26 April 2026

Compared to last week, this week was pretty tame.  On Monday Phil took the boys to a dentist appointment for me since I had to work.  Arlo got a clear bill of oral health...Jude had two cavities.  Ugh!  Heaven help me, I can't seem to get everyone through a dentist appointment without a cavity.  Does anything make you feel like a bad mom quite like "your five year old has [more] cavities"?! They want to be as aggressive as possible, so he has a follow up appointment for two fillings and two new crowns to protect the fillings.  And I thought we were doing a good job.  Alas!

In the afternoon Arlo had a volleyball game.  They lost the first two sets, which meant that the game was over; however, the opposing team agreed to a third match in which Corona Foothills won, the boys were super excited about that!

We also got to talk to Felicity on Monday which is always a nice treat.  She's doing well and can't believe that she's at the end of her most recent transfer and will find out next week if she'll be staying in Eagle Creek or if she will be moving to a new area or getting a new companion.  She and Sister Smith have been working really well together and I think if Felicity had her way she and Sister Smith would both stay in Eagle Creek for another transfer.  You can read her latest updates here.

Phil worked teaching fire academy on Monday evening.  On Tuesday I took some time off in the morning and Phil and I met Kirby and Brook at the Tucson Temple and we went on a very nice double date.  We attended the temple and then enjoyed lunch afterward...and took zero pictures to prove it.  Helen also got to go to the temple Tuesday evening with the Young Women.

Wednesday we had a second volleyball game. Arlo's team is almost only 6th graders, with the exception of Arlo and three others.  The opposing team was the opposite composition, almost all 8th graders and a couple of smaller kids.  Let's just say they got beat handily.  Arlo did have a couple of good returns, before he took a ball to the face and sat out with an ice pack!  Arlo wasn't the only one stung with a ball out of left field if you will, on Wednesday I knew it wasn't good news when our program managers called us into an impromptu meeting.  Due to the recent government budget cuts the Office of Water Prediction was not going to be extending our program's contract through 2027 as had been previously assumed.  Our program will be ending in October instead.  So what does that mean for me?  Well, that's a little tricky.  I'll still be employed by Raytheon, but I'll need to find another program to work on before October and I don't know what that will look like, most likely it will include going back into the office in Tucson full time.  I of course always have the option to look outside of Raytheon too, if I'd like.  It's a little stressful.  I've been enjoying what I do and I've already started some continuing education classes that were hopefully going to result in a promotion, but now the promotion cycle will land right in the middle of this changeover and nobody is going to promote someone they just brought onto their program.  I'm frustrated.  We'll just have to see how it all plays out.  If only they paid high school biology teachers what they pay systems engineers... 

What could be crappier than hearing you need to find new work when you like what you currently do?  How about a sequential stomach flu that runs through your family for funsies?  Jude stayed home from school with diarrhea on Thursday and to top it off threw up, but not getting to the toilet of course.  Ugh!  This set off a chain reaction where Phil had it Friday (with fever), Helen had it Saturday (also with fever), and it was my turn on Sunday (fever too).  It was pretty miserable.  Arlo is due to get it Monday, so we'll just have to see if he somehow manages to dodge it or ends up in bed all day like the rest of us.  A highlight, however, of the week (before all the big people got sick) was Senior Honors night on Wednesday.  Each of the honor students had a spotlight and they announced the schools they had been accepted to, the school they had committed to, and any awards and/or scholarships they'd been given.  We're super proud of Helen and her accomplishments this year!  

When we got home from Honor's Night, Helen, true to recent form, wanted to work on a project due the next day.  The school afforded the seniors the opportunity to decorate their caps within certain guidelines for graduation.  Helen came up with this design based on a song she's liked since she was very little and Dad cut a little wooden birdhouse in half for her and I cut out some vinyl lettering, she made paper flowers and attached everything together.  It's surely a reflection of her bright, cheery, optimistic, and whimsical disposition.

I had to work on Friday, but I also worked on Helen's graduation announcements.  Only three weeks until graduation!  These beauties will be going out in the mail early next week.  Phil spent Friday in  bed sick, but on Saturday he was feeling well enough to take me out on a date night.  We went to dinner and then went to see "Michael" at the movie theater.  It was so good.  When it ended, I was surprised, I would have been happy to sit there for another two hours.  It was nostalgic and touching (I may have teared up once or twice) and entertaining and illustrated perspective I didn't have before.  I'd suggest it, we both really enjoyed it.

Phil was back at work on Sunday and it was my turn to be sick.  I'm grateful that we had Stake Conference this weekend because I would not have been able to drag myself out of bed if I had needed to teach Sunday School.  We stayed home and I stayed in bed.  I did however get in some old-lady bird watching from my office late in the morning.  You may recall that last year a quail couple laid their eggs in a plant on my porch and we got to enjoy the babies hatching and mama and dad moving them into the desert when they were big enough.  The couple returned to the yard this spring and I've been watching them and looking  for evidence of where they were going to put their nest.  I spied her in another planter on the porch outside my office window Sunday, and sure enough she's deposited five little speckled eggs in an indent among the flowers.  I'm excited to see her babies in a few weeks.