26 March 2017 - Rain, Rain go away

According to the radio the NW has over twice the normal amount of rainfall this year than the average. No drought to worry about for awhile.... ;-) The rain has not hampered Stephen's work but he does work in the wet covered with rain gear over his clothes. The grass is green and growing and will soon need to be mowed. It does look nice.
   Besides, home teaching and visiting teaching and a birthday celebration for Jessica. Many well wishes came her way and the only hitch was Saturday when she and Hadlie were sick. Sad way to end the celebration but at least she was well on her special day...Happy Birthday!
  The week was pretty quiet. Samuel had a basketball game on Tuesday and bother teams were high scoring due to the "ringers" that were brought in from the HS teams since Basketball season is over. Lake Meridian beat Scenic Hill 82 to 77. Samuel was pretty pleased with the results. It helps to have a varsity player from the 4A State Championship team. Koby Huerta made a big difference for their team.
    Samuel went out with the missionaries on Wednesday for Young Men since he does not want to go on the 50 miler hike that they are doing for Scout Adventure this year. Stephen had his usual stake meetings and worked every day at the school construction site. They told him awhile back that the work was coming to a close but he keeps going....
   Kathleen worked on Saturday at the hospital. She recovered a patient and then got another mother/baby dyad to recover. She learned that they are going to change shifts to 12 hours only come July so she's looking toward retirement.
   Sunday Stephen had a ward conference at the Kentwood building so he was missing in action for most of the day. That night, home teachers came to the house and then took Samuel home with Br. Wing for a Youth Fireside. They learned how to use social media to spread the gospel. Kathleen decided she needed a twitter account so that she could be more aware of the gospel social scene. Stephen was very helpful since he already had an account.
 

19 March 2017 - Ward Conference

Monday was a trip home for Kathleen. Stephen had Sr. Kappy Baranet pick her up at the airport since he was needed at work with the construction company.
Tuesday, Samuel had a basketball game that was the finish of his game against Clark Lake due to the injury the week before. The boys couldn't get their game together for that one. Clark Lake was warmed up from playing against Crestwood so they rolled over Lake Meridian. Then LM played Crestwood and beat them. It was a loss and a win in one night.
Wednesday was a ward potluck where we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with green food. Kathleen made a green kale salad with green grapes. After the potluck, Samuel had Scouts where they went to businesses to beg for fund raiser freebies. Stephen had his usual Wednesday night stake meetings.
Thursday after Seminary, Kathleen had a New Testament class with Sr. Shauna Seamons on the book of Galatians. It was a great class. Later that afternoon, she went with Rebekah to pick up a rental car that Rebekah used to drive to Vancouver, WA where she had a conference but didn't. They had cancelled it but she went anyways. She did manage to get a massage and enjoy herself immensely.
Friday was the real  St. Patrick's Day so Kathleen cook up some beef and cabbage but they didn't eat it... Kathleen was asked to drive Julia Stroud to PBD where she is taking a dance class and since Kathleen was going to miss Michelle's Baby shower due to having to work. She called Ruth to see if she could drop off a gift for Michelle that night. Stephen decided to go with her and on their way they received a text from Ruth inviting them to dinner. Ruth always does a wonderful job and there was just the two of them so it made a nice cozy dinner of corned beef and cabbage for two couples.
Saturday, Kathleen worked at the hospital and helped with a delivery and then stayed late due to short staff. It was close but she made it in time to change quickly and ride with Stephen to the temple for ward temple night. Lake Meridian had their ward conference on Sunday and Stephen taught the Elder's and High Priest's while Pres. Morgan taught Relief Society. The subject was the Fast and Fast offering. There was a question and answer after and the sisters wanted to know about the church's stance on the Boy Scouts and if the program was going to change at all. President Morgan said that he hadn't heard anything about any changes and that he didn't think there would be any changes. Some of the sisters were concerned because their son/s didn't like scouts but they wanted their son/s to get the Duty to God. It was an interesting Q&A.

12 March 2017 - Basketball and Dance

What a fun, exciting week this has been. Filled with lots of activities and adventures.

Snowing in March....very unusual.

Monday, Kathleen taught her usual Seminary class but the cancelled the rest of the classes due to the snow that was starting to come down. Several boys had come in late to her class and then broke out in laughter as they said that Seminary was cancelled 5 minutes after they arrived. They were told that they had to stay since we were so far behind in lessons due to the snow and Kathleen had prepared a lesson on the last chapters of Acts where Paul gives his witness to King Agrippa who says "Almost thou makest me a Christian." We discussed the importance of being fully committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ rather than almost receiving the blessings.

   Stephen had gone to work at the construction site and Samuel was already dressed for Seminary when they cancelled class so he had to be taken to school. That night Rebekah and Kathleen went to the gym for the swim aerobics class, followed by FHE that evening on making good choices to reap good consequences.

   Tuesday was near the same. The difference being that instead of going to the gym for a swim, Kathleen worked at making a healthy dinner option for the family.

Mainly veggies...

Seminary, work and school were the same but that evening, Samuel had a church basketball game at the Kent building. The gym there is quite small so they don't have adults playing at that gym but it's too small for youth to play 5 on 5 also but they do it anyway. Kathleen was keeping score and everything was going fine until the second half when the Lake Meridian Ward team was down in the scoring and their non-member player was left on the court with several deacons and beginning players. The young man drove to the basket and made it to the top of the key when a defensive player came up and jumped into his drive and there was a collision, followed by blood. At first it was thought to be a bloody nose but more and more blood flowed onto the floor and Kathleen jumped down from the stage and took a look at the player who was holding his forehead and nose. He said that he gets nosebleeds a lot but there was a lot of blood and you couldn't see through his long hair. Kathleen put her hand over his forehead and there was blood everywhere but it didn't seem to be dripping from his nose. Taking him to the closest sink to wash off his face and hand and pull back his hair it was noted that he had a inch long gash below his eyebrow by his nose that gaped open and was bleeding profusely. Kathleen applied pressure and instructed someone to get the first aid kit and see if there were any butterfly bandages to close the gaping wound. She was able to staunch the bleeding enough to clean up around the area and tape him up so he could clean off his hands, arms and face. Blood was everywhere. On the cabinets, up the wall, puddled all over the floor. It was a big mess. A few people asked if an ambulance was needed but he just needed stitches so his parents were called and they picked him up and took him to get stitched up with his bloody shirt and everything. Cleaning up was difficult since they didn't want the mop to be used on blood but after going through 2 rolls of paper towels it was decided that a mop with disinfectant would be better than smearing the blood around with paper towels. Of course, the game was cancelled.

Samuel accepting his certificate.

   Wednesday started as usual with Kathleen teaching a special lesson on Grace and the need for the Atonement from Romans 4-7. It was demonstrated by a man dying of thirst in the desert and there was a bottle of water up on a hill. The question was posed, "what will save the man? 1- His belief that the water will save him, 2 - His effort in getting to the water or 3 - the water.  It was illustrated through the scriptures that our Faith and our Works are important but it's the Living Water of Christ's atonement that saves us.
   Wednesday night Samuel missed Young Men so he could go to his basketball banquet. He was awarded his certificate for participation and the coach mentioned that his 3 point shot average was the best on the team. The player that had been injured the night before was at the banquet sporting 10 stitches in his face that reminded Samuel of Harry Potter because it jagged back and forth.

Competing in Amateur Smooth.

Looking Good....

   Thursday Kathleen taught Romans 8-11in Seminary, discussing inheritance in the Kingdom of God and being Joint-heirs with Christ. Paul keeps reminding the early members that they are literally children of God and to be spiritually minded not carnally minded. After getting home from Seminary, Kathleen quickly finished packing and Stephen took her to the airport for her trip to Provo. She had two flights, first to San Jose and then to Salt Lake where Jessica, with Hadlie and Christian, picked her up and drove her to the Marriott Center where Ben and Carli were performing in their Amateur Smooth competition that evening. It was so fun to see all the performances and what made it more special was to see Benjamin's face as he actually saw his mother sitting in the arena and cheering them on.
     Friday, Samuel spent the day with Rebekah as Stephen went to work. Kathleen and Jessica and kids met up with Ben and Carli to surprize Sarah after her defense of her thesis for her master's program. Jessica bought balloons and she and Ben and Carli stayed on the sidewalk outside the Taylor building. Sarah was surprised to see them waiting for her but even more surprised to see her mother come out from the side of the building. What fun it was to surprize her. Sarah had the rest of the day off so she spent time with her mom and sister with the kids. That night Kathleen went back to the Marriott Center to watch Carli and her brother Kyle compete in the Amateur Latin along with Casey and Kayci. Ben was able to take her back to Jessica's place but it was very late when she got back.

   Saturday was low key with a trip to find a baby shower gift and a hair cut before going to the Provo City Center Temple with Sarah. It's a gorgeous temple on the inside with lots of winding stairs going up to the Celestial Room.  Thankfully there are elevators also. The endowment room was painted with Creation pictures and the Veil room was small but nicely decorated. The Celestial Room had beautiful stained glass on the ceiling where the dome of the Temple is located. The sessions were every hour and pretty full each time. We made the 3:00 session even though we were there just after 2:00.

Ben and Kayci took first place.

Another name added to this trophy.

Add caption

From the floor to standing...impressive.

   By 7:00  Sarah and Kathleen went to the Marriot Center to watch the competitions and await Ben and Kayci's performance. They didn't start until 10:00 and then they were almost last. There were lots of competitors this year for Cabaret with 6 finalists but Ben and Kayci were way above the rest of the competition. They even got a standing ovation for their performance. It was fun to see their success after a pretty full week of competition.

One handed lift and turn.

    Sunday was church with Sarah and Michael but a car had run into the electrical exchange box outside the building and took out some of the power including the microphones. They warned the congregation that the electricity would be shut off during the meeting but it didn't happen until Sarah was in the middle of her Gospel Doctrine lesson. It was close to the end so she just closed with an invitation to seek for marital harmony since her lesson was on Doctrine and Covenants 25.  She did a great job of getting people to give ideas on how to help your spouse be the best they can be and why that is so important. There were some great comments from the class about spouses having "tunnel vision" when they are under stress and how to make families and callings balanced. After Sarah's class, Ben asked if Kathleen could come and help him with his primary class since Carli wasn't feeling well and needed to stay in bed. Ben did a great job even though he was very tired from staying up until 3:30 AM and getting up by 7:00 to drive some judges to the airport.

Ben and Sarah in the sunlight.

   Next was a get together at the condo with everyone. Jessica, Juan, Ben and Kathleen took Hadlie and Christian for a walk to a park and left Michael and Sarah to figure out dinner. Sarah met up with everyone at the park and then all walked back to the apartment where Michael had a next meal of Taco Salad ready to eat. Ben needed to go check on Carli so he didn't eat with the rest of the group. After the meal, Juan had a priesthood meeting and the kids were put to bed which left 4 people to play Hand and Foot. Michael and Kathleen beat out Jessica and Sarah, just barely. Juan came back from his meeting and a conversation ensued with plans and ideas. Then Ben and Carli stopped in to say Goodbye as Kathleen would be leaving the next morning.

Juan helping Hadlie on the slide.

Jessica pushing Christian on the swing.

   Sunday also found Stephen and Samuel having dinner over at the Stroud's house after church for an authentic Spanish meal. All in all, a highly productive week.
 

5 March 2017 - Sickies and State Championship

Last Sunday both Stephen and Samuel were sick. Both had sore throats and Stephen had a cough. They picked it up during Youth Conference because of lack of sleep and they shared.
  Monday Kathleen woke up with a mild sore throat but managed to teach Seminary. It turned out to be a good lesson with the students participating well. Later that day she stocked up on meds but forgot to take them early enough to do any good. By Tuesday there was a snow day so she got to stay in bed for awhile and Wednesday was late start but she had a CES teacher staff meeting at the stake center. No one wanted to be around her or shake her hand. Her teaching companion suggested that she stay in bed for Thursday so she did. She was feeling so much better by Friday that she went and taught the class. It was a small class so she didn't give the lesson that she prepared. It was to be a lesson on turning back to God (repentance) and commitment (being fully committed to living the gospel). It was important enough to make sure that most of the students heard the lesson.
   Meanwhile Stephen kept to his schedule of working for Neeser. He was told that they would "lay off" some of the workers that week and Kathleen was hoping it was going to be him but since he is their best worker, she knew it wouldn't be. He also kept up his schedule of church assignments in the evening. He likes being busy and he is.
   Samuel didn't have a church basketball game on Tuesday but his HS band went to the State playoffs to play for the girl's basketball team. He enjoyed watching the best teams in the state battle it out for first place. He really wanted his friend, Koby Huerta, to win since this was his Senior year. Kentwood managed to eke out the first two wins but went on to crush Union in the finals by 20 points. Samuel made it to the last two games with his dad. He was also fortunate enough to watch the number one team in the state, Nathan Hale HS who has the number one recruit in the nation. Michael Porter Jr. will be playing for the UW starting next season. Since Koby is in our ward there were several ward members at the game to cheer him on, including the Stake President.
   Saturday Kathleen went to the temple to witness a sister she visit teaches go through for her endowment for the first time and then be sealed to her deceased husband and daughters (one of whom is deceased also). It was a small group but very nice. Kathleen made it back in time for the CES dinner and fireside that was taped from SLC. Elder Gerrit Gong was the speaker and he did a great job of pulling out 9 principles from the Bible story where Jesus feeds the 5000. Stephen had to leave early to go to the Basketball game with Samuel.
   Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. It's always wonderful to feel the spirit and hear the testimonies of those who humbling bare their feelings.