There's not much interesting to share with the family, but I feel guilty every week when we see all the other updates from everyone, so I'll give you our rundown....
Every couple of days we see headlines on the local newsites (does anyone actually receive a newspaper on their doorstep anymore?) about how all the ERs in Phoenix are clogged by flu patients. Well, in the last month every single one of us has had it, too. Fortunately, we haven't had to run to the ER. My assistant at work, Barb, has a 9-month old baby named Nathan. He started running a 105-degree fever last week that wouldn't go down. The doctors on the air force base sent them to the ER, where they sat for 5 hours. After running out of diapers and formula, and finding the cafeteria closed, and the fever down a little (ibuprofen is a wonderful thing!), they just left. Fortunately, Nathan is feeling better now and they can relax a little. It's really fun to watch a new mother and father figuring out how these little human things work!
Michael is officially the tallest person in the house, and he doesn't miss an opportunity to highlight that point. We have to constantly remind him that he still needs us (or at least he needs our money and our stuff!), so he'd better watch out! Every other year, our stake puts on a very big scout camp. They always incorporate an eagle project into the week for one lucky scout. Michael got that nomination for this year. He's got to do all the planning and contacting the Forest Service, etc., but he'll have a captive group of laborers to put in lots and lots of hours!
Mark is also growing. He got measured the other night (why?, I do not know), and we found out that his wingspan is 3 inches longer than his height. That means we need to plan on new shoes and pants in the next few months! He played his sax in the school talent show. I have to say that his act was among the best there. It was during a "community day" where all the neighborhood is invited for free hot dogs (provided by local car dealer who has adopted our school) and a book sale and craft fair. There were hundreds of people there. If he was nervous, he didn't show it. Mark signed up to play basketball in our local city league. It is his first time in basketball. His coach is great working with him. They only had 5 players available for yesterday's game so you can imagine how tired they all were at the end of the game! Mark played the best we have ever seen him. He even hit the floor a few times and got right back up and kept going (that's not what happens at home when his brother does the same thing to him!). Alas, they lost, but we were proud of their efforts -- they all stepped up and didn't lean on their star players.
Jason has been playing basketball, too. Alas, his team, too, has record that is easy to remember: lost every game. They've been close, though. We've had 3 heartbreakers. Yesterday's game wasn't really close -- they played really well in the first half, but then had their usual lapse right after half time. They never recovered. At least I'm learning how to be a supportive parent!
The girls are just as girly as ever -- princesses, horses, flowers, valentines, hugs, kisses, etc. They both made valentines for us that were really sweet. We're so glad we kept going after all those boys! We had parent-teacher conferences and all we heard was how good they are. Apparently, Julie can be a little twit sometimes (actual quote). Duh! If Mrs. Anchondo would have bothered to ask us, we could have saved her some time figuring that one out! Joanne's teacher said she deserves to be student of the month again, but she's only allowed to get it once per year.
Christine and I are doing the best we can just trying to hold things together. We've found that growing kids makes for active families. We're trying to prioritize and that sometimes leads to a lot of stress. We're really glad our mormon culture allows us to trade rides with other families! We were down to one car a couple of weeks ago while mine was in the shop. It was really nice to drop Michael off at mutual and tell him to find a ride home -- and he did!
Last week our HP Group leader mentioned that he had signed up on the new FamilySearch website (
new.familysearch.org) and already had 1 name ready to take to the temple. I came home and mentioned it to Christine. She logged in that night, and two days later had 11 names from our family lines who needed baptisms done. I took the afternoon off on Friday and we all went to the temple. Christine took the kids into the visitors center while Michael and I went and did the baptisms. Man! The Church is really making things easy! It was really neat looking at those names and knowing that they were our grandparents and uncles and aunts! I was sorting through some of the cards this morning and noticed that some of those names that Christine found for sealings had their endowments done years (I mean YEARS) ago! One of them had her baptisms done in 1871, endowment in 1889, and we'll be sealing her to her parents as soon as we can get back over to the temple!
Well, that's about it. Even for nothing happening, it still takes me a long time to say it!
We decided to spend our afternoon off hiking at one of our regional parks. We went to Lake Pleasant and hiked down to the floating bridge in Pipeline Cove (About 2 miles round trip). 