Sunday night we had our whole family there for dinner! Ah! So great!! Mariah was here for the weekend. As you may recall, she came for Calianne´s temple endowment and Bethany´s play. She doesn´t get up here often because of track and work. Not to mention that we seem to constantly be having winter storms! As it was, she had to make it back in pretty bad weather which she did safely. Yay! It was so great to have her here and to have our family together! They are such a blessing and fill me with so much joy.

Bethany had her last day of her play on Monday! She had such fun doing it and said she´ll miss it so much! She told me that the reason she thinks being in the ensemble is so much fun and better than choir is because you can be with a group of people and break into song and dance and everyone knows it and joins in. That does sound super fun! But it has ended and the very next day she started track. So now she will run with friends everyday afterschool which may not be as fun as singing and dancing but still gives her chances to be with friends! What a great girl she is!

Also in big news, I had my last day of work this week! They´ve made changes to the schedule at work and won´t be using a 6-9am shift anymore. They were willing to switch me to another shift because they like me (which is nice!) but none of the hours really work for me. Since I was only going to work until summer anyway so we could go on family trips, it seemed like a good time to bow out. I confess, I felt a bit like Mary Poppins--doing what good I could do and then sailing away on the East wind (or was it the West?). Anyway, it was a fun job at times and I learned a lot and I am grateful for my six months there. But now, I am grateful to have time for more of my own projects and also to be able to sleep in! Yay!

Speaking of sleeping in, Ben had a couple more days to sleep in this week. He and Beth had a day off school on Wednesday (while the juniors took the ACT). Ben had started not feeling well Tuesday evening and was only at about 50% energy while hanging out with the neighborhood friends on Wednesday. Thursday he stayed home. His school went on a field trip to the rec center and that was a good thing to miss. He still sounds a little stuffed up, but seems to be doing better!

Savannah worked everyday again this week and for two days of the week helped with Funfinity´s vendor booth at the educator´s conference in Provo. She likes the novelty of those days but they are alot of work and wear her out! Last night she got us all to watch the new Batman movie with her. It was fun to do something with her!

Kevin helped McKay move drywall into his shop on Monday night and a table on Tuesday. On Wednesday he presented a new class on change to over 200 online viewers. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday he did an intensive for out-of-town couples. He has been very busy and tired-out! He hasn't been able to write as much as he wanted to and that has been frustrating for him. He is still on track for being done by his goal date, though, and had a great day of writing yesterday! He also got to play tennis in the morning with his friends and he really enjoys that.

In other news, Calianne has a new boyfriend. Cheyenne broke up with hers and is working hard toward her anatomy midterm. Megan and Ammon bought a second car so Megan is no longer stuck at the house all day! Sarah and McKay no longer have a front room filled with boxes, but now have a couch, a bed, and a dining table. Mariah had a scare with her health this week, but now we think it might have been something she ate and are so glad she is feeling better!