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Sunday, March 23, 2014

Letter - New niece, Eventful Sunday evening, Grace

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Happy Sunday!  We just had a bit of a change up in our ward, we are moving to a new building and a new time of 10:00am.  There has been a lot of growth in our stake and they created a new ward today necessitating some building changes and what not.  Luckily we get to keep Tuesdays, our current night, for mutual and we don’t have to change buildings until Sunday, which means we get to hold our special New Beginnings program, that is planned for this Tuesday, in our current building and we won’t have to schedule a new building or anything like that.  Remember when I was Primary President and we had to change buildings the week of our Primary program?  I do.  I think I cried that week.  Oh well, that which does not kill us makes us stronger right!

Last week our kids had a bit of stomach trouble.  Bryant missed school Monday, Karalee missed Monday and Tuesday, and Spencer missed Friday, which was a half day.  Luckily Spencer felt better by Friday afternoon and was able to go on his scout camp out that night.  I think the dairy they’d been eating caught up with them.  I need to make sure they take probiotics every day and then I don’t think they will have that kind of trouble with dairy if they eat it in moderation. 

My two sickies
Monday morning my second counselor and I met with Lily Lines, who turned twelve this week, to teach her a little bit about the Young Women’s and the personal progress programs of the church.  It’s fun to meet with the new beehives.  They are so excited to graduate from Primary and I am excited to welcome them into the next phase of their lives.

Tuesday I registered Marlee for Kindergarten.  She’s so excited to start school with the big kids this fall.  I’m glad it’s only half day kindergarten and that I’ll get to keep her at home most of the day still.  I made a big batch of cookies that day for our combined YM YW mutual that night.  The kids played crab soccer -- you play soccer with several big light weight bouncy balls while doing the crab walk.  It looked tiring, but fun.  Thanks to Chad’s mom Brenda for coming to babysit AND for bringing us a yummy dinner since we started mutual an hour earlier than normal and Chad had to be at work.  She sure is kind and I love her dearly.  She is a great example of giving meaningful, Christ-like service.  I’m extremely blessed to be her daughter-in-law.

Wednesday while the girls had Grammy Days I attended a session in the Gilbert temple.  It was very busy.  Every single seat in the session was full.  They had several women sit on the men’s side.  Since the Gilbert temple only offers sessions every hour on the hour, except for in the early morning or later in the evening, it’s a long wait if you don’t get in to the session you were planning on.  Thanks to Shannon for watching my girls since I ended up being late for Grammy day pick up since the session was so crowded.  My sister Amy had her baby on Wednesday and I got to go hold her that afternoon.  They decided to name her Sally Ann which is the nickname my dad used for me and my sisters when we were little so of course I really love that name.  I’m kind of sad I didn’t think of using that name for my girls.  Sally has made me an aunt for the 94th time--counting both mine and Chad's sides and my great nieces and nephews.  Being an Aunt is one of my favorite roles in this life. (FYI this is my Mom and Dad's 67th grandchild. My Mom is still hoping for 33 more to give her 100 grandchildren.  I don't think she'll reach that goal.)

The kids helped me plant our garden right after school on Wednesday.


Cute little Sally
Doesn't Spencer look so grown up in his football uniform!
I had to take some pictures of Tilly's funny habit.  She loves to rub people's arms.  She does it anytime she's being held or is near someone or while she's being rocked to sleep.  It's cute, except for when she doesn't sleep well and comes into our bed and wants to rub my arm all night.




Thursday was a busy day.  My van battery died making it an even busier day.  Luckily my battery was still under warranty and I got a new one “for FREEEEE.” (What movie does that quote come from?   Comment or reply with the correct answer and you will be in the running for a prize!)  It took well over an hour to get it replaced though.  That afternoon I made a big batch of rolls for our relief society dinner/activity that evening.  Our getting to know you activity was really fun.  Each of the RS committee members did a video interview of the ladies in our ward, they had several questions, like what was your first car?  what jobs have you had? etc. and each lady chose two or three questions to answer then they compiled and edited all the clips into a video.  We had some funny clips.   

Our relief society is doing this scripture program in preparation for our June Relief Society activity.  I'm looking forward to this program.  I think it will bring "significant and subtle blessings"
I’m back.  We’ve had quite the eventful evening.  We had an “It’s great to be 8” fireside with Karalee and just as it started we got a call from Spencer letting us know that Tilly bit her tongue really bad while playing on the trampoline with Spencer and Marlee.  Chad decided to go home and help.  I wanted to go, but I was the pianist so Chad thought I should stay and he should go.  Tilly calmed down for him quickly and ate a popsicle.  The cut is pretty deep though and it makes me cringe when she sticks out her tongue and it opens up.  She’s been acting fine all evening and has eaten a bowl of cereal for a snack and has been running around playing with the kids.  It’s nice that tongues don’t need to be stitched up except for in extreme cases.  Tonight we also got a call from Chad’s Dad Art, who’ve we asked to be the Realtor on our rental house, letting us know we got an offer on it today.  It’s a good offer which we will accept.  I hope it will go through and that we’ll be able to sell the house.  We will have lost a lot of money on it, but we sure gained a lot of experience. :)  “Chalk it up to experience.”  (That’s what my dad told me once when I called him crying about a bank fee that I got from a silly mistake during my first year of college.)  However, the price we were offered is more than we owe and will help us pay down the home we are living in.  I also just got a text from Amy letting me know about her husband David’s new calling as a counselor in the bishopric.  Wow!  He’ll be great.  It’s sure been a busy night.     

Tilly's cut tongue.  Sorry for the blurry pic.
Friday I spent over six hours working in the back yard.  It was my annual spring cleanup.  Lots of leaves had dropped over the winter that needed to be raked up; I pulled out a bunch of crab grass that decided to grow in our lawn.  I tried to get all the roots, but I’m afraid once you get crab grass it’s tough to get rid of.  Trever, do you know any secrets since you’re a landscaper??  Anyway, I love doing yard work.  This week when I went to the temple I found out why.  In the temple we learn that taking care of your garden brings happiness and joy.  It’s an eternal principle which brings happiness. 

Monday night the girls had a movie night and watched the old Disney cartoon "The Rescuers" with Chad while I went to a pampered Chef fundraiser party at my sister-in-law Jennifer's (Brandon's) house.
Tilly has a new big girl bed.  Our neighbor's gave us this toddler bed because their daughter out grew it.  We took down our crib!  Can you believe it?
Yesterday I had a camp kickoff meeting in the morning and Bryant and Spencer had football games.  My meeting was during Bryant’s game so I was sad to miss it.  Last night Chad and I went out to dinner with five other couples from our ward.  It was SO fun.  We’ve sure made a lot of good lifelong friends in this ward.  We ate at our friend’s favorite restaurant that was new to us called Thai Chili on the SE corner of Val Vista and Baseline.  It was YUMMY.  Then we all went over to Nielson’s frozen custard for dessert and more visiting.

Watching Spencer's game



Brothers are the best!  I love this picture of my boys.  They are great friends.
Yesterday I was making myself a snack of apples and peanut butter when my kids pulled out some oreos for a little treat.  I got the idea to try dipping an oreo in peanut butter.  It is yummalicious!!!  
My quote for today is from a talk I posted a few years ago.  Since it is probably my favorite talk of all time I’m quoting from it again.  One of my Laurels used it in the lesson she taught us today.  (We have the girls take turns teaching on the 4th Sunday of every month.)  I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, ‘You Mormons are trying to earn your way to heaven.’  I say, ‘No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.’ … the more I understand this wonderful plan of redemption, the more I realize that in the final judgment it will not be the unrepentant sinner begging Jesus, ‘Let me stay.’ No, he will probably be saying, ‘Get me out of here!’ Knowing Christ’s character, I believe that if anyone is going to be begging on that occasion, it would probably be Jesus begging the unrepentant sinner, ‘Please, choose to stay. Please, use my Atonement—not just to be cleansed but to be changed so that you want to stay’” (Brad Wilcox, His Grace is Sufficient).  You can listen to or read the full talk HERE.  I’d recommend listening to it instead of reading it since he is such a great speaker.
Love,
Mindy

P.S.  Wanna read a cool blog post (not my blog) about the restoration of the church?  Click HERE





1 comment:

Jewel said...

I know, I know!! The first movie quote is from "Bedtime Stories"-Adam Sandler says it. I quote that all the time!
Also, I love all the pictures, except for the one of Tillie's tongue. Ouch--made me cringe, as well!