Week of September 9-15, 2018

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a great Sunday! Our Sacrament Meeting was wonderful. Great talks from a new family, plus the Young Men and Young Women sang. I had my seat saved for Sunday School when I noticed the nursery had no one there, so I offered to help and they accepted. We had no keys to the closet, so a brother ran home to get some fruit snacks. No water. No fish crackers. We didn't even know all their names until I grabbed a few people out of the hallway and asked. We played with toys and then sang songs. No harm was done and all went home with smiles on their faces. Dad taught a lesson in the Deacon's Quorum on Why we want to keep the Sabbath Day holy.

I had a long Cub Committee Meeting on Sunday. Our fourth Cub Master was sustained, and we have an idea for what will happen for pack meetings for the next months. Scouts went well for me, after Dad and my other leader arrived. Lots accomplished. Dad did not attend the YM/YW joint activity.

I attended a session at the Phoenix Temple on Tuesday morning. Dad attended a session Thursday evening.

I am in Alma 49 in the Book of Mormon.

I have indexed 14422 records and reviewed 44701 records so far this year.

I had

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins family had a good week. Adam and Mike went on a hike on Saturday morning. Grace had a good week and spent Saturday preparing her lesson for Young Women on Sunday. Josh spent his Saturday with a sick tummy, poor guy!  It was a shorter Mommy School week for Sam. After x-ray and xbox, there were not many other things to do. He continues to enjoy his weekly art class at the library and one of his works was put on display. Sam also received his four-year-old shots this week.

He had a bad reaction to the tetanus shot, making his thigh very red and hot. Everyone else is doing well.

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan and family had a good week and had originally planned on spending part of their Fall Break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Hurricane Florence changed their plans, though. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran, Amber, Kelsie, and Kooper are well this week. Doran and Amber are busy at work. Doran is still up in the air as to which employer he wants to stay with, but he continues to work hard. We saw Doran on Saturday as he stopped by after taking Kelsie to spend the night with a friend nearby. Kooper and Doran had spent the morning shopping at Sportsmans where Kooper selected many handguns he wanted for Christmas.

Morgan

Morgan had a good week and is excited to start a new job on Monday working at a prosthetics company. He will get to spend three nights away in a hotel while the days are filled with training.

Kayty

Kayty had a good week at work, though she was told on Friday by another supervisor that she and a few of her coworkers will need to move to another cubicle. She began removing her cubicle decor Friday.

Three minor saves this week.

The Nathan Rice Family

We got to speak with this sweet family on Sunday evening. This is their last week of preparation before school begins next week, and they have lots to get done. Anna had a great nursery class and showed me all her new dresses they purchased at Deseret Industries. Our visit was sweet and they were set to enjoy a dinner of French Toast after we got off the phone. Anna called on Tuesday to let me see her open her birthday card. She loved the Princess Sophia card and hung it on the refrigerator. She and I then visited and played in her room via FaceTime. Made my morning pretty awesome! Nathan has been 3d printing like crazy. He made a pumpkin for Anna, and he says the case feeder he printed works amazingly well. I got to see the gift purchased with the girls birthday money on Friday...a beautiful pink rug for the girls' bedroom. Anna says its so soft! (Soft enough that Jessica found her sleeping on it Thursday night. Jessica had been having a lot of radiating pain, which was diagnosed with a pretty serious neck problem. She will try chiropractic care first, and if that doesn't solve her issues, she will need surgery. Nathan has almost everything ready to begin his final semester next week.

Saturday was the day for celebrating Annalee's third birthday. She woke up to a room filled with pink balloons. She wore a "Birthday Girl" crown as she opened her gifts, and then they enjoyed a yummy homemade pancake breakfast.

Nathan and Jessica worked the night before on her birthday cake: ice cream between two layers of brownie, between two layers of strawberry cake, with a whipped cream frosting.

Dad's Garden

Seedlings continue to grow. He had to replant lettuce since the first seeds were probably too old. 

Other highlights

Good runs this week, especially Wednesday morning. It was nearly 76 degrees outside, which is amazing!

Took what I figure to be my final pool swim on Tuesday. Water is cooler and I am pretty much a wimp.

Got my annual blood draw on Friday morning. To celebrate, I went to Hobby Lobby and Target and added a few more pumpkins to my ever-growing collection. I also went to a nearby Costco but didn't like it. It's more geared to elderly people, winter visitor types.

Saturday morning, on my jog, I found a couple of base cabinets by the road someone was getting rid of. That turned into a morning project creating a pretty awesome back patio woodworking area for dad. The toolbox that Ethan gave him before they moved will soon be filled with woodworking stuff.

Dorrie visited on Saturday and we discussed some extended family issues.

Week of September 2-8, 2018

Highlights:

Spiritual

We had a good, but sadly quiet, Sunday. Missing those little granddaughters in our house! Many in our ward were out of town, but all meetings and lessons were wonderful.

I attended a temple session full of brand new sisters and elders just beginning their missionary service on Tuesday morning. Dee attended the temple Wednesday and assisted as our Young Men performed baptism ordinances. He attended a session Thursday night.

Cub scouts went well this week. We are working with our most difficult scout and, while he wasn't totally engaged with the things we were doing, he was not disruptive and all was accomplished for that night.

I completed another time listening to General Conference and started again. Not sure if it was the fourth or fifth completion. I also read the September Ensign Magazine.

I am in Alma 34 in my Book of Mormon reading.

I have indexed 14136 records and reviewed 40205 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

This was a good week for the Wilkins family. Allison attended an open house at Adam's school.

Sam had a good week too. He attended his first "Little Artist" class at the rec center and created a marble painting.

We got to talk with Grace, who absolutely loved her very first week in Beehive Class as a Young Woman. She's now earned the right to wear some make up and she looks great, as always. School is going well and she likes it.

Joshua jumped in our conversation for a moment. He is happy and doing well!

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan and family tried out a new camping spot, Indian Springs State Park...only 40 minutes away. Looks like they had a fantastic time!

Kaylee participated in a lovely Grandparents Day Program at school on Friday. So sad we couldn't go this year!!

Wadey is quite the driver in the kids green car, thanks to a pillow. Nothing stops him!! On Saturday, they shared Haystacks for dinner with Elder Moore and his companion.

The Doran Rice Family

Happy Birthday, Kelsie on Tuesday! This family had a good week: work, school, preschool, dogs, and a job interview for Doran.

Morgan

Morgan and some friends ate dinner and enjoyed one evening while Ethan and Cameo were camping.
He started a new job at his girlfriend's company this week.

Kayty

Kayty had a good work week, and also applied at Party City for Holiday help. It's a few minutes away from job 1 and she wants to get ahead on her bills in case job 1 ends in November. 

The Nathan Rice Family

After all the fun here, poor Anna and Ellie came down with stuffy noses, so Sunday was a quiet day of resting. They had a good last week of no school with bike rides and fun. Nathan finally got his 3-d printer he wanted and called, showing us the printing progress. Anna got a lovely princess dress for her Halloween costume on Saturday, and Nathan printed her a pretty awesome tiara. The family walked to the temple on Friday and Anna just loved being there. Saturday included eating Rice Krispies, playing with a new ball, and painting. The girls also switched rooms with Mommy and Daddy this week. The room is now better configured to keep Anna from climbing in the crib with Ellie and these sweet sisters playing together. Sleep is a good thing, though I love how close these two are!

Dad's Garden

Seedlings are doing well.

Other highlights

Cooler jogs this week, though I had to miss Tuesday and shorten Wednesday because Kayty wasn't looking good and I didn't want to be gone long. On top of a shortened run, I had to dodge a young snake while going. While I didn't stop for analysis, I am pretty sure the head was viper shaped. The jogging week ended well on Saturday...Kayty looked fine so I could actually run to the temple.

We had quite a few trips to help out Nano this week: shopping, Taco Bell, and then she had problems with her old security system. Thank goodness Ethan was just FaceTime away and we got it fixed the second trip there.

Dad had his annual insurance exam this week. Blood pressure lower, weight down almost 60 pounds, waist circumference down 12 inches. No news on bloodwork results yet. Hooray for a year of hard work!!

Our planned Flagstaff trip was postponed due to the digging we had to do Friday (explanation to follow) so I reconnected with Dorrie and we headed to Ahwatukee for the Hallmark Store Dept 56 sale. We arrived and there were already tons of people in line, sitting in camping chairs. Many many of them were older men, who seem to be a bit aggressive in their shopping. No matter, we still wormed our way through. I did get one accessory piece for the Rudolph portion of my village, but they had no ElfLand pieces, which is the only place I have any space. We had a good time and ended up at Sweet Tomatoes for lunch.  

Not so highlights

We have lost four trees in our back yard this year: Ironwood up and died, and then the lemon, the white grapefruit, and Ethan's favorite tangerine tree are near death. We assumed it was heat. Thursday, we were driving home from WalMart and notice a couple from the next gated subdivision working behind our house. He was spraying poison, she was getting trash (people toss stuff out the window all the time on Happy Valley). Dad went and talked to him. It was Ground Clear, and he said this was the fifth time he had done it. Dad did some investigating on the computer, and discovered that Round Up should be nowhere near trees! We went out early Friday morning and dug up every weed he had sprayed, plus the soil around to an inch down.

Here we had been told by the City of Phoenix to not use the gate on Happy Valley since the road is going to be a parkway, and we thought they periodically had gotten the weeds (there weren't that many...the wheelbarrows are mostly filled with dirt. )We were totally exhausted after that. We also posted information on the Next Door ap, contacted the home owners association of that neighborhood letting them know , and I will be making, laminating and posting signs indicating Private Property, no Poison Spraying. While well meaning, they acted without understanding the were killing our trees, and were actually on our property.