of times.  She has a very tender heart.  That’s a good place to be when you are five!

Kate is wrapping up her year of Kindergarten.  First grade seems big.  I’m not sure I’m ready for that.  But maybe you are never ready for these things.  Kate loves school.  She reads amazingly well.  Her favorite subject is math.  She’s always happy when I pick her up.  That seems like a good start to me.  The Kindergarten did their big performance: The Barnyard Moosical.  It was pretty cute.  Kate was a duck. No speaking parts, just one of the crowd--the cutest one of the crowd, of course.   She has now taught Jane all of the words and they act it out at home now.  I’m not sure what Jane is going to learn in Kindergarten.  Kate will have taught it all to her before she goes.

Jane and Trista, our neighbor, just built the Texas version of a snowman.  They piled a big rubber ball, a basketball, and a soccer ball in the mesh laundry basket topped it off with a sun hat a couple of twigs for arms and taped on pompoms for eyes.  I guess you do what you have to do.

Kate gave me a note yesterday that she typed out on the computer.  It reads:

Dear Mom

you have been so kind to me.  But I want to build a palace of diminds and juils that is close so i can see you.  i want to live there.

Then she colored a pretty picture of a house.  I guess that’s my mothers’ Day message this year:  I love you.  I appreciate all you do, but I’m going to move into that palace of diamonds and jewels next door. 

Kate is being thoroughly indoctrinated in school.  She already knows all about Texas: the state flower, the state bird, the state tree, the state motto.  And, yes, they say the Texas pledge everyday.  Last week she came home singing a new song:

I’m a Tex,

I’m a Tex,

I’m a Texas Star!

From way out yonder 

Where the broncos are.

I can ride ‘em.

I can rope ‘em.

I can show you how it’s done.

So come down to Texas 

And we’ll have some fun!

It’s actually pretty cute.  She taught it to Jane and they both sing it now.  I’ll try to post a video.

Alligators & Tornados, Topped Off With Easter

Over conference weekend we went to Houston to visit with Todd and Pam’s family. Does this sound like a Josh plan or what? He arranged to fly directly from West Virginia to Houston on Thursday night. The girls and I met him there Friday after school. Yes, that left me driving four and a half hours alone in traffic with car sick girls and my own perpetual nausea to worry about! I think this plan came from the same guy that conveniently arranged to start work without delay so I had to pack up the entire house, load up the moving truck, and drive across the country alone...TWICE! All husband jabs aside, we had a great weekend. We were entertained with stories of wind surfing in an oyster bed (Not a great idea, by the way, Nathan and Todd were both limping around with torn up, infected feet) and stories of travels in and around Australia. I loved seeing everyone’s eyes light up as they told us about their adventures. Todd made us an amazing Indonesian stir fry. Food is not my friend these days, but that was delicious. The girls were in heaven playing with Elise. She’s their kind of gal with a great imagination. We managed to weasel in on the end of Nathan’s Spring Break, convince Mikaela to neglect her homework and come play with us, and pull Carson away from his books long enough to use his mad skills in hiding Easter Eggs for the little girls. We had a wonderful weekend with no errand running or To Do Lists, just enjoyable time with a great family.

One of our Houston adventures was a trek to Brazos Bend State Park. We saw over 30 alligators. Some were little babies sunning themselves on logs. Some were up to their eyeballs in swamp slime and apparently loving it. A few of them were moving, but unlike the National Geographic videos none of them seemed very threatening. The girls thought it was pretty amazing to see alligators that were not in cages! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place quite like that before: swampy, huge trees, and dangling moss with an amazing cacophony of birds. If it weren’t for the 12 foot alligators it wouldn’t be such a bad place to live.

During our drive to the State Park we stopped at a beautiful Texas ranch. There were horses and long horns grazing in the field and I wanted to get a picture with Grace’s Flat Stanley because it seemed so very Texan. I, not being a true Texan, was wearing flip flops. I carried Kate over by the fence and got a great picture. Then I felt some pain in my feet. I was standing in a fire ant nest! Fire ants are nasty. I still have the bites all over my feet and ankles and they hurt. Nasty, nasty, creatures. I obviously need to get a pair of cowboy boots!

Back in Dallas, we survived our first Tornado scare. Jane and I were with our preschool group at the Dallas Art Museum enjoying a great program they have for kids. We were having a grand time when one of the other moms came over and said she had just checked the weather and there was a severe thunderstorm warning. Being my very uptight, conscientious self I said, “I’m not worried about that.” Within the hour we were undercover in an auditorium because a tornado had just touched down. After a while they said we were all clear and could leave. We jumped in the car to make it home to pick up Kate from school. We drove right into the storm. I was with a friend who is from Texas so, by this point, I was relying on her judgement. We went through some impressive rain, then the clouds started churning to the side of us. We were listening to the radio. They described the path the storm was on and we were headed exactly where it was headed. By the time we got to the school it was hailing and pouring rain. I ran inside to get Kate. They wouldn’t let her leave because the tornado sirens in the neighborhood were going off. The school was in lockdown. I went back out to the car, got Jane, and told my friend to go home quickly. Jane and I went inside and sat with Kate in the safe room for an hour. I was soaked from head to toe, completely soaked. By the time they let us leave the storm had passed. We went home, changed clothes, and drank hot chocolate. When we moved here I left the closet under our stairs mostly empty as our tornado closet. I think it’s time to take a closer look at what supplies are in there!

To follow up all of those grand adventures we had a nice, low key Easter Weekend. We went to the temple Friday night. We had our usual Saturday mad dash to accomplish all we can in 12 hours. Sunday was lovely. We made bread, dyed Easter Eggs, watched an Easter video, went to church, had a nice dinner and finished off with Family Home Evening. Then I mourned the end of the weekend. I wish we could slow down time on Saturday and Sunday to give us a little more time together.

Two quick stories to end:

Little Jane has a great interest in nature. She has a rock collection, a leaf collection, a flower collection, an acorn collection, and a stick collection. Anytime you walk anywhere with her you have to allow time for frequent stops and you have to remember to take something along to hold all of her “treasures.” Jane was standing in the garage the other day when a gust of wind sent leaves swirling around her. Instead of crying because of the pollen and the dust, she immediately turned to me and said, “I like wind because it brings leaves in the garage and I like Spring because it brings me flowers.”

Kate seems to be on a mission to prepare Jane for the coming of our new baby. The other day over breakfast Kate started in on a wise older sister lecture: “Jane, you are the cutest now because you are the littlest. But when our baby comes you won’t be the cutest anymore. The littlest one is always the cutest. You will not be the littlest anymore, the baby will be so it will be the cutest.” At least we’ll all be ready for the transition.

Have a great week!

Ups and Downs

It has been a long time since I wrote a letter. My first excuse is that the hard drive on our computer failed. You don’t realize just how important your computer is until it gives you the dreaded blue screen. All the pictures, all the letters, all the recipes...I was so nervous until blessed Time Machine restored them all! After that little hurdle I guess I ran out of excuses, but still I managed to postpone writing my letter. I have intended to sit down and write it several times, but I am functioning in survival mode these days. Sometimes I just have to flop in bed even though I know I have left many things unfinished.

When we used to drive down to Arizona to visit my Grandparents the final stretch of the journey was on Camelback Road. It was several miles of undulating hills. Up and down, up and down, up and down. The rise and fall wasn’t enough to give you a thrill, just enough to make it seem like a very long road. I feel like our little family is riding down the Dallas version of that path. Here is an account of our recent trip on Camelback Road, the ups and downs, the good and the bad, nothing dramatic, just an undulating journey.

Good - I hope you all received Kate’s riddle.

At the very end of August we will be welcoming a new little one into our family. Josh is thrilled. Kate is thrilled. Jane is thrilled. I am...looking forward to September.

Bad - My body is handling this pregnancy as well as it has handled pregnancy in the past. Ugh. We went through some pretty intense times at the beginning. Every time I am using the bathroom now, Jane knocks on the door and says, “Mom, are you puking?” Fortunately, Josh came on the scene just when I was in desperate need of him. He got me in to see a doctor. Now I’m on Zofran, my favorite drug, and am very careful to drink all I can stand. I’m surviving. I just take one task at a time until I make it to bedtime and then drop into bed and pray for a good night. I’m hoping on the other end of DELIVERY things will look better.

Good - Josh is on a really interesting project right now dealing with coal mines in West Virginia. I never imagined myself married to a coal miner, but I am certainly not above it since that was the profession of my ancestors. I love the stories of his adventures riding through coal tunnels on a man ride and talking with miners. He brought us some coal samples this week. He is loving this project! How else could he be having experiences like this? In many ways, consulting is the best job ever.

Bad - Coal mines make a lot of dirty, dirty laundry and as BCG tends to do, they are working Josh like crazy. We always have great intentions of talking and texting but once he is gone, he is gone! They are working with night shifts starting at 4 am and day shifts after that. I have received texts from him at the oddest hours and sometimes I don’t hear from him for days. I guess that’s the flip side of the consultant coin.

Good - Kate started playing soccer. She was getting tired of gymnastics, so we decided to try something new. She looks so cute in her uniform! The name of her team is the Rainbow Unicorns. That just about captures the aggressive and ferocious level of play.

Bad - There is something inside me that comes to life when I am watching a soccer game. I have to make a conscious effort to control myself. Kate’s first game was on a week when Josh had to work Saturday. The soccer games are all played at a huge sports complex, 105 acres packed with soccer fields. I pulled into the parking lot only a few minutes before game time. We ran around until we found the right field, I tucked Kate’s shirt in, gave her a kiss and sent her onto the field to play. Ummm, I think I could have done a little better in the preparation department. She had no idea what was going on. My soccer instincts kicked in and I wanted to help her understand what to do. Then I realized I was making too much noise and I sat down. Painful, painful 40 minutes. We have been playing family soccer games and she’s learning the game and having fun now. That’s what it’s all about, right? FUN, Sunny, it’s just for fun.

Good - Jane is really hitting her stride. She had a rough time when we first moved here, but she is back to her normal self now. She is happy. She has made new friends. She gives hugs and kisses to everyone she sees. She loves to learn. (Kate started teaching her to read Dick and Jane.) She is just in one of the cute phases of life. We were coming home from walking Kate to school the other day and Jane was riding her skutt. She slowed down to talk to me for a second and asked, “Mom, what’s faster than a cheetah?” I answered, “Nothing Jane. Cheetahs are the fastest animal.” She came back with, “No, Janes are!” and took off ahead of me on her skuut. Cute thing.

Bad - The preschool group we had is falling apart. Two of the families moved and one of the other mothers is sick. We had to regroup and make another plan. We came up with a good schedule of outings mixed in with our regular routine that should get us through the end of the school year.

Good - I made the decision a few months ago that I needed to start exploring Dallas. I have been missing Philadelphia and all of the fun things we did there. So, instead of moping, I decided I needed to get out and explore. We went to the Dallas Arboretum. It is beautiful. Something about spring flowers and green grass renews my soul. We have also been to the Dallas Zoo and made a return trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. We found a fun children’s museum in Waco. We discovered a really nice Nature Preserve close to our house with great paths for riding bikes. I also heard about a planetarium and a puppet theater that I hope we can go to see soon. We are on our way!

Bad - I don’t know if Dallas and I are kindred spirits. I have to search a little harder to find places I want to explore. The vast majority of groupons that come through are for spas or concealed weapon permits--not really my style. You just have to dig a little deeper around here to find the right kind of adventure.

Good- We had a really fun Spring Break. Kate had a whole week off of school and my mom came to play. We had a good mixture of adventures and laying low at home. The girls adore their grandma and were so happy to have her to play with them. They played hopscotch and did sidewalk chalk, played chinese jump rope, cooked, read books, had several sessions of preschool taught by Kate, flew kites, etc. I recovered a little sleep and was very grateful for the help. We even made it through my mountain of mending that I kept managing to put off for another day. Moms are the best!

Bad - Josh missed out on most of the fun. BCG forgot it was Spring Break. And the worst of all, however, was when my mom left. I tried to be brave, but wasn’t very. Kate started crying in school because she knew I was taking Grandma Shelly to the airport while she was there. Her sweet teacher picked her up in her arms, comforted her, and then let her sit out of math stations and write a letter to her grandma. It was one of the sweetest letters ever written. We keep reassuring each other that grandmas and grandpas love us every second of every day even when they can’t be with us!

Good - This is a beautiful time of year in Texas. The Spring blossoms are out. We have had some great thunder storms. Everything is turning green. The birds are singing and the temperature is just about perfect.

Bad - A little of the excitement of Spring is lost when you never really had a winter. The tree in our yard lost its leaves the same day the new leaves budded.

Good - Kate has caught the vision of Family Home Evening. We moved our FHE to Sunday. I was doing it alone with the girls on Mondays and realized we were missing something...Dad! We moved it to Sunday so we can have our Daddy with us. Kate prepares something every week. This week it was a lesson on baptism. We each made a collage of a child being baptized, then she asked us some questions about baptism, then she showed us the picture of Jesus being baptized and asked Jane to tell the story, then we sang a primary song about baptism.

Bad - Her lessons can get rather long. I know I deserve it after all the LONG family home evening lessons I made my family sit through--sorry siblings. I also remember, however, that that is where I learned to love studying and teaching the gospel. I hope her lessons have the same effect.

Good - We have made a lot of progress on our house. We found couches, patio furniture, and even hung a few pictures on the wall. It almost feels like civilized people live here.

Good - The good should always outweigh the bad, so we’ll stay on a good note and end with a couple stories. Kate is very excited about math right now. In school they are learning a practical approach to math that includes estimating, doing math in your head, and then thinking about the answers to see if they make sense. I bought a stuffed snake at the zoo to use in sharing time and Kate immediately started counting its spots. Then she asked us to guess how many spots there were. Grandma Shelly guessed 50. Kate put a hand on her hip, looked at Grandma with an incredulous look and said, “Grandma, is that reasonable?”

My mom was on her hands and knees helping me clean up a pile of elastics that I spilled all over the floor. Jane trotted over and climbed up on her back thinking, I’m sure, of the daddy horse we corral here on the weekends. We were laughing about it and my mom said, “I don’t know. I feel more like a donkey.” The conversation went on and then out of the blue Jane dug in her heels and said, “Come on, Donk. Let’s get going to soccer!” If it weren’t my mother in question, I would make sure that nickname stuck. It seems only fitting the the descendant of Hunky, Gi, Po, and Retta should have a name like Donk.

I taught sharing time in March. The topic was choosing the right by following the prophet. I loved teaching sharing time, but it is a challenge. Some of my lessons went really, really well and some of them fell really, really flat. The best week by far was when I taught some stories from the scriptures about following the prophet. I used the story of Moses and the serpent and the story of Elijah and the widow who gives him the last of her bread. I talked about how sometime the prophet asks us to do easy things and sometimes the prophet asks us to do hard things, but either way if we listen to the prophet and follow him we will be blessed. I also told them to watch for the story of Moses and the serpent while they were reading the Book of Mormon this year because it was in there over and over again. This week as we were preparing to start sharing time one of the boys came up to me and said, “I found the story about the serpent when I was reading the scriptures this week!” I had him stand up and read the verse to the whole primary. It was one of those heart-warming moments when you realize that what you do makes a difference.

The last story is about my brother, Alan. After Grandma Shelly came and discovered Kate’s riddle hanging on the crib we sent an email out to the rest of the family with our announcement. I heard back from a lot of you really quickly. Alan didn’t call until the next morning. He said he had been working on the riddle all night long! “I couldn’t imagine what would have 5 feet and say waaah. The best he came up with was an amputee holding a kitten.

So, there you have a general view of what we have been up to. We love you all and are praying for the eyes of both Grandpas this week!

Bug Battles

February 12, 2012

The battle is raging. Jane came down with a stomach bug last week. Nasty, nasty business. From her perspective it wasn’t all bad. As she reported to Grandma Shelly on the phone, “I puked then I watched a movie and ate a popsicle.” Kate caught the bug yesterday. The tragedy is that she had to miss her Valentine’s Day party at school. For my little kindergartener that was a big deal. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen my Happy Kate quite so blue. Her teacher stopped by after school with a bag full of valentines from her friends. That little gesture went a long way to cheer her up.

February 19, 2012

You can see how well I am doing. But at least we won the battle with the bugs...for now.

After Kate missed most of the week of school because of sickness, Josh insisted on keeping her home on Friday to go to the zoo. He starts a new project with BCG on Monday. He’ll be traveling to West Virginia for a coal mining project. Before we get back into the fun of a travel schedule, he wanted to play with his girls. He took Kate out of school, we packed a lunch, and headed out on an adventure. We had a great day at the Fort Worth Zoo. The rhino was playing with his ball. The white tigers were about 2 inches from the glass staring right at us. We saw the interesting way gorillas eat grass. (At school Kate is not allowed to say that something is gross. They have to say that it is “interesting”. Well, this was so “interesting” that it almost made me puke.) The crocodile swam across his pond. The eagles were eating rats right above our heads. The condor spread his wings as we walked by. And the lion stood up and roared and roared and ROARED just for us! The Fort Worth Zoo is beautiful and Friday was a perfect day to be there. Thanks to Josh for bringing a little spontaneity to our routine.

I got a new calling in our ward, first counselor in the Primary presidency. I have never worked in primary before, so this will be a fun new adventure. It is interesting how the Spirit prepares you for a new calling. For the last few months I have really had a desire to work in primary. By the time the bishop called to make an appointment to visit with us, I knew what was coming. Thanks to a wonderful chorister, we got through today okay. It was ward conference. The stake was there to observe and we were just trying to figure things out. I’m doing sharing time all four weeks in March, so we’ll see how I feel about being in primary after that. ;)

We had an interesting experience a week ago. Our neighbors invited us to a fish fry at their house. It sounded fun, neighborly, and Southern so we decided to go. Well, it turned out to be a gathering with all their friends from church...and the Woodfords. I have invited people to church activities before, but I have never been the outsider. It is good to be on the other side every now and then. The girls did just fine. Josh and I did our best to meet people and not stick out too much. We ate some tasty fried food. By the way, deep fried mushrooms...mmm, mmm good. We had to leave a little early because the missionaries were coming over to meet with us. We didn’t tell our new friends why we were leaving, nor did we tell the missionaries where we had been. I think both sides did better in ignorance that particular evening at least. Good people. Good neighbors. Super awkward evening for a lot of reasons.

Valentine’s Day was a bit overshadowed by stomach bugs this year. My mom saved the day by sending me a valentine that I found in the mail just when I needed a little lifter upper. Then Josh took the girls disappeared for a few minutes after dinner. They came home with some lovely BRIGHT pink and purple daisies. Not natural pink and purple, but the kind that would catch a 5-year-old’s eye. They even had glittery sparkles glued to some of the petals. Kate proudly announced that she picked them out! I love them because she and Jane think they are so beautiful.

As I was tucking Jane in I gave her a big squeeze and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Jane. I love you.” She squeezed me back and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you too. Will you be my valentine?”

It snowed here in Dallas. I took a picture to prove it. I’m glad to know it’s Winter. Somehow battling bugs seems out of place when the sun is shining and it’s in the 60s. It is Winter. I must remind myself it is Winter!

Wish us luck this week as we head back into consultant world. Coal mining should be interesting! That just reminded me of another cute story. Kate made a “last brthday presint” for Josh this week. It was a book.

page 1: bcg! bcg! bcg is fun!

page 2: bcg

page 3: still bcg

page 4: still bcg

page 5: grate! grate! still bcg!

page 6: the end

And in case any of you missed this, it is also worth a laugh: