Busy Weekend

This week has been a busy one! We attended the county fair.

The boys went to fly the airplane computer simulator and the model trains.

Wendy went and looked at the photography and sewing projects while I stayed with the boys.

Wendy pruned our citrus trees. Since we've moved in and planted the trees, they haven't been pruned.

Citrus don't have to be pruned every year. She took off about 1/2 of the branches on one tree.

She found a quail's nest under a different one.

 

On Thursday night Wendy and I participated in our first official Foster Care Class. We learned that if we become Foster Care Parents, we are not allowed to acknowledge that the children are foster care children, so we need to tell people now that it might happen.

After the class, Wendy headed north to start her weekend getaway with her former college room mates in Salt Lake.

They went to Red Butte Gardens, City Creek, and talked late into the night each night they were together.

She came home and fell asleep immediately. It was the first time since Underfoot was born that she left me and the boys for a night away from us.

(I've taken the boys camping with her, but this was the first time the trip was for her.)

On Friday I got the boys off to school, a friend picked them up after school, and picked them up after work. We had dinner and got ready for bed. On Friday night I had a hard time going to sleep. Wendy has said that she has a hard time sleeping when I'm away.

Saturday we had fun. I let the boys play on the computer and watch movies while I played Conflict of Heroes with some friends. They left in the afternoon. The boys and I decided to stay home for the evening. We switched gears and I worked on the Prius. I changed out the front shocks and the lower control arms. My hands are all cut up. I didn't finish until late in the evening. The car rides better, but it needs an alignment.

I gave a talk today in church. The last time I spoke was about a year ago when Wendy didn't have a voice to give her talk, so I was her voice. That last time was nice because I just had to give it, I didn't have to prepare it. Today's talk was on faith, empathy, and love. It centered on the parable of the sower. In that parable Jesus talks about the different types of ground. The ah ha moment for me was when I realized that the ground can be improved, amended, enriched. We are able to influence the condition of the ground. We can choose to allow thorns to grow or not. We can choose to allow rocks to remain or not. Everything is a choice.

 

Be well.

MIA Return.

We've gone MIA in the past month and half.

Over the last 6 weeks, we've had Spring Break, Easter,

a Flat Stanley visitor,

Great Paper Airplane Contest,

LDS General Conference,

started swim team practices, finished as a couple a few really good books, and started classes to be licensed as a foster family.

In effort to not write a saga, I'll hit a few of the high points. We should share some of our low points too but that won't be happening today.

Spring Break: We made a list of the things we wanted to do - swim lessons, old movies like the Apple Dumpling Gang, practice different sports,

Flat Stanley touring to a science museum and the desert, and Easter camp. As usual we planned more than we could do. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day,

Dairy Queen's birthday with a free ice cream cone,

and attended Carmina Burana.

Easter: We spent the week learning about Holy Week.

In the middle of the week, the boys hosted an Easter camp for their friends. We condensed Holy Week into 2 days with different activities. They really liked dying eggs. A big shout out to Heather Lotti for being another adult. She is awesome!

For the first time ever our family held an egg hunt per request of the boys. They were so happy with it. They even got new outfits for Easter.

Books: Sweetheart and I have read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Rising Strong by Brené Brown. The conversations the topics have provided have been stimulating and helpful in problem solving around our home. We liked them so much we wanted to share it with you.
 
Great Paper Airplane Contest: For the last 2 years, Underfoot has participated in the contest. This was Hurricane's first year. They were SO EXCITED! Hurricane threw his plane well enough to proceed to the next round.

We went and checked out the rest of the museum. Underfoot especially liked the Space portion.

After Hurricane proceeded and Underfoot didn't; Underfoot felt sad naturally. Sweetheart pulled Underfoot aside and talked about how it is hard to watch others succeed when we don't. He continued by saying the hardest part is to be happy for others when it is something we want so desperately. Sweetheart used the example of us wanting more children and to watch our friends continue to have children. Underfoot understood because he has also expressed sadness about wanting more siblings. We are happy for our friends but wonder at times what we could have done differently or wanting to understand God's plan in our experiences.

Foster Care: We have not had much success with the adoption process. We've reached out to through an online outreach service that will be closing at the end of April. Other avenues we have researched and pursued have not work out as well. Another option to our family is foster care. We have high hopes that we will still be able to adopt. The agency we've chosen requires 12 weeks of courses with the inclusion of another home study and background checks. We understand that foster care is not adoption. We also recognize that foster care has the potential to turn into adoption. This might be one of the high-low points for us. We have such hope but aren't sure where this journey will take us.

LDS General Conference: This weekend is always a highlight for us. We learn to be better, how to improve ourselves, and take hope in the future.

We learned about compassion, love, reaching out to others, and healing our own hearts. We draw pictures of the talks to remind us.

The drawings are simple reminders.

 We hope you are well.

  *****

Here are a few more pictures of our adventures.

The school had a love of reading week.

The boys dressed up as Harry Potter and Curious George.

He found the gold at the end of the rainbow

for St. Patrick's Day.

Intermission at Carmina Burana, Hurricane and I were making faces.

Instead of Ants on a Log, he made Ants on a Rock.

The rock was a cookie.

He lost his tooth.

The tooth has been loose since November.

  We attended the Easter Pageant in Mesa, Arizona.

Hurricane got a deformed ring pop for his General Conference treat.

The ring pop was double in size.

 

Funny faces while we were waiting for the dentist.

Funny faces while we were waiting for the dentist.

 

He pulled this carrot from his garden.