Emotional Times

It has been a long time since i updated this blog. I am recommitting to do better. We have had some wonderful yet emotional times the last couple of weeks. Some of you may know that Erics lab, Rascal, died suddenly 2 weeks ago. What a shock. He was only 9 years old and from the morning i found him in the back yard it has been an emotional rollercoaster. It is like losing part of your family. That probably sounds odd to some of you but for those that have had animals for a long time know the heartbreak it is to lose them, especially when it is so unexpected. We have all had a very hard time but especially Eric and Yvonne. Yvonne kept saying "this is ridiculous that i am still so sad and crying over a stupid dog" But we have done many many fun things with Rascal and he will be missed. I think the other hard thing for Yvonne is (and this is probably a women thing) that with the death of Erics dog and him leaving on his mission, she is losing more than just Eric. She could look at the dog and a part of Eric would still be at home but now that won't happen. Also it is very evident that Eric is now an adult making adult decisions (to go on a mission) and dealing with adult emotions (losing a dog/friend). He is no longer a kid!
Well during this time we wondered if we should get another dog to help us get over Rascal and were trying to decide whether we wanted our backyard back or a dog, which we all love to have.
Well not only did we get 1 dog but ended up with two 7 week old yellow labs. Actually 1 of them is Stephanies. She wanted a dog to take with her when (if) she ever gets married or leaves home. But for now we have two cute little puppies that are a lot of fun, just wish they could stay little. If we could figure out a way to breed them to stay small we could make a fortune.
Well the other fun part of the last week was Erics farewell last Sunday. He did a great job and seems to be very very ready to go. Yvonne's brother Steve mentioned that Erics talk was one that you would hear from a General Authority. I don't know that I would go that far BUT it was an excellent talk and meeting. Afterwards he had about 75 friends come over to the house. Even with the number of kids i felt like we were still able to keep some as semblance of the Sabbath. WOW can they go through the food. That evening we had quite a few neighbors and friends come over to visit with Eric as well. It was a wonderful day.
The night before we had Yvonne's family over for visiting and had an enjoyable time with them. She had most of her family there.
This Sunday Oct 26th my family is invited to the house for visiting and refreshments as well, anytime after 6pm. With the number of family members on both sides and friends of Erics this has worked out very good and given Eric time to talk and visit with everyone more one on one.
I know this post has been mostly about Eric but the past few months have been mostly about him til he leaves. We STILL love the rest of our children and yes mom we spend just as much money on them and give them the same amount of time we give Eric.
Just a quick note everyone else:
Yvonne is doing great from her surgery. Still sore but went back to work today.
Jeff is still working and schooling (graduates April) and since there is no softball he decided to team up with eric and put on a flag football tournament
Stephanie as i mentioned has a new dog and an old boyfriend (old as in dating for a while)
Katie is on break from school for another week and still working
Alyssa is doing well in school and excited for softball this spring
Hope all is well with all of you

Conference Weekend

Well conference weekend has come and gone. We hope you all enjoyed conference. As i'm sure some of you are aware Yvonne had surgery on Friday. She came home from the hospital on Saturday morning just in time for the Saturday Afternoon Session of Conference. Yvonne is doing better and better every day. She's going to have a long road of recovery ahead of her though. We hope you are all doing well and are keeping everyone in our thoughts& prayers. Keep us updated on whats going on in your lives.

Excitement at the Richins House

Well we don't know how many of you know but Eric Recieved his mission call to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana Mission and he'll be leaving on November the 5th. As for everyone else we've just been trucking along going to softball games, Working, and going to School. So i'll give you an update on Each person.

Jeff-Has just been working and going to school. He's also living in Provo and loving it.
Stephanie-Has just been working as a Dental Assistant at Thanksgiving Point and loving that.
Katie-Has been attending school at Provo College and is loving that. She'll hopefully be graduating the end of this next May.
Eric-As you all know by now has recieved his mission call and will be leaving in November.
Alyssa- Is gonna be a Senior in HS this year and will also Graduate in May.

OH the lessons we learn!

Back in March we went down to St.George to watch Alyssa play in a softball tournament and Eric wanted to take some friends so we let him take the Honda and 3 friends down. We were about an hour behind them and just as we were leaving we get a phone call from Eric. "I just got pulled over and got a ticket." "How fast were you going?" I asked. Eric said "well he said I was going 100mph but i think i was only going 90 (in a 75 mph zone). Needless to say i wasn't real happy and let him know. I told him it would be an expensive ticket. Well we found out it was $232 and so Yvonne and I decided that being the responsible parent we are, and always trying to find ways to teach our kids about life, that we thought it would be good to fight the ticket, so that Eric could see how the judicial system works. Eric swears he wasn't going 100mph, and so if he could convince the judge of that, the ticket would drop to $150 plus we heard that most times the officers won't show up and the judge will rule in your favor if you put forth the effort to come in so we thought it would be a great experience. So we requested a time before the judge. When they finally gave us the date that we had to be in Nephi it was during graduation so we postponed it a couple of weeks to June 4th. At about 11pm that night after Eric came home he said "When was I suppose to go to court?" WOW we had completely spaced it. We couldn't believe that all 3 of us had completely forgotten about it. I called down to the court and they said since we didn't show up the judge charged him guilty and assessed the fine of $332 but if we paid in a week they would drop it to $232 which was the original amount. (so much for him having much of his first paycheck left) (Not to make a short story long BUT) we thought it was all over at that point but he received a notice from the DMV to come down and meet with them, so yesterday we went down and found out that he has to many points on his driving record now and his options were to have his license revoked for a month or go on probation for 1 year and if he doesn't get any more tickets his points will cut in half and then after 2 years of clean driving his points will be at zero. So we are hoping that he has learned a valuable lesson. I know we have!

For the Beauty of the Earth

Yvonne and I had a great time this past week with Eric and a few of his friends in St. George for Eric's Senior Trip. We went down Weds night and came back yesterday. It was hot (well maybe not to the Vegas Muaina's) but to me 108 is hot. One of the highlights of the trip was Friday when we went to Zion National Park. It has been a while since I have been there and boy it is a beautiful part of the earth. It was so much fun hiking and enjoying the beautiful canyons. What fabulous colors in the rock. We hiked up to the Upper Pools which is an area of water about the size of Dicks pond, only much cleaner. It was so refreshing to get in and cool off. The highlight was when I about got in a fight with a stranger who was butting into our business. The sign there said "warning no swimming", well i think that meant that there could be hazards if you swim NOT that you couldn't swim. So Eric and his friends were in the water messing around along with other people we didn't know, but Eric's group was IN the water where the others were knee deep. Well some well meaning (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt) environmentalist came over and said, "Can't you guys read?" and I said, "whats the problem?" to which he replied, "The sign says not to swim, can't you read?" I said, "they aren't swimming, they are just messing around in the water" (they technically weren't swimming) He said," you know what it means" and I said,"does it say anywhere that they can't get in the water?" In which he replied " don't be a smart ___, you know what it means" I said "does it say anywhere not to get in the water, if you want them out then you better tell everyone else that is in the water to get out too" He said "well maybe I should" and I replied "then maybe you should stay up here all day so that you can patrol the water", at which point he called me a smart ___ again and walked toward me like he wanted a fight. Being the cool head that I am I walked away before anymore happened. All the other people there thanked me for what I did, so I don't feel to bad about being a smart ___!
After that experience we went up and hiked the narrows for a while. We hiked up the river for a ways and it was spectacular. For those that haven't done it you need to go. One suggestion though, hike early!
Stephanie is going down this week to Havasupai AZ. I don't know if any of you have been there but i understand it is amazing. It is not far from Kingman AZ and it is by an Indian village where there is no automobile service. So the Indians have their supplies either sent in by helicopter or brought in by mules. From there you hike about 8 miles into an area that is lush with water and vegetation and beautiful waterfalls with blue water. There are about 3 or 4 different waterfalls within a few miles of each other. I am excited to have her tells us about it and see her pics

Mr. Mom

Well this has been a very interesting week. Yvonne went down to Las Vegas to help Rachel with her little boy Aaron while Rachel spent time at the hospital with Olivia. So that left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. There have been other times in our marriage when Yvonne has left for days at a time but this time it has caused me to really appreciate having a spouse to share things with, whether it be housework, yardwork, meals, church or going to the kids ballgames and activities. I don't know how single parents do it. Having to work all day and then come home to take care of everything that needs to be done, plus be involved with the kids, it isn't easy. Even with older kids that can take care of themselves it is still stressful. I am extremely glad that I don't have to do this more. (i hope Yvonne doesn't see this as she will think she can never leave again) Even though things don't go as smoothly as it does when Yvonne is in charge, I think we are still do okay. Nobody goes hungry, usually, the laundry gets done, kind of, the kids get where they need to, most the time, and we seem to know where each other is, nearly always! AND we celebrated Jeff's 25th bday sunday. I can't believe it has been that long. It seems like yesterday that we were living in the house on the hill in Provo when we blessed Jeff. Boy a lot has happened in that amount of time and he has turned out to be a great man with a bright future.
Today we are taking Eric and some of his friends down to St. George for a senior trip. Should be fun. Will tell you more when we get back

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME

As far as I'm concerned any time spent at the baseball field is time well spent and yesterday was no exception. What a fun day. On Thursday Jeff asked Stephanie, Eric and Alyssa if they wanted to play in a celebrity softball game. Someone that Jeff knows works for a company that was a sponsor for this game. It was a fund raiser for the American Red Cross. Jeff couldn't play but the other 3 wanted too, not knowing what to expect. Stepanie and Eric ended up on the winning team playing with Dane Iorg, who played on the 1982 and 1984 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals and Scott Nielsen who pitched for the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees along with Kim Nelson who played BYU and is the head baseball coach of Timpanogos High School, the current 5A state champions. Alyssa played with Vernon Law, 1960 Cy Young winner for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Gary Cooper who also played in the Cardinal orginazation, and with Vance Law. It was so fun to see the kids playing with, talking to and having so much fun with these baseball players. We didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be so much fun for them. I even got to go down after the game and hit, or I should say, TRY to hit off of Vernon Law. 4 of us got to see who could get the farthest hit. After swinging and missing and ending up on the ground, I got up brushed myself off and promptly hit a "shot" that trickled through the infield. I guess my glory days are way behind me. Earlier I had commented to Yvonne, Dane Iorg used to coach me in 9th grade but he would never remember me. AFter the game i went down and talked to him and asked if he remembered me and he said "yea in fact when Eric told me his name I said, i knew a Richins kid once that I coached". I can't believe he remembered me but it was fun to visit with him for few minutes. Eric and Stephanie both really enjoyed him and Alyssa and Stephanie had a great time joking with Gary Cooper as well. And to top it off in this mornings DAily Herald on the front page is a picture of Alyssa with Vernon Law. How fun that was to see. Anyway a great time was had by all of us.
On another topic, we got very encouraging news about Olivia last night, she is finally showing a little progress. She is off of dialasis (sp?) and th ey are trying to get her off of the ventilator. They got the bone marrow test results and they showed that the leukemia is still in remission, which was a big relief. She is still very sick but it is great to see some improvement.
Randy