January is Finally over!

Hey there! I hope you have had a great week! I’m feeling the January blahs, and feeling jealous of the warm weather where you are. I’m looking forward to hearing what you have been up to. Did the baptism go as planned? Are you getting excited about transfer info? Did you reschedule your hike? 

I’m rejoicing that January is over because we are inching towards spring and blue skies. We had a good week---

1. This week Tate got to celebrate his 100th day at school by dressing up like a 100-year-old. Tate found a suit that was a little too big, and a red bow tie to wear. I drew wrinkles on his face and put hairspray and baby powder in his hair to make it look white. He looked absolutely adorable!
2. Michael told me about an app that sends you new vocabulary words to learn. I thought I should start out with intermediate words, but I knew all of the words it was sending me, so I increased it to advanced. I still know most of the words, and that makes me feel happy!
3. Michael ran into Devin Brenchley last week and they decided to text Ben Halladay and go out to lunch together. He said he had a really good time catching up with them. He also told me that he remembers both Ben’s and Devin’s basements, but has no memory of our old basement. Isn’t that weird?
4. Also Mike—he seems to be dating someone named Michelle. They went to the symphony last night. More details when I get them!
5. Grandma decided she wanted to talk to her brother Bob about replacing the carpet in her basement sometime. He said great, how about next week? And so grandma went out and picked new flooring and Bob showed up to install it.  And that seems like the quickest makeover project I’ve ever heard of! I’m excited to go over and see it!
6. Aunt Tiffany took Ella to Las Vegas for volleyball and then got super sick with a kidney stone. Ella (!) ended up driving her to the hospital, and Matt had to drive all the way from Utah to go be with them. That was on Thursday night, and they are still in Las Vegas, so I’m guessing she still hasn’t passed the stone and/or been cleared to travel. Poor Tiffany!
7. Natalie went through the temple for the first time on Friday night and we were able to be there. Even Great Nana came! It was a great night.  The temple ceremony is fundamentally the same as when I went through the first time. But there have been a lot of changes in the past 5 years or so, and the film is different every time I go now. It’s strange because I used to have the whole thing memorized and it didn’t change at all for a long time. And now it seems like President Nelson wakes up every morning and calls whoever is over the temples and makes daily tweaks. Overall I think it is a much better experience.
8. Braden Bramhall got baptized yesterday and that was a nice day as well. Braden is such a sweet boy, and Gianinna made an amazing lunch for us all.
9. We have morning church now. It’s been a really long time! Our family was assigned to help put up chairs this morning at 8:15. And now I think I need a nap.
10. This was another wild week in the news. I’ll spare you all of the details, but Trump is legit crazy. He’s firing anyone he suspects may not be 100% loyal to him, and he has sent around Elon Musk to lock government employees out of their programs and take down websites. He bombed Somalia and placed tariffs on Mexica, Canada, and China. On Wednesday there was a terrible plane crash in Washington DC that killed 67 people. Somehow a military helicopter collided with a passenger plane, and the debris all fell into the river below. No survivors. Oh gosh, this is going to be a long 4 years. And I’ve got to stop reading the news!

Love you, xoxoxo, Mom