New Primary class:
My co-teacher, Amy, and I are teaching 7 10-year-olds from
the Book of Mormon this year. After being with one class for 3 years, I wondered how starting with a new group would be. It will be fantastic! They’re bright, good readers, fun, and not so busy talking to one another that they don’t listen. So I’m looking forward to learning right along with Payton, Alex, Gracie, Elizabeth, Colton, Dylan, Jared, and Amy, too.

New Address:
Shane has a new address. He’s in Provo now, studying at BYU. Talking with him about his classes and activities brings back good memories of my own. Last Friday, he hiked up to the top of the Y on Y mountain. Dan and I did that back in the day. Class registration took place when he was still on his mission and unable to take care of it himself, so a kind and helpful young guy, Seth Taylor, registered for him back in early Nov. Shane talked with several professors and a counselor to make a few adjustments to his schedule, because he’s serious about making the most of this important part of his life. I am very grateful he’s there doing what he’s doing, but at the same time, I miss him like crazy, and I’m going through the dreaded empy nest feelings all over again. But today was better than yesterday, so I think I’ll make it.

New Trip:
We had the pleasure of staying with my sister Julie when we went down to UT. She has a big family dinner every fast Sunday, and we were lucky enough to be there for it. Yum, turkey and all the trimmings, followed by a hearty breakfast the next morning. It was very fun to see her sons and daughters and grandchildren! Amy’s baby, 8-month-old Jones, just about stole my heart right away. Cute cute families! Looks like we might get to se our Arizona grandchildren soon, too. Looking for tickets tomorrow. It’ll be sort of a mini reunion, with a couple of my sisters and a brother there at the same time.

New concern:
My left ear! Had an ear infection over Christmas, which the doc says has cleared up, but my hearing still isn’t back to normal. Hope it comes back, pronto. My cervical lymph nodes, those under the jaw line and in the neck, got really really big for awhile, but reduced a bit as the infection abated. Interestingly, my WBC dropped from 63K to 25K while the nodes were at their biggest. I’m wondering if those stubborn lymphocytes were hiding out in the lymp nodes for awhile. Now that the nodes have gone down a bit, I’m curious to see where the WBC is. Are they circulating in the bloodstream again? Most likely I’ll find out at my appointment on the 18th, and I’ll get the results of the FISH test, which tells me what percentage of my cells have the unfortunate 17p deletion. Hoping for good news while preparing for possible bad news.