Spring Break this week

Hola Hermana Nielsen,
 
This week is Spring Break for the kids.  Mom signed them up for swimming lessons, so Carly and Addie are excited, but Summer feels a little old for swimming lessons.  Last week was our spring break here at the college.  Our weather has been in the low 70's and if feels like sping has sprung.  We really never did have a winter.
 
One Monday night we had Cody's basketball banquet.  He was honorable mention all league team I believe.  He also made all-state academic.  I think he has a 4.0 this year.  So we will take that vs. the athletic awards. Nate won the MVP of the region and team.  Marshall was most inspirational, Eric Klekas got the 6th man award.  Brandon Jenkins got defensive player of the year and Benton got the Duce award.  It was nice, but I think Cody is glad to have that all behind him.  The fab five got a lot of attention this year and did very well there entire career.  Now on to baseball.
 
On Tuesday, Elko played Spring Creek here.  We won in the bottom of the 7th inning 6 to 5.  It was a very close game that we were trailing most of the game.  But it had all the dynamics of a rivalry game.  Coaches were going at it, players were jawing at each other.  IT was great and even better that we won.  Cody got a key hit in the 6th or 7th inning that helped with the victory.
 
The Choraliers left for San Franciso on Thursday.  So Cody will not be back until tomorrow.  Elko played Sparks over the weekend at sparks and we won 2 out of 3 games.  I think they missed Jacob and Cody.  Benton was back playing after his illness.  They think he has arthiritis for children of something, but he was desinated hitter and went .500 for the weekend.
 
On Wednesday night we had our PAL girls bball team over for our team dinner.  All of them came but 1 girl.  The 2 twins showed up about 1.5 hours late, they had softball practice.  But it was good.  Mom made bread sticks and home made spaghetti with my favorite sauce and they girls loved it.  They asked mom, if we ate like this every night and she said, no, mostly on Sundays.  And they said, we will come back over on Sunday and I said they have to go to church with us first for 3 hours and then they can come eat with us.  about 4 or 5 of them were in agreement, but they said, we will be out of town this weekend, but in 2 weeks come by our home and pick us up.  We got their phone number and address, etc.  But in 2 weeks, it will be easter and general conference.  So I wonder if we should invite them over for easter dinner and to watch general conference??  They saw our stack of BOM's and asked why do you have all these BOM's.  And I explained that we read it together every night as a family.  They asked if they needed to wear dresses to church and we explained that most of the women would be wearing dresses, etc.  They said, does that mean I will be converting to mormonism if we go to church.  I said, no, you can go to church without any obligations.  One girl said, she was baptist, and would go to the baptist church and then come over for dinner.  But the twins and their sister got there late and still stayed for another 1.5 hours while their mom was waiting in the car.  So we fed them and made up a plate for their mother.  I think that most of these girls have never tasted a home cooked meal.  But the girls did not want to leave.  One girls mom called and she said, no I want to stay longer.  Anyway, mom had been praying that we would get girls on our team that needed our influence, and I know Hevenly Father answered that prayer.  We did not win as many games as I would have liked, but about 5 of those girls (native americans) needed to see what real families are like and I think they really liked it.  Mom and I discussed it but she said she was praying for that after the fact that we had drafted our team, but HF knew what she was going to pray for before hand and blessed us with the girls we got.  One girl in particular that really has no family life, her dad is in prison, I don't know where her mom is, but mom drafted her by "misstake", she thought she was drafting another girl.  Not is coincidental with the LORD.  That is the same girl who is staying with Renee Jim and Renee asked Dorinda Friez is we wanted that girl to come live with us as they are tired of her.  They were also asking about Cody, and we said he was on a date, and they asked who with?   The older sister who came and ate with the twins is a 9th graded and she asked if Cody was taking her to prom.  I said no he is taking Rebecca Eardley to prom and they all said, ohhh, a player huh?  I explained that we don't want our kids steady dating 1 person, but to date lots of girls and find the qualities of the girl they like to look for in a wife later on in life when they are ready to get married.  I beleive they understood.  But it was a very enjoyable evening.
 
We had testimony meeting yesterday at church, since general conference is this next weekend.  I can't wait, I love general conference. 
 
March madness update, final four are: Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Duke.  I had Kentucky winning it all as they are undefeated.  I was doing good in the brakets, now I am ranked over 1000.  I was 13th at one time.
 
Have a super week.  WE Love you and are glad you are a mission.  I don't know if Cody will get his mission call this week, as I am not sure President Lewis sent them in yet.  And this week Pres. Lewis is on vacation.  We will just wait and see.
 
Love DAD

Dearest Hermanita Nielsen,

We are not going anywhere for the spring break, Dad is doing taxes and I am just looking forward to having a good week of cleaning and organizing here at home.  Cody will get home today from the Choralier trip to San Fran.  It has been kind of quiet around here without him, he brings a lot of fun and excitement to the homefront we have decided.  Yeah, he can finally spend some time on his room!  I signed the 3 little girls up for swimming lessons this week--even Summer, which she was not really looking forward to being the "oldest one there."  She was the oldest, but she was not the most skilled, so there is still something for her to learn.  I told her she didn't want to go through her whole life only knowing how to do, "Monkey-Tree- Rocketship" kind of swimming.  Once she got in the pool, she was fine; she could kind of crouch down and not be so tall.   She and Carly are in the same group and there are 3 other kids Carly's age.  It will be good for them.  I thought they would enjoy doing something different on the break.

We had our PAL Post Season Party last wednesday.  They really wanted to have it at our house.  It took we about a week to mull it over and decided if I really wanted them here.   Most of the girls were really nice, but those "Rez Girls" were kind of disrespectful, rude( the burper) and down right inappropriate at times.  Dad  and I decided we could have a "Sunday" type dinner and that it might be good for them to be in our home and hopefully they will feel something different here.  I made Spaghetti with my good homemade sauce, breadsticks, green salad, and Fudge Nut Bars for dessert.   They all came, but one.  The twins actually showed up at the end when it was time to go, because they had other stuff going on.   I think that showed they really wanted to be there or they would have thought, 'What's the point?'  They all really enjoyed it and one said, "Do you eat this way every night?"  I said this was more of a Sunday meal and that I don't usually  make dessert except for Sundays.  Someone said, "Can we come over on Sunday?"  to which Dad replied, "Only if you go to church with us!"  They said they would!  So, in two weeks we are supposed to call them and arrange to pick them up for church.  Kind of crazy huh?  They didn't want to leave!  One girl called her Dad and told him she wasn't done yet, the twins' Mom had to come to the door and tell them it was time to go.  They asked us about all our kids and we showed them the "Wall of Fame" with all your pictures displayed by the front door. They saw our Books of Mormon, we talked about  the missions that had been served, etc. When I went to the draft at the beginning of the season to pick our team, I tried to pick the girls with some skills, but then afterwards I thought if I was doing this the "right " way I should have prayed to know which girls I could pick that could learn some life skills from us...( the Gospel essentially)  What I came to realize is that Heavenly Father did bless me with that.  He knew that I would be praying for that, even after I had already picked the team.  He's so smart!  Dad said, "He knows what we are going to pray for before we even ask."  They certainly didn't have the bball skills I thought I was seeing.

Sister Bradley came to visit with her Mom on Sat.  She has been home for about 3 mos.  she was one of the missionaries that taught Whitney if you remember.  We had them for an early dinner- 4pm, then we went to the Womens' broadcast.  Were you able to see that?  I hope you are enjoying your new area, comp. etc.  Maybe Cody's call will come this week  (fingers crossed), we don't even know what his "status" is.

Sure love you, Mom

P.S.  the girl that wrote to you named Sophia is 10 yrs old and is a recent convert along with her mom and two sisters.  I will personally deliver your note to her :)