Quite a week...

Goodness, here's an attempt to sort of catch up, altho that is actually physically impossible at this point:)

First of all, Happy 4th Birthday to Eli Manville and we hope he has a GREAT party at Legoland:)!
Hope Patrick had at least a short time on his birthday (today) of less pressure (I think they let him go to church on Sunday, so having his birthday on Sunday should have been a blessing!)  Since I haven't been blogging, I never mentioned Steve's birthday which was last Monday - Hope it was a good one Steve! - and I probably never mentioned Abby's birthday or Jim and Jeanie's anniversary...guess August 2014 was kind of a lost month in that regard:(.  Maybe I will do better in September:)

What a week - can't remember exactly the day but I know we had a new roof put on our Provo office building plus had a new office tenant and a new house tenant.  It is a little tricky managing those things in the midst of the things here in Payson, but Dad has done a really good job of it.  The roofing people came out and looked at Sara's roof and suggested that her homeowner's insurance (USAA) would probably pay to put a new roof on, minus her deductible - which is $1000.  But if they do, that would be a great blessing because the roof definitely needs help!

We're also working on re-carpeting the office building and changing the stair coverings to rubber stair treads

Sara's truck and tractor are up and running, seemingly in good shape now, and the lawn mower should be working soon.  She has been a little worried about the grass which is probably 8 to 10 inches high now.  Perfect for a field, but not so good for a lawn:).  Dad says the parts are supposed to come in on Tuesday, so here's hoping!

Patrick seems to be doing well in Basic; the good news for the week came in a letter that said he made Sharpshooter, after shooting his poorest scores the day before.  Made Sara and all of us very happy - not to mention himself!  Sara is hoping to be able to go for his graduation in September:).

Our big news, of course, was the accepted offer on the house in South Jordan, which I e-mailed you all about.  Thanks to Emily for spending 2 days plus helping us try to figure out who to see about loans - the cost of the house is somewhat over what we have in cash from the sale of ours.  I was hoping very much that we would be able to just pay cash, but dad feels certain this house is worth the extra and that it is not a problem.  We meet with the loan officer tomorrow and hopefully have all the paperwork they need to process the loan.  We are hoping to be able to close a couple of days earlier than the contract deadline because we want to head back to Oregon that week in September to clear out the basement and bring that stuff up to the house here.  Dad put in for a rental truck today through Penske - at a really good price, so hopefully that will work.  I will give you our dates for everything once they are a little more finalized.

I had visiting teachers come visit me - that was fun after 2 1/2 years:) - and I got to go visiting teaching, even more fun:).  One of the ladies I get to visit leads the music in Sacrament meeting and she asked if I could lead the music next week while she's out of town - so I said yes.  Hopefully won't be nervous and make a mess of it:).  Dad and I have been called to teach a temple preparation class and did our 2nd one today...I am hopeful we will get better at it and that we can be of help to them in getting to the temple.  It will be a blessing for us to be able to do the class.

As I type this the wind and rain came up again...we have had nightly storms a LOT in the last few weeks.  Friday night Mary and Michael were down here and it poured...including through our front window in the MH.  So Dad is working on re-caulking every possible place that could ever leak and is going to have a professional re-seal our front window:).

The girls had school this week and all enjoyed it; the week before we finished up "chore charts" and those seem to be a little help in getting them into routines.  Jocelyn (her name of choice) absolutely loves her preschool and is going 5 days a week.  Twice she has told me she was tired and ended up napping on our bed in the MH...so school definitely uses up her energy.

I know there are many more things I would like to say to everyone, but am having a really hard time thinking of them at the moment, so I guess I will quit for now.  Oh - I did want to let you know that my sister Linda is having continuing heavy duty medical problems and is definitely feeling very alone for all of it.  She is currently on a medication to control atrial flutter but can only take it for a short time because it has so many dangerous side effects and they are telling her she will have to go up to OHSU for a procedure where they "freeze" a portion of your heart.  Scary for her; I was hoping perhaps some of you could find time to just send a cheerful note of encouragement.

So, now that is all for now.  Love you, Mom & Grandma