Week of December 10 - 16, 2017

Highlights:

Spiritual
Sunday was good. Choir practice was wonderful and I am truly enjoying singing this beautiful Silent Night Christmas Cantata. We had an especially inspiring Sacrament Meeting with talks from three ward members that were so good. One sister told of her life, growing up in a Polygamous Sect, her mother leaving the sect and her, her father raising her, the sect beliefs, her education, her finding peace and friendship outside the church, her leaving her father and the sect and moving in with her maternal grandparents, her missionary lesson and baptism after an interview from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, her marriage and reconnecting with the Gospel and the church. She serves as an interpreter for Sydney, a beautiful young woman in our ward who is deaf but has cochlear implants (there is too much other noise in Sacrament meeting so she needs the interpreter.) Wonderful story and good she can attend young women and Sunday School with Sydney so she can learn what she missed out on in her youth.

Scouts went well this week. We had a party. Made the game "Don't Eat Santa" to take home to play with family and decorated sugar cookies. Dad did Ultimate Frisbie with all the young men.

I am in Alma 18 in my Book of Mormon Reading. I continue to listen to a General Conference talk every morning when I exercise. I am almost finished reading the December Ensign magazine.

I have indexed 36257 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family
Grace had a chorus and a band concert on Thursday evening.

We were so thankful to be able to view the concert and cheer for her via Marco Polo. She played the flute in band and sang some fun songs in chorus.

Josh was celebrating on Friday! Ten days straight of going to school and loving it. This young man has triumphed like a real super hero and he got ice cream to celebrate.

You can do hard things, Josh!!!!
The Ethan Rice Family
I said this family woke up to a snowy yard on Saturday morning. This is how the rest of their day went..
"We started to put up Christmas inside and outside yesterday. Yesterday was a great day! Woke up to snow, kids got to play in the snow, we dressed up and went to K’s school for the Breakfast with Santa event. Kids got to see Santa. K is still not a fan of him. Wade was not scared at all. K was terrified. She did not want to go up there. Chilly weather and decorating." -Cameo
They didn't attend a work party on Friday night, nor the ward party on Saturday. I read that the wet roads turn icy in this weather, making them very unsafe.
Happy Birthday on Wednesday, Ethan. He was busy putting up lights on the house.

I miss the decorations the boys used to put up. They did a great job, and now their homes look wonderful.

Kaylee was a shepherd in her school play

Wade and Kaylee visit Santa. Wade thought he was an ok guy. Kaylee, however, is still not so sure. 

The Doran Rice Family

We visited Doran and Amber on Monday evening. We saw their lovely Christmas lights. Kooper took me on a tour of the house, showing me their Christmas tree, Kelsie's lights in her room window and her little tree too. We decorated sugar cookies for fun.

Morgan
Morgan is working for Shutterfly and staying with Kyle. Seems to be doing well.

Kayty
Kayty worked all week. She attended a special event at Alice Cooper's Rock Teen Center.

Group photos from last week and this week

This was an Alice Kooper Christmas Event for kids and teens. Kayty got to meet him. He served her food and she visited with his wife. Dad might have been just a bit jealous.

The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan had finals this week: hard on him, and very very hard on Jessica. It was cold and they are in a small apartment...at least small for a two year old. They were so happy on Friday for finals to be over and Anna and Ellie spent all their time with their Daddy on Friday night. The snow fell on Saturday and had accumulated five inches, so after housework was done, they went sledding. Anna helped Daddy shovel the snow with her very own shovel and sounded like she had a great time!!

Dad's Garden
Garden is doing well. Dad picked turnips, lettuce, chard, snow peas, and hot peppers. His tomato starts are looking wonderful and with the warm weather, they may go in the ground soon. His lettuce are bolting...still too warm for their liking.

Year of the House Part 2
On Friday, Dad did a small repair of the shower floor. He mixed up thinset and made the floor at the drain level. Then, Dad and Wade worked like mad men on Saturday evening. We had gone to purchase some drywall and Wade had said he had an extra piece so Dad called to say he needed it. Wade was here within an hour (which was a total surprise) and they worked for a few hours.

We are so thankful for Wade's help on this project!!!

Other highlights
Lots of lovely Christmas lights make my walks and running so beautiful! It's my favorite time of year.

The Geminid Meteor Shower was...interesting. I walked south first, since 49th Ave tend to be a little darker. It was at 4:45 am...I saw 2. When I got to Pinnacle Peak Road and turned and walked north, I saw 5. They said to look South, but perhaps the many city lights obscured the meteors a bit. Still it was pretty awesome.

Nano shopping went well. We went to three places, I put her groceries away, and then I dropped her off at her "Little Old Lady Luncheon" at church.

Not so highlights
I got kind of grumpy when we were at Lowe's on Saturday. They were indeed clearancing the Christmas items, which I kind of understand, but putting out lawn furniture? Come on people! Can't we hold of the Summer just a bit! I guess people here do spend outdoor time now rather than in July though.