January Part 2

Last week was kind of long and interesting. On Monday we took a sick day. That meant I held school on Friday instead, but that wasn't so bad. We bought a bunch of cough syrup and whatnot and just stayed home being lazy.

The next day Harry and Bubby had checkups at the doctor. Just their annual visit. A visit to the doctor always means they have to wash their hands over and over and use lots of paper towels and lots of hand sanitizer. But they both checked out good.

We also had piano lessons for Jill and Timmy, though they were both kind of too sick for it. They have finished the first set of books and started on the second set. They're coming along. 

I also had an interview with Bishop that day. He asked me to be on the Relief Society board. I guess mostly what I'll be doing is helping plan and execute plans for our meetings that we have once a month on a weekday. I went to my first board meeting today, and we decided to do cupcake decorating in February. So at least that's all figured out.

On Wednesday your Uncle Robert came into town to visit. We went over to Grandma's house to hang out and he came there a little later. He stayed until Friday morning and then went home.

On Thursday we met Grandma, Grandpa, Paul, Carrie, Robert, Aunt Stacey, and Uncle David for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was pretty yummy. At least my burrito was. I got shredded beef. Yum! It was expensive too. 😅 We laughed a lot at that dinner. It was fun.

Robert also came to see our house on Thursday. He'd never been here before. Being a priest has changed him some. He's still Robert, full of trivia. But he sounds different. I think that his job has allowed him to help a lot of people, and maybe that's what I'm seeing. Anyway, it's cool.

I made some alphabet sound cards for some of my students that are struggling with it. I should take a picture. E is not for elephant. It's for elevator because that's something I knew I could make with paper and glue. 😅 My favorite is the jam. It has a cute little strawberry on the jar. I think I'll laminate them all. It was a great little project, just what I need now and then. A little project. It makes me feel good.

On Friday we went to baby Rocco's funeral. Val and Tiffany seem like they're holding up ok. Still very sad, obviously, but I feel like they're going to be ok. It was so cute to watch the little two year old playing peek-a-boo, saying, "Dad! Dad!" to Val. 😊 He was just thrilled to play along. The funeral was mostly just nice. Val and Tiffany got up and both said something. Tiffany read a poem, and Val shared something that Elder Wirthlin said that has brought him some comfort. The weird part was when Tiffany's kids' grandpa got up to speak. He kept saying "By the spirit of prophecy that is in me right now, I can tell you..." And he also told us, "Just before we started I felt inspired to tell Jason and Tiffany..." That whole talk made me feel uncomfortable. But then their Bishop got up and gave a short little message, and it was beautiful. 

And then we all went to the Central Cemetery. It's a beautiful little place. It's very small, but it's up on a hill overlooking the Temple. They chose it because of that little fact - that it overlooks the Temple. Val carried the tiny little casket over to the grave and set it there and then they had the dedicatory prayer. And then Val placed that little casket in the grave. They had a little box of flowers. All of the flowers were white. They helped different people put flowers in the grave, but mostly it was Val and Tiffany and their kids kneeling by the grave and throwing little white daisies in. 

I was just so grateful that we got to be there. I think Val needed us to be there. I'm grateful that he knew he could count on us to be there. That sweet little boy will watch over them now, and that's kind of cool. Lots of hugging. Lots of crying. But it was a beautiful experience, and I'm thankful we were part of it. 

And then when we got home I knew I couldn't just keep those photos to myself. As I watched Val and Papa hug at the funeral it touched me so much, and as I thought it over I remembered that God brought our guild together, and I realized that, LCN or not, He's not done writing our story. That's kind of neat. 

Anyway, so I shared the pictures with Lilly and Verdes, and I sent them to Val's mom, who was so sad that she couldn't be there. They recorded the whole thing to send to her. I thought that was so nice. My pictures didn't come out amazing. It was kind of sunny. But they were what I had to give, so...

Anyway, yeah. That was probably my favorite thing this week. 

On Saturday we bought tickets for the airplane to get to California so we can get on the cruise ship. It's probably a lot more expensive this way, but driving in California is scary, and then we'd have to park the van at the pier and pay for 4 days of parking. And then drive all the way home after getting off the boat. It would take too long. Anyway, so we'll fly from Tucson to Los Angeles and then catch a shuttle bus to the boat. Exciting. Then we'll fly back from Los Angeles to Tucson. 

Today I took Timmy, Bubby, and Henry to church. It was good to be at church after missing last week. Papa wanted to be there too, but it didn't work out. I told you the story of Benji being asleep in a chair in the foyer when we got there. Apparently, he didn't sleep through all of Sacrament Meeting. He saw lots of kids be brought out by their parents, and he tooted outside. 😅 Timmy gave an Article of Faith (#1) in Primary all by himself. And Henry talked to his teachers! And Bubby was just annoyed that I was going the same direction as him because he wanted to take himself to class. 😅 Well, it was nice. I missed the first half of Sunday School because I was sitting with a sleepy Henry who had slept through all of Sacrament Meeting. But it was ok. I was happy for what I got.

I ran into the Jensens again. They're for reals all moved out as of today. Amy took me through their house. They painted and scrubbed and it looks great and smells clean and painty. ;) She says they're going to rent it out. And they're moving to Yuma, not California. Hot!!! 

And then Grandma and Grandpa got set apart. I'm so thankful we got to be there for that. It was nice. It was just Grandma, Grandpa, the stake president, Papa, Paul, and me. They came to dinner. We made that stuff like scalloped potatoes where we layer bacon and potatoes and onions, but we used chunked ham because we needed to use ham. It was yummy. Grandpa played the guitar a bit and the dulcimer a bit. He put another string on Joshua's dulcimer (one of the strings is optional). Grandma read stories and we played a word game.

Anyway, this is long enough. I'll read scriptures and add pictures after.

Benji gets to do stained glass this year. They will be cool. He's going to make a bird first. I think he does it in the same building where you did, "Woodcarver!"

The other pictures are from the cemetery.

Papa laid down and two little guys joined him

We went on a walk yesterday with Grandma and Grandpa down to the clock tower. Jill sat down because she wasn't feeling well. So I sat by her and did a selfie. 😅 She's at that age where she doesn't want her picture taken. Silly. Anyway, here she is saying, "Mommy!" and trying to dodge. ;)

This is the view from the cemetery. Not bad.

Harry in a tree near the clock tower. 

Timmy playing kick the soccer ball with Grandma.

Grandma and Grandpa pointing to the missionary map in the high council room. :)

Grandma and Grandpa

With all of us at the setting apart (or whatever you call that)

Grandma gave me this dress and insisted that I looked so cute in it she needed a picture, and Papa better be in there too. The sun was in our eyes. I love it, though! And I love my new dress!

I sneaked this of Grandpa playing. I wanted to video, but I didn't want to be obnoxious. ;) I wish I had anyway.

Love you so much!!

Love, Mama

That sickness we had was awful.  For Joshua it was the worst.  We found out he had pnemonia in both lungs.  He was so sick that he had to stop to catch his breath just coming from his bedroom to the living room.  I took him to the doctor, and he prescribed some cough medicine, saying his lungs sounded fine.  But he sent us for a chest x-ray anyway, and that's how we found out he had pneumonia.  At the time Jill wasn't as sick as Joshua, but she wasn't getting better, and she had a hard time catching her breath.  I took her to the doctor, and we saw a different doctor there, which I was so happy about.  Her breathing was bad, so they gave her oral steroids, and that helped a lot.  By the time we got to the hospital for her chest x-ray she was already feeling a lot better.  She didn't have pneumonia.  She had bronchiolitis.  She and Joshua both took antibiotics and got better.  What a crazy time that was!

I know those guys! ;)

This is under the clock tower.

I took Joshua to get new church shoes.  He chose the hiking boots.  Ha!  They look nice, though, so that works.

Jill helped the little guys make a wall. 

Here are a bunch of boys on Chromebooks at break time. I decided that they can't be on Chromebooks at break time anymore. I need them to get their wiggles out so they can focus after break.

Bubby put his shirt like this and said, "Take a picture!"

Benji drove himself over to Great Clips and paid for his own haircut. And then after this picture he shaved off his beard too. 

Timmy at his Primary activity (on the right)

Benji's band in Phoenix.  They had a news story outside their hotel and then played for the opening of the legislature.  I saw some video of it.  They marched in and then played The Star-Spangled Banner.  They were asked to go back in February for some marching band thing.  In this picture Benji is in the back, of course, the third person behind the lady in the black jacket.

President Haynie came and gave everyone a Gila Monster pin for representing the college so well. :)

Did you know he's not only the college president but our stake president as well?  I like him.  He always stops to chat and is fun to talk with.

Benji is the one holding his cymbals highest.