Tyler's Mission Call

This last week was full of excitement. We celebrated Neal's 17th birthday on Wednesday. The very next day Tyler received his mission call.  It came while he was at work so we called my Dad and Tyler's best friend Tyler so they could be here when he got home and share in the moment. Roy had to use the moment to pull a prank, of course.  I'm not going to talk about that here. You can go to Tyler's Face book for a full description and some video. I think most of the world found out about it from Face book.  I tried to call my sister with the news, but it had already reached her.

Tyler will be going to Kentucky.  He reports to the Mission Training Center on January 11th.  He was afraid that will all the delays getting his paperwork finished it would push back his report date.  It didn't.  We now have a little over two months to get him ready.  Physically ready that is.  He's been preparing spiritually and mentally his whole life.  Every night I see him reading his scriptures.  It doesn't matter if it is late because he's been out with friends.  I now am trying  to  follow his example and take the time to realign myself with things that matter before I go to sleep on a regular basis, not haphazardly, as I have done in the past. He talks to his friends and acquaintances about the Church.  It because of this his friend Savion was baptised. He is so excited about going that you can't be around him long without catching that excitement.

It will be many years before I can go serve a mission so I am finding ways to do my part now. I just checked Mormon.org.  My profile is up.  It is fun to see.  We were just talking about the website yesterday at church.  The TV ads make it look cool to be Mormon.  Tyler told me about talking to Mr. Richard about it.  He thinks it's great.  When he moved here from Nebraska he had never met a Mormon before. When he found out that there were five in his choir class he called his mom and told her he was afraid they would kill him.  Now he goes the High School's Seminary class to recruit Mormon kids to join his classes and he sent his children to me for daycare. He feels that we are misunderstood and the publicity will help change that.

Planning

Last week the kids had Monday off of school.  I would like to say it was for Columbus Day, but it wasn't.  It was a teacher work day for the end of the grading period. The kids were excited and so was I. I had worked ahead in my classes to leave the day as free as possible to spend time together.  I had planned a trip to the Doctor for Emma and 3 of the boys who needed shots, but that was all. All other plans were supposed to be for fun.  Then we woke up that morning.

Several years ago Blake got this great idea to try and jump off the stage at church and while in the air to twist his body and throw a basket ball up and make the perfect basket. The thought was intriguing and the trick would have been spectacular. Not every plan works the way we think it will.  This one didn't.  He fell and broke one of his front teeth. Unfortunately it was an adult tooth.  He has forever lost the privilege of biting into a whole apple. It was repaired and except for the warning not to bite with it, he was as good as new. Now 3 years later he woke up and the filling had fallen off the tooth. We were not sure how exactly that happened; it doesn't matter the tooth had to be fixed, that day.

Now my plans for the day were rewritten. Blake need to go to the dentist. I was blessed that the dentist had an opening at noon which gave me time to get the kids to the Doctor and back. It was a new dentist, of course, so I had a pile of paper work to fill out at the first visit to asses the damage.  We had to come back at 2:00 for the "real" visit. Blake looks wonderful, even better than before. If there is one lesson I have learned while raising this gang of children, it is the importance of being flexible.  I never know what is coming next.