4/21/17 Paperwork and Missionaries

This morning my dad asked me to stop by the Distribution Center to pick up a pocket sized New Testament for our cousin Benny. He has some health challenges and we've been asked to pray for him. While I was there I spotted a pocket Book of Mormon and felt like I should pick up one of those as well. Papa added both into a care package. I hope that Benny is able to receive strength from these wonderful books.
Heidi still wasn't quite 100% so she had to miss out on this morning's visit with Gram and Papa. We missed her steadying influence and her organization skills. We efforted gathering the required paperwork for the loan team. It was a little bit of a hassle but things are going well. We can't wait to hear about the appraisal.
This evening we were joined by Elder Parsons and Elder Maughan for dinner. We had spam rice and eggs. It was Elder Maughan's first time having spam. Elder Parsons had it when he was a student at BYU Hawaii. After dinner they shared a message about Easter and the Atonement of Christ. What an amazing blessing that we can repent and be an eternal family.
This evening the kids reminded us of our plan to play a board game. We actually played multiple games. Rebecca and some of the kids played Monopoly. Mom and David played checkers. Then he and I played chess. While I did that Mom joined Rebecca in the Monopoly game. We went to bed with a good feeling in the house. It feels like it comes from everyone loving each other and showing each other kindness. It was a good day.

4/20/17 Doing Our Best While Mom Rests

Last night Heidi appears to have come down with the stomache bug that Rebecca and Peter have had. She couldn't move without feeling extreme nausea. That meant it was up to the kids and I to get everyone dressed, breakfasted and lunches packed. Heidi usually makes most of the lunches. We were understandably slower this morning but somehow we still managed to get kids to school (barely) on time.
Next up I took Joseph, Peter and cousin Alex to the nursery at Humanitarian. I got the TV out of the library for them and helped out a little in there. I also signed up for a service called TAKL. It's supposed to connect providers with people who need things including Excel training and help setting up printers. It could be a source of a few additional dollars. Right now our basic needs are being met but it'd be nice to have a budget for a few extracurricular things.
After driving car pool for the second time today Peter woke from his nap needing some TLC. Being in the swing helped cheer him up.
This evening I met with some smart guys in our Stake and a neighboring stake about our possible microwave project. It looks like some good progress is being made. Hyrum Smith, I didn't catch what stake he's in, has a couple of microwave radios we can use to confirm that this will, or won't, work. That and I've been asked to price out he equipment needed to wire the buildings so that HD can be piped to the overflow rooms. Busy times but satisfying progress.

4/19/17 Active Day

Today we got a small peek of what our schedule could be like once we have multiple kids in the youth programs. This morning was fairly quiet. I did a live online CPE class about scripting in Excel. In the afternoon Rebecca and Sarah had activity days. Heidi also gave Alison Hallsted a ride. Before that Heidi and I went over to the Stake and Ward buildings and picked up a projector and speakers for the Senior night activity at the Rock's house. David's quorum had an assignment to pick up chairs at the Easter Pageant at 5:30. The girls got home just in time so they could watch the little boys while Heidi and I set up the projector. It ended up being needed for Heidi to come along because at first the DVD with the Senior slide show wouldn't play. I went to the Monteireth house to see if I could get a file version while Heidi started setting up. In the end the DVD played fine on the Rock's Sony Blueray player and the day was saved.
We are grateful that Heavenly Father helped us work out schedules so we could be where we needed to be. Before David turns 18 we'll have 5 of the 6 all in Young Men, Young Women and Cub Scouts at the same time. I guess this was good practice.

4/18/17 Temple and Service

This morning it was my turn to go to the temple. I did an endowment session. It struck me again that Heavenly Father has a pattern. He gives instruction about what to do, there is a return and report moment, He gives praise or correction as needed and then then gives another instruction. It was very interesting.
This evening Heidi took David to a merit badge clinic where he finished off his personal management merit badge. That's a hard one. We're proud of the effort he has put in. Writing is especially tough for him and this one had a lot.
While they were doing that the other kids and I picked up leaves in the yard. We also did service picking weeds over by the mailbox. We wanted to secretly help our neighbor but he was out washing his car so happily Sarah remembered Mom's other idea. It's amazing how much more fun it is to pick a neighbor's weeds than your own. Everyone down to Peter and Joseph helped. Rebecca got out her little reading light to help spot weeds when it started getting dark. It was a blessing to be able to serve.

4/17/17 Dirt Dessert

For Sarah's birthday Gram Connelly bought Sarah ingredients to make multiple recipes from Sarah's kid cookbook. The one Sarah was most excited about is call "dirt". It involves smashed up mint Oreos, chocolate ice cream and gummy worms. It was delicious and she had fun making it for our FHE dessert.

Here is a more close up picture.

For FHE the kids wrote letters or drew pictures for Grammie and Grandpa Mangum on their mission.

4/16/17 Easter Dinner

Today was a lovely Easter Sunday. We all went to church in the morning/ early afternoon.
In the evening we went over to Heather and Doug's house for dinner. As you may be able to see in the picture TJ and Joseph love to wrassle with their uncle Doug. Peter was a little worried the boys were being too rough on their uncle. I was nervous too but they were fine.
After dinner we watched the animated Trolls movie. It had a reasonably well done message that happiness comes from sharing our love with others.

4/15/17 A Move and an Easter Party

This morning Heidi and I helped Matt and Sharon load some of their belongings into a storage unit. They plan on temporarily moving in with her parents (the Taylors) while they sell their condo and shop for a new house. Happily they had a good amount of help from the ward and from family so the move went quickly.

This afternoon/evening the Taylors hosted an Easter egg hunt/barbecue. Above you can see David (in blue) running around with a bunch of Taylor grand kids.
A highlight of the event for me had to do with Peter. He was asleep when it was time to walk over so I waited to let him finish his nap. Often he wakes up cranky after naps so I was nervous about how he would do. When we arrived his cousin Alex spotted him right away. Alex came over and talked to Peter. He took Peter by the hand and they went off to play. Peter had a fun and happy time. I am so grateful that Alex counts Peter as a friend and that Peter likes Alex back.

Here is a picture of Alex and Peter playing together in a toy car.