January 20, 2013 Dear Mama, Hi! How are you doing? We have been doing pretty good. Shayna called the other day. To be honest, I have forgotten the reason she called. But she did mention that she needs me to send her some stuff that she forgot. She also mentioned that her aesthetics class is killing her. She has to write this tremendously long paper on Plato (I had thought she had originally said "play dough" and thought, "what's so hard about that? You can do that.) Anyway, it is killing her because she finds him tremendously boring. I asked her how the food storage I sent with her was going, and she said really good except for the dehydrated chicken. But she said that her roommates LOVE the powdered instant milk. In fact, one of her roommates came in as she was mixing some up and asked her what she was doing. Shayna said, "Making milk". "No, really, what are you doing?" "Making milk. It's like dehydrated and I'm re-hydrating it." "Really? You can do that? Can I taste it?" "Sure. Here, have some." glug glug glug "Oh, my gosh! That tastes just like milk! That's really cool! Where can I buy some of this stuff? Can I use some of yours?" So, as you can see, she is winning her roomies over to food storage. More than likely she will need another #10 can of milk when she comes home for Spring Break. She is extremely busy with tons of art projects and classes and work, etc... I hope she finds time to relax so there is some balance in her life. Poor Matty-boy had a horrible cold last week, but seems to be doing so much better now. However, Beck has caught his cold. I am assuming it was a cold and not the flu. She sounds really horrible, and she says she feels the way she sounds. I hope she will get better soon. Did I mention that Brenna is re-applying at Columbia? She has also exited out of the program at Mental Health Resources and has finished weaning off any medication they had her on. She is doing really well. The only thing I am so confused about is the fact that she (nor Shayna) want to attend a church-owned university where they can hang out with mega amounts of young adults with the same belief system and high moral standards that they grew up with. Have they just lived so far from other youth for so long that they have no idea how to mingle with other LDS single adults? Ah, well... it is their lives and their choices and I will support them in what they choose. Last Monday night it snowed and so there was a two hour delay for school on Tuesday. That was good for us because Joshua, Sam and Cale all had orthodontist appointments in Clovis. This meant that they only missed 1 and 1/2 hours of school rather than 3 and 1/2 hours of school. Josh had an appointment for his retainer which he forgot to bring with him, but since he wears it every night, they were still able to do his appointment. Sam just had a loose appliance, and Caleb had a regular appointment to get a heavier wire for his braces. I grabbed a few groceries at WalMart before we headed out of town and back to San Jon to drop them off to school. That day was crazy because, Josh had basketball practice and I had to pick them up around 5:30, and then race back home and eat dinner and then they had to go to the church for a choir practice. They wanted the youth to sing at our Branch Conference on Sunday, but didn't say anything until the Sunday before. That sounds about right. Wednesday, I got the boys off to school and came home and cleaned out the van because this was our Relief Society temple trip day. There were eight people signed up and we ended up with five, but that was okay, we all had a wonderful day serving the Lord there. We made a quick stop afterwards to Deseret Book to pick up the nativity that I bought for Terry (I still have to send it to her). They had to cancel the southwest nativity that I had originally bought because the artist would only make 100 at a time. So, I got a refund. We stopped off at the Farmer's Market and then WalMart at Edgewood as usual before heading home. Got home a tad bit earlier than usual, but I was still tired by the time I got home and looked forward to going to bed and zonking for the night. Thursday was a kind of crazy day. I had to make sure dinner was ready by the time I went to pick up Sam and Cale from the bus stop. Got them home so that they could attend Mutual, and ate something really quickly myself, and then I headed back to San Jon because Joshua had a basketball game. They were playing Des Moines. Man, they were a good team, but the ref's were favoring Des Moines. Our girls were getting physically beaten up, and there were no fouls called. One of our girls even had glasses broken by the other team bashing her in her face. The ref said that she just dropped her glasses. It was crazy. They lost, really badly. Then, our boys started playing. That game was so INTENSE! Josh got to play for maybe three minutes and got a foul called on him twice in that time. We did win, 65-60, but it was just our guys' foul shots that won it. Everytime we scored, they would score, then we would score, then they would score. It was crazy. They had one really good player and whenever any of their team got the ball they would throw it to him to score. So that kid pretty much made all those points by himself. I am just glad we won and that our boys kept their cool through the whole thing and were good winners. Sometime during Thursday, I got a call confirming that Sam had a dentist appointment on Friday. Well, I completely spaced out and we missed the appointment. When I realized it at about 6:00 that night, I felt so bad. I will have to call tomorrow and apologize and reschedule. My eyes are just getting worse, so Jay called the optometrist in Clovis and made an appointment for me. It was for Saturday morning. That meant that I could not sleep in on Saturday morning and had to get up early to pull together lunch for the rest of the family because Josh had another basketball game that he had to be at by 1:00. They were playing against Quemado. Never heard of them myself. Jay had heard how intense this last game was, and said that this one was even more intense. The score was 44 to 43, and we won, but one of our guys fouled out of the game and took it really hard. The ref's ejected some fans from Quemado's bleachers because they were yelling at the ref's so bad. And they benched their coach, too, because of things he was saying to the ref's and we made that winning basket in the last few seconds of the game. Whew! I wish I had been there. I have NEVER in my life been very interested in sports, but I have got to admit, I am warming up to this high school team. Our guys are good guys, they are good losers as well as good winners. They stay humble and try their hardest to work together as a team. Oh, Josh mentioned that one of our players, Matty, was injured by one of their players and ended up at the hospital in Clovis. I think he said his back was hurt. Matty is the sweetest guy you'd ever want to meet. I hope he is okay. Meanwhile, I went to Clovis and did my eye exam and have extremely dry eyes and got a new prescription and my astigmatism has gotten worse and I will get my glasses sometime next week, I think they said. Meanwhile, I still deal with blurry vision. When I got home, I started cooking for the potluck that we were having after church. Of course, today was our Branch Conference, and President Brown was very sad that he was not released from his calling. I had prepared for a lesson, because no one could tell me if I was supposed to be teaching or not. Well, once I got there, I found out that, no, I did not have to teach my lesson, so I will be giving it next week. It was a good day, but a long and tiring one. It was also thought provoking, and we are resolved as a family to do more things together. So, right now, they are playing some Book of Mormon game. Interesting how much better the Seminary students do compared to the younger ones who haven't started Seminary yet, but still have quite a bit of knowledge. So, Mom... I have an assignment for you. Could you possibly, this week, write a letter to me telling me about your conversion to the gospel? You know, not only the circumstances, but when you first felt the spirit and knew it was true and how you felt and all those intimate details that I think you shared with me once a long time ago, and now the details are hazy. You have to finish this and mail it off to me BEFORE the end of this month. Can you do that for me? I know how hard it is for you to write, so maybe you can get Cindy, or Stefanie, or Kelly, or even Anna to write it out for you. Please, this is really important. Well, I will close for now. I am thankful to you for all those years you took us to church alone, without Daddy by your side. I love you, and pray for you, and think of you often. Your 4th, Lisa