Home Alone and Ready to Catch Up

I have the whole house to myself tonight. Wahoo! Clint’s busy with High Priest duties, Caleb is out with friends, and Caitlin is babysitting at the Relief Society thingy I should probably be at.

I haven’t had a lot of desire to keep my blog updated lately. My brain has been full of  stuff, all kinds of fun stuff.

We did have a wonderful Christmas. It was so nice to be with my whole family. Having both grandma’s and the little cousins around is pretty sweet.

On December 27th, we celebrated Caleb’s 17th birthday. I can hardly believe it. He’s growing into such an awesome young man. More about him in a minute…

The anniversary of Caitlin’s cancer diagnosis was on December 28th. Ten years that seem like a hundred years some days, and one year on others. We are so grateful she is here and doing so well. It’s time for her to go in for her yearly MRI and checkup. I haven’t scheduled it. I’m not nervous about it, I just don’t have the desire to do it. Yet. Maybe next month.

Since Christmas, we have been actively house hunting. We’ve made offers on and walked away from two darling houses. As cute as they are and for as many upgrades and positives that they each had, neither felt right. It’s getting frustrating and I’m not really sure what’s wrong. I don’t know if our previous two building/buying experiences have scared us and made us nervous this time around, or if these houses truly were not right. All I know is that I really want to find the right house, as we plan to live in it for a very long time. We have another option in the works right now and are hoping this time around things work out. If not, we’ll keep looking.

Caleb has had some ups and downs lately. One of his school friends passed away unexpectedly last week from an unknown medical condition. She had asked him out on a date a few months ago and he wasn’t able to go. He told her they’d make up for it later. That never happened. He and a group of friends sang at her funeral today. I feel so bad for this girl’s family. I just can’t imagine.

Caleb was asked to the Sweethearts Dance by a girl he doesn’t want to go with (for valid reasons). It’s hard to know how to help him. Thinking of the girl, I believe a lot of her “issues” are because she has low self-esteem. For Caleb to say no could potentially really hurt her. On the other hand, he should be able to choose. Ugh. The only advice I could think to give him is to keep this completely between the two of them and give her a simple “Thanks for the invitation, but I won’t be able to go with you”. I have no idea if this is the right thing to do. Suggestions?

One more thing about Caleb… he is so pleased with himself today. In his sociology class their final project was to do something “deviant” without breaking the law or school rules and present the experience in class. As Caleb is a good student (and with or without a good grade on this project he would still get an A), he decided it would be awesome not to do the project at all. He got up today and made his presentation (or announcement) and the reaction was a classroom full of cheers, applause, and “You’re my hero!” When Caleb tells his tale, I think he believes there was background music and the whole scenario was played out in slow motion. He said his teacher was speechless. Apparently she asked him a few more times throughout the class period to give his “real” presentation. He finally convinced her that he didn’t do it. He said the hardest thing was to refrain from laughing, but he couldn’t stop blushing. While he was at play practice this afternoon he checked the website where grades are uploaded and realized his teacher had given him an A on the project. She had also written a comment- “Very original!!!” Tonight he called to check in and let me know the story is spreading and he’s a legend. Honestly, this could be the beginning of a whole new Caleb.

Well, Caitlin’s home. Solitude is over. The kids have tomorrow off school and we’re still waiting around for some snow. What a strange winter we’ve had.

Happy weekend!