IAT = I am thankful
Let's see where this goes. Every year is so busy. What's that song? I'm so
dizzy my head is spinnin'. Haha. That sums up our year. I am sure most
of you can relate. If you have kids and jobs and life events, you're
busy too.
The biggest news in our family is that we
have grown by one. You can see in the above picture, that we gained a
new daughter. Elizabeth Richins of Animas, NM, married our oldest son (An)Drew on March 16th of this year. The next biggest news happened the
very next week. We are very happy with Elizabeth as a part of our
family. She's the only one strong enough to put up with Andrew's antics and she is a
wonderful, happy balance.
If you look at the picture above closely, you will see that it was taken at the reception a week later. Joseph is not dressed like his brothers because he left midweek in between the wedding and the reception to the Missionary Training
Center to be a missionary for our church. It's cardboard Joseph in the
picture. He was surprisingly called to serve in the very same mission as
his older brother Andrew. So, he has been in Ogden, Utah since March of
this year. Actually he ended up spending 3 months at the MTC and call
center because he broke his foot the second week there. He really
enjoyed being an online missionary while he healed up. Joseph's MTC claim to fame was being in the MTC with David Archuletta. He ate lunch with Elder Archuletta often, but never took a picture with him because he felt Elder A deserved to be respected and treated like a normal missionary. So he ended up in
Ogden in late June the day Andrew's mission president left and a new
one came in. Joseph is loving using his musical talent singing at firesides and missionary trainings and conferences.
our Mother's Day chat, ain't he cute?
We decided to stay close to home for vacation this year and spent a few
days at a resort in North Phoenix and enjoyed swimming and local sites.
We want to see more of Arizona since we live here and all. :-)
Early this year, I took a serious look at our budget and discovered a HUGE
gaping hole in our gas budget. We were spending a house payment on gas
for Bret to commute 45 minutes each day to his work. And often 2 or 3
days a week I was also commuting to the same area. Since we have no
control over the price of gas, it was with great reluctance that we
agreed it was necessary to repair the hole and move our family. So, in
the Fall of this year, we enrolled our children in the new schools, put
our house on the market and crossed our fingers. We commuted, all of us
for 3 months. It was a very long, exhausting three months. At the same
time, I also changed real estate companies, and went back to Long
Realty. In mid November we found renters that are hoping to buy within
the year and we moved to Thatcher, Az.
We moved the day after Thanksgiving and its been chaotic every since. Now
instead of all of us commuting here for work every day, Bret commutes on
Sundays to our church in Duncan as he is still the bishop. He is
finishing out the year so that he can wrap up the details of some of his
responsibilities. We will finally attend church together however
temporarily that might be, and actually sit on a bench together
beginning 2013 for the first time in many, many years.We calculated that
in almost 25 years of marriage, we've traveled in the same car to
church only about 3 of those years, because of his various leadership
positions that required his attending meetings before church. His duties as bishop will be over on Jan 6 and perhaps he will stop graying so fast.
But the chaos is winding down, and we can still claim tremendous blessings in our lives.
Drew, Chris, and Jefferson all spent the summer in Des Moines, Iowa selling
DISH tv. Andrew earned a trip to Hawaii which he and his bride are
enjoying as I write this. The boys are going to repeat the experience,
this time with pest control in Denver, Colorado. When Jefferson returns
from that, he will head out on a mission, the location we don't yet
know. The age of missionary service for boys has been lowered to 18.
Andrew has been attending ASU, through a program at our local Jr College. He
will be very close by (2 blocks) studying business for the next 2 years.
Chris has been attending the local Jr College and playing basketball. (He is also very close by, next room over, same house, haha) He is serious with a beautiful young lady and we may have news on that next year. Jefferson is enjoying his senior year at Safford High School and participating in their show choir. He is thinking about trying track since he is not allowed to play the sports he wants to because of his transfer. He finished his Eagle Scout paperwork hours before the
deadline. Emily and the other children are in Thatcher Schools. They are
all happy with their new situations. And we are grateful for that.
Emily played volleyball and is now playing basketball. Noah is playing
trumpet in the band. Olivia will finally be taking art lessons soon.
Bret
continues as an Institute teacher which is college level religious
classes. And as I said, being released as the bishop of our former ward.
We have been warmly welcomed into our new ward and will enjoy getting
to know new people and having new opportunities. Dawn continues studying
self improvement, nutrition, EFT, and has added essential oils to her
bag of tricks. She enjoys opportunities to help others heal from
physical and emotional stress and has new opportunities opening up to
her that she will be excited to share as well. She has found a Master's program in Functional Nutrition. She will also be taking a training to be a Wellness Educator for Metagenics and hopefully working with patients to help them heal on every level instead of just getting a prescriptions to cover symptoms. (Which means her real estate days will be coming to a close very soon).
Well,
that is nowhere near a nutshell, but that is our year in summary. We
have so much to be grateful for. A family, our faith, employment. We had
November elections disappointment, but we know WHO is in charge. And we know we
can be prepared for whatever comes by following the teachings of a
loving Heavenly Father. We are grateful for the loving grace of His Son and His influence in our family.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope that you and yours are well. Love, The Nortons
