post festivities

Nov. 28, 2010
Dear Elder Alex,
Well, this Thanksgiving won't go down as one of the top ten, that's for sure. Here's what happened in a nutshell. Kirk came home last Saturday from Rexburg. We got your letter on Monday and it was so great. I'm glad you're staying with Elder Jolley. Don't let him get too trunky on you. I'm hoping to hear good news about Jessica, that she got baptized, etc. We've been praying for her and her family. Can't wait to hear what happened over the weekend for you.

Then on Monday Sean came home. It kept getting colder and little bursts of snow started to fall from the skies. Sean said things got bad around Twin Falls but it started snowing here Monday night and didn't let up until Tuesday. But just because it let up here didn't mean it was good down in Utah. In fact, they got a full blown blizzard with all the warnings to stay home. Steve and Carolina and gang started up here on Tuesday hoping to beat the bad weather. Allen and Lisa left St. George also on Tuesday morning hoping to make it to Provo and spend the night, then come to Idaho the next day. Steve calls me from Tremonton asking what the road reports say. He says there are signs everywhere saying that the roads are closed up ahead, but of course he decides to try and come through anyway. We look up the reports and can see that sure enough the roads are closed. Steve calls from Snowville where they are caught in a horrible white out blizzard. They are told to turn around and so they slowly work their way south again. Laura is very scared in the car and so are Dakota and Kassie. When they finally get through the pass, they stop in Brigham City at a place to get some hot chocolate and try to relax after all the tension. By the time they get back in their car, there's a blizzard in Brigham City and it's moving south. It now takes them hours to get back home driving in a horrible conditions the entire way. When they get home, Allen and Lisa are there and Allen is huddled in front of the fire with the chills. He's sick. Steve calls me and says they are so wiped out from this adventure that there's no way anyone wants to get back in the car on Wednesday and try it again, plus Allen is not feeling well at all. I can't tell you how sad that made all of us.

On Wednesday morning we went down to the Center on the Grove to watch Nikki perform with her honor choir from Eagle Elementary. We walked around afterwards to see the festival of the trees, then we walked around downtown Boise for a bit, but it was very cold.


I made lots of calls on Wednesday to friends to come to our pie night that night, so that was fun. But it just wasn't the same. Then we asked the Hugentobler's to come to Thanksgiving on Thursday. It was fun having them here, but again it just wasn't the same. Steve called me early Wednesday evening asking if we were getting ready for pie night and said he was so depressed, that they were just walking around the house saying "This isn't Thanksgiving." I watched a TV show "The Middle" that night and their expected family wasn't able to make it for Thanksgiving either so the mom, who was very sad, said, "It's just not right, not having family come for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving without family is just overeating!" I laughed so hard at that because that's pretty much how I felt.

On Thursday when I was cooking, Carolina texted me and wanted to know what I was making, etc. So we pretended for a few minutes that we were together. We exchanged pictures of our small tables of greed presents and moaned. We thought about doing it together over skype. haha We had tons of food and Carolina had to scramble to go out and buy everything for dinner. We even ate leftovers tonight for dinner. I sent 2 pies home with Kirk and I'll send another 2 home with Sean tomorrow.

To top off the sorrow of the weekend, BSU lost to Reno in overtime where Brotzman missed 2 field goals. The game ended at midnight and I couldn't get to sleep until 4am. Same with dad. Then the next day we decided to watch the BYU/Utah game hoping to get a little good cheer if BYU would beat them. They were ahead the whole game until the very end where it came down to a field goal once again. A field goal would have won the game for them with 4 seconds to go and they were well within kicking distance, but NO of course his kick was blocked and Utah won the game. So once again it was a downer. I called Steve immediately afterward and told him to never miss coming up here again because it set off a whole vibe of bad luck.

Of course, it was nice having friends and family here with us which I love. Jared and Kendra have been spending a lot of time here too. In fact, they're here right now putting on a movie for their little girl Jodi. They just found out tonight that Jodi's father will let her be sealed to Jared the same day they get sealed in the temple. They are so happy about that. Also today at church we got to hear the reports from Dalton and Preston. They were both excellent talks. Dalton talked about faith and how much his faith grew on his mission and gave stories from his mission about that. Then Preston talked about repentance and the atonement and how so many people were able to change their lives on his mission.

Just finished playing a quick game of Scattergories with Jared, Kendra, Sean and Dad. I was going to win but in the last round for some unknown reason I saw the category heroes and even though the letter was "C", I saw heroes and wrote down Hulk Hogan and then went on to write all my words starting with "H". I feel jipped of a good game! Oh well, it's late and things are not working, but I had awesome words starting with "H".

We're busy this weekend working on your next box. We're having a lot of fun with it. Also, I ran into the Borup's at the movies over the weekend and they were asking about you and want to start getting your letters. So I sent your last few and Sis. Borup and Chelsea wrote back saying how fun it was to read your letters. They said they'll write you.

We went to Aaron Anderson's reception on Saturday. Lauren Frame was asking about you and said to say hi. We saw the Goodwin's there and talked more about your mission. Jamie went to the temple last week and is very anxious to get out there. Nigel's roommate went to your mission and was the AP when Elder Jolley first came out. His name is Eric Call and he spoke very fondly of Elder Jolley. He said he remembers that he knew every type of cow there was and that he was a hard worker and very energetic. It's fun hearing more things about your mission from guys who have gone there. They all speak very fondly of it.

I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. I know the Bishop there probably treated you great and I wasn't worried about you at all. I hope your other investigators are moving forward especially Jessica's sister Samantha. I heard once, When you save a woman, you save an entire generation.

Well, it's back to normal around here this next week. The girls are back in school, the boys are back to college, dad's back to work, I have blessings to type, RS meetings to attend, presidents to orient, one funeral to attend, a PPI with Pres. Stafford, etc, etc. Life is good and full. Which reminds me, if you see any families or people there who might have a need for something during the holidays, let us know. Doesn't have to be something big, but we can do a little something to lift someone's spirits or help be a secret santa. Just keep us in mind.

Have a faith-filled week.
love you,
mom
xoxooxxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxooxooxo