A New Year and New Hope

We joined the Children's Museum on New Year's Day. It's pretty cool. I've already gone there three times and I've had the membership for less than a week.

Isaac loves the Veterinarian's room the best.

I went to work out for a while and when I came back, Doug had put out this awesome spread! He spent almost $300 at Winco that morning. Yikes.

For my birthday, I took the little boys to Point Defiance Zoo and then I took all the kids to the Children's Museum for a little while. I love this polar bear's upside-down Mohawk.

I love this picture! The predatory tiger and the smiling baby. I should win a phone photo award!

Doug spoiled me on my birthday with these gorgeous flowers. Even better, an old man serenaded me at the front door when he brought the flowers to my doorstep.

I hope 2018 is wonderful! Doug's boss told him a few days ago not to be worried about getting fired even though his building is losing money right now and the state hit his building with a brutal survey. His leaders have confidence in him, which makes me breathe a temporary sigh of relief. I just want him to have the time and experience here to build confidence so we can move wherever we want to go in a year or two. Right now, I want to bloom where we are planted in Olympia.

Here's a sweet tender mercy story:

In June, I was at my BYU-I annual meeting and a woman (Lynette Lindeloof) from Olympia, Washington asked a question. Knowing I would move there soon, I approached her after the meeting. It turned out that I would be in the same ward with her, and her fifth grader would be in school with Isaac. I asked if her daughter was interested in dinosaurs at all, pretty ruefully since dinosaurs aren't usually a fifth grader's "thing."

Flash forward five months. Isaac hasn't made good friends at school and so I have been praying for him to make friends. He came home a few days ago saying he'd talked to a girl who was really nice and knew about dinosaurs. Today, the kids informed me that the girl is Netty, Lynette's daughter. There are only four Mormons in the whole school, and Isaac and Lucy are both friends with the one who isn't in our family. Cool, huh?

I think things are going well for Brooklyn at school, and they seem a lot better for Lucy. I can tell that she is shaken from some bad experiences being blown off at school, but she's pulling through.