A Sick Month

It isn’t a normal time for me to write, but since I am home with a sick Spencer I thought I would.  Yesterday Andrew was sick to his stomach and today Spencer has a fever and aches.  I had hoped we were over with sickness, but I guess not.  Caleb is still coughing some and I have had a lot of congestion.  Maybe another week and we will all be well again.  The weather has also cooled down and that hasn’t helped.  On Sunday we came out from church and saw snow falling, it didn’t last though.  Today it is windy and the wind is cold.  I don’t mind staying inside.  It has been hard to have kids sick.  I always feel bad for them and wish I could take it away and help them to be bouncy, happy children, full of energy and health.  I have had a lot of quiet days.  Some days I have been sick and didn’t do much and other days I have worked on family history or other quiet activities.

We enjoyed seeing the science fair at the school.  We went over on the family night and saw many neat projects.  Then on the 17^th I went over and was one of the judges for it.  I enjoyed talking to five students about their projects.  I think Spencer is just happy that it is over. 

Ruth worked on a young women’s personal progress goal of fixing meals for two weeks.  She also helped with the grocery shopping.  It was nice.  She did a great job doing a lot of the cooking, Neal and I still gave some assistance.  One evening we made egg rolls, for my first time, and they turned out wonderful.  I think she was happy to turn over the cooking back to me this week.  She realized how much time it takes.  She also had a big group project due at school recently and had her friends over to work on it.  It was fun to have her friends here and hear them working.  She also spent an afternoon with her friend Brianna at her home.  I am glad that she has friends.  

Last week the kids had some time off school.  Monday was President’s Day and all four were home.  We were still fighting off some illnesses so we just had a quiet day at home.  Then Ruth and Andrew had Thursday and Friday off school for parent/teacher/student conferences.  We did go into the school Thursday to talk to their advisory teachers.  I enjoyed hearing Andrew tell me and his teacher how school was going for him.  I thought it was great that he is doing so well with expressing himself.  With Ruth’s teacher we talked mostly about high school and planning for your future.  On Friday Ruth and I took a couple of hours going through the high school class schedule book learning about what the high school offers and mapping out a plan for her classes for the next four years.  I think she feels a little better about it.  We also looked at BYU and their admissions requirements and examples of a couple of majors and what is required.  She wants to go to BYU.  When we told her teacher her college of choice she asked if anyone else in the family had gone to BYU and I realized something cool.  Ruth’s parents and all four of her grandparents have degrees from BYU.  Tomorrow she will get her official registration packet and it will be more real she is going to high school.  Tonight we are going to a band concert at the high school.  The top middle school bands, for the high school area, are coming to do a concert.  Ruth has made the decision to not do band at the high school.  She feels good about that choice and is excited to try some new things next year. She has expressed interest in journalism and also DECA. It will be fun to see what she can accomplish. 

Neal and I had a nice visit with Andrew about career ideas and choices too.  It was good to go over things with him and help him think about what he might like to do.  He did come to the conclusion that he likes math and science and would like to go that direction with education but doesn’t have an exact career choice yet.  He is still exploring. We had this discussion because we were filling out his registration for 7^th grade and talked to his math teacher to get him in a harder math class. So he will be doing pre-algebra next year.  He loves working on his trains.  We had someone give the boys more electric train things.  They are enjoying cleaning the old things and getting them in working order.  Andrew and Neal are working on painting the train table they made.  It is making progress and Andrew is anxious to get his layout going.  Spencer enjoys it too.

I decided to take a picture of their table.  The dark is the wood framework.  The white is the top.

Ruth noticed this morning that our first spring flower is starting to bloom.

Spencer had fun going to his Pack Meeting last week.  He liked being the one that carried the USA flag for the beginning ceremony.  He is very close to finishing his Bear rank and loves doing things with his leaders.  He thought it was fun that last week his school teacher was absent and his Bear leader was his substitute teacher that day. There are a couple of ladies in our ward who do substitute teaching at the elementary school and the boys always like it when they are in their classrooms. 

Caleb is getting excited about his birthday coming up soon.  He was telling me ideas of gifts he would like today.  He has enjoyed playing with Spencer with balls this week.  They have some game going on about playing catch, I think Spencer is pretending to be Caleb’s dog.  The elementary school is doing a “one school one book” thing.  They gave every family a copy of a book and we have a reading assignment every day in it.  Then the kids are asked a question at school the next day for a chance to get a prize.  Friday evening we will go to a school activity where they will have trivia about the book and information about sea animals.  They will also be showing the movie that was based on the book.  The boys love it.  The book we are reading is called “Nim’s Island” by Wendy Orr.  It is a cute book, I had never heard of it before, so I am enjoying reading it too.

Last Saturday was a little busy.  I took Ruth and Andrew to the dentist in the morning.  They are both doing well, no cavities.  Then I went to a baby shower for a friend in the ward.  I made a little flannel blanket for her.  She loved it and said the colors I picked out are her favorite colors, I didn’t know that.  I am glad she liked it.  The Saturday before Neal took Ruth to a fireside for the youth.  A man that did a rescue mission as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan spoke to the kids.  Neal stayed and listed and they both enjoyed it.

On Sunday evening Ruth and I went to a girls camp fireside.  The girls are all excited about thinking of camp again.  The leaders introduced the theme for the year and talked about the basics of camp for the new girls.  They had invited girls to bring cookies and have fun with their cooking skills.  Ruth made some bar cookies, by herself, after church.  She is doing a lot with things now and does well in all she does.

Neal has been working on taxes this week.  That can be a big job.  Thankfully Ruth and Neal have continued to stay healthy.  I hope that tomorrow, starting a new month, can also help us start with better health.  One more thing, we did get the dryer fixed and it is working wonderfully now.  It is working so much better than it had been doing for a long time.  It is nice to have it doing its job well now.

Spring is Coming

It is time to write another update on our family life.  We had some snow this week.  It looked pretty.  Monday morning we woke up to about 2 inches.  It wasn’t that cold and it hadn’t stuck on the roads, so there wasn’t any problems with getting around to school and work.  Then Tuesday morning we woke up to about 1 inch of snow.  It all melted fast and has watered the yard well.  It is just a reminder that we are still in winter time, even when the sun shine and we have blue sky, like today.

Well, two weeks ago we did get the suburban back from the shop.  I was thankful that we had it back and the steering was fixed.  Then on Friday I was smelling something, almost like a burning smell, but I couldn’t see anything.  Then over the week end Neal noticed the suburban was leaking a fluid and with some investigating he found that the radiator had cracked.  I felt burdened.  Why did we have so many repairs in one month!?  I guess it goes back to the first of January when we were talking about 2016 and how little we put into the cars and how well they have been running.  Anyway, we took the suburban into another auto shop to get the radiator replaced.  I was without a car for two days again.  I was thankful to get it back and it has been working well now for a week.  Hopefully we will have no more repairs for awhile. 

Neal was able to take apart the clothes dryer.  He cleaned it throughly and diagnosed the problem.  The element was broken.  I looked up on the internet and found the part and it is ordered and I am anxious for it to arrive. It was good to clean the dryer too.  He took apart things and cleaned it up.  Eleven years worth of drying makes for a dirty dryer.  I bet it will work so much better once we get the part.  I have learned more about line drying and will have a great appreciation for a working dryer. I am thankful that the washing machine works well.

On February 4^th Neal took Ruth to a band retreat.  The school was doing the retreat from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon.  We didn’t feel right about over night and Sunday school trips.  So Neal and Ruth got up early Saturday and he drove her to the music camp, it was about a 70 minute drive.  Ruth was excited to join her band and loved being a part of things that day.  They did lots of rehearsals and had sectional practice with a teacher too.  She learned things about the clarinet to improve her playing.  She also had fun going on a hike in the afternoon and just being with her friends.  Neal decided to enjoy the day in the mountains.  He brought his bike and went for a ride.  He also had his snow shoes.  He found an area with enough snow to go for a walk.  Although he said the snow was melting and stuck to the shoes a lot, making it harder to walk. He enjoyed his day of adventuring.  He went back to the music camp in the late afternoon and sat in their lobby and read a book until Ruth was finished for the day.  She spent about 12 hours with her group.  I am glad that she was able to participate and they had a good day.

Ruth is working on a young women personal progress goal of planning, shopping for, and fixing meals for two weeks.  I have been working with her.  She is doing great with the cooking and it has been nice for me to not need to do so much.  We went grocery shopping together last Saturday and that was good for her to learn more about shopping.  

Spencer has worked hard on a science fair project.  He choose to do something with electricity.  He was testing different metals to see what one was the best conductor.  This is something I don’t know very well so I turned to Neal for help with it.  Neal has been busy with fixing things and being gone for a day with Ruth.  We were running out of time but they were able to work on things in the evenings.  This last week end Neal worked hard to help get the project finished.  Spencer got it in this week.  Friday will be the fair and I am going to help evaluate and talk to the students about their projects.  They don’t really get judged, it is more for learning than a competition.

Caleb is going through a process to be tested for a gifted program at the school.  I had to fill out paper work this month about him and his abilities.  I also had a meeting with school teachers and the program and the testing he will be doing soon.  Since the gifted program is run under “special education” here in New Mexico we have to go through more than Texas to get into these programs.  He will be taking an IQ test soon and then other evaluations.  If he gets in he will have an IEP (individual education plan) that will carry through the entire time he is in the district, as long as we keep it current.  He wont have to be retested.  I feel pretty confident that he will get into this program and I think it will be good for him.  I also like that the school that does the all day gifted classes is the school he attends, so he wouldn’t need to change schools.

Saturday Andrew and Neal enjoyed going to the model railroad club meeting.  Andrew is learning a lot about how to do trains and he really enjoys going to the meetings.

Yesterday was Valentines Day.  It was a nice day.  Neal brought me flowers.  Last Friday Neal and I went out to eat dinner together.  It was nice to have some time together.  Spencer and Caleb were happy about their class parties and sharing Valentines. I had made some sugar heart shaped cookies for them to share with their classes. I thought about my Dad a lot.  His birthday is Valentines Day.  I called and talked to my mom and enjoyed a visit with her.

The boys had time today to go through their Valentines.  They were having some fun.

The pretty flowers from Neal

Last Wednesday Caleb came home from school not feeling well.  He went to lay down and slept for awhile.  He woke up with a fever and head ache.  I had heard about an illness going around the school.  He was pretty sick for a couple of days.  Thankfully it didn’t bother his stomach and he could eat a little between sleeping.  He was home from school Thursday and Friday.  Saturday he was starting to feel better but still tired and not wanting to do much.  Saturday morning Spencer woke up with a fever and head ache.  He was in bed all day Saturday.  Sunday morning he asked me what day it was and I told him, he said he felt like he missed Saturday and I said that he had.  Sunday I stayed home with Spencer and Caleb and they rested. We had a quiet day.  I think I had the illness in a mild form because I was so tired and low energy those days.  Sunday afternoon when Andrew came home from church he said he didn’t feel well.  After sleeping for about an hour he woke up with a fever and head ache. He slept the rest of the day and most of Monday.  Spencer was home from school Monday too. Caleb was able to go to school Monday.  Andrew also stayed home on Tuesday. Spencer went to school Tuesday but it wore him out and he slept for two hours after school. Today all the kids went to school.  Caleb is feeling great.  Spencer is still tired and has a cough. They are home already because it is early dismissal day.  I hope Andrew is doing okay.  I told him I would pick him up from school.  He really wanted to go today and not miss another day of school but he was still tired and weak this morning.  It has been hard having them sick and I am thankful that they are doing better.  Ruth and Neal have felt fine through all this.

Today is a sunny day and I am thankful for the sunshine and the happiness it brings.  I also noticed today that the roses have a few buds on them and I saw a few green stems poking out of the ground where I planted some crocus last fall.  It is fun to think about spring and the plants coming to life again.

The boys were enjoying the letter blocks this week. Caleb did add to his and put his middle name too.  I didn't get a picture of that.

Things that Break

I looked at my last letter to remember when I wrote, I know it has been two weeks again.  I am not doing good at weekly writing lately.  Plus, I don’t know who really reads this, but I write it for my children.  That way they can have a picture of their childhood.  Anyway,  we didn’t go out to eat on Neal’s birthday.  He came home and said that the other men didn’t want to go out, since they had had a big lunch.  Instead we had a quick meal of grilled cheese sandwiches and soup with the kids.  It was nice to have the evening at home, especially when Neal had been so busy all week.  I had made a cake, so we were able to do that with the whole family.  It is good to have family time when we can.  Things get so busy at times.

On Friday after Neal’s birthday Ruth enjoyed babysitting the neighbor boys again.  They just live up the street and Ruth has enjoyed helping them.  This week we have helped the family some too.  The boys came over before school on Tuesday and Wednesday since their mom had to go to work early. It was fun to have some friends over before school.  Today Ruth will be babysitting them again after school.  I am glad that we can help them, they are a nice family.

Saturday the 21^st Neal had things available for cub scouts to come to our home and weigh their pinewood derby cars and get any help with adding weight.  We had most of the 8 year old boys come over.  Neal was good at helping them.  He also worked with Spencer on his car.  They spent all afternoon with cars.  Many of the fathers hadn’t made a car before, so it was nice that Neal took time to help them.  On January 25^th we had the pinewood derby races.  The boys were excited and enjoyed watching the cars go.  Spencer was our only contestant, since Andrew isn’t in cub scouts any more.  Spencer’s car did pretty good.  He was happy with its performance.  He got second place in his den.  (Although there are only two boys in his den right now.  But the cars were close and had to have a race to see what one was the winner between the two.) 

Spencer with his prize for his car, it was a container with 8 suckers, but it looked like one giant one, he likes it.

Back to Saturday the 21^st.  That morning I was fixing breakfast and saw what looked like fog rolling in through the open space. Then I realized it was a hail storm coming up towards the mountains.  It was cool to watch it roll in.  It was just little hail that turned to snow.  It lasted just a few minutes but covered everything white.  Then it melted quickly.  Mid morning I drove to the food storage center the church has here with Andrew.  We were going to buy wheat.  Andrew was a great help to me by lifting the bags of wheat.  It is nice to have a willing, strong son.  That afternoon we also had a friend come play, Cody.  He was our next door neighbor when we were in the rental house.  The boys had fun playing together that afternoon.  That evening Ruth went to the church to play basketball with the young women in the stake.  She enjoyed playing and said she felt she was getting better.

Sunday the 22^nd was our Ward Conference.  We were able to hear from our new Stake President Davis.  He talked to the youth during Sunday School time and Ruth enjoyed his messages too.  The theme of the conference was “Ask” and they were using many thoughts from the church youth theme this year from the scripture James 1:5.  In Relief Society Pres. Davis talked about how important it is to help the youth find correct resources to find their answers. There is so much available to everyone on the internet and we need to be careful what is the truth and what isn’t.  It can be hard to trust what you read and see.  I think this goes for the news too.  Neal also received a new calling on Sunday.  He is the membership clerk now.  He will also continue to work with the cub scouts as the committee chair. 

Caleb was sad that his dinosaur pajamas got a big rip in the seat of the pants and another one in the knee.  I made them for Spencer so they have had a lot of use and the fabric was just too thin.  I made Caleb a new pair of pants this week and he is happy to have new, soft, green pants. I haven’t started sewing on the quilt yet that I mentioned.  I do have it cut out.  My new iron came and I used it making the pants.  It works well and I am happy to have it.

It seems like this is the month for things to break.  After driving through the water on the streets Saturday, from the melted hail and snow, I started hearing an odd sound in the front end of the suburban.  So last week we took it into a break shop to have the breaks checked.  It ended up that we needed new break pads on all four wheels (we hadn’t changed them since we have owned it) and also needed to replace the hubs on the front end.  There were also problems with the steering rod.  We took it to another shop to have that work done.  It should be done today.  That was a lot of work to put into the vehicle.  It has been a great vehicle for us and I am thankful we don’t have repairs very often.

Then this week another item broke.  Our clothes dryer decided to stop heating.  Neal will look it over tonight and decide what is wrong.  So I have been doing a little laundry to keep clothing clean and have been hanging it up, in the house and out.  I can’t take it anywhere today because I don’t have car to drive!  This is crazy that so many things have gone out on us this month.  I hope that February goes better.

A few of my back yard right now, it looks colorful

Last week I took Spencer and Caleb to the dentist. I was happy they didn’t have cavities or other problems.  The dentist liked how Spencer’s tooth was looking.  He took x-rays to be able to track progress in it moving.  I think it is looking good too.  I also went to the dentist.  I have a tooth that has bothered me.  I figured it just would need the silver filling replaced.  No, the filling is too big.  The dentist said that if he tried to drill it out it would break my tooth.  So the only solution would be to do a crown.  He did put a sealant on the filling to help with the sensitivity and told me I could decide when to do a crown, when it bothers me bad enough I want help. I guess I will see how long that is.  Right now I can tell the sealant is helping.

Last Saturday morning I went to a Stake Relief Society conference.  I enjoyed the classes I attended.  It was also nice to visit with the sisters I ate lunch with.  I am glad that they do things like that.  It is just nice to get away from regular routine things.  That afternoon Ruth and I went for a walk.  I enjoyed talking to her.  Monday evening I took Ruth to the high school for a open house for the incoming freshman.  Ruth was nervous about it.  I thought it was good to be able to walk around the campus and see some of the class rooms.  We were able to talk to people at different booths about electives that are offered.  She is still in a big dilemma about band.  Marching band is required for anyone wanting to be in the band program and she doesn’t want to do that.  Marching band meets at zero hour, or before school.  It is a year long class.  They do marching band in the fall and then just extra rehearsal time the rest of the year.  They also do rehearsals after school on Tuesdays.  And it is required to attend all the sport games that the band performs at.  It would be a big time commitment.  Another big problem is what to do about seminary.  They do offer a 5:00 AM seminary class for kids in zero hour activities.  Ruth just worries that she wouldn’t have time to sleep or do her home work.  I am not sure what she will decide to do.  She has enjoyed doing band in the middle school.  She has looked into the journalism classes and has thought about getting involved with the school newspaper, since she does have goals to do things with writing in college.  She is feeling stressed about these decisions.  She should receive her registration papers this week.  

We have also been working on Spencer’s science project this week.  Neal is helping him to measure things with electrical currents and resistance.  Last night Ruth had a fun activity to dress up in 80’s clothing.  She looked in my year books to get ideas of what to wear.  I thought she dressed up fun.  We didn’t take time to try to curl her hair or fluff it any.  Last night we were all at the church.  Neal was helping with Andrew’s scout patrol, Spencer had his den activity, and Caleb came with me to Activity girls night.  Things went well.  It is just a busy time of life.  I also finished my big puzzle this week.  I started it last fall when the kids started school.  I have enjoyed working on it when I can.  It is a pretty picture. 

Not too bad of an 80's look for just what we had on hand

I just got the call that the suburban is done and can be picked up.  I also need to hang up clothes.  So I will work on those things and hopefully get this sent soon.