Where's the time gone?

Here I thought I'd have tons of time to write and give updates once Jeffrey returned from Japan. Now all that time is spent foraging, cooking and cleaning up after him! :)

But seriously, it's great to have everyone back home and we hope it will last a bit longer. Scott and I are slowly learning how to be parents of young single adults. We're sleeping less, praying more, talking less and listening more. We've never had so many "hang out" events at our home! It's great!

Jeffrey has declared a major (for the present). He's in International Studies and Ainsley is in Psychology. They seem to fit a bit of school into their busy lives.

Elena now has a full set of braces on her teeth and is handling it like a pro. She has her violin recital this next week and is playing SO well! Dallin's working on his personal management merit badge with mom as counselor (which means I get to legally harp on him about keeping track of how he spends his time and money). He was recently called to serve as the Deacon's quorum president and is discovering the joy of meetings.

We had a wonderful visit from Bill and Myrna this Spring. They came at the perfect time! The dogwoods and azalea's were all in full bloom and the weather was beautiful. We learned some fun games and had a visit, long over-due.

We're trying to figure out how to continue to be more frugal with budget cuts, furloughs, and cuts in benefits hitting the university. Frankly, we're glad we have jobs! Elena and I started our garden from seeds in February and the peppers and tomatoes are doing pretty well while the chives and cilantro took a dive -much to Scott's delight! (He's had traumatic experiences with cilantro!) I've wanted to put a series of azalea's in our "natural area" out back, but knew we should use the money elsewhere, so put that desire on the back burner. When lo and behold a neighbor was redesigning their landscaping and had 4 big healthy plants to give away! Yea for sharing!

We're looking at some local summer trips for the months ahead. We hope to find something fun and new. Have a wonderful spring!