With All Our Love

Dear Tanner,

Today was a day for the record books. I'm writing you tonight, as Dad has to leave in the morning to go out of state for a presentation. And his computer goes with him. So your letter will have sat in your inbox a while before you open it Monday morning. I got up early for a Saturday morning, and did haircuts. Do you miss my haircuts now? You were always so patient with me as I learned your style. Cooper still asks for you to cut his hair. It is still not my favorite thing to do, but worth it when I think of how much I would have to pay every six weeks or so for seven of you to visit the barbershop. Then, with their freshly cut locks, we all went to the yearly cub scout pinewood derby race. Your brothers have been eagerly anticipating this day, some having invested more time and effort than others in the making of their car. As we mentioned last week, Cooper bore the mammoth burden this year. He finished up his contributions by getting Porter's car shaped and ready to paint for five hours on Monday. 

And the race results? Miller came home with a second place trophy for the Tiger den. He was very excited to carry some hardware. Sawyer's bunny raced more like his nemesis the turtle, and was quickly eliminated, but did come home with different hardware I'll mention later. Breyer, Cooper and Porter all raced against each other in the open division, with Cooper out in the lead with third place. This pack's tradition is for the leaders to race in a separate division, and I, not wanting to have to make another car, used your pink pig which you never got to race, with newly doctored wheels, and won first place, bringing home my own hardware. We counted our pinewood derby collection of cars, and counted an impressive 43! Your Dad has made a LOT of cars!

We left before the finish, and whisked Sawyer away to his all star game. He played Tuesday night, without any family present, and came home announcing he had 16 rebounds, 13 points, and 10 assists. He played again last night, and scored six points in one minute from rebounds! He was fun to watch! Then he sprained his ankle in the third quarter, and was in obvious discomfort the rest of the evening. Your friend Dr. Stan the Ortho Man was at the derby race today, examined your brother, put on an ankle lace-up boot, and said he could play if he wanted until he was in pain. So he did, mostly contributing defensively as he limped while running and not jumping, but he was a box-out banshee! That was the first tourney they won, and it was their last.

We were home for about twenty minutes and went with the sister missionaries to our neighbors up the street, who are still cautiously considering, really reading, and very enjoyable company. While there, Hunter called us to say your sister, in playing with all the pinewood derby cars, knocked off a wheel, and stepped on said wheel, impaling the bottom of her foot with the nail. How thankful we are for modern day tetanus shots! She survived, and declared herself "all better" when we arrived home.

Speaking of your sister, she celebrated her third birthday Monday of this week. What a party! I haven't posted too many pictures yet, but sent you a few. We spent that day making her "pink" cake, blowing up her "pink" balloons, making her "pink" punch...you get the idea. She just wanted a pink party. We invited our trusty neighbors, and all ate around the bedecked pink ponk table. I'll warm you up for dinners from home coming soon by saying that later in the week in passing Larry, he said, "If those boys ever throw you out of there, you just pack up your cook books and come over here." 

I'll also tell you that one of her favorite books is "Pinkalicious." It's a story of a girl who disobeys her parents, and eats too many pink cup cakes, and turns pink. The visit to the doctor determined she needed to eat lots of green food to undue the pink. Anyway, your sister ate frozen blueberries, and discovered her fingers had turned blue. She came running to the kitchen and said, "Mom! I'm turning blue!" I like it! I don't need to eat green!" Very funny ;-)

Tuesday Breyer and I went to the church to help feed the missionaries at their zone conference. As you remember from last week, I made too much coleslaw too early, and had to eat too much. Tuesday I had to make it all over again. But seeing all those elders and sisters made it all worth it. I love when they sing to us at the end of the meal. Their version of "Called to Serve" is personalized with the name of their mission in the second verse, as well as a line or two from the scripture "...the field is a white already to harvest; wherefore, thrust in your sickles, and reap with all your might, mind, and strength." Breyer helped by washing dishes, pushing the trash cans into place, and sampling the BBQ sandwich and chips. Later that night we had cub scouts at the Marshall Recreation Center, and the Webelos' earned their Aquanaut activity badge. Cooper and Miller came just for fun, and whirled around in the wave pool. Boys do love to swim! The rec center was very accommodating to our little group, and had closed off a lap lane for us, and gave us a lifeguard to help the boys with treading and floating, and swim strokes.

Wednesday I took Cooper, Sawyer and Breyer to the dentist. We all had clean bills of health - yeah! I cheered for joy in my chair when Dr. Neibert said I had to cavities. We also spoke of your appointment in July. Just in case you need extra work, we scheduled a second day, since your window in this area is so small. And, this was the day that Porter spent the day at Marshall University as he had been invited to their engineering day. He is seriously considering biomedical engineering as his field of study, and was in heaven collecting all their free give-aways.

I had my first visitor to seminary. He was homeschooled until his senior year, and met Hunter and Porter at Fairland, mostly due to quiz bowl. He had a disagreement over a grade, and chose to transfer to Chesapeake before Christmas. And who does he meet? Your roommate's sister. He asked her if he could come to seminary sometime, and he came this week. I told him it is not a coincidence that out of two schools of students, he is drawn to the only three LDS students. I also told him that our lesson for that day, Alma 32, was not chance as well. He participated in our readings and discussions. After we had a great discussion about faith and experimenting upon the word, I asked him if he would be our class experiment. Is it bad to be bold? It was fun for the students in the class. They were on their best behavior! We all hope he comes back.

One of my favorite parts in that chapter is when Alma is able to teach and reach one particular group of people, the humble in heart. "Alma...beheld with great joy; for he beheld that their afflictions had truly humbled them, and that they were in a preparation to hear the word." Another portion of that chapter made me think of you, in verse 23, "And now, he imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only men but women also. Now this is not all; little children do have words given unto them many times, which confound the wise and the learned." You've shared many examples of words being imparted to you, and your ability to confound the wise. Heavenly Father blesses his missionaries, and you literally and figuratively are an angel. And we love you. Go earn your wings!

Love, Mom and Dad