We are feeling better now. I am thankful for that. Things are always busy and it is just harder when you don’t feel well. One morning I got up and just felt so tired so after breakfast I laid down and slept for 90 minutes. I am glad that I am doing better now, so are the boys.
On Friday the 6th we had a snow day and the kids stayed home from school. There wasn’t much snow though. The problem was that it snowed in the night and the ground was still warm from the sun shine the day before, so everything was melting as it hit the ground. Then the temperatures dropped way below freezing and everything froze and got covered in ice. Neal went to work and called me to say he made it there. He said the roads were bad. We didn’t mind having a day at home.
Saturday the 7th Andrew helped his scout patrol with a service project. They did some yard work for a neighbor, his scout leader lives on our street and had arranged the service. Andrew enjoyed helping. He is enjoying scouts. Last night he did a little presentation about endangered fish in New Mexico as part of the requirement to learn about an environmental issue. There were boys that turned 11 at the end of the year so his group has grown and he enjoys being with all his friends each week.
Ruth went to a young women basketball activity on the 7th. She enjoyed playing and being with her friends. Neal also took her on a bike ride that afternoon. Last Saturday Neal took Ruth and Andrew swimming. They worked on actual swimming and did some laps. Neal is working with the kids to do exercise and find things that they enjoy.
Sunday the 8th in the evening Neal decided to try the gas fireplace in our bedroom. It was fun to have it burning and added a cheery atmosphere to the room. The kids came in and laid on our bed while Neal read them stories. It was a nice evening.
We had some things break this month. I guess that is part of running a house hold. Our large oven element went out. (We have a double oven, one is small and the other is large.) It was hard to be without the use of the oven for a week. I made rolls in place of bread since the small oven isn’t big enough for a loaf pan to fit it, it is narrow from top to bottom. I was able to look up the element piece on the internet and order it. It came quickly and Neal was able to put it in the oven easily. The other thing that broke was our iron. I was working on a quilt project and the iron sparked at where the cord goes into the iron. It was a big spark and surprised me. This is an iron that Neal had in college before we were married. It has given good service. I have done lots of research about irons and even went to a couple of stores to look at what they had there. I ended up ordering one from Amazon and look forward to its delivery so I can get back to my quilt project.
On Wednesday nights we have church activities. Neal has been helping with the boy scouts while one of the leaders is on an extended work travel assignment. I have Activity Days with the girls every other week, Ruth has young women activities and Spencer goes to cub scouts. Last night our entire family was at the church. Caleb joined me with the girls and had fun with our activity of making bird feeders. The week before Caleb and I stayed home. We had a fun game of checkers. He did well learning the game, but I still won. We also had a long story reading time. He likes having some attention on Wednesday nights when I don’t need to be at the church.
Last Friday I was able to go to the temple in the morning. I am thankful that I can go each week. It has been a blessing to have it so close. I was visiting teaching this week and talking to one of the sisters and I really realized how blessed I am for this time. Right as I am getting involved with family history research and working on things my Dad was working on before he died, I find I have many people to do the work for. Then I have all my kids in school and I have a temple that takes me 7 minutes to drive to. It all comes together at just the right time and place to do this important work. I am enjoying the family history work. Last week when I was working on a family and found a copy of a marriage license in Ancestry.com. It was in neat cursive writing and easy to read. It gave the full names of the couple, their wedding date, their birth dates and their parents full names. It was amazing to find all that. It helped me connect into the wives parents line, which was previously unknown to me. It is things like that that just make me want to keep looking and searching for more information. The internet makes it so easy to do. Neal and Ruth went to the temple in the evening at the family baptistry time and did many baptisms. That is nice Ruth can help with that. We realized that this year Andrew will be 12 and then he will be able to join Ruth at the temple.
Last Saturday Neal took Andrew and Spencer to the model rail road club meeting. They really enjoyed it again. The club leader had a lot of donations of old electric train things and had it out for the boys to pick things out to take home. Andrew got two old, probably 50 year old, steam engines HO scale. He has been working on cleaning them up this week. Spencer got some pieces too. That was the high light of the meeting. I am glad that they can get involved in something good. That morning was also a Primary breakfast activity. I took Caleb over to the church for it. He enjoyed that. I had Andrew’s teacher ask where he was and when I told her she thought that was neat he was doing that. She said her brother really liked electric trains too. His teacher is Sister Thomas, my visiting teaching companion. We are enjoying getting to know her better. She is a nice older lady in our ward. On Sunday was her first week teaching Andrew’s class and Andrew told me afterwards that he liked the way she taught the class. She also told me how nice and bright Andrew is.
Last Saturday we also had the missionaries come for dinner. We have Elders in the ward again (after having sisters for about 6 months). It was nice to have them here and visit with them while we ate. They shared a nice message too. Andrew told me recently that he has two saving jars for when he earns money. He said he puts half in his “train” jar and half in his “mission” jar. It is good to hear that he is already planning on serving a mission.
Saturday evening Ruth, Neal and I watched the new movie “Saturday’s Warrior.” It was a Christmas gift. I enjoyed watching it and listening to the music (it is a musical). I had the sound track of the music from the 1970’s version of the play when I was a teen ager and always enjoyed listening to it.
Last Sunday Ruth went to a Stake youth fireside. The new Stake Presidency wanted to meet the youth of the stake and they did a fun activity where each of the presidency did a slide presentation and talked about themselves. Neal stayed with Ruth and they both came home all talkative about the silly stories that had been shared.
Monday this week we didn’t have school for the MLK holiday. The kids enjoyed another day at home to do their projects. Spencer is working on making his pinewood derby car and painted it that day. That evening Neal looked up the “I have a dream” speech on YouTube and we listened to it. I was impressed with Dr. King for his insights and vision. He was a great influence for good. It was good to listen to that speech and have the kids hear it and we talked about things too. What a blessing the kids live in a time when people are treated better, at least we hope for that. At least the schools aren’t segregated and they do have friends of many races here. We do live in a great nation.
This week Neal has been busy hosting some meetings at work for men from the other labs in California and Texas. They also have two men from England here that work with them and collaborate with the USA in their weapon development. Neal has been the main contact for the group here and was the one to organize a lot of things for it. He has been busy with things. He has brought in snacks every morning for them. Today he was buying his favorite donuts to share. He also said he wasn’t going to mention it was his birthday, but it is. On Tuesday Neal picked me up and we went out to eat with the group. It was nice to meet the men Neal is working with this week. I enjoyed sitting by one of the men from England and talking to him about his family and where he lives. I enjoyed his accent. Tonight we are doing it again, going out to eat. I am glad that the week has gone well for Neal and they have been able to get things done that they needed to do. The group breaks up today as they start to head home. Neal has had meetings with these men before but last year Neal traveled to their labs for the meetings, this time they came here.
Like I mentioned it is Neal’s birthday today. The kids are excited for that. Caleb especially likes birthdays. We will do some cake tonight when we get home from dinner. I just baked it and the house smells good. Caleb also has been bringing down stuffed animals every morning to have “friends” out. I wonder if he was worried about me feeling lonely and wanted to make sure I had a friend. Most days it is only two or three but yesterday he brought down a whole group and has left them for today. It is cute and it does make me smile to have some friends around.
Andrew and his diorama for a school project
Caleb loves his blocks
Caleb's friends
