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!