UPDATE

It’s high time we did a nice, boring, random update. For starters, as always, we are doing well.

Lee: Things are going well for him at the VA. His second set of paper work/assignments are due this Friday, so he got that wrapped up Monday and Tuesday. He is now on his second hometeaching assignment here in the Johnson City Ward. He was initially assigned to some Hispanic families—it was a new route for his companion too. The Elder’s Quorum President decided to switch Lee and put him with a companion that has an established route. His new companion is Bryan Nyberg. He is a 1st year medical student and the best Gospel Doctrine teacher! I wouldn’t be surprised if he is “Elder Nyberg” in about 40 years. Lee still rides his bike to the VA (Veterans’ Affairs). It’s about 1.3 miles away. He has been very sweet & kind and has been riding in below freezing weather too. (Otherwise I would have to give him a ride, which isn’t a big deal, but getting 4 kids in and out of the van, well, it’s nice when I don’t have to do that.)

Ruth: Well, I definitely have four kids! Of course, ever since May 2nd I’ve had four kids, but the babies are growing out of their baby stage. The kids keep me really busy in the morning with getting them dressed, changing diapers, feeding the girls breakfast, cleaning up from breakfast, and not to mention getting myself ready which takes about 40 minutes. I am hard pressed to get anywhere at 10am on any given morning—if I’m by myself. (We have church at 9 am and get there on time for that—we’ve even been 10 minutes early!) Some of you may be wondering why I am even going anywhere at 10am in the morning in the first place. Three days a week we have something always planned. Wednesday we have playgroup at 10am. (Which I am almost always late to.) Playgroup is especially great for Clark because there are 2 other boys his age that normally come, which he loves. Thursday we go to storytime. That’s not till 11, and I’ve been late to that only once. We try and get there around 10:40 or so because they have trains and legos in the kid section. Friday I haul all the kids with me once again to Walmart—that’s where I do my grocery shopping. Did you know that at Walmart you can get free cookies? Just go to the bakery area and ask a worker if they are part of the cookie club, and if they say yes, ask for a cookie. One time when my boys got a really yummy looking m&m cookie. I think it might be their day-old cookies, but my boys love it! And since I’m not busy enough, I decided that I shouldn’t look 4 months pregnant anymore and start exercising. I got a TaeBo tape and have been waking up way too early (5:40—ask Lee, that’s really early for me) and working out. It’s been good, the 3 times I’ve done it and I plan on keeping it up. I remember doing TaeBo a few times on my mission with other sister missionaries. Do you former sisters remember working out in the lounge room (or whatever it was called) at the temple apartments? Or jogging around the parking lot at the church? Good times. J I miss the palm trees!!! This past Friday night I filed our taxes! I think I mentioned it already in my blog, but I’ll mention it again. We will get a lot of money from two different credits and we are going to pay off a loan with the money. I am so excited! (If you are a Dave Ramsey fan, you’ll totally understand.) That’s something I am looking forward to when Lee starts working for the Army—paying off loans. Yeah, I someday want to get a house, a decent mattress, some nice furniture, etc., etc. But first we are paying off all of our loans (well, I think we’ll get a mattress actually—maybe that will be Lee’s graduation gift from ourselves. We gave our old one to one of the missionaries in Memphis. It wasn’t comfortable for Lee.) Okay, so one more comment about my life. I know, I’ve been writing a lot about me, but it’s easy to say what I’ve been doing. So, this is it, I will probably be callingless for another 3 months. My friend told me that I won’t have a visiting teaching assignment because I’ll be here for only 3 more months, but that I do having visiting teachers, which is great. But I don’t think I’ll be called to do anything else in the ward. I may be wrong, but that is just a hunch I have. I don’t mind, but it is kind of weird.

Clark: He loves his friends: Zach Benson, Zach Butler & Bronson Smith. Last Monday night the Benson’s invited us over for FHE so Clark got to play with Zach. On Wednesday we had playgroup at McDonald’s so Clark go to play with Zach Butler & Bronson. Thursday there was a lunch group we went to after storytime and it was at Zach Butler’s house—guess who he got to play with?! Saturday night there was an Elder’s Quorum social and Clark played with Zach Benson (we adults played volleyball). Then last night, Tuesday, we were invited over for FHE at the Smith’s, and Clark got to play with Bronson again. Clark is also going to storytime by himself which I LOVE. The kids in Whiteville (for the most part) go in by themselves, and the mom’s sit out and chat. Here the moms go in with their kids. I don’t want to because I have Cal, and a double stroller carrying the girls. It’s a relief for me that he doesn’t mind going in by himself.

Cal: He is enjoying playing with Clark and mimicking him. If Cal gets an owie (which is often) he wants me to kiss him where it hurts. It has been kind of interesting kissing his upper lip, or the bottom of his foot, but he stops “hurting” right away. It’s really cute because if I kiss him in the wrong place he says: “No, aqui!” and points to the proper hurting place. We are going to start potty-training Cal on President’s Day. Well, that is the plan. He picked out some Thomas the Tank Engine underwear the other week and I have been mentioning the toilet a few times. I am mentally warming up to the idea of starting the whole, yucky process. I hope it goes well! Clark did fairly well…

Shanna: She has one tooth! YEAH! She has been pulling herself up to standing for a few weeks now. We took their first baby pictures last week (yes, I know I am incredibly late on that). She would NOT smile for us! She sat on the pedestal thing and just stared. Of course I made a fool of myself signing and clapping, trying to get her to smile. She finally did. It was torture because after the good, initial smiling picture, the lady wanted to get 4 more of her smiling. AHHHH! Shanna loves her brothers. The boys can make the girls giggle and laugh—it’s so cute!

Haley: She has a mouthful of teeth—6! She’s had them for about a month now. She too is pulling herself up, but only recently. Haley is winning the hair growing contest too. She’s still pretty bald though. As I just mentioned, Haley loves her brothers too. It’s kind of cute (at the moment) when Haley and Shanna take stuff from each other. I know I’ll change my mind in about 4 months. We went to a store yesterday so the boys could look at toys (it’s something they enjoy doing, which I don’t know why because we don’t buy them any—well we do, but rarely). While we were there I looked at the girl toys. They had twin babies you could buy, and of course little baby umbrella strollers. I’ve already planned out Christmas for the girls for 2009—two little umbrella strollers, and 2 dolls. I’m so glad I have girls!!!

Wow, after spending all this time on this long email you can see I must not be that busy. :) I would love to hear from all of you! Thanks to those who send us emails and update blogs. It’s so fun to stay in touch.