6/4/17 A Little Togetherness

This morning we attended church as a family. This time David was with us (not off at the Randolph House). I snapped the shot of Rebecca and Heidi just outside the building. Mom had stopped to help Rebecca with something. I got to give the closing prayer in Sacrament.

After church David fulfilled his responsibility as a Deacon to collect Fast Offerings. These donations benefit the hungry people in our area.

After church I noticed Sarah and Rebecca sharing a book. They found a way to read at their own pace and not have to take turns. This made me smile.

6/3/17 Keepin' Busy on a Saturday

This morning I managed to be up before the Arizona heat kicked in. We had a line of grass growing in our mostly dirt yard. I took a page out of my Argentina playbook and took it out with our shovel.
After our pancake breakfast Heidi and Rebecca Noelani went to help paint Uncle Matt's condo.

I felt pretty lonely without Heidi. David helped me out though. We worked on his Khan Academy for a while. Then he helped me and Papa put his new TV stand together. The thing was symmetrical so it was perfect having two people to add bolts while Papa read.

Here are Papa and Becca B enjoying the fruits of our labor.
On the ground in that shot you see Heidi's feet. She came home from painting with a re-injured back. She needed help to get from sitting to standing. This evening Papa and I gave her a Priesthood blessing. I have faith that Heavenly Father will help her get better.
In the afternoon I figured out how to get picture and sound from our older devices downstairs. It required much reading of the instructions. Sarah and I also adjusted the projector angle. Sarah helped by holding the flashlight while I turned the Allen wrench.
Rebecca and Sarah were both huge helpers making dinner tonight. We made Spam, rice and eggs for all 11 of us. Heidi made the wise suggestion that we use both griddles. It made, what would have been a heavy task, fun. Rebecca was also a huge helper rinsing all the dishes and putting them in the drying rack. The other kids helped in little ways too but Rebecca and Sarah were champs.
David's big task of the day was to finish packing for camp. After dinner he and I picked up Doug from the airport and then dropped off David's camp stuff at the Phelp's house. All in all not a bad day's work for a Saturday.
At the airport I unintentionally tried an idea from David Pogue, an online tech author. He suggests picking up people at the airport who have only a carry-on at the departure side rather than the arrival side. At Phoenix Terminal 4 it can be tough to cross 2 lanes and get to the Arrival lane in time. We missed it and ended up at the departure side. Doug called me on the phone and I suggested that he come up and meet us one floor up. He did and we ended up dodging a huge traffic snarl at the arrival gate. This is one piece of advice that's worth trying again.

6/2/17 Gram and Papa Tasks

Today our priority was to get some things done at the top of Gram and Papa's list. I began by putting WD-40 on the bathroom vent fans. We hoped that would be enough to bring the noise down and it was. Some may need to be replaced eventually but they are useable now.
Next, while Heidi and Rebecca attended a class on solar oven cooking I worked on a solution to keep Papa's office from solar cooking.

What's hard to see in this photo is Papa's window. I've already covered the top right one with cardboard. This shows how much sun has been coming in and heating things up.

I measured and cut pieces to fit from our large collection of moving boxes.

Rebecca and Heidi tag teamed to create cloth covers so that they'd match the color in the room.

Next we went on a field trip to a furniture place Papa found online. It was all the way in Phoenix but it was worth the trip. We found 5 chairs that meet our needs. Most importantly we found two matching chairs that Gram can get into and out of easily and move around in. We've been looking hard and, until today haven't found them. In the picture above you see Heidi testing how well an office chair spins. We are very thorough you see at Valiant Furnishings ;). Another blessing is that all 5 chairs fit easily into our big van.

Next came an important job. What you see on the left side of the picture above is a pipe that is full of roots. This is the reason our sump pump has not been working.

Our new hero Matt from Schroeder Plumbing came and saved the day. We are also blessed that Heidi is friends with one of the owners Kelly Schroeder.

He dug out a several pounds of what appear to be Oleander roots. The previous owners had Oleander taken out of the yard so hopefully this won't be a recurring problem. Matt encouraged us to use root killer just to be safe which we did this evening. It is so great to have the downstairs bathroom functioning again.

While Matt the plumber worked Heidi couldn't rest knowing Gram still needed her bathroom painted.

She is a happy painter. Gram, Rebecca and Sarah and even I helped paint.

Here is a shot of the two walls we did. We left the other two walls the light brown that matches their bedroom walls. Heidi tells me that "accent walls" are a thing. We think it turned out alright.
Papa rewarded all the effort today by treating us to Costco pizza. As long as we were there Heidi and I picked up the TV stand Papa has been wanting for him.
We topped it all off by taking the kids for a swim. I even got to get in. The kids immediately played "Minnows grab Papa shark" and hugged me at the same time. I felt very loved.

6/1/17 Getting Things Done

This morning Joseph finished the Kindergarten math mission. His older siblings have been helping him get ready to start school in the fall. He was pretty pleased with his success.
After Four For Fun Heidi, Rebecca, Sarah, TJ, Joseph and Peter went to Humanitarian. David and I stayed home to prepare for the plumber. Sarah got to be in charge of the nursery. It was mostly just our kids plus Alex and one other boy. She did great. Rebecca got to sew baby blankets. She even brought some material home to work on her own sewing machine here.
David and I moved boxes out of the path and tried to reinforce a couple of inexpensive wardrobes that got damaged in the move. The plumber from the home warranty place came and gave us a quote to fix the sump pump. Heidi and I decided to go with our friends, the Schroeder's, plumbing company. The home warranty should pay out the same as though we used their company. Hopefully tomorrow we get our bathroom back.
This afternoon the kids and Heidi went swimming. David's friend Josh Rogers came over to play.

While they swam I went grocery shopping by myself. During the move we used up a lot of our food so it was time to restock. I wish I had a picture of the surprised look I got from the lady in front of me in the checkout line. Next time I'll take a helper to push the other cart.

This evening Heidi decided it was time to plant our orange tree. I guess you could say it is a gift from Heidi's parents. They planted it in Heather's yard in San Tan but the HOA only allows non citrus in the front yard. When we helped Heather replace the tree with palm trees we were given the orange tree. They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is now. I'm glad that in a few years we'll have oranges in our very own yard.

5/31/17 Lessons Learned

This morning Rebecca finished the Prealgebra mission in Khan Academy. This is material similar to what David was taught in the 7th grade. He finished the mission last summer but Khan added more to it later on. David is working on re-finishing so he can move on to the Algebra mission.

The little boys keep finding new places to hide in the house. Here is Joseph in the cupboard.

The kids have been excited to show me the park near our house. They feel it has elements of many of their favorite parks.

At the park their is a cement incline. We've seen kids biking on it so we decided to try it. Unfortunately before we had all even gotten over to it Rebecca had gotten going too fast and crashed. It didn't help that she was carrying some things in her hands. She got several cuts scrapes and bruises. The good news is that she didn't break any bones. This was a very painful lesson to learn.

5/30/17 Goodbye Nassau

This morning I awoke to an unusual sight. All 8 of us apparently fell asleep after scripture reading and spent the night in the living room. It's good to know that our family loves spending time together so much. It's also good to know that we can all fit if we need to.

Papa and I went to the Temple this morning. We did the endowments for Patrick Bowen and his son John William Bowen. It is special to be able to do temple work for my own family.

While Papa and I did temple work Heidi did cleaning at the Nassau house. She was able to show her results to the owners who proclaimed the house "immaculate". They said they'd never seen a tenant leave a house so clean. Heidi was pleased that her hard work was appreciated. Importantly they said they would give our deposit back.

This evening we tried out our pool light. The water was a little cool for my liking but if you kept moving it felt pretty good.

5/29/17 Memorial Day

This morning, at 6 am, David and Rebecca and I met up with the other boys to put up flags for Memorial Day. The donations from participants help to pay for scout camp for the boys.

Here is a copy of our map. We delivered flags to about 16 homes along Gable.

When we got home we could see that Heidi had put up Great Grandpa Connelly's flag.

Next up Heidi dropped me at the Stake Center to do another microwave transmission test. This time we got a solid signal between the Stake Center and Adobe quite quickly. It doesn't quite answer why we had so much trouble last time. Still, it gives us enough confidence that we can move forward.
While I did that Heidi continued the deep clean of the old house. Joseph found a creative use for and old pair of gloves.

This afternoon we were invited to a get together at the Taylors. The kids loved the water slide. I even went down it once or twice.

Son-in-law Corey Willis made snow cones for the kids.

Alex, Joseph and Peter are like the three amigos whenever our families get together.
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David thoughtfully brought a snow cone for me as well.

David and Lincoln had fun playing scrabble together.
In the evening we gathered the flags we had put out.
When we got home we had FHE with Gram, Papa and Becca B. We sang songs from my childhood accompanied by the ukulele. Papa provided a lesson about Great Grandpa Connelly and being grateful to those who fight to protect our country.