In our Family this Month...
* Rugby has been going strong all month! Every week we've 2-3 games between the girls and boys' team. The score board and rankings don't really match up with how good of a team we really are! Both teams have traveled to Pocatello one of the weekends and many hours have been spent at practices, warm ups and matches. Nathan's team ended up taking 4th in the State tournament - which was super cool for being a first year team! Sadly, Nathan injured his shoulder during a practice earlier this month and was in a sling the rest of the season. He went to Physical Therapy for several weeks and he's now "back to normal" but it did cut the season short for him. While our girl's team didn't make it to State, they did finish out the season with a final match against Centennial and won 105-15 so that was a fun high to end the season on! The Spring 15's season officially ended on May 13th and then the girls had a 2 week break before starting up with summer practices and weight lifting (and preparing for the NAI 7's tournament in July). We also had our End of year Banquets (unfortunately we were in Nebraska for Nathan's and the boy's team) but snuck in the girl's just before leaving town. It was a Luau and went over very well! John made a slideshow that was shown and had many highlights from the season. Also, Aubrie was awarded "D2 Defensive Player of the Year" and she was shocked and so thrilled to have that honor!
* We were finally able to have an evening free where the girls and mom could head downtown for their Birthday photo shoot! Wooo!! They requested to go to "Freak Alley" in Downtown Boise and we had a blast! There were even a group of college boys that stopped by to ask which high school they were graduating from.. this is when "mama bear" came out and I blurted "um... they are only freshman and this is their birthday photoshoot!" Needless to say they were shocked and quickly rode away on their electric scooters - LOL! Anyway, we did a couple of outfit changes and we loved how they all turned out! Here are a few of our favorites!
.
* Ministering! Aubrie and Lexi are companions with mom and we visit 3 sisters (along with their teen daughters) so we thought it would be fun to have a big get-together party and celebrate the end of the school year. We decided to do a "Color Party" where each of the family's picked a color and then wore that color to the party AND brought a treat to share in that color. Since we were just getting done with the girls' birthday party where everything was decorated in shades of blue, we chose BLUE for our color and made blue raspberry jello, had blue war-heads, individually wrapped Oreos (in blue packaging), Rice Krispy treats (also wrapped individually in blue), blueberry muffins, Blue gumballs and blue Kool-Aid drinks. The Stoke's chose RED and went the extra mile and even dyed their hair red! The Wilden's chose PURPLE (but ended up not being able to make it) and the McMullens just came as they were - however they were all dressed in NEUTRALS (black, brown and creams) and so they embraced that and went with it! We visited, chatted, snacked and played games. It was a fun time and I know that I enjoyed myself (and hopefully they all did too!)6
.
* Last summer was brutally hot with a record number of days over 100 degrees! With so much heat, part of our lawn and several flowers lining our front walkway all died! With the kids' help, we cut out all of the dead grass (using a sod cutter for the big parts) and laid new sod. We also put new plants in to replace the dead ones and mom made some cute hanging baskets to line the front porch. Everything looks so beautiful!
.
* Grandma and Grandpa decided on taking the preventative measure of painting their rental house to protect the exposed wood. Before they left last month, we spent time driving around together and looking at different color schemes. Grandma knew that she wanted to do a two-toned paint job but just didn't know how we could make it work. So we took a picture of the house and mom imported it into Photoshop and then we started playing with different colors and options of painting different pop-outs. We finally decided upon a color palette and the painters were scheduled. The end result is awesome and we keep driving by the house just to look at it! They also installed all new outdoor lighting which really updated the exterior.
.
* Mother's Day! John and the kids had been scheming to get mom (me!) a BIG gift this year! Everyone pooled their $$ and it was purchased on Amazon. They all know me so well and knew Id love it - which I did! After picking up the girls from a friend's house I came home to a NEW NUGGET ICE MACHINE (you know, like the ice you get from Sonic!). I might has squealed in delight! haha I love it and have bagged up the ice into Ziplocs so I've always got great ice on hand! My family is too good to me!
.
* We'd been planning on a trip out to Nebraska for Shelby's wedding. We had planned to leave super early on Friday, May 26th and return home on Monday, June 5th (with the wedding being on June 3rd). However, the night before as mom was packing, she noticed that her left leg was very swollen and about twice the size of her right! At about 10pm, we made a FaceTime call to Uncle Morgan so he could see what was going on and to ask if it was something to be concerned about (since we were getting ready to go on a loooong road trip - we were somewhat worried that it was a blood clot and riding in the car for so long would be very bad!)... Anyway, Morgan takes a look at it and says I need to go into the ER right away to get it checked and rule out a blood clot. So dad and I make our way to the ER and get checked in shortly after 11pm. An ultrasound was done on my leg and the good news was that it was NOT a blood clot (yay!) however, they did discover that I have a condition called "Venous Insufficiency" Basically, it's improper functioning of the vein valves in the leg. Normally, the vein valves keep blood moving back toward the heart but in my case they aren't and hence the swelling.. Good news is that it's NOT life threatening or painful (and no cure) but can be treated with compression socks and elevating the leg. We didn't get home and into bed until 3am and so we decided to just sleep in, see how I was feeling the next day and determine when we'd leave for Nebraska. We ended up getting on the road by 1pm (after hitting a store for some compression socks! haha) and made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming that night around 11pm. We got up early the next morning and made it the rest of the way to Lincoln, Nebraska and pulled in around 4:30ish. The next 9 days were filled with lots of family, visiting, hanging out around the firepit listening to music and eating S'mores, cooking (and more cooking! haha). We took on a project for Grandma and Grandpa - staining their deck! We worked on it over the course of 3 days and the final outcome was beautiful! We were so glad we could help out! Dad even put together a large solar powered LED patio umbrella that added the perfect final touch! On Thursday, August, MeKendra and the little boys drove down from Kearney (where they were staying with the Dinkle's for a family reunion) and stayed the night with us. That evening, we all headed over to Jared and Hope's for a BBQ in their "Party Barn" and got to tour their 100 year old farm house that Hope has been redoing (and what she's done is quite impressive!!). The girls had a great time visiting with Sehren and Kisaac and even made plan for Sehren to come pick them up the next afternoon to hang out. Friday, we all helped set up the church for the reception and it came together lovely (and fast!). We then did some grocery shopping and decided it'd be fun for all of the adults to get together for dinner. Dad looked up some local places to eat and we decided up Screamers - which was a place where the waiters and staff took turns singing Karaoke up on a stage. It was actually pretty fun and they were all very good singers! Saturday was a packed day from getting up early and heading to the Winter Quarter's Temple for the sealing. Then it was outside to the Temple grounds for pictures and then Scott's family treated us all to a lunch buffet. We stopped by Jared and Hopes for just a few minutes on the way home and then went to the church to make final preparations for the reception. Jared was the DJ and did a great job on the music selection and everyone seemed to have a great time! Seth started coming down with something and wasn't feeling the best so the 3 boys (Ben, Seth and Nathan) decided to leave the reception, load the car and start the long drive back to Idaho. They had originally planned on leaving at like 3:30/4am but decided to just get a jump start since they are nocturnal and would already be away throughout the night. They made it back home safe and sound on Sunday around 1pm. Sunday, we all went to church and then had everyone over for a final family meal. We then packed and tried to get to bed a decent time so we could get up at 5am to load and hit the road! The trip back was uneventful (yay!) and we pulled into home 17+ hours later by 10pm. I'm really glad that we were able to go and e a part of the celebrations and make some lasting memories with the family.
* The last two times attending the temple, I’ve had some insight that I wanted to record. The first one would have been last week when we went. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t feel like we have gotten much additional insight or direction on finding employment. And as I was sitting in the celestial room, my mind was taken back to when we were moving to Billings, Montana and trying to find a house. I had been given a blessing that we would know which house to rent but as the days neared to the end of our stay at the hotel, I started doubting we would find anything and started finding myself being willing to “settle” on a house that I knew would not be that good for us. I remember one time in particular after having previewed a home and thinking “well we could make it work, but I’m not excited about it nor the location…” and as I prayed, God impressed on my mind the analogy of “the hot breakfast“. Just to briefly recap, this parable story was of a man getting a knock on his door in the middle of the night from a good friend, who had unexpectedly stopped by. He quickly realizes he has nothing to feed this traveling friend, and so runs to his neighbors house and pounds on the door asking for some milk and bread so that he might give it to his friend. The neighbor calmly suggested that he wait until morning and he would then make a hot breakfast that he could serve to his friend. Being not too pleased with this answer, he pounds again and yells through the windows "Please! Can I have some milk and bread?" The neighbor answers again that if he would just wait until the morning, he would make a hot breakfast that would be so much more better and filling then some measly milk and bread. After the third time asking for milk and bread, the neighbor finally gives it to him and sends him on his way. Back then, I knew that the Lord was preparing a "hot breakfast" for us in the form of a beautiful place to live and I just had to have the faith to hold out (which He certainly delivered on with a BEAUTIFL and perfect home for us!). As I was sitting in the celestial room last week, the same scenario played out in my mind, and the impression came again that another hot breakfast is waiting for us if we are just patient. We could settle for some milk and bread, but a hot breakfast is on its way (currently even being plated!) and about ready for delivery!
No comments:
Post a Comment