2/27/17 Fountain House

After visiting 3 more houses and crossing off countless more online we finally found another house worthy to show Gram and Papa. It is the only house we've found so far with a two bedroom In-Law apartment. It is on Fountain street in our next door neighbor stake. It has enough room for all 11 of us and, as our realtor Diane says, it has "space in the right place". We are coming to learn what a needle in a haystack we are seeking.

During our first visit to the house we were accompanied by Amy Hallsted as well as Joseph and Peter. The kids were more than pleased to help us explore all the rooms and make sure that everything was to our liking. The second visit, with Gram and Papa also went well. Papa said that if we prayed and felt good to proceed. In a recent conference talk someone referred to the process of revelation to be more like a sunrise than a light switch. That has surely been our experience with this process. The only concern I have is that the owners appear to be asking too much relative to similar houses nearby. Hopefully they are willing to negotiate. I'm not sure the house would appraise for what they are asking. Well, onto the next step. If it's meant to be it will work out.

2/26/17 Get the Youth Involved

This morning Heidi headed over early to attend the ward conferences of the Groves and Kensington wards. This meant I was on my own once again to get the kids ready for church. I was very nervous about it. This time things went much better. David got dressed and made it to his presidency meeting. All the kids made it through all of sacrament meeting. I was even able to sing with the choir. Peter did scream for what felt like 10 seconds while I was up there. The good news is that David and Rebecca helped sort things out.
This evening Heidi shared a funny story from President Cowan. A group of leaders were talking about how the leaders of the Teacher's are encouraged to grow beards for the upcoming Mountain Man camp. Heidi mentioned that I couldn't grow a beard if I wanted to. President Cowan said that when Elder Larkin was visiting he commented about me helping with the technology. He said something like "what a great idea to involve the youth with setting up the technology. How did you come up with that?" President explained that I have 6 kids and that I am not, in fact, in the youth program. Apparently I have a youthful face. Slightly exasperating but funny nonetheless.

2/25/17 Yard Work and Science Expo

This morning we trekked out to San Tan to do some yard work at Grammie and Grandpa Mangum's. I was proud of David for running the lawn mower. This was his first successful lawn mowing effort. He even had a good attitude.

The recent rain has been good for the weeds as well as the grass. Happily the kids were ready to help. Here is TJ pulling weeds.

Jospeh cheerfully pitched in even though no one specifically asked him.

Rebecca and David filled buckets with weeds.

Sarah helped with a smile. We'll have to have a lesson about what happens when you use clippers for digging. Still, there was so much to do I don't think we could've gotten it done without their help.

As a reward for all the hard work we went to the science expo at Skyline High. A special bonus was that Gram, Papa and Becca B joined us. The kids learned about plants, made paper mountains, saw 3D printed stuff and played with mini robots.

Here are the kids using shape magnets.

David was pleased with how his creation turned out.
This was enough activity to pretty much wipe us out. We still managed enough strength to pick up some groceries on the way home.
Heidi even talked me into a quick drive around the neighborhood to look at houses up for sale by owner. Busy, fun and productive day.

2/24/17 Helping Out

This morning Heidi, David, Joseph, Peter and I headed over to Gram and Papa's to help out. Along the way we picked up a doorknob for the Valiant Accounting office and drove past a possible house. At 430 Heidi prepped new tennis balls for the Saturn tow connectors.

Heidi also fixed one of the hanging blinds.

David gave Gram's scooter a workout. He took the little boys to see the rose garden. Becca B rode along on her three wheeled bike. David took his mom's phone, just in case. They went and came back just fine.
I worked with Gram on how to record from her top DVD player to her DVD recorder. Papa helped us document the instructions for later review. We'll have to wait for the report to see how well the instructions work.
After lunch Heidi installed the new doorknob at the office. She let me help by screwing in a few screws. Now the office can be locked and Michael can feel comfortable leaving some things at the office when he's not there. I stayed and did some work until 5. I'll have to admit, it was fairly productive. I still prefer working at home but I plan to keep regular office hours, at least for a while. I'm hoping it'll lead to new business and not just increased productivity.

One of my highlights today was when I went to the Redbox to rent a movie. I was getting ready to bike by myself when Joseph asked to come along. He happily found his shoes and hoodie and was a good travel companion. He helped carry back The Secret Life of Pets for us. Quick review, funnier than expected but it's no Pixar flick. The kids liked it well enough, except Joseph who found it to scary. Probably not on the buy list.

2/23/17 Temple Baptisms

Today Heidi was invited by her friend Carol Andelt to go to the temple to do baptisms. This was only Carol's second time going and she wanted to have a friend with her. Happily, with the help both my parents and Heidi's parents we had some family names to take. The Mesa temple baptistry is so busy that they only let patrons do their own names.
This morning, while Heidi helped at Humanitarian, I installed updated scanner drivers in the Stake Family History Center computers. Sister Cowan pointed out that some had tried but had been unable to scan pictures as part of their family history research. That problem now appears to be fixed.
I forgot to mention yesterday that I met with Sal and Ange and their new tax guy Kenny. It was fun to get to know another professional in the field and talk accounting nerd speak. There is still much to do regarding tax season but it was good to get coordinated and confirm that we are basically on the right track.

2/22/17 Thoughtful Daughter

Rebecca brought her mom this bouquet of flowers from the bush out front. She is a very kind and thoughtful girl. She is becoming a bigger helper all the time. When it comes to cooking or helping with Peter she is happy to learn new things and to pitch in when needed.
Today Rebecca and Sarah had their piano lessons. They are both moving past the easier songs and into some more fun and challenging ones. Rebecca expressed some discouragement about how tough some of the new songs are. I told her how proud I am of her. She is far better than I was at her age. I shared with her that I didn't take any lessons until I was 18. At Sister Gardner's house I would wait for my turn while a six year old girl finished Her's. It was tough because the little girl was better than me. Rebecca seemed encouraged. I also told her that I have noticed that she and Sarah are close to passing me in their skills and abilities. I am proud of them for their hard work and for sticking with hard things.

2/21/17 Back to the Temple

This morning it was my turn to drive the carpool to Heritage. Then I got to go to the Temple. Heidi went last Tuesday. It was tough getting to the temple during the 6 weeks the Mesa Temple was closed. It felt good to get back to our regular schedule.

As I was leaving some workers were busy putting the stage together for the Easter Pagent.
This evening Elder Riddle and Elder Olkjer came over for dinner. After we ate they shared a message about how the Savior is our perfect example.

2/20/17 President's Day

Today Sharon invited us to bring the kids to come and play at the Taylor's house. Here is a shot of TJ chasing Lucy driving the big wheel trike. The kids had a blast. Heidi and I had fun visiting with the grown ups including several of the grown Taylor children.

For FHE Heidi used some favors that she brought home from the wedding for an object lessons. We talked about not hiding our light under a bushel. The kids helped write down ways that we can be examples at home, school and other places. It was fun to see the kids use their imaginations.

2/19/17 Rub a Dub Dub

Today was one of my biggest challenges, while Heidi is gone, prep the kids for church. Lucky for me Peter, Joseph and TJ love bath time.
David and I had a rough patch. He made one of his sisters cry and I yelled at him. It pretty near derailed the whole day. Two blessings here, Heidi called about this time to check in and Rebecca stepped up to help. I ended up taking four kids to church and coming back later for David and Rebecca. She helped him find his "missing" clothes and calm down from being yelled at. I feel badly for loosing my cool. Later on David and I were able to hug and make up. Amazingly we all still made it to church on time.
The best part of the day was when we all went to the airport to pick up Heidi, Heather and Lauren and Matt and Lucy. With a 15 passenger van you can take 7 people to pick up 5 more and still have room for luggage. What a blessing is that van. The kids all chatted excitedly the whole way there and back. We have missed Heidi a ton and home feels complete again now that she is back.

2/18/17 Chili but no too Chilly

This morning at 3:30 am David arrived home. He was fine, thankfully. The camp out was called due to unusually rowdy neighbors. After about the 10th time being woken by partying and later fighting between other campers Brother Phelps and Brother Lee decided to call it. David slept through the whole thing.
The good part in all of this is that it allowed him to be home this morning while I was teaching knots. Anthony also came over to help. Rebecca was a huge help. She even changed Peter's poopy diaper.
As you can see the class was outside and it was a bit rainy. Still, the boys came ready to have some fun. Hopefully the boys learned some useful things about knots.

When I got home I found the kids in good spirits. They even let me take a nap. Peter and I have not slept our best without Heidi. Sarah went to a birthday party down the street. Her gift was three free snow cones from her snow cone stand.

This evening Doug invited the kids over to their house. This allowed Doug and I to attend the ward Chili cook off. Doug is the defending champ from last year. This year we combined with the Crosspoint ward so there was even more competition. When they announced the winners Doug emerged victorious once again. We are proud of our now two time champ. He's worried that next year it'll be the "Chili cook off for everyone but Doug".

Also repeating this year was a performance by the "Red Mountain Riders". They did country songs and cowboy poetry. It was a good show.
We ended the day with a video chat with Heidi. We've managed to keep living essentials going but she is sorely missed. We look forward to seeing her again tomorrow night.

2/17/17 On a Golden Springtime

This morning we managed to get Rebecca, Sarah and TJ ready for school on time. There was a bit of a panicky moment when, at 5 minutes to go time, we realized that no one had taken Mom's usual sandwich making assignment.
The days are getting longer and it's no longer dark when the kids bike to school. Is it called "golden hour" when it's in the morning? The soft golden light on the trees this morning was very pretty.
After the kids got off to school I tried to take my AZ ethics class. They had some sort of technical problem and had to reschedule the class.
A little after this time Papa texted to see if we were coming over. David, Joseph, Peter and I got ready and headed over. David kept Gram company reviewing a show she recorded about a flying house like the movie Up in real life. Papa and Becca B joined the rest of us in a trip to the motor home. Happily it started right up despite not having been started for a few weeks. We also put on the new registration stickers that had come in the mail. On the way back Papa treated us to lunch at McDonald's. Gram reported that she and David had a good visit.
Next up we picked up some bananas for David's camp out. Around 5 o'clock I dropped David at Brother Justin Lee's house. After dropping off David I picked up some ropes and poles for day camp. I also set up a projector screen and mic for Brother Roger's family reunion. Thankfully Rebecca was comfortable watching the other kids for an hour while I was out. The kids have really been stepping it up to help while Heidi is out of town.

2/16/17 Making Lemonade

This morning Peter and Joseph and I dropped Heidi off at Heather's. Doug was playing "catch the light" with Valentine. Sharon thought it was hilarious. Heather, Lauren, Matt, Lucy and Heidi all carpooled, with Doug as the driver, to the airport.
I took the little boys to the stake center to open the library for Humanitarian and to make copies for 11 year old day camp.

On the way home we stopped at the park. Joseph climbed through these tall rings.

Peter thought this spinning this was awesome. When we did get home Peter said "No, Heather's house". He wanted to go back to visit the cousins. It's good to know he loves his cousins so much.

This evening I suggested that thre kids had watched enough TV for one day. Instead they decided to play TJ's board game.
At bedtime we video chatted with Heidi from Oregon. We all miss her a ton. Only one child cried during the call though so I suppose that's good. Trying hard not to count the minutes until she gets back.

2/15/17 Prep for Travel

Today Heidi finished packing for her trip to attend her oldest niece Jessica Mangum's wedding. The forecast in Oregon calls for rain so she tried to be prepared. She also tried to make sure that we had enough clothes and food here to last until she gets back. She does a lot for us and we're a little nervous but we're being brave.
In the afternoon I went over to the office to meet with a client about some commission questions. Pretty routine stuff.

2/14/17 Happy Valentine's Cat

Sarah Mei has inherited some of her mother's love of creating things. When her teacher assigned her to create a Valentine's box she knew just what she wanted. She painted and cut cardboard tubes for feet. Heidi helped find the black fabric for the "fur". Sarah decided that the cat looks like the one from Cinderella so she named it Lucifer after it. With Rebecca's help Lucifer made it to and from school without incident.
Heidi helped the kids print Studio C themed Valentine's cards. The kids are told to bring one for all the kids in their class.
I enjoyed getting to spend the day with my special Valentine, Heidi. I Love you Heidi.
I forgot to mention that the Mesa Temple opened back up today and Heidi got to go. What a blessing it is to have a temple so close.

2/13/17 Do I get to keep my five?

This morning Joseph was the first person to come down to breakfast with me. He reminded me that it was his birthday then he asked me a question "do I get to keep my 5?" I interpreted his question to mean "will I stay 5 or will I go back to being 4 again?" He was pleased when I assured him that he would get to keep his 5. He immediately went and told TJ "I am going to be 6". TJ (whose math was already awake early) replied "yes in one year from today".

In my groggy morning brain I had forgotten that we always do cereal for birthdays and holidays. I had already been cooking the "Monday muffins". We saved the muffins for Tuesday and celebrated with cereal.

In the first picture up above Joseph is holding his card from Grammie and Grandpa Mangum. He already received a Batman LEGO toy and trip to the movies from my parents. Today Heidi gave him our gift. She made him a cape to go with the Batman hoodie he already has.

Here he is from the front.

Like the "real" Batman Joseph is a man of action. He does not stand still long for photographs.

Here Rebecca and TJ are giving Joseph a birthday hug. Heather later stopped by and gave Joseph a Superman toy.

In the ongoing saga of trying to find a house we took Gram and Papa Connelly to see two houses today. One seemed to be a nonstarter but the other was promising enough that we are praying about making an offer. More on that tomorrow.

In this busy day we got a surprise visit from the four Sagnimeni kids. They are about the sweetest kids in the neighborhood. They even help with chores and homework without being asked. They seem to think cleaning is fun. Their parents were meeting with the builder for their new home and it took longer than expected. They are welcome any time.

2/12/17 Cultivating Optimism

Today the Priesthood/Relief Society lesson was from the President Hinkley manual. It was entitled "Cultivating an Attitude of Happiness and a Spirit of Optimism". During the lesson I realized that I am very optimistic about certain things, like media events, but not as much so about other things. I wonder if that's because I have so much experience with media. Things almost always go wrong at media events but that is why we have back up gear in place. It is a rare event indeed where the main equipment and the backup both fail.
I wonder if there isn't a lesson for me somewhere in this. Perhaps if I planned some redundancy into other parts of my life I would start feeling more optimistic there too. That's an interesting notion to me that an optimist can expect setbacks but also ultimately to be successful.

2/11/17 Rolling with the Punches

Today we had a couple of unexpected set backs but we pressed forward and things worked out. The first thing I did today went just fine. I helped Ryan Cash install some pvc pipes for holding flags along the routes for the flag fundraiser. We also repainted some of the scout symbols that help the boys find the holes when they deliver the flags. Those can really help when you're trying to find a one inch hole in the pitch dark.
While I was changing into my church clothes Heidi went to Goodwill. She noticed that our oil pressure was low. We didn't have oil at home so I biked over to the Roche's to try to borrow their car. The key wasn't on the hook where we expected to find it so I continued, by bike, to the stake center. Part way there Roger called to inform me that the stake owned computer we set up somehow did not have PowerPoint installed on it. Happily I was able to quickly swap it out for the Mac we usually use. The reason we decided not to use the Mac is that our Mac HDMI adapter has been acting flakey. Heidi was able to arrange a ride and brought me our good adapter from home. In the end the tech all went smoothly but for a minor hiccup when the presenter hit a wrong button. My heart started beating again when he pushed the button again and things went back to normal.
After the brunch event Heidi got a ride to the store and added oil to the van while I put things away. We now have a good reminder of why we need to check our oil regularly.

The next exciting hiccup in our day happened at the theater. Gram, Papa and Becca B were holding our spot in line so we could all sit together. This is a story about blessings that come from doing the right thing. I realized that we'd made a mistake of buying Anthony a child ticket when he really was too old (15 when the cutoff was 13). The difference was $1.50. I'll admit I was tempted to not worry about the small amount but felt that would not be honest. I took Anthony with me and had them exchange the ticket and paid the buck fifty. Honesty is honesty even if it is small. Weirdly the new ticket had a different theater number from the rest of our tickets (13 instead of 21). This time I really was tired of trying to sort things out. I figured that we paid the right amount and that it would not hurt anything to keep him with us. Anthony was sure that I was wrong and that we all needed to go to 13. I figured, wrongly it turns out, that there must simply be two theaters starting at 2:20. I thought maybe they gave Anthony a 3D ticket by mistake. As it turns out the theater had swapped times around between yesterday and today. The theater we waited outside of was to be the 3 pm show. By the time we figured it out the other theater had no room for us to be together. This was frustrating considering we'd been there an hour plus early for that very reason. If it hadn't been for Anthony's ticket it would've taken much longer to realize that something wasn't right. In the end the manager was simpathetic and gave Papa passes so we can come free another day. We all got good seats for the 3 pm show. The kids all did surprisingly well with the long wait. The $1.50 invested in honesty had a impressively good return.

Part of the reason we wanted to see the movie is to celebrate Joseph's birthday on Monday. He loves Batman and Legos. What a serindipitous treat to have both in one movie. Gram and Papa got Joseph a LEGO Batman set for his birthday. He is LOVING it.
At the end of our day Heather returned from her trip. Lauren, Anthony and Bradley returned home. They've been good and it's nice to have things back to normal as well.

2/10/17 A Visit and a Date

This morning Heidi and I went to visit Gram, Papa and Becca B. David stayed home with Joseph and Peter. Heidi was concerned that Peter might have a low fever and didn't want to share what he might have. (Peter appears to be just fine now). With Gram and Papa we went over plans and talked about house options. Heidi helped Gram think about where her missing book had gotten to, and Gram found it. Then we went and bought tickets to the LEGO Batman movie. We were planning on taking Anthony, Lauren and Bradley in addition to the usual crew so we wanted to be sure we could all get in to the same show.
At Costco we continued a nice visit with the Auswanderers over lunch. Heidi had convinced me to allow her to multitask so while the rest of us were buying tickets she was buying groceries.
This evening Heidi and I went on a "date" to set up for the Relief Society Brunch tomorrow. Roger Hallsted was a big help. We ended up needing a converter box that was taken to another building. He had to look in Des Moines before we remembered that it was at Val Vista. In the end we got everything in place. It was good to have three people working on it because it was fairly involved.

2/9/17 A Little Service

This morning Heidi went to Humanitarian. I worked on my tech diagram for Stake Conference set up. Afterwards Heidi suggested that we fix Heather's shower. The little piece that you pull up to switch from tub to shower wasn't working properly. All the water went down regardless of what you did. Heidi did some research online and found that to fix this you need to replace the spout. First Heidi removed the old one. Then we went to the hardware store and found the right replacement part. I asked her to let me help so she taught me how to use the teflon tape to prevent leakage. She then let me screw on the new spout. It wasn't perfect but now when you pull up on that little piece most of the water comes out of the shower head.
I've read that loving relationships, service and learning new skills are three things that make us happy. It is a happy day when I get to do all three at once. I got to spend time with Heidi, serve Heather and learn a new plumbing skill.

2/8/16 Exploring Options

Today Heidi and I went with Diane to check out two ends of the spectrum of possible houses. The first is priced lower than what we've looked at before. It has five bedrooms and 2 baths and roughly the square feet of our two current places combined. It also needs a lot of work. The carpet needs to be redone, drawers in the kitchen don't close right and some of the wood on the eaves has clear water damage. The ad suggests that the current owner acknowledges the issues and has lowered the price accordingly. On paper this could work but it also needs a lot of work.
The other house we saw is at the nose bleed top of our affordability spectrum. In contrast to the first house everything looks recently fixed up and painted. This house has plenty of square feet. It has many of the things on our list. At this price point it kind of needs to because buying it wouldn't leave much left for upgrades.
The cool part about these two houses is that they are both in our stake. The first is even in our ward. Both houses are clear maybe's. We'll keep them on our radar. New houses keep coming online.
Aside from the hunt life goes on. Joseph restarted preschool with Sister Lowis. We are glad to have her back in school. Joseph has learned a lot from his time with her. Rebecca and Sarah had Activity Days, Bradley had Cub Scouts and Lauren, Anthony and David had Mutual. We are very blessed.

2/7/17 To Raise a Smart Child

This morning Peter was watching videos on the computer. We've gotten into the habit of disconnecting the keyboard so that he doesn't delete things or turn up the volume too loud etc. today before my eyes I watched Peter grab the loose cable and reconnect it in the correct place. He is picking up on these things quickly.
Tonight Heidi and I went over to our friends house and helped them set up their new TV. They have a daughter at home who is around Heidi's age. Thankfully she was there and knew her technology. She knew the passwords to the wifi network and the online video service. I can tell her folks will count on her to help them learn the ins and out of the fancy set.
Starting tonight Anthony, Lauren and Bradley are staying with us while Heather travels for work. After scripture reading I got to help Anthony with his Spanish and Math home work. It was fun to be able to review both topics.

2/6/17 And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

Today Sarah and Rebecca asked if they could lead Family Home Evening. The topic was Joseph Smith and the first vision. They had songs picked out, we read scriptures, they had colors pictures to show. We even did a stick pull for our activity. It was well thought out and lead to a fun, and educational, time for all.

2/5/17 Living in the Future

Today Heidi and I were both asked to help teachers play videos as part of their class. Heidi was asked to help in Relief Society and I helped in High Priest Group meeting. Our library has three TVs and all got used today. The Elders even wanted to use the same TV that the High Priests had been using for their lesson once we were done. Frankly I'm glad to see the tech being used. It was a lot of trouble and expense getting these tools in place. I hope that they can be used to help people feel the Spirit and know the truthfulness of the Gospel.
Another high tech item today was video chatting with the Mangum grandparents out on their mission. It is amazing to be able to see and converse realtime with someone over a thousand miles away.

2/4/17 Back in the Saddle Again

This morning we decided to all team up and help David with "Scouting for Food". Rebecca is still in the back where we had gathered the food people left out along our route.

After we got back we had a family planning session. Our boys love to be with their Mom.

Rebecca and Sarah agreed to be our scribes as we discussed ways to improve our use of time.

This afternoon we traveled with Gram, Papa and Becca B in our van to check out a house together.

Gram and Papa evaluated a potential living space for them.

David and Rebecca helped measure the bathtub.

The kids checked the pool temperature, still cold. Happily no one fell in.
Sadly this house did not make it to the next round. We hope that by not rushing we'll find a place that is a solid fit. This is an important decision with long lasting consequences so we want to make it a good one.

This evening Heidi gave Sarah a haircut. Sarah has been wanting a more manageable hairdo. I think she looks beautiful.