School is in...

Not much has happened in the last two-three weeks.  Times does fly, though...Alec is already serving in his first area.  He was only in the MTC for 12 days!  He is serving in Delta, CO and in his first letter home, he said he met someone that said his mom is in our ward...sure enough, she is in our ward!  She actually has a daughter out on a mission right now, too!  I am glad Alec is able to have a little piece of home with him while he is in Delta.

School started on August 7th.  The kids were ready to start.  Calvin is a senior, Ashton a sophomore and Dallen is in 8th.

Despite the picture, Dallen was happy :).  They are doing good and Calvin started his first day at his new job on August 7th, also.  He works for "Celebrations", a little restaurant here in Snowflake.  He washes dishes and does some prep work and basically whatever else they need.  He says the work is hard sometimes because he's so tall and it hurts his back, but he really like the people he works with and likes going.  Since he got his first paycheck, he decided he needed to purchase a car and his Uncle Steve and Aunt Heidi were so generous as to help him achieve that.  He bought their old kid's car.  He is so happy and said "this is the best thing I have ever bought with my money".  

Calvin getting ready to detail his car

Needless to say, he is happy.  We do have a deep appreciation for doors opening and little things like that.  I know he'll have a great learning experience, and I love not feeling any responsibility for his car and what he does with it.  

This week we are going to be bringing home, Shawna, Dallen's horse.  We have to put up fencing still and hopefully will be able to do that Monday or Tuesday.  I am really excited because she will help keep the weeds and grass down.  All the rain we have had has made the weeds explode and I guess a horse is as close to a lawn mower that we are going to get right now.  He is really excited to get her at our house because he has been feeling a little left out considering all his friends play soccer or are in 4-H and he doesn't want to do either of those things.  So, it will be good for him to have a "friend" to come home to and take riding whenever he wants.  I still can't believe we are going to have a horse!  We'll post pictures of her next week.  

We got to see my sister Debbie and her family.  They were driving from Albuquerque to Julianne's house and realized they were going to be passing by us!  We met them in Holbrook, just 1/2 hour from us, and it was really fun to see the twins and Davney.  I was able to bring my boys (Calvin, Dallen, Ashton) and Scott was able to take some time from work to come, too.  We are grateful they stopped to see us.  Scott said after, "I'm really glad you made sure we all came.  That was really fun to see them".  I had to take the kids out of school and wasn't sure I should, considering they just started, but I felt it was important and I'm glad it all worked out.  

Well, it's getting close to when the chickens should start laying their eggs.  We are down to 9 chickens.  I am not sure what is plucking them off, but something is!  It's ok, though, because I was a little worried we'd have too many eggs because Alec is gone and he used to eat quite a few.  My food bill has gone down dramatically and I now only have to buy milk once a week and half as much!  We do miss him, though.  We are going to frame that stupid first egg, though.  Chickens are great, but they aren't what people make them out to be!  I just consider it food storage :).

Everything else is going good.  Work is still going and we are grateful for that.  Things are settling down now that school is back in session and Alec is on his mission.  Tomorrow is his and Scott's birthday.  Scott gets his birthday back, as he is the only one here.  This is going to be weird!  We are healthy and doing good :)