March 1, 2009

B-man typing an email. He gets very intent when he "works" on the computer.

March 1, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a long week. Filled with lots of good things, but I am exhausted just thinking about writing about it. Rest assured we did our normal routine of preschool, swimming, playing, and random errands. Most of the big activities happened during the evening hours. I can only stand to focus on those this week.

Monday – Doctor’s visit. Things look good and are still progressing well.

Tuesday – Visiting teaching marathon during preschool and after swimming. It felt great to get it all done in one day, and with no children! Something I wish could happen every time… That night M went on splits with the missionaries.

Wednesday – Temple trip with the youth. It was a long night, but a fantastic experience. I did find myself wishing that I had used some time in my lesson last week to talk about how to prepare to go to the temple. What to listen to in the car, what to think about or do while waiting, etc… Next time I will know and try to include it in my lesson. We had a very big group, almost all of our youth and over thirty kids there. The temple really only likes to have groups of twenty or less, and it was obvious that some of the workers were distressed by our numbers. There were two women leaders (which were all that was needed) and we were in charge of handing out towels to the young women as they exited the font, and keeping the floor relatively dry. The drive home was quiet, but fast since it was fairly late. We got all the kids home by 11:00 p.m. While I was at the temple M did some home teaching.

Thursday – Preschool orientation meeting for next year. We went to a preschool that is put on by a high school in the area. It is taught by the students in the class. B-man got to explore and play with the toys while the “real” teacher (certified school teacher) answered questions about the program. If we don’t put B-man in Kindergarten this year, we will have him attend this preschool. B-man has been asking since then when he can go to that preschool. We have to keep telling him that it will be after his birthday… That night I had book club. We discussed Peace like a River. It was a great discussion, and a great night. The book left me so conflicted, (I wanted a slightly different ending) but the prose was beautiful, and I loved all the western themes. It made me think of all our family vacations listening to Marty Robbins, and Johnny Cash.

Friday – Made our best homemade pizza ever. Seriously it was so good I still am thinking about it. I can’t wait to try it again. After dinner the Mannewitz family came over for some smoothies and dessert (that they brought). It was a quick visit, but we hadn’t been able to catch up with them for a while, so it was productive even while being so quick.

Saturday – Our busiest day by far!!! M helped a single woman move in our ward. There was a great turn out from other men, and she was only moving downstairs from her current apartment so it went quickly. Afterwards I went to the church with B-man. It was our ward’s week to be in charge of the officiating and score keeping for the basketball games. Sadly the person who was supposed to make sure we all knew about it, and organize the effort didn’t. So instead a few people scrambled to get everything covered. While I was keeping the book at the games with B-man, M drove an hour to the Bishop’s Storehouse. He worked there for four hours during the afternoon. He LOVED the experience and was so happy that he went. He was so impressed with the storehouse and how the program worked. M and I both got home from our “activities” at the same time. We then rushed to get everybody fed, showered, and dressed for the night. We had a party that we were going to that night thrown by some people in the ward. We had planned to make a big night and go to dinner before, but that didn’t really happen. We did get half a cow dropped off by our friends. We had ordered it a while ago, and of course it came on the busiest day. They were kind enough to come and drop it off at our house. I have no idea how long half a cow will last, but it was a lot of meat. It was all packaged and frozen ready for the freezer. It was amazing how well it fit in our little chest freezer that we bought. We did it because our friends told us how much they liked it, the meat is great quality, and the price is amazing. Plus it is from a local source, which I love supporting the local farmers and ranchers. So come visit and we will use a portion of the “fatted calf”… After getting the meat loaded into the freezer our babysitter came over. It was the husband portion of the couple who was babysitting for the co-op. B-man was already in bed, and so it was an easy night for him. We did love that they had offered to have B-man stay at our house; it made it a lot easier for us too. The party was fun, it was a random group of people, but it was fun to get to know the people a little better. When we went out to our car we found that it had been snowing! That is always a fun surprise in VA.

Sunday (Today) – We had a nice lazy morning as a family. It was great to have M back with us in the morning, and after Saturday’s hectic pace it was nice to be able to slow down. Church went well, and M gave his first lesson in Elder’s Quorum. He reported that it had been successful. After church we had some friends over for dinner and then put B-man to bed.

Random B-man thought—He has suddenly started using words that I have no idea where he learned. They are huge words, and he usually uses them correctly. I always mean to write them down, but I always forget, maybe this week I’ll do better. He also has been carrying around a little Spiderman toy that he got yesterday. It has followed him everywhere he has gone, bed, church (Spiderman had to wait in the car), and anywhere else he has gone.

We love you all!

R, M, and B-man