With All Our Love

Dear Tanner,

Interesting world news that made me pause: DNA tests have confirmed that human remains found buried beneath an English car parking lot are those of the country's King Richard III. British scientists announced Monday they are convinced "beyond reasonable doubt" that a skeleton found during an archaeological dig in Leicester, central England, last August is that of the former king, who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Mitochondrial DNA extracted from the bones was matched to a direct descendant of Richard III's sister.

Your grandmother went to a library in Norfolk, and was able to check out a special reserve book about the history of Norfolk, which was mentioned in papers found in one of her old trunks. She read all 200 pages, and found one thing that made all that reading worthwhile: "Rufus Porter Glass...a long time resident of Norfolk, deserves very high honor among the soldiers of the Civil War. He enlisted in Company F of the 19th Regiment of Maine, was in prison 21 months, and 11 different prisons, and STAYED IN ANDERSONVILLE TO LET OTHERS RETURN HOME WHO WERE IN WORSE PHYSICAL CONDITION THAN HIMSELF AND HAD FAMILIES WHO NEEDED THEM.

The things I learned were:

1. He was held in 11 different prisons
2. He had blue eyes, brown hair, and dark complexion..(maybe from working his family's farm)
3. MOST IMPORTANT...How kind he was in Andersonville to give up his release time to someone who had a wife and children to go home to........Reminds me of the Titanic

How blessed are we to come from such lineage...and Porter how blessed are you to be named for a person with such Christ like love and integrity...CHERISH YOUR NAME! So is that not a treasure?"

 (The morning after the storm - checking out the snow in Lunenburg!)

She and the rest of your family in Boston had a big snow storm this weekend, about 30ish inches fell Friday-Saturday. I've included a few pictures for you to enjoy...hopefully it will cool you off a bit!

(View from the front porch in Shrewsbury!)

Your grandmother's stress test results came back in last week, and the doctor confirmed she does indeed have a blockage. She goes in Tuesday for the procedure, just like her last one. Remember her in your prayers. You will be the first one in the family to be awake that day! She has had NO energy, has had to take multiple naps during the day, and even speaking on the phone at night is tiring.

Your cousin Derek arrived home from his mission Thursday. Unbelievable! What a great weekend to get home. He got to spend the whole weekend trapped with his family because of the blizzard. What a great way to catch up, spend time together, and keep extras away. Naomi was scheduled to fly in to Boston this weekend as well, and go through the temple, but her flight was cancelled, so she's rescheduled for the end of the month.

(Hello from just-out-of-the-tub Breyer!)

Monday I got a call from the school telling me Sawyer had thrown up EVERY where, and would I PLEASE come get him right NOW! The nurse was out, and I could tell the principal was not too thrilled to be substituting. Sawyer had told me his stomach hurt...oops! I sent him out the door, and since he didn't protest, didn't think too much of it. He always has aches and pains, just like his big brother ;-) First time someone came back home! He told me he was taking a spelling test, and had his privacy folders up on his desk, so it all just stayed contained on his desk. He said he stood up to tell the teacher he thought he was going to throw up, and as she was running over with the trash can, he used the desk instead. Since I had let Hunter take the van to school, I had to call Larry and ask him if he could bring Sawyer home. What a great neighbor! The rest of the day he had a fever, and slept off and on. That night Miller went to bed telling me his stomach was hurting. Oh joy.

Tuesday morning had Sawyer still not fever free, and Miller becoming best friends with the bathroom. His stomach virus was much more severe than Breyer's last week, or Sawyer's the day before. Dad and Hunter were also home, and although they never visited the bathroom, both were in distress, and had a fever. Because of the large contingency of help, albeit flat on their backs, I left everybody at home and went to the quiz bowl meet at the high school to watch Porter. And Sis. Parrish came with me! It was fun to watch Porter play, who stepped up to fill Hunter's spot as team captain (has to be the first time for a freshmen!), and pulled the win away with the second to last question. There's only one more regular meet left. At cub scouts the saws were brought in and the boys could have help cutting their derby cars. Dad sent Cooper with two for a few cuts, he'll use the dremel for the rest of the cars and to finish. I actually had a Relay for Life meeting to go to, so this worked out well. I'm glad there wasn't a conflict. This meeting I could report that I had visited the fire department, who agreed to do a boot drive for us, and they also agreed to have a team! I also booked the Sweet Adelaides to sing for the opening ceremony in May.

(Picture from the newspaper article last week on Relay Kick-off)

Miller finally stopped giving away his insides at 10 o'clock p.m. Fifteen hours is too long!

Wednesday morning Sawyer and Dad were back to work and school, but Hunter stayed home. It was a low key day for sure. Miller never got out of the recliner, except for me to carry him up to bed. And he nursed a bottle of water the whole day, nothing else. He was so miserable! Dad went to scouts, and had them learn about wilderness survival, the new theme for the new month. At the end they were in the parking lot building different types of fires out of popsicle sticks, and then lighting them. The most interesting tidbit I heard was using the end of a soda can, polished mirror-like with a chocolate bar, kind of like a homemade mirror, to light fires. We'll see if we have luck with that one on a nice sunny day.

Thursday morning Sawyer stayed home with school, as well as Hunter. Miller became best friends with the bathroom again, and I knew I had to get him rehydrated. When I found out the doctor's office had no equipment for i.v.'s I brought him to the emergency room at the hospital. They were so kind and compassionate, and very concerned for Miller. The medicine they prescribed for him, anti nausea, actually helped him feel like he could drink without vomiting. That's what he had to do to leave, or he would have been admitted. Today is the first day he's been semi-interested in food. He's so emaciated it's pathetic. Watching him go through this virus has made me feel much compassion on those who came before us with no medical knowledge or medicine to save lives. Dad and I went to Porter's last? freshmen game at the high school. He had a great game, lots of rebounds and put-backs. His legs are SO long! And, no facial hair! That's different than you or Hunter at this age. It also tells me he's still growing!

Friday morning Sawyer was back at school, and just Hunter remained in the infirmary with Miller. What a long week! Although Tuesday I almost pulled out my hair, running up and down the steps, visiting room to room, in between the normal demands of a very well and active Breyer, throwing full-time nursing responsibilities in my schedule made me very tired. I didn't have much time Thursday to prepare a seminary lesson, and it was about time anyway to play trivia, so we did. Each student was given a very large game piece, think colored Roman column, that started in front of them, and had to move clockwise all around the table. The first one to have their piece make the complete circuit (ten spaces) won the game. There were hard questions for three points, old material / easier questions for two, and an option to have help from a teammate to split two points. If your teammate answered wrong, their piece went back one. Hunter thought he was being sneaky, and answering wrong on purpose to he could make the circuit counter clockwise, but we let him know he missed the clockwise rule.

Saturday the older boys went to a church activity while the rest of us were to drive to Sawyer's basketball game in Lawrence, KY. Although when we got there, the parking lot was empty. And since my cell phone was toiletized last week, I couldn't call anyone. They were in Lewis, KY. Probably my mistake, but since Sawyer missed practice all this week, we weren't very well informed. Most communication is via cell phone and mine was not operational. Sawyer didn't mind. He had a nice nap, Breyer had a nice nap, and the day continued when we came back home.

Today Miller, Breyer and I stayed home from church. She's thrown up on my bed the last two nights at 2 a.m. Why spread this kind of love? Your CTM companion reminded me of what happened to us this week when he wrote, " I am starting to count in Preach My Gospel the number of times I have gotten diarrhea and that I have puked!! (Sorry, you probably didn't want to hear about this part of the work.)"

He also wrote, "This week will be interesting because it is CARNAVAL." We'd love to hear if anything exciting or unusual happened in your area this week. _____

Today Sawyer drew a Jeopardy style board, with money amounts, and read questions from some Trivial Pursuit. He went all over the house recruiting players for his game, and ended up with Dad and Porter. He was fun to listen to. Dad started calling him "Little Alex." "Little Alex, I'll take "H" for 400." It was a close game, and Dad pulled ahead in the final question. Good times!

We also made Valentine bags, with a little decoration, and spent some time writing nice things about family members. We can add to them until Thursday, and then we'll have a little Valentines Day party. You have a bag, and will receive yours in the mail. It might be a new tradition!

You're handwritten letters mean a lot to your father. It makes his whole week when that little piece of paper is flown in from Brazil. Packages? _____

My thought to you this week comes from General Conference. It was a good summation of what Paul was trying to teach the saints in Corinth. "We can either self-justify our actions, like Cain, or look to submit to the will of God. The question before us is not whether we are doing things which need correcting, because we always are. Rather, the question is, will we “shrink” or “finish” the call upon our soul to do the will of the Father? The Lord loves our righteousness but asks of us continued repentance and submission. This is the exchange the Savior is asking of us: we are to give up all our sins, big or small, for the Father’s reward of eternal life. We are to forget self-justifying stories, excuses, rationalizations, defense mechanisms, procrastinations, appearances, personal pride, judgmental thoughts, and doing things our way. We are to separate ourselves from all worldliness and take upon us the image of God in our countenances. This charge is more than just not doing bad things. With an engaged enemy we must also act and not sit in “thoughtless stupor.” Taking upon the countenance of God means serving each other. There are sins of commission and sins of omission, and we are to rise above both." Elder Robert C. Gay, October 2012

We love you. We love getting your letters Monday mornings. They're the highlight of our week. We loved your sunset pictures...absolutely glowing! It's your new Facebook header picture...Appreciate your taking the time to do that for us. Your cockroach story was worth 1000 words. Dad was wishing you had captured that on the camera! Do you need the sting relief stuff? _____ You're worth everything to us...

Love, Mom and Dad