11/16/17 Rebecca's Band Concert

Tonight was Rebecca's first band concert at Mesa Academy.

She was one of two members of the percussion section.

I was impressed at how polished the band sounded considering that most of the students hadn't played their instrument before a few months ago. Rebecca did well on the xylophone and bells. 

Joseph and Sarah came along to cheer Rebecca on. Sadly David and Peter were still sick so Heidi stayed home with the rest of the kids. I am grateful that those of us who went were able to be there. It was a solid concert all around.

11/15/17 Riparian Preserve

Joseph had an assignment to disguise this turkey to help it stay safe this Thanksgiving. Can you guess what he is dressed up as? (Heidi helped)

This afternoon we took the Cub Scouts on a hike to a place called the Riparian Preserve. Riparian has to do with things situated on the banks of a river. First off Jonas was awarded his Wolf rank. For some reason, it was decided that he should have to "wolf up" some whip cream and find his badge at the bottom. He was up to the challenge. He seemed to think that it was great.

We had the right number of boys at both the beginning and the end of the hike. They were actually pretty well behaved during the hike as well. These boys really love being active. We should probably do these types of thing more often.

A bummer thing that happened today is that David came down with a fever. So did Becca B. So much for hoping that all our laundry washing and keeping sick kids downstairs would prevent illness from spreading. Hopefully, David and Becca B get well soon.

11/14/17 Blessings from a Cracked Screen

This morning Heidi and I helped out Gram and Papa. TJ was well enough to get to go to school but Rebecca and Sarah still had fevers. They seem to be doing better this evening. Hopefully, they can head back tomorrow.

This afternoon Heidi did some research to help me find a place to repair my phone. The second place we called is the one we went to. The price was better than I expected. The other bonus was that when he tested it, he noticed that the earpiece speaker was soft. It has been a problem since I bought the phone. For a few dollars, he replaced the speaker and now it works great. He also managed to fix the thumbprint reader and threw in a screen protector for no extra charge. I was so pleased I recommended him to some of my friends. One of them may use him right away.

This afternoon Gram came over to where I was playing the piano. It's nice to feel like someone appreciates me playing. Papa said that he enjoyed it as well.

This evening Heidi, Gram and Becca B went to Relief Society. I went to my Entrepreneurship class. Next week will be my last class. I have a presentation to prepare for the last class. Overall it has been a great experience.

11/13/17 Meetings, CPE and FHE

     Today went by pretty fast. No photos because my phone screen is still cracked. This morning I went over to one of my clients and talked about ways to spend less money. It was not the most fun but needed to be done.
     This afternoon I had a CPE class on macros in excel. It was interesting. I'm not sure how exactly I can apply what I learned but I did learn some new things.
     In the evening we had Family Home Evening. Since we had Veteran's Day over the weekend Heidi suggested that we show a clip of Red Skelton talking about the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance. It gave us a good jumping off point to talk about how people serve our country. For fun we also watched the Abbott and Costello skit about "Who's on first?" the kids had never seen it and thought it was pretty funny.

11/12/17 The Well People Go To Church

     This morning we still had several people under the weather. We decided that Rebecca could handle being in charge while Heidi was at Sacrament meeting. Then she went back home. Gram, Papa, Becca B and Sarah and I stayed and went to the other meetings.
     Today was the first time that Papa and I got to home teach the Ruddell family. They lived for 30 years in Alaska. During most of that time he worked as game warden. He talked about his time as the bear specialist helping to relocate "trouble bears". We'll have to ask him to tell us about some of his close encounters.
     Then we needed to hustle home to visit with our home teachers. Brother Postert and Brother Lewis both missed the social and asked Heidi and I to play our ukuleles for them. It was fun to have a special request.

11/11/17 Flags, Pool Repair and Thor Ragnorok

This morning started early with David putting up flags with the scouts.

Heidi got to work taking apart the pool pump and replacing some worn out gaskets.

Heidi and I took a break to watch the latest Thor movie. We skipped the last one because it looked too dark. This one did not have that problem. It bordered on silly a few times. It was nice to be able to laugh and enjoy the ride with the characters.

When we got back Heidi and Rebecca took turns hosing out the pool filters. Once everything was back together the leak appears to be all fixed.

This evening we have several kids with illness symptoms. Rebecca has a fever and multiple kids have stomach complaints. Only Sarah and Heidi and I feel fully well. Gram, Papa and Becca B seem to be fine as well.

11/10/17 Temple and the Park

This morning Gram, Papa, Heidi and I went to the Temple to do initiatory work for the folks we did the baptisms for last week.

After we got back we took the kids to the park.

Sarah helped to steady Rebecca on her skates.

Talking about the route the kids were reminded of the kid's show Dora the Explorer. She would say "Park, pond, basketball court". Here is the playground.

Pond. Peter is scooting along.

Basketball Court. David loves this jumbo trike.

This evening Heidi and I went to pick up some gear for the High Priest's Social tonight. Joseph offered to come and help. He is a big helper. Here he is carrying several cables that we will be using.

The High Priest's Social was fun. We got to visit with several of the folks in the quorum. Heidi and I even got to play a couple of songs on the ukulele. They had Hawaiian haystacks which someone described as authentic Utah Hawaiian. It made us laugh. They did taste good.