Natalie's Book; Patience; Fine Dining; Putting on the Armor of God; Spencer's and Abe's Birthdays

Natalie wrote a book! What an accomplishment!! Jacob sent a video of her at the computer getting ready to click the "publish" button. 

It was cute seeing her excited smile and then the look of satisfaction when she sat back looking at the screen showing her published book--which is now available for purchase on Amazon.

It was fun to see the social media post announcing her published book. Way to go, Natalie!!

The Young Women in Natalie's ward were so nice to acknowledge her recent accomplishment.

I have now received my shipment of Natalie's book to share with others.

Natalie published her book just in time for spring break. She, Emma and Laurie spent a few days in Florida. How fun for them!!

Sweet photo of Natalie on the beach enjoying the sunset--one of the things she mentions in her book as something that makes her extremely happy. 

I had to laugh at the story Rebecca told when she shared this photo. Brooke's friends could not believe she had never eaten a macaroon, so they bought one so Brooke could try it out. 

Rebecca said she doesn't get the hype about macaroons. She can buy a whole pack of Oreos for the price of that one macaroon. She would prefer Oreos any day!

Sarah had her boys do the marshmallow test that Elder Uchtdorf shared in one of his talks. Sarah gave her boys two marshmallows and told them if they have patience and wait for 15 minutes to eat the marshmallows, they would get two more marshmallows.

The boys all got a book to read while they were waiting "patiently" until the time was up. They all earned their reward.

Eli was the most tempted to indulge in instant gratification, but held out so he could receive his reward for enduring patiently. Great object lesson!!

There is something about Kade's eyes that make me feel like I can never get enough of looking at his cute face.

Here's the happy Kade we know and love!!

It's been a while since we've seen the little boys in person and when Haley posted this photo of Levi, I told her he looks all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She confirmed he is much more alert and interactive now.

Former Elder Chris Nolasco was anxious to stop by and introduce his special girlfriend, Stephanie, to us. It is always fun and interesting to hear the love stories of our missionaries. Stephanie is a very sweet girl and it looks like they are a great match for each other.

Our ongoing Tuesday morning zoom class with Carol Pope hosting continues to be the midweek highlight for me. We usually have a dozen or so women on the call. I love them all and enjoy so much hearing their comments about what they have learned from the pre-assigned talks.

Glen had a little something different going on last week. It was his annual team meeting. In following along with the "Top Secret" "Secret Agent" theme going on, an evidence box was delivered to our home. 

The contents were used or consumed during their zoom meeting--which lasted one full day and half of the next day. Glen had a turn, along with one of his colleagues, to team teach during a segment of the second day's meeting.

I finally got around to making a baked beans recipe I had eaten a couple of times on the mission. Sister McClellan was always my hero whenever she would bring this bean dish to our Family Home Evening potluck dinner we hosted every six weeks for the senior missionaries. 

In my opinion, it could be a meal all on its own with the three different beans, bacon and hamburger that make up the yummy dish. 

There were quite a few women who joined in on the special zoom meeting sponsored by the Relief Society. They had arranged for Jan's son, Will Evans (who lives in Jan and Bill's basement), to cook something for us. 

He chose to cook tomato soup (not Campbell's--not from a can!). He used died tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, seasonings and lots of butter and cream.

He also showed us how to make a Parisian-inspired grilled sandwich. It has ham and a fancy cheese sauce with a fried egg on top. It is called croque monsieur without the egg and with the egg it is called croque madame. 

Here's a good way to remember which is which. From the internet I learned, "the delicious egg on the croque madam symbolizes a woman's hat." 

The evening class was fun, Will was delightful, and it gave me something to do while Glen was having a very long work zoom meeting.

We awoke one morning to a very cold main floor. This is the second time the basement unit has stopped working. Thankfully, we had warm air on the upper floor of the house. 

The furnace guy came and discovered it was a problem with a nasty, gunky filter in the humidifier, which caused the filter to leak and it ruined a valve going into the furnace. 

As a reminder, the humidifier in the upstairs unit was what was giving us fits not too long ago causing a water problem on all three levels of the house. 

After two trips over here to try and figure out that problem, it was determined the humidifier was not level, causing the leaking water. We haven't had any water issues since they leveled it.

Now here are are having problems with the basement furnace humidifier. We learned we need to change the filter more often and we are wondering if the humidifiers are even worth it with all the trouble we have been having with them. 

By that afternoon, the furnace was warming the main floor, and that made us happy to feel warm air blowing once again.

Glen needed to make a trip to Provo and invited me to go along with him. After running his errand, we went to one of our favorite restaurants--La Jolla Groves. 

It feels like a fancy, elegant restaurant and always makes for a lovely dining experience. We practically had the whole place to ourselves. There was a group of people at one corner table, and then when we were almost finished eating, another couple had entered the restaurant. 

With the fancy food, it reminded me of being on a cruise. I suggested we pretend we were on an Alaskan cruise as we were sitting there eating an elegant meal and looking out the window at the majestic mountains. 

Glen even started rocking back and forth to simulate the motion of the ocean. It was "almost" like being there.

I was so happy to hear Sarah's family got to go on a fun outdoorsy adventure to Valley of Fire. I know she loves to get the boys out in nature and have a break from being homebound.

The time change every six months is enough to drive us all crazy!!! 

There was one time when we were living in Georgia when Glen was out of town and I got the children all dressed in their Sunday clothes and headed off to church and we were actually on time!! 

Until...I noticed there were not any cars in the church parking lot. WEIRD!! And then it dawned on me that I hadn't switched the clocks. UGH!!! 

Glen had a meeting on Sunday and wasn't able to go to church with me, but never fear!! Our smart phones and smart bedside radios change the time by themselves. I will never show up to church an hour early or an hour late again!!

In the Excell household, it was Eli's turn to give the lesson. I love when the children share their Come Follow Me successes. This week's lesson was about putting on the whole armor of God to be able to withstand the evil day.

The Goldens were putting on their aluminum foil armor to make their point.

I'm sure the dragon head was another great armor idea.

Spencer had a birthday! He is now 10 years old! We stopped by their home just as the children were getting home from school so we could wish him a happy birthday.

We watched him open his presents. There were rollerblades in the big box. That means he can now join the ranks of his rollerblading cousins--Newland and Carson.

Spencer also got a new bike. It was a great birthday for him!

The next day was Abe's birthday. Klarissa put up the following sweet post the night before his birthday.

Happy birthday to Abe!! We learned he went to the beach with the family. How nice for him to be able to spend his birthday with the five people who are most special to him.