15th Anniversary, Back to School, Connie Visits, and Bats

Dear Family,

Hi from the Keller’s! Today is a very special day. The date is Aug 9, 2012. Anyone know why it’s special in our house? Today is our 15th anniversary! Yay to Ryan and me for staying married!!! And a double yay that we’ve been happier more often than we’ve been mad or sad. : ) To celebrate we’re taking a trip, (just the 2 of us!) to San Francisco next month. Our original plan was to be in SF this week, but then Kwigi had to have surgery on his leg and we decided to wait another month.

In the meantime Oma’s taking Jared for the weekend so we can go on a small date and have some alone time together. Jared is so excited to go to Oma’s (Penny’s here in UT until Nov) and swim in her pool and be spoiled overall. He wants to know why Ryan and I aren’t going out tonight on our actual anniversary (today being Thurs) and are waiting until tomorrow. He’s very concerned that we aren’t celebrating properly, or more importantly, that he doesn’t get to go on his adventure while we do.

School starts in 2 weeks and I am SO ready for Jared to go back to school. I’m SO tired of being peppered with questions about Ninjago and Beyblades and who I think would win in a fight. Yoda vs The Emperor? This Bey vs that Bey? And who’s my favorite Ninja from Ninjago??? My answer’s always wrong. I thought this was an only child thing, but my friend Kathy (who has 4 boys) told me yesterday that she’s going through the same thing. She ended up telling her boys she was taking some time for herself, that she was going to be reading and on Facebook and they were NOT to disturb her with questions about video games or anything.

We got to see Connie again! She and her girls came up last weekend and stayed with us while Whitney went to a trade show and created new accounts for Snow College. Jared got to have his very 1st sleepover and loved every minute of it. I think they must’ve only slept 3 hours. I didn’t mind though because those are the kinds of memories I want him building with his family. They told scary stories, joked, giggled, and of course there was a pillow fight.

We did have some backlash from a super tired Jared the next day. He had a meltdown and long story short, as he was feeling very sorry for himself, he told Ryan that he wasn't really a Keller and wanted to go to live with his birth family. Ryan calmly said something along the lines of, “I’m sorry to hear that. We sure will miss you after you go.” That shocked Jared and he said, “what?! You wouldn’t even try to stop me?!?!” A good lunch and a mandatory nap later and he was back to his happy self, having fun with his cousins.

Connie’s girls are so polite. They kept asking me if they could do anything to help get dinner ready Friday night and then Sat morning they helped me with some service. There’s a sister in our ward who’s really sick and will be in the hospital a long time. Our ward RS has been taking 4 hour shifts watching the kids while the dad’s at work and helping him keep the house clean. I had signed up for Sat morning and when I got there it was clear there was no way I’d be able to give the kids all the attention they needed and get any cleaning done. We met Connie’s girls at the park and Aralia and Adelyne jumped right in, getting the family’s little girls involved in a game about fairies. Then they went back to the house with me and played with the girls for an hour and a half while Ryan and I cleaned. Connie went home and took a much needed nap.

Monday Jared and I are going to Ephraim to visit Connie and see their new house one last time before they move to a new house. Connie’s new house has a lot of big problems. The home inspector found some big things wrong like the roof or a skylight leaks and the electricity isn’t up to code. They haven’t officially bought the house yet (luckily). The owner has agreed to fix everything and to let Connie and her family rent out the house until he does and until Connie sells her house.

Last week Connie called me laughing so hard. They heard a sound coming from inside the wall when they were outside. This is the wall by the master bedroom. Anyway, it sounded like some kind of animal had gotten into the wall. So Whitney gets up on a step ladder and takes off a small piece of the wall. Plop. Plop. Two little bats fall out.

Then Whitney rips off this huge piece of wood and (I kid you not) at least 50 bats come flying out, knocking Whitney over in the process! Connie said it was so funny. And stinky. Apparently that many bats living in that small space leave a lot of poop behind and it smells really bad. Connie called the owner and he said, “what?!?! I didn’t know we had bats!!!” He offered to take care of that too. In the end Connie and Whitney have decided that as much as they love that house and its yard, there are too many problems with it and they’re moving on to a nicer house that’s cheaper, but without the yard Connie loves so much. Once she gets internet I’m sure she’ll write and tell you all about it.

That’s about it for us. Hope everyone’s enjoying the end of summer!

Love,
Sherry, Ryan, and Jared