Week of December 15 - December 21, 2024

Spiritual

We enjoyed stake speakers on Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. Primary went well and the kids enjoyed the book I read to them and making an ornament. 

We were able to attend the temple this week on Thursday for an endowment session. 

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed 62,426 records and reviewed 22,875 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Allison completed her Masters Degree progam this week. So very very proud of you Allison!!!

The Ethan Rice Family

Work and school kept this family busy this week. Now to get ready for Christmas. 

The Doran Rice Family

Happy Birthday Amber on Wednesday. 

Morgan

Morgan and Cassie are doing well. 

Kayty

Kayty had a pretty good work week. Pot luck with coworkers on Tuesday and a Party and Dave and Busters on Friday afternoon. She is still coming back to 100% after her hospitalization. 

1 major low this week. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan and Jessica are doing well and are very busy. The girls struggled with illness all week. They did have some good adventures and enjoyed helping clean their church building. Nathan spent the day friday and part of Saturday serving his neighbor and replacing freeze plugs on his car engine. He had a good week at work. They are hoping all family members are healed so they can come out to Arizona on December 26th. 

Dad's Garden

Harvesting great romaine, radishes and even some carrots. Citrus is doing well. 

 

Week of December 8 - December 14, 2024

Spiritual

We had a wonderful sacrament meeting. Two youth and two adults spoke. Primary went well. We had a quiet afternoon that included a couple of visitors and then we watched the First Presidency Christmas Broadcast. 

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed 60,943 records and reviewed 22,858 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

No news from the Wilkins Family this week. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Happy Birthday Ethan on Friday! They celebrated with a wonderful Germann Chocolate Bunny Cake after a Tomato Round steak dinner. He had a wonderful day!

The week was good. Wade did well in his basketball game and Kaylee performed in her school chorus concert. Friends came over and shared in an ugly sweater party that was great fun. 

The Doran Rice Family

No news from Doran and Amber this week. 

Morgan

No news from Morgan and Cassie this week. 

Kayty

Kayty is busy at work. Doing well. 

The Nathan Rice Family

This family had a good week at work, at homeschool, playing soccer, getting new tires. And a great Surprise on Saturday: the girls got to "Shop With A Cop". They had such a wonderful time!!! Nathan spent the day playing Harry Potter Monopoly with the girls and baking 11 gingerbread houses!

Dad's Garden

We are still harvesting lots of lettuce and radishes. We are getting nearly a half dozen eggs most days. Dad's tomato seed starts are finally growing and he is working on preparing the garden bed for planting. 

 

Other highlights

Dad was able to speak with his old friend Randy Greeson on Sunday night. Randy fell a few months ago, which led to a brain bleed/stroke. He now lives in an assisted living in Mesa. Dad is going to visit him soon. 

Week of December 1 - December 7, 2024

Spiritual

Sunday was very good and we enjoyed an uplifting fast and Testimony meeting. I had teacher training instead of being with my primary kids. Not fun! Quiet rest of Sunday.

We were able to attend the temple this week for an endowment session on Thursday. 

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed 60,357 records and reviewed 22,489 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Happy Birthday 15th to Joshua on Sunday.

This family had a good week and got to visit a fun Christmas peppermint house, a venue they have long tried to get into and finally accomplished. They enjoyed their time there. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Happy 8th Birthday to Wade on Sunday. Wade had a fun birthday party with a few friends at Top Golf. He loved his friends, his fun, his ice cream cake and everything birthday!

Wade also had his first basketball game this week. He had a great time and did well!!

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber, Kelsie and Kooper are doing well and enjoying jobs and school. 

Morgan

No news from Morgan and Cassie this week. 

Kayty

Kayty had a pretty good week. The non fun part of a hospital stay is the bills. He final emergency room physician bill was almost $700. She paid that this week. Her hospital bill totalled nearly $60,000, after insurance she owes about $4000 so she will need to make monthly payments on that. She did well at work and tried a new sales platform but seems to be not a fan. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica and the girls had a good week. Work is going well. Nathan often calls for a visit on his way home from work and the puppies are always waiting to greet him when he arrives home. 

Dad's Garden

Dad completed his garden sink project and it is no so much nicer to wash vegetables and to refil water containters for the chickens. He continues to replace some of our worn outdoor faucets. 

 

Week of November 24 - November 30, 2024

Spiritual

We had a good Sunday. Primary went well. The rest of the day was quiet. 

We wereun able toget an appointment to attend the temple this week. 

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed 60,198  records and reviewed 22,364 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Things are very busy as usual for the Wilkins family. Mike is doing well both at work and at school. Allison has completed a major evaluation of her classroom and teaching skills. Her work load as a lead teacher is becoming a bit more managable as more teachers have been hired. She is completing her Masters Portfolio this week. Adam is doing well. He is working and enjoys spending spare time with his girlfriend. He is even looking into college soon. Grace is busy busy busy with school, work, volunteering, Institute classes and temple prep classes. Joshua was blessed that while he was riding is bike home and was hit by a car, he was not hurt! His bike did not fare so well and he is now borrowing Adam's bike. Sam is busy with plays and practices. He shared some French Horn playing. He is very good at it. They will celebrate Thanksgiving on Tuesday this week, since Mike has to work. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan and Cameo are doing well. Final garden carrot harvest will happen before Thanksgiving and before their super cold weather hits. They showed my via Facetime their new Christmas Tree and their outdoor decorations. Everything looked lovely!!

They had a great trip on Thanksgiving day to share a meal and fun with Doran and Amber, Nathan and Jessica. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber hosted Thanksgiving and shared a great meal and great fun. 

Morgan

No news from Morgan and Cassie. 

Kayty

Kayty enjoyed a short work week. She had a yard sale on Saturday to liquidate items she had not sold in her Poshmark closet and on her sales shows. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan and Jessica and the girls had a great week. Nathan is still waiting for the perfect deer to walk by when he is in his tree stand. They had such a great time preparing for Thanksgiving. Nathan made some awesome pies and Ellie made a pumpkin pie!. Their puppies went with them as they traveled to Doran and Amber's house. Everyone loved Whitney and Cookie. 

Dad's Garden

Lots of radishes and lettuce are being harvested. Chickens give three to five eggs a day. The weather has been beautiful!!

 

Other highlights

A family in our ward invited us to share family home evening with them on Tuesday. We talked about gratitude, enjoyed a fun gratitude scavenger hunt, and then played Turkey Hide and Seek before we shared cookies and Dad's limeade. 

Dad, Kayty and I had a good Thanksgiving. Dad smoked a turkey, I roasted one, Kayty peeled ten potatoes that were riced into cream and butter, I made my Nano's stuffing, and we had homemade cranberry sauce and cranberry salad. I made dad a little mesquite bread and Kayty ate soft hawaiian rolls. 

Week of November 17 - November 23, 2024

Spiritual

Sunday was good. I mananged to get by without any one seeing my tooth situation. 

Dee was able to attend the temple this week. 

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed  60,101 records and reviewed 22,336 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Sunday was their ward primary program. We were able to hear from Allison and hear Sam give a wonderful talk about the importance of family history and temple work. It was also awesome to see Grace with her primary class. The songs they sang were wonderful and it was great for me to show my primary kids my daughter and grandkids!

The Ethan Rice Family

Kaylee had cross country awards on Sunday. Cameo shared:

Tonight was the cross country award ceremony. Although cross country was not what Kaylee thought it was going to be, we are happy that she stepped out of her comfort zone, tried something new (a new sport) and stuck with it. Our 6th grade girly earned the award for the most improved middle school girl. She ran 7.76 minutes faster than her first ever race of the season. Couldn’t be more proud of her.

Wade had pajama day at school on Friday. It was a very cold morning but he sure enjoyed dressing up!!!

The Doran Rice Family

This family is doing well. 

Morgan

No news from Morgan and Cassie this week. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good week at work. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan worked on his jeep and got it running in top condition. Annie was able to spend some time with Nathan in their tree stand. She had a good time and they are looking forward to a good shot and some good meat. Deer are quite smart!!

Dad's Garden

Harvest of romaine, radishes, and collard greens continue. Our chickens are sporadically producing eggs. 

 

Other highlights

On Monday I headed to the dentist to see what they could do about my broken tooth. Verdict: pulling the remainder of the tooth on Thursday and creating a permanent bridge with crowns on either side. Then in January, to make all my top front teeth match, they will on my next years insurance benefit, crown two others on the top so the center five will be the same. Almost two thousand dollars after insurance pays, but I will finally not have crooked teeth that stick out on the top!!!

Spent the week getting ornaments mailed, wrapping stocking gifts and ordering boxes to mail them out. 

Dad had been trying to call his long time friend, Cliff Eccles, for weeks. He finally called Cliff's sister and found out Cliff had a sudden heart attack and died in his sleep September 30th. He was a good friend, the best man in our wedding, and they had talked for years. 

Week of November 10 - November 16, 2024

Spiritual

Sunday was a good day. Primary is feeling back to normal and my lesson on miracles went pretty well. 

We were unable to attend the temple this week due to shut down.  

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed 59,671 records and reviewed 21,889 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Happy Birthday Allison on Tuesday. 

Sam had a fun field trip this week. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Wade got some great news this week. Cameo shared:

Very proud of our Wade. We found out today that he received 3rd place out of the whole school on his pumpkin book report project. He did a great job with it.

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber and family are busy with work, school and are anticipating a big family Thanksgiving with Nathan and Family, and Ethan and Family coming to visit. Doran and Kooper have been creating a pinewood derby car. 

Morgan

Morgan has created a new trasport system where he works...

Kayty

Kayty had a good week at work. 

The Nathan Rice Family

This family struggled with a nasty cold with cough this week. The girls were so disappointed to miss their fun activities including piano lessons and gymnastics and it made work rough for Nathan. 

Dad's Garden

Lots of radishes and lettuce. Dad is getting some wormy creatures in his collard greens but he is now hunting them. They will ruin his cabbage. The garden loves our cooler weather. 

 

Other highlights

Dad had the "week off". On Monday, he fielded a few work calls in the morning. He then cleaned up some yard debris. He worked on completing his new garden pest cover. We also went rock hunting twice, once in his favorite location. 

I spent the week decorating the living room for Christmas. Got the big tree strung with lights and decorated and put up the rest of the before Thanksgiving decor. 

Lovely "surprise" on saturday morning as I was eating a few colder chocolate chips: my front tooth (next to the center top ones) just disappeared. No pain. No noise. No crunching. Now I get the fun of going to the dentist to get repaired or whatever they can do. One good thing is that I am on the dental insurance. When Dad retires I wont have any dental insurance till I am on Medicare. And that will cost. 

Week of November 3 - November 9, 2024

Spiritual

We had a very nice Sacrament/Fast and Testimony Meeting. Lots of great people in our ward sharing their faith and belief. 

Phoenix Temple is on shutdown this week.  

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed 58,525 records and reviewed 21,410 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins Family is busy and doing well. They enjoyed all the traditional Halloween activities including special meals and pumpkin carving. Allison is nearing the completion of her Masters Degree. She videos an hour of her teaching her class every ten days and then sends it to be critiqued. She is completing her assignment and will complete a portfolio over Thanksgiving. Mike is doing well at work and in his schooling. Adam is enjoying is job and his time with his girlfriend. Grace is busy with school, volunteering in the library at Allison's school and enjoyed Halloween at the preschool she works at. Josh completed his 20 mile hike with his friends at church and school is going well. Sam loves practicing for the annual school musical. Decorations are going up for Christmas. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Apple picking on Sunday makes some yummy apple pies for all to enjoy!

The Doran Rice Family

The new Fall views for Doran, Amber, Kelsie and Kooper. 

Morgan

Morgan and Cassie had some snow this week!

Kayty

Good work week. 

One minor low this week. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica and the girls had a good week. Nathan did well at work and was able to get some hunting in. 

Dad's Garden

Dad has planted lots of romaine lettuce and has spent the week making a new garden bed cover. Also harvesting lots of radishes. We are looking to get a rooster so we will be able to replace the chickens we lost. 

 

Other highlights

This week was Village Put up Week. At first I was bothered that I was starting after Halloween, but it ended up so much easier to put up with empty shelves (Halloween decor put away). So what I originally thought was a terrible thing ended up being a great thing and something I will do from now on. 

Nativity scenes went up on Saturday.