This Week at Our House #31 A Rare Visit

We just finished our last week of summer vacation. We will start school tomorrow and we will go 16 weeks straight with no breaks. It will be intense, but I wanted to consolidate our learning and school time, so that we can have more vacation time.

We had a good week. We did not get any more done on the roof, and I wanted to be finished with that by now, but we did get the entire lawn mowed which included attempts to fix the old mower, and buying a new one and putting it together. The work on the roof as well as some painting, more ceiling fixes, and the final repair to the fence will continue in the evenings after our school day.

We are definitely heading into an intense week with school starting, the repairs continuing, and dentist appointments. I think we can do it, though. I have our schedules written. All of our books and supplies out and ready to be used, and the syllabi completed. I feel more ready this year than I have in any of the past years.

John's brother, Jeremy, his wife, Rosanne, and their 4 kids came to visit. I was really nervous about them coming because of the tension

and difficulties with John's family. Rosanne said that as soon as they start talking about us, she leaves, so that she is neither a part of it, nor does she know exactly what they say. I want to believe her. She seemed earnest. I was my usual frank self, and I really enjoyed talking to Rosanne again. Jeremy and Rosanne were our best friends when we lived in Utah. It's been nearly 4 years since we've seen them

Rachel had really missed  their daughter, Ada. Ada and Rachel and Anya seemed to get along well. You could tell that they are not little girls anymore. They approached each other with caution, but by the end of the visit seemed to be friends again.

Joseph is the same age as their son, Sam. Joseph and Sam got along very well. They are both very smart 10 year old boys.

Josh used to be buddies with their daughter, Evelyn, but age changed things. Josh played more with Joseph and Sam and with their youngest son, Seth. Evelyn said Josh isn't the Joshy she remembers. Evelyn seemed to hang out with Arwen more.

Seth and Susan, who are the same

ages, played together by the last day. It is funny how kids seem to pair up with kids their own ages while young, but with their own genders when they are older.

Kate has always loved Evelyn the best of all her cousins and I think Evelyn's frank appraisal of things and general negative attitude pleased Kate.

Cousin Sam had injured his foot before he got here, so we took all of the girl's to the beach, except Arwen who didn't want to go because her swimsuit was dirty. The boys stayed home to play video games and board games together.

Evelyn said that this was the best swimming ever, until a wave washed water up her nose. Ada swam like a pro. Rachel and Anya really enjoyed swimming at the beach with cousins. Gideon sat with Rosanne, while I swam. Ruth and Kate mostly swam, and took care of kids and chatted with Rosanne some. The waves were the best they have been all summer. They were tall, but soft. We all liked sharing our favorite part of North Carolina with our favorite cousins.

John enjoyed seeing his brother, a lot. There were board games going to the whole time. They never got a soccer game going, but I think all the boys and men were happy with the visit.

Johnny and Adam were my master lawn mowers this week. I wanted to get the lawn finished before Jer and Rosanne came and we did. John and I also took a turn or two mowing. Adam and I did some mowing in the heat of the day. While I mowed, Sam followed me with his hands covering his ears. The ducks seemed sad to have lost their tall grass, funny enough.

Speaking of birds. Now that we have a rooster, we have given our broody hens eggs to sit on. I am not sure if they will be fertile yet. The rooster is old enough to be mating, but he is not crowing yet. Joseph and Arwen and Susan have been keeping an eye on our two broody hens. They seem to take turns sitting on the eggs and going off to get food and water. The two broody hens were always pals when they were babies. They seem to be good friends still.

Gideon can now stand up to things and stay standing by holding on. He gets scared when he wants to get down, though, because he is afraid to fall. He will cry and then we will help him down. Gideon was my favorite thing to show off to our company. He's such a handsome little man.

The one unfortunate event of the week was our Sam came down with a runny nose on Tuesday. I am sure he picked it up in nursery. On Thursday, when company came, me, Rachel, Anya, Gideon, and Susan had picked it up. By Saturday night, Joseph, Joshua, Ruth, Kate, Johnny, and John had it too. We

were originally thinking we would go to Sacrament meeting, but with so many of us with a runny nose, we decided to stay home from church. I think that was the right choice because I spent much of the morning wiping noses. We hope Jeremy's family does not catch this cold. It's unfortunate timing. We are rarely sick. Still, we had a lovely time studying the gospel at home today. I read a Joseph Smith discourse on the priesthood, and we discussed that for about two hours. Later, the 4 oldest girls sang hymns around the piano. It was a good Sabbath.

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