July 4th and before

Larry and I are celebrating our independence by doing what we want today which isn't much.  The grandkids are with their mother and we did go to Converse to a park and celebrate the 4th with our ward by having breakfast in the park but then we came home and took a nap and it is 1:30 p.m. and we are just restarting the day.  Kirsten sent me some cute pictures of Maren's kids waiting for the parade and BJ posted pictures of Cieli's swim in the ocean.

Wednesday was a busy day at the office.  I was able to fill all the other orders except 1 box of Book of Mormon's for Border. The other Book of Mormon orders did not come in so the Lord just supplied what I needed.  The Assistants and others were at the meeting in Austin so it was easy to get the work done on the computers.

Wednesday evening we went to the Family History Center in Windcrest but before we met the missionaries from Woodlake ward and fed them at McDonald's.  The are such good Sisters.  The president has been asking them to study the Doctines of the Gathering of Israel and then learn from other people how they study and they were asking us what we do when we study and what we had learned from it.

Sister Gibson and Sister Angulo

No one came to the Family History Center  again but we were able to get some sources on difference ancestors in Family Tree.

Thursday was MLC in San Antonio.  After the meetings several of the missionaries showed up for various reasons.  It was good to see them and help them to get what they needed.

Elder Williams, Sister Williams, Sister Turpin, Sister Presser, Elder Presser

Larry had a missionary that was caught by the Tiwi's going 98 in a 75 per hour zone.  Salt lake called him and let him know so Larry had the privilege of informing him that he will not drive for the rest of the mission.

Larry took me to Arby's for lunch and I enjoyed that.

In the evening we went to New Braunfels to meet some people that I knew in Vernal, Bob and Carol Vincent.  We met them at Rudy's BBQ in New Braunfels along with their daughter Nikki and her kids.  It is supposed to be the king of BBQ here in the mission.  Even Jeff came home loving it.  But we were a little disappointed after going to Blanco for so many reasons during the mission.  I know that sometimes you get to love one thing and then it is hard to change but I really like Blanco BBQ best.  Some of the missionaries said that they liked Rudy's creamed corn best but I like Blanco's best.

Nathan at the Ward 4th of July Breakfast

Carol has always told me that she lived near New Braunfels but when they took us to see their new house after we ate we traveled for about 20 minutes to the Canyon Lake area.  It is a beautiful area of wooded oak forests.  We had never been there so it was fun to see.   Nikki's husband has bought 11 acres that he is developing and so they live out by themselves.  Bob and Carols house is a smaller house to the side of Nikki's so they are by themselves but Nikki is there to help them.  It was a beautiful home.  Carol has always had a knack for decorating and she has it beautiful.  Mike, Nikki's husband, built it to wheelchair accommodations in case Bob, who has Alzheimers, needs a wheel chair in the future.  They had many things that would work for Nathan that he could have built into a home for him to make things more accessible so I was hoping that I could show it to him sometime.  It was so much fun to spend time with them and see where they are now.

Elder Presser, Sister Presser, Sister Davis, Sister Williams, Elder Williams, President Slaughter

President Slaughter with Sister Davis and her family

Friday was a busy day at the office.  We had several different visits from missionaries who have gone home and their families.  Sister Aley Davis came with her family from California and it was fun to see her.  She is the one that I got lost with on the way to San Antonio earlier in the mission and I have had a fond place for her in my heart.  Then later Sister Medina who served for several months in Woodlake came with Sister Woodward.  Unfortunately we did not get a picture with them.  They were down for a wedding of someone that they knew here.

Earlier in the morning Sister Turpin was in for a zone conference and they are using her to train on IPads even thought she has gone back to the field.  She is going home on the 27th of July and was worried that she might not get pictures then so we all took pictures of her with us.

Brinlie and Gauge on the 4th

Most of this time I was trying to find things at the office to do but the Assistants were using the computers trying to get ready for the next thing that they have to do and so after I got them to help me put the Book of Mormon boxes under the shelving so they were out of the way Larry and I went to Arby's again to eat.  We just relaxed for a while and then we went back.  When we got back we tried to do some work but really could not without the computers so we went home about 3:45 p.m.

I was tired because I had stayed up too late the night before so we just took a nap when we got home.

When we awoke about 7:00 p.m. we ate the rest of the Barbecue from the night before and read our scriptures and went to bed because we had to get up early for the Woodlake Ward 4th of July Breakfast.

Kirsten's selfie on the 4th

The ward 4th of July Breakfast

Saturday we woke up and got ready for the breakfast at about 6:00a.m. but we were still late for the breakfast.  But there was plenty of food and we sort of pigged out while we talked to people.  We ate muffins and doughnuts and sausage which were not exactly Weight Watchers friendly but we didn't seem to care.

While we were there we saw Nathan but he didn't say much.  Ken Jackson who is helping Nathan a lot since his move because he lives in the same apartment complex said that he was helping him get into bed at night and doing things for him that he had done for himself at our apartment and that worried me because he seems to be deteriorating some but then he told me that he had a fight with Marcy and she said that she was not coming to Texas.  I was upset all day after that.

Max on the 4th

Larry and I went home and took naps again.  When I woke up I wanted to move around and do something but Larry just wanted to rest so finally I went for a walk and tried to sort things out in my mind.  We are out of money and have no source of income for the rest of the month and I was also mad at myself about that.  I finally decided that we had to get some bare necessities of food with the little we have and so I went shopping to get that and some hair serum that I needed for my hair.

It seemed like all day I was hot then the air conditioning was too cold and back to hot.

Cieli and BJ celebrating the 4th Hawaiian Style

I have wanted to go and do something with Nathan all week because I was feeling bad that no one was here for him except us as family so I finally told Larry I was going to go visit him but Larry didn't want to go.  So I went down to see him and took him some mail that we had.  I got some school pictures of Maggie from him checked to see if he needed anything but he said that he had eaten and didn't want to go anywhere.  I talked with him for a few minutes and then Marcy called and so I told him I was going home. 

Lots of fruit at the Breakfast so I had no excuse to over eat!

About that time Marcy texted me her side of the arguement and so I felt a little better because she didn't say she wasn't coming to Texas but was responding to some texts of his that made her feel like he did not want her to come and bring her stuff.

When I got home I was hurting emotionally and physically so much that I went to bed.  I had forgotten to take my pills at two and I was really having a hard time so I took the pills and laid down to listen to Larry read scriptures and fell asleep.  When I awoke I felt much better but I continued to sleep the rest of the night.