7/15/16 Rebecca Turns 10

     Today Rebecca is 10 years old. It's amazing to me how fast time has flown. It seems like only yesterday she was a little baby in our arms. She has grown to be a super helper, kind, funny and a voracious reader. She already finished two books that we brought home from just today. 

      Rebecca was excited to open a card from Gram and Papa Connelly. It was a fun light up and play music Dory card. Peter wanted her to play it over and over he was so entranced by it. Rebecca is very grateful for the thoughtful gift. The official party is tomorrow so she'll get her other gifts then. 

      Next up it was time to head to 430. The first thing we noticed was the all the palm trees got a haircut. 

     Sarah helped push away the fallen palm branches so we could water the tree. 

      While the water flowed we went to Lowes to price out a possible DIY project. One of the store employees pointed out this family of owls that lives in the plant and garden section. See if you can see one of the babies in the above shot. It is the size of one of those decoys used to scare off birds. It's a large bird at least a foot tall just sitting there trying to take a nap. It looked a little cross that we were making noise so we got along with our shopping. 

      After we turned off the water we headed over to Costco for a special birthday lunch. We even got some dessert. Not a common thing for us. 

     This evening we took Valentine on a walk to the park. The Hallsted kids joined is along with their Mom. She kindly shared some otter pops with us to celebrate the day. We're glad we get to have Rebecca in our family.

7/14/16 Service and a Swim

       This morning we headed over to Humanitarian. Heidi first stopped at Heather's. She fed and played with Valentine. She also payed the handyman who had come to fix some wiring. The outlet the freezer is on was going out without warning. This caused the contents of the freezer to thaw (and go bad). Things should be better now. 

      At Humanitarian Heidi, David and Rebecca helped make blankets. David was a big help to the sisters who were setting up. He loaded boxes of crafty supplies onto the dolly and hauled them to the various tables. It's a big operation, with around 30 people making things. That's not counting kids and grownups helping in the nursery. That probably shoots the total number of people north of 50. 

      At home the kids worked on math and reading. Rebecca is close to finishing her 5th Grade Mission on Khan academy. Sarah is not far behind. We call it "four for fun", the kids need to do four things before they can play. We have them do math, reading, music and a clean up type chore. We think naming it "four for fun" has made it easier for the kids to want to do it. Joseph (who has not been expected to do the four things) will come up to me and say "I want to do one for fun, I want to do Legos". I have found some counting games at his level. I enjoy spending some one on one time with him. He is working on learning to count to 10. We'd love him to get the basics down before he starts kindergarten next year. 

       This evening when we went to feed and water Valentine we also went for a swim. Some of the Hallsted family joined us. Peter's kicking is improving. He has also learned to jump in without help. This means he's super dangerous and needs to be closely watched. Happily the older kids are glad to be extra eyes for Mom and Dad to keep Peter safe. 

7/13/16 Last 11 Year Old Scout Meeting

     This morning it was my turn to do a session at the Mesa Temple. There were four patrons in the session. I felt blessed to be there. It felt clear that I was where the Lord wanted me to be. 

     David's been hitting the milestones pretty hard lately. Today was his last meeting with the eleven year old scouts. He'll be 12 before the next one. He actually had two milestones today since he was invited to mutual even though he hasn't had his birthday yet. It still amazes me that we are about to have a deacon in our midst. At a Eleven year old scouts they did lashing practice. You can see that the tripod they built holds three boys easily. At mutual they had a scripture read-a-thon/ activity night. Heidi reports that David had a blast. She was there for part two of sewing pajama pants for Girl's Camp. 

7/12/16 Sarah "The Gardener" Connelly

     Sarah got a letter today from her Gram and Papa Connelly. She was very excited about it. So much so that this is the second picture I took. She jumped for joy as I took the first one so it was blurry. This is before she even opened it. Gram and Papa sent her a card and thank you gift for her diligence in watering the tree and cactus at 430. She has been conscientious about the tree. She is a sensitive soul and wants to make sure that things are treated with loving care. She'll make a great mom someday. 

     Speaking of things that need loving care, today we started tending to Valentine the dog. She belongs to the Roche cousins. She is a sweet dog, if a bit too inclined to jump up and lick you in the face. The kids, mostly, love her. She has gotten better since they first got her. She didn't knock Peter over at all that I saw, today. Rebecca lead the charge in walking the dog. Sarah could have been first assistant. We walked to the park near the Roche home. It was warm but we drank lots of water. Thanks go to Heidi for planning ahead.

7/11/16 Shelf Reliance

     Today was 7/11 day so we dropped in and got some free Slurpees. The kids were very excited. I'm not sure how many years it's been since we went to a 7-11. Sarah didn't seem to know there was such a place. It was a fun treat. 

     On Saturday we picked up this great shelf at Goodwill half price day. They retail for over $400. This one was $5. It's the kind where you put in cans and they roll into place. The company that makes it is called Shelf Reliance. They specialize in food storage. 

     It looks like the previous owner spilled some soy sauce on it. Peter was all over the chance to help clean the plastic shelf pieces off. 

       We feel blessed to have found such a good deal. In reality we don't have room for it in the house we are renting. At least not to use it properly. Heidi and I have faith that things will work out and we'll be able to buy a house that we fit in better soon. This is a chance to stretch our faith a bit. To paraphrase Dory from Finding Nemo "just keep praying. . ."

7/10/16 First Class Scout

    David had a busy day today. In addition to going to church with us he also had a scouting board of review. He has now officially earned his 2nd and 1st Class ranks. He also finished up the last little bit of his Movie Making merit badge with me. Then this evening we had Lincoln Phelps and the Merit badge counselor, Brother Lambert over. Together they finished up the Citizenship in the Community merit badge. So two ranks and two merit badges in one day. Well done David. 

     Also today Heidi and I got to sub in TJ's primary class. They are an adorable bunch. The lesson was on saying thank you. We had the 5 and 6 year olds make thank you notes. Most of them made them for their parents. If I were writing a thank you note to my parents today I would thank them for supporting me in earning my Eagle. There were many meetings, classes and campouts they kindly took me to. Not to mention regular encouragement. Becoming an Eagle is hard. Thanks Mom and Dad. I wouldn't have made it without you. 

 

7/9/16 First Class Orienteering Course

      This morning as the sun was just peaking over the horizon David and I left to work on his last requirement for his Boy Scout 1st class rank. He needed to do an orienteering course that covered at least a mile and required measuring the height or width of objects. The Park of the Canals has an orienteering course built into it. The compass headings and feet between markers are recorded on a permanent sign. Little aluminum markers, about the size of a silver half dollar, let you know if you've found the correct spot. That is, once you've found one. 

       The sign with the instructions was easy to find. The first marker was not. After about 10 minutes of looking David was feeling pretty discouraged. I called Heidi to ask her to look online for ideas. We also prayed about it. A short time later a man walking his dog passed by. I asked him if he happened to know where the first marker was. Thankfully he did. The marks blend fairly well with the environment. The course itself is only about a 1/3 of a mile. Our plan was to do it forward, backwards and then forward again. As it turned out we nearly did the course 3 times the first time through. We kept having to backtrack and double check our heading and our distance. Naturally the shorter ones were easier to find but the long ones were difficult. In fact the online trail guide that Heidi found this course on labels the difficulty of this trail as "Easy and Difficult". With patience and a little ingenuity we found all the markers. We did the return circuit jogging since our time was running short. I was proud of David sticking to it even though it was hot and he was tired. David has a goal to earn his Eagle by Christmas 2017. He'll be 13 1/2 when he earns it if he makes his goal. I'm proud of his hard work and willingness to try hard things.