Ups and Downs

In the past bit, we've had a bit of a roller coaster. Melynda and Eli were sealed to our family in the temple on May 15. That was a wonderful experience and it was neat to see all the kids dressed in white.

Then on May 28th Melynda turned 18, and on June 1st, she ran away. It has been a heart-breaking, frustrating couple of weeks. We know that she is now living with a friend in Twin and looking for a job. She took nothing with her and left very impulsively.

The kids are adjusting pretty well. And for the most part, Stephen and I are too. I have started having contractions easily and have to stop and sit or lay down frequently during the day. I'm only 32 weeks along, so this baby needs to wait a while longer.

Outside of the big stuff, we are enjoying regular summer activities. The kids are super excited today because we have 9 new baby ducks in our yard. We found the mother duck and the nest by accident around May 23rd when a basketball bounced over into the weeds by the fence. At the time, we didn't think the kids and dog and cat would leave her alone long enough to hatch the eggs. She had to sit on them for 30 days, which was a long time to not be bothered by the kids or their friends. I'm not sure when they hatched, but they are pretty tiny and today is the first day she's been away from the nest at all. (She's been "checked on" numerous times every day since she was discovered.) We fed her some bread and the kids filled up the wading pool and put it out on the basketball court so they will have water. From reading online, it looks like they may stick around for about 8 weeks until the babies can fly. It should be fun watching them grow!