Sunday, September 11, 2016

Week of September 5 - September 11, 2016

Highlights:

Spiritual
I attended a session at the temple later Wednesday morning with a few of the sisters in our ward. One sister had not attended for nearly 15 years...just didn't want to go alone, so it was so nice to be there with her! Dad attended his regular Wednesday night session.

We returned the four loads of baptismal clothing to the Stake Center on Monday. We ended up having to straighten up the closets...kids clothing was in the adult closet and visa versa. Cub scouts kept me very busy this week! We had a hike scheduled, so Dad and I went on a trial hike, to check for times and to see what signs of animals and insects we could find. We found quite a few things, but it rained the next morning, which eliminated the javelina diggings, the cicada larvae holes, and the jack rabbit and hawk were long gone. It was ok. We did our best.
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Cub scouts also included a visit to the family of our newest scout, and my walking back to Thunderbird Park after the boys were with parents. I had a cub scout committee meeting on Sunday to plan for the next few months.

I am in Jacob 6 in the Book of Mormon in my scripture reading.

I have indexed 28595 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family
On Monday, the family celebrated Labor Day with a trip to Discovery Children's Museum where they got to go in a hurricane box and feel what it's like to be in a hurricane. They cleaned their house and then had a barbeque with hamburgers and smores.

This is the Wilkins' Family garden. Their pumpkins are doing very well!!
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On Thursday, Allison and Sam were able to eat lunch with Adam, Grace and Josh at school. Josh is turning into a ping pong lover, and barely stopped playing to eat something. He is getting pretty good and even defeated some of the older kids!
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Hooray, Josh!!

Friday, Adam and Grace were invited to swim at a friend's house.They had a great time. Late Saturday night, Grace lost another tooth.

The Ethan Rice Family
Cameo shared a baby bump update on Friday
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They continue to enjoy Grampy Wade's visit. They found a KFC with a buffet on Saturday
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I picked up my phone to go to church and was very surprised by messages, emojis and selfies from Kaylee...



The Doran Rice Family
Doran ended up with a terrible allergic reaction on Tuesday.
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He said the lining of his actual eye swelled up within 30 minutes, so he headed right to get some help. He  looked much better on Saturday.


Kelsie's 9th Birthday was celebrated Saturday night at Peter Piper Pizza in Avondale. I have never seen such a packed place...full of people and very noisy. Lots of friends and family came to celebrate.













Morgan
Morgan and Christy are doing well. He is very busy working on setting up Fear Farm.

Kayty
We rearranged Kaytys room on Monday, allowing for yet another shoe shelf unit. She got her closet cleaned out, got rid of things (a major miracle) and located a jewelry making kit she had forgotten. She spent her late Wednesday, early Thursday, making this...
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Work went well this week.

Total saves this week: two on Thursday morning, one on Saturday and one on Sunday = four saves.

The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan, Jessica and Annalee enjoyed their last week of vacation from school. On Monday, they drove to Blackfoot Idaho (after a slight delay - walked out to find their tire flat, but Nate was able to plug it and they were on their way). Annalee liked the petting zoo and got to pet a pony and a goat. They found a fabulous thrift store having an awesome sale, too.They tried camping later in the week. Annalee had a difficult time sleeping in the tent, and thought it was a great time to play. I was so glad to be able to Facetime with her four times this week. Nathan is ready to start school next week. Almost half way done for him.They enjoyed a day at the park on Saturday, too. Nathan scored a working weed eater at Deseret Industries which turned into a motor for a future project.


Work
Dad's week was very up and down. There is a really down feeling when people know that they are going to not be paid for a week in the near future, and also that nothing will be accomplished for three weeks during that time, and the rumor of more furlough in December. It seems they are making it so awful that people leave...and many have. Dad has spoken to people that are the only ones left to carry the full department load. He, himself, is having to take over for two people who scheduled large Kaizen events when they knew they would be out of town so he would have to take over. Lots of meetings filled Thursday and Friday, but there is a real down mood over everything....like all forecasts and planning have an asterisk attached. Those who will no longer be employed will find out next week, and those who remain will then have no work and no pay the next week. Hard to make any progress in anything under these circumstances.


My work included dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing the bathroom, laundry, cooking, shopping, restocking the years' supply, updating the budget spreadsheet. messages and calls regarding cub scouts, trimming grape vines, caring for the chickens, selling more items from the playroom,scrubbing bathrooms, weeding, gathering key limes, using antiseptic to clean the poking woulds from gathering key limes, and making prickly pear jelly. I also began Excel training, but only had time to do one short lesson this week. I am going to have to schedule time in the future.

Dad's Garden
Dad's seedlings are growing well. He is anxious to plant them! He has already worked soil and is doing some trial seeds in a smaller bed using the method we learned at the Preparedness seminar on Friday.

Dad's Truck
No truck work this week.

Year of the House
He got the doors routed on Saturday. Now he will build the cabinet and we need to determine the right stain.

Other highlights
Hurricane Newton did not make a direct hit on Phoenix, but ended up giving us a few moments of rain on Wednesday.

I finally made some prickly pear jelly on Thursday. Oh, the smell of that juice cooking brought so many good memories of Fall. I told Dad to come and smell...I said, "That's the state fair!" It was crazy but so fun to prepare all that fun stuff for the fair!

Friday, I took Nano to her eye doctor appointment. We had a good time and a great visit.

Friday night, Dad and I attended a bi stake preparedness class at the Peoria North Stake Center. It was about beekeeping and urban farming.

Saturday morning, Dorrie and I headed out to Millie's Hallmark for our annual trip to see what Dept 56 village pieces are on sale, as well as looking at the set up there. We then enjoyed walking around The Brass Armadillo and then had lunch.


Not so highlights

It's not so fun waiting to see if the job is ending, and thinking that the furloughs will continue every three months. We are praying and pondering what we might need to do if things don't settle down. No decisions of course, but we want to be ready. 

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