What's Glen Been Up To Lately?

When Ben wrote that his release date from his mission might very well be the end of July (and that's not even set in stone yet--and it's also a full 8+ months in the future), Glen got busy right away making a countdown chain to the big event. 

He so proudly draped the massively long chain all up and down and over and around the bookshelves and fireplace in the family room.

Each night he becomes giddy with glee when he anxiously skips (okay, maybe he just walks) over to the end of the chain to rip off another link, marking one less day of separation from his son.

It should be noted here that he was equally as anxious looking forward to the return of our two other sons from their missions.

Something else Glen's been up to lately is he's finally followed through with his threat of actually having a professional work on fixing his disgustingly, deformed big toenails.

This will thrill his children to know that the Thomas talon is no longer in existence.

After 14 years (that's absolutely no exaggeration) of self-mutilation trying to fix his own troublesome toenails, he finally sought medical help.

I'm sure we can all exclaim with enthusiasm--IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!

Happy Birthday To Me...and Cheryl

Oh, yes, it's happened again. I've turned another year older.

The day started out terrific when I walked into the kitchen and saw this sign put up by my very own husband. Impressive! What a guy!

I'm not the only one in this household having a birthday this month. Cheryl's birthday is just three days after mine--today to be exact.

Happy Birthday, Cheryl!!!

Halloween In Omaha

Who knew getting to Omaha in the middle of excellent autumn weather would be so difficult?

It proved to be a bit challenging for us when our 14-hour drive turned into much longer than that because of the freeway being closed in Wyoming.  We usually worry about that in winter, not when the forecast calls for sunny and mild temperatures.

But, close it did and wait we did until the traffic jam got re-routed off onto a side road.  It was reported an animal truck had tipped over and was the cause of the 4-hour roadblock.  Good thing we didn't leave our house 3 hours earlier.  Our hour-long delay was plenty enough for us.

But the wait didn't deter us from our destination--trunk-or-treat with Jacob's family at their church.  We quickly found the Thomas family's blue van where Clifford, the Big Red Dog (a/k/a Jacob), was holding a cute green frog (Logan) and giving out Halloween candy.  The costumed children going from trunk to trunk earned candy from this trunk after they threw some beanbags into the mouth of the cardboard dog.

Soon we leprechauns were surrounded by other cute characters like a smaller Clifford (Luke) and his owner Emily Elizabeth (Laurie), the tooth fairy (Natalie) and Madeline (Emma).  Laurie had worked hard on getting some great costumes made for their family.

They weren't the only ones who were in the dress-up spirit of Halloween. Abe and Klarissa were almost identical to the Barbie and Ken in Toy Story 3.

And what made it even better was when Emma saw them and announced that she has Barbie dolls that look just like Abe and Klarissa. Good job on your great costumes as well, Abe and Klarissa!

The pumpkin patch turned out to be a big hit with not only the kids, but the adults as well. Lots of fun and clever things to do and see.

AMEN to this advice!!!

The pig races were exceptionally entertaining.

Everyone loved playing and getting buried in the corn kernels.

I loved getting a hug from Emma while holding Logan.

Jacob was off duty for Sunday cooking because Abe and Klarissa were busy grilling up some steak and veggies.

Great idea, Abe, to spend Halloween in Omaha. Thanks to Jacob, Laurie and the kids for hosting the event.

It was super fun and we were glad we went.

A Quote From Elder Benjamin Thomas

Friday night was Richard's baptism. It went really well. The assistants came to it. His brother, Anthony, baptized him. Richard is the one on the right in the picture. He was really excited for his baptism. It was awesome.

He gave his testimony after he was baptized and it was really good. It was probably the best testimony that I have heard from one of the people that I baptized. In the middle of it, he was having a hard time talking and he kept touching his chest. I remember in the MTC, someone gave a talk and he said that we would feel joy when we felt the Spirit, but even greater joy when we saw our investigators feel it.

I kind of always wondered how I could tell when they were feeling the Spirit because I feel like I have a hard enough time recognizing it when I feel it, but I definitely knew then that he was feeling the Spirit and it really changed him. And it was true, I definitely felt really happy seeing him like that. I feel like he is one of my best converts because it seems like he has so much potential.

Elder Gordhamer told him that when he was 19 he could become a missionary like us and he actually seemed pretty excited that he could do what we do. We met him a few times after that and he brought it up and said that one day he will be like us. It was pretty awesome.