Five Eggs!

Drew ate 5 scrambled eggs with ham and cheese for breakfast. After school he requested three more. I was able to talk him into a piece of pizza and two eggs.  

Easter 2016

Easter 2016:  Drew requested protein bars from the Easter Bunny instead of candy this year.  We had a nice Easter dinner with ham, potatoes, and rolls.

The older boys didn't want to color eggs this year, but the younger kids had lots of fun.   

Here are Devin's creations. 

We saved the dye and Devin played chemist with it after school until it was all a lovely shade of brown.   

There may be lots of candy and dyed eggs, but I am so grateful for the real reason for Easter.  I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he voluntarily gave his life to atone for everyone's sins.  I'm so grateful for His resurrection, that allows us all to be resurrected and to know that we will see loved ones again.  

Elder Talbot: Mission Update

Elder Talbot had his first baptism, Brooke Rodriguez. She is a wonderful woman with three young kids.  His companion is Elder Belmont and they are serving in the Riverside South ward.

He was able to visit a few parks, Sequoia and Kings Mountain National Parks.  

I pulled a few zone conference pics from the Fresno mission's blog.   

Here's a recent letter.  It gives his daily schedule.  

Each area causes me to stretch and grow in such different ways, one of the big ones is seeing that I want to keep my thoughts focused on the gospel and Christ constantly, so I need to build that habit now and keep it up after my mission.  It has gotten me to try and see how to put others first and what my priorities are.  I really loved conference and the reminder that I am a son of God, with great potential if I am just willing to put in the faith and effort.  I feel more confident in some things, and that's when I start seeing other areas I can improve on.  Rules are always changing, some lessons I have only taught a handful of times, and being on time is still hard but its so much fun to learn every day.  Recently I have been going over the Book of Mormon again in my studies with a focus on the Atonement and thinking about what things I can apply to the people we are working with.  This has placed me in Mosiah and I am loving King Benjamin so much!  Daily schedule is 6:15 wake up, 20 minute run, 2 minute plank, 8-10 minutes exercise, a 5 minute shower to conserve water, iron my shirt, shave and do my hair, eat cereal if there is time, mission prayer at 7:55 and start studies at 8.  10:15 we finish studies and then we go out trying to work with potential investigators and less actives until lunch at 12.  At 1 we head out again and we probably bike for 20 minutes or so to get to a different area of our ward and go to appointments, its funny to see how some people take us seriously and some people don't.  We just knock the doors we want to try, talk to people we see, until its time to start heading for dinner, which ranges from at our apartment to members, usually with the other missionaries in the ward.  We try to keep dinner to under an hour and then we hope that people will be home now that its after 6.  Then we come in before 9 to try and plan for the next day in 30 minutes and then prepare for bed and try to remember to write in my journal.

Family Time Together: Playing Foot Golf

I hardly knew it existed, but when we asked the boys what they would like to do to spend some family time together, they came up with foot golf.  We had offered up Six Flags, Sea World, etc, but foot golf beat those out.  We found a Saturday with no soccer games, grabbed a bunch of soccer balls, and were off.  Austin has an 18 hole foot golf course, basically golf with a soccer ball.  This was right up our alley.  For 17 holes, Dayton and Drew were duking it out for first place.  It came right down to the last hole, where Dayton pulled it off by one stroke.  We also grabbed some Golden Chick, a rare thing for our family to eat out.
It's getting harder to find time when the whole family is together and even harder to find an activity that everyone wants to participate in.  So this was a fun and special Saturday.

Devin tallying up the score afterwards.

Answer to Prayer

Dayton got his drivers license. We are so excited for him. But putting him on the insurance more than doubled our rate; it added $128 per month. I had been prayerful about how to account for this new expense. Where did I need to cut back? How would we cover this new expense each month?

 Just a few days later David got an unexpected raise that more than covered Dayton's insurance. I love seeing the Lord's tender mercies in my life, and being able to share with my children when answers come to my prayers. 

Spring Break, continued

After the cousins left, we had a few more days without school.  Danica and Devin had coupons for a free visit to Gattiland so we went for lunch.  We also went to see the movie Babe at the dollar theater.  When I tallied up how much we had spent for lunch and a movie for three, I was impressed with my frugality- $13.  We dropped Drew and Preston off at the soccer fields while we were gone.  Danica made Aunt Christine's yummy cookies.

Dayton gets his drivers license

Today Dayton got his drivers license. To celebrate, he and I grabbed Big Macs and mcflurries on the way home. He and Preston went to James' house tonight. So weird to have him take the car and go. He is going to love the independence. I am going to love having an extra driver! Congrats Dayton!

Spring Break with Shurtz Cousins

We were grateful to have Russell's family come to town for spring break.  The kids enjoyed lots of cousin time.  They were at our home for a couple of days before we all went to Georgetown Lake with a large group from our ward.  The kids enjoyed hiking, crafts, lots of yummy food, and playing card games.  Dave had a big work project due that week, so he didn't get to enjoy much of the fun with us. The older boys wanted to leave a little early, so I took them home and we ate at Torchy's Taco's with Dave and they played games and watched movies.

Devin's Second Grade Music Program: How Does Your Garden Grow

Devin wasn't super thrilled to participate in the second grade musical.  But when Daddy told him we'd stop at Andy's for ice cream afterwards, he donned his flannel shirt and jeans.  It was so cute hearing the songs and seeing all the little kids.  Drew had Devin sing one of the songs so he could tape it.  

A Home for Fanny

A woman from France moved into our ward several months ago. She has been living out of her car for five months.  She has a big car payment, leaving little money for rent. She delivers pizza. She really likes our ward and really hoped to find a place to live within the boundaries. I've been trying to see what we could find for her but had been unsuccessful with her limited budget.

Several months ago I felt prompted to invite Jenny Pfeiler to be a visiting teacher.  She has been inactive for most of her life and hasn't ever come to church in the nearly ten years that we've lived here. She hesitantly accepted under the condition that I give her a really good companion.  I told her she's be with me and she accepted.  I got to know her through her daughter in activity days. I recently helped her find work with a blind gentleman in our ward,Tom, who needed someone to help a few hours a day cooking and cleaning. As Jenny went into his home, she discovered that Tom's roommate who was supposed to be helping Tom with house maintenance was actually taking advantage of him by stealing money.  Jenny found drugs in the home and helped Tom get the roommate evicted.  Just a few days prior, I had told her about a new sister on our route, Fanny, who needed a home.   Jenny called me to explain the situation at Tom's and see what I thought about having Fanny move in.

I wasn't going to touch that one without getting advice from the bishop first.  He agreed that it could be a really good situation for both of them and since Fanny would be acting as caregiver, he approved.  Jenny and I went to Tom's the day after the roommate was evicted.  I visited with Tom and explained about Fanny.  An hour or so later she came over to meet him and ended up taking the free room and board in exchange for helping out around the house and helping Tom with meals.

She has been so grateful for a safe place to sleep, running water, a restroom, etc.  She shared her testimony on Sunday and tearfully mentioned that now she doesn't have to drive around looking for a safe place to park her car at night.  She doesn't have to figure out where to use the restroom.  She doesn't have to worry about someone tapping on her window in the middle of the night.  She knows her prayers have been answered.

It was really remarkable how many things had to come together for Fanny to be able to find this living situation.  Jenny commented that she is 35 years old and had never been asked to be a visiting teacher until recently.  She realized that she had been an instrument in God's hand to help this sister.  She has gained a special appreciation of the visiting teaching program.  

School pics

Here are Danica and Devin's school pics for fourth and second grade. 

Decorating the Locker Room

We are learning the high school soccer culture. The coaches really try to make it fun for the boys by having the locker room decorated before games. We took a turn and put up some balloons with suckers attached on each locker. Go Hawks!