Let me start out with an explanation of why we have not had any family letters recently. First off, I am extremely lazy and do not like writing. I started to slack off. Next, most of my friends and family came home from missions and I lost interest in writing. I apologize, Sister Beachump, you are still serving and I was being selfish. We will try and do better in the future but we will probably not write every week. Devin and I are back and we have LOTS to update you on.
December 2009. Devin and I had a very fun December. We went to the Payne family reunion at my parent's house. This was the first time my whole family had been together in many years. The last time we were together Jeni was the only sibling married and was pregnant with the first grandchild. We now have 6 siblings married and more than 10 grandkids. The reunion was filled with eating and spoiling the little kids. For example, I think the younger kids just hung out by the refrigerator, and any time an aunt or uncle came buy they asked for a Popsicle. Not having any kids to worry about I freely handed them out. They also seemed to love the candy that was around. As a family we had many opportunities to hang out and have fun; like going to a gymnastics gym and jumping in the foam pit with the grandkids. It really was a time that we will treasure for a long time to come.
January 2010. The new year came in with several changes for me. I got released as ward mission leader and got a new calling as Scout Master. I could not be more excited to work with the boys. I was called to be Scout Master on a Saturday. The boys has a camp out on Friday. The hard part of this for me was that it was the annual Klondike camp out. We hiked to our camp through knee high snow. The boys being 11-13 are a little shorter than I am and struggled to get to camp. The boys slept pretty good. I got about 3-4 hours of sleep and spent the rest of the night reading a book. After the camp out we had everything packed and were headed home. As one of the boys was walking across the parking lot he slipped on a piece of ice and broke his arm right above the wrist. So as of right now I have 1 camp out and 2 broken bones. Boy am I on a roll. Only one other thing of interest happened in January of significance. Close to the last day of the month Devin and I received word that our offer on a house was accepted. The house is in the ward we live in and because we live in Utah, that means it is only 2 blocks away.
February 2010. As you can imagine was quite busy. We spent lots of time getting insurance and the loan lined up and finally closed on February 18th. It would have been nice to move that weekend but we had missed several adoption training classes and were required to attend this one. Too bad for us the training was in the evening on Friday and all day on Saturday. We moved that next Tuesday and we're happy to be in our new house. That is until Friday when the pressure valve on the water heater popped and started to leak water all over the laundry room and began to soak the carpet out side the room as well. Lucky for us Devin was at home and caught the problem soon after it happened. We are blessed it was simple to get fixed. Both Devin and I are happy have the month done with.
March 2010. This month looked like things where going to calm down until Tuesday March 9. Devin called me at work in a frantic. She was out of breath; all I could tell was something was wrong. Devin had been walking her sister's dog. The dog started to run to fast and pulled my wonderful wife to the ground. While hitting the ground Devin's pinky finger turned sideways and covered up her ring on the next finger. We soon found out that Devin had broken her finger and would require surgery to fix the problem. The next morning I took Devin to the hospital and she got her hand all wrapped up in a cast and pins holding her finger together. Devin wanted new bathroom faucets and since I had already taken the day off I was changing one while Devin laid on the bed. At one point I needed a new wrench. While we were at the store our case worker from LDS Family services called and told us a child had been born that day who had downs syndrome. They were putting together a short list for the family and were wondering if we wanted to be on that list. After some frantic praying and phone calls to find out what that would en tale Devin kicked me out of the house to help a family in the ward move. Devin also volunteered to watch the families kids while they moved. Yes Devin thinks she is SUPER WOMAN and can handle everything. I was willing to tell people NO at that stage of the day but Devin is much more charitable than I am. The next few days we were on pins an needles and waiting for a phone call to tell us what was up. Also that Friday we had lots of company stay at our house. Devin's sister Melissa and her husband Justin came and stayed with us. They were in town for a friends wedding. It ends up Justin's friend married my co-workers daughter. Friday my brother Jacob came to town and we had a good time talking with him. Jacob is lots of fun to hang with and we were happy to see him. We finally heard back about the child on the next Monday. The child's parents had decided to keep the child. This was a little distressing but we are happy for the family. Earlier this week Devin got the large cast off her hand and now has a small splint and is much happier about that. Devin has been a trooper through all this mess and she is very excited to have two function hands. Devin was distressed today because there was a special musical number and she was going to be the person playing the piano. Life is just sooooo hard. Only one other thing interesting thing happened this month. Devin received an upgrade to her calling as Cub Scout Committee Member she is now the Cub Scout Committee Chair. I am sure that lots more has happened over the past several months but this is our exciting update. We love and care about all of you and look forward to seeing you all soon. Who ever you are.
