May 9th and before

Today is Saturday and it feels so good to have a weekend all to ourselves.  We slept in until about 8:30 a.m. and took our time getting up and getting dressed.

Nathan and Marcy sent me a beautiful edible arrangement of fruit for Mother's Day that arrived at about 11:00 a.m.

Our Incredible Edible bouquet from Nathan and Marcy

Larry had a person from the Neptune Society come and talk to him about a prepaid cremation for a while.  He wants to be cremated when he dies so this is a way that he can determine that it is done as he wants it done.  We didn't purchase anything at this time but we learned a lot.  I had never heard of the Neptune Society before but apparently they have been around for 50 years helping people with their cremation wishes.

Right now Larry went to get some groceries as we have the kids for a while tonight.  We are taking them to find presents for their mom at Nathan's request and then they are staying for awhile as it is Sara's first night performing her new play and then she will pick them up after.

On Monday earlier in the week it was the day before MLC and I still had 10 Zones orders to fill.  I prayed that Heavenly Father would help me get the orders done or help me find someone that could help me lift the boxes.  I was worried about my hip getting worse again.  So I went with the promise from Larry that he would help me if he could.  When we got there Elder Jason Robert Nelson was going home because he had a fracture in his foot that needed repaired.  As I started I noticed that he seemed to need something to do.  We had talked for a while because he is an Elder from Heber City Utah that had stayed with some cousins of mine after his conversion to the church.  He was asking me if I knew various people in the family and I did so it was fun for him.  So I asked him if he would help me move a few boxes.  I showed him where he could see on the orders how many boxes of the Book of Mormons that they needed.  He didn't stop with just a few.  He got every box of Book of Mormons in both Spanish and English out and stacked and labeled ready for transport to MLC!  That was a great blessing.

I spent the rest of the day packing the other supplies in boxes and after Elder Nelson left then Larry helped me to lift the boxes of those.  When I finished it was around 5:30 p.m.  I considered it a miracle that I had been able to accomplish it as usually it takes me two days with about 6 different zones per day.  Consequently I did not foul up my leg and back like on Friday.

Marcy texted me a picture of Nathan with her youngest son Drayk.  She says that Drayk really likes to climb all over Nathan and nothing makes her happier than to see how cute Nathan is with him.  He is a cute little boy.

Nathan with Marcy's son Drayk

Tuesday Larry had to go and bring the cars back from the cul-de-sac.  He had the moving Elders and the Assistants help him.  They were able to get all of them except two that they could not find the keys for.

I worked on the paperwork that I had to do.  MLC was in Austin this time and so it was pretty quiet at the office because everything was taken in the morning by the moving Elders.  The Williams even stayed back from serving because the Antuars in the Institute at San Marcos fixed the dinner for the Leaders.  So it was a break for us.  I pretty much finished up all the work that I had to work on that day.  I get a little more done because we do not have to go home to fix lunch now Nathan has moved out and gone to Utah.

Tuesday I went to the doctor in the afternoon and she gave me some new medicines and referral for a dermatologist and for Blood work.  I was feeling pretty good that day.  I actually got in and out and was able to get back to the office for another two hours work.

Tuesday night we went to the temple after eating dinner.  We did endowments for two of Larry's ancestors that we got the cards from Michelle and did the initiatory for last week.  It was a good night with more introspection on my part.

Wednesday Larry still had not found the keys to the cars that he had lost.  He asked everyone who drove for him and no one had found them.  He looked every where that he thought they should be also.

My presents from Erick and Heather

I worked on my office work and finished it up at about 1:00 p.m.  When the mail came there was a present for Mother's Day in it from Erick and Heather and Ryker.  Because I was caught up on my work.  I sat and read the little book that they sent from a talk by Patricia Holland.  It was just what I needed to hear.  I have spent a lot of time in retrospection about why I had to experience the dislike I have from some of my children when I have worked so hard to be a good mom to them.  I have spent several hours over several days in prayer about it.  The book was just what I needed to help me move on.  It talks about this idea that she has on how to open your soul.  She says that the soul is in 5 boxes.  The first is opened by prayer to God.  The second is opened by studying the scriptures.  The third by unselfish service and the 4th is opened by humility.  I realized that I am at the 4th step in understanding myself.  I am at the time where I am learning to be humble.  I have had several experiences with people that do not like me and I cannot figure out why because I have always thought I was a pretty nice person and easy to get along with but I have learned that you cannot control what others do and recently I read a book called How to Hug a Porcupine trying to understand Nathan.  In the process I learned that I am somewhat of a porcupine in my personality and that may be the reason that I affect some people the wrong way.  So I am being humbled trying to learn to be less judgmental by being judged by others.  I am also learning to turn more over to Christ as I cannot do some things that I would like to do.  I just have to have faith that he can do what I know I cannot do.

Later in the day I worked on the transfer board for an hour as I remembered that I still had that to do.
Larry had been out of the office and came back and said that it was a good thing he had gone up to the cars because just as he got there the police had come because someone had called about the cars being there.  Larry was able to explain to him his circumstances and not get a ticket.  That was a tender mercy.

Then we left to go and get the kids.  I texted some vin numbers to a key maker while Larry drove out to Converse to pick up the kids from their schools so that we could take them to Scouts.  We have been picking up the little kids and taking them to McDonalds for dinner and then meeting Sara at the Church,  She takes the kids that do not have scouts and leaves David for his Scouts and Mutual and then while they are in Scouts we go to the Family History Center that they have there and help people with their family history.  Then we take the boys home after Scouts.

We did not have the people show up that said that they would be there but a group of Young Men came in to do some indexing so it is probably best they didn't because there were not many computers left.  So I went on line to learn more about the person I had done endowments for on Tuesday.  I found out that she was a cousin to one of Larry's Great Great Grandfathers.  As I played around on Family Search I found four of her kids that had not been there before so I have some people that we can take to the temple for David to do Baptism's for the dead sometime.  I am also learning the great value of doing descendency work to find names for the temple.  It was exciting to find someone that was actually not on Family Search Family Tree in the records.

Thursday we got up and went to breakfast at Taco Cabana because we had no milk and Larry was waiting for the key man to call and have him meet him at the cul-de-sac so he could get the keys for the cars he needed to move.  After eating we went up there and read scriptures and facebook while we were waiting for him to come.  He finally came and he started on the first car but he could not get it to work because of an electrical code problem.  So he started working on the other car.  There was nothing I could do in this so I read a book I had on Kindle.  At 10:30 a.m. I finally called Sister Williams to tell her where we were.  He got the second car to go and then he and Larry went back to the other and tried to jump it.  After another hour of work Larry finally came and told me to drive our car around and they used it to jump the one car.  Then he told me to take our car and go into the office.  So I did.

I got to the office and began working and Larry came in and we worked for a few minutes and then he wanted me to drive him to get the other car.  So I did.  While I was there I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions and then went to get some milk and fruit so we would not be out again because we had been out for three days because we didn't want to take the time to get it.  Consequently I was gone from the office for another hour.  When I got back I was able to do the paperwork that needed to be done for the day.  I kept thinking that it was Friday for some reason so I was hurrying to get somethings done and then later I realized that it was Thursday and I had worried ahead.

David at Red Robin

Thursday night we went to get David and took him to dinner for his birthday.  His birthday was actually on Friday the 8th but we thought we would give Sara that time with him and so we planned on Thursday.  We decided to take him by himself because he tends to move to the background and we do not get to talk to him with the little kids around.  We started out to go to Freddy's steakhouse and frozen custard but when we got to the Forum shopping center he changed his mind and wanted to go to Red Robin.  So we went there.  We had a good time talking to him and learning a little more about what he is thinking and what is important to him.  They sang a Happy Birthday song to him and gave him a Sundae and then we went to Toys R Us and he picked out a game that he liked after about a half hour of shopping and looking.  He got the Mario game for Wii.

Our book from BJ and Holly

Friday we actually got to the office early and worked all day and accomplished all that we needed to do.  We went to get the mail on the way to the office and there was a package for us.  We opened it on the way to the office trying to figure out who and what sent it.  When we finally got it opened it was a book that BJ and Holly had made with pictures from our trip to Hawaii when we visited them.  We had fun showing it to several of the people that came into the office to see us that day.

Larry was actually a little frustrated later in the day after paying $300.00 for the two keys the assistants came back to the office, at the end of the day, and said that the keys for the two cars they found on the seat of the Jeep they borrowed.  So either the Lord found them and put them there or someone did not look very good when they were driving that vehicle.

Our chocolate strawberries from Jake and Nikki

Friday we went home and found a package at out door.  It was a package from  Shari's Berries.  When we opened it it was Chocolate covered strawberries from Jake and Nikki.  Of course we ate a couple each and posted the picture on Facebook so they knew we got it and ate dinner and went to bed to get the rest we needed for the kids coming on Saturday.