November 2025

 I forgot about some of our other fall financial woes...  I was really worried about our finances this fall, particularly after our Utah housing situation, which had prompted me to apply for a job (more about that in another post). We paid $6000 in September to install a window well on the basement of the Utah house.  In October, we paid $500 for just one portion of our shared backyard fence to be done. Both little cars are having issues. The blue car leaks radiator fluid, somewhere inside the system, so our current solution just involves re-filling the fluid (cheaper to keep doing that than pay much more to diagnose and fix inside the system).  We also decided to pay $1100 to fix the radiator and oil seal on the little car and try to extend its life a little longer. It doesn't start smoking while driving it now.  However, the engine light still comes on sometimes, so it's not a reliable long-distance car anymore.  We take the blue car to sporting events and the temple (when we can just fill up the fluid before we go.)  Our truck is the most reliable vehicle for trips longer than a few hours, but it guzzles gas the most out of the vehicles.

 We had an interesting experience with the little car one Wednesday evening. On the way to the youth activity at the church, it started having issues - with the radio and things turning on and off.  By the time I got to the church, turned it off, and then tried to start it again, it was dead.  By the time Alex checked on it later, it started and seemed to be fine.  I decided to drive home in that car with the kids after the activity.  We had just turned at a light and started to get on the freeway when it shut down again.  I managed to get as far to the right as possible, but we were just by the guardrail and very close to the freeway.  I called Alex, but in waiting for him, cars and trucks were flying by. I didn't even have lights or hazards lights, so I was worried that cars wouldn't see us sitting there.  I called for an officer to come park behind us with their lights.  They arrived before Alex and were able to jump start the battery.  (Somehow it was dead after just recently replacing it).  Alex arrived as they were giving the car a jump.  We were going to head out, but I decided that Alex should drive the car having issues.  The kids and I traded cars.  Meanwhile, Alex took off down the freeway but quickly noticed that the car was still having issues.  He made it up to the top of the hill of our freeway exit, and despite not having power anymore, he decided to try to turn and coast down the hill.  I don't know what he was thinking, but he managed to guide it down the hill and into the grocery store parking lot without power (also losing the power steering)!  He had a pretty good adrenaline rush from accomplishing that feat.  

  We thought about paying to have all our ducts and vents cleaned out before we turned the heater on, but the estimate was $1200, so Alex tried to clean those on his own. I don't think we turned the heater on until the second week of December... We had family coming for Christmas, so we also bought a new mattress for the "guest room" (Savannah's room).  I'm not sure how comfortable the new one actually is - it seems pretty firm, but it's probably better than the old one.  This fall wasn't easy on our finances. Somehow the extra expenses just kept coming.  Anyway, getting invited to 3 different friend's houses for dinner the first weekend in November was a blessing, although they had no idea about our financial woes.   

In more happy updates, Owen got asked to a dance by our friend Eliza with a creative Star Wars poster, so he responded with a light saber message.  They had a picnic dinner beforehand (inside, because of rain). They got out of the original roller skating part of the activity as well, which was good because Owen injured his ankle just a couple days before.  He was able to dance a little bit and had a good time.

Alex and I went on a short hike one Saturday between Owen's basketball tournament games and Weston's band competition.  Another Saturday, we went to the Redlands Temple between Weston's band competition and the awards ceremony.

We played a little bit of board games, Savannah and I went on a bike ride, and the kids decided to start doing planks in the evening before bed.  Alex joins them sometimes.  

The youth did an activity with all the kids from the surrounding wards (stake activity), where they dressed in clothes for Jesus' time period and sat on the floor to eat dinner.  It was a "Friendsgiving Feast".  They each got little mini oil lamps and sang some songs.  I wasn't there, but I heard it was a great activity.  

We decorated our tree before Thanksgiving this year.  It just seemed like we should have it up longer.  We spent Thanksgiving with a couple other families.  We had to drive about an hour to get to their house this year, since they moved.  We had a great meal, and they fed the missionaries and invited some other friends as well. I don't have pics of everyone who attended, but it was a big feast.  We all contributed.  We brought fried chicken drumsticks, green bean casserole, rolls, apple and key lime pie.    

BYU Sophomore

I don't get a lot of pictures from Nathan.  He'll often send me a picture like the first one below that shows where he's sitting at the BYU game.   He's really been enjoying the sports, when he's lucky enough to get a ticket.  He had to buy a ROC sports pass to be able to attempt to get a ticket, but they're still not guaranteed to get one.  They opened up the ticket portal on Tuesdays at noon before the Saturday football games.  He learned that he had to be in the "queue" online right at noon and then hope he got a ticket.  They were all gone immediately - you couldn't wait even 15 minutes to get in the queue or you were out of luck.  A couple times he had 3 different devices ready to increase his chances, and he'd get a ticket from whichever device got in the system first.  He got tickets to all the games when he remembered to get online at noon.  He had a couple friends that he'd usually go to the game with.  The BYU vs Utah game was particularly exciting as BYU won by 3 points.  I was watching it on TV, so that's my picture of the TV screen at the end of the game.  He didn't go down in the crowd, but the whole field was a sea of blue.    

Sophomore year has been harder than freshman year, as expected, with tougher classes. He had to study more to keep up with everything.  He's been working on a computer science degree so far, but he's thinking of switching to accounting if he can get in the program.  He has to take a couple accounting classes before he can apply for the program.  And then the acceptance is about 60% I think, so that's not guaranteed either.  He's thought about some different majors - economics, statistics, and some other fields, but accounting seems to be the most interesting to him.  

He continues to work on campus part-time during the week as a cybersecurity and systems technician.  He really likes his tech job and the people he works with.  

It also was a little different experience living off campus and not being right in the middle of all the social activities. A couple of these pictures are from a conference he went to with speakers and a concert.  They do have opportunities to go to several events or devotionals to build their spirituality, which Nathan has enjoyed. He continues to attend the Provo City Center Temple once a week and also serves in the temple one evening a week.  I think he also currently serves as the Elders Quorum Secretary in his ward.  He's been really busy, and unfortunately not leaving much time for girls! Maybe this next semester will be better for social time. Keeping up with everything has been a bit overwhelming for him, but I think he's doing amazing. 

Marching Band 2025

Weston participated in marching band this year, playing the baritone (because they didn't have trombones in marching band).  It was a long season, with lots of time commitments.  It started the second week of August with a week of mandatory band camp.  He practiced from 9:30am-noon, 1:30-4:00pm, and then 5:30-8:00pm on Monday through Friday (7.5 hours total each day).  They did a short performance for the parents on Friday evening.  The next week (and first week of school), he played at the first football game.  During August-October, he played with the band in 7 Friday night football games. He had to be there from 5:00pm until around 10:00pm (5-hour commitment).  Also, every Monday night from August 25th-November 17th, he had 3 hours of practice from 6:00-9:00pm (13 nights of 3-hour practices).  He also participated in jazz band, so he did 2 hours of practice on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, from 3:30-5:30 (four hours a week), right after cross country practice.  That's why he ran home for a sandwich a few times.  On October 18th, Weston participated with the marching band in his first band competition.  These usually lasted most of the day (12-16 hour Saturdays).  He did 4 of these field competitions.  The last one before championships got rained out.  Alex and I went and brought Weston back from the overnight competition that included Disneyland on Sunday.  Besides being something we don't do on Sunday, we also didn't want to pay the extra money for it ($360).  We still had to pay $150 for the bus and food for Saturday.  Weston did end up eating 12 tacos from the taco truck that night (and Alex and I ate 2 tacos each as parent clean-up helpers), so I guess that's where our money went for that day - $150 for a one-way bus ride and 16 tacos!

They qualified for the Division 2A band championships.  They had to make the top 12 of 42 bands to qualify.  At the championship, they were awarded 9th out of the 12 bands.  Overall, they were 9th out of 42 bands in the 2A Division, so they did really well.  Their performance piece this year was Mary Poppins, and they did 5 movements. Their last performance was on December 8th, which was a showcase featuring 3 of the local high school marching bands.  One of our friends, Maggie, was in one of the other bands.  It was fun to watch all of the performances.  

It wasn't that fun to drive 1-2 hours to watch a 10-minute performance for the field competitions and pay for parking and admission.  Marching band isn't a cheap thing to participate in.  We paid $475 for the season, along with $20 for a show t-shirt.  Admission to the competitions was $20 a piece, with parking fees (and gas to get there).  I went to 3 of the 4 competitions.  We paid a total of $335 for the championship competition ($150 fee, we had to rent a car + gas, $40 entrance, and a $45 hoodie). At the end of the season, we paid $52 to get the uniform dry-cleaned.  Estimated total costs for the season was a minimum of $930, not including gas.  Aside from the money, Weston spent an estimated 175 hours for marching band season (not including jazz band).  The time commitment has him questioning his participation next year, but he did work hard and enjoyed learning a new instrument and getting to know the band director and fellow band mates.  There were 3 other people that played the baritone and he got to know them pretty well.  Our friend Emily, a senior this year, was one of his fellow baritone players.  

Mama Bear

I got to be "Mama Bear" again this fall.  I had to contact Weston's English teacher about the 9th grade reading material.  Weston came home one day disgusted with the book he was reading - "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian."  He showed me the passage he had read, and I was shocked to see it was on masturbation.  Another chapter talked about "metaphorical boners."  I contacted Weston's teacher to get him a different book to read and inquire about the book choices.  His teacher was helpful and provided the 10 books they got to choose from, along with the descriptions as given by the school.  I was disappointed to find that 8 of the 10 books had content warnings.  He chose a different book without a content warning, but it wasn't a great book either (about a white cop that killed a black teenager).  Weston's teacher hadn't even read the first book and thus wasn't aware of the content.  He also said he didn't choose the books.  All the book selections were chosen and approved by a district committee.  He said I could discuss concerns with the assistant principal.  I got essentially the same thing from the assistant principal, but he also gave a district contact.  I tried to contact her, but she never responded back to me at all.  I spent a couple of days collecting online reviews and additional content warnings for all 10 of the books for 9th grade English classes.  All 10 books needed content warnings.  They all had profanity.  Several had violence and sexual content.  The books that were supposed to raise cultural awareness were given negative reviews from members of those particular communities saying they weren't a good representation of their community.  It was all garbage reading material.  I sent my "book reports" to Weston's teacher, the assistant principal, and district administrator.  I also emailed several friends to warn them of the reading material for 9th grade.  At least I could raise awareness among other parents of what their kids are reading if the district won't do anything about it. We also realized (according to Owen) that it's better to take the separate Ethnic Studies class instead of the English / Ethnic Studies combo class because the combo class just has to read garbage YA modern novels that supposedly raise cultural awareness.  The separate Ethnic Studies class actually focuses on the history of racism and oppression of other groups in society.  

Here are the book selections for 9th Grade English

I also had to help Owen get into National Honor Society.  He had applied the end of October and then got a rejection letter in November.  We were shocked that he didn't get in and wondered how it was possible that he didn't qualify.  He has a 4.3 GPA, taking AP classes, has lots of service and leadership, along with glowing character reviews from his coaches and teachers.  He excels in all 4 areas of NHS - character, leadership, service, and scholarship.  He wrote his essay, got the required teacher letters, and turned in everything by the deadline.  I told him to follow up with the NHS adviser, inquiring why he didn't qualify.  At first, the adviser responded that the committee used a "holistic approach" to selection and he wasn't chosen.  She also said he didn't get one his teacher recommendations.  The teacher letters were actually in, so that wasn't the reason.  Owen had personally spoken with the teachers and had verified those were turned in.  Then the adviser said it came down to Owen not sending an email confirmation to her after moving his 20 service hours from his general hours to donate to NHS.  She mentioned in the email to let her know if Owen needed help moving those hours and then letting her know when the hours had been moved.  Well, Owen didn't need help going to the career center to complete that task.  He did that on his own, but he didn't know he was required to send confirmation to the NHS adviser after doing so.  Since he had failed to do that, she wouldn't re-consider him for NHS this year.  She simply told him to apply again next year.  After a couple of failed attempts by Owen to be re-considered, I asked him for her contact info - my turn.  She tried to tell me the same thing.  I pointed out that Owen is known for his good communication with his coaches and teachers.  Owen's volleyball coach actually gave him a shout out in the parent meeting as being great at communicating.  I also told her that communication wasn't one of the measured areas of excellence for NHS and how she could have communicated a little better by letting Owen know that he wouldn't be admitted if he didn't confirm moving his service hours.  I also pointed out that simply telling juniors to re-apply the next year was a disservice to their college success, since some applications for college have to be turned in before acceptance is given for NHS.  They needed the participation their JUNIOR year to be included on their college applications.  I further pointed out that Owen seemed to be held to a higher standard or targeted for one lapse in communication, disregarding his grades, character, references, and everything else.  It wasn't a "holistic approach" that was used for selection.  The NHS adviser admitted that there were other students who didn't send a confirmation email and didn't get in either.  She said that ALL students who didn't complete that task were rejected.  That was really sad to hear, and I knew it wasn't right.  She was worried that the students wouldn't communicate with her about attendance at NHS meetings.  It seemed to be a hidden communication test as part of the application process.  I pointed out that Owen took the initiative to reach out to her, to follow up and communicate - the very quality she was looking for.  Anyway, she didn't want to accept Owen into NHS, but in her last email, she reluctantly said that if I still believed Owen should participate this year, she could try to skirt the rules on requirements for getting in.  I thought that was great and said, "Let's move forward."  

She sent an acceptance email the next morning, so he did get in this year.  I felt bad for the other students who also got rejected for not sending an email, so I again contacted the assistant principal to make him aware of the application / admittance process for NHS.  He replied back that he spoke with the NHS adviser and they agreed to change the process a bit next year, with a check list and google form to confirm service hours.  That was good, although he didn't mention if the other students affected this year were offered admittance.  I did my part to be the parent advocate that these students didn't know they needed.

We learned from this experience:

1.  Don't give up when you feel like you've earned something.

2.  Follow up on all tasks and communication.

3.  Sometimes you need an advocate to help.

4.   It doesn't hurt to ask for what you want.

Fall Sports

Savannah did swimming again in the fall - August through November.  She got to participate in a couple of meets.  One of them had a fun "pumpkin push" at the end of the meet, where they got to swim while pushing a pumpkin.  She got personal bests in all of the races in her first meet, where she did 50m breaststroke, backstroke, and freestyle.  On her 2nd meet, she got personal bests on 3 of her 4 races.  She got 37.43 on the 50m freestyle, 44.22 on the 50m backstroke, and 1:25 on the 100m freestyle.  She didn't quite PR on the 50m breaststroke but swam a 54.78 (with a 53.34 PR).  She is doing really well.

Weston surprised us and ran on the school cross country team in the fall.  He literally had a pretty slow start, running a 28:33 for 3 miles on his first race.  It also was 95 degrees for that race.  He improved throughout the season, running in 7 races.  He had times of 25:30, 26:06, 24:13, 26:15, 23:28. and a personal best of 22:20 in his last race.  He ran a 7:26 pace for that last race, so he made a lot of progress through the season (dropping over 6 minutes from his first race time).

I had fun with his video montage.  When it came time to choose some music, I was cracking up at the fun easy-going music that somehow was pretty fitting. I did make a second video, which shows the difference that music can make in his perceived running style.

Weston did something funny this season.  On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, he went straight from CC practice to jazz band.  One day he got really hungry in band and asked his band director if he could run home and get something to eat.  He wasn't allowed to leave that day.  The next time, during the middle of his CC run, Weston stopped by home, made a sandwich, and ran out the door with it!  We tried to tell him he should just make a sandwich in the morning and take it with him.  He chose to just run by our house a few times during his run and grab a sandwich.  Funny guy! 

October Misc

It hasn't rained much this year, but one day we got a random hail storm.  The little ice pellets looked like snow on the ground as they piled in one spot as they fell off the roof.  

Owen and Weston had their first choir concert.  

Savannah painted some poster boards for one of the booths at a youth activity.  Our friend Nathan came home from his 2-year mission to Columbia.  We got to help welcome him home.  

We went to a Halloween party at a friend's house.  At the last minute, we decided to wear simple M&M costumes.  Owen taped the M's on different colored shirts.  

Book of Mormon Analysis

The end of September, I finished my Book of Mormon analysis, where I had searched for action phrases.  I was looking for things we were invited to do, not just any verbs throughout the book.  Repent is used the most times (94), followed by the invitation to come unto Christ (58), believe (56), remember (44), and hearken (30).  When combining some words into categories, it's repent (132), keep the commandments (78), be (73), pray (68), serve / do good works (65), come (65), believe (56), search the word of God (49), hear and hearken (48), remember (47), look to God / seek Him (43), love and interacting with others (38), exercise faith / trust in God (37), baptized / born again (36), do / act / work (31), praise and worship God (27), preach the gospel (26), rejoice / lift up (26).  I went all the way down to unique phrases said only once (over 100).  I wasn't surprised that God asks us over and over again to repent.  We need that constant reminder of things we shouldn't do or should be doing.  It's all about change and striving to be a little better each day.  We're asked several times to simply remember, such as "remember that God is merciful".  I was pleasantly surprised with how many times God tells us to rejoice, lift up our eyes or heads, cheer up our hearts, break forth into joy, or be of good comfort.  There is so much to rejoice and delight in despite these challenging times.  We can't keep our heads down or wallow away in despair.  We're meant to have and find joy in the journey and see that the Lord brings us joy.  Some of my favorite phrases are "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ", "stand as witnesses of God," "reconcile yourselves to the will of God," and "come with full purpose of heart and cleave unto God."  I enjoyed doing the analysis.  

The day after I finished my scripture analysis, President Nelson passed away.  As I woke up on Sunday morning, I had the hymn "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet" in my head.  I realized the song intersected with my scripture analysis.  We rejoice in a prophet, the gospel, every blessing.  We find it a pleasure to serve and obey.  When "dark clouds of trouble hang o'er us... there is hope smiling brightly before us... we doubt not the Lord nor His goodness... we'll sing of his goodness and mercy, we'll praise him by day and by night, rejoice in His glorious gospel, and bask in its life-giving light."  We have light in these dark times because of Jesus Christ, and we can repent because of God's grace.  Savannah was singing "Amazing Grace" in the shower after she learned of President Nelson's passing.  I think the Lord speaks to her though music, among other ways.  It was sweet to hear her expressing thoughts through song.  

It was interesting to listen and watch General Conference the next weekend.  President Dallin Oaks wasn't sustained yet as prophet, a new apostle wasn't named, and no new temples were announced.  The talks were good though.  We always enjoy relaxing at home for conference weekend and eating crumb cake.  

Savannah got to go on a youth temple trip the end of October.