June 9th, 2013
My Dearest Brother,
I am so glad to hear that your leg is doing alright. The
Lord was truly watching out for you and your accident could have been so much
worse. I hope that you have been able to have a wonderful week relatively free
of pain.
Things have been going well over here. It has now been over
9 days and our house is STILL clean! I am so pleased by the difference that it
makes in our lives. It feels like things are more peaceful and less stressful.
We still have times of stress and trial but it is so much easier to have and
keep the spirit in our home.
The real test will be how we fare this coming week. School
starts again tomorrow and it will be very busy. As long as we remain diligent I
know we will be successful.
Abrielle had a wonderful week this week. She got to have a
sleepover at Serry’s house on Thursday night and then Serry slept over at our
house on Friday night. They have determined that they are best friends now and,
as far as I know, in all the time they spent together this weekend they didn’t
fight once. I am so pleased that they have learned to get along and that they
have such a good friend in their cousin.
Abrielle and Serry were also invited to Adilynne’s Teddy
Bear Picnic birthday party yesterday. They had a wonderful time and got a lot
of teddy bear paraphernalia. You know how much Abrielle loves Mr. Teddy and so
it was the perfect theme for her.
I am continually astounded at how much Nathan says. He
continues to talk more and more and really tries to communicate. He and
Abrielle get along pretty well unless Abrielle is in a particularly bad mood –
but at those times she doesn’t get along with anyone. J
Jake took his Foundations of Web Terminology test on Monday
and PASSED! That means that he earned the credits from the class and was able
to move on to another class. I am not sure what class he has next but hopefully
it will interest him more than this one did.
I was able to go birthday shopping with mom and Grandma
Traci this Wednesday. Mom will be hosting chess camp all week this week and
then leaves again for St. Louis so we needed to do it early. We had a wonderful
time and I introduced them to Jason’s Deli for lunch. We each got ½ of a turkey
reuben (mine on Gluten free bread) and then 1 visit to the salad bar. We all
loved the food and now mom is craving it. A lot of the styles that are
fashionable right now don’t compliment my body shape so it was tricky to find
some new clothes but we found some things that look very nice and I am pleased
with. I had a great day with them and am glad that my mom and Grandma are some
of my greatest friends.
On Monday Alyssa and I were able to go help dad at the
Paint-a-thon. There wasn’t a ton to do because they were just prepping the
house but it was a lot of fun to work with the family again and to serve. We
washed the house down and then scraped away chipping paint to prep the house
for painting. I am excited to see the pictures of how the house turned out.
Yesterday Alyssa and I went to Biomat to donate plasma. It
was my first time doing a donation of any kind and I was a little bit nervous
but it went by without a hitch and was much simpler than I was anticipating. We
were, however, there for FIVE HOURS!!! There were a lot of people there on
Saturday and because it was my first time and the first time that Alyssa has
been in a long time we had to do all of the beginning work – physicals,
interviews, blah blah blah. It should go much faster after this, especially if
we can go in the week. However, they changed the way that they do the pay. For
first time donors (like me) you get $50 the first time, $60 the second, and
then $50 on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th times. Every
time after that you get $20 unless you go twice in one week and then the second
visit is $40. Alyssa was pretty disappointed to spend so much time there for
only $20 but we are trying to earn money for Grandma Traci to go with us to
Disneyland. Although she could probably find a way to come up with the money
herself we thought that this would be a great way to earn the money for her
since we can donate and she can’t. That way, not only are we donating to help
save lives, we are also serving our Grandma.
Jake and I also got new phones this week! We actually bought
three because we were originally both going to get the new LG Nexus 4 but I
decided I wanted the Samsung Galaxy S3. We are going to sell one of the Nexus 4
phones as well as Jake’s Samsung Galaxy Note and Vickie’s LG MyTouch 4g. We
gave Vickie my last phone – the HTC Amaze. We are really enjoying the new
phones so far and hopefully we will be able to get the other phones sold soon.
We held one of our first official “Family Home Evenings”
today with the kids and it was wonderful. We sang songs, prayed together, had
the kids watch one of the Book of Mormon scripture videos and then we talked
about the importance of prayer. Abrielle opened up with a SLEW of questions
like, “Why do we die?” and “What are babies?” LOL! I guess she had a lot she
wanted to talk about. The spirit was very strong and I think I am gaining a
testimony about the importance of family home evening… even though our kids are
still so small.
Because mom and Kayden are heading back to St. Louis next
week we are having our Father’s day/my birthday celebration today. We are
having shish-kabobs, corn, watermelon, potato salad, and I made a layered ice
cream cake by request of dad. Do you remember Deanne making those? It is an
angel food cake that you slice in 3 sections and layer sherbet between the
layers and then you frost the whole thing with whipped cream. I hope that it
turns out to be delicious for dad.
I received and read Brandon Sanderson’s newest book “The
Rithmatist” this week. It felt so good to read for pleasure again as I don’t
get much of a chance to do so during the school year. I really enjoyed the book
and, once again, Mr. Sanderson has created a wonderful system of magic that is
very creative. The book is designed for Young Adults so it was less mature in
its complexity than his other books but it was still a fun read.
Well, I feel like I had a lot more to say to you but I am drawing
a blank. I have been praying for service opportunities and I hope that the Lord
sends some more my way even though I will be busy with school. I feel so good
when I can serve other people and it truly does help us to get outside of
ourselves. I hope you find yourself with ample opportunities to continually
serve the people you are around and the Lord.
I love you, dear brother. You are in my thoughts and my
prayers constantly.
OH! Speaking of prayers… will you please keep my friend
Candace in your prayers? She is pregnant and there are many complications with
her baby. She needs all of the strength of the Lord that we can send her way.
All of my love,
Shayla
My handsome little guy at the piano - one of his favorite spots.
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