Family Letter July 2018

July 2018 Family Letter and History

Kent and Sharon Bateman Family

Kent and I are aging not so gracefully.  To think we are the old generation is unbelievable to us.  Kent has a lot of pain each day between his back and RA.  Justin has him hearing again and now he can hook his hearing directly to the TV or his phone.  It often causes us some laughter (not) when he hands the phone to me and I talk and no one answers because only Kent can hear.  Too many fancy gadgets for old people.  I see, hear (pretty good), and hurt a lot but we can still have pretty busy schedules.

We teach family home evening at the Juab County Jail on Mondays,  I am second counselor in the R. S. Presidency, Kent teaches priesthood, and we’re both listed as Sunday School teachers.   We are relatively well and happy.  Our family is going to cruise the Caribbean in January.  We are excited to be able to vacation together; it seems we never get a chance.  (No kids).  Love you all!

Curtis and Alison Sandall Family:  I’ve started this 3 times.

Hi, Last year I missed out. I wanted to make sure I got involved this year. We, our family, is getting bigger. Physically/mentally and well you know…..

We are staying busy both Curtis and myself. I guess the biggest news for us is we are counting 16 grandkids and not everyone is done yet. However, Ben was the first one to say the words and do something about it. He didn’t sing the valium delirium like Curtis did but he had a pretty sweet recovery.

I had both my knees replaced last year. YAY!  It was getting so painful there for a while I thought I would just die.  But now it’s so much better.  I would do it again if I had to.  I found the best ortho doctor ever and I was back to work in 5 1/2 weeks. Yep it was awesome.

My boss was fired too this year. Which was AWESOME!!  You know when you are working for someone who is just not on the up and up.  But that’s all I will say about that, Forrest.

Curtis has been so busy that he would come home, watch an hour of t.v., and he goes to bed.  It was so nice last week because we went up for our family reunion to Mom’s and Dad’s and he didn’t have to do anything for a week.  He was beside himself.

I will break here. I write how I talk so if you make fun that I can’t spell or don’t punctuate just tell me and you don’t have to hear from me again. Or just stop reading.  I’m not like that guy on sesame street who says “Hello wheeeatPUUT !”  I guess I could capitalize Sesame Street.  How’s that?

Okay, Jared and Zarah still have 3 kids.  He’s a successful contractor supervising a subdivision build right now of 500 homes. Zarah is still taking pictures and you can see her stuff on Instagram/facebook and she likes to play on snapchat oh and do videos on youtube.  Me and Curtis have a youtube video – It’s pretty dumb but just search my name and you will find it.

Katie and Trevor have 4 1/2 kids, they are doing great, He does insurance with Primerica and works for Curtis.  Katie was an OB tech and was very good at it but was prompted to stay home right before they decided that there wasn’t any reason to have OB techs when they had OR techs. So she didn’t want to become a babysitter in ER so she left for a while.

Ben and Kaylee just finished another remodel (buy and fix it up and sell it??!!  Well they are selling it right now.  Anyone wanna buy a house? It’s on facebook.  They have 4 kids Tenley turns 8 this year and Dean is their youngest named after Grandpa Cookie He is a cutie.

Megan and Kaleb are starting their businesses. Megan is a realtor and Kaleb just branched out and started his own business as a plumber. Both are doing great and are hoping for a boy this go around since they have 3 girls.

It’s fun to see everyone on facebook and connect with all of you. Stay safe. I love you all and Remember there is nothing better than to be BATEMAN.

                                                           

Brent and Terri Bateman Family: I'll be honest. Those of you who know what it is like to have a hectic job, a very busy calling at church, and a short term memory problem will understand when I say that I am not really sure what is going on in my family. Every night I have to check to make sure that I am in the right house and climbing into bed with the right girl. So far I am 100% on that one but I gotta be sure. My wife Terri seems well. She still looks good. She disappeared for about a month there which concerned me for a while. Turns out she was in Peru with her students again. She says she had fun. I haven't seen Zoe in about 7 months. No idea why. I'll ask Terri if she knows. Meanwhile, I think Sam is in Cincinnati with his wife Caroline. Last I heard Sam was going to be in the Air Force after college and going to be a pilot. Although why in the world he would need to bomb Cincinnati is beyond me. Reds aren't THAT bad. Daisy I think graduated from high school. She must have a boyfriend right now because she doesn't talk to me anymore -- but she is talking her mother's dadgummed ear off 24/7. That's the surest sign that there is a boy somewhere that I need to kill. Our youngest, Jeff, I think still lives here. I occasionally see a very tall kid around that kind of looks like me. So that's probably him.  Also we have a bird. His name is Dumb Bird. He loves me. Oh. Turns out Zoe lives in Seattle. She is working with autistic kids there. Thanks Terri.  That is all. 

Jarom and Andrea Echols Family 2018:  Our time is still pretty much consumed by our children and their activities.  Jarom still works from home doing computer something or other.  He is currently without a church calling, but I keep him busy volunteering him to substitute in Primary.  He is volunteering as Lily and Ellie's soccer coach this year, but pretty much coaches the kids in every sport, year round.  I (Andrea) stay busy running kids from one place to another or attending another meeting.  I serve on the SCC boards at all 3 schools, serving as President at the elementary and Jr. High.  Next year I will be SCC President at the High School plus Co-President of the elementary PTO, in addition to teaching radKIDS.  I think next year I'll get a job so I can be less busy.

Emma is 17 and is going to be a senior this coming year.  Tennis is still her favorite sport.  Last season she took 2^nd place in 1^st doubles in region.  This year she is working hard so she can play singles by going to tennis tournaments every Saturday, playing every day, and working for the rec dept teaching tennis.  She also throws shot and disc for track in the spring, plays the flute and piccolo for concert band and marching band, and plays the guitar for Jazz band all while maintaining a 4.0.  She decided to try something she never has before and last year participated in the High School Musical.

Rachel is going into High School this year.  She hates sports and sunlight in general.  She loves to read and sing.  She auditioned for and made Concert Choir for next year.  She can play percussion, clarinet, and saxophone.  Next year she'll be playing the saxophone in Concert Band and Jazz band and is also currently in Marching Band as well.  This year she and Emma will be marching in the Freedom Festival Parade plus the Band has been invited to march on the field during Stadium of Fire. To say they are excited is an understatement.  

Hannah turned 12 this year and was lucky enough to go to Heber Valley Camp for her first girls camp.  None of the girls wanted to come home when the week was over.  Hannah is a lover of all sports and pretty much excels in whatever she tries.  She plays sports year round... soccer, volleyball, basketball... whatever she can.  She just finished up playing catcher in Softball and now is on a little league tennis team.  Last week we traveled to Richfield where she won both her tennis matches.  She's going into 7^th grade next year and works really hard in school... socializing... and getting good grades.  She's also a lover of books.

Lily is 10, headed into 5^th grade.  She plays any and all sports as well, though her favorite is Volleyball. She just finished up softball, and is super excited to have her dad as her soccer coach this year.  She is part of a book club this Summer, though due to family reunions, etc. has yet to attend once.  She spends most of her days playing with her BFF Keira. (Kay's daughter)  

Levi will be turning 8 in August, though because we held him back a year, will only be going into the 2^nd grade.  He's super smart, and is an excellent reader.  He is a lover of gaming and pretty much all sports, though soccer and basketball are his favorites.  He spends his long summer days playing with Tyson (Kay's son), having sleepovers as often as possible.  Reminds me of the “good 'ole days” as Levi and Lily walk back and forth between our houses playing with cousins. We love having family so close.

Ellie turned 5 last October so will be starting kindergarten this coming year.  I'm not sure how excited she is... she doesn't seem in too big of hurry to grow up.  Though it's mostly our fault... everyone caters to her and does everything she wants.  Typical. 

Props to you if you're still reading, sorry this is so long... but I have lots of kids, like to brag,  and I usually don't know when to stop.  We're so grateful for families, especially for our Bateman family. Love to you all.

Wayne (1945-2015) and RaNae (1954-2005) Bateman Family

Camille and Dustin Haight Family:  I am feeling a little nostalgic this year so I suppose the best place to start an update for us is in the past. You see, it was 20 years ago that we started our lives together. It seems like life happens in the blink of an eye and this has been true for us. It is hard for me to believe that my life has changed so much since that day Uncle Lynn married us in 1998. Lucky for me it has changed in so many positive ways. We have been so very blessed. 

Since that time we have been blessed with 5 girls, our share of trials, but more triumphs than defeats, and a few lucky breaks. I am amazed when I look back at all we have been through and yet I know there is still more to get through. This year was full of magic moments, graduations, loss, new friends, and successes.

For the first time since she was born, I will have to officially let go of my little girl. Kalie graduated this year from Salem Hills High School, and how proud and sad you can feel in the same moment is amazing. She worked so hard through school, lettered in swimming, graduated with honors, finished 36 college credits with concurrent enrollment, and received the career pathways cord. She made a plan for the future her ninth grade year, and part about the future is where my heart skips a beat. She will move out at the end of July and attend Dixie State as a budding film student. I am so excited for her, and still, I am wishing she could stay. Few people really talk about how hard this new phase of life will be when you have to let go. Or maybe they do tell you, but you don’t fully understand until you face it in that moment. I can remember my dad saying, “Don’t blink” after she was born, and I see what he meant.

At 15, my next oldest, Cassidy, is not far behind. She is learning to drive, finished her time served in Jr High and is readying for her sophomore year in high school. She too is already planning her college future (she hopes for Stanford or BYU) in her hopes of being a lawyer. Who knew I would be routing for BYU to win so badly? She still plays soccer and loves it, but has also followed Aspen and Emily with a love of Taekwondo and recently joined the karate kicking family.

Lucky for me Emily, at 11, says she is never leaving home. She wants to be a zoologist and figures she can do that job up at Hogle Zoo. She wants to be with all the animals but would like to avoid the job a vet has when having to put them to sleep. In her words, “Cause that job would be the worst. I would cry all the time.”  She finished 6^th grade and gets to move on to new things in Jr High. She also hung up her Gillies (Irish dancing shoes) to put all of her effort into her karate. She loves it whole heartedly and has now reached the level of green belt in the Omega system. Her favorite part is the formal forms because it feels like a cool dance.

Aspen was baptized this year. She has grown into this beautiful young lady that loves superheroes as much as her dad does. She is the only one of my girls staying at the same school. She is now a yellow-black belt in Omega martial arts. I am grateful to Aspen for jumping into her martial arts, because it started a family trend. One year after Aspen started and we now have four of the five girls enrolled. Aspen’s favorite part of the sport is sparring, which you would never guess by looking at her, but when she gets to the tournaments she is all business.  

Another step in my next phase of life is, Kendra, my youngest baby goes to kindergarten this year. It is weird to think they will all be out of the house during the day now. She is very excited and is a social butterfly so this will be a good year for her.  She also loves karate and tries to skip her Little Dragon moves to copy her sisters.

All in all, it has been a year of transitions and change. I suppose that is every year, but this year seems to stick out to me. I wonder some if my Mom struggled to let go when I married Dustin all those years ago. I know in my heart she was very good about letting me make my own way and I hope we can do the same for our girls.

Natalie and Brett Loveland Family:  We’ve had a roller coaster of a year. Full of trials and triumphs. Brynlee finished the second grade with flying colors, and even got accepted into the gifted and talented program. Although we declined the acceptance because she did not want to leave the French immersion program, and we don’t blame her! Quinn finished first grade, and to her surprise she loves French too, and it’s nice to have a big sister that is willing to help her whenever she needs! Cambree fisnished kindergarten, and will go into the French immersion program starting in first grade. To our surprise, Cambree is a delight at school. Helpful, friendly, and sweet....everything she’s not at home! Kennedy just turned 5, which she is ecstatic about.. Mom on the other hand is having a hard time accepting that her baby is growing up. Kenna will start Kindergarten this fall, and she can’t wait! Brett is still working at Kennecott, but no longer on haul trucks. He runs heavy equipment now, and he loves it. He comes home a lot happier now, which I love too! As for me, it’s been a year full of change. Mostly good change, though! I’ve lost weight, and got back to my pre baby size. I’ve done some counseling to help me manage my depression and anxiety. The biggest change, though is me going back to work. After 9 great years of being a stay at home mom, I got a great opportunity to help bring in some extra income. I started working at Utah RV Rentals, and as much as I hate missing out on time with the girls, I really love the job and environment there! Plus, they are willing to work with Brett’s crazy schedule so our girls are always either with mom or dad. I’m really thankful they don’t have to be in daycare. It was also kind of fun to find out that I’m related to the owners of Utah RV Rentals. Doug Hind’s grandma was my great grandpa’s (Phillip Bateman) sister. They knew grandma and grandpa and my dad. Which oddly is something I find comforting. In case we didn’t already know, Brett and I learned the hard way how hard marriage can be. Nobody said it would be easy, right? But we are certainly going to make it worth it. I’m happy to say, so far so good. We are both putting in the effort and making our marriage stronger and happier. We are doing great, and things are turning out exactly how they are meant to be! 

Brenda and Gary Jeppson Family

To present a history for the current year, I must go back two years, for that is where this prolonged era, all events inextricably connected, began. I don’t think anyone wrote for our family in 2017, but I can still pretty closely record it all as a list. Everything mentioned should be viewed as a “bulleted list,” easy to read.

Ø  End of July 2016:  We arrived home from our two –year mission, house had been rented while we were gone.

Ø  Began remodel of upstairs bedrooms (3) and the family bathroom. Our kids had already, per our request, taken out carpet and torn down wallpapers (put up in the 80s).

Ø  At this same time, we were heavily involved in putting all our household stuff away, cleaning out cupboards and closets. Unpacking Hawaii stuff too, finding a place for it and discarding lots of 37-year-old junk. We also had to get our yard trimmed and cleaned up.

Ø  October, 2016:  Brenda, right shoulder surgery. Just worn out with arthritis. This was evident about one year into the mission. Surgery went beautifully, shoulder is repaired

Ø  December and holidays, 2016:  We played hosts to many people, primarily from Mongolia via BYUH. Still working on upstairs, mostly all rooms simultaneously.

Ø  January 8, 2017:  Our mother, Sybil, passed away, with family around her.

Ø  Spring months and into summer of 2017:   estate, papers, and financial accounts. We went through Mom’s house, outbuildings, virtually every item of her belongings in that house and in every shed, buildings that held Dean’s and Sybil’s stuff. Prepared the house for sale. Diana and I did the bulk of this work, being as she and I had inherited it. Kent, Lynn and their wives helped us do the personal belongings.

Ø  May 1, 2017:  Right hip, too, had worn out for me. Simple replacement surgery, we thought. But it didn’t go well; second surgery to repair it was May 4^th, my spending 3 weeks in a rehab center left Diana with so much still undone.  Everyone did pause for a few weeks, but I was stuck in a wheelchair for 10 weeks. Second opinion doctor, “Brenda, this hip cannot be fixed. It’s as good as it can be.”

Ø  For a year, we did recovery, finished remodeling, sold Mom’s house.

Ø  The sale of the three rental properties was strenuous, too. Diana had spent literally hundreds of hours over the years taking care of all Mom’s “accounts.” I think at one time she had five or six open bank accounts. The number of hours we and our husbands spent in repairs, paper work, meetings, negotiations and the efforts to vacate the properties would exceed your best guess. (None spent on behalf of George’s house. It was a simple and smooth sale; George has stayed in it. The house was sold with no problems to the guy who lives behind that house, Doug Anderson.) The most atrocious thing of all was dealing with our fathers’ nemesis, Roy and Christina Entendencia. And yes, the Entendencias won! Lived free for up to five years by not paying their rent in the 22 years they lived there. Their trailer cannot be described, nor the lot and many sheds filled with 20 years of trash. Dumpsters, hired help, outrageous yelling, crying, lying, tirades, and to top it off, we even ended up having to hire an attorney. Elsa’s house had been cleaned out quite adequately, but not their outdoors. Their lot also required more work than we had hoped for. We cannot tell you how difficult a chore this chapter was made by Dean and Dale and their slumlord mentality, left for us to accomplish.

Ø  We had some time-taking issues with Mom’s property lines, too, thanks to Chandler Bateman, who lives in the new house on Dale’s former home lot.  He had a tough time giving up his access to the back yards via Mom’s (now Leslie William’s) east fence line. He also (through blatant lying to her) tried to acquire some of the property as his. We had to have surveying services and putting in the corner stakes again. Leslie was happy when we showed her the water spigot on her corner.

Ø  On June 12, 2018, we celebrated our Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary by limping out to dinner.

Neal and Lori Jeppson Family: The past year has been another wonderful year of learning and development and happy moments for Neal and Lori and the kiddos. Lincoln is approaching three years old, and as our youngest he has been in the business of teaching us loads of lessons! He is much busier, much louder, much more active and finally much less tired than the previous three girls. We love him, and are thankful for the energy and lessons that he is bringing to our growing family. Meg, our oldest will finish her last year of middle school and soon we will have a high schooler. Our health is good and we feel happy and blessed in all of our circumstances. If we had to describe the last 12 months in a sentence, we would say that “The Lord is in every detail of our lives!” We love and miss you all!   Neal, Lori, Meg (13), Kate (11), Avery, 7 and Lincoln (2)

Diana and Ralph Parker Family

Wishing we were clever like so many of you, we tried to think of some non-boring way to tell you about our boring lives.  But the truth our lives are going along swimmingly!  We swam through the 4th of July Party with only a few life preservers thrown out by our children.  We swam through the rest of the summer swiftly since I had to return to teaching school so early in August that there was no chance to drown.  We barely made it to the other side of fall, as  swimming through the garden harvest is a long, hard marathon and the peaches, pears, pickles, and jam we canned weighed a lot and nearly put us under, but lifesavers from our children again pulled us through.  We swam through Thanksgiving and Christmas, where we gave our children and grandchildren a Christmas and birthday gift of taking them all swimming at Pine View Reservoir up Ogden Canyon the following August!  It was an easy breast stroke due to no packaging!  We swam through January and February, where we built up our endurance since January and February have about 45 days each and swimming for that long is exhausting.  We merrily swam through March and April replanting the garden so we could nearly drown in the fall again.  In May Diana got out of the pool (retired) and is walking along the side watching Ralph swim.  But on Sundays Ralph watches me swim through my Primary calling teaching the 10-11 year olds since the church put him back in the beginners class after April conference.  We are reasonably healthy, have purchased a trailer and sideXside, and plan to play a little more despite the house and yard.  Love you all!  And, one piece of advice: Just keep Swimming!

Anne and Michael Sampson Family: I am stretching this to make our lives sound interesting and exciting, but here it is: Sampsons 2017-2018.

For Thanksgiving last year our little family of five found ourselves facing the weekend without company and decided to do something really wild...like knock your socks off crazy wild.  We had Thanksgiving dinner out.  Wait, it gets better...the day AFTER Thanksgiving!  I know, we're so spontaneous!  We did combine our weekend with a little hike known as Angel's Landing.  We would highly recommend it.  And we'd also recommend you have a walker handy for a few days afterwards! 

 Definitely one of our highlights this past year was the re-dedication of the Jordan River Temple and all of the activities that went with it.  Mike stayed involved with it because of his calling and I lived vicariously through my boys for a couple of months!  While the temple was being renovated, Mike and I also took the opportunity to go to all of the temples in Utah up until the Cedar City one was finished.

Finally, we just got back from a vacation that took us to most of the church history sites from Winter Quarters east.  It was a bucket list item for us as none of us have ever been.  We're still processing everything we saw and did, but the highlight was definitely the three days we spent in a pioneer home in Nauvoo and catching the fireflies in the field next door!

The kids continue to outsmart both Mike and me.  Turns out Ella (she's 11) is a pretty good dancer--ballroom, at least.  She participated in a little competition at BYU and she and her partner earned a 7th place ribbon in the Waltz (Ella's favorite)!  Jonathan's (our 13-year-old) Spanish is coming along really well and he's both proud and amused that he is almost always first place when the class plays Kahoot! and that he never fails to beat out the native speakers.  Spurred by his success in the school musical, Daniel (15 with a learner's permit!) is tackling his Eagle Scout project this summer--a one-week drama camp for older Primary kids.  As for Mike and me, we are going on a year with him working at home one day a week, but are still trying to find the elusive "romantic" Wednesday lunches we'd envisioned.  Okay, I'd envisioned.

Last of all, to Kirt or Andrea or any of the Kent Batemans, if you still have "My Turn on Earth", call us and we'll talk price!

Love to all our aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins once or twice removed!  I don’t have cousins three times removed yet, do I?

Mark and Jessica Parker Family: Our family is still growing, not numerically, just chronologically. Smiley Face!  It has been a good year for us.  The kids continue to keep busy with school, activities, lessons, and sleeping. Jess and I have done some traveling, including a cruise.  Jessica is a great vacation planner and deal finder!  We are also proceeding with our plan to visit every state and national park/monument in Utah with our family in tow.  And I mean that literally.  We load up the van with kids, and the trailer with food and clothes and try to get away as often as possible.  Sometimes it is only as far as Lagoon. Though my company has been sold again (Health Catalyst), I continue to work at the same desk.  Jessica continues to care for our family and me in an efficient and loving way.  Just keeping track of everyone’s schedules is a full-time job.  Kaitlyn and Braxton will be at the high school this year, Logan only one year behind, Hunter in 8^th grade, Erick and Colin are the big men on campus as 6^th graders, and Zack is an outstanding 3^rd grader.  Charlotte is doing very well and will be in school full time this year.  We continue going to church, work/school, and vacationing so we are thankful for the normalcy of it all. 

Michael and Robyn Parker Family:  It’s been a few years since we contributed to the family letter. If you guessed that this was because there just wasn’t enough happening for us to come up with interesting material, then you must’ve forgotten that we were raising small children, or else you must’ve been far removed from anyone raising small children for a long time (which, I’m fairly sure, does not apply to anyone reading this). In fact, there has been so much happening that if free time were money, we’d hardly have two pennies to rub together.
     The demographics: 2 Parents, 4 kids, which consist of 3 boys, 1 girl. It is safe to say that these numbers are unlikely to change at this point. As far as the numbers that do change, Michael is 37, Robyn 35, Ethan 10, Matt 9, Bridget 5, and Tyson 3. Weight has been withheld to protect certain of us from embarrassment. We’re living in Riverton these days, very near the Walmart on 134^th and Bangerter. A couple of years ago, we got a steal on a short sale (bargain shopping is our MO), so that was a part of why we ended up here, and the other part was that we were looking for a neighborhood where more people were in the child-rearing phase of life, and on that mark, we struck gold. Our ward has a few nurseries, a huge youth program, and is generally just bursting at the seams. This is a really fun way to experience the church and its programs.
     Up ‘til now, our kids have been in year-round school, so this has been our first traditional summer. Like fools, we worried that the kids would be bored and so we signed them up for eleventeen (or so) extra-curricular activities, for example: piano lessons, soccer, flag football, choir, drama, dancing (hip-hop, ballet, tap), tumbling, T-ball, and possibly others that I should be driving them to at the very moment I write this. It turned out to be not only misguided, but terrible timing as well, because right about the time school got out, one of the discs in Robyn’s back herniated itself into her sciatic nerve in a “If I go, we both go!” move (a really low blow) and that left Michael stuck trying to do the splits between the pharmacy and the rec center.
     So Robyn had a surgery for that, which is, honestly, par for the course, because between the rest of us, we have had enough X-rays to insure that we will all certainly die from cancer, if that was not already in the cards for us. Bridget has had a couple rounds of tubes in her ears, Matt broke his finger once or twice, and, not to be outdone, Ethan began complaining about strange and serious pains in his legs that the doctor told us (after we had given him a lot of money) was essentially a serious case of growing pains. Sometimes a good old-fashioned cold can be a nice breather.
     Other things we’ve been up to for the past couple of years? Mattresses. Yeah, that’s right, it’s not for the weak. Have you ever felt safe buying a mattress because you were told that you could return it for your money back? Almost all mattress manufacturers offer you that. And why? How can they make money? It works because nobody actually returns their mattress. Enter Robyn. Over the past couple of years, we’ve tried them all. In fact, when we realized we had already gone more than a year sleeping on a bed for 30-90 nights before returning it to try a new one, we considered just going on that way forever. We tried some mattresses because they had catchy or unrelenting internet ad campaigns. We tried others because they claimed to have been designed around a novel scientific discovery. Before long, we were reduced to trying mattresses based on little more than color, smell, or whether they came with free pillows. Ultimately, it became clear to us that we had embarked on a quest that was akin to the search for the Fountain of Youth. The likelihood that there was a bed out there from which we would arise each morning feeling refreshed and enthusiastic about a new day began to seem remote and our zeal began to fade. Not long after that, as we retired to our bed one evening, we realized, with some regret, that we had let the trial period lapse. So we have a mattress now. I mean, this one’s really ours. I hate it less than some, but I couldn’t say that we look like a mattress commercial when we wake up. It’s probably the bed’s fault. I mean maybe it’s the kids’ too, I dunno. I wonder if there’s an essential oil for this situation?

Sara and Dustin Marcrum Family:  This has been a year of ups and downs. Our expenses have gone up, but our returns have gone down. SOME of our heights went up. Others of us only went up in weight. Trees and weeds came down, grass, greenhouses, sheds, and a fire pit went up in their stead. Our kids grew, our pantry diminished. Dustin and I both hold teaching callings. The age of his students is up, mine is down. The amount of Chinese spoken and piano music played in our home is up. Everyday plenty of "flossing" and "Skywars" goes down. The number of children at home during the day has decreased by one. The number of female hormonal tantrums has increased by a factor of three (years old). Diapers bought is down to zero!!   Really, gratefully, we live a fairly even life. It marches on pretty steady and we try to take whatever comes. If not, we'll throw our hands up until the craziness dies down.

Lynn and Gail Bateman Family