February 2024

 Thurs. 1st--Haha! Yep!

Sat. 3rd--There were no bowling leagues in Lubbock due to a City League, so we got the day off, which was a welcome break from all that driving. It was also very timely because JJ was invited to the Early's 60th wedding anniversary celebration. JJ calculated how many years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds are in 60 years and framed it as a gift for them. JJ was looking very dapper and I'm so happy he has this special memory of our sweet neighbors, Wanda and Bill Early.

JJ told Bill that he's like JJ's adopted Snyder Grandpa.

Sun. 4th--A sleeping Thomas in St. George.

Mon. 5th--

*A 6:13am photo of Rolo with an empty bladder and full belly, hanging out with Jared til 6:30.

*It was Jared's day off and I was able to sneak home for a quick lunch. It had been an overwhelming day already. But when I got back to school, there was a message waiting for me. This is what it said: 

Good afternoon, Mrs. Hough. Last week we received your very sweet letter about Bella. I just wanted to reach out and say thank you! Transitioning from the primary to the intermediate was a rough adjustment for Bella. Work just being a little harder and the school days just feel a little longer to her. Since you have stepped in as her science/social studies teacher, she has seemed back to my sweet, bubbly, less stressed version of herself. She continuously talks about how much fun she has in your class and how much she enjoys having you as her teacher. You totally won her over with the whole four corners game. Anyhow, as a little thank you for being such an amazingly sweet teacher, Bella really wanted to do something nice for you. So she put together a bucket of goodies just for you. She, however, did forget that bucket this morning, so I dropped it off at the front office for you. I just wanted you to know it's from Bella.

Wow! Totally made my day!! I responded to her mom: 

Oh my goodness! You just made my day! It got off to a difficult beginning for several reasons and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, but you and Bella totally turned it around for me. My eyes burned with grateful tears, too. 🥲 All I want to do is make a difference to as many students as I can—and if I teach them something, that’s icing on the cake! Thank you for sharing Bella’s story with me. She’s a gem! I never would have known it’s been hard for her. She just brought me my gift bucket. With all my favorites!!! 😍 And let me tell you—it will always be my “Bella Bucket.” Thank you, SO SO much. I felt Heavenly Father’s love for me today—through you and Bella—when I needed it most!

Interestingly enough, a few weeks later, I about fell off my bed when I saw Bella's mom's name listed in our Snyder Branch directory. I reached out to tell her the connection. She great up a member her whole life, but some missionaries got really pushy at some point and she decided to go to church somewhere else. I told her I respected that and we celebrate our love for the Savior together.

*I love this thought.

Wed. 7th--I had an idea for Jared for Father's Day. But I didn't want to wait until the middle of June to give it to him when it was hot outside. I asked the kids what they thought and they agreed I should get it and give it to him for an early Valentine's Day gift. We really feel Jared should do agility training with Rolo, so I got them a starter kit. Jared and Rolo make a good team. Jared gives him commands and Rolo follows.

These are the pictures of Jared opening up his gift.

I love how Rolo must have sensed that this gift involved him, too, because he came over and was very interested.

Rolo sitting patiently.

Watching.

Rolo *never* sits and waits like this. It was pretty ironic.

Thurs. 8th--

Fri. 9th--No school for Snyder today. Yay! Calvin had a tennis tournament in Brownwood and needed a 4:45am drop off. So after taking him to the courts, I kept driving down the road and around the corner and spent from 4:45 to 7:15am working in my classroom. I would have worked longer, but Jared and I had an appointment at the Lubbock Temple at 10am. 

Sat. 10th--I'm so happy for Jared. He was actually able to go fishing today on his day off! The boys and I were in Lubbock for bowling leagues.

*I wish everyone could live by the truth of this statement.

*The butt in the air when sleeping on your tummy. It's adorable!

*A couple noteworthy quotes.

1) The longer the tea bag sits in the cup, the stronger the tea. The longer you sit in God's word, the stronger your faith.

2) A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.

Sun. 11th--Visiting with the missionaries who often come over on Sundays. Rolo looked so cute with his head on Calvin's leg with his paws crossed.

*This tornado picture was also taken by Jake last spring, but he had just shared it with me.

As well as this shout-out from extreme meteorologist and storm chaser, Reed Timmer! It was on Instagram. Jake took a screen shot so I could see. On 1/23/24, Jake had posted: "On May 24, our group shot south for Tucumcari (NM--during his two week storm chasing expedition) when a left split blocked the only route. We witnessed an unwarned tornado from 1/4 a mile away on that left split!" 

Reed follows Jake and noticed from the radar that it was actually a rare anticyclonic tornado and shared Jake's post. An anticyclonic tornado rotates clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. Suuuuuper cool!!!

*Exactly!

Wed. 14th--Happy Valentine's Day to my sweet kiddos!

I got some very sweet, beautiful, and yummy treats!

*I could watch a sleeping baby all day.

Thurs. 15th--In January, we received word that Jared's sister, Nicole, in Florence, AZ was really struggling financially. She couldn't make her mortgage payments and Karole was having to help. However, none of us are in a position to help her in the way she needs it, especially Karole, who is on a fixed income. So after having a family council and talking with Nicole, we felt the best course of action would be for her to sell her house. Like fast. But her house was not in any condition to have a realtor come look at it, let alone, take pictures and put it on the market. As we were brainstorming ways to help, I looked at Chris and said, "We could go help get the house purged and cleaned." We'd have to drive though and a weekend was probably all we could offer. As I looked at the calendar, I realized that Snyder had a four day weekend the middle of Feb. with Fri. 2/16 off and Mon. 2/19 off for President's Day. It was all we could do, but Chris and Jared and Kevin agreed that might be just the help she needs. 

We made plans as quickly as possible to secure a hotel and I decided to use one of my paid days off and got a sub to cover for me on Thurs. 2/15 to use as our 12 hour day of driving. That would give us three FULL days to do what we could and we'd drive home on Monday the 19th.

Chris was still working on classes through Pathway and had a deadline coming up, so I offered to drive. We talked the WHOLE way minus maybe an hour when she looked at some stuff for school. The 12 hours went by quickly. 

We decided to stop and get some gourmet cookies to take to Nicole and her family so we weren't seen as people coming and invading their home and space. We wanted them to know it was done with love. On the way, back in Snyder, JJ was having his FIRST belt test for Tae Kwon Do. Jared, fortunately, was able to be there. I was sad I couldn't be, BUT they live-streamed it, so I was able to see a little bit of his routine. He looked great. Solid form. Sharp moves.

I didn't want to listen to what the judges said, because that made me nervous. Plus, Chris and I had arrived at the cookie store. However,  I heard from another mom that he was given high praise. 

He passed!

Fri. 16th--I awoke to a very unexpected visitor. I started my period after SIXTEEN months of nothing.  Regardless of other symptoms, a woman is officially declared in menopause when the period stops for 365 consecutive days. I was well beyond that. And now I was feeling pretty indignant. Did that mean I had to start the clock all over again?! I told Jared about the development and he said I should probably get that checked out when I get back. He said he'd talk to Dr. Higgins, our new OB/GYN, in the meantime. 

*There were certain spots in Nicole's house that were not too bad. I came out for a weekend in December of 2017 to help clean and get a space ready for Karole when she went to live with them for a few months. That was quite the challenge. But thanks to Heavenly Father magnifying my efforts, I got a lot done in 30 hours. 

Nicole's kitchen and front room were definitely cleaner than they were 6 years previously. I'm sure it's because the kids are older and can do more to help around the house. Nicole has back and knee issues, so she can't go up or down the stairs or do very much physically.

Garage.

Half bathroom downstairs.

Dining area.

Living room.

Nicole's bedroom.

Master bathroom.

Upstairs.

We got a dumpster and started chucking stuff in there from the garage. We started around 9am. This picture was taken at 12:40 after getting the garage cleaned out.

Much better! Now we have space to put things in for a garage sale and to move out from the main house as needed. 

Making a run to Goodwill with a car full of goods to donate.

Next step: cleaning and organizing Nicole's space. It was her son's birthday so she was out with her kids celebrating. Which was just fine. We could work without feeling like we were invading. I took these pictures at 1pm.

These pictures were taken at 5:30pm.

*My parents were kind enough to drive an hour (or more with traffic) from their mission area to Florence to take me and Chris out to dinner. It was SO great to see them!!

My delicious gyro!

Sat. 17th--We were grateful to have made contact with the leaders of Nicole's ward who then organized a group of brethren and young men who brought over some mowers/trimmers to work on her backyard as well as haul out the heavy pieces of junk. Something we couldn't do for ourselves. They were awesome! I wish I had taken an "after" picture. It looked like a completely different yard.

Chris and I decided to tackle Nicole's closet and master bathroom, by sorting and organizing clothes...putting items on hangers, or folding and putting on shelves, putting all the shoes and bags in one spot, etc. These pictures were taken at 10:15am. 

After that, I went and tackled the refrigerator and freezer...tossing out garbage and expired food items. 

These pictures were taken at 3pm. 

I cleaned out and organized the closet under the stairs.

Near the end of the day, I went upstairs to mop up all the cat urine on the hard floors. 

Sun. 18th--Time to clean the kids' bathroom upstairs. Chris and I worked on this together. 

This only took us an hour working on it together.

With kid birthdays and celebrations out of the way, Nicole was able to join us by going through all her clothes items and shoes. We needed to know what to keep, what to donate, and what to try and sell. Picture taken at 1:40pm.

Proof of life! While Chris and Nicole worked on clothes, I worked on the master bathroom.

Progress! Pictures taken at 5:20pm.

The garage was starting to get filled again, but hopefully with items that Nicole could sell. If not, they are already in her garage and would be easier to toss in a car or dumpster.

This was our SECOND dumpster. 

It was finally time to say goodbye. Our job was (mostly) done. We didn't do much in the kitchen and didn't touch the kids' rooms. Nicole still had a lot of tough decisions to make about when and for how much to sell the house and needed to secure reasonable housing options for after that. Obviously, we couldn't make those choices for her, but we got her off to a good start with prepping the house and yard. Heavy burdens that are now off of her plate to make her more mentally and physically available to face those other decisions. 

The sisters HOUGH.

Mon. 19th--On the road again.

*Earlier this month, Karcyn and I had gone to Klip 'n K9s, one of the local dog groomers/boarders. I had recently learned that Karcyn has a "practicum" class for a couple hours a few times a week. She was telling me about something that happened during this class one day and after a few follow-up questions, I learned that it's just her and a couple other students in this class because everyone else is off campus trying to get "practical" work experience. What? Why weren't we informed about this? I had no idea. Maybe Karcyn did and she just didn't say anything because she didn't think she'd have any opportunities. But I took matters into my own hands. I told her if she really loves animals, we should go see if the dog groomer would support an internship. So we did. The owner, Ashley Rios, wasn't there, but I was given her cell number and reached out to her to introduce myself and what Karcyn was hoping to do. She said that yes, an internship was possible and said she'd check her schedule to see when we could meet up. 

I actually didn't hear back from Ashley until Fri. 2/16. She apologized as they had been really busy this month and asked if we could meet on Monday, since there wasn't any school. I told her that my husband could bring Karcyn since I was out of town and so that's what they did.

I guess Ashley, in her late twenties, early thirties, is a go-getter. She owns two businesses--the grooming salon and Barbell Fitness. She met Karcyn and they got it arranged for the days when Karcyn could come to the salon. As it turns out, the Klip 'n K9s is just at the end of the road that Ts right at the high school cafeteria, so Karcyn could walk there and back--which is a great blessing for us adults. 

I guess Ashley also offered Karcyn a part-time job working there after school for a couple hours. Cool! We're really excited for this internship and job opportunity. Hopefully it would help her confidence grow. I know Karcyn was feeling pretty deflated when she quit Dominos after just 6 weeks. But to her credit, Cooper quit not long after that because of the drama and agreed, even after working in the food industry already, that it was super fast-paced. Besides, being around animals is Karcyn's dream job. 

Tues. 20th--I just love that I have a student in my homeroom class who gives me an apple almost every day. It's so sweet and has made me feel at home.

Wed. 21st--Thomas getting an early start with reading!

Thurs. 22nd--I was able to meet with Dr. Higgins during my first class and conference period so I missed as little school as possible. Grateful to have some coverage so I could go without using time off. Post-menopausal (break through) bleeding is concerning. It means something isn't right. The first thing Dr. Higgins wanted to do was order a vaginal ultrasound. So I went in right after my visit to get that done. They found a cyst on my right ovary, therefore, Dr. Higgins was requesting some ovarian bloodwork for the next morning. They didn't say what the bloodwork was for, so I asked. "Ovarian cancer screening" was the answer I received.

Whoa. That was a blow. All of a sudden my world shifted with a jolt. Of course I cried (when I was alone) wondering what the immediate future held for me. And then I mustered all the bravery and courage I could.  

Fri. 23rd--Going to the hospital for bloodwork first thing that morning looked and felt very different. Suddenly I felt deeply for all those who go to the hospital because they are truly sick. Really need medical attention. Not just for physicals or routine checks. I felt very vulnerable. And was relieved when I was able to return to my car and go back to school.

*The timing of this is surreal.

*True!

*Calvin traveled to Levelland for a tournament. Snyder HS took 2nd place. Calvin took 10 place in mixed doubles. 

Sat. 24th--The boys were driven to Seminole, TX (about 2 hours west of Snyder) by cousin James for a Stake Activity: Nerf Wars! They had a blast!

Sun. 25th--Sunday picture after dinner...getting ready to wish Cooper well as he heads to Midland for his week of training with Enviroguard--the pest control company Jake works for (he does customer service and focuses on contract retention). Jake knew they were needing techs (who spray for pests) in the west Texas area and mentioned it to his bosses who told Jake to have Cooper call them. So Cooper did. The tech job seemed nice enough, but there was nothing in Snyder, so Cooper would have to move, but he doesn't have money. Which is why he needed a job. (It blew our minds that no one would hire him in Snyder...) He told Brody as much after hearing about the job description. Brody said, "Well, maybe you'd be interested in being a traveling tech." Cooper asked about that and said, "Yes. That's what I want to do." As a traveling tech (during the selling months of March through August), you go and do the initial spraying for customers who just signed new contracts. You start at 10am (which is great when you're still struggling with your sleeping patterns) and can work as late as 7 or 8pm. And you work 6 days a week...Monday through Saturday. It was $14 an hour, but he also gets $3 per house and overtime every week. The clincher is that the company pays for your housing and you drive a company truck, so he had the big ticket items already paid for. 

Cooper had a week of training in Midland from 8-5 Monday through Friday. We're a good 90 miles away from Midland and I couldn't stomach him driving that commute every day, twice a day. So I proposed we get him hotel or extended stay room for the week. We found one, last minute, with a kitchenette, for less than $60 a night. What a blessing!!

We are extremely proud of Cooper for taking his first big step to leave home and go out on his own--into the unknown. He's going to do great things!

*Exactly!

*Look every hour!

*This is important.

Wed. 28th--Just a man and his dog.

*We hosted a family history evening with PJs and hot cocoa for the Relief Society and young women. I wasn't in charge, but as the branch temple and family history consultant, I had to share a spiritual message. 

Karcyn and our friend, Denim, who isn't active, but tries to come to the activities. 

Chris and her girls working on seeing what they can find about their ancestors.

Patricia Hough, Abby Cowley, and Maren Christensen.

Denise Barrett, Leslie Christensen, Sulma, Janelle Haws

Karole Hough, Yvonne Jimenez.

Me and Ciara Harmon (Denim's mom). It seemed like the activity was a success! We were able to do things we hadn't done before to help us feel like we are contributing to the effort to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. 

Thurs. 29th--Well, this was fun to see at school on my shelf calendar!

*JJ kicking around at Tae Kwon Do. His friend, Avrum, from his school class (pictured far left in the green belt) and his dad (behind JJ) are working on their kicks, too. It's been fun for JJ to have a friend he knows in his class.