Misc.

Anders: Do we have any lamp oil?
Jesse: Lamp oil? What do you think this is? The 1800s?
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Anders: Don't worry, mom. When I'm a rapper I won't swear that much in my songs.
Me: Hm. That's wonderful.
Anders: And when I'm famous I'll send you some money.
Me: That'd be great.
Summer: And when I'm grown up, I'll send you lots of postcards and pictures from all the places I travel!
Mette: Well, when I'm grown up, I'm going to drive all the kids I have to school in a bus.
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Mike took the kids to their twice-yearly dental visit this week. He takes everyone when he goes. And so, especially now, with us living in Logan and Mike still taking them to their old dentist in Ogden, it means an entire afternoon and well into the evening of me just here by myself. It's lovely.

(It's become tradition for them to stop at The Pizzeria after.)

Sadly, this trip three kids had cavities and will need to make a return visit. Starling was one of them. She has, so far in her short experience of dental visits, considered them a great adventure. She goes off with a passel of her siblings, has her teeth cleaned, gets a small toy and a new toothbrush, and then goes out to eat (something we do almost never). It makes me sad to think that she will soon become acquainted with another, less-fluff-and-sunshine side to it all. (Trips to the dentist were the one blight on my own otherwise-idyllic childhood! But then ... one time I had nine cavities. And there was no numbing gel to be applied before the lidocaine shots.)
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It doesn't feel like we've had an awful season as far as illness goes. I guess that's because we haven't had one of the horrible weeks where one child after another is hit with some terrible bout of throwing up. But we actually have had a good number of children get sick! They've just been spread out ever so slightly so they feel unrelated. But since Christmas break ended, we've had Penny, then Starling, then Mette, then Summer and now Hans come down with something that has kept them on the couch for a day or two.

Oddly, these bouts seem to strike every time I have a temple trip planned! I just scheduled one for tomorrow morning and, sure enough, Hans is now burning up with a fever. Sigh. When I mentioned this phenomenon to my sister Shannon she replied, "Oh man. So sorry. I'm glad the Lord judges us by our desires." 

"Yes," I replied, "But a fat lot of good that does Titus Pyart's wife!"

I have become, unexpectedly, quite involved in family history. It was never something I had any desire whatsoever to do, but experiences (angels, honestly and truly) have grabbed ahold of me and pulled me in. And now there's nothing for it. They won't let me rest. BUT! I have been praying for help! "Please send help!" I have all of these people who I have found--often in ways that are just absolutely ridiculous and impossible--but just not enough manpower to get all their work done! And I know, I know, I can just release their names to the temple. But I always worry they will sit for years. (Of course, just saving them in my own little reservation pile--to sit and wait there--isn't probably any better. But! If I could at least manage to arrange a temple visit ... when a kid is not sick, well, that would be something!)

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Penny asked me to take a few graduation photos recently. It was a freezing day, and the light was terrible for photo taking, so we will take more still, but we did get a few cute ones.

I made her stop at this house that I am intrigued by. I want to know its story so badly! And I want to investigate it—peer in all the windows, etc., but I don't dare. (I barely dared make her run up for this photo.) It's obviously abandoned. But there are still goats fenced about it. So someone must come and go there. I'll get a better picture someday. But it's this old house surrounded by trees, and it must have once been so charming! The most charming house in College Ward?? All these window pains and faded wood that once was painted green and red. I just want to know who lived there and what it was like in its prime!

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Mette is in a little group for smarty-pantses at her school. This day she was doing a presentation she'd pulled together on capybaras.

Good work, Metts!

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Today we got Goldie's LAST mission letter! I almost cried when I finished it! It's just so wild to me that this enormous thing that she planned and prepared for and was determined to do for, well, all her life, she's not only arrived at, but now pretty well finished! It's just so ... I don't even know what! I can't even express what it makes me feel!

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And that's all for tonight!