Letter - A Mother's Payday

Sunday, December 15, 2013

9:14pm 9:49pm (I ended up reading Tilly a story and getting her to bed.) 

It’s been a good week.  Life is usually good, I’m so blessed.  I don’t remember much about last Monday.  I watched my friend’s daughter for a couple hours, did laundry and other normal Monday stuff I guess.

 

 

Tuesday morning I went and took a few pictures of the new Gilbert temple.  When Chad asked me what I wanted for Christmas I mentioned that I’d kind of like a nice picture of the Gilbert temple, he said, “Why don’t you just go take one?”  So I did.  You can see the pictures I’ve taken and edited here.  Thursday morning, Marlee, Tilly and I went and took a few more pictures then walked around the park to look at the ducks.  This is the favorite picture I’ve taken so far. 

I love this picture because it symbolizes how the temple is meant to link us to our children and children to their fathers. It also shows how nice it is to have the temple right in our neighborhood. We are so lucky to get to drive by it several times a week and have a nice park in its shadows. 

Tuesday evening I went and introduced another song for the temple cultural celebration to the YM and YW in our ward during their opening exercises.  I’m getting nervous about them learning the songs in January.  Judging from the two weeks I’ve been to opening exercises I don't know if they’ll pay attention very well.  Last week when I went to introduce a song, but before I played them the song I asked who had downloaded the songs.  No one had.  Then I asked who had at least been to the website.  A few of the youth raised their hands.  I told them to keep their hands in the air and I pulled some candy bars out of my bag and tossed one to each of the youth who had been to livetruegilbert.com.  I told them I would be coming back this week and promised them a prize if they will have the songs downloaded to their ipod/iphone/etc.  I then played "I Choose This Day" for them.  I planned on having them read the lyrics as they listened, but the copy machine in the San Tan Building isn't working so they just listened.  After we listened I gave all the children a gumball. (I "Chews" This Day.)  It only took about 5-6 minutes so they still had time for their regular stuff too.  In January I'm thinking of doing a Fear Factor Type of Activity.  I've talked to our YM President and he's agreed to let us crack an egg and dump it on his head or eat something weird if the youth sing well or if they come with a song memorized or something like that.  I haven't planned out all the details yet though. 

 

Chad installing our basketball hoop Tuesday evening.  He was so excited for our basketball court.

 

Wednesday was Grammy days and I went to the dentist while the girls played with their cousins.  Spencer and Bryant also had dentist appointments that afternoon and the Marlee and Karalee had appointments on Friday.  

 

No cavities!!

Friday I got to meet my new niece Braelee.  Heather and Elliot are home from North Carolina for Christmas. 

 

We got a new park in our neighborhood.  Friday after school we went to check it out.

Friday night we had a ward party.  The girls sat on Santa’s lap, then we had a nice ham dinner and watched some Christmas video’s from lds.org.  After the ward party, we had Bro. Rudd, who’s been heading up our sport court project, and some of the young men from our ward come help Chad finish putting up our new basketball hoop.  Then they stayed and played basketball for a while.  It was fun. 

 

 

Yesterday morning Spencer had a scout emergency preparedness drill.  Karalee and Marlee got to go to Lowe’s to build a holiday train with Heather and Elliot and Grammy Sanders. 

After they were done, Heather and Elliot came over to check out our basketball court and play for a while.  I took few cool pictures of Chad dunking the ball.  We used his camera that takes 10 pictures in a row in quick succession.  Here’s my favorite picture.  

I don't know how I got so lucky to get a husband who can do such amazing things and who is good and kind and loves me.  But he's lucky to have me too. :)

Yesterday evening was such a special night.  Chad and I took Spencer to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for his first time then out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  When we got home I was talking to Spencer about how nice it was to be in the temple with him and I told him that those kinds of events are a Mother’s payday.  It was wonderful.  A big thank you to Brenda for helping us get some family names from Uncle Kenny so I could be baptized too and be there with Spencer and a big thank you to Heather who texted me last Monday to volunteer to babysit!! 

 

 

Today after Sacrament meeting I was told the Bishop wants to meet with me on Wednesday night and that Chad should be there too.  Now I can’t wait to find out why.  Nursery was really busy today.  We had 16 kids!!  It was fun though.  We have great nursery children.  I’ve printed off one of my temple pictures and got some plastic frames and a candy cane to give them for a little Christmas present this week.  I will probably deliver it to their houses. 

My quote today is from Elder Christofferson’s talk The Moral Force of Women. “Sisters, of all your associations, it is your relationship with God, your Heavenly Father, who is the source of your moral power, that you must always put first in your life. Remember that Jesus’s power came through His single-minded devotion to the will of the Father. He never varied from that which pleased His Father.  Strive to be that kind of disciple of the Father and the Son, and your influence will never fade.”  That is a beautiful promise.  

 

Marlee got stuck in the basketball hoop tonight at Grammy's house.

Love,

Mindy 

P.S. Someone asked me for this photo of the F-bar brothers, I can’t remember who it was but here it is.  If it was you, let me know.