Week of August 8 - 14, 2016

Highlights:

Spiritual
Dad attended his regular Wednesday night session at the temple.

Kaylee went visiting teaching one sister with me...and my new companion...on Thursday. It went very well, except for me forgetting the birthday card I went out early to purchase...and then forgot to take to church on Sunday for my companion to sign so I could mail it to her!

We had one of those Sundays at church that was inspiring. I know when you are younger and keeping track of kids, not much inspiration can come. However, when you get older, you can sit and listen. And sometimes, a word or phrase you hear lends to such inspiration. Today, in one of our Sacrament Meeting talks, just that occurred, and it led to much more clarity in my understanding of the truth from the Lord and the Plan of Happiness, and the Adversary's efforts to thwart that effort. Sunday School and Relief Society also brought more clarity and inspired me today as well.

I had a cub scout committee meeting after church, where I got just the assistance I needed to get these boys completing their advancements.

Dad went home teaching on Sunday afternoon and completed visiting his three families with his companion for this month.

In the scriptures, I am in 1 Nephi 15 in the Book of Mormon.

I have indexed 23,384 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family
Grace was the Wilkins Family Reporter again this week. She sends me such wonderful and informative texts! She went to dancing lessons this week...here is her dance class outfit

Sam and Josh are just wonderful loving brothers.

Adam got new glasses this week...green and black...but pics were not permitted.

On Wednesday, they had Grace's favorite food for dinner: pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes. Mike makes them in awesome shapes. On the fourth of July at their church breakfast, he even made some in the shape of an American flag! On Halloween, he made one in the shape of a witch!!

Sam got a make over of sorts on Friday and loved his pretty toes! They shared a recipe for peanut butter playdough that I made for Kaylee's use and tasting...and Papa's eating...this week too.

The Ethan Rice Family
This was the final week for this family to live on opposite sides of the United States. Ethan was busy working in Georgia, both at his busy job and at the new house. There were air conditioning challenges, learning experiences regarding what to use to mow the lawn, and their belongings arrived. Here, Cameo worked and Kaylee played at our house.  The car here was shipped back to Georgia on Friday, so I was Cameo and Kaylee's chauffer...to a quick doctor visit for Kaylee, to and from work, and back to Wade and Liz's house. I gave a quick goodbye...I am so not a fan of goodbyes!

Cameo and Kaylee boarded their delayed flight on Saturday afternoon.


Kaylee fell asleep right after this...and they arrived in Georgia to one very happy husband/daddy who had a surprise in the truck for each of them...


Baby Wade even missed Daddy and gave him a swift kick as a greeting! They are busy getting Cameo set up to work from home on Monday! No rest for this family!!

The Doran Rice Family
Sweet Amber messaged us an update on Sunday afternoon...
 "We had a good week. Tamara (Amber's sister) is moving out tomorrow. Doran is smiking three racks of ribs as we speak. Friday evening and Saturday I was inundated with dog rescue stuff and we ended up at the vet all day yesterday and had to euthanize three dogs. Very Sad. Kelsie and Kooper are great. Kelsie's first full week (of school) went awesome. And Kooper just loves going to Katherine's."

Thank you so much, Amber!!

I saw this pic of Morgan and Doran on Friday. Doran's company, All Copy, has a suite at Cardinal's Stadium and they got to see the first pre season game against the Raiders. 



Morgan
No news from Morgan and Christy, other than the football game. 

Kayty
Kayty is really enjoying her job, especially the fact that they will allow some color in her hair. Blonde and pink donned her hair on Wednesday morning.



 Total saves this week: 1 minor one

The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan was blessed to do some contract work for his former carpet cleaning employer. Perfect time to clean carpets in all the empty dorms and apartments. They did work him very long hours, though. Made for a very long week!

Annalee got to try her first lemon...and actually loved it. The video of her cute wrinkly face at the first taste was hilarious, but it was more hilarious to see how much she liked it and keep on eating and eating...and laughing at Mommy as she did!


Work
Dad's work week was very, very busy. It was reduction week, but he seems to have gotten through this one again. He was given more suppliers, including Utah, Montana, and Idaho, so he will be able to visit Nate and Jess more if he has a business trip scheduled. He visited supplier after supplier and attended a preparatory Kaizen event all day Thursday. Friday was calls, emails and messages till late in the night, and then some on Saturday and he received a new supplier via message on Sunday.

It was my last week with Kaylee...and it was O week...

She loves making pancakes. She only wants to eat the batter but she loves mixing them!

O for Octopus and Ocean

o for olympics

O for orange and otter

And on Thursday, we were blessed with an east valley morning rain that meant a cloudy west valley morning, and one final time to play on the playground.

 After we returned from the doctor on Friday, Nano and Kathy were here to visit Kaylee

 We had a quiet day...lots of Netflix and lunch in her table tent

 And feeding chickens. You know, Dad and I were talking that night, and the speckled hen, Kaylee named Mama...she has been here since Kaylee was a baby! She was the first chicken Kaylee ever fed. Over the years, Mama has eaten rice, sunflower seeds, snow peas, and anything else we thought she might like.

While in the sand (a cloud was covering the sun at this point), Daddy called to Facetime with Kaylee. She told him she wanted purple sand in her sandbox at her new house. I have heard Georgia has an abundance of red dirt, but never heard of purple sand!

We swam every day and had great fun. She even attempted swimming at the end of every swim without her flotation device.


Dad's Garden
Just a few peppers this week. Dad is planning for planting in a few weeks.

Dad's Truck
No truck work this week.

Year of the House
Dad worked more on my new kitchen cabinet. Doors are cut, glued and drying waiting for routing on Monday.

We went to Floor and Decor to get plans created for our master bathroom fix up. We go on Monday afternoon to talk with them.

Other highlights
Rain. Now, we got rain when no one else did...and didn't get rain when everyone else did.

I was going to start cleaning the playroom and getting rid of other stuff on Friday night, but then I saw this...

It was a cheesy beanbag toss, made from a chandalier box, with a poster board and a bunny on it. Kaylee  loved ttossing beanbags, golf balls, etc. in it. But the thing she loved most was adding to the artwork on it. I would get out the pains and she would paint some on it nearly every week. I wanted to toss it, but instead gave it a couple more days. By Saturday, I began organizing, getting stuff separated into keep, sell, give, and donate. 

I have quite a ways to go, but I made a dent. I also moved my cub scout stuff into the former preschool drawers I had.

Not so highlights
I had written a gripe about no rain when the weather guy said a hurricane was sending moisture this way and we would have cooler weather, which didn't happen out here, but then it was cloudy on Thursday morning and that cancelled my gripe.

Week of August 1 - 7, 2016

Highlights:

Spiritual
I went to the temple Tuesday morning for about an hour and did some work with some sisters in my ward (though I didn't see any of them...heard the name of one.) and then attended the earliest Wednesday morning temple session. Dad attended his regular temple session on Wednesday evening.

I had cub scouts on Wednesday: Adventures in Coins is our focus this month. The boys really enjoyed looking at the different coins, learning the parts of a coin, and playing a fun coin game.


I completed reading the Book of Mormon for the second time this year in the temple on Wednesday morning while waiting for the session to begin. My next time through began Thursday, this time I am going slower and pondering the words more. I am on 1 Nephi 6.

We prepared all week for yet another stake youth baptism. The most difficult part is the ahead of time work: orienting which group ends up where for the confirmation portion of the service. Dee negotiated and negotiated since so many children are being baptized and one has to be in the High Council Room for the ending. We finally got everyone assigned...and then a death in the family caused two little girls to have to drop out, leading to a big shift in room assignments. We arrived Saturday and set up too many chairs to even think about counting. We also overflowed the font, cleaned up that mess, shoved way too many people in the high council room (the parent of the child being baptized said 15 people were coming. He must have meant 50 or 60!). Two loads of laundry and clothing were all back in the closet in the stake center by Sunday afternoon.

I have indexed 22083 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family
The Wilkins had a good week! Sam is doing well with potty training. They had rain and Sam just loved splashing in the puddles and giving Mommy and Daddy very wet hugs. Grace was able to have a great time celebrating her best friend, Katelyn's birthday. She went and had her first manicure and pedicure


 

 The boys were so kind and held of visiting the museum till Grace good go with them on Friday.

She is saving money to purchase a real American Girl doll and prepared all week for a yard sale.

Some neighbors brought by some puppy friends on Saturday night

The Ethan Rice Family
Ethan and Cameo's house in Phoenix sold on Tuesday...Lots of memories for Cameo here. It was her first house as well as Kaylee's first house, and Ethan's first house to own as well.





Cameo had a busy and good week, and enjoyed lunch out on Saturday with a friend, dinner at Grandma's on Saturday evening, breakfast on Sunday with her family, and a birthday party on Sunday afternoon with a friend.

The Doran Rice Family
Kelsie met her new school teacher on Tuesday night,

And enjoyed her first day back on Wednesday
Kooper enjoyed is first experience watching Fast and Furious on tv. He was totally enthralled with those awesome cars! Couldn't take his eyes off the tv!

Morgan
Morgan had a good work week, and Christy enjoyed a bit of a break from her summer of helping with Kelsie.

Kayty
Kayty had a good first full time week on her afternoon shift at work. She enjoyed it, except when she has to go through long reports to check for errors.Her favorite day is Saturday.
 
It's been quite the change from retail to computer work but she is doing very well!

Total saves this week: 1

The Nathan Rice Family
Nathan, Jessica and Annalee had a good week too. They swam at a lake (though Jessica had an up close an personal meeting with...a leech!) Annalee talked to Grammy on Thursday evening and is trying to walk...loves Mommy to help her! Nathan and Jessica took her to a local zoo on Saturday. She was very interested in the tiger and lion...cages. She is an engineer's daughter! She also loved this creature:

Nathan said she wanted one for Christmas.

Not ever!

Work
Dad's boss had said he would be away on Monday, but instead he stayed working and there were many meetings. They all have new assignments to perform specialized assessments at their suppliers, which are not easy to get scheduled. Suppliers are tired of jumping through Honeywell hoops and have difficulty setting aside so much time for the assessments. Then, Friday they were told the layoffs begin next week. He has already made progress getting a substitute teacher certification, and had his fingerprints taken on Friday.

My week was full of dusting, vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing shower and toilets, laundry, hauling branches from trimmed mesquite trees to the front yard pile, hauling cut logs to the wood pile, cleaning up the back porch, getting wood stacked, hauling trash out to the pile, raking mesquite beans (tons and tons of them), hauling metal to the back yard, cleaning up the back porch,and generally getting much yard work done on the cooler mornings.

Dad's Garden
No garden work.

Dad's Truck
No truck work

Year of the House
Dad worked some on the cabinet that will go above the stove and help conceal a vent pipe for the exhaust fan.

Other highlights
We were able to have the missionaries over for Chinese Dinner on Thursday.

Rain! An amazing and wonderful rainstorm on Friday morning. Gutters were working fabulously! and the repairs completed for a roof leak in my hut last February were finally able to be tested! No leaks. Hooray! Those doggone buckets and tubs left to catch any leaks can go!

Sunday, I received a new visiting teaching companion, and new visiting teachers! So excited!!

Not so highlights
We were very blessed this week! All are well!!