December 2022
Happy holidays! We hope the
season finds you and yours well and happy.
Our year could best be described
with the title of a western movie from our youth. Remember The Good, The
Bad, and The Ugly...? Just so we can end on a positive note, we
will cover the three in reverse order.
The Ugly
In March, we got a call from Crafty on her mission. She had recently transferred from Kansas back to the
Philippines. Our sweet girl had contracted Dengue Fever, a life-threatening
disease spread by mosquitoes. She had been hospitalized for nearly a week when
she finally called us and let us know. Hospitals in the Philippines consist of
a bed and an IV with a daily blood test. Food and drink must be provided by
family or friends. She was really sick, but eventually she started to recover.
Several weeks later, her hair started to fall out. On October 1, I didn’t feel
well. Turns out it was a Staph infection that almost killed me. I tallied 18
days and 3 surgeries in the hospital in October. I didn’t drive for the entire
month of October, and I spent all of November recovering at home. Mom of 12 also
struggled with medical issues. At times she still struggles to keep her oxygen
levels up and she also has unexplained bouts of extremely low heart rate. After
a number of emergency room visits and specialists’ testing, all we know is that
she is not in immediate danger, and we have ways to monitor and check and avoid
the ER. Last, but by no means least, after 5 years of marriage, Dog Walker's wife
decided she no longer wanted to be married and she asked him for a divorce.
The Bad
Like many of you, we saw significant
challenges with inflation. Covid refuses to be a distant memory; several of us
managed to catch it this year despite being vaccinated and having previously
tested positive. For many in the family, this time was much more difficult than
before. Our retirement funds went down with the stock market. Scout has
struggled with depression and school. We have had numerous expensive car
repairs, and the high school car died along with the built-in microwave. Elder Sport suffered
a dog bite and had to be checked out for rabies. He also got a mission car
stuck by following Google Maps down a muddy dirt road. Curly had to have his
wisdom teeth removed, I had a tooth break off and then I got dry socket,
and Baby Doll has been suffering from headaches. (Wow, that was a bit whiny!) Now
for the Good…
The Good
Despite the trials, we truly feel
blessed. So many good things have happened. Despite the challenge of divorce, Dog Walker is doing well. He is happier and more relaxed than he has been for a long
time. Watching him hand out candy at Halloween was so fun! He’s back to living
in our basement and working full-time at Wal-Mart. His first youth novel is now
available on Amazon in both kindle and paperback versions. Please forgive me
for including the link. I told him he couldn’t openly solicit readers…
For the first 8 months of the
year, we had the privilege of having two missionaries in the field. Crafty is now home, her hair has grown back, but now it’s curly???? She
is going to BYU and working for Regions Bank (same place that Bossy, Beauty & The Beast work). She is also teaching a couple of classes for C&C Ballet Academy,
the same place she danced way back in the day when she was only 2. (It’s true!
I have pictures!)
With Crafty coming home, we are
privileged to have one full-time missionary. Elder Sport is doing great on his
mission in North Dakota. He was assigned to Fort Yates, an Indian reservation,
for several transfer cycles. He instituted a youth activity night and had great
success fellowshipping and ministering to the community. He currently serves as
the District Leader. He is such a good missionary and we are so proud of
him.
Scout so impressed her bosses as a
volleyball referee that they asked her to stay on, and she now works at the
front desk, referees and just generally does whatever needs to be done. She is
the President of our Girl Scout troop and she was excited to have her Gold
Award idea sent to Committee on the first try. She is on the Executive
Committee for the Youth City Council along with her nephews which is a fun
service activity for them to do together. Scout is also the class president of the
young women in our ward. While her attendance may not be the norm for such a
position, she has done some amazing things, reaching out and helping several
young women with challenges. It's amazing how in-tune she is, serving those in
need of help. She is also getting really good at doing fancy fingernails. She
plans to start the nail program at JATC next semester. Dad is relieved that now
the nails can change weekly, and the hair color can stay for a month or
two.
Curly has had an incredible year.
His 13U baseball team moved up a level to much harder competition. Curly was a
bit too slow for that level of play, so he lost his starting position at first
base. Rather than pout, he started conditioning and he lost 20lbs. He
eventually won his starting position back, and while he didn’t pound as many
homeruns on the larger fields, he had a lot of fun and got to travel to
tournaments in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Omaha. He also played football for
Bingham’s freshman football team and received an academic award at the season
banquet. He is planning on trying out for their baseball team in the fall. His
slam dunk rec basketball team had a lot of success (Mom of 12 was their coach)
finishing second in the league. He is a 4.0 student, and he is working on his
Eagle scout. He is also president of the Teachers Quorum. He did such an
amazing job on a talk in sacrament meeting that the stake president looked him
up on LDS tools, figuring he might be going on a mission before Elder Sport was home.
He was surprised to learn that Curly is only 14.
Baby Doll is in 6th grade.
She is the Young Women’s secretary, and she does a great job at her calling.
She is active in girl scouts and is dancing at the studio, as well as playing
basketball, but first and foremost, she is a volleyball player. She was the
star of her 11U team last spring. Then she played for the Jr High Bingham team
in the fall and earned a spot on the top team at Club GSL for 12U starting in
January. She is almost as tall as her mother and likely will be taller soon.
Her new team will include some out-of-town tournaments and after seeing Curly get to travel for baseball, she is so excited to travel with her team. She is
extremely creative, and after running up and down the stairs for her sick dad,
she created a simple dumbwaiter system with a wicker basket and some
ribbon.
Mom of 12 is busy doing all her
normal activities, Girl Scouts, her blog, coaching basketball, writing grants
for the ballet, loving and nurturing the children and grandkids, serving as the
stake women’s sports director, etc. New this year, she has been working as
a secret shopper, acting as a caretaker and nurse for her sick husband, and
making amazing keepsake badge blankets for boy and girl scouts and serving in
the ward nursery. We enjoyed a long weekend in New Orleans in August before I
got sick.
I started the year the normal way,
working a lot of overtime and driving a lot for baseball. I enjoyed yardwork
and smoking meat with the pit barrel smoker. I am grateful to be alive and
healing and would like to thank everyone for their prayers on my behalf.
I will leave all of the kids not
living at home to update you in their own letters, but I will say that we are
proud of all of them.
Merry Christmas,
Wow, what a year. Y'all are continuing to be in my prayers. Hopefully 2023 is a little less of the bad and ugly, and a lot more of the good! Merry Christmas to you all!
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