March Update

I have been terrible about keeping up with my journal entries this year. I try to eventually get to it, but  because so much time has passed in between, I am unable to remember all the things that are going on...especially if I don't have pictures to remind me.

It has been a dark month for us. Christian found out that his boss and friend of some 25+ years is dying. He has cancer. It is terminal. He got diagnosed with it some time last year, I think. He had some operations and chemo-therapy and seemed to come out ahead, but in his latest check up, they found that it was still there and spreading.

To add to that, Christian will have to find a new job. Everything is going to be changing because of it.

We were supposed to go on vacation to the Tetons with Christian's sister's family again in June. That's not going to happened anymore. We can no longer afford it or if Christian has a new job by then, we won't be able to get so much time off in the beginning. His sister actually had altered their plans to accommodate our schedule and now we won't even be joining them.

We went down to San Diego to see her family and explain our situation to all of the family there.

The main purpose of our visit, however, was to be there to see our nephew open his mission letter to see where he will be going. Christian's sister was working so we all ended up at the hospital, where she works, to open the letter.

Austin got called to a mission in Paraguay. His big brother, Mason, will be returning from his mission in Uruguay shortly before Austin leaves. I think that they will only have a few weeks together before it will be Austin's turn to ship out.

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Caitlyn finally completed her Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course, Level B. She is officially ahead of her sister now. Neither of the girls practice very much. It's always like pulling teeth to have them practice and so, we haven't pushed very much. Both girls pretty much stopped practicing regularly when they got to Jr. High and were issued Chromebooks. They pretend to have too much homework to practice and end up wasting their lives away playing games and watching video and just searching out stupid tidbits. 

I have still been able to push Caitlyn a little more than Emily, which is why she managed to pass up her sister. Emily isn't too happy about it and has put a little bit more effort into completing her piano lessons because of it. 

Dad gave Caitlyn a little Soprano recorder as a prize. She was pretty excited about that, because it fits her hands a bit better than a regular recorder.

Emily's Birthday

Emily turned fourteen this past weekend. We measured her at 5'5"...a whole 3 inches taller than I am with no signs of slowing down still.

Unfortunately, I had been sick all week. My worst day yet was the day before her party. I was mostly able to muster through it all.

Marian could not make it to the party this year. She got stuck at work and was unable to join us. Christian's dad and Jackie was able to make it though, so that was nice. Luckily, Emily requested a super easy meal of carne asada burritos. We had a salad and lots of chips and homemade salsa to go with it. She also requested The World's Best Cake. Not that that is our opinion exactly, but the actual name of the cake. I don't know if it is the world's best, but it is pretty good. It is a cake with a meringue topping that sandwiches a bunch of bananas and cream in between and topped with a bit of toasted coconut.

This year, Emily just got one big present from all of us. She got a new mattress for her bed as her old one was used when we got it and was worse for the wear. We had Christian's dad help chip in for it as it is a pretty big ticket item for us.

Emily was pretty excited as now she has a new bed to go with all the new bedding she got for Christmas.

Her actual birthday was on Sunday. I saved a few trinkets for her to have something to open on her actual birthday. Caitlyn gave her a necklace and a drawing pen. I was still pretty wiped out, so I slept in. Christian made dinner and we had leftover cake for her dessert.