Wed. 1st--Calvin had a gift card to Whataburger, a staple in Texas fast-food. He had seen an advertisement for their breakfast burger comprised of a beef patty, bacon, a fried egg, hash browns, American cheese and their creamy pepper sauce. Yowzers! And he wanted to try it. So he enlisted Jake to take him with the promise of a breakfast burger in return. They stop serving them at 11am and they made the deadline! Happy New Year!!
Thurs. 2nd--We were headed to San Antonio for the second part of our Christmas "stay-cation." The kids were out of school until Wed. Jan. 8th. The main reason for going to San Antonio was to take the four kids to the temple to do baptisms since it was Calvin's first time. However, he needed to receive the priesthood first as well as his temple recommend. He was sustained on Sunday for receiving the Aaronic Priesthood, but the actual ordination couldn't take place until on or after January 1st. Our branch president, Derrold Foster, is the best. He told us to just swing by his work office on our way out of town and we could do the ordination there as well as issue Calvin his temple recommend. We were SO grateful. All the important people were in attendance...including Karole who took our picture. :)
Jake drove Karole's van with Karole and Cooper as passengers. It helped having the extra car and we needed Karole to stay with JJ while we were in the temple with the other kids. We were grateful she agreed to come along with us. We ate sack lunches on our way out of town and headed to our first stop, another surprise for the kids. We decided to take them to the DO-SEUM, San Antonio's children's museum. We heard good things about it and that it was fun for all ages. While there were things for any age, there were definitely more things for kids 5 and younger. But we still managed to spend a solid two hours there.
On the way, I called the temple to make an appointment for the session later that night for me, Karole, and Jake because I forgot to do it before we left. Fortunately, there were still openings at 4pm. But the best part was when the lady on the other line told me that I sound "too young to have a son old enough to do an endowment session." :)
Calvin and JJ on the little hill outside the entrance.
This is the community area where the kids could plan a town and use the virtual graphics with augmented reality to see what it would look like.
JJ had success!
Karcyn checking out the augmented reality on a cube.
Calvin taking the CAT simulator for a spin. It was harder than it looks and it took him a few minutes to get the hang of it.
Can you find JJ?
Can you find Calvin and JJ?
"Guess Who" secret agent style. "Guess who" won?? :)
JJ building with see-through blocks that were projected on the screen behind him.
Jake, Karole and I said goodbye and went to change into our church clothes in the museum bathroom while the kids stayed with Jared and continued to play so the three of us could do a session at the San Antonio Temple. Afterwards, we planned to grab dinner on our way back to the hotel from Chick-fil-A.
We had a wonderful experience. The San Antonio temple is one of my favorites. I'm so glad Jake could attend before he heads off to school.
There was a slight miscommunication between me and Jake though after our session. I told him we'd meet him out front when we were done changing. Karole and I waited and waited and waited for him in the temple lobby. When more time passed than seemed reasonable, we finally headed outside and that's where we found Jake. When I said, "out front," outside the building would be a logical place to wait. However, though I didn't communicate it appropriately, my "out front" meant, the area in front of the dressing rooms, where you could see the baptistry. That was definitely my fault. And it wasn't a huge deal, except that in this case, it was almost 7pm and we still needed to get dinner and drive it back to hungry kiddos.
Fortunately, by the time we arrived back at the hotel, well past 7pm, Jared and the kids had already gone swimming and were watching the movie "Breakthrough" for the first time. There were some snacks that held them over, but they were super grateful once dinner arrived. I always worry about large orders and getting everything when we can't take the time to check it. And my worry was justified because everyone got their complete order, except Jake. And it's not like he was short fries or some chicken nuggets and we could share. He ordered a salad. And while he got the salad, they didn't include any dressing. Bleh. It's kind of hard to eat those huge salads without dressing. But Jared lovingly traded his meal with Jake and Jared ate the dry veggies instead, which certainly made the experience much less enjoyable. What a guy.
We found Karole and JJ waiting for us in Karole's van. We had to chuckle when we saw JJ emerging from the driver's side of the van. Haha.
*Jake bought himself a used car--a 2001 Honda CRV--and paid all cash for it. And in fact, was $800 under what he budgeted for a car. Jared and I had cautioned him beforehand on such an investment because we know how it requires not just gas and insurance, but regular maintenance and often repairs when it's old enough. Jared advised that he buy a used car from a dealer, but after one car Jake had his eye on got sold before he could make the trip to Austin, he was left a little frustrated. I advised him to wait until it was absolutely necessary, that we would do what we could and share the cars we had with him and his schedule. Jake appreciated that, but felt that would be harder than we thought. Ultimately, I think Jake just wanted a sense of freedom during this tough transition and limbo he was trying to balance. Unemployed, not in school, not sure what comes next. To his credit, Jake did a ton of research on used cars and this specific make/model before he bought it. And we trust him. Jared and our neighbor, John, who used to work at the car repair shop we use, both went with Jake when he took the car for a test drive to offer any final advise or insights before he made his decision. John was able to lay his expert eyes on it and even brought his computer to run a diagnostics on the system and engine. There weren't any problems that registered during the test. It was very kind of John to do that for Jake. So Jake went ahead with the purchase.
Including the letters C-R-V, Jake named his red SUV, Veronica. The guy that sold Jake the car said that it needed to get an alignment done and some new tires, so after purchasing the car, Jake took it to Car Doc to get the alignment taken care of. However, it wasn't an alignment that was needed. The steering--a rack and pinion system--was all messed up. To the tune of $1100. *sigh* Jake chose, however, to see the unexpected repair as only $300 more than he budgeted originally. I did not hide my shock when I heard the cost of the repair. Later, when Jared and I were talking about it, I said, "Man, $1100--that's half the price he paid for the car." And without missing a beat, I quipped, "Oh well. Buy low, repair high." Jared thought that was hilarious and even Jake appreciated my comment when Jared told him. But even still, in the long run it is better that Jake has a car when he goes to school and to help him during Utah winters and when he needs to get to doctor appointments, etc. Buses don't always run on schedules that line up with classes and appointments.
Sun. 5th--Sadly, Cooper was scheduled to work again on Sunday. He was not happy about it, but not surprised. Fortunately, it should be the last time.
*JJ wanted to learn to tie his own tie. So Jake showed him how and then had JJ try the second time.
*As much as I love writing the annual yearly reviews, the kids are old enough now to write their own updates so I invited them to try it. We went through our calendars to jot down the big things they did or experienced to jog their memory of the things that happened. In Calvin-fashion, he wrote the least. Writing is something he despises. I'm grateful for what he wrote, but chose to include a picture of his notes for 2019 as a record of the many things he did throughout the year.
One day, I came across this gem.
*Jake had reached out on a local Facebook group with our church to let people know he was looking for work, any combination of odd jobs, to keep him busy before he heads back out to school in February. He got a LOT of hits for yard work and even piano lessons, tutoring high school kids and washing windows. He was working like a dog and on this particular night, he worked til 11pm about 30 minutes away on a chicken coop because bad weather was coming and he wanted to get the coop secured and done before that happened. He had also raked an egregious amount of leaves on property belonging to someone else from church up in Bryan. Unfortunately he couldn't finish the job before having to go to the other home to help with the barn and coop. So Jared, who uncharacteristically happened to be in town that afternoon for a meeting, said he could help bag the leaves. Jared spent THREE HOURS filling 20 supersized bags of leaves. There were 41 total!!!! It was insane and Jake wanted to be sick, metaphorically, when he realized he totally undersold himself on the raking job. He should have charged by the bag, not the hour. He has since declared that he will never, ever rake another leaf as long as he lives. His last raking job didn't go so well either. They kept "popping up--like daisies!" He said he will simply reside where there are no leaves. Ah, the joys of the odd job.
Thurs. 9th--Things started looking up for Jake. He got a job with Discount Tire, which was really promising because he could transfer to another store out of state when the time came for him to leave for school. He also started tutoring which was a good return on his investment, $30 per 30 minutes.
*We had Primary and Youth activities the night before which meant we rolled in well past the kids' bedtimes. When I woke JJ up on Thursday, he groggily asked, "Can I have more sleepness, please?" Calvin was still talking about back pain and additional cramping in his abdomen. We tried to think of anything he could have done to stretch his core muscles. Nothing came to mind. It was a bit strange. Even though there are times we can't trust Calvin as far as we can throw him, he doesn't usually complain about not feeling well, unless he isn't. We kept an eye on him and told him to do the best he could at school.
*As we have started discussing the Book of Mormon more as a family this year with that book of scripture as our focus for Come Follow Me, Calvin told us he was learning about different religions of our country and of course, "Mormonism" came up. He was really excited when it did and while he did share that he was a member and made it a point to say the correct name of the church, his teacher kind of glossed over it by saying, "yes, the Mormons." But Calvin, in his great wisdom said, "I decided to just let it go" and chose not to correct her. However, he also said he felt prompted to give his Social Studies teacher a Book of Mormon. We were so pleased to hear that he received a prompting and wanted to act on it. This was the message and testimony he wrote in the book that he later wrapped to give to Mrs. Novosad:
Fri. 10th--We learned that our friends, Sonja and Kevin Staples (also our former home teacher in Kalamazoo, Michigan) were called to serve full-time for three years in St. Petersburg, Russia as mission president and family. We are most excited for them and know they will do amazing things!
*Later that night, after we got the little kids in bed and just as Jared and I were going to watch a movie, we got a storm alert on our phones. We were under a severe storm and tornado watch. So we turned on the news. And this is what we saw. A BIG storm (that stretched through northern and southern Texas) was now right on top of Caldwell--where our branch family lives. The meteorologist said Caldwell could take a real hit from this storm front with a high probability of tornadoes. There was a Caldwell Branch youth temple trip scheduled for the next afternoon. Jared and I passed glances between each other knowing that it could very well be an "after-storm-clean-up" day in Caldwell instead. We prayed for our friends' safety and well being.
The last time all seven of us were in the pantry together at the same time, was back in the fall of 2015. The kids were a whole lot smaller back then. AND...we had Jake's big friend, Will, with us. So it was a bit of a tight squeeze with half of us sitting (after moving the food items and water from off the floor) and half of us standing. Haha!
*This was the day of our annual Branch Conference where the stake presidency comes to visit, counsel and instruct us. Jared's meetings started at 8am that morning. Then he had to leave at 11:30 to work from 12-6.
Before we left for church, Calvin was being super ornery in the study. Laying on the floor, grabbing people's feet and legs to make them trip or hitting them. I was trying to redirect the other kids so they could emerge unscathed when all of a sudden Calvin started humming the "Star Wars" theme song. I asked him why. He said, "To help boost my morality." "Oh?" He answered, "Yeah, I learned that word in social studies." I responded, "I think you meant 'boost my morale.' Morality has to do with sexual purity." He laughed sheepishly at that. And I thought we were on a good path as we headed to church, but then he was aggravatingly obnoxious in the car. And it's not just a quick 10 minutes to church either. It's 35-40 minutes of driving at 75-80 mph. So if someone's in a foul mood, it tends to taint the rest of us. Especially if one person sets off another, gets their kicks from that response, and the cycle continues.
Once we were at church, Calvin calmed down and took his place up front to pass the Sacrament, which he did reverently. He was doing okay until about 10:30 or so. He started hurting in his back and gut again. By the time Sacrament meeting was over, he was in tears. The youth were going to be taught by President Hull and I was excited for him to be a part of that, but he was so upset that the only option we had was for him to go lay down in the car.
After a few minutes, I went to check on Calvin. He had calmed down, but was sad that he was missing the stake presidency message and started crying again. He wouldn't lay down. I felt bad just leaving him out there like that. But I didn't know what else to do with him.
At 11:30, when Jared had to leave Caldwell to go to work at the Bryan Urgent Care, he told me he was going to take Calvin with me and get him looked at there. I could pick him up when church was over. I liked that plan.
After church and I had herded my cats, we drove to the urgent care. I met Jared and Calvin around back and when I asked what they learned, Calvin told Jared to tell me. Basically, he's full of crap. Er, rather poop. The x-ray they took showed excessive stool. The kid is plugged up and nothing is moving. Poor guy. So I took him home and loaded him up on fluids. Calvin has actually done better about eating a variety of foods, including veggies and fruits. So I'm not sure why he was constipated all of a sudden.
When we got home from church, Cooper slept for an hour, ate lunch at 2:30 and then slept in the recliner until 8pm. He missed the entire day.
Still in pain, I reminded Calvin he could ask our friend, Tony, from across the street and Jake for a blessing of healing. So Calvin went over to explain the situation and he came back with Tony. I love that he and Tony are good buds and that Jake has been here to minister to the family in these special ways.
After the blessing, I asked Tony if the girls were scared during the big storm. He said they were. He grew up in Tennessee, so storms don't bother him. But that's when we learned our nextdoor neighbors' trampoline, somehow flew out of their yard, hit the siding on Tony's house directly across from their's and then landed in a mangled mess behind Tony's house. If I hadn't seen it, I probably wouldn't have believed it. Crazy! This happened right next door. What a miracle the trampoline missed the front and side windows of Tony's corner house as it was flying through the air.
*Calvin went to bed at 6:30pm after receiving his blessing, outfitted with Motrin, a heating pad and an extra blanket. I checked on him twenty minutes later and he was fast asleep. At 7:30 when it was time for JJ to go to bed, he reminded me I needed to finish reading "Cat in the Hat." Because he and Calvin share a room and Calvin was already sleeping, I told JJ we could go out in the hall and sit on the top landing of the stairs and I would read it to him in a loud whisper. We were at the part when the fish was really upset about the mess in the house while their mother was out. I can't do accents, but I really like to get into stories with voice fluctuations and intonations and I do what I can to make different characters have different voices and model their emotions. I've got this particular book down pretty good. :)
After the story, I tucked JJ in and went back downstairs when I noticed that Cooper had risen from the dead...or at least the recliner. I greeted him with, "Good morning. Or Good Night, actually," with a wry smile. Cooper studied me for a couple of long seconds and responded, very uncharacteristically with, "Are you okay?" I was confused. I had said hello and smiled at him. Why would he think anything is wrong? So I asked, "What do you mean?" He explained, "Well, you sounded upset." I had, indeed, raised my voice at Calvin earlier in the evening, but that was a couple hours ago, so I clarified and asked, "When?" He replied tentatively, "Just now. You sounded really angry--when you were talking to Dad on the phone." I stood there for a second, calculating what he just said and then it all started to click...me sitting up on the top landing of the stairs...reading a book to JJ in a loud whisper with a very angry fish voice. "No, no make him go away. He should not be here, He should not be about, He should not be here when your mother is out...!" And then I busted up laughing. "I wasn't mad. I was reading "The Cat in the Hat" to JJ quietly on the stairs because Calvin was sleeping. Hahaha!" Cooper, only hearing me really upset, didn't catch everything that I said, just the tone and swore that I was mad about something and called Jared to vent to him--which, I have to say, was a good deduction on Cooper's part, but was not the case in this instance. Haha!
Tues. 14th--Making some progress on Karole's craft room. I'm now organizing a temporary shelf.
I asked Karcyn how she was feeling and she told me she had some pains in her right thigh not too far from her groin area. I asked her if she'd had this before and she reminded me that she did...in the car on the way to Caldwell one Sunday. Once she said that, I recalled that she had some acute pain and she cried most the way to church. I almost took her back home, but when we arrived at the church building, it seemed to have subsided. I told her to try and take some deep breaths and to say a prayer. She said she had already prayed. I told her I would pray for her, too. She hadn't received her vocal assignment or time yet. I let her know that it didn't matter to me if she auditioned or not. And if she was still in pain after a little bit, that I would come and pick her up...but it would take an hour and a half for me to get there. She seemed pacified by that and said she would try to carry on.
I texted the mom and told her that Karcyn wanted to try and sing. I let Karcyn know that if the pain got worse (or her tolerance for it) to tell the mom and I would come get her. The mom replied that she thought it was a good plan and would keep me updated. Then she texted, "Karcyn was tearing up telling me she didn't want to disappoint you."
Oh my goodness. I told Karcyn I didn't care if she sang or not. I let the mom know that there wasn't any pressure on my part. This was all up to Karcyn and learning to do hard things, but if she can't, it's totally okay. The mom told me she already assured her of that from a mom's perspective (which I greatly appreciated!) She said Karcyn is so sweet and that she was doing okay--she was focused on the warm ups and hydrating.
About 40 minutes later (after our prayers), the mom texted me and said, "She's doing fine now and says her leg has completely stopped hurting." A wonderful miracle! Karcyn did not make the choir, but a few of her classmates did and she was very happy for them.
I did my usual Monday contributions of going to the store and working on laundry. I told Cooper I would take the little kids out for a couple hours while he worked on his movie so he wouldn't have to worry about them getting underfoot.
At 10:40, right about the time Cooper was going to leave for the movie theater, he got a text that his date wouldn't be able to make it. Actually, her mom texted Cooper that she wouldn't make it and that she'd tell him why later when they worked on their group project. Cooper was really dejected. This was the second time he had asked a girl out, she said yes and then she cancelled at the last minute. The first was a girl from the Greens Prairie Ward. She cancelled because her cousin, who lives close by, was going into the hospital to have her first baby. I told Cooper that was a legit reason to cancel. This second time, though, was a real blow. He started to think it was just how his dating future would be. While I wasn't totally sure of the reason for that day's cancellation, I assured him it was NOT a pattern and it had nothing to do with HIM. Sensing that my mommy pep talk wasn't helping, I suggested that perhaps he should go bowling and let off some of that frustration. So he did. And he bowled a personal best!
*I had a few errands lined up to do with the kids. First, haircuts. Everyone got rid of some locks.
Random picture of a massive fire ant hill that Calvin saw on our outing.
JJ.
The kids got Barnes and Noble gift certificates for Christmas, so we went there after seeing Jared. We're more partial to buying books from Amazon, but it was fun to spend some time walking around the bookstore and looking for several different things.
Karcyn ran into a friend from school in the fiction section and her friend actually suggested The 57 Bus--as her sister had read it and said it was really good. It had even received some literary honor, so that's what Karcyn chose. I read the book flap and it sounded really interesting. The boys got their purchases and since it had been 3 1/2 hours, we headed back home, hoping the film crew was wrapping up.
This was our painted sky that night.
*Karcyn came down later that night and said she was reading something in the book that made her feel uncomfortable. One of the kids was talking about which gender they wanted to be. I applauded her for following that uncomfortable feeling. We reviewed where our gender comes from and why we can't change it. She decided she didn't want to finish the book and I told her I would return it for her.
Tues. 21st--Jared and I attended a dinner at the Pebble Creek Country Club, honoring those who have been employed with CHI St. Joseph for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 years! Jared was in the large group of "5 years employment." Jared was working that day, but the supervisors over the urgent care wanted Jared to be there and arranged for it to happen. Which was very kind of them. I wasn't sure I was even going to make it there because I was too busy putting out fires at home.
First, when I drove out of the driveway, I couldn't find JJ. He was nowhere to be found on our cul-de-sac or on the cross street. So I drove around the neighborhood to look for him. No sign of him. Anywhere. As I came back to our street, I noticed a couple kids in the green space at the end of the cul-de-sac. Maybe they knew where JJ was. They did. He was in the shallow woods behind them. I got out and in my best, crusty, mommy voice told him to come out right now. He heard me, but said he was "a bit lost." It took about 3 minutes for him to find his way. He wasn't deeply entrenched, he just couldn't find the "path" they took. Nevermind it was getting dark. Once I supervised him on his way back to the house, and assured him that he would not be going back to the woods for awhile, I was met by Calvin at the garage door who was crying. As babysitter and according to Calvin, Cooper was dishing out commands and ultimatums, mostly about the remote control. *sigh* For the love...I just want to support my husband in being recognized at work. So I put out that fire. But I almost ditched the special dinner. I wasn't sure I had it in me and I didn't want to be late, but I resisted that urge. I needed to be there. I owed Jared at least that much. So I went. We had a nice dinner and we clapped. A lot. Like half the night. It's hard for me to understand how anyone can work for someone for 20 years, let alone 30 or 50! I've never lived in any house for longer than 6 1/2 years.
Wed. 22nd--Jake's car, Veronica, got stuck at the Institute Building. She wouldn't start. I was starting to lose my confidence in her.
Thurs. 23rd--Jared, Jake and I went on a temple date to do an endowment session. Jared and I were selected as the witness couple. As we sat up front waiting for the rest of the patrons to come into the chapel, we noticed that Jake wasn't one of them. Another few minutes and Jake wouldn't be with our session. Sure enough, he wasn't. Jared said Jake wasn't too far behind him in the dressing room. He sounded worried. I told Jared that we shouldn't be worried about "losing" our adult child in the temple. It was the safest, best place to be. Especially since Jake used to be a temple worker there! We later learned he ran into some members from our previous ward and they were catching up. When Jake realized he missed the session, he did initiatories instead.
*Jake saw this meme and said "This is NO JOKE." Haha!
*Calvin wanted to go play in the woods before dinner. I still haven't had a chance to go into those woods myself to check for safety issues. The boys keep talking about an abandoned house out there. I was up to my armpits making dinner, but told him he could only go in the woods if he took the walkie-talkies to keep me informed and so I could check in on him. He said sure and brought me the walkies. He was good about keeping me posted every 5 minutes or so. He said they found the abandoned house, I told him to keep out of it. About 15 minutes or so went by as I got into the actual cooking of dinner and side tracked before I realized I hadn't heard from Calvin. He buzzed back in not too long after that saying he was on his way back. Good. Dinner was almost ready.
Fri. 24th--I was at the computer working around 9:30am when I got a call from Calvin's school. It was the principal. She quietly asked if I could come to the school because there was a police officer speaking to Calvin about something that happened yesterday. I could hardly believe what I was hearing and slowly said, "Yeeeesssss." I told her I had to get dressed but would be right there. Jake was in the dining room and I told him about the call. He said, "I'm coming with you." I texted Jared super fast to tell him the same thing. And my heart started to pound and race and my hands started to shake. What has happened? And why didn't the school notify me about the events from yesterday? Calvin didn't say anything or act like anything happened. And then I wondered if he had done something and if so, how would I respond? I love my son, deeply. But it's true that I can't always trust what he says. How do I advocate for him if I don't know if he's telling the truth? I was torn. The Spirit told me to just love him. So I hoped and prayed that I would be able to convey that.
We were led back to the principal's office. Calvin was sitting in a chair in front of the principal's desk with his back to us. The very tall officer was standing off to Calvin's left and the principal was sitting at her desk facing us. Calvin was crying. As soon as we stepped into the room, Jake rushed to Calvin's side. Calvin cried in Jake's shoulder as Jake comforted him. So I stepped forward and introduced myself to the officer and asked what was going on.
The officer said that around 8:45 that morning they received a call from a homeowner in Hidden Acres about two young boys attempting to enter their home. I heard what the officer said, but nothing was registering. I was confused. Hidden Acres? A home? I thought something happened at school. Was this during school? So I stopped him and said, "I'm sorry. Hidden Acres? Where is that?" He said it's the small area of homes behind the Meadowcreek subdivision (where we live).
And that's when it all started to fall into place. Last night before dinner. The woods. Abandoned house.
I said, "Ohhh, he was in the woods with a friend yesterday. They came upon an abandoned house. Some of that is my fault...I haven't had a chance to go into the woods with them to see for myself and to give boundaries." The officer said that might be true, but not all houses are abandoned. Calvin and his friend actually went to another house that was not abandoned and tried to open the doors. The homeowner was there, not having gone to work that day because she was ill, and was worried for her safety. She also got her gun out and was prepared to shoot. That's when she realized they were kids. She even spoke to the boys to make sure they weren't lost. They told her they weren't lost and went on their way. The woman wasn't going to report the kids, initially, until she noticed the trailer door was opened and there were small footprints on the steps into the travel trailer and figured if anything showed up missing, they'd better report it now.
I asked the officer if anything was stolen. He said not that they can tell. The principal piped in and said she feels the homeowner was more concerned for the boys' safety--that she could have easily shot them. At that point, I went to Calvin, still being held by Jake, and rubbed his head telling him, "You were watched over and protected last night, buddy."
The principal said she understands that kids want to explore and be adventurous. I said, sure, but that definitely went way too far.
I asked the officer if there was anything else he needed to discuss or do. He said no. The homeowners were not going to press any charges mainly because of the age of the boys. For which we were most grateful. I asked the officer if there was any way we could contact the homeowners so Calvin could apologize in person. He texted the man and he agreed that would be fine. So I jotted down the information and told the police officer thank you.
Then I went to Calvin, bent down and rubbed his face and said, "Are you going to be okay?" He had stopped crying, though his face was still splotchy, and nodded yes. I said okay and hugged him and Jake and I left.
While that is not the kind of encounter you want to have with the law and your 11-year-old son, I was grateful it wasn't because of an altercation at school.
As soon as Jake and I got back home, we went to the computer and looked up the guy's house on Google and we headed for the woods. We wanted to see for ourselves what Calvin saw.
This is a pile of metal.
*After exploring in the woods, I had barely enough time to shower and dress before picking up Karole. We had a date to see "Little Women" at noon. After we got our seats and the previews started, I got a call...from River Bend Elementary. JJ's school! Oh no. Now what? But then I remembered, they might be calling to see if I could sub. So I just let it go to voicemail. And a message was left. But not 30 seconds later, they called again. Clearly there was an urgent matter. So I ran out of the theater as fast as I could and answered. It was the principal. She said that JJ had accidentally left his backpack on the bus and it has his lunch in it so he has nothing to eat. She said she offered to buy him lunch at school--it's pizza day--but he turned his nose up at that because it has pepperonis on it. I chuckled slightly. She was just wondering if I could help her figure out what to feed him. Welcome to my world, lady! I talked to JJ and said I was sorry he left his bag on the bus. I told him that Mrs. Jones had offered to get him lunch from the cafeteria. He said, "But Mom, it has pepperonis on it." I smiled and said, "I know, Sweetie, but I'm with Grandma, not at home, and Dad's working, so no one can bring you anything. Would it be alright if Mrs. Jones buys you the pizza and you just picked off the pepperoni?" There was a pause and then he replied pragmatically, "Yes, I can do that." I thanked him, told him I loved him and then told the principal our plan. She said that sounded great. I told her I'd send money for his lunch on Monday and she said to not even think of it. She's so great! But oh my goodness. Talking to two principals in one day before noon--no more, please!!!
*In other news, the "Little Women" remake was SO good!!!!
Sat. 25th--Jake, Cooper and I headed to the church building in College Station so that Jake and Cooper could practice their musical number. Jake's homecoming talk was the next day. Cooper would be singing "Savior Redeemer/Called To Serve" missionary medley and Jake was accompanying him. They sounded really good.
*Jake came home from a late afternoon errand and as usual parked Veronica out in front of the house. The back side of the car can be seen from our slim window next to our front door. As I walked by, a light caught my eye. It kind of looked like Jake's brake light was on, but the sun hadn't quite set yet, so I just assumed it was the sun reflecting off of the red tail light. A little later, however, once the sun had long set, the red brake lights were on!! It wasn't the sun after all!
Sun. Jan. 26th--Jake's brake lights weren't on anymore, but neither was there any juice in the battery. It was dead. *sigh*
*Jared went to his early morning branch meetings in Caldwell and the four kids and I went to the branch for Sacrament meeting only so we could leave right after to make it back to College Station for Jake's homecoming talk. We had to go to Caldwell though because I was speaking on how attending the temple unites us as a family. Before I spoke, however, Calvin briefly shared his experience about going to the temple for the first time earlier that month.
*We made it to College Station in time and Jake got a ride with Karole. It was a little weird being back in our "home" ward for the day. We had requested that Jake have his homecoming in the Greens Prairie ward (instead of the branch). Since it's closer to our house, it would be easier for friends to come and hear him speak and would provide more room for visitors. The other speaker was Eliza Roeth, giving her farewell talk as she was about to go on her mission. She and Jake are friends and she and her family came to our house when Jake opened his mission call. So it was a really neat meeting already and then with the added musical number that Cooper sang, it was extra special. We got several comments on it. Jake and Cooper were able to share their gifts, talents and testimonies.
Fri. 31st--Jake told us the day before that he needed to go to Florida to talk to his friend, Summer. She had just started a very competitive internship there and was really struggling. They connected in June when she found out he was struggling with an undiagnosed health issue, which she learned about from a College Station friend serving his mission in her area. She had health issues as well. And their long-distance friendship grew. He bought a ticket and planned out transportation with the train schedule, packed his backpack and got ready to leave for the Houston airport shortly after the kids came home from school. I had subbed all day and didn't know much about this trip at all except that he needed us to make a hotel reservation that he could pay for when he got there. He would be in West Palm Beach. Not cheap. Especially when the Super Bowl was that same weekend less than an hour away! Which he didn't know about.
As soon as I got home with the kids, Jake said he was leaving. I said okay and gathered everyone in prayer. Jake had to drive two hours to Houston in tempermental Veronica and quite frankly, I did not trust her. I prayed Jake would make his flight safely if that's what he needed to do.
*Jake left and I was finally able to unpack from the day and really saw the house for the first time since that morning. The kitchen was all clean.
I didn't get to bed until super late that night (Jared was at a conference in San Antonio), talking to Jake by text actually. He had made it to the airport (miraculous given his car situation) and arrived in Orlando around midnight or so, then had a six hour layover before getting his flight to Ft. Lauderdale before taking the train to West Palm Beach. And his friend didn't know he was coming! When I did pull back the covers on my own bed, I was met by a note just for me from Jake. After reading it, I sent a text that wished him the best on his quick little journey. Especially since his sleep would be all disrupted. In some ways, it would be a good test run for him to see what he can and can't do and how it feels to be up all night.
*The kids got their progress reports that day. This is Calvin's. 3 As and 2 Fs. Not just any F, either, but a 0%--in English. I guess on the bright side, he can only go up from there!
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