January 13, 2013 Dear Mama, Hi! How are you? Our lives here in Tucumcari are revving back up after the quiet Christmas Break. As you know, school started up again on Monday. The boys were okay with that except for the part about getting up so early in the morning. The guys finally have a real live math teacher and they all seem to like her. I am hoping that by having a person, rather than a computer, to ask questions and explain things to you will help tremendously. Joshua had basketball practice, so I had to go and get them late, but I got a lot accomplished during the day which seemed awfully quiet after having all those rambunctious boys around for a few weeks. Tuesday was the beginning of the Eastern Plains Athletic Conference (EPAC), for Joshua. I had asked him who he was going to be playing against and his answer was , "Oh, I don't know. Leiderhosen, or Liahona, or something like that." I laughed so hard. Come to find out, it was being held in Melrose, and even though he still couldn't tell me who they played against, they won their game. The nice part was that the bus came through Tucumcari and we picked him up at the McDonald's which saved us the 40 minute round trip to pick him up in San Jon. I was grateful for that because it saved me some gas money. Wednesday, I spent most of my day pulling together boxes of food for Shayna to take with her to OPSU. I sent her with a lot of my dehydrated and freeze dried foods from my food storage. At first she wasn't very excited about doing that, so all the week before I was cooking with it, and after she would eat, I would mention what I put in our meal that was reconstituted. She decided it wasn't too bad, and agreed to take some. I loaded her down with four big boxes. I also helped her to start loading the car with her frames, cut glass, bases for sculptures, etc., in preparation for her leaving in the morning the next day. Meanwhile, Josh went and played his next game. They played against Dora and lost by only a few points. That was pretty good, because Dora has a really good team. Again, we picked him up at McDonald's later that night. Thursday, I went to get Josh up for Seminary and found him in bed, running a fever and feeling nauseous. So, we called Sister Rowse to cancel Seminary. Everyone else got up for scripture and prayer and the twins got ready for school. I brought the boys to the bus stop in the van and went to the gym after that. Brenna took Shayna off to OPSU before I could even get back home. I was so sad to not have given Shayna a hug and a kiss good-bye. So, I did laundry, and Josh laid in bed most of the morning. He skipped breakfast and lunch, but did come downstairs because he was thirsty and took a few swallows of water. It was an awfully quiet day. Between batches of laundry, I read. I really need to set up an appointment with an optometrist. Throughout the day, I probably read for about six hours collectively. By the time I needed to leave to go get the twins at the bus stop, everything was blurry, and not just blurry, but double vision blurry. I drove that way, came home and cooked dinner that way, watched a DVD with Jay that way, and when I went to bed, it was still that way. I am pleased to say that after a good night's sleep, when I awoke in the morning, my eye sight was back to normal. Brenna had gotten home safely the day before, Josh had woken up feeling better, and life was all around better for everyone. Josh kept calling his coach every hour on the hour to find out about game times and if the bus would pick him up in Tucumcari or if we would have to drive him down to San Jon to catch the bus, etc. But he could never get through to him, and the coach never called us here at home. So, he missed the rest of the EPAC. However, I discovered that any amount of reading makes my eyes blurry. As we watched HUGO for our family pizza/movie night, all of the faces were blurry. Yes, I definitely need to get a new prescription for my glasses. Saturday was the Stake Youth New Year's Celebration. They woke up early enough to leave at 7am. It was very cold, so they bundled up because the first thing they were going to do when they got to Amarillo was to do a service project. They cleaned out a humongous long ditch so that the next time it rained it would not be clogged and flood. As they were finishing up, it started snowing on them. They went to the stake center after that and had a meeting of sorts and pizza for lunch. Meanwhile, I was left at home alone with Brenna and did all of the usual cleaning and did some laundry and cooking. I even made a grilled cheese version of a Chicago hot dog which contains sauerkraut, and Brenna actually ate it and said it was pretty good. Somewhere I fit in putting the finishing touches on my Sunday school lesson. By the time that Jay and the boys got home from Amarillo, I realized that I had forgotten to take my thyroid pill and was completely run down. Jay was so kind to take over everything so I could rest a bit. Brenna came home from KFC and gave us some hot wings that were going to be thrown out. She also shared some of her chocolate from her biggest chocolate bar that Josh gave her at Christmas. By bedtime, we noticed that there was about an inch or two of snow outside. Brenna said that when she had come home, everything was dry and clear. So it snowed during the two hours she was home. Sunday morning, we woke up to the same amount of snow, and I was COLD! The boys got up early and they went to church and started shoveling the sidewalks at church. The maintenance people have taken our salt and sand, so some places were still slick and icy. The meetings were good and by the time church was over, most of the snow had melted. But it still stayed cold all day long. Matt finally got to see his "Saints and Soldiers-Airborne Creed" for his Family Home Evening tonight. It was good. Definitely worth seeing. Well, just typing this letter, my eye sight is starting to go all blurry on me. I guess I will close. I am going to Clovis sometime next week and will see about setting up an appointment for myself and also for Brenna who I have noticed squinching her eyes as she reads. I hope that you are enjoying your life by finding joy in your journey and overcoming anything that you might regret in your life. That is something from one of President Uchtdorf's General Conference messages. I love you, your 4th, Lisa