March 2019

1st--This was payday. I had spent WEEKS planning and restructuring my ENTIRE budgeting system to follow more of the counsel in the self-reliance course on personal finances that I'm taking with a friend. I liked my old system. I've kept us financially in line our entire marriage. Admittedly, though, I've never "tracked" my expenditures more than mentally or at a glance. So, in the spirit of progress and change, I thought I'd give it a try. Well, my weeks of planning and preparing bombed. It didn't work, the numbers didn't match up and instead of spending 2 1/2 hours on "pay out" day like I normally do, I spent six straight hours on it. *sigh*

--JJ was one of two kids selected from his 1st grade class whose artwork was going to be showcased at the FIRST FRIDAY event in Bryan that night. It would be hanging in the RE/MAX office. In the 4 1/2 years we've lived here, we've never been to First Friday. So this would be as good a time as any!

4th--This began my first full week of subbing in one class...kindergarten. Ms. Eddy was getting married in Mexico. So I was covering for her the week before spring break and the Monday after spring break. I was up early to make sure I was ready. But more importantly, we had already arranged with Jake to do our "Come Follow Me" discussion together when he called at 6am. So Cooper had to be ready to walk out the door for seminary at 6am. And the little kids had to at least be up and dressed. Calvin was kind of mopey and sad, but he wouldn't tell me why, other than he didn't sleep well. So I let it go. It was hard to scrunch us all in the study with the web cam, but it was an amazing experience! We had a prayer with Jake and Beck Elder. The kids had great thoughts and we loved the responses and insights from our missionary and his companion.

--After the video call, Calvin looked like he wanted to tell me something. I gently asked him what was wrong. Did he have a nightmare? No. Maybe he had a "male" question. His chin quivered a little as he held back tears. I tried to give him a hug but he only pulled away from me. Clearly he didn't want to talk to me so I encouraged him to talk to Jared. And maybe he could sleep on the couch for a little bit before time to leave for school...which was about an hour.

--JJ and I left for Greens Prairie. Nothing too crazy happened in kinder that day. Except that it was FREEZING COLD. The high was 37 degrees--in March. And my classroom, which is the one closest to the outer wall of the pod, showed 69 degrees on the thermostat. I watched it fall to 66 degrees within minutes. I tried turning the heat up, but it wouldn't move. If you can't control the thermostat why is it even in there?? I went to the office and they said that the district has to fix it or look at it. Great.

There were 21 kids (only one was absent) in the class and they're cute and actually behaved pretty well.  A couple of them always had to be talking and saying something or tattling. I've definitely been in worse classes. Right as my lunch break was ending around 12:45, Jared texted me: "Going to get Calvin. Nurse called. Temp went from 97 to 100.2 in 25 minutes." Fortunately, Jared only had 3 patients that afternoon, so he was able to get away. He took Calvin to the urgent care to get tested for flu and strep. Flu was negative, strep was positive. I texted Jared to remind him that Calvin was super sad this morning and I tried to find out why but he wouldn't tell me. I felt really bad once I knew he was sick. Jared responded: "When the nurse called (Jared was at home eating lunch) she said Calvin was begging her not to call me or you because he knew we were both working today and didn't want to bother us. She thought it was very sweet how concerned he was for us." Which of course gave me mega mom guilt. I accepted this job months ago. Who knew the week before spring break, Calvin would get strep. Miraculously and gratefully, Jared was able to take the rest of the afternoon off.

--After not having a piano teacher since last May, I finally found one and hope for consistency and growth for Karcyn. Her first lesson was that evening at 6:30. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or her! Her lessons are 45 minutes long with 15 minutes playing theory games on the computer in her "lab" and 30 minutes in the actual lesson. Her teacher, Rebecca Utermark, is a member of the national piano guild and is a certified piano instructor. She has over 40 students, 4 or 5 pianos in her living room and has been teaching for many years. I was able to sit in on the first lesson. It went really well. I'm most grateful, too, that because Karcyn is also involved with the viola at school, that Mrs. Utermark is willing to teach Karcyn every other week. That helps us schedule wise and financially, but even still, Rebecca's lessons were only $10 more than friends from church were charging us.

When we left the lesson, we were blasted by the cold darkness. We jogged back to the burb and hopped in. I was about a mile and a half down the road when I got the sensation that something wasn't right. Then I realized that my driver's side mirror had been hit and smashed while I was in the lesson! The back part was completely missing, exposing all the wires and the glass was cracked and bent at a weird angle. ARGH!!!! I was unhappily surprised at this discovery, yet super grateful that this was the only damage done in the hit and run.

5th--My second day of subbing that week. It was slightly less cold. In the upper 40s, low 50s for the high. Karole was kind enough to come stay with Calvin for the day. Honestly, strep is my favorite kid illness. It stinks for the first day or two, but after two doses of meds, you're not contagious anymore and you usually have a pretty quick turn around. Even still, we were grateful for Karole helping out. At 8:50am, Jared texted me saying he was going to go check Cooper out of school (for a sore throat and chills). Jared didn't bother getting him tested for strep. He just called in the meds. So Jared met Cooper at school, signed him out, drove Cooper to his car and then drove back to work. Cooper then drove to the pharmacy, got his meds, then drove home and joined the sick party with Calvin and Karole nearby.

--When we called insurance about my poor suburban, we were reminded that we have a $1,000 deductible on collision. We did have the option of filing a police report since it was a hit and run, which would take the cost to $250 (in the form of a reimbursement to us once all the papers were submitted). However, Jared talked to our friends at Car Doc (the only business in town that knows us on a first/last name basis) and they said they could fix it for about $300, so that's the route we decided to go.

6th--I was a little worried about subbing this day because I wasn't sure about the sub plans and what to do. Some things were a bit ambiguous. And kindergarteners especially can smell fear. ;) On top of the fact that you don't really have down time options, like having them read or do their homework. You gotta keep them moving. I prayed that morning for help and guidance and quick thinking. There was an awesome senior methods student from A&M, Ms. Crawford, who has been in the class twice a week since January and I was able to bounce ideas off of her. The day went really well and I appreciated her company. At lunch she told me I was a great teacher, which was very sweet of her to say since she is definitely more well versed in the current teaching practices than I am.

7th--The car mirror came in and it wasn't quite so simple. Turns out the top half of our side mirrors are painted the color of the car (which I never noticed) and the only one they had was a shade lighter, which Jared said made the car look super ghetto. So we'd have to take the mirror to the auto body shop so they could paint it and then take it back to be installed. Oh well. That was really only $97 more than we thought we'd have to pay.

--My fourth day of subbing and it was finally starting to warm up outside. Ms. Crawford was there again, which was nice. I made the executive decision to skip math to do science and we went to recess for a little bit after lunch with a couple other classes because there was a 2nd grade music program at the end of the day when they normally go to recess. We also had a painting activity to do in Social Studies about Texas bluebonnets. Ms. Crawford and I divided and conquered with that and it still left us breathless at the end. I tried evaluating what we could have done differently, but Ms. Crawford was certain there wasn't any other way. It's just crazy. The musical was super cute! They have a new music teacher because Mrs. Lewis moved over to the middle school and is now Karcyn's choir teacher. Mr. Suel is incredibly cool and loves his job. I'm sure the kids just eat him up.

--Cooper had an appointment to visit with the manager at the cancer center about his Eagle Project (crocheting beanies for cancer patients). He might get his Eagle after all. Never mind the fact he could have done it about 18 months ago.

8th--JJ woke up around 5am to tell us his tummy hurt. Nooooo. This happened to us a couple weeks ago. We kept him home, just in case, even though we suspected it might be because he was either hungry or because of snotty drainage. But after witnessing a kindergartener from another class puke in the hall a few days before, I was afraid to chance it. And didn't want to dump that on Karole. I didn't want to cancel last minute at the school either. But mommyhood called. I did what I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that week and emailed the school at 6:30am to tell them they would need a sub for the sub. Calvin got up shortly after that with a bad headache, so I just kept him home, too. Honestly, as much as I hated not to be in kindergarten for consistency, I had a lot to do to get ready for our weekend that I couldn't tend to because I was working. We were spending the night in Ft. Worth because Cooper's bowling tournament was Saturday morning. I wasn't too surprised that by 10am, the boys were both feeling fine and I wanted to toss them out the window.

--We borrowed Karole's van to travel up to Ft. Worth (and she came, too!) since the suburban mirror was still smashed and unreliable. We did our Come Follow Me discussion in the car and had sack dinners so we could just drive and watched "The Little Mermaid" which JJ had never seen!

--We found out JJ got a part in the 1st grade music program--only two kids from his class were given speaking parts. :)

--We arrived at the hotel around 8:45 which wasn't bad considering a) we didn't leave until 5:30, b) evening traffic and c) that it was the first day of Spring Break. Jared got us checked in and learned that the hotel was sold out...because of the bowling tournament and another engineering competition in the area. Phew--glad we got our reservations when we did. We were assigned to rooms 118 and 120. When we opened the door to room 120 to step inside, we thought we had walked in on someone. There were used towels on the bathroom floor and the beds had been slept in.

The lack of bags and personal belongings helped us realize the room hadn't been cleaned. So, back to 118 we all went and I took it upon myself to go talk to the guy at the front desk. He was mortified to learn the room hadn't been clean. And then he was really apologetic because he said housekeeping had already left for the night--and that they were all sold out. Well, this was about to get interesting. So I left him to solve that problem. We had the kids change into their bathing suits, one at a time and I went and took pictures of room 120. After about 15 minutes, I went back to see what the status was. The man said he was still (frantically) trying to figure some things out. Then he asked me, "How dirty is it?" Excuse me? I was so shocked by his question that it took me a moment to respond. "Uh, dirty enough. Would you like to go see it?" "Yes, I would." I said, "I would not step foot in that room. Someone else has been there, the beds have not been made. Gross." He nodded in agreement and then got on the computer and started looking at things on his screen. After a minute or so, he said, "I can put you in room 212." I thought they were all sold out..., but said, "That would be great." Then he said he was so sorry and that he'd make a note about a discount for us to compensate for the mess up and told me to talk to the lady about it in the morning. I got the room keys and went back to 118 and we lugged more than half our stuff up to 212. While getting the keys out, I noticed the handicap symbol on the room number plaque. When we opened the door, we gasped. It was huge!! To obviously make room for the wheelchairs. (Does anyone else find it peculiar that the handicap room is on the second floor??) It was so big our kids could play tag in it. :) Up to that point, we had given Cooper a choice...he could sleep with Calvin or JJ. (The two little kids were as thrilled about bunking with Cooper as he was with them). But once we got to room 212, we decided to just have all the boys with us and let Karcyn and Karole have the room downstairs to themselves. Seems fair! So Calvin and JJ took one of the beds, Jared and I took the other, and Cooper had the hide-a-bed couch. After we finished moving our stuff from one room to another, we took the kids to the indoor pool/hot tub and on our way back to our rooms, we grabbed some cookies fresh from the oven. I don't know what Karcyn and Karole did, but we watched episodes of "Untold Stories of the ER." The kids really like those.

9th--When we went to check out of the hotel, we spoke to the lady working the desk. She happened to be on the phone with the hotel manager in fact. But suffice it to say, after we explained the situation three times to the lady while she repeated it into the phone receiver, we didn't get a discount. So...we won't be staying there any time soon. (Karole even told us that around 11:30, there were some people who checked in late and they were given room 120--and it was still just like it had been when we found it. From the sounds of it, the cleaning crew had to come back and take care of it. I guess we really did get the last room.)

--The bowling alley was only about five minutes from the hotel, which was awesome. Cooper needed to be there 45 minutes before, so we got there around 10:30. This kid was carrying his three bowling balls, two in one bag with small handles (super heavy), one was in a knapsack hanging by strings off his shoulders and he was carrying a big box with his bowling shoes inside. Even with my help, it had to be difficult besides being precarious. All the other players had these nice rolling bags to keep their bowling stuff in. I only saw one other person (out of hundreds) who had a bag that they carried like Cooper's. Once Cooper got checked in (and we paid that lady the $40 cashier check that never made it to her by mail!) I took him to the pro shop. We looked at bags. They were expensive, of course, but Cooper said they were cheaper in Ft. Worth (by half the price) than in College Station, which I didn't doubt. It was definitely an investment and unlike other sports you can grow out of with age, if for no other reason, bowling is a sport he will play for a long time. So I was okay with spending a little bit of money for a nice rolling bag that he could put three bowling balls in and his shoes and a few extra things.

--I had Jared wait with the kids and Karole in the car until 11:30 because we wouldn't be able to get a seat until the other games were finished and people cleared out anyway. They had bleachers set up behind every 2 or 3 lanes. I wish we had known that so we could have brought our bleacher seats. I was fortunate enough to grab a chair for Karole on the ground level and five spots for the rest of us behind Cooper's two lanes.

Cooper only flashed a full smile because I asked him to and when he wouldn't I guilted him into it by reminding him who just spent her substitute money on his new bowling bag.

After the national anthem and announcements, they got started around noon. Each player had to bowl six games. Cooper didn't do so hot (for him) on the first four games. The lanes are more narrow so he had to work at adjusting to that. Cooper is also a very aggressive bowler--meaning it's basically all or nothing with his hooks. He's not bowling straight where chances are he's going to get some pins down. But games 5 and 6 were much better. The other kids he was bowling with were all really good--all with their own styles. Cooper was the only two-handed bowler. But all the other bowlers on his lane have had years of bowling experience. At least two years experience, not including participating in bowling as a sport with their school. A couple of the parents asked about Cooper and they were shocked when they found out he had only been on a youth league since the fall. We were really proud of him. His hooks kill me though. My heart stops every.single.time.

--The games took about 2 hours and then we went to Chipotle for a late lunch/early dinner before getting on the road to go home.

--Later that night we did "Kid of the Week." Since the beginning of the school year, we decided we were going to recognize the child who really stood out in the way they obeyed and treated their siblings and we would treat them to their own personal pint of ice cream. It didn't just have to be one kid though. A few times it has been all four of them. But the past several months, Karcyn has been dominating as kid of the week that I seriously considered buying her the sugar-free ice cream!! You'd think her brothers would follow suit. Once or twice, she and a brother or Luke won. Recently, I had the thought that something needed to change. And that's when I proposed to Jared that we should have THEM vote for a kid of the week and it can't be themselves. They can't conspire with anyone either (like "you vote for me, I'll vote for you") or they're eliminated. But the clincher is that they have to write a specific reason WHY they want that sibling to be kid of the week to force them to look for and notice the good in each other. Jared really liked that idea and we started that weekend.

I was touched by their votes (which were anonymous but I knew who the voters were):
Jared: Karcyn for her overall helpful and cheerful attitude
JJ: Karcyn becues hse hlped me bucle (buckle in the car on our way to Ft. Worth--it was kind of tight)
Jenn: Calvin because he was super sick Monday but went to school anyway until he couldn't take it any longer--he didn't want to bother Mom and Dad who were both working that day
Karcyn: Cooper because I don't remember a time this week when he did something mean
Calvin: JJ because he cleaned our room when we weren't feeling good
Cooper: JJ because he was calm in the car going to Ft. Worth and back

So Karcyn and JJ both won!

10th--Happy13th Birthday to Karcyn!

I spoke in the Bryan 1st Ward that morning and didn't even see her until noon when our ward began. We got home, I wrapped her gifts, sent an email to the counselor in the stake presidency I work with, then I went to my self reliance class--which fortunately, didn't go until 6pm. I came home, made Karcyn's requested dinner "Spaghetti Carbonara." We talked about Karcyn's birth story, which morphed into everyone's birth story, then we had brownies and ice cream while Karcyn ate her GF bundlet, I did the dishes and then crashed. I was soooo tired. Karcyn's big gift this year is a week of sewing lessons this summer and getting to keep the sewing machine at the end of the class. And her dog from Grandma and Grandpa Lee! Stuffed that is! They know better than that! :)

--Last March, when Karcyn entered the Young Women's organization at church, I challenged her to read the entire Book of Mormon each year between 12 and 18. She finished it for the first time, on her birthday! ;)

--Transfers were coming up for Jake in Hungary. He spent 12 weeks in Tatabanya being trained and then spent the next 12 weeks training a new missionary and being the district leader. Six months in one area! But we knew that his time in Tatabanya was coming to a close. So, we made predictions on which city we thought he'd be going to.

11th--I woke up after sleeping in (yay Spring Break) and realized that I NEVER WROTE JAKE on Sunday, like I've been doing the past 30+ weeks! But I did know that it was transfer week and I think I subconsciously gave myself an extra day since he wouldn't be able to read it til Tuesday anyway. But it still bothered me that I didn't even think about writing him. So I wrote him, did the laundry and went to the store. I wasn't feeling so hot though. But Jared and I managed a two mile walk later that night.

--That afternoon, the awesome Rebecca Higbee came over to spend some time with the new teenager, Ms. Karcyn. Rebecca has always been so good to Karcyn. We've appreciated her friendship and that of her family and will miss her very much when she goes to college. Karcyn wanted to watch her first PG-13 movie and the winner was "Ever After." Then they painted nails and played some games. Rebecca even joined us for Family Home Evening, which Cooper taught.

 (Karcyn was pouting because of something her brothers had said/done.)

12th--We heard from Jake by email...announcing he was headed to Nyiregyhaza for his next area--the furthest eastern city in Hungary, complete with universities and lots of buses. It's going to be a big change for him from the smaller, more rural city of Tatabanya where they walked, biked or sometimes ran to catch trains! ;) Lala sent me these pictures and the crying emojis. 😭😭😭😭 I'm soooo glad they could see each other once more before Jake left Tatabanya for good.

--Once my medical insurance had been verified, I made an appointment to see my provider about a small red bump at the base of my neck, on the bone there. It showed up the first week in January. I thought something bit me because it just appeared one morning. And it was itchy, but not too bad. Yet, when I scratched it, it hurt. I watched it and noticed it wasn't going away. Fortunately it wasn't getting any bigger either. I had Jared check it out. He said it didn't look concerning. Okay, but that doesn't tell me what it is. I put all sorts of various creams on it to see if it would disappear. Nothing worked. I would have gone to the doctor sooner, but I didn't want to take my chances with the insurance issue. So I waited over two months to get it looked it. Turns out, it's a cyst. Weird. The doctor will remove it for me and see if there's anything to it. However, he said it did not worry him.

13th--It was raining over spring break. (So what's new?) A few weeks ago, I had an impression that Karcyn needed to learn how to braid hair, except that I can't teach her using her own head or mine. We needed heads of long hair. So I borrowed our neighbors. :) We invited the Upton girls to come over on this wet day to watch a movie while I modeled a simple braid with either Emaline or Kathryn as my model while Karcyn tried to follow. At first I tried to just talk her through it but I didn't even know what to say, I had to do physically do it and have Karcyn watch. Thankfully, Karcyn is a really quick visual learner. And picked it right up. I just need her to keep practicing with my hair now.

--There was no mutual this evening so we decided to go bowling as a family. My right arm/elbow (extensor muscles in my forearm) was really hurting from that bad case of tendinitis from the beginning of the year ("blogging elbow"). I must have slept on it wrong because it hurt when I woke up. The thought of trying to throw a 14 lb. ball didn't sound appealing to me at all, so I was just going to watch everyone else bowl. I drove the three little kids to the alley. Cooper was already there practicing on a lane and Jared was going to meet us there after work. We went up to the front desk to ask if we could just bowl a game using the lane Cooper was already at. I was expecting to pay around $50 for the one game and 6 people and shoes, etc. But it came to $6.50!! I forgot that we get an incredible discount from Cooper's employment if he's with us. And I got so excited at how cheap it was that I HAD to bowl. And I got two strikes in a row! Jared said maybe I should bowl with an injured arm more often. Then I guttered a few times. But I still bowled 100! Any guesses as to what BME stands for? ;)

14th--After work, Jared and I were going to go for a walk. I grabbed my shoes from the floor by my dresser and started loosening up the laces while Jared and I were continuing our conversation. He walked through our bathroom into the closet. I slipped my right foot into my shoe and as I slid my heel in, it came down right on top of something. I hadn't seen or felt anything in my shoe when I grabbed it. It felt a bit like a bark chip from our Oregon days. So I pulled my foot out and turned the shoe around to see what was in the bottom of it. It took me 1.1 second to realize it was not a piece of bark (which I haven't seen in years) but a shriveled up brown house spider!! EWWWWWWW!!!! To this day I can still FEEL the sensation of my heel landing on it. Gross, gross, gross. I screamed a "freaked out" scream and quickly dumped it out on the floor. Jared rushed in to see what all the commotion was about. I exclaimed there was a spider in my shoe! He looked at it on the floor. (Note, the shriveled up size does not do justice to the gravity of the situation.)

Then he asked, "Is it dead?" To which I retorted, "Of course it's dead." And then he nudged it with his shoe and it started moving!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH. It wasn't dead. It was alive when I squashed it with my heel. This just keeps getting worse!! I stepped on a live spider, in my shoe, in my room!! I felt so...so...violated. Jared was my hero and took care of the spider...He who is afraid of all arachnids. Me? I'm not scared of them. I just loathe them. Even after that emotional workout, we still intended to go for our walk, but there was this issue with my shoes. I could not bring myself to put them on. I took them to Jared and asked him to use his phone light to look inside them and make sure that there weren't any colonies of spiders in the front of my shoes. He did and said they looked clear. But...there's this curve in my shoe up to my toes that you just can't see very well. And I still couldn't bring myself to put them on. I was kind of cringing and whining and making pathetic noises. I asked him if he'd please use his hands to make sure there weren't any creepy crawlies hanging on for dear life. He gave me an exasperated purse of his lips, mocking me only a little bit, and stuck his hands in to do a "spider sweep." He of course did a jump scare and got me. But he was willing to sacrifice his own hands and for that, I will always be grateful! What a guy. But even still...it took me a few days to get over the "feeling" and I'm still shaking out my shoes before I put them on.

--The next day, I called our pest control company. I knew they would be coming for our quarterly treatment sometime that month--and not a moment too soon! They texted me back and said we were scheduled for the 28th and I was fine with that but asked if we could do inside treatment as well because I had put my shoes on the night before and stepped on a big brown spider in the heel of my shoe. They responded: "Yikes! That's terrifying! We can come sooner if you'd like!" To which I said, "Maybe sooner would be better, thank you!!"

15th--Jared and I had an opportunity to stay at a gorgeous hotel in San Antonio (Eilan) up the hill not far from Fiesta Six Flags and go to the San Antonio temple. Karole agreed to watch the kids for us and she even dropped me off at Jared's office so we could leave straight from there. We were supposed to leave at noon, but the doctor decided to go somewhere so, we got stuck staying behind til quittin' time, but I'm not going to complain. I'm so grateful we could just get away.

--We arrived around 8:15 (not too bad of a drive--3 hours) and checked in. It's stunning! And because there's a spa there it smells awesome, too!

The hallway.

 Our living room (we were standing next to the door and TV.

 The highest amount they can charge for our room is $900. :o

 The hallway from the living room to the bedroom.

 To the left in the hallway is the bathroom.

 And to the left is the shower--big enough to hold our entire family!

 To the right is the vanity area.

 To the left of the vanity is a mini fridge, safe and coffee maker. No microwave though. :(

 Across from the safe is a closet and a bathrobe.

 The room with a king sized bed. When the attendant brought our stuff in, he set our Adidas bag on the stool there. Jared commented it looked really out of place. I told him, "Our money spends the same as everyone else's."

This is one of the lobby areas down by the restaurant. There is a ton of seating all over the hotel which is really nice.

 The marble staircase leading from the restaurant area up to the front lobby.

--We ate a late dinner at Sustenio at the hotel. Which was so nice to not have to leave the hotel once we got there. Dinner was amazing! Absolutely delicious. That restaurant deserves the 5-star rating it's earned.

We had calamari for our appetizer.

 I had the ahi tuna special.

 Jared had the prime rib.

16--In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel as well. Jared had huevos rancheros and I had the breakfast buffet and we tried the smoked salmon and bagels. They actually gave us too much salmon. I wasn't expecting even half of what was on the plate.

We walked around the property and then we drove to the temple (about 17 minutes away).

The San Antonio Temple sits on a city block such that there's a mini plaza with businesses right across the street. Like Subway. :) It's a smaller temple, not much to look at on the outside. But WHOA. It is absolutely breathtaking on the inside!!! What I can't figure out is why I haven't heard anyone here in Texas gush about it! It's absolutely incredible! We took our own names using the new app that finds temple ready names in Family Search for you and we did sealings and then had an appointment for the 1:30pm endowment session. The sealings were really special to us that particular day and there was a nice crowd of people there and we all helped each other. Jared had been asked by one of the temple workers if he (Jared) and his wife would be willing to be the witness couple. He agreed and so they just had to find me. One of sisters came to get me and we spoke with this kind man. He gave us some very powerful instructions and advice. I was deeply moved by his sincerity and the way he ministered to us. It made the experience even more special for us.

When we got back to the hotel, we hit the hot tub, had another amazing dinner and lounged the rest of the night. It was glorious!!

17th--We left around 7am to get home before church and so we could do our Come Follow Me recap with the family. Things went well while we were gone and that made us very happy.

--While we were waiting for church to begin, our friend and across-the-street neighbor, Tony Upton, was telling us about their hotel of moles in their backyard and that he's needing to exterminate them. Calvin wanders over to the Uptons, a lot. He likes playing with Emaline, who is only a year younger than him, but he likes Brother Upton more. ;) AND...Brother Upton is one of Calvin's primary teachers, so they have a pretty tight bond. Calvin piped up and said he wanted to help Tony get rid of the moles. Tony said there were actually a lot of babies that needed to go, too. But Calvin cut him off, put his hand up, and very firmly said, "OH. I am not killing the babies. I'm not a baby killer. I'm not that kind of guy." We all laughed and Tony replied, "I'm really glad you have a moral line, Calvin." Then Calvin suggested Cooper could do it.

--After church, we did kid of the week voting. We had Grandma join in because she was with them for a couple days and certainly got to weigh in. As I collected the votes, Karole joked and said, "I hope I get a vote." :) Turns out, as I read the votes a minute later, JJ's was: "Gramma for waching us." :) Haha! She actually got a vote.

18th--I taught my last day of Kindergarten with Ms. Eddy's class. I wasn't there the Friday before spring break and I knew that Ms. Eddy just wanted me to repeat what they did before spring break because she would be starting a new unit on Tuesday and didn't want me to have to do that. But...I wasn't there on Friday, so I was a bit worried about how it would go. But I was blessed again. We made a chart with one favorite thing each of us did over Spring Break so they could have that time to share. We also did a couple of fun activities, one that their teacher left and one that I remembered doing when I was a teacher. I was happy with the way it all worked out.

--In Jake's email that morning, he told me that he finished writing about his experience serving as a temple worker for the short time before he served his mission and got it submitted in time for the Area project and for the audience of the First Presidency and Apostles. I remember the lady telling Jared that these responses would be recorded and compiled into a book of sorts and kept in Salt Lake City. Pretty wild! He also said that his mission president sent him an email that said, "The Lord has an interesting assignment for you to do these next few weeks and we are looking forward to your nimbleness and agility in accomplishing the Lord's work!" And then Jake asked us what we thought. Uhhhh...??? Good question! But boy...we can't wait to find out!

--After school Karcyn came home and said she had to tell me something. She was very sad as she explained that she had received her first detention and then fought back tears. She got it because she had to go to the bathroom and didn't have time to get a pass. I could relate to her devastation. It was similar to when I learned I had my first cavity at age 25. I cried privately then, too. Poor Karcyn. I chuckled and told her that those kinds of detentions sometimes happen and don't bother us. Only if she gets a detention because she's being disrespectful or intentionally destructive or defiant.

--I was at Karcyn's piano lesson and I got a text from Jared. Video proof that JJ was riding a bike all on his own! We've been trying to persuade him to ride a bike for the past year. But he always refused. Yet this is how it unfolded. Karcyn and I left at 6pm for her piano lesson. JJ came running inside the house from playing and said breathlessly, "Dad. I need to learn to ride Calvin's bike like Lane (JJ's friend)."
Jared: That's fine, go ahead.
JJ: You need to come out with me.
Jared: I can't. I don't have any socks and shoes on.
JJ: You have crocs.
Jared: I can't run in my crocs because they'll hurt my feet.
JJ: But you can put socks on. Socks and crocs. I do it all the time. Wear socks and crocs.
Clearly having lost the battle, Jared replied: Got get my crocs.
Haha!

Jared held on to the back of the seat and said, "Okay, start pedaling" and JJ did. And immediately Jared let go and said, "You're doing it!" and off he went. Just like that. He sent me the video of JJ riding around 6:40. And JJ has never looked back. He has found a new sense of freedom and a whole new world!

19th--Super crazy day for me filled with lots of errands and Stake Young Women stuff. Calvin had a baseball cake to decorate for the Blue and Gold dinner that evening. He baked it and cut it out Monday. The only thing he asked me to help him do was frost it. So I frosted the "dirt" part with chocolate frosting that morning and he added the graham cracker "dirt."

Then I did the green frosting later that afternoon. When he got home around 4:20, I showed him where the white chocolate was so he could cut it into the bases before I had to run to the middle school and pick up our "jailbird" Karcyn who was serving her after school detention. All I could think of was "Lady and the Tramp" when Lady was in the pound. Apparently, Karcyn got out early for good behavior, too! By the time we got back (maybe 12 minutes later), Calvin was running outside to play and said his cake was all done. It was and it looked AWESOME! I thought he totally "knocked it out of the park!" He designed and decorated it (minus the frosting) all on his own, which made me super proud.

--At the Blue and Gold dinner, Jared was going to mow our lawn but was really wiped out. I suggested that maybe Cooper could do it. Coop turned to Jared and said, "You need me to mow the lawn? Yeah, I'll mow. I'll go home now and do it." (I'm sorry, but who are you and where is our son, Cooper? :) That was a very unexpected but very appreciated response. We promised we'd bring him home a plate of dinner. Calvin and I had to leave early to go to his baseball practice and we took his cake with us to share with his teammates.

--We had JJ jump in the shower before bed. When I came into the bathroom later, the towel he used was on the floor. I asked him to please hang up his towel. When I came back I saw this:

He had gone into our closet to get the stool so he could reach high enough to put the towel back on the hook. He left the stool there, but I love that he problem solved to figure out a way to do this himself.

20th--You know you live in Texas when it's the First day of Spring and the Last day of Runner's Club after school because it'll just keep getting too hot to do it.

21st--Calvin was tested for Gifted and Talented again. There were 60 kids who tested last year and only 3 made it. There were 36 kids testing this year. I told Calvin that this was just a fun test. And yet like every other test, it doesn't tell us how smart or creative or fun or quick-witted or helpful he is. He said he tried his best. I told him that's all he could do and if he's supposed to do this extra thing, he will, but it does not determine who he is or isn't.

--JJ had his first 1st grade musical practice. I met Mr. Suel for the first time when I went to pick JJ up. Mr. Suel said he is SO glad he made JJ Pig #4 because it's a part that really gets to "ham it up!" Haha!

--Cooper actually had an allergy flare up from mowing the lawn to help Jared. Such a bummer. It's pretty miserable. But the happy part of his day was when he was in choir.  They had a choir teacher from the Blinn College Campus in Brenham come help them with a piece they are competing with. Cooper learned that he is in the same range as this guy who refers to himself as a "fake tenor." Too high for bass, not high enough for tenor. Apparently, that was thrilling for him to discover! And as a bonus, Cooper learned this guy went to BYU for his undergraduate degree. We're still trying to learn who it was because he would be in our stake.

--Two weeks before, as part of my self reliance class on personal finances, we had a discussion on integrity and part of that came from the talk, "What Shall A Man Give in Exchange for His Soul" by Elder Robert C. Gay, October 2012. I decided to show this general conference talk to the family as a second Family Home Evening that particular week and we had a great conversation afterward. On the 21st, Jared had to take Calvin to a late baseball practice and I had a presidency meeting to go to which left Cooper, Karcyn and JJ at home. The computers get locked down when we leave the house. Later, after we got home, I was trying to figure something out and learned that Cooper had been on the desktop, which he supposedly locked when Jared left. When we asked him if he was on the computer while we were gone, he admitted that he discovered it hadn't actually locked for some reason and decided to get on to try and finish some of his history homework. But then...he remembered our discussion on integrity and locked it and left the room.

22nd--Progress reports came out. I got Cooper's. All As. I got Karcyn's. High 90s/100s--all As. I asked Calvin for his. He said he lost it. It got thrown away on accident. (Do I really look that dense?) So I told him I'd just contact his homeroom teacher and get the info from her. He finally said, "Okay, okay. So here's the deal. I have two Fs. But it's fine." "F does not stand for FINE, son." And he wasn't kidding. He was indeed failing two classes, Social Studies and Math. A 52% and 66% respectively. After looking at his grades online, I discovered his failing grades are not because he doesn't understand. Nope. He understands perfectly because he gets high As (sometimes 105) and an occasional high B on all his tests. He just doesn't do the homework or turn it in. We've tried to work with him in finding a balance in his life when he wants to do physical things and not sit down and do homework right after school. And when he said he didn't have homework (all those times) we trusted him. We also expect him to be productive in class when he's at school. Well. Unfortunately for Calvin he soon learned that the UIL (University Interscholastic League) rules apply in the Hough home as well. You don't pass, you don't play. His first baseball game was that coming Monday and he would not be playing or practicing until his grades improve.

23rd--I was at Women's conference from 10-1 and when I got back, all three kids were happily cleaning and were all but whistling while they worked. They were going above and beyond to clean extra things without being asked and helping each other. It was sort of like living in the Twilight Zone, but enjoyable nonetheless.

24th--We were having our morning prayers before church and sitting across from Cooper, I noticed his shoes didn't match. "Cooper, do you realize you are wearing two different shoes?" Without looking, "No I'm not." "Yeeees, you are." "My shoes are both black." "That may be, but they are not the same shoe." Finally, he looked down and realized his mom was actually right.

--Our family traveled to the Caldwell Branch for church that day. We always have a blast there. The talks were on family history and they were so engaging and motivating. My kids were really in tune. I've struggled with how to get our family more involved in family history, feeling like this responsibility lied with me. But I've gone in circles for years and can't seem to make any lasting headway. But during that meeting, I had the prompting that we should get one of our ward family history consultants (Noelle Bott--who I had previously talked to a month ago) to come teach Karcyn how to do family history work with me watching and then Karcyn can teach the family. Besides, youth pick up on this stuff exponentially faster than adults do...especially the adults with non-spatial or visual brains like me. That afternoon, I made an appointment with Noelle to see if she would come visit with Karcyn and myself and she agreed to come the next evening.

--The kids had all done a pretty good job with their behavior and attitudes that week so Jared and I were talking and both felt that we, as the parents, should be able to nominate up to four kids for kid of the week if we desired. Because that week we did. These were the votes:
Jared--Cooper: genuinely showed more love and patience to his siblings. Was helpful without expecting anything in return. Karcyn: overall great attitude. JJ: Showed initiative and learned to ride his bike. Calvin: Excellent attitude during Sat. cleaning (which is saying a LOT!)
Jenn--Cooper: Overall great attitude with parent correction and I saw him hug Karcyn to comfort her (also saying a lot...he doesn't like to be touched). Calvin: Made sure Cooper got to pick which piece of Calvin's special baseball cake Cooper wanted first before Calvin chose. Karcyn: Cleaned out the microwave for the first time as a surprise for Mom. JJ: Very helpful attitude--yes ma'am, sure, okay all the first time; plus he went up to a boy who was sitting alone at the Blue and Gold dinner and invited him to join JJ and the others.
Cooper--JJ: he played nicely with others. Karcyn: was chill throughout the week.
Karcyn--JJ: because he wasn't being aunry around Mom and Dad. Cooper: because he was nice to his siblings.
Calvin: Cooper: He offered to help make Calvin's cake. Karcyn: She did stuff with me even when I'm mean to her.
JJ: Mom and Dad: for doing every thing they worked in the house. :)

--JJ pecking out a letter of his own to Jake.

This is what he wrote:
Dear Jake` I can ride calvin,s bike. I got a danges fall. I hit my head on the grass and twhist my foot. Maby you rided your bike and you hirt your self.

 LOVE/JJ

25th--I got to talk to Jake later that morning when he called. We got the details of the special assignment from the Lord. A few hours after we received his email the week before, his mission president called. Jake's trainer, Peery Elder, currently a Zone Leader in Miskolc (north of Nyiregyhaza) would be going home in a couple days for a surgery. He'd be gone for a few weeks and Jake was being assigned as the substitute zone leader in his place. Holy crazy! So he had to hurry and pack up (after only being in his second area for 6 days) and traveled back to Budapest for a missionary leader meeting that he knew nothing about, then all the way to Miskolc in one day. Jake's new companion is Elder Burnett (holding the camera in the picture below), who is also good friends with Elder Stubbs, one of the missionaries from the College Station 3rd ward who taught the ASL classes here in our stake! Since we're living in a small world, why not make it smaller? The young man standing in front of Jake in this picture is Elder Brollo. He's from Porto Alegre, Brazil--specifically from the stake that our very own exchange student Luke is from (whose dad IS the stake president.)

--Karcyn came home and reported she had a tender mercy at school that day. Near the end of orchestra (6th period), her class went next door to the choir room to listen to the boys practice a song. The bell rang indicating 6th period was over and she went straight to her 7th period (athletics in the gym). As she was changing her clothes in the locker room, she realized she had left all of her things (backpack, instrument, etc.) in the orchestra room. There wasn't anything she could do about it at the moment, but pray. She prayed that the orchestra room would be unlocked so she could retrieve her belongings before having to catch the bus. After athletics, she quickly changed and hustled to the orchestra room silently praying that the door to the orchestra room would be opened. It was!! She was elated as she found her things exactly where she had left them. She immediately said a prayer of gratitude in her heart and felt love from her Heavenly Father for being aware of her and that need at the end of the day.

--JJ had a paper in his Monday folder that was titled "If I Could Talk..." JJ was supposed to think of his most beloved objects that he uses daily and imagine they could talk. What would they tell him or persuade him to do? The first object he chose was my bike. Having formerly been Calvin's bike and the only wheeled object Calvin can ride as well, he sometimes hijacks the bike from JJ, which doesn't go over very well. So under the prompt "my bike would want me" JJ replied, "to ride it more and don't let our brother ride me." Haha. JJ's second object was my shirt which would persuade me "to let you wear me. Never put me in the basket because I love you." And JJ's third object was my shoes which would persuade me: "lisen I'm tierd of walking with you. It herts! Do you like me? I do."

--Jared drove Calvin to the field before his first game so that Calvin could be the one to tell his coach the reason he can't play is because he has two Fs. Coach Kinnard said, "Yeah, this (baseball) is the fun stuff. But you need to take care of your work first." Jared loves this coach. Calvin had him during fall ball, too. He's a great mentor to the boys in skills and sportsmanship and life lessons with great encouragement and team building. Coach asked Calvin "You know what's better than an F? Just about anything." As they walked away, there was a man, another dad we suppose by the fence. He must have heard the exchange because he reached his hand out to Jared and said, "Good job, Dad. There aren't a lot of parents who do that anymore." It takes time to get grades up so there's a possibility that Calvin might be benched the entire season. Which makes me sad. He's good at baseball and loves it but he's got to get his priorities straight. Even if he does understand the material, he still needs to show his teachers that he does and learn to meet deadlines.

I reached out to the two teachers to let them know we were now very aware of Calvin's Fs and told them he was benched from baseball until his grades improve. Calvin's Social Studies teacher (who had mistakenly kept him from recess last month and commended him/us on his reaction) said, "Man, do I love the Hough household!" And the other said how much she appreciated us supporting the teachers. We get no pleasure out of implementing consequences like these, but it's a learning opportunity we need to capitalize on and we hope that Calvin will learn from it and move on.

27th--After school, Cooper went to practice bowling. He played three games and bowled a 176, 183 and a 198.

--Karcyn went into my bathroom from something and came out saying, more to herself, "I'll just have to wait for Cooper."
I piped up and said, "Why's that?"
She said, "Oh, I couldn't pop this zit in my eyebrow, so I need Cooper to do it."
"Coop pops your zits?"
"Uh huh."
"What does he do, come up to you and say, 'let me pop that.'?"
"Yep!"
Well, I'm glad they're bonding over something--even if it is acne.

28th--It was "Future Family Night" at all the elementary schools in the district so any families, especially the ones new to the district or school, could go and get a little tour of the building and meet some of the teachers/staff. Our neighborhood got rezoned to the brand new elementary school opening this fall so JJ and I went to go see it. River Bend Elementary--home of the Bears. (Are there bears in Texas? Actually, there are, but nowhere near where we live.)

The school is still empty and missing finishing touches and supplies but it is beautiful. What's fun is that it's patterned closely after Greens Prairie where JJ attends currently. So the layout is familiar for us both. It feels a lot bigger than Greens Prairie though. For one, they have a collaboration area in each grade level. That's something I have only seen at the intermediate levels. JJ is standing in the 2nd grade collaboration area and the white wall--is covered in dry erase paint for all sort of brainstorming lists and ideas.

Each grade (K-4) has 7 classrooms. And each class will have no more than 22 students, so it has the same growth potential as Greens Prairie which is currently over 700 kids. I love the colors, blue and gray and lime green.

29th--I subbed in Kindergarten again for JJ's former teacher. Considering there were two little boys in my class arguing about who got to sit on the end in the gym at morning assembly and then both crying before school even started, it wasn't too bad of a day. :)

--Karcyn and I went out on a mommy/daughter date and saw the new live action movie, "Dumbo." It was cute. We walked back to the car and right as I was putting the burb into reverse, Karcyn suddenly slams her hands in her lap and exclaims a bit distressed, "Oh no!! Dang it!!" I stopped and asked what was wrong. I couldn't imagine what she had just remembered. She said she brought a small little stuffed animal, her green dragon, Cucumber, and accidentally left him behind. I didn't even know she had him with her. He's pretty small, but still. She was crying. So I sat there for a second, put the car in park and said, "Well, let's go try and get him back. Prepare yourself that he might not be there. Someone might have thrown him away or taken him." She understood. So we walked all the way back inside the theater and to the guy taking tickets. I told him our situation and asked if he could find out if the cleaners found the toy. He called on his radio inquiring about a small green stuffed dragon. I had to smile when I heard him put out the APB. I guess the movie credits were still going so the crew hadn't gone in yet and let us pass so we could go look ourselves. Karcyn went right up to our row and seats and there was Cucumber. Just waiting for her. She was one lucky kid. I'm glad she got him back. I know how much she loves her stuffed animals. She was so relieved she cried in gratitude and then fell asleep in the car on the way home.

30th--Because I had substituted on Friday (payday), I spent the better part of the morning paying bills and doing the new budget, which, I am happy to report, is going better now than it was at the beginning of the month. I'm not sure I like this way better, it's a little more restrictive (I can't record and deduct money immediately because most of it's in savings and I can only move money from savings to checking six times a month). But I can see the wisdom in having budget categories/buckets. When I finished, I went for a jog and lifted some weights. Then I ran to Sam's club and the bank. When I got back home, JJ met me outside and said, "I roasted my macaroni." You what? "I roasted my macaroni." I could not figure out what he was trying to say. I asked a couple questions to clarify but I wasn't getting it. "You know you're really cute, but I don't know what you're saying!" When I went into the kitchen I was slammed with this terrible burnt stench. What JJ was saying is that he really DID roast his macaroni.

He got a container of Easy Mac out for lunch and popped it in the microwave like he's done many times before. After a few minutes, Jared could smell something burning, but couldn't figure out what it was. He came into the kitchen and saw smoke coming out of the microwave. He immediately stopped it and left the door closed. They opened up all the windows (thankfully there was a cool breeze) and tried to air out the downstairs. After awhile, Jared opened up the microwave and gray smoke rolled out. This was what was left of JJ's lunch.

The bowl completely melted/collapsed under the heat. JJ had forgotten to add the water!!! This is the underside. A flat, melted "shrinky-dink" type disk. We are actually very fortunate that a fire didn't start. Man.

Oh and the smell. Bleh. Jared said what I was experiencing was a ginormous improvement over what it had been. You can see the orange tinge where the smoke stained the inside of my microwave. It wouldn't come off when I touched it. But the Norwex cloth wiped it clean! Yay for Norwex!