June 24

We started our family vacation and will be adventuring for the next little while. We prepared this last week by packing, cleaning, washing, and putting in work hours.

A few cute stories:

When we say family prayers, Hurricane is always excited when praying is his turn. He will point to each one of us and say, "It's not your turn. It's not your turn. It's not your turn. It's my turn." He then smiles broadly and prays. He usually prays for trains and tractors. Lots of times.

Underfoot got a letter in the mail announcing his teacher and when he will attend 1/2 day kindergarten. He was very thrilled to be in morning class with a teacher named Mrs. T. He will start school on July 16 at 7:45 am by walking to school. We don't live close enough to merit the bus, and the walking will do us all good.

We attempted to put our old ladies together with the new ladies. The ladies are the chickens. The old ladies established their pecking order and for a whole day wouldn't let the young ladies drink water. The old ladies have been free ranging in our backyard. We are hoping by the time we get home that either a neighbor has adopted them or the young ladies will be big enough to integrate the old ladies into the coop. We are too tender hearted to end the old ladies lives. I guess we are chicken.

We hope this summer to make great memories. We hope you make great memories too.

Be well.

June 18

We've done it again - missed writing for one week and then didn't do it again yesterday. Our letters to you are to keep you informed about us, but the letter is our journal of sorts. We don't write all the struggles, tears, or heartaches we feel. I think some times it is because we (the collective we) don't want to remember the hurt. I guess I'm sharing just to let you know life around here isn't always a bowl of cherries. We have our roller coaster moments with parenting, marriage, and personal challenges, and lately we say at the end of each week - "It was a hard week" and then we list to each other what made it hard. We don't want to compare with anyone else our hard times because we believe each of us has them - emotionally, socially, physically, and spiritually at time. In true sincerity we hope that our letter finds you well and you can feel of our love for you.

And on that note, we'll share about our week - again through bullet points:

Hurricane

• When we went our family trip, Hurricane decided to swim in u-turns with no breathe instead of going to the side of the pool, steps, or pole for the steps. So we went back for a swimming refresher. He regained his confidence after 3 days. On the fourth day, he swam like he loved it again with breathing. Breathing is critical when anyone swims.  On Friday we went swimming again at the local pool. He swam like a champ with no hesitation! We really want him to be as safe as possible.
• Laughing is one of Hurricane's talents. When he tells a funny joke and wants us to laugh, he provides his own laugh track with a deep hee hee hee. There are always 3 hees. When he laughs out of pure pleasure, he giggles that will even make the grouchiest moments melt away.

Underfoot

• The other night at dinner we were talking about a friend who stole home during a Little League playoff game. As we continued to talk Underfoot asked how our friend stole the house. It provided a good chuckle for us. After explaining what home plate was both boys said they were going to grow up and play baseball just like their friend and his brother because our boys think they are good boys. It is amazing how powerful the example of others is.
• We continue to work on reading. Underfoot has started to sound out words and write them by how they sound. For example the word done is dun. I'm glad he is taking interest in reading.
• We attended a staycation with a neighbor for the past 3 weeks. A staycation is staying home but with activities. J, the lady who has organized it all, has done a marvelous job! Our boys look forward to going each time. She has planned each week with a theme and then created activities for each day. We have called the weeks camps instead of staycations. The first week was dinosaurs, followed by stars, and last week was Father's day. I've been very grateful J invited us to come.

There isn't much to report for Sweetheart and myself. We have done the usual with HOA, Bountiful Baskets, church, and keeping a head on laundry and keeping a clean house.  The challenge with not writing weekly is we forget the special precious moments of the days. It gets lost in our memories.
We hope you enjoyed your Father's day. We did by spending a quiet day together.

Grilling steaks and hot dogs and mowing grass

Be well.

June 3

The last 2 weeks have been a lot of go. We'll do it by units. Pictures I'll be posting various pictures over the next few days if you would like to look at other pictures.

Family

• We went on a vacation with just our own family. We usually vacation with Sweetheart's or my family when we use Sweetheart's vacation time. We took almost 72 hours and went to Phoenix. We stayed in a hotel, swam in the pool, watched television, ate out, and shopped. We quite enjoyed ourselves and will be looking for more opportunities to do it again.
• Miniature golf is a lot of fun with the boys. Underfoot really tried to learn how to golf. Hurricane just got super excited about getting everyone's ball in the hole and would take over on getting the balls in the hole. Once the ball was in the hole, he would belly flop on the ground and get each of the balls out. After we were done golfing we rode bumper boats. We each got wet.
• Joy School Graduation happened 2 Fridays ago. Underfoot was happy to swim and enjoy himself in the hosting family's pool. We had a potluck and enjoyed a quiet evening. The evening got a lot more exciting later. You will need to read Hurricane's doings to see what happened.
• We attended the temple in Gila Valley because the ward provided babysitting. It was great to get to go and be together.
• We celebrated Memorial Day with a BBQ and friends.

Sweetheart

• Sweetheart works to keep us fed, clothed, and happy. He worked extra hours so we could go on our vacation and get off work a little earlier than normal.
• As a champion food taste tester, he tells me what recipes work and don't. He called from work and asked that I build a cake for his boss. One of his co-worker gave him the feedback that the cake wasn't out of a box. He even helped me make blackberry curd as a filling. I think it was super yummy because not one piece came home.

Mama

• Sweetheart called Sally from Bountiful Baskets and asked for me to take a break as a volunteer area coordinator. He felt the pressure and stress and wanted to eliminate one thing in our lives. The last 2 Saturdays have been rather quiet with no phone calls or route changes. I'm not sure if it is a permanent decision or temporary one.
• Since the miscarriage, I've been in a melancholy funk. Not super animated about life or what was going on around me or my family. Hurricane helped me get out of the funk after the Joy School graduation. More to come...
• I attended a continuing education class about drugs. More appropriately pharmacology drugs. The presenter was a trained pharmacist and counselor. He gave great insights on what how to use drugs with counseling and making sure that people are taking the appropriate drug and to not mix drugs for side effects. I found it fascinating. It was also the clearest explanation of how serotonin, adrenaline, and dopamine work. 
• I saw a new doctor that we hope will help us stay pregnant the next time I get pregnant. 
• I cut my hair.

Underfoot

• Our Joy School Graduate is looking forward to starting kindergarten. He will start July 16. The school system we are going into is a modified year round system. 
• He caught the vision of how fun swimming can be on our family vacation. He would swim and swim and finally jumped off the side of the pool. He swam all through the deep end. We are so proud and happy for him. It is a huge relief that he now knows how to swim.

Hurricane

• After returning home from Joy School graduation, the boys went to brush their teeth. We sent them in about 8:15 pm. Sweetheart discovered around 9 pm that Hurricane had turned on a faucet and spun the neck toward the mirror. The water ran down the counter into the drawers and onto the floor. With one inch of water on the floor, he effectively flooded the bathroom. We did laundry and shop vacuumed the floor and pulled out a fan. It took me out of my funk. It frustrated Sweetheart. Hurricane was tickled with his accomplishment. Underfoot didn't know if he was in trouble or not.
• Hurricane had a birthday. He is now 3. And very PROUD of it.

May 21

Pictures

Each week we try to communication our challenges, joys, and highlights. This week has been pretty mellow.

Hurricane continues to develop his own sense of self. As a family we attended the musical Mary Poppins on Saturday. Hurricane struggled at the start to stay awake. Once he got into the music, he was hooked. At one part he went into the aisle and was dancing to the music. He would clap with such enthusiasm that his whole body would shake. It was thrilling (and very rewarding) for us to observe his reaction.

Underfoot is nearing the end of his tenure in Joy School. He loves to learn and interact with his peers. He is cheerful (for the most part) and loves to play games. A current like is to play hide and seek. Only he wants to be 'found' so that he can be the one to do the seeking. He told us that Mary Poppins was with real people (as opposed to fake ones that we watch on the computer.) Perhaps he meant we were going to a live show, rather than watching the show on the computer.

Wendy has had a rough week. Some misunderstandings caused her a lot of grief. I am always amazed at how much she gets done every day. She has worked her guts out to get our house clean and orderly.

As for myself, I worked outside on Saturday and cleaned our backyard. We took all the odds and ends from completed projects and will be taking them to the dump. We threw away broken bikes and cleaned up a bunch of garbage.

Tonight we watched the solar eclipse. The spot where we watched had a man taking pictures with a super nice hydrogen telescope. We would look at it through welding goggles. Mama's favorite part was that the heat went away for a time. It has been record temperatures for us.

Be well.

May 6

Thank you for your comments and support over the past week. We have been touched by your experiences, found hope as we have felt your support, and grateful that we can heal and move forward. We have had some highlights this week:

• JOY SCHOOL: This was our last week to host Joy School at our house. Underfoot's favorite thing is to be the snack helper and to have sharing day. He changed the job chart around so he could be the snack helper one day. Both days were sharing days because it is the first Underfoot will ask when it is a Joy School day. He has taken to arguing with me and insisting we call the Mom who is teaching to make sure it isn't a sharing day. Joy School has been a wonderful experience for our family.
• FATHER AND SONS CAMP OUT: Each year the church sponsors a camp out to commemorate the Aaronric priesthood. Sweetheart and the boys left early Friday afternoon and returned on Saturday morning. Underfoot and Hurricane couldn't stop talking about it throughout the week. They played with friends, ate hot dogs, and got to sleep in a tent. Underfoot was very sad when Sweetheart started to take down the tent because he wanted to stay for a week.
• GIRLS NIGHT OUT & SHOPPING: Another lady invited me to go for a GNO. We went and had a deep conditioning done at a beauty school and then had a dinner. It was good get out. The next day I went with shopping with another friend. I bought a dress that I like so much I want to buy another one.
  
• TIME OUT: Sweetheart and I have taken some time out to discuss what we want for our future and our family's future. It has been good to just be together. On Saturday night we went out and had pie. Before the night was over we ended up having a "water" fight at the table. We laughed. Laughing felt good.

We hope this finds you happy or at least searching for happy. Be well.

May 14

Underfoot and Hurricane had a visitor for the week. Their cousin, C, came and stayed while her parents traveled. They played and played. She would laugh and help. She liked her hair done in many different ways and sat while it was braided, pony tailed in lots of ponytails, and always said she looked beautiful after her hair was done. While she was here our family tried a new soup- borscht. They played cowboy and princess and many different variation on that game.

Sweetheart worked. His Dad brought C to our house so one day Sweetheart stay home until his Dad left. We had a nice visit with him as Sweetheart showed him the different things happening at our house. On Saturday Dad Locey showed us the work he had done for Sweetheart 's sister family. He installed a gas line and an electrical outlet in their new home.

I went to a continuing education class on Ethics. If you ever want to know about HIPPA, working with licensing boards, or just staying squeaky clean in your counseling practices, ask me and I'll give you the reference to this course. We went to the library and got books plus a few movies, an extra Relief Society meeting about preparedness with food, housing, and other emergency items, and a little first aid to a friend who burnt herself canning strawberry jam. (Steam burns really hurt by the way. Aloe grows like mad here so we went natural.)

Underfoot really struggled all week. He got a canker sore on his tongue last Sunday that spread to the rest of his mouth, nose, and lips. After we went to the dentist on Friday, we found out he had cold sores. It hopefully will be better by this coming Friday.

On Saturday morning, we went to Phoenix and spent the day with Sweetheart 's Dad at his sister's home. On our way home, we went shopping for Mother's Day but walked away empty handed. I suggested something and was not direct enough to have Sweetheart buy it.

We spent a quiet Mother's Day. Sweetheart and I both taught lessons at church to respectively the women and men separately. We feel that our lessons went well. We had dessert with some friends. I took a three hour nap. It was a good day.

We hope that this finds you in good health and happy.

April 29

Funny for the week- One evening Hurricane started to cry out in a panic. It was not his typical, common whining. There was true fear in his voice. I came in to our bedroom to find him clinging to the side of the dresser. He was about 3 feet off the ground, one hand clutching a bag of chocolates, the other clinging to the drawer. He couldn't hold on for much longer, and he wasn't about to let go of his prize.

Underfoot and Hurricane have been very kind and tender to us. They have not fought much and when apart they constantly ask when we will go get their brother. Hurricane would crawl on the couch and say, "Hold me. Just hold me."  Underfoot has been thrilled about going to Joy School and having his LAST music class. He was so excited to share what he had learned at music class. He sees it as one step closer to kindergarten.

On Thursday,  Underfoot had a talent show at Joy School and wanted to read Marvin Mouse, an oral family story made into a book. He tried to read the book like a librarian would with showing the pictures but would get confused about which way to turn the pages and turn them the wrong direction. The children started to crowd around him to see the pictures. When there was something funny, he would add his own "laughing" because he thought it was funny. I was so happy to see him read. He loved to add his own dramatic voice to the story.

Our chicks have started to grow. We parceled out the other chicks to their new owners. We only have 11 now.

Author switch. Sweetheart writing now.

This week has tested our faith and pulled at our heart strings. We learned several weeks ago that Mama was pregnant. This would be the sixth time since Hurricane was born. At the start of the week she knew that something wasn't right. On Tuesday morning she had an unscheduled ultrasound. I met her at the doctor's office. The doctor could not find a heartbeat and indicated that the pregnancy would not go to full term. I took the rest of the day off. That evening we took the boys to the county fair, as we had promised. It was hard day.

It is hard to know what to say when something like this happens. We trust that we will have more children, but we don't know when or how more children will come to our family. We have talked about adoption and foster care. We don't feel comfortable with either option at this stage.

I worked on Wednesday. A friend spent the day with Mama. I took Thursday off. I worked on Friday. On Saturday I took the boys to the Titan Missile Museum so Mama could have a few hours to herself. A friend invited us to go swimming late that afternoon, and the boys and I went swimming. Mama spent most of the day reading a book. We enjoyed food that people brought to us.

Miscarriage isn't something that people talk about in casual conversation. It is something that we have quietly dealt with for several years now. Mama isn't looking for sympathy. I'm tired of not being able to tell people what is really going on. It has been hard. It is hard. There are no good words to make it any better. But, we believe that God will hear our prayers and send us more children. (Hurricane frequently prays for 5 babies and counts them "1, 2, 3, 4, 5- 5 babies.")  How he makes that happen, and when, are up to Him, but we trust that it will happen. A few years ago, we heard a message about dealing with adversity that has been helpful. The title of the message is "Hope Ya know, We had a Hard Time."

There was a time when we felt very alone in our community. We realized tonight that those feelings of loneliness have been replaced with genuine friendships. Mama and I both feel like there are people here who care about us like family. Perhaps the silver lining in this difficult experience is the realization that we are not alone.

Be Well.