St. John Family

Sunday October 18, 2015
Dear Cass...

Hi! How was your week? I'm hoping by some miracle little Finnlay got to be baptized this week.

Sounds like your week last week was good and eventful as usual. Your days are very full

I loved your description of the zone meeting and you being shaky because of having to get a flu shot! I'm sorry.

AND I'm most glad that you FINALLY got your birthday package!!! That took forever. I'm glad the clothes worked. I couldn't decide if that was even a good idea, sending you clothes!

Well as for us around here...we did all our regular gymnastics, guitar (has dad told you he's teaching Mary and Hadlie once a week?) and then we had our Fall break. We didn't have anything big planned and Brittney needed somewhere for Penny to go for a couple of days so we agreed to take her. So Thursday for Fall break the girls and I went out to the red barn to get apple cider donuts. We were thinking about going on the hayride to the activities and pumpkin patch, but we already bought pumpkins and that hayride is $8 per person now - so they decided it wasn't worth it. So they got donuts and ice cream and we looked around the shop and left. We finished up a little birthday shopping for Dad and then ate lunch at Malawi's pizza which is right by our 5 Guys. Then Hadlie and I helped with the horses and then I did a little photo shoot with River (her idea) down on the river trail.

Friday was Dad's birthday - he took the day off. We went to the gym then we went to lunch around lunch time. That was our date. During that time Colten and Logan took the girls on a hike. Hadlie for some reason had a really hard time breathing (asthma-ish) and then she fell and her legs got all scraped up. After lunch/hike we had dad's party. He ordered all his own presents and the kids wrapped them in SpongeBob wrapping paper. He also decided he wanted a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake so we got that. I'm sure he'll tell you all about this but he's been experimenting with his insulin a little bit...his body must still be producing a little bit because he's hardly having to take any - even when he eats out or has things like ice cream cake. Weird.

After that Dad took Colt and Had to the BYU football game. Kari got tickets for a bunch of the family so they had quite a group there. It was a very exciting game and BYU ended up winning. Penny arrived at about 5:00 and River and I took care of her that night.

Yesterday Penny got up around 6:30. She and I spent a couple of quiet hours together. Our house has a lot of teenagers in it now. We helped at the horses, went to the Farmer's market, did a little grocery shopping for family dinner here tonight and then Grammy and Papa came over to see Penny. Other than that we watched a lot of sports (football and the Cubs game (they've made it to the semi-finals!) and it was a good day. Everybody took turns watching Penny so she had an enjoyable day here at home.

A few side notes for the week. In case Dad doesn't report - he had his first doctor's checkup after his diagnosis. His A1C number has come down from the high 13's to about 8. This is super fantastic that in a month he has done so great in controlling things! A normal number for that is under 7.

And a funny thing this week. We got our windows cleaned - they were really bad...but the guy that cleaned them! He took 4 hours to do just the outside! He just took forever and he had earbuds in and was singing/rapping to himself the whole time. And I could hear him. The whole time! It was comical.

Also - we took Hadlie in for a hearing test. She's really been saying "what" to us a lot and her jaw is still hurting so we took her to Adam's office. Her hearing is fine. She may have had a middle ear infection sometime recently that is still healing up. So, that was good news. But also in the hearing department both your grandma's ended up getting hearing aids this week! None of us really realized that Grammy was not hearing so well, but I guess Papa has noticed for a while. Grandma Bonnie has needed them for a while I think - but they both ended up getting them this week! Neither of them say it has made a huge difference - but I guess we'll see.

We'll have Penny today until about noon. She's such a sweet, happy, very chubby baby. She sleeps great and has warmed up to Brownie just a little bit. Enough to give her a little touch. Brittney came up with some friends for some sort of conference - I hope it's been good for her. I know she misses Penny and worries about her being away.

I get to play a duet in our ward today with Sister Post. Wish me luck. Then tonight we have dinner here to celebrate Dad and River's birthdays with my family. Can you believe River is turning 12 this week???!

Well - I hope your week was great and that you're not frozen yet. I love you very much!

Love - Mom