Hoping
your holidays are Merry and Bright- 2019
It’s been a
great year and there is never a dull moment at the Lott house. I guess you could say we have “a lot” going
on. Ha ha. It’s funny both Adam and Jaime asked if I had
written my Christmas letter this year.
They are both a little nervous wondering what I will say about them, and
if I will embarrass them. I guess they
will just have to wait and see….
We bought ten
baby chickens this spring, as our dogs keep getting/eating them. We clip their wings, and then they just climb
the fence to get out (yes, chickens can climb); free range chickens at our
house means dog food. We recently
noticed, more like heard, we have two roosters.
There isn’t anything funnier than hearing a baby rooster practicing its
crow. It’s hilarious. And the joy of having two roosters is that
they compete for times to crow. We have
one that crows at midnight, and the other at 5am. I guess it’s about time we have rooster soup
so we can get some sleep around here. JK. Adam
and Ethan continue to grow like weeds- stink weeds that is. We are constantly trying to decide whose feet
stink the worst, and who needs yet another bath. I can actually smell them when they come home
from school. A favorite game of mine is to
try to guess which kid just walked in the door by his smell. It’s crazy how such cute creatures (that came
from me) can emit such horrible smells.
And yes, they do continue to grow like weeds as well. There needs to be a store where you can just
rent clothes for two weeks, and then return them for a bigger size. On
more than one occasion, they will come down ready for church, only for me to
notice their pants, which fit the previous week, are now floods. I don’t think Adam seems to mind the floods,
as it has become apparent that we are now back in the 80’s and the “cool” kids
are rolling up the bottom of their jeans.
Ugh, it wasn’t a pretty sight back then, and it still isn’t. I also can’t seem to convince Adam that he
shouldn’t wear white socks with his black pants to church. He keeps claiming he doesn’t have any dark
socks; I quickly remind him that they are the ones with holes in them that he
keeps wearing outside in the yard without shoes. Silly boys.
They are constantly wanting to measure themselves against each other and
me. Sadly, Adam did pass me up in height
this year, barely. If I take a deep
breath and stand up really straight, we are still about the same height. Apparently, this is cheating on my part. I am really thinking about taking on the
beehive hairstyle from the 60’s, so I can be taller than him for a few more years. Regardless of who is taller, I tell him I am
in charge of his life, so he’d better watch out. The boys love to watch general
conference. To be honest, this is
because they have a contest to see who can count the most men in the Tabernacle
Choir who have mustaches. It obviously
brings the Spirit into our home with them arguing about whether a woman with a
mustache counts for two men. Adam and
Ethan love to go fishing. It’s nice we
don’t live far away from the water. I
can just drop them off for hours at a time, so I can have a nap. The only downside to their fishing is yet
another smell. I am not sure what smells
worse- the fish or them after fishing. “Did
you rub a fish all over yourself before I come to get you?” I am also finding hooks everywhere and I even found
a worm in the dryer. Gross, but at least
it was clean.
Ethan is in the
5th grade this year. I can’t believe
where the time has gone. I am glad he
still likes me, and isn’t embarrassed when I visit him at school. Actually, it’s the opposite; he runs to give
me a hug. I have to make sure my feet
are planted on the ground or he will knock me over. He still enjoys taking piano. It’s great he forgives me when I forget to
pick him up and he has to walk a mile home in the rain. He has enjoyed playing soccer and baseball
this year. During one game he walked up
to the pitcher’s mound, and begun warming up is arm. Mike and I looked at each other confused. What was going on? We proceeded to ask him what he was doing on
the mound and he said he was going to pitch.
Could he even pitch? Adam tenderly
(not really), stated to us that he hoped Ethan wouldn’t kill the batter. To be honest, that is what I was thinking as
well, but just hadn’t said it. Amazingly
enough, Ethan can pitch and did great.
Funny thing, it ended up being kind of a slap on the face to Adam, as now
Ethan is better at something than he is.
We had the privilege to purchase a new washing machine recently. Many times, I have caught Ethan just standing
and watching it, because it has a glass top lid. He is in a trance as it spins around and
shoots water on the clothes. He thinks
it’s amazing. Too bad he can’t have
those same feelings for folding his laundry and putting it away. And the total highlight of my day is when
Ethan asks random questions like, “How many gallons of water are in Ogden Bay?” How the heck should I know!! I have
started to respond by just saying, “Five.”
This quiets him for about thirty seconds, until he thinks of another
random bizarre question.
Adam is in the
8th grade. He is officially a
teenager, and ends up grounded from his phone more than not. Ha ha.
It comes in handy that he is getting stronger, so he can do all the
things around the house that I don’t want to do. I guess he is going through the “baby rooster
phase”, as his voice is deepening. Apparently,
he was reading something in front of his class the other day, and his voice kept
cracking. He laughed it off with the
class. Darn, why couldn’t I have been
there? That’s my greatest desire to see my
kids embarrassed, as payback, for all the times they embarrass me. JK.
Last week Adam and his friends were supposed to be doing homework at our
house. It wasn’t until the next day that
Adam informed me that his friend had broken his wrist while at our house. I was told they were boxing, and one friend
hit the other in the face. That friend
retaliated, and pushed the other friend into the wall. He caught himself on the wall, and hurt his
wrist, breaking it. There goes Adam’s
Christmas, as we are now having to pay for the medical bills. JK.
The mom was very understanding.
She remarked that “boys will be boys”.
More logical would have been to say, “boys will be dumb”. I was once 13 and girls never find it fun to punch
each other in the face, or anywhere else for that matter. (Adam has welts all over his arms due to the
gloves hitting him.) Adam enjoyed
running track in the spring. Fun thing
for me was that I would randomly drop him off at places around our town,
telling him to run home, as it was good practice. Ha ha.
It’s extremely fun being a parent… sometimes.
Jaime graduated
from high school in May. She actually
barely did this, as she has an online class that she only completed the week before
school was out. It was a fitness for
life class that she had started like four times. Really, it’s no surprise she didn’t like the
class, as the only time she has ever exercised is if she has to run because
someone, or something, is chasing her. Luckily,
she finally completed it, after we threatened to take her driving privileges. It’s ironic, she doesn’t like to exercise and
the only reason she completed the class was so that she could drive the car,
and thus not have to walk places, which is exercise. Jaime enjoyed a summer of sleeping in and
staying up super late. She also worked
at a pizza buffet restaurant. We enjoyed
going to see her at work, and bugging her by taking lots of pictures of
her. She had all summer to clean her
room before moving out in the fall (I made her do this or told her she would
“hire” me to do it for her). So of
course, we spent the day before she left to finally get it done. I still haven’t received a check for my help,
ha ha. We found many treasures while
cleaning, as this was the first time it’s actually been clean in almost ten
years. She found many things she had
borrowed from others- sorry everyone.
The best find was a bag of lint that she had been collecting in case she
needed to start a fire at some point. I
am not joking. What kind of crazy person
collects lint?? (Apparently my daughter!!) Habits like this will definitely keep her
single, as well as her obsession with cats.
The highlight of my week is when I open the door to her room to admire its
cleanness. She claims a clean room was
strange, as she had never seen it clean while she was living here. I told her that she was the only thing that
was strange, for thinking having a clean room was strange. She moved to Rexburg, Idaho in September. We miss her (not her messes), and are
thrilled she is loving it up there. She
still stays up late and sleeps in late.
She does keep her room clean, only for the fact that it is super tiny
and if it’s messy she can’t move around in it.
The apartment also has weekly room checks and I assume that is the main
reason it stays clean.
We love you
Ryan. You would have turned 21,
officially becoming an adult. I wonder
what you would be up to. A day still
doesn’t go by that we don’t think about you and miss you. We are so thankful for all our memories, and
the promise of forever families.
Alex and Kelsie
have been married for about 1 ½ years.
They live up in Logan. It is fun
to see them and spend time with them. Alex
went duck hunting this fall. Then he and
the boys enjoyed gutting them on our driveway- fun times. Later we cooked the meat, and dared each
other to eat some. Kelsie and I started
out good, but within a few seconds a fowl taste (I couldn’t resist) kicked in
and we spit it out. The boys didn’t like
it either. I guess six innocent ducks
died for nothing. I jokingly tell Alex that
someday in heaven all the animals he has killed will be able to talk and ask,
“Why did you kill me?” Thankfully my
prayers continue to outweigh his, as he prays to shoot an elk and I pray for
the elk’s safety. Just kidding, I am
glad he is having fun and hasn’t shot his eye out, frozen to death, or been
eaten by a bear, as he hunts and hikes in the cold, dark weather. We adore Kelsie, and are so thankful for her
in our family.
Once again, for
most of the year I have spent most of my time in front of the computer, in my
jammies, doing homework. I am proud to
say I survived my statistics class last winter.
I don’t know who is happier that I am done, Mike or me. I cried and complained a lot. I passed, and am thrilled I will never have
to use the stuff I learned ever again.
Whenever I hear the term statistics, I just plug my ears and hum a song
in my head. Mike thinks it’s fun to take
pictures of statistical graphs and send them to me. Rude!!
I am looking forward to my “grade money” for getting straight A’s. Sadly, I am still waiting to collect from the
previous semesters as well. He quickly
reminds me that I shouldn’t be going to the school for the grade money, but for
the knowledge. I still have around 1 ½
years left till graduation and I can’t wait. I am excited that I should still be able to
accept my diploma without the aid of a walker or a cane. It was a busy summer for me. From July to September I was gone 31 out of
40 days. I was able to go on a few
trips, on pioneer trek, and camping. My
new favorite scripture in the Bible is, 1 Timothy 4:8. It says, “For bodily exercise profiteth
little…” Works for me. This one goes great with another of my
favorites in Isaiah 55:2 that says, “…and let your soul delight itself in
fatness.” Where were these when I
started my recent diet for the tenth time this month?? Luckily someone sent me this great quote
saying, “Not to brag but I finished my 7-day diet in 2 hours and 43
minutes.” I can totally relate to
this. And, not to brag, but I have finished
at least 2 or 3 diets this year in the same amount of time, or less, and so I win!!
Mike surprised
us with a trip to Disneyland in September.
What was even more surprising was the fact that he agreed to wear a
shirt with a big picture of Han Solo’s face on it. (I am shocked because he stopped dressing up
for Halloween when he was the ripe old age of 5.) I surprised him, as I don’t usually wear
t-shirts, by wearing one with a picture of Princess Leia on it. So, for a day we wore these shirts around
Disneyland. Mine said, “I love you.” His said, “I know,” which are lines from the
movie. What was even more surprising, or
annoying, was that for a little while afterwards, that is only way he responded
to any question that I asked him. “Mike, can you pass me the salt, I
know.” “Mike, can you please take the
garbage out, I know.” “I hope you have a good day at work, I know.” Needless to say, he didn’t know how much
I have regretted the purchase of those shirts!!
JK I finally have figured out why
nothing seems to get done on my honey do-list.
All this time Mike had thought it said honey don’t do-list. Well, that answers a lot of questions. Ha ha.
Now he has no excuses. Mike also
enjoyed me coming on a work trip with him to Canada. He especially loved the fact that I slept in,
stayed in my jammies all day watching tv, had a much-needed nap, and finally
got dressed five minutes before he got off work so we could go out to dinner. I had several hard days of vegging.
Silliness
aside, we have had lotts to be thankful for this year. We have been so blessed. Don’t forget to hold tight those you love
dearly. Make sure to find ways to bring
joy to others. And, count your
blessings, even when going through hard times.
I love my Savior and am so thankful for His influence in our lives.
Love,
The Lott family (or as Mike would say, “I
know.”)
