Friday, April 25, 2008

Late April Update

Lately I've been running out of topics about which to write essays. I find that irksome, although it was more or less inevitable that this blog, to the extent that I continued to post to it, would devolve into a diary of sorts. Thus I feel a need to write something about what is happening in our family right now. I seem to be doing pretty well with my new sleep meds; the most critical thing in the short term was to get off Temazepam, but I think I'll also be able to get off Lunesta soon as well, which will leave me taking only Rozerem. And I think it will be much easier to wean myself off Rozerem than it would have been to go "cold turkey" off the combination of Temazepam and OTC "Simply Sleep" that I was taking every night. The "VPAP Adapt SV" machine, apart from "curing" my problem with complex sleep apnea, has the added benefit of filtering out most of the nasty pollen that permeates the air in Albuquerque at this time of year.

Dorine, who works for the Albuquerque Public Schools, will have the summer off work. She's our ward YW camp director this year, and of course she's playing softball again this summer with her team the "Lady Saints" -- although she only actually plays when she has to fill in, as softball for her is much more a social event (giving her a chance to see and converse with friends whom she doesn't otherwise see much) than an athletic one. I usually go with Dorine to the games, as I enjoy keeping score and engaging in a little badinage with the team.

Kristy and Chris are about to move from their current rental home into a newer, larger one (belonging to Jimmy Romero, a member of our bishopric, and his wife Joy), which will be a boon to them and their suddenly large family. Their kids are all doing well, and the twins are thriving, although I'm certain Kristy can't wait for them to start eating solid food so that they'll sleep more at night.

Heidi and Dion are likewise doing well. Heidi will probably work more shifts this summer in her job as labor-and-delivery nurse at Presbyterian Hospital, now that Dorine will be more available to babysit Kayla. Dion's business installing satellite-TV systems is as "dynamic" as usual, and he stays pretty busy. Kayla is still a lot of fun, at least when her mother isn't around and she has no reason to be fussy.

Devery and Easton will be living with us this summer as Devery does another student internship at Sandia National Labs. With Devery working at Sandia (and Easton beating the bushes to find summer employment here as well), and with their living rent-free in our home for 2-3 months, they saw that they could save quite a bit of money to help get them through next school year at BYU. (Devery hopes to graduate in December, and Easton reportedly has another year of school after that.) And, of course, we're really happy to have them and look forward to doing some fun things with them this summer.

Darren's missionary companion Elder Herrera is about to finish his mission and go home, and we're anticipating that Darren will stay in the same area and receive his first assignment as senior companion. (I'm hoping he has at least a few baptisms in the first 2-3 weeks to get him off on the right foot as senior.)

Kiley just received an academic letter from her high school and is working hard to prepare for her audition for the Albuquerque Youth Symphony cello section on May 12. She's also trying to log enough driving hours this summer to get her provisional driver's license by the time school starts up again in August.

I look forward to this summer -- hiking, bouldering, a trip to the cabin in early June, family camping trips, a vacation trip in late June and early July, maybe a little overnight backpacking in the Sandias, the stake youth handcart trek in the latter half of July, maybe a trip to Ft. Stanton Cave, and hopefully a backpacking trip with Bob Maes to the Pecos Wilderness in the early-September timeframe. I need all the outdoor activities!