Week of August August 4 - 10, 2019

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a good day at church with many strong experienced testimonies born and great Sunday School class. Dad was called to be the Stake Sunday School Secretary and released as the Deacon's Quorum Advisor.

I attended a session at the temple on Thursday morning. Dad attended on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and then went on Saturday to perform baptismal ordinances.

I completed my fourth time through listening to General Conference and started my fifth time through. I continue to read the Book of Mormon daily and also am reading the August Ensign Magazine.

I have indexed 15263 records and reviewed 35,572 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

From Allison's Blog

MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019

Cub Scout Day Camp 2019

Josh was able to attend Cub Scout Day Camp this past week and had the best time. He got to climb rock walls, shoot BB guns and arrows, make crafts, play Gaga ball and 9-square in the air.

The last night was "family night." Mike, Sam and Adam went and enjoyed a barbecue and lots of fun activities.

He worked sooo hard selling Camp Cards to earn enough money to go. We are so happy he had such a fun week!

And later, the kids started school on Wednesday. Here is what she shared:

7, 2019

First Day Part 1

Grace, Josh and Sam started school today! Grace is in 8th, Josh in 4th and Sam is in Kindergarten.

Sam never went to an official preschool. Just a few classes at the rec center and working at home with me. He and I are "cuddle bugs" and he is the biggest Mama's boy (besides Josh) that I've ever known.

I was expecting sadness and tears, but he did great and loved it.

Here's to an awesome school year!

The Ethan Rice Family

This week was a good one for this family. School is going well and the routines are returning.

Kaylee started dancing lessons this week.

 I was able to FaceTime and see Kaylee riding her bicycle in her neighborhood without training wheels. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber, Kelsie and Kooper had a good week. School started on Monday and they are adjusting to new school, new people and new teachers.

They relocated to a new place for their trailer home on Friday night. There was difficulty getting electric hooked up so the kids spent Friday night with us. Saturday was full of moving, setting up, laundry at our house, fixing their new set up, and then a swim at our house before heading home to bed.

Morgan

This was a good week. Their garden is doing well and they enjoyed their first tomatoes.

They are great chefs when it comes to veggies...

Happy Birthday, Morgan on Thursday. He had a very good day.

Kayty

Kayty took off work Monday and Tuesday to use up some vacation time. On Tuesday she headed up to Northern Arizona and enjoy cook weather.

Since she could get into the Grand Canyon for seven days after paying for her entrance, she headed back up on Saturday and ended up hiking down the canyon...which was easy, and then hiking back out, which was hard. She said she went down a mile or so. She was sick by the end but boy, what an accomplishment!

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica and the girls came by on Sunday night for a visit. We were able to kick the soccer ball in the molten heat for a few moments, and then play in the playroom. On Tuesday, I watched the older girls while Emma had her two-month check-up. She is doing well and growing like a weed. They had a scare on Friday afternoon, so Dad and I went over with Anna and Emma

while they ran Ellie to the emergency room. She has done well and we are so grateful. 

Dad's Garden

Dad covered the ripening dates on his date palm. It's hot here but he had managed to keep most of his date palm transplants alive. 

Christmas in July

My painting is complete for 2019 as of Friday night. I still am letting things totally dry before I wrap them up next week. Now, back to working on Emma's Grammy Stocking.

Other highlights

Nice morning rains this week. Some mornings were under 90 degrees to jog in.

Dad had numerous job interviews with Collins Aerospace. He is flying out to San Diego next week for an interview.

Saturday, we spent time cleaning some stuff out of the shed in back. Dad raked up lots of mesquite beans and we bagged them up and got them to the bulk trash pile. 

Week of July 28 - August 3, 2019

Highlights:
While much of the time I am not a fan of social media, I took a moment to listen to a five-minute fireside presentation by one of the Historians of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as she spoke about a strong woman early in church history, Mary Fielding Smith. During this, she shared that while we all go through difficulties that sometimes make us feel alone, we are given blessings to attend us in our difficulties. Be mindful of those blessings, those moments when Heavenly Father actually helps, or sends others to help, and then be grateful. The historian shared the following quote from Thomas S. Monson:

“To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven” .

Spiritual

We had great speakers in Sacrament Meeting. My great, and now former ministering sister, Marena Hales and her husband spoke. They used to live in Flagstaff but have finally totally moved here. He is a retired spinal surgeon and she is a retired airline pilot. They both spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance. I taught primary as a sub and Dad taught the deacon's quorum.

I performed initiatory ordinances at the temple on Tuesday morning and Dad attended sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoon.

I am continuing listening to General Conference every morning and my Book of Mormon reading.

I have indexed 15002 records and reviewed 34045 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

From the Wilkins Family Blog...
We're in the midst of temple shutdown here.

Which means I work earlier doing things like carpet cleaning stairwells for four hours straight.

And though I tend to exaggerate from time to time, that is not an exaggeration. It takes four hours to clean a stairwell properly. And I've done four of them in the past two weeks.

We also do a lot of upholstery cleaning during the shutdown. Every chair/couch/cushion gets cleaned.

It's hard and exhausting, and I tell myself I'm going to quit every time.

But, I don't, because not only do I get to be in the temple five nights a week, I have made two of the best friends I could ever ask for and I feel so darned blessed.

Temple shutdown January 2018

This next week is volunteers week, which means I work much earlier than usual AND Josh has Cub Scout Day Camp all week AND Grace will be gone at Girls Camp.

It's going to be a crazy one, but we will survive!

The temple re-opens in early August for a month and then closes for two and a half months.

I won't be working for most of that, so I have an interview this week (because the week wasn't busy enough) to help during that time.

It's temple shut down and I'm tired and way busy, so a quick recap of the week:

Another flat tire. Seriously. We have had a spare on our car (in different positions) a ridiculous amount of times in the past several months.

Every Saturday night we have Pizza and a Movie night. More often than not, I give everyone a small ball of dough and let them go to town and make their own. Sam opted to make a bunny-turned-Pikachu pizza this week with Grace's help.

A little Christmas in July celebration with The Grinch and hot cocoa.

Grace and I love a good dinner salad. We usually can't get these boys on board, but since she's leaving for Girls Camp soon, we made this on Sunday and the boys didn't complain (too much).

You can't tell, so goodness knows why I am posting this picture, BUT, our wet winter and cool spring has made it perfect for hoards of grasshoppers to fly into Las Vegas. It's horrific. They love the big lights on the temple. When I leave at night, there are thousands and thousands on the temple, in the sky above and on the ground. It's so crazy.

The Ethan Rice Family

Last weekend, Ethan had to interview someone in Alabama, so they took advantage of the Saturday interview to travel to the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Meeting the teacher and haircuts before school starts.

First day of first grade for Kaylee.

The Doran Rice Family

Kooper and Kelsie met their new school teachers this week.

On Saturday, they had fun building a rocket pencil box at Home Depot

Morgan

Morgan and Aimee had a good time fishing. Aimee is quite the fisherperson...

Emileigh started school this week too.

Morgan found this.

It was the speech that would have been given by President Richard M. Nixon in the event that the first men to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, were unable to take off from the moon and return to the orbiting spaceship, instead to remain until they died. It also included instructions for the protocol, when the speech should be given, and clergy instructions. I was 9 and in California at my grandparents house when my mom called us in from playing outside to see the men walk on the moon. I do remember being quite upset and complaining about who would want to see men on the moon, but I went inside and watched. Kids are crazy sometimes and I am grateful for my mom making us come in.

Kayty

Kayty had a good work week. She also spent Wednesday celebrating the birthday of Harry Potter. She made a cake on Tuesday night and I made Shepherd's Pie for her dinner.

The Nathan Rice Family

We visited with Nathan, Jessica, and the girls as they came by on Sunday evening. Early Monday morning, Nathan called asking for me to come down and watch the girls while they took Emma to Phoenix Children's Hospital with a high fever. They did check her out but it was nothing serious, thank goodness and the girls and I had fun reading books and playing hide and seek. It took a few days but she is recovering. The girls came by on Friday so Nathan, Jess, and Emma could enjoy a date night. I love it when I hear a small a tiny knock at the door and in walks a small girl with a rainbow sparkled skirt, a rainbow Minnie Mouse shirt, sparkly pink sandals wearing a pretty necklace with a toy cell phone in her hand followed by a taller Snow White costumed princess, full of smiles and ready to play. On Saturday, they helped Uncle Josh with his brakes and then ventured to a splash pad in Tempe. 

Dad's Garden

Palm trees still hanging on.

Christmas in July was a success, and I continue to work on my nativity project part 2 so Christmas in August continues. I paint and on Saturday we watched Home Alone 1 and 2 while it was 114 degrees outside. 

Other highlights

We had rain this week, which meant one day under 100 degrees.

On August first, as I walked I saw Orion...and his belt...for the first time! My favorite sign that Fall will be coming. I almost yelled, but it was dark, and very, very early!

I worked this week trying to calm Nano about not being able to get on her email. It is so sad that in six short days, she has totally forgotten how to get on. Scott has a friend that will work to get an icon on her desktop so she can access that way. 

New parts for the swingset arrived and now we need to get the pipe and remove the old cement supports from the ground.

Saturday morning, very early, Dad and I filled up the bulk trash pile with limbs from the pine tree and the mesquite trees.

This was an interesting find this week. I am currently a member of the Vintage Phoenix facebook page. My dad was once the Advertising Manager for Yellow Front stores and would put together their weekly newspaper ads. It was quite a process that involved an Exacto knife, rubber cement, and trips to the Arizona Republic late at night downtown. I got to go a couple of times. Anyway, on the group, someone posted an old ad, and I am pretty sure my dad worked on it.