Spencer's Summer Update

Hello, friends!  Welcome back for the next installment in our series of  What Our Family is Up To where I go person by person and give a little update on what our family is doing this summer.  You can see previous updates  here:  
 Ellie
 Adam
 Emma 
 Cami 

...and if I get my act together, I'll do updates on Glen and I soon too, but in the meantime, here's SPENCER!   

NOTE:  Spencer has not outgrown his aversion to picture taking, so his update will be less pictorial than the rest.   

  For the last couple years Spence had been working as a relationship banker at a local branch of a big bank, which gave him some great experience and proved to be a  confidence booster for him. However it did not prove to be as upwardly mobile as promised when he was hired and he did not enjoy getting shuffled around to work at several different local branches, despite being hired to work at the branch 5 minutes from home.  

Eventually, he decided it was time for a change and he quickly found a job in a related field, but not before winning a prestigious performance award at his old job.   The reaction of his soon-to-be former manager when he found out about the award confirmed to him that he'd made the right decision by leaving.  

His new job seems very promising.  Not only have most of his co-workers worked there many years (which seems like a good sign), but part of the training is helping him receive licensing and certification that will increase his earning potential and future marketability, wherever he works.   He also enjoys working from home every-other-week, so the longer commute is less of a factor than it would otherwise be.   

The last couple of years he's gotten a few tattoos--each of which has special meaning to him.  

In addition to being busy with a new job, Spence has been enjoying the long hours of daylight by taking Kiwi out on long walks most days.  He still loves to read, listen to podcasts, play disc-golf, rock-climb at the gym, and play Magic the Gathering whenever he can talk Glen and/or Adam into joining him!   

His health remains good and we enjoy having him live close! 

Adam's Summer Update

Alright, alright...we're off to blogpost #2 in our person-by-person update series here on the blog.  This post will be catching us up on what our Adam is doing!  As is usual with my kids, he doesn't sit still often, so it's been a busy summer for him.

Here are the bare-bones basics of what he's up to, then I'll add a little more detail about each below that: 

1-He's currently taking a spring class
2-He's currently working full-time at the FSY office on campus
3-He has two side gigs, in addition to his full-time job
4-He's been really into hiking lately. 

1- He's currently taking a spring class.  

So, he officially declared his major as "computer engineering" this past year, which he realized is a long major, and would require him taking spring/summer classes just to stay on a 5-year graduation plan!   This spring he opted to take a psychology class that would fulfill a general education requirement.  He had taken an AP psych class back in our homeschool co-op, so  he didn't find the course material very hard, but he was dismayed to find out upon opening the syllabus for the first time, that this class would require 13 written papers during the course of the 6-week condensed spring schedule.  Paper writing is not his favorite thing, but he has officially completed his coursework now and should be completely done with it all  in the next few days.   Hallelujah for him! 

2-He's currently working full-time at the FSY office on campus.

FSY is a HUGE employer of BYU students in the summertime and they recruit pretty hard in the Provo area.  I would say close to a quarter of our YSA ward has some kind of employment through FSY this summer.  Adam had worked as an FSY counselor before his mission and was applying to be a session coordinator for this summer.  He ended up getting hired as an assistant coordinator, before being offered his current job, which is logistics specialist for the Provo sessions.  It was exactly what he was looking for...part-time and flexible during the school year and full-time during the summer.   It's definitely stretched him in good ways (like becoming proficient at spreadsheets) and is giving him a good boost on paying his own rent this upcoming school year!    He gets to work with some great people and he likes knowing he is a part of something that is making a difference! 

3-He has two side gigs, in addition to his full-time job

He didn't get his FSY job until winter semester, so to  earn money for groceries and other incidentals, he started donating plasma during fall semester.  There's a donation center not far from his apartment and he found that donating didn't affect how he felt, so he's been a very regular donor for several months now.  I personally find the whole process fascinating.  I've been a regular blood donor for 35ish years now, but have never been paid a cent for it.  It's wild that there's enough of a market for plasma that they can pay that generously.   

His second side gig is one that he's just recently taken up.   He's always appreciated a good pair of Nike shoes in his wardrobe and was definitely hoping to someday serve near the Nike headquarters while he was on his mission in Portland, but that never happened.   But, he has since discovered that if you can buy a pair of just-dropped limited edition Nike shoes, you can turn around and sell them at a good profit.   He's just figuring out all the ins and the outs of it right now, but he recently sold his first pair at nearly double what he paid for them!   

On his way to the post office to ship his first sold pair

   Nike doesn't release very many pairs of the limited edition shoes, so it's a bit of a crapshoot on whether you can get your hands  on a pair (and one pair of a design is all they allow), but he has since procured two more pairs that he anticipates will also sell for a hefty profit.  I think he's enjoying this new side gig a little more than the plasma donating one.  

4-He's been really into hiking lately.  

Between his full-time work and his fast-paced spring class, his summer schedule has not left a lot of free time on his hands, but  something that he is prioritizing this spring is hiking in the mountains on Saturdays.   I say I like to hike too, but not like his hiking.   His type of hiking is 10-12 mile hikes up  in the mountains with a few thousand feet in elevation gain!   He usually hikes alone, because he doesn't know anyone who wants to hike that intensely, plus, as I previously mentioned, many of his friends are off on FSY adventures in other cities.   Glen did join him on one recent voyage though...

When he's alone, we have a system, where he tells us where he's hiking and he checks in  along the way, so we know he's safe.  Surprisingly, he has found that he has reasonably good coverage on most of the trails...even high up in the mountains.    He did injure himself one time, which caught him unprepared...

But he now carries a first-aid kit with him, along with a boatload of water!  

So far he's hiked Big Baldy Loop, Provo Peak, Khyv Peak, Battle Creek Loop, Lake Hardy, and some other smaller ones... 

We love finding all these amazing pics in the camera roll... 

And we love that it exhilarates him!  It clearly is something he very much enjoys and we live in a great area to explore the outdoors.   

Okay, these are the main things keeping him busy right now, but I thought I'd throw in a bonus item for your enjoyment!  

BONUS ITEM:   He recently allowed his head to be shaved as part of his calling!  

He's the Institute rep for his YSA ward.   You've probably have never heard of that calling before, but in a BYU ward, it's actually a pretty big deal.   I didn't really know how big of a deal until we started serving in our own YSA ward a couple months ago, but let's just say that it's quite the weekly social event, they get amazing teachers for it, and the biggest chunk of the stake budget goes to providing food at Institute each week.  President Nelson (our modern day prophet) has given some amazing promises at how participating in Institute will bless lives and Adam's calling requires participating in ward council,  attending and helping at institute each week, and HYPING it up, so people actually come.   

Right at the end of winter semester, somehow the promise was made (with the help of a friend) that if his ward's attendance reached a certain threshold at Institute that week, that he'd allowed his head to be shaved.   They exceeded that threshold (by a good deal more than they'd had there all school year) and his head was shaved!   

I don't think he actually likes his hair being that short, but he took it all in good stride, and decided it was worth it for the cause!    His hair is growing back nicely now...

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Stay tuned for more updates in the series coming soon...

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Last Week of Summer and Spencer Checkup

Backpacks are filled.  Class schedules have arrived.  They've met their teachers. 

The last week of summer is over and school begins bright and early on Tuesday morning and early morning seminary dawns even earlier on Wednesday morning. 

While I will definitely miss the carefree days with little on our schedule, we are good and ready for a semblance of routine around here.   Especially Spencer,  who may not admit it, but after 9 months without attending school is excited for his senior year! 

So other than going to bed way too late, breaking up yet another squabble among the kids, and eating breakfast around lunch time, how did we spend our last few days of summer vacation? 

Here's a glimpse: 

First and foremost, Spencer had another good check-up this past week!!!!!!    He had some more adventures with the Pentamidine infusion, but after 100mg of Benadryl and a very long nap, he was just fine.  His WBC was 4120, ANC 1740, Hgb 16.5, Platelets 117.  The platelet count is still lower than normal and than his last visit, but the doctor seemed unconcerned.  

I also continued experimenting with homemade fruit leather (grape): 

We had a little family get-together to visit with my uncle and aunt while they were in town. 

Much to Ellie's and my delight, that meant that we also got to see baby Jack again...

In fact, I daresay he was the most popular guy in the whole restaurant! 

Ellie also ate up the time to play with her cousins again...

Spencer attended his school's first football game of the year all decked out for Black-Out night!   He also hung out with friends and went on a date. 

Cami made and sold 16-dozen cupcakes in one day. 

It was a lot of hard work, but she was so thrilled with the results and couldn't stop smiling at her own little "bakery" table.  :)

Oh yeah and we worked....

A LOT! 

Besides sweeping the deck and painting Cami's room, we also emptied out and organized the hall closet, are still in process of trying to finish up the kids' room, cleaned up from Cami's cupcake escapades, prepared church lessons (YW for me, children's chorister for Glen), and....

took a picture of a bug on a window at the request of my very cute 2-year-old nephew.  :)

Tomorrow we hope to go raspberry picking (if the remnants of Hurricane Isaac don't rain us out), visit baby Jack and family one more time, go to the fabric store (for Cami and Emma), and have our special back-to-school Family Home Evening night. 

Doing Hard Things

Almost 200 years ago lived a man named John Rowe Moyle.  John was a skilled stonecutter who, although he lived a valley away, was asked to help work on the Salt Lake Temple.   Every Monday John left home at about 2am and walked 22-miles to work on the temple.  Every Friday he would walk the 22-miles back home to spend the weekend with his family.   He continued this routine for years, even eventually going back to the weekly commute after his leg had been crudely amputated after he suffered an accident on his farm.   It was John who carved the words, "Holiness to the Lord". 

(picture source)

So it was with this story in mind that the Young Women leaders of our ward (church congregation) decided to create an experience for the Young Women (girls aged 12-18) that would help them learn that they too could do hard things and that sacrificing to get to the temple is well worth the effort.   They would go on their own 22-mile walk to the temple. 

Although the prospect of such a long walk initially seemed very intimidating to the girls, they've worked hard to prepare themselves physically by going on weekly training walks (up to 15-miles) together.  The training sessions, in addition to building their stamina mile by mile, also helped them to develop and strengthen friendships with one another.   

Finally bright and early on Saturday morning, a group of Young Women and leaders gathered near the W&OD trail and embarked on a journey that none of them will ever forget. 

Despite being a little bleary eyed when I dropped them off, it was evident in this picture that their excitement level was high...

It was cool to see that each of the girls had a little picture of the temple pinned to their backpacks to serve as encouragement along their way. 

After dropping the girls off I went back home and snoozed for a little longer until the younger kids crawled into bed with me chatting about their plans for the day.  After a day filled with me and the kids getting things done around the house while a friend and 2 sons spent hours mowing, edging, and trimming our yard (thank you Tapps!), I finally got a text saying they were about an hour away from the temple. 

So I loaded the kids up and met them at the temple.  Timing was perfect and I got there just in time to see this group of girls (including Emma) racing up the hill  up to the temple gates.  Apparently they'd been wanting to run for a while, but their leaders encouraged them to wait until they were a little closer...

It had been about 8 hours of near constant walking in 90+ degree heat, but the sense of accomplishment they displayed upon finally reaching their final destination was palpable.  There were a whole lot of smiles coming up that hill... 

and even a few tears...

Afterward they were eager to take off their shoes and rest their weary feet.  Their beautiful smiles, however,  never left their faces.   

Eventually they all headed to the air conditioned bliss of the Visitors' Center where Bishop H. spoke to them for a few minutes, then presented them with medals! 

Then it was picture taking time....

Ellie adores her older sisters and their friends and eagerly lapped up the opportunity to be in as many pictures as possible.

And a fun little tidbit....Ashley, the girl in the white shirt in a lot of the pictures, is John Rowe Moyle's great-great-great-great-granddaughter.

A vision of loveliness...

What a wonderful accomplishment and life lesson for these girls, that when they put their minds to something, they indeed can do hard things!