Busy, busy, always busy....

I was a little surprised to see that I haven't posted anything since July.

School started out really well, but we had to drop the trips to Tupelo for My Big Blue Planet classes. Too time consuming to spend 2 1/2 hours driving each trip. It was a hard decision, but school has been much more doable with a more flexible schedule.

In September, we went on a wonderful trip to Nauvoo. They've restored and improved so many things since Brent and I were there twelve years ago. We stayed in the Nauvoo Log Cabins and really LOVED it there. The highlight of the trip for everyone was the morning we went to the temple. We left the kids with a sister in the local ward and went through an endowment session. It was such a powerful thing to experience. I grew up hearing about the terrible trials the Saints in Nauvoo experienced, and always felt such sorrow about the destruction of the Temple. Being there in the rebuilt/rededicated Nauvoo temple to worship God in the same place our ancestors had worshipped in 1845-46 was more than a little overwhelming. After our session, we picked the kids up, ate lunch, dressed the kids up in nice clothes, and took them to the temple grounds. That was Jared's favorite part of the whole trip. He really felt the Spirit there and can't wait until he's old enough to enter the temple. If I get around to it, I'll post some pictures.

Jonathan has been working with a speech pathologist and has made some really good progress. He's more vocal, makes eye contact with people more readily, and will sit through a whole story book. He's still destruction on two feet (or roller blades, as the case may be), and nothing is safe from him. We put a bunch of "child-proof" plastic covers over several of the door knobs. When he couldn't get his hand around them to press the tabs that grip the knob and open the doors, he stuck his little index finger in the hole in front. The plastic thing made just enough pressure on his finger to give him a really good grip on the door knob. He can open them more quickly than we can. He's a wonderful little monster and I adore him. We have a lot of fun together, and one of the sounds I love most in the world is Jonathan's ready laugh.

Jared is doing okay in school. Just okay, because he has very little motivation to do his work. He seems to have inherited a degree of laziness from both of us. He'll work himself into a sweat over the things he likes doing, but NOTHING motivates him to do things he feels luke-warm about. Now I know what I put my parents and teachers through. He loves science, moves between loving and hating math, likes reading, avoids Greek and writing, gets grammar out of the way as fast as possible, and really enjoys our scripture study together. He takes a P.E. class at the YMCA on Tuesdays and Thursdays that he really enjoys. He's still obsessed with Legos and video games. He has a witty, sometimes sarcastic sense of humor. A few days ago Jonathan's favorite phonics show came on. One of the characters declared that he had the power to read. Jared said,

"Yeah, but all you do is change the stories and irritate the authors."

I laughed and gave him a thumbs up.

Brent is regulary the man of the hour at work. There's nothing he can't do, and a lot of people grab him for the tough problems. There are inner problems at work that irritate him, but hopefully those will be solved soon. They hired a new manager and a new supervisor this last year, and things have been "interesting" in a few ways. We'll see how it all works out. In the meantime, lots of prayer and regular scripture study always help to keep things in perspective. I love having Brent in Gospel Doctrine, too. His comments are always so humble, pertinent, real, and applicable. With him around who needs THREE wise men?

Rock just about earned an early trip to heaven last weekend. Yes, Brent was ready to kill him. For the last few months, Rock has been leaping onto the porch and crashing into our glass front door when he wants to come in, followed by the usual loud barking he's always done before now. We kept getting worried, knowing that one of these days he would break the glass. It finally happened on Saturday. He broke and shattered a five foot pane of glass out of the center of the door. He's lucky he didn't get seriously injured. He got a minor cut on his front right paw and decorated our bedroom carpet with festive red dots. It scared him to death. He was still shaking a day later. No fever and no loss of appetite. He's good as new now, but has a lot more respect for the front door. And he's really cuddly now, too. We had a hard time finding a glassier business open on Saturday, but someone came out and measured that afternoon. Brent covered the big gaping hole with cardboard. And wouldn't you know that Saturday was FREEZING!!!!!!!!!! The house felt like a meat locker. They couldn't get anyone out to fix it until Monday, so we just stayed in closed up rooms with space heaters and fires. I told Brent there was a positive side to all of this. We can either pay for the occassional damage our healthy, spry dog does to the house, or we could be paying a lot of vet bills for an unhealthy old dog. Rock will be ten in April! And he still runs and wrestles like a maniac. I love that old pupster. And I love my Brent for indulging my dog habit.

The Columbus Choral Society had it's debut concert in November. It was a big success, and after a break during December we're having auditions again on January 7th 2010. It was so good to be singing again. Our next program will likely be parts of several requiem masses pieced together. I love the idea, because I love so many of the requiems. I'm looking forward to seeing what Doug decides to do. In December, Doug conducted a Messiah sing-along. They've been doing it in Columbus for about ten years now, but haven't done much to build onto what they've done in the past. This was the second year I've sung in it, and the second year Doug has directed. They don't do the entire Messiah and stick to the simpler Christmas pieces. But I was very happy to see Doug introducing one of the more challenging pieces. After it was murdered, Doug invited people to learn it over the next year so we can include it in next year's performances. I hope he builds on like that every year, and I hope people actually take the initiative to learn the music. There's no reason a city of 25,000+ can't get a really good Messiah tradition going and sing the whole thing.

I think I'll stop typing now. I have presents to wrap.

Nerry Christmas to all, and to all a good night/morning!