Letter to Uncle Rick

My baby brother is in the MTC preparing to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Chile for 2 years.  I wrote this letter to him.  It's a pretty good summary of our week.

Dear Elder Rick,

It is good to hear from you.  We sure love to read your letters and talk about Uncle Rick on his mission. 

This week was a good week.  It is always a good week when we have General Conference! 

Thursday, Roy and I went to the temple with a family in our ward.  They were going through for the first time.  It is so amazing to go through the temple with someone who has never been through before.  Plus, Roy and I were invited to be the witness couple so we got to sit next to our friends for their first time.  Then we were blessed to be in the room as they were sealed together as a family.  I’ve never been in a live family sealing.  I’ve done sealings for the dead where children were sealed to parents, but it is different live.  Small children do NOT like their hands being held down so the one year old cried through the ceremony but it was still so sweet. 

On the way home, Roy wanted to stop at Video Only (a store that only sells video stuff ie TVs, DVD/Bluray players, camcorders etc.) just to see.  An hour later we left with a new TV in our backseat.  He’s been researching and wishing for some time now.  We got a smoking deal so I guess now’s the time to upgrade.  Having a new TV did have a perk for conference.  We were able to attach our TV to the computer and watch conference on the TV screen.  After years of huddling around a laptop it was super nice to have conference of 47” of viewable screen!

We spent a lot of time together as a family this weekend and fortunately the kids mostly got along.  That’s always nice.  We had cinnamon rolls and some crazy brownies that may have involved Oreo cookies and a chocolate cookie crust.  On not.  I plead the fifth.  We built block towers and knocked them down and played about a hundred games.  K can play Go Fish now so that’s pretty fun.  And then, of course, we watched and listened to conference.  Some of those talks to were so AMAZING.  I love conference weekends!

K started preschool this week, as she mentioned in her letter.  I should say that she typed part of it by herself.  I’ll let you deduce which part that was.   I have put together a co-op style preschool were each mom takes turns teaching.  This week was my turn to teach.  It was really fun to use my teaching skills – sort of.  There is a bit of a difference between middle school and preschool, probably not as much as you would hope but some difference nonetheless.  It is very gratifying that K now recognizes the letter P and knows its sound.  (P was our letter this week.)  D was so easy, you know.  He learned his letters, sounds and how to read mostly on his own because he wanted to.  K is rather indifferent to learning the letters and their sounds.  She is happy to learn but is just as happy to do other stuff. 

A’s language is really taking off.  She is speaking a lot now and in full sentences.  Usually, it is very difficult to understand her because he words are still in her own language but they are getting closer to the actual English words we use.  This weekend, she walked around the house telling everyone, “No, no – no touch.  No, no – no touch.”  She heard this a lot as we were building towers as you can imagine.  A 2 year old around a block tower is literally like a bull in a china shop.  Anyway, she is getting to be quite the mimicker.  I love it!

Roy did finally get the deck sanded and one coat of stain put on.  It has also started to rain.  This was a problem he was afraid of running into.  He’ll have to try to squeeze in staining anytime there’s a sunny day.

Our garden has finally stopped producing.  I for one am glad and may have allegedly pulled the zucchini plants out by the roots before their time.  No one can prove it was me though.  I’ve shredded and frozen more than 20 cups of zucchini, made zucchini bread, cookies, soup, salads, grilled/stuffed, given away and still have 4 in the fridge.  It was their time to go.  I am also really glad the tomatoes are done.  I’m done with the tomatoes anyway.  I bottled 59 pints for the winter.  That’s a whole lot of tomato peeling!  I’ve also worked in peaches and pears.  I need to do applesauce this week and then we should be good for the winter.  It is rewarding to have it done but it sure is a lot of work to do!

I know you are on the Lord’s errand and I am so proud of you.  We all love you!

Love,

Sheena