April

We've had a very busy last few weeks. Felycia was home for Spring Break one week. Deric had Spring Break the next week. Two weeks later was the school district Spring Break. It sure would have been nice if at least two of them had lined up together. Poor Deric had one week off from school and a different week off from work. Conrad and I didn't get any breaks. Except that Conrad has built up so much vacation time that he has to use it or lose it before the end of June. As a result, he is off every Thursday until July 1. Now he has a 3 day work week and a 4 day weekend. Wouldn't it be nice? I work more days a week than he does. We are getting ready to move Felycia back home for the summer. She finishes finals next week and has to be out of her apartment Thursday afternoon. It will be a busy week. She still has two more weeks of work so she will have to go up to St. George for that. This her first time moving home for an extended period of time since she started college. This fall will be her student teaching. She finishes her degree in December. Deric got a promotion at work. He is now a site leader at a different school. That means a little bit more money, more hours, and some benefits. He decided to take the position just to get started with a retirement plan. We convinced him that it was worth it to start putting money away now while he is young. The sooner you start, the more you can end up with. To give Felycia her room back, I've had to move all my sewing stuff out. I've been going through and sorting fabric. I've discovered that I have a lot of scraps so I'm cutting squares and going to make a scrap quilt this summer. I've been going to the quilting class in our ward. I learned some paper piecing techniques. I love it. I think visiting with the other ladies is as much fun as learning new things. We've spent our fair share of time in doctor's offices in the last month and a half. Conrad was diagnosed with anemia and sent to a blood specialist. He has undergone iron infusions hoping to raise his iron level back to where it should be. He's also gone in for an EGD (scope down the throat) and a specialized CAT Scan to check for changes in his Crohn's Disease. Nothing unusual on the EGD. Nothing new on the CAT Scan. That's a lot of money wasted. It just verified what we already knew. More bloodwork this week to see if the iron count is better. We spent General Conference weekend up in St. George with Felycia. On Palm Sunday, the St. George Young Adult Wards put on a musical fireside at the St. George Tabernacle. What a great way to end conference weekend and start the week heading up to Easter!!! This is the second year we've gone. We really enjoyed it. Felycia performs in the choir and the Young Adults do a wonderful job. Summer is coming fast here in Las Vegas. The weather has been all over the place. It's hot, then cold, then rainy, then windy, then hot again... It goes on and on. One day it's 95 degrees and two days later it's only 65. You don't know whether to put on a sweater or shorts. I'm ready for summer to get here so my allergies will settle down and I love the heat. I heard a great quote. It was during the Master's Golf Tournament. Phil Mickelson had just made a really bad shot and the announcer said, "He's had lots of experience with that. Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." I love this quote. A man in my ward calls challenges "opportunities for growth and development." If I think of challenges in this way, it's easier to get through them.