Sunday, August 30, 2015

Week of August 24 - August 30, 2015

Highlights:

I have to begin this week with the best highlight of all: I got my family photo with nearly ALL my family (we sure missed you, Mike!!!) Thank you to everyone who put up with me and hung out, and for Morgan racing there. I promise I won't want for anything again!!!

Spiritual:
My Wednesday began at an early morning temple session. I love going into the temple when the skies are darker...the spire is just beautiful next to the dark sky! It was a great session and I always enjoy seeing familiar people. (I say familiar since I see them every time I go, though I don't know their names). Dad and I attended a late afternoon session the same day, and that was unusual because I knew so many people...from my youth, no less...in that session: two people I used to babysit for when I was a kid - and he is now our stake patriarch, a girl I went to high school with, someone I knew in our stake when I went to girls' camp. It was a wonderful session too.

I have indexed 4757 records so far this year. I didn't get a chance to do many this week.

In Scripture reading, I completed reading the Book of Mormon and began again. I am in I Nephi 2.   I also enjoyed reading the Ensign Magazine and completing it. Dad is in 2 Nephi 16  in the Book of Mormon, Exodus 25  in the Bible, and continues reading his other books.

He went home teaching with his companion on Sunday night and enjoyed great visits with his families. One of our home teachers came by on Thursday for a good visit and to share a good message.

Family:

The Wilkins Family
It was a week of firsts for the Wilkins Family. School started on Tuesday. Adam is a new seventh grader.
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Grace is a new fourth grader.
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Josh is a new kindergartener.
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And Sam has mommy all to himself for half a day, every day! He has been keeping her very busy, too! On Wednesday, Allison shared:
Sam has been awake for 1 hour and 30 minutes. In that time he has managed to empty an entire box of tissue, break 2 eggs, dump out 1 cup of milk, dump out a box of safety pins, rip apart 1 book and dump out 2 toy boxes. I've been cleaning up one mess all day while he makes another. I need my older kids back! 

I have included more in the Nano's birthday party section...

Sunday was Happy Birthday, Gracie! She got to celebrate it with her Grandma Wilkins and all the Wilkins family!!!


The Ethan Rice Family
It was back to work right after a long campout for Ethan, Cameo and Kaylee. Kaylee had a good week with Grampy Wally and Liza, playing dress up, painting, and trying out a story time at a different library location. Kaylee also had a great dental check up and is now crazed with making sure her teeth are brushed.

On Sunday, they added a new family member


The Doran Rice Family
Doran and Amber, and family had another busy week, with school and work,
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and rescuing pups...Saturday, before Nano's party, Doran had a dental appointment
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Morgan
Morgan's job keeps him very busy, and we were soooo blessed to have him pop by the party, and then our house for some eats.

Kayty
With one of the key holders out of town, Kayty had extra work to do this week. She opened the store on Monday, worked Tuesday, worked a twelve hour shift on Wednesday,

She got some of her favorite Sees creams...she says the blueberry cream filled are awesome. I DON'T KNOW WHO THIS CHILD IS!!! Nuts and chews are truly in her genetic make up...she was nourished pre birth with nuts and chews!

She had Girls' Night with some friends after work on Saturday. She was off on Sunday and went to church, though she only stayed one hour.

The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan and Jess both had busy work weeks. Nate works a full shift and then usually runs by our house to complete some project on his truck, and then returns home.He has also been preparing for being an assistant driver for work, which involved a physical exam and a trip to the MVD. Jessica's doctors appointments are great and she is just happily and anxiously waiting for Annalee's decision to come to earth.

Work:
Dad spent his Monday in meetings and trying to get his printers to work. He cannot find drivers to make his current printers operate, and has been contacting this person and HP for weeks. He finally could download drivers for his inkjet scanner, and he achieved that and then ordered new cartridges for that printer. Then, on Tuesday, during his bike ride, he located a printer/scanner/fax machine in someones toss pile, so he got it...and it works superbly! (My mom not allowing my brother Scott to garbage pick EVER keeps flashing through my mind.) So, he has two very nice printers now.He found out on Friday that this layoff may indeed get Klemens, his boss (Boss A). It is really getting rough around there and people are scared. Life at Honeywell is that way.

My work week included cleaning, dusting, scrubbing bathrooms, washing rugs, scrubbing our bathroom, cleaning out the washing machine filter, brushing the pool three times, trash hauling,washing machine filter cleaning, yard cleaning, weed pulling, porch picking up, and party preparations.

Dad's Truck
Dad is still waiting for Joe to return from being out of town so he can weld the cross member. He did some work on the interior panels, stripping, bondo-ing, and readying for paint.

Dad's Garden
Dad's pepper seeds in my kitchen window have finally begun to sprout.

Nano's 80th Birthday Party
I spent the early part of the week just making lists and gathering things up. This "extravaganza", as Kathy referred to it, has kind of just been a more last minute kind of thing... and I am SO NOT a last minute kind of guy, so this was way out of my comfort zone. I picked mom  and Kathy up Thursday, after dropping off my big meat roaster, and we shopped at the Shamrock Restaurant Supply store. Lots of food purchased and then home. I spent Friday baking cupcakes


I received the most wonderful text: Allison and the kids were coming on Saturday!!! (So sad we won't have Mike here, but we take what we can get!) All my kids were excited and planned a family swim party after the Nano party.

Dad, Nate and I went in the early evening and helped set up tables, tablecloths, I glued the cupcake stand together, discovered one of my drinking urns broken (sad face) and got everything ready.

Saturday morning, I made my epic cream cheese frosting and got all the cupcakes decorated and ready to go. We ran to a couple of yard sales, and then I set out to make tons of Spanish Rice, while Dad got the photo set up and the sound set up ready and loaded in the car.

We filled the entire back of the jeep with rice, cupcakes, and equipment


Sharynn and family had decorated...




 The wonderful ladies in my Mom's ward were busy in the kitchen, shredding and seasoning pork, getting chips and salsa in bowls, and Becca , Hailee and Kimmy got tons of lemonade ready.



Kathy's son had baked this special birthday carrot cake just for her!


And Scott had the Thanksgiving 1999 pic blown up of Biker Nano!










































Uncle Bob Marsh and his wife, Nano, Aunt Paula Moore and Uncle Ron Scott




















Morgan was so delayed, and my family waited patiently for his arrival...and I got
MY FAMILY PICTURE (minus one...we sooooo missed you, Mike!!!)
Thank you all for enduring heat and tired kids and traffic and everything just for my picture. I promise I will want for nothing else...EVER!!!
I packed up the TONS of leftover food, and we headed to our house for a family swim party...





















Christmas in July August
I am still enjoying my Christmas Story book, and Grandma has me all looking for new village ideas. I saw something awesome on YouTube that I am gonna try...after Halloween.  And my Christmas gift for ever was already received: swimming, playing and having a great time with ALL my grandkids (Annalee was listening) and having our photo taken! I didn't watch movies, but I did play lots of Christmas music...when Kayty wasn't here.

Other highlights
Twelve more pounds of Hatch chilis were roasted, peeled and bagged up. Our supply should be good for at least the year!


Dad got time to look at my jeep and it's lack of air conditioning...and found a wire problem that he could fix temporarily till a new part is found. My transmission is shifting tough now, so I am a bit concerned with that. Cars...troubles never end!
 
Not so highlights
They said on the news, as it was raining all over Phoenix, that this has been the dryest monsoon since 1997. They have had rain all over the Valley, and while we have had a few sprinkles, NOTHING has accumulated to even as much as a puddle. We thought we might get something Thursday. We ran over to Nate's Lowes to look at a fridge, and on the way, a HUGE storm started. We were deluged all the way there, and it poured the whole time we were in the store. It rained on the way home, until we got a half mile from home. Then, nothing but sprinkles. The storm went everywhere...but missed us. Saturday night was AGAIN a miss! Our plants, and trees, need the rain. We water them but rain is just...different. They respond differently. And we are nearing the end of our monsoon, I refer to as the non-soon!