Update

Every time I get on here I have to look back and see what I already said.  I keep thinking, though, that I'm past due for writing because so many things have happened, but now I can't think of a whole lot of them.  Ha!

I'm taking a break from my family history project.  While there are tons of sources online, there are still only a finite number, and the further back I get, the harder it is to document things.  It's been kind of frustrating to my inner perfectionist who likes to fill in all the blanks.  So I've decided to take a break for a while and mull it over in my head.  It's just on the back burner for now, but I'll keep that fire lit and attack the project with renewed vigor soon I think.  For now I'm working on my blog books.  I'm quite behind.  I never finished 2012.  I've decided that editing time for my blog books is going to be way reduced from now on.  If I see a typo that jumps out at me while I'm formatting the books I'll fix it, but I'm not going to go through word for work and make sure my meaning is clear and that all my i's are dotted.  It's kind of a waste of time.  Still there's a lot to do, and I'm going at it.

A few weeks ago Jeremy mentioned something about goals on Facebook, and cousin Caroline replied, "Hey, if you want to talk about goals you should come to our goals club meeting."  They call it Wealth Builders Club, and they meet once a month.  They take turns hosting it, and it's just family so far.  So we went for the first time in September.  It was at Caroline's house, and Jacob, Rachel, Theo, and their spouses were also there.  They just let the kids play while they discuss building wealth in all the areas of their lives.  So they'll set goals for health and exercise and for actual wealth and whatever else.  Honestly, my favorite part is spending time with them.  I tell you, these cousins of ours married well! :) It's been fun to get to know everyone and become kind of reacquainted with those cousins I just haven't seen in forever.  We hosted the meeting yesterday, and that was fun.  Jacob couldn't come because he had to work, but Shannon and her kids came.  Rachel's kids were sick, so they didn't come.  Also, Rachel's husband got hired at the prison in Winslow, so they're moving. :'( I feel like a whole realm of possibilities are open now that we get together, though.  We had Caroline and Tevis over to play Cashflow 2 weeks ago, and I like that.  I hope we do it again. :) Now I just need to get the same thing going with Uncle Gary and Aunt Bettie's family. ;) We ought to have them all over for a barbecue before it gets too cold.

There was a crazy storm here just over a week ago.  We had hail and lightning and crazy rain.  Safford was hit really hard.  All the schools had to close for at least 2 weeks.  Shannon works, I think, Lafe Nelson, and it sounds like her school was hit the hardest.  They're going to divide her school's classes up between the other elementary schools, and hopefully hers will be all fixed right around Christmas time.  She says she'll be teaching in a partitioned section of a library.  A lot of homes were also flooded.  Richard's Music sprung a leak.  Paul and Carrie lost a window and their cars are all dented.  I actually went out in that storm to grab something from Walmart, and it was a bad idea, but I survived.  The power went out at Walmart while I was looking for what I needed (I never found it), so that was kind of silly.  Oh, well.  It was pretty intense, though.  You could tell the storm intensified the closer you got to Safford.  Crazy!  You can see some pictures here.

We are always working on something on this house!  I know I mentioned that we got the roof fixed.  Next on the list was to get the vents redone.  We got that all done last week.  Before we had a total of 2 vents in the entire downstairs, and neither put out much air.  We called up the place Paul used to work for, and they came and fixed the vents we had and added more downstairs, and overall increased the air flow.  I think the winter and summer will be a lot more comfortable now!  I even have a vent that blows right on me when I am at the computer. :) I'm happy about that.  I just wish they could have added vents to the garage that will one day be a bedroom, and to the bathrooms.  Oh, well.  Next on the list: Jeremy wants to do some of that blow-in insulation, and that ought to help us save on heating and cooling costs.  We also need to fix the kitchen ceiling now too.  It turns out that ugly ceiling was a false ceiling.  It was hiding ductwork, old and new.  We pulled it down, and now we will need to soffit some of of it and fix holes where old ducts were, but we will have a higher ceiling in there instead of the ugly one.  I like that.

One funny thing about getting the ducts redone: there's an old vent in the floor of the main bathroom where the old heater used to blow.  When the guys came in to redo the ducts they couldn't use it, but the duct was still connected.  When they took it down, all sorts of stuff fell out.  Apparently, the kids who lived here last realized that the vent cover came off.  They put a lot of things in there.  There were a few bars of soap and hair clips and toothpaste, and all sorts of things.  It was funny. :) Our kiddos were then all excited when they realized the vent cover came off, and they kept dropping things through to the kitchen.  Some of them - I'm glad nobody was there when they fell!  Bubby dumped water and toothpaste through it.  Oh, boy!  The toothpaste got all over the fridge door.  Joshua, that little rascal who loves so much to tease, had all sorts of fun with it.  One day his Papa set him to get some floss because he had something stuck in his teeth, and Joshua passed it to Hyrum through the hole.  He thought that was pretty funny, but his Papa just said, "Ijole!"  He has since blocked the hole.  Well, it was funny while it lasted, mostly because of Joshua.  He has such a fun sense of humor.

Henry got another tooth last week!  He now has 6: 4 on top and 2 on bottom.  I don't know why he's in such a hurry.  He likes to bite me when he's overly upset or when he's not feeling well.  Ow!  2 more months and I'm going to wean him.  It is definitely bittersweet - that weaning business.  I'll miss it.  I always do.  But when it's time, it's time, and part of me is ready when it's time.

Henry is really good at crawling now.  He's not super fast, but he's got the mechanics down, and it melts my heart.  He's so darn cute!  He is getting really steady on his feet, too.  He is almost ready to take his first steps.  He can stand for a few seconds on his own too.  It's fun to see his eyes light up as he discovers he can do things. :)

Henry also has ringworm.  We can't figure out how in the world he got it.  It's on spot about a half inch diameter in the middle of his chest.  We have some cream for it, and it's starting to go away, but man!  Well, I suppose it could always be worse, right?

We've had all sorts of adventures with teeth lately!  Not only is Henry teething, but we found out that Jeremy needs to get his implants sooner than later.  I'm not clear on the details.  I don't know why it needs done so soon, but I'm glad it'll get done.  Most of us have dental work that needs done, in fact.  I'll get mine done this week, a bunch of the kiddos will get theirs done the day after Halloween, and then Timmy's will be a bit later in November.  I'm hoping his will work out because I don't want to take him to the valley.  I like the people there, but that's at least 2 trips to Mesa and they'd want to sedate him ($!).  Here they can do laughing gas, so I've been trying to prepare him for that.  "They'll put a piggy nose on you and fix your teeth.  It will be so silly!"  I showed him pictures, too.  We'll give it a try!

And speaking of Timmy's teeth, he lost one out of the blue right after school about a week and a half ago.  He was eating something, and it was suddenly just gone.  It was one of the two front bottom ones, of course.  He thought it looked so silly, so he had a good laugh about it.  And that very night the kiddos were crazy, and Hyrum was trying to get him to settle down for scriptures, and somehow (we still can't figure out how) his other bottom tooth got knocked out.  He bled a bit, and that freaked him out.  Poor fella!  But it stopped bleeding pretty quickly.  I explained that sometimes it bleeds, and, "See?  It's already stopped."  I gave him a big hug and he looked in the mirror and saw that that looked even more silly than one missing tooth.  So he giggled and was fine. :) Well, that wasn't the end, though.  A few days later his school called to say that he'd had a mishap coming down the slide and one of his two front teeth was just dangling.  Argh!  They weren't even loose yet!  I took him to the dentist, and they took it out.  They didn't charge for it either. The dentist showed me that the one next to it (not the other front one, but the one on the other side) was loose too and will probably fall out soon.  He said in a year or so it would have wiggled out anyway.  I guess he'll be a little toothless up on top for a while.

The local fire station had an open house last week.  Hyrum was not excited at all about going.  It was free dinner that I didn't have to cook, though, so we went!  They ran out of string for the balloons but were still handing out helium balloons.  I hurrried and dug in my purse and tore the string off the kids' library cards for two of the balloons so they wouldn't fly away.  (I put string on Jill's and Timmy's like a necklace so they don't lose their cards when we go to the library.)  Benji and Michael inhaled their helium while we waited in the dinner line, and they giggled a lot about that.  I know they're 12 and 10, but they're still such cute friends.  We still had to feed a few kiddos cereal when we got home because they didn't like the hot dogs, but oh, well.  This is the kid of thing that Hyrum dreads and I like anyway.  He worries so much about losing kiddos.  Sometimes he counts them all more than I do.  But I like to go out and do things, and I like fire trucks.  So there.

I took my sewing machine in to see if it could be repaired a few weeks ago.  The guys looked it over and gave me a free estimate.  They also have some old ones like the one Mama inherited from Grandma Badger, and I'm sorely tempted to just buy one of those instead of getting mine fixed.  I just can't be sure that mine will continue working for much longer, and I can't be sure that any of the good old ones would either.  I may go in there and chat with them about it.  I think I'll end up getting an old one.  They just don't make them like they used to.  I want one that will last through the millennium and miles of denim.

Michael and Joshua got their eyes checked just recently.  Joshua just wanted to, and Michael was due for a checkup.  Joshua's eyes are still good.  Michael's prescription is about the same.  We ordered him new glasses because we could.  They are green and white, and he likes them so far.  He had such trouble with his last pair.  They kept sliding off his face.  I don't know why he doesn't want to get wire frames.  You can fix those at home if they're sliding off your face.  But he likes the more chunky frames.  OK, then.  Well, I'm just glad he can see. :)

We also went ahead and rented a clarinet for Michael.  The one we bought was kind of cheapo.  I knew it would be, but I didn't realize how cheapo.  It was having all sorts of problems.  It was going to cost more than we paid for it to fix it, and then the guy at the music store said he couldn't guarantee it would stay fixed for any period of time because it has soft metal.  We should have done it this way in the first place.  The reason we didn't is that he's not going to play clarinet forever.  I explained that, right?  The band teacher said he has to learn clarinet and then bassoon before he can learn tuba.  So anyway, the red clarinet didn't last nearly as long as we hoped, but I guess we're OK.

Joshua really wants to build a computer.  I think that's a great idea!  I do think I want him to buy his own parts for it bit by bit, though.  I think that would be a greater experience than he does.  He thinks it will take forever.  It just might.  We only pay for jobs done on Saturday, so that's his income for now.  He did buy a used PS2 (Playstation, a video game console), though, and he's trying to fix it up.  He's ordered different things for it, and that's been a fun project for him.

EAC had their surplus auction on Conference weekend.  It started while Conference was going, and they sold all their computers during that time.  Darn it!  We hoped to get one or more for Christmas, though I don't know where we'll put any more computers. XD  We bought a bookshelf, 4 computer chairs, and a snare drum. (Shhhh!  That last one is Benji's Christmas present!)  The auction was pretty fun.  The auctioneer was in a little booth on the back of a golf cart thing, and the guy drove him around to the different items.  He was really friendly and fun.

Speaking of Conference, wasn't it wonderful?!  And also speaking of Conference, we had Stake Conference yesterday, and they released President Kartchner, who, coincidentally, was my doctor here when I was pregnant with Hyrum, the one who flew me to Tucson.  The called Todd Haynie as the new Stake President.  I don't know his counselors, but I think Todd will do a great job.  He's such a good guy.  He was just released as bishop in our ward just before we moved in, and then he moved.  My favorite thought from the conference yesterday was about repentance, and it was from one of the visiting general authorities.  He said he was in a meeting once where President Scott told them all that they needed to repent.  Then he explained that repentance isn't something huge, but all it is is coming to Christ.  That's it.  Of course, then He can help you.  I think I forget that, how simple it is.  I knew we've been told we have to repent every day, and I never understood how one could do that.  Repentance always seemed to me to be a huge, long, drawn-out process.  I didn't undestand, but, man!  If that's all it is!  I think I can handle that. :)

Hyrum and Joshua are still plugging away at college and such.  Joshua rides a bike to school and Hyrum walks while reading on the Kindle he got for his birthday.  We found out that we accidentally signed Hyrum up for the wrong chemistry class!  He got put in a hard one instead of the beginning one.  He had such a hard time with it because he had no foundation.  He went to the tutor a few times a week, but he still failed the two tests he took.  Poor guy.  He felt so much better when he realized that he was just in the wrong class and that it wasn't just him being awful at it.  We had him try his best after help from the tutor the second test to see he could do any better, and he didn't, so we let him drop it.  He's no longer full time, but he's a lot less stressed out.  I'm so glad!  He is really enjoying all his other classes.  He's also found the practice rooms and is working through a bit of that piano book we got him.  We want him to take the GED soon so he can get the Pell Grant in the spring, and that will be such a financial relief for us!  And I think it should help him get private violin lessons too,  We have the information for the GED, and EAC gives the tests, so we're going to try to get that done here in the next few weeks.  He got his tux for Fall Sing and is all excited, though he did question me about the purpose of a cumberbund.  (I know "cummerbund" is technically how you spell it, but who says it that way?  Not me.)  "Now, what is this for?!  I know where it goes, but why?!"

Joshua has not asked for a new rat.  The last 2 times he lost one he was ready right away for a new one.  I'm kind of surprised.  He's not sure at this point, and that's OK.  Sometimes it's crazy to me when I remember he doesn't have one anymore.  I miss it, and I wish he'd ask for another.  I'm giving him time and space, and I'll let him decide.

Benji is still loving middle school.  He got a nice yo-yo from a traveling yo-yo guy who visited Michael's school (Google The NED show, and you'll see what I'm talking about), and he says the kids at his school thought it was so cool that he had a yo-yo.  He told me about that several times.  He's trying really hard to be popular, but he's having a lot of fun with it too.  It's so funny to me.  It's fascinating watching kids grow, isn't it?!  It's like you watch them become more and more and more who they already are.  Very, very cool.  Anyway, he's also been doing well in band.  He's getting better and better.  He's become good friends with another of the percussionists and has enjoyed that.  We're hoping he'll get to do snare drum sometime this year.  He doesn't practice every day, but he does off and on.  He just had a concert recently, and he is so proud to participate.  Sometimes he gets all excited and gets off the beat, but mostly he dos good.  He's got that suspended cymbal down! ;) Also, hearing the drums from EAC's marching band every morning makes me so, so excited for his future in percussion.  It's so fun!

Michael wants to try wrestling.  There's a kind of club that he's joining that will be 2 days a week pretty much the whole month of November and a bit more, where they'll learn the basics.  I'm glad he wants to do it.  I bet he'll like it, even if it is a lot of work.  Registration is tonight.

Jill's reading is improving all the time.  They put her in Title 1, but really it's OK.  They make Title 1 so fun, and it's an open entry/exit program, so they'll kind of graduate her out eventually.  We've been having her read at scripture time more, and she's excited about that.  She always wants to read more and more scriptures instead of giving someone else a turn.  We all know that scriptures is why any of us got to be good readers.  It definitely makes a difference!  I'm happy for her.  She is also getting some good friends who, I hope, will stick with her!  At that age you never know.  She just needs to stop making deals with people who promise, "I'll give you this if you give me that."  They never give her "this," and they never will.  I learned that much in school. ;)

Bubby really needs to potty train.  He likes the going without pants part, but isn't interested in sitting on the toilet.  He's always stripping down.  He doesn't see how it would improve his life to use the potty.  It would make him happy and confident, apparently.  He's learning how to talk more, and it's so cute.  I need to do a blog post soon about the cute thing he says.  I've been making a list on my phone.

I have been reading The Odyssey again.  I haven't read it since high school.  I knew then it was a worthwhile read, but it was an assignment, so I didn't get much out of it.  I'm enjoying it.  I am still annoyed by how long things are taking.  Why is Odysseus sitting there so long in disguise in his house instead of just getting rid of those guys and being done with it.  And why does everyone have to have a name?!  Even the minor characters who we see for two seconds are given a name and relatives.  The guy who teases him on the street for a minute does not need a name.  The servant who brings him food once does not need a name.  Silly.  Well, I'll get through it.  It's interesting, though.  Those Greeks were so wrapped up in all those gods.  They were false gods, but their lives were all about worshiping them and seeing what their will might be.  It reminds me a lot of our religion, except that ours is actually true, you know. ;) Every bit of our lives is touched by our religion, and so was theirs.  It's interesting.

Well, I think that's long enough.  I'll see about uploading some pictures now.