By the end of November in Austin, a few leaves change colors. Usually they cascade a little then disappear in December. Our A/C generally runs strong until Thanksgiving. Roses bloom December through February then start over. It’s usually around 75 degrees right now. This week we hit 83. The next day our cold front gusted in and we might get snow tomorrow. I’m ready to hibernate! Levi inherited my genes. We’ve both been limping around, stretching out our joints, and aching a little in the quick shift of temperature and lots of rain! Ha!

Wesley taught the boys how to play checkers today. So Lincoln leans over the table wearing some 12-month shorts he dug out of the closet (despite the fact that it’s cold in our house), Levi stands on his chair with exuberance, and Keller plays with the table legs. They can barely handle the anticipation; it’s so cute. Levi won three of five games: he’s a very happy champion.

We enjoyed another week of destruction: they dismantled and then shattered our darling wooden toy bus, they peeled apart a bike helmet bit by bit (I didn’t know that could happen!), they pulled out their dresser drawers and took the pieces apart—so those are in the garage so the glue can dry while their clothes exploded all over the house, Lincoln pinned a cape to a shirt then ripped it out, and a myriad of smaller items met their demise. I just haven’t accounted for them. I threw them into the normal bruises and bangs category, but all things shall be restored in the resurrection!

Tuesday through Friday we watched Hannah and her little brother Hyrum while their parents went to NYC. Hannah is 4.5. Hyrum and Keller are two weeks apart. If they hadn’t all had coughs and mild diarrhea, I might have been tempted to watch more 2-year-olds so Lincoln could have a counterpart as well! Fun adventure despite everyone getting a little sick.

Part of Keller’s diarrhea might be that soy milk doesn’t seem to work with his system either (even with a probiotic!) and that he cut two teeth today. He and Hyrum shared balancing contests. Hyrum is very good at standing and sitting (he doesn’t move much) and being stable. Keller obviously observed this. He’s been practicing standing up freestyle—then he runs. He tried running through the chairs in the RS room today. He’s been flopping face first from his runs, then he stands up laughing, and starts over. He’ll be walking with confidence soon. One of his favorite things is playing soccer with the boys while one of us holds his arms so he can go, go, go! Singing is also one of Keller’s favorite things to do. Noise in general seems to be a gift. He can out-scream any of us. Good thing we love his little voice (and his big grin)! Oh! He has also peed in the potty at least once a day this week. He climbs on the little trainer, points down, and says, “Pppssssst!” Go Keller!

Lincoln invented a new superhero: Jack the Hammer. He goes around fixing everything, from fires to tears to fences. And he can fly. He’s an especially fast runner. “I AM JACK THE HAMMER! I AM JACK THE HAMMER! HAM HAM HAM HAM!” We played superheroes saving each other all day Friday. Today I walked into nursery with him telling the other (less responsive) kids, “There is a lizard under my napkin. Do you see my lizard? Look! There is a lizard on the wall!” Then he transformed into a lizard-eating spider. So funny.

Levi has been reading the BOB books (I highly recommend them. We’ll be investing). While sounding out a sentence, feeling frustrated that he’s not perfect, he turned to me and stated, “I’m just still learning, Mom.” Then he sighed heavily. We wandered onto a baseball field at a park (chasing crows…) and we went over all of the bases, closely observed the pitcher’s mound while Levi asked a ton of questions. His questions always floor me. Hannah’s family moved yesterday (Wes helped for 4 hours). Levi wanted to know when we could move to live closer to Dad’s work, like her family. He spent a lot of time folding blankets and shirts and pretending to wrap Christmas presents. We have “surprises” hidden all over the house.

On Monday we tried to smash in as much as we could in preparation for our friends to come over. We took two meals to people and finally sent off Royal’s Christmas present. By that time in the day, the boys had climbed to the top shelf of their closet, pulled out their Halloween costumes, and become a crocodile and Superman. I let them wear their costumes. Lincoln brought his hammer. We entered the crowded post-office, their little eyes sparkled. Let the entertainment begin! They pretended to fly, to save each other, to take mail to people in Ukraine, to make boxes, to sort stamps—all with a rapt audience. They sat on a bench when I finally got to the front desk only to realize I’d missed the customs form! (Poor postal workers!) The boys performed some more and we left with a lot of appreciation. I think we actually helped people feel the Christmas Spirit. When we opened the doors to the van Lincoln paused dramatically, “MY HAMMER! It’s on the bench!” Without looking he dashed back across the street (bless those angels and slow drivers who saved us) and we retrieved the hammer. Success!

Wesley and I caught the cough. We’re hoping it remains mild. This week he watches his 62 students each give a 10 minute presentation. He works so hard for his class, his research, the young men, and us. I’m so grateful. He drove to the church quite a lot between mutual, meetings, and taking a boy to seminary. He took his class on a power plant tour and went to ERCOT with his IGERT group (ask him that means). I had the honor of reading David’s BYU application essays and offering a few measly comments. I’m proud of his work. He has communicated himself well. Go David! This week we went through our budget (yay!) and revamped our holiday festivities plan. We did our Thanksgiving shopping on Saturday. Wesley allowed me to splurge on a Brussels sprouts stalk. I’m SOOOO excited. This, I recognize, is probably lame. Still. SOOOOO excited. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It’s like a marathon to kick off the joy of Heavenly Father’s plan and His many gifts to us.

Today I was released from being compassionate service leader and called as the visiting teaching coordinator. This is another calling I’ve had before. I must need to refine my skills! Also, in church today the Bishop announced that a new stake was created in Austin.  We now have 4 stakes in the area.

We’ve been studying prayer at the suggestion of our stake presidency. In Enos 1:8-9 the Lord tells him that “thy faith hath made thee whole.” Then Enos had an increased desire for his brethren so he “poured out my whole soul.” We are made whole by our faith in the Savior. As we turn to Him for healing, protection, love, completion, we become even more like Him because our desires turn to others in love. When converted, we give our “whole soul” back to God. We pour it out doing His work, building His kingdom. Faith and prayer are powerful.

Love you.

Cole Crazies

Last night Wesley and I attended the adult session of stake conference together. Weird and wonderful. We haven’t been able to do that for a long time; the adult session always seems to overflow with the Spirit. Perhaps because it’s slightly quieter. Perhaps because there are fewer distractions. Perhaps because it requires more sacrifice to go. The First Presidency determined the topics for the speakers. No one remembers this happening before. The entire conference focused on hastening the work of salvation. What does that really mean? Developing a personal relationship with the Savior and inviting others to Him? Helping people actively participate in the ordinances throughout their lives? Expressing the love of Heavenly Father in all we do? (and how?) Jared Thomas spoke on how penguins huddle in the arctic to help everyone stay warm. He said that sometimes when he needs relief and prays from standing on the outside, Heavenly Father allows him to stay on the outside a little longer both to teach him that he has more endurance than he thought and to enable him to serve more. We all need to huddle around each other, and help others learn how to huddle as well. One of the suggestions was to ask the missionaries who they are they meeting with that we can help. Our stake president, President Hollingsworth, told stories illustrating that “Faith with hard work produces miracles.” He instructed us to hold FHE studying three scriptures that help us understand faith then memorize one. Then hold another FHE on prayer with the same approach. Doing so will help us remember how to share the gospel. WE need to show that we can be trusted to care for the Lord’s children. If we work to care for them, we will find those that are ready—even unexpectedly. President Hollingsworth promised that as we love others and share the Plan with them that our homes will be filled with peace and we will be directed by the Spirit. We are still processing and holding a family council on how to improve. I think it comes down to, “How am I doing the Lord’s work today? What does He need me to do?” We sang “The Spirit of God” in closing and could feel the presence of the angels who are assigned to our stake and to our families committed to the work of salvation with us.

Although Wesley was home this week, we didn’t see much of him. Welcome to real life! My gratitude for his flexible schedule and how cushy our life has been thus far increases as our abilities and responsibilities expand. He went on a campout over the weekend, came home in time to shower and change, then headed out to more meetings. I’m so glad that he honors his duties and work—and that he wants to be home. He is such a blessing. When I took some sisters to a Relief Society meeting this week they asked about Wesley; I have a hard time even talking about him without swooning. My heart really overflows. When I wake at night and see him I’m grateful Heavenly Father allowed me to have him. When I wake at night when he’s gone, I’m grateful for how often he is with us and for his constant love.

The events of the week blur, so I’ll just mash it together. Wes and Levi felt gross on Monday, but thankfully it passed. Tuesday the boys screamed until 4 p.m. Wednesday the temperature dropped to 37 degrees; today it is back over 80. We dug out our jackets: Lincoln mumbled all day, “It’s snowing! It’s snowing!” We took one of the young men register for high school (he’s been homeschooled) which took over two hours—so we played hide-and-seek in the courtyard. We watched a few kids, we met with our friends the Haywoods for the first time in a month (baby Olivia is only a month old!). We went to meetings. We visit taught and played with darling girls where all of the kids tried on my glasses. (Levi: “Why is everything bigger in your glasses, Mom?”). We met with our friends the Klewenos at the park. Keller has officially joined the crew in all things (yelling, laughing, tackling, climbing, building, dancing, singing…). He climbed up the play space at the park and slid down face first over and over again. They raced each other. Lincoln and Levi went down at the same time, giggling, “We are in your tummy, Mom! We are twins and we’re coming out!” Oh, my. We went to the library and forgot the stroller. Ah! Not a good idea when you’re checking out 50 books…We went to the grocery store too late on a Saturday—and a lot of people had interesting comments. Not that I blame them. Levi organized the shelves, pulling the things that had been pushed back to the front and lining up cans. Lincoln jumped in the shelves, rolled on the dog food, and shouted, “I’M HIDING!” And yes, I laughed. I even let them run laps down the empty aisles. Keller chewed the foil box, a few can labels. Then we made it home. Who says miracles don’t happen!

I’m learning to laugh more readily, forgive more quickly, and move forward. Thankfully we work one day at a time.

Wesley’s report (note: a friend of my told me “if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”  That applies here):  I’m a little behind, but here it goes anyway.  I interviewed at BYU in the chemical engineering department on Halloween.  A typical faculty interview is usually a day or a day and a half and consists of four elements.  The first is a meeting with the entire faculty where I present my vision of my research and teaching and try to convince the faculty that I’ll be a good fit and that I’ll be successful in getting research funding.  The second is a 30 minute individual meeting with every member of the faculty.  The third is a research seminar presented to the entire department (faculty, graduate students, and interested undergraduate students).  The fourth is a teaching demonstration (not all universities include this part).  All meals are with faculty members.  Departments want to be sure that you are going to be successful because it can cost them $500,000-1,000,000 to bring in a new faculty member (a department provides money for new equipment and for funding for the first two years for the professor and research group).  The BYU interview was a nice first interview for me because I already know all the professors and had a wonderful experience there as an undergraduate, so it was very comfortable.  I really enjoyed meeting with my old professors and explaining to them what it was I wanted to do and how I would do it.  My seminar seemed to go well, and my teaching demonstration went much better than it probably should have (because I had such short notice for the interview I was putting my lesson plan together on the plane trip in).  I think the faculty members are mostly convinced that I would be successful at BYU.  I think their biggest concerns are that my ideas are not as well formed as someone who is several years out of graduate school, that I come from the same research group as another professor at BYU, and that BYU doesn’t have much of an energy focus so it might be challenging for me to find collaborators (which is true, every university I applied to except BYU has some sort of energy research center).  I really like BYU’s undergraduate focus and that religion is part of the core education, but I can also see the benefits of working at a university where graduate research is given a higher priority.

This last week I got to go to San Francisco for the AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) conference.  It’s the primary chemical engineering conference with several thousand chemical engineers getting together to share research and ideas, network, recruit, or just meet up with old chemical engineering buddies.  Besides my general interest in going to a large meeting of chemical engineers, I also went in order to give some visibility to the universities where I applied.  Whenever I sent out an application package I invited them to my talk at the AIChE meeting, so I was excited to see how many people would show up.  I had also won a travel grant for my research work, and as part of the travel grant, my talk would be competing for the CAST (computing and systems technology) division presentation award (plus I got to go to a fancy awards dinner).  Just before my talk began the room started to fill up with people.  By the time I got going there were people lined up out the door (note:  the room was not that big, seating maybe 30 people).  Hopefully that means that people think I might make a good faculty candidate.  I thought my talk went well (I’ve given talks at eight conferences/seminars in the last six months, so giving a research talk is not a big deal).  My adviser, Dr. Edgar, left right after my talk, and said he got several compliments from people, so that’s also a good sign.  Overall, though, I really enjoyed getting new ideas and connecting with new people.  The chemical engineering community is small enough that it’s easy to run into the same people over and over again, which is a lot of fun.

One last thing to note, then I’ll turn it over to Cassie.  On my flight out to San Francisco I stood in a very long security line.  The lady behind me, Valerie Beardsley, was flying alone for the first time.  We got to talking, and she found out I was a chemical engineer, which got her very excited because her husband is a chemical engineer who owns an oil exploration and production company here in Austin.  Towards the end of our conversation she told me her husband went to school at Rutgers and was heavily involved in their alumni program.  One of the schools I applied to was Rutgers.  To make a long story short, her husband gave me a call on Friday morning to talk about Rutgers, and her husband is hand delivering my CV and research statement the Rutgers’ dean of engineering tonight.  Regardless of how that turns out, though, I really enjoyed talking to Valerie.  She’s a great lady, and made the wait in the security line quite enjoyable. Now back to Cassie (whew!).

Wesley was gone from early Monday to late Thursday. He came home to book group in full swing and one of our friends here to teach him a new game. Welcome home!

The boys looked forward to Friday all week for two reasons: Dad was back in Austin and we went camping! At the last minute, we decided to shift the majority of our fun to Friday instead of Saturday. We left just after lunch, drove for an hour to Bastrop State Park (where much of the terrible fires were a couple of years ago), then checked out our site. We hiked to the top of a hill; I love elevation change. The rain left the yellow and pink rocks clean, some mud, and some random streams. We crossed them by balancing on fallen down trees. Lincoln found rocks and sticks. He pretended to drill and hammer, drill and hammer. In his words, “Ham! Ham! Hamhamaham!” Then he found a stick shaped like a capital “T.” Eyes wide, excited, “A LAWNMOWER!” Thus, he mowed the mostly burned hillside. Levi scouted out the best path for us, yelled when he found ants, and beat us to the top. Keller loved the first little while in the backpack carrier—then he wanted to run. If only he could stand, too. After our hike we set up our tent to the joy of excited little boys. I set up the bedding while Wes began teaching the boys more about fire. We roasted hot dogs, ate s’mores, marveled at the moon. The restroom facilities are being rebuilt, so we used port-a-potties. To get to the port-a-potties we crossed a little bridge. All of the boys love The Three Billy Goats Gruff. When Lincoln started across the bridge he said, “Trip-trap-trip-trap. WHO’S THAT TRIPPING OVER MY BRIDGE?”  Levi was so excited about the port-a-potties he used them seven times! Twice around our hike, once during dinner, twice after dinner, once around 5:30 a.m., and once before we left at 8:30. Wow. Maybe we should invest in a port-a-potty to encourage regular waste disposal! Lincoln took the opposite route and held it as much as possible—close calls! Keller slept better than anticipated. Unfortunately, I don’t think the campers around us really appreciated our presence. Most of them didn’t arrive until after we prepared for bed and then left before us. Granted, it rained during the night, paused, then rained over our breakfast tacos. The rain made for some added excitement. What’s camping without airing out the tent? Their favorite parts: 1. The fire 2. Telling stories by the fire 3. Sleeping in the tent. 4. The overlook building on top of the hill at our hike. We loved the whole event. Next time we might make it just a day/evening trip until Keller is a little more upright and prepared for the night—but we’re ready to go again!

From Bastrop we drove to south Austin, dropping Wes off at a multistake emergency service project. A week ago when it rained a ton, many parts of Austin flooded. The area Wesley helped clean out received 15 inches in 15 minutes—and they are next to a creek. The water in the houses came to the middle of the wall. Dishes scattered across the yards. Appliances were still filled with water. Books and furniture destroyed. Entire neighborhoods marked with a red “x” to signify “uninhabitable.” The Helping Hands and other volunteers helped individual people clean out their homes, find anything salvageable, pull off drywall, and haul away all that was ruined. The boys and I didn’t go because it sounded unsafe for little ones; plus sometimes people get nervous around children. They would have loved it and probably been able to help. Alas. We’re grateful Wesley could go. Yes he was tired and we’d been apart for most of the week, but these people had lost much of their work and homes. We are honored to serve. I felt a wave of appreciation for all the volunteers as I left the school parking lot crowded with yellow vests loading onto city buses, “I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord.”

Speaking of crowds, at bedtime on Tuesday Lincoln sat on his bed yelling, “AN ANT! ANOTHER ANT!” I went in to find their entire room swarming with fire ants.  Ugh. I shoved everything to the middle of the room, sprayed, and put them to bed in my room. Levi was out before I said goodnight, Lincoln—despite no nap and early rising—had more to say and do. He wanted to watch more of “Mulan,” so we talked about defending our families, “Like from the ants!” he chimed in.

When I unloaded the boys from picking up Levi from preschool, I noticed that Levi’s backpack was unusually heavy. Really heavy. We opened it during personal time to find the folding stool from the bathroom, some church pictures, a fire safety manual, and the New Testament stories. Oh yes, then his folder and notebook in the back. “I needed this to show to my friends at preschool.” If you’re going to show your friends something, bring scripture. Sweet, funny boy.

Some of the miracles of the week: we shared a pillow fight on a hard afternoon and everyone dissolved into laughter and kisses; Keller took two naps two days in a row!; we cut out shapes and wrote things we are thankful for—including heroes, crayons, all of our cousins individually named, aunts and uncles named, and especially our Savior who, according to Levi, “loves me so much!”; Lincoln’s hammer which breaks everything so he can fix it at the park, in the van, on his body; book group and our friends; splashing in rain and puddles; imaginary football; Keller coloring with furrowed brow and taking steps into the garage!; Levi memorizing and reciting scripture; airplanes that allow Wesley to go across the nation and back in less than a week!

Even aside from Wesley being gone, I struggled quite a bit this week. I feel like I’m probably doing something very wrong in training these boys—I just haven’t figured out what it is. Thankfully I know that grace is real. I know that there is much I cannot do, yet with the enabling power of the Savior and His atonement we can do the Father’s work. As long as I’m doing all I can and turning to Him, I can’t completely ruin these tender little boys. Oh dear. Save us all one day at a time. An extra blessing of the week has been that my calling (compassionate service leader) is suddenly very busy—that means we’ve had many opportunities to serve and to invite others to share the love of Christ. I often feel like He gives me ways to serve here so that I can offer up for my family far away. (I admit I don’t really miss dinners and parties as much as I hate being away when our family members are sick, hospitalized, having trials, having babies…) What a gift. Despite our imperfections, He trusts us with so much—He trusts us with each other!

Happy birthday yesterday to Morgan! Happy birthday Grandma Stacy! Happy birthday to little boy and little girl Frischknecht! Happy birthday to Preston next weekend! What a party!

The main event of the week was Wesley's surprise interview at BYU. He found out about it Monday, flew out Wednesday, came home late Friday. It went very well. He flew out to San Francisco early this morning for AIChE. He’ll be home late Thursday.

Keller dropped in weight but grew three inches since his last well check. This may be due to his determination to stretch and climb onto everything. I often go into the toy room to find him stacking and climbing. He discovered the potty-training potty under the bathroom sink, set it up, and sat on it for five minutes. Disgruntled squawking ensued when I finally pulled him off of it. Since then he’s used it to climb up to the toilet. I’m just waiting for him to climb into the sink or up the wall. One of his new discoveries, to my surprise, is a pencil and paper. He likes to eat them, but this week he stopped chewing in order to hold them both correctly and draw. My notebooks have a new contributing scribbler. Preschool time has rubbed off on everyone! We hurried to start trick-or-treating, so Keller just went as a mess. He has decided to feed himself. Who am I to interrupt independence? We didn’t clean him up much after dinner. Good enough! Wes brought Lincoln and Levi toy screwdrivers home from his trip: Keller forcefully let us know that he needs one, too. Oh! And he learned to blow his nose right into a tissue. Vaccinations this time were live viruses so he has had a runny nose. Way to solve your problem, kiddo! He received his first haircut (meaning: his two curls are gone and he’s still practically bald).

Lincoln inspired Wes to get the toy screwdrivers. He lost his months ago (we’ve searched everywhere—he probably brought it to a park and left it in the tube he was fixing). As a result, he figured out where Wesley keeps his screwdrivers, unloading all of them. I let him carry around one of the short fat ones (a Phillips) during the day to keep him calm. Was that a bad idea? I don’t know, even after I found him unscrewing the glass out of the toy room door. Our fence is being rebuilt. All of the boys have been plastered to the window in awe of the power tools. Lincoln is especially joyous over it. “I need one of those jack-hammers!” Aside from the tools, he had a pretty rough week. Lots of falling, scraping, tumbling. Fire ants attack his little toes. No naps (in part due to turning his book for rest time into a hack saw…) I anticipated he would enjoy Halloween: not so much. Obviously I underestimated how much of an impact the jumping puppy had a few months ago. He didn’t want to approach any door in case they had a dog that would bite him. Cute little robot. He loved his five suckers more than anything else. One of my favorite moments of the week happened as we grocery shopped and he pretended the skateboard (by running sideways, bouncing, keeping his left arm in and his right arm out in “stop” sign) through the entire store. Ha!

Levi loves superheroes. He spends so much time looking at superhero books. Wesley and I decided a little media is probably a good thing (I should write this as “Wesley convinced me that…”). We watched “The Incredibles” over the course of five days. Levi almost couldn’t handle the suspense. The family sits and talks at the dinner table. Levi stands on his chair shaking, “What is going to happen!!!” Just imagine the rest of his responses; you’re probably right. “I need you to hold me so I’m not scared.” I assured him we didn’t need to watch it, but he really wanted to. Oh, the great unknown. (Lincoln, for the record, pretends to be Dash. Not much different than normal.) And, oh, the joy of superhero outfits. “Mom, how do you get superpowers?” He had a hard time staying inside so much with the thunderstorms and rain, but we pulled through with our own superpowers. I introduced him to the concept of patterns (or maybe I just gave him a name for this intuitive thing he does). We read some books on the body. I think he’s relieved to have more specific names and understanding of all of his parts. We all are. Curiosity directed. (For the record, I do recommend the book Amazing You. Detailed, appropriate pictures and explanations overall). He loves, loves, loves preschool. Even when it is at home. He loved trick-or-treating. He proudly swished his crocodile tail and said “thank you” when our neighbors dumped candy in his bag.

We watched some friends on Monday so we had two four-year-olds and two one-year-olds plus a two and a half. What a party. I thought we’d cancelled our mother’s preschool, but then some kids showed up so we reviewed and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We had some friends over simultaneously—which helped me release some of my anxious energy as Wes was presenting at BYU.  One of the sisters I visit teach moved in less than a week, so we were scrambling to help her which included doing 8 loads of her laundry last minute. I focused on giving each item folded as a symbol of how much Heavenly Father loves her. It helped me refocus and remember that we’re all different—thank goodness. I don’t remember the rest. It was great. What an awesome over-blessed life we lead!

Cole Crew

P.S. Forgive all the craziness and lack of editing—Wesley usually helps me know what doesn’t make sense or shouldn’t be said!