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.

Brought to you by the Letter C and the Number 9.....

February was brought to us by the Letter C and the number 9.

Letter C stands for Clint. Clint is the newest member of our family.

He lives in Mexico with his parents. They came to Utah/Idaho to visit, and we drove to meet him for our Rodeo Break. Rodeo Break is when the rodeo comes to town, and there is no school for 2 days. We get this instead of President's Day. To avoid any confusion, Clint is our newest nephew. We are still in the process of trying to adopt. We are hopeful. Thank you for your continued support.

While in Idaho, we suppered with all the Idaho Kirkhams to welcome Clint,

snowmobiled,

Lava Hot Springsed,

learned how to ski (3 of us learned to ski,)

and celebrated 4 March birthdays all in 48 hours.

We then drove 14+ hours to make it as far Phoenix area. We loved to meet Clint and be with family who spoiled us.

We thank Auntie Yvette for outfitting us in snow pants since we don't really need that living here. 

I finally decided on a haircut that I like after having my haircut 3 times in 4 months.

It was my birthday on the day I cut it. My 30s decade is almost up,

and I'm going to make the most of it.

The boys participate in a robotics club. During February they built and presented a Lego robotics model.

They were each on their teams. The models were great.

They had fun doing the projects as well.

Underfoot celebrated his birthday. He shared treats in his class.

He asked for a orange cake and chocolate cake.

I made a piñata cake.

This was really fun surprise. The number 9 is because two of us turned 9 years old.

Be well.

Aquaponics and Influenza A

The week started normal with everyone going to their jobs. On Tuesday after school, Hurricane said he didn't feel well. I wondered if he didn't want to go to piano lessons. After taking his temperature (101.4), he went to bed.

By bedtime his temperature was 103.8, and he had no desire to move any where. He slept Wednesday. Underfoot stayed home because he didn't want to go to school and had a cough that he had been struggling to overcome.

Lance came and went to work while Hurricane and I hung out in his room "getting" better. When we gave him a bath on Thursday night, purple bruises showed up on the back of his leg.

Never having seen that before we called the best doctor we know, Uncle Shaun, and asked him if we should head to the emergency room or wait it out until morning and see the pediatrician. Uncle Shaun said he'd learn about it and get back to us. He said something about purpura. And as is due diligence we wikied the definition which is "a rash of purple spots on the skin caused by internal bleeding from small blood vessels." We decided to wait until seeing our local doctor.

Midway through the week Aunt Jill sent a package that boosted spirits. The Yoda and books were a perfect spirit lifter.

Underfoot woke up Friday with a temperature, and it was Lance's Friday off. We made a family trip of going to the doctor. She confirmed that Hurricane had Henoch-Scholein Purpura and that we would need to bring in urine samples over the next 3 weeks to check that there was no blood in his urine.

She also swabbed his nose to check for flu. The flu was confirmed as A. Underfoot was then prescribed Tamiflu, and Dr. Herron suggested Lance and I start Tamiflu as well. By the way, Tamiflu is rather expensive with insurance.

Underfoot started with his fever Friday evening and is getting better. The Tamiflu has helped a lot.

While Hurricane was sick with a high fever, he mentioned that if he had enough money he would buy his Dad a new car, his Mom a new sewing machine, and Underfoot and himself all the new Lego sets coming out for the next year.

The weekend was spent drinking water, eating blandish food, and rest. Lance was taking care of weekend jobs while I cared for children. We are all mending well.

Lance sold his aquaponics system this last weekend as well. He posted it a week ago and helped the couple load it up.

The reason is that Lance felt that it was time. He has really enjoyed the experiment and hopes to make a better system later down the road. We all had mixed feelings about the system going. We aren't sure how we will attract bees at this point for our yard.

Be well.

Superheated Underwear

It has been a long time since I've written the weekly email. Too long, perhaps. The recent weeks, Wendy and I have contemplated our life circumstances. We've had the chance to talk about the pains we've experienced along the way. We have talked about joy and sadness, about heartache and heart break.

The interesting irony of life is that you don't always know where it will lead you. I graduated from High School 20 years ago. I would have never guessed I'd be in Arizona working on missiles.

On Saturday we ran some errands in town. I happened to be driving and I was horribly lost. Wendy knew exactly where we were and chose not say anything. In the middle of this, we heard Hurricane say to Underfoot, " and he put on his super heated underwear and ... " The two were talking about there Lego figures fighting bad guys in the Arctic. For some reason, the super heated underwear comment just was so funny to us.

We wish the best for you and your family, where ever you may be.

Here are a few pictures from our week. We hope you enjoy them.

Auntie Yvette sent a picture she took of our family 

when we went hiking with her. 

She sent the picture after she got home.

 Night time ritual of reading a book with Daddy.

 Underfoot was ready for the light to be turned out so he could sleep.

This was a sunset on the way to drop something off.

The clouds had feathered beautifully.

Cobb Salad was supper one night.

 Here is a picture with the green of the salad.

Pinewood Derby and Lost Tooth

Underfoot participated in his Cub Pack's Pinewood Derby. He didn't care if he won or not. He just wanted to have fun. And he did. He didn't win.

 The pack held an early weight-in which made our morning very smooth for an 8 am race day. He raced his car 6 times on the 6 lane track, cheered for his friends, and ate muffins and juice at the end.

Hurricane lost his tooth. The tooth started to be loose in November. He didn't want to loose it until my birthday in February. He would push the tooth out of his mouth so it would hang over his lip with his mouth closed. This looked gross.

So finally this last week I told him if he didn't go to bed I would take out his tooth. He didn't go to bed so I pulled the tooth out. He got 25 cents out of the deal.

Lance's sister, Yvette, and 3 of her children came to visit as they drove through on their way home from a trip from Florida.

We were excited to have them visit for 24 hours. We went to both visitor centers for the Saguaro National Park.

All the children worked and received their Junior Ranger badges.

Lance pulled out the International Scout for a drive with Yvette.

Their Grandparents Locey took their grandchildren  in the Scout. When filling the car with fuel, the fuel line broke because the gas line tubing had cracked. Lance lay down on the ground and plugged the line with his finger until he remembered he had a pen in the jockey box of the Scout. After 2 trips to the auto parts store, the fuel filter was replaced with new clamps. We are grateful that the problem occurred at the gas station instead of driving down the road. Lance and Yvette rode together catching up.

We finished pruning our trees as the East Coast got piled with snow.

We got snow too the week before. We put a light on the citrus trees and took pictures.

We've started tracking the number of eggs we get each day following the example at Camp Kirkham. Since January 1, we've collected 93 eggs as of Saturday.

We've added a light to their coop so the ladies are getting 14 hours of light. The egg production went up after they finished molting and got more light. We've even had 1 double yolk egg.

Be Well.

Christmas, New Year's, and Return to Schedule

Christmas - The 3 Kings arrived. The boys were very concerned that the Kings wouldn't show up and had a real difficult time going to sleep. They finally fell asleep around 10:30 pm.

Through out December they had come across some consequences due to their behavior. The month was one of learning for parents as well as children.

Visit to Uncle T-Bone and Auntie M's house - On Christmas Day, we visited and stayed with Uncle T-Bone and Auntie M. Uncle F came from Utah to spend Christmas as did Grandpa and Grandma Locey. We stayed the weekend together. Boys played with cousins, swam in the heated hot tub and not heated pool, and were blessed with remote control cars from the Auntie M's family.

New Year's Eve - During our break we cleaned out closets and the garage. We were invited to our neighbor's for New Year's Eve.

We talked. The boys played games. We came home for a New York midnight.

We celebrated by lighting sparklers in the backyard.

New Year's Bowling - As is tradition, we went bowling, and everyone got a strike.

After bowling, the Earls invited us for a turkey supper.

Pruning - Always in January over winter break, we prune the trees. We have 6 grape vines, a blackberry bramble, and 9 deciduous trees.

Before dark we had prune and chipped 7 of the trees, pulled out old blackberry stalks and burned them, and cut back 80% of the grape vines making 11 wreaths to dry and chipping the rest of the excess. The chickens also got a clean house as well.

Back to School - We went back to school and started off great. No one was late the first week. Yesterday we were late, and today Hurricane stayed home from school with a croupy cough and a cold sore that he didn't want to pop at school. Underfoot called about 45 minutes into school to see if he could come home too.

Día de Los Tres Reyes Magos - The 3 Kings show up in the rest of the world 12 days after Christmas.

We prepared for the Kings, and they came bringing small treats of gum, soda, and cookies.

We had a nice family supper that night with Rosca de Reyes.

 

YSA Activities - YSA stands for Young Single Adults. We've been asked to minister to this group through church. Even though there is a congregation specific to this age group of 18-30 years old, the meeting place is 45 minutes from where we live in one direction. We hosted a supper and watch a devotional by Russel M. and Wendy Nelson. Nineteen YSAs came for supper, a devotional, and food. We hope to build faith and strength for this group.