What a week! Our washer officially died Monday. We hoped it would miraculously resurrect. Alas. The laundry just piled and stank and Lincoln seemed to overflow more than he ever has. On everything. On Wednesday we called on a few Craigslist washer/dryer combos (since the washer/dryer here belongs to the house and the owner doesn’t care about them, and since we’ll need them eventually) and one guy said, “I’ll deliver them to you right now.” So within an hour, he was here. Hurray! I didn’t know I loved laundry. Especially clean laundry. This also gave me the delightful opportunity of scrubbing under the washer and dryer. Again I determined that we’ll never do liquid laundry soap. The chances of it spilling and molding and gunking under there are just too high. Yuck. Spotless now!

While we were exchanging things, the moving bug bit me. We packed up some of the kids books that the boys haven’t grown into (hence: ripped pages), packed up some clothes they’ve grown out of (Lincoln is almost wearing clothes that Levi wore when Lincoln was born! Ahhh!), and I sold the boys’ dresser and gave away the way-too-large car/landscape table. Space: I love it.

Since January, Wesley has been sick more often than in the entire time I’ve known him (I think). On Thursday he succumbed again. That night he shivered (yes he shivered!) and fevered and coughed. He’s perking up a little bit now, but he’s still tired and glazed. We’re thankful he could take it easy the last three days. Poor guy. Amazingly enough, the rest of us are tired, but otherwise unaffected. We pray that we can keep this up. I’d really like to help some people (without infecting them) before we leave.

If we leave, that is. The likelihood is still on Colorado for the summer. NREL decided to make it an official position. Wes applied on Thursday (when his mind was super clear! Ha!). This means that they’d pay him. It also means that someone else could get the position even though they made it for him. We’ll see. If we stay in Austin or go somewhere else, we still have a lot of work to do. Wesley’s research is doing well and he could accomplish some great stuff over the summer. Yet, it never hurts to expand connections and experience. We wouldn’t mind escaping Texas heat, but—then we could fully appreciate our tomatoes! Good all around.

In other good news: Wesley received the National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship grant! You know, the one we’ve applied for multiple times? This year, we have it! Aside from the honor, this allows him larger flexibility in his research, $9k more a year (but our benefits will be cut, so we’ll figure that out), and three years of representing NSF. Go Wesley! And thanks to all those who helped us learn and grow and refine the application along the way. His energy matrix goes forth!

We’re loving Conference. Levi holds the Ensign up to the speakers and matches them. He’s a little upset that not all of the Seventy are speaking. Ha! Lincoln sings along with the choir pieces in long “LAaaaaa! LAaaaa!”s. We love our prophets and are grateful that the gospel is restored. I love watching our little boy-oes feel the Spirit and gain a love for the prophets as well.

A few boy notes: Levi climbed the “BIG BIG SLIDE” all by himself yesterday. Huge steps for all of us. He’s acquiring freckles and has been strangely kissey. I’ll take it. Lincoln climbs. He turned on the stove. He rocks in the chairs. He swung over the couch—and survived as he always seems to do. I’m excited for the day when we are semi-near grass that they can play in without major damage (scorpions, fire ants, thistles, etc.—the lovely impacts of past droughts on clay). We also discovered our first caterpillars and snails of the season. Levi backed away nervously. Lincoln tried to pick them up with his mouth.

Happy April!