April 2022

April started with a little bit of fall canning. Apparently this year has been a busy one, because I finally got around to making jelly from the grapes we picked in October and salsa from the tomatoes from our garden last fall. My theme this year could be "better late than never." Sadly, several of my jars of jelly never set up. I'm currently trying to sell my family on the fact that grape syrup is a thing, but they are fighting me on that.

We had an electrical scare when we tried to mount a desk on the wall for Emmie. The probability was almost impossible, but somehow we managed to drill right into a wire. There was smoke, and a fried drill bit, and we then lived without power to that part of the house until an electrician was able to come fix our mistake. 

Fun fact: I am writing this in September an the wall still looks exactly like this.  One day I'll post about how I got around to patching the wall and repainting. Its best for me to put off projects like this so I can continue with my "better late than never" theme.

The biggest and most exciting event for John during the month of April was the new fence. We (along with several of our neighbors) hired a fencing company to tear out the old and install a new fence for us. We still needed to redo the 2 sides of our yard since we had only done the back last spring. They accomplished in 3 days what would have taken us weeks to do. And I agree with John, the new fence looks amazing. This is the only picture that I have...and even though its just a picture of our unsightly side yard....it still looks amazing.

John's best time of the month also corresponded with his worst time of the month. He somehow managed to scratch his cornea in 3 places. Ouch! He was pretty miserable. I drove him to the eye doctor the same morning that the fence went in and then we promptly got him some medication and he had to rest and keep his contacts out of his eyes for weeks until it completely healed. I guess at least he had the beautiful fence to look at after his eyes healed.

April for Ainsley meant prom. Her friend Brett asked her. We spent the month ordering and returning dresses, shopping for jewelry and trying out hair styles.

(This dress took second place.)

April for Owen meant track and tennis. He attempted to do both. Which was tricky. Also, tennis is the hardest sport to get a decent picture of your kid in action. The fence makes it nearly impossible. Anyways, Owen had to leave track early every day to make it to tennis, and he also had to miss several track practices due to tennis matches. He likes running and really likes the kids that are in track, but his focus was tennis. Next year if he makes the varsity tennis team he won't be able to do both and will have to choose. 

I'm also fairly certain that we celebrated Easter in April. However the only photographic proof is this picture of the hams at Costco. I did indeed make a ham. Which just reminded me that I don't really like ham and neither does my family. If I'm able to find any pictures of actual Easter I will add them...in an attempt to be less lame.

April also brought with it Owen's new hobby of cake making. It all started when he and his friend Clara made a birthday cake for their friend Logan. From there the cakes obsession continued, and if the kids were bored on a weekend, making a cake always seemed like a good idea. Some cakes were better than others, and my kitchen was always destroyed in the process, but I can't complain about a bunch of teens getting together to bake.

The end of the month brought with it Ainsley's senior prom. We made her date a boutonniere. Which I was happy to model.  

She went with some friends from her French class and they all seemed to have a great time. During the day they went to the zoo. And that night they had dinner at Brett's house and then went to the dance that was held at the Old State Penitentiary. There was a sudden and fierce rain storm as soon as we finished taking their group pictures, but all the kids didn't seem to mind and had a great time.

 

Sadly we ended the month of April with my Grandpa Welch's funeral. His leaving us was sad, and yet I couldn't be too sad about it because he lived such a good and long life and was finally not sick. His cancer had made it so that he couldn't eat and he was slowly wasting away. He was so frail. We went to his funeral in Twin Falls. Syd and Kort and Dan all flew in for the funeral. Sydney had to play the piano for my cousin Hailey and her husband Mark, they sang a song called called "Goin' Home" and were not successful at getting though it without crying. My dad and Randy spoke and Pam gave the life sketch. My dad had a hard time getting through his talk but did a good job. He shared lessons that he learned from his dad and told about a time when he stole some bowling shoes when he was growing up and how my grandpa had vouched for him when he was accused and said that my dad had never given him any reason to assume he would have stolen and lied. My dad said this just about killed him and he learned a valuable lesson about honesty that day. My uncle Randy shared a very dramatic story about the day that my Grandpa was a hero. In the seventh grade his school basket ball team was playing their rival and the game was tied the entire game. At the end of the game my grandpa made a buzzer shot from half court (even though the coach had instructed them to only shoot lay-ups) and he made the basket! They won the game 2-0! Randy also talked about how they had taken care of some chichilla's while my Aunt Zeda and Uncle Howard were on a mission in Australia. They had to go give the Chinchilla's their shots and my grandpa accidentally pushed too hard and the needle when all the way through the poor chinchilla. Upon hearing this Emmie let out an audible wail during the story. It sounded like she was crying over my grandpa...however everyone that knows Emmie knew that she was actually sobbing over the poor chinchilla. 

This was our last funeral in a string of three. I was able to visit with cousins that I hadn't seen since I was a kid. It was nice to be with family and to remember the life of my grandpa. My dad pointed out that he hadn't seen his mom or brother since he was 17, his dad for 40 years, and his wife and sister for over 20. I'm sure his reunion on the other side was a joyous one.