With All My Love

Dear Elder Schenewark,

What a surprise to see in our Facebook account a picture of you with Tanner's Mission President's son. It's such a small world in the Church. She told us he was going to University. Did he find you? 

It's been a wonderful week. Your grandparents flew into town around noon on Wednesday. Rather than try to figure out a way to get them home to an empty house, I planned to use hotel points, and have them shuttled to a Marriott to rest. Turns out I had a certificate for a stay that expired the day after they arrived; the shuttle was free, and the location convenient. This was a great plan except for a few minor things that became major inconveniences. The directions on the hotel site were incorrect. There were no hotels at that exit. The service road had no exit points for four miles. The service road was under major construction. I was navigating the drive during rush hour traffic. It took me almost an hour to make a 15 minute drive, and I ended up at the wrong Marriott, three miles from my supposed destination.

I received a refusal to my request to have them shuttled to my location; I received new directions, which were the same as the ones I had, and found them on the other side of the highway two hours late. Adding in Dallas traffic to the commute home, and we were over two hours later than we should have been. Good thing dinner was ready. It’s always good to have a back-up plan, and if there is no back-up plan, at least be comfortable.

Thursday evening we went to Sawyer’s away basketball game. It was a nail biter. We could not have asked for better entertainment. Sawyer played the key role in the game, with their win by one basket. He scored 20 out of the 36 points, 12 of them in the 4th quarter. He shot his first successful 3 point jump shot; made all but one from the line, untied the game score several times and had the game winning shot with 4 seconds left.

Friday night’s entertainment was a Christmas show in Granbury. Granbury Live is the venue near the opera house that hosts musical acts, and has just opened under the outside ceiling of big white light bulbs. Dad took Breyer as his date, and your grandmother was escorted by Cooper. The best part of the evening was watching Breyer get ready for her date. She had on a dress and heels. Put together a purse. Asked if she could put on lipstick (no, just Chapstick). Rubbed lotion all over her face and neck, and then put on my perfume. Dad then felt obligated to at least change his shirt and borrow your cologne from Cooper. The dates were a smashing success, ending with our seasonal eggnog dessert.

Miller and I were at his first basketball practice. Your father was in Fort Worth at a work related conference, and Sawyer was at a regional band practice. Not so much fun.

Saturday morning Miller entertained your grandmother at this first basketball game. Not much you can do with a bunch of fourth grade boys, after one practice, except let them play. Miller scored the only 8 points of the 1st quarter, sat out the second by choice of the opposing team coach, and was the key player in pushing just enough ahead to pull off the win.

Your father took them to the airport after lunch, via Sawyer’s regional band concert. It was a whirlwind of a weekend. I think we wore each other out. In between scheduled activities we sat outside in the beautiful sunshine at 75 degrees, talked, laughed, sat outside some more. They visited their favorite city library used book store, bought me a new crock pot when we discovered mine cracked, and visited the high school to see Cooper’s aeronautic and engineering classrooms. Such a delightful visit!

We're still face timing daily with Nora. She's a sweetie that's chunking up  nicely. And she likes to eat. My kind of kid. We can hardly wait to see her. We spent last night putting together the crib, and dusting it off. Cooper was a big help, and Miss Breyer was the cleaner.

And on to things not so pleasant. Imagine a traffic accident, with injuries, where the primary unit on scene discovers a grenade in the car vs the dump truck, causing the highway to be shut down and the bomb squad contacted. Or having a pistol brandished and used to assault a female who opened her door at the wrong time, with the suspect female arriving and leaving in an Uber. Or a man who barricades himself in a house with six hostages. All three individuals made a decision, ultimately affecting more than themselves. How much better would they and those they affected been without their poor decisions?

President Uchtdorf said, "There may be many things about life that are beyond [our] control. But in the end, [we] have the power to choose both [our]destination and many of [our] experiences along the way. It is not so much [our]abilities but [our] choices that make the difference in life."

Continue to choose wisely. And here we are on the cusp of hearing from you. We hope you're week was as wonderful, in a different sort of way as ours was with your grandparents here.

Love,

Mom

P.S. Your letters arrived this week. I'll have to write more about them later, but thank you so much!