Another Sibling dropped off at the MTC

This has been a crazy week. Jason my little bro arrived to Salt lake City monday morning to report to the Missionary Training Center on wednesday. When he landed we started off running, did more shopping that one day than several days worth of shopping. We where able to gear him up for the upcoming adventure. Tuesday Jason and I went to the Salt Lake temple, which was amazing, been a while since I have been able to go, and I am very glad we went. The temple is always worth going too no matter how hard it seems at times to make it there.

 Tuesday afternoon was the time to BBQ and get the smoker going. Made very yummy burgers for lunch, smoked some beef jerky and for dinner cooked some amazing New York steaks. Had enough meat to last me the rest of the year. Then the snow fell that night, Jason was very happy to see it snow. Then at 11pm the adventure began, the carbon monoxide detector in the basement started to alarm, I changed the 9v battery, but it continued to alarm. Since it continued to alarm I called 911 and we where told to leave our house, so we had to get all the kiddos out of bed and got into our Durango and waited for the fire dept to show up. Five minutes later they arrived and monitored the CO2 levels in the house, turned out that the battery I replaced the old battery with was also dead, ARGH!!! After a new battery that was confirmed to be fully charged the alarm no longer made ear piercing sounds. For the prompt service of the fire dept we gave the guys some apple crisp Julie had made earlier that night and some of that beef jerky that was declared  smoked steak ;) We seem to always have an adventure of sorts at the oddest of times. Jason got to experience the craziness that seems to befall us. We all got to bed very late, this was not good since I had a test to take at 8am the next day. Surprisingly I did better than I thought I would since I had very little time to actually study. On this same day we drove Jason to the MTC, he was expected to report at 1245, he got there on time. It was really neat to see the new way these new missionaries are welcomed. Back when I was reporting to the MTC it was hard, felt lost. Now when dropped off the new missionaries are welcomed with the road lined with missionaries welcoming and assisting these new missionaries. We said our goodbyes and hugs exchanged and Jason was welcomed by 4 or 5 missionaries leading him as to where to go and that was the last we saw of him.  Jason was welcomed into good hands and it was great to see the support that was given.

A great thing living here in Utah is that I can be there for my siblings. I was able to drop Melissa off at the MTC as well several years ago, what a great opportunity! I will miss Jason, but he will do well, he is in good hands, and I have faith that he will be successful and be able to learn the things he needs to learn to be a great missionary and whatever is in store for him throughout his life. Love ya Bro!!

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Added stress but I will take it...

Consider this to be the official announcement, since our children and a few friends already know. The fourth child is on the way. Personally I was hoping to keep this hush hush for a while since we just found out 2 weeks ago, but news travels fast, and I was hoping to have some fun with the announcement. But that wasn't meant too be, but I will try to make the best of it. We had decided let's take our chances back in June of this year. We both know we need to bring another little one to this world of ours and now would be a good of time as any. If we planned things right the baby would come in summer time when I do not have school to worry about, and it is looking like that will be the case. As a husband and father I find pregnancies very stressful, so many worries with the infinite amount of things that could go wrong. My love for my sweet wife in immense, but with the hormonal shifts that a pregnant woman has it can be a rather challenging for the husband, the future father. It is my goal to be able to cope better, you would think that I would be getting better at this being the fourth time around and all. Julie may just be a few weeks or a month along, but we have much to look forward to, and too get ready for the little one to come into our lives.