Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

Well, just to let you all know what’s going on in our lives right now, today is going to be a rough day for us all. I’ll mention this first, Gordon B Hinckley, the president and “prophet” of the LDS Church (whose teachings Josh has been following more or less his entire life) died last night. Of course the church has a plan of succession and will carry on as before, but many individuals feel a deeply personal loss–or at least a huge change, which can also be sad and scary. So, whether you believe in the LDS Church or not, please keep Josh and his “Brothers and Sisters” in your thoughts and or prayers (whichever you decide is right for you, I’m not here to pressure or judge ). We haven’t told Jacob this news yet, but plan to when he returns home from school AFTER taking the ITBS today. He is nervous about the big scary tests and we didn’t want to upset him beforehand. I’m sure he’ll do just fine, but this is his first year with the ITBS and I remember how gut-wrenching that intense test-pressure can feel. We haven’t told the other kids either and I don’t know if they’ll be upset or not, but Jacob always takes death hard. Cameron will probably get through it alright because he has a playdate tomorrow with his best little friend Grant that he’s excited about. My bit of (sarcastic) lovliness for today is a dental appointment and I get to take Elena with me because Josh has meetings at work. Yay! I can hardly wait! Seriously, I would so cancel, but it didn’t occur to me until this morning and I’m afraid they’ll still charge me something if I cancel at this late notice. I don’t really know if they do that, but it’s annoying enough to have to PAY to go to the dentist that paying and not even having the visit over with would really suck. I don’t mind my dentist or the other guy that cleans and checks my teeth, I just don’t like my teeth and it seems a real shame to waste time, money, and comfort on such a seemingly lost cause. And it should be a real riot to try keeping Elena in place while I’m under the big lamp!
To leave you with some better news though, this weekend, after probably at least 2-3 years of arguing and complaining, Josh FINALLY agreed to go shoe shopping and get new dress shoes! We like the look of his old shoes just fine, but they apparently really hurt Josh’s feet and he gets grumpy after wearing them for any extended period of time. About two years or so ago I had tried just buying shoes his size and bringing them home for him, but they never worked out for whatever reason and I always had to return them so finally we agreed that I wouldn’t buy him any more shoes unless he was with me. So, two or more years later, he finally decided it was worth shopping with all the children to replace his shoes! And since I know how to find the deals, he loaded up on three pairs and all the rest of us got shoes too!!! Of course, I still haven’t had ANY luck finding boots for myself. Perhaps that’ll have to wait till next year and I just may have to pay …(gulp) full price. (deep sigh)