Happy Birthday, Johnny!

Johnny turns 14 years old today. I cannot say enough good things about this boy. I just pray that there is a girl out there keeping herself worthy to be his wife. He will make a great husband and father someday.

This Week at Our House #37

1. John had 5 job related phone calls on Friday. whatever happens, that is good. We've narrowed down our job search and future move to 3 places and a small possibility of one more.The one more is Rexburg, ID where we applied for the only software job opening in the town which he had a small phone interview for. But it's not really on our list because it's the only job in the town. We applied there in the off chance that he would get the job and then if possible to later get a teaching position at BYUI. The other places we chose based on how conservative the area is, how imposing the home school laws are, how close the area is to a Temple, and the number of IT businesses that hire for image processing or machine learning. Those 3 places that fit our criteria are Raleigh, NC area, Atlanta, GA, and Austen or Houston, TX. Those are the places we are focusing our job search on. 
2. A friend of mine pointed out this talk Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave at BYU. It really helped me to feel a lot better about the difficulties we have been living through the past few years. He said, "before I was called as a General Authority, I faced a personal economic challenge that persisted for several years. It did not come about as a consequence of anyone’s wrongdoing or ill will; it was just one of those things that sometimes come into our lives. It ebbed and flowed in seriousness and urgency, but it never went away completely. At times this challenge threatened the welfare of my family and me, and I thought we might be facing financial ruin. I prayed for some miraculous intervention to deliver us. Although I offered that prayer many times with great sincerity and earnest desire, the answer in the end was “No.” Finally I learned to pray as the Savior did: “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). I sought the Lord’s help with each tiny step along the way to a final resolutionThere were times when I had exhausted all my resources, when I had nowhere or no one to turn to at that moment, when there was simply no other human being I could call on to help meet the exigency before me. With no other recourse, more than once I fell down before my Heavenly Father begging in tears for His help. And He did help. Sometimes it was nothing more than a sense of peace, a feeling of assurance that things would work out. I might not see how or what the path would be, but He gave me to know that, directly or indirectly, He would open a way. Circumstances might change, a new and helpful idea might come to mind, some unanticipated income or other resource might appear at just the right time. Somehow there was a resolution." Every word is so familiar to me. That is where we are and where we have been.
3. Ruth had a huge homework assignment for her AP lit class. She probably spent 12 hours on it. She is still working most days of the week while trying to get all of her homework and schooling in. Her Ap Lit class is definitely the most demanding. I think that this is a rather difficult time of life for kids because so much is expected of them. She has to go to school for 8 hours, work for 3, and then do 3 or 4 hours of homework. I have not been making her do many chores, but every now and then she will feel guilty and just do them. I have told her that college is actually easier than AP classes-- at least it was for me. 
4. Kate seems to be doing quite well in school and is satisfied with her classes and grades. Neither Ruth nor Kate got asked to the homecoming dance. I think Ruth was pretty sad. Kate did not care too much about herself. But there were tons of guys who did not ask a girl at all. A large group of pretty, popular girls went together because they did not get asked. That made Kate pretty mad at the guys in school in general. In Kate's seminary class, because of the lack of guys asking girls out, the seminary teacher told the guys to sincerely compliment the girls beside them. One boy turned to Kate, looked at her, and said, "uhhhhhhhhhhh". Kate laughed at him and said, "Really, I'm not that bad." Then he said she had pretty hair. It was after gym and Kate's hair was all messy and frizzy, so she was kind of miffed at the kid. She had the correct response though. Teenage boys can be so mean, blah!
5. Johnny is starting to make friends. Hurray!! He did not complain about school so much this week either. His birthday is tomorrow. I can't believe he is already 14. He is so good. He does everything I ask him to do and he never complains. He is never mean or insulting to anyone. He's read all of the standard works. The Book of Mormon 3 times, the Doctrine Covenants 3 times, the New Testament once, the Old Testament once, and the Pearl of Great Price twice. He is an amazing kid. 
6. Adam does not like to read. It is so hard to get him to read at all. I plan on forcing it. I really think that at some point in time, he will learn that reading is great. If we move out of the area, I am going to home school him and then I will probably make him spend at least two hours a day reading.
7. Rachel sat in my bed with me last night and wanted to talk. But I was at the end of an Agatha Christie murder and was determined to finish it. I told her to get a book and sit by me and read too. She did. Then we watched a show together. All day today, Rachel talked about how last night was the best night and how much she just loved it.
8. Anya forgot her lunch 3 times last week. Hopefully this week will be better.
9. Joseph loves to read. That's always a nice thing to be able to type. He'll just grab a book off the shelf and sit down and read. He also reads to Josh and Arwen regularly. He loves apples too. He'd eat 3 day if we let him. I wonder if the two go together?
10. I showed Joshua how to play on the computer. That may have been a big mistake.
11. Arwen loves the kittens, but she is so rough with them. Our current set of kittens are 5 weeks old and belong to one cat, but both of our mommy cats are nursing them. It's pretty cute, but I am ready to get rid of them, so I don't have to keep telling Arwen to be nice and soft to them.
12. Susan LOVES shoes. She does not have her own pair yet, but she is always getting everyone else's shoes and trying them on. I will often find a big pile of shoes in some random place in the house. A couple of days ago while driving in the car, I asked Susan and Arwen if they would like me to turn on some music. Susan immediately starting humming.

This Week's Pictures

This Week at Our House #36

1. Not much to say. John is back to applying for jobs, and we're are still waiting for full pay from the last job. We went to the Temple this week to pray about where to go and what to do, and we will keep going back every week for now until we have a better idea of what we need to do for our family.
2. Well we made it through the inspection and we are set to close Oct 1st. But we are renting our house back from the buyers for 3 weeks. So our latest move date will be Oct 22nd, though we will probably pack up on the 20th to give us enough time to get the house nice and clean. I need to remember to get all the paper work into the title companies tomorrow. I have been meaning to do that for about 3 days in a row. Life is just so busy. I did however, finish reading Ezra Taft Benson's biography. I learned so much from it. I would say that after reading that and a few of his older talks, I have changed my mind on a some things. It's really a great thing to be able to learn and grow and change.
3. Ruth worked a ton and she has loads of homework. She's been very emotional. Ruth has always stressed a lot over everything. I wish I knew how to help her to calm down. I've told her to roll with the punches rather than letting the punches beat her down, but that does take some time and talent to learn to do.
4. Kate seems to have a lot less homework this year. She is either hanging around a lot more or sleeping a lot more.
5. I think Johnny is easing into Bountiful High a little better. He needs to work on Orchestra a more. I think I'll have to remind him to practice. His 14th birthday is next week, and I just think how well he is doing and how much he has accomplished in his short 14 years. He's really a stalwart young man.
6. Adam has been saying that he has no friends in the family. John and I both thought that was odd because Johnny thinks of Adam as his best friend. But Johnny has been doing a lot with Kate, and Adam and Rachel tend to fight a lot. I guess we have something to work on. I want all of my children to feel like they belong in this family all of their lives.
7. Rachel is loving musical practice and a little nervous we might move too far away for her to stay in school here. 
8. I have been talking to Anya about how she needs to try and find someone to play with during recess. Well, she has recess the same time as Joseph, so Joseph and Anya have been playing together. If we do move out of state and home school (the school plan for moving out of state) I don't think Anya and Joseph will miss friends at all. 
9. Joseph seemed to fix any behavior issues in school this week and is doing great.
10. Since John is no longer working, he has been spending a couple of hours in the afternoon building legos with Joshua. That's been really good for Josh because suddenly he is not as aggressive and mean as he was.
11. Arwen doesn't have to wear a diaper to bed anymore. She only wet the bed once in more than 2 weeks. I love that. Ruth and Kate are the only other kids that trained at night right away. Arwen has been really enjoying the time I have to spend with her and Josh while the older kids are at school. 
12. Suzy has started bringing me books to read to her or little toys to play with her. I love it when the babies do that.

This Week's Pictures

This Week at Our House #35

1. John got his company to give him an advance in pay. They did, but they still owe him quite a bit of money. I think they legally have to get it to him by the end of the month. Now John is back to looking for another job. I hope that he just gets a fulltime position that pays every month and lasts for at least 5 years. 
2. Well, Monday we had a request to show our house and well, Monday morning mess is always quite thorough. But I said yes and then went and cleaned for 4 hours straight while the kids were in school so that the house would be perfectly clean for showing. Then I went and got the kids from school and went to a Rachel's musical meeting. Then I took the kids to the park. While at the park I got another call to see the house. I set it up for a couple hours later. The second people liked the house and made an offer that night. By Wednesday, we were under contract. Today is the inspection. Hopefully every thing will go well. The planned closing date is Oct 1st.
3. Ruth is having fun her senior year, but is anxious about having to move part way through the school year. We are not sure about where we will move and what will happen yet, so there is a little bit of anxiety going around with most of us.
4. Kate is waiting for us to buy her calc 2 class. We are waiting to be paid all the money we are owed, But that will be her math class for the year. Calc 3 does not seem to be offered as an online class, so she will have to go to a college to take that her senior year. 
5. Johnny does not like Bountiful high. He misses Legacy Prep. He hates his math class and thinks it it too easy. He feels uncomfortable in orchetra and feels like it is too hard. He likes German and Chemistry, but he does not like the book he has to read in English. Still, he is getting good grades.
6. Adam is learning the trumpet in school this year and he really likes it.
7. Rachel had her first musical practice. She is hoping we live here the whole school year because she has a speaking part and she loves acting and singing.
8. Anya really likes her school teacher, I have been having all of the elementary school kids read out loud to me a couple of times a week and Anya's reading is really good.
9. Joseph got in trouble in school. I think he is my first kid to ever get in trouble in school. Hopefully he'll try harder to obey. I mentioned that his two older brothers are pretty good. He seemed interested in them as a good example.
10. I started homeschool preschool with Josh and Arwen. Josh is learning to write his name and letters. He's a pretty good artist, so he finds writing letters both easy and enjoyable.
11. Arwen loves learning the alphabet because I do it with them on Starfall and she gets excited about using computers and phones.
12. I have had Susan sleeping in my closet since birth. She is getting a little too tall for that now, so I am going to have to figure out where to put her next.

Too Much Evil

Glenn Beck put a list of 10 things that happened on September 2nd onto Facebook. It's a lot to take in. It left me feeling sick the rest of the week. He noted:


1. It is open season on our police. Houston, Chicago, Abilene in a week, plus Arby's turns down food in a drive through claiming "we don't serve your kind here. A cop"

2. The senate sides with Iran over Israel, while they chant death to America and put a plaque outside our old embassy calling for our death. The republicans and the democrats are equally at fault. Meanwhile 70% of Americans are against this deal. Representative government is dead.

3. A new planned parenthood video that talks about closing the eyes of the severed heads so those who receive them as spare parts don't freak out --- and congress and the president just added NEW funding to Planned Parenthood today.

4. The army is giving a dishonorable discharge to an 11 year green beret because he punched in the face, an Afghani police chief, who we pay and train. The police chief kidnapped and raped a fifteen year old boy, kept him chained to a bed and then beat his mother as she went to the U.S. Army to beg for help. When these to army soldiers found out and he scoffed at them they punched him. He is out and the Muslim police Chief remains.

5. Christians in Syria given 48 hours to convert, leave or die. Tomorrow they will be slaughtered by Isis and the American church Yawns.

6. A five year old boy washes up on the shores of Greece from Syrians trying to flee and move to Europe. "The caliphate will spread and destabilize Europe." My warning in 2010 which was mocked as madness and something that would never happen because it was "too doomsday." It is happening but we pay no attention and act as if it is now no big deal.

7. We are taking Syrian, Somali and Iraqi Muslims in by the thousands and yet, the state department says it "will consider accepting some Christians next year." Meanwhile children are crucified, women are sold as slaves and girls as young as six are raped 8 to ten times a day. Within 18 months there will be no Christians in Iraq and Syria.

8. Hilary's email scandal continues and she is not going to go to jail.

9. Black lives matter organizer says it is open season on white people and blacks "need to pick them off one by one." TV networks ignore the threats and praise them, democrats meet with them and talk about their bravery.

10. A Teenager in high school claims he "feels" like a girl and insists on using the girls bathroom and shower. When girls protest and walk out, school officials and "experts" chastise them for being "insensitive". Reporters call HIM - "her" repeatedly and we are called the science deniers!

It helped me realize that our republic has been functioning more like a dictatorship. Congress and the Supreme Court both give Obama whatever he wants. They say they'll do otherwise, but in the end, they always give Obama everything he asks for. Elections that have given the majority to the republicans have changed nothing even though the will of the people was obvious.The Iranian deal alone should have been grounds for impeachment. Yet nothing happens except to give Obama the green light on whatever he wants. I am convinced at this point that Washington is entrenched with some secret combinations like those spoken of in the Book of Mormon. I cannot think of a better explanation. I feel sorrow and fear, but I know that fear is always the wrong answer. I wish I knew the right answer. 

Conversation With Kate

Kate: Can we watch Batman?
Me: I don't think it's a very Sunday movie.
Kate: Yes it is.
Me: It's just a guy fighting.
Kate: Ummm, Fighting bad guys-- like Captain Moroni.

Watching Studio C