We're Winding Down

Meredith Smith asked me to tell Kathryn she needed to talk to her before we left after church today. So when I saw Kathryn, I sent her over to the Primary to find Meredith. Ten minutes later, Kathryn saw me going in to Sunday School and said that she was told they were' looking for a virgin and needed Kathryn to be one.'. Okay, THAT struck us both extremely funny when Kathryn said it and we bust out laughing as Kathryn kept saying 'I get to be a virgin'. Not that it would come very hard for her, as she's a 'natural' at that role, but we laughed as we realized the different significance to the meaning of the word now, versus in the Saviors day, and how few young women in the world would qualify for the role today. How sad, but how good for Kathryn. It will be a presentation that Kathryn will be involved in for girls camp.
Okay, so not so good in the blogging department lately...but neither has anyone else been very good!!! I have especially been slacking on the picture taking, as have others..., but as the school year comes to a close and the summer approaches, we find ourselves in 'survival mode' and on 'auto pilot'...basically, day after day, doing the same old thing...
Seminary did finish this past week - much to Kathryn's delight. She has NEVER been an early morning person and so we are not quite sure if her attendance percentage will allow her to graduate with credit this year or if she has a significant amount of make up hours to turn in first. Whichever it is, we have told her it is her choice to make, but what a silly thing to attend over the year, but not make it complete. It will be the same for next year, I imagine, as she starts to realize the importance of Seminary attendance when she goes to apply to BYU. This may actually come back to bite her in the rear end...Hopefully not.
And then school attendance...well, she has FINALLY found her good health again and hasn't missed for actually WEEKS at a time now!! Woohoo!! We have been in continual conversation with her vice principal who was able to get her 45 hours of missed school down to only needing to make up 24 hours...so she has been attending both morning and after school tutorials, plus late evening and Saturday morning make up time so that by the end of this next week, she will have made up all her necessary time to pass her Sophomore year!! With all A's and B's, no less. With her goal to graduate early, she will be starting an advanced English class in a few weeks to complete over the summer and then graduate after this final year of Junior/Senior credits. With all of her health difficulties and emotional meltdowns, it is amazing to me that she will still be able to finish her high school years at the age of 17; not necessarily what I would want, but it's what SHE wants to accomplish.
Having her back to the Kathryn we know and love for the past 3-4 weeks has been SOOO enjoyable and pleasant. She has made some pretty significant attitude changes about school and church and even more so, has made some very good choices as far as her desire to strengthen her testimony and relationship with her family and Father in Heaven. It has truly been an answer to our prayers, for which we thank our Heavenly Father. There is still much progress to make, but it appears so much easier now that we see her feeling and receiving promptings from the Holy Ghost and acting upon them in a righteous way. Good choices are coming easier for her and being 'active' in the gospel seems to be HER choice now instead of only ours. It is causing a very peaceful calm to come upon our home, for which Del and I are very grateful.

Jordan is struggling in Oregon. We have told him we will help him financially for the next 4 months so that he can solely concentrate on trying to sell church videos. He has had some good success but not consistent enough for him to feel that he is any good at what he is doing. But he's only three weeks in to this job...he still has time to perfect a lot of his skills. The van was only $200 short of being 'totalled out', so our insurance company is having it repaired...$4200 worth of repairs. That will cause our premiums to increase, I'm sure...but, Que Sera', Sera'...I'm not going to cry over spilt milk. Jordan feels bad enough...he's having to drive another mini van as his rental car...tee hee..keep the boy humble.

Work has gone remarkably well for the past..well, two months. I have been determined to have a new positive attitude about my job - mostly to help the other girls out in trying to qualify them for a bonus. I need to realize how lucky I am to have a job that pays well and helps us to meet our financial obligations. I work with good people, both patients and employees, so I need to not complain. There are so many out there that can't say the same. Del's job also appears to be stable, for the time being. We hope to be completely debt free by the end of next year, 2010.

So, we are blessed. At least, I feel blessed. It's nice, our little family of us and Kathryn. The pictures? Just Kathryn keeping us laughing while she helps to mow the lawn...and she and her daddy making homemade pizza on a Friday night. We love that she enjoys spending time with us - at home - even on a Friday night. She claims 'we have no life'. Right now, she IS our life; or at least a very fun part of it.