Dear Family and Friends,

We woke up this morning to snow! It has been either snowing or raining all day. The ground is covered but the streets are staying clear. Last week the kids were all in shorts running around eating popsicles. It must be spring in Utah. We read a list of red necked jokes about Utah and one said you can tell you live in Utah if you use the heater and the air conditioner in your car on the same day.

Its been a pretty laid back week. I ended up with a cold the end of the week and spent most of my time laying around with kleenex and herbal tea while kids thought the extra freedom was great. David sent me a link to my high school alumni so it has been fun finding out what some old friends are doing. Made me realize what of bunch of neat people I hung out with in high school.

Jeremy is hopefully snoozing away upstairs before he goes home teaching. With 6 am meetings on Sunday he deserves what little rest he gets. He had a cool photography week with going to a class Tuesday on how to take pictures from that famous photographer he likes and then spending most of the day Saturday going on a photo walk with his photo group. He took a really neat picture of a homeless man that I am sure he will post.

Our basement is now sheetrocked and 1/2 way done on the mud and tape. We had a moment of panic when we realized that they had sheetrocked over the sewer cut off valve and we weren't sure exactly where it was. Jeremy drilled a hole but we couldn't see anything so we just went for it and he cut a big hole right over the valve, just by chance. So we didn't have to spend the night making holes all over the wall. I think we were being given a little help from above as someone had just called to ask for help with moving a neighbor but we needed to find the valve first. The sheetrockers actually showed up a day early which led to a moment of panic on our part as we weren't quite ready. A friend came over and quickly moved an intake vent for us and Jeremy left work early to drill a whole for the bathroom exhaust. It all worked but there was some stress going on.

With the good weather early this week I went and got a load of bio-waste manure to spread in our front yard. Yes its exactly what it sounds like but it is a great weed retardant. I didn't realize how many weeds I would have to pull before I could spread it! Still need to get another load to finish it off but I will wait till the sun appears again.

Spencer has been enjoying the good weather with hurrying through his jobs and racing back outside to play basketball or jump on the neighbor's tramp or ride his wave. He has gotten pretty good at his wave now and goes all around the neighborhood on it. We had pack meeting this week and Spencer got two arrows and led the flag ceremony. Can't help but think of how much better things are now. I never thought I would be pushing drugs for children but in Spencer's case it has been a huge difference. Spencer and Allison each had friends over for pizza and movie night. At the end Spencer and Matthew race outside to run around while the girls bounce around to the music. Our neighbor is selling black lab puppies so Spencer has been begging. He is willing to use his own money and doesn't really understand why we say no.

Allison has had friends all week. She is begging to continue with swimming so I think we will sign her up for one more session. She can do 30 yards now as long as she gets to float on her back for a few minutes at the 15 mark which I think is great. Of course I think the reason she loves it is because she and her friend get the whole deep end to themselves at the end of class for 30 min with a bunch of floater toys. It was our bishop's birthday this week and Allison made him a card and asked me to get him a balloon and walked it over to him, very proud and happy. They had a Primary activity yesterday afternoon

Robyn is Robyn, need I say more. So cute with running up to say I love you and give you kisses then leaving a path of destruction in her wake. She is disappearing every time the door opens to go get her friend next door. She loves to tell us stories but unless you know the context you really don't understand them.

I will be happy when my cold goes away but am reading my big stack of books. When sick all those good for me books get laid aside and the junk reading comes out! Love to you all, Heather