Merry
Christmas Everyone!
It
is hard to believe that 2012 is coming to a close, but yet it is… just wanted
to write a quick update on what 2012 brought for each of us in our little
family and to let you know how much we love you and love hearing what you and
your family are up to!
So,
without further adieu, the Wheatley 2012 recap:
Durrell is still working at the Social Security office here in Provo. During 2012, he enjoyed golf, golf, and golf (thank goodness for the Utah golf pass books he received for Christmas). Durrell branched out in the garden world and, as part of our community garden in 2012, we were asked if we could use part of our yard for one section of the community garden – Durrell grew the most wonderful watermelon garden and the watermelons were WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS! We ended up growing about 75-100 watermelon and a few Tuscan melons. He also went on a trip to Montreal, Canada, with our son, Dan, where they worked at Susan’s work conference (Susan stayed home and helped Rachel get ready for her next adventure – read more below).
Susan, as always, is still working for the doctor she has worked for for 22+ years and loves being able to work from home. She telecommuted before telecommuting was the in thing to do; it has been a lifesaver for our family. She also worked in the community garden, but not as much in the physical labor portion but as the garden organizer. She kept track of finances, growing schedules, and communication with the 25 community gardeners. She also challenged herself and grew all of the tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkins, artichokes and much more from seed, starting in their basement. By spring, they had 25+ flats of seedlings ready to be planted in the garden. We almost lost the tomatoes due to mold, but a cute and sweet local nursery owner allowed us to take everything to their greenhouses for two weeks and by that time they were good to go! Bless him for his kindness! So, to remedy that problem, we purchased a greenhouse and had it installed this year and so that is our next adventure – to learn how to grow inside a greenhouse. We both are signed up for a class at Thanksgiving Point on just that in January. Always a new adventure right around the corner!
Durrell
II became a husband at the end of 2011 and we were so happy to welcome Brandi
Adams into our home as our daughter-in-law.
They are the cutest couple!
Durrell spent 2012 going to school full-time (in the evenings) while
working full-time in the day (still working at Ridley’s in Orem) as dairy
manager. Although he would rather have a
different job, we are thankful that he has been able to work for this company
(which was once Albertson’s) since he was in high school. Brandi works full-time for Provo Craft, which
is right up her alley! We don’t see them
as often as we would like, but between being newlyweds and Durrell working and
going to school full-time, I guess that is to be expected. Durrell and his bride and Dan and Susan all
were able to take a trip to Chicagoland to visit Susan’s family in September
and to take in a Chicago Cubs game – if you know us, you know how excited we
were! We would have been more excited,
though, if the weather hadn’t been FREEZING COLD and if the Cubs would have
won! Even still, it was wonderful to be
with family and to be with a couple of my boys and Brandi to experience
Chicago.
Rebekkah
and Jonny bought their first home in 2012!
We are so excited for them! It is
a beautiful home in Spanish Fork with room to grow! They also “inherited” Layla (a chocolate Labrador)
not long after they moved into their home.
They love her! Bekkah is manager
of DearElder.com, a letter and package sending company that caters to LDS
missionaries (you should really look into them – a quick and easy way to send
letters to your missionaries as well as a no-fuss way to send packages to your
missionaries). She has been there for a
number of years now and we are so proud of her as she took on the challenge in
2012 of being manager. She is doing a
great job! Jonny works full-time at BJ
Plumbing in American Fork and let me tell you, there is NOTHING that boy can’t
do! He is Mr. Fix-It! He is quite the talented young man and we are
proud of him and Bekkah – they are always “Jonny-on-the-spot” (no pun intended)
to everyone they meet to help them out with Fix-It jobs; they are so giving of
their time and talents. Couldn’t ask for
a better son-in-law and love my Bekkah – she has been my right hand in 2012 and
I love her with all my heart.
Rachel
is now “Sister Rachel Wheatley” as she entered the MTC on March 7, 2012, to
serve in the California Arcadia Mission for our church. She spent three weeks in the Missionary
Training Center and then headed out to California on March 27th. She has served in Chino Hills and now
Glendora, California. She has had a
wonderful experience there and we are so proud of her for this decision to
serve her Heavenly Father. We absolutely
LOVE her lengthy and detailed emails each week and especially the pictures she
sends each week. She looks and sounds
like she is having a wonderful time and has grown to love the people of
California. Mom has to admit that she is
so looking forward to turning the calendar to 2013 because Rach comes home in
September 2013. Time has really flown by
(she is now officially halfway done with her mission). Love seeing how much service she is
performing out there. That’s what it’s
all about, isn’t it?
Dan
is now “Elder Dan Wheatley” as he entered the MTC on October 24, 2012, and
spent three weeks there before heading off to the Arkansas Little Rock Mission
for our church. His first area is
Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and he is still “adjusting” to the different
culture. He loves the people, yet it is
definitely a different culture than Provo, Utah! His emails aren’t as lengthy and detailed as
Rachel’s, but rather are small snippets that keep us laughing. His latest snippet was, “since we're broke
we're gonna catch a squirrel for supper. I bought myself a lil crockpot and my
companion is gonna teach me how to build a trap and skin the critter. yeah
buddy.... that's how we do it in the south. pics to come! :)” Not sure if that was serious or not, but know
that he is loving the “down home” simpleness of the south. He loves sitting outside for dinner at
someone’s home, roasting hot dogs and smores and setting off fireworks. Yup, Dan is on an adventure and with his
adventurous personality, life will never be the same for the people in
Arkansas. He returns home in October
2014 and I miss him so much! It can’t go
fast enough for his Momma!
Now
to our youngest, Sam. 2012 was an
eventful year for Sammy. We went from
having four children living at home in 2011 to him being an only child at home
when Dan went on his mission in October.
HE IS LOVING LIFE! He loves
having Mom and Dad to himself and we love “getting to know” him all over
again. With five children, the youngest
child accidentally gets swept under the rug sometimes (unintentionally of
course), so it is nice to spend some one-on-one time with him. Sam also turned 18 on November 1st
and is in his senior year of high school.
He loves his school schedule this year and can’t wait to graduate and be
an adult. The biggest achievement of
2012 for Sam was completing his Eagle Project.
It has now been approved and we will have an Eagle Court of Honor either
in January or February. We are so proud
of him – he raised funds and supplies for first aid kits for our neighborhood
emergency plan. Each zone (12 of them)
now has their own first aid kits and we are still working on trying to obtain a
donation for a trailer to hold the supplies.
Any ideas?
So,
that is the Wheatley update for 2012 – as you can see from our Christmas card,
our family is goofy and silly and we wouldn’t have it any other way! We love our crazy bunch and are so proud of
each of them!
We
hope for your family to have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and that 2013 will bring peace,
not only to the world, but to your individual families. So many people struggling out there and we
know that we are far away from many of our family and friends, but please feel
our love and {{{HUGS}}} from Utah! We
love you all so much!
