23 April 2017 - Anniversary of the proposal....

Monday was back to school and back to Seminary. Kathleen had to teach twice in the week since there was a late start Wednesday in the middle of the week which meant "no seminary". Of course, she still had to get up early for a Seminary teacher in-service. They are always good but somehow the alarm didn't go off until it was time to be there so she was 15 min. late...the quickest dressing job in history. LOL!
Sunday the 23rd was the anniversary of Stephen's proposal of marriage to Kathleen. Unfortunately, it was quite overshadowed by all the church work that Stephen had to accomplish including a ward conference. But by tradition, he did propose again the next day so it wasn't completely forgotten. Kathleen, again, said "YES"!!!

16 April 2017 - Happy Easter and birthday

Monday was a drive down to St. George, from Jessica and Juan's place, where we were to meet Leonard to empty out the storage unit that Francene had rented. Our arrival was before Leonard and we didn't have the key so we stopped in at a hotel to get a room. Jay and Mindy were planning on us staying at their place but they had an accident on Sunday. Their youngest child, Clayton left water running in the sink that he stopped up in the upstairs bathroom and then they left to drop cookies off at member's homes. By the time they got back the upstairs rooms were flooded and the downstairs rooms were soaked. They called their insurance company and they came and ripped out the carpet and put holes in the walls to allow the drywall to dry. There were fans running everywhere and in was humid in their house. They did have dinner prepared for Monday night so we visited for awhile.
Tuesday was a full day of cleaning out the storage unit. Leonard and Kathleen would open boxes, decide if there was anything family may want and then separate stuff into keep and DI piles. We took lots of books to DI, along with material, household items, pans, craft stuff and more craft stuff. It was so sad to see it go but even though we rented a trailer for hauling stuff to family, there was not enough room for all of it to be taken. There was so much STUFF!
Bookcases went to Jay and Mindy, Sarah and Michael, some left in Provo and some to Rebekah here in Washington. There were lots of Christmas ornaments, Easter eggs of various materials, Halloween decor and sewing crafts. There was just lots of things....

We were able to be finished by Wednesday evening we drove back to Provo. There was always lots to do to prepare for the Baby Shower that Jessica was putting on for Sarah and "Humperdink" (her baby's nickname prior to birth). Lots of people came to the shower and it was a big success. She got lots of diapers, which is what she wanted. The food table was fabulous and the decor was nice. It was a wonderful celebration for Sarah and her baby.

Party Table for Sarah's baby shower

It was afternoon before Stephen, Samuel and Kathleen packed up and drove to Meridian, Idaho. The truck and trailer drove pretty well and Stephen decided not to cover the stuff in the truck so we were just hoping not to run into any rain. We spent the night in Meridian and Susan had prepared a surprize Easter and birthday celebration. First there was a nice breakfast of omelettes as requested by Kathleen for her birthday and then there was an Easter Egg Hunt in the back yard. Susan had filled the eggs with all kinds of goodies, including coins and dollar bills. Everyone was allowed to hunt and it was so fun to remember the excitement of hunting for the "special egg" back when Stephen and Kathleen were a little younger. Kathleen also received a lavender tree and a book for her birthday. She was thrilled. After the "hunt" we went to church at the building where Susan and Cory attend. There was some very good talks about the Savior
and then we had to be on our way.
We got home late but it was supposed to rain that night so we unloaded the truck and trailer into the living room and onto the front porch. It was a lot of STUFF!

9 April 2017 - Off to Utah

 This week after conference was busy getting ready for a trip to Utah.

 

Monday - FHE
Tuesday - Basketball at night
Wednesday - Stephen leaves for Boise for funeral of Sr. Mitchell via airlines

Thursday - Rebekah leaves for Texas, RS enrichment night of cooking with food storage and cooking with an Instant Pot. Kathleen wasn't feeling too well and she was worried about leaving for Utah the next day but by Friday she was feeling OK. She taught Seminary before Spring Break and then finished packing the truck and cleaning the house (Vinay's parents were coming for the weekend). She went to pick up Samuel at 11:45 and by 1:00 they were on the road. Unfortunately there was an accident on Highway 18 so traffic was inching along but they managed to get to Boise by 8:30 or so.
Saturday, Stephen emptied the rotting wood from the truck, cut it up and put it in 3 dumpsters at Susan's place. He then repacked the truck with his ladder and luggage and after a nice breakfast and time with Susan, Cory, Jarom, Josiah and Kimball the truck headed for Provo with Stephen, Samuel and Kathleen.
Saturday night was the BYU Ballroom Dance Teams performance at the Marriot Center. It was so fun to see all the kids participating that we know but especially Ben and  Carli. Of course Casey and Kayci were there also doing their last performance for the BYU tour team since they are both graduating this April. They will get to go on tour to Chile and Argentina and hopefully Kayci will be able to perform with Ben at Nationals. The performance had several dances that were the same as last year but they also had some different ones and Ben and Kayci performed his National Championship Cabaret performance and got another standing ovation.

Sunday was spent with the kids at Jessica and Juan's ward. Hadlie gave her first talk in Primary and she did a fabulous job!

2 April 2017 - General Conference

Monday was busy. First Jessica was feeling better but Hadlie still seemed sick. Juan was at the hospital with his mother. She had a perforated bowel that needed emergency surgery. The surgery was a success but she'll be down recovering for awhile.
   Second, Kathleen had an appointment with the orthopedic/sports medicine doctor to see what could be done about her knee pain. He said that she had osteoarthritis and not Rheumatoid arthritis which was a blessing. The doctor explained that she needed to have an MRI to see if there was anything going on in her knee that would be an easy fix. They scheduled her for the next day. Monday night was a celebration for Vinay's birthday. He was surprised that it was suggested but pleased also.

Vinay, Samuel, Rebekah and Stephen enjoying dinner
at OCB.

Stephen chose to go to Old Country Buffet in Federal Way. There was a huge line that came in right after Rebekah, Samuel and Vinay made it in line. Kathleen and Stephen had to find their way through the crowd of Developmentally disabled folks from Auburn. It was 3 bus loads of people.

Samuel is next to last on the Right.

   Tuesday was the MRI at noon. It's a huge magnet inside a machine. They put you on a special table that slides into the machine and you have to hold completely still for the whole time that you are in the machine. They do have braces to hold you down... They also put on earphones and have music going through because the machine is noisy like a jack hammer. It was quite revealing. Kathleen almost panicked even though it was just her lower half in the machine.
   That night the KentLake Bands had their spring concert. Samuel was in the 2nd group that played. The first two songs were very discordant, not sure if that was purposeful or just this band. The last song was a type of March that the kids really enjoyed and it sounded so much better.
   Wednesday, Kathleen taught 2 Corinthians 4-7, two lessons in one. The youth actually taught the lessons but she had to prepare the information for them to teach. There was a lot of information left out that would have been good but there was little time. Later that morning Kathleen had another appointment with the ortho doctor. He gave her the results of her MRI. She has a meniscal tear and 3rd degree arthritis. He said that they could probably do arthroscopic surgery and remove the meniscus but that would leave bone on bone and probably be worse than just leaving it. He recommended having a total knee replacement if the pain was not helped by draining the knee and putting in a different type of cortisone shot. She choose the shot and left with a bandage on her knee.
   That night, Kathleen had her first Master Gardener meeting for the new clinic that she will be working at in Maple Valley. The meeting was at the MV library by Lake Wilderness from 6:30 to 9:00. It was educational with new material as well as managerial. Samuel went to YM and did some Family History looking for names to take to the temple. Stephen had his regular stake meetings.
   Thursday Stephen headed to work and Kathleen cleaned up the house for a few hours before she had to take a nap. Getting up at 4:30 every morning for Seminary is challenging. After an hour nap, Kathleen got up and drove to the temple for a session and then made it to Deseret Book to pick up a book that she had ordered earlier. She made it home just about the same time as Samuel got there. That night Kathleen went to the stake center thinking that there was a RS meeting but there wasn't. She was off by a week. Getting old is such a trial, but at least her knee was feeling so much better. Stephen had a meeting at the stake center to set apart the newest member of the High Council.

Adding herbs and veggies to the boxes.

   Friday Stephen left early for work since he had an appointment with the finance guy about taxes. Kathleen had to go to the hospital and show them her NRP card that proved she passed her Neonatal Resuscitation Program Course. She also took some little baby beanies/hats into the birth center and some OB Nursing magazines that come regularly to the house. On her way home she stopped by Carpinito's Garden Center and purchased some broccoli, savoy cabbage, brussel sprouts and Sweet onions along with flowers to put in the garden. After Stephen came home they both spent time in the yard. Planting and cleaning up and Stephen mowed the lawn. It really looks nice now.

A nicely mowed lawn.

   Friday night was a family movie night with popcorn and the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Rebekah came over and she and Kathleen watched the movie and Stephen and Samuel mostly slept in their seats or on the floor.

Waiting around for the prize drawing.

   Saturday was General Conference. It was a beautiful day and great talks. What a wonderful uplifting day. There were several talks that focused on the Plan of Salvation and the doctrine of the Godhead. Others focused on being kind and living a Christ-like life. During the Priesthood session, Rebekah and Kathleen drove with Sr. Winona Laird (Kathleen visit teaches her) to Deseret Bookstore by the temple for Ladies Night. They have free gifts for the first 100 people to come to the store and then every 15 minutes they have a drawing for prizes. It's always fun to go whether you get a prize or not but Kathleen has won 2 grand prizes from earlier years and this year she won the grand prize again. What a surprize! They might not let her come back any more...lol.

Grand prize a statue of Christ holding a lamb
in porcelain. It's new.

   Sunday was wonderful with more General conference addresses. The announcement of 5 new temples was so exciting. One more in Utah, another in Pocatello, Idaho, one each in Manila, Philippines, Kenya and Brazilia, Brazil. How very exciting to hear from President Monson as he stressed the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. That Book is the keystone of our religion. On it hangs the reality of the living gospel restored in these last days. If the Book is true then Joseph Smith is a prophet. If it was not true then he was a genius far beyond the capabilities of Einstein to craft such a literary novel that has such impressive timing, sequence, doctrine and historical accuracies that were not known of in his day. A man with a 3rd grade education, who was described by his wife as not being able to write a constructive sentence could not have written that book. The Book of Mormon is the work of prophets inspired by God to write their history and teachings and then translated by the power of God for us to learn from and learn about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is what it says it is. Another testament of Jesus Christ for our day. We are so blessed.

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.