An update on everyone

 Well, so much has happened since I wrote on here last.  

So, so much. 

And so much is happening for us in the near future.  It's all coming really fast.

Bear with me.

Felicity is doing great.  She loves her little world.  She is happy and snuggly and growing.  She was sick so much this fall and winter.  Her doctor said that her body had a low level of constant inflammation and every time a virus came her body would just ramp up and she'd catch everything.  Her last visit was a double ear infection and "strep" though, he just said she looked "streppy" but then never did a strep test or anything.  None of the rest of us got it so I don't know if it was actual strep or not.  Anyway, he gave her antibiotics and told me to keep her on claritin every day for over a month to see if we could get those inflammation irritants lowered.  She's doing much better and hasn't really gotten sick in about three weeks.  

She is not excited about leaving Japan and is trying to find ways to trick up into staying.  She has lived in Japan for almost half of her life now and for as hard as this move was for her initially, she is so settled and happy that moving is going to shake her little world up.  

Her teachers adore her but they are uncertain if she has dyslexia.  They said that the biggest red flag for them is that her reading and writing do not match her advanced vocabulary and language skills.  She is a deep thinker and a lover of learning and her progress this past year has been impressive so they are uncertain if she has dyslexia or not but think we should keep it on our radar.  She still flips letters and numbers, is getting better at reading but is still a bit slow, struggles to remember her left and right, prefers to write in caps (they think it is easier for her to decipher letters in caps than in lowercase) and tells time poorly (like says 7:30 when it is 7:03).  Interestingly enough, Eli took a free online dyslexia test this week because he is convinced he has it.  So, I guess when we get to the states, we might be testing at least two of our kids for it.  

Piper has had an exciting month.  She was featured on a school video and everyone has been sending her messages telling her how impressed they are or, if they are from her friends, how famous she is now.  Hahaha.  I knew about the video but I didn't realize she was the only 5th grader featured and I was actually also really impressed by her clear delivery.  She was so well spoken!  She also led her "Students of our own Learning" session which is the school's spring version of Parent Teacher Conferences, just led by kids, not teachers.  An art teacher approached me and told me that he never had to chance to have Piper in his class but that he was so impressed by her and her creativity and artistic abilities.  It was really nice of him to pass that on, and especially for her to hear him praise her like that.  She has joined the school play stage crew and loves it.  They get to paint and build and design outfits and do all things creative.  She comes home covered in paint.  She was considering trying out for the play but was too scared to sing and perform in front of everyone so she settled on stage crew and seems very happy.  

She is also the president for the youngest group in YW.  I'm watching her grow as she learns how to lead and manage people's ideas and personalities.  I don't think she loves being in charge but I think it's a good learning experience for her.  She taught her first lesson on Sunday and prepared a slide show and some games.  

She also said she wanted to try Sushi before we moved which surprised all of us.  She is a very picky eater but has been putting in a good effort lately to try new foods.  Sushi is a big jump for her but she said she would regret leaving Japan without trying it.  We took her and Felicity out today and they were really brave.  Neither of them really liked it but they said it wasn't bad and each seemed to prefer the tempura shrimp.  She made sure to bring her new Polaroid camera so she has pictures to go on her "Japan board" for her room when we move.

Eli has his birthday on Monday.  He's sixteen now!  Everyone thinks he's older than he is. He's got great friends and I hate that he has to try and make a new group when we move.  I think this next year will be so interesting to watch as he loses his two besties (Will and Isaac), plus leaves his friends behind and starts a new school.  He's never been to a school by himself without Will or Isaac.  I hope he's not too lonely and I know that it will be frustrating for him to be the big brother now but I can't wait to see how he changes as he moves into this new role.  He should be driving and getting a job and back to blacksmithing so he's got a lot of new things ahead.  

He got his wisdom teeth out yesterday and is pretty miserable.  He only had three wisdom teeth and one was a little bitty guy but they were all impacted and really deep so they had to dig around for awhile and said he would probably be extra sore this weekend.  He's got AP prep exams coming up this week so we hope he will be well enough to return to school on Monday.

Isaac got his mission call!  He is assigned to serve in Sapporo, Japan!  We are all really excited.  I am more nervous about it than he is.  People refer to missionaries serving there as the "Frozen Chosen".  Elder and Sister Yamada, the Area missionary therapists are in our ward and they worked hard to get sun lamps approved for every missionary in Sapporo (as well as in Mongolia and I think Korea as well).  He's nervous about the language but I am actually not worried about that for him at all.  He is good with languages and I think he'll learn it quickly.  His language score was low--like a 2.9 or something--but when he told the Elders in our ward what he got on the test they all laughed and said that he scored higher than they did when they left the MTC!  I am literally leaving a piece of my heart in Japan.  

He's graduating in less than 30 days, which reminds me, I need to get his senior announcements out and will probably be late since it takes so long to get to me and then I have to mail them all out which is also take awhile.  He didn't really want to take senior photos so we just spent about 30 minutes walking around our block and took a few.  He is excited about graduating and definitely feeling senioritis but he's also feeling weird about being done.  It's a big step!  

Will is doing well.  He does not really use his P-day to write letters.  I get it.  I appreciate that he spends his time talking to us instead of writing an email.  I am always excited when he does send one out though.  I like seeing the photos he uploads and he says goofy things.  His last email he shared that he tried Pakistani food for the first time and ended up getting food poisoning.  However, he said even with the food poisoning he would still recommend 10/10.  His area is heavily muslim and illegal immigrants and both are against the rules for teaching so he doesn't have a lot of investigators (they call them "friends" now) but he is busy all day every day and absolutely loves his mission.  He did almost spill an entire pot of boiling frying oil on his body this last week so that was not fun to hear but I'm convinced angels are watching out for him and relieved he escaped that.

Mike just got back from America.  It was his last business trip for this assignment.  He seemed to do okay with jet lag for the week he was there but he has struggled since getting back.  He has been awake for big chunks of time each night this week and ends up taking a sleeping pill to knock him out, too late, and then not being able to wake up in the morning.  It's nice to have him home. 

 

While he was gone we signed a contract on a house and he has been good about taking care of all the paperwork for us.  We are excited about the house and he's got a running list of things we can improve on the house when we get there.  Neither of us like the idea of renovations but we are both excited about making little changes that will make the home feel like ours.  

I got my first cookbook delivered.  It is smaller than I hoped but I still love it.  It took so much time and work.  We paid someone to design it and format it and told him what size we'd like but he ended up formatting it to be much smaller so we had to print it smaller.  He did a pretty bad job and I'm sad we paid him but Mike took the PDF and fixed all the things the guy did poorly.  I've found two mistakes so far but they aren't a big deal.  I'm excited to start a new one!  I really enjoyed the process of making the food and taking photos of them.  I'm proud of myself.  

I took headshots for a man I know who works as a hedge fund manager.  I was feeling nervous, obviously because I just get nervous before every shoot but also because I've never taken professional headshots for anyone. 

I had to get another injection for my skin the weekend Mike was gone.  He usually drives me because it's an hour away.  I had to take the bus, train, bus.  It went okay on the way there but on the way home I missed probably three buses and I missed a few trains too.  I never felt frantic, didn't have a timeline, and it was beautiful weather so it wasn't that big of a deal but it did make me feel frustrated.  It was humbling.  I feel pretty confident on the trains and buses now so it was frustrating and a good reminder that things are just complicated here.  My appointment was in Akanabe and after my appointment I walked around and found that the town is mostly elderly people.  I saw cute old people everywhere.  

I also drove the girls to their school during the week Mike was gone.  I haven't ever driven there by myself before and it's about an hour away.  The GPS was delayed so I missed a turn but it all ended up okay.  I'm basically the GOAT Tokyo driver now.  Hahaha.  I hate driving here! 

Most of March we had visitors here.  It was lovely to have Jess and Jen here.  I loved every part of their visit and was so sad when they left.  I actually think about their visit all the time.  They took the girls to Disney and I think that was a core memory for my girls.  They were the perfect guests and I loved showing them this part of our lives.  

My friend and her daughter came soon after Jess and Jen left.  It was cold and rainy for the majority of the time they were here and I was already pretty worn out--on my period as well--so it was a harder visit for me.  They were  here for ten days and almost immediately after their visit Mike left for America.  I spent a lot of the time he was gone just trying to rest and recover.

Now we are turning our thoughts towards moving.  Our shipments should be scheduled soon and we will spend our last ten days here in a hotel on base.  The kids have YW's camp and FSY the last two weeks here and we still have all the end of the year craziness to get through (including Isaac's graduation!).  It's going to be full, challenging, and there will be all the feelings expected.  

We can do this!  I taped a quote from President Monson on the front door and we read it every day when we leave, "Don't pray for tasks equal to your abilities.  Pray for abilities equal to your tasks."  That's what we are praying for and that's what we expect to be blessed with.  God will help us.