Week of December 14 - 20, 2015

Highlights:

Spiritual

My ponderize scripture for the week is found in Revalation 7: 16-17
"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall teh sun light on them, nor any heat.
For the Lamb which is in teh midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them untio living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Dad and I had a great Family Home Evening (in the Morning) discussion on the birth of Christ. So often, when we think of Christ as our Elder Brother, we don't remember that he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He, the Creator of the Earth and all the majestic beauty that it is, and the miraculous workings of it, descended to earth, born in the humblest of conditions in a place where animals were kept, lived as a carpenter, followed man's laws of the land, in order to atone for every single sin that every single person ever to be on this earth would ever commit. What a glorious gift we celebrate at Christmas: our Savior Jesus Christ!

I spent Tuesday morning making visits and completing my visiting teaching for the month. 

I was feeling puny and didn't attend the temple early Wednesday morning. Upset stomach and 30 degree weather combined to keep me on the couch wrapped in a quilt. Wednesday night, I felt better, so Dee and I attended the 7:30 session. It was wonderful to be back at the temple!

Our home teacher came for a visit on Thursday night with a beautiful message from Thomas S. Monson and cinnamon rolls. Dad was thrilled! It's rough to be allergic to chocolate at Christmas time! We did receive our annual plate of goodies from the Meikles, but Dad and I were at Home Depot and the before picture could not be taken...and it was "after" when we got home.

We had a beautiful Christmas Sacrament Meeting program. Lots of music. Narration from the book of Luke. Absolutely inspiring and set the perfect tone for the week ahead. 

I did a little indexing and ended up with a total of 6879 names for the year. I hope to make it to 7000 before the year closes.

In scripture reading, I am in Mosiah 5. Dad is in 1 Nephi 12.

Family
I decided to make a separate entry for Christmas 2015, so all we experience and all I see on Facebook for your own family Christmas celebrations will be in that blogpost.

The Wilkins Family

It was Holiday Character Day at school on Tuesday for Adam, Grace and Josh

Grace the Elf was rather unhappy about a missing school paper

The kids' class parties at school sounded wonderful...rolls for a fancy meal in Grace's class, popcorn for Adam's class, and Josh enjoyed his first school Christmas party and a potluck that included ham and cheese sandwiches from Mom.
They had a sweet little friend visit their house on Friday. All were totally smitten, including Sam. Allison was a little fearful he would be jealous, but all he wanted to do was hold this little one.

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan was busy on a training trip in Atlanta all week. Cameo was super busy with work, Kaylee, and caring for the fish and pets at home.

Daddy's Friday night return brought a big smile...


And a trip to see the lights at the Mesa Arizona Temple


Ethan worked on Saturday, and Cameo had to get some bloodwork done, so I went over and played with Kaylee.

I saw these pics on Facebook that showed most of Ethan's lights at their home. It truly is beautiful!

The Doran Rice Family

Kooper seemed to have a pretty awesome week...

 





And he is now gone into the advertising business



Amber celebrated a great birthday on Friday. She found her car decorated when she set out on her day.Happy Birthday, Amber!!

Kelsie was able to share mom's special day at work...

Doran had a bad day on Sunday...




Morgan

Morgan was on a big adventure for his moving company he works for. He was at Gettysburg on Thursday morning. That must have been awesome! We spoke with him on Sunday, still in Maine but returning to Phoenix Monday.

Kayty

Kayty worked during the week. On Thursday, her day off, she...

got her hair fixed up

 

Went blonde...

And saw the movie she has waited for...forever...

Star Wars The Force Awakens

 She LOVED it. I woke up to check her...and she was still crying and couldn't stop talking about it!

She saw it again after work on Saturday evening and then went to a going away party/game night with friends from church.

Since I really don't want to embarrass her, I will only give my score for finding her glucose low and being blessed to find her and save her. This week, one day she wouldn't wake up...no seizures but nearly unconscious, and once she went from fine to 30 minutes later low and in seizure. The Lord truly sends me in her room!!! Score this week: 2 wins!!!


The Nathan Rice Family

Nate and Jessica had some shopping to do on Monday night, so I spent some time with this little sweetheart

She has the cutest little laugh! Thanks for sharing with her for a little while! I also got to play with her on Thursday for a little while. So thankful that we have had these three months to get to know this little lady! (Though I may be starting to get a complex. On her last two visits, she gave me the messiest diapers I have nearly ever seen. I kept asking her if she just saves it up for Grammy!)

Nate had a busy last week of work and was here on Thursday getting their car ready for the big trip back to Idaho. It is much easier to do car work without benefit of snow on the ground.

Saturday afternoon, he came by to help Dad with some stuff on his truck

And to work on a gift for Annalee. It is hard work, working with mesquite wood! Dad and I helped in the clean up so he could get home.

Annalee is now three months old!!! She likes playing with the bird on the exersaucer, giggling and laughing when you make sounds like a drum (Nate knows what this is called but I am aged and have forgotten), and saves the messiest diapers for when she visits Grammy.

 I am so thankful that we have been blessed with these three months to enjoy her babiness!!! Nate heads to Idaho on January 4th and Jessica and Annalee go a little over a week later.

It is difficult for a Grammy having these littles away. I feared they wouldn't even know me, but Joshy, who was a baby far away, and really didn't like Grammy...or anyone for that matter...to near him for a LONG time, now is one of my bestest buddies ever, so Annalee and Sam will someday think Grammy is pretty awesome too. (At least I hope so!)

Work

Dad started Monday checking on emails and answering problems. Ahh, vacation days at Honeywell! He had rain on Monday so he did some Papa's Woodshop woodworking on the porch all day. Most of Kaylee's Christmas gift was completed. On Tuesday, he was greeted with the automatic download of Office 365, which, again, totally messed up his computer. He only had to spend an hour with the help desk on Friday night, and got it all working.

I began my week powdering all the eggshells that had accumulated. Then started my work: laundry, dusting (on a rainy day, dusting wont have to be done every other day). I helped Dad on projects he was working on, made lasagna on Thursday, got everything wrapped and ready, cleaned, laundered and vacuumed...and dusted... and then did it all again. Kaylee's birthday gift is wrapped and I already have Sam's and Kooper's gifts underway.

Dad's Truck

Dad finally had great help from Nathan working on the fender skirts and the rubber seals and then began putting the fuel lines in.

Dad's Garden

His garden survived a week with freezing temperatures, thanks to plastic, sheets and other coverings (and an amazing wife who doesn't eat most of what he plants, yet helps him cover it)

However, there was one evening when he was very tired and didn't lock up the hens. They truly enjoyed his garden upon the sunrise the next day. 

He picked another turnip...this one for Grandma.

Other highlights

Rain was forecast for Monday. When I got up, it hadn't started yet. I got ready, and didn't even have to bundle up warm that much. I got my three miles in, enjoying beautiful Christmas decorations and lights, and the beautiful temple all lit up, and then came in my front door. I turned around, and it began to sprinkle. Not that important to anyone else, but truly a tender mercy to me that the rain waited until I was home! Then it rained...which was beautiful too!

It was cold this week...for us. I walked by our temperature reader and saw this

Never have seen a cloud with snow in the forecast! It actually got down to 28 here!

Dee and Wade worked hours over two days and expanded my hut

Beau managed the project masterfully!

We gave Wade and hard earned and well deserved break on Friday. I helped Dee nail in the rest of the nails on the side wall (I was not as proficient and ended up straightening many nails), cleaning up and hauling off, painting the exterior including the trim, and then did some moving on the inside and cleaned out a few tubs. (Amazing how one can accumulate table cloths. Target used to have some pretty awesome sales.) It will be so nice to put stuff away in next week, and then when the village comes down a couple of weeks later. Wade will help Dad get roofing on next week.

Dad's Friday and early Saturday were spent smoking pork roasts and then pulling the pork in the middle of the night.

Not so highlights

The Play It Again Band is probably no more. I had tried to participate the last few years, but the parade often interfered with family things or I was sick. It really wasn't the same when John Thrasher, the original creator and director, turned things over to a new leader, and it seemed something had changed. This week, we received an email from the current leader that explained a lot. It seems that when the Indian Tribe took over the parade years ago, they deemed it too costly to have the band in the parade. It costs ten to twenty thousand dollars to rent Central High for two nights to rehearse, the truck to hold the drums and Sousaphones (which apparently were also rented from a high school), and the shirts and hats. We had gone to one night of rehearsal, no hats and then us paying for the shirts and hats, but they also wanted a large entry fee. We are a bunch of volunteer old folks. We had a sponsor for a few years. This year, Albert thought he had things worked out, but there has been corruption in the Fiesta Bowl and leadership was changed, and they now require us to pay an entry fee and apply, just like any other high school or entrant from across the country. That was cost prohibitive at this late date, so no parade this year. Many other band members are hopeful for next year, but it's hard to find someone to sponsor someone in a parade that advertises Indian Casinos for the out of town Fiesta Bowl visitor. It was a great time...and I LOVED every parade I was in. It brought back some of my fondest high school memories and I got a chill every time we entered Central Avenue and began playing our theme song "Play It Again"! Happy, happy memory!!!


Really, how can I dare to complain when I have had so many tender mercies happen in life this week, and where I have witnessed so much good. The Lord has literally sent me to Kayty...extended family is doing well, the radio and television are stock full of goodness and kindness of others, and we have had our chance this year to participate both financially and actually in helping those less fortunate. The Lord has truly blessed us!