Daaaadddddyyyyy's hoooommmmmeee

Everyone was so happy to have Dave home after being gone for two weeks on interviews and working non-stop for the 10 days in between. This is the kids watching AFV (america's funniest home videos) Sunday evening.

dear dan

October 22, 2013

Dear Elder Dahlquist,

My letters are not as cute as the kids' are but hopefully you still enjoy them. As I mentioned before, interview season is in full swing. I try to pretend that I care about other things in life, but really I am pretty focused heart, mind and soul on what will happen to us next year and the year following. I am sort of hoping Dave comes home from his next interview saying "I hated it!" just so have one place to cross off the list! :) So far he's liked them all. 6 weeks from today rank lists are due and 7 weeks from today is match day!

Jo is so cute. It is so fun being home with her all day.

Sunday I am giving a lesson in RS on Elder Holland's talk from last conference Lord, I Believe. It was one of my favorites. It was wonderful and spoke personally to me. I think that the afflicted child is like Calvin in many ways. It is always amazing how the apostles can take one scripture or short story and teach powerful lessons. It is a  testimony of how scripture study has layers and you can continue to learn from them even after you have known them all your life.  I also loved his talk from this conference, "like a broken vessel" about mental illness. Another talk that spoke to our family.

One of ladies in our ward had her baby this week. Labor was 45 minutes. She had the baby at home, as was planned previously (and I sorta thought was crazy) but since labor was so fast she probably would have had that baby at home or in the car anyway, so I guess it all worked out!

I booked a ticket for Clare and myself to go to Scott's wedding. Clare begged me to go, asking at one point if she could go to the wedding instead of have a b-day party. I see that as kind of like the widow's mite. What more could clare give up? Well, she also offered to give up piano lessons but she is just a little stinker and knows she can't do that.  I am excited for a little girl bonding time. Maybe I'll make it a tradition to take my 8 year old girls on a special mom trip.  It will be fun for her to have some time with Lance too. They are such cute friends.  Isn't it weird to think that way back in the day, 1st cousins would marry each other? Gross!

Time for Calvin's piano. He is still taking from Jenny Gillette. He doesn't practice much but he says he likes it. 

sweet clare bear

Clare wrote this adorable letter to dan. I am copying it word for word here.  She is learning form writing in school where you start with a descriptive sentence and then dive in and describe the event in more detail. It is cute to see her try to use quotation marks and her spelling of some words.


October 17, 2013 Dear Elder Dalquist Today was my first day of changing JoJo's diper! It was asom! All tell you about it. I was lisining to music and then JoJO ran up to me and said "stinky Bear Bear" and I said "okay?" and so I told her to "lay down and wait write their wail I go get a diper and some wipes" and so I went and got a diper and some wipes then I changed her diper. Mom dride to help me butt JoJo yelled "NO!!!!" By the way how are you and how is your companion? I love you so so much! Is going on a mishin fun or not fun? Do you teach any kiddos? Are you getting any skinnyer?

(2 years ago Dan was 300 lbs. Then he got to 250 before he left on his mission. Now he is 180. Amazing!)


Not the best picture but at least shows her handwriting. I think she isn't done yet but I don't think she'll write too much more.

rak (random act of kindness)

We got Clare's soccer pictures on Saturday. I saw them briefly and then the kids were passing them around looking at them as we walked to the car. Late in the evening hours later I remembered the pics and asked the kids where they were. I went looking in the car and they were not there. I was so mad that they lost them and wondered where they could have gone.

A couple of days later I got a phone call from the photo company saying a lady had found my pictures and called in to find out how to return them to the owner. She gave me her name and #. I called her and she was very nice. She said she found them and knew that some mom was REALLY mad and was happy to have found them and return them to me. She had 4 kids of her own who were now grown and had been through things like this many times.

She offered to meet me at soccer practice the next day and drop them off. So nice!

It totally made my day - for two days. I was glad to be the recipient of such kindness and hope to pay it forward next time I have the opportunity!

 Lexey is on a different team but her jersey is the same color! Funny thing that happened is Alexey's team got the wrong size jersey. They are under 6 and got size medium jerseys (as a compairson Clare's team is under 8 and they got size small)!

we went to the poway rodeo a few weeks ago

Last year just Clare and Lex went with Dave but I wanted everyone to go this year. We had a good time. Jo likes to wear her Ohio State shirt like daddy. She got a kick out of the horses, cows, sheep and fun music.  I didn't get great pictures but at least a couple to remember that we went!

 

interview trail part 2

This week Dave went to Memphis and Philadelphia.


 In Memphis there are two hospitals. The famous St. Judes

 and LeBonheur Children's Hosptial.

 

From what I hear this program has great operative experience and the faculty are great.  The cost of living in  Memphis is AMAZING! we could rent a great house for $12-1500/month and be in a great community.  Special education in Memphis is a weakness that is concerning to me.

 

 

 

Philadelphia - CHOP

CHOP is ranked the #1 Children's hospital in the US right now. It would be a great place to train. I know very little about the city at this point. I need to read about it.  Like the other big cities Dave is applying to, there would be a pretty high cost of living and special education recourses available. It would be a fun place to spend a year and a treat to be in a historic city. If there is one thing San Diego lacks it is history!   With just a quick search I found this special education group in Philly. It seems they would have a school for Calvin. Also, it is a good sign that they say districts usually pay for placement in their program. It indicates a good special education infrastructure.



5 down 3 to go!

Match day is 2 months from today!

my darling little Jo

My sweet little Jo is growing up so fast!

 

She has hair long enough for piggy tails  (and some sort of rash on her mouth)

And she decided to sleep in a toddler bed instead of her pack -n- play.

She is such a sweetie. I sure love her. It is so bitter sweet to see her grow up. I wish I could have a baby forever but not be pregnant and actually acquire more children in the process. As one of my favorite friends says, "wouldn't it be nice if we could just recycle the kids as they get older so we always have little ones at home but not any more children?" I totally agree!

 

I was cleaning or cooking a few days ago and was wondering where Jo was. I called her name and she said, "jojo in tv room doing sticker book with Tressel."  She LOVES the dog! Often she'll play hide and go seek with him or chase. He has no idea she is playing with him but she will giggle and run around with squeals of delight.

Alexey got some new shoes. Jo adopted them and wouldn't even let Lexey try them on! She refused to take them off at bed time one night a week or two ago. I snuck in and took them off late in the evening.

James, David, Calvin, Lex, Jo, Clare, Ruth (not picture baby Emmy)

We love our dear friends, Joseph and Tracy Larsen. We met Joseph and Tracy 10 years ago when we were both young married couples (J&T newlyweds) in Buckeye Village student housing at Ohio State.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a rough place to come to after leaving BYU but we grew to love it.

They are in OC and we are in SD and we have loved getting together over the years. It is about 65-75 minutes to their house from ours.

This time I finally remembered to bring the camera and at least get a picture of the kids.