Covid Vaccine #2; Espanol Zoom Conference; Spring Break Activities; Happy Easter!

Let's start out with a cute photo of Klarissa and Magnus. Looks like happiness on Hilton Head Island.

We have been getting daily updates on how Dallas and Rebecca's basement remodel job is coming along. It's slow and laborious and especially so since so many things had to be fixed that the previous owners had attempted.

As Abe and Klarissa are involved in a total house remodel, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this and thought of them.

I thought of Mom when I saw this little funny. 

It could be Mom sitting there with all of us children looking in awe at Sam's baby book. 

Because of that, I vowed I would be an avid baby book keeper for every single one of our children from oldest all the way down to youngest. 

I will have to cut Mom a little slack after trying to keep up with all five of our children's baby books. I did my best. I haven't yet had a child complain they were neglected, but I sure found it easiest to complete and put the most work into the first child's book!!!

It snowed again. Each time it snows, it is a big deal because this year has been such a dry winter. Each time it snows, I continue to marvel at the beauty of the freshly-fallen snow. 

We continue to have people coming to talk to us about our roof and see what the various opinions are for how to fix our problem. No decisions have been made yet about what we are going to do.

Glen and I received our second Covid-19 vaccination Saturday. It was as quick and easy as the first time. This time Glen's arm muscle did not twitch. He was surprised when the Band-Aid was put on as he said he didn't even feel the needle go in.

I was surprised when we were told we would be fully immunized in a week. I thought it was two weeks after the last vaccine. For the Pfizer vaccine, we were told it is one week. HURRAH!!! Just in time for Caleb and Natalia's wedding festivities to begin. 

And just in time for general conference weekend when we are having Rebecca's and Ben's families over for breakfast, conference viewing, Sunday dinner, more conference viewing and then popcorn to finish off the family fun Sunday.

We did our 15-minute wait in the parking lot before heading off to Chick-fil-A to pick up some food to take home for a late lunch.

We both had very sore arms by that evening making it very painful to try and sleep. It was a long night for both of us. On Sunday we seemed to be doing fine and our arms were getting less sore. 

That afternoon Glen was freezing and needed a nap. That night he was fevering and achy all night long; thus having a second night of very little sleep.

I slept pretty well that night and was feeling happy I wasn't dealing with any side effects of getting the vaccination... Or so I thought... Turns out that was premature giddiness before the exhaustion set in...

I had been struggling and stressing throughout the week preparing something to say to the missionaries in the Mexico Cancun Mission. 

Glen's counselor from our mission presidency, President Marin, asked if we would take part in their zoom missionary zone conference. 

Of course Glen was thrilled!!!! Of course I have been sweating a lot over what to say and how to say it. 

Google Translate has been my best friend during the process. I would type in an English sentence and immediately the Spanish translation would pop up. Then I would copy and paste it and move on to the next sentence. 

This scripture stood out to me one day as I was pondering what to talk to the missionaries about, so I decided to use it as the basis of my message.

Glen helped me refine Google Translate's version and I practiced and practiced saying my part in Spanish. I can't pull Spanish out of my brain to speak it, but I have learned how to read and pronounce words correctly (mostly...) in Spanish. I felt good about my message and about how well I delivered it in Espanol.

When it was Glen's turn, he just came alive! He loves teaching. He loves teaching missionaries. He loved being a part of that zone conference. It brought back memories for both of us. He did an awesome job speaking in the native tongue of most of those missionaries.

After the zone conference ended, we spent a few minutes zooming with Presidente y Hermana Marin. They are such good people and we enjoyed catching up a little with them.

Once the zoom call ended, I was hungry, but was so exhausted I didn't have enough energy to fix us something to eat. Glen offered to take us out to eat. I felt like I had earned a nice meal after all that stress. We were already all dressed up for the occasion, so we made a date of it. 

The rest of the afternoon and the whole next day I was so exhausted!! I am pretty sure it was more than just the stress of the zone conference. But, I'll take a sore arm and a few days of exhaustion to prevent Covid from invading my system!!

Sometimes (well--a lot of times) I just shake my head at what I read and see in the news. This one had me laughing!! Seriously???!!???

Let's see what Rebecca's family has been doing during their spring break. They went to the dentist. No cavities!! Looks like their dentist gives out fun toys.

Their family did a service project cleaning up tree branches at their Grandpa and Grandma Golden's house. 

They built forts.

Their family went to feed the ducks.

Sarah's family had spring break as well and decided to take a break from Las Vegas to go to St. George.

It looks like Wynne has Magnus's rapt attention as she's reading him a bedtime story.

Magnus continues to be such a doting big brother to Monty.

These pajama, new baby photos are absolutely adorable!!

There is so much sweetness about this photo of Magnus as the family learned about Palm Sunday when Christ entered the city of Jerusalem during the final week of His mortal life.

He rode in on the back of a donkey just as an earlier prophet said He would. A large crowd came out to greet Jesus and covered His path with palm branches for Him to ride upon, thus demonstrating their understanding that Jesus was the same Lord who had delivered Israel anciently. 

Easter is so often symbolized with colored eggs and cute bunnies. I will admit these bread bunnies are absolutely adorable!!

Putting Christ as the focal point of our Easter season is much more spiritual and fulfilling. 

HAPPY EASTER!! 

Quotes of the Week

Our Heavenly Father's goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right.
--Dale G. Renlund

If our youth are too underwhelmed by God's work, they are more likely to be overwhelmed by the world. These are really special spirits, and they can do things of significance if given a chance. 
--Neal A. Maxwell

The Lord is preparing His Church and His people, those who bear His name, to receive Him. As part of our preparations for His coming, He will lift each of us so we may rise to spiritual challenges and opportunities unlike any seen in the history of this world.
--Henry B. Eyring

Claire's Leprechaun Trap; Under the Eves Water Problem; Reading Wynne; Handyman Glen; Everyday Hero

St. Patrick's Day came and went without any fanfare around here. We didn't even bother to wear any green. I didn't even cook any green food. At least I had put up St. Patrick's Day decorations.

Claire made a leprechaun trap out of a green Lucky Charms box. Cute! 

I laughed when I saw what she wrote on the popsicle sticks, "Please wear a mask and social distance. Thank you." Definitely a sign of the times we have been living in the past year.

It appears Claire, Logan and their dog Ollie were all wearing green.

Natalie, Emma and Laurie got home from Florida and then the whole family went to Mall of America in Minneapolis. 

Jacob couldn't see the big draw. He disappointedly reported it's literally just a mall to which his sister replied, "What did you think it was...? The name could not be clearer. 

Having seen firsthand Wynne's love of reading--she has been reading for literally years--this photo and Abe's caption made me laugh. "Splash pad 'fun' for Wynne." 

What little 5-year-old would not want to read every word of this (or any) historic plaque?

Wynne is instilling her love of reading in her new baby brother.

Magnus is adorably attentive to baby Monty.

Father Abe looks very attentive to baby Monty as well.

Baked orange chicken was a new recipe of the week. Not only was it very yummy, but I cooked the rice to perfection as well. Let me take a moment to pat myself on the back for this big win!

Another new dish I fixed was crock pot saucy pork chops. Glen let me smother all the onions over my meat. He's not a fan of onions. He liked this recipe, but it wasn't my favorite.

Now let's go to the outside of the house where we are experiencing a big disaster.

Our house is leaking at the point under the soffit that should be the driest place on the house.

Glen has been talking to our homeowners' insurance company, talking with roofers, talking with solar panelists (is that the correct word?) as we are trying to figure out what exactly is the problem and how exactly we are going to get it fixed and if we want to get solar panels.

When the roofers put the roof on the new house, they put the drip edge over the tar paper instead of under it. The problem is on the north and west sides of the house when snow melts and then freezes, it creates an ice dam. The ice dam doesn't melt, so water gets under the shingles which drips down under the soffits. 

Also, our rain gutters have never been stellar. Two different times we have gotten different people to come out and attempt to fix them, but they still drip in places they shouldn't and there are always drips down the side of the house from that problem.

Look at this handyman! He can do so many home improvement projects! This time it was replacing the light above the mirror.

The old light was hung with the sconces going down. When we changed out the flat mirror to the framed mirror, I didn't like that the sconces were hanging over the mirror frame. I like the new one with the sconces going up.

Glen also got hooks attached to a wall in the garage so he could get the yard tools up off the ground. 

Our little Madison had gotten sick and had to get a Covid test. Rebecca had tended some children a week and a half earlier and the next day the mother reported she had Covid; hence the necessity for getting tested. Thankfully, Madison's test came back negative.

She spent a couple of days on the couch when she was recovering from her sore throat, fever, cough and runny nose. 

Madison made this drawing during singing time when the Primary song leader had the children draw the whole armor of God with her as they sang. Madison added these words to hers:

Birthday boy Spencer sure looks handsome and happy to be 10!

Kade is outside riding his bike while Ben tries out his new scooter. Ben picked up the scooter tip from Abe because it's hard to keep up walking with a child on a bike and it's hard to bike slow enough to keep up with a child on a bike. A scooter is the perfect solution.

Abe's family enjoyed some backyard train fun. It was nice of that family to let Abe's family ride the homemade railroad vehicles.

Love the lawn chair on the locomotive for the engineer to sit in.

These little train cars required arm power to get them moving around the track. 

I cherish each one of the photos we get to see of little Monty. He is such a beautiful baby.

Abe's family is spending a week at Hilton Head. How fun!! We have such fond family memories of renting bikes and riding for hours on the hard-packed sand beaches. Abe is trying to make newer, better memories there. 

He was vomiting his guts up the time our family was there. It was over a Thanksgiving when Dad and Mom were living in the south and they joined us there for a few days. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at a hotel, which seemed pretty different than our usual home-cooked meal. But, it was fun for something different to do.

Abe's children are adventuresome eaters. Newland loves sushi, shrimp and here they are eating oysters. YUM????????

Abe was not raised to be a connoisseur of good food. We are strictly meat and potatoes kind of people. Here's proof. Glen had to run a work errand in West Valley and invited me to go along with him. 

We were hungry and decided to stop somewhere. Glen chose Dickey's Barbeque Pit where he ordered a 2-meat plate with double French fries. See! Meat and potatoes!

One of our missionaries, Kelsey Wells, stopped by for a visit on Sunday. 

The Judicial system has their eye on me. I got another notification telling me I am prequalified for jury service based on my previous answers to their short questionnaire. 

I thought it was interesting to learn I am part of a Criminal Jury Trial Pilot Program as they are starting up in-person juries again after suspending trials due to Covid.

If I am called for jury duty, I will take part in a virtual jury selection which will be conducted by Webex videoconferencing. 

I was informed about the safety protocols that will be in place, including everyone in the courtroom taking a rapid response Covid test the first day of trial. All jurors will receive their own PPE kit (mask, gloves, wipes and hand sanitizer). Each juror will be assigned a room for use when not in the courtroom. That is the only place we are allowed to remove our masks. 

The courtrooms have been reconfigured to ensure no one is within six feet of any other person. They have also minimized the number of people who can be in the courtroom at any time and will be enforcing strict protocols for cleaning and disinfecting.

I am happy to know they are being extra vigilant in keeping everything clean and safe. I would be super nervous if I wasn't vaccinated, but now that we're getting our second vaccine this weekend, I feel much better about going out amongst people.

Here's a cute little story to end this blog post. 

Remember Sarah's boys and their love of the garbage trucks going through their neighborhood each week?

Remember Lincoln's recycle truck Halloween costume that was the talk of the neighborhood?

Remember the trash man who thought his costume was so cute that he wanted a picture of Lincoln?

The boys have been watching the trash trucks from their bedroom window lately instead of sitting in wait for them on the driveway. 

This past trash day, the garbage man knocked on their door and, as Sarah worded it, "delivered this to his number one fan." 

How sweet was that??!!?? What a heart-warming story!!! That garbage man is the definition of an everyday hero.

Quotes of the Week

 From time to time, God powerfully and very personally assures each of us that He knows us and loves us and that He is blessing us specifically and openly. Then, in our moments of difficulty, the Savior brings these experiences back into our mind.
--Neil L. Andersen

The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console and cheer our souls.
--Russell M. Nelson

Dear sisters, we rely on the moral force you bring to the world, to marriage, to family, to the Church. We rely on blessings you bring down from heaven by your prayers and faith. We pray for your security, welfare, and happiness and for your influence to be sustained.
D. Todd Christofferson