Gabe is going to... SPAIN!

So begins the story of Gabe's mission! 

After filling out the application online starting in early February, Gabe met with Bishop Johnson and President Rawson. He was eager to get everything submitted so he could get his mission call hopefully before Josh had to leave for his FBI Academy on March 26. After Gabe's final meeting with President Rawson on Sunday, February 18, everything got officially sent off (via online) to Salt Lake! 

A week went by, and on Monday, February 26, I started posting on social media for everyone to get their guesses in for where they thought Gabe was going to get called! We really thought his mission call was going to come the next day (on Tuesday, February 27) because lots of his friends were getting their calls at the nine day mark, but that day came and went, and alas, no mission call came to Gabe's phone messages! So then we figured we had to wait another week!

On Tuesday morning of the following week (March 5) at about 10:30am, Gabe got the text notification saying, "Your mission call is available to view!" He sent me a screenshot and we were so excited! It was really hard to think we were going to have to wait until later that night to open it! So Gabe decided to do something kind of crazy. He called Grandma Sue in Wisconsin and said, "I want you to take my login and password, log in, and read where I am going. Then, I simply want you to tell me if I'm going within the 48 continental United States, or outside the continental United States. Then I can wait to find out until tonight."

So my mom logged in from Wisconsin (as Gabe), read his mission call to herself, and then texted him, "Foreign." Then, I found out Gabe had done that, and of course, I had to call her and try to read her voice tone. She sounded so calm about it that I felt like I immediately ruled out him going to Africa in my mind. I said, "You sound so calm and comfortable," and she said, "I am!" And I said, "Well, maybe he's going to like, HAWAII?!" And she laughed and said, "Well... not THAT comfortable." LOL So then I was thinking maybe it was someplace like Canada for the rest of the day!  

When school ended and I left the junior high at 4:00, I went to Albertson's and got a cake (the lady wrote "Called to Serve" on it) and then I stopped at Crumbl to get a few cookies in case anyone actually guessed the place correctly! Then we had to wait until 6:30.

At 6:30, we gathered across the street at the clubhouse and got ready for the big moment! Lots of friends and family came, and we had the big map with pins all over it filled with guesses of where everyone thought he might be going. With everyone watching and me filming a Facebook Live, Gabe started to read his email off his phone. He was reading so fast that it was hard to even understand him! He said later that he just really wanted to get to the part where it told where he was going as quickly as possible! Finally, (after about 3 minutes) he got to the part where he read, "You are assigned to labor in the Spain Madrid South Mission" and everyone gasped and hollered! I think my first emotion was shock because I felt like my mom had been so calm that it was going to be someplace that was *barely* considered foreign. But I can't even imagine a better mission for Gabe. I think it will be amazing! I really wanted him to learn Spanish, but to go someplace that was somewhat safe, and I feel like this exactly fits that description!

He starts the home MTC on July 22, and reports to the Provo MTC on July 31. He flies out to Madrid on September 6. It's going to be an exciting summer, and I can't believe he is already at the start of this journey! We are feeling so blessed and happy!

It's 2024! Caleb's Broken Arm, Avery's First Temple trip, Sicknesses, Sweethearts Dance, Gabe's Mission Papers, and Grandma Sue's Health Scare

I have been meaning to update this for a while, and now I have about 7 weeks to write about! It seems like the last time I wrote, second trimester at school was just getting underway. Now here we are, only two weeks away from being done with it! I always feel like second trimester goes pretty fast. Christmas break kind of breaks it up. Anyway, it's been eventful the past couple of months!

Caleb's Broken Arm

As January started, it finally started to dump some snow! We really hadn't gotten much in November or December. It snowed a couple of times, but nothing compared to last year when we had HUGE snow banks piled up by Christmas from shoveling at the townhouse. Then all of a sudden, it started to snow a few big snowstorms in early January. Caleb was excited because he had bought a season pass for Grand Targhee and wanted to put it to good use to go snowboarding with friends. Unfortunately, one Thursday on his friend Benson's birthday (January 11), I gave Caleb permission to skip school and go enjoy the new snow with his friends. It was his 7th trip of the season out with his friends, Benson and Cole. I got a call from Benson's mom at about 3:30, and she told me Caleb hurt his arm. The snowstorm was really starting to hit and it was starting to get dark, so I told her not to stop anywhere and get it looked at, but to just hurry home and we would take him to a doctor in Rexburg. When Caleb got home, Josh took him to our friend Matt Eysser (just at his house) and Matt said it was probably a dislocated shoulder, but to come into his office the next morning (which was Friday) so we could take X-rays. To our surprise, it was actually a broken bone in his left arm, right below his shoulder. It was the "humerous" bone to be exact. I will show the X-ray picture! The good news was, they said the angle of the break was good and that he wouldn't need surgery. He got sent home with a special arm sling and got comfy playing video games in the recliner for the next month. Luckily, we had bought the insurance policy when Caleb bought his $500 season pass. This was something you could do to get refunded a partial amount if he would get injured. Because he had used it 7 times, the amount he was calculated to get back was about $210. This can be applied to his next year's season pass, so at least he gets some money back. It wasn't exactly the big season he had hoped for, but at least he went 7 times before he broke his arm! As I am typing this, it is February 18th and he isn't even wearing the sling anymore. He goes back in for a checkup in a few days, so hopefully they say it's just about healed. Track season starts soon! He's been still going to morning weightlifting before school because it's considered a class for football, but he hasn't really been doing much with that arm.

Avery's First Temple Trip

A couple of days after Caleb hurt his arm, Gabe, Josh, and I went with Avery and the youth in the ward to do baptisms at the temple. This was Avery's very first time going inside the temple! She was really excited. Gabe went along so he could be the one to baptize her. It was pretty special. Sadly, Caleb had to stay home with his freshly broken arm. When Avery got done being baptized and I walked with her into the locker room, she said, "I want to do that again!" Part of that might be that she just loves water and swimming and it was like being in a giant, warm bathtub. ;) I can't believe that our days of having primary kids are gone now. Avery is officially in young womens!

Winter Sicknesses

Tis the season for sickness! Even though this winter has actually been unusually mild, everyone still seemed to get sick in January! It was so bad at school. Kids were absent left and right, and there wasn't just one thing going around. First, Josh got sick. His was a horrible hacking cough, fever, chills, and body aches. Then Avery and Caleb got sick. Theirs wasn't so much a cough, but they both had fevers and body aches. Then Avery even came home from school early one day and threw up all evening long. Then Gabe and I were the last ones in our family to get sick. Mine was all in my sinuses. I couldn't breathe through my nose at all for about 48 hours, but then I got on an antibiotic and got better pretty quick. It took about three full weeks, but then I think the sickness had run its course (in all its many varieties) and it seems like our family has been healthy now for the past few weeks! Hopefully, now spring is around the corner and we can put all the winter sickness behind us!

Sweethearts Dance

In January, Gabe and Caleb both got asked (with posters left on our doorstep) to the Sweethearts Dance! The dance was on February 9th. Gabe got asked by a girl named Landyn Twitchell and his group was small this time with just him and Landyn and his friends Evelyn and Cail. He went with Evelyn to the last dance in December and for a minute there, I think Gabe and Evelyn were more than friends, but now it's February and things seem to have cooled. I don't really know what happened, but I guess it's for the best considering Gabe is going on a mission in a few months! Anyways, Caleb got asked by Camri Call, who is a girl that lives in Summerfield and used to live across from us for about ten years! They practically grew up together. I even posted a picture of them in kindergarten side by side with their dance pictures on Instagram! It was very cute! haha I was glad that she asked him and he said that he had a lot of fun. His group was BIG. I think there were about 7 couples. Camri had to go to a basketball game during the morning, so they didn't really do a day date, but they started the evening at dinner time and ate at one of the girl's houses. Then they went to the dance and had a lot of fun. Gabe had a day date of snowmobiling and then they went to dinner somewhere and then to the dance. The girls were in charge of planning this one, so it was nice that my boys didn't have to do anything except show up! ;)

Gabe's Mission Papers

Gabe started filling out his mission papers earlier this month (February). Then he had to get a dentist's appointment and a doctor's physical. He also had to get a couple of shots to be fully up to date! Then, he met with the Bishop and tonight with the Stake President. Now, all we have to do is wait for his call! President Rawson said he would set a reminder in his phone to submit all of Gabe's stuff online tonight. Everyone says it usually takes about two weeks and it always seems like the calls arrive in the email on Tuesdays, so if I was a betting woman, I would guess it will arrive on Tuesday, March 5th. I guess it COULD arrive on Tuesday, February 27th, but that would be only 9 days away. Gabe is REALLY hoping to go someplace foreign. I said, "Are you sure you'd rather go to Africa then someplace like Florida?" He said, "Yes." I really hope he doesn't get called to Africa. That's kind of the running joke that he's been making for years. But I would really prefer he go someplace that's relatively safe. I said that Puerto Rico would be good because it's kind of foreign and you could learn to speak Spanish, but yet you can still get stuff at a Walmart or Walgreens. You don't really feel like you're completely someplace out in the middle of nowhere! I was asking Gabe if he wanted me to plan a little party for him to open his call, but he says he's just going to open it no matter where he is when he gets the text message. He said even if he is in school, he will go to the bathroom and open in it in the stall. I told him he still needs to have a party and just act surprised. We will see what happens with that! Here is the picture we submitted of him with his paperwork. I can't believe we are actually to the point in life where this is happening! 

Grandma Sue's Health Scare

This one isn't so fun to write about. A couple of weeks ago, my mom went in for a routine mammogram. She actually didn't even plan to get a mammogram, but while she was getting some other things checked, her doctor said, "You are overdue for a mammogram. Stop over there on your way out and get one done. It's been 3 years." So, she reluctantly made her way over to that part of the hospital and got it done. I guess they found a little something that made them slightly concerned, but they told her not to worry and they would just send it out for a few more tests. Then, she got a call a few days later and they told her it was breast cancer. She was shocked, and so was everyone else. Then, she had to go back in a few days later for LOTS more tests and she had to get surgery so they could take out a chunk of whatever it was and biopsy it. The goal was to see if the cancer had spread or if it was all still in her breast tissue. That surgery took place on Monday and they told her they would hopefully get some answers to her by Wednesday or Thursday. Well, Wednesday was Valentine's Day and no one called her with results. Thursday came, and still nothing. Finally, on Friday she called them and they said they were still "working on it." Finally on Friday at about 7:00, her doctor called her and said it was good news. The cancer had not spread and it was something that they could treat with radiation (not chemo) and it would be easy to get rid of. We were all sooo happy! My mom told me, my sister, my brother, and my grandma Dahlke the good news in a group text and we were all so relieved. 

Part-Time Next Year?

The last thing that I feel like I should maybe mention is something that I'm so excited about! I wish this would've come sooner, but honestly, this school year has been pretty good, so I guess I can't complain. Basically, what happened was, my principal at the junior high, Mr. Carlson, emailed me one day a couple of weeks ago and asked me to come stop into his office to chat about my "plans for next year." I just thought, "Oh great, here we go again." I told Josh, "I'm just going to tell him I'm planning to stay so he leaves me alone, but then I will quietly keep looking around to see if there's anything else I want to do." So I went in to visit with him in his office and right as I sat down, he said, "So, do you still want to go part-time?" I was shocked. I have literally told him I would like to teach part-time about a thousand times in the past and he's always told me that wasn't ever going to be an option. So, I was very surprised. I was like, "Um, yes!" Then he told me about how they are trying to make some budget cuts and it would actually really help him if I would go to part-time next year. So we chatted for a little bit longer and we still have to work out the exact details of my schedule, but it sounds like it would be I the morning from about 8:00 to noon. I called and talked to the HR lady for the school district and she said if I can be a 0.5 then I still get to count the next year as my fifth year of teaching, which helps me because I am then considered "vested." If I can't get them to agree to that, then I guess I will be a 0.4, but that kind of stinks because then the next year wouldn't count for my 5 years. So, I'm going to try and push for that. We will see! Either way, I'm just really excited about the idea of only teaching two classes a day next year! I really want to be home more and be able to help out with things like Caleb's football dinners in the fall. Plus, I know this is weird, but Gabe will be calling home once a week and I don't want to be stuck at work and not able to talk with him! 

I feel like there are a lot of things coming up in the next few months with the school year ending, Josh going to Virginia for 10 weeks, and then Gabe leaving on his mission. I feel like I really need to make the most of these last few months with him at home, but it's all going to go so fast! 

Winter Formal, Avery's First Orchestra Concert, Christmas Break

Since the last post, we celebrated Thanksgiving, started the second trimester of the school year, had all the December festivities including the Winter formal for the boys and Avery's orchestra concert, and then we had Christmas! Gabe also got his wisdom teeth out at the start of Christmas break! Josh went to New Orleans for a work training for about 4 days. Now it is New Year's Eve tomorrow and we will be back to school before we know it! :( Here are some details!

Thanksgiving

I don't even have any pictures of Thanksgiving. We basically went to Janell's house and had lunch there with all of Josh's family. We played some car games and ate a lot of food, but we were back home by about 4:00. While we were over there, I had a turkey cooking in our oven at home, so when we got home we were able to have a second Thanksgiving meal. I felt like it was pretty convenient having it at Janell's house. I vote we do that every year. It's a lot better than everyone driving out to Brad and Diane's house. It's kind of funny that they built this new house with a big basement and everything, but we don't really go there for holiday get-togethers anymore. Honestly, Josh's family is just getting so big that I wonder how much longer we will even all get together with the whole extended family. All the girls that were the oldest grandkids are starting to get married and have kids of their own, so it's just going to keep getting bigger and bigger over the next few years. Eventually, it will have to get to the point where we say, "Okay... everyone is just doing their own family holidays," and grandma and grandpa can make the rounds to whichever house they want to go to. Anyways! So Thanksgiving was fine and the I did some online shopping. We did go to Idaho Falls on Black Friday but only for a couple hours from about 10am - 2pm. Caleb was on this Funk-o-pop kick this year. He wanted to go to a game shop in the mall and look at their sales. He ended up getting quite a few of those for Christmas too. They were all less than $10 a piece and some were even less, so it was a fun, cheap thing for him to get.

Second Trimester

We started the second trimester of school right after Thanksgiving break. I have to say, this was probably the saddest I've ever been to switch to a new group of students for second trimester. I really liked the majority of my first-trimester students. My fifth hour was a little crazy, but that was it. Now I have all new classes for second tri, with about 50 percent of the original students remaining, but they are all shuffled around among different class periods. It's just a weird adjustment. Some kids that were really quiet in their first tri classes are now super loud in their new classes. It all depends on which friends are in the same class as them. It's like, you never know what you're going to get when you start a new tri. I still daydream every day about not working next year. :) We will see if I can actually make that happen.

Winter Formal

Both of the boys actually asked girls to the winter formal! This was the first dance that they both went to. Gabe asked his "friend" Evelyn. (We really don't know what's going on there, but he insists that are just friends.) Caleb asked this girl named Brielle, who actually really is just his friend. I think she wants to be more than his friend, but he doesn't. Caleb ended up going in a group with Colter Summers and his date, Josie Riley. It was just the four of them. They had my friend Claire take their pictures at about 2:00, and then they made gingerbread houses at our house, went to Fat Cats, went to Da Pineapple Grill for dinner, and then went to the dance. Gabe's group was a lot bigger. I think there ended up being about 6 couples. They went ice skating in Idaho Falls, went to Fuji for dinner came back and split up while everyone got ready, and then had pictures in the clubhouse with Claire and went to the dance. I think they all had a really fun time. I was glad that Gabe went with Evelyn and all his best friends (except Amos, who didn't go) and they all seemed to have a good time. 

Avery's First Viola Concert

Avery just started playing the viola this year and it's been really good for her. She still is pretty new at it and doesn't always know every note, but she's grown a lot and is getting better every day. She had her first concert on December 7th. Her teacher, Mrs. Loveland, also teaches the 5th graders, 6th graders (Avery's grade), and the 7th graders, so the concert had 3 separate groups. Avery's group went second and each group did about 4 songs. The high school auditorium was PACKED. It was the most full I've ever seen it. Madison has a really strong orchestra program, and Mrs. Loveland is the reason. She's so good with the kids. Avery loves her! I don't know if Avery is super excited about the viola, but she loves Mrs. Loveland and the class is fun with all her friends, so she will probably stick with it at least through the end of this year. We will see about next year! She did great at the concert though and I think she was excited to be on stage and perform with everyone. Josh was gone to New Orleans for work during that week, so it was just me, Gabe, and Caleb. 

Christmas Festivities

The two weeks before Christmas are always pretty fun at school. I had to participate in the junior high Wish Assembly this year just for a brief moment. A student had submitted a wish for me to "hit the griddy", so I went up and made these three boys come up and do it too. It was 3 ninth graders I had last year, Daxx Edstrom, Payton Kostial, and Brennen Dredge. They were quite the characters. I even let Avery skip school that day and come to the junior high with me so she could watch Mrs. Loveland compete in the Hope Squad teacher games. (I was very happy to have a break from that this year.) Avery liked being in my classroom all day and playing little games. Classes were only 20 minutes and then the assembly was from 10:45 - 11:45, so it was a fun day! She keeps telling me, "You better not quit next year!" But we will see... The ideal would be if I could find a part-time job at the junior high that still paid decent, but who knows. Those seem impossible to come by. 

Gabe's Wisdom Teeth

Maybe we were a little dumb when we scheduled it, but Gabe never wants to miss any school, so we scheduled for him to get his wisdom teeth out on Friday, December 22. He needed to have this done before he could get his mission paperwork ready (which is crazy that we are already to that point in life) so we decided to do it over the Christmas break. He ended up not really being able to eat anything good for the next week, which was kind of a bummer for Christmas. He didn't have any big problems with his teeth though, so that was good. He ate smoothies and yogurt and then Ramen noodle soup a lot. Now it's been just over a week and he's finally starting to eat normal food again. He didn't act crazy when he was coming off the drugs, which was a major disappointment to everyone. I was hoping to get some entertaining videos, but it didn't happen. He swelled up a little bit on the second and third day, so he didn't want us taking any family pictures for Christmas. I kind of regret not taking any. I did take one of the kids in front of the tree the day after Christmas, but none of us dressed up on Christmas Eve Sunday! Gabe didn't even go to church that day, so it felt weird taking a family picture without Gabe!

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we had church from 1:30-2:30. Avery sang with the primary for the last time ever! Then, we stayed home and had our Christmas dinner of ham, rolls, orange jello, mashed potatoes, and more. Gabe couldn't eat the ham, so he was sad about that. Then we made gingerbread houses and watched the movie "Noelle." On Christmas morning, Caleb and Avery woke us up at exactly 8:01am (we had told them not before 8:00) and we woke up Gabe and then went downstairs and opened presents. This was the first Christmas in our new house and it was the first Christmas where none of our children believed in Santa Claus anymore. :( It was a little different and a little less exciting, but I guess that's getting old for you! Next year, Gabe will most likely be on his mission, and I think I might try to sell Avery and Caleb on going on a trip. I always think the perfect Christmas would be getting on plane and going to Hawaii or someplace warm. We will see! For gifts, Avery got lots of L.O.L. stuff again and some little art projects. She also got lots of clothes (and then I returned half of them the next day). She is 11, but I think we need to start shopping in the juniors department because I bought her some size 16 dresses and we had to return them because they were too small. Caleb got lots of Funk-o-pops, some new Nikes, clothes, and some gift cards to Fat Cats, McDonald's, and Wendy's. Gabe got gift cards too, some clothes, a set of two suitcases for his mission next year (exciting!), a new Play Station remote, and some other stuff. He's so hard to shop for. Santa just wrapped up a $100 bill in a box! ;) At 2:00 on Christmas afternoon, we went to see the movie "The Boys in the Boat." We have been reading that book in my class and I was pretty bummed that the movie didn't follow the book as closely as I hoped it would. Josh thought it was really good (but he hasn't read the book)! We have spent the rest of this week off school just relaxing, taking down the 3 Christmas trees and decorations, returning things, and hanging out at home. Today, we finally made it down to Idaho Falls and went ice skating as a family, which has kind of become one of our yearly Christmas break traditions. Gabe made the observation that, "We as a family are pretty naturally talented at ice skating. We are way better than the majority of the other people here." 

Anyways, I need to wrap this up because Avery is yelling at me to come finish watching the movie "Ice Princess." Caleb and all his friends are currently upstairs playing the Play Station and Gabe and all of them are getting ready to go to the multi-stake New Year's Dance tonight at the Hart building. New Years is actually tomorrow, but they can't do the dance on a Sunday! ;) So, that's all for now!