April 2018

--The beginning of April began with Easter Sunday on April 1st. We were all so surprised at the changes that came the night before at the Priesthood session of General Conference when our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson announced a significant restructure of the Melchizedek Priesthood quorums. The high priests and the elders quorums will now be combined into one elders quorum. As a former Relief Society president, I thought it was interesting that I had stewardship and visiting teaching routes over 80 women, but the men (EQ and HP) each only had about half that. Because of Jared's calling in the bishopric before we left Oregon, he had been ordained to the office of High Priest. At the time he said, "Well, I guess I won't ever teach in Elders Quorum again." Never say never, my friend! The joke's on Jared. :) I told him that with his new job only M-F and 8-5, that I was certain the Lord would use him in this new organization somehow.

We were floored further in conference when on Sunday afternoon, the Prophet said that we were now going to retire home teaching and visiting teaching as we know them and implement a newer, holier approach to caring for and ministering to others. Simply known as ministering. Wooo! Some really big, awesome changes! My last day as a Relief Society president (5/14/17) before I had to go to my new ward due to the boundary realignment, I shared my testimony of visiting teaching with the sisters:

Maybe I'll get struck by lightning for saying this, but sometimes I wish we could change the term visiting teaching. Yes, the ideal is to visit the sisters in their homes and share a spiritual message together. But we all know, the ideal is often times the exception than the rule because of the varied and individual circumstances of our sisters. And that's OKAY. If it were up to me, I would change the name to "monthly ministering."

Visiting teaching isn't so much about the visiting or the teaching as it is MINISTERING--which means to "attend to the needs of and take care of. To watch over and strengthen one another."

From now on, will you look at Visiting Teaching as monthly ministering? Instead of thinking, Ugh, I have to do my visiting teaching, I hope you will approach it instead as--what can I do to minister or watch over and strengthen my sisters this month? And in the process of making these sisters a priority in your life, you will become and help others become true followers of Jesus Christ.

Many people want to feel like they are making a difference and contributing to their community or society. To that, Sisters, I would say, "Lift where you stand." You needn't look any farther than your visiting teaching route to make a difference. I hope and pray you will be "moved to treat one another as more important than yourself." (Pres. Uchtdorf)

It's nice to know I was on the right track when, as a final message to them, I encouraged my sisters to catch the vision of ministering to those they are assigned to.

--This was our first Easter without Easter baskets and no one said anything. I was grateful for the added focus on the Savior that weekend.

--JJ offering to be our waiter for any needs we might have while we were in the upstairs game room.

--Karole came out to visit us before Conference for the week for a little getaway before she moves out to College Station for good! Calvin serving as a footstool for someone's heavy stinky feet. Jake's I think.  :)

--The kids had April 2nd off (as part of Easter weekend). The big boys went and got hair cuts and saw "Pacific Rim." I went and got a pedicure with Karole and then we and Jared went to see the movie "I Can Only Imagine." Incredible story!

--Speaking of INCREDIBLE--look at this beautiful piece of artwork, oozing with love and friendship. It was painted by my talented friend, Natassia Scoresby. I have never seen such a magnificent picture of the San Diego Temple where Jared and I were married. The sunset is just gorgeous. I couldn't wait for us to change the living room configuration so we could hang this up on the wall above the TV.

--On the 4th, Jake had a district track meet in Bryan, during the day, so I went to go see him. There was a slight chill in the air, but the sun was out and that felt good. This kid is so impressive. He just up and decides after talking to his cousins that he wants to give pole vaulting a try his senior year! I guess runners make good pole vaulters! I don't know how high the bar is here, but I love seeing his form from frame to frame.  It's a lot more impressive when you click from picture to picture on the computer and can actually "see" him move. :) He PR'd that day at 11ft. And...as it turns out, I also torched my forehead while at the meet. *sigh* Perhaps I will learn one of these days.

--Friday, April 6th, I took the plunge and fulfilled my first job as a substitute teacher! In anatomy and physiology of all places! I was a little scared, but these cute guys promised to have my back and gave me hugs when they saw me in the hall. Jake said hi and chatted with me as long as he could between classes but later admitted with a chuckle that it was a little strange having me there and Cooper was happy to tell anyone that I was his mom. I actually expected those reactions in reverse. It was a fun day though. I also learned that, despite my reservations about teaching at the high schools, this is where it's at. If you don't like the kids, you get a new batch every 50 minutes. You get lunch AND a conference period. You don't have to tie shoes, deal with tattling, walk them to art or PE, or do recess duty. I have seen the error of my ways and I am definitely going to work more at the high schools. (Notice my toasted forehead from two days earlier!)

Calvin on deck getting ready to bat. His yellow shoes make it easier to spot him!

 Got a hit! But got out a first. :(

--Our friend, Tim Smart and his sons, Colby and Jacob, love baseball. When Calvin expressed an interest in baseball, Jared reached out to Tim to see if he wouldn't mind working with Calvin a little bit. Tim was more than happy to share his expertise and referee/umpire tips and spent several afternoons in our neighborhood to help get Calvin ready for his tryouts. As luck would have it, there were several storms before and during the days of tryouts so the city ditched that idea and did a draft instead. We were still very grateful for Tim's willingness to help Calvin and this is the thank you letter Calvin wrote. 

--On Sun. the 8th, we attended church with the Caldwell Branch as part of my duties in the Stake Relief Society. As we pulled up to the small building, I heard one of the little kids as, "Where's the church?" When we introduced ourselves, the YW's president explained to Karcyn that I went and visited her daughter in the hospital when she was really sick (when our family was in Temple for the day) and they both really appreciated the visit. Karcyn replied, "Yeah--that sounds like my mom. She's always serving everyone." (Awww...so sweet of her to say that!)

--The new fridge, whose lifetime will hopefully be beyond two years after purchase. It's going to take me a little time to get used to a side by side again (and not the fridge on top, freezer on the bottom).

The only reason I was able to do a side by side is because we have this second fridge in the garage and it has wide shelves with a place for me to put platters or cookie sheets. My plan is to have all of Karcyn's GF foods in the freezer in the garage. And all of the foods/ingredients for dinners or planned recipes in the coming week, in this fridge. Out of sight, out of mind. There are also water bottles and gatorade and extra condiments in this fridge. Should work out splendidly!

--I don't know why I took this picture of a picture, but it was such a great memory from swimming with dolphins in Cozumel, Mexico back in January that I decided to include it. :)

--The second week in April was taking us into practices for the  End of Course and AP exams. On the 10th, Jared had jury duty. Annnnnd, he was selected. First time ever for that. He's willing to do his civic duty, but he wasn't a month into his new job and now he has to be absent for who knows how long. It was a set back he wasn't anticipating. We also got family pictures that night and I begged him to please smile and not be grumpy. :) After our family pictures, my friend Jamie, took graduation and mission pictures for Jake. We were up at the George Bush Library and I stole this picture when she was showing Jake some of the shots she got of him. :) He's wrapped up in his Hungarian Flag.

--On the 11th, Jared had Jury Duty, Karcyn got to go see "A Wrinkle in Time" at the movie theater with her school before having fun at Fieldhouse Sports and Cooper got braces. This is his before pic.

--Later that day, I heard a loud thud--like something fell or got slammed into the house. Like a big ball or something. I went and investigated outside, but didn't see anything. After school, the boys were trying to open up the garage from the outside and the door wouldn't work. THAT'S what fell! It came loose from it's spring coil up over the garage and thunked the 1/2 inch to the ground. But dang...one more broken thing to fix! Jake needs to hurry up and go on his mission, so Satan will stop trying to dissuade us. 

--On the 12th, Jared had jury duty again and I took my second ever sub job for Amber Neidig, in JJ's kindergarten class. JJ did great. This is his second year in kindergarten because of his speech (we put him in a year early as a mega young 5 to get more speech practice, then retained him to be where we really wanted him) and Amber loves him. He's a great student and a leader in every way, for which she's most grateful. I was a little worried about Kinder, but I know the teacher AND I've volunteered in that room weekly, so I know the kids and they're a cute bunch--a good group actually. But man, it's hard when they all want to talk to you at the same time. I got a little behind in the morning while we got used to each other and I laid down the law. But we did the core things Amber wanted. After lunch though was NUTS. Kids were saying they were going to throw up, a couple were crying, I lost one in the bathroom! Haha! But we survived. Man!! I totally forgot how DRAINING teaching is and I'm not even the regular teacher. Woo doggie. And later that day, the jury actually deliberated from 3-8pm and it was a mistrial.

--On Friday, the 13th, Calvin got sick during the night, twice. I was supposed to sub that day in art at the high school (I was trying to cram in as many jobs as I could because I was supposed to do at least 5 jobs before the end of school--which I didn't know about when I got trained the beginning of March.) I had to call in and cancel that job at the last minute and felt AWFUL about it.

--Cooper is posing in this picture because of his awesome "parking job" with the suburban. I'll give him credit. Parking a big vehicle is not easy. He's mostly on the left side. :)

--On Saturday, 14th, I bummed a ride with Natassia and her family to Brenham so we could do the Blue Bell Fun Run 5K. Her kids were doing the kid run. Jared was going to meet me there at the finish line. It was FREEZING. So dang cold. And that course was tough with steep hills. I didn't stop once, but Natassia pulled far ahead of me. Good for her, too! She's much stronger than me. Fortunately, you come down a hill to the finish line and then eat your choice of ice cream. Which I'm not totally fond of. But after running a 5K (in 35:12--not bad for my first hilly 5K in a while) I was going to get my ice cream. I got a medal too. I didn't hear anyone shouting my name or cheering me on. I tried to look for Natassia (who was my ride if I couldn't find Jared). I didn't have my phone, so I was stuck trying to sift through all those people to find someone I knew. As I was working on my second small cup of gatorade, it started hailing!! I finally saw the Scoresbys with Jared and Calvin facing the finish line. I walked up next to Jared and said, "Hey." He turned and said, "Hey." And then, "Heeeyy!!! We were watching for you and didn't see you. We were starting to get worried." Turns out I was only 2 minutes behind Natassia. I guess I was faster than they thought. :)

--This is the picture of the display where The Greatest Showman DVDs were--a day or two after being released. CLEANED OUT. No surprise there!

--Tis the month for more end of school year testing, getting sports physicals, field trips and baseball.

--On Wed. the 18th, I subbed a second time for Amber Neidig in JJ's Kindergarten class. It actually went pretty good. The first round of literacy stations kind of failed (not sure why) but they redeemed themselves after CAMP (Computer Art Music PE). There were lots of good things--I got into my groove a little better that day and several kids improved from the week before. JJ and another boy, however did not. I wrote in both their folders (indicating to their parents of the inappropriate behaviors after repeated warnings.) Amber was shocked I had to write in JJ's folder. She wondered if he thought his mom wouldn't do that. I told her I didn't know what he was thinking, but at least I can't be accused of nepotism! I also feel bad about writing up the other kid, because I feel like he wouldn't do that for Mrs. Neidig. She told me not to worry about it at all because he WAS totally testing me.

--Friday, April 20th, Jake and Coop left right from school to the church to go to Youth Conference. The theme is: "Peace in Christ" like the mutual theme provided by The Church for 2018. Jake was a member of the Stake Youth Committee and played a big part in planning this event. In fact, he and Cooper left early for the conference with Sister Peterman (a counselor in the Stake YW) and her son because Jake needed to help set up. They got back late Saturday night and had a good time! There were a couple of small mishaps...like they got lost trying to get there (up around Dallas) because of traffic and construction. But that wasn't anyone's fault. Jake also left his shorts and wallet there because he was so busy trying to help gather everyone else and everyone else's stuff. Fortunately, we were able to reach the owners of the property and they mailed his stuff back to him, free of charge. SO SO KIND!!! Jake is super lucky! 

--Saturday the 21st, former First Lady, Barbara Bush was laid to rest at the George Bush Library about 15 minutes up the road from our house. One of the streets leading to the library is now called Barbara Bush Drive. 

--Sunday, the 22nd, I spoke in my former ward (College Station 3rd) as a high council speaking companion. The topic was on Receiving the Savior's Power in the Temple--which I thought was most fitting considering that was THE VERY DAY that the Houston Temple was being rededicated after being damaged in Hurricane Harvey. I challenged everyone there to rededicate themselves to worshipping in the temple more or to prepare themselves to go or at the very least, go to the temple grounds. The spirit is so tangibly different just on the grounds. 

--The last week in April there were more field trips, more end of testing and AP test reviews. Jake's physics class got their AP E&M (electricity and magnetism) practice tests back. You want a 5 or 4 for college credit. Some colleges might even take 3. But not BYU. The teacher asked if anyone got a 5. No one raised their hands. A 4? No hands. A 3? Only one person. It was Jake. Needless to say, everyone needs to do some more studying. It was Jake's free response that carried him through. He gets the process but isn't quite proficient yet. 

--Jake had lifeguard orientation happening at the end of April and was notified by his track coach that he made Academic All Star Athlete (super high grades as a track athlete) and learned he is graduating Magna Cum Laude. 

--Jared was traveling to places like Columbus (near Brenham) for the ENT docs, there was also baseball. Loved the beautiful backdrop in these pictures of Calvin up to bat.

And he got on first base!

Making his way to third base!

--Calvin raced a recycled pinewood derby car. We applaud his resourcefulness considering we only got the car kit ONE WEEK before the race. He came in dead last every time (this is my LEAST favorite cub scout activity), but what evs. 

--JJ had purchased a dinosaur book with a model of T-Rex skeleton. The bones were pretty tiny and of course, not super stable. But he knew exactly who to go to for some extra help. JJ loves his big brother Jake so much.

--I subbed two more times before the end of April--a half day in a freshman biology class (they were crazy) and all day in an honors geography class (much better behaved!). Jared and I also went out to 40 Tempura for dinner--which is where I had wanted to go on my 40th birthday, but Jared had other plans in place when his parents were in town. We went to Maddens instead (which was much classier--and more expensive, but delicious!)

--As soon as I heard the Houston Temple was going to be rededicated on 4/22/18, I told Jared THAT was what I wanted for my birthday--to go to the temple! I have missed it SOOOOO much. And we had been going there every month. I definitely felt a hole where those special feelings and protection and elevation used to be. What a joy to be there again after being without it for eight long months.

--On the 29th, Calvin was reading a scripture in the Book of Mormon. Instead of valiantly, he said "violently" and instead of toiled he said "toileted." Haha!!

--A child, who shall remain nameless, was stomping up the stairs in anger and threw his elbow into the wall. I don't think he expected to leave a hole there. To his credit, he was very sorry and did what he could to patch it up.