Spare ribs for breakfast

 Oh hi handsome Jacob,

We just got home from your cousin Camille’s house for dinner. She lives pretty close by in Harriman. She made really good grilled chicken sandwiches. It was nice to see my side of the family. Looks like Spencer is getting closer to putting his papers in. This is not in relationship to last week, but everyone comments on how much your letters mean to them, and what a vivid writer you are. In relationship to last week, your aunt patti cares so much about you and has been praying for you all week. I’ve told her no more than I’ve told anyone else. But everyone has been through a challenge and everyone can relate to a trial.

I’ve been praying for you a lot too. All I can ever feel when I pray for you is the love I have for you, the faith I have in you, and the admiration I have for you. Every day I don’t get a call from your mission President is a day that I hope you are doing better. Your life will always be full of temptations and failings. The key is to always keep moving closer to God even as you stumble back. He’ll do his part to pull you forward if you just ask him to. The only real failure in life is to embrace your weaknesses over your convictions. This world calls that a lifestyle choice. We’re trying to embrace something much bigger than this life, and sometimes we feel pretty small doing it. But that’s okay, that’s called humility. I saw that in you last week, that’s why I felt so proud of you.

This week has been much quieter than last week, no travel report or anything. Mostly I was working, like nearly every night. I didn’t even have time to get back on my freelance so I’m behind now.

Thursday uncle Tim was magnanimous enough to invite us over, to grandma’s, for st. Patrick’s dinner. It was fun to be with them. Grandma made corned beef and cabbage, but because she’s the best person in the world also had Parmesan chicken as a backup. I guess rye bread is part of st. Patrick’s dinner. Uncle Tim made a rye bread joke that went right past me to the point that I didn’t even realize it was a joke. The first thing mark did when he found out that Joey worked at IFA was to ask for a discount. After all, what good is family for if not to use it.

Friday I took a break at lunch time to go to Walmart, mostly just to get out of the house. I went by the hot wheel section. There were a whole bunch of obnoxious high school kids going through them when I got there. I walked around a bit and when I got back to that section there were a couple of boys still going through them. I asked if there was any good ones left and one kid pulled a couple out for me. I thought that it was cool that an old guy and a younger kid could share that interest. But, it mostly made me miss the times you and I would dig through the hot wheels together. This week, almost everything made me miss you.

Friday night we went to the Pie for dinner. We ate there and it was so good and fresh. We got pull aparts in your honor.

Saturday was a good stay at home and do chores day, but in a good way. I slept late until about 9 or so. Then mom and I took Joey to McDonald’s for breakfast before work. Ben was home before we got back so we took him a McGriddle. Mom had a stake meeting so she sent ben and I to the DI to drop off some clothes. On the way home I stopped by IFA to get some fertilizer for the lawn. Ben was mighty uncomfortable seeing Joey, who barely acknowledged us, he was collecting carts from the parking lot. After we got home I finally got my air compressor wired on my 4Runner. It was shockingly easy in the end, but I had to d a ton of research online to find out that the tiny purple wire was on and the black was ground and that blue and yellow weren’t needed in my application. It seems to work well, but I may want to add a tank to it so I can use it to blow dust off of my tailgate.

After that we went to meet grandma and grandpa and Joey at lunch at Jim’s. Ben said I officially have crossed the old man threshold because I ordered a chopped steak at 3:30. It was really good, but admittedly, it was the same exact thing that grandpa ordered.

When we got home it was time for yard work. I finished trimming the trees and gathered up all the clippings and old tomatoes into the trash. I also spread the fertilizer. The last chore for the day was working on the electrical wiring in the garage. I decided to only work till Joe got home, so I didn’t finish, but progress was made. Later we just watched some tournament games. There were some good ones, but I’m not really paying attention. There have been a bunch of upsets this year, I’m sure ben will fill you in tomorrow.

This morning Benjamin got up at 4 to put ribs in the smoker. We bought them for Sunday dinner, but realized we had been invited to Camille’s house. Ben has a busy week coming up so he decided to make them for breakfast. He did a great job, they were perfect with an amazing bark. I was going to work on my freelance today, and maybe I was just feeling lazy, but I thought it may be better to not work on Sunday. Church was ward conference. 

Well, there’s my boring week. I hope yours ended better than it started. I really look forward to hearing from you. I’m around if you need to chat. I really love you my noble boy. Be well.

Pops