Week of February 9 - 15, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had another wonderful Sunday. Sacrament Meeting was full of talks on the Book of Mormon and what blessings come from studying it. At the start of Relief Society, our bishop came in and spoke with us about testimony bearing. The bishopric has prayerfully decided that select ward members will be asked to share their testimonies each Fast and Testimony meeting, as well as in other meetings. He said the bishopric is responsible for assuring the testimonies born include spiritually uplifting experiences and testimonies of Christ. He said testimony meeting was never meant to be an "open mic" time. I was thankful for their very positive and building approach to what has happened in the past. The rest of our day was spent visiting with a very nice man and his two children who love vintage speakers and will purchase Dad's Altec 19 speakers next week.

I attended a session at the temple on Tuesday morning and Dad attended a session on Wednesday evening.

I attended a Relief Society Extra Meeting Committee Meeting to plan and prepare for an upcoming dinner and speaker in March. I had to use Dad's car since my battery had not charged enough.

I love coming home from my jog every day as I sit down at my desk in the laundry room and read my Book of Mormon. I begin the week with the Come Follow Me readings each day, and when that is complete I continue reading where I left off at the end of the year. I have a new phone app that explains every verse and I also watch numerous YouTube classes on my own time that add to the lessons. I continue to listen to a General Conference talk every day too.

I have indexed 2556 records and reviewed 20,305 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

We spoke via Marco Polo with nearly everyone on Sunday. They fed the missionaries in their ward last Friday night. Mike is doing well in his classes and is going to double his efforts so he can complete them more quickly. Allison is doing well and keeping up with work and kids. Mike and Allison had both spoken in church last Sunday morning. Allison's theme was "A Perfect Brightness of Hope". Adam has had some problems with migraines and was asleep when we spoke. Grace had a wonderful time at her first Saturday night dance. She got to see some old friends and danced with a very cute boy twice. She spent last week doing crazy hairdos and had a great time trying new ways to fix her hair. She is looking forward to meeting her trek family this week. (It sure is different than when Nathan went on trek. You didn't meet your family until the morning you left.) She looked forward to Karaoke night at Young Women this week. She also shared with me her science project presentation on Cookie Spreading and testing if ingredient amount changes would affect the spreading of the cookie. Sam had a book report last week for school. He chose the Dr. Suess book "There's a Wocket in My Pocket" and Allison created an actual Wocket for Sam to carry in his pocket. Sam is quite smitten with some of the girls in his class. He says he can't even look at them because they are so cute. Allison worked with one in a reading group when she helped in Sam's class, and she said Sam is so right. Alyssa is cute. Sam also enjoyed Spanish class at school and played a word game using a basketball. This weekend they are looking forward to a couple of days off school and spending time hiking.

The Ethan Rice Family

We face-timed Ethan and family on Sunday evening. They are all doing great and Ethan will travel this week for a work retreat, and Cameo will have all the school driving duties as well as working. We spoke again on Friday and Ethan shared things about the retreat with Dad. Cameo did well but felt like she also earned a retreat. Ethan ended up surprising Kaylee at school for lunch.

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber had a very eventful week. Tuesday was crazy with work plus Amber stayed home to be there when the workmen came for the initial repairs on their house as per their home builder. Amber won tickets for her and Doran to attend a future concert from a radio station. Kelsie displayed her project for the science fair.

Doran and Amber have a couple of puppies staying with them for awhile.

We saw them on Saturday and Kooper and I had fun playing Legos while we visited. Meanwhile, Kelsie is busy at school every Saturday working on stage sets for the school play.

Morgan

Morgan spent Sunday with Doran, Amber, Kelsie, and Kooper. He came for a visit on Monday and spent the afternoon and shared dinner with us before his friend Kyle came to pick him up. He is still deciding what he will do in the future and continues to find odd jobs to work.

Kayty

Kayty watched hockey games this week. Her team did not win the first two games and she was screaming for the coach to be fired. She shared the movie, The Hobbit with us Friday night. 

The Nathan Rice Family

No news from Nathan, Jessica and the girls this week.

Dad's Garden

We are picking lots of snow peas daily. I am also picking carrots for salads. Dad's spinach and chard continue to thrive and the tomato plants are looking wonderful. 

Other highlights

We shared pizza dinner with the missionaries on Monday night. One of our sisters is actually from Italy and enjoyed the brick oven pizza a lot. 

Rain on Tuesday morning actually kept me from my run. That rarely happens. We ended up getting 1 1/4 inches of rain!

We have been spending lots of time cleaning. I have gotten old years' supply food tossed. We are moving things from the 'music room' that dad uses for work in his office and putting the more recreational items out in the music room. We are also getting rid of lots of things. Dad has already sold one set of speakers to be picked up in the near future. It is a back and forth process, but it will only benefit if and when we choose to move.

My car battery was dead, again, on Thursday morning as I was heading out to visit Nano, so I called her caregiver, Elizabeth, to let her know, and I set out for a morning of shredding old documents as I cleaned out and updated the Family Preparedness Book. I also got all the paperwork together and scheduled an appointment next week to get the new travel driver's license. 

Sadly, someone I had met through the internet, a valiant woman named Kim White passed away early Friday morning, after a five year battle with terminal cancer. She was a friend of others I followed, and I so valued her amazing attitude outlook. She loved the Lord and was grateful for every single breath she could take...and valued that up to her last breath. I was sad to lose this person who had shared often the perfect advice for what I was feeling at the time. What a great blessing she was in my life and the lives of many others. While I often have the most negative feelings for social media, she was one of the good things.

Valentine's Day was low key. No Valentine cards or gifts. Grandma is so busy helping Loyd that she doesn't have time. I made Dad a nice BLT on sourdough for breakfast, a great salad with heart-shaped ham slices for lunch, and chicken parmesan for dinner.