Birthday season

Abby with raspberries before school

Zelle on her 13th birthday

Goosa with her favorite hat

Suse on her birthday

Family hike up Ensign peak - amazing view!

I can't believe I haven't written in months! It's just evidence of how quickly each day goes. Each year I think we are as busy as we can possibly be, and each year we get busier with more big kids in activities. Consequently, time goes more and more quickly, and Mark and I both have a real sense of trying to soak in these moments - as busy and hectic as they are on a daily basis! Rather than become overwhelmed with a "catch-up" post, I'll just start where we are...

Zelle is walking home from middle school each day. She's toughing it out being new in middle school in an area where most kids have been together since pre-school. I'm proud of her. Academically, it's just ok. I'm not sure this is the fit for us, especially since she says she wants to try to get into Stanford, but it's a great learning experience in any case - to be new and have to navigate a whole new place, and even appreciate the different/better things at another place. That said, it is nice to have a more relaxed Zelle who isn't so tired and busy all the time. It feels like there is time to enjoy life and do some of the activities we never could before, so lots of positives to being where we are now, too. Zelle plays 4 days of soccer a week - 2 games, 2 practices, and is getting to be a really good player. It's fun to see her do well in something she loves. She just turned 13 this week and got her ears pierced! She had a great party that she planned mostly herself. She wanted to decorate scrubs with fabric paint, then we went to dinner, came back and played the white elephant gift game, had cake and watched movies. It was a bit of a marathon with lots of energy and different ideas - very much like our Zelle :).

Abby is recovering from a foot injury she got last week stepping on a toy shaped like a little pyramid. It was pretty nasty, so we're glad it's getting better. She applied for and was chosen as one of 20 5th and 6th graders to be part of the "cybercorps" - great name, yes...Anyway, they go an hour early to school twice a week and are learning all kinds of things on the computer. I love her get up and go, and the way she follows through on things like that. She also started a book club - made and delivered fliers, made calls to set up the first meeting, and totally organized and ran the first meeting complete with craft, books to pick from, and a teddy bear that goes home with whichever girl is hosting next time - so cute! I love seeing this part of her personality come out. She's not loving piano, but is also loving soccer, and says she wants to try ice-skating lessons this winter.

Lu has had a bumpy start to 3rd grade with a new school and a new teacher (due to huge class size) about 6 weeks into school (just when she was getting settled in the first class). So far the new teacher gives no homework and I'm not sure how I feel about her, but at least Lu says she's nice - that's a start...She does a great job on her Mondays where she walks straight from school to activity days, then gets picked up from there and goes to soccer. She doesn't get home until about 6:15, and is always happy and ready to go at home. She plays so well with Goosa, which is a tremendous help. She doesn't love our new scripture schedule of getting up earlier and doing it before school. We used to do it every night at bedtime, and it's sad to switch this tradition, but we just had to. Zelle is getting busy enough at nights, and Mark is gone enough nights that mornings are a better time together for us. She is not a morning person, though!

Suse has made a lot of progress in the areas she was giving me lots of grief on - namely wearing her eye patch, going to people's houses (she never wanted to go and always had to have friends to our house), and doing some piano. She still doesn't love any of these things, but the battle has lessened, which is big for me as her mom. It was exhausting, and now it's just a normal fight most of the time. That said, she is such a fun girl. She has been getting up and putting the dreaded patch on first thing in the morning, setting her timer and getting it done right away! Yahoo. She is loving some of the shorter Roald Dahl stories like "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and Esio Trot - she is such a fun reader, and she loves soccer. She is pretty intense on the field and is fun to watch at an age when lots of kids are still picking flowers on the field. She has also started piano lessons with Vera, which is also best described as intense, but Vera is an amazing teacher. Suse is learning a ton, and it's actually pretty interesting for me, too. The practicing and making sure Goosa has somewhere to go for the hour lesson is intense, though.

Goosa is funny and busy as ever. She makes us laugh all the time, even when we're trying to be serious, like I was tonight. I was talking to the girls about doing things the first time they're asked a little bit more, and just kind of reigning them in, in general, when Goosa starts playing the kazoo on Mark's lap very loudly. Just as I'm trying to establish some authority and respect, my 2 year-old is dominating me...Anyway, we love her. She's been getting fevers every 3-6 weeks-ish for the last few months now, so when she started coming down with one this time and had just had one right around Susie's b-day, I decided to take her in (again) to the dr. This time, however, I said "this just isn't right - we need to go beyond the ear and strep tests we always do." So we tested her urine today and she had ketones in them, which I don't know what that means, but it's unusual. She also had a slightly elevated blood sugar level - normal is 60-120 range, and she was 177. So when she's better in a few days, I'm supposed to take her sometime in the next couple of weeks to get further blood work done. We, of course, hope she doesn't have anything serious. Life is an adventure, and I remember distinctly as we sang the sacrament hymn yesterday the words "courage to accept thy will" jumping out at me. Maybe this was why, and then, maybe everything is fine. So, that is the update on Goosa. Please keep her in your prayers these next couple of weeks as we figure out what's going on with her. Like I said, hopefully nothing.

Other than that, we are amazed at how long our house is taking. For those of you out-of-state, it is still a muddy mess with trucks and people here all day. I am grateful for a great house, and also more than ready to be done with it...sigh. Mark and I are tired and happy and grateful. It's a real challenge to get beyond the daily survival and try to be thoughtful about the course your family is taking. I want to be thoughtful and goal-oriented about what we're trying to teach and where we're trying to go as a family, and that takes real effort! It's wonderful, though. I really know I will miss these years, and so I try (and often don't succeed) to cherish the journey and enjoy the daily moments. This is a lot of minutiae, so no need to get through the whole post, but it is kind of a slice of life right now for us. Lots of love!