Marissa comes for another Visit

I'm so excited.  Marissa came back to Texas on April 8th.  She will be with us for almost two weeks.

Her nursing schedule has been terrible.  They scheduled tests, so she stayed at BYU-I, then they canceled them.  She was able to come back from Robert's homecoming, but while in Texas they sent her a notice that she had to be back at BYU-I to take a test on Tuesday morning in the testing center.

She got back to Utah on March 28 to take tests, but then was able to come back to Texas April 8th.

We had so much fun with Marissa being here with Robert, too.  Marissa and I would go running every morning.  We went to Rouse Middle School to run - of course, we had to jump the fence to run on the track - ooh.  Marissa was shocked that I didn't mind jumping the fence - I am supposed to be the rule follower.

Me in awe of Marissa's run

Marissa is an amazing runner.  She lapped me a few times.  My legs, knees, and hips aren't what they used to be - not even close.  Marissa ran 6 miles and I ran 3.1 miles.  I am super proud of her for being able to run such long distances.  I am pleased that I was able to run a 5K.  

In the evenings we would go play basketball at Rouse high school for Robert and Dad. They are amazing!  Robert has great skill.  The teams were always Mark and Betsy against Robert and Marissa.  Marissa is also pretty good at basketball.  Poor Mark - he had the one that everyone picks last. 

Sometimes we played soccer at night (sorry no photos).  

One thing that we tried to do each day was play volleyball.  When I took Robert to see the soccer field we saw the volleyball court and I remembered we had it here in the neighborhood.  It was super fun to play with them.   The competitiveness in our family has not gone away - not at all.  

Celebrating their victory over us

 Saturday's are the day we go for a long hike or we go play Frisbee golf.  There are two parks we can play at.  MorningStar has a challenging 6 hole course, and Georgetown Park has an exciting and challenging 18 hole course.  We like to go to this course even though MorningStar is closer.

Robert accidentally threw the frisbee into the pond

Robert - ready to go

San Gabriel river is along the course too

I love the landscape at the parks where we live.  It's so peaceful to me

It's so fun having these two home.  As kids they were inseparable - not much has changed.  They would stay up late at night talking.  Robert - it is so good to have him home, but I know he is thrilled to have someone else here besides his parents.  Especially during the quarantine period.  I feel for him so much because we now live in Texas and he really doesn't know anyone here (exception Jared Sudekum, Shawn Bentiti from his mission).

It was super fun to have Marissa home for Easter. 

Marissa flew back to Utah/Idaho on Sunday April 19.  We convinced her to stay one extra day with us, which turned out to be a super last fun day. 

I wish I could have taken her to get her nails done, go shopping, or any of our other fun pampering outings but for me it was just as great to her here to lay out and tan, play sports, and run with her.  She is such a joy to be around.

Easter 2020

We started out with a wonderful Easter Sunday ... but that turned quickly and it became one of the worst Easter Sunday's I have ever experienced. 

Saturday night we watched Courageous.  We thought it was a good thing because it is a spiritual movie, however, it had some sort of crazy effect on Robert - we found out later today. (but I'm getting ahead of myself)

Overnight the Easter Bunny came and left Easter Baskets filled with treats for Robert, Marissa, Mark and Betsy.  Mark was surprised that his basket was filled with all sorts of dark chocolate treats. 

We had our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast and then we all got dressed for home church. 

We had the sacrament and a wonderful discussion about the love of our Savior and his sacrifice - the blessed Atonement - that gives all of us hope.  It was weird that I could feel like something was wrong.  Robert seemed to be upset with us but didn't say anything.  He's been very judgmental since he's been home from his mission, but that is to be expected. 

It's always made me feel so sad that he doesn't like being home.  Marissa was the same way.  I feel like they loved their mission president and his wife more than their mom and dad - or at least their mom.  They say how wonderful their mission president and his wife were but then they criticize me or the way Mark and I do things.  We aren't perfect by any means but we do love them so much and show our love for them every day.  We love each other too - so much.  I don't know what our kids don't see - what they don't appreciate.

Anyway, we went outside for an Easter Photo and Robert blew up at us and said we didn't sustain the priesthood in our home, he yelled at us and made Betsy cry before stormed off to his room.

He disappeared into his room for the entire day.  He refused to talk to us, even to Marissa.  He blocked his door so that we couldn't get in.  He only came our for Easter dinner, and then he went back to his room. 

This is by far the worse, absolutely most terrible EASTER ever.  I felt horrible all day - all day - every second of every minute of ever hour!!!

Marissa and I were at a loss.  We tried to bring the spirit back into the home but we were all so concerned about Robert - we wanted to resolve whatever was bothering him.  We wanted to address whatever we had done to make him so upset, but then he just refused to talk to us. 

I wrote him a letter and slid it under his door.  I said I was sorry for being me.  Essentially - I think that is the most of it.  He doesn't like the person I am. 

It breaks my heart - it will forever - that's got to be the worst.  I will spend the rest of my life trying to be more Christlike, more humble, more obedient, more honorable but it won't matter.