March on

March 6, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

How's it going? Seems like I do this every week, but I just got off the phone with Sean. He usually calls me every Sunday evening. He's doing well, did well on his mid-terms and is looking for a new place to stay in the fall. He and his roommates want something different, cheaper and most likely a house. The Cameron's (Kelly and Melanie) want to set him up with their niece who just returned from a mission. Sean agreed to the set-up. Woo-hoo.

We had low country boil tonight and it tasted good. I can't believe how many shrimp and sausage the little girls ate. They loved it---of course. Then we watched family movies and we all had good laughs. We watched the one when we went to pick up Kirk from his mission, the one where we go to California for Maria's wedding and the one where Kirk and Sean are 3 and 1 years old.

This week went by pretty fast. March is in full swing. I had my monthly ppi with Pres. Stafford. We discussed ward conferences and the single adults of our stake. We also had to live through the news that one of BYU's starters got kicked off the team for honor code violations. We were in shock. They had just received the news that they were ranked #3 in the nation and then this blow. The next day they had to play New Mexico at home and it was a sad, sad game. They lost. But luckily yesterday they redeemed themselves when they played Wyoming for their last game and won it 102-68. It was a beautiful blowout. It will be interesting now to see where they rank, but ESPN and all the sports networks, USAtoday, etc have been commenting, writing and reporting on what happened. For the most part, people are very impressed that BYU would stick to it's principles even with so much on the line in the basketball world. Honor seems to be the latest buzz word in all these articles. So I thought I should make some t-shirts and sell them that have BYU's colors and say "Know honor, know BYU" Don't you think that's great. Ok, so you've probably thought I've lost it, but I think they'd be a big seller.

Also in basketball, Mountain View(isn't that McDermott's school?) won the state championship against Centennial.

Tomorrow Leah starts her first lacrosse practice. She's very excited. Nikki is not going to play this year because of her scheduling conficts, but I actually think it will be best for her to wait until she's 11 like Leah. Kristina is in full swing with the high school team and loves it. She considers it a personal victory that she didn't throw up after the first practice like some of the other girls.

I'm still pretty busy with typing patriarchal blessings. There's been a little run on them lately and I've been typing 3-4 each week. I've now typed over 500 blessings!

Monday was Dr. Suess's birthday which I'm sure you were fully aware of, so here's Nikki as Cindy Loo Hoo (once again). She loves being Cindy.

Dad is putting in more hours at work this month so he can take off the end of the month which is spring break. Looks like we will go to California for the week and see my family. Also last week Roxy got sick, stopped eating and was throwing up, so after a trip to the vet, found out she had some kind of virus and needed 2 days of IV fluids. After the first day, they let us take her home, but she started picking at the IV tubes which they left in her leg, so she had to wear the cone of shame. It was sad watching her run into things with that thing on. Even that didn't work too well though. Eddy chewed it off the first time, then Roxy managed to get it off her head 2 more times until we got smart and tied it to her collar. Then we realized she couldn't fit in her kennel with it, so at night I took it off. The next day she was back in to the vet for more fluids and today she seems pretty much back to normal.

We got a letter from your mission president this week too. It explained the whole facebook assignment and then he sent an attachment which was what you guys got that has all the rules and procedures for it. It was really interesting. I sent a copy to our stake presidency just so they could read through it and know what's going on. They've all been asked to establish a facebook account by the area seventy. Pres. Stafford is dragging his feet about this assignment. Technology is moving so quickly these days. The church has been doing an incredible job keeping up with all the resources and integrating them into every part of what we do. We've all been asked to make a profile on Mormon.org and to add several links to new websites which the church has recently established to our own websites, blogs, etc. I've added a few, including yours on to my blog. It's amazing how much information the church has been getting out there now. It's wonderful to be part of this, but it's also scary to see how much anti-mormon stuff is out there. Opposition in all things...

Jan and I are starting to get ready to go to spring quilt market in SLC in May. She's been feeling better and wants me to go with her like I have in the past. I'm looking forward to it and she has lots of new patterns to present. I love that it's in SLC. Makes it easy for both of us.

Jan Leifson is our new choir director in the ward. She bribes us to come out by making treats each week. So far, it's working quite well. The word is spreading. We're such a simple people. We're working on a nice arrangement of I stand All Amazed and If I Could Hie to Kolob. But after I sing for just one hour, my voice goes hoarse and it actually hurts to talk or sing. It's really aggravating, so dad says I need to get into an ENT to get my throat checked out. I also need to get into the hand doctor because my finger still has not healed completely and still hurts whenever I accidentally bump it or use it. I think I've been patient long enough with it. So I may have to break down and make some appointments for myself, not my favorite thing to do.

How was the work this week for you? How is the zone leader calling coming along? Is it something you enjoy? It was great to see the picture of Thomas after his baptism. Have you been back to teach Ifeanyi? What kind of name is that?

Also, did you get much flooding in your area? I hope the rains have subsided now. We are enjoying nice almost spring weather again. It feels so good. I hope you are enjoying full, hard-worked days. They are the best. It's something you should always remember in life, the great feeling it is to work hard each day especially when you are working hard at making others happy. Always a good night's sleep after days like that.

We all love you very much! Seeing you in the family movies made us laugh, made us miss you, but also made us proud of you. You're a great son, brother, grandson, nephew, and cousin.

love always,

mom

xxoo