Week of April 15-21, 2018

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was a very quiet day. We had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting. Three youth spoke of missionary work and future missionary service. We then were blessed to hear from a young man who just returned from serving a mission in Chile. His dad and stepmom moved to Idaho while he was away, but they all returned here so family in Phoenix and friends in our ward could hear him report. What growth occurred in this young man's life as he devoted two years to serve the Lord. What a strong testimony of Jesus Christ he bore. The rest of our church meetings went well, and Dee taught a lesson to the Deacon's quorum on the Book of Mormon and it's importance. We spent the day reading. I did attend choir practice preparing for stake conference. Nothing much else happened.

This week is Stake Temple Week. All other activities are cancelled (scouts for both of us) so that we can attend the temple. We did sealing ordinances on Tuesday night and an endowment session on Wednesday night.

I finally got a letter mailed to my sweet inmate sister.

I have indexed 10875 records so far this year. Since records have to be reviewed and that is falling behind, I reviewed, so I have reviewed 299 records so far this year.

I am in Alma 5 in the Book of Mormon.

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins had a busy and fun filled week.

The Ethan Rice Family

This family had a great time at the Southern Belle Farm Strawberry Festival.

Cameo made a strawberry pie from all this yumminess...

I spoke to Kaylee on Marco Polo on Friday. She was having fun with a very busy Wade!

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber had a busy but good week. Lots of work at work and with their rescue dogs, but the kids are a great help.

On Friday, Doran and Kooper headed to their ward Father Son Campout at Lake Pleasant. They had a great time! Amber and Kelsie stayed home and celebrated Kelsies great grades with Wendy's Frostys and French fries and a clothes shopping trip. Doran has been offered a promotion at work to the sales team and he is excited about the prospects though still deciding. He is still suffering from his broken salivary gland and will probably need to see a dentist about it.

Morgan

Morgan is enjoying Georgia, and had a good time at Southern Belle Farms too!

Kooper woke up sad and missing Uncle Mo. Kaylee likes having him with them, and Wade is warming up to this awesome uncle. I'm so glad Morgan is such a good uncle to these kiddos!!

Kayty

Kayty's work week went well. She helped out a friend of ours by recording cds for her free summer dance/chorus program.

Two major save this week. 

The Nathan Rice Family

This family enjoyed a much needed break in between semesters. Nathan had a sleep study on Monday night...and flunked, which we are kind of glad about. Now he will get a cpap machine and hope to both sleep better and not awaken with headaches. This week had some snow and cold weather, but they still blew bubbles, flew kites, went fishing (Nathan caught one, and Anna caught one on her Moana Fishing Pole),

cleaned out their storage unit some, loaded bullets, Jessica had an evening to do what she wanted so she attended the temple and had a good time. (Ellie was NOT happy about her mommy's night away, and let both Daddy know while Mom was gone, and Mom know when she got back.) They went to an awesome park Friday where there were huge rocks, caves and plenty of opportunities to jump and climb, and even fly the kite some more. Nathan had another sleep study to verify levels on the CPap Machine. They spent Saturday working on the car, having a last day of fun and family, and getting ready for the next semester to begin on Monday. 

Dad's Garden

Picked the first tomatoes this week. However, it appears the plants Dad got at the nursery were NOT the variety they indicated they were. His first seedlings had grown well in the planting pots and were about to be planted, so he was adapting them to the outdoors when we had a massively surprise cold windy afternoon, which got them all. So, he went to the nursery to purchase replacements. Celebrity tomatoes have done well here. They grow well and are about the size of a baseball. The tomatoes they said were Celebrities, however, are not. Much smaller and grow in bunches like grapes, though somewhat larger. Dad was very unhappy!!! He will only plant his seedlings from now on. The first 19 tomatoes were tasty, though. 

Year of the House Part 2

Monday night session of tile grouting was a killer. Dad mixed a lot of grout and it took awhile to put in, and then wipe off. Wednesday nights session was much better and we had a better handle on how to do things. We grouted the floor on Thursday, got the cabinet I ordered FINALLY on Friday (FedEx keeps delivering to our neighbors, who only can read Farsi and cannot discern who the package is for). I sealed all the tile, walls and floors, on Saturday.

Other highlights
Dad helped me get my cornice box covered with new fabric. I have this fabric for the stools in the kitchen too, but not sure when I will have time to do them. I also purchased scotch guard to keep stains off. 

I had a good dental appointment this week. Cleaning and no cavities!

Nano shopping was earlier, involved two separate lab trips, the grocery store, and cleaning her freezer.

We invited some friends for pizza on Friday. She is a deaf interpreter for a young woman in our ward, and he comes to job classes though he is not a member of the church. We had a good evening.

Happy Birthday, Dad on Saturday!

He started his day at yard sales. I can't go anymore because I can't leave Kayty till after 8:30 am and that is too late for deals here. He got some great deals. He received a FaceTime Happy Birthday song and call early from Nathan, Jessica, Anna and Ellie. He later received a call from his mom. We had a stake conference adult meeting, and Ethan, Cameo, Kaylee, and Morgan all called wishing him a happy birthday before the meeting started. Doran called on the way home to talk and wish him a Happy Birthday. We spent the day returning unused floor products and tile, getting a refund on the tomato plants, buying sale corn on the cob, and cutting up wood in the neighborhood. Dad cut down the Ironwood tree in the backyard that died and he and I spent an hour hauling out branches to the pile. He then cleaned out the pool filters.

Not so highlights

I had to stop FaceBook reading for a bit. There is a movement in Arizona by teachers called RedForEd. The comments have grown degrading. I have to attend church with these people and their friends, and I cannot let comments on social media interfere with the other good person they are. Therefore, for now, FaceBook is done. Maybe in a few months. It will be an interesting experiment.