Week of July 21 - 27, 2019

Highlights:

Spiritual

Our Sacrament Meeting was very Missionary oriented today. Elder Dawson Field spoke before he leaves for his 24-month mission to the Leeds England Mission on Tuesday, and Elder Jordan Sheppard reported after returning from his 24-month mission to Honolulu Hawaii Marshallese Mission. Both young men bore strong testimonies of Jesus Christ. It was wonderful to be able to listen to.

I performed sealing ordinances at the temple on Tuesday morning. Dad did the same on Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoon.

I continue reading the Book of Mormon and listening to a General Conference Talk daily.

I have indexed 14,726 names and reviewed 32,714 names so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Allison told me weeks ago that she was posting on their family blog again, but I was just too out of it to look...until I posted our weekly blog last Saturday. Boy, she has been amazing. So, since I print this blog as our family photo album, I am quickly doing some catch-up.
From July 11, 2019

Patriotic Fireside

Adam stinkin' LOVES the United States of America.

He stands every day for the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem in school (though he usually is the only one), has read the Constitution several times, talks often how this is the greatest country in the world and is always respectful of the flag.

And if you ever mention wanting to go to another country, he will give you an earful about how you should never want to leave because we live in the best place you can be.

He is very conservative and loves him some Steven Crowder and Ben Shapiro.

But, that's a different story for a different day.

Our stake asked him to speak at our stake Patriotic Fireside.

And he did a wonderful job.

He talked about how much he loved this country of ours and how proud he was to be an American and all of the freedoms we enjoy because of those who gave their lives.

It gave me so much hope about the next generation.


For the second part of Grace's radio station kid of the month prize, she received a birthday party at the Adventuredome, so they decided to make it a Summer Celebration.

Josh hasn't been feeling 100% lately...just not as active and more tired...so they are trying to bring his health up with good eating, some vitamins, and hopefully, he will improve. If he's not feeling better in a couple of weeks, more tests will be run.

Last Saturday, they attended a stake Pioneer Day celebration. They had a great time!

Allison has been having weekly dates with each of her kids. Adam's turn brought a fun trip to Chick-Fil-A and some great conversation. She says Adam is so much fun to talk to. He loves to debate and knows a lot about a lot of things. I remember when he was little, he loved to get those children's picture dictionaries. He loved reading about everything. I even remember one camping trip to Wood's Canyon Lake when he was just a little guy. We would walk around the campground to every campsite. He would point and ask, "What kind of car is that, Grammy?". Guessing the exact make and model was not permitted. He wanted the truth. So, I would answer with the exact make and model, even if that required walking quite close to the car. He would repeat back the information to me, and then we would go to the next campsite.

Sam always wants some street corn from the man that pedals in front of their house daily, so Allison and Mike made sure he got some with Parmesan cheese. That stuff always looked so good to me when I would see it at the park behind Nano's house!

The Ethan Rice Family

On Saturday, Ethan, Cameo and the kids took a trip to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for a final trip before school begins for Kaylee. The Atlantic Ocean was warm and the whole family had a wonderful time!

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber and family are doing well, busy working and getting ready for school to start.

Morgan

Due to Emileigh not being able to sign up for a good school due to open enrollment dates, she has moved down to Southern Georgia to live with her grandmother for the school year so she can be homeschooled. Aimee and Morgan miss her and have taken on part-time jobs to help save up some money.

Kayty

Kayty had a good week at work. She attended a Relief Society Swim Party on Thursday evening and had a good time. 

The Nathan Rice Family

This week had a lot of ups and downs. The family found a dog and met someone to purchase it. It seemed fine until Nathan did a further check later and found ticks everywhere. He tried to return the dog and get their money back, but the seller refused, saying he bathed the dog all the time. Jessica took the dog to a vet on Friday, got it medication to remove the ticks, and then gave it to her aunt's friend who wanted the dog. Late Friday, they were getting some kind of pesticide since female ticks fall off once they have eaten and can lay 1000 eggs in the baseboards of the house. What a mess. They are doing well and had a good week. We saw them on Saturday, and I was able to get my first smile from Emma. They also came over later that night to help figure out the trouble with my car air conditioning. So very thankful for their help!

Dad's Garden

Dee is harvesting bees. After the storm, someone contacted him with a beehive in a broken-off tree limb. He went, used the bee vacuum he made, and successfully retrieved the bees and began a new hive place in our side front yard, though they didn't survive the heat Friday. He got two stings in the process that are taking a while to heal.

Christmas In July
I neglected to update the movies I viewed last week. I watched "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" while I was cutting up and freezing chicken, and then that night we watched "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". 

Ornaments are completed, strung, labeled and in bags, packed away for Christmas. I spent the rest of the week cutting out nativity scene parts and got them all sealed and ready to begin painting on Saturday.

Other highlights

Weather was crazy for the week. Hot some mornings, cooler some mornings, sprinkles and rain and humidity.

I took Nano out to pick up some things she needed as well as a prescription. My car a/c was doing crazy stuff so we just went quickly. I then went and checked out her computer troubles. I re-signed her in on her email. Her disease makes it rough, because what she does not do every day, or what is important to her (like locations of doctors offices) she forgets, and with her trip, she wasn't on the computer for six days. 

Week of July 14 - 20, 2019

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was a good day. We arrived early for choir practice. We had a great Sacrament Meeting! A high councilman spoke, who is also our ward choir director. He spoke about being the importance of the Last Supper and the Sacrament. It was full of great information, history, and inspiration. The closing hymn was "I Believe In Christ". This hymn text came from the final talk Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave at General Conference. Allison was 2, Ethan was 1, and I was walking a fussy little Doran around the building in the hallway. As I heard Elder McConkie, I stepped in the doorway as he bore this final testimony, and at one point in the hymn, that exact moment and the words he was saying flooded my mind and heart, and I remember exactly how I felt at that moment and how my testimony of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Happiness was true. That moment in that talk has always been a reminder to me that no time at church is wasted, even if you are struggling with a child in the hallway.

I had no choir practice but did have a Cub Committee meeting where we planned out the rest of our pack meetings. Last meeting: December 4. A final Fiesta.

Dad attended a session at the temple on Wednesday evening.

I continue reading the Book of Mormon and listening to a General Conference talk every day. I am ready to begin the Priesthood session for the fourth time.

I have indexed 14,419 records and reviewed 31452 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

I texted and Marco Polo-ed with Grace this week. She celebrated Christmas in July this week with some yummy hot cocoa. She is very excited about Girls' Camp on the 30th of July.

The Ethan Rice Family

I was able to FaceTime with Ethan, Cameo, Kaylee, and Wade on Sunday evening. Kaylee had gone shopping and purchased many unicorn themed items for school: clothing and a backpack included. Wade also got some new shoes. Kaylee shared an adorable unicorn mask she had created. Wade sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with Mommy. They are well. They spent some time swimming with friends this week.

Ethan is enjoying work but also had an interview at corporate recently, and ended up getting this corporate Management position. He has another month in his current position but is really looking forward to the change. The birthday gift they got me arrived in the mail on Friday. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber, Kelsie and Kooper are doing well.

Morgan

Morgan, Aimee and Emileigh are doing well.

Kayty

Kayty had a good week at work with quite a bit of overtime. On Saturday, she made a mexican food creation: a Naco

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan and the big girls came by for a visit on Sunday. There was some playdough play and goldfish cracker snacking. This was dance recital week for Anna, which included many extra practices. I went on Thursday morning to help out with Ellie while Jess was busy with Anna and Emma.

Nathan had a good work week with a great midweek review and golfing with some company leaders. 

We enjoyed Anna's recital on Saturday afternoon. My camera didn't work for her dance "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" which was very upsetting, but Dad got it to work for the finale. 

Dad's Garden

Peppers are growing. He is progressing on his bee hives...made a bee vacuum this week.

Christmas In July
I completed ornament painting this week. Now, just need to drill and put in string. I am also preparing for Kid Nativity Part 2. I also ordered the book for this year...goes with the ornament. I enjoyed "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Santa Clause 2".

Other highlights

Monday's walk (Kayty didn't look good so I took 15-minute walks rather than a 45-minute run) was a warm 88 degrees but not nearly as bad as last weeks 94 degrees. I did the same thing the rest of the week, with temps down to 84 degrees.

I picked up Nano from her California Adventure at the airport on Tuesday. She had a wonderful time and visited with family dear to her.

She said she ate so much Mexican food that she doesn't want to see it again for a few weeks. Thank you Sharynn for doing this. Unfortunately, being away has left her very confused and she has been struggling to do things like answer the phone and get onto the computer. We hope she can figure things out on her own by trial, and perhaps spur some memory activity. 

Not so highlights

I gave up years ago on reporting on Dad's job. It seemed awful then...but now, those times seem really awesome compared to now. He is the only one in his group in Phoenix: the rest of the team and supervision sit together in Los Angeles. Monday is "Job Threat Monday" where during the team meeting, each and every person is threatened to be fired. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday can be good or not so good, depending on how the programs and assignments continue to change. Friday, they make sure to rip into you about something you did not do according to what they thought it should be, so you enter your weekend feeling pretty low. I assume the people in California are no longer affected by this continuous experience since they have gone through it for years, but it's no fun for a guy there six months. Dad continues to apply for job after job at Honeywell.