Sunday, April 26, 2015

Week of April 20 - 26, 2015

Highlights

Spiritual-
I was blessed to be able to begin my day twice this week in a session at the temple. (And also blessed that I did not fall asleep!)

Dad taught the High Priest group on Sunday, a lesson by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. His week was spent studying and preparing.

I indexed quite a few names...lots of marriages in New York from 1924...and lots of difficult Italian family names to figure out. Computers and typing are such a blessing!

We also have a new bishopric in our ward. Our home teacher, Brett Edwards, is now our bishop, with Brother Shephard as first counselor and Brother Meikle as second counselor. 

Dad and I both completed our home and visiting teaching for the month this weekend. Dad has been enjoying reading some church literature, the Book of Mormon, and the Ensign articles. I have been working on the Doctrine and Covenants and am in section 63 now.


Family

The Wilkins
We had an absolutely awesome visit at the Wilkins this week! Adam is doing well in school, and showed us his original painting and report on the Burrowing Owl. He also played his piano for us and is doing great. It is amazing how far he has come! He is also playing a knight in the school play "Once Upon A Mattress".




Josh took this pic of Adam's Painting of a Burrowing Owl

Adam enjoyed my i-nonphone


Grace is a happy little lady. She likes school and is doing well. She is on the volleyball team and continues to improve each and every game. The last two games, she scored quite a few points. She and I had fun on the teeter totter and swinging.







Josh is as cute as ever! He is amazing at basketball and could bounce the ball on the back porch into a bucket. We did puzzles, teeter tottered, swang, and played hide and seek where he proved to be the most awesome hider. Grace and I failed to find him both times...and yet he found us right away.





Sam is getting to be such a big guy, and is a happy and smiling little sweetheart. He loved having some of Papa's birthday cake! He shows you were his tongue, his nose, his hair and his tummy are, and he loves having someone blow bubbles and playing with his brothers and sister. He is so friendly too and loves to have you hold him, though Mommy hugs are the best.

Though sometimes Sam is far too busy having fun to bother with eating, he sure thought Papa's birthday cake was pretty darned good!





Allison is a superb Mom and wife, and keeps a beautiful house and still has time to play Uno with Josh and give Sam hugs any time he wants. 

Mike is hard working and does such a great job. Their van was giving them troubles while we were there, and he worked and worked and looked things up on the internet and worked trying to discern the problem.

"Tiger", their visiting cat, had been absent...until he saw the white jeep drive up, and then he was begging for canned cat food, which Dad happily provided. I don't know where that cat put four cans of food in less than 24 hours.

The Ethan Rices
Ethan and Cameo celebrated 9 years of marriage this week. Kaylee had fun swimming, playing in the sand, and visiting The Butterfly Wonderland with Grampa Wally and Grandma Liza.

The Doran Rices
They are busy as ever, with work, school, and dog adoption events. Dad is trying to get Doran to do some detailing work on his truck, i.e. cool painted design on the sides.

Morgan
We discovered on Thursday that Morgan and his friend, Kyle, headed out to Cedar City, Utah for a three week roofing job. We shall see how that works out. 

Kayty
 Kayty started her week with her aunt Marina and Mike coming to her store to purchase a suit from her, and then they graciously took her out to lunch! So nice!!! On her tday off, she took advantage of having "Ruby" a few more days and took a day trip to the Grand Canyon! That girl amazes me so much! And...when she found out "Ellie" would be in the shop another week, she decided to head to Vegas for her two day weekend to see if she could be of any help to Allison.

Sadly, though, she had been dealing with a slightly achey tooth that turned into a full blown toothache three hours after she arrived in Vegas. We got an antibiotic called in by the dentist, but she ended up coming home early and cutting her trip short. Her other day off will be at the dentist's office. 

The Nathan Rices
Nathan and Jess started their online semesters and have been getting used to the homework requirements. Nate also got a great job at Lowe's, working from 4 am to 11 am Monday thru Friday doing loading and unloading. They went with Jess's brother and sister in law to the Phoenix Temple to do some baptismal work. It was their first time to go there, and they thought it was beautiful!Nate was a great help to Dad this week, and came by nearly every evening to get dad inspired.


Work
At the beginning of the week, Dad had determined he needed to make more headway with a particular individual that had been driving these teams in the wrong direction for a LONG time. Of course, the gentleman didn't show up for the first meeting of the week, and wouldn't answer any calls. When Dad got on to the second meeting, online, the gentleman (or nut!) was singing Christmas songs...just because he felt like it. Now, I am one who LOVES Christmas music, but a man...before a professional meeting...NUT!!! Dad did speak with his boss to gain some insight, and was given the ok to travel back to some place in Minnesota or Michigan to see how the wafers in question are processed. At least he will get a trip out of dealing with this nutty individual, though he has been chastising Dad over and over at the meetings about the wastefulness of this trip....like he is paying for it, or that it wasn't wasteful to pull Dad from his regular job to spend months trying to get this dude to solve a problem that has been ongoing for nearly a year prior!


Dad's Truck
Nathan has been so kind to share his time and come over to help Dad. There has been much discussion and changing of thought on the tunnel ram and how much room is under the hood for all that is needed. The engine still needs to be repositioned back further, which means pushing it out of the garage, lifting the engine, drilling more holes, re setting the engine and pushing it back. They did get the gas tank installed and Dad was able to grit blast and paint more things. 
Dad used his new birthday rolly carty thing to get the jeep ready for a Vegas trip. He is ready to put up the LED light that doran and family gave him on the porch, and the light from Ethan and family over his lathe in the garage.



Dad's Garden:
We are getting tomatoes every day, though there is some Blossom End rot, indicating calcium deficiency. Not sure how that is, as I am crushing massive amounts of eggshells! The tomatoes are great and we took some to Vegas to enjoy on BLT's and Nano took one home after she visited Saturday afternoon. 




Dad worked on putting some straw mulch down in the garden to see if that would keep the soil cooler and weeds down near his melons.



We also harvested some of the small cabbage for our dinner next Monday.

Other highlights:

It may not sound great, but a chest freezer can be a scary place, and I got a whim on Monday afternoon to do some organizing, and, with Dad's help, I got it in a better situation. All our juices are in one area, accessible under the removable basket. Meats, nuts, vegetables, and pizza stuff is all in similar areas with little possibility of stacks collapsing! Hurray for last minute ideas!

Our week ended with gorgeous weather! It rained while we were gone on Friday, and it was cool and breezy on Saturday. Next week may hit 100 degrees, so we treasure each wonderful weather day!

I got a letter from Adam and it was great to see his neat drawings! He is really good.




Not so highlights:
I did get the pool brushed four times this week...one of my least favorite chores. I also got some weeds, though it was on the hill out in the back yard while I was trying to discern what the neighbor was jackhammering. Yes, I am a nosy neighbor! Weeds got pulled, so I did something good.!

Speaking of that house, they did put a wall up in between our front yards, shorter than planned but taller than we had wanted. It doesn't even match the other walls, so it looks wonky. It remains to be seen what the final outcome of the house next door will be....
Yep...this is that former ugly white house with the plastic siding that faced North

They lacked enough pavers to make a complete circular driveway...rather odd.

Our sad little Kayty with the horribly aching tooth is presently on her way home from Vegas. I think that there is truly nothing worse than a toothache or a headache!!! Pain pills finally kicked in and we are keeping her medicated until she can get to the dentist tomorrow.

And, I foolishly went into the garage without my shoes and kicked a piece of equipment...




Sunday, April 19, 2015

Week of April 13 - 19, 2015

Highlights:

Spiritual: Dad went to two sessions at the temple this week. He really likes spending Wednesday and Thursday evenings there.

I finished reading all the General Conference talks this week and was so thankful I could read them right away. I am prayerfully deciding the ones I need to reprint and reread for the next six months.

I completed more indexing and did more than 50 names.

Family:
 Allison, Mike, Adam, Grace, Josh and Sam are well and we are so excited to go see them this week!!! It has been so long!

Ethan, Cameo and Kaylee - on Monday, Dad and Nate were welcomed on one of Ethan's few nights off to come and do some reloading. Cameo is doing new job tasks and is enjoying the chance to learn new things! Ethan worked at the pizza place and had some good evenings! Kaylee had a great week at Grammy's and loved her weekend with Mommy and Daddy.

Doran, Amber, Kelsie and Kooper are doing well and Amber is feeling better every day. Her ankle looks pretty rugged, she says, but Doran's ankle brace really helps her. Kelsie is doing great and is a happy little lady, and Kooper is busy getting into interesting things!

Morgan is fine and enjoyed having the canoe at Kyle's apartment for the week.

Kayty was very busy at work. She was bugged to find out that her car, "Ellie", was taking an extra week to repair, but she is having fun with "Ruby" for now. She

Nathan, Jessica and Annalee May - Yes, her name is going to be Annalee May Rice. Nate was over working on his truck, working on Dad's truck, getting brass polished for reloading, and being a great help!!!We are so thankful for Jessica sharing her sweet husband with us. She was busy working and giving her parents a bit of a break for a  few days.

Work:

Kaylee and I had a busy week. It was "Flower and Bee" week and we had a great time doing lots of things.








It was a windy week, but we had a good time in what she refers to as our "sand tent".


Dad's Truck: Nate was such an awesome help this week. I don't know what we would have done if they hadn't decided to temporarily relocate. Nate was over nearly every day helping Dad put things on...take them off...locate things that were misplaced, and get the engine out...and in...and out...      . He  sanded the underside of the whole body so Dad could get it primed and painted. He also mowed the lawn for Dad so he could get more work done. And, the most amazing thing...

We have a vehicle in the garage!!! Thank you to Keith, Jacob and Wilken Gibson for the pushing assist!












Dad's Garden: Dad was up early Tuesday morning and, after his bike ride, he planted melons. Kaylee counted six baby cabbages that are still growing.We worked on Saturday to get the tomatoes off the playground sidewalk and bird netting on top.




Other highlights:
We had an early birthday celebration for Dad. I made his favorite cake and cupcakes..



 We had great meatloaf dinner and a fun birthday party for Dad...











Not so highlights:

My allergies were crazy still at the beginning of the week but got better. I avoided weeding but will have to get on it next week, possibly with a mask on.

Kayty was bugged  that her car repair was slow, making her have to pay for another week of car rent, but it was still cheaper than the deductible would have been.

Dad and Nate had to reset the truck engine twice, due to things not fitting properly, and they may have to do it one more time, since there is a concern that the oil pan with hit the axle.

The house next door is progressing, and I think we are in a peaceful mode and that the wall they are building will not exceed 3 feet in height. The remodel has been beautiful for that house, but there are some inconsistencies that make us wonder if it really is a house...or a place of worship. It won't bug us, but there are people out here that will be fiery mad!