9/18/18 Sidewalk Chalk Drawings

Peter asked Heidi to draw him an ice cream cone. I don't have a picture of the second one. He asked Heidi to draw a girl ice cream cone with a skirt. She drew them holding hands. Peter was not happy about that. He drew a line separating the two to make it clear that they were NOT holding hands. The boy has his own ideas.

9/17/18 FHE Day

     OK, I didn't take any pictures today and there isn't much on the calendar. The days rush by so quickly. Kids to school, work, helping kids with homework, dinner, clean up from dinner. We would have done something for FHE maybe we did some service. I should do better at keeping up on these.

9/16/18 Stake Leadership Training and Lost Sheep (laptops)

Last night I learned a lesson on how to make being at the Stake Center at 6 am for a meeting sound better. Richard Hale, the Stake Clerk, and my stake tech boss let me know that tech help was needed for the Stake Leadership Training today. "The meeting starts at 7 but we should be there at 5:30 am to set up." Later he came by and said "I think 6 am should be early enough to give us time to be ready". 6 sounded so much better than 5:30 that I went away relieved rather than annoyed at the last minute notice.

In the picture above in Andrew. He is the newest tech assist in the Stake. He knows what he is doing and has a good attitude. He made set up this morning so much easier and more fun.

The lesson of the meeting was on ministering. The takeaway that I got was to think about whether I was doing my visits because it makes me feel good or because I truly love my family. I'll admit that, in the past, there have been times that I went simply out of a sense of duty. The ideal, of course, is to build a relationship with the family so that you'd be there for them with or without a formal assignment.

Today at church I started getting text messages about this tub of laptops. Good thing my phone was on silent. They were used at the Patriotic Celebration to let people take a "Which Founding Father are you most like?" quiz. It turns out that only one made it back to the tech room last night. That one had been reappropriated to another display. I sent a text to the lady who ran the quiz booth. She told me that she was told to leave them in the kitchen because that room would be locked. The funny story that came in a text with the above picture was from Darren Eyring who is over the ISC building. He reported that he "left the one and went out into the dark world to find the 8. I'm all caught up on good Sunday deeds." That was relief enough to warrant a chuckle. I do get to work with a good bunch of guys on the tech crew.

9/15/18 Stake Patriotic Celebration

Today was the big Patriotic Celebration. Many people put in a combined hundreds perhaps thousands of hours preparing for this event. Above is my Grandfather Connelly's flag on display in the Veteran's area.

A wall was dedicated to pictures of people who served in our nation's military.

We had three ancestor's photos on the wall. In the center is John James Connelly. His flag is the one on the wall up above.

Here are L-R Dean Roger VanKirk and Donald David Shultz. My mom's brother Donald Dean VanKirk was named after these two men who served our country.

The event was well attended.

Even Gram, Papa, and Becca B were able to come. They stayed for the evening program as well. We had a couple of minor, though heart-stopping, technical glitches. By and large though, it went smoothly. I'll confess that I had a hard time maintaining a positive attitude throughout this event. It felt like a lot of work for an unclear gain. I'm glad it's over. Hopefully, I'll have a better attitude next year.

9/14/18 Custom Cupcakes and Patriotic Set up

Here is a picture of some of the designer cupcakes that Gram made to share with us. We also shared some with the Sheridon family that I am assigned to minister to. They report that they loved them.

Today it was time to set up for the Patriotic Celebration that the Stake is putting on tomorrow. Heidi borrowed this collection of historical US flags from her friend Paul.

Here is the finished Besty Ross backdrop with Rebecca standing in as the iconic flag maker.

9/13/18 Care Facility

Remember these switches?

They control this light and fan.

Before today those wires were just hanging out. Heidi turned off the power and rerouted the wires to the other side of the beam. Then she reconnected the wires to the light switches. It is all back working again.

Today Gram's family history computer arrived. David helped me help Gram get things set up. Gram was surprised to find that she could use the Family Search website on her new machine on day one. 

To celebrate Jon and Kelly's birthdays Gram made a most complicated assortment of cupcakes. Some were chocolate cake with peanut butter fudge frosting. Others were strawberry cake and white frosting. There were many other mix and match combinations. It's the kind of highly complicated project that Gram loves to make. She involved Joseph and TJ and they had fun working with her.

Tonight Grandpa Mangum moved to the care facility. We went to visit him. It is a worrying start that on day one we had to wait 45 minutes in the hall because no one was responding to his call light.

When we did finally get in it was a nice visit. He is being very brave in spite of the tough break. The kids all got to express their love and wish that he will mend quickly.

9/12/18 Bathroom Remodel Continues

Heidi made more progress on the bathroom remodel today. The goal today was to take out this beam without breaking the electrical wires.

Mission Accomplished.

This morning Heidi, Grammie and Peter and I checked out the Sante Care Facility. It's the only care facility in our area that doesn't have awful reviews. This place seems OK but we are saddened about the lack of real options.

Today I taught the boys at Cub Scouts how to play Dodge 10. We also had the boys practice potential skits and run-ons for the next pack meeting.

Sarah and Rebecca earned major points by filling the dishwasher on their own initiative. It was especially helpful since things have been so crazy lately.