Start of School and Roadside Miracles

J.T. started junior high, and has been working hard on his basketball skills. He was initially disappointed that basketball class at the beginning of the school year seemed to involve a lot more sitting aro
und in the locker room than playing basketball. Fortunately, that has improved, and he's been spending plenty of time practicing on his own. He and Bruce have been walking to school together early enough to eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Whenever he can, he and Joy go to shoot baskets at the church in the early morning, and after school if he has time he prefers to spend an hour at JC Optimist Park near our home.

He has a goal to make a certain number of 3 pointers. Usually it's 30 a day, but sometimes it's 300 a week and sometimes it's a percentage. It always takes me a second to catch up when he comes home and announces he made 73 pointers instead of 70 ... ... ... 3-pointers. Right now the goal is 50% accuracy. He's just dreaming to make one of the two "real" basketball teams when they have tryouts in a couple weeks. 

Lavinia has been settling into her online classes and seminary. When she gets together with her best friend, they typically have Avatar marathons. (They've mastered all four elements, but not the art of stopping after one episode.)

[Pictured, Nia was the only girl to carry someone else around on her shoulders during a youth sports event.]

With three face to face classes, all on TR, I've been able to leave Mondays and Fridays more free to work on my food security research. I was elected to Tarleton's Faculty Advisory Council (explicitly NOT the Faculty Senate, which are illegal in Texas).

One of our greatest blessings has been watching Grandma's continued recovery. After her heart attacks and the long months in nursing facilities, even climbing stairs has been a major accomplishment. Over the last several weeks she progressed from three steps to six, then made it all the way up to her bedroom! And at the end of September, she made it to church again. I joke that church lasted an extra half hour that day as people came up to greet her, they were so excited to see her again. Hooray! 

One Wednesday we were the only patrons for baptisms at the Dallas temple, so we were able to do about fourteen names each. It was a lovely experience. Then we went to a Greek restaurant nearby. There's not a lot of Greek cuisine in Stephenville, so I translated all the recipes for the kids and was relieved and gratified that everyone enjoyed their meal. 

The version of the family we try to present

Truth in advertising

Two days later, Joy and Nia were in Fort Worth for appointments when Candy - our minivan - overheated. They did manage to get out of Fort Worth, but were just east of the stake boundaries, over an hour away. They waited, added water to the radiator, and tried again, but it soon became clear that our car was not going to cooperate. I called a repair shop in Aledo, arranged for a tow, (Joy: We appreciated that, Derrill!) and eventually got a fellow high councilor to give them a ride to the rental car. They arrived Just before closing and finally made it home about 8 that night. The problem turned out to be the water pump, a repair costing roughly $1,000. Ouch!

Nia: I had an anxiety attack every day for the last several days. I thought 'It's going to be a miracle if I don't have an anxiety attack over this' and I didn't! So that was a miracle. Plus it wasn't too hot. Seriously, without AC for who knows how long we will be stuck there and running the heater at full blast to try to keep the engine cooler, I was expecting worse. Plus the fact we had expected get home like 3 o'clock, this side quest took 5 hours longer than expected! But we made it, and that's what counts!

Joy: And the people at the car shop were so nice.

Nia: We got to watch Strawberry Shortcake episodes and their seats were so cozy! Armchairs with pockets in the side, and I found marshmallows in my pockets while we watched an episode about them toasting marshmallows. That made me happy! Oh, and we grabbed Chik-fil-A on the way home and I got a shake.

Joy: And they let us stay in their establishment after they locked up for the night so we could stay cooler until our ride showed up. I felt like they took care of us like we were family, and that was really sweet since they didn't know us from Adam. [DW - or Eve, respectively] Oh, and there was something even better. It has been crazy at the retnal car place that day - folks waited for hours - but we didn't have to wait very long. We got in and out in 20 minutes and they were thanking us for being so much nicer than the folks who had waited hours. I wasn't about to say it was because we didn't have any reason to complain, unlike that other fellow. And our friend from the stake was glad to hear about Hyrum's adventures.