Dayton Thriving in Rexburg

Seminary went well. The kids made resurrection rolls, yummy! I picked up paint and got started painting the guest room light gray. I picked Julianna up from the airport and then she helped me paint. She was standing on a stool that folded up on her. She took a fall and got a bit bruised up and we ended up with some paint spilled on the new carpet. I ended up spending a lot of time scrubbing carpet instead of painting. We ate leftovers for dinner. I did a few loads of laundry and practiced the piano. Dayton's doing well in Idaho. He's made some close friends already and has been able to get to the temple about once a week.

New Church Wide Program for Children and Youth

Today the church’s new initiative for children and youth was presented. I am so excited for it. My kids say it sounds like our summer MTC charts where you make goals and work towards them. I love that the burden of choosing what to learn and how is placed on the kids. They get to take responsibility for their own learning and growth. No more boxes to check. We are looking forward to it starting in January.
We had a new family over for donuts. The Smiths have been here three months and the mom was just called as our relief society president. We taught them the plunger game. Dave and I looked at some stuff for our trip which is starting to feel close.

Six Flags Fright Fest

Today we went to Six Flags with Kevin the Scott family. Their young girls were super scared on some rides and there were several they wouldn’t do. Sure is nice that all our kiddos are coaster riders now. It was fun to spend time with their family. It was super hot! We rode the new Joker ride and it was intense. We left the park around 4 for a chance to get out of the heat and get off our feet. We ate and chatted at Cicis for a couple of hours. Then we were refreshed and headed back. The park was PACKED when we returned with cars in the far reaches of the parking lot. Frightfest was a big draw apparently. The park was decked out for Halloween with smoke and zombies, and all sorts of monster statues, etc. Some of the lines were long so we played Charades with my phone in line. It was a fun but tiring day.

A Hat Trick for the Elder from Whoville

We had a small crowd for seminary today. I shopped for the guest room and found some neutral bedding. Ross came through big with bedding, curtains, a curtain rod. We got to talk to Drew for a couple of hours. He’s doing so well. One of the highlights of his week was a pday activity where his district played another district in soccer. Drew scored a hat trick and set another elder up for a hat trick as well. The elders in his district think the town he's from sounds like something from a Dr Seuss book.

We had leftovers for dinner then watched a documentary on Pompeii for date night. Dave and I are excited to visit this site. Danica stayed home and watched with us. Devin went to Liam’s house. I had rewards for free fries and a free milkshake at Chick-fil-A so dave and I grabbed those when we returned a movie that I had rented. We didn’t end up watching it since there was clear play filter for it yet. I’m so grateful for the option of watching filtered movies!-

Backpack Coalition with Liam and Edison

Today in seminary I taught about how Christ submitted His will to the will of the Father in Gethsemane. We had small discussion groups and I thought it went pretty well. I walked with Colette then went to Julianna’s to help her hang pictures. She’d been over here helping me with all my projects, I was glad she had one so I could return the favor. Turned out great. I made crockpot drumsticks and mashed potatoes for dinner. I took Julianna, Danica, Devin, Liam, and Edison to backpack coalition to serve. The boys were good workers but so loud and spazzy! They all want to go back again. In the evening I worked on a project for Drew, calculating the protein per dollar of items available from the site that ships free to the mtc and discounted to missions in Mexico. Dave has been diligently studying each evening from 9-10 for a project management certification training.

Let the Painting Begin

I picked up groceries this morning. I spent some time FaceTiming with my parents in Germany and with Suzanne. I got a call from Stacy Brown asking for some advice about interacting with the school board. She wanted to hear my story about the book challenge. Julianna came over for lunch and we prepped the guest room for painting and then painted the baseboards. We moved the furniture to the middle of the room, removed electric plate and the curtain rod, and covered everything. She’s a trooper and likes a good project. I love it! Danica made homemade pizza for dinner. It had whole wheat crust and lots of veggies. I gave piano lessons to Danica and Devin. Danica started to learn Christophori’s Dream. Devin’s lesson was a bit crazy. He seemed to actually like the lesson, he even said it was fun. But yet he kept flopping on the couch and lying on the floor and being a bit of a spaz. He is slowly learning Waterfall and is excited to play such a neat sounding song.

This and That

Today I walked with Colette. She got Bennett off to the mtc yesterday. Then I spent a couple of hours on seminary, looking at attendance and sending out a few emails for those who haven’t been coming. I put together Thursday’s lesson which took some time. It’s about Christ in Gethsemane. I bought bedspreads for the first room. Dallin and Julianna came over. He went to Toby’s for a couple of hours. Julianna and I went to Home Depot for paint swatches and then we filled holes in the wall. We played telestrations with Danica and Devin before dinner. After dinner Danica went to young women’s and the rest of us played Alhambra together. I studied Jesus the Christ in the evening. Today I set the goal to memorize All of Me by the end of the year.

Growing Pains

Today I taught about the foolish and wise virgins for seminary. Devin complained about his knees and bald hurting. My guess is growing pains. I gave him Tylenol and let him go back to sleep. I mailed off Dayton’s cleats, did two loads of laundry, ironed shirts for David, looked at my next seminary lesson, went to the library for Danica, bought a part to fix a toilet, and taught Danica how to make bread. Good, busy day. For FHE we played jenga and watched one of the new Book of Mormon videos that the church just released. Dave and I went to Ross looking for things for the guest room. We bought some pillows and a basket.

Dayton Has a Girlfriend

So Dayton has a girlfriend, Abbie. That didn’t take long. She’s a red head from Oregon, 19 years old. She’s super cute. He says they’ve seen each other every day for the last 5 or 6 days. Tonight they went to the devotional by Elder Bednar and Dayton asked her to be his girlfriend. They get each other’s personality really well. He says she teases him even more than he teases her, which must be A LOT. I’m super excited for him.
Devin participated in his final primary program. Kevin came with the Larsen family, which made it about the 5th time he's come to our sacrament meeting in the last 7 weeks. Dave Danica and I went to the stake standards fireside. President Williams asked all the youth to pay their own way to FSY this summer and earn the $75.
Dallin and Julianna came for dinner and we played Pandemic on the hardest level. Dallin was loving it! There were calculations and probably galore.

Danica on the Temple Trip; Water Heater Drama

This morning I got Danica off to the temple with the youth group. Devin went to the practice for the primary program. Dave and I took a walk and enjoyed the weather getting slightly cooler. When we got back we noticed water coming from a tube on the side of the house...which wasn’t normal. Dave spent the next five hours figuring out what was wrong with the water heater. We hope he was successful. We watched BYU get killed by Washington. Not the funnest game to watch. We got some things done around the house, going through old files, like taxes from 24 years ago! We had a fun game of Telestrations.

Out with the Filing Cabinet, Julianna Saves the Day

Seminary went great. We covered Joseph Smith -Matthew about the destruction of Jerusalem and the second coming. The kids participated, commented, and were engaged. Then I walked with Colette and prepared a seminary lesson for Monday about the 10 virgins. Afterwards I texted Julianna to see what her day looked like. We ended up spending the afternoon together doing projects. I’ve wanted our filing cabinet, complete with electronics piled haphazardly on top, gone for a while. We made it happen by replacing it with the piece of furniture Dave made that has needed a home. Julianna threaded all the wires through and made it look nice. We stapled a loose wire to the baseboard, reattached a piece of molding for a blind, pulled out a desk and posted it online, and removed shelves from the wall of the guest room. When Dave and I went out for dinner, she and Danica organized my pantry. It was a terrific day of projects that had long been overdue.
We enjoyed chatting with Drew. He seems to be doing great. I also FaceTimed with Dayton, who was doing homework with a cute girl :)

Asleep with the Light on and Book in Hand

Today I enjoyed studying Italian pronunciation and planning our time in Rome. I found some highly rated restaurants and gelato stores. I finalized my seminary lesson for tomorrow. I did video calls with Rebecca and my parents. Rebecca and Ben just bought a home which they’re excited about. Little Laney is 8 months and starting to stand. She’s not interested in crawling; she wants to walk like her sister Caroline. Mom and dad are two weeks into their German trip and loving it. Today they went to a church where one of our ancestors from the 1600s was married. They saw the original register with the marriage recorded, pretty cool! I also spent time making lasagna and bread sticks for dinner and helping kids with homework. Devin has an English project that he was struggling to start. Reminded me a little of Dallin. Once he for underway he did better, but it was a rocky start. Danica was studying for a science test over units, speed, and velocity. Found Devin asleep with his light on and book in hand. He sure devours books!

Looking for Needs Around Us

Devin had a barking cough this morning so I kept him home to rest up. He and I worked on getting the “stuff” put away after moving furniture around upstairs. He got a haircut and a piano lesson, so he had a productive day at home. In seminary we talked about Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, so I had the kids place palm branches and clothing in a trail for the Savior.
I enjoyed studying up about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in preparation for my seminary lesson on Friday. I hadn’t ever read any details about how devastating the Roman siege and battle were. I really love the way that we can add extensive notes into our electronic scriptures. I added quotes from Josephus, the Jewish historian who had a first hand account of the destruction.
Danica made dinner tonight, a breakfast casserole with onion, peppers, spinach and sausage. It was tasty. I gave her a piano lesson as well. She has now finished all the songs in her Hunger Games book. Next she’s going to start some of the fun music we already have now, like March of the Resistance and Christophori’s Dream.
Dave had high council this evening. One of his assignments was changed and he’s now no longer over the Spanish branch. They put him over Sunday school and asked him to put his extra time into family history. I’m sure he will do great at that. And that means we will have him at church with us much more frequently. Yeah! Since Devin was born, Dave’s either been in a bishopric or on the high council. So he hasn’t known much of having him sit with us at church.
We’ve been praying as a family this week to see people’s needs. Today I had a couple of experiences with that. Fanny has expressed interest in going to the singles conference but had mentioned she couldn’t go for financial reasons. I offered to get her ticket for her. She said she’d had a super great day of driving Uber and didn’t need me to pay for it. But having me ask her about it was the motivation she needed to make it happen. So she will be going. Also I invited Charmaine to go running and she told me she’s been going with some ladies who live far away and how this would work much better for her. I’m looking forward to having a chance to visit with her.

Four Cavities!

After seminary I moved furniture around upstairs working to get the guest room set up. There’s more furniture than that room needs still. Institute class was nice. It’s amazing that there was so much to talk about that I didn’t know before in 1 Nephi 3 and 4. One of the cool things had to do with Lehi building an altar and offering sacrifice. We know that he is from the tribe of Manasseh and only the tribe of Levi had the anatomical priesthood to officiate in the temple. Lehi must have held the Melchizedek priesthood and was a high priest. Also, according to the law of Moses, you had to be at least three days journey from Jerusalem to offer sacrifice. Nephi mentioned three days journey in the borders of the Red Sea. But it is almost 200 miles from Jerusalem just to get to the Red Sea. Another cool thing we talked about was that it is very possible that Lehi was a trader. The people didn’t find it unusual that he left in a big caravan with tents and his family. Perhaps he even left servants behind since all his wealth was still there. People didn’t know he was permanently gone.
I took the kids to a new dentist this afternoon. We liked the practice and the dentists there. And we loved that it is close by as well. Devin has cavities on four baby teeth that are loose. He has got to improve his brushing and flossing or the likelihood of his adult teeth getting cavities is pretty high.
Danica had a temple recommend appointment this evening. Devin went to Liam’s.

Devin Gets His Own Room

Danica made breakfast of sausage egg biscuits. She and Devin enjoyed helping me set up for a seminary activity with balloons. The kids did a play in seminary. I learned today that our stake will be with the Katy stake for FSY. Danica was pretty excited to think that she’ll get to be with cousins.
Devin and I worked on making his room his own. We moved the twin bed, the tall dresser and matching nightstand out and brought in his dresser. He loves he extra space and having it feel like his own. We need to do the detail work of hanging things on the walls and finding homes for things like army men and Heroscape.
I enjoyed having time today to practice the piano, study Jesus the Christ and a seminary lesson. I did three loads of laundry as well. We watched a couple of episodes of Chuck as a family in the evening.
Tonight we worked on planning our trip again. We bought two different train tickets, tickets for a museum in Florence and a hiking excursion ticket. This trip is taking shape

A School with No Needs

Church was nice. It was Bennett McCullough's mission farewell. Dave spoke in the Serenada ward. It sure is a quiet day with just the two kids at home. I spent some time reading and pondering over 2 Corinthians then enjoyed our Come Follow me lesson. We decided as a family that this week we would pray for the Lord to show us the needs of the people around us and committed that as He did, we would act on those needs. I'm excited to see what this week has in store for us. Dave played a short video of some boys who gave clothes to a classmate who was being teased for wearing the same clothes everyday. Our kids say no one at school has any needs. I’m hopeful that this week we have some meaning experiences. Dallin and Julianna joined us for a tasty dinner of roast, potatoes, carrots, pineapple and rolls. Then we made caramel popcorn and watched the Snowball Express. Dave and I spent some time on the phone with mike and Laura planning our Cinque Terre day.

Cougs with the Win

This morning we all slept in until 8, then I made French toast for me and Dave. The kids didn’t want any. Danica had a smoothie and muffins for two meals today. And a salad for lunch. Devin’s super picky and will hardly eat anything I make, then bemoans the fact that he doesn’t know what to eat. I went to Walmart to grab a couple things and put together a small package for Drew. It was $33 to mail less than 3 pounds. I’ve been spoiled with my other missionaries being stateside. I’m sure I’ll figure out the best way to mail things to Mexico. Drew emailed and said it’s better to send it from amazon or a Mexican ship site. Dayton has finance drama so I tried helping with that as I traveled back from the post office. He is meeting some people and getting out for activities. BYU beat #24 USC in overtime. Our team looked good and played well which was a pleasant surprise. The fans rushed the stadium. We were ready for a great home game with lots of cheer about. Dallin and Julianna stopped by after Dallin got off so he could watch game highlights. I spent an hour on seminary lesson prep.

Devin's Group of Friends...Liam, Paxton, and Edison

It was great to talk to Drew today. He didn’t have a computer with a camera so we didn’t get to see him. His letter was great! He’s doing well and eating a LOT.  I had seminary then walked with Colette.  I spent my day working on BYU alumni stuff (searching for a Vocal Point venue and contacting grant winners for bios), getting groceries, answering Drew’s list of questions, and practicing the piano. Danica went boating with the beehives and the Teitjen’s. Devin played with Liam, Paxton, and Edison. They came here and baked cookies, played Mafia, the plunger game, and Murder Mystery, which Dave and I played with them in the dark. We are grateful that Devin has such a good group of friends. Dave and I went swimming for date night then went to Costco for a few things. 

Friday Night in Pville

It was great to talk to Drew today. He didn’t have a computer with a camera so we didn’t get to see him. His letter was great! He’s doing well and eating a LOT. I had seminary then walked with Colette. I spent my day working on BYU alumni stuff (searching for a Vocal Point venue and contacting grant winners for bios), getting groceries, answering Drew’s list of questions, and practicing the piano. Danica went boating with the beehives and the Teitjen’s. Devin played with Liam, Paxton, and Edison. They came here and baked cookies, played Mafia, the plunger game, and Murder Mystery, which Dave and I played with them in the dark. We are grateful that Devin has such a good group of friends. Dave and I went swimming for date night then went to Costco for a few things.

Temple and Backpack Coalition

Seminary went well. We talked about the savior giving Peter the keys of the kingdom and how we have living apostles on the earth today. I went to the temple today with Fanny. We met several other ladies there as well which was really nice. Then in the evening Dave, Devin, Danica, and I went to the backpack coalition to volunteer.There was a young lady there who had to be at least 6’9” tall. Her waist went to Danica’s shoulders. It was absolutely insane how tall she was!