Grumpy kids

I've been having some really grumpy and resistant kids the last couple of weeks.  Evelyn had a very emotional day last week and at the end of it she finally came and cuddled on my lap.  She told me that her favorite aide and reading teacher had left the school that day.  (Her son has some heart defects and she was staying home to care for him during a set of surgeries).  She was very upset and asked if she could write her an email.  I set it up, she wrote a quick one and then she was a lot better. 

Sam had a very hard week.  He was snarky, rude, disrespectful and resistant to all adults that had any authority over him.  Turns out that his best friend Martin was moving soon and he was throwing a tantrum over it.  We talked to him, I have Martin's number and he can text when he wants, we put him in a week of electronics time out for being rude to everyone around him and he stopped doing it.  He wrote apologies to all his teachers and my personal favorite, the group of kids that he eats lunch with set up a seat of honor for Martin after he was gone... they'd leave the seat empty and toast him with their milk/chocolate milk.  That's his second best friend gone in 6 months.  It's so sad to lose people that you love so much.  Evelyn was friends with his sister, Esther, too.  I wonder if that had anything to do with her emotionally charged day too?

As an adult, you'd think that I'd be used to it too.  It's still hard when you miss your family and friends.  That's one thing that I learned from my Grandpa Ellis.  When my grandma died, he dedicated her grave and bore his testimony about being with those we love after death.  On my mission I learned to love many and haven't seen them since.  The 20 years since then, Facebook has made it a little easier, but I've learned to love many people in those 20 years.  I'm not ready for the Second Coming, but I'm sure glad that we'll have the chance to see and love those that we can't here.  In my Ward, many of the ladies were getting together and chatting in the mornings about what can be done to be better friends.  They all felt like they were on the outside, but they were all there together.  I used to reach out to those in our Ward very often.  After Seth was born, it was a lot harder to.  I think it's time to again.  I know I'll meet and lose many more friends along the way, but they aren't really lost.  To all my friends who are gone, I hope to see you soon, but know that you're not lost to  me!  For those that are still here next to me, I hope you stay for a while.