Busy, busy, busy

It has been a busy month for the Frei family. Barb and I have been remodeling another one of my mom's rentals. We have been spending a lot of time there, in fact, last Saturday is the first one since we started that we have been able to take a break from it. It is almost finished, I just finished repairing a bi-fold door a few minutes ago. There are a couple of doors to hang, some touch up, a little more cleaning and a big pile of weeds to haul off and I think we are done. It sounds like the next big adventure is mom's house, she wants to redo, repaint, refurniture and who knows what else. I should keep us busy for a while, well, if mom and dad can ever agree on what exactly they are going to do so we can start.
My new calling has been a busy one. Meetings, actives during the week, a lesson yesterday, I have a busy calling again and I am loving it. Yeah it is stressful, yeah it takes me away from home more, but, I seem to thrive on being busy like that. I am still Cub master for now, so that makes things even more interesting. I have been enjoying being around the young men, this is new territory for me, I have never had a calling with the youth before. In fact, I really wasn't involved with the youth when I was one. I wasn't very active when I was a teen, and I didn't go to any of the mutual activities, at least not any that I can remember. I also never served in any of the quorum presidencies either, so all of this is really new to me. I have been trying to get a handle on where everyone is in the Duty to God program, and was finally able to figure out the computer program that we are using to keep track of it. This month has been a blur, but I am starting to settle into a routine which makes it a little easier.
Work is still slow, but seems to be picking up a little at a time. Unlike a couple of months ago my phone is ringing, and it has been customers instead of telemarketers. The fact that people are calling to get quotes is encouraging, at least it means that there are people out there who are thinking about doing jobs.
The last little while I have been very proud of my family. Jacob is working on getting into a program that will allow him to get his associate degree when he graduates from high school. Jacob and Rachel both had 4.0 report cards last semester. Lydia is in advanced math, pre-algebra, Jed is doing really well this year and not having all of the trauma with his teacher that he has had in the past, and little Sye is at the top of his class in reading. I couldn't ask for better kids, and have my sweet wife to thank. It has been her hard work that has got them where they are. She is the best!
Although there are a lot of worrisome things going on right now, mostly related to the economy and my income, things are really good. We are healthy, happy, and doing well. The Lord has truly blessed us, and He continues to bless us. We live at a great time in a great neighborhood/ward. I hope I can adequately express my gratitude to the Lord for all that he has blessed me with.

It was a little crazy at the Frei home stead over the holiday. My kids thought that since they didn't have school they should stay up late every night. They didn't seem to care that I had to work even if they weren't in school! It was a blast, got to see family that lives far away on both sides, my sister and Barb's brother and their families. Spent a lot of family time, sleding in the snow, playing on the 4 wheelers, visiting with family, and of course eating a lot of really good stuff that I shouldn't have! It has been nice to have things settle back down and get back to normal. Well, sort of normal, this has been a busy week, I was called as the young men secratary in our ward, new territory for me, I have never served in any calling with the youth (12 to 18) before. This was my fist week of meetings, going to mutual etc. I am still Cub Master and had pack meeting this week as well. At least I don't have an elders quorum lesson to prepare this month, that is one calling that has come back to me over and over again over the past 16 years. Studying a lessons for the young men that I didn't have to teach was a nice change. Well, sorry don't mean to ramble on. It is past my bed time.

This is the text from an email that I sent to a freind. I thought that it captured the events of the past week quite well so I have included it on my blog.

Holy Cow!

Ok, I cannot believe that 2008 is over! Where did it go? The holidays were really good this year. The kids figured that since they were on vacation they should stay up late and have "hoopla" every night for two weeks! We stayed up late, ate too much junk, and played a lot through the holidays. It has been nice to have school start back up, I can't stay up late every night and still go to work day after day like I could when I was younger.
I hope that 2009 is better to my work than 2008 was. The economic down-turn has been really hard on the equipment rental business. So far this year has not been so good, I hope it picks up soon or I might be flipping burgers @ "Dirty Ron's" before I know it. I didn't pick one of those professions that doesn't have any down turns like doctor, lawyer, or mortician. I had to get into something that I like doing instead, something that is susceptible to the whims of the economy. Go figure.
All we can do is trust that the Lord will keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. In reality, that is all we can really ask for, anything else is just frosting on the cake. So far we have been blessed and have been able to make both ends meet. That is a blessing in itself.
I have set a goal to drop a pant size this year. I guess that means that I need to cut back on the junk food that I like so much. I was supposed to set a "fun" goal as well, I can't think of anything. How pathetic is that? I will have to work on the other one for now, until something fun comes to mind that I decide that I want to do.

Pictures

New family pictures are coming. We just returned from having our pictures done. The last time was in Providence almost 3 years ago! We should have a good family picture that we can post since the photographer will sell us a disc (including the copy rights) of all the pictures that she took. She got some really cute ones of the kids. Hopefully I didn't blink in all of them! Things have settled down in my life, it has been a rough road for the last little while, but we are through it. All of the bumps and bruises that we have gone through, mostly between my sweet wife and I, have all been worth the result. Our relationship is better now than it has ever been. Barb and I have learned a lot about ourselves and each other the last little while. All of this learning has not been easy, but it has brought us closer together than we have ever been. I especially have learned some things about myself that were not pleasant, that I did not really want to admit. Barbie has had some of the same experiences. Even though it was hard, it has all been worth it. We have had the guidance of the Lord, and His helping hand through it all.

Time flies!

It is almost Christmas! I have been out of town most of the week this week. I cannot believe how fast this month has been going by. It is hard to believe that 2008 is almost over! I really don't have anything profound to say today, it has just been a long time since I have posted anything to my blog. I guess all I am doing is making an effort to write. I was going to keep the blog like a journal. As you can see, my journal writing is lacking. I used to be really good at it. However, when I stop and think about my past journal writing, most days I was writing just to say that I wrote and not really recording anything important. I don't know if that is the way a person should keep a journal or not.

How did it get to be December!?!

Where did November go? We went to Brigham City for Thanksgiving. It was great to get together with Jim and his Family. Thanksgiving was actually somewhat small this year, It was Jim's family, Barb's parents and us. Erica did come spend Friday and Saturday. Spending 4 days on an air mattress makes me appreciate my bed! We went to the Ogden Temple and collected another card for Barb, on the way home we stopped at Temple Square and looked at the lights. It was a great weekend. We are glad to be home, but not ready for it to be December already. This year has just flown by!

Going north for Thanksgiving

We are going to be going to Brigham City for Thanksgiving. Barbie is more excited than anyone I think. She is enjoying being able to tell everyone that she will be out of town for Thanksgiving. The last time that we went to Brigham City for Thanksgiving we went to Cache Valley, found a house and bought it. That is not in the plans this time, I mention it only because it seems as if it was so long ago. It is amazing how fast 5 or 6 years go by! The last few month have been really hard for Barb and I. There are some things that both of us have been working through in our personal lives and in our relationship. It is interesting that these issues have come up now and not sooner. If we would have tried to work out some of them earlier in our marriage, I am not sure we would have made it through. This is mostly due to the fact that I deal with things much better now that I used to. It has taken a long time for me to get to a point that I can talk about something that is difficult without flying off of the handle. I have matured in that way a great deal over the last 15 years. It is a good thing. I love my wife very much, I want to do all that I can to work through the bumps that we are going through right now. It has been an interesting experience for me, as each issue comes up and is dealt with. They are not all coming out at once, but seem to be coming to our attention in a specific order making it so we can deal with each one as it comes. We are going to make it through, we love each other, there are just things that we have never dealt with over the course of the last 15 years.