2021 Year in Review

Our year could probably be summed up in one sentence: A marriage, move, mission, and medical diagnoses—oh my!

I guess the prospect of Jake getting married and Cooper putting in his mission papers after high school graduation wasn’t enough on our plates--we decided to throw a family move in there for good measure. It’s been a wild year filled with lots of ups and plenty of heartbreaking downs. Even still, our faith and trust in the Savior and His plan haven’t wavered. We know He is mindful of each of us individually. And for that reason, we have also seen many miracles, which would make our yearly one-liner more accurate by saying:

 A marriage, move, mission, medical diagnoses, and many miracles—Oh my!

Jared (48)—Continued working on the Covid frontlines in the College Station urgent care as well as on the other side of the clinic with acute care needs. At the end of April, he was recruited by the CEO at Cogdell Memorial Hospital to work with his brother, Kevin, in Snyder, Texas at his current salary while receiving immediate, tax-free monthly allowances towards his student loans, a moving package, as well as a retirement package that matches 14% to our 7%. It was a no-brainer. They needed Jared in April, but he couldn’t get out there until after Jake got married in July. Working in internal medicine is a new focus for Jared, but he’s got a great relationship with his supervising physician (Kevin 😊) and he continues to do well. He fills in at the hospital walk-in clinic when he can (so far two weekends a month during high flu/covid seasons and Wednesday mornings). He enjoys being closer to his brother allowing them to fish, watch a football game, or grab lunch together as part of their normal schedules—and not built around a semi-annual or quarterly visit. 

Currently, Jared’s commute from work is a walk from one end of the hospital parking lot to the other as our rental home is across the street from the hospital. Unfortunately, he fractured the top of his foot in September somehow and had to drive for 8 weeks. Once we move into our newly renovated home, however, the commute will increase to a whole 3 minutes. But he can still come home for lunch and is home by 5pm, sometimes 4:30pm, which is a real treat! Jared spent the first half of the year serving in the Branch presidency in Caldwell and now he’s in the Elder’s Quorum presidency. He’s still saving his pennies to buy a fishing boat, but loves that he can use his brother’s in the meantime. This was the year he was finally able to mount the trophy large mouth bass he caught almost 10 years ago.

Jenn (44)—Was promoted to mother-in-law status! 

I continued working as an instructional assistant in Resource at River Bend Elementary and loved it. In fact, I saw myself there for the next ten years. And then, on the eve of my birthday, Jared told me about the job offer he had received. We never saw this coming—a job we couldn’t refuse in a small, Podunk west Texas town. But we always said we’d go where they’d help pay off our loans—and with this new opportunity, they should be paid off in about 5 years (instead of 10-15). The sheer volume of work and logistics that go with planning a wedding, trying to relocate your family, getting the house ready to put on the market, trying to sell your house and dealing with all those showings, putting an offer on a second house without being there to see it only for that to fall through after the inspection, sorting through and packing up all of your belongings, wrapping up the end of the school year for the kids, attending the temple with your second oldest for the first time, taking a previously planned family vacation a week before said wedding, cleaning the entire house.…was... A LOT!! And I’m enormously grateful that special kind of crazy is behind me now. I was pretty devastated about having to start all over again as a sub in the schools in Snyder. But I jumped in with two feet and started subbing the week school began. At the beginning of September, I was nabbed for a 6-week maternity leave job at JJ’s school in Ira and loved it. The elementary teachers scooped me right up which meant so much to me. I continued to sub at Snyder High School and Ira and spent three weeks in November subbing in water aerobics for my friend while she was out having surgery. That was a fun experience! A week before Christmas break, I was asked to be a long-term sub beginning in January in the secondary wing of JJ’s school—teaching electives in 8th-12th grades, in subjects I know next to nothing about: Dollars & Sense; Principles of Art, A/V Technology; Visual Arts/Art History; Business, Marketing, and Finance; and Yearbook. It’s been a streeeeeeeeetch for me in more ways than one, but I've enjoyed working with these kids and hopefully they’ll be better for having been in my class for the semester. I’m serving in the Primary presidency in the branch, teaching on Sundays and leading Primary Activities every three months (when we aren't doing Sacrament Meeting only due to increased Covid numbers). Sometimes it's just JJ and his cousin, Korbin. Most of my "free" time is devoted to figuring out this new teaching curriculum, helping my kids in the hobbies they're involved in (like bowling, 4H, raising broiler chickens) and mentally preparing for a another move once our house is completed.

However, I recently completed my very first home improvement project all by myself from start to finish. And I'm pretty proud. We didn't mind the color of our brick fireplace, but after the walls were painted, we realized the brick color totally clashed with our paint choice. So I spent 22.5 hours (over five days) after Christmas prepping the brick and painting it because we knew there wasn't time (or money) to ask the contractors to do it. We are so pleased with how it turned out and are very blessed that the prompting to do it came to us when it did so that I had the time to devote to the project, especially before the carpet was installed.

Jake (22)—Started the year out single and ended it with a new wife! He and Trina Bush got engaged on March 10^th and were married on July 1^st in the Houston Texas Temple. 

As weddings in the middle of a Texas summer go, it was beautiful, of course, and super HOT even at 10am. It was also low key—and for those who had an impending move, we were super grateful for that. Jake is still attending BYU, focusing more on psychology with the hopes of taking it into criminology/forensics or international affairs.

He continues to work part time (about 30 hours) currently washing windows for a small business, but may just focus his energies entirely on school. Trina is attending BYU-I online and is studying family/marriage relations. She has a couple of jobs, and her favorite is working one-on-one with clients who have disabilities as she hopes to one day open a facility that will help and assist those with disabilities, as well. In this job, Trina gets to drive her clients around to different places on errands or outings. One day she got to go to the pet shop with a client. On another day she got to watch the new Spider Man movie! Trina is gentle, kind, and has such a pure heart. Much like our Karcyn. She’s also very calm and cool under pressure. Jake ended up in the ER two days before our family vacation in June. He was non-responsive and his medical state could have really caused a lot of panic. But Trina was the paragon of composure. Nothing rattled her. I was very impressed. They are a wonderful couple. We love our new addition to the family and Karcyn loves having another sister!

Cooper (19)—Started out the year as a senior ready to graduate high school and ended it as Elder Hough, a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We weren’t sure how this year was going to go for Cooper. It’s been a rough one. He was also diagnosed with narcolepsy at the end of March. And for a time, the cocktail of meds he was on seemed to be working. He was able to attend the temple for the first time with our family and extended friends in June and submitted his mission paperwork shortly after. He was called to labor as a service missionary in the Lubbock Texas Stake, beginning October 25^th. But since starting his mission, his meds are no longer doing their job effectively, which means if he sleeps at all, he’s getting fragmented sleep each night, at best, and clearly struggles with excessive daytime sleepiness, yet often can’t sleep at night. It's a vicious zombie cycle. Fortunately, the service mission is extremely flexible and designed to work with these issues. Even still, Cooper has a hard time feeling successful as a missionary when he is unable to fulfill assignments. We get that. But being a service missionary is all about doing what you can. Cooper came to my school recently and helped the juniors film a script for a video contest. It was exactly the help we needed, it was right up his alley, and it was service. The stake president (mission president) and I felt prompted, without the other knowing, to speak to him about possibly volunteering at the bowling alley in Lubbock where our kids do league. I wasn’t sure that would even be allowed because it’s not a non-profit organization. President McCombs had the exact same impression. Technically, service is usually restricted to non-profit organizations, but he’s the mission president and can sign off on whatever he feels would be best for the missionary and brought it up with Cooper’s mission leaders. Hopefully, we can get Cooper to a point where he has enough energy and motivation to help coach the high school bowling teams once a week. It's been a wild and frustrating health journey thus far. No matter what, Cooper is a warrior in our eyes! Even though a severe storm kept Cooper from the actual ceremony, he graduated from high school with a 3.4 GPA, despite slogging through his junior and senior years. 

A big moment for him this year was qualifying for the PBA Jonesboro Open and the incredible opportunity to bowl with his idols. He even shared lanes with Kyle Troup who recently won the title of PBA player of the year.

Cooper was also asked to film for a YouTube channel owned by a few of the bowlers. I’m not sure the guy who asked Cooper to record expected him to be as experienced in filming as Cooper is, but that was really fun for our filming pro. Cooper came in 117^th out of 117 at the tournament. But he only began bowling without any coaching or lessons less than 3 years before. He held his own and had a ton of strikes, spares, and even picked up some tough splits. It was a "win" that he was even at the tournament. Lots of great moments, including young boys asking him for his autograph. 😊  Because there are virtually no 4-bedroom homes in Snyder that are under $350,000 or that aren’t next door to suspected drug dealers, we were only able to purchase a small 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. The bad news: Cooper can’t live with us. The good news: Cooper lives with Grandma Hough, just two streets down from the house we bought. It’s sad we can’t even house all of our children, but I’m happy Cooper can be on his own a bit and help out Karole when she needs it. We never know when he is going to show up at our house, so I always keep it stocked with flour tortillas, spicy refried beans, and plenty of Tapatio just for Elder Hough.

Karcyn (15)—She was very supportive of our move to Snyder, but has surprisingly become more introverted, quiet, and reflective this past year. She is the same age I was when I moved from Georgia to Alaska, so I can appreciate some of what she's going through. We're grateful for her positivity, but the move has certainly weighed on her. She misses her friends and the familiarity, yet she’s making new ones and finding her place.

As a sophomore, she is enrolled in all honors classes and oscillates between straight As or all As and a B. Which is doubly impressive because this year she has started showing signs of excessive daytime sleepiness too, and finds herself nodding off in some classes, despite sleeping 8-9 hours each night. We’re not sure what kind of sleep she’s getting and sometimes she suffers from restless legs. So, it looks like a sleep study is on the horizon for her, as well. Karcyn attends seminary by zoom on Tuesday nights. She is also embracing FFA a little more. She joined the Ag(riculture) Advocacy UIL team and they earned 2^nd place at district. She also raised 10 broiler chicks and recently showed them at her very first Scurry County stock show. Out of a dozen or more youth, she placed 7^th! Not bad for our city girl. It was quite the experience. Fortunately, there is an FFA barn that we can use since we are renting and don’t have a chicken coop. All ten chickens (which were brought here from Texas A&M in College Station) survived until two days before the show, when we lost one. The morning of the show, we found another had died. Apparently, some chicks die that first night and it’s rare not to lose at least one. 

Just this past week, Karcyn and her peers "processed" the chickens. This involved breaking their necks and skinning them. Karcyn was at the skinning station. After the chickens were dead and drained of blood, she was responsible for cutting the leg at the knee joint, breaking the elbow and cutting the wings off of the disconnected joint, and then cutting through the skin to pull it off with the feathers. I was almost afraid to hear how it went for her, but was blown away when she told me she jumped right in and processed four chickens all by herself. She didn't balk; she didn't cry; she didn't hesitate. This all coming from the girl who used to name everything from the insects she found to the fish she caught. :) She rocked this unique experience and dare I say, is the bravest chicken processor in our family. I suspect Karcyn will try showing chickens again next year to see if she can improve her placement. Before moving, Karcyn had begun babysitting in College Station and was sad to see that side job come to an end. She is continuing with piano lessons, writing/illustrating her own made-up stories and comic strips, and even got her driver’s permit!

Karcyn was able to attend her first youth conference just a couple weeks after moving to Snyder with her cousins Garrett and Olivia. They stayed at the West Texas A&M campus in Canyon and discovered she really likes dancing! 😊 She was uninhibited on the dance floor and was asked to dance by a few young men each night. Karcyn met one of her new besties at Girls Camp. Ashley lives almost two hours away in Seminole, Texas, so she and Karcyn FaceTime each other a lot! Karcyn finally got her March birthday ear piercing IOU done after Thanksgiving, but her left ear got infected so we took the earring out to let it heal. She was lopsided for a couple of months until we could get it pierced again. It appears Karcyn may have topped out at her tallest height of 5 feet. Despite continuing a rigid gluten-free diet, she didn’t grow at all this past year. Much to her dismay.

Calvin (13)—Has had quite the year, too. In January, he was diagnosed with ADD and began medication for that. While we saw a significant change in the way he behaved at home and treated family members, his grades were still suffering. In June, he underwent an evaluation with the psychology department at Texas A&M and in September we learned that he has ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) which explains his school performance, or lack of. The only treatment for ODD is intense therapy, so we’ve been meeting with a Latter-day Saint counselor over zoom since the beginning of November, for which we are most grateful. It will be a long road, but we’ve seen some good changes. Despite failing 7^th grade advanced math and 7^th grade English the entire school year (because he refused to do the assignments), Calvin mastered the 8^th grade math STAAR test and the 7^th grade writing test. Even though there are no advanced classes offered at Snyder Jr. High currently, his new principal saw the need for Calvin to be in algebra and not repeat 8^th grade math since he already mastered the state test. Mr. Rush arranged it so that an administrator drives Calvin to the high school for algebra M,W, F (for their block classes) and picks him up 90 minutes later to take him back to the junior high. I’m so grateful for the way they are ministering to Calvin’s needs. Calvin was all prepared to play tennis in the mornings and do football in the afternoons, but then he learned football practice is also in the mornings. He really wanted to try football, so he was a “walk on” player and ended up on the B team’s defense, but he loved it! Instead of going to tennis in football’s “off season,” Calvin decided to lift weights and get even stronger so he can play football again in high school. Calvin has grown six inches or more this year--and has overtaken me just since Jake's wedding in July. He is TALL for our family! 

Calvin has also embraced our move with a great attitude and was excited for a new beginning with his cousins nearby. He enjoys being an 8^th grader with his cousin, Olivia. Calvin’s older cousin, Emma, is his science teacher 😉 and he helps his oldest cousin, James (a 7^th grade math teacher) tutor students after school on Wednesdays. Calvin just made the honor choir (an after-school activity) and is talking about auditioning for the school musical in the spring. Calvin is also very much in love with bowling. There is no bowling alley in Snyder. Consequently we drive 3 hours round trip, every Saturday morning, so that he and JJ can participate in a bowling league. The owner of the bowling alley, Bill Whitewood, a bronze level coach, can see the great potential in Calvin as a bowler and has worked with him extensively to help Calvin improve his two-handed game. Calvin’s average is currently 146. His highest league score is 209. His highest practice score is 225. We are excited to see what might come of this since Calvin just started bowling in a league 18 months ago. He qualified for the Pepsi Tournament in Ft. Worth in March and even State in June. However, Jared is taking Jake and Calvin on a boys fishing trip in Minnesota during the state bowling tournament so he won’t be able to participate this year. Calvin began taking piano lessons this fall (he has a great ability to play by ear), he loves sleeping with the dog, he loves singing, reading for fun, and eating Whataburger. He is taking high school Spanish as an elective this year and with the exception of one class, maybe two, he has “straight As.” We did find one thing Calvin isn't good at...playing foosball against his cousins. He can't beat them--even when they're blindfolded. Haha!

Calvin still wants to be a game warden and actually got to meet three of them at a fishing event in Lubbock in August, one of whom was Drew Spencer, who stars in the series “Lone Star Law” on Animal Planet. It was pretty exciting!

JJ (10)—I think JJ would probably tell you it’s pretty tough being the youngest child with all of your siblings either teenagers or adults. They get to do so many more things than you do, like watch PG-13 movies, go to the temple, have cell phones, stay up later, and go out with friends. But Jared and I keep telling JJ that his older siblings also had to wait to participate in all the things they’re doing now until they were certain ages. Plus, as the youngest, he’ll get a lot of perks that his siblings did not once they’re all out of the house and reminded him to just be patient. 😊 It was almost a dream come true for JJ to move to Snyder and live just around the block from his best cousin, Korbin. They walk or ride bikes to each other’s houses. They ride to and from school together every day. They play together after school. They sit with each other in church. JJ is in 4^th grade at Ira School and Korbin is in 5^th grade, but they still get to play at recess and have PE together.

In fact, we’ve even had to limit some of their time together to make sure they're not getting too much of a good thing. Haha! JJ finished out 3^rd grade in College Station at one of the best schools with a team of loving and dynamic teachers and administrators. Starting at a new school in a new town where you’re one of only twenty 4^th graders coming in as a transfer student from another school district nearby was a BIG change. The “worst” part for JJ, other than missing his friends from our street—was having to write everything in cursive. I don’t know if he even learned cursive in CS, but he had to learn pretty fast here and now he writes beautifully (when he has to). It slowed him down a bit and was hard with spelling tests in the beginning. But he’s found his way with that and he’s making a few friends. His new school also requires you to accumulate points with the Accelerated Reader program. JJ is not fond of reading, at all. But he read his very first chapter book within the first month of fourth grade and though it’s still not his favorite thing to do (at least not yet, I hope), he’s starting to read more. In fact, he was the top student in his whole class with the most AR points as of December. JJ decided to try bowling in a league for the first time this school year. He started bowling one-handed with pretty good success, then decided to switch to two-handed bowling like his brothers in the middle of the season, essentially starting all over. This has caused his average to go down quite a bit. But he’s adamant about doing it two-handed and has even started saving his money to buy his very own bowling ball. JJ loves Legos, Bey Blades, Yu Gi Oh, Pokemon, writing stories with Karcyn, playing with and doing all sorts of things with Korbin, playing on our new Nintendo Switch, and his latest achievement: selling rocks. Instead of lemonade, JJ set up a rock stand and the first hour, JJ and Korbin made $34! After school on the second day, JJ made $10 and on the third day, he got $8. I didn’t realize we had a budding entrepreneur in the family. JJ is still sporting his Covid mullet almost two years later and still only eats about a handful of things, none of which includes meat.

Rolo (15 months)—It was a special year because we got to experience it with our new five-month-old Pomeranian. Rolo is a such a fun addition to our family. We decided to bell train him so that he’ll ring some bells by the door to let us know when he needs to go potty. He was trained within the first week. That said, because he is smart, he now does what my sister, Kelly, has dubbed as “bell abuse.” If he wants attention, he’ll ring those bells with great vigor and then stare you down. It’s pretty funny. Unless you’re trying to get something done and he keeps ringing the bells over and over. We’ve been known to put the bells up out of his reach when we are certain he has an empty bladder and colon. Rolo loves to chew on toys, and shoes, and pencils. He hasn’t managed to chew on phone or computer cords, for which we’re grateful. He will steal socks and other clothing items from your laundry piles. He’s also stolen the TV remotes and hidden them under our bed, otherwise known as Den #2. His first den is the crate. His favorite perch, if no one is around to snuggle with, is up on top of the recliner. He’ll even drag his stuffed animals up there with him. He has a beanie baby sized tiger and duck that he’s very protective of and Elder Hough recently taught him how to play fetch.

He will paw at his water bowl when it’s empty to communicate that he's thirsty and has an ear-licking fetish. Here are the nicknames he’s earned these past twelve months: Mom’s Shadow, Majestic Doggo, Furry Turd, Ear Muffs, Toothpicks, Prancer, Bubby, Mr. Fox, Cat Dog, Mr. Lick Lickety, Houdini, Loki, Fuzzy Butt, Dumb Dog, Snot Face, Poo-sabi, Womp Rat, Furry Caterpillar, & Genghis Pom. As you can see below, he’s adjusted pretty well to living in the rental.

However, Rolo did manage to escape a few times under a couple of small broken fence slats in the backyard that we thought were blocked with big rocks. The previous renters had big dogs that dug holes, so we’re grateful nothing happened to him during any of these escapades. He did catch his leg on one of the posts and got scratched up pretty good which landed him at the vet. His little furry body shook visibly the entire drive there, at the vet, and all the way home. He never tried escaping after that. Rolo is a wonderful guard dog…almost too good. If he hears a doorbell on the TV, anything resembling a knock at the door, or even a questionable noise outside, he’s at the front door barking up a storm and giving what-for. He definitely has a Napoleon complex, but also blows your mind with his great speed and agility. Jared said if he had more patience, he’d enter Rolo in an agility contest. If Rolo sees his harness, he gets super excited. He loves walks and knows what the word means. 😊 While Rolo is not fond of going to the vet, he is a doll for the groomer. Bananas are his candy! He can hear you pull a banana off the stem and open it up from the other room. We've learned that if you're going to eat a banana in this house, you'll be sharing it with the pooch mooch. Rolo was 4 lbs. when we got him and now, he’s 6 lbs.--most of that fur--and we love him to pieces!

 

BIG EVENTS:

**The Snowpacolypse the middle of February--made for quite the memories. When compared to my friends in Alaska and Utah, we only got a dusting of snow, but it's a lot by south Texas standards. What you can't see is the string of five days of sub-freezing temperatures that caused rolling blackouts for long stretches of time. We never lost power, personally, which we are so grateful for. We believe it's only because we are on the same grid as the local fire department. However, we did we lose all water for a day or two, then we were on a boil notice for a couple days after that. Fortunately, because we follow the prophet, we had an ample supply of water storage to drink from and to use for washing. And because we could, we melted snow to flush our toilets. 

**Cooper receiving his endowment in the Houston Temple.

**Getting a much loved family history tour from Grandma Lee about her life growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma as we passed through on our way to Missouri.

**Going to Branson in June with Grandma and Grandpa Lee and having a BLAST!! We saw the illusionist REZA again and got backstage passes to meet him and tour his bus; we saw SIX; and we went boating/tubing on Table Rock Lake.

**Growing our family with the sealing of Jake and Trina in the Houston Temple on July 1st. 

**Moving to Snyder after living in College Station for seven years and buying a 50 year old house to completely renovate. Demo began the middle of September....we're almost there!

**Cooper's mission call to the Texas Lubbock Service Mission Area. 

**Spending Thanksgiving with all of Jared's siblings and all the grandkids, minus Jake and Trina. 

 

**Spending the Christmas season doing fun activities with our cousins AND spending the week of Christmas with all of our kids together!