Just after writing the last lingo Desree came and picked up Riley. So he is living with his family in JBER, Alaska now. We sure miss him.
Isaiah and I were really lucky to go up to Salt Lake for Fall Break, short as it was, and have dinner with some of you and help Emily and family celebrate their new move.
On our way back, we drove through Window Rock and toured the school and area where Jim works. His classroom has a Smartboard with remotes for each student.
I enjoyed two months of soccer with Hyrum and Bryan. Hyrum went to state play-offs with varsity team
We had mild autumn weather right in to December. Jim was able to get us some wood for our wood stove that I so appreciate now.
With Hyrum and Bryan busy, it was Jim, Isaiah and me that enjoyed our annual jaunt into the woods to get a Christmas tree this year. We went a little farther than we usually do, closer to the rim, so we could get a fir instead of our usual pinyon. We found an area where the little trees were thick. No snow on the ground this year. We finally picked one and Isaiah was given the opportunity to start sawing when the most unusual thing happened. The tree had already been cut! We just figure it was someone’s recent reject, but we liked it just fine. They set it up like it belonged right where they put it. It was easy, just picked it up and put it in the bed of the pick-up. Good thing Jim was looking though when we pulled out on to the hwy 260 because the tree caught the wind and landed in the middle of the road. So we went back, picked it up, tied it down this time, and enjoyed the rest of the day.
Bryan was busy that day at auditions for the high school musical, “Hello, Dolly!” being presented the first week in March. He landed the part of Barnaby and is very excited about it. The week before, he got together with some friends to see the video with Barbara Streisand. He had never seen this one before. Hyrum almost was going to try out with friends, sort of a senior year thing, but decided not to.
I went to the Arizona State Capitol for the first time, first Saturday in November. It was Hyrum’s nomination interview with Senator Kyl. I enjoyed walking the grounds and watching handsome young men walk (or run trying to be exactly on time) in to the building every five minutes. There must have been a hundred of them. Shortly after that, Hyrum got a letter that said he was not nominated. He also got notice from ASU that he has a scholarship (enough to cover tuition and renewable yearly) starting fall 2013. Not having even gotten an appointment with Senator McCain, he was happy to have this back up plan of ASU and is interested in talking to the ROTC program there. Two weeks later he had an appointment for an interview with the nominating committee from Congressman Gosar’s office in Prescott, AZ. He took advantage of this as I let him take the car and some of his friends overnight. They stayed with a friend, Ryan McGee that had moved there from here. Finally this week he received a call from Congressman Paul Gosar’s office saying the letter was in the mail with a nomination for the Naval Academy! That doesn’t mean he has been selected by the Academy, but he does now have all the requirements in and will wait to hear. He had kind of put getting accepted into the Naval Academy out of his mind as the acceptance rate is so low at 6%. So his future is going to be interesting. In the meantime he is running out of money and may be headed back to McDonald’s. I can’t believe he’ll be 18 next month. He has become very pleasant at home. Just the other day he asked if I had any work he could do, preferably outside. I said, “Sure, chop wood and turn the garden.” He did exactly that in a short time. He also gives me hugs when he gets home at night. I love it!
Bryan and Isaiah had their first piano recital since living in Snowflake. Isaiah did well with his short memorized piece. Bryan was the last to play as he was most advanced and finished with a duet with the teacher. I was proud. Then we headed over late to the ward Christmas party and got a little bit to eat. Bishop came over and asked Bryan to play a little dinner music. He sat down and played “Carol of the Bells” from memory. I didn’t even know he could. While he was playing Sister Rosenberg came up and asked him to provide the music for their empty nesters Family Home Evening Meeting. That was quite an honor and enjoyable evening for both of us. He picked Chinese food and they fed him well.
I’ve enjoyed the school music concerts earlier this month with Isaiah trying out the violin, Bryan on keyboard in jazz band and singing in honor choir.
The boys enjoyed the annual town lighting December 1st and then on the 3rd they lit up Frontier Parkway that leads up to the temple. Bryan helped light the luminaries with the young men in our ward. It was a nice enough night I walked up there and back and enjoyed a beautiful starry evening and at one point had the whole madrigal choir singing to myself in front of the life-size nativity in front of Brimhalls’ mansion. The next day I felt it in my shins though.
We enjoyed having Krista stay with us from mid-October to mid-November. She fed us well and was nice to have around daily. Then she moved into Ryan Slone’s house with him. We enjoyed Thanksgiving Day over there with them and met Ryan’s family as well. I had actually met his father, Richard Slone, previously at a soccer game in which Bryan (#17) was playing next to the Show Low team (#17) who was Ryan’s cousin. Krista just had her third miscarriage. She is understandably pretty discouraged about it.
Looking forward to the next two weeks with Jim home and having James here for a few days. Merry Christmas everyone!
Love, Priscilla
p.s. I hope you all have a great time at the family Christmas Party tomorrow. I have great memories of the Doelling Christmas parties.
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