Week of October 24 - 30, 2016

Highlights:

Spiritual
Dad was up worrying about his job and the layoff early Wednesday morning, and I couldn't go back to sleep after we talked, which meant that I WOULD have fallen asleep in an early morning temple session, so no Wednesday morning session. We had a boil over on the stove that included pepper powder that got into my lungs, leading to a horrible sounding cough, so no evening session for me, though I encouraged Dad to go.

Dad completed his home teaching on Tuesday night.

On Sunday, we were spiritually filled with our ward Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. The words were uplifting, the music was absolutely beautiful and testimony building. Our primary is large, so the podium filled with Junior Primary children to begin. At one point, all the children came on the podium and sang a song about the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and there was a violin duet played during this song that was written by a man in our ward. Then the Senior Primary remained on the stand, and the Junior Primary went to their seats. At one point, all the Activity Day girls sang together. At another point, all the senior primary boys were joined by all the young men in the ward and stood across the whole front of the church singing "Army of Helaman". It was absolutely beautiful.

We substituted for the nursery leaders on Sunday. I walked in to take snacks to the cabinet, and found the nursery absolutely trashed! Candy wrappers and candy strewn all across the floor. Toys everywhere. Crushed goldfish crackers in the carpet. I went to the supply closet and got the carpet sweeper and trash bags, and spent most of my time before church cleaning it up. Since our building is right next to the temple, people often come and use the nursery to keep children occupied during sealing ordinances, but this was absolutely ridiculous. I was fuming...

I am in Alma 21 in my scripture reading.

I have indexed 37,420 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family
Grace had a hard week with a new substitute Math teacher. She had to learn exponents and it was a challenge at first. She did some placement testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, and was selected to go on a special field trip on Thursday. Adam had volleyball on Saturday and their team made it to the playoffs!! Grace had a party and then the whole family went to their ward Trunk or Treat. Grace said she filled her jungle pillowcase full of candy...

The Ethan Rice Family
Cameo is doing well. She has frequent doctor appointments now that Wade is nearing arrival. Late November/Early December. Kaylee loved preschool this week. On Friday, she had a fun time Trick or Treating at McDonough Square.



Jade came for a visit, and the ladies spent an enjoyable time at the Atlanta Aquarium.


The Doran Rice Family
Kooper had a great Monday...

Doran did very well and passed his HAM radio exam. Now, Dad will start to study.

Morgan
Morgan started a new job this week.

Kayty
Kayty had the day off on Monday and enjoyed sleeping in and doing a puzzle...

She went to Family Home Evening and carved a pumpkin and then went out on a date with her friend, Edward. Not as much overtime this week, which meant nights of good sleep. She and Edward went to a movie on Saturday night.

Number of saves this week: 2

The Nathan Rice Family
Nate found out he could go Elk hunting, and planned for Saturday, buying ammunition, etc.Sadly, on Saturday, he slept past his alarm, and in trying to catch up, slid off on a muddy road and needed his bishop's help to get pulled out. He did arrive and tried some hunting, but not successful this time. He did catch up with an adorable little pink monster named Annalee, who facetimed Grammy while eating all the yummy candy she got at trunk or treat. Nathan and Jessica said she was not happy with having the put the candy given to her in a bag! We facetimed on Sunday and Annalee was her busy self, and went to get that cute monster costume...perhaps hoping that if she wore it, she would get some more candy.

Work
Dad had a busy Monday, with lots of meetings, a redistribution of supplier responsibilities, and a re take of his annual bloodwork for insurance, and working on his garden, squeezing a quart of key lime juice,  and papa projects. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent doing his Captain work, as well as contacting his additional suppliers. Lots of meetings and spreadsheets on Thursday, and he spent a vacation day on Friday substituting in Seventh Grade Math.He took time this week to create a PowerPoint presentation on his employment accomplishments over the last 37 years at AiResearch/Garrett/AlliedSignal/Honeywell and sent that to his newer bosses. Last ditch to keep his job. He was impressed to do so, and this presentation is good to show to prospective employers as well.

My week included dusting, vacuuming, laundry, making sugar cookie dough and baking sugar cookies, baking four loaves of whole wheat bread, trimming up the key lime tree, hauling buckets of too small limes to the compost bin, hauling shirtfulls of limes to the house, making frosting for the sugar cookies, deciding the homemade frosting was too chunky and instead using some canned frosting, decorating cookies and making two plates for our Boo Doorbell Ditch, doing said doorbell ditch while nearly getting caught at the first house and deciding that it truly was a blessing to have never been boo-ed before since I am too old to run through dark yards to a waiting car, hunting for Luke the Cat so a coyote doesn't eat him, trimming, raking, hauling, more cleaning.I continue working on my Microsoft Office 2010 classes and am midway through completing the PowerPoint class.

Dad's Garden
Dad planted 9 romaine plants after the ones we had were bolting due to the heat.

A salad from his romaine before it bolted.

He also planted snow peas. I harvested lettuce, cilantro, chard, hot peppers,

and key limes by the bushel. Dad squeezed and froze 3 quarts of key lime juice this week.

Dad's Truck
No truck this week.


Other highlights
One nice thing about a Kayty SAve is that I know her glucose level and so I was able to go on two three mile jogs and see the temple.

My village started to go up. First, the new backdrop and lighting...no holes in my new painted wall this year!

Not so highlights
Everyone is healthy. Everyone is working. Everyone in school is doing well. We are blessed. 

Week of October 17 - 23, 2016

Highlights:

Spiritual
Dad's Kaizen Event at a Supplier was closer to home, so Kayty was only alone 30 minutes and I was able to attend the Wednesday morning session at the temple. Usually, I only know one or two people there, but out of the 24 total people in the session, five were from my ward. It was a wonderful session. Dad enjoyed his Wednesday evening session too.

Scouts went well as we worked on the Hometown Heroes Adventure. We talked to the boys about what it means to be a hero and asked them to name some heroes in their lives. The responses of a group of eight year old boys: Jesus, my Dad, firefighters, police officers, the army, doctors, nurses. Not an entertainment or sports celebrity even mentioned. Kids have their heads on straight! Too bad so many adults don't!

I accomplished visiting teaching one sister with my companion after my Wednesday temple trip. My visiting teachers came on Thursday morning and we had a wonderful visit.

We had the missionaries and our neighbors over for pizza on Friday. The missionaries had asked to have them in our home. Pizza was ok...not as good as when Ethan and Doran make it...but we had a good and very busy night.

Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School were so full of inspiring messages and lessons. I was able to write another letter to my dear prison sister. I also attended a meeting Sunday night with all the letter writers. So humbling to be among such great women! I truly felt unworthy! The leaders shared stories of these inmates. The Book of Mormon changes lives.

I have indexed 35936 records so far this year.

In the scriptures, I am in Alma 12.

Family

The Wilkins Family
The Wilkins Family had a busy week with volleyball practices and games, and rehearsals for the school musical. Allison was given some extra rest on Saturday morning after her knee was bothering her. The family's Halloween Costumes have been decided upon: Mike will be the scarecrow, Allison - the wicked witch of the West, Adam - the tin woodsman, Grace - Dorothy, Josh - Charizaard (pokemon beat Wizard of Ox) and Sam the Cowardly Lion.

Grace shared the following on her blog:

this week was a great week!!!       first of all, last Sunday, I went to stake conference!!! second of all, on Monday, our school teacher, Mr. Schaller, rage quitted!!! he took his stuff and left without telling the principal anything!!! I did my project (on the solar system) I made the WHOLE solar system out of cookies!!! on Tuesday, the teacher was still gone!!! I did my project in math on "sewing dresses for our dolls"!!! luckily, Adam got done with "physical therapy" early so dad got to come watch my presentation!!! on Wednesday, I went to "science club" and I went to ballet!!! my ballet teacher, miss Shelby, talked to my mom after ballet  to say how well I had improved!!! I got to sit down with the advanced girls during ballet because I was doing so well and I needed a break!!! I got two stickers for doing great on my jazz!! on Thursday, we went to Joann to get extra fabric, zippers, etc. for Halloween costumes!!! then, we went home, got chores done, relaxed and went to Mcdonalds to get a little treat of how hard we had worked that day!!! on Friday, was our Halloween trunk or treat/ fall festival for our school!!! my friends Julia and Adelaide went to Julia's trunk to trade our candy!!! (what it really was, was a put thing's you don't want from your trick or treat bag in a pile and grab what you want out of it!!!) on Saturday, I had to babysit Sam and Josh so mom could rest her leg and dad could drop Adam off  at his volleyball game!!! We watched three or four shows and we cleaned our rooms!!! I almost got mine all done!! the boys did not do that so well but, they worked ALOT!!! today we went to church, and then the home teachers came and gave us a game called "spooky ooky" which you can play by taking this spiderweb and wrap it around the house and he goes and he can move but, if you are being noddy he jumps out and...SCARES YOU!!! 

 The Ethan Rice Family
Kaylee started preschool on Tuesday! She was hesitant at first, but very excited to show her new writing skills...the letter I

She really liked class on Thursday and wanted to go back on Friday.
Kaylee went to a birthday party on Saturday...

She was in her first primary program on Sunday. Cameo made a brief recording so Ethan, who had to work, and Papa and I could see it. She was adorable, in true Sunbeam fashion, and said her part clearly and sang...as well as a Sunbeam sings. She did awesome!!

And their house is a Halloween masterpiece!

The Doran Rice Family
Doran and Dad talked on the phone Tuesday evening about HAM radio. Doran is studying for his test and wants dad to do the same. He probably will.Amber had dog adoption events during the weekend.

Morgan
Morgan and Christy are doing fine. Morgan starts a new job on Monday, which is very good news!!

Kayty
Kayty went out on Monday night bowling, worked lots of overtime, went to the doctor who wants her to check her blood glucose and take her insulin, and had a good week. She went to a Halloween party briefly on Saturday night, but someone asked why she was dressed as she was (she dressed as Evil Elsa) instead of creepier, and she came right home. Thumper said it best, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all.)

One minor save this week.

The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan and Jessica had a great week. Nathan Facetimed a couple of times so I could briefly see Annalee. She just loves that red end call button on the iphone! Nathan worked three hours on a test Friday evening...till they shut down the testing center.He made it through work Saturday, but had been struggling with an illness for days, and spent time not infecting everyone else at church on Sunday.

Work
Dad is burning up vacation days. I had envisioned later wake up times, not so rushed for me in the morning, but when a call came and I discovered he had made himself available to substitute teach, I knew this would be just a regular week for me. I am not complaining...this is nothing new. After 36 years, I have experienced on many many occasions a dance taking away a vacation day. It's how he rolls... Tuesday was filled with Papa's workshop, working on Kooper's Christmas gift. Wednesday and Thursday were Kaizen events at a nearby supplier, and then Thursday brought a letter, announcing yet another layoff/reduction in early November. These guys are already working so many hours for so many missing people. In fact, on Friday, he was using up a vacation day, and he had two mandatory meetings and had to work on a supplier problem by phone. This is a mess! Dad is older now and a new job is not always easy to find. We are praying for guidance.


My work included dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing toilets, mopping floors, laundering, picking up key limes, pruning and clearing the key lime tree of old branches, cleaning up numerous wounds resulting from aforementioned tree trimming, hauling branches to the bulk trash pile, picking up and grinding and then packaging and freezing over 34 pounds of chicken breast, updating budget spreadsheet, cooking meals, washing dishes, hauling branches from the carob tree to the pile, trying to operate a chain saw, skimming the pool, cutting limes for squeezing,made pizza dough, cleaned up after a messy pizza dinner, hauling heavy trashbags, hauling ironwood branches. I am cut and have a bump on my head where I clipped the clippers and caught my head in the handles.


Dad's Garden

Dad's turnips, beets, and spinach are coming up. Quail are pestering him and the garden! They love those tasty morsels! Snow peas are getting taller!

Dad's Truck
No truck work this week.


Other highlights
I finished my Excel 2010 course and passed the test. Now, on to Powerpoint 2010.

I  jogged every day and ended up enjoying a few "shooting stars" from the Oneids that are part of Hailey's Comet. I didn't pay attention to the sky for most of my run, so I probably would have seen more!

Papa's workshop is busy working on Kooper's Christmas gift.

We were "Boo-ed" on Saturday Night. Never happened before so it was extra wonderful!!! I will be baking sugar cookies tomorrow and then these two old folks will have to doorbell ditch. Should be very funny!!

Not so highlights
October 22: 97 degrees. Nuff said!

Week of October 10 - 16, 2016

Highlights:

Spiritual
Since Dad had to leave early for work on Wednesday morning, I didn't attend the temple. Dad attended his regular Wednesday night session, which was full of brothers and sisters from Deer Valley Stake, that is going to split this Sunday. He enjoyed the session.

Cub Scouts lately has been going at a fever pitch. When we were called, the other leaders had done more elective than required adventures, so we had to speed through things, since people were gone in the summertime. We did finish the last adventure for two boys with a mini campfire program that they put together themselves. We planned one week, rehearsed it twice, and then performed for the parents that could come.

They did awesome! And Hudson and Sawyer have their Wolf Badge (after their Cyber Chip is completed). Hudson turns 9 on Monday! Phew. Now we can just slow down a bit. We had a good scout committee meeting on Sunday as well.

Since our bishop was called to the new stake presidency, and since the First Presidency has to approve all bishop callings, taking three weeks or so, Dad had to replace his damaged temple recommend, and it was signed by both Brett Edwards, bishop, and Brett Edwards, counselor in the stake presidency. Quite a unique recommend with two of the same signatures on it!

I read talks from General Conference throughout the week. I printed the talks by Robert D. Hales, D. Todd Christofferson, and David A. Bednar. I am almost finished reading General Conference talks. Just a few more to go in the last session.

I got my letters written to both my prison sister and my letter visiting teaching person. Dad went home teaching to one family on Sunday night.

I am in Alma 6 in the Book of Mormon.

I have indexed 34395 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family
This was a good week for the Wilkins. The kids' school is starting to work for their Christmas musical, "The One and Only Santa Claus!" She and Adam both got parts: Grace as Mary Christmas and Adam will play Yule Tide. They all enjoyed volleyball on Saturday too. Allison shared this on Facebook:
"Josh doesn't usually eat breakfast, comes home with almost all of his lunch still remaining and picks at his dinner. He is constantly on the move and his soccer ball is never more than a few feet from him. Today, he was looking a little off, so I insisted he stay home from school. ALL he has done today is eat. We're talking 2 pieces of toast, an apple, an orange, 3 cheese quesadillas, a taco, trail mix, a hard-boiled egg, a yogurt, a small bag of Doritos and 2 cups of apple juice... all before 1:00. I told him that he's like a bear hibernating for winter... he said that Thursdays are his "eating day." He's looking MUCH better now."

The Ethan Rice Family
Here are some pics from their Disneyworld Adventure last week:

Cameo had a doctors appointment on Monday. Here is a picture from a week ago...


The Doran Rice Family
The week started with this interesting and thought provoking comment from Doran:
"'What did your learn?'
I was asked this question this weekend, by a person I greatly respect, and I have not seen in 10 years.
If we go through trials, most we cause by our own choices. Do we learn from that, or do we fall back into the same trial. After a trial should we take time to find out what we needed to learn from it.

This is something I will be thinking about for a while."
He was blessed with a miracle last week. An apostle selected those two seventies to attend our stake conference. No random choice. And not their assignment, since two other seventies came this week to split the stake next to us.

Happy Anniversary to Doran and Amber on Tuesday! 10-11-12 was a very special day for our family!!!

Morgan
No word from Morgan and Christy this week. He must be very busy at Fear Farm!

Kayty
Kayty worked quite a bit of overtime again this week. She kept us up way to late on Tuesday, sharing the movie San Andreas with us. I think I woke up twice thinking there was an earthquake happening! She worked quite a bit of overtime this week, and had a date with a new guy she met on one of those internet sites. Not Tinder is all I know. In one of my nighttime checks, she said she had such and great time and laughed and laughed.She even ate sushi! A Las Vegas Roll with eel sauce.

 Her ward received new boundaries and she is back in the Deer Valley singles ward. She is not sad to see the medical students go, but is not so sure about going back to the odd folks in that ward either.

The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan keeps putting in applications at various suppliers of dads for a future internship.He was able to teach class on Tuesday and is busy working on the design and machining of a fan blade. Annalee can now do a new trick: When mommy or daddy say, "Where's your tummy?" she lifts up her shirt and points at her tummy! She is proving to be just as stubborn as her daddy is and will no longer walk for yogurt! I so enjoyed seeing her via Facetime on Satruday and Sunday. She is such a cutie and loves looking at her books.

Work
Dad had a Monday full of meetings, plus a quick supplier visit in between. The supplier would not let Dad in at first without his passport. What? His passport? Finally someone came down and let him see the parts they are making for Honeywell...that belong to Honeywell. Dad said that the good suppliers never have a problem letting Honeywell engineers in to see whatever they want. Only the crummy ones won't cooperate and are distrustful. Tuesday he had meetings and attended a meeting at his old Engines site. They have sold buildings to other companies, and he sat in this meeting, noting that REAL savings, the cause of the meeting, was not even being discussed. Wednesday, he had a Kaizen event in Tempe.Thursday was full of paperwork, and meetings, and he found out there is a rumor (which are always true) that next year, on top of four weeks of furlough (essentially losing one month of pay), paying our entire dental insurance premium, he will also be required to take a 10 percent pay cut. That will have long term effects on his retirement and be a loss we will never recover, so he is starting to look for another job. I found Aerotek, an employment service for people with his knowledge and skills.

My work including hard boiling some of the 9 dozen eggs we have from the hens, harvesting key limes, bandaging wounds from harvesting key limes, dusting, vacuuming, mopping, laundry, cooking,
losing a pint of blood as I trimmed up the underside of the key lime tree, scrubbing tubs and toilets, truing a new recipe on Tuesday (ok, but not rave reviews),cleaning up, picking up, putting away, taking care of the pine tree outside, paying bills, working on spreadsheets, planning cub scouts, and sitting through at least two Microsoft Office Excel classes each day.

Dad's Garden
Dad put in the pipes he purchased when he sold the shelf speakers. The pipes will better support the snow peas when they grow taller.He got the watering system finally repaired and put some seed down in the yard to cover areas under the Carob Tree.

He also squeezed a ton of keylime juice.

Dad's Truck
No truck work this week.

Other highlights
I made lasagna soup for dinner on Monday...to celebrate Columbus Day! Thursday, I put M&M's in Kayty's pancakes for National M&M day.

Five wonderful jogs in the morning, including one with nearly a full moon, and one with a full moon. Awesome!

Not so highlights
I tripped in the dark at the beginning of my run on Wednesday morning. I thought nothing was broken, so I continued on, and then cleaned up the scrapes on my hands, elbow and knee when I got home. I had ice on my knee many times during the day and night, and could walk Thursday, but felt like I had been beaten by a baseball bat on my upper torso. .But I was blessed to jog Friday and Saturday, with only a bit of pain, and my scrapes are healing nicely.