Week of January 25 - 31, 2016

Highlights:
Spiritual
I began my Wednesday at the 6 am temple session. It is so wonderful to be greeted by happy smiling people so early in the morning. We both attended the Wednesday evening session, and Dorrie came with us to do some work for family as well.

I spoke with the bishop on Sunday and received an additional church calling and will be one of the den leaders of the Wolf Cub Scouts. We will meet Wednesday nights at 7 at the church, and Angie Day is the other den leader so it will be lots of fun for us. It shouldn't interfere with Kaylee since Cameo and Ethan get her picked up before that time, and Dad is at the temple every Wednesday night.

I have indexed 2156 records so far this year.

In scripture reading, I am in Alma 51. I also read part of the Ensign magazine.


Family

The Wilkins Family
Allison posted these for Annalee's book this week. I am a sketchy Grammy, so I swiped them for my book...










You all look wonderful! I know days are full of busy: work, school, homework, activity days, scouts, sports, musical practices, and church. I see Allison keeps very late hours doing her writing work as well. You all are amazing!

The Ethan Rice Family
Cameo worked till 10:30 pm Monday and was beat! Tuesday after work, the whole family went to the gym for a cross fit evening.Kaylee came down with a cold and Mommy took the day off on Thursday to be with her. Ethan had Spirit Week all week at work...he even brought Karaoke (which we found out works!) but they were more interested in LISTENING than in SINGING. There was a big picnic Saturday. Doran also was able to do some photography work there. Cameo and Kaylee stayed home. Ethan has also been picking up a little spare change here and there as an Uber and Lyft driver. We visited briefly on Sunday afternoon when we stopped to unsuccessfully put in a package at the post office.

The Doran Rice Family
Doran and Amber had a busy week, and had to go two ways on Saturday, so Kelsie and Kooper spent the day with us. Kelsie listened to music on the computer. Kooper and I spent HOURS outside. He spent two minutes on EVERYTHING... over and over: the Kett Car, the tricycle, the scooter, the sandbox, the balls, the beach ball, the rocks in the not-yet-put-together fountain in the lower courtyard, exploring the porch...and then we would repeat. He loved the yellow slide, but only when Kelsie would take him down on her lap. He also helped Papa blow the leaves and run the screwdriver. He spied the baby swing in the shed, and we put it up and pushed/swang with him for a LONG time. I swear those eyes kept trying to close to nap. He did get one on the way home.

Morgan
No news from Morgan this week.

Kayty
Kayty had Monday as her day off. She slept in, watched "Seventh Heaven", went with me to Costco, watched more "Seventh Heaven", went to watch "Bachelor" and had a quiet night. I even saw her sleeping. Woke up early Tuesday for work. She took her car in for an oil change and tire rotation after, and then had a quiet evening. Busy work days the rest of the week, and she was off Sunday to attend Sacrament Meeting.

Total saves this week: 3

The Nathan Rice Family
Nate had a physics test Monday and did pretty well.Tuesday he really enjoyed his machining class. He is doing well in all his classes. Jessica is putting together a book of family pics to use to read to Annalee. I saw these, posted by Jessica's Aunt Heather and they were so good...


 

 
 Annalee met the cold bleak snow for the first time this week.

He was busy all day Saturday doing physics homework. This semester is very full for him. This semester is tough for Jess, but her next one is very full too. It will be a busy time for this little family.


Work
Dad is this team captain so meetings start early and last a long time. He ended up working 11 hours during the day and then having to put some figures in spreadsheets right before bedtime. Tuesday was early meetings and then hours of meetings after that. He headed to supplier meetings on Wednesday.

My week off: laundry, clean out lightbulb/key/emergency light cupboard, made box labels, dust, vacuum, attempt to make visiting teaching appointments, Costco shop, cook, hang new entryway pics, help Dad change oil, dishes, put away leftovers and clean out old ones, laundry, straighten closets, scrub kitchen cupboard doors, get stuff out to take to D.I, fill in holes in walls to prepare to paint in the future, order pics for Nano,scrubbing the bathroom and bathtub, laundry, vacuum, dust, clean behind a bed and door, haul off trimmed grapevines, get trash out, vacuuming, baking cookies, grocery shopping, getting gas, spray painting entry frames black one at a time, laundry, brush pool, going to post office, keeping spreadsheet up,vacuuming, dusting, laundry, typing the phone call sheet for our next week baptisms, mopping, hauling grapevines out to the pile, vacuuming, cooking, and making up my to-do list for my next week off.

Dad's Truck
No truck work this week.

Dad's Garden
I am picking, washing, and using lettuce, turnips, and cilantro. Dad planted more tomato starts on Tuesday and we picked our first snow peas of the season. We also picked a Black Krim tomato. Haven't eaten it yet though.

Year of the House
I am replacing the unrepaintable frames in the entryway...got a good deal at Costco and a yard sale, and need to paint the rest. I then got all the other frames painted black, and while they were off the wall, I filled in the holes with spackle. I plan to paint around the current nails, since there are so many pics that are up and I don't want to refigure that out again. The entry seems ready for repainting from sponged gold to neutral tan.

Other highlights
Monday evening was auto maintenance Family Home Evening, so Dad and I changed the oil in both jeeps. Dad also greased his jeep (my jeep's system is sealed)

Dad went for a Tuesday afternoon hike. I didn't want to get my lungs all messed up and thus not be able to go to the temple on Wednesday, so I stayed home.

I did go on Thursday

and Friday we took a short one.

Saturday, after Amber picked up the kids and I had cleaned up, we had a delightful visit from an extended family member. Let me explain who she is:

Dad's Dad is Grampa Doran Rice. Grampa Doran Rice's sister is Betty Ann Wetzel. One of Betty Ann Wetzel's sons was  Steve Wetzel (he died a few years ago leaving a wife and 11 kids...he was a year or so younger than dad). One of those 11 children is Christina Wetzel Valadez. She and Dad saw each other on a gardening facebook group and became acquainted and she came by with her new baby boy and her oldest two little girls. It was a nice visit and so great to talk about family, plus they took some veggies home with them! We are going to spend our Sundays doing more family visiting in the future. We are trying to get a visit in to Aunt Betty. She is living with her daughter Laura and is not doing really well since her husband Larry passed away nearly a year ago.


Not so highlights
Pretty good week, so no complaints. 

Week of January 18 - 24, 2016

Highlights:
Spiritual
Dad attended sessions at the temple on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. He went on Thursday due to it being Ward Temple Night.

He was the only attendee at Ward Temple Night.

I substituted for the ward chorister for Sacrament Meeting and Dad and I substituted one more time for the Valiant 9 class in Primary. 

I have indexed 1689 records so far this year.

In the scriptures, I am starting Alma 42 this week.

Family

The Wilkins Family
The Wilkins are well and have had a busy week of school, work, writing (Allison) and church. All are well.

The Ethan Rice Family
Busy work week for this family. Out of town visitors kept Ethan busy all week, but also included two meals at the Wigwam Resort. Pretty awesome! Cameo tried some Crossfit on Wednesday, but Kaylee wanted Mommy with her and not exercising.On Saturday, they went up to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park.






The Doran Rice Family
Doran and Amber and family had a good week. We drove over to their house Sunday to deliver some things and see them. Kelsie is doing well in school and was very brave at her dental appointment this week. Doran did some archery target shooting on Saturday while Amber took the kids shopping at Target, Kirklands and Market on the Move. She also was able to meet with another pet store and get the opportunity to do adoption events there in the future, and they donated quite a bit of pet food to the group as well. We took Kooper his birthday gift over and had a fun visit.

Morgan
Morgan was here when Kaylee and I arrived on Wednesday. He is looking well and said his job at the temporary service is having him work three twelve hour days during the week, and since they have a rule that no one can work in excess of forty hours, he has four days off.

Kayty
Kayty had Monday off, and spent it sleeping. She had fun at Family Home Evening - some sort of food relay.She worked long hours all week and a bridal show both Saturday and Sunday.

Saves: 1 last Sunday and 4 this week (2 today! I just can't figure out diabetes!) . I am so thankful for immediate answers to prayer. I knew I had to leave on Friday morning. Dad was gone. I prayed that if she was near a glucose problem that it would happen before I had to leave. I sat down and heard her alarm clock going off. When I went in, she couldn't answer questions and I checked her and her glucose was 25! I got soda down her immediately. She came around in about 10 minutes, grouched at me that she was cold, and went back to sleep. No, she isn't thankful...but I am! And that is all that matters!!


The Nathan Rice Family
This little family is full busy with school. Nate's classes are going well and he got a great score on a test this week. His only challenge is the fact that he already has MORE machining experience than his Machine Shop teacher! Ugh! Annalee is well. She doesn't like peas.I was able to facetime and watch Annalee grab the spoon and feed herself her bananas! She loves being independent. Nate completed his test for the week and took a breather on Sunday before another week of heavy school work. Jessica received a church calling Sunday as the Assistant Compassionate Service Leader in the Relief Society. Her schooling is also keeping her very busy, as is her job. They have a wonderful apartment with a great heater and they are doing well.

Work
Dad's week was filled with meetings. This new project added yet another daily meeting. Beginning Wednesday and every morning thereafter, he has a 6:30 am Project Normandy meeting. Thursdays, he has a weekly meeting that goes until 5:30 pm. 11 hour day that day! Plus he works on emails at night. I know that teachers complain that their work takes involves long days, but there are MANY other career choices that involve long hours and long days and no raises and few paid holidays (I don't know of any of my kids that had Martin Luther King day off.) LOTS of people work LONG days!

Just sayin...

He kept up with the daily meetings all week, and as soon as it was done on Friday, he had to head out to Tempe...7am traffic to Tempe is NOT fun!


Kaylee and I played outdoors for hours all week. She swang on every swing, but loves spinning fast on the tire swing the most. She went down both slides and has even mastered climbing the rock climbing wall on her own (did it over and over!) and then going down the big green slide. She played in the sand, rode the scooter, rode the tricycle all by herself, got pushed in the kett car, kicked the beach ball around the lower courtyard, raked, fed the chickens, and had a blast in lovely weather.

Making Sand Angels

We are talking about the letter P this week. She made a P penguin,

played with penguin finger puppets,

ate popcorn, drank fruit juice punch, made her own peanut butter and honey sandwich, sorted poker chips (Papa discovered this one when he was looking for something in the music room)

made a pink and purple pasta necklace, went to storytime at the library and then had a peanut butter and pretzel snack on the library porch.

 We played more playdough, "fed" the penguin penguin crackers...

 Did more decorating of her bunny bean bag toss (this old box and cheap poster board drawing has given this little girl hours and hours of fun!)

 Helped Papa install the door locks

 and played princess paperdolls with a penguin.

Dad's Truck
No truck work this week.

Dad's Garden
He is eating lots of turnip greens and turnips. I roasted the turnips on Tuesday and thought they were amazing! Dad didn't...and Kayty didn't like the texture...so Dad will be eating a LOT of raw turnips.

Year of the house. 
This week, Dad got new locks for the doors. We hadn't replace them in a long time, and they were really getting difficult to operate.

I have been decluttering and organizing more as one of my goals for the year, so I went through boxes in the playroom and got stuff more situated and labeled.

Dad got some flowers for me. I love fragrant flower beds, but am NOT a fan of planting, watering, and keeping creatures away, so I didn't want the bed. So, he dug and planted it and watered it himself. It looks nice!

We also went out and picked a new ceiling fan for the Family Room and spent quite a bit of time getting it installed.

No more remote! It works and we can see again!


Other highlights
I was off early on Friday (Daddy came and took Kaylee out to Dillon in Scottsdale) and after I worked on organizing my stuff better with my Christmas Present from the Amazon gift card from Nano...Thanks Mom


...we went out and used one of the gift cards I got Dad for Christmas. We ate at Olive Garden...he has been wanting to eat there forever. He had shrimp scampi that was pretty good and we both had salad. I even got to eat some of a breadstick...Ahh, heaven!

Not so highlights
I had a lung "thing" all week that just kept me watching for a cough. I had the piano at church loaded with open cough drops in case I got a tickle while I was singing, but we were all good. 

Week of January 11 - 17, 2016

Highlights:

Spiritual

My visiting teacher, Kim, came on Monday and we had a great visit! We talked about kids and missionary prep class and about the blessing it is to have a prophet on the earth today that gives us guidance and assures us of peace in these troubled times.

I attended the early Wednesday morning temple session and Dad attended on Wednesday evening, since my feet were so sore from walking in dress shoes in the parking lot and granite for three hours. 

I have indexed 1307 names so far this year.

In our reading, I am in Alma 25 in the Book of Mormon.

Family

The Wilkins Family
I received a Facebook message from Allison on Monday. We hadn't talked in awhile and I know she is busy during the day with family and works writing late at night, so I try not to bother. They are doing well. They are working on purchasing their current home. It is in a top rated high school district and since Adam will be there very soon, that seemed to be a good place for them. Mike is well. She has applied for a job working at the Las Vegas Temple at night once it reopens after a short remodel. I cannot think of a better workplace! Adam and Grace auditioned and will have parts in the Spring school musical presentation of Aladdin. Adam's cast comes off later this month. Grace is ever the sweetheart and is taking a dancing class. Josh is taking a basketball skills class. Adam is not participating, since his arm needs to heal, but she hopes to get him swimming at the nice indoor pool to give him a chance to exercise. Sam loves the nursery at church and is learning new words every day. It was so good to hear about their doings!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday on Wednesday to this cute guy!
 

The Ethan Rice Family
Ethan and Cameo had another busy week, and Kaylee enjoyed her days at Grandma Liza and Grampy's house. On Friday, Ethan had a day off (since he had to work LONG hours Saturday and Sunday) so he and Kaylee visited his work, had lunch with Mommy at work, and then she played with Grammy while Dad and Ethan did some target shooting and sited in a gun of Ethan's.

They went to dinner at the Deer Valley Airport as soon as Cam was off work, but Kaylee wore herself, as well as me, out.

The Doran Rice Family
Dad talked to Doran late Sunday night about the February javelina hunt. They are going to use Ethan and Cam's tent trailer and head up the Thursday night. Ethan has a business trip that week and won't head up until Saturday morning. Morgan will have to check out his work schedule and see when he will go.
Happy Second Birthday, Kooper, on Wednesday!




Mommy says he has a heart of gold and loves dogs! (And Curious George, too!)
They had a busy weekend, but enjoyed strawberries and Cool Whip for a treat. Well, Kooper enjoyed the Cook Whip anyway...






Morgan
No news from Morgan this week.

Kayty
Kayty's  vacation days were spent...in bed. She was one sick cookie. She did feel like going to her Bachelor group and had a good time.Finally she had to return to work on Thursday...twelve hour shift! she is still recovering and the fabric she purchased and gave to Nano for them to make a Nano blanket together became a Nano blanked by Nano alone.
 
Kayty was too sick and Nano liked working on the warm blanket in the Winter!


The Nathan Rice Family
Nate and Jess are working hard at school. They sent a video of a cute little girl trying her first taste of bananas. She was very interested in trying to grab that spoon! Annalee is like any other eater just learning to eat: one spoonful in...mashing it around...and half coming back out for re spooning.They are getting more used to school and the schedule and Nate seems to really like his machining class. He and Dad talked Friday about school, and I got some a great Facetime tour of their cute apartment, Annalee's crib and walker and exersaucer, and then some wonderful Grammy Facetime with Annalee. Facetime was invented by a Missionary Mom or a Grandmother somewhere! Annalee has found that the spoon must be the best thing, since yummy things come on it into her mouth!


Work
Dad had meeting after meeting, and assignment after assignment piled on him. He is now Captain of the Southwest Region for a new project. I saw the instant messaging going back and forth and one of Dad's coworkers referred to him as Captain Rice and that he sounded like a breakfast cereal! He met from early Thursday morning to late Thursday afternoon.Friday included more meetings and some scheduled visits for next week with his MANY suppliers.


Dad's Garden
Dad and I went after work on Monday to someone who had animal manures bagged up in their ranch lot...just a few miles away. It's a great place and I may take Kaylee there on some Fun Free Friday to see the horses and the very friendly wild rabbits. We also went later to Dorrie's to pick up some planting packs from Curtis. He wants to grow potatoes (talked to Rollin for quite a bit about that) and bell peppers out by the chicken pen near his other pepper garden. He got seeds planted and my dryer is covered with packs of soil waiting for seeds to sprout.

He picked his first beet and a couple of turnips...gave them to Nano when she came by to visit on Friday. 

Dad's Truck
Some missing parts were located this week, but no progress

2016 Year of the House
I spent some time just checking out molding at Lowe's. Termites have eaten ours in places and I, at first, wanted to replace all our molding. Then, I got looking and started pricing and decided just getting something similar would be more in keeping with the budget. I also looked at the price of good paint in a five gallon bucket size. Wow! Maybe I might need to see what the sale prices are. It was my first checking out, so I have time. I did get the wallpaper border off the kids' bathroom wall. It had been peeling off and some had already been replace, but I found a recipe of a vinegar and water spray to loosen the glue and it worked.

Took hardly any time! I got some grey paint at WalMart to test out...didn't cover and washed off the next day. No more WalMart paint for me! Lowes or Home Depot paint in the future.
Dad had been interested in gutters for the house, to redirect rain water and help water the lawn. He saw an advertisement on a truck, called, and they gave a great bid on Thursday and started right away, putting gutters on the north patio roof (not the entire length) and on the shed and hut north roof. Water should go to the lawn as well as the pepper garden and citrus trees. 

Dad also worked and worked, and even machined a new part to repair the leaky kitchen sink faucet. I love my faucet and don't want to replace it. He was the hero!!

He also repaired a pipe leak. We had wondered about this moist spot on the ground, but since it's right where water would run off the roof in rain, we didn't investigate further. Dee finally did...and we are so glad he did.

Our water bill should be a little under 400 bucks this Summer now!


Other highlights
Great jogs Monday and Tuesday. Fewer Christmas lights, but I did enjoy the couple of houses still lit. I even saw one Christmas tree on Thursday. My Friday run included being right at the temple when the spire lights were turned on.

Wednesday was very interesting. I volunteered to serve and clean up at a funeral luncheon for a family that lost their elderly father in a sudden car accident. While the family was eating, a few of us sisters sat in the kitchen chatting, when we heard a helicopter out the kitchen door (which is on the side of the church building right across the parking lot from the temple.)

We opened the door and heard on a loud speaker "We have you surrounded so give yourself up."
 
We stood in amazement, and those with iphones started taking pics of three SWAT tem members with dogs searching the temple grounds. The temple closes down from about 12:30 to 4 pm, so the doors were locked.
 
The officers and their dogs noticed us watching and came to the kitchen door. They began to search the church building,
 
 and first had us stay in the kitchen (thinking we were the only ones in the building) and then having us evacuate first to the cultural hall, and then slowly out the door to the parking lot.

We chatted and thought things to be nothing and all would end soon. The police kept having us move to different further parking lot locations (this in the East parking lot on the other side of the building away from the temple, and then having us climb the wall and jump down into the granite...in dresses. The search dogs were getting confused with the scents. They originally thought the person (who had stolen a vehicle, crashed it into a wall down the street
 
and then escaped on foot, first trying the temple and then coming into the building) had gotten into the attic of the building (only two or three keys exist to that area...I have only gone up in the attic space once, when Dee was ward clerk and had the key), so a bishop's wife brought down keys and then someone left to get the other key.
 
Hours went by.
 
My car was parked in the closed off lot. We still had a mess to clean up after the luncheon. We waited. Temple workers for the later shift waited to go in the parking lot, lined up on the streets. Even Jessica's brother, Josh, and his wife Cynthia had scheduled to be sealed and were waiting...with the sealer...and the other temple workers. The smell of cigarette smoke alerted them to where the felon was. Cigarette smoke is NOT a normal smell in an LDS church building. He had barricaded himself in a bishop's office. Not sure how he even got into Bishop Baird's office. All we heard was that they talked to him for awhile, got the door open, and sent a dog in, that bit him and he gave up. We saw him limping in custody out of the building, and we were allowed to re enter. Building was stinky, and the bishop's office was a mess and had cigarette butts and burned holes in the carpet and blood on the desk, but that was about it. Five hours after I arrived at church, I was done cleaning up and headed home.

I thought of all the blessings that had happened. Children at the funeral had seen the man by the bathroom. They smiled and said hello, thinking he was another guest at the funeral. No one was hurt. He could have done anything, and yet no one was harmed. The temple was safe, and the Lord took care of that and all else. While we were waiting, one of the funeral attendees had a seizure after he climbed the wall and had to go in an ambulance, but all in all, every child from little baby to teenager were just exemplary! And the police...professional and very patient. and those dogs are amazing!!! What lives are saved, on both sides of the law, by those dogs!

We have been having troubles with our GFCI breaker. The bathroom plugs would suddenly stop working. It wasn't so fun Wednesday when I had to venture outdoors to locate an extension cord in the dark so I could curl my hair and get ready for the temple. Anyway, Dad had checked things Thursday night and was going to change outlets and breakers over the weekend. While he was typing in his journal, the prompting came that reminded him that the attic light was also on that circuit. He climbed up the ladder to the attic and looked and the wire had come loose. A few wire nuts should fix the problem totally We never would have thought of that on our own. The counsel "Never postpone a prompting" doesn't just save us from harm. It also saves valuable time and resources.


Not so highlights
Jury Duty. It's not that I don't want to do my duty, but my schedule is so busy right now...with Kaylee care full time one week and my week off full of things to do. I decided to postpone it to May, since I don't want to waste one moment of nice weather. I was called three years ago to Maricopa County Superior Court duty and was almost put on a murder trial. A couple years before that, I went to be on a City of Phoenix jury, but was dismissed early. This is also for the City of Phoenix. I selected Tuesday, May 17, which is on a week off, and still will hopefully not interfere with my Wednesday morning temple, etc. Dad LOVES jury duty...and NEVER gets called. Who decides these things!!!