May 3 and before

Some of the cars from Pinewood Derby, the red on the left was the winner

Today was a fun and frustrating day.  We had the kids for Sunday until after church.  They slept in until almost 8:00 a.m.  Then Maggie  came in and wanted some breakfast.  Larry had bought them bacon and mini cinnamon rolls last night when he went shopping.  Some of them also had cereal but when Maggie got her bacon and cinnamon rolls she said, "Grandpa is such a good cook, Huh Grandma?"  I had to agree even though I was fasting.

Sammy's angry birds car on the far left and Issac's Breakfast to go car on the second to end on the right

Getting ready for church wasn't to hard except that I had forgot to get more than one pair of socks for the boys from Nathan's apartment when we went to get stuff for them so they thought I was pretty gross for telling them to wear the same socks another day.

For some reason I was in a lot of pain today.  It comes and goes according to the weather I think.  When we got to church we were a half hour early because Larry had misread the clock and thought it was later than it was.   I had brought tablets for the kids to write on in  church so we got those out and they drew on them fine but for some reason Maggie did not feel like she could draw after the Sacrament meeting started.  She wanted to sit backwards on the bench in front.  She wanted to sit backwards on the bench.  She wanted to read a story out loud.  Then she decided she wanted to go outside.  I told her that she needed to sit down and listen or draw but she moved over by David.  Then David started loudly whispering that Maggie was bugging him.  I got up to go get Maggie and she walked out of the chapel.  I looked for her for 10 minutes.  She was in none of the places we usuallyo go when we go out like the bathroom or outside.  Finally I found her in the opposite foyer just dancing around the lamp.  I tried to get her to come with me but she wouldn't and dropped to the floor.  Then I picked her up and took her to the restroom because I needed to go to the bathroom.  I asked her if she needed to go and she said no.  So we went back into the meeting.  After we got in Sammy wanted to go and get a drink.  He was really good today so I told him yes.  Immediately Maggie starts talking saying that she has to go to the bathroom.  I was very frustrated and I told her she had to wait until Sammy got back.  When he got back she still said that she had to go but of course she had to have me go with her.  As I was shutting the door to the stall the door closed on my finger and it really hurt.  So much so that I started to cry.  When we went back to go in one of my friends in the ward wondered if I was okay.  I went over to show her that it was just my finger before we went back in the chapel.  In that time Maggie found her friend Elizabeth and wanted to play with her.  I told her we needed to go back into  the chapel.  I have never felt it was good to take kids out to play in the foyer because then they want to do it each week.  When we got inside she was still saying that she wanted to play with Elizabeth and she went to the row in front of us.  Larry reached up and whispered to  her to come and sit down by me and to be quiet.  Apparently that was not what she wanted to hear.  So she started to whimper cry.  I told her that she needed to try to stop like I had in the bathroom but she wouldn't and she was disturbing so I took her out and we went to the Mother's room where they have the meeting piped in.  I told her how disappointed I was and that I wanted to hear the meeting and she needed to stop thinking of only herself.  I was proud of myself because I wanted to take her and give her a spanking but I have learned that does not help.  So we sat in the Mother's lounge and I listened to the last two testimonies and tried to calm down.  After Sacrament meeting I took Maggie to primary and after spending the time trying to get away from me she starts to cry that she wants me to stay in Primary with her.  She just clings to me each time.  Luckily Sarah Christensen in the presidency has clued into this and tries to get her involved in helping her or I think she would still be standing there crying and clinging to me.  That was a frustrating day for me.

Sammy and Isaac on the right waiting to begin.

Sunday School we talked about following the Prophet.  He mentioned that President Monson is 87, President Packer is 91, Elder Perry is 92, and Elder Nelson is 91 so all of the people in immediate line for the presidency are in their 90's.  Then Elder Oaks is 83.  We have all been speculating about President Monson's health because he only spoke twice at conference but it said today on Facebook that he is just suffering from old age and still comes to work everyday and is not having any real problems in an announcement from the church.

In Relief Society we talked about Elder Eyring's talk in Priesthood Meeting on Binding others wounds. Essentially it talked about how we are to balance home and family responsibilities as we try to help others.  It pointed out that many times we have to listen to the spirit as we decide what is most important.

We took the kids home right after church while we were down there.

Maggie, Sara and Larry waiting for it to begin

We came home and ate dinner and then we read some scriptures and then took a nap.

I am not sure what time I woke up but a few minutes after Erick called and said that he and Ryker wanted to Skype with me.  Ryker wanted to show me his new notebook for writing in and he made some L's for me. Then he showed me his Perry the Platypus costume from Halloween. Larry woke up about that time and we had a good visit with Erick for about an hour or more.  It was good to talk to Ryker and Erick .

Isaac getting his Bear Award with Sara

On Tuesday of last week I ended up feeling wonderful physically after I talked to the Lord on Monday. 

Refreshments with awards

We got to the office early and I answered a phone call for Sister Williams but I felt like I was supposed to answer it because it was a Mom of one of the missionaries worried about how to buy him a new light for his bike as he had broken it.  After I talked to her I called him and we determined that I would send him a light that had been sitting on my desk for several months after someone left it there.  So then I was able to call the mother back and let her know that we had the problem taken care of.  Sister Williams would not have known that.  Tender mercy.

Larry waited all day to find out when they were going to put Twi's in the 11 new cars he received last week.  He had just given up and decided that it was not going to happen until next week when they called at 5:00 p.m. and said that everything was arranged on Salt Lake's end.  Then Larry had to contact the missionaries and make sure things were happening on his end.

Isaac proud of his Bear Award

If you remember from the post about the 27th we were very frustrated at not being able to find any of Nathan's tools at his apartment to finish the Pinewood Derby cars.  Larry determined it was important to me and so he went and bought the tools that were needed and put the boys wheels on the cars.  He worked on that at the office in the afternoon because at that point he had nothing pressing waiting for Salt Lake.  However when he went to get the tools he also went to the DMV and did the things he need to do for the licenses for the new cars.

The games begin

Wednesday Larry had to get to the office at 8:00 a.m. to begin putting in the Twi's on the new cars.  I dropped him off and went to mail some things for him and then I went to the store to get some fruit for the office to snack on.  By the time I got back they were almost finished with the Twi's and the office was teaming with the Elders and Sisters that had to bring their old cars in to get the new cars.  It was so fun to see them all.

Wednesday evening we had the Pinewood Derby at the ward house.  Sara came and she said that it was not as disciplined as the old unit they used to be in.  But the kids had a fun time.  Isaac won his first two races but then he lost in the third and fourth.  Sammy's car was hard to put the wheel on because he had decorated it with duck tape and it was sticking out next to the wheel and so the wheel was slanted so I think that is why his car was just a hairs slower than the other cars.  He lost all his races but he was happy.  Everyone got a participation ribbon and then the winners got red, yellow and blue.  Sammy got a ribbon so he did not care what color he got .

The white flowered thistle

Isaac also got his Bear awarded to him that evening.  I felt bad that Nathan could not be there because he had worked so hard to help him get his Bear.  Scouts is really important to Nathan and I think that is good.

Maggie and Sammy on our walk

Thursday morning I finished getting all my supply orders in for MLC so I got those printed out and began working on them.

Larry was worrying about how to get all the cars that he had in the parking lot moved because they were saying again that they were going to resurface the parking lot over the weekend and they wanted all the cars out of the parking lot at the building where the office is.  He got the Assistants to help him move most of them to a dead end cul-de-sac in front of our apartment complex.  It has worked good and so far no one has complained.

Strange growing Oak Tree makes for a great playground

Friday we worked more on orders and moving cars at the office.  I had felt pretty good all week but after trying to move only three boxes my Sciatica was acting up again even though the Physical Therapist had released me that morning as being better.

Maggie at dance

Larry had to drive to meet the missionaries from Cibolo to help them put on the Twi after they got a new windshield.  Last time he had this problem they made him put it back on but this time when he got there Safelight had glued it back on the windshield.  So we ended up with lots of time to kill before we met Sara to pick up the kids.  So, we went to Chick-fil-A and had dinner and talked and relaxed for a few minutes.  Then we went to Nathan's apartment where we had agreed to meet and were able to get in and get a few more things for the kids to take to our apartment for the time he is gone.  Sara was going to help us but because we got there early we had it all found and organized and were able to leave.

Friday night we just played games and figured out who was sleeping where.  Maggie wanted to play the Life Zapped game but we had to recharge the IPad it is on. We figured out how to get a show she liked on Amazon Prime and so that was something that she and the little boys enjoyed for most of the night.

Saturday morning we slept in.  We had breakfast and then I took Maggie to dance.  She looked so pretty in her leotard and I should have got a closer picture.  She is really growing taller and she just looked really pretty that morning.

When we got back we went to the park after eating and the kids played on the playground and Maggie and Sammy and I went for a short walk.  They had some thistles in bloom and they had white flowers so I was surprised because all the thistle blossoms that I have seen in Utah had Purple blossoms so I took a picture.  They also had an unusual shaped Oak tree in the park that I took a picture of.

The kids finally got tired and then we decided that we would go home and let them swim.  But only Isaac and Maggie wanted to swim and so Larry stayed with David and Sammy and I took the others to the pool.  I did not feel like swimming so I just watched.  Isaac had fun for a while using his snorkeling gear to swim.  Maggie made a friend with a girl named Evelyn and they played for a while.  Then Evelyn left and Maggie went to watch a Volley Ball Game that some Young Adult men were playing. They look very clean cut so I didn't think it would hurt.  Somehow she got them to play with her and she would catch the ball and other things and throw them back to them.  When Isaac had decide he had enough Maggie was not wanting to come home because she was having fun but I insisted.

Larry went shopping while I started dinner and got some food for treats.  He bought a chocolate, slow churned, no sugar added ice cream that was so good that we ate almost all the carton that night.  We also made s'mores from the supplies he bought.  He bought some giant marshmallow that were so big that they would only fit on the whole rectangular graham cracker after melting.

We watched part of the movie "Meet the Mormons" and then we did an activity from the friend before getting ready to go to bed.  The kids made hand prints to mail to the friend with something that they had done to serve others written on it.  It was a fun time.  Then we played a game of Life Zapped which Larry won.

When bedtime came it was easier to find beds for everyone with Nathan gone but I think the kids missed him because they kept asking where he was.