March 18, 2013

Dear Mama,

Hey! How are ya'll? Did ya party hardy for Anna's birthday last 
Friday? I hope it was a good day for her, and I hope she also got my 
birthday wishes on her voice mail. I also hope you wore green for St. 
Patricks Day so you didn't get pinched. Sam and Cale stood in the 
church parking lot giving out green paper clips to people not wearing 
green so they wouldn't get pinched. We have a few jokers in our Branch 
who are not too nice and would love to have an excuse to pinch someone. 
I hate this holiday. Whoever came up with the pinching thing was a 
sadist. April Fool's is the next in line for bad holidays. I do not 
care for mean practical jokes which is what I usually get. Fun ones are 
much better, like serving cake for dinner, when in reality it is 
meatloaf (cooked in cake pans) and frosted with whipped mashed potatoes.
Anyway, last week was San Jon's Spring Break. I decided to do a 
StarGate marathon, which was a joke because I never got past season 3 
and there are 10 seasons. But on Monday, the kids spent their day at 
the Library. Not much else went on. I did manage to do all of the 
dishes and cook for everyone, and poor Jay had to go off to work because 
he doesn't get a Spring Break. Josh had his Grammy night and ended up 
spending the night over by her house. He is so skinny. He's 5'11" and 
130 pounds, so she fed him pretty good.

Because on Tuesday, he had to come home, shower, and pack to go off 
to Albuquerque for the State Basketball Tournament. He was really sad 
that this tournament was eating up his Spring Break. As he was driving 
to San Jon, his hair was a mess and I asked him if he packed a comb, and 
he said, "no". I said, "So, you're going to wash your hair tonight, 
then sleep with it wet and wake up with 'bed head'?" And he said, "Yes, 
it is my defense mechanism." I asked, "Defense mechanism? What are you 
talking about?" And he said, "When the girls see me, they will look at 
my hair and say to themselves 'Eww!' and be so busy looking at my "bed 
head" hair that they will not notice my handsome face". I laughed and 
laughed, and let it go. Anyway, I really do not like the way the school 
does not communicate in any way, shape, or form. He took off for who 
knows how many days, and I had no idea where they were staying, no 
itinerary, no chaperones that I knew of besides the Coach, no phone 
numbers to reach anyone...it was really nerve racking for me. All the 
people that could have given me answers were gone for Spring Break. I 
did give Josh our long distance calling card, but the boy never called 
us the whole time he was gone. All we could do was pray for him that he 
would be alright and leave it in the Lord's hands.

Tuesday night I had gall bladder troubles and didn't sleep very 
well and Wednesday was the Relief Society temple trip. I was concerned 
about driving, so Jay took some leave time and went to the temple with 
us and did the driving for me. I did a session, and he did initiatory 
work. But it was still nice having him along. The kids, Brenna, Sam 
and Cale, stayed home and fended for themselves.

Thursday, about 2:30pm, Josh finally called and Sam went with me to 
meet the bus at the McDonald's here in Tucumcari. They had won their 
game on Wednesday, but lost the game on Thursday morning and so they 
packed up and came home. Josh was so glad to be home and wanted to be 
home, home so much that he grudgingly went to Mutual.

Friday, I finally made it to the gym and ran some errands and came 
home and worked on my lesson. About 2 o'clock, Shayna called. Her 
Webcam interview went really well and she has to get a physical by the 
family PCP, so she had called and got an appointment for March 18th. 
So, Brenna happened to have the day off from work, so I asked her to 
drive to OPSU and pick Shayna up. Josh went along for the ride. So we 
had pizza and did our movie night with just Sam and Cale and then the 
girls and Josh showed up about 10 that night.

Saturday, Jay and I got up a little earlier than usual (for a 
Saturday), and we got lunch started for the kids, showered, made 
breakfast, and then we went off for a date-day. We went to the temple 
which was really neat because we happened to hit a Navaho session. The 
spirit that was there was amazing and I was so glad we had come. Later, 
we hit the dollar show and saw "Lincoln". Jay had some off the cuff 
remarks about Abraham Lincoln after the movie which were not too 
positive, but I enjoyed the movie and felt Lincoln was a good man trying 
his best to end that war. We got home late and stayed up even later 
putting a brisket in the oven for Sunday's lunch and typing up the 
program for church.

Sunday, Jay had a talk in Sacrament meeting and it was on 
forgiveness, and it was really good. Moroni has been gone for a few 
weeks doing the rodeo circuit. So we had nine people at our lunch 
table. Jay and I also heard a General Conference talk about young men 
not having very good writing skills for college and the working world, 
so we are going to start reading good books aloud in the evenings. The 
one we chose to start off has to do with time travel, but we lost Sam 
and Cale. Sam was reading his copy of Lord of the Rings, and Cale 
migrated to his room and played something up there. We figure more 
reading out loud will also help with their verbal reading skills. Sam 
said he would rather write down stuff (which means short fragmented 
sentences) than to read aloud, but we also discussed his need to be able 
to speak to people and have people skills for his mission as well as out 
in the working world. So, we shall see. Before bedtime, Jay gave a 
blessing to Sam because he was having two teeth pulled on Monday. He 
also gave a blessing to Shayna to be able to handle all of the stress 
she has been feeling as she gets ready to graduate.

Don't be surprised if you get an invitation to her Senior show. She 
had to create her own invitations as part of her grade, and then she had 
to send out as many as possible for part of the grade also. So, part of 
today (Monday), she has been working on addressing envelopes. So, one 
will probably be sent to you as well as a separate one to Anna even 
though you live at the same address. She knows you cannot attend, but 
she still needed to send them for her grade. We will be going even 
though we will be going at the very end to help her pack up the show. 
We will also be packing up ALL of her stuff. I think I will ask Beck if 
she will drive up with Matt for the graduation, and then take back the 
twins and pack some of Shayna's stuff in her trunk as we try to get the 
rest of it in our van. I can't believe how much stuff she has 
accumulated over the last year, and that is not including all of her 
boxes and stuff in our garage. It takes up about a third of our 
garage. Granted, it is an accumulation of her entire life, but I am 
grateful that she has gone through it several times and downsized a bit 
each time. Most of it is her art stuff. She is way more prolific than I 
ever was.

Matt may start working at the Library soon, not paid, they don't 
have the funding for that, but as a volunteer. Mr. Mericle says they 
keep him hopping. Matt has an art class at the college twice a week, 
KFC once a week, the Dinosaur museum twice a week, plus school at the 
high school. He is staying really busy, and he is doing so well. He 
really is a different person living at Beck's. It is good for me, it is 
good for Matt and I think it is even good for Beck. He keeps her busy, 
too. Gives her a reason to get up out of bed in the morning, if you 
know what I mean. It is also good for the twins as they don't fight 
with Matt so much.

Well, I've gotta go and bake cookies before Shayna leaves tomorrow 
so she can take some with her back to OPSU. I love ya mightily. Take 
care of yourself. I think of you quite often, keep your name on the 
temple prayer roll, and pray for you to boot! Ya just gotta be doin' 
well. All my love to ya, your 4th, Lisa