Mother's Day until June 7th

View of the temple from the lower parking lot

Well, remember in the last post I mentioned that my computer was giving me problems.  Well it had a short in the cord.  When I purchased a new cord it blew out something  that needed to be fixed and that is the reason that I have not written for a month because it has taken them that long to fix it.  Valarie Sweat posted on Facebook that she missed my blog so I am glad to know that someone is counting on it besides my Mom and Judy.

Maggie is growing

After Mother's Day things settled down for a while as Nathan was at Marcy's and we had little to do other than work in the office.  We started going to the Temple on Tuesday's each week.  The Woodlake ward has temple night on the 3rd Tuesday for the 8:00 p.m. session so we go to that session on that night but by the time we get out of that it is too late to do that every week so we go to the 6:30 p.m. session the other days.  We have some cards that Michelle sent us to do but we also found out that some of those have already had the work done so they must have been printed before Family Tree and being able to print your own FOR.

Kyle and Nathan at Senior Dinner

We didn't have to pick up David for Mutual because they had a world wide video conference with David Bednar so we were planning to pick up Isaac and Sammy on the 13th for Scouts but then they had Scouts canceled and so we ended up not going to Woodlake because it was the 2nd week and at that time we could not get in the Family History Center because of staff meeting being that night.

Larry with Elder and Sister Antuar from Australia

We had a pretty easy week at the Mission Office.  I often got my work done and was looking for things to do this week.

Sister Clark with Elder and Sister Williams

We were struggling financially this week so we did not pick up the kids for Thursday night on the 14th of May but then we did have them overnight on Friday the 15th.  We had them here at the apartment and apparently I took no photos so that was unusual.  Saturday morning I took Maggie to dance and Larry stayed home with the boys.  They had fun playing on their electronics.  I took a picture of Maggie that week because she had grown taller and sent it to Nathan.  It seemed that her legs had grown 3 inches.  When she went to put on the Sophie pajamas that Nathan bought her she was longer in her waist length too and they did not fit anymore.

All of our Presser/Christiansen family at the blessing

Larry and the boys spent time at the apartment and then we took the kids back Saturday afternoon.  We only kept the kids for Friday night because it was our Anniversary and we wented to celebrate that and it was also Stake Conference night meeting and we could not take the kids to that and have no babysitters here to watch them.  We tried to trade weekends with Sara but she already had the plans for the kids for the fourth weekend.

We went to Applebee's for our anniversary with a gift card Michelle and Daniel had given us and enjoyed that.  Then we ended up going to the meeting.  I think the Saturday Adult session of Stake Conference is always a spiritual treat that you do not get as much of for the Sunday session.  It is like getting meat of the Gospel rather than milk.

BJ and Holly had Ciely Rose blessed this weekend in Utah and we were sorry that we could not be there.  We would have loved to see her in person and be there and participate in the blessing but we did not feel like it was what we should be doing and despite the fact they offered to pay for part of the tickets to get there we decided to stay home and celebrate our anniversary together. I was so happy that they posted pictures of the day on Facebook so that we could see who was there and participate that way.  It was hard for me to stay home.

Nathan with Cieli Rose

The next week was kind of slow also at the office.  Because we didn't have to go home to feed Nathan the last month we are getting a little more done, but I never minded going home to feed him.

Nathan, Kirsten, BJ with Cieli, Maren, and Erick

We took the kids to Scouts and had our usual dinner with the little kids at McDonald's before Scouts that night.  And we worked at the Family History Center.  They decided to open it on Wednesday with us as two of the permanent workers until September.

Thursday night we picked the kids up and took them out to dinner from 6:00-8:00 p.m.  That worked out for Sara as she had a play that she was starring in at the Harliquin Theatre.  Later that night Sara asked us to look for David's phone.  It was in the car to the side of the seat where it had fallen out of his pocket when we looked the next day.  We didn't have time to take it to him as we were planning to go to Kerrville.

The weekend of the 22nd and 23rd we went to Kerrville.  We had a good time there.  John and Judy talked us into going to the 1st Cav Reunion in a few weeks and we made a motel reservation.  We were surprised that they took out the money for the reservation when we made the appointment.  On our way home we took the phone to David so he would have it.

Kyle dropping off his supplies for his Senior Project

one of Kyle's Senior Pictures

Our oldest grandson Kyle Blunt graduated from high school on Tuesday the 26th of May.  We would have liked to be there but because it is transfer week we didn't feel like we could take off the time from the mission.  So, we asked him if he would like to come down and spend a week with us here in the mission and he agreed to do that June 1-8.

Sister Presser, Sister Sadler, Sister Jenkins, and Sister Williams

As I said this week was transfer week and I ended up going to the lunch for the returning missionaries to help Sister Williams as Brother Williams had a doctor's appointment.  I wanted to be there because there were several missionaries that we really liked that were going home.  Larry however was having many problems with cars that day so he did not get to go and say good bye.

Sister Presser, Elder Pope, Elder Goodman

Wednesday was Incoming missionaries which Larry and I feed.  We had a really small group this time.  Only two incoming missionaries and 28 went home but it is just about as much work to prepare for 2 as 33.  They are trying to cut down on the number of missionaries we have.  When we arrived we had 284 missionaries but now we have 217.

It rained a lot this week.  We went to the Transfer meeting in San Antonio and also in Austin.  It was frustrating though because we ended up having to go to the Office and then back to the Stone Oak Chapel(about 20 minutes one way) to get some things done because Elder Presser had one of the cars in trouble and he had to go to the office for that and then some Elders that were switching cars ended up not having any keys to go home and we had to take some back to Stone Oak before going to Austin.  We tried to hurry but apparently they started the meeting about 10 minutes early and so by the time we got there Elder Williams had to give our talks.  So except for the mail it felt like we went to Austin for nothing.

Sister Presser, and Elder Hunter Frampton just found out his brother lives in Kaysville 22nd now

Sister Presser and Elder Nebeker

On our way home from Austin we stopped in Converse and ate and then went to Maggie's preschool graduation.  It was quite the Graduation.  It had everything a high school or college graduation had in it.  They even had their own cap and gown.  Sara had play performance that night so she was not able to stay for the whole thing so we took the kids home for her after taking the kids to get a treat at their favorite place, McDonalds.  Maggie looked like she was five going on 15 that night.

Maggie with her preschool teachers

Maggie with one of her pre-school friends

Maggie looking before graduation

Friday morning our neighbor at the apartment came by in the morning and said that her husband was having a stroke and could we tend their grandchild that they have custody of right now.  Of course we said yes.  We got everything organized for the little boy and then Larry tried to help her get Rudy out to the car.  He was having a really hard time trying to walk.  She probably should have called the ambulance but he didn't want her to.  We had the baby all morning.

Elder Graham from Vernal, Elder Hutchings from Lehi, Sister Presser, Elder Larsen from Logan

In the afternoon I was going out to the talent show for Isaac at his Elementary school.  He had auditioned and was the only 4th grader selected.  He did a puppet show.  I recorded it but I don't know if it will upload to the blog.  It was really clever.  Sara has been teaching her students how to make puppets and so Isaac was interested in making some and they worked out a song he could have them sing to. It is perfect for Isaac as he is a little shy but likes to be recognized.  I ended up having to take the baby to the program as Susan had not found out yet what was the problem with Rudy for sure.  It reminded me of the good old days when I had six kids.  Sara was good to help me with him.  He is not a tiny baby.  He is about 18 months.

After that I took the baby back to the office and we had him all afternoon. Susan finally called about 4:30 p.m. as we were going back to the apartment and said that they had confirmed that Rudy had a stroke and that she could take the baby now.  He was a good baby.  Only cried when you stopped the car until he could see that you were going to get him out.

Sister Turpin a personal favorite that has not gone home yet.

Isaac getting his Bear and Faith in God Award

On Friday night was the Pack Meeting and Isaac got his Bear and his Faith in God award.  We were not able to help Sammy get his Bobcat yet but he still has time.  Isaac has been working hard because they are changing the Cub Scout Program in May to a new program and if they finished the old program up by May they could get it on that program but if they waited then they would have to start all over.  His leader worked with them to help them get most of the things that were required but there were a few things that Sara had to work with him on and we worked on one night when he was here.

After Pack meeting we took the kids home for the weekend.  We had a fairly lazy weekend with Ipads and the pool being the main entertainment.  I took Maggie to dance in the morning on Saturday but other than that we stayed close to home and just played with the kids.

Kyle eating the huge deseret at Hard Rock Cafe

We did have a ward party Saturday evening that was a Young Men's activity where they served food from different countries to get them used to eating different cuisine for their missions.  I signed up for Quiche and then realized that I did not have my recipes here.  So Larry went to HEB Central Market and purchased some that was pretty good.  David is Deacon's Quorum President so he went and helped set up and take down and a few other things.

Nathan flew in about 11:00 p.m. so it was really late but he had someone from the ward to pick him up so it was no problem for us.

Kyle flew in that day also.  We picked him up and I think we took him to the office to introduce him and then took him home to rest from his trip.

Looking to the sidewalk cafe from the boat

About 5:00 p.m. we went to Converse to pick up Nathan and Kyle drove his van and we went to the Senior Dinner in New Braunfels at a place called Spud Ranch.  It is actually a fast food place that serves all kinds of dinners on baked potatoes.  I had a steak potato and it was pretty good but not Weight Watchers approved.  We had a good time with everyone and took lots of pictures.  The couple from Australia, the Antuars, are leaving later this month so it was their last dinner.  I have really enjoyed talking to them and and they were always good to talk to Nathan and bring him into the conversation when he was hanging back.

Nathan wanted to buy something for Kyle for his graduation so he talked him into staying at his apartment and they went shopping the next day for Kyle's present and he ended up getting Kyle to take him several places to run errands he wanted to do.  I am sure Nathan had a good time and I hope that Kyle did too.

Bishop Alonzo guiding the boat

We went and got Kyle in the afternoon and then Larry and I took him to the Riverwalk because we had understood our Bishop in the Woodlake Ward here that runs a Riverwalk boat was going to be working and we could get a ride.  We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe out on the patio by the river.  We had a good time and ate too much but it was fun to be with Kyle.  When we went to find the Bishop we could not find him and so I texted him and he was very apologetic because he had meant to text that he would be working on Thursday in the evening but had written Tuesday so we went home.

On the Third day Wednesday we made arrangements for Kyle to go out with Elder Giles and Elder Hendricks for the day.  So he dressed up in his Sunday best and met them at the office and went with them.  They went to a district meeting and then the went out trying to contact some people in the area book.  Kyle said that the weirdest thing was when a man came to the door in his underwear and the Elders just talked to him like nothing was wrong.  He also learned that there are some poorer areas in San Antonio as well as the nice areas.

Maggie enjoying the boat ride

Wednesday night we went to get the kids for Scouts as usual with Kyle.  We also picked up Nathan for his Scout meeting because Kyle could drive.  I tried to get Kyle to go into Mutual with David but he opted to go to the Family History Center with us and text his friends.  When David came in all excited about the game that they played I wished that maybe I had been more assertive about having him go in.

I checked out of the office for a day so that I could go and do something with Kyle while he was here.  I asked him where he would like to go and he chose the Tower of the Americas downtown.  I was excited to see it also as it is something that we have not seen.  It is a lot like the Space Needle in Seattle but it was fun to be in the tower with Kyle and pointing out different land marks that I have become familiar with and he was excited to see the Alamo Dome nearby.  We stayed there and then I asked Kyle where he would like to eat.  He was curious about Whataburger as Elder Giles and Hendricks had suggested they had the best hamburgers in Texas, so we went there for lunch.  I tried to find the one downtown but I did not know where to park when we found it so we decided to go to Converse and eat there at the Whataburger as we were picking up Nathan and the kids to go to the Riverwalk with us in the evening.

Kyle from the Tower of America

Larry was invited to go to the Riverwalk with us but he was having a nervous breakdown about something he had to finish at the office so he opted to stay at the office for the evening to work.

We picked up Nathan and his van and then we went to get the kids.  We ended up parking by a restaurant that Nathan wanted to eat at.  We ended up going to Maria Mia's for Mexican food.  It was good and Nathan was thrilled that his kids actually tried chips and salsa and liked it and ate some.  It ended up taking quite a long time.  We got out of there about 7:15 p.m.  We had to walk about 4 blocks to get to where the Bishop was working out of for his boat.  When Maren and Landon where here we had to wait for about an hour for his boat.  This night we went down to the boat area and traveled to where we were supposed to meet the boat and Bishop Alonzo was just unloading the group from his previous tour.  We were able to get Nathan on the boat with his wheelchair which surprised me and Kyle and the boys were able to sit in the front where they wanted to be.  We didn't finish until about 8:30 or 9:00 and I was worried that Sara would be upset but I forgot that she was performing in her play so she didn't even care because someone was with the kids longer.

Selfie of me and Kyle on the tower

Kyle ended up just hanging out at the house on Friday.  He seemed to want to have a day to sleep in.

In the evening we went out to Converse to Nathan's apartment and had Pizza with him and the kids.  Because he has to have someone there at all times when the kids are there according to the divorce decree Kyle stayed the night with them to help him because the person from the ward backed out.

Looking down from the Tower of America

Saturday Larry had planned to spend the day with Kyle at the Alamo and other sights around there.  I was supposed to get Maggie ready for her dress rehearsal for her dance recital but I also had a hair appointment in town.  We arose early and Larry took me to the office where he picked up a mission car to drive for the day and then he went to get Kyle. I then drove to my hair appointment

On the water fall in front of the Tower

Maggie in her costume

I finished my hair appointment at about noon.  I drove out to Nathan's apartment and I had planned to take Maggie to Chick-Fil-A but when I got there they had just been there and they had been shopping also.  The kids were excited to go to the swimming pool so I went with them for a while and talked to Doug Emmett who was there to help Nathan.  After about an hour I took Maggie and got her dressed and I went to Chick-Fil-A to get me something to eat and then we started out to go to the Theater.  I did not know how to get to the Theater from Nathan's and so I was trying to use Google Maps but for some reason it was not working right and kept telling me opposite things to do.  It also told me to do somethings after I had passed the exit.  Luckily I figured out some things but after I got on the freeway it told me to get off on and exit after I passed it.  So flustered I started trying to figure out what to do.  I passed another exit after it told me to get off and so familiar with the next exit I went off.  It is a circular exit. But then it started telling me turn left, turn right at the same time several times.  I tried to look at the phone for just a second but as I did I turned the car off of the road and up over the curb.  I continued forward and the car hit a culvert coming off of the road.  The impact of hitting the culvert set off the airbag.  It looked like the car was on fire but Larry said that is only a powder in the airbag.  Of course Maggie was upset and felt like she was being choked by the smell and I was upset because now Nathan would have ammunition for his threat that I was not worthy to drive his kids and I was also worried that I would have to call someone to come and get us.  But I decided to try to move forward.  The car drove fine and no one stopped me waving their arms that the car was on fire so I continued on to the theatre to meet Sara so she could put on Maggie's makeup and comb her hair.  For some reason after that the GPS worked fine.

Maggie's class, Maggie is in the middle.  They danced to Candy Man.  They are holding lollipops

Kyle at the Alamo

We were a little late to meet Sara so we just went in and I told Maggie not to mention the accident.  She got her hair and makeup done and we went to the theater.  They let us wait with Maggie in the dressing room until she was called on stage.  Sara stayed until Maggie went on and then left to go with Kenneth.  I took some pictures of Maggie's dance as they said that it was not possible to take them the day of the recital.  Maggie really looked pretty and she loved the costume and the special feeling it gave her of being pretty.  I remember that feeling from my childhood.  She did the dance well.  She actually was the only one who did it right in one section along with the girl next to her.  After she danced she wanted to stay for a minute and watch the next dance.  I think she was excited to see what it looked like from the audience.  Luckily she was ready to go after the next dance.

Battle reenactment

Even though I had driven the car to the theater I called Larry and told him what happened.  I asked him if he wanted to come and look at the car before I drove it further, but he said that if I had driven it that far I could drive it to the apartment.  Maggie came home with me as she was spending the night.  Larry determined that the undercarriage was broken and the air conditioning line was broken and of course the air bag was deployed and so basically the car was totaled.  We have only had liability insurance on the car after the insurance wanted to total it when Larry got in an accident a few years ago so there was no money to pay for any repairs.

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I was just happy that neither Maggie or I was hurt.  Larry was too but he was a sad man.  He loved his classic car and on top of that we really had no money to replace it with.  So he was super stressed out that evening.  Maggie had been worried that Grandpa would be mad at us because we had wrecked his car.  I told her he wasn't mad he was just worried about how to get a new car because we did not have any money thinking that would make her feel better but it only increase her fears for him.  When I put her to bed we had a tender moment where she talked to me about her fears and one was that Grandpa would not have a car.  I told her that it would all work out and that we could get a new car somehow and not to worry.  Larry had brought home a mission car so we used that to go to church the next day and so she thought that was our new car and did not worry about that anymore.  When we were able to get the jeep she was confused about why we did not have the red car anymore.

Larry and Kyle had gone to the Alamo and Ripley's believe it or not, the Wax museum and other things on Alamo Square.  They were able to see a gun fight at the Alamo which is not an everyday thing and Kyle said that they had a good time.  They had actually just got home when I called Larry about 5:00 p.m. and told him about the car.


Sunday we had a good church.  It was fast and testimony meeting and so I bore my testimony that I knew that Heavenly Father had protected us and wanted Maggie to have the experience of a dance recital.  I feel like if the air bag had not deployed that I would have had broken ribs or something like that as my ribs were in the air bag.  I also felt like I might as well tell Nathan because he will eventually figure things out anyway.  Although I don't think he was listening at the time.

Kyle again

Sammy drove home to the apartment with us after church because he wanted to go there.  We had taken all the clothes back to Nathan's apartment so you should have seen his disappointment when he had no clothes to change into when he got home.  He tolerates Sunday Clothes but prefers not to wear them.  He took off all his Sunday clothes and went to the drawer where his clothes had been and then got upset because their were no clothes in his drawer.

Kyle at the Wax museum

Kyle the Astronaut

Sunday night was the recital.  I still wonder if we made the wrong choice to participate on Sunday but at least it was at 6:00 p.m. after church and it didn't cost anything except the parking in downtown San Antonio.  As I needed to meet Sara early so she could put on Maggie's makeup and do her hair Nathan wanted to take everyone at that time.  We found that they had special handicapped booth's that Nathan could go into with all his family and you had an excellent view of things and Sammy had room to move without bothering anyone.  It was funny to see Maggie dancing her own made up dance to about every dance music and it wasn't bothering anyone.

Sara took the kids home immediately after the recital was over and I forgot I had not told her about the accident.  One the way home Maggie told her about it so we had drama texting going on for about the next hour.  So that was a mistake that I made but it is frustrating that everything becomes a drama about how we are taking care of the kids.  But that may be Nathan and Marcy's life for the next 13 years.  We took Nathan home and helped with a few things and then took Kyle with us back to the apartment so we could all get to bed as he was leaving early the next day.