27 August, 2010

Dear Family,

I know this is a crazy day for writing a letter. However, today I have time and I finally have a word processing program again. I have lovely new iMac, but it took me a while to get a word processor and get it installed. So, I am back in business. I have also realized that the last letter I wrote was in JUNE. Oops! Time flies when the kids are out of school.

We had a really nice summer. We spent three weeks with our families with visits in Salt Lake and in Jackson. It always leaves me mystified when I come home to Arizona: WHY DO WE LIVE HERE???? We were able to be there for Parker’s blessing, Jillian, Eliza, and Aunt Abby’s birthday parties, and Alan’s baptism. I loved spending time with Sunny. We did projects every day, went shopping, made delicious

food, played games till 1 AM, etc. We had a wonderful time just being able to be outside in the great outdoors.

The advantage of staying away so long turned out to be that Josh

finished the built-in bookshelves and storage in our bedroom and gave me a new computer as a surprise when I got home! He thinks that it will make me less likely to stay so long next time we visit. I think he’s got his logic all twisted up! I feel like I’m walking into Pottery Barn every time I go in our room.

We got home with a week to spare getting the kids ready for school and in time to celebrate Josh’s birthday. I had been to Spoons and Spice in Salt Lake and bought some tart pans, so I had to make fruit tarts for Josh’s birthday. They turned out rather nice, I think! It is so

helpful to have your own personal reference chef. I missed him

when he was unavailable.

In the mean time, our little Jill has turned two, in all senses of the word. Peace and quiet has now become and indication that there is something wrong. In the last two weeks she has unrolled an entire roll of paper towels, filled the sink

about 1/4 full with toothpaste, dumped an entire bottle of hair spray on the carpet, pulled all the drawers out of her dresser and dumped her clothes into a big pile. But, she has also taken to giving really good hugs, singing quite a variety of songs (with correct lyrics and on key), playing really well with her brothers, loving story time, and behaving herself in the baby jogger. So as much trouble as she’s causing, she’s making up for it in cute.

This year was also Ryan’s big year. He started Kindergarten on July 28. I took him up the first day and I was trying to be happy and excited so that he wouldn’t get nervous. We found his teacher and we were lining up to go inside when Ryan said, “Mom, my tummy hurts.” I took him over to sit down and about 30 seconds later, he puked all over. The poor little guy was so scared, but he hadn’t told me that he was nervous at all. Needless to say, I felt like a loser mom, not even knowing that my son was so scared.

Subsequently, he is still working on adjusting. He’s had some times where he just can’t control his little emotions. When we talked about it, he said, “Mom, I’m just not used to being away from home every day.” He’s a tender-hearted boy. I think it will just take him some time to adjust. He hasn’t had any trouble in his class though and I’m glad for that. Today, he told me that his shoes keep coming off at recess. I said, "Ryan, are they slipping off, do they just need to be tied tighter?" Ryan responded, "No, Mom, the white guys keep taking them off when we're playing white guys and Indians!"

The beginning of this school year has been pretty tough with Alex. We spend a lot of time over the summer keeping up and reviewing the things he had learned, so I wasn’t anticipating how challenging the first few weeks would be. He seemed to have lost all motivation for school work. I couldn’t find any way to get him interested or to even get him to care about how he was doing in school. His handwriting was possibly even worse than it was last year. And we had the same struggle that we’ve had every year since second grade--the dreaded, timed math-fact test. We have fought this battle each year and I was hoping that we would have cleared the hurdle by now, but no...

Once I stopped panicking and realized that this year was going to be just as time-intensive as the last two, we buckled down and got to work. I’ll admit, I was hoping that I might be able to spend a little less time riding him to get his homework done this year. I found a couple of things that have helped to move him along: Swim Team, Harry Potter, and playing chess. He can’t do any of these things until his homework is finished an

d neat enough to be read by his teacher.

Luckily, he still has Mrs. Fatka, his wonderful teacher from last year. I told her that when I place the footnotes on his High School diploma, I’ll make sure her name appears right after mine! I just keep reminding myself what a wonderful kid he is. He is happy, he is kind, he is imaginative, and sometimes he’s downright funny. For a woman who values humor as highly as I, he’s a joy to be around most of the time.

After we got home, Josh announced that we were going on a camping trip so he could spend some time away

from work and church and with his wife and kids. So we rented a canoe and drove up to the White Mountains. We camped by Black Canyon Lake and spent a couple of days camping, fishing and canoeing. We discovered that Ryan has real natural talent as a fisherman. He was standing on the shore casting his line and kept getting standing ovations from the old-timers out on their boats. Alex really took to the canoe and by the time we left he was piloting himself around in the canoe. The kids had a great time. Mom left the “food police” part of her personality at home and we ate junk food and stayed up late watching stars and played with fire and rolled in the dirt and all the other things that make camping so much fun.

Now we’re back in the regular swing of things. We’re grappling with some pretty big decisions about our family’s future, so the routine is nice. It gives me something to be absorbed in so that I don’t spend too much time worrying about everything else.

I have decided to train for and run a half-marathon

at the end of January. (NOTE TO MOM: Dad said he would come down and run with me. The race is on January 29, 2011. January is a really lovely time to be in Arizona!) It feels good to be running with a goal in mind again. It’s been a long time since I’ve run a race and I’ve never run one this long. Maybe it will help push me along so that I can run at least one marathon with my Dad. I’d hate to miss out on that. We hope you are all well. Maybe I’ll write another letter in another couple of months! :)

Love,

Cheryl