3/26/17 Ringers

This morning a musical family of traveling singers arrived at our house. We played some songs together on the ukulele.

Here is Aaron grabbing a bite to eat.

Those who wanted to sing with the choir went to church early to make it to choir practice. Here is Jon greeting Gram Connelly. When we went in to choir Papa announced that we were the ringers from out of town. The choir sounded beautiful. It is such a great feeling to be part of creating such a special sound.
After church we all headed back to our house for dinner. Gram and Papa stayed and visited a while. Jon and Cathy and family stayed later. We learned our lesson and read scriptures early. That allowed us to send kids to bed when it got late and still be able to visit. It still feels like there is a lot to catch up on.

3/25/17 Test and Travelers

This morning at 7:30 I headed over to the Stake Center for another test of the broadcast equipment. It went smoothly and we worked out a few of the bugs from the last test.
While I did that Heidi helped with Stake Baptisms. We actually overlapped in a way. We used the meeting as an event to help us practice using the equipment.
During this time David was on the Herpetology field trip. When he got back we cleaned up to get ready for the Connelly cousins to arrive. We even had time to visit Goodwill for half price day. We let the kids use some savings to buy one small thing. We still need to work out the details of how to let the kids learn about money without letting them waste it.
This evening Heidi, Rebecca, Sarah and I went to the Women's session of General Conference. There were some great talks.
All during the day Jon, Cathy, Ben, Aaron and Nate were making the journey from Utah to Arizona. They dropped by a little before 9 pm. It was a fun visit even though it was a little late. They are all so easy to talk to. It was just like old times. I look forward to seeing them again tomorrow.

3/24/17 Like Hot Cakes

This morning Heidi, David, Joseph and Peter and I headed over to Gram and Papa Connelly's house. We worked on Becca B's bike seat and a few other things on the list. We felt like we made a dent in the list. There is always much to do.
This afternoon, after much asking, Sarah prevailed on us to have the lemonade stand again. All the kids except Peter helped out, either holding signs or making snow cones etc. in the end the kids brought in close to $40 in two hours. That has to be close to a record good day for us. We've had days where the kids brought in $2 and got pretty discouraged. Instead today they all got money in their savings for buying things that they choose.
A special treat happened this evening. Ryan and Carole Andelt went through the temple and received their endowments. Heidi helped by hemming Ryan's pants and making a packet bag for Carole's temple things. There had to be close to 90 members of our ward present. The Spirit was strong and everyone felt how special it was to be there at this time.

3/23/17 Doing Our Callings

This morning Heidi served at Humanitarian. While she designed baby blankets that will be donated to hospitals I worked on the microphone system. We have a particular wireless clip on mic that always gives us fits. It's either too loud or too soft. In the past when trying to fix the problem the things we've tried have either added noise to the sound or simply not fixed it. Today I happened to notice the mic has a 1/4" jack in addition to the xlr jack. I used that output and connected it to the crab box (converter box we usually use) and the sound came out great. There was no hum or feedback and it was loud enough. I have been trying to fix that bug for two years and nothing has worked until now. I am so grateful for the little inspiration to try again and to try something so simple.
This evening Heidi did a training for Scouting leaders at the Adobe building. Instead of hanging out at home we all came along and played in the nursery. We used the time to create animations using the LEGO Movie app. We animated dolls re-enacting the "I'm Crowded, Roll Over" song. We also did super powers with guest star Lauren as the super villain and David as the hero. Rebecca played the damsel in distress. We even animated cleaning up afterwards. The kids and I had a blast and we made some fun movies.

3/22/17 Conducting Ourselves Well

Today we had a couple of accomplishments. First Sarah finished practicing all the skills in the 4th Grade Math Mission. She is 96% of the way done.

Rebecca finished her last 1% of the 6th grade Mission. According to Khan Academy she is also 75% done with the Pre-Algebra Mission. Apparently there is some serious overlap in the two missions. She is well on her way in her prep for advanced math next school year.

This evening David conducted his first public meeting. He did a great job leading the court of honor. He reports feeling nervous but it didn't show. He was awarded the Cooking and Communications Merit Badges.
We are proud of all three for their hard work and accomplishments.

3/21/17 Many Blessings

This morning Heidi went to the Temple. I was blessed to be able to stay home and spend time with Peter and Joseph.

The boys had a blast playing with the large number puzzle pieces. It was great watching them count to ten. Joseph even showed that he knew that 1-0-0 makes 100.
In other math related news we got a letter in the mail today about Rebecca's MA10 score. She passed the test and has been recommended for 7th grade level math next year (instead of 6th which is the grade she will be in). She is very excited and we are very proud of her accomplishment.
Just as the sun was starting to go down we got a call from Papa Connelly about Becca B. She had ridden off on her bike and hadn't come back. They were worried and had begun asking for Security in the park and others to help find her. I left immediately to help. As I drove I prayed to know where to look. When I arrived at the park I felt that she would be at the flower garden and that I should go straight there. As I arrived at the flower garden I saw her talking to one of the searchers who was in a golf cart. He was trying to direct her back home. She purposefully went the wrong way twice on the way home but she got there. I think that she knew she had made a mistake and didn't want to face the music. I am so grateful that she was found so quickly.
This evening David went to a Communications Merit badge class. Heidi went as a loving support. To my surprise David came home with the badge completed. The counselor counted conducting his Sunday quorum meeting for the conduct a meeting requirement. When I got home David was worked into a knot that he still would have to conduct the Court of Honor tomorrow. I prayed to know what to say that might be comforting. Heidi and I assured him that even people like Bishop Christensen and his counselors get nervous and make mistakes while conducting. President Nielsen, our former Bishop and now Stake Presidency member, jokes that when you are on the stand an invisible laser scrambles your brain. This seemed to comfort him that even people he admired get nervous. I hope he knows that mistakes happen and won't be world ending. He seemed to relax and became ready for sleep.
I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who answers prayers. This day would not have gone as well without His help.

3/20/17 Programing Results

This evening Rebecca and Sarah were in charge of Family Home Evening. They had songs picked out, a lesson with supporting scriptures. They even had an activity/object lesson.

They took us to Mom and Dad's bathroom so that they could show us the contrast between darkerness and the light of the gospel.

In order to all fit some went in the closet. Here are David and Peter.

TJ made himself comfortable.

Joseph found a spot in the port-a-crib.

After FHE we went to the grocery store. The kids earned a treat from our programming game the other night. Each project ended up earning 5 votes. We decided to let each group pick a topping within a budget. That seemed to satisfy them well enough. I'm proud of them working hard and being creative.