a hole in the ground

I thought I would post my letter to my missionary brother on my blog page so those of you I don't email it to might have a chance to read a bit more about what we are up to.

Dallan, and all other who might or might not care.
This week has been fraught with peril, "and you just can't argue with a word like fraught" -Tigger. Well actually Jon spent most of Friday and Saturday digging out a hydrant that was not siphoning the water back down properly. We might not have attacked the task but it was a hydrant that provides the water to two different corrals. earlier this fall one of our tenets’ informed us of the problem and his great desire to have it fixed before winter. Jon didn't seem to care all that much but on Friday one of his contractor/hunting buddies gave us his horse because he couldn't pay his bill to us. so we are now true equestrian people. So we have a horse named Sis she is about 13 and a very gentle horse. because We acquired this horse Jon now saw great need to fix the water to the corral for our horse. And went to work digging out the said broken hydrant. He dug and dug and dug. and not wanting to do more work than absolutely necessary dug a tight small hole directly around the pipe. I having seen the need for much larger holes in repairing mainline expressed a concern that the hole might need to be bigger but then left my dear husband to do the work seeing how I "was not helping" Well after digging a hole so deep that jon was standing on his head inside of the said hole and the diagnoses was that it was still not deep enough yet. Jon crawled out of the tiny narrow hole and we proceeded to dig a much larger and quite substantial hole. After much toil, rocks, and effort and a plethora of digging tools we managed to get to the "bottom" of the problem. We yanked out the broken part and installed a non broken water spigot. and Presto chango the water was turned back on and Jon and I were able to bathe and be ready for church. Well we did put Hunters socks and boots on IN Sacrament meeting.
So the kids are Jazzed about "finally" having a horse of our own. Jon is beyond Jazzed. They are calling Sis my horse, because Jon still wants to get other horses and if he deems a horse to someone other than himself then he can still get another one for himself. (He did the same thing when he bought the 4 wheelers -one for the wife then I'll get what I really want.) Kind of smart. I just wish he wanted things like oh say a garbage disposal or a new vacuum or a push broom perhaps.
Stiles and Marcus are plugging away at school. I was shocked when I was told that Marcus was way behind because he didn't know all of his letters the second week of school. I was kind of the assumption that they went to school to learn those things but apparently the 5 yr old kids of this world are suppose to know algebra and German upon entering the public school system and shame on those parents who have not had their child in structured preschool since they were 3 years old. I thought kids were suppose to play. but I guess I am wrong.
Erica loves to color and spends most of her time in pursuit of coloring any scrap of paper she can lay hers hands on. She fills a coloring book almost monthly and is always in need of a new picture to color. her favorite medium is crayons, however markers and paints do not scare her creativeness, she prefers not to work with colored pencils but will if no other coloring option is present.
Hunter is getting along great in Nursery. Still bawls a bit when you drop him off but is getting into the swing of things with the toys and the rocking chair in the room. We have found a bottle in his possession also makes the 2 hours less stressful on all those involved.
William is beginning to "sleep through the night" if you call from 11:00 pm to 4:00 am "through the night" But it is 6 hours straight and a few times He has even slept till 6:00. Sorry to brag about this Camille but your two little girls were angels for you. IT is my turn to have the amazingly easy baby for a while.
Jon is loving working with the priests in our ward. I am still trying to figure out what in the Sam hill I am suppose to be doing with the cub scouts and all is rolling along with the laundry and the dishes and spilled milk on the newly mopped floor.
Work hard and know that we love you. The Church is true, and nothing else matters
Love, Monica and my crazy family.