5/28/17 Emerald Acres Ward

This morning, bright and early, we dropped off David to go with the Youth and Bishopric to the Randolph House. It is a home for people with special needs. Wards around the valley take turns leading Sacrament meeting for the residents. It takes an hour to get there from here and that allowed David time to meet and get to know some of the boys his age. He reported enjoying his time meeting the residents. One came in and immediately started singing "I am a child of God". David said that you couldn't understand any words but the melody was clear. He seemed to have a good experience.
While David made the trek to the Randolph House the rest of us attended the Emerald Acres Ward for the first time. Heidi and I came for Sacrament meeting once but couldn't stay for the other meetings. The High Priest group leader Brother Gailen conducted. He started with a warm "Aloha!" Papa reports that it felt like they had "come home". The ward members are very friendly. I spoke to a couple of brothers in Spanish. Denver Porter (Liz Porter, from our last ward's son) welcomed me into the ward. Abram Ellsworth, the Elder's Quorum President was also very welcoming.
In High Priest's meeting they asked for a volunteer to take the sacrament to a brother in the hospital. Dad and I both raised our hands. Brother Gaelen picked Brother Johnson and me. It was good that he picked a brother who knew him. I can only remember that the Brother's name started with a "D". He still holds the record for most points scored in a basketball season at ASU. He jokingly referred to it as "least assists in a season". He later went on to become a judge. I think he's retired now but I'm not completely sure. Hopefully he'll be well enough to attend meetings again in a week or two.

In the afternoon we held our first "extended family council". One thing on Papa's list was to hang Great Grandpa Connelly's flag for Memorial Day.

Heidi was instrumental in this process.

We tried a couple of different places to hang the flag that would be appropriate for its length.

After a while in the Arizona heat Papa and I were ready to try again for the next holiday.

We even folded up the flag.

Heidi was not so easily deterred. She found a tool and a chair and a place where the flag fit nicely. We hope Great Grandpa Connelly knows we are thinking of him.

5/27/17 A Trim and a Swim

This morning Heidi was helping with Stake Baptisms. Gratefully I had David and Rebecca to help mow Grammie and Grandpa Mangum's yard. Sarah also helped pick weeds for a little while.

Heidi asked me to also trim this bush back. It was tall enough that I needed a ladder to reach the top branches. Another blessing was we had access to Grandpa's electrical trimmer. It would have taken much longer without it.

This evening we had our first friend party. Here is Rebecca with her friends Krissy and Missy.

Sarah invited her friend Rayden.

David invited Silas and Lincoln. TJ was happy to hang out with the big boys.

Heidi and I got to have our friends Ryan and Carole Andelt. We had some fun chatting about being parents while trying to keep kids from landing on each other when they went down the slide. We definitely need some defined safety rules for the pool. Carole suggested having dedicated slide time and then closing the slide so people can swim the whole length of the pool without worrying about being landed on. Thankfully no one got hurt.

Ryan and Carole brought their kids Anthony, Donovan and Macy (I didn't catch a shot with her in it). We hoped Joseph and TJ would play with these two.

As is happened Joseph was being shy. Peter had fun pouring a watering can into the pool over and over again. Anthony and Donovan and several other kids kept helping him refill it.
The other big story of the day was buying a receiver. We found a guy on Craig's List selling just the right thing. I felt impressed not to negotiate price even though I thought he might be willing to come down. I didn't know why but decided to listen to the prompting. Larry is a friendly guy and gave me some very useful pointers on how to set the device up. As he did so I realized that the hand me down subwoofer we had would not work with this receiver. This didn't bother me too much since we were told when it was given to us that it didn't work. Still, it meant we wouldn't have sound for our friend party. I asked Larry if he happened to have a subwoofer for sale. He did and wanted $60 for it. Sadly I only had $38 left. I began to put away my money disappointedly when Larry said "Ya know since you didn't haggle with me on the receiver I'm gonna make your day and give you the subwoofer for $38". This is the blessing of following a promoting. Thanks to this blessing and a tech support phone call to my friend Jae we were able to let the kids watch part of a movie after they got out of the pool. The sound is booming. Papa says it "shakes the house". We'll have to work on adjusting settings and setting parameters to keep from disturbing our upstairs neighbors. They were good sports about it tonight. Well that seems like a thorough report for today.

5/26/17 Getting Settled In

Today was another one of those crazy busy days, the kind that had to have Divine help for everything to get done. To start Heidi and I moved the large shed in the yard to make room for my parent's RV "Bigfoot". With just a little crow baring we got the floor boards back in place and screwed in.

Next Heidi and I helped Papa back the motor home through the RV gate.

It was a close fit but it was incident free.

Heidi was a big help. Rebecca and David made sure the event was well documented.

Peter helped me assemble some shelves. While we worked on this project two Directtv techs set up the system for Gram, Papa and Becca B. During all this time Heidi was working with plumbers to solve a sewage back up in the downstairs shower. After many phone calls Heidi got two plumbers to come over. We have roots in the sump pump. The blessing is that it should be at least partially covered by our home warranty. During this time we called the internet folks and they walked me through setting up internet here. The huge blessing is that self installation helped us avoid a fee for transferring our account. I've seen the setup proceed be tough so I feel blessed that it was relatively easy.
After all this Heidi and I picked up a shower curtain rod for Gram and Papa's shower. Third time is the charm. Turns out they have a longer than usual shower.

At some point today a family contacted Heidi about buying our playset. We took all the kids and helped disassemble and load it for them.
We picked up pizza and drove to 430 to pick up Gram's desk. We set it up and installed the curtain rod.

Like I said it was super busy. This list doesn't even count the work I did over the phone. I picked up another small, paying job. It might lead to other, similar work. Heavenly Father clearly blessed us. We hope we can rest well and do some service again tomorrow. We are blessed to have a fun happy family.

5/25/17 Our First Day in the New House

Today was our kid's last day at Entz Elementary. I'll admit it was a little emotional as they biked away this morning.

Today was a day of hard work. Heidi and David and I loaded our mattresses and whatever else we could fit into the van and then took the first load of the day to the new house.
Next we dropped David off for the annual awards ceremony. David got an award for having a 4.0 GPA and another for perfect attendance. We are proud of all the hard work David has put in this year. Rebecca also got all 4s on her report card. We are proud of her hard work as well.
Heidi and Joseph and Peter then went with me to Gram and Papa's. We loaded the van and the motor home with belongings. Heidi made a good call and we disassembled Becca B's TV hutch. We might've hurt ourselves moving it otherwise.
After unloading at the Hall house it was time to reunite with the other kids. We loaded our van for the third time today and brought things on over.
At some point in the day Matt asked Heidi to help him clear his "popcorn" ceiling at their condo. Apparently those are out of style now. Heidi took Rebecca Noelani to a friend party and then helped her brother. The rest of us ate Ramen for dinner.
We wrapped up the evening with a family prayer with Gram, Papa and Becca B. Then we read scriptures on the projector. Peter fell asleep. Hopefully that bodes well for tonight.
Well that's about it for this busy day. We're excited for more adventures tomorrow.

5/24/17 38 Flights

This morning Heidi worked on cleaning the house while I loaded the van. I broke my old record of 28 flights of stairs by 10 today. I was feeling tired by mid afternoon. Rebecca, Sarah, TJ and Orson Phelps helped Heidi and I unload on the other side. Their are times it feels like we are unloading a clown car. No matter how much we move there always seems to be more.
This evening David went to seminary graduation for mutual. I was proud of him. He doesn't know any of the graduates and there was no promise of refreshments. He didn't really want to go but he went and did his best to have a good attitude. It was bedtime when he got home so I didn't get a full report. He seemed happy though. I have a testimony of the importance of being where you are supposed to be.
The reason for the picture of the swing set is that we posted it for sale today. Lots of interest but no sale just yet. The new house has one so ours needs a new home. We hope to find one with kids who will love it.

5/23/17 Joseph and Amy Pictures

This morning we took turns watching kids with Jessica Hallsted. She watched Joseph and Peter so that Heidi could still go to the temple while I went to a meeting. Then we watched Amy so Jessica could get some things done without a litttle helper in tow. Amy took the above shot of Joseph. That's one of the best smiles I've seen him give for a photograph.

This is the shot Joseph took of Amy. We'll have to work on framing. Still, not too bad for a five year old.
The theme of our lives right now is still moving moving moving. This evening Matt and Sharon came over for dinner. Matt brought his trailer. We took the washer and dryer and some of the yard stuff to the new house. We're blessed to have them living around the corner, at the Taylor's right now.
Another fun thing today was Heidi and I got to help Sister Riggs with her printer. They had spent hours trying to get it going. It turns out they were very close to having it all set up. I clicked a button or two and then did some testing. We spent more time catching up on old times than it took to set up the printer. She is a fun lady and we are glad we could help.

5/22/17 Rebecca's Band Concert

This morning I had some work meetings and Heidi started the deep clean of the house. Peter found a place to be that he seemed to think was comfy.

After school David had his first camp physical. He was grateful that he didn't have to do the hernia test. His vision in better than 20/20. Today in PE he ran the mile in 7 minutes 40 seconds. That's a huge improvement over last year when he did 14 minutes during the personal fitness merit badge. We are proud of the hard work and diligence that went into improving his time.

Tonight was Rebecca's band concert. She plays in the percussion section. Tonight I saw her playing the bells and the snare drum.

Here she is at the bells.

Bradley played a solo, the theme from Apollo 13. It sounded like a pretty challenging song.

Rebecca even had a speaking part. She introduced the last song for the 5th grade band. Her teacher, Mr. Trout told Heidi that he is going to miss having Rebecca in band next year. He said he hopes she tries out for Mesa Honor Band. He is a solid band teacher. The kids seem to learn a lot and have fun at the same time.

5/21/17 Three Little "Rocks"

Peter, Joseph and TJ have a game they like to play when they get out of the tub. They wrap in their towel and pretend to be rocks. Pretty adorable. I love it that they get along so well.
Today was our last time attending the Val Vista Ward before we move our records to Emerald Acres Ward. Heidi was fond of telling people that we will be sure to visit when Heidi's parents get back from their mission. It's good to focus on the positive. We've been blessed with many good friends that will be missed.
After church we swung by the new house. In our zeal for moving we took all of our bread to the Hall house. We need some of it back for school lunches.
When we got back to Nassau we had a fun visit from Matt and Sharon.

5/20/17 The Big Move

This morning I awoke ahead of my alarm. I was stressed, worried that we might not have enough people to help us move. Especially I worried about the extremely heavy piano we are blessed to own. In the end my worry was beyond unfounded. We hoped to have at least 8 instead we may have had 20. Let me see who I can remember:

Matt Mangum with his trailer
Sal Alcantar (with 3 littles in tow) pulling Dale Garner's nice trailer
Greg Turley with his truck
Michael Hallsted
Rich and Kelli Skousen with their truck
Jim Abney with his truck
Greg, Hyrum, Samuel, Orson and Lincoln Phelps
Doug, Anthony, Lauren and Bradley Roche
Steven Offen
Kent Stewart and his boy Hyrum
President Steven Glenn (of the Stake presidency) he helped put the girl's bunk bed together.
We had some neighbors stop by and help as well.
Abram Ellsworth and his daughter Maggie
Bishop Shnepf checked in. His wife took down the names and ages of our kids so she can get them assigned to Primary classes
Gene Freeman 2nd Counselor in the ward High Priest Group
David Pew offered to help as well

Last night we had help moving things downstairs.
Elders Maughn and Parsons (vital in getting our heavy treadmill downstairs)
Heidi's friend Nancy McGuire from Humanitarian and her son JT
Plus Doug, Lauren and Bradley

The moving was like a whirlwind. There was hardly time to tell people where to put things and it was done. Between 7 am and 9 it was done. Rebecca, Sarah and Lauren helped by passing out waters and donuts to refresh the volunteers. David was always actively moving and hustling. I was proud of his effort today. Our friends Ben and Elisa Taylor kindly watched TJ, Joseph and Peter so they wouldn't be under foot. By my count that puts us well past 20 helpers.
After the helpers had all gone and it was time to pick up the little boys we realized that the van battery was dead again (see yesterday's blog). Happily we were blessed that our neighbor Brent Thompson was home and willing to give us a jump. We got the boys and another small load and brought them back to the new house. Heidi and I got a new battery for the van while the kids ate lunch.
Incidentally we met our new neighbor across the street to the right. His name is Greg Beckett and he seems very nice.

We went for a swim to relax the sore muscles. Here is Rebecca and Peter in his dragon towel.

Rebecca went to her friend Ivy's birthday party where she gave her a custom made cello pillow. Rebecca reports that Ivy loved it. Above you see a treasure that Sarah found at Goodwill. $1.50 for a great big Nemo fish. She was smitten. TJ went halvsies with her. David bought a fancy two wheeled skate board.
I found a spool of Cat6 cable for a good price. It's the type the Stake will need for the upgrades we have planned. The only issue is that we'd have to add our own ends. I lack those tools and skills. After trying several people and not teaching anyone by phone was about to give up. I even put the cable back on the shelf. As we left we ran into a member of our Bishopric, Sam Ordonez. He is an electrician. He has the tools and the know how. He confirmed it was a good deal and offered to help cut the cable to our needed lengths and add the ends. We felt that clearly Heavenly Father sent him just in time to answer our question.
Next we visited Gram and gave her a blessing. We took a load of their stuff to the new house.

Finally we had a fun visit with Matt, Sharon, Lucy and Alex. Those who wanted to, swam. Then we ate some snacks and gave the tour. I think we'll sleep well tonight. Heavenly Father must have blessed us to be able to fit so much into one day. There is no way we could have done this on our own.

5/19/17 A Mother's/House Warming Gift

A couple of weeks ago Heidi spotted an unusual item online that looked like it was made just for Gram. We ordered it right then but it took until today for us to be able to give it to her. It is a special handle to help her get into and out of the car easier.

Here is Gram demonstrating where the part goes. I am wont to paraphrase Winnie the Pooh "she goes in and out like anything". She seemed to enjoy out little gift and we are very pleased to see her sweet smile.

This afternoon TJ, Sarah and Joseph had an ice cream thank you party with the Primary over at the church. Above is TJ with his ice cream.

Joseph appears lost in thought.

Sarah really enjoyed the chocolate toppings.

We had a bit of an added adventure when the van wouldn't start. Someone had turned the headlines from "auto" to "on". Happily Jessica Hallsted let me use her truck to jump the van. Brother Smith helped me connect the cables. I was a little stressed because I was worried Sarah would be late for piano lessons. Rebecca had also earned some ice cream but, very bravely and kindly, she agreed to stay home and do her lessons first. We had some ice cream for her and it was quickly melting in the van. Brother Smith commented that while we often wish we could avoid trials like this, without them the story of our lives would be pretty boring. So I am grateful for the little extra spice Heavenly Father put into our story today. I am also grateful for two kind souls who helped me through what would have otherwise been a real pickle.

5/18/17 School Programs

On Tuesday Entz hosted a "Muffins with Mrs." activity. Moms got to come to school with their kids and have a muffin. Simple and the kids seemed to really enjoy it.

Yesterday Sarah's class had their Rainforest program. They sang a bunch of songs. Sarah made a butterfly puppet (with help from her mom). Heidi got to attend this one.

In Rebecca's GTP class she made a fun computer game. You attempt to navigate a maze while avoiding obstacles. If you hit one you get sent back to the building. It's surprisingly fun.

TJ's 1st grade program.

They sang songs about taking care of the world. TJ helped with the ocean prop during a song which names all the oceans.

TJ colored his own tshirt as well.

Sarah's scale model of a Tanzanian devil zoo enclosure. Her GTP class did research on their animals to know about their needs. Then they learned about how to scale things so that the display objects are accurately sized relative to each other. Mrs Mcgee encouraged us parents to quiz the kids to see what they knew. I was impressed by how much thought went into this project.
This afternoon and evening we took two more van loads to the new house. There is still lots to do.

5/17/17 Packing Up

TJ and Joseph must've heard that we needed to everything packed up. This is how they interpreted it. Can you tell where Joseph is?

We got four packages in the mail. These are things for the new house. Mostly hardware for Gram and Papa's section of the house. One is a house warming/Mother's Day gift for Gram.

Can you tell what is missing from this picture? We disassembled two bunk beds and took most of the parts downstairs today. Sarah and Rebecca were both big helpers in this process. My phone now tracks how many flights of stairs I climb. My average is 8. Today was 25 just three shy of my record set last week. I have a feeling that record is going to break again.