2018 :: week 4

January 20

Elder Gifford Nielson was the visiting authority for our Stake Conference this weekend and the stake presidency and bishops met with him a few times throughout the weekend. At their post-conference meeting they took this picture. Anthony has been bishop now for 3 years and 3 months. Of the nine bishops in our stake only four have been in longer than him, though one of those was called the Sunday before. In other news, our van would not start before church and my parents graciously picked me and the kids up to take up to the meeting. Anthony left early with our Kia. Luckily we still all fit in the Kia and were able to use it to get around the rest of the day. Our van battery is officially dead. That night we watched the Chiefs take on the Patriots in the AFC championship game. Will (and all of KC) was left heartbroken with the result.

January 21

Because Anthony was busy with church related things most of Saturday (baptism in the morning and meetings all afternoon and evening) it was nice having a Monday holiday. We were able to get the battery replaced in our van, make a trip to IKEA, and most importantly spend time together as a family. We bought a new dresser for Will at IKEA. In the coming months we are going to do some room swapping. That evening we played Sleeping Queens and watched a few episodes of the Carmen San Diego show on Netflix. Throughout the weekend and rest of the week the kids have played a pretend version of Carmen San Diego. Whenever Elliott tells me he is looking for the gumshoes it makes me smile.

January 22

Wednesday was scheduled to be the 100th day of school, and as such each of the first graders was asked to come to school with a shirt with 100 items affixed to it. Lauren chose 100 hearts and plans on wearing her shirt for Valentine's Day too. We spent some time after school getting the hearts arranged just so and then I glued them on with a glue gun. That evening we were hit with an ice storm followed by about an inch of snow. The ice combined with the cold temperatures caused the district to cancel school for the following day, thus pushing pack the 100th day to Thursday.

January 23

Every family needs a Will. Every time it has snowed this year, Will has taken it upon himself to shovel our driveway. The last storm was big enough he needed some extra help, but this time around he was able to clear the driveway on his own. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 10:45am Wednesday morning. Our road was a little slippery, but as soon as we got on the main roads in our neighborhood the streets were fine. I know the district has to take a lot of factors into consideration before cancelling school, but I am fairly confident our kids could have made it to school just fine. Oh well, it was nice having a quiet day where we didn't have to worry anything other than getting to and from my appointment.

January 24

I have been helping with reading fluency tests in Lauren's classroom on Wednesday mornings for the past few weeks. Because school was cancelled on Wednesday I went in on Thursday instead. I got there just as the first graders were ending their march through the school and lining up for a picture in the cafeteria. It was fun to see how creative the kids were with their shirts. The exciting extended family news of the day is that Hillary gave birth to Lucas, three weeks early!

January 25

Elliott and I have been delivering Meals on Wheels to the OPN4 route every Friday for the past 18 months. When I have our baby we will be taking a break, I haven't decided yet when we will start up again. A lot of it depends on the temperament of baby #4 and how well my recovery goes. It has been a good way to get out of our comfort zone in the community and get my kids involved in service. Our route took us a little longer this week because of all the ice. Turns out a lot of the home-bound and elderly people we visit aren't great at shoveling their walkways. Good things we had our boots.

January 26

Here we are, reading scriptures before bed, post bath. Lauren, Will and Anthony took turns reading verses and Elliott climbed on Anthony's back. Elliott gets very excited when we talk about John in the scriptures. Another busy Saturday with de-cluttering (in preparation for the room switches), a basketball game (Will's) and a ward activity.