HAPPY SUNDAY TO  EVERYONE!

 

   It has been a busy week for us—doctor's appointments, haircuts, ministering (I still like to call it visiting teaching), school assignments, walking Sendai, missionaries' visit, and yesterday, the Temple.  I was really happy I didn't have to write a paper this week our calendar was so full.  I have learned so many interesting things in my class this term, and I love what I am learning, but yesterday the thought came to me that maybe I am "overthinking" some of the writing assignments, and making them more difficult than they need to be - and then I get stressed.  

 

Poor Dad!  He's been a real trooper and so helpful around the house.

 Thanks, Kevin!!!  

This has been a fun week to pour over some memories of days gone by -

I was talking with Angella earlier in the week and she mentioned that one day after school she "lost" Ben.  The person who was supposed to meet him at the bus stop was delayed, so Ben walked home with a friend. It's a scary thing for a Mom to think she has lost her child.

 This reminded me of the time when Kim was in Kindergarten, we lived off-base in Okinawa, we didn't have a phone, and cell phones weren't invented then (sorry, Kim that is dating us both 😀), and she didn't get off of the school bus. I remembered there was a ward member who lived a couple of blocks away who had a telephone so I had Adam in a stroller and Josh running behind, and we hurried over to see if we could make a phone call.  By the time we got back to our house, a different bus had pulled up our street and delivered Kim to our doorstep.  Kim reminded me tonight that she also got lost once in 4th grade (she walked home from school because she couldn't find her class), and once in 7th grade - we had just moved into our off-base apartment in Tokyo and she wasn't sure how to get home.  I think I found her at a nearby story!  

  This morning I was reading some old, old, letters that I had written to my Mom and Dad when we were in Okinawa.  I have decided that letters really are treasures that are lost on generations today because no one writes letters anymore - 

Anyway, this was a fun memory -

 "The kids are keeping me busy.  Joshua got to bring a hamster home from school for the weekend. I think it is yuccky!!!  But the kids love it - especially Adam.  

My neighbor just told me yesterday that her little girl has chicken pox, so I'll be really surprised if Adam and Joshua don't come down with it next week.  

Adam is talking more and more - though a lot of it only I can understand.  He's quite a smarty - Whenever he gets into trouble he always pipes up with "Jawa (Joshua) did it." 

What fun days those were 💖

I also came across this photo earlier in the week!  I do have the most beautiful grandchildren ever! (just missing Jake, Sayre, and Ben). 

Wouldn't it be great if we could ALL be together, even for just one day, for some hugs and a family photo???????     That's my dream ~

 Kate is amazing!  She has been teaching Sayre how to embroider and he made this Christmas tree.

She also designed this sweatshirt for Jonathan.

Kate and Jonathan also celebrated their 20th anniversary with dinner out Saturday night.

   

  

Got to see cute Lily this week.  We love it when the kids (or their parents come by) Lily is a year-round soccer player currently playing indoor soccer until February or March.

She sent me some photos of their "animal farm".  This is Lucy and Milo (no mice this week 😁)

Speaking of animals - 

 

This is Sendai telling Kevin she is tired of waiting for dinner, and this afternoon she is giving me "the look" of neglect - in other words, she wants a walk. 

Videos that made me smile this week -

Sayre learning how to make scrambled eggs 

And Paul with his cousin Grant - oops eating a very, very hot pepper, thinking it was no big deal 

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE SUNDAY SELFIES!

 

Max had dinner with Zach and family tonight 💗

Yesterday, as we were driving to the Temple we listened to the Follow Him podcast and they were discussing the faith of the Brother of Jared.  The discussion lead to some thought about how harshly we judge ourselves - that we are not perfect, but the Lord compensates for our weaknesses.

This is just a partial quote that I loved -

"Think about it, it must have been a really hard journey. It was about a year that they were in the water, and for a year you're in this giant barge that's your bedroom, your kitchen, your bathroom. You're in there with all your siblings and they're poking you and pulling your hair. You have no idea where you are, you have no control, you have no sail, you have no motor. I have a large family, we travel to the coast of California to go to the beach, it's about 12 hours, and by the time we're there, everyone's about to kill each other. And we got air conditioning and we get to stop at Wendy's when we're hungry.

The people asked the Lord, to take care of them, and then they get terrible winds, they're buried, and there's eight different boats. They don't even know where each other are, they don't know if they're safe, if they're okay, but when we read Moroni later, he talks about it in positive terms and actually says that the people did praise the Lord. 

The reason they were grateful, at least in hindsight, was because they learned that those tumultuous experiences they had were actually what took them to the promised land. Maybe that's how they felt at first, maybe that's only how they felt in hindsight. Christ blessed them, he compensated the difficult things in their life to make them great. I can't help but think of Lehi's teachings in second Nephi that he will consecrate our afflictions for our gain, is they were blessed through the difficult experience and it was actually those very things that helped them accomplish their goal of taking them to the promised land.  

We all have times when life can get really hard.  But if we hang in there, and face the challenges with faith, it is amazing to me the growth that takes place and how the Lord makes us better for what we have been through.   HE LOVES US!

AND I LOVE YOU 💖  Have a wonderful week!

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY to JiChan!  I am so grateful for his service in the Air Force and that we had the experience of being a military family.  Even though moving every 3 - 4 years, and weeks of TDY's and deployments were hard, I learned to be more independent and resourceful than I ever would have if we had stayed in our little house in Logan.  I think all of us learned how to reach out to others, to make friends, and to serve.  

 

 WOW!  Did Colorado ever get its fair share of winter weather this past week!  It   started snowing Tuesday evening and stopped Saturday morning.  We have such great neighbors - they had our sidewalks shoveled Wednesday morning, and then Dad returned the favor and took the snowblower up and down the sidewalks on Thursday.  Saturday morning before we could get out, our other neighbor had our sidewalks and driveway snow-free.  The news reported that Colorado Springs had 20.3 inches of snow - 3 snow days (no school) - and very little sun, which is so unusual for this time of year.  Today we had lots of sun and 57° - great for walking Sendai.

Paul came over yesterday afternoon and said he and Jake were on the news - so here is a clip of them at Toboggan Hill.  You have to wade through a commercial and a little bit of news about the weather (Jake has the blue and orange hat on at the very beginning, and Paul is the one rolling down the hill on his snowboard.  - in his defense, he said it was an old snowboard and was way too short for him. 

Paul and Jake

Eilis stopped by on her way to work Thursday so we told her if it was still snowing when they were ready to close just to come back to our house and spend the night so she wouldn't have to drive home - and then the snow just kept on falling so she spent Friday night with us also.  We love having these kids around!

EILIS is 18 years-old as of last Saturday - I just don't know how that could happen!  We did have a fun little birthday party for her on Sunday.  She brought her boyfriend, Jacob, and he was very nice (she said she told him if things got awkward with JiChan to just ask him about guns 😂) 

 REMEMBER I asked last week if our family was turning into a CAT family?  

Well, apparently we are - Ben got a kitten named Sox so now the cats outnumber the dogs.

MAX and Friends ~

  Max got to spend part of his weekend with good friends from his mission.  Another great blessing from being a missionary is the friends you make - your companions and other missionaries in your group become life-long friends! 

  LOOK who cooked a turkey this week!  Hollie is already practicing and it looks like she did a great job.  In my opinion, it takes a brave person to tackle a turkey.  Way to go Hollie!

 AND WHILE WE WERE ALL IN SNOW, Kate was in the Bahamas ~ She went on the Hallmark Christmas cruise with Jonathan's older sisters, Donetta and Melinda.  I have never really been too interested in a cruise, but this sounded like fun and I may be converted 😀  

AND Yay for Jonathan for holding down the fort while she was gone! 

ABSOLUTELY THE BEST NEWS OF THE WEEK!

The Church announced on Monday the location of the Colorado Springs Temple.  It will be built on several acres of land the Church owns in Flying Horse along with a meetinghouse which I am guessing will be a stake center.  This area is surrounded by lovely homes and will be an easy and short drive to get there.  No timeline yet, but at least we know where it will be located.  Dad and I had dental appointments nearby this week, so we decided to drive by the location on our way home.  It will be so nice to have it so close!

TEMPLE PHOTOS FROM CALIFORNIA - Mike just sent me photos that he took at the Feather River Temple when we were there a couple of weeks ago.

 We love the old olive trees planted in front of and behind the temple.   They come from an area not too far from Yuba City but are so reminiscent of the Old World in Bible times. 

 

We went out to lunch for Francie's birthday and Mike showed us this photo he had taken earlier in the week.  He was working at the Family History Center one morning and he noticed an Indian (Sikh)couple walking around the Temple grounds just across the parking lot so he went over to check on them to see if they needed anything.  They told Mike that they had just been married that morning in their Sikh Temple just down the street but they loved what they felt when walking around the Feather River Temple grounds.

There really is no better place to find peace and escape the burdens of everyday busy life than in the Temple!

LOVE YOU💖LOVE YOU💖LOVE YOU💖

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EILIS!

 How could the last 18 years have gone by so fast ?????

 One thing is for certain Eilis has grown into a beautiful young woman.  She is thoughtful, kind, a wonderful daughter, sister, and friend.  She is a great student, and hard-worker. 

AND, she is an amazing granddaughter who often stops by either before or after work to see us.  
Hope you have a happy day, Eilis ~  It will be birthday cake and ice cream tomorrow

             🍨🎂🎈🎉🎵     HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 Has our family become a CAT family?

 It would seem so . . .

What is 

happening

here ???

The Hopkins Zoo 😂 (this is what Adam called it)

Adam said that this week while the missionaries were over visiting with them, Stevie brought a dead mouse into the house and was batting it around under the table, while Adam and the kids were trying to retrieve the dead mouse, the missionaries were holding back Milo - 

I WAS SAD TO SEE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS GO 😕 Am I the only one????

I wish we could just stay on Daylight Savings time year-round - but guess I'm not in charge -

Sendai doesn't like it either.  She was ready for her dinner at 4:00 tonight and had a hard time being patient until 5:00

FROM SUNNY CALIFORNIA TO COLORADO SNOW ⛄

We landed in Colorado Springs Wednesday evening to a snowstorm.  However it is always good to get home after being away for a week, so we really didn't mind.  We tried hard to get in the spirit of Halloween but it didn't seem as much fun without having Jake to go Trick-or-Treating with.  We missed him, but that's what happens when adorable 5-year-olds grow up to be adorable 8-year-olds.  Watch out Angella and Kate!

Kate did send me some great photos of Sayre though -

Sayre was Sasquatch and Kate was the park ranger.

(And Jonathan was a tired Trombone instructor)

I think Kate should go into the costume-making business.  She is amazing!

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR   

 Adam and Chris spent a couple of days in the mountains hunting.  Adam came home empty-handed, but I'm sure he will try again next year.  I do appreciate that he doesn't just go for the sport, but he is great to freeze and use the meat throughout the year.  

THANK YOU FOR THE SUNDAY SELFIES!

Kate is going on a Hallmark cruise this week

Kim and Chris in London

Today after Church, our good friends Steve and Terri Jenkins came over for lunch.  We were stationed with them in both Tokyo and in Okinawa.  They are currently senior missionaries assigned to the Air Force Academy working with the cadets and the young adult wards.  They have so much energy and are perfect for this calling - they will be an amazing blessing to the Singles Wards.  

FINAL THOUGHTS

 This week in my Family and Child Advocacy class our reading and assignments were focused on technology.  I love that we always study from the secular perspective and in this case, there were so many evidence-based research articles that cited the effect of the over-use of cell phones and devices.  We also did some reading about AI companions (something I had never heard of before) and how all of these things are not only affecting young people but adults as well.

So, I thought it was interesting in the devotional for youth tonight from Elder Bednar, that he focused a lot on the blessings of technology but also the dangers.  He asked 2 questions which I think we should all consider - 

1. Does the use of various technologies and media invite or impede the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in your life?

2. Does the time you spend using various technologies and media enlarge or restrict your capacity to live, to love, and to serve in meaningful ways?

Good questions to think about!

Have a wonderful week and do good things.  Be kind to others and to yourself.  Have some ice cream.  Love you!