Weekly News

May 16, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

I even get excited just getting your emails that ask me to pass your emails along to someone. haha I’m such a mom!! I feel so blessed to be able to live in a time where I can hear from you seconds after you write. Mondays for me are just trying to get all organized for the week, running errands, catching up, so waiting through the day for your letter is awesome.

Yesterday was wonderful. Since church is so late, dad and I spent the morning prepping things for dinner, dad studied for his lesson in High Priests and I studied our lesson in the marriage and family class. We had Myles McKell over for dinner yesterday and he asked if he could bring someone he was dating. I thought it might be weird seeing him with someone new after his divorce, but I guess I haven’t really seen him with his first wife much, so it was all good. She seems very nice and he’s happy to be dating someone. He says he’s just going to see where it goes. I hope he takes his time with it. Second marriages have a hard time working out and I think it’s because people jump into them too quickly.

We had roast beef yesterday which I’ve been craving, but I never really taste food when I have company over because I’m so immersed in our conversation, so after they left, I realized I hadn’t really tasted anything and didn’t eat much. It all looked great though, mashed potatoes, gravy, BBC salad, roasted carrots and onions. I’ll eat some of the leftovers today. yum

Our sacrament meetings are now the graduating seniors speaking so that’s always fun. Yesterday it was Ren and Abbey Hansen, Desiree Thompson and Kate Hill. It’s fun seeing how much they’ve all grown up. Next Sunday Nikki is the youth speaker. It’s funny how excited she gets to speak in church. :) I love it. And then our marriage class is always great. I always learn something in there.

Last week our iMac desktop computer died. I noticed lately that it was getting dimmer and dimmer, but I thought it must be my eyes. haha Then one morning it was just black. So we took it in and they said it was so old that they didn’t even have new parts for it. I didn’t realize that we’d had it since 2007!! yikes, that is old in this world of technology. Anyway, we had to buy a new one and now my complaint is that the screen seems so bright. I have to actually turn down the brightness. haha and it’s so large. The good thing about large is facetiming Addie!! anyway, I’ll try not to complain too much.

Saturday night was Jordan Grigg’s reception. Kris had her yard looking beautiful and it was great weather for a reception. The new trend for wedding dresses now is simple lines and not white, usually a champagne color kind of like Savannah’s. Jordan’s wife’s dress was beautiful. 

Also last week Toni went to Jan’s for a few days and managed to talk grandpa into going with her which was great. He has a hard time leaving the house to go places because he needs a cane to help him walk, etc. He had a wonderful time and Jan made it so nice for him to be there. He got to see Jan’s house which is something he’s wanted for a long time and even went to the beach with them.

On Tuesday night last week, the young women and RS combined for a dinner and program. I went a little early and took the girls so we could help set up. We had yummy food and the speakers were great. They had someone from each phase of life speak-Megan Tanner Bartschi who spoke of her teenage years, young adult years, mission and newly married and expecting. Then Mandi Stoddard (Leah’s best friend’s (Madea) mom). She has five children under 16, just recently got her masters degree and just quick working so she could be home with the kids. Then Anita Kjar spoke (they just built a house in our ward). She spoke about being an empty nester, teaching school, etc. Then Linda Oversby spoke about being a grandma and great grandma and losing her husband to Alzheimers last year. They were all good talks. Here’s a pic of things before it began.

Also last week my Mother’s Day present from dad arrived. It’s gorgeous. I had showed him some pictures of this artist I like named Annie Henrie Nader. She graduated from BYU a few years ago and loves painting in the Renaissance style. There was one picture I particularly liked because it reminds me of you three girls. I didn’t realize dad was actually paying attention to what I was showing him, haha, but here’s the picture on our wall now. I just love looking at it all the time and it looks beautiful in our house.

So you’re staying in Fairfield, huh? I hope you’re happy and invigorated about your work there not only with teaching non members but in your training. Are you still over two wards? and are you still the trainer in the area? How is Ally’s family doing? It’s funny that I don’t even know any of these people, but I worry about them, pray for them, etc. I still think about Camilo all the time. I know that this first year of his membership in the church is crucial to the building of a firm testimony that will help carry him through life. Being born into the church is truly a blessing. Our foundations can have such strong roots through so many experiences, but I really believe that those who join later are given an abundance of the spirit to help them recognize the truth. I hope someone is talking to him about getting his patriarchal blessing now. I think that would be helpful. Our ward has another baptism this weekend. There’s a young man, 18, who has been waiting to get baptized until he turned 18 since his parents are against it. He is good friends with the Peery’s. His last name is Seavey and he goes to EHS. 

Also I spoke with Teresa Peery about Austin. He comes home in one month! He’s the first one from your group to start coming home now, so it’s going to be pretty exciting. I’ll try to keep you posted on all the comings and goings. Both Ren and Abby Hansen have their papers in and are hoping to leave on missions around the same time. Ren waited to turn in his papers until Abby could. They’re hoping to get their calls this week.

Well, I hope you are enjoying your p-day and getting lots done. I’m going to type a couple blessings this morning. There are always a lot of kids asking for blessings around the end of the school year so I don’t want to get too behind. Say hi to Sis. Aiton for me and did you happen to get our package last week? I forgot to send your flash drives back, but I’ll try to put them in the next pkg. 

Have a fantastic week!!!

I Love you more than you know,

Mom xxoo