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 21st 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 25th 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 21st. 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 22nd 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.
Ruth looks cute in her 80's outfit. I hope she had fun!
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