We began this year visiting family in Utah. Andrew and Ammon
headed home on January 3 to get back for work and school commitments while
Laurie, Peter and I spent a few more days in Utah waiting for tickets prices to
drop.
Once we were all back home life was in full swing!
Andrew began his MBA program. He has planned to get an MBA
since before he finished his BS degree, but the timing was never quite right. “Someday”
has finally arrived, though, and we decided our family was ready for the
commitment and sacrifices this goal will require. He is enrolled with Western
Governor’s University. Andrew is continuing to find success with his work at
Well’s Fargo. He enjoys the interaction with the community as well as the
friendships he’s established with his co-workers. His boss came for a visit
earlier this month and mentioned his surprise that Andrew didn’t apply for a
recent promotion opportunity. While he had considered it, our family is happy
with where we are and wanted to take a pause in career movement while he
progresses his education. Andrew has also been heavily involved with the full-time
missionaries on the rare occasion that they make it over to our island, and
often times even between visits. He enjoys sharing his knowledge of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. We thought this month had been pretty full and busy for this
husband/daddy/manager/church clerk/member missionary but yesterday he added one
more adventure to his busy schedule and participated in a triathlon of his own
making. It was the first race he did in Laurie’s lifetime. She was a cute
little cheerleader for him and even today keeps telling him, “Good job Daddy!”
I arrived home on a Saturday night and was immediately back
to meetings, lessons and activities for the young women’s program at church.
This month marks a year since I received this calling and I confess that I still
feel a bit like a fish out of water with it. I do love the girls that I get to
interact with, though. I also jumped right back into work on Monday morning
with a new schedule. Before I left for Christmas, the temporary job I had
worked had expired but my boss had invited me to return to a different position
with the city. She offered it as a permanent position. I accepted it as a
temporary job. While I was gone, the circumstances changed so she asked me to
come back to fill my original job. Upon my return, she had me sign the paperwork
to confirm the raise she and I had discussed and she “snuck” in the change of status
from temporary to permanent. I hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided
to go ahead and take the plunge. One of the things I love about our small town
is that even with both parents working, my children have complete and total
access to Mom AND Dad at any time during any day. Andrew’s work is across the
street from the school (the middle school and elementary school share a campus)
and my work is connected to the public library - a place that is easily within
walking distance from the school and/or our home and a place where Ammon and
Peter love to spend their time. We found a FABULOUS new babysitter for Laurie,
who I couldn’t be happier with and we are all adjusting to the slightly new
schedule. Although my job description stayed the same, I changed
desks/locations within the office so I am getting things re-situated and am also
having the opportunity to learn some additional responsibilities. While I enjoyed
being in my own office the past several months, I am having now having a blast being
down in the main reception area of the city office and getting to see so many friendly faces throughout the day.
Ammon, having turned 12 and being ordained a deacon, passed
the Sacrament in church for the first time this month. I see him already
growing into that responsibility, doing it with greater confidence each week. I
am amazed at what a wonderful young man he is becoming. He and I also attended
his first mutual activity together. (That is one of the perks of me being the
Young Women’s President!) We had a great time learning together about “pressing
forward with steadfastness and Christ” and eating amazing homemade pizzas on a
float house school that has been converted into a home. I enjoy the unique experiences we get to have as part of life in Alaska. Ammon has spent a good
portion of the month reading – to the point that he actually got written up at
school for reading TOO much. Yup… that’s Ammon for you. He has a really hard
time putting down a good book – especially if it’s in the middle of the climactic
moment. We also hadn’t realized just how many books he’d collected until his
teacher came into the bank and mentioned that a big portion of his books were
missing. We found more than 30 books that Ammon had read and then forgot to
return. Oops. We’re working to keep better tabs on that now. This month we also
had a fun gaming afternoon with a friend. I’m hoping that we get to do many
more of those as the year progresses. The two favorite games of the afternoon
were King of Toyko and Sushi Go.
Peter, my ever social 8-year-old was very much missed by the
time we got back to Craig. We had been gone for four weeks and heard from some friends
that people had been asking about him often, anxiously awaiting his return.
Peter was delighted to be back in school for both academic and social reasons.
He has mastered his division – a subject that had him feeling quite flummoxed just
a month ago. He was complaining about recess not being fun enough lately, but
spends most of his time playing on the merry go round and the zip line and has
determined that it’s pretty fun after all. He spends his afternoons at the
library where a whole team of his peers gather together for online gaming. They
play a game called Tanki and have fun collaborating on strategies, having
battles against each other, and cheering each other on as they earn advancements.
Peter has also participated in wrestling and scouts this month but his crowning achievement was staying on the Principal's list for the second quarter in a row. That means he has maintained his 4.0 GPA all year. Our trip interfered with his perfect attendance but he's quite proud of having kept his grades up despite missing ten school days.
Laurie has been adjusting to a new babysitter. Tylene has
two boys – one Peter’s age and one Laurie’s age. She has been a perfect daycare
provider for Laurie and Andrew and I couldn’t be happier with the environment
Laurie is in or the quality of care she is receiving. Laurie is becoming more
and more of chatter box and just delights us with her conversation. She
received several new pairs of shoes for her birthday and wears them ALL. She is
also getting more and more picky about what she is willing to wear each day.
Laurie definitely has opinions about her fashion. Laurie used her potty
correctly this month, but that is really more of a fluke than anything and we
aren’t in full-fledged potty training by any stretch of the imagination. We
did, however, graduate her into a toddler bed from her crib.
