Week of March 24 - 30, 2019

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday proved very interesting. We had Fast and Testimony Meeting since we have Stake Conference and then General Conference the next two weeks. Near the end, the bishop got up. He shared his talk/testimony, emphasizing the importance of our immersing ourselves in the scriptures. He then dismissed us to return to our homes and as families read scriptures in Alma and then rededicate ourselves to immersing ourselves and send to him our plan. Fifty six minutes of Sunday church.

I attended choir in the afternoon.

No auxillary meetings this week due to stake temple week. Dad attended a session at the temple on Wednesday evening.

I am reading the April Ensign Magazine and continue reading and studying the Book of Mormon.

I have indexed 7717  records and reviewed11487 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Allison shared the following with us:
"My cute Grace was chosen as "Kid of the Month" by our local radio station (Mix 94.1). We got to go down and meet Mercedes and JC as part of her prize, and Grace got to push some buttons and have fun in the studio. They were incredibly gracious, and we had the best time!"

Notice that the Green Room is truly Green!

What an awesome opportunity for you, Grace. We are so proud of you and the wonderful Young Woman you are!!!

We were able to Marco Polo Wednesday night and saw the awesome gifts she got while being at the radio station. Josh was at scouts but we saw Ninja Sam and his stylin' Elvis haircut, and Adam was showing us a (insert old lady jargon that makes teenagers roll eyes to express the wonder of) shirt.

Saturday was Josh's first soccer game. What a blessing his foot healed and he could play.

And Kayty attended a spaghetti fund raiser at the ward with them that evening...

The Ethan Rice Family

The kids were feeling better so the family attended a birthday party on the weekend.

Thursday night was Spirit Night, and Kaylee and Wade enjoyed Chick fil a and a bounce house. Cameo kindly spent a ton of time on the phone with me helping to set up prescription delivery to Mom's care home by Saliba's. I was so excited when her caregiver, Elizabeth, gave me the name! Cameo, you are such a blessing!!!

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber and family are doing well. Busy week working, schooling, and prepping for their new home.

And completing their current one so it can sell...

Morgan

Morgan, Aimee and Emileigh were busy with work and school, and getting out of their old place, readying to move nearer to work.

Kayty

Kayty had a good work week, and headed out on Saturday for Vegas to pick up some insulin and visit family.

The Nathan Rice Family

It has been quite a week for Nathan and Jessica and the girls. Doctor appointments, immunizations, changes at work, and an offer on a house. They won't know till Monday morning if their offer is accepted. They also spent time with Jessica's family, visiting a park, and enjoying a movie and chicken on Saturday.

Dad's Garden

Spinach is still plentiful, but Dad picked the final snow peas (hooray!) and now we wait to harvest seeds. Still getting carrots. We made another cabbage salad from a cabbage he grew. The new plants look wonderful.

Other highlights

While my week was full of changes for Nano, since Kathy sent me a note dropping all contact with her, I have been able to figure out a lot of the medical needs Mom has (thank you again, Cameo!) and am trying to get her home medical visits. Her house sold and the process of that continues. She has gone downhill considerably since this happened, but I am hoping once things calm down, she might be able to focus on peace and not Kathy. I still have finances to figure out, but that will come. 

Dad did get one supplier completely through the first level of the approval process, and that was a BIG accomplishment.

Lots of weeding continues after our plentiful Winter rains. 

Week of March 17 - 23, 2019

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a great Sunday. Sacrament Meeting was especially inspiring for me because Debbie Blake and President Day spoke about the Prison Ministry and their experiences. It was like a shot in the arm of inspiration to me.

I helped again in Valiant 10 in Primary.

It was Spring Break here, so Dad nor I had scouts.

I did some sealing work in the temple on Tuesday morning. What a blessing it was as each of four sisters were sealed to their parents. Dad also did temple work on Tuesday evening.

I continue reading in the Book of Mormon daily and am reading the scriptures weekly in "Come Follow Me".

I have indexed 7337 records and reviewed 9563 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

It was a good week for this family. I am sure leprechaun traps were set out trying to get an unlucky one. This week, they celebrated the first day of Spring with Dairy Queen and celebrated Josh's cast removal.

The Ethan Rice Family

This family celebrated St Patricks Day a day early, which ended up being a wise idea, or the luck of the Irish, because a rough week followed.

I received this message Friday after I spoke to the family on Facetime. 

I don’t know if you saw all of my messages late Tuesday night. “I am glad we dressed up and did St. Patty’s Day stuff on Saturday, because the kids woke up Sunday with fevers . They were down and out. Monday was staff development day or something, so the kids didn’t have school. I took them to the doctor on Monday. They swabbed them both for strep, and it came back negative. They still sent the cultures off to the lab , so I hope to hear back on the results on Wednesday. The doctor did not like the look of K’s tonsils, so is treating her as if she has strep. She started Amoxicillin tabs on Monday.” And “I was pulling into our driveway after school today, and K tells me that she want to go inside. I hadn’t even pulling into the garage yet. She got out and went right on inside the house without anyone with her. (Which is extremely odd because she normally is afraid). She went into my room, got under the covers, and was out. I guess she was wiped out from the day. .. I kept Wade out of school today. He didn’t go to bed until 12:37am, so he was tired and didn’t want to go to school today. I am glad I kept him out. When Ethan got home, he spent the majority of the evening in Ethan’s lap. He was very inactive. So unusual for him. About an hour and a half ago, I discovered his fever came back. Then Ethan got a migraine and was in the bathroom with vomiting and diarrhea. I was in the urgent care with Wade last Tuesday. We can’t catch a break.”

My plate was rather full though all week. The doctor even made a sarcastic comment along the lines of, “Oh, I bet you already looked stuff up on WebMD.” And I was just like, “Nope. I haven’t had time.”

But it was mainly because I already knew what Wade had with the leg thing, so I wasn’t frantically looking for an answer online. I know it was related to the viral thing that i had in September, and that Josh Wilkins had in December. I knew it existed, I was just curious on if they (his pediatrician office) knew about it. (Because I don’t think my PCP did). It is nice having a knowledge doctor, and getting good care.

Kaylee did look better on FaceTime, but Wade was still looking kind of puny. Praying for this sweet family. 

The Doran Rice Family

Happy Birthday to Doran on Thursday. They had a good week at work and at school and are busy getting ready to sell their home and get their new home built. Kooper had some dental work done...

Morgan

Morgan, Aimee and Emileigh are well, and are desperately searching for their new home. In the mean time, they will move in temporarily with Ethan and Cameo next weekend.

Kayty

Kayty had a good week at work and is cleaning and organizing her room little by little. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Lots of homes were looked at this week, and even submitted an offer on a home for the first time. Nathan's work was slow with a boss on vacation, so they left Thursday night for a much needed family getaway to Young to stay at Jessica's parents home there. They came back a night early, having to replace a tire after driving the rough road, but had a good time.

Dad's Garden

Garden is doing well. Peas are now pretty much seed but I get a lot of spinach, cherry and roma tomatoes,  and carrots, and the newer tomato plants look amazing. 

Other highlights

I have a friend from high school whose son is on a mission, serving in Germany. In his blog post for the week, he shared something that really touched me, so I wanted to keep it here...

"I don’t know if I personally know a single person who hasn’t, at some point, started to question and jump mentally around “well if I just go to the automated register, I’m not making anyone work” kind of questions, but I still needed to give a good solid answer. At that moment, I remembered one of the greatest statements that I’ve ever taken away from the 20 months of being home in between missions, so I opened my mouth and said “the gospel isn’t a system to be gamed,” and with that, I just got a response of “ok” and that was good enough. I started thinking about that after the lesson was over, and I realized the power and importance of that statement. Many times, we want definitive rules and hard set-in-stone statements so we can know exactly what we can and can’t do. If the rule is “don’t punch your neighbor,” then we would do everything to get around it, kicking and smacking our neighbor instead (I’m not good at analogies but you get what I mean). I mean, rationalization is kind of the reason why I allowed myself to mess up so much that I got sent home in the first place. The point of so many commandments and rules being kind of vague like “keep the Sabbath day holy” is because they are a matter of self-evaluation. All the Savior asks of us is to be able to daily look at ourselves and say confidently “I am doing the best I can.” The best part is that if we can say we did the best we could, the Lord makes up the rest. We are saved wholly by grace, yes, but we sanctify ourselves by our own actions, and in choosing to work to sanctify ourselves, we are showing that the Savior’s investment in us, the Atonement, is not going to waste. " Elder Gilbert

Good jogs this week, and I even got to jog to the temple and back on Saturday morning. One morning, as I was on my way back, I surprised by a flash of lightning, a clap of thunder, and some pouring rain. I did not get very wet, and it was lovely.

Orange blossoms are blooming and the smell is heavenly.

Got drawers organized in kitchen and faily room on Friday, and took a little trip to Rod Works to look around. Saw one item I want Dad to create for me. 

Nano called on Saturday...her house sold! 

Not so highlights

I recieved a phone call Wednesday night from Nano's friend, Kathy Hayes, informing me that mom had to find a new place to live by the end of March. I was frantic. Called Sharynn, who got in touch with Kathy, verifying the ten days we had. I didn't sleep much that night, since the move now meant that Mom's finances would need to be more accounted for and any large gift would be out. I even contacted an attorney and she said no large gifts that could not be returned, so my plan that I had gone over with Nano weeks ago to gift each grandchild 5000 dollars from the sale of her home was eliminated. The next day brought many many phone conversations, clarifying that the problem was NOT mom, but was Kathy interfering a bit too much. Sharynn took time off work and was on the phone extensively with all, and got it all worked out...or so we thought. Friday was full of phone calls, the saddest from a tearful mom that Kathy was stopping any contact with mom. Sharynn and I discussed and felt this might end up being for the best, but it is not easy for mom. I am at a hard place. When Kathy and Mom up and decided for Mom to move, none of us, Scott nor Sharynn nor I , had any say in the decision. We just had to make the best of things. We worked our tails off emptying Moms house and now it's safely on the market. We have had to jump through hoop after hoop established by Kathy and Nano, and then had to pick up the pieces where they left off. We will figure this out, just like we have over and over before.