5/5/17 Patrick Bowen

Today we had an extra special trip to the Temple. We took 18 family names that needed Baptisms and confirmation. David and Becca B were baptized for 9 people each. Becca B was a trooper. This was only her second time and she seemed to have trouble plugging her nose each time. Still, she made it through bravely.
Among the people we did work for today was Patrick Bowen. He is Papa's grandmother's father. That makes him my great great grandfather. I did the baptizing and Papa did the confirmations. Gram even got to take a turn being a proxy for some confirmations. When Papa got to Patrick Bowen to confirm him he paused. It felt like a very special moment.
I am so grateful that we got to be there for this special trip to the Temple. What a blessing it is to serve.

5/4/17 May the Fourth Be With You

Today was a pretty good day. In the morning we helped Gram and Papa finalize some ideas about items needed for the new house. One thing I didn't mention yesterday was taking an Excel CPE class. I learn some new tricks that I got to use today. I was able to turn in some important deliverables for two clients and I made good progress on a third.
In the afternoon David stayed at school to see he Heritage Talent Show. I went to pick him up and got some good work done while I waited for the show to wrap up.
This evening Heidi went to Roundtable. It'll likely be her last as a member of this stake, provided things continue working out with the house. I played Chinese Checkers with Rebecca, Sarah and TJ. David worked on homework and Joseph napped. It feels good to have a productive day.

5/3/17 A Big Bed

Today, in the middle of what felt like a fairly busy day, we got a message from Papa. "Are we interested in a King sized bed from Aunt Cathrine and Uncle Marvin". At first the notion of driving to Prescott on short notice for an 8 year old bed didn't make total sense. Then we found out that the truck would be bringing the bed back to Tempe, only 25 minutes away. This was enough to make the deal worthwhile to Heidi. I wasn't completely convinced but was willing to give it a shot.

Here's a shot of Randy's truck that transported the bed.

Randy, and I think his son, helped stuff the large mattress and box springs into our van. This is yet another time we are grateful to be blessed with such a large vehicle. Once we got it home it appears to be in pretty good shape. We are grateful to Aunt Catherine and Uncle Marvin for being willing to share their blessings with us.

5/2/17 Temple and a Band Concert

This morning I got a special treat. Dad joined me to do a session at the Mesa Temple. We did endowments for George and his son-in-law Jay. They are family members researched my my Mother. It does feel more special when you know something about the person you are serving. It was good to be in the Temple.

This evening David had a concert for band. Sarah and Joseph were ill so I stayed home with everyone else but Rebecca.

David does love to make us laugh. Heidi reports that the band sounded great.

5/1/17 Notice or Not

Today was the day we were told we'd likely hear back on the appraisal. It's one of the last big hurdles to clearing financing on the hopeful new house. It's also the deadline for giving notice to our landlord that we're moving out to avoid paying June rent. We had hoped to wait to give notice until we were sure the house passed appraisal. Dad texted in the morning "No one here is losing sleep over the appraisal 😔" so we suspected they were feeling the suspense as well. Around 4 pm we found out that there was a miscommunication about the appointment and the appraisal got rescheduled for Saturday instead of Friday. I still didn't feel comfortable cancelling our rental without having a firm place to move into. Heidi felt that I needed more faith. She did at least call and get permission to email the notice until 11:59 pm. Finally, just after 5pm the appraisal came it right at sale price. There are still things that could go wrong but Heidi and I are taking a leap of faith. We turned in our notice. If all goes well we'll be living in a new house by the end of the month.
Also today Heidi helped Lauren with her homework. We had FHE about prayer.

4/30/17 Fifth Sunday Fun

Last night Heidi was asked to substitute in Sarah's Primary class. I was asked to handle tech for the 5th Sunday lesson. Heidi's class was about Emma Smith being asked to create a hymn book and on the power that spiritual music can have in our lives.
I had a weird glitch where one video played the sound but no picture. It's humbling to try so hard and still have it not go smoothly. The lesson was about having more of Christ in our lives. He is our exemplar. With His help we can make it through life's tough challenges.
This evening we ended up catching up on some rest and watching two shows on BYUTV (Relative Race and Random Acts). The first is a reality show where people use paper maps and race to meet relatives they never knew before. The other is a hidden camera show where they do secret service. Both are fun concepts. Hopefully we can learn about our ancestors and do service as well.

4/29/17 Mexican Fan Palms

The primary order of today was to plant two Mexican plan trees in Heather's front yard. (Ok a little confusing here, Heather owns it Grammie and Grandpa's stuff is in it). It was an all hands on deck affair. In the picture above Heidi and Bradley are digging out the citrus tree that Heidi's dad planted. The HOA rules are very specific. Two "ten gallon" non-citrus trees are required in the front yard or fines get charged. The citrus tree may go to the Ififif house (see Papa's blog) if it lives.

Matt and Sharon came with their trailer to transport the trees. We nongardeners did not have a clear picture of how large a "ten gallon" tree was. It turns out these "15 gallon" Mexican palms could have fit in our van. Still, it was good to have Matt and Sharon's help.

Rebecca and Bradley were each a huge help with digging out old roots from the former dead trees and with moving soil. Each one commented on how surprisingly fun it was to work on this project.

David also helped by picking weeds. He even went to the park to pick weeds. For his next rank he needs "conservation" service hours.

Heather supervised the kids putting soil back in around one of the new trees.
In the end there was a great sense of accomplishment at having planted two good sized trees. Heidi was the hero of the event she got out early and had most of the digging done before I knew she'd finished breakfast. Her hard work and leadership made for a successful event.

This afternoon I took Sarah to a friend's birthday party. It was a little tricky finding it. Sarah practiced her phone skills getting more specific directions within the large apartment complex. While she was there I ran to he Stake. Center to test running HD signal through to two far flung overflows at once. The good news is that it worked. The bad news is that the RS room was too far, apparently, to run through the house lines. We'll have to run our own and possibly boost the signal along the way.