approx date: 10/1/5
Letter to Jennifer Mast
Hey - Good to hear from you. It is interesting to read about your life and realize how different our lives our. You in your cold winter laden climate, me in my hot never see a drop of snow climate. You with your 1 quiet boy with a life of solitude. Me with my 5 wild banshees - I don't believe I remember what quiet or solitude is?!? I think we both have enviable situations!!!
Things here are good. Everyone is healthy and happy and extremely busy.
Andy - is enjoying sports broadcasting and writing for the Deseret News and the Daily Spectrum. He started an internet broadcasting web site this year (utahpreps.net) and broadcasts all the local high school's football games on the web site. You can go online and listen to him if you are interested - they archive all the games. He also does a 10 minute sports talk show on the local TV station. In his spare time he is a stay at home daddy and does excellent with that! He has been Sunday School president for a couple of years but we have been told his reign there is about over.
We are lucky that our schedules mesh and we don't ever need day care. I am still working in my growing court as Clerk of the Court. I love my job. The city manager has asked me to consider more lucrative positions within the city but it would involve working for a boss that is actually here (mine comes in once a week for about 2 hours - all of which we spend together in court) and politics. He never criticizes my work or hovers or anything. I enjoy the mix of working with the public and working with paper. My job always has a new and interesting story. And yes, they are always GUILTY!
AJ is now 14 and just finished his first year on the freshman football team. Their team went undefeated and he really enjoyed being part of the team. He committed to going to school 3X a week at 6 a.m. to lift weights and staying after school 3 days a week for 2 hour practices. The 4th day of the week they have their football games. He is kind of becoming a health nut and has really shot up and slimmed down lately. He just completed his Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts and will get that awarded to him soon. He got done 4 days before his 14th birthday - he was very proud of being able to accomplish that at such a young age. He has been a very gifted student getting mostly A's (Geometry he got a B+ I think). As long as we keep him busy with no time to tease his brothers he is a fine young man.
Dallas is 10 and is in the 5th grade. He is on the safety squad at school - the guys in the orange jackets that help direct traffic. He joined the reading club and has to read a book every 10 days and then a group of kids and a teacher discuss it. He just finished his Arrow of Light for Cub Scouts and will complete all of the Webelos requirements by his birthday in March. He is a real sweetie and the child I could not do without. He is always asking what he can do to help. He gets his sisters dressed on Sunday's, changes diapers, helps make food, cleans, does yard work etc. He is my little life saver!
Bryce is 9 and in the 4th grade. He is extremely energetic and busy but very smart also. He gets bored easily because he "gets it" the first time and then gets impatient while every one else "gets it" -- if you know what I mean. He can look at spelling words once or twice and know how to spell them without effort. He is also doing scouting and has belt loops and pins like crazy and just recently finished his BEAR badge. I feel bad for him because since I am the "cub scout leader" he has been through the program over and over again but he is not the right age to receive the awards. So in order for him to complete it he has to do everything again next year that brother and he did last year.
I've been the cub scout leader of the wolfs, bears and/or webelos for almost 10 years now - off and on. I think in our current ward it is going on 4 years. My pack of boys are highly decorated and we have a good time. I really like doing scouts because I don't have to do anything on Sunday. And believe me Sunday mornings are crazy busy at our house.
Katie is 3 (4 at Christmas time) and absolutely full of it. She loves to change clothes and "dress up". I have to keep the majority of her stuff under lock and key or her room will be dumped every day. I leave out a basket of stuff to let her play in but lock up all other clothes. She recently was given a ballet outfit. She wore if for 4 days straight. Andy would dress her in the morning and an hour or so later she'd come out in her pink suit. I finally got it off of her on Saturday and washed it and she begged for it back for 2 days. She got up in Sacrament Meeting and said her one liner last week and did a really cute job.
Holly is 1 (2 around Christmas time) and we call her TAZ - short for Tasmanian Devil. That child is a tornado. She has drawn on every wall in our house, the fridge, the carpet, our pillows, herself (she looks like she is covered in tattoos most days) and on and on. And somehow she seems to always find the sharpie permanent markers. It seems like no matter how many markers I pick up and "put away" she always finds one more. I am sure she will be an artist like you one day as art seems to be her thing. She is also a climber. I had to get rid of her crib at 18 months because she kept throwing herself out of it. She will get the kitchen bar stool and push it to wherever she wants to go. She gets stuff off the top of the fridge. She can open all the child safety locks (lock on the fridge - useless, the cupboards - she's quicker than we are. The locks to keep the door shut - you guessed it - she can get those off the door and get out of the room). She has also opened the locked front door and gone and got in the car without us knowing. She can unpick the fence locks. It's a good thing she is the caboose! And she is adorable. I don't know that I could do this again!
It was fun to hear an update of your life. It sounds beautiful where you live. You know -- if we were smart -- we'd have a summer home where you live and a winter home here. Our weather is breathtakingly beautiful 9 months of the year. And then so hot you wish you were dead through the summer. You should send me some pictures of your scenery there and your house and Hayden and you. It's been awhile since you've sent any out.
I'm glad you are doing well. I hope I didn't bore you with my update. Someday I hope to have a quiet moment and explore my artistic side (I'm not sure I have one).
Family Updates - Becky just moved to a bigger house a little closer to SLC - saves us maybe 20-30 minutes drive - she lives about 5 hours from us. She is busy with her 5 kids. We don't get together often due to the large amounts of loud children and the distance between us. Although we love to get together whenever we can.
Ruth is pregnant with #2 and final. She says. Probably true. She is more into her career than mothering. She has a full-time live in nanny already. And a house keeper. What a life, eh? She already had her masters and is just completing a nursing degree now or something like that. I don't really understand the need to be gone ALL THE TIME. Work 40 hours and then school 20 hours or whatever it turns out to be. I prefer to get my hours in and then spend every minute with my family after that. Whatever. We are different!!!!
My dad is keeping busy taking Spanish classes and dance classes and going to the gym and working on his house. I think he is dating a little too. It will be interesting to see what path he chooses!
Well I am glad you are all healthy and happy and doing well. I love to hear from my friends that I have had over the years -- I have so many people I really enjoy but distance and circumstance make it impossible to be part of their lives anymore. Plus the truth of the matter is I am too busy to have friends now! There are people that live right here that I don't spend time with due to the nature of LIFE!
Take care and write again soon! Shelly
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