Merritt Memories

I thought maybe you would all be interested in hearing how well Dustin is doing in his new career. To use his words, " [He] loves it more everyday!" To my surprise, it hasn't been as bad as I thought. He is home more, that could be a blessing or annoying. When I want to run to the gym or an errand, BLESSING. If my routine gets interrupted, ANNOYING. I'll "take the good with the bad." He has had, to my knowledge, only a few scary instances. He has had to tackle a guy for fear of a weapon. Criminals, they're idiots. Not long ago he was involved in a foot pursuit with a burglar. It ended with him helping to take the guy to the ground. Come to find out, last week the guy was arrested for the same thing. Criminals, they're idiots! He came home last night telling me they arrested a few teenagers for marijuana possession. Criminals, they're idiots! My kids got the lecture this morning about taking only good things into their bodies. They were reminded w...

Ryan turned twelve on the 5th. Yes. I am quite behind in posting. We haven't even had a b-day party yet, but we will. I want Dustin to be able to be there. Yesterday our bishop called him to the stand to announce his graduation from Primary and sustain him as a Deacon. A Deacon!! I felt quite old yesterday. But I held it together and to my surprise I did not cry. I'm sure come next Sunday as he passes the Sacrament for the first time, those tears will flow. Happy tears. He has already had 2 mutual activities, one on the ward level, one an the Stake level. Our ward activity was a Bishop's fireside on dating. He seemed a little confused to all the information he was to soak up. He learned the appropriate age and way to date (the age he already was aware of). He learned about MORALITY. Wow, that was weird. Dustin gave the morality lesson. He had put on the board: Holdy, Holdy. Huggy, Huggy. Kissy, Kissy. Heavy, Heavy. Naughty, Naughty. Once his father got to the Heavy, Heavy p...

how about yours?! We rang the new year in with some good friends. We first went to dinner. Then we went to Wise Guys comedy club. That was real fun! And surprisingly clean except for one guy, luckily he was all of 5 minutes! After that we came back to our house and hung out till midnight. We played Quelf. A very fun game if you don't mind making a fool of yourself, hence the black lipstick! I loved it. 2009 was a great year for us, many changes, but still a good year. Hope you all had a great start to 2010!

Life has been quite busy lately. I feel like I have been just trying to survive. Everything has been placed on the back burner! Our Christmas was nice. This year I will say was especially humbling. With the pay cut we have gone "back to the basics." Some may say, "not so fun," but I will tend to argue. Because of this we focused a little more on what the holiday is all about, Our Savior. While it took a little encouragement on our part, I think our kids realize that Christmas is not about getting. It is about what we can give and what we are doing to become more like Him.However, we didn't get "nothin'". the kids all got the top 3 things on their lists. That's always a plus! My boys are into football right now. Kind of weird, makes me feel old. They each got jerseys of their favorite teams. They also got new sports gear to replace the old, gross ones. Nobody wants to play with a basketball the dog has peed on! Ryan got an air pistol and Aaron w...