Week of May 24 - 30, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had another typical Sunday. Get up, get dressed up for church. Watch Music and the Spoken Word. Watch a couple of talks on BYU tv. Have the Sacrament when Kayty gets up. Lunch. Read and study. A few calls and my favorite Weekly Wilkins Marco Polo. 

No temple again this week. Now, with the heat, this becomes very hard for Dad, as he would often spend warm evenings in the temple during the summertime. 

I continue to read the Book of Mormon daily via Come Follow Me lessons and my own reading. I also watch at least one General Conference talk each day. I love Elder Gary Stevenson's talk about building a strong foundation. He speaks about Kim White, the very wonderful lady I found on InstaGram that was such a personal inspiration in my life. "God is in the details" she would always say. 

I have indexed 9434 records and reviewed 47262 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins family is doing well. Sunday church at home is good, and they have found that taking a family walk gets all the wiggles out and helps everyone get along better.  On Monday, Allison and Mike celebrated their 19th wedding anniversary and the 19th anniversary of the Wilkins family!

 Adam and Joshua helped hang some neat outdoor lights Allison had purchased on sale a long time ago on their patio so they could enjoy a special dinner. Mike is still doing well both at work and on his studies. Allison continues her typing work and enjoys more time with the kids. She runs and walks and Grace gets to go with her. They are excited to be getting some kitchen cabinets from a remodel their bishop is doing. Adam is enjoying his summer vacation and is a great help to Allison and Mike. He and Josh are now working on drywall repairs in their room which will be so nice for their home! Grace is excited to become a Las Vegas High Wildcat next year. Josh is looking happy as ever and enjoying playing Pokemon with Sam. He is doing well and Sam is as sweet as ever. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan and Cameo spent their Memorial Day camping and fishing. 

They returned home Monday so Cameo could work a holiday shift. They had a good week. We were excited to receive a FaceTime call Saturday morning from them...in Florida. They had driven all night and were six miles from the SpaceX Dragon Rocket liftoff....the first time in nine years that a manned spacecraft has left from the United States to dock with the International Space Station. 

They said it was so loud! We were so glad they took that opportunity to see!

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber and the kids brought the most delicious brisket Doran had prepared on Monday, and we shared a great meal.

Doran worked all over the state throughout the week and Amber continues to work from home. Kids days are spent swimming and enjoying their new home and neighborhood. They came by on Saturday afternoon for a swim, and Doran helped Dad install the new garage door opened that we had sorely needed for many years. 

Kooper and I built with Legos, and Dad came in and helped Kelsie make stovetop cookies.

Morgan

We saw Morgan for a few minutes on Monday. He and his friend were going to a swimming party and barbecue. His work has slowed a bit but he is doing well. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good work week and sold a few more things on Poshmark. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica and the girls had a good week. They took the canoe with new life preservers out to Bartlett Lake on Monday evening and had a wonderful time swimming and canoeing. News finally came on Friday that Jessica's Covid19 test was negative. We played with the girls on Friday night while Nathan and Jessica had a little date night. 

Dad's Garden

Tomatoes are slowing down, thanks to the molten 111 degree heat we had this week. Still, we have picked 402 tomatoes and many cherry tomatoes this year. We have some tomato plants that never produced and they are being torn out. 

Basil is thriving and we hope to be getting some basil walnut pesto made and frozen in the future. 

Other highlights

I messaged my ministering sisters and heard from all of them. I include a couple of friends in that and I heard back from one. 

I was led to a phone app that keeps a pantry inventory simply by scanning bar codes. Dad feels impressed to have a two years supply, so we are slowly getting paper products little by little. It doesn't work for everything (cannery items, etc) but it is a great thing to keep on hand. I often forget things that I don't use, like ketchup. 

My sheets for the playroom beds arrived and we purchased pillows and mattress protectors at WalMart. I found a deal on bed quilts and ordered two. I had hoped for blue but never could find anything reasonable, so the brown and taupe buffalo check will have to be enhanced with pillows. Room is almost done. 

Dee made progress on the jeep on Saturday morning and got some parts installed before the heat set in. 

Not so highlights

I am sad to share the widespread rioting and looting over the tragic death of a gentleman in Minnesota at the hands of what seems to be a bad police officer. Peaceful protests are within the law. But what has apparently occurred is destruction and looting. What is truly the saddest is that most churches are not meeting. We see the result of fear and lack of righteous choices.