Week of September 20 - 26, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a nice, quiet Sunday, as pretty typical. We woke up, got ready for church, watched Music and the Spoken Word and then a BYU Devotional on BYUtv. With Kayty gone, we had our Sacrament service, and then spent the rest of the day reading scriptures, reading the Ensign magazine, and studying Come Follow Me messages. 

Temple continues to only be open for living ordinances. 

I continue reading my Book of Mormon daily, studying the Come Follow Me messages, and listening to a General Conference talk each day. I also read the October Ensign Magazine. 

So far this year, I have indexed 15276 records and reviewed 83271 records. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins Family is doing well. Mike had a busy week with pressure washing their driveway and hanging five bedroom doors. He also had a job interview with a company located in Colorado on Monday. Allison continues to be busy working at the temple, doing her writing, and keeping the kids up on their at home school studies. Adam is pretty bored with school and feels the teachers have given up so to speak. He is keeping up with his assignments. Grace keeps her teachers on their toes and does not hesitate to email if there is anything awry. She has become quite skilled at crepe making. 

 Joshua continues to enjoy school. His brace and orthotics have been approved and he should be using those in a couple of weeks. Same is enjoying using Mike's Kindle. His reading skills have just taken off this week. he loves to learn about animals! This week, while Kayty visited, they took a trip to the Las Vegas Strip, hoping to go to some family fun places. They tried the Coke Store, the Hershey Store, and M&M World. Not all attractions were open and it wasn't much family fun. However, the seedier side of the Strip still is alive and well. They hadn't missed their lack of visiting there for the last few years. School online is quite a struggle for all, and very disappointing, but they are just doing their best. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan, Cameo and kids had a fun trip to High Falls State Park last week. Here are some pics. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber, Kelsie and Kooper enjoyed their last weekend with friends in Northern Arizona. 

They came by on Saturday afternoon and we had a great visit!

Morgan

Morgan came by for a visit Saturday evening. He was able to help Dad get some chicken wire up around the garden before he headed fishing. He has been working for over two weeks at a job that maintains and repairs floor cleaning machinery for WalMart. 

Kayty

Kayty had a wonderful time in Vegas with Allison and headed home Monday evening. She was back to work on Tuesday and had a good work week. She got a new laptop for work and will be getting her docking station next week so she can continue working from home. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan continues to work hard both at work and on fixing their vehicle all week. He made some awesome ravioli (homemade including the pasta) and we got to taste some. Yum! They came by for a last swim of 2020 on Thursday evening. He spent much of Saturday completing his car repair, but he finished late Saturday.

Dad's Garden

Dad has planted Chinese cabbage and lettuce, and our basil continues to grow. On Friday, snow pea seeds went into the ground. 

Other highlights

Fall officially began on Tuesday...it was 106 degrees outside. I did create a Fall meal, though. Hot weather continues. 

More work this week to fix up Mom's meds but I think we finally got things figured out on Friday.

Saturday, Grandma and I took our annual trip to Millie's Hallmark to see the villages. There were still a few things on sale...but we didn't see anything we wanted or needed. It was fun and we enjoyed a Wendy's salad afterward. It was different than the Sweet Tomatoes lunches we used to have, but it was still good. 

 

This week, I have been thankful for independent journalists. These are not the ones that get the big paying tv jobs, but the ones who seek for truth, often with little pay and great personal consequences. The truth is out there. It's just not on tv, nor on the popular internet sites. 

Week of September 13 - 19, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We were blessed to be able to attend Sacrament Meeting today with half of our ward members. (There were quite a few missing but I am assuming they were with other family members or had immune system issues.) It was just wonderful!!! We even got to visit with a few people. I have never been more thankful of the blessing it is to attend church with the people we attend with. I have so missed the Meikles, the Larsons and too many to mention these last six months. 

No temple open for ordinances for the dead yet.

I continue to read Come Follow Me lessons and the Book of Mormon. I completed reading the September Ensign Magazine. I continue to listen to at least one General Conference talk each morning. 

I have indexed 14879 records and reviewed 77778 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

Wilkins family had a good week. While the air was cool, the air quality was awful from all the forest fires, many arson caused, in California. They enjoyed home church on Sunday and a delicious pot roast dinner.  School is still very much a struggle, and seminary is an even greater struggle. Adam enjoyed getting back on his skateboard this week. He is still working on getting that knee stronger so he may start attending the gym with Allison and Grace this next week. Grace went to the park and enjoyed feeding the ducks, as did Sam. Sam starts reading groups this week and he is looking forward to that. Josh had his follow up to his MRI procedure. The orthopedic surgeon did not feel there was any significance to Josh's spinal stenosis. He wanted an x-ray, which ended up answering the questions about his pain. He has Sinding Larson Johannson Syndrome, which affects young athletic children. He was then fitted for some braces as well as some orthotics for his feet. This should be overcome as he ages. Mike is ready to attend an upcoming job fair with Amazon after he had a few professionals tweak his great resume. He will work this week to get five doors prepped and hung. Allison is Covid free and continues to work cleaning and sanitizing the temple. Sam painted a very scary haunted house and composed a story about it. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan, Cameo, Kaylee and Wade are doing well. Work is good and Ethan will begin to travel more in the next few weeks. Kaylee is doing well with online school and hopes to return soon to the classroom. Their garden is still giving them a few things. They headed out of town on Friday for a weekend camping trip. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber had a busy work week and the kids are managing with remote online school. They took of Thursday for a fun camping trip and enjoyed a few days in the cooler weather. 

Morgan

No news from Morgan this week. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good work week and headed to Las Vegas on Thursday night to visit Allison and family. She enjoyed a trip to M & M World and Hersheys Chocolate World on Friday night. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan worked on his car quite a bit this week. They stopped by on Tuesday evening for Nate to make a part for a press tool on the mill. Anna had just gone to soccer practice and we got to play and visit. Happy Birthday, Anna, on Friday! She had a great day and enjoyed her favorite Pong Pong food for dinner. We stopped by with her gifts. 

Saturday morning we were able to attend Anna's very first soccer game. 

Dad's Garden

Seedlings are nearing the size to plant outdoors. I picked five pound of basil on Thursday. 

Other highlights

Tuesday morning, I went to church for a ministering interview. Went in the church doors: no masks were required! It was so delightful to see smiling faces and to be able to understand what another person is saying. It was joyous for me. One sister did wear a mask, and that was totally fine and I enjoyed talking with her. Great morning of very much NORMAL. After the interview, I drove through the temple parking lot and it was a joy to see so many cars there. More temple work, even if only for the living, decreases Satan's power on the earth. 

Thursday evening, I was able to attend a Relief Society get together in the president's back yard. Attendance was very sparse, but I enjoyed getting to sit and chat with Angie Day again after so long. 

Lots of paperwork this week for Nano, but hopefully that work will make things more smooth in the future.

Week of September 6 - 12, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a good Sunday morning, with our viewing Music and the Spoken Word then two BYU devotional talks that we had previously heard. We spent our morning studying our Come Follow Me messages, reading scriptures. When Kayty woke up, we partook of the Sacrament. 

No temple this week, though it was absolutely wonderful to drive by on Tuesday and see more than eight cars in the Temple parking lot. Ordinances for the living have resumed. 

I continue to ready daily the Book of Mormon and study the Come Follow Me lessons, as well as listening to General Conference talks daily. 

I have indexed 14637 records and reviewed 75,038 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

Allison is doing well and being cautious since Covid is going around where she works. She let us now on Thusrday that she had to have a test done since she was working near someone diagnosed. As of Thursday she was off work till the results were in. She is now doing much more extensive cleaning due to the Phase 2 opening of the temple, which keeps her very, very busy during the week. Mike is good and had a good work week. He is having a specialist go over his resume before submitting everything for a job. Adam had a pretty boring last week, but is so looking forward to being able to ride his skateboard this week. Grace still loves having her phone and staying in contact with her cousins. Josh did not enjoy his pre-MRI Covid test last week, but he survived and is enjoying school and riding his bike. Sam continues to help Mike clean up the dutch ovens. He is enjoying school and is looking forward to beginning new learning rather than review this week. 

We spoke with Allison late Tuesday and Josh did well during his MRI. They began with him awake, but it got a little long and boring, so they sedated him to complete the procedure.

 He got some Jack in the Box tacos on the way home and was doing well in the evening. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Cameo shared:

For Labor Day weekend, we went camping at a different place. The 4 of us LOVED it! They had so many fun activities. They had desert tortoises , parrots , train rides , swimming pools , jump pad, playground, zip line, Yogi Bear , miniature golf , gem mining , arcade , crafts, and ket cars. We also watched a movie out under the stars and roasted marshmallows . The kids were in heaven.

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber had a very busy week preparing for the wonderful birthday party they put on for Kelsie. We attended Part 1: family party.

Doran baked this beautiful cake. Nathan and Jessica baked cupcakes for the Friend Party afterward. 

Morgan

Morgan called on Sunday afternoon and chatted with Dad. 

Kayty

Kayty spent her holiday working on her cat tower. Dad did the woodwork while Kayty slept and then she spent the day making a vinyl cushion and covering the tower portions with her minky blanket pieces. She had a good week at work and is planning a trip to Vegas on her next days off. 

The Nathan Rice Family

We enjoyed a fun Sunday visit with Nathan and family and then on Monday they called, offering to bring the meat and fixings for hamburgers and asked to come swim. It was a fun, spur of the moment decision. On Wednesday, the girls wanted to go to the park, but crazy City of Phoenix has all playground equipment taped off, so the girls came to play for a bit on our playground with the cool morning we were blessed with. They had a great time on the swings, slide and in the sand box. While Nathan and Jessica went out to get some Mexican food, the girls came to play here and the evening weather remained nice enough to be outside. 

Dad's Garden

New seedlings are doing well on my washer and dryer. Basil continues to come in strong. Dad used his new rototiller to work lots of good stuff in the soil.

Other highlights

Nathan found a rototiller on Offer Up for Dad on Monday. It needed a bit of a tune up but it was in great shape. 

Monday did not get up to the forecast 111 degrees...108 was the top. It does make a difference. 

Tuesday was back to work for Dad and a very busy work day, traveling to Prescott and then all over Phoenix. It actually was under 100 degrees and Dad used the new rototiller to turn over the garden. Nathan stopped by to install a new bulb thingy on the tiller and it worked even better. 

Wednesday morning was in the 70s when I jogged. I almost wept! Thursday was even cooler!