Welcome Fall

Dear Michael,

What a great letter this week! I’m glad you are having such success with your companions. It sounds like you have a really good thing going, and they are ready and willing to work hard. What a fun opportunity to train them both. That’s excellent that you had so many friends attend church with you, and also that you are able to attend the temple with Jenny to do baptisms for her family. What a special experience that must be for her. Yay for pumpkin parties with funny friends! Yay for biking up steep hills and not dying! Yay for interesting weather! Boo for middle-of the-night fire alarms! (We’ve got experience with this one.) Yay for spicy food and decent burritos! Yay for people who are earnestly seeking the gospel and doing their best to liken scriptures. I am so glad you are having this opportunity to meet these amazing people from different walks of life. I’m thrilled to see you learning and stretching yourself. Soak it all in!

Life is pressing on here. Some things are good. Some things are not. 

1. Halloween was a bit crazy this year. We started carving pumpkins on Sunday, but we forgot about out tithing settlement appointment, so we had to rush out the door before we were finished, and then we went to grandma’s for dinner. So some jack-o-lanterns had to be finished on Monday. Dax and Zeke came over in the morning to play with Tate, and then we went to Endeavour to watch the Halloween parade. Dad had two big deals closing on Monday, and another deadline that dropped on him last minute, so he wasn’t able to get out of the office as early as he wanted. (He’s being dumped on right now). The rest of us had dinner at the Hyde’s potluck party, and then the littles went trick-or-treating with the Scott’s, and I drove the older kids around. Ethan decided that the Tyler’s Way neighborhood would be a good place to trick-or-treat, so I dropped him and his friends off there. They called me to pick them up about 90 minutes later, and their pillow cases were nearly full! Ethan had over 18 pounds by the end of the night! When Dad got home he went out with Jett and Tate and they stayed out too late for us to make it over to Great Nana’s for donuts. (Darn!) I was looking forward to those! Because it was the last day of the term, Ty had a bunch of schoolwork to complete, so he was home studying all afternoon. He finally went out with friends around 8:00. It was a late night for all, and everyone (except Dad) enjoyed a sleep-in the next day.

2. BYU’s early application deadline was November 1st. So on top of end-of-term, Ty had to write a bunch of essays for his application. He stayed up very late on Sunday trying to get them done. And then he did homework all day Monday, and  worked all afternoon Tuesday on his essays. Around 4:30 Ty was having trouble accessing his application. I suggested he call BYU before offices closed at 5:00 to get the issue resolved. Sure enough, BYU’s servers went down and the deadline was extended to Friday at midnight. So naturally Ty planned to go to the away football game and scheduled a date for Friday night. I know you remember the feeling of working right up until the deadline with that application! Of course there was a hiccup or two at the very last minute and Ty’s application missed the deadline by 1 minute. He also discovered he had formatted one of his essays incorrectly. So we have to call on Monday and find out if his application was accepted on time. If not, he will withdraw it and continue to work on improving his essays until the later deadline.

3. So after Ty cooled down, we watched a TED talk together and laughed our heads off. The topic was “Procrastination,” and it was spot on!

4. Friday afternoon was the semi-finals for football. We played at American Fork, and won! Surprisingly, Farmington killed them. The final score was 19-3. So looks like we’ve got another week of football to look forward to!

5. The Staples family came to visit us this weekend. Tanner took his board exam on Friday, but on Saturday night we got to play Quacks together, and the little kids got to play. Randomly, both Dana and I pulled out a crown because of sticky candy this weekend! I hope you take very good care of your teeth! Unfortunately you don’t have good genes in that category.

6. On Saturday Dad made an appointment for us to do baptisms for the dead. Dana came along and brought all of the names. She has been working hard on family history and had a whole stack for us to work on. She also told us some interesting stories about our ancestors—including the man who is not only our great-great grandfather, but our great-great-great grandfather!

7. We also had family pictures on Saturday. We were sitting in the waiting room and the boys commented on the fact that YOU weren’t with us for pictures. We all miss you! The photographer was terrible, and the photos were so bad that I couldn’t even find one decent picture for our Christmas cards. So I made everyone come back in from the car and do a re-take. Still didn’t get a fantastic photo, but what can you do?

8. Jett had his first basketball game on Saturday morning. Dad is the coach! The kids are still learning not to travel, so dad gave the homework assignment to dribble for 15 minutes a day. Blake was the referee for the game.

9. I’m having a really hard time getting up and going in the morning. I’m also having a had time finding a consistent time to exercise now that Tate is doing afternoon preschool.  So I’ve decided to join EOS and try to take some morning classes. I’m hoping it will get me out the door earlier in the morning, and also hoping Tate likes playing with the kids at the gym. Wish me luck! This is my first gym membership! Dad is THRILLED about paying another subscription fee. 

10. Ethan hurt his knee playing basketball again this week. It’s all swollen and he’s using a crutch to walk again. Such a bummer. I’m trying to get him back in to see Dr Tyson so we can figure out if he needs more rest and rehab, or if he needs surgery. He’s pretty frustrated.

Well, that’s all I’ve got. I hope you have a fantastic week and are enjoying all of that Halloween candy!

Love you,
Mom