Missionary Madness

We had a whirlwind of activity right before Nathan left to serve his mission. Scheduling was crazy, with dates being set, people being unable to come, and all the craziness that comes with trying to get everyone together. (I DID remain calm about it all. I just did my best, took a deep breath - in fact, a LOT of deep breaths - and it worked for the good)

Saturday, February 18: Nathan went to the Mesa Arizona Temple to receive his endowment. Attending with us were Dad, Mom, Nano (Barbara Noack), Grandma (Dorrie Sullivan), Bishop Mark Gunter and his wife Shelly, and Brother Clyde Dannell, from our bishopric. After that, we stopped at Pomeroy's Men's Store, aka CTR Clothing, to get his suit and the remaining extra stuff, at John Scott's to polish spark plugs (Nate's truck got many hours of work done this week. Heck, all the kid wanted was to drive it to church for his last time there. FYI...after all was said and done...and done...and done...the darned thing died, in our driveway, on the way to church. New water pump, new spark plugs, new distributor, new alternator, new....well, lots and lots of new. It idles GREAT, and that kid put together an awesome truck from the bottom up, but I guess, now, it needs new spark plug wires. Those will have to come...in two years.)Grandma took us to lunch at his favorite Chinese restaurant: New Asian Kitchen.

Sunday, February 19: Nathan's Farewell Talk in Church and then the Pizza Party to end all. Talk was awesome and almost all of his brothers and sisters were there...just missing Morgan. He spoke about selfless service. We ate grilled cheese sandwiches in his sandwich maker he got from Jessica's parents for Christmas, and cousins played and played.

All four grandkids: Kelsie, Grace, Adam and Josh, just LOVE that sandbox that Papa, Ethan, Doran and Nate made!

Adam tried and tried to fill this with the right sand to make a super duper sand castle. 

I just love all these kids. They just met Kelsie that morning, and they were close as they had always known each other. I LOVE kids. They set such an example for ALL of us!!!

4:30 P.M. the pizza and root beer began. I ended up using ALL the pizza crusts: 20 from our friend, Jeff Huesing, tons of mine...we made over 30 pizzas! and the five gallons of homemade rootbeer disappeared.

These are the sweet missionaries that serve in our ward: Elder Cecil, Elder WalPole, and Elder Adams. They have been so great, helping Nate to prepare. I saw ties they even gave him. Since he had many pink, purple, blue and turquoise ties, their conservative contribution was greatly appreciated!

Sister Jannicke Godwin and her son, Brian, who will leave in June to serve a mission in Poland. These two guys have been friends for ages. They even trick or treated as the Three Musketeers (the third musketeer, Jacob Church, will leave next month to serve a mission in Birmingham, England).

Nate's Saturday Night Dance, seminary,  and school friends: Becky, Cassie, Pamela,  "BYU"  aka Amberly Livingston and her mom (Nate and Amberly went to North Pointe, and he would take her from seminary to school last year.)

Sweet Amber got rustled into making pizzas...and she did a FANTASTIC job!!! She and Doran are engaged to be married in October, and she is really getting "baptized by fire" so to speak, with the Rice Pizza Parties. 

Beautiful sister, Cameo and Jade. The Wallins, et al, have become such an important part of our family. We love them all: Wade, Liz, Cam, Jade and her sweet James!

This is TJ Perkins, and his wife, Jeanette. He hired Nate and patiently taught him plumbing. It is this family and their business that helped Nate pay for his missionary prep: two suits, four extra pairs of slacks, 10 dress shirts, two pairs of Ecco shoes, and on and on. I am so grateful to them!

Doran really LOVES to make pizza!

Our friends, Bud and Sandy Wenke, also hired Nate as their pool technician while they were away this summer. 

Kelsie and Josh enjoy the root beer!

Nate, Came and Wade. 

Amber and Jessica make more and more pizzas. I ran back and forth, thawing dough and replenishing the topping supplies. We ran out of mozzarella cheese, so we used cheddar. Heck, it was dark...who could really tell. It was ALL so good!

I just LOVE this boy!

Our sweet dentist, Dr. Philip Johnson, and his wife, Michelle, and their four kids love our pizza oven , so we couldn't leave them out!

Our playground usually sits, lonely and quiet. But, today, I looked and it was FULL of kids! I can imagine how happy it was...like in the movie "Toy Story 3"

Sweet uncle Ethan is roped into pushing his nieces and nephew.

Aunt Kayty came home with an arm full of balloons that hadn't been picked up  after they were ordered. Waaaay popular!

These cousins LOVE each other!

It was awesome to see so many people come to wish Nate well! And Jessica topped off the evening with Nate's favorite brownies, just for him!