Week ending April 18, 2009

Sorry, no corny desert jokes, or “gosh, it’s been a really, really, really long time since we wrote” jokes, or anything else.  Just an update….

Our family seems to be getting back to a normal routine.  I’m sitting here on my bed, writing my blog on my laptop, enjoying the fact that we finally have air conditioning again.  Last September, our A/C died – the accumulator part had rusted out on the bottom, and all the coolant and most of the oil leaked out.  Usually, the weather turns really nice in October, and we were just a couple weeks away from that, so we decided the $300 to fix it was better spent elsewhere, and we’d just tough it out.  It was tough.  October was a hot month, and it stayed really hot into November.  There were days when the temperature inside the house got to 95 degrees.  And yet, we made it.  One of the first things we did once we got a real paycheck again in February was to call our A/C guy and have him come out and fix it for us, which cost us $375.  But it was worth it!  I’m sitting here loving the fact that when it’s 95 degrees outside, we can keep the house at 82 and feel really good!

Many of you have asked how my new job is going.  I can honestly answer that I love it.  No job is absolutely perfect, but I am very happy there.  The auto parts business tends to do better during tough times, so there’s an added level of stability.  It’s interesting working for a company that has recently been bought by another company.  There’s a lot of anxiety among my coworkers that the new parent company will cut us all loose after they’ve assimilated all the valuable assets.  I don’t know what will happen.   But for now, I have a job I enjoy, and my family (and I) love, LOVE, having a regular paycheck.

Christine has been called as the Young Women’s Camp Director for our ward.  She’s excited to start working on it.  All those who know Christine know she loves to organize things.  Well, this is no different.  She’s got a notebook already filling up, and she’s begun sending the e-mails.  She’s truly amazing to watch as she dives into something.  She always does a great job at whatever she decides needs doing.

The kids are all doing great.  Michael knows more and more each day, and will soon know it all.  I can’t wait for that day, so he can help me figure it all out.  Mark is still our scientist.  Right now, he’s setting up the telescope in the backyard, an activity he has done every night for a week and half.  He got special permission to leave it out tonight so he can get up when Michael leaves for seminary to see all the planets that will be out at 5am.  Jason is learning about organization from his mother (the hard way, unfortunately.  We had to pull him out of the lineup for his soccer game on Saturday because of too many missing homework assignments.  Ah, 5th grade.)  Joanne and Julie are still girls through and through.  I get to coach them on their soccer team.  We’ve got a small team, and they all see way more playing time than they’re used to.  Yesterday we played a hard game, and it was 0-0 going into the last five minutes.  But we were out of gas, and they had a really good kid on the other team who took advantage of our fatigue and got in two great shots.  We’re 1-2 on the season.

We think you’re all a swell bunch of people.  Take care.  We love you!

 

On March 21, we went to the bi-annual Luke Days air show at Luke Air Force Base.  Here are a couple of pictures from the day…