December Happenings

 Today we had our dear friends Greg & Rachelle and their children over for dinner.  We celebrated the one week birthday of their new little baby boy - Max! What joy a little one brings.

Peter started fiddle lessons this week from David, a friend of his who is an awesome fiddler.  He's really excited about it!  Last week Peter told me that he wanted to be a professional violinist/fiddler.  Wow, I didn't expect that!  But I know he has been having fun with it - picking up the violin and playing all the time.  When you do that, you start to get good really fast.  When it's fun, and not a chore - what a difference that makes!  Peter had about a month of it being a chore (practicing for school), and since then, it's started to be fun.

Mary had a miracle happen this week.  Because of some service that she has given, she found out about a performance team doing couples dances, and she was invited to participate.  We went last night, and afterwards, she told the instructor that she had a dream to be on the BYU Ballroom Dance Team.  He was very excited and talked to Mary for about 20 minutes about what she needed to do to prepare.  He said if you dance for 10,000 hours, you are a pro.  To put that in perspective, 40 hours a week for a year is 2000 hours!  So you can imagine how many hours of dancing that is.  He challenged her to start out with 10 hours a week.  Thankfully we have this mini-dance studio upstairs that will work perfectly for that.  What a blessing!  He also was very positive about training her and bringing in the right people to teach her dances and getting her ready.  After that conversation, we both got in the car and said, "Wow!!".  She feels like it was not a life-changing conversation, because she was already headed that direction, but it really focused.  And now we feel like she can get the direction and help that she needs.  Yeah!

Joshua is staying in the same area for this transfer with Elder Z.  He was happy about that, because he wanted to complete the training with him.  Their investigator Manuel didn't get baptized this week because he wanted to provide a "refrigerio", or refreshment for everyone at his baptism, and he couldn't afford it yet, so he wanted to wait.  Joshua tried to explain to him that it wasn't necessary, but, Josh said, "He is old.".  :)  This means he likes things done traditionally.  I'm sure his time will come soon enough! Joshua also said something profound in his letter, and that is that "the only way to take advantage of that atonement is through the gospel, the obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel."  And he referenced Doctrine y Covenants 84:19-21, which says,

19 And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.

 20 Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.

 21 And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh;

In our Stake Conference last Spring, the visiting General Authority, Elder W. said that the power of godliness means the power to become like God.

Joseph got to go through a session in the Temple with my brother this week.  That makes me so happy.  The other days of the week he has gone and done baptisms for the dead - only now he is the one doing the baptizing.  He is heading into finals this week, so we will pray that he does well.

Jesse had a miracle happen too!  She was very stressed out because the local community college had not sent in her transcript for the college credit that she had.  She called them and got the run-around for 2-3 days and many, many people.  She was so frustrated!  But in the end, she had done the best she could and the transcript was still going to be postmarked two days late.  She just prayed and left it up to the Lord.  The due date was on Sat, December 1st.  Well, on Monday morning she learned that the priority deadline for BYU applications had been extended to the 3rd, since the 1st was on a Saturday, so that left the transcript enough time to be postmarked that day!  What a relief!  It wouldn't have been the end of the world to not get the application in for the priority deadline, but it was important to her, and her prayer was answered.

Libby - in between reading books

Libby is in to the Warrior series, by author Erin Hunt.  She and her friends at school act out the roles in the book every day at Recess, and they've set up an elaborate game that has been going on for months with intricate rules, roles and competitions.  It's pretty amazing!  She read a whole book in one day this week.  Hmmm... this reminds me of some other little girl at ten years old reading Nancy Drew books in a day.  That was me.

Bruce has had crazy days with work this week.  He is the "problem-solver" at work, and gets a long list of problems to fix every day.  He also has a release coming up, which makes for long days on the computer.  He is amazing at his work.

I have had a great week working with people and learning a lot.  A lot!  I had some great experiences with understanding the power of working with the feet.  I am so grateful to be involved in work that keeps me learning, allows me to meet new people, and gives me the chance to deeply connect.  I shake my head every day in wonder that this is what I am blessed to do.

Our family is so thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We love our Heavenly Father, and our grateful for his constant care in our life.  We are thankful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost.  What a miracle to have on our side the three most powerful beings in existence.  How can it get any better than that?

Horseback Riding in the Mountains

On Labor Day, we took our horses and went up into the mountains to ride.  We went with friends - Scott and his boys Tyson and Taylor, Rick and his son Hunter, and Brett and his daughter Haylee. We had 13 horses and 14 riders!  Ages 10 - 40 something.  :)

Peter and Libby rode on one of Scott's horses named Lucy. 

Taylor and Tyson are riding right in from of me.

Jesse rode Mackee (Sleepy River McGee) and Joseph, up ahead on the trail, rode Stormy.

It was quite remarkable that Joseph rode Stormy.  He has been riding him at home, maybe 4-5 times, so to take him up in the mountains on a trail was an experiment, to be sure.  Joseph said he wanted to be at the front of the line, always pushing his way to the front, but then when he got there, he didn't know what to do, so he'd just stop!  Ha ha.  That's a "teenage" horse for you.

Jesse, Libby and Peter looking southwest from the peak.

Joseph, Taylor and Mary from the Lookout.

Mary rode Cookie.  I didn't get a picture of her riding, which is too bad.  She found some cowboy boots at the local clothing exchange in August, and if she'd had a straw hat on, she would have looked like a true cow-girl.  Now Joseph, he had chaps and everything.  All he was missing was a big ol' belt buckle.

Bruce on Strawberry

I rode Lady.  Peter gave up his favorite horse so I could ride her, because I have not been on a horse for three years, since I got bucked off of May and got bruised up pretty badly.  I knew it was time to get back on, and I had a great ride on Lady.

We went 11 miles round trip, which made for one sore Momma the next day!  Oh boy!  I was grateful for OrthoSport and an epsom salt bath with Aroma Siez, both of which really helped with the sore muscles.

Overall, we had a great ride.  It was a dream come true for Bruce to have the family up in the mountains on horses.  We got Strawberry and Lady back in 2008, and we've been slowly building up since then to have enough equipment and horses to go around.  We still had to borrow a horse and two saddles from our friend Scott, but we're almost there.

On Wednesday, we went to the Funeral of Ruth Fisher, a dear ward member (our church congregation is called a ward).  I had been blessed enough to go and visit her the day before with Julie, with whom I serve in the Relief Society Presidency.  (Relief Society is the women's organization in our church).  She spent the whole half an hour we were there trying to name each one of the members of her family.  It was a privilege to know her and feel of her sweet spirit.  Her funeral was beautiful.

Peter received his Second Class and First Class Rank Advancements in the Boy Scouts this week!  He had a great Scout leader, Bill W., picture right at the right of this picture, and has moved on to 12-year old Scouts with Clark L. (the back of his head is on the left).  What a blessing to have great Scout leaders! If you look closely in the picture, you'll see Peter has on his cowboy boots with spurs!  He and Joseph rode Stormy and Lady to the neighborhood in back of ours, where the Court of Honor was held.  Peter is really proud of his spurs!

On Thursday, Joseph and I left with Grandma and Grandpa Whetten in their car to take Joseph over to BYU Idaho!  Joseph drove the whole way, and we had a great talk with Grandma.  She told us about being in 6th grade and lining up to go to Dublan with the 7th and 8th graders.  We said, "Now we know where Mary gets it from!"

Joseph wasn't nervous until he walked into the office to check in at his apartment.  When he was putting food away in his apartment and new roomates were milling about, he said, "Does anyone else feel nervous besides me?"  I think I was the only one that heard him, so no one replied, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't the only one.

That afternoon we got to eat dinner with Craig and Jenette!  Yeah!  We loved being with them.  I got to have a "sleepover" that night with them, as they gave up their bed to Mom and Dad, and they slept on the couches, while I slept on the living room floor on an air mattress.  We talked until I fell asleep listening to Craig tell Jenette about the adventures of the time they came to Poulsbo to help us move in the middle of the storm that lashed the Pacific Northwest. 

Dane (in the blue) and Joseph (in the white) playing soccer

That night, as I was driving Joseph and his friend Dane around, we saw a pick-up soccer game going on, on the same field that Josh had played his championship intramural game two years ago.  They begged me to go back, and so I turned the car around and they went and stood on the sidelines for a few minutes watching.  Pretty soon, they were back in the car saying, "We gotta go get our stuff!"  Most of Joseph's "stuff" was coming the next day with our neighbors, but Dane had enough soccer stuff for both of them!  So I took them to change at Dane's apartment, and they went back and joined the pick-up game for about 1/2 an hour.  In the few minutes that I stood on the sideline watching (because it was cold and I was in shirt-sleeves), I saw Joseph score two goals!  That was fun!  The next morning, Joseph said, "Mom, that just made it feel comfortable."

I am so excited for this next chapter of Joseph's life!  He is well-prepared and will have the time of his life over at BYU-I.  Back at home, when we had dinner on Saturday evening, we had two empty chairs on the one side of the table.  Jesse said, "I'm feeling kind of lonely over here."  Mary and Peter got it in their heads to take out a leaf of the table, and Bruce flatly refused to help them.  But then when they started pulling up, instead of out, he blurted out, "You gotta pull out!"  Ha ha  So pretty soon he was helping and jockeying the table around to get it loose.  When we finally got it back together, we sat around the smaller table looking at each other, and it felt very strange!  Pretty soon we had watery eyes, and said, "This isn't very fun!"  :)  We still have some adjustments to make to having Joseph gone on top of Josh being gone...   Jesse said that people have been asking her, "Are you OK?" since Joseph is gone.  Her answer was that she is going into a deep depression.  Those two were as tight as a brother and sister could be.  In fact, once when someone had just moved in, they thought Joseph and Jesse were dating because she saw them together so often.  :)  Jesse said she went up on the roof at sunrise yesterday morning and talked to Joseph in spirit.  I'm smiling while I'm writing this, but there are pretty deep feelings involved.  But Jesse will be OK, and so will Joseph.  At least they can still text and call, well, for a few more months, anyway, until Joseph leaves for his mission.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves - he's still in college!

I've talked to Joseph at least a dozen times in the three days since I dropped him off, so we're still communicating!  Ha ha

Peter running across the field for High 5's after the game.

Midfielder Peter in his pink socks and yellow shoes.  Nice!

Peter had his first soccer game on Saturday.  Bruce is his coach, and they won handily.  Peter played great in the midfield.  He was smaller than most of the players on the field, but not intimidated in the least.  Maybe when you work with horses all the time, size is not an issue. 

One of Joseph's calls was to tell us to get on the Internet and watch Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's CES Devotional, which we did.  WOW! I loved every word of what he said.  I am so grateful that we have prophets on the earth today, that speak the mind and will of the Lord.  I loved how he talked about the very real challenge that we have in our day of standing up for what we believe, and doing it in a kind, respectful, charitable way.  I have been thinking a lot about this, and talking to my children and others about it, so to have Elder Holland speak about it was assuring to me that the Spirit has been leading me in the right direction!

Dinner?

I forgot to post this about Josh being dropped off at BYU-I.  We said good-bye to him around 5:30 pm, and then we went over to Mom and Dad's and spent some time with Angie and kids there before taking off for home.  (Grandpa literally pushed us out the door).

Josh called around 10:30 pm just brimming with excitement.  They had watched the BSU game over at Jancen's (with more and more girls coming in all the time, including Raigen), and then gone to play Ultimae Frisbee.  After Raigen insisted that they "must do something for the talent show", Josh informed me that they were going over to his courtyard to practice "Beat It", the Michael Jackson dance they did last year for Show Choir.  This was at 10:30 pm.  After all that, I asked him what he ate for dinner?  He replied, "Dinner? Oh, I never had dinner.  I'm not hungry."  Ha ha ha ha.   He was having so much fun that dinner was way down on the priority list.  Now that is college life isn't it?  I love it.