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.

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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.