Week's Highlights

This week started with Ben heading back to first grade. Ben is an August 31st birthday. That means he has been the absolute youngest in his class during his first two years of school. I have often worried about this. When school started this year Nate and I talked about it again. After contemplating for a couple weeks we decided that the pros of having Ben repeat first grade outweighed the cons. We sat Ben down and told him he could choose to stay in second grade, but that he would always be the youngest in his class or he could choose to return the the first grade for another round and be the oldest. He told us he wanted to be the oldest. So, Monday he started his first grade class. He started crying when he woke up in the morning. I felt so bad. But, I knew it was the right thing for him. We got him to school and voila, he was fine. He actually loves being in first grade again. He has n't even given it a second thought.

Nate's job continues to go well. He is still only a contracted employee and the only way he will become a permanent hire there is if another engineer quits or the company gets busier. He love the company and the people. I told Nathan he needs to start giving some of the other engineers job referrals. "Hey, I saw a great job in the paper this week that you'd be perfect for." If we could just get someone to quit. :)

I haven't heard anything on my Dillard's job. They had to send the hire into the corporate office the be approved and I guess they are slow there. So, I am still keeping my eyes open for other possibilities.

We splurged and went to Golden Corral this week. It's the only restaurant I dare take my kids to. With Ben and Rachel getting bigger we decided to let them wander off to fill their own plates. What did this result in, you might ask. Rachel returned with a plate full of jello and Ben returned with a plate full of spaghetti and ten strawberries. Nate and I just about died laughing, to which Ben took great offense. He's so sensitive. In the end we all had belly aches. The invention of the buffet was a terrible thing to do to people who are addicted to food.

Today Elder Hales of the quorum of the twelve apostles came and spoke to our stake in a special conference. His talk jumped around but I had to laugh when he told us a personal experience. He had a few years where his health was not good. He had to have several surgeries. One of these was a surgery that had never been done. He said he often prayed and wondered why he was going through this trial. At one point he said he offered a prayer in which he said " Whatever you are trying to teach me, I have learned it. Trust me." I laughed because that's how I feel. Alas, he then told us then some of our trials are not meant to teach lessons at all, but simply to give us experience.

So, the experience continues for our family. We have it drilled into the kids that we are on a tight budget. A couple of days ago, in the car we were talking about how one day, when we have our own house, we might build a clubhouse in the back yard. I suggested maybe we could build a big one like our cousins have at their house to which Ben responded "No, that won't be necessary. We won't have enough money for that. Just a small one." Good kid. But one day we will build a big one. :)