Best of Friends

We got to have our best friends come and stay with us the past few days.  It was for a sad reason but we were glad that they could stay with us.  The Marshall's used to live here in Logandale and we have been friends for almost 20 years.  They moved to Panguitch 8 years ago but when we get together it seems like they have never left.  Our kids are pretty close in age and get along very well.  They came down because Ed's dad passed away and they came for the funeral.  They stayed here Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  All totaled there were 11 boys and 3 girls here.  The girls were desperately outnumbered.  The funeral was Saturday and it was very nice.  Don sang with a group of 5 men a medley of patriotic songs because Lloyd was known for singing patriotic songs as he did his work on the tractor.  After the funeral we went to the cemetery with them and then came back to the church for the lunch.  Saturday night, Connor and the twins, Bryson and Branson, hung out at Grandpa Don's house and then came here and slept outside on cots and had a great time although it was really really windy.  They also "helped" cook breakfast by cooking the sausages outside in the garage.  Out of the 50 or so sausages that were in the packages only about 20 of them made it into breakfast.  Luckily we had some in the freezer.    They stayed through Sunday and went to church with us then we came back after Sacrament to have pork tacos and help them get packed up and out the door.  Poor sweet Brendan cried his little eyes out when they went to get him and tell him it was time to go home.  Kyle kept calling him little buddy or Braden.  He was so glad to have people to play with him on Friday when the boys were at school. We are so glad to have them as friends and glad they were able to come to stay.  

April Fool's Day

I am not one for too many pranks around here.  I think pranks are mean sometimes and hurt people's feelings.  My boys were quite mild in their April Fool's Day jokes.  I did go to Ward temple night that night -that wasn't a joke!

I wasn't smart enough to get my screen turned back around so my computer brained son had to fix it after he played his joke.  

Tender Mercies

This is the picture that my dad took of me and my sister Laurel up in Logan canyon in yellow dressed my mom made.  

I have a really sweet friend, Shelby Turner, who brought me flowers, Dr. Pepper and chocolate on  my dad's birthday.  That was a really hard day for me and this was such a sweet and kind gesture that it made me cry when she showed up with them.  That night I was reading in my scriptures like I always do and I started where I had left on in the New Testament.  I do not find it coincidental that I opened up to the very chapter about the resurrection of the Savior, John 20.  I read that chapter over and over again and felt the spirit so overwhelmingly strong testifying to me of the reality of the resurrection and that my father was alive and well.   At the end of the chapter Thomas comes to Jesus and says that he couldn't believe until he had seen Him.  I did not and do not feel this way.  I felt like the Savior was speaking to me when he said "blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed".  I have not seen the Savior, I did not witness His resurrection but I know it happened and I know that it will happen again for my father and for all of us.  I felt very strongly a few weeks later that I needed to bear my testimony about the resurrection.  It was one of those things that I really didn't want to do and I waited for a while until the spirit literally kicked me in the pants!  It was the day after we had been to the funeral for Lloyd Marshall so the Marshall's were all there with us in Sacrament meeting.  I felt like I needed to bear my testimony to them as well during that meeting because they had just buried their dad and grandpa the day before.  I have not seen but I believe.  

Albuquerque

Don was able to go Albuquerque in March to attend a wedding of a man that used to live here.  This man moved here last year and was very inactive.  He had not been to church since he was a teenager.  His name is Bryan.  He moved here with his son and they moved into a house next door to the bishop.  The missionaries helped convert his son and Cody and Don were able to go over a few times to their house when the missionaries were giving discussions.  The man came back to church and his son got baptized.  I don't remember if I posted about it or not but after the baptism we had treats over here at our house for the elders and the family and anyone else who wanted to come support this family.  It was a neat experience for our family to be a part of!  Don continues to try to be supportive of Bryan.  Bryan moved to Albuquerque in the fall last year and got married in March.  He married a woman who was recently baptized herself.  Bryan did not have much family able to attend his wedding so Don used some of his airline points to fly him, Dustin Nelson the Elder's Quorum President, the Bishop and his wife down to Albuquerque for the wedding.  They flew out Friday night and went to the wedding Saturday and then flew home.  Don went to breakfast Saturday morning with my sister Laurel and her family.  They had a few minutes to see a few sites in Albuquerque.  

Don and Dustin at the Albuquerque Temple

The guys were pretty excited about renting this car and they had to send us a picture!

Cayden's First Deacon Campout

Cayden went on his first campout as a Deacon on March 21.  Dad had to go out of town so Connor and Caleb went with him.  They had a great time and only went a little ways from Overton past Simplot.  Both Connor and Caleb helped Cayden with his shots which was a big relief for me!

Beacon Academy

Connor and Caleb are going to a different school now.  We pulled Caleb at the semester in January due to some behavior's that he was having trouble with.  We have struggled with that kid for way too long and we had had enough.  We had researched and checked into this other school during Christmas break and prayed about it for a few weeks.  We felt good about it but were worried about him not doing his work at this school and that we would not have any recourse or back up to help us.  After another incident happened that had nothing to actually do with school but was an incident that gave us the push to make the decision to pull him.  In all of these things I was remarkably calm and really felt the spirit helping me trying to help my child.  Don was out of town so of course I had to deal with it on my own but that is ok.  We enrolled him in Beacon Academy the week of semester exams.  He had to finish those exams to get credit for the semester and then I went and unenrolled him at the high school.  Beacon Academy is a virtual high school where they do everything online and via email but they also have a school building where the kids can go any time during the weekmformtutorung help. The week he started he had a 4 hour orientation that he had to attend and I had to come in to the school a few hours later for a parent orientation.  He had to learn about how the school worked and what was expected of him. They gave him a computer that he gets to keep through out the school year to do his work on. He was pretty excited about that.  Since his grades were so poor he is basically on academic probation indefinitely which means that we have to take him in once a week so they can help him stay caught up.  I  have my own observer account where I can see everything that he has done or supposed to be doing and what his grades are.  He is not overly thrilled that I have such access to it but that's what we have to do stay on top him and make sure that he is doing what he needs to do.  I have asked him to redo some of the work that really is not up to the standard that it should be for him.  He really really does not like that at all.  We just decided that based on his previous actions that we could not wait for him to not graduate high school as the natural consequence of his behavior. The only really hard thing has been the week that we had to take him and Connor in almost every day for Proficiency testing.  These tests have to be taken and passed in order for anyone in Nevada to graduate from high school.  We pulled Connor the second week of February after a really really bad incident at the school and were able to get him into Beacon.  We have to acknowledge the hand of The Lord in all of this.  If Caleb wouldn't have been doing so poorly in school and we hadn't made the decision to pull him from the high school and enroll him into Beacon we more than likely would not have been able to get Connor in because they had closed their enrollment for the semester.  I still had to plead with the principal and have a special meeting with the school to get him in but we were so grateful that we were able to get him in.  Caleb had to go in 3 days and Connor had to go in 4 days that week of proficiency testing.  That was kind of a pain but we did it.  They could only take the tests in Vegas at the school so we did what we had to do.  Connor has taken the tests 2 times already but has not passed them yet.  He has 4 more tries though after this one.  The school offered some testing boot camps that were held the weeks prior to the testing.  We took them in a few extra times for those in the hope that it would help them both do well.  Connor actually has enough credits to be designated as a senior but we needed him to be a junior so that he has as many chances as possible to take the proficiency tests.   We are very pleased with the school so far and the boys are not giving us too much trouble about it.  Connor gets a little antsy especially toward the end of the week but he usually sits down most mornings and gets busy so that he can be done by 11:30 or 12.  They are still in seminary too.  Caleb goes every other day at 7:15am and I pick him up when I take Cayden to school at 8:30. Connor goes on that same day just at 11:30.  Caleb is still involved in theater and so he has theater class at that same time Connor has seminary. It does mean multiple trips up and back from the high school but we do what we have to do.  I'm grateful to have the gift of they Holy Ghost in my life especially to help me with knowing what to do for our kids.  

Fieldtrips

Cayden's class has gotten to go on quite a few field trips this year.  In January they got to got to the Spring's Preserve and in  February they went to shark reef at the Mandalay Bay.  He wanted me to go with him both times. The first time I just met him there with Kyle and we spent the day with his class.  The second time I took Caleb in to his school and then went over to the field trip.  I had to take Kyle with me that day too but he enjoyed seeing the fish and the sharks.  Don brought Connor in to meet us at the diabetes doctor that day so it was a pretty crazy.