email from President Winder, from the Boise, Idaho mission

The mission president of the Boise, Idaho mission sends us a copy of the texts she gets when her position changes and whatnot and I must admit, I do pretty good considering her phone number is attached to the email as well as her actual address. I could call her.

Yep!

I think this makes me a pretty good missionary mom!!!

 

Yep, I am proud of myself!

 

 (No, if you will excuse me.  I need to go erase that message before I change my mind!)

Jeremy!

Jeremy was here. He came, he went. It was fun! He is such a sweetheart and he will be on his mission soon enough and it was so great to see him one last time!!! 

Even if he called the lakes he visited a mirage only because there are not supposed to be lakes in the desert. (We showed him, even if he doesn't want to admit it!)

Good thing we never took him up north to the ski resort. I wonder what he would have called that!!!
 

 Danni, Britt, and Jeremy were inseparable!!! I am so proud of him and will miss him, Maybe not as much as the girls but pretty darn close!!!

Looks like a lake to me, Jeremy!

 

I am not sure who to feel more sorry for, Joey, who won't sit still for anything, or Jeremy, who has to deal with figity Joey.

Leaving for home!

 

 

Going to miss the big dummy!

I love receiving texts from Idaho! I received some pictures from ward members who think my daughter is pretty brilliant!!! (Yeah, they are right, lol!)

This is the Spjute family.
The text said,

You have a great missionary. Thanks for sharing her with us.

 

Fifteen months ago that seemed so scary. Now it is amazing. I can't believe I fought it so hard.

Tarod's Haircut

Well, what fun at my house yesterday!

Tarod let Britt cut his hair! Wow! He is so brave!

Joey thinks he is crazy!

It took her over an hour and a half to actually do it, being very slow and taking her time. And I can't believe he sat there very still and let her do it. She has absolutely no training! She asked for help every now and again but did most of it herself! I am very impressed!!!

And I am also impressed with Tarod! I cannot believe he let her do it!!!

That is love.

 

 

 Even Tarod is not sure! LOL

I am really bad at new years resolutions and so I try to stay away from them because I let myself down when I don't accomplish them. But I think I found one this year that I really want to accomplish.
Sweet Connie Rainwater and I had an awesome sit down yesterday and talked about a great number of things, one of which my depression. Yep, I think that is one of my biggest problems. I try so hard to not involve others with it, but I am afraid those at home see it and feel it often and keep quiet on my behalf. Poor things. And you can usually tell because I don't do my blog when I get bad spouts of it.
 I feel like I have no one I can really talk to about it and so sharing it with her, because she also suffers, was a nice way to open up. And because she suffers as well, she had a wonderful idea that will bring me some inner peace as well as closer to my Heavenly Father.
It is so weird talking about it here because I would rather tell my silly and somewhat odd stories about my children because it is so much more amusing that going on and on about something that is not. But I have set a goal that I will do this resolution and I am making it known.
 Connie gave me a book called He Did Deliver Me from Bondage along with a journal. The book is used with LDS family services for Addiction Recovery, which I don't necessarily have, but as Connie pointed out, negative thoughts about yourself is an addiction that can lead to so many other things, one of which is suicide.(Which I would never do! Watching Travis' family try and recover from Caleb's death was not something I would ever do to my own family. Just pointing that out right her and now!!!)
 So I am going to go through this book and start my own addiction recovery. It won't fix the problem, I know this. But it will remind me how much my Heavenly Father loves me and that I am not alone. It will help me realize simple mistakes I make that I can fix. It will also help my fully come to appreciate the Atonement, which I don't fully realize still. And this will give me inner peace. And I am nothing without my Heavenly Father.

Thank you, Connie for just listening, loving me enough to try and help, and for being there when I needed someone!

Attention! The local Jeremy Meyer fan club, minus the member currently in Idaho, is having a meeting Saturday night at my house in preparation for our special guest, Jeremy himself!

(Squeals and screaming, giggling and yelling in the background.... Seriously!)

 

Yep, my second favorite Texan is coming to visit this weekend! And it will be the last time for awhile. Because he is going on a mission!

Jeremy reports at the Provo MTC Feb 11th and will be serving in the Colorado Springs, Colorado mission! And, ironically, it is a year to the day Ashley left! We are so excited for him!!!

The girls are planning some crazy things, I am sure! It will be a lot of fun! And we get a chance to say goodbye before he heads off to serve the Lord. Maybe he will follow his father's footsteps and find that special someone for Britt! LOL  Tarod would not like that idea, though.

Cannot wait for Saturday!!!

the conclusion of my long, long week!

Well, remember how I said it was going to be a long, long week? It wasn't that bad. We went for another set of x-rays on Friday after visiting with Dr. Chang. We called it a day and she did not go back to school. I am still waiting on the results, but they were very nice and she got to see her 'naked' bones. She is putting more pressure on it. I am thinking another week and then she will be able to continue on with normal life.
 The fun was on Saturday when Zach and Joey decided to take the wheel chair outside for a spin. Apparently a 'spin' means you race it down the sidewalk as fast as you can, Zach pushing and Joey along for the ride. (My mom would freak out if she saw how fast they were going. I would be in so much trouble if I showed her first hand.) Well, then they had to curb jump the dang thing to see if they got any air.
Yeah, that didn't work, although it did manage to break the front wheel of the wheel chair. Oops. Joey couldn't wait to tell Grandpa all about how Zach broke the wheelchair. He conveniently forgot to tell him he was the passenger. So they both got swapped on the backside of the head and they both need to do some extra chores to buy a new wheel. And there is no way they will ever let me borrow one of the new wheel chairs!!!
So, we start the week off in good spirits, well, at least for me. I have two slaves who need to work off a debt. THIS week is looking pretty good!!!

My little brave girl, and yes, Ash, She is milking it for it's worth!!!

 

My two trustworthy sons, doing their brotherly duty, my eye!!!

 Good thing it didn't have a motor on it or they might be sporting a pair of crutches themselves!!!

The wheel. I wonder how much a new one is going to cost?

I think I will make them pay for one each! I will call it pain and suffering!!!

Beware!!!

Beware!!!

If you date any of my children,

even an empty blind date,

Your name will be added to Joey's family prayer!!!
(But he could be doing it at church so we should count our many blessings. Then again, they are going to all of the people who have dated or are dating my children!)
 

That is all!

A Little anger goes a long, long way!!!

I was told every family once in their lives purchases a pair of crutches. Well, we bought our first pair yesterday!!!
Sweet Mackenzie, like the rest of my monsters, has a temper. Well, something was not going her way during lunch recess and her older sister once said if she gets cross to punch a pillow. Well, since there were no pillows available, she stomped her foot really, really hard against the sand. Who knew sand could do so much damage? She was down! After being taken to the nurses office in a wheel chair, ice applied, going to urgent care and having x-rays for the first time, it was discovered she has a sprained knee. Fingers crossed that is the extent of her injury! (Thank goodness it was herself she hurt and no someone else, although THAT will be dealt with as soon as possible)
 We will watch her the rest of the week for any other concerns. In the meantime that little thing gets to experience what it is like to have crutches. She was so excited. Yeah, I give her today and I am pretty sure she will change her mind. Joey, on the other hand, keeps stealing them away from her. Yep, gonna be a long week!!! And somewhere in there will be a lesson on anger management!!!!!
Oh, and we borrowed a wheel chair from Grandma! Joy!!! The hard part is reminding Joey that it is for Mackenzie to use, not for him to race in. Did I say it was going to be a long, long week?

 

At the urgent care waiting for her first, and hopefully, last pair of crutches!!!

All in all, she handled it very well. Kept a smile on her face the whole time!!!