Highlights:
Spiritual
I began my Wednesday at my favorite 6 am Phoenix Temple session, and was joined by my fellow cub leader, Angie, the missionaries serving in our ward, the ward mission leader and his wife (also one of my visiting teachers) and our Sunday School president (his wife is my other visiting teacher). Totally unplanned but so very nice. Dad ended his Wednesday at the temple.
Church callings are keeping us busy! Dad taught the high priest quorum lesson last Sunday. I am now preparing my first letter for the prison inmate visiting teaching program. My cub scouts went crazy, but better than last week. We have been cramming to get these last few required activities done for two boys who will leave our den soon and that has made things absolutely unpleasant! No time except for rushing! I also wrote my first letter to the sister I get to letter visit at the prison. My instructions were to take notes at all church meetings, as well as throughout the week, and note spiritual experiences and promptings. I did watch the Women's General Conference Broadcast at home on the computer (I usually watch at home alone, since most attending at our building attend with their daughters, sisters, and families). It was such a wonderful session, and there was not one talk that I didn't learn so much from. Alas, I could not keep up taking notes, so I am looking forward to the published talks on LDS.org on the internet. Anyway, the Spirit touched me so much as all the sisters in the church sang the closing hymn, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and I felt so prompted to write to that sister and share my feelings and the words to the song. I typed it, followed the instructions as to addressing the envelope, and dad and I delivered it to the post office after church today. We had wonderful meetings at church today, and I am full of notes for my next letter. I am to write at least two times per month, and after today, that will not be a problem.
Dad nearly completed his home teaching visits on Sunday. With Dad in Utah next week, and my pack meeting, our home teachers cannot meet with us, so we just chatted at church today.
I am in Mosiah 15 in the Book of Mormon.
I have indexed 31.019 records so far this year. I had been indexing ships' logs for months, and that project was completed, so now I am indexing Oregon Marriage Records, which take much more time to do. I was indexing records from 1872-74. The marriage license is merely a handwritten paragraph at the top of a page, and the marriage record is handwritten at the bottom of the page. People had terrible handwriting then!!! Each record takes about 20 minutes, and I was accustomed to doing 10 records in a morning. It is taking a LOT more time!! But there is so much information made available for others!!
Family
The Wilkins Family
Allison gave me an update on Monday:
I guess I don't have Dad's green thumb after all... ALL of our pumpkin plants died! They were looking a little limp and we read about how pumpkins need lots of nitrogen, so Mike fertilized them and the next morning they were all dead! The kids keep praying that they will be okay, but I think they are gone for good.
I asked about how they are doing with fixing up the house...
The fence behind the pumpkins was always there, but we painted one wall dark blue (an accent wall), installed a ceiling fan in the living room, demolished the fireplace mantle and re-installed dry wall around the fireplace (we want to do faux stone on it when we save up enough for it and borrow a tile saw), spray painted the mirror above the piano brushed nickel, found a rad chandelier at D.I. and spray painted pink for Grace's room (Mike cut a hole in the ceiling to install it, crawled in the attic and then realized how miserable it was, so we're waiting until it cools down a little) and found blue curtains for Grace's room at an online yard sale (just need to get a curtain rod). I wish we had put a ceiling fan in the living room years ago... our electric bill went way down and it was so nice this summer! I have some light blue paint samples painted on one wall, but we're going to have to wait to paint it until we finish the fireplace, fix the rounded corners that are dented/chipped and fix the baseboards that were poorly done.
I may start working every night at the temple starting in January. It would be hard but if we saved all of the money I made, we're hoping to buy a minivan before school starts NEXT year. It's horrible to not fit all in the same vehicle... we can't do anything as a family and it would be nice to have 2 vehicles for when Adam's in seminary and the younger kids are at a different school.
Adam is doing volleyball at school, Grace is doing ballet at the rec center and Josh is doing t-ball at school. He (josh) LOVES first grade and I am so, so happy! Adam is having a challenging year... I don't think they could find any middle school teachers to hire and the ones they found are worthless! I'm having him do math, history and reading at home with me every night, so he pretty much goes to school to hang out with his friends. Grace loves school and we're thinking of trying to get her into a performance arts magnet school for next year because she LOVES to sing and act. Sam is doing great! All potty trained and talking up a storm. No sentences yet but lots of words. We are doing a little preschool at home together, just colors for now and story time at the library once a week.
The Ethan Rice Family
Ethan, Cameo and Kaylee met during a breaks for dinner at Pollo Tropical and El Agave Mexican Restaurant.
On Wednesday night, Cameo and Kaylee had been out...and were greeted by a new "friend"
You KNOW how I feel about snakes!! This apparently, according to many comments, is a copperhead, and one not to be friendly with!
All snakes must die!
They enjoyed the first day of Fall on Thursday.
I finally got to chat with Kaylee on Thursday night. She was just full of information and it was wonderful to talk to her!!
This family had a great Saturday adventure at Sky Zone on Saturday.
Hey, were are socks for baby Wade??
The Doran Rice Family
Doran and Amber and family had a great week, and ended it on a camping trip with their ward. They camped a few miles north of Payson. Amber said they had prepared for 50 degree nights, but were surprised with 30 degree nights! They had an awesome time.
We remembered Charles on Sunday.
Morgan
No news from Morgan and Christy this week.
Kayty
Kayty had her first day off in a long time on Monday. She slept late, and then made jewelry, entertained Luke and watched The Seventh Son and scared me to death with Jurassic World. Who would have ever believed that at the end of that movie, I would be cheering on a velociraptor named Blue! Work went well and she had overtime hours as well. She made en epic find at work the six others had missed (her job is to proofread for errors in medical forms and submissions)! Woot woot! Other than that, she loves her jewelry making. Most other things make her feel down, but she is attending church every week, and family home evening occasionally. There were some folks attending the Bachelor/Bachelorette viewings that had made some not so polite comments toward her, so she decided to give that up.
Total saves this week: 1 mild one that could have been major. Thank goodness I check all the time, and the Spirit lets me know when things are off.
The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan successfully programmed and created a chess pawn for his machining class. He seems to be enjoying all his classes and his work as well. I got to Facetime with Annalee three times this week. Nathan enjoys his NC machining classes and his core class on Pakistan. There is so much to learn about history! He got some bike parts in the mail...hydraulic brakes with no wires inside.Jessica is busy working, caring for Annalee, and in her church calling in the Relief Society presidency.
Work
Dad had Honeywell Furlough Week, so on Monday, he worked as a substitute teacher in a third grade class at Sunset Vista Elementary school.
He really enjoyed his day! He subbed in another school third grade on Thursday, and for a P.E. coach at another school on Friday.
Spiritual
I began my Wednesday at my favorite 6 am Phoenix Temple session, and was joined by my fellow cub leader, Angie, the missionaries serving in our ward, the ward mission leader and his wife (also one of my visiting teachers) and our Sunday School president (his wife is my other visiting teacher). Totally unplanned but so very nice. Dad ended his Wednesday at the temple.
Church callings are keeping us busy! Dad taught the high priest quorum lesson last Sunday. I am now preparing my first letter for the prison inmate visiting teaching program. My cub scouts went crazy, but better than last week. We have been cramming to get these last few required activities done for two boys who will leave our den soon and that has made things absolutely unpleasant! No time except for rushing! I also wrote my first letter to the sister I get to letter visit at the prison. My instructions were to take notes at all church meetings, as well as throughout the week, and note spiritual experiences and promptings. I did watch the Women's General Conference Broadcast at home on the computer (I usually watch at home alone, since most attending at our building attend with their daughters, sisters, and families). It was such a wonderful session, and there was not one talk that I didn't learn so much from. Alas, I could not keep up taking notes, so I am looking forward to the published talks on LDS.org on the internet. Anyway, the Spirit touched me so much as all the sisters in the church sang the closing hymn, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and I felt so prompted to write to that sister and share my feelings and the words to the song. I typed it, followed the instructions as to addressing the envelope, and dad and I delivered it to the post office after church today. We had wonderful meetings at church today, and I am full of notes for my next letter. I am to write at least two times per month, and after today, that will not be a problem.
Dad nearly completed his home teaching visits on Sunday. With Dad in Utah next week, and my pack meeting, our home teachers cannot meet with us, so we just chatted at church today.
I am in Mosiah 15 in the Book of Mormon.
I have indexed 31.019 records so far this year. I had been indexing ships' logs for months, and that project was completed, so now I am indexing Oregon Marriage Records, which take much more time to do. I was indexing records from 1872-74. The marriage license is merely a handwritten paragraph at the top of a page, and the marriage record is handwritten at the bottom of the page. People had terrible handwriting then!!! Each record takes about 20 minutes, and I was accustomed to doing 10 records in a morning. It is taking a LOT more time!! But there is so much information made available for others!!
Family
The Wilkins Family
Allison gave me an update on Monday:
I guess I don't have Dad's green thumb after all... ALL of our pumpkin plants died! They were looking a little limp and we read about how pumpkins need lots of nitrogen, so Mike fertilized them and the next morning they were all dead! The kids keep praying that they will be okay, but I think they are gone for good.
I asked about how they are doing with fixing up the house...
The fence behind the pumpkins was always there, but we painted one wall dark blue (an accent wall), installed a ceiling fan in the living room, demolished the fireplace mantle and re-installed dry wall around the fireplace (we want to do faux stone on it when we save up enough for it and borrow a tile saw), spray painted the mirror above the piano brushed nickel, found a rad chandelier at D.I. and spray painted pink for Grace's room (Mike cut a hole in the ceiling to install it, crawled in the attic and then realized how miserable it was, so we're waiting until it cools down a little) and found blue curtains for Grace's room at an online yard sale (just need to get a curtain rod). I wish we had put a ceiling fan in the living room years ago... our electric bill went way down and it was so nice this summer! I have some light blue paint samples painted on one wall, but we're going to have to wait to paint it until we finish the fireplace, fix the rounded corners that are dented/chipped and fix the baseboards that were poorly done.
I may start working every night at the temple starting in January. It would be hard but if we saved all of the money I made, we're hoping to buy a minivan before school starts NEXT year. It's horrible to not fit all in the same vehicle... we can't do anything as a family and it would be nice to have 2 vehicles for when Adam's in seminary and the younger kids are at a different school.
Adam is doing volleyball at school, Grace is doing ballet at the rec center and Josh is doing t-ball at school. He (josh) LOVES first grade and I am so, so happy! Adam is having a challenging year... I don't think they could find any middle school teachers to hire and the ones they found are worthless! I'm having him do math, history and reading at home with me every night, so he pretty much goes to school to hang out with his friends. Grace loves school and we're thinking of trying to get her into a performance arts magnet school for next year because she LOVES to sing and act. Sam is doing great! All potty trained and talking up a storm. No sentences yet but lots of words. We are doing a little preschool at home together, just colors for now and story time at the library once a week.
The Ethan Rice Family
Ethan, Cameo and Kaylee met during a breaks for dinner at Pollo Tropical and El Agave Mexican Restaurant.
On Wednesday night, Cameo and Kaylee had been out...and were greeted by a new "friend"
You KNOW how I feel about snakes!! This apparently, according to many comments, is a copperhead, and one not to be friendly with!
All snakes must die!
They enjoyed the first day of Fall on Thursday.
I finally got to chat with Kaylee on Thursday night. She was just full of information and it was wonderful to talk to her!!
This family had a great Saturday adventure at Sky Zone on Saturday.
Hey, were are socks for baby Wade??
The Doran Rice Family
Doran and Amber and family had a great week, and ended it on a camping trip with their ward. They camped a few miles north of Payson. Amber said they had prepared for 50 degree nights, but were surprised with 30 degree nights! They had an awesome time.
Morgan
No news from Morgan and Christy this week.
Kayty
Kayty had her first day off in a long time on Monday. She slept late, and then made jewelry, entertained Luke and watched The Seventh Son and scared me to death with Jurassic World. Who would have ever believed that at the end of that movie, I would be cheering on a velociraptor named Blue! Work went well and she had overtime hours as well. She made en epic find at work the six others had missed (her job is to proofread for errors in medical forms and submissions)! Woot woot! Other than that, she loves her jewelry making. Most other things make her feel down, but she is attending church every week, and family home evening occasionally. There were some folks attending the Bachelor/Bachelorette viewings that had made some not so polite comments toward her, so she decided to give that up.
Total saves this week: 1 mild one that could have been major. Thank goodness I check all the time, and the Spirit lets me know when things are off.
The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan successfully programmed and created a chess pawn for his machining class. He seems to be enjoying all his classes and his work as well. I got to Facetime with Annalee three times this week. Nathan enjoys his NC machining classes and his core class on Pakistan. There is so much to learn about history! He got some bike parts in the mail...hydraulic brakes with no wires inside.Jessica is busy working, caring for Annalee, and in her church calling in the Relief Society presidency.
Work
Dad had Honeywell Furlough Week, so on Monday, he worked as a substitute teacher in a third grade class at Sunset Vista Elementary school.
My work this week included laundry, dusting, vacuuming, picking up limes, doing the morning chicken duties, pulling weeds and spurge from the lawn, trash duties, cleaning out old magazines and catalogs,scrubbing bathrooms, cleaning out closets, and hauling stuff for dad in the yard. I also had some amazing jogs this week with some cooler weather to enjoy. Much time is also spent preparing for cub meetings.
Dad's Garden
Lots of garden work done this week. On days dad was not teaching, he was preparing the fall garden. Digging, compost and ground eggshell and nutrient additions worked into the soil,
Dad's Truck
No truck work this week.
Year of the House
Well, the year of the house, which was really 10 months of the house, is drawing to a close.
Accomplished:
Wade and Dad repaired front porch ceiling and I repainted. Dad replaced the termite damaged wood around the front door and I repainted.
Mom painted living room, including all shelves, and put tile in shelves so books would no longer scratch up the paint.
Mom painted entryway and changed frames via repaint or yard sale to black.
Mom painted kids' bath, which included Dad and Wade repairing ceiling, and me covering every stinking little hole from every bug and snowflake hung in that bathroom for the last years. No more bugs or snowflakes for this girl! Dad also repaired the floor grout and replaced the missing grout.
All new hung and painted white doors throughout the entire house (not for kayty yet.)
Master bedroom and bathroom ceilings repaired by dad and wade, and repainted by me.
We will have the months of the house in January through March 2017. We will get the cabinet completed for over the stove and install an exhaust pipe. We will also replace missing insulation throughout attic and especially on the upper living room walls. We will tear out the master bathtub and tile and replace with a shower and new travertine on floor and walls and in shower. I will have the playroom emptied by then and we will put slate flooring in and make the playroom a bedroom with creative toys and books.
Other highlights
Dad had to return keys to the first school that he had accidentally kept in his pocket, so he brought my car full of D. I. stuff with him, and donated all of it! He also brought home a pumpkin for me on Wednesday. It's beautiful!!
Thursday brought us surprise rain! (We also got a little on Tuesday night while we were asleep.) I mean it...the weather guy says a hurricane is coming, and we get not a drop of rain. Then, he says it will just be humid but no rain, and we get rain!
Not so highlights
I am still all bruise on my arm from the blood test last week. Now it's also sore! I had a hard time sleeping on Wednesday night. My bloodwork and tests came back fine, except my A1C was 5.8 and now I am officially pre diabetic. Love my genes!! I am cutting more carbs now.
On Sunday, we found out that Jeff Huesing passed away...over a week ago. When we were first called as ward missionaries, we visited Jeff with the missionaries. Jeff always sat with us in church. Dad baptized Jeff. He was Jeff's escort when he received his Endowment in the Mesa Temple and we both were there. We kept in touch after the ward realigned years ago, and he recently was the priesthood holder at church when his ward had cub scouts, and he would make sure our room had the a/c on before I got there. He was older and had never married nor had children. He was a good person and delighted in the restored Gospel and being part of the church. We will attend his funeral next week on Thursday evening.
