Life from Off the Face of the Earth

Yes, it's not just you. We sort of feel like we actually HAVE fallen off the face of the earth. Here's where we've been:

Wyoming
Natalie and I traveled to Wyoming at the end of January to help my Mom while she had some surgery. We finally made it there after seven hours at the Spokane airport, an hour trapped in the plane on the runway and two canceled flights. All this courtesy of a certified pea-souper fog in Salt Lake.

Mom did great. When we walked into her hospital room the morning after surgery, she was packing, already dressed with her hair done and makeup on. She was anxious to get home. It was great to spend a little time with my sister Gayla, who flew out to stay with Mom when it was time for us to go home.

Natalie did very, very well on this trip. Better, in fact, that anyone could expect a 13 month-old to do. Airports, airplanes, hospital rooms, waiting rooms and hotel rooms are not meant to be child friendly. Nevertheless, she was always happy and very adaptable her circumstances, even on the flight home when she had a 102 degree fever. What a trooper.

Speaking of troopers . . . Brett stayed home and took care of the other four kids while I was away. He did great. It only took three days for him to lose the twitch and shudder he'd developed while I was away.

Brett's Work
Brett was able to take the kids that week because it was the first week he was home on furlough. The sluggish economy has hit Honeywell like it has many, many other businesses. Brett was off for three weeks. He worked last week and will work this week, but will be on furlough again for another five weeks after that.

So what has he done with so much time on his hands? He has helped a lot with the kids. He has done some projects around the house. He has extended a lot of callings as our ward tries to re-organize itself. He has taken up a new woodworking hobby that he's wanted to experiment with for a long time. He has also been training for a half marathon that he will run in two weeks. Probably not as leisurely a period as he might have imagined (hoped for?).

So what am I doing?
I am enjoying NOT being the Primary President. I was released while I was in Wyoming. With the end of the year stuff, changing ward boundaries and turning everything over to the new President, I'd probably spent around 100 hours on Primary in December and January, so the rest has felt good.

Sundays are still challenging. Mostly, if I'm really organized I do fine. So far we've been early for church every week with hair combed, dressed appropriately and with dinner in the crock pot. But no amount of organization can fix Sacrament Meeting. Cameron and Natalie are engaged in a war for my undivided attention with no peace talks in sight. I spend a lot of time trying to keep Natalie from swatting Cam and preventing Cam from pushing Natalie off my lap. Camille and Max are great helpers and do everything they can to make things better. Elise quietly takes care of herself and that is a wonderful thing.

I have enjoyed my time off, but as of today I am the new Activity Days leader. It will be fun to be with Camille for a little while. When she heard about my new calling, she said "Yeah!!" and gave me a hug. Maybe I'll even be in long enough to be with Elise in a couple of years.

Kiddie Highlights
Camille is on the Honor Roll and gets upset at the mere possibility of missing school. Max is competing on the Math is Cool team and playing cribbage. Elise is getting more confident in her reading and is very relieved that she hasn't been sent to the Principal's office. It is not as if she has ever even been close. She is very law-abiding and hates getting in trouble. Cameron is speaking more and is even beginning to potty train (Hallelujah Chorus plays). Natalie is everywhere and into everything. She loves to sneak into her older siblings' rooms and play with their things. Her favorite thing, however is when her sisters dress her up in varying outfits like a tutu with red sequined belt, metallic pink cape and gold paper crown and parade her around the house.

All in all, life is good and we are very grateful. All that we have is all that we need.

Love,
Kim and Brett