An Update on ALL of Us

I know that my updates get long and wordy . . . but I haven't done one in a while . . .

Ben - His days of bishoping are now numbered.  Probably in the 60-day range or so.  I'm excited!  I know he is too in many ways - but I also think he's feeling all of the "I should have's" or "I didn't do enough here's," etc.  He gave a great ward-conference talk last week and I was hoping that his stress that he'd been feeling because of it would go away.  Which I guess that stress went away, but it was a heavy Sunday full of heavy issues and he almost seemed even more stressed afterwards.  Again, I'm excited for his release!  :)  Work continues to go just fine - he works with Dr. Singh in the hospital on Mondays and the rest of his time at the Surgical Center. 

Me - I have been pretty busy since school has started.  Out of the 4 weeks of school, I have worked 3 of them.  I wasn't supposed to work last week, but they needed me and it's hard for me to say no - even though I wanted to.  A group of ladies were getting together on Thursday and so I opted for not sleeping after my shift and hanging out with them all day.  We had a great time biking from Ridgway to Ouray, then to lunch, then to the Hot Springs.  It was way better than sleeping all day!  But, yes, I was tired.  Work is okay.  I have been floated a couple of times to the med-surg. floor - which I hate.  If that continues, I really will quit my job.  I hate med-surg. that much - it's actually why I quit the last time (8 years ago) I worked.  The weeks I work I am just busy with work, helping out in my kids' classrooms, grocery planning and shopping, laundry, and picking up the house.  So when that opportunity came last week to do something "fun," I just had to forgo sleep.  I'm still suffering from achilles tendonitis and some sciatic issues.  It makes me feel old, although I don't think 38 is necessarily old.  I have a new calling coming up next week . . . stay tuned to find out what it is.  :)

Miles - He is in his last year of middle school.  As far as I know, he is doing okay.  He joined StuCo (Student Council) after I encouraged Jonas to do so.  I'm now kicking myself that I didn't encourage Miles to join it his 6th-grade year!  Doh.  Miles likes StuCo and loves being part of the concession stand at our school for the local sporting activity.  He likes making the nachos.  He loves getting 1$ of concession food per hour he "works."  Go junk food.  He and Jonas love getting to school early to play Gaga ball.  Check it out here.  This gaga ball court is outside and is extremely popular.  A student built it for his Eagle project.  It's awesome.  Miles has had his fair shares of wins.  I'm scared of our high school here and am not excited for him (or anyone in my family) to go there.  So . . . I started doing a little research in to BYU's High School courses.  I am definitely looking in to that as an option for next year.  We will see.

Jonas - He seems to be happy with middle school so far.  He likes riding his bike to school each day with Miles.  And he, too, likes being a part of StuCo and likes telling us his funny experiences.  It's cute.  He started up swim-team again.  He was supposed to go four times a week, but that's just too much.  So he goes three times a week and misses out on Tuesdays practice - which is our church youth night and so it works out well.  He will sometimes complain of having to go to practice, but he always comes out of his practices happy!  He still is so emotionally labile - he can be fine and dandy one second and then you tell him an answer he doesn't like and he thinks the sky is falling.  He'll be turning 12 in just a few short months!  So fun.

Emmy - She is adjusting okay to her class.  She is in a 3/4 class - so it has both 3rd graders and 4th graders.  I'm not going to go in to all the details, but it's not the best of situations, but is working out okay.  She has a male teacher that she loves, "even though he yells a lot."  She had a friend come over after school on Friday and that was a pretty big deal.  I just don't know many of the parents and so it's hard to set up play-dates.  But I did and she and Rosalinda had a good time.  Rosa has big crushes on Miles and Jonas.  :)  Emmy is hopefully getting ready for a gymnastics competition soon - but her coach has yet to sign-up for a specific meet and date.  I hope he does because Emmy really does want to go to a competition.  She goes to gymnastics 2-3 times a week and loves it.

Lucy - She is doing very well as a 1st-grader.  I have been to her class several times (every Tuesday at 10) and it's fun to see her and her classmates.  She's a smart and good student.  She is in her third year in her music/pre-piano class and loves it - although it is getting harder, which means harder "homework."  She loves gymnastics and I wish she could go more often and be pushed a little more.  But she is going to a different class now and I do think it will push her a bit more.  She, like her sister, has potential for sure.  One of her best-friends, Dory, is now going to the Ridgway school and will be moving out to Ridgway sometime in October.  It's a bummer as they were such great friends!  But she still has a lot of good friends at school.

Wilson and Brigham are just fine!  Wilson seemed almost-dead before we left for Midway, but we came home and he was looking more alive than ever!  That dog is definitely on his 9th life.  :)  Brigham is great and loves, loves, loves going out with Ben and me when we go mountain biking.

Our family is getting ready for our 2nd-ever triathlon.  Our teams will be the same - Team Wilson (myself, Miles, and Jonas) and Team Brigham (Ben, Emmy, and Lucy).  There are quite a few more family-teams this year and so we aren't expecting our 1st and 2nd place finishes as we did last year b/c there was only us.  :)  Our family is also planning on hiking our first 14er this weekend.  Camping Friday night and then heading up Mount Handies dark-and-early Saturday morning!

And that's that.