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.