March 25, 2018

March 25, 2018

Dear Kami and Caden,

Well, everyone seems to be sleeping better this week.  I only had one notable dream, but it was so disturbing I don’t think I should write it down. In fact, I would like to forget it, but I’m afraid it might be one of those that is burned into my memory forever.  I’ll just say it involved a “little person” and a tantrum.

Most of the focus this week was on the dreaded annual Pinewood Derby.  Nolan and Abram both had to make cars this year, and they made identical body styles with varying paint jobs, but the results of the races turned out to be nearly identical too!  They both lost badly.  Abe won two races, but Nolan lost every race he was in.  It was a pretty rough night for the Gee boys.  The scout leaders went all out for this event, and it took FOR-EVER!  It was actually only an hour and 15 minutes, but when you’re getting kicked every five minutes 75 minutes feels like an eternity!  I felt bad for the boys, but I was proud of them.  They were both good sports and didn’t pout about the results.   I was feeling pretty bad for myself too, but I thought I did a decent job of hiding it.  Now if I could just not feel sorry for myself in situations like that, that would really be something!

I think I’ve mentioned a few times that I have been walking to work as often as I can.  For the last couple of weeks, it has been kind of sporadic, and I’ve been frustrated with that.  I was determined to do better this week, and ended up walking to work in the morning, walking home at noon and then driving to work in the afternoon so I could run errands or be where I needed to be on time.  Friday I was determined to walk, and was ready to head out the door, but the kids weren’t quite ready to leave.  I was making threats left and right trying to get them to hurry, including threatening Belle that if she missed the bus she was going to have to walk to school, which is probably about three miles.  I imaging you have already guessed that she missed the bus . . . and I didn’t make her walk to school.  Mom came down to the bus stop and picked us both up and took Belle to school and me to work.  That afternoon when it was time to leave work, it was raining buckets so I wimped out and called Mom for a ride.

Friday night Mom and I went over to La Grande for a family dinner with Mom’s siblings and Grandma and Grandpa Kerns.  This was to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa’s birthdays.  We had a great time talking and laughed a lot. We got home late and I was so looking forward to sleeping in, but I woke up a little after 5 and couldn’t go back to sleep. 

Saturday morning Nolan, Abe, and I went to help a woman in the ward move across town.  There was a good turnout and the boys worked like rented mules.  We finished in just under two hours.  The boys were starving, so I told them I would buy them a sausage and egg McMuffin at McDonalds.  Nolan was excited, but Abe was a little uncertain.  When he opened his sandwich, he took one look at the egg and decided he didn’t like it.  I talked him into trying it, but after one or two bites he removed the age and just ate the meat and biscuit.  I probably should have just ordered them pancakes and ice cream. 

When we got home I made a job list and told the kids that if they got all their work done by 2:00 then we would go play in the gym at the church.  They worked hard and got to go to the gym.  Aaron Ware came and set up his soccer goal on the end by the chapel overflow.  He had the accordion doors pulled up to the edges of the goal to limit the amount of chasing he had to do since he was goalie.   Pace and Oliver Ware quickly lost interest in the game and were running around behind the goal.  I kicked the ball from the other end of the gym hoping to score a goal, but the ball was high and went into the overflow.  Just as it passed the doors, Pace stepped out from behind the doors and got hit right on the head!  I ran over to him and he was laughing this weird maniacal laugh, but that only lasted about five seconds and then he was crying.  He wailed, “I think I broke my neck!”  His neck was fine, but he has a little goose egg on his forehead where the ball hit him.

Maddie and I finally got to go see The Black Panther last night.  It left us both going, “Meh.”

Sander is doing well.  And it sounds like Ila is pretty serious with some scroungy mountain man named Briton Hansen. When the subject came up, I said he wasn’t much to look at, and Katie assured me that the Elk hide poncho he was wearing as he held up a dead red fox on his facebook profile is not his typical attire.  He rents from Ivy and she thinks he is a great guy.  Hopefully it will all work out for them both.  It sounds like Ila really likes him.

I love you two.  Have a great day and week!

Love,

Dad