An Update

It's time for an update . . . hopefully it won't get too long or wordy, which my updates seem to be . . . 

Ben: Pretty much the same. Working hard! Main job at the surgical center, Mondays at the hospital doing total joints, on-call with the hospital about 7-8 days/month, and Army drill weekends monthly. Busy guy for sure. He's a bit worried about his position of first-assisting at the hospital because the hospital is doing stupid things (per many docs' opinions as well), but I don't want to get into that now. He teaches Sunday School once a month and suffers from what his father suffers from: Perfectionism. He is one of the best teachers I've heard and he always does an excellent job. He majorly stresses for about two weeks leading up to his lessons . . . :) He took the girls skiing up at Powderhorn on Monday. Jonas was in Utah and I had to work - so it was the perfect opportunity for a daddy-daughters date. :) 

They had a really great day!

Ben and I have got a couple of dates in our near future: this weekend a triple-date (two other couples joining us) to see the Banff Film festival in Junction. We'll do dinner before and then enjoy the shows! Then at the end of March he and I will head back to Junction's Avalon theater for a Garrison Keillor show. Fun!

Me: Working a little bit still at the Cancer Center. It's a great job, but I do wish I could work there a little bit more . . . Other than that, I'm just cooking, grocery shopping, wasting time, and, oh, I started CrossFit. I like it. I brought Ben on "friend's week" and so we'll see if he decides to join me . . . I go at 5am on M, W, and F. I like early workouts!

Random picture . . . After we played some fun card game I learned from my hut trip for FHE, per Emmy's request/demand, we played slap-jack. Ben was out by now and this is what happened on one of the jacks. Ha, how crazy! Hard to determine who's hand was down first. :) Lucy, on the right, was eventually deemed the winner of the pile. (But not the game. My girls have never beat me, haha.)

Miles: He is still rocking it at BYU-I. Academically and socially. He likes his classes and is doing well in them. He joined some auto-club thing - they are working on building a car of sorts. Electric car, I think? He's working on submitting his mission papers - aiyiyi! With the plans to go mid-to-late summer. So exciting! But also sad!

Jonas: Jonas has the most exciting update of all. He has, as of 1:30pm today, officially enlisted with the Utah National Guard. I think of friend of his here started looking into it and that got Jonas interested. Jonas contacted the Colorado National Guard and was less-than-impressed with the recruiter. So I encouraged him to contact Kolter's recruiter and the rest is history, haha. Within a day of talking to the Utah recruiter, Jonas had done a bunch of paperwork and had taken the mandatory 2-hour military test - the ASVAB. I will do a bit of bragging here, because Jonas needs all the bragging he can get. :) But Jonas did extremely well on the ASVAB. The minimum score to qualify for most branches of the military is a 30-34. Jonas got an 82. The recruiter was so excited that as soon as he saw the score, he called to tell Jonas immediately (as opposed to waiting a day or two like he originally had said).

One loop-hole has been that because Jonas had tried some Adderall (we thought maybe he had some ADD tendencies), in the past (thanks to a global supply-chain issue our pharmacy has been out since last fall, which probably worked in Jonas' favor), his process took a bit longer. He had to apply for a waiver, have some extra doctor-visits, letters of recommendations, etc. But he got the first waiver over and done with. So last Monday, February 13th, Sargeant Michael Mendoza (or close to that!?) drove Jonas and Kolter out to Utah for MEPS. If interested, you can google it. :) It's basically more paperwork, physicals, blood work, etc. Then you enlist! Kolter was able to enlist last Thursday and they were planning on coming back last Friday - however, Jonas had to wait for one more waiver and it hadn't come yet. However, right before they were to head home, the waiver came in. They weren't able to process him that day, but finished up everything yesterday and today (Monday was a holiday). 

So from Friday midday to Tuesday afternoon, Jonas and Kolter stayed at my parents' home. I think everyone enjoyed it! The boys were driving my dad's machine all over the place all the time - they even drove it to church on Sunday. :) They went bowling, ate out, and shoveled my parents' deck that had a couple feet of ICE. It was kind of cool that they had that time in Midway with my parents!

So now Jonas (and Kolter) are enlisted. Why the National Guard? Mostly because it is the only branch you can join at 17. The boys will do their "boot camp" (basic training) in Fort Jackson, South Carolina this summer - for 10 weeks. Pray that they pass it! After that (actually, starting now) the boys will travel to Blanding, UT for monthly weekend drills - similar to Ben. They will continue that through their senior year. Then, when Jonas graduates, he can decided if he wants to go active (which might mean transferring to the Army) or something. We're not sure (but Jonas thinks he is) exactly what will happen, but it doesn't really matter. He'll either stay on with the National Guard in a reserve manner - and then have to decide if he wants to go to trade school, get a full-time job, etc. Or join full-time active duty. We'll see. We sure hope this will be a positive in Jonas' life! Finger crossed, prayers sent, etc.!

Jonas in his Army costume. :) He looks great! I am excited to see how his military haircut looks without a hat!

Emmy: Well she's surviving her freshman year of high school. It's better than middle school, she says. So that's good. But it's still not great. She just doesn't have a close group of good friends to hang out with and that's pretty hard and devastating for a teen. Lunchtime is better. She's not trying to escape anymore and hardly ever texts me to check her out for lunch . . . She's kind of accepted the fact that she eats by herself. Which is good and bad. But sometimes now she actually sits with people and so that's good. But most of the high schoolers just don't do good things - vape, drink, sleazy stuff, etc. Even the "good" kids and a lot of the nice kids. It's just hard. She's doing well in gymnastics and has now committed herself to going three times a week. Which I support fully and think it's time for her to push it more. (I just wish we didn't have to pay for it!) School, besides lunch, is okay. She doesn't love it, though. 

Lucy: She's doing well. There isn't much new with her . . . She loves being with friends. As soon as she hears back from one friend who can't hang out that day, she moves on to the next. And she usually finds someone to hang out with! She finished up her school's ski club last week. They went three times to Powderhorn - each on a Monday. They started the day with a lesson, then lunch, then they would be on their own to ski with whomever. A lot of her friends did it and so she just had a ton of fun. She got a little more comfortable doing blacks! She's doing well with gymnastics, too. Her impatience drives me CrAzY. But she's pretty darn great otherwise!