Updated Insanity

Ok, so I have finally updated my blog, somewhat. There are now current pics of my family and almost current pics of me (prior to my beard being sacrificed to my calling). As far as updating everyone on my family, that's easy...

We're busy!

I am still hung over from last week and the three birthdays, four basketball games/practices, Halloween party, and unending dose of sugar in our house. November looks to be even crazier. This week, Hannah and her Jr. Jazz team beat the team that mauled us (literally) in our first game. She's finally getting a bit of a competitive edge and isn't backing away from putting people down when the occasion calls for it. She also went to Mutual for the first time as she turned 12 last week and is now a Beehive (crazy, I know). Last night Dayna and I went to her Parent Teacher Conference at the middle school and listened to all of her teachers rave about how much they love Hannah. She was awarded with being on the Gold Honor Roll which is the highest level I guess. She got a 4.0 GPA her first quarter of middle school so we're way proud of her. She also got an award as the highest student in all of the 6th grade in Spanish! This next Sunday she will receive her Faith In God award at church. (Bragging Parent, I know but I have to work my butt off to put myself in a position to brag so excuse me if I take my just rewards...)

After the Parent Teacher Conference Kayli had a Jr. Jazz game which we ended up winning 28-11. I felt kind of bad for the other team but I take full responsibility for the massacre. I made the mistake a couple weeks ago of betting Kayli and her best friend Korrin who is also on my team, that they both couldn't score the maximum allowed 12 points each in the same game and if they accomplished that then I would host a slumber party for the two of them. Well, last night they were determined and did it and you'd have thought that they won a world championship the way the two of them were carrying on when Kayli put her last bucket in. Kayli has become the Queen of random, and usually hilariously blunt, comments. Most of them are so random and unexpected that I can't even remember any of them right now.

Garet has had some down time lately since his Flag Football season ended and he doesn't start Jr. Jazz until December. He has spent his time reading, believe it or not. I was all impressed with the amount of reading that he has been doing until I found out that he gets "money" from his teacher for the minutes that he reads. He has been raking in the "dough" and almost buying out his teacher's store single-handed. I may have to shop at his class store because he bought Grandma Sharp a really nice stinky candle set. So between the payment that he receives at school for reading and the fact that I give him 1 video game minute for every 1 reading minute he gives me, it's no surprise that he made it through the first and is more than halfway through the second Harry Potter book just since school started.

Linzy is like our own little duck. She just does her thing and lets almost everything roll off her back. Her teacher loves her and is constantly amazed at how different she is from her older siblings (no kidding). She's silly and spacey most of the time which can be entertaining and maddening all at the same time.

Jaxon is involved in preschool and loves it. Right now he is not a happy camper as he had to go to the doctor to get his shots for Kindergarten next year and ended up having to get 6! Poor kid, the least we could have done was spread them out over a couple of months but I didn't know the extent of the damage that was required until after he was already stabbed. He's walking funny to say the least.

That brings me to Hurricane Sawyer. He who blows in without much warning and leaves a path of destruction behind him. Evacuation is the only option, there is no hiding from it without risking being buried alive. People talk about the terrible twos but I think that's misleading. He officially turned 2 last weekend but he has been terrible for a long, long time. We also call him Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because one second he's a monster and the next he is the cutest thing you've ever seen; there is no happy medium with him. I've had to get after him lately for beating up Jaxon and for picking on Hannah! He is starting to try to talk and inside his own head, he makes perfect sense and carries on full-blown conversations. Everyone hearing him can make out a word or two but the rest is gibberish. He has learned that there's nothing that he can't reach if he moves the right furniture (and he's strong enough to move almost any furniture!). His birthday was a lot of fun as he was so excited for everything. One of my favorite moments was when he decided he was going to play catch with Jenny with his new ball, after Jenny had already decided that she was going to catch a quick nap on our couch. There's nothing funnier than someone coming out of a deep sleep with a ball to the face! My next favorite moment of his birthday was when, after already blowing out his candles, he put them back on his cake and made it clear to mom that he wanted them lit again and then proceeded to sing happy birthday to himself a second time so he could blow the candles out once more. Crazy kid.

Dayna and I are just running around trying to be in the right place at the right time and not run into anything...

That's my update on the insanity that is my life!

Life Will Never Be the Same

So, for any of you who didn't know already, yesterday I was sustained and set apart as the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric of our Ward. The whole weekend was a very long and emotionally exhausting experience, to say the least. Dayna and I went down to Ogden to the Temple on Friday in an attempt to collect our thoughts a little bit heading into this; ok, it was me that was trying to collect my thoughts. The session was great and I felt a little more at peace with things coming out of the Temple than I did going into it.

Little did I know how quickly things would change...

After we got out of the Temple, we went across the street to Deseret Book to see my drawing of Pres. Monson for the first time in their store. That was a cool experience. When we went back out to the car to go grab some dinner before heading back to Evanston we found that the starter in my car had died, completely. I couldn't believe this was happening. Of course, it was 6:30 on a Friday night so every shop in town was closed until Monday except for the one guy we got a hold of who said he could tow the car back to his shop but since it was an "after-hours" tow it would cost something like $150 and that had to be paid up front in cash. After a few phone calls Eric came up from Pleasant Grove to help and Dayna's brother David and a nephew Cameron brought a flatbed trailer down from Evanston to help. We felt bad for inconveniencing all of them but especially David as he had just walked in his house from a trip to Ogden when we called. He never even hesitated, even after taking into account the fact that the flatbed trailer he had was loaded with sod for his yard. As this miracle progressed and just as Dave was heading out to unload the trailer with Cameron, who happened to be with him, his doorbell rang and another nephew, Wyatt, was standing there with his best friend Kaylen Thornock, just in time to help unload sod.
They made it down to Ogden around 11:00 pm or so and we figured out a way to load the car onto the trailer and got it tied down for the trip back home. Words cannot express how much it meant to us for these incredible men to help us when we were in trouble. Like a true brother, Eric didn't even hesitate to come up and help and was willing to tow us all the way back to Evanston if we needed him to. I think part of his willingness to help stemmed from his desire to escape his company party early. Dave kept telling us that we didn't owe him anything and that it was no bother and as reluctant as we were to believe him on the way home we were even more amazed when we found out the next day that after dropping us off at our house at 1:30 am he went home and slept for 2 hours before getting up and heading to Logan where he had an appointment at 5:30 am. I can't say anything that would remotely express our gratitude for his sacrifices that night on our behalf.
In my pocket I carry a tiny little green army man that I won, with some other prizes, playing skeeball at Fat Cats as Dayna and I waited to be rescued. As difficult as that experience was and as bad as we feel for being a burden on so many people, that little soldier and a bright yellow plastic ring that Dayna wears on her finger reminds me how things always happen for a reason. What started out as a trip to wrap my head around the prospect of being in the Bishopric became a hectic adventure that was a big pain in the butt, more than a little exasperating, and kind of fun all at the same time. Now that I reflect back on the whole thing, I can't think of many other experiences that would help me prepare for my new calling...

Saturday we had a family reunion all day and we made it home even more exhausted and without any of our kids being swept away by the Bear River. I was worried I would have to call my sisters out in Almy and have them go down and fish some of my kids out of the river as they swept past 10 miles later but it didn't come to that. That night, I shaved off my goatee and had to put up with my children's stares. Sawyer wouldn't come near me for a couple of hours and Kayli kept looking at me when she thought I wasn't looking. It was really annoying.

Sunday came and it was somewhat surreal. I was blessed with my Uncle Randy and his family coming over from Jensen so that he could ordain me as a High Priest. There are a handful of people that truly understand the situation and they will understand when I say that many of the disconcerting questions I had floating around inside my heart were silenced yesterday when Uncle Randy laid his hands on my head and, through his line of authority, passed on the important powers that he holds. It really meant alot. After I was set apart I was grabbed as I left the room and had to go start on some of my responsibilities which left James to cook the hamburgers that I was supposed to cook for him and everyone else that traveled so far to be there. Great host that I am. Eric and his family came up to support me, even through a disgusting battle with car-sickness on the way. It means alot that they came up, even when they had every reason to turn around and go home and I would have agreed with that decision whole-heartedly.

All in all, it was a good day and a good weekend, despite the emotional toll that was exacted. Now I sit in my office, trying to stay awake and fighting off a serious headache, dreading the moment when I will have to go out and get all the shocked looks at my face which is still trying to recover from having it's decoration so rudely removed. Many of the people that I come into contact wouldn't understand why I did what I did even if I were to explain it to them so I will come up with some lame excuse and keep going. All of that will go away but the one thing that will remain is the knowledge that things will never be the same for me or for my family. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared but I am also amazed. I'm amazed at the strength and humility that I feel as I listen to other people express their confidence in me and testify of their own confirmation that I am the one that was meant to be in this situation under these circumstances. I have felt things that I have never felt before and it hasn't even been 24 hours since all of this became official. I know I'm not enough but I know that Heavenly Father can make me whatever I need to be. That, alone, gives me hope.

Changes

Yeah, I suck at posting, so what. I'm smart enough to know that any attempt I could make at catching up on almost 8 months of life at our house would take more time than I can invest in anything these days. The biggest reason I am even posting anything right now is because, frankly, it was embarrassing to see the December date on my most recent post. Simple as that. There are so many changes in my house from one moment to the next that they no longer really even qualify as news anymore but there are a few that are major enough to earn mentioning.

That will have to wait for another day...