We miss Uncle Ben, and other updates

We were so lucky this summer to have Uncle Ben (Nate's younger brother) stay with us for 4 months! Granted, he worked a ton of hours, so we didn't get to spend as much time with him as we would have liked, but we LOVED having him here. He was great with the kids (as you can see, they all adore him), and Nate and I both really loved having him here. Unfortunately, we got into a pattern of really late nights staying up to talk, but how many times in life do you have those opportunities with your siblings (other than when you are young and don't appreciate them)?

Ben left on Friday to fly to Kyrgyzstan for a fall internship with the International Trade Commission (a division of the WTO). Isaac has spent the last few weeks begging to go with Ben to Kyrgyzstan. I don't think that most Mom's have to spend nearly this much time explaining to their 4-year-olds why they can't go to Kyrgyzstan (how many 4-year-olds have heard of Kyrgyzstan?) Luckily, Ben had to leave really early in the morning, and Isaac was pretty tired and just wanted to cuddle his Mom, which made him more content to be staying with me. I was a little worried that he would be trying to fit inside Ben's suitcase.

We did get an email this morning that Ben is safe and sound and settling into his apartment there. He will come back and visit us for a little while in December on his way home for Christmas, so that is good. Now if I can just make sure that his visit overlaps with my Sister Martha's . . . (don't worry, they are both well aware of my plans to match them up. No luck so far, but I'm not giving up!)

There isn't much to report from this weekend. We had a lovely Sabbath. The baby has a pretty bad cold, and Grace had a fever on Saturday, so Nate stayed home with them and let me go to church with the boys. I really enjoy those Sundays where I just get to go to my own ward (with my Stake calling that is happening less and less), so he didn't want to take that away from me, and he didn't have to teach today so it worked out nice (for me).

Unfortunately, I still didn't get to go to Relief Society. Isaac went in to go to the bathroom and in his rush he didn't get his pants down far enough and accidentally got them all wet. So, we had to leave early. He was not at all ashamed and was announcing to everyone in the hallway (this was between Sunday School and Relief Society) that we had to go home because he peed on his pants. Of course we had to go get Sam from class, which he was a little dissapointed about, but he was a good sport.

The missionaries came over for dinner, and we had delicious roast beef with potatoes and carrots and gravy, homemade wheat rolls (Nate even shaped them while I was at church, and he did a great job), jello that the boys made before church, and yummy cake and ice cream with warm cherry sauce (and I wonder why I can't lose weight . . .). Anyway, it was great, and then they taught us a nice lesson and we talked about how we can do a better job of sharing the gospel with our neighbors. Our Bishop has challenged us to invite a non-member family for FHE this month, so we are trying to decide who to invite. I'm not really great at these things, but we are committed to doing it! I'll let you know how it goes.

We had a nice evening working on puzzles (I love that Sam is old enough to do big puzzles with me now, and Isaac and Grace had their own little ones to work on). Nate and I tried to go to bed early, but that didn't work out very well. I ended up reading for quite a while and he was watching college football on the laptop. But, the kids all slept through the night and we have had a great morning so far.

Tonight for FHE we will be returning the canoes that Nate borrowed for the scout campout. This should be a good week- busy enough that we won't get bored, but a little time available for extra projects and some deep cleaning - just how I like it!