The Engaging Month of March

I have been horrible about keeping up with my blogging and have resolved to do better.

A lot has happened this month. We received interesting and somewhat terrifying news (at least for a mother) from Eric the end of February. Apparently their base in Balad gets hit with mortar attacks on a regular basis. I guess this is a take-it-in-stride, no-big-deal occurrence! Eric says the base has automatic weapons that detect the incoming mortar and shoot them down so they can't do any real damage, but on a foggy day, the technology doesn't work so well. An announcement will come over the PA system, "Incoming, incoming." Then everyone gets down on their faces, and shortly thereafter they feel the ground shake. Lovely. He keeps telling me not to worry, that he's safe. Two young men from Utah stationed in Afghanistan were killed this month. I keep thinking about their mothers.

Dad is doing much better. He kicked the pneumonia. Yahoo. Now he can tackle the remaining issues, his heart and then the chemotherapy. He gets a new pacemaker/defebrilator next week (tentatively). Mom says he has been out walking and feeling quite remarkable considering he underwent major cancer surgery a few weeks back.

Note the title of this post, "The Engaging Month of March." It's not totally accurate as Gage and Emily got engaged February 26! They are busy planning, working, and going to school. Their wedding date is June 5 in the Salt Lake Temple. The groom's mother has it easy. We've already got the tuxes and luncheon arranged. But guess what? I'm also the mother of the bride, as Marissa and Zack got engaged yesterday, March 29. They are planning on the first weekend in September. My children are dropping like flies! We are pleased with both engagements and love our soon-to-be daughter/son-in-law.

We went to parent-teacher conferences for Quinn and Alex last week, my awesome little sixth graders. I'm thanking heaven for Alex's progress. His teachers praised him, saying he's performing like he's been here eight months rather than three. I have to give Michael a lot of that credit. They read 30 minutes every morning and then again at night. We are in the midst of missionary discussions. We started out with a sister missionary at Temple Square, but we quickly decided we wanted our other children to be involved, so now we're doing them at our home with the elders. Max, Zack's friend, is translating for Alex. Although Alex understands a lot of English, we don't want any misunderstanding. Last Sunday Max couldn't come, so we cancelled with the missionaries, and instead Zack and Marissa taught an Easter lesson. Alex is so receptive. You could see a light go on in his eyes about so many things. The spirit was so strong. Last night Alex said family prayer in English. He got his little 4-steps-of-prayer card out that the missionaries gave him and said almost a perfect prayer in English, remembering to thank and then ask. One thing he said that brought tears to my eyes: "Bless Eric come home."

Zack kept the boys busy on Saturday and Sunday making a movie with our Camcorder. They titled it "Fifty Pounds." (We had watched Seven Pounds the night before.) In the movie, Quinn accidentally kills Zack. He goes on an eating binge and gains fifty pounds. Alex plays the part of Quinn's dad. We all watched the "movie" on Sunday, and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Today is Marissa's birthday. She's 22 years old.