January

January had some big things happen for us.  To begin, we took Will to Provo on New Years Day.  It was so bittersweet.  Having him with us for a handful of months was such a blessing. He kept himself as busy as he could with getting a license, institute, being a temple worker, and getting a job but honestly, he was bored.  There isn't anything more we can do for his progress and fulfillment.  We can't provide him with what he needs now so I felt peaceful about this next stage for him.  I actually did a really good job emotionally during the few days we were with him except for when Mike gave him a Father's Blessing right before we took him to his apartment before we said goodbye and drove home.  That was a tough moment.  He was the only roommate home for a day or two so leaving him alone in a new apartment in an unfamiliar city was hard for my mother heart.  We only drove an hour when I got a phone call from Will and it was weird because he was acting all cheerful and calm and it didn't fit his personality to want to chat after just saying goodbye to me.  He was unpacking and sliced his finger.  We pulled over before we lost reception in the canyon and called Tricare to figure out where he could go for stitches.  Thankfully, he lives across the street from a hospital and a block away from an urgent care.  He went to the Urgent care and got a bunch of stitches.  Not a great way to start his first day at college.  Fast forward a few months and his first semester is almost over and he's loving school and college life, as I hoped and expected.  He is way more social than either myself or Mike were and getting almost perfect grades.  He just started a new job, taking over at the MTC where his cousin Abby worked.  I'm so grateful she told him about the job and that he got the position.  

January also brought a nice snow storm.  It was a weird winter with hardly any snow.  I kept thinking, "this is nice to have a break from snow--we will get plenty in the spring" but so far, that hasn't been the case and we hardly had any snow storms this year.  The snow storm we did get was measurable and bitterly cold and windy but the kids still enjoyed sledding.  I didn't last outside longer than ten minutes. 

Felicity got braces in January.  She's done pretty well with the braces but hasn't gotten the bottom braces yet.  She was excited to go to the store with me and choose ramen and other soft foods to eat for the first couple of days.  She has also been learning to play the violin at school since the fall but the music teacher just ended her classes so Felicity is going to pick up learning to play starting Monday from a girl in our ward who is an amazing violinist.  Felicity is also taking piano and she isn't the greatest at practicing so I'm interested to see how she does now with violin.  

Eli actually got his mission call in February but I accidently included the photo from the night he opened his call so I'm keeping it here in the January post.  His call came in one week and when he got home from work we let everyone know it arrived so they could join a facebook live call or come to the house.  Some of his friends from church were able to come last minute and we even got Isaac and Will to call at the same time.  He got called to Kobe, Japan!  We are excited for him.  He's bummed to not be leaving until August but he studies Japanese daily and he's so ready to go.  I think after Isaac's mission, I'm a little hesitant for him to go to Japan.  We knew it would be hard but the reality is that it's been hard the entire time and there haven't been any real highs.  I'm not saying Isaac is depressed and struggling all the time--he's actually really cheerful and positive--I'm just acknowledging the fact that it's been hard continually.  What I know about Kobe is that some areas are snowy, like where Isaac is, while other areas are very wet and rainy. So he'll have typhoon season followed by a cold, wet winter.  People said to have him prepared to be wet most of the time.  Will had that experience too, except not cold, and he survived and I know Eli will too!  They also told us that many areas have little tiny branches and that he will probably bike close to 20 miles a day, uphill.  Eli will do well--work hard, complain minimally, adjust to the hardships.  Selfishly, I'm actually a little tired of the missionary season.  I wish we could space the missions out a bit but I'm also very grateful for their decision to serve and the example they've been to each other and to the girls.  

I think that's it for this post.