A Couple of Memories

I've been thinking about Snowflake lately, I guess. This brings up 2 little memories that I want to record.

One time I was in Regionals.  Well, I was in Regionals more than once, but you know.  This one time I don't remember if I was doing band or choir, but Snowflake was hosting it.  (It was probably choir.)  Mama arranged for me to stay the night with my Peterson grandparents there in Snowflake.  I liked that.  I'd stayed there before, but not without the rest of my family.  I stayed in that second bedroom on the right as you go down the hall.  In the morning Granddaddy was at the stove cooking, and he made me an omelet with his fancy omelet pan.  I don't think I'd ever had one before.  It was yummy!  Grandma sent me home with a bag of dried fruit labeled "papaya tidbits."  It was not yummy.  (Don't worry, though.  When Grandma did the actual cooking, the food was yummy. :) )

And another time, I don't remember why, but Mama and I were in Snowflake, and we arranged to stay the night with Grandma Ruth (my Great Granddaddy S. Eugene Flake's second wife) in that old house across from the Big House.  I have a brief memory of that house when I was really little and Granddaddy was still alive and that one room was painted all red.  I don't remember more than that one room to the left of the entrance on that particular occasion, so there might have been more red walls in that house.  Granddaddy loved red.  Anyway, this is one of the only other times I remember being in that house.  The walls were not red anymore.  Grandma Ruth was obviously not as nice as Grandma Lilly.  Ha ha!  Just kidding.  She was a very nice lady. :) It was kind of cool to stay the night there in that old room with the old furniture and old blankets and stuff.  In the morning I took a little walk out in the backyard, wondering what life was like there when Granddaddy and Grandma were still alive.  Grandma Ruth made biscuits to go with breakfast in a little toaster oven.  I don't know if I'd ever seen a toaster oven before.  Anyway, we had those biscuits with butter and jelly, and you know what a sucker I am for anything bread.  Those biscuits that morning tasted so, so good!

Garr Family

I've been working on family history lately, and, boy, is it a lot of work!  I'm always looking for sources, and as I get deeper in the sources become more scarce.  Sometimes it's just frustrating because I know somebody somewhere has that information! ;) There's only so much a girl can do from her computer at home.

Anyway, I came to the Garr family just recently, and I was working with the family of Fielding Garr and Pauline Turner.  Those are Nancy Garr's parents, and Nancy Garr is the widow of Rodney Badger.  Anyway, so the thing is - the family was living in Indiana.  All but 1 of the children were born there.  The family joined the church and moved west - all except the oldest child Eliza Jane who was already married to a James Davidson.  One of the records I read said that Eliza never joined the church, and that she just stayed in Indiana for the rest of her life.  However, I kept digging, and there's kind of a neat story I found that's linked to her on FamilySearch.  It's true that she never came west, but it turns out that she did join the church.  She sounds like such a neat lady.  She really struggled with living so far from her family, so she wrote them letters.  And I don't mean mass letters.  She wrote individual letters to family members, including nephews and nieces she would never meet.  Her letters have actually been collected, and if I remember right, BYU now has them.  Fascinating, huh?  She wrote about how she didn't understand this or that about the church, and all sorts of things.  Her letters are just fun: an old auntie writing to her siblings' children.  In one letter she said, "If you think so-and-so is fat, you should see your old auntie!  I weight such-and such!"  I thought that was funny. :) Some of her nephews did get to meet her as they were on their way back east to serve missions, and eventually, near the end of her life, some missionaries came and taught her and she was finally baptized.

Now, there's another story that's kind of mysterious.  Nancy and Eliza's brother John Turner Garr appears to have never married.  He was kind of a quiet guy who kept to himself.  Well, when he died, some lady came forward and said that his grandchildren deserved a share in his estate.  See, there was a Shoshone Indian lady who, if the story is true, actually bore John an illegitimate child.  John did have a lot of dealings with the Shoshones.  He could communicate with the local natives and was their friend.  Anyway, so then there was this native boy named Johnny who came and lived with John for a time, and it was rumored that Johnny wasn't actually there because John was just being nice to the natives but because he was actually his son.  And so Johnny grew up and got married and had kids and then, I believe, died before John did.  It was his wife that brought up the suit to court after John's death.  As you can imagine, John's family, including Eliza, all testified that he had a strong moral character and that he never could have had an illegitimate child.  They were all quite offended.  The judge sided with the Garr family in that case.  But then Johnny's wife came forward with another suit.  Apparently, she had done some housekeeping for John in his last years and was never paid, and she demanded payment out of his estate.  In this case, the judge sided with her, saying that there appeared to be enough evidence that those might be John's grandchildren after all.  You can find the old court documents online.

Interesting, huh?  If you go look at FamilySearch under John Turner Garr you can see that somebody went ahead and linked the Shoshone girl (Susan) as a wife to John, and Johnny is listed as a child.  They even guessed a marriage date and had them sealed.  In one record she even had a last name and a father listed, but I didn't change FamilySearch.  I couldn't find proof that they were ever actually married.  I did find a little blog post about Susan, though.  I wish I'd been a smarty pants and written down the sources I did find, because I don't know where they are anymore.  I did find the blog post, though.  It's written by a descendant of Johnny's, and it's pretty interesting.  You can read it here.  And speaking of which, where are the writer's sources?! ;) Wish he'd share.  Anyway, let this be a lesson to you.  Write it down, and include where you found it!  Saves a lot of trouble. ;)

Long Week

Life goes on, you know?  That sounds like I'm starting in the middle or at the end of a story, doesn't it?  Well, life does indeed go on.

Last week was killer!  There was so much going on!  I told you all about that last time, I suppose. 

So Jeremy did have his oral surgery.  It was the pits.  I ended up being really glad that I took the kiddos to St. Johns because he was indeed able to rest.  My parents are champs.  They helped me run after/carry around kiddos.  In fact, I think they did most of said running/carrying while I was a lazy bum.  I feel kind of bad about it, but pretty grateful as well.  As for Jeremy, he pulled into town and filled his prescriptions.  There were 3 of them: one for pain, one antibiotic (I believe), and a prescription mouthwash.  Then he caught up on TV shows a bit and slept a lot.  I was actually pretty worried about him that first night because he was throwing up.  I shouldn't have been surprised.  He kept throwing up after his back surgery.  But I felt so bad that he was feeling so rotten and unable to sleep there at first, and that I was so far away and not taking care of him.  But if I was there I would have had monkeys too.  There was nothing I could do.  It turned out OK, though.  By bed time he was able to sleep and then he did the aforementioned sleeping a lot.  He did deal with a lot of pain, though.  

The fair was fun. :) I thought it turned out kind of funny.  I kind of decided we should go look at exhibits Friday night and then do rides the next day.  So we headed over there and Benji fussed pretty much the whole time about how it was horrible just looking at stuff that other people had done and not doing some himself.  What?!  And Smokey Bear and those booths like it were all closed for the evening, so there was no free stuff at all.  And Bubby wanted to just run.  He fussed A LOT about being made to go wherever everyone else was going.  I actually quite enjoyed it all despite the fussing and running.  We got ribbon fries! :) And Timmy took my hand and held it pretty much the whole time.  (I won't even try to pretend that I didn't like that. ;) We went to the BUB first, and right there was the art section, so I took Timmy and we went there first.  I was surprised how much he seemed to enjoy it all.  I'd say, "Look, Timmy, a waterfall!"  And he'd exclaim, "Oh!  A waterfall!"  It made the art section even more enjoyable.  And Joshua came along after us and gave his artistic opinion on the different pieces, commenting about how bad some of the little kids' stuff was, and fussing about how somebody could color a page from a coloring book and enter that into the fair.  Ha ha!  He did enjoy a lot of it, though. :) And then we just looked at some other stuff in the BUB, and then we went to eat ribbon fries, and then we saw the animals.  I think Timmy was disappointed that we never made it over to the cows.  He kept saying the next day, "Should we go see the cows?"  That's how he asks for us to do something that he'd like to do.  It was getting dark, though, and I couldn't see how to get over to the cows.  But we did see chickens, rabbits, turkeys, and ducks, and the sheep and goats, and lots and lots of pigs.

The next day Mama and Kelly went to Show Low to look at wedding dresses and meet some of Rick's family, and Daddy took the older four boys to ride rides.  When they got to the rides, though, they hadn't started up yet.  They got some ribbon fries and brought them home, and we all had lunch.  Before we could figure out what to do about rides Dad got called out to work.  Man!  I still think SRP is going to be regret it when he retires.  Anyway, I didn't know what to do.  Mama and Kelly were still gone, and I had no idea when Dad would be back.  I didn't know if I should stay and wait or just go back to Globe.  It was about then that I got super sleepy.  It had been a long night with kiddos trying to steal the bed all night, and I've been trying to fight off a cold or something.  I decided that the best thing for me to do right then was take a nap.  So I did.  I ended up being very glad that I did because it really helped, and I was able to stay awake without eating pistachios all the way to Globe.  

When I woke up Mama and Kelly were home.  Dad stopped by on his way out to the field to give Mama money to buy tickets, and off we went to the fair.  We went to the carousel first.  I was sure that Timmy and Bubby would love it.  Jill decided to ride it too.  We got all three on with no trouble, and they all looked happy.  I was standing between Bubby and Timmy.  Then the ride started, and Bubby didn't like that at all.  Timmy and Jill loved it, but Bubby turned and climbed up me and clung on really tightly.  I tried to at least sit his bum on the seat, all the while thinking, "Well, he doesn't like it.  I shouldn't make him ride it.  But then again, we paid to have him ride it.  Well, that's now a sunk cost."  Ha ha!  So we didn't put him on any more rides.  Jill and Timmy rode the little roller coaster later, though.  I wasn't sure how Timmy would react to it.  I was afraid he'd be scared and try to stand up, but he loved it, and so did Jill. :) All the older boys rode the Gravitron.  Michael actually rode it twice.  Joshua was really excited to ride the Zipper and the Ferris Wheel, and he liked both.  The other three older boys went on the Zipper too, and they all hated it except Joshua.  He had fun laughing at Michael with an evil laugh.  And Joshua was alone on the Ferris Wheel.  We thought he was bored and sad that nobody went with him, but he says he really liked it.  I figured he might have been embarrassed to see us watching him go around and around and his brothers acting crazy every time he came around.  Ha ha!  Apparently, he was OK with it.  And Hyrum and Benji rode the Sizzler, and they both liked that. :)

Then we left for Globe.  We grabbed dinner at Burger King in Show Low.  We picked up Jeremy and he drove us to Thatcher.  I wish I'd let him rest while I drove instead because he later felt like he'd overdone it.  Oh, well.  We went to church the next day, and Jeremy stayed just for Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School before I sent him home to sleep.  As we were going into Sacrament Meeting I opened the door, and somehow or other I caught my pinky toe with it.  I was sure I'd scraped skin off, but pretty soon I realized that wasn't what was really wrong.  I don't know if I broke it or sprained it, but it's still bothering me off and on.  And since I'm pregnant it feels mighty funny when my feet swell.  My feet swell, and my toe swells bigger.  And I keep bonking it.  That's how it always happens, right?  You get hurt and then your hurt is like a magnet for everything that might cause more pain.  Ha ha!  

I drove us home to Globe.  It's so hard to leave that house and Thatcher, especially with all the improvements we've done.  But it's got to be done.

The next day Jeremy couldn't go to work because of the type of pain medication he had.  It was illegal for him to go to work with that in his system.  So he called in and told them he'd taken the last one at 4:00 that morning and wasn't going to take any more so he could go back to work the next day.  I was really worried about him, especially because I had to go to the doctor, and that left him at home with kiddos.  He was sore, and he says he was kind of grouchy, which I honestly think he was entitle to be.  He took some Ibuprofen or whatever we had around the house instead of the stronger stuff, and it helped, but he still hurt.  

As for the doctor, that went well.  We decided that while I was down there I should get one of Hyrum's birthday presents: another dove.  Before I went looking for one, though, I went to DI.  I found some cute maternity clothes.  I got rid of pretty much all of my maternity clothes after I had Bubby.  It wasn't so much that I didn't think I'd have another baby as that we were seriously trying to get rid of stuff to make it easier to move to Cedar City.  Anyway, I've been wearing mostly my Badger Campout t-shirts with whatever else I can find that I can fit into, and a few actual maternity clothes.  Well, everything is getting stretched out and my t-shirts aren't looking so nice anymore.  I decided I'd better find something, and, really, DI is a good way to go cuz they're cheap.  I did find 4 or 5 shirts, some pants, a skirt, and a dress that fit.  Wahoo!  I did have to do a little mending.  One shirt is technically a nursing top, and when I wore it the slits were just wide open.  I don't like nursing shirts anyway.  I much prefer to just lift my shirt.  Anyway, so I sewed those shut and voila!  I got a nice shirt for Sunday, and it just needed a little piece added to the neck to cover my garments.  Easy!  I feel pretty pleased about that. :)  

So then I went to pick out a dove.  We wanted a female to go with the male Hyrum already has.  2 Petsmart stores didn't have them, and Petco doesn't carry them at all.  The AZ Bird Store not only smelled AWFUL but has not doves of any kind.  And the last Petsmart store had 2 diamond doves, but they didn't know if they were male or female.  Apparently, Petsmart doesn't tell them male or female when they ship them.  I looked long and hard at those two birds, and I am pretty darn sure they were both male.  Darn!  Well, I got the nicer looking one and brought it home.  I was worried that they would fight, but they have actually been OK.  I'm not sure if Apollo is less lonely.  I think he still needs a female to coo with, but we'll have to wait.  Hyrum has named the new bird Hermes.  After we put that bird in the cage both birds looked super nervous.  I had to take Hyrum to the college for math right away (I took the three little ones to give Jeremy a break), and I was worried that they'd fight while we were gone, but they were just fine by the time I got back.

Also on Monday Jeremy had a cleaning at the dentist.  He was feeling grouchy and tired when he went, but we have such a nice hygienist.  She's a friend in Miami Ward.  He kind of perked up.  I was glad.  He went and picked up Hyrum from the college when he was done.  

On Tuesday morning I took Timmy to his doctor visit so he can go to the audiologist this week.  That went well.  Quick and painless, for the most part.  He really doesn't like them sticking things in his ears, so I kind of had to hold him down for that, but we made it through.  In the afternoon I took Michael to Cub Scouts, and then we had one hour between the time I picked him up from Cub Scouts and time for Pack Meeting.  Argh!  And, of course, I didn't have dinner ready.  I couldn't think of anything to make on such short notice.  And Jeremy and Hyrum were already off to class until 8:00.  We just went to Pack Meeting hungry and got pizza on the way home.

Pack Meeting was nutso.  I know it would be.  I didn't want to take Timmy because I didn't feel like I could wrestle him and Bubby at the same time, and I knew that if I let them go they'd run the ENTIRE time - up on the stage and everywhere.  So I wrestled a very loud Timmy the entire time while Sister Goutcher chased Bubby.  I suppose that worked out.  I wish he'd stayed with Joshua, who didn't want to go.  It would have made the whole thing a lot more pleasant for everyone in the room, including himself.  He could have played GameCube.  Oh, well.  I'm glad for Michael, though.  He has his Bear (I don't remember if they presented that before or this time, but I think it was before.), and is now working on Webelos.  Brother Goutcher says he'll be done with Webelos in December and will be able to work on Arrow of Light after that.  Phew!

The next Pack Meeting will be December 15, I believe.  I'm not sure how we're going to swing that one.  We're planning to be officially moved December 12.  And the 15th is Kelly's wedding day.  There are actually a lot of "hows" going on in my head.  I will be 11 days from my due date on Kelly's wedding day.  Jeremy doesn't feel like he can get work off for it because he's trying to save up for when the baby comes.  So that would mean I'd be driving myself and the children down to Snowflake at nearly 39 weeks pregnant.  And even if I wasn't driving myself, that's a long way to go at nearly 39 weeks pregnant.  I don't think the doctor would approve.  But then there's the matter of: how far is too far?  After all, when we move I'll be 3 hours away from my doctor.  And is it too far to go back to Globe for the Pack Meeting?  Still, we've gone clear out to the family campout at the end of a week and then gone in for a c-section 2 days later and been fine.  I just don't know what I can do or how I can do what.  I don't want to miss the wedding.  That is a big deal!  I already figure we can't go to the reception that weekend.  We can't make 2 trips down there, and we can't stay the few days in between.  Goodness.

Anyway, Wednesday I spent the day in Thatcher.  I had to leave at like 6:30 AM (boo hoo!).  I took Benji and the 3 little ones with me.  The carpet guys had estimated that they'd take about 5 hours start to finish, but all told it was more than 8, I believe.  Lots of work!  And the guy was a little grouchy with me.  And they broke the pull chain for the master bedroom light.  Thank heavens for the recessed lighting in there!  And they popped out the screen in the master bedroom so they could throw stuff down that way instead of carrying it downstairs, and it didn't get put back in properly.  I can't remember what all, but Jeremy wasn't pleased when he found out.  Still, it smells like new carpet instead of old, nasty carpet, and it looks great! :) I'm quite pleased.  It makes it even harder to leave!  I tried to keep the kiddos occupied while the carpet was going in.  I took them to Timmy's school to go over paperwork.  That went well.  He does, of course, qualify for the preschool, and they're going to help him!  He even gets some speech therapy in there somewhere.  1 hour a week, split up over 2 of the 3 days he'll go.  And the bus will pick him up from our doorstep and bring him home!  And his classroom is a happy place, and his teacher is so nice.  It's going to be great!  We went over goals too.  I'm just so excited for him! :) We also went to get lunch and get some shopping done while the carpet was getting done, but we ran out of things to do.  It ended up that Benji was on the laptop and I was reading The Hobbit while the 3 little ones played with Bubby's birthday toys.  They mostly did good staying out of the way of the carpet guys, so it all worked out.

Thursday I had a chiropractor appointment in the morning.  I was so glad to have nothing else scheduled for the rest of the day!  The chiropractor couldn't do her fancy vibrator on me while I'm pregnant.  Darn!  But she did pop my neck, and, unlike the one and only other time a chiropractor worked on my neck, I didn't come out with a weird popping in my shoulder blade.  I was pleased.  She said that if I would improve my posture it would help.  I'm supposed to be working on it for the next 2 weeks, but I'm doing bad.  I can't seem to remember.  I like how when I do remember and correct my posture my overall everything feels better immediately.  Cool!  So I'll work on that.

And on Friday we got ready and headed back to Thatcher.

On Saturday morning early I took Hyrum and Joshua to the Temple early in the morning so they could do baptisms with the youth.  What a blessed way for them to spend time!  I wish Jeremy and I had been able to go because now the Temple is closed for 2 weeks.  We won't be able to go back to Thatcher for a few weeks either.  This weekend is a scout campout with the Miami Ward, where the boys are going to scouts on Wednesdays.  And then it's the Women's Broadcast and the Miami Ward Primary Program.  And then the next week is Conference.  We don't have internet in Thatcher except data on our phones, and Conference would take too much of it.  Our bill would be too high.  So we'll just stay put, I guess.

A few hours after the Temple trip Jeremy met up with Joe and BreAnna to see about a house they've been thinking about buying.  I don't think they'll get it, but right now they're feeling kind of anxious to get out of the apartment they're in.  It's not a very great place, and their neighbors are not the best people ever.  After they were done looking they came to our house and we got to meet their little Jesse.  He was born almost 2 weeks ago.  He's a very cute little guy.  It's crazy to watch those kids being parents!  But they sure love their little guy, and so far they're doing good.  BreAnna sure had a hard labor.  That little guy just did not want to come out.  She was really, really sore, but she's doing lots better now.

And later that day, after we did our shopping and took things back to Home Depot, Jeremy's parents came over with Rachel and Susie.  Rachel was visiting from Provo and came to see baby Jesse.  When they got there we had pizza and cake and gave Hyrum a few presents.  We'd planned to have a barbecue, but it was too windy and was thinking about raining.  Rachel bought a used car from somebody in Pima that day too, and they thought it was a good one, but then it started acting up, and they didn't think it would make it to Globe.  They tried to get their money back, but the guy turned jerk on them and called Dad a bunch of horrible names and offered to meet him to fight.  And since it wasn't from a dealership there was nothing they could do to get their money back.  Bummer.  So Aaron's going to see what he can do with it and then I guess they'll go from there.  Jeremy doesn't think it's the fuel pump like the guy who was selling it said.  Poor Rachel.  Well, it was fun to see her. :)

On Sunday Jeremy gave the opening prayer in Sacrament Meeting, but right before the meeting started one of the counselors in the bishopric took him aside right there in the meeting room and said, "We're going to sustain you as a Sunday School teacher today.  Is that OK?"  Ha ha!  How's that for an informal interview? :) I'm pleased for him.  He's taking Todd Haynie's place because Todd is moving, and he'll be teaching Joshua's class. :) The only downside is that now I don't get to hold his hand in Gospel Doctrine class because he'll be teaching elsewhere.  Well, we can handle it. :) 

It was also the Primary program for Thatcher 2nd Ward that day, so Jeremy and 3 of our kiddos had their names on the program that day. :) I'll have to scan it. Timmy didn't have a speaking part, so he wasn't on the program, but that's ok.  I kept him with us during the opening and Sacrament, and then we went and found Brother Taylor, his helper, for the Program.  Brother Taylor is awesome!  He helped Timmy, and Timmy stayed up there on the stand the whole time. :) He didn't really participate, but this is a big step for him, and I'm quite pleased.  The Primary President even sat by him too for a while at the end and let him push the buttons on her flute.

We went to Grandma's that evening after we got back to Globe so we could spend a little more time with Rachel.  She's going home today.

And now it's Hyrum's birthday!  I'll have to take pictures. :) He's 15!  We are quite proud of him and thankful to have him in our family.

Maybe I'll add some pictures tomorrow.  I think this is quite long enough!

Oh, except I forgot to add - last week Jeremy got a letter recognizing him for his work towards the environmentalists' goals (taking care of flowers and birds and whatnot at the mine).  They invited him to a conference in Baltimore in November where he will be recognized for a job well done.  He got official approval from the mine today.  They will pay for him to go.  Cool, huh?  I mean, on the one hand, he'll be stuck in an environmentalist convention for 2 whole days (Boo!), but on the other hand, he'll be flying out East, and that's pretty cool. :)

Big Weekend

We have a big weekend this week!  I guess that means I'll have something to blog about on Monday.  Honestly, the whole month of September is something to blog about!  We've already had some dentist appointments, and today Jeremy is having oral surgery. :( He has one tooth with a cap that needs replaced with an implant, and he has 2 molars that have failed root canals.  Those two are so bad that the cavities are thisclose to hitting a nerve. :( So those two will be pulled as well, and then they'll put some stuff in that's supposed to help him regrow bone so he can get implants there sometime next year.  Not going to be a fun day for him.  I feel pretty worried, honestly.  Poor guy.  He inherited bad teeth.  Not something anybody would be glad to pass on, but it's true.  Jeremy's mom always had teeth problems, but his dad not so much, and some of their kids inherited bad teeth while others inherited good ones.  For example, Anne, who takes super good care of her teeth, has always had problems with them, but Jeff just doesn't.  It's kind of weird.  And now my train of thought is running away with me, but you get the idea.  It's the pits.  I feel so sad about it.

Anyway, he's going to need some rest this weekend, which is never helped by all these little monkeys.  So I'm driving the monkeys to St. Johns, and we'll go to the fair!  I'm so glad.  The kiddos all love it, and we haven't been able to go in a few years.  I'm excited!  The kiddos think we're going for the rides.  Pfff!  No!  We're going so I can see the little ones see the animals, and so that we can eat ribbon fries. :) And so my parents can play with their grand-kids, of course. :) And then on Saturday we'll come back through Globe and pick up Jeremy to go to Thatcher.  We need to be there because the Primary is practicing for their program that is going to be the next Sunday.  And Sunday is Bubby's 2nd birthday!  We'll celebrate at our new house!

Speaking of the new house, last weekend Jeremy and a bunch of other people installed laminate, and it looks so good!  It's in the kitchen, dining room, living room, and entryway.  And next Wednesday we're finally getting carpet!  Yea, verily!  Anyway, it worked out so great!  Daddy and Mama came to see our new house and help out, and Paul came over to help too, and then Kelly and her fiance Rick came. It was fun to meet Rick and to see Kelly all twitterpated. :) Plus, Rick happened to be awesome at installing laminate.  Those guys slapped that stuff down with astounding speed.  Just after dinner time all but the entryway and a couple of other pieces were done!  Paul and Rick had to take off, so then it was just Jeremy and Dad working on it.  It was kind of funny watching them work on their opposite ends because Jeremy's kind of a "meh, whatever works" kind of guy, and Dad's very much a by-the-book kind of guy.  They definitely work differently, but it was kind of fun to see all those guys working.  It was like it was choreographed or something.  Very cool.  The entryway didn't get done that day.  It got too late, and we had some shopping and whatnot to do.  But Jeremy brought his dad and Benji back there on Monday, and Aaron came too, and I hear it's all finished and beautiful. :) I can't wait to see it!  I keep picturing Thanksgiving there and Christmas there.  That Christmas tree will be all lit up in the corner, and the lights will reflect off the beautiful floor! :) Awesome!

Then next week Jeremy has a cleaning at the regular dentist, and then another appointment where they'll put a "provisional" implant in.  I take it that means temporary, until his mouth heals enough for the real one?  Also, I have a doctor appointment, and so does Timmy.

Funny story about Timmy's appointment.  So - the doctors here don't give shots.  For shots we have to go to the health department.  When Timmy was just a tiny guy I took him in for like a 4-month-old appointment, but in order to be seen that day we'd have to pay like $70.  I didn't have the money, so I just left.  I've kept up with his shots, but he hasn't had another doctor visit since.  I know.  It's sad!  I guess I've become lax in my old oldness.  I actually did better with Bubby, though.  Anyway, so we went to Dan Hinton a few weeks ago for Timmy's evaluation, and he wouldn't/couldn't do the hearing exam.  We tried everything, but he just didn't understand about letting us know when he heard a beep.  The lady also had a thing she could put in his ears, and it could tell if he heard it or not, but he did not want those earbuds in his ears.  He would have none of that.  Well, he can't be accepted into Dan Hinton without the hearing exam, so we've been sent to an audiologist.  That appointment is on the 24th, I believe, and, thank heavens, it's in Globe!  But before he can be seen by the audiologist he has to have a recommendation from a regular doctor.  And since he hasn't been seen by our regular doctor ever, he has to have an appointment with them first.  Ha ha!  Doctor appointment so he can go to the audiology appointment so he can be admitted to preschool. I thought it was funny, anyway. :)

And we've got a pack meeting this coming Tuesday, right in the middle of Jeremy's class that he teaches.  I'd better see if I can rope Grandma Burk into coming to help with monkeys. ;) And on the 17th or so I have a chiropractor appointment.  I've been having trouble with my neck again, and it's giving me headaches.  I haven't been to the chiropractor about my neck in quite a while, like since my first year of college.  I hope it helps!  I like this chiropractor.  Just before Christmas last year I had the most horrible pain in my hip, and she had me come 4 or 5 times to get it worked on, and it sure helped!  And the weekend of the 25th we'll probably stay in Globe because the boys have a scout campout, and then the Primary in Miami wants us to do their Primary program too.  We couldn't really say no to that.  Our leaving seems to have taken like half the Primary, and plus, we love these people.  We're glad to help out.

And then next month Michael and Jill will have their teeth worked on, and then in November Bubby will have his worked on.  That last one breaks my heart.  I'm guessing he inherited the crumbly teeth too.  After Timmy I swore we were done with sippy cups.  I did give Bubby a sippy cup maybe twice, but only with water on a long trip, and he didn't like them, so that was that.  But he still has cavities on the front of all four of his front teeth.  He's going to be sedated for it, and probably get new teeth (white crowns) just like Timmy did.  Oh, it breaks my heart!  Not only will his smile be different, but we have to live through sedation again.  I can't decide which is worse.  I'm going to have to go to counseling from all the dentist work my kids have had.  I swear.  It is that traumatic for me.  (No, I won't really go to counseling, but you get the idea.)

Anyway, lots of driving this weekend, and perhaps the biggest reasons why I'm sitting here typing is that we're out of cereal, so I need to actually make breakfast (Too bad all I have is a toaster oven!  I could really go for some muffins.), and that I need to fold a bajillion clothes so we can pack.  However, with all this traveling I've been better about getting laundry done and put away, and that means that I actually found the bottom of the boys' laundry basket today!  Wow!  I swear it is not a myth. :)

Bubby Lessons

A year ago today Bubby had his cast removed. Quite a lot has happened since then. It seems like it's surely been more than a year! I'm so thankful that he's healed fine and that we have that cute little fuzz-head. He is such a blessing. I'm thankful for the lessons that each of my children teach me. For instance, because of Bubby I learned that sometimes bad things happen, but that doesn't mean I'm a bad mom. And also, sometimes the things that happen, even the hard ones, were an intended part of his journey and/or mine in the first place. Not always easy to accept, but true.

In other news, I ran out of orange juice.  It was going to be a complete tragedy, but I found that I had blueberries in the freezer, so I made a quick smoothie and saved my buns.  Phew!  It was yummy, and I'm thankful. :)

Some more

I'd better hurry up!  It's the last day of August and I have only written once this month!

So...  I'm going to start out this post with our sad news.  Our cute little Mordecai has died.

 

He sure grew since this picture was taken.  I think I figured he'd be around for a long time like Scratchy was, and I've been not as good about taking pictures lately, so I don't have more recent ones.  I might have to steal some that Joshua took.  I know he was just a little ratty, but he sure grew on me.  He had a fun personality.  He was a lot more active than Scratchy was.  He was always pouncing around his cage and crawling all over Joshua.  He was just so cute and sweet.  We all miss him.  I'm so sad for Joshua.  Many tears have been shed.

 

So this is what happened.  You know how we've been going back and forth between Globe and Thatcher every weekend?  Well, this time I was driving as we pulled into Thatcher, and I wanted to hurry and get the shopping done so we wouldn't have to go back later.  I forgot we had a little ratty with us.  Joshua said, "What am I going to do with Mordecai while we're in Wal-Mart?  I can't bring him in."  I told him he'd just have to bring him in because he couldn't stay in the hot car.  Under normal circumstances we wouldn't bring him in, but in this case there wasn't much choice.  Then there was a discussion about it with Papa too, and somewhere in there Joshua understood that he could not bring Mordecai in, so he didn't.  He was gone before we got back out to the car.  I feel so, so bad.  We never wanted that to happen.  We love that little guy.  He is gone too soon.

 

I'm not sure what we'll do.  I'm certain that Joshua will want another rat some time, but I think right now might be a little too soon.  We'll see. 

 

This weekend worked out a little differently.  Jeremy had to work late on Friday, so we stayed in Globe on Friday night.  It was after lunch by the time we left on Saturday.  And then when Mordecai died Joshua wanted to bring him back to Globe to be buried near Scratchy.  So that's what we did.  There was much groaning an gnashing of teeth over the decision to leave Saturday night, but for Joshua we did.  We had a little funeral in the backyard at 11:30 PM or so, just Joshua, Jeremy, and me.  And then I went and sat with Joshua in his room for a while.  I felt like he needed that right then.  His brothers in there were all asleep, so we talked about some things that he probably wouldn't have mentioned at all if they had been awake.  I was really glad.  It was a good talk.  It was 1:00 when I got to bed, but sometimes it is very much worth it.  And then I was up at 6:00 to shower and get the two older boys and Jeremy through the shower before 9:00 church in Miami.  Phew!  I'm feeling it.

 

You're probably wondering why we rolled back into Globe so late.  Well, that's an interesting bit of story.  Well, maybe not so very interesting, but I'll tell you anyway.  We didn't hear anything all week from Home Depot about whether or not our laminate order was in, so we went over there and asked.  It turned out they did have the order and that it could be delivered Monday.  I didn't want to come back Monday, so we went back to the house and took the seats out of the van and then went and picked up the laminate ourselves.  And in the meantime we decided this whole thing was taking too long, so we decided to do the laminate ourselves.  We're hoping to get a good group of people together this coming weekend to put it in.  And it'll be a long weekend, so that might work to our advantage as well. :) Anyway, the lady in charge of flooring was busy getting our order together when we got there.  The laminate was already on a pallet and ready to go, but she had to get together the padding and the trim, and it turned out that the quarter round trim was all mixed up, so there were two sizes in one slot.  She had to take it all out and separate it, and then put back all the wrong size ones.  And there weren't enough pieces, but that's ok.  They were short by 3 or 4.  If we decide we need it later we can go get it.  The trim is not the important part.  Anyway, so between that and reworking the order to not include laminate installation (saving us nearly $2000 - yea!), we were there for 2 hours!  Thank goodness for good babysitters.  It was just Jeremy and me waiting at Home Depot for all that.

 

I'm glad we're doing it ourselves.  It was a lot of fun last time, and this time the older boys can help.  I think that will be a good experience for them, and I hope they enjoy it!

 

But we got all our stuff loaded in the van, and the kiddos helped Jeremy get it all into the house.  Jeremy got a nice flooring removal tool, and in a couple of hours the flooring was all out of the kitchen, dining room, living room, and entryway.  We still have a little bit of cleanup to do, but the majority of the sweeping up of green dust (because the padding under the carpet was green) is done, and the old flooring is waiting to go to the dump.  Timmy was a particularly good helper during the process.  He just decided he wanted to help, so he put on a glove and very carefully carried all the tack board out piece by piece.  He also helped break apart the weird tile stuff that was in the kitchen and dining room.  It was fun to watch him. :) By the time that was all done, with the exception of some cleanup, it was starting to get late.  But for Joshua's sake we went ahead and drove home anyway.

 

So yesterday we got some happy news!  My baby sister Kelly, whom I lovingly refer to as Kell-o, is engaged to Rick Eastham!  We haven't met him yet, but we're hoping this weekend might be the big day for that (meeting him). :) We're excited!  When she called I picked up my phone and saw that it was Kelly and got all happy about it, and then Jeremy said, "She's engaged."  He was right!  Here's a cute picture of the happy couple, stolen shamelessly from Facebook.  Aren't they cute?  And isn't her ring gorgeous?  Right now that plan is for a December wedding.  It might be a very busy month!  I guess we'll see.  We're so happy for her. :) Well, and I guess we're happy for him too because he's getting a terrific gal, but we don't know him yet, so... ;) Also, Kelly Eastham has a good ring to it, no?  It sounds very British. *wink, wink*

 

 

And now for some other, more random pictures from August.

 

We've been sleeping on cots in Thatcher.  Timmy got out of his bed and into mine one morning.  Yes, he is hugging Iron Man.  We bought that guy a month or two ago, and it has been some money well spent!  Timmy had started playing with Jill's Barbies, an it was kind of disturbing, so we decided he needed he own manly dolls to play with.  This is what he picked.  About a week later I went back and bought Jeremy a Hulk one, and it has been so great!  Jeremy has liked The Hulk since he was little.  Anyway, so now Timmy brings Papa his Hulk and they play together and have a great time.  I love it!  Timmy likes to make Iron Man say, "I'm going to poop on my pants!" And then he makes tooty noises and repeats. Typical boy stuff.  They all go through it, and they all grow out of it, but at some point they all think that bodily functions are hilarious.

 

 

Here are most of the boys walking to church. :) We go across the street from our house and cut through EAC.  This is right by our house on EAC campus.

 

 

Looks like Papa got tired on the way home from church.

 

I love this picture!  It turned out better than I thought. :)

 

Michael's selfie

 

Bubby was sad one day, and he was also diaperless.  That's not uncommon.  I try to keep a onesie on him, but that only helps his diaper stay on most of the time, and then I run out of onesies.  This particular day, Benji went to his rescue.  He comforted him and then got him a diaper and some other clothes, right down to the shoes, and then he lent him a hat from his collection.  Bubby was pleased, but it wasn't long before he had stripped off everything from the waist down again.

 

 

Benji's selfie

 

Here's the new HVAC unit being hoisted onto the Thatcher house.  The crane parked behind our back fence to do it.  I had a great time watching. :)

 

The old swamp cooler going bye-bye. :)

 

One great thing about our house in Thatcher is this long bench thing on the fireplace.  There's a bit on both sides.  And another great thing about Thatcher in general is that they have Cocoa Roos!  I know it's silly, but I love those generic brand Cocoa Puffs, and they are no longer available anywhere in Globe.  There are some store brand ones, but they're no good.  Anyway, so there has been much eating of Cocoa Roos at the Thatcher house.  This particular morning Jeremy and I went to the Temple, and then when we came home Timmy was up and completely dressed and ready for breakfast.  I thought he looked cute sitting there eating. :)

 

Bubby found Timmy's underwear laying around (Thank heavens it was clean!), so he put it on backwards all by himself.  And then he found Papa's glove and some soap from the bathroom.  He was a happy boy.

 

Here's our backyard.  There are two doves perched on the back gate.  They looked like were kissing at one point.  We always liked that there were so many doves in Thatcher.  It's fun to be around them again.

 

Benji and Michael got clever with their notebooks.  Benji's arrow shot Michael's book.  I don't think they know it, but these guys are going to miss each other when they go to school!

 

Timmy had me print him Mario and a Hulk mask, and then he put them together.  He thinks it's super funny.  He also drew that M in crayon right on the wall.  His art is all over our house, and I mean that quite literally.  I cannot keep up with it! 

Timmy has been talking a lot about Halloween and being a pirate, so one evening Jeremy made him a paper pirate hat and found some "treasure." It's a little chest full of old scout belt loops and fake coins.  He was so happy!

 

This day we walked down to the EAC Activities Center to see our friend Andra's scribble art exhibit.  It was pretty awesome!  He made it all with tiny strokes with a Sharpie!  On our way we rolled down the hill in front of the auditorium.  I was glad we weren't on our way to church because we couldn't do this in those clothes. ;) It was quite fun.  Here are the 4 older boys.

 

Papa, Jill, and Bubby

 

Timmy and Michael

 

Bubby!  I put him in overalls to try to keep his diaper on.  It usually works. :)

 

We like to stop by the bell tower and hear the bells chime the hour.

 

Bill Reed was one of my Institute teachers and is dear to my hear.  His name is on a brick with his sweet wife Claudia for donating to help build the clock tower.  President Eyring's name is on a plaque on the tower because he dedicated it.

 

This was my favorite picture that Andra did.  Unlike the other pictures, she only used one size of Sharpie on this.  It's all just a bunch of tiny marks.  It's so neat!  I wish I had photographed all of the pictures, but Jill and I were stuck in the bathroom (that was the weekend we were so sick) for too long, and then everyone was ready to go.  You should go see the exhibit if you can, though.  She has a bunch of signs talking about how she did this and that too.

 

Jill with the dancer

 

Bubby and me

 

We love playing with these blocks together!  Jill made apples one day, and I thought they looked like little roses.

 

Timmy colored Cookie Monster and had me cut him out, and then he took a picture of him.

 

He drew Om Nom and his candy from the game Cut the Rope.  In that game, you have to strategically cut the ropes so that the candy swings down and feeds the monster.  It's a cute little game.

 

Timmy helped peel up the dining room floor.  That green padding smelled awful!

 

What to do with a little boy who steals my phone in church and plays with the camera... (!) He took his picture and then exclaimed, "Bubby!  Bubby!" 

These mustaches were part of singing time at church yesterday. 

Timmy begged me to take his picture with a mustache, and then Papa joined in. 

Jill needed a picture too.



Update

So we've decided to stay in Globe until December.  I don't know if I mentioned that or not.  It was a hard decision for us.  We've spent some weekends in Thatcher, and it's been so nice.  It's as therapeutic as camping, and with so few electronics in the house there, the kiddos have had to be more creative.  They've whined every time about going, and then they've had a great time every time.  It's been especially hard for Joshua.  His computer crashed big time and has gone to that great computer heaven.  His hard drive was no good anymore.  That was quite disappointing for him.  He put a lot of work in on that computer, trying to build video games and whatnot.  I don't think he was able to salvage any of his work.  I hope he learned a good lesson, but about what I'm not sure.  Anyway, so now he has to share the other computer with his brothers, and he doesn't like that.  That means taking turns, and he's not always patient enough for that.  So by the time the weekend comes and he has to get ready to go to Thatcher he's not happy about it because, as he sees it, he'll be missing out on time to work.  Oh well.  I know he doesn't see it, but there's time.

So anyway, we had actually planned to only move absolute essentials until the carpet was in.  Jeremy would commute to work, and Hyrum would go to the college across the street, and Benji, Michael, and Jill would go to the public school.  (Joshua wants to continue homeschool.  I'm ok with that.)  Oh, and we're putting Timmy into Dan Hinton school in Pima because they can help him.  More about that later. 

Well, getting the flooring in has been a bigger mess than we planned on.  First, the bank we were trying to pay with kept declining the charge even though the money was in there.  We called them and finagled and after several attempts were finally able to pay.  Then the flooring company waited like a week to call, but they called Jeremy's cell phone, and he doesn't take that to work.  We specifically told Home Depot to have people call MY phone for that very reason.  Then we called them back.  And called and called and called.  About 50% of the time it rang on forever without even an answering machine.  Finally we were able to leave messages, and then a miracle occurred and we were able to talk to an actual person.  They said that the laminate has to be done first, and it has to sit in the house for 72 hours to acclimate before it can be installed.  I knew about that, but I figured they'd figure it out.  They said that we had to go pick it up ourselves and let it acclimate.  We decided we'd get that done this last weekend.  Also, we have been getting mail at that mailbox in Thatcher, and one recent piece of mail was a notice for a package we had to go in and sign for.  That meant that we needed to be in Thatcher before the post office closed, which meant that Jeremy needed to take time off work.  He took off half a day Friday, which turned out to be a good thing because our front window in the Globe house has been cracked for months, and pieces were starting to fall out.  Jeremy was able to replace it, but not without plenty of trouble.  It doesn't look like the window frame was made for the glass to be replaced at all. :P Well, he made it work in the end.  Anyway, so we hurried over to Thatcher to pick up that package before the post office closed, and guess what it was.  It was brownies!  What in the world?!  Our mortgage company sent us brownies for being their customers. This must be a thing in Thatcher because the company that replaced our swamp cooler and furnace with an HVAC system gave us a little water jug with cookies in it.  Anyway, Jeremy was quite frustrated that he'd missed half a day of work to hurry to Thatcher for brownies.  They were individually wrapped gourmet ones, but I guess the mortgage company sent them that way to make sure we got them in a timely manner.  Crazy.

Sorry for this wild train of thought post.  Just trying to get everything in.

Anyway, so Jeremy took two of the seats out of the van and headed over to Home Depot to get the laminate, but they told him that they didn't have enough of it.  They said they did when they sold it to us, but the flooring company took too long to get moving, so part of it was sold.  So we have to wait for the next shipment, and we have no idea when that will be.  At least they told us that when it comes they'll bring it to us.  Still, so frustrating!  That was the second thing we wanted to be sure to get done that trip, and it also turned out silly. 

Another reason why we've been in Thatcher every weekend has been to go to the Temple.  Jeremy and I have twice gone to the early session on Saturday (6:00), and it's been such a blessing!  We were planning to do it again, but just in time for the weekend we had some sort of bug going around our family.  It's diarrhea, and Jeremy, Jill, and I were hit hardest.  We're still not quite over it.  We didn't think we could make it through a session at the Temple, and that was quite disappointing.  I guess we should have tried to do Initiatory or something.  But really, it was probably just best that we didn't go.  I was very thankful that that bug waited for the weekend to be the worst, though, because then we had 3 working bathrooms.  That was such a blessing!

So that was all kind of disappointing.  We still haven't heard from anybody about flooring.  I don't know if we just need to call them every day to make sure our shipment isn't sold before it can make it to our house or what.  I'm wishing we'd just done the laminate ourselves.  It was so fun putting it into the Globe house, and it would be neat having the older boys able to help this time.  But it's also a big deal tearing apart the floor in those areas (entryway, living room, dining room, and kitchen).  Jeremy is wishing we could have invested that money instead.  We'll be so glad to have the laminate, and I know I, for one, will be thankful to have all the flooring done before we move in!  I know Jeremy will be glad for it too, though, especially the laminate.  We can't very well drive toy cars through block tunnels on carpet, you know. ;)

Just a side note - Timmy has been constantly asking me to print coloring pages for him lately.  I've printed lots of them.  It's better than a coloring book because he wants all sorts of different things from Mario to Cookie Monster.  Anyway, he had a mishap with the scissors.  He was in one of his moods where he starts picking on people, and I didn't get the scissors away from him.  He went up to Jill and grabbed a little handful of hair and snipped it off chin length.  Argh!  I can't bear to cut the rest that short, so we just try to ignore it I guess.  So he hasn't been allowed to use the scissors for a few weeks.  I finally let him again yesterday, but I have to watch his mood closely so I can take them away if I need to.  In the meantime I spent a lot of time copying AND cutting everything out.  He's had a lot of fun with the things that he's made, though.  He's learned to trace a Mario that's already cut out and cut out a new one to make shadow Mario.  Yesterday I printed him a Mario (that's his favorite right now) and then a Cookie Monster and lots of cookies, and he and I have been playing with them together.  He's always Mario and I'm always Cookie Monster.

And speaking of Mario, with the prospect of Timmy going to school, he decided he needed a Mario backpack.  Any old backpack just wouldn't do.  I waited until I was ordering things on Amazon to try to get the free shipping, and I ordered him a little Mario backpack.  He LOVES that thing!  It has some little Velcro spots on front and some coins and shrooms that he can stick on.  He played with it all day the first few days.  On the second day he said, "I love my Mario backpack."  That is the second time he's ever said he loves anything or anyone.  The first time was a few weeks ago.  He was snuggling my hair as usual one evening and suddenly said, "I love your hair."  He's sung Skidamarink many times, but it's not quite the same because he's always quoting things he sees on TV, whether they're recent or not.  The Super Simple Songs channel on YouTube has a cute version of that song, and that's where he learned it and a few others.  Anyway, it's thrilling when he picks up new things like that!  He's definitely still making progress. :)

So, we've made lots of trips to Thatcher lately.  Some of them have been me going on a weekday.  For instance, on Monday afternoon I took Timmy to Dan Hinton for an evaluation.  A few weeks ago I went on a Wednesday morning and was just there long enough for the gas to get turned on before going home.  We spent the following weekend there in Thatcher.  We didn't have any cooler at all that weekend.  Yes, it was HOT!  Coincidentally, we didn't have a fridge either.  It was kind of an interesting weekend, and our ice melted, so we had warm milk on our cereal one morning.  Ewww!  We ordered a fridge that weekend, though, and we ordered carpet at the same time.  (Yeah, this is kind of our of order.  Sorry!)  Jeremy looked at the swamp cooler and decided he couldn't fix it.  There just wasn't time.  We decided we'd better just get the HVAC installed, even though it's not cheap.  We'll still need ductwork done later.  There are only 2 vents downstairs total, and the upstairs ducts are not the greatest.  They need replaced.  But that'll be another $1000 or so.  Yikes!  Another day.  Anyway, so the following Friday morning I took the four younger kiddos with me and headed to Thatcher.  The AC guys were already hard at work, and they were there all day.  It was a hot day!  We tried to stay out of their way by going shopping and then staying in the master bedroom upstairs.  But man, it was hot!  When the AC guys finished, though, the house was getting a lot cooler, despite the need for new ducts.  The best place by far in the whole house is in the middle of the stairs when the cooler is on.  A big vent there blows straight down.  I like to come home and just sit there after a shopping trip or whatever.  Ha ha! :) And that same day Home Depot delivered our new fridge, complete with water dispenser and ice maker.  HOORAY!  The water dispenser doesn't cool the water, but we have ice!  My favorite thing is to fill my water bottle with ice and then add whatever water will fit in there.  It always melts faster than I expect, but it's so wonderful!  I miss it when we're not in Thatcher.  And also that day a guy came and measured for flooring.  He had a nifty tablet that was strapped to his arm like a shield.  He went around and measured everywhere we wanted flooring, and when he was done he had a nifty floor plan on his tablet all drawn out.  He showed me to make sure what flooring we wanted where.  Then they gave us an estimate, and then came the mess of trying to pay.  It all took way longer than we expected!  And it still is!  At least the AC only took a day, and the gas was hooked up to that unit on another day. 

One weekend when we had decided we were for sure moving right away (or at least partially until the flooring was done), we asked Thatcher 2nd Ward to transfer our records over.  Now that we're not moving yet, I'm still glad we did that.  We've been spending every weekend there, if for nothing else than going to the Temple, and that's reason enough!  But we've also done some little projects here and there.  Our records were finally read in this last Sunday.  And that made the weekend nice because then everyone was suddenly all interested in us. ;) I found out that the reason Sister Dodge thought I looked familiar is that I look like Lynnette, and Lynnette rented from her.  She is such a nice lady!  She is someone I could sit and talk with forever!  And there were a few other people we don't know who welcomed us and struck up a conversation.  They've just been so nice!  And Timmy goes to Primary happily!  Do you know what a miracle that is?! 

Here's a story for ya.  At first, we were having church at the Institute because some work was done over the summer at the chapel next door where the ward usually meets.  The nice ladies who work in Primary were finally able to get him to go the last 2 Sundays at the Institute.  And then work was all done and we were able to go to the chapel for church, and that made for some complications.  Timmy wasn't ready for the change, and Jill was being clingy that day too.  I had to drag both of them in.  Timmy was being noisy, so I tried to take him to the back and stand with him, and Jill hung onto my leg and wouldn't go sit with her class.  And then I finally decided I needed to take Timmy out, but Jill didn't want me to leave her.  I got grouchy and she ended up sad under a table.  I felt bad for grouching, so I went back, and I bent down to talk to her, and my skirt was too tight. (It's a pencil skirt, so it's not too tight unless I want to do things like get in the van or bend down.)  Anyway, I ended up falling over on top of Timmy.  At least it was in the back of the room, but man!  Embarrassing!  Then some nice ladies came to my rescue.  Two of them comforted Jill and took her to her class, and she made a friend that day, so now she's happy to go to Primary!  Another lady has a husband who works with autistic kids at a school in Safford, and he was happy to come and help Timmy.  They also had a few sensory toys in the closet that were just the ticket.  I was able to leave both of them there, and they were fine.  By that time, though, I was so embarrassed and overwhelmed that I came out of the room sniffling, and then a member of the bishopric came and talked to me, looking for Jeremy, and he asked me if I was ok, and that made it worse.  I ended up bawling there in the hall, trying to assure him that I just needed a minute to sit down, before beating a hasty retreat to the (thankfully) empty mothers' room.  Man!  But it all worked out, and now people know that I need help (a good thing but kind of embarrassing in a way), so this last Sunday (the second week in the chapel) went a lot more smoothly.  Phew!  I was even able to go to Sunday School!

Also this last Sunday I finally got to talk to Sister Whetten.  I remembered her from last time we lived in that ward, but I don't know if I'd ever introduced myself last time.  She is the mother of a guy about my Mama's age who was always in choir and band with his son.  And she's the mother of some other people that Mama knew when she was attending EAC.  In fact, Mama lived next door to Sister Whetten and worked with her daughter in the cafeteria, and another daughter lived up north near Mama's family for a long time and is well loved there.  It's a pretty small world.  Anyway, when I introduced myself this time, it was cool to finally meet the daughter from those stories Mama has told.  And Sister Whetten was so happy to meet me.  She kept telling me she was so happy that we were in the ward.  We stood there and had a good visit.  It was so nice.  I remembered that I loved her before, but I'm remembering now all the reasons why.  Just such a sweet nice lady.  I had hoped that she would still be around when we moved back, and she is. :) One thing I loved that she said during the Relief Society Lesson was, "Getting old has its compensations.  You can hug people and they don't think you're flirtin'."

So about Dan Hinton School - we decided to look into it in the first place because Kimberly suggested it, and I'm so glad she did!  There is such a happy feeling there.  Both Jeremy and I feel that that is going to be a very good place for Timmy.  It sounds like it'll only be two days a week for two hours each time, and that will be just great!  He's been talking about going to his school for weeks, and we finally did go in for an evaluation on Monday.  We took in the diagnosis, so that took a step out of the process of getting him enrolled.  The evaluation took about 2 hours.  We're going to have to go back in for another part when I go down on the 2nd for Jill and Bubby's dentist appointments.  And Timmy wouldn't cooperate at all with the hearing test.  He's never done one before.  They tried lots of things to get him to say if he heard a beep or not, but he wouldn't do it.  And they tried to do the little machine that can tell if he heard it or not, but he would have none of that. He did not want that things stuck into his ear.  So we'll have to go to an audiologist who can do it easier, and, luckily, there happens to be one here in Globe!  But he has to have the hearing test done before he can be enrolled.  But really it went well. Everyone is so nice and helpful.  And it sounds like the teacher who might be Timmy's is our Primary President.  She is such a nice lady.  I'm just really happy about the whole thing.

And when we thought we were moving right away I got all the paperwork ready to enroll the kiddos in school there (the 3 I mentioned before).  Oh, and we had Hyrum enrolled in all sorts of great classes at EAC.  *Sniffle*  Anyway, it was a lot of work, but I got it all done, and then we decided we'd better wait.  So now we'll just have one paper to bring in when we move, and the boys will still need to be tested.  I'm glad that we have some of that legwork done anyway.  That will save some trouble later. 

So for now we're still dong homeschool.  This is supposed to be our first week back, and it's been really busy and has gone kind of rough, but we'll figure it out.  I got some Saxon math books for Benji and Michael, and I set up things for Jill.  I planned out a schedule for each of them to get halfway through the coursework for their school year so they'll be ready to go in in January.  If I can just keep them focused they're able to do the work themselves.  Well, at least Benji and Michael are.  And Kindergarten is easy to teach.  There isn't much that she really NEEDS to know other than reading and some math.  I have some good resources for those, so we're working on it.

Hyrum has been going to Seminary in Miami this year.  He went to Globe last year because Aaron was teaching it, but now Aaron has moved, the Seminary building was sold (Sad!  That's the building that Jeremy went to Seminary in.  It's an old house made over, right next to the high school.), and now Globe Seminary is at the Stake Center.  That's even further away from us than before.  Hyrum decided that since it wasn't Aaron and it's so far he'd just rather go to Miami.  I'm so glad.  That means I get to sleep in because they start later, and it takes about 3 minutes to drive there.  It's at Sister Mawson's house (the wife of our old bishop), and there are only about 6 students.  So it's small and family-like.  He likes it so far. 

And Hyrum has also started college again.  We decided that he'd probably have a better experience taking English 101 in Thatcher, so he's not doing that this semester.  He's taking the next math up, which is one or two classes below College Algebra.  Moving on up there.  And he's taking his Papa's classes.  Jeremy is teaching two classes there this semester: Microeconomics and Finance.  It sounds like so far he's doing pretty good.  He has always been kind of a hasty fella, so he didn't do as well on his first two tests as he could.  He didn't understand the directions, so he did the wrong problems.  That sort of thing.  But he had a rough start last semester too.  I figure it'll all get better like it did last semester.  And so far he has a perfect score in both of Jeremy's classes.  Jeremy's mom is also taking his Finance class.  I'm so glad that someone in the family is finally taking them.  It works out funny, though, because Jeremy had to pay for Hyrum to take his classes.  He does get paid to teach the classes, but it's not nearly what we paid for it.  Ha ha!

And we got some books for Hyrum to work through to fill in different things on his transcripts.  They are pretty neat.  They are basically a bunch of textbooks in two great big books.  There's English in a bunch of parts, world history, American history, geography, physics, biology, chemistry, and who knows what all else.  I've had a chance to sit down with them myself and I quite like them.  I'll have to sit down with them some more.  The best part for me is that I can talk to Jeremy about what I read, and we can discuss it.  If you ask me, that's how learning happens best - through following interests and discussing it.

As for Joshua, I found some things for him to do for school as well.  He prefers to work online, so I would love to put him back in one of those free online schools like we had him in before if I knew it would work.  But it didn't work for him.  There was too much extra stuff that he was just stressed out, and when he gets stressed out he can't do anything at all.  He just shuts down.  So I've hodgepodged together a curriculum for him.  He's about 8th grade level.  I just need to convince him to do the work.  It'll work out, though.  We'll get him through it.  :) And next fall he can start some college classes too.

Well, I think that's about enough for now.  I've been meaning to write for a long time.  I often think of things I want to say, and then I wish I could just transplant them instantly from my brain to the blog because I just don't seem to find the time. 

Oh, one more thing before I go: I have been working away at family history lately.  I am making a book of Badger family history for my kiddos.  It'll have family group sheets and then stories about ancestors.  It's been a lot of work, and a lot of the work is filling in missing data for the family group sheets and linking families on findagrave.com.  That last bit has been so rewarding and exciting, but it's also been frustrating.  My computer has a super slow processor, so all the ads on findagrave make it take forever to load each page.  It is sometimes just agonizing, but it gets done.  I'd try to replace the processor, but I already tried to replace the video card, and every card I could possibly buy is physically too big.  Nothing fits into that tiny little shell.  I'm just not sure about trying to replace anything else.  FamilySearch also takes a long time to load, and it has no ads.  I've used FamilySearch and Ancestry a lot.  What a blessing that the church worked out that deal with Ancestry so we have free access!  It is such a treasure trove.  But like I say, anything on the internet takes absolutely forever to load.  Anyway, it's getting done.  I have also been looking down descendancy lists on FamilySearch and finding Temple work that needs done.  As I suspected, most of the work for what's on FamilySearch has been done, but I've found more than I thought.  Most of the work is sealings, but there's other work to do as well.  It's exciting!  It's all on the Badger side so far.  I figure Mama is working on the Peterson side.  I need to get my boys working on the Burks and McDermotts.  If I can find things to do, surely they can too, and what a blessing it would be to them! 

Also, I can't tell you what a happy thing it is to be across the street from the glorious old EAC.  It brings back many, many memories, and I'm sure my kiddos must surely be tired of hearing them, but it's a happy place for me.  I've heard the band practicing at the stadium across the street.  We've walked to church nearly every time, down that avenue of evergreen trees.  Last week we walked down to the Activities Center to see an art exhibit that Andra Jensen, an old friend, had there.  That was really cool!  It was all done with tiny little strokes of different sized Sharpies.  She had 10 or 15 different pictures, all bigger than 8x10.  I was quite proud. :) And this weekend there should be a football game that we may be able to see from Benji and Michael's window.  Not that we'd sit and watch the whole thing, but I'd watch the band at least. :) Oh, and this last weekend I brought my laptop and The Book Thief on DVD, so Jeremy was finally able to watch it.  Man, it made me cry!  Such a good movie.  I've got to read the book.