Happy St Patty's Day

Well...I hope you loved your St Patty's Day package! Good news, Lucky the Leprechaun came this year. It was all the traditional things...lucky charms and green pancakes for breakfast, money in the hallway, my "Lucky Mama" shirt, and this year the leprechaun even went pee in the toilet, which Jane could not stop talking about. (pics 1-5) This weekend was fast and furious with a sleepover for Jane and Sally - pic 6 - (a girls night out request from Sally), McKay's friends on Friday night, Henry's on Saturday, Gwen with friends late both nights, Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa H, watching the NCAA BYU BB game (which they lost - boo!), the annual Sunday YM/YW planning meeting at our house (late planning due to COVID this year), lots of snow and rain and McKay riding his bike in it (some say crazy, some say dedicated) - pic 7, YM/YW food donation pick up activity, and just keeping the food coming in and the trash going out. One highlight was having the Horsley crew over tonight for Sunday dinner - pics 8-10. The nice thing was that everyone could come. We celebrated Maddie's 16th bday. She is doing SO much better. You would be so happy if you'd seen her at 90 pounds in December and now she's at 118 pounds, which is the right weight. She's doing amazingly! So, so happy. That was a little scary there for a minute. Funny thing before dinner happened, Ty texted and asked "is this just family?" As if the Horsley Family Sunday dinner was for randos...anyway, Ty was hoping to bring a date or something. Come to find out that the date he was considering was from Venezuela and didn't speak great English. He ended up going out with her on Saturday night instead when we said it'd probably be best to keep it to family. I hate feeling like people aren't invited but Ty is just so unpredictable. It just baffles me sometimes with the things he thinks are in bounds. So, yeah...typical Ty. It was great to see everyone. And pic 11 is just a good night to Jane with a pic. I can't believe that we will hit your one year mark of when you got your call on March 24th! Isn't that amazing?!? The world had just shut down, no school, so many unknowns ahead of us. WHo would have ever guessed that we'd have such a long road ahead??? So, I'm super excited to hear about your week!!! We obviously facebook stalked your comp and found that he was called to Denmark and reassigned to Dallas West. He looks like a solid kid? We are totally judging him without a lot of info. It looks like he went to a semester of school at SUU. Anway, we are praying that it is going well. It's such a crazy time as a missionary to be so malleable with new comps and new areas. It's just like moving. There are 5 great things about each place you live - or in your situation, each comp or area and these 5 things don't usually transition to your next situation but your challenge is to find the new 5 great things about your new comp/area. I'm excited to hear what these things are! I thought I'd give you a little bit of an update on McKay. It seemed like things were moving in the right direction and one day after school he casually said "I don't have a lot of time to talk about this because I'm trying to get out on a bike ride, but I decided to do the experiment with reading my scriptures and saying my prayers every night and you are right, I feel much happier, so I am going to keep doing it." I tried to act cool but my eyes filled up with tears, so I just choked out "That's great McKay" and he laughed at me. Literally the next day something triggered him and he was struggling! I could see it but I thought maybe he was just tired. On Thursday morning I was at the gym and McKay was heading to school early because it was the last day of the quarter and he had two big tests when I got a call from him. He was trying to get some words out but couldn't and when I said "do you need me to come home?" he said yes. That was kind of shocking because it's so unlike him. I grabbed the keys from Dad and ran home to find McKay sitting on the couch and he was really upset. It was like a classic end of the term Calder and totally stressed out. He was crying and hadn't slept well. He had so many things pulling at him. Anyway, we talked through things, made a plan for school and tried to figure out what the trigger was. These things are tough and I was so glad he opened up. I think there's a couple of things about McKay that are great and not great. One is that he is so independent. I think he has just been trying to do it on his own for so long without me, Dad, Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ. We spent Thursday working out of the pit and Dad gave him a beautiful blessing. McKay ended up quitting Hanger and he was so relieved. There's a lot more to this story...nothing bad but just that he'd had a prompting not to take the job and ignored it. He knew it wasn't where he should be. And get this....he missed his job at Lashbrook!!!! He's going to try to get it back. He admitted that it's the best job for him right now. Now I'm praying that Chris will take him back. So, McKay is still getting his feet underneath him. I think the thing that he really needs to learn is that he isn't expected nor should he try to do it all on his own. It's a team sport and we are in it as a family and the Lord and Heavenly Father are waiting with open arms to help him at every step along his way. Well, I think that's the update here. Things are good. We are pushing ahead. I cannot wait to talk tomorrow!!! I hope it's been an amazing week! I'm sure it's been different. I'm praying for you. Like - really praying!!! Hang in there! I'm "One Lucky Mama" to have such an awesome kid like you! Love you tons! Mom :)