Fielding Family Update

Most of the interesting things happening with our family happened today, one of which was Joey's baptism. He was baptized by John. Here is a picture of them in their baptism whites.



John also confirmed Joey. It was a really special occasion.

Also today, John was called as 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency and I was called as Ward Music Director.

We are working steadily towards a temple sealing date. John has his recommend and has received his Patriarchal Blessing. He still needs to adopt the boys and then we can set the date. We plan to do it in the Salt Lake Temple and have a big extended family celebration. We will give you all fair warning as soon as the date is set. Noelle has requested next summer and I'm keeping that in mind.

John is dreaming of the start of ski season. We've been really lucky to have a ski instructor dad and be living in a town where skiing is relatively cheap for residents. John has turned us all into skiers and it has been a rewarding family activity for us. He is still hard at work building our house. We have radiant floor heating now which is so nice. Even the part of the house that is still uninsulated is kept warm. That whole system took months to install. It is a pretty amazing plumbing feat. He has also been our greenhouse guru. With Steamboat's short growing season, gardening outdoors is a challenge and keeping the right temperature in a greenhouse is a lot of work, most of which John has done. As a result, we've had tomatoes galore, lettuce, onions,cucumbers, squash, potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, artichokes and some of John's favorite foods which are horseradish and Jerusalem artichokes. We've had a few strawberries as well. We are still working on how to grow them here. John has also built some beautiful garden sculptures on the city lot next door that look like small ski mountains. His work on our property attracts a lot of attention from the townsfolk. I often get comments about it wherever I go. John is the town commissioner for the Historical Society as well and is helping work on a highway bypass plan. We, too, have been hit by the economic meltdown. John's employer has had the funding cut by the bank for his building project, so John's job will be ending within 2 weeks. He is starting his own consulting business for now. He has a couple of job prospects as well, but they are not making any decisions this week. The stock market has been too scary.

Christie (John's daughter) is completing her Associates degree this year and working 2 jobs. She lives with college roommates still close enough to home to come over often. The boys adore her and she is so good to them. I took a kickboxing class with her a few months ago. It was a grueling class for me, although she seemed to do fine. She is trying to convince me to do it again. I want to spend time with her, but I'd also like to live through it. Christie and John are planning a trip to Connecticut at the end of the month to visit John's parents. We can't afford to all go right now and Christie is very generously paying John's way.

Joey is growing like a weed. He turned eight on September 30. He got three parties; a family party, a sleepover and today a potluck at the church. He is getting spoiled and loves it. He is doing very well in 2nd grade. He loves his teacher. He has some struggles with reading because of dyslexia but he loves books and works really hard at figuring out what they say. He was thrilled to get his own set of scriptures today and has already started reading the Book of Mormon on his own (his own idea). He told me he is stuck on page 1 but he doesn't want help.

Justin is in 1st grade this year and doing well. He also has a wonderful teacher who loves him. He is a natural charmer and has discovered the fun of telling jokes. He works on his comic routine constantly. He has a whole litany of jokes that he will tell anyone who will listen. He and Joey are naturals at horseback riding. They are also practicing violin regularly now. I have been trying to figure out what motivates them as they would resist even candy bribes. Finally they saw one of my students whom they are friends with play "Twinkle" and suddenly they wanted to practice. Joey can play the first variation of "Twinkle" on the violin with the piano and Justin can almost do it.

I am teaching at Colorado Mountain College (where Christie is attending) as an adjunct professor. This semester I just taught one course in Music Appreciation. It was condensed to 1/2 term. I'll be administering the final this Tuesday. It was a ton of work to do this class, as I've never taught it before. Thank goodness I can reuse my PowerPoint presentations again. Next term I'll be teaching that class as well as Music History, History of Jazz and a non-credit Learn to Play Violin class. The school is state run and trying to qualify for a music building, so they are pushing more music classes. In addition to teaching college, I have 17 violin students; well, 16 violin students and 1 viola student. I have become the family wage earner for the time being and I am grateful to have the ability to make enough to keep the bills paid. I am also working towards getting a non-profit foundation started that will provide scholarships for private music lessons to underserved students. The school district here is lacking in a string program so I am doing my part to make up the deficit in that area. Right now I am contemplating a doctorate as the college will pay double salary for a PhD. Boston University offers a Doctorate of Musical Arts that I can do almost completely online, but the cost is $30,000 per year. I'm looking for fellowships and scholarships to pay that amount.

Well, that's the scoop on our family. To get more detail and pictures, see our blog.