Holy Cow!! Where do I begin??

Wow. Really, where do I begin? Here goes: Summer plans really changed since May. Adam quit working at Six Flags and is involved in a theater, doing productions for the company. He works for Woodlawn Theater (www.woodlawntheatre.com). He played Anthony in Sweeney Todd, which just ended its run. He will be Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast which will start after Thanksgiving. He really loves it, but it is not a paying position yet. The owners want him to start a Children's Theater after the first of the year. He will get paid to produce plays for kids, with kids in them, and teaching them technique, etc. He is very excited for that to begin. He is doing well. He got married on Oct. 4th to a wonderful girl named Amanda. We love her so much. They are going to have a baby in May and are so excited! That's probably our biggest news of the year. In other news, last time I wrote Emily had decided not to go to OU, but to go to BYU-Idaho. She did get in, and will begin school in January. We are enjoying the time we have with her before she leaves us! She's excited about the cold weather and school, but I think she's most excited to go snowboarding! We're thrilled for her.
Alex is doing well in school and did a great job in marching band this season. He has regional auditions for tuba next weekend. Band has dominated his life for the past few months and he's ready for the break from marching. He made region choir as a bass and is excited for that to begin.
Evan's doing well in school also. He had a great time in marching band this year and is loving being on the drumline. He plays the snare drum. He placed well in the auditions for regional choir also and will be having his first concert tonight. He sings tenor.
Tom has been through two jobs since getting out of the air force. The first one was at the base doing IT stuff. He just began a new job this past Monday, working with a company out of D.C. doing national immunization stuff. I'm sure he could describe it better than I! He'll be working from home at least until January, and hopefully a lot of the time after that. So far he loves it!
I had to quit the Distribution Center job in June because I couldn't really do the work anymore because of my knees. In July I had knee replacement surgery on my left knee; what an adventure that turned out to be. Recovery is much slower than I expected. I'm doing well though. As soon as all the pain and swelling is gone I'll be able to get around great; then they have to go in and do the other one. Fun, fun! I am really enjoying being home and don't know if I'll ever go back to working again.
Overall we are doing really well. We're all excited for our baby to come, and hopefully ready for the changes that will come into our lives. We send our love to all of you, and will post wedding pictures when we get them back from our photographer!

I'm not even going to call it "catching up", but you know it is!

Been a while, but here we go: Since the last time I wrote, Emily has been accepted to the University of Oklahoma, decided not to go there, and is trying to get in to BYU-Idaho. A lot of her friends are there and she is very excited about her decision. We don't really care where she goes; just as long as it is her decision and that she is happy with that decision.
Adam is gearing up for working full-time at Six Flags for the summer. We are glad he will have something productive to keep him busy. They've just been open on weekends for the past month or so, so he's excited for it to open up during the week. He still loves being there!
Alex is busy with choir and with end-of-the-year band. He sings with a quartet and they performed at a choir concert last week. When their song was over, they were invited to perform at an upcoming competition that they were not expecting. He's excited about it. He and Evan have their last band concert of the year tonight, and are looking forward to it being over. Even though it won't totally be over; they'll start summer band shortly after the last day of school.
Nothing really exciting going on; just having a good time day to day. Everyone is healthy and well, and we just keep going, and going like the Energizer bunny! We're all looking forward to summer and some great fun.

Catching Up, Yet Again!

It's been too long since I've updated, but I have been crazy-busy! I always thought that life would slow down once the kids could get themselves around, etc., but I'm just as busy now, if not more, than I was when they were little! Last night Alex and Evan had a band concert; I'll post some pictures when I can get them off the camera. Evan went to all-state last weekend and got perfect scores on his solo and with his ensemble, so he gets to go to another competition at the end of the month in Austin, so we're excited for him. Alex chose not to participate in the competition, so he's done til auditions for band come around again. They both are so good at their instruments. I wish you could hear them!
Emily did end up buying a car, but it wasn't the one she thought she'd get. She ended up buying a Mitsubishi Gallant, and she is in love with it! She got lucky with the car dealers having trouble moving cars...they knocked half the price off for her. Probably because she's so cute! The only thing she doesn't love is having to pick up Alex and Evan from seminary each morning. But that's the price if you want Dad helping you put gas in it!
Adam got hired at Six Flags, working in the Entertainment Services. He is doing a children's show of The Wiggles. He is so excited to be able to get paid (and free passes) for doing what he loves, singing and dancing. For those of you who have little ones at home and know way more about the Wiggles than I do, he is playing Captain Feathersword. He's really looking forward to it.
We have a new family member, Philip, who is living with us until he can get on his feet. We were friends and neighbors with his family in L.A. and he is living here now, working and will be going to college when he gets all set up. It is fun having him here. But, it is strange having five cars parked at our house all the time. Looks like a gypsy family lives here!
We're all doing really well. I have some testing coming up this month for some health issues, but everything should be okay. That's the only negative right now; we're all plugging happily (most of the time) along. Hope all is well with you and yours!!

Emily Rocks!

Well, Emily's color guard girls from the high school she works for took first place at their competition in Austin last weekend! They won by quite a ways, and she was so proud of them and their hard work (along with HER hard work with them!) She's listed on their web page as "staff" and that's fun for her too. She just got offered an assistant manager position at Domino's last night, and she's in the process of buying her first car, a red volkswagen bug. Things are going pretty good for her right now. She's floating on her own cloud. Rock on, Emily, rock on!

Just thought I'd let everyone know that we really are fine. I've had a bunch of questions wondering if we're okay and we are. It's been a little bit of a trial, but we're coming through it just fine. We appreciate everyone's concern and prayers.
We're just having a normal Sunday morning before church; we just can't get into the habit of going at 1:00 in the afternoon. That's nap time for me! Hopefully I can make it through without falling asleep on the couch in the foyer.
Alex has been asked to perform with the Crossmen this summer...they are a world-class drum and bugle corps that tours the country all summer performing in different places. It costs a few thousand dollars to join, so I don't know if it's feasible or not, but it's something he'd really like to do. Usually they audition, but he was asked to join so that's an honor all by itself.
Well, I'd better start getting ready for church so I'll check back in later. Have a great day!

Getting Better

Things are going a little better now with time to process what happened. The kids are getting through this better than I hoped. Anthony's funeral is tonight so we will be attending that. I'm looking forward to the chance to meet his mom. I wrote her a letter and tried to express the fact that she will see him again. This has been a growing experience for our family and helped us discuss gospel priciples with each other. The community has really come together and is banding together although everyone is mourning. The boys say school has been eerily quiet (interspersed with crying) all week. Hopefully we will all grow stronger together.
Adam auditioned for an entertainment role at Six Flags and got a callback yesterday. They're acting like he has it, so hopefully he does. He'll be singing and dancing in the pavillion where they have their restaurants for the guests, so it should be something he'll really enjoy. Of course, that commits him for the summer, so it looks like the mission papers aren't going in yet.
Emily is still working hard with her color guard girls at the high school. They have a competition this weekend in Austin so it'll be good to see if all this work is paying off!
The rest of us are plugging along; trying to work hard and stay busy. We feel really blessed to have the gospel in our lives and are thankful for Christ's sacrifice for us. We love you all!

We're So Sad

Last night about midnight Adam and Emily both got texts from friends at Domino's that said "Anthony's dead". We were so shocked to find out that there had been a terrible accident just down the road (we could hear the sirens for a long time) and that their friend Anthony and the friend he had been driving with had been going too fast and rolled their car over several times, throwing the driver from the car and crushing Anthony inside it. Anthony had a twin brother named Nick, and Adam left our house immediately to go check on Nick and stay with him until his parents got home from the hospital. We were up most of the night with all the kids, since Alex and Evan knew him from school, talking about what happened and what will happen with him now. Even Adam asked, "what is happening right now with Anthony in heaven?" and I told him that Jesus is holding him. Adam said "I sure hope so." It is still so new and shocking; I couldn't go to work today and we all just stayed home together and it was very comforting to be here with just us. Having a 16 and 17 year old die so senselessly and so violently is very upsetting to the mom of teenagers, and I am so glad we have our testimonies and our faith to lean on. Please keep our family and the boys' families in your prayers. Thank you.