Week of November 1 - 7, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a very uplifting fast and testimony meeting on Sunday...our first since March. Testimonies in our ward are previously assigned, and every testimony was so full of inspiration and testifying of Jesus Christ. It was wonderful.

No temple attendance again this week. 

I continue listening to General Conference talks and studying the Book of Mormon and Come Follow Me daily. 

I have indexed 17058 records and reviewed 108248 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

They are still holding on financially and hoping for Mike's new job to come. On Nevada Day, they for a drive through Haunted Desert with people dressed up. It was a fun and unique activity.  They also watched Nightmare Before Christmas. They had lots of Halloween dinners including pumpkin pancakes. They Trick or Treated in a friend's neighborhood. Lots of people had bowls and candy out. They had to wear masks but everyone was very generous and they got more candy than ever before. After trick or treating, they went to see a Halloween House near the temple. They really go out on their decorations. Sunday they had church at home on Zoom and had a great day, with a great dinner after their fast and a nice hike at a park. 

Allison had a late-night working Friday night and then an early game on Saturday, a middle of the night car key retrieval, so they got to crash and nap on Saturday. Allison worked two days last week and will work three days next week. There is a week coming up that the whole group will work all week. They have a youth activity this week and on Saturday, Adam and Grace volunteered to clean up their Girl's Camp. Adam and his friend enjoyed the week at the gym. He also spent Halloween with his friend. Adam ate beans! He has a job interview next week at Kohls. Hurray! Grace enjoyed lots of trick or treating and the hike. She had a good week and loved Halloween and all the candy she got, including five full-sized candy bars. She is now a member of the stake youth committee. She is so excited about going to the girls' camp and cleaning up. Josh continues having practice twice a week and he is doing better and better. Only six kids showed up for his game so he played the whole time without any breaks. He ran a lot and tried very hard. He had a good week at school. Josh almost got ten pounds of candy, including four full sized candy bars. Sam's soccer coach got Covid so another Dad took over. Sam had his first soccer game with no practice or learning. It was a good first game and practices start this week. School was good this week and he made a cute Frankenstein craft. Sam got to see two of his first grade friends while they were out. On their Sunday hike, he found a bike pump! 

The Ethan Rice Family

The kids had a wonderful time Trick or Treating on Saturday. They also attended a Trunk or Treat with a friend at their church. They had a great time!

Kaylee also celebrated the 50th day of school this week. 

Ethan returned home Monday from Phoenix and the kids were so happy to see him! 

I send some of the cookies home to them, and on Saturday, Cameo made frosting for them to decorate. 

Ethan finally got rid of that kidney stone and traveled to Indiana for another IT project like here on Thursday. I spoke with the kids on Saturday morning as they went about their morning. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber, Kelsie, and Kooper are doing well. Doran was able to recover from pneumonia. They are keeping up on their school work and Amber is super mom doing it all! Here is one of Kooper's recent projects:

It seems police should be called when you apologize for hurting a friend. 

Morgan

Morgan is doing well and is busy working. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good Sunday participating in a Trump Train. 

She had a good work week. She had some struggles with computer issues but ended up getting a few hours of overtime in. She got her beloved Bernard a new home, and he right now seems very happy. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica, Anna, Ellie, and Emma had a good and busy week. Anna had her last soccer practice, her last game, and a team party. The girls came by to play on Friday evening. I thought I had gotten a picture of Ellie, but she was so busy eating pumpkin bread and hot cocoa. We had fun swinging on the swings, water coloring, playing with the little Christmas tree in the playroom and watching The Little Mermaid. 

Dad's Garden

Garden is doing well. 

Highlights

Spent the week putting up the living room Christmas decorations. I hoped it would be a happy distraction but I finally just had to walk away from social media. I don't watch mainstream news and haven't for years. I finished Thursday night and Friday morning, Christmas music started up, so that helped a lot. 

Stepped on the side of my ankle in the yard as I was heading on my run and that ended up crippling me a bit for the week. Just a strain, and I am better and better each day. 

Not so highlights

Election results were very disappointing. For the presidency, we do believe there was mass cheating, but it doesn't matter. No one will investigate. We take things like that and do our best to make the best. However, to see Arizona now have two liberal democrat senators? To see us approve legalizing recreational marijuana? To see us approve a sweeping tax increase for education that will leave us with the 10th highest tax rate in the nation and send businesses elsewhere? I truly have no words. I know Senator Kelly kept his anti-gun stance quite secret, running on the "I'm an astronaut and fighter pilot" pictures. It matters not. We have seriously thought about moving, though right now we live in a wonderful, calm, and safe neighborhood...full of Trump flags.