Venting

Sorry about this one.  You can skip it if you want.

Years ago I was going through a really hard time in my life, and one of my friends at the time found out what was going on.  She was, therefore, one of the only people I could talk things through with.  She then proceeded to act like she was going to be my friend through it.  She even decided to throw me a baby shower for Jill.  It was such a comfort to know I had someone who would do that and be my friend through this difficult time.  Well, right before the baby shower (like 3 days or something) she suddenly backed out, saying it was her mom's birthday (ummmm... she was the one who picked that date).  Mom and Kenzie were going to help her, but she just dumped it all on them.  There wasn't time to get the invitations passed out in Relief Society, and Mom and Kenzie decided they didn't know those people and wouldn't pass out invites, so they left that to me.  What the heck?!  I was calling people inviting them to my own baby shower.  It was lame to the extreme.

So anyway, that was a sidetrack.  After she ditched my baby shower she pretty much never talked to me again.  She decided we'd been in the stake primary together long enough and asked that we be released.  I was way sad about that.  That was one of my favorite callings that I ever had.  And she unfriended me twice on Facebook and moved to Thatcher.  Well, now we've moved to Thatcher too, so I see her now and then at the grocery store.  Every time I see her she makes a concerted effort to not look at me.  It makes me so, so mad!  I did nothing wrong!  I did nothing to her.  It feels to me like she's the kind of person who loves drama until she's in the middle of it, and then she just can't take it anymore.  What kind of person does that?!  What kind of person acts like they're going to help you through a tough time and then deserts you because of it?

Clearly, I need to get this out and forgive this person.  I'm willing.  But first I need to stop being mad.  It was not a happy situation to deal with, so I can kind of understand, but why couldn't she at least say something?  Running away clearly doesn't fix it.

Some pictures

School just wipes my Jilly out.  This particular day she fell asleep on the couch when she got home, and after an hour or two she came in the dining room and fell asleep like this. :) Ha ha! Poor girly!  She keeps telling me she wants a long break from school.  2 more weeks!  Well, technically it's 9 school days, including this one.

Henry can roll onto his side.  He LOVES being on the floor.  Sometimes when he's fussing it seems like that's all he really wants.  He kicks his legs and waves his arms and smiles big.  He can also move himself around in a circle by rolling on his side and then rolling back over and over.

Cute fella!

Here's Jeremy and some kiddos in his truck.  Looks nice, huh? :) In this particular picture Jeremy is in our driveway.  He'd hooked up a chain to the oleanders to rip them out with the truck.  Man, was that a fiasco!  What happened was one of my friends in the ward - her husband works for himself.  He does all sorts of things, cutting and selling wood in the winter and such.  Anyway, so Jeremy hired him to take out the oleanders by the driveway (He insists they're poisonous, but I'm not so sure.) and cut down the dying mulberry tree in the backyard (He's allergic to that one).  Well, he didn't want to bother me to move the van.  He's kind of the shy type.  Anyway, so he decided to yank them out with his truck by pulling straight forward.  In the process he broke off a faucet and bent the gas meter.  What in the world?!  So the water got shut off until he could fix the pipe.  We don't really need a faucet right there, so he just capped it.  Anyway, while he was gone to get the parts Jeremy moved the cars and pulled out some of the oleanders with his truck without any problem really.  The oleanders are pretty much all gone now.  There are little stumps that Jeremy's planning to pour plant killer on.  So the next day the gas people came to make sure our gas line was OK.  In the process they broke the water line again, so Safford had to come out and fix it.  Ha ha!  It's all working fine now.  And just now I got a notification that in a few minutes our power will be going off for a bit while they change out the transformer or something.  Ha ha!

Bubby likes to wedge Papa's ball between the bed and the crib and bounce up and down.  He says, "I tricky!"

Jill had her music program last week.  She's been singing the songs and driving her brothers crazy for months.  She's about in the middle of this picture, just up from the girl in the fluffy blue dress.  She did so great!  She had a short speaking part, and she said it loud and clear.  I was so proud!  The program was a collection of songs that some guy wrote.  Her favorite was the baby beluga song, but she also loves Down By the Bay.

An interesting side note: that is the back of Jacquelyn Trickey Allred's head.  It's been fun to get to know her. 

I brought Timmy with me, and he LOVED it!  I knew he would!  There was a song about shaking wiggles out, and he was dancing along. :) He was also quite happy when I finally let him take some pictures on my phone.  He took about 50 in like 1 or 2 minutes!

Here's another selfie he took.

Timmy and Jill after the show.

The oleanders all gone and the gas meter straightened out

The tree getting chopped.  It was half dead too.  He left a stump for Jeremy to sit on. That's what Jeremy asked for.  And he left some branches and lots as per Jeremy's request too.  Bubby will like that.  That is one boy who LOVES sticks!

We ordered 3 apple trees and a maple tree from Stark Bro's.  They arrived on Friday and Jeremy planted them as soon as he got home.  They came in this box, and Benji kept putting it on Jill and Timmy.  It looked funny to see that box walking around.  Ha ha!  That's Jill in there.

The trees looked like sticks when they came, but they're already getting leaves.  We also got a pear tree and a hibiscus bush.  The fruit trees are planted in the backyard, and the other two things are planted in the front.

Bubby loves Buster.  He got the scoop and was getting dog food and then holding it out for Buster to eat off of.

Jill said, "Mommy, look where I am!"  I took a picture and then said, "Now, get down before you get impaled on the fence!"

Papa in the "forest" at Home Depot

Hyrum went to an end of the year activity for Seminary on Saturday.  It was at someone's house, and they played mud volleyball. You can kind of see that there's a HUGE pudde.  It was like mid-calf deep.  They were laying in it and stuff.  Hyrum got thrown in right away.  Ha ha!  I kind of wished I could go play too. 

Bubby got a haircut on Saturday.  No more mullet! ;) It got really long!

I think Bubby took this panoramic.  He did OK. :) Timmy was sick. :(

Jill wanted a side ponytail for school yesterday.   And today she had me do it again, but on the other side.  Ha ha!  She says she's trying to be like another girl at school.  It sounds like there's already a hierarchy there and she desperately wants to fit in.  I'm glad she has some good friends, though.  There's one from our ward named Olivia.  I visit teach her mom and aunt.  Jill and Olivia share a seat on the bus every day. :)

Jill still loves her dolls Kaleelah and Sally best.  This is Kaleelah.  She likes to take care of them and feed them.

Jill made a little face on the egg box and said she wants to save it for Halloween. Uhhhh...

A bunch of pictures

I fixed my iPhone, so I was able to get photos off.  Here are a few fun ones from April and May.

Play-Doh during Conference

Michael had Cub Scout Day Camp.  I can't believe it was his last one! :( He'll be 11 in January. And we won't have anyone else doing day camp until 2019!  Timmy will turn 8 in November 2018, so he'll have to wait until the next year to go.

Anyway, Michael had a great time.  He made this catapult and a bottle rocket with a 2 liter bottle, and a few other things too. :)

One day I made Bubby a cheese tortilla for lunch, and I guess he thought it needed cooked more.  I cook them on the stove top in a frying pan, but he put it in the basket of our microwave steamer and stuck it in the oven when I wasn't looking.  So later that day when I turned on the oven...

I'm sad about this.  I loved that steamer!  It was great for fresh veggies.  We cooked a lot of asparagus in it.  It was one of those freebies from WIC, but it was sure useful!

Sometimes I think the kiddos get bored and go around looking for jobs they can give me. Ha ha!  Most of the plastic peeled right off or was easily scraped off, though, so yea for that!

Jill and Bubby on our new swing set

Henry thinkin' about stuff ;)

Bubby loves his Henry.

One day Jill came home with a homework page where she had to write a bunch of words that start with the letter Y.  Yodel was one of the ones we came up with.  She liked it, so when she made this triangle later she wrote "yodel, yodel, Burk, Burk," on it.

She also made this kite that says, "Yea! You did it!"

These are a little out of order.  This and the next one are from the day I put these things together. (The other swing set picture is missing the canopy, so you can tell it was taken later.)  Here are Bubby and Henry on the porch swing.  This is where I read my scriptures in the mornings.

Here's the swing set before the poles on the shade broke.  They were fiberglass and fitted together like tent poles.  I thought it looked kind of cool, even if it wasn't very shady.  After it broke I was taking it all down, and a piece got stuck in the weeds.  So when I pulled it stretched the elastic, and I bet you can guess what happened next.  Yep, the thing let go and shot up and whacked me in the hand.  I had fiberglass slivers all over my hand and it bruised my finger.  Darn it!  The whole thing was a crock.  But it's all properly disposed of and it's all good now.  Aren't those some cute kiddos playing on it? :D I can't wait until Bubby can get in the swing by himself, but for now it's fun to see his delight when I put him on and swing him. :) It makes him so, so happy!  I really wish I knew what happened to the baby swing Mama gave us!  It's lost itself somewhere.  I don't think we have it anymore. :(

Jill had a birthday party that she was invited to for a girl in her class one Saturday.  It was at the splash pad, and the kiddos have all been begging me to take them, so I took Michael, Jill, Timmy, and Henry.  The older ones didn't want to go, and Bubby had just fallen asleep.  They all had a great time.  I meant for just Jill to be over there at the party while the others played, but Michael wandered over there and kind of weaseled his way in.  I felt kind of bad, but I was nursing Henry (and getting scorched by the sun), so there wasn't much I could do.  He and Timmy ended up staying for cake and presents.  (Insert eyeroll here.)  Well, I'm glad they had fun.  And they got party favors too.  In the meantime, Jill's "glass slippers" were parked next to my bench.  I looked down at them and saw how beat-up they are and thought about how soon they'll be all fallen apart and she'll soon outgrow them anyway.  It's going to be a sad day.  She LOVES those shoes!  Well, I decided I'd better take a picture, so I did. :) Man!  These kiddos grow up too fast!

Here's Timmy having fun at the splash pad that day.  I tried to get good pictures, but they were all running too fast.  Ha ha!

And this one is from yesterday.  Jill came home all tired out from school.  She fell asleep on the couch for a while, and then she got up and came in the dining room where I was folding laundry and fell asleep again!  Ha ha! :) Poor girly.  All day is too long for kindergarten!   But, man, I love my girly!

Update

Jeremy brought home his new truck last week.  He had Susie drive it home while he drove the little car because the little car is stick shift and Susie can't drive it.  She stayed overnight and he took her home on the way to work the next day.  It's a pretty nice truck.  The guy took good care of it.  And he was really nice.  He even texted Jeremy to make sure he made it to Thatcher fine.  Jeremy has driven me around in it a couple times.  It runs good and has good A/C and a good stereo too.  The trailer is really nice.  The guy had it to carry his four wheelers, but he recently sold all of those too.  

Things are all done at the Globe house and the guy is all paid. I'm sure you know it took lots of paint.  The house looks a lot better.  The bathroom floor looks amazing now.  They even replaced the missing pieces of siding and fixed the cracked front steps.  It's been listed for sale now too.  I hope it sells quick!  You should go see the pictures.  It's here.  I should say - the pictures make the walls look splotchy, but they're not.  They're spotless white.

Jeremy and I graduated from high school in 1996.  That's been 20 years ago now!  I don't think either of our classes have anything planned.  I'm OK with that.  My last one was pretty much, well, lame.  Still, it's fun (if nutso) to think it's been another decade.

And it's been 17 years since I graduated from EAC.  They had their graduation the other night.  Our street was packed!  That's ok.  I thought it was fun having a place for Aaron to park right by the stadium.  We stayed home and watched a movie, but we got to see the fireworks. :)

It's also been 17 years since I married this handsome fella. :) Our anniversary was Saturday.  We went to Denny's for dinner, and it was yummy!

We were so stuffed, but we got dessert anyway.  We shared this lava cake.  It was so good!  How fancy that there's a Denny's here.  Jeremy thinks it's funny that I think Denny's is fancy. Ha ha!

Jeremy got me 2 bouquets - one for our anniversary and one for Mother's day.  I do like flowers a whole lot. :) Jill loves them too.

This weekend is Fathers and Sons.  I'm really looking forward to our little girl party! :D We'll probably have the two littlest boys with us, but we'll have fun anyway.  Gotta have a girl movie, pink ice cream, and painted nails.  I think I'll pull out my makeup too and maybe we should do masks.  That would be fun. :)

Mother's Day was nice.  I got cards and things that the kiddos brought from school.  Timmy brought a plant jar, but he insists it's his. ;) With a pink bow and his hand print. OK. :) Jill didn't want to go to her class at church.  I usually make her anyway, but yesterday I was just glad to keep her.  She was very good all through the classes and she even kind of listened.  She repeated to me something the teacher said: "Women need other women?!"  Yep.  Even after we're married. ;)

I have a whole bunch of things growing in my kitchen window. It's so fun!  Most of them are the kids' plants.  Some need to be transplanted if they're going to live.  Michael brought home a bean plant and Timmy brought home a pepper plant.  Jill brought home a sunflower, but it died.  There are a few cups of chia seeds growing into whatever it is that chia seeds grow into.  Jeremy had some chia seeds laying around, so why not, eh?  Then there's the plant that Timmy brought home that's not for Mother's Day. ;) And I just got some basil started, so that's coming up.  I'm really looking forward to having fresh basil.  And then we have a flower outside that Jill brought home from her field trip to Home Depot, and we have rosemary that was already growing outside the front door.  Some days I step outside and I can smell that rosemary, and it makes me so happy. :) I like to put it on my potatoes. and bake them cut in quarters with a little olive oil.  Yum!

And I think I mentioned that Hyrum got his permit, right?  He took the test 2 1/2 weeks ago and didn't pass the first time.  Poor guy.  Yeah, I remember talking about that.  Well, a week and a half ago he took it again and passed!  And just today he found his card in the mailbox.  Wahoo!  Jeremy's taken him out driving a few times (He'd already been doing it before.  Sneaky fella.), but I haven't yet.  To tell the truth, I'm nervous about it, and I don't want to freak out because then he'll freak out.  But he's excited to learn to drive.  It'll be good for him. :) But he still has to walk to Seminary cuz it's good for him. ;)

I almost forgot to mention that I went to the doctor and got new prescriptions for asthma.  Do not join the asthma club.  It's not fun.  Anyway, I feel like a pill popper now.  I was on just a daily allergy medicine with a rescue inhaler, but now I have a twice daily inhaler and something else that's on its way from the mail-order pharmacy. Oh, boy!  Does this mean I'm getting old?

I also took Henry to the doctor for his 4-month checkup.  He's doing great.  He's over 16 lbs. now.  He's had some issues with eczema (It took me a few times to figure out how to spell that.  Ha ha! I thought it had an x.) on his leg, but the doctor said to use cortisone (also can't spell that) on it, and it's doing a lot better.  He's gaining weight.  He naps sometimes.  He's cute as heck, although, heck probably isn't all that cute.  Gee, I guess I need another metaphor...  He's been trying to sit up, and he's been spending time on the floor, learning to shift his weight a bit.  He's great to take places because he smiles at everyone.  I keep thinking it's going to be a bummer when he's not a baby anymore because I'll have to learn to actually interact with people on my own without the icebreaker of a cute baby.  Ugh. ;)

Another little update

So I think I mentioned last week that I had a meeting about Timmy, right?  I went to that on Friday.  It actually went really well, I think.  It was interesting to me because sitting right there in that meeting I got an answer to a question I had that was totally unrelated.  And by that I mean I needed some direction from Heavenly Father, and he picked that moment to tell me.  I'm a little surprised I didn't break down and bawl like I usually do when those things happen, but I didn't.  It was a nice meeting, though.  I could tell that everyone in that room really did care and wanted what was best for Timmy.

First we went over all the things that Timmy has done during the last few months at school, and I liked that because they'd taken good notes and noticed so many things about him.  It tickles me pink when people get to know my kids on that level.  I think they're such great little (and giant) people, and maybe it's conceited of me to think so, but I do think they are a gift to the world.  ;) Anyway, that was fun.  Made me smile.  And then we moved on to talk about kindergarten.  His preschool teacher, D'Anne Lutz, thinks that he should not do Transition Kindergarten.  She pointed out that he can count to 20 or higher, he knows his whole alphabet - upper and lower case - and can match the upper to the lower, and he is reading simple words and trying his hand a spelling too.  She says you just don't see that in preschool, and she's worried that he'd get bored not being challenged in TK.  I can see her point.  And Mr. Allred, the principal from the primary school here, thinks we should put him in a regular all day kindergarten class right from the start.  They all pointed out the different arrangements we could make, and how we could change things if we get started with this and then decide it's too much.  Mr. Allred's thing is he doesn't want him to start out with a crutch, but to go in as a full-fledged kindergartner.  My concern is that he's going to be so overwhelmed he won't be able to do the work even though academically he's there.  He feels all the stuff that goes on around him.  They pointed out that there's an aide in every kindergarten classroom, and that they can take him out to decompress if he wants.  They can give him preferential seating.  They can't give him a personal aide, unfortunately.  I figure eventually he'll be in a regular classroom with pretty much no help at all, and I'm not sure what we'll do at that point.  I don't think the higher grades have aides.  I wish I could volunteer to be his.  But I can't.  I guess, though, that right now I need to think about this coming year.  One step at a time.

So anyway, I came out feeling like we could do it, that he could go to regular kindergarten and be fine.  But I knew Jeremy would disagree.  And I was right.  Sometimes I wish I could make up my own mind what I think instead of being persuaded one way or another.  But that's neither here nor there.  Jeremy doesn't want him being overwhelmed and being put in a sink or swim situation.  His question was, "Well, do we wait until he's drowning to fix it?"  Of course, he does have a good point.  He wants Timmy to keep going to the same school so he gets the help that he needs without being overwhelmed, and then we can do harder work at home and put him in first grade next year.  We can certainly give it a go.  I think that may be what we end up doing.  We'll see.  I want to see if I can get Jeremy to go talk to Mr. Allred.  I do know that the school would do everything they could to help him be happy and successful, but there's only so much they can do, you know?  I just don't know what we're going to do.  I'm worried that it'll be like with Joshua, where we were up until like 11:00 every night struggling through homework because he really needed to decompress and work through all the built-up anxiety from the whole day.  In some ways school was really good for him, but in some ways it was just so hard.  He dealt with so many things that neurotypical kids never, ever have to deal with.  I guess I just worry in general because of what we put Joshua through.  Still, Joshua's fine, you know?  He's going to be just fine.  There's just so much to consider, and I'm always afraid I'm going to make a horribly wrong choice that will hinder my children for the rest of their lives.

Yes, I have issues.  Moving on.

I've been running on the treadmill a few times a week.  I'm still doing the walk then run then walk again thing for about 35 minutes.  It feels good.  I'm having trouble with my feet, though.  My pregnancies always leave my feet hurting, and then they hurt for like years after.  I've always figured it's because of my beautiful high arches.  They need more support than they're getting.  No shoes at Wal-Mart have any type of arch support.  I guess they figure you'll buy those separately.  Such a bummer.  I bought some new shoes with my birthday money because my old ones were dying.  I like them except that my feet hurt so bad after my workout.  So I finally got some arch supports to go in there, and they do help some, but maybe I just need to wait a bit more for the pain to stop?  I don't know.  It just stinks.  And right now the pain seems to be more in my heels.  I'm hoping the gel in the heels of the arch supports will help.  We'll see.  I've never really dealt with heel pain.

Maybe I'm just feeling whiny today.  Ok, I take that back.  I KNOW I'm feeling whiny today.  I'm so dang tired!  I'm a lot more tired than I feel like I should be.  And that's another thing - I keep sleeping with monkeys and waking up with a sore back.  Thankfully, the sore back doesn't last long, but man!  And I'm not sure about the quality of sleep I'm getting either.  I know I snore, and I know it's pretty bad sometimes, especially when I have a stuffy nose, which has been the last 9 months at least, it seems like.  (Allergies are of the devil.)  I worry that I might keep Jeremy awake, because I know I have sometimes.  And I also worry because I think I have sleep apnea.  I have woken up several times choking, and once I woke up gasping for breath.  It usually only happens when I nap or when I'm not sleeping in my own bed, but it's freaky!  I hate it!  It certainly makes me more determined to lose some weight, but that can only go so far, you know?  I've got to stick around!

Henry has a new kind of schedule now where he sleeps starting around 11:00 and wakes up about 4:30.  Jeremy has his sleep cute a little short because of it.  His alarm goes off at 4:45.  That's too early!  Anyway, I miss having him sleep straight from 11:00 to 9:00.  I hope he'll do that again sometime. ;) He's sure a sweet boy.  I may whine and fuss about getting up and sleeping in the chair, but I pick him up and all is pretty much forgiven because he feels so good in my arms and he's so cute.

Speaking of the little guy, he's quite the flirt lately.  It's so cute!  I guess he's at that age.  I love him a bunch.

I dropped my phone last week.  I think I already said that.  It's not fixed yet, but I had my old phone reactivated so I could have something.  I knew I liked droid phones better than iPhones, and I'm being reminded why every day.  It makes me a little sad to get the iPhone fixed, you know?  Well, we'll have had them for 2 years at the end of the year, so we'll probably be due for an upgrade and get new ones.  We'll be glad to ditch them for droid phones again, and I doubt we'll ever look back.  We never use FaceTime anyway.

Michael had his school program today.  Teleysha is his music teacher.  She does a great job!  It sounds like she'll be moving on to the middle school next year full time and a part time person will come and teach some of the younger grades.  She had them play their recorders for part of it.  I thought it was cute.  They sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and they played their recorders for the o-wim-oh-weh part.  They did some patriotic songs and that fireworks song by that weird girl.  You know?  The one who is just really weird but did that one great fireworks song.  Ha ha!  Ok, I looked it up.  It's Katy Perry.  I do like that song except that when do you ever, ever say "a firework."  Nobody does.  It's fireworks, with an s!  Still, it was fun to watch Michael sing it.  I think it was during that song when he finally spotted me in the audience.  I was kind of hidden behind a guy's head.  But he saw me and his face just lit up.  It was great!  I waved, and he waved back. :) I saw him looking and looking for me before that, and finally he saw me.  It was a great little concert.  I'm so glad I could go. Next week will be Jill's, and the week after that is Benji's band concert.  Things are winding down!  It's crazy!

Another cool thing - Sister Whetten invited me to her literary club.  They meet once a month except the 3 months in the summer.  It's nothing fancy.  They take turns hosting and giving reports on books they've read.  This lady who hosted had been out of it for a few months, so she decided to host and give the report too.  There were a total of 9 of us.  We had cookies and listened to her report and asked questions.  Her book was about dragonflies and had lots of pictures.  It was kind of fun.  I'm looking forward to the next meeting and feeling a little bummed that it's not until September.  I'm pleased that she would invite me. :) I was by far the youngest there.  I think the next youngest was in her 50s.  But that's ok. :) It's going to be fun to get to know these ladies.

The lady who hosted is actually Mike McCarthy's wife.  Mike has taught biology at the college for a long, long time, and now he's retiring.  I think Aaron is getting his job, so that's kind of cool.  Mike is a nice guy.  And now he has a bunch of research projects and things he can work on.  And he's been writing some books too.  I remember watching him from a distance when I was here a long time ago.  I never took biology because I was traumatized from taking it in high school, but I kind of wish I'd taken his class.  Except then I wouldn't have taken Bonnie Briscoe's classes.  She was amazing.  Anyway, he also knows sign language, so he always interpreted for different things like EAC graduation and such.  And that's always fun to watch.  His style of sign was kind of different from the teachers I had.

And that makes me remember - after I took sign language Kimberly and I would sometimes sit and sign together.  And that summer that we were together in Salt Lake we'd go see the Legacy movie like every week, and one day we were quite early, so we sat on the floor at the head of where the line would start, and we just talked back and forth.  She taught me a few signs as we conversed about this and that in sign language.  And then a sister missionary came and asked if we needed an interpreter. :) I was pretty darn pleased with myself that day.  Ha!

Here's something cute.  Bubby calls ice "rock."  So he'll get a cup of water from the fridge's water dispenser, and then he tries to push the buttons while saying, "Rock.  Rock." :)

Goin's On

We had kind of an interesting day yesterday.  Jeremy went to work like normal and I got the three middle kiddos off to school.  Then I was running around and texting Jeremy like normal, and I dropped my phone out in the driveway.  It landed face down, and while the screen did not crack, it now has a bunch of beautiful colorful lines and black stripes.  It doesn't respond to touch, so I can't answer calls or text or even get in to tell my phone to trust my computer so I can get my pictures off.  Good thing I took pictures off 2 weeks ago and posted a few favorites since then onto Facebook!  Anyway, I've got to take it in to Verizon and have them send it away to be fixed.  Right now it's sitting in my dresser, but I can faintly hear my alarm going off.  It's a nice song.  It's Mindy Gledhill singing Golden Slumbers.  It's been going since 6:00, and it's now 8:47.  I can't shut down the phone, and I can't stop the alarm, so I suppose it'll keep going until it runs out of battery.  So just FYI, if you need to get me, call Jeremy's phone.  He has a phone at work, so he told me I could use his until mine is fixed.

I tell ya, it's been a bad year for me with electronics.  There was that hoo hah with my computer, which I'm still trying to recover from.  (At least I learned.  I've now been backing up my work at least once a week.) And then that tablet with a keyboard that I got for Christmas (We found a good deal at Black Friday and got one for me, one for Jeremy, and one for Hyrum.) - one day a month or two ago I had it on the arm of the couch, and as I stood up I leaned on it, and it cracked all the way from one side to the other.  It now doesn't respond.  We'll get it fixed eventually.  I did have one piece of good luck, though, with electronics this year.  The Galaxy tablet Dad gave me was not charging.  (That's not the good news.  Bear with me.)  I've actually had quite a bit of trouble with charging it over the last 8 months or so.  I even got a whole new charger and it still got progressively worse.  After a while it just wouldn't charge anymore.  Finally, I decided to give it one last try, and I ordered a new cord from Amazon.  It came slow boat from China, so it took a few weeks to get here, but when it did get here it worked!  So I have a working tablet after all.  Eventually, I'll get the other one fixed, and that'll be nice! The kiddos like to steal the Galaxy, so it's not always available when I want it.  Gee, I'm spoiled!  Oh, and the new cord is 6 feet long.  I didn't really need it to be that long.  That's just the size I ended up ordering.  It's been so handy, though!  All cords should be that long!

Anyway, so after that mess with the phone I got my 3 little ones ready and went to meet Jeremy in Globe.   He took me to see the work that's been done on the house.  It's been painted and the walls are spotless white.  Tile has been laid in the hall and the bathroom, and it looks nice!  They were fixing the siding where it's peeled off, and they added trim around the hole Jeremy cut in the kitchen wall.  They've done all sorts of things.  I'm really happy with it!  And after they finish with our house they're scheduled to start working on the house across the street.  Hooray!  You remember that old broken down house where people came whistling for drugs in the middle of the night, right?  Yeah!  Somebody bought it and they're going to fix it.  I'm so glad!  

After that we stopped by the Verizon store.  We didn't drop my phone off, but I kind of wish we had.  We had a couple hare-brained schemes about my phone, but in the end we're just going to get it fixed, I guess.  I need to go find the Verizon store here and send it off.

Then we had a little bit of time, so we went to see Grandma for a few minutes and feed Henry.  It was a nice little visit.

And then we headed down to the valley.  Jeremy had a dentist appointment and I had a doctor checkup.  I think that was the last appointment he'll have with that dentist unless someday he wants him to help him get a tooth where he got that one pulled right after his mission.  His mouth has healed up well around those titanium screws, so now all that remains is a few more months until he can get his new teeth.  That will be so nice!  I've been thankful that we've had the money and insurance to get all that done!  It's scary to remember that if he hadn't had those ones on the bottom fixed it could have killed him!  Thank heavens for the marvels of modern dentistry!

And my doctor visit went good too.  Things are going good.  And I've lost about 20 lbs. since before Henry was born.  Hooray!  I still have some work to do to get back down to where I should be, but progress!  Wahoo!  And it's always nice to see Dr. Joe.  He gave the boys cookies too. :)

We got In-n-Out on the way home.  Yum!  And the house was still standing. ;) I'm glad to be home today.

Tom has a YouTube channel where he talks as he shows how to play games he's been working on.  I'm not really interested, but Hyrum sure is. :) That's his kind of thing.  I do like hearing Tom's voice as Hyrum watches, though.

Henry turned 4 months old!  Here are some pictures.

He's getting stronger and has been trying to sit up.  He's also pretty good at grabbing things now.  Good thing I wear my hair up. ;) He can grab toys.  Once they're out of his field of vision, though, he forgets he's holding them.  And the poor little fella has been sick. :( Last week Bubby was coughing with a fever and runny nose, and now this little fella is doing the same, minus the fever, thank goodness!  It's so sad to hear my little guy cough. :( He's growing and doing great otherwise, though.  We got to see his cousin Jesse yesterday (Joe's boy), and Henry is a little shorter than him but seems to be about the same weight.

Speaking of Joe, I think I told you they moved back to Globe, right?  They were living with Jeremy's parents, which Jeremy's dad was not happy about, but now they have moved into a little house on 4th Street. (That's the street that is so steep it'd give you nightmares!  Ha ha! Just kidding.  But it is really steep.) Joe got a job at the mine, and BreAnna has gone back to school.  She's going to the alternative school.  It sounds like a great place.  She's able to work at her own pace and may be able to graduate at the same time as her class that she was with at Globe High School.

And also speaking of school, did I mention that Aaron and Kenzie were thinking of adopting BreAnna's little brother?  He lived with them for a few months until they just could not handle him anymore.  It's sad.  He has no respect for anyone or anything.  We were all hoping that Aaron and Kenzie could help him, but after a while it was pretty apparent that he would not be helped.  He was lying and stealing and being a jerk.  So he's back in Globe.  I'm not sure how he'll ever get through school because he gets kicked out.  I guess we'll see.  I'm glad for Aaron and Kenzie, though.

Man, it's been such a mess!  After Joe and BreAnna got kicked out of our house they went to live in the basement of the house that Aaron and Kenzie were renting, and things really went sour.  BreAnna is so immature.  It's just sad.  When Aaron and Kenzie were getting ready to move to their new house Joe and BreAnna told them they were going to move back to Globe and live with Mom and Dad for a while.  They said they'd already discussed it with them.  Well, it turns out they hadn't discussed it with them.  So on Henry's blessing day during dinner the subject was brought up in conversation, and that led to Aaron and Dad going out to have a discussion in the car while Mom and Kenzie had a quiet discussion on the couch.  That was super awkward!  And when BreAnna found out that Aaron and Kenzie had discussed it with Mom and Dad she got super mad and texted Mom that Aaron and Kenzie won't let them make their own decisions and are just awful, which everyone who has a brain knows is just a complete lie.  And so she then avoided them like the plague, staying down in the basement 24/7 and hiding under the covers whenever anybody had to go down there.  

Oh, the drama!  I hate it.  I think she's upset with us too because we kicked her out.  What else could we do?  I don't regret doing it even a little.  She is just too young to be in her situation, and she's introducing teenage girl drama wherever she can.  It's lame.  So now we don't get to see Joe ever.  I just don't know how this could ever be fixed, especially when they are given a free ride so often and not left to figure things out on their own. Man! 

Moving on.

Jeremy is buying a truck!  It's kind of funny how it happened.  There's a lot that the mine owns that people like to put their vehicles on for sale.  They're not supposed to, though.  So one of Jeremy's jobs is to find those vehicles and get the people to get them off mine property.  So last week there was a trailer there for sale, and when he called the guy, the guy said, "Well, do you want to buy a trailer?"  Jeremy said, "Well, actually, no.  I don't have a truck to haul it with."  The guy said, "Well, do you want to buy a truck too?"  He offered him a pretty good deal on the truck and trailer together.  Jeremy has actually been looking for a truck to buy for some time now and praying for it.  It would be such a blessing!  Anyway, long story short, he's buying this one with the trailer.  Too bad we didn't have it when we moved, huh?  Ha ha!  I'm so glad for him!  He'll still use the little car to commute because you can't beat the gas mileage, but it'll be so nice to have this truck.  Especially with Hyrum about to turn 16 in September!  Wahoo!

I took Hyrum to get his permit on Thursday.  It's so exciting, huh?!  It will change his life!  He didn't pass the test, and he was so sad!  It was all those questions about how many feet, you know?  Poor guy!  He can try again this Thursday.  On the way home we were exclaiming about how that was dumb, that what are you supposed to do - get out a tape measure to make sure you're not parked too close?  So we decided we needed to install a tape measure on the front of our car and it would extend super slow and then we'd look and say, "Nope.  Too close," and start again.  We went on and on with it and we were laughing so hard our sides hurt.  Good times. :)

Michael has a good friend named Elwyn Lash.  She lives just a few houses down the street from us.  She's in his church class and the class next to his at school, and they and some other kids play together at recess.  I like her!  She's nice, helpful sort.  Anyway, I finally got to meet her mom on Sunday.  She has a little 3-month-old boy, so we both ended up in the mother's lounge together.  We had such a nice chat.  I liked that! :) And she offered us a bunch of wood that they have so we can use it in our fireplace in the winter.  She said they're never going to use it and they were talking about just setting a match to it.  Wow!  What a blessing!  She said we could just take it.  So I guess when we have that truck in the next week or so we will. :) 

With part of the money we got from our tax return we were able to get some things for our back yard.  We now have a swing set back there and a porch swing so I can sit and watch the kiddos while they play.  It's so great!  I did most of the work getting them all set up last week.  I have pictures stuck on my phone.  Darn it!  The swing set came with a canopy that was made of tent-like fabric.  It had tent poles to hold it up.  We also didn't get the swing set staked down right away, and then it got all windy again (Why is it always so windy here?!), and it blew over.  The poles on the canopy broke. :( So much for that.  Well, I like the swing set anyway.  It has 2 swings and a trapeze, a slide, and a little trampoline.  And it's staked down now.  And the porch swing is great too.  It's comfy.  The other day after I got the kiddos off to school I took my scriptures and cereal out there and listened to the birds while I read. It was so pleasant!  I've wanted a porch swing for a long time, and there it is! :D

Jeremy heard about some new positions that have come open at the Safford mine.  One is quite similar to what he's doing now but is more of a manager position.  He applied for it immediately.  We haven't heard anything back, but it does take a long time.  We're praying that he can get it!  It would be such a blessing to have him working in town!

The 2 older boys are all excited for college coming up.  They have a scout super activity coming up in June, so we'll enroll them in one class each for the 2nd summer session.  In the fall Hyrum will have a full load and Joshua will do about 6 credits.  I think I already talked about this.  In the summer Hyrum will probably take math and Joshua will probably take oil painting.

Benji will be in middle school next year and he's all excited.  He came home with a paper asking him to put the electives he wants in order from 1-10 depending on how much he wants them.  He wants to do yearbook/leadership and band, so those were #1 and #2.  Usually they can get the first two they pick, but we'll see.  I filled out his paperwork today.  I just need him to sign a few places and we need to pay electives fees and he'll be set to go.  I'll have to find out if they need his shot record and birth certificate or if the Elementary School will just transfer those over.  Michael will be in 5th grade, so he'll be able to do band.  He wants to play the trumpet.  I'm still pulling for somebody to learn trombone.  Come on!  Grandma has one sitting in her closet!  Maybe Jill will.  Anne did all those years ago. :) But I kind of doubt it.  It's not generally considered a very girly instrument, and Jill is very girly.

I have a meeting on Friday at the primary school here in Thatcher to discuss options for Timmy going into Kindergarten.  We really, really, really want him to get into Transition Kindergarten at Dan Hinton!  He could definitely do the work they do in a regular kindergarten, but the environment would be so overwhelming to him.  I don't think he'd be able to handle a regular kindergarten class.  There are just too many people in there.  So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping!  We'll see what happens!  He's doing so great at preschool.  He's also learned that my name is "Chrustine" and has been calling me that for the last couple of days.  Ha ha!

Bubby has been so emotional pretty much since he turned 2.  I miss my happy little fella.  Bubby gets so bent out of shape so easily.  We can't go anywhere without screaming about something.  I feel so sad for him that he is so moody.  His mood changes so rapidly sometimes.  I figure once he's potty trained things will get better for him, and they'll get even better as he learns to speak better too.  He's improving with his speech, so hooray for that.  Jeremy offered Hyrum and Joshua $100 to split if they'll get him potty trained, but so far it hasn't happened much.  They need to learn how to help him be excited to go sit on the potty.  Jill can do it.  Ha ha!  But I don't think he's done anything but sit on it.  That's ok.  She's such a cute little mommy to him lately.  She gets him dressed sometimes (because he likes to strip) and then brings him downstairs by the hand, both just so content. :) And it's all on a volunteer basis.  She seems to like taking care of him.  I guess it's just that natural maternal instinct.  It's cute!

And I'm still working on my Badger Family History project.  I've been making corrections and documenting sources as I go.  Slow going, I say!  I feel like I'm trudging through mud or trying to walk in a swimming pool, you know?!  It takes forever!  Thank heavens that at least I can do most of it at home one-handed, huh? ;)

Well, it's been like 2 hours since I started this.  Ha ha!  Probably time to quit.  I did stop and feed and change Henry for a while, so it's not like I've been typing the whole time. ;)

Quick Post about Timmy

Timmy has been writing words lately.  And the other day he read the words "carrots" and "said!"

I found these laying around the other day and it tickled me pink.  I don't think they're to this point at preschool yet.  I think he just figured it out.  Maybe he's been listening as Jill learns to read.

Pizza

Taco

Hot Dog

Of course, the first one makes the most sense, but they're all cute, and I love the fact that he's even trying!