September 29th and before

Well as you know it has been 20 days since I posted.  It seems that every Sunday lately I am too involved to do it or too tired.

Yesterday we went to church as usual.  It was fast Sunday in our ward because of General Conference next week.  Woodlake ward has a private chat or I think I would not have known that.  It was a good meeting.  But there is nothing that stood out that I wanted to share other than that Sister Beckstead who just left the mission on the 17th was back visiting and it was so good to see her.

The table we sat at with Antuars, Adairs and President and Sister McCullough

I was fasting to understand Nathan because he has been so grumpy lately.  In Sunday School the lesson was on the gospel principle of Charity.  I felt like it was telling me that I needed to be more charitable.  I spent a lot of time later talking to Heavenly Father about how I can do that.  I think I am charitable but I also loose my temper pretty easy sometimes when he is being obnoxious.  I just want my children to like me for everything I do but I know that is an unrealistic expectation.

Sister Slaughter, the Garffs, the Williams and President Slaughter standing

The Sandquists, one of the couples leaving

I slept for most of the afternoon after helping Nathan change his clothes.  When I awoke Larry and Nathan were out in the garage going through Nathan's things trying to find a binder he has with his credits for Social Work in it.  I helped for a while but then we all grew tired and we went in and I started fixing dinner.  By the time we ate it was time for Prayer and Scripture and so we did that and went to bed.  Sometimes after I have slept like that it is easy for me to stay up and do the blog but not yesterday.

Just as I was going to bed, Erick called and I was able to talk with him for a while.  Ryker had just got the postcard I sent him and so they wanted me to know that.  Ryker had had a bad dream so he started telling me about lions going down the stairs after him.  He was all excited because Heather is making him a Perry the Platypus costume for Halloween and they had just put up their Halloween decorations.

The Eslicks are leaving tomorrow and DeNile Williams

Saturday I did not feel good all day but I worked on bills and budget in the afternoon after I had fallen asleep for about 2 hours.  Larry was bobbing around doing all kinds of projects at the house but I was feeling like I didn't have the energy to do anything and I was hurting a lot all over.  After falling asleep I felt better.  I was able to figure out the budget we needed for the month and determine where we needed to cut back with Larry's input.

The Clarks next to the Eslicks again

Saturday evening I went to the San Antonio East Stake potluck dinner they had before the Women's meeting was broadcast.  It was such a fun experience as all the sisters in Woodlake ward kind of congregated together and there were so many fun things to eat that I overate.  I felt so included in then ward and realized that I had so many new friends in the ward.

I really enjoyed the Women's meeting.  I felt the spirit so strong and each talk had a message for me.  After some of the Sister missionaries came up and gave me a hug and said how much they loved me and that they appreciated all that we do for them.  They said we are like having parents here for them.  It made me feel so good to have them say that because I often feel inadequate and wonder if I am doing any good so it was so nice to have someone be positive about what we are doing.
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Friday I went to get my hair done and then I went to the office.  We had just finished devotional and Nathan texted me and told me that the toilet in his bathroom was overflowing and he couldn't stop it.  I called management about it and then went home to see if Nathan needed anything.  When I got there the cleaning personnel where there already vacuuming up the water.  It really went out into the hallway and they had to take out the carpet pad and set up a fan to blow the carpet dry.  They are coming on Tuesday to put in the new pad and deodorize the carpet.  I love that I can call and

Brother Garff with the M. Williams our office buddies

grateful for a place to live that cleans up the messes that we get and wondering why I have wanted to have my own house for so long.  I know that I could get a bad apartment but this apartment is very accommodating to clean things and fix things immediately.

I took Nathan with me back to the office and then when is was 5:00 p.m. I took him to pack meeting.  He is the Pack committee chairman and so feels like he needs to be there.  Isaac was not able to come so that was disappointing.  It was a fun pack meeting but Nathan was upset with some things I did and so that dampened the fun.  It was also raining and that was not making me feel good.  Nathan's church only has one way for him to get in and they usually open the door on the opposite end of the chapel for activities so someone has to run from the van parked by that door and go in to the other door at the end of the church and then run back up the hall to open the door for Nathan because the doors do not open from the outside.  I know I should be grateful they have a handicapped door and that we have a chapel!! But it is still frustrating when it is raining.

President Slaughter talking to the Clarks

The Magonigals are leaving this month also

Thursday  we were able to see the movie "Meet the Mormons"  with the missionaries in the South, West, and Hill Country zone.  The church has allowed the missionaries to see it at zone conference because they are not supposed to go to the theater.  I highly recommend it.  It is such a good movie.  We found out today also that it will be opening in San Antonio on Oct 10th so we had a lot of people go in and ask for it to be shown here.

Nathan and Larry

We had signed up to feed the missionaries in Woodlake ward but because we live a half hour away and they cannot come to our area we had to go to that area right after the movie and take them out to eat.  We went to Chili's in Converse.  It was fun to get to know the missionaries because they are new to the area except for Sister Swenson.  Then we asked Sara to bring the kids there for their Thursday night visit.  So we fed the missionaries at 5:00 p.m. and the kids at 6:00 p.m.  Larry was tired and worried about money so he did not enjoy this and let me know he did not want to do this again.  We went to Walmart for a few minutes so Nathan could get something and then we took the kids to the theater where Sara is doing her play and Maggie to the babysitter.

Wednesday was a welcome day because we finally got paid our Social Security and we had run out of money for the week.

Sister Slaughter with the Garffs

Antuars our couple from Australia and Sister Adair

Monday was the Senior Dinner that we have after Transfer week.  We went to New Braunfels to the Olive Garden.  It was fun to see everyone. President Slaughter and his wife came and President McCullough and his wife came which was unusual but probably because we have 4 couples leaving the mission this next month so we were telling them goodbye.  I did not get my meal until everyone was just about finished so I got it for free.  I don't know what the problem was but I could live with a free dinner.

Presdient and Sister McCullough the counselor in the mission presidency

June

Last Sunday I was trying to get dinner ready for the kids before we took them back.  I was making pasta with Alfredo Sauce and as I took the Pasta off to drain it I decided to drain it into the sink even thought there were dishes in the sink.  That was a big problem.  The boiling water came out of the dishes and went all down my left leg.  It was boiling hot.  I also had bare feet so even thought I jumped in the tub and turned on the cold water I ended up with some serious burns but I know that it could have been worse.  I spent about an hour total in cold water and was finally able to get the burning to cease by putting lotion on and taking some anti-inflammatory.  Larry was very helpful with his knowledge of how to treat burns from being a fire fighter in the Air Force.  He has bandaged the burn on my foot everyday for me and it does not hurt during the day.

A week ago Saturday we had the kids and we went to the Wounded Warrior Breakfast at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and then spent a lot of time at the playground and other facilities that they have there.  The kids really seemed to like that.  They have a wonderful breakfast.

Nathan with Sister Leslie Williams

I think for the weeks before this I am just going to post the pictures and label what we were doing.

The blister on my foot at first

The blister on my foot on the 28th

Sammy in his coat of many colors that is a size 4 but he wanted it anyway

June with Elder Rasmussen, he reminds me so much of Erick my son in mannerisms and looks

At transfer meeting in Austin with Elder Vazquez a great zone leader

Nathan's storage pod waiting for us to unload it on the 12th into the garage that he rented

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Sister Beckstead, Sister Medina, Sister Swenson the Woodlake Sisters before transfers  when we took them to Orange Leaf before Transfers when Sister Beckstead went home and Sister Medina went to Cuelbra Creek

Clifford the big Red Dog came to Wounded Warriors Bingo Night and gave all the kids three books.  When we went back on Saturday for Breakfast this picture was on the slide show they were showing as we walked in.  Kind of a Tender Mercy for me and the kids.

Isaac is making it his goal to go across the monkey bars by himself.

Maggie is Elsa in her ice castle when she get on the play ground at Wounded Warriors

Isaac is the bad guy that got swallowed by the fish but is getting spit out

Playing in the Amphitheater at Wounded Warriors Site

The seating at the Amphitheater wide enough for wheelchairs

Isaac took pictures on the way home.  This is Sammy playing on the Ipad

Isaac's picture of Maggie staring off at something

One of about 10 selfies that Isaac took of himself coming home

Isaac's carrots just starting to grow after a week

Isaac's carrots the next day

David's plant the second day

Isaac's carrots a few days later and Maggies flower after it was dead headed

Isaac's carrots, Sammy's Flower and David's plant the same few days later

Isaac's carrots on the 27th are starting to look like Carrot leaves

Maggie's flower blooming again on the 27th

David's plant on the 27th is becoming a vine and climbing the fence

 If the videos upload one if of the kids doing a made up play at the amphitheater and the other is a video that Isaac shot when we were coming home which pretty much shows what it is like to ride with the kids in Nathan's van.  It may not appear because it said it was too large.

September 8 and 9

Monday we went into the office early because the assistants were not coming in to do their work until Wednesday. After devotional then we went to Weight Watchers and weighed in.  I was excited because I had lost almost 4 lbs.  Larry was not so excited because he had gained.  We went home and had lunch with Nathan and then went back to work.

Larry had to take the Mission President's old car into Pep Boys to get an estimate on repairs as the President got a new car on Friday.  Then he had to go to the DMV to get a registration that the zone leaders had lost replaced.  The afternoon he spent filling out mileage reports for the month of August in the computer.

I spent the day trying to get caught up with the referrals that I had not been able to fill in on Thursday and Friday.  It took most of the day to get them entered and to send out the referrals from the week before from the media.

I started this on the 9th but now I have not the foggiest what happened on the ninth and I was interrupted when I was typing and have not gotten back to it until now.
 

Sept 7th and before

You would not know it is getting to be fall in Texas.  It is still in the 90's most everyday.  It rained two days this week and cooled down to the 80's so we are still right up there with summer.

It is always a crazy day when the kids are here and today was no exception.  Although I think the devil heard us talking last week about how Sunday's are so hard to get the kids up and then last Monday when we had the kids for Labor Day they got up so easily. So to prove to us that it was not him, today they were not so hard to get up for church and we had no major meltdowns in the morning.  Everyone got ready and got dressed before we needed to leave and there was no major problem.  It was wonderful.

As it was fast and testimony meeting today there were a variety of testimonies.  Nathan usually bears his testimony and today was no exception.  Another lady Melissa Hoffer bore her testimony as she just had a new baby and is really enjoying the new baby.  She said though that Nathan was an inspiration to her and that when she feels like she is having a hard day she thinks about what it must be like for Nathan and realizes that he has not given up and she thinks that if he can keep going that she could keep going.

I felt like I should bear my testimony about the hastening of the missionary work.  I don't know what it is like in other missions but I give out 30 boxes of English Book of Mormons each month to the missionaries and about 5-10 boxes of Spanish Book of Mormons.  Each box of English books has 40 in it and the Spanish have 36.  It is always amazing to me that the amount never goes down.  And the other supplies are equally as plentiful.  I gave out 4 boxes of Restoration pamphlets and more than that other months.  There are at least 5-20 referrals everyday and it is amazing to me that the work just keeps growing.  Just in the ward that we are in there have been about 5 referrals in the last two weeks.  To me this is amazing.  The mission is on fire and we are baptizing about 70 a month lately.  I know that is not as many as some of the South American countries but I think I had been fooled into thinking that there was not much activity in the United States because it is so hard to find a convert in Utah.

On Monday the 1st we had the kids all day because it was our weekend and it was a holiday.  We went grocery shopping at the new Walmart that just opened about a block from us and Nathan bought the kids a few more clothes there that the kids needed.  He bought David some black boots for Sunday shoes and Maggie a new Hello Kitty dress for church.  We also got her some black Sunday shoes.  We also watched a movie and then the kids had to be back at 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday and Wednesday were very hectic days at the office.  I had a lot of Referrals to get in and Baptisms to type in plus we were trying to contact the incoming missionaries that had not sent in their car and bike information so we could get it before they went into the MTC. Plus I had to take Larry to the shops sometimes so he could pick up the cars when they were repaired or given estimates.   Elder Presser had an accident that was a missionary's fault as they rear ended a car that was stopped at a yield sign.  He has had a lot of different car problems lately and some of them he is concerned about how they are driving.

Thursday the church picked up 10 cars that had been removed from our fleet and Elder Presser had to make sure they were all fixed for sale and detailed before they came and so he was very busy for the last two weeks taking cars here and there.  It was interesting to see how they loaded the cars onto the truck.  Larry commented that the driver sure knew what he was doing to get the load balanced on the truck.

I was so busy during the week that I didn't have time to get the orders for supplies filled for MLC like I usually do.  So I was working all day on filling orders and getting them boxed up for the Zone Leaders to take home with them after the conference on Friday.  I worked up until 5:30 p.m. but then we had to go and get the kids.  When I checked my active link and I had 7 activity points for Weight Watchers and so I decided I need to work more at filling orders.  I didn't have all of the orders boxed up for Friday but we had to get the kids so I left.

Nathan and Larry's pineapple plant.  See the baby pineapple on it.

We went to the Post Exchange for dinner with the kids because Nathan wanted to check there for some things.  It was my first experience with the PX that people are always talking about.  The one here is kind of like a mini mall.  The kids enjoyed the Pizza that we got but they were not so happy about the shopping.  It reminded me of when John would shop and I was supposed to keep the kids happy.  It was not one of my fondest memories and Maggie and Sammy thought this was a time to act crazy and grab anything they liked so I hope we don't so that again.  By the time we got out of there all the kids were not happy either because we bought nothing for them (except food) so it was not our favorite night.  They asked if the next week we could go to Bingo night which surprised me as they usually have acted like they do not like to be there.

Isaac planted carrots rather than flowers

Friday was hectic for me in the morning because I was trying to finish up the orders by boxing them up and I also had to include the mail and the Ensigns and Liahonas that the church had sent for the missionaries.  I had called the moving Elders and asked them to come in later as I didn't have them ready and they agreed to come at about 10:00 a.m.  I got most of it done but I ended up having them help me box the last three orders.  I was embarrassed that they had to help me but they are always so kind and so wanting to help that it makes me just love them.  After all the years of having students who make it their point to make fun of you it is so nice to work with people who are kind and helpful and always thankful for what you do.

David, Sammy and Maggie's plants.  David's is seeds planted

Friday Sara brought the kids at 6:00 p.m. all except David who wanted to go to the school Football game.  Earlier she had said that she wanted us to take David to the game but at the last minute he got a ride with his friends.  So Nathan and Larry had decided that they would just take David to the game and stay for the game and then bring David home.  Therefore they went out to the game early and watched it.  Grandpa said that David's friend was a girl and that he sat with her for a while and then he came and sat with them.  The Randolph RoHawks must be pretty good as they won by about 53-0 but it was such a boring game that David wanted to leave at the half.

David's flower is coming up already from seed

While they were at the game I hung out with Maggie, Sammy, and Isaac.  They wanted to play on their electronics but when they started fighting I suggested that we go to the pool and they liked that idea.  It was almost dark but the pool is open until 10:00 p.m. so it was fun to see the pool all lit up and there was only one other family there so the kids had fun with them.  We stayed until about 9:00 p.m. and then they went home and took a bath and wanted hot chocolate because they got cold swimming even though it was not cold.

Friday night my brother Keith contacted me about setting up a link through a program he has that allows you to connect with 25 other people.  He wanted to have us all call in for Mom's birthday party that they were going to have on Saturday.  I worked on that while the kids were on their electronic games and we got it all set up to work.  I sent the link to all my kids but I don't know if they got it.

Maggie, Isaac, and Sammy's birdhouses

Saturday Nathan wanted to take the kids to the home depot to attend one of their craft classes.  They were making bird houses.  David didn't want to do it so he helped Isaac who loves this kind of thing.  Sammy said he didn't want to do it but when he found out that he couldn't have any of the treats they had for completing a house he changed his mind.  Larry helped Maggie do hers and I helped Sammy.  They neither one could hammer the nails that needed to be used to put the houses together.  Larry helped Maggie put the stickers on hers that were from the Wizard of Oz but Isaac and Sammy wanted to paint theirs.  It wasn't as messy as last time but it was still messy and Maggie and I got paint on our shirts.

After making the houses Nathan wanted to get some pots for Isaac to plant things in but then everyone wanted to get a pot and a plant so we ended up getting some for each of the kids and a pineapple plant for Nathan and Larry.  We came home and planted them and the kids really enjoyed them.  David actually texted pictures of the flowers that he like best to his girl friend to see what she liked before he bought his.  The only problem is that now we do not have the kids for two weeks and we have plants that need to be taken care of.

This is the plant that David picked out with his girlfriend

At 1:30 p.m. we were able to link with the others that were calling in and sing Happy Birthday to Mom.  It was fun for the kids to see the others and I enjoyed seeing the family in Utah.  Mom waved to us but it was hard to talk to her.  I was really appreciative that Keith had gone to the trouble to offer the link for us to be there for a few minutes.  I was disappointed that more people did not take advantage of the opportunity.

Saturday evening Nathan was invited to a dinner at the Studevants, the military relations missionaries for the church here that have done so much for him.  We decided it would be easier for him to not have to take the kids and so we spent the evening hanging out with them.  We watched a movie and had dinner and the kids played on their electronics if they wanted to and it was a fun night.  Maggie fell asleep about 7:00 p.m. so it was really quiet until she woke up about 8:30 p.m.  But she still went to bed good so she must have been tired.  She was really missing her mom this weekend.

Ashton with his family at his favorite Birthday place, Bubba Gump

I talked about Sunday at the beginning.  It was a good weekend and we had a good time with the kids.  Nathan is trying to get them to do something else besides electronics on Sunday's to keep the Sabbath day holy and even Sammy did pretty good as long as he had legos, but when we went to take them back he had a meltdown because he was sure that Nathan's charging cord was his.  We looked all over for his cord but could not find it and when we got to Sara's she said that he lost his a long time ago.

Sunday evening about 7:30 p.m. we were able to Skype with Jake and Nikki and their family for Ashton's birthday.  It was fun to talk with each one of them and find out more about what is going on in their lives.  Jake is doing a good job of providing for them and they had just finished up grilling something.  Apparently Jake likes to do that.  Ashton said that he got a lot of legos for gifts and amazingly he already had them put together so he could show them to us.  Myles could say Grandma and Grandpa so that was fun.  Nikki does a great job of keeping the family going and together.  Abby read us 2 stories from her reading books and she is doing a good job.  Lexie came in at the last minute because she was at a Seminary event.  I can't believe that she is old enough for Seminary.

August 24th and before

It has been a quiet weekend at our house.  It is Sara's weekend to have the kids.

This morning in Sacrament they talked about Humility.  I appreciated the fact that one of the speakers was Honey Bishop.  I did not know her name and she is the person that about three weeks ago told me privately what an inspiration Nathan had been to her.  She said that when she felt discouraged about something and thought she could not come to church she would think of him and say, "If he can do it I can do it."  I didn't know her name until today.  So that means that the lady, Jennifer Reynolds, that posted on Facebook when he moved his stuff from the house was a different lady and that is two people that his courage in overcoming his stroke has helped in the ward.  The Bishop has expressed the same to me, that the experience has been a unify thing for the ward.

I was grateful to see who got to speak today.  Honey said it was her first time ever speaking in the ward at sacrament meeting and a friend of Nathan's and now ours, Leonard Elizardo, spoke also.  Leonard is a very humble person who has joined the church and was a great choice for the speaker but the things they demonstrate in their lives are more of a sermon that what they said today.  They also had youth speaker that did a good job.

Sunday School we spent talking about Alma 5.  Relief Society was a lesson on Elder Quentin Cook's talk called Roots and Branches. Sister Beckstead the Temple Matron was visiting and she told of how she got her daughter interested in Family History by taking her to a private family cemetery in Breman, Texas.

We spent about an hour after the meeting waiting for Nathan to talk to people so he has inherited his mother's gift of gab.  But I got to talk to some people too so it was okay.

Nikki commented last week that she thought I should take a nap if I wanted to on Sunday so I suppose I gave the impression that I thought it was not good to nap on the Sabbath but that is not true.  I only have been trying to stay awake so I can work with the kids more and some of the times I have slept for about 3 hours and then I could not go to sleep at night.  I had been thinking that was not very productive time as a missionary  Perhaps I should be doing something like the other missionaries because they have to work on Sunday at proselyting and I felt uncomfortable sleeping that long.  So when Nathan made his comment at class about not sleeping excessively I took it personal even though he did not mean it that way.  I have felt better trying to do things like this blog and communicating with family and friends than I did about sleeping for so long.

That said after lunch I laid on the bed for a while.  Maybe an hour.  I do not think that I got to sleep, at least not very soundly and now I am working on the blog.  I think that I will do my visiting teaching this afternoon after dinner.

We have about a half hour drive to our church building because we live outside the ward.  As I was riding with no kids today I was looking at Facebook for a while.  Someone had posted a link to this article about picky eaters "Turning my picky eater around: an easy to follow plan".  As Nathan has several picky eaters I decided to read it.  It has some good tips on feeding your children and getting them to eat new things from an occupational therapists point of view, who is also a mother.  I liked the idea that kids need to eat about every 2.5-3 hours.  Sometimes I think that we think that they can go longer than that so I was impressed that someone confirmed how I felt.  The whole site has good information it is called mykidstable.com.

This week was a busy one.  It is zone trainings in the mission and so we could go to zone trainings everyday but we have not had time for that.

Monday I wrote about that hectic day last week.

Tuesday we went to Round Rock and Round Rock East Zone Trainings. Round Rock is North of Austin.  I wanted to go there because I have not seen that area yet.  The night before I was frustrated because what I had to say to the missionaries was boring.  I asked in a prayer how I could make it more interesting and felt prompted immediately to ask questions about the material.  On the way to the meeting I thought about having some reward for those that answered.  I didn't have time to stop and get some candy and I had several pennies in my things so I gave out pennies.  It was a hit and I was grateful to the Lord for reminding me about how to motivate people to listen.

We got back to the office about 3:00 p.m.  I had time to do the weekly zone report and then I was ready to go home for Nathan but Larry stayed for awhile and worked on what he tried to get done on Monday. Nathan and I had a good time together.

Wednesday we spent all day at the office.  I finally got all the Baptisms in and recorded and submitted.  There were about 27 that I had to do last week and this week.  And then I got all the referrals in Thursday.

Thursday was Larry's 67th birthday.  We were low on cash so we decided that we would celebrate with the kids at Bingo Night. After lunch Nathan came to the office so we could leave early.  But it was 4:30 before we were able to leave.  After a few texts Sara had agreed to bring the kids to the WWFamily Support Center rather than have us pick them up.  Then she sent a text saying she wasn't bringing them.  We were hurt so after many texts back and forth we learned that there was a lack of communication between us and Sara and that she had reasons for not bringing the kids but we were sad to only see the kids for a few minutes that night.

Friday was an interesting day.  Mom sent us some checks for our birthday in Birthday Cards.  Larry hurried and took pictures of them for USAA and then we shredded them.  We quickly went to El Pollo Locco for dinner, one of Larry's favorites.  We took some home to Nathan and then went back to the office after we had all eaten.  Later that afternoon Larry checked USAA and the checks were not showing after calling them and having the employee tell Larry four times that he needed to redeposit the check after Larry told him four times that he had shredded it.  Long story short we had to call Mom and tell her that we had shredded the checks and could she deposit the money in our account sometime this week.  She laughed at us and told us we had better wait to shred it next time until we knew it was in the account.

Nathan had two therapy sessions with Physical and Occupational Therapy on Friday after having none the rest of the week.  He was so tired on Friday night and Saturday when we got home from the temple he did not want to do anything except watch TV and rest.  I wondered if he overdid after not exercising all week but he says I am trying to diagnose him and I should stop it.

Larry had bought us some Lobster a week or so ago and so we cooked that with some salad and rice and had a great meal on Friday night.  Then we watched "Bones"  that evening Kirsten Skyped with us and showed us her apartment and and we showed her ours we were able to talk to Kyle and Taylor.

Me, Nathan, and Larry at the San Antonio Temple

Saturday we rose early like the weekday and went to the temple for the 9:30 session.  Some friends of ours through Nathan in the ward, Eric and Andrea Alonzo, were getting their endowments and being sealed to each other.  It was fun to see them be so happy.  It was the first time that Nathan had been back to the temple for an endowment session.  I was hoping that they would show one of the new movies but they showed one of the old ones so I guess the new movies are not to all the temples.  I had a good experience and got some answers to things I had been contemplating.  We took a few pictures as we left the temple.  There at the temple grounds on a hill it was a little windy.

They have a distribution center next to the temple on the grounds.  We went in there and looked around after the temple session before we went home.  Nathan wanted a clip on tie because it is easier than tying a tie and we thought he would do better now with some more solid shoes and he found some there so he bought those.  Now he has temple clothes that are more accessible and help him dress easier.  Although we just had him wear his whites to the temple to make it easier for him.

We went home and ate lunch about 2:00 p.m. we watched some "Bones" and a show Nathan likes about skateboarding and while I was looking through Facebook we noticed that a friend of Nathan's from the ward, was helping her Mother sell BBQ dinners to raise money to pay for her dad's funeral expenses.  So we decided to help.  They place they were selling them was about a half hour away so we had to drive for an hour but it made a good birthday dinner for me.

I also worked on balancing the checkbook while I was watching TV.  Larry and I went to the grocery store and got some ice cream for us and Nathan.  While we were out David called on his phone and he and Isaac and Sammy and Maggie wished me a Happy Birthday, that was nice.

In the evening I noticed that about 40 people had wished me happy birthday on Facebook.  BJ texted and wanted to Skype a little later and we were able to talk to him for more than and hour about 8:30 p.m.  Annette texted me a happy Birthday and Erick and Heather sent us an Applebee's gift certificate for our birthdays so maybe next week we can go out to dinner.  Applebee's is good because they have Weight Watchers meals that are better for us than the others.  Maren texted me just before bed.  It was a good birthday!! But very low key.

August 18th and before

Yes, to those of you who read my blog I am sorry I am so slow this week in posting.  Unfortunately my commitment to keep the Sabbath by not taking a nap has made it impossible for me to stay awake for very long at night.  But I am spending more time with the family.

Maggie had picked out a new dress when we went shopping on Saturday and so she wore that to church today.  She looked so cute.  We also put some fake pink locks in her hair that she thought was fun.  When we got to church she thought that it was pretty cool that I let her wear one of my missionary badges to primary.  Someone asked her if she was Sister Presser and she said no.  I said no she is Maggie missionary but she was not to happy with that.

Maggie in her new dress

Sunday at church they talked about missionary work again.  The ward goal must be to get more people to bring people to Christ.  I am constantly amazed at the people in the ward that I think are long time members that are actually converts of one or two years.  They had a girl speak that was that way yesterday.  She was converted two years ago and has now been called as a ward missionary.  She talked of the joy that the Gospel has brought into her life and her desire to share the message of the restoration with others.  I think sometimes if you have been raised in the church, particularly in Utah you fail to recognized the truly amazing things that the church teaches to make people happy.

The ward mission leader is a young person maybe about 24, Reed Johnson, that I have mentioned earlier in my posts because of his willingness to help Nathan go places several times.  He also came to my aid when he first got here and came and stayed with Nathan before we had bars and things to help him get to the bathroom by himself.  He talked about The 7 types of Salvation from the book "True to the Faith" which is a concept that I had not considered, that there were more than one type of salvation.

The High counselor talked also about missionary work but I was settling a dispute between the kids and did not get a true concept of what his talk was about.  He started out good and seemed to be interesting but then I got distracted.

Nathan decided that the kids were spending too much time just playing games on electronics and so he set the rule that what they did online on Sunday had to do with the church and the gospel.  While we were driving to church Maggie wanted to do something so I went to the church website and found the things for the children that are there.  The Bible Videos were tied to this spot and she recognized them and wanted to watch one.  Then when we got home she wanted to watch some on the computer so I sat down with her and we watched several video for about an hour.  Luckily Larry made this possible by fixing dinner for us all while I was doing it.  She and Sammy asked several questions again as we watched videos about Paul and Stephen that was stoned and the birth of Jesus.  She is getting a better understanding of who Jesus is from all of this and is is fun for me to spend the time with her.

After dinner Nathan helped David and Isaac work on some things for Scouts that they needed to pass off.  We need to find something more positive for Sammy because he wanted to go to the games several times and because he is autistic and that is his favorite thing to do he was not a happy camper.  Any ideas would be appreciated.   He did get out the legos and had a good time with those for quit a while.  His siblings joined in and it gave us all a needed break to do somethings ourselves.

Kirsten called and talked to me for a while during this time.  She has moved into an apartment by herself and she was telling me about some of the challenges that she was facing.

We fed the kids and took them home at about 5:50 p.m. so they were late as they are supposed to be home at 6:00 p.m. but Sara is very accommodating about that.

About the time that we got back to the apartment Erick called and we talked for about an hour or more about what was going on in our various lives.  Ryker would actually talk to me this time and told me about some of the things that he had been doing.  They have signed him up for an online preschool that he does a few days a week for a while and he is learning his letters and numbers and seems to enjoy it.  He would not sing the alphabet song for me though.

During the week we had some busy days.  On Monday Larry had an appointment with the VA but I guess that meant nothing because he waited 4 hours for treatment.  He went in about his foot that has been bothering him for about a month and found out that it has a bone infection in it on the left foot by the bunion area at the base of the big toe.  The podiatrist gave him a boot to wear to relieve the pressure and an antibiotic and put some different things on it and told him not to get it wet. Luckily he had bought some bigger band aids on the weekend and so he had those.  He amazes me because he has walked around on it and never complained about it so I was unaware how painful it was until he told me that the doctors said, "That must be pretty painful"  and he answered, "Only when I breath"  Meaning all the time.

Monday we also went to Weight Watchers and listened to get some motivation because it was a bad week the week before with all the food we were serving.  I was surprised that I actually lost 1.2 lbs though and Larry stayed the same.

Tuesday we spent our time in the office and I think I actually got caught up on the referrals and baptisms that I needed to work on. but nothing stands out right now.  I actually wanted to post about Larry's toe on Tuesday night but then something came up and it was not achieved.

Thursday was Stoke Support group at Warm Springs and Nathan and I like to go to that.  He decided that he wanted to try riding there on Via Trans and so I consented even though I knew it would take longer than going in his van.  They said that to get there at 11:00 a.m. we would have to be ready for 9:15 a.m.  They dropped us off at 9:30 a.m. at Warm Springs and we hung out for an hour and a half. Then they said that they would pick us up at between 5 minutes and two hours from when we called.  We waited about an hour.  My phone did not work there for some reason and so it was frustrating but Nathan and I had a good visit and I got some exercise in that I needed by walking around the buildings.  I know that they have to accommodate a lot of people here and I am spoiled but it is so frustrating to me that it takes 3 times longer than it would if we had taken the van.  But when Nathan is on his own he may need to use it at times. And it is a god send to people without transportation.

The Stroke Support Meeting was worth every inconvenience that I may have had that day. A Dr. Harris talked.  He works with the patients at Warm Springs often and he is one of the three neurosurgeons that specialize in stroke here in San Antonio.  He talked about the two types of strokes.  The bleeding stroke where the brain is suffocated by a rupture in a blood vessel from a sudden rise of blood pressure and the clot type that is caused by blood clots forming.  I thought that perhaps Nathan's might have been a bleeding stroke when I talked to him but he said that with a bleeding stroke they cannot give aspirin and other blood thinners because the person would bleed to death and Nathan is taking aspirin. 

I know that when Nathan had his stroke that they said that they could not give him the TPA that is so popular but he said that some strokes cannot have the TPA because they would bleed to death especially the bleeding strokes and that there is a very strict criteria of what must occur to be able to use it for a stroke.  He said that many people have the mistaken notion because of some of the advertizing that if you get that medicine that you can walk out of the hospital the same as before but that is not true.  He said that it can promote healing faster but you will still have to recover from the effects of the stroke.

He also talked about how a person can revert to  former stroke problems if they get too tired and they need to rest when they are having a hard time doing things.  He talked about how a person will maybe have to hear something several times before he remembers it after a stroke even though the things he knew before the stroke may be solidly in their memory.  I know Nathan has times when he feels foggy but not often.

He talked for an hour and I have barely touched on what he said but it was a very informative afternoon and they serve lunch so that makes it even better.

While we were eating lunch we a young black man in uniform came and sat by Nathan and he was telling him that he was were he is two years ago.  He said that he could not talk as plain as he was talking there and that he was in an electric wheelchair.  He looked normal except for the boot on his foot from a surgery he was recovering from in Warm Springs.  I couldn't believe what he was saying but he swore that he was as handicapped as Nathan but that over the last two years he has gradually improved.  It gave me great hope combined with the fact that Nathan is doing more and more for himself everyday and learning to control his body more and more.

When we got back we went to the office and I worked for about an hour and then Kirsten texted me and reminded me that I needed to email or fax some documents so that she could get in her apartment.  I panicked because it was almost time to go to Bingo night and pick up the kids.  I figured out how to print the document and we went to one of Nathan's banks to get it notorized and then they offered to fax it to them for us.  I was shocked that I was able to accomplish it in such a short time and definitely felt that I had divine help to get it done.

By the time we got done we were running late.  So Sara offered to bring the kids to the base to save us about a half hour.  I really appreciated that.  We got there and they had a yummy chicken dinner but a water main had broken in the ceiling so after they ate they did not play Bingo.  We went out to the playground and let the kids play for a while and then took them home.  Larry did not want to come with us so I left him at the office but I was so frustrated trying to coordinate everything with the kids that when I got home I told him we were not doing that again.  It is so hard to deal with 4 kids by yourself when you are a grandma.  On the positive side, Larry was pleased with all the work he got done.

I drank too much caffeine at Warm Springs while we were waiting and then I drank another drink at the Bingo dinner and by the time I got home I could not go to sleep and I was up until after midnight.  So I was tired when I got up and never really got over being tired.  I have done this before so I think that eventually I would learn that I cannot do that but I haven't seemed to get it into my head yet and I do it about once a month.

Friday we worked in the office and Larry had to go and pick up a new car for the mission and take one to be fixed to Benson Chevrolet.  I came home to feed Nathan and remember going back to the mission and being frustrated because I had so many phone calls that I could not get all the Baptism and Confirmation Records typed into the Convert Data Entry System to submit them so today on Monday I had several missionaries calling me to see if I had got their records because the Ward Clerks did not have record of the membership yet.

I left the mission about 4:20 p.m. because Sara was bringing the kids early because she had a mandatory  meeting for her teaching position.  When the kids got there I tried to find clothes for them to wear for the evening because we were going to a Wedding Shower.  Sara had a friend tell her that it was a Bridal Shower so I wondered if we were even supposed to go but the girl, Ana Johnson, had invited us the Sunday before and said that we were all invited even the men when we were talking with Alonzo's. We had decided to go when Ana's mother called and said that all of us were to come.  I thought that we needed to dress up and I was very tired and when we went to look for clothes
Isaac was missing dress pants and Maggie did not have any shoes to wear with her dress that matched.  Nathan said he was going casual so we took the kids casual but not without me having a mini-meltdown over the clothes because for the last three weeks someone was always missing something for church.  It is important to me that the kids look good because I think it reflects on how we are taking care of them and I just did not want to take the kids to church again looking eclectic again.

We had a good time at the Shower.  It was very casual but they had good food and it was fun to talk to the members of the ward.  As I talked to everyone my tension melted and I began to feel better. But with Maggie along I ended up eating too many sweets that she took and didn't want to eat and I did not have the will power to throw away.

Saturday I got up early with Nathan and ate breakfast but we decided to let Larry and the kids sleep in.  After I ate I went in and laid down again and fell asleep until almost 10:00 a.m. so I think that I got mad so many times this week because I was tired.  We finally got up and ate and then Larry went shopping for food while Nathan and I took the kids shopping at Burlington Coat Factory.  The kids had fun but they were not so happy when Nathan told them that they had to leave the new clothes and the clothes they bought there when they went home so we would have some clothes and then Sara would not have to worry about packing them up each weekend.

We came home and ate lunch but it was almost 3:30 p.m. before we ate.  It took Larry as long to shop as it did for us to shop for clothes.  But the kids did not complain until they wanted a drink at McDonald's and I told them we would go home and get a drink.  But then we had to stop for gas and so they thought that we were trying to torture them.

After lunch we showed Larry the clothes that we had bought and had the kids hang them in Nathan's closet and then went swimming in the pool.  We had asked some people from the ward to come over for a pool party but they could not come at the last minute so we had our own pool party.  Larry had bought a Pizza we could cook and soda for the kids and then we had popcorn to pop.  Maggie said, "Grandpa sure is fun!"  After I complained so much on Thursday night Grandpa came to the pool with us even though he could not get his foot wet and I was glad when he had to take Sammy to the bathroom and did not come back and I had to take Maggie before he got back.  Apparently he let Sammy go to the hot tub for a while because Sammy loves that.

When we got home from the pool we actually ate again because the pizza was small and we were all still hungry.  I made spaghetti Christiansen kids style for them and Larry and I and Nathan had sauce on our.  Maggie ate a whole plate of noodles though and was really proud of herself for finishing her dinner.  After that we all went to bed early for Church the next day.

Elder Rogers and me

I already told you about Sunday but today was a hectic day.  Larry went to the mission office at 7:00 a.m. hoping to get some work done before the assistants arrived.  But he was there for three hours and could not get the internet going.  Most of the work we do is online so he was very frustrated and the Assistants had to go somewhere else to get their reports done. He had left me home to work on the blog and to get the referrals done here at home and then he was going to pick me up for Weight Watchers and we would go there and eat lunch with Nathan.  But with the Williams not there and with the Assistants gone he had to answer the phones three at a time while trying to get some help form AT&T.  So we didn't got to WW.

Elder Williams, Sister Williams, Elder Rogers, me and Elder Presser

Nathan decided that he needed to go to the bank about 9:00 a.m. so I took him down there in his van.  We took about a half an hour to get that done and I came home and Larry said that he didn't want to come and get me but then his mission phone rang and I texted him what they wanted and the next thing I knew he was here to get me because he needed his phone.  I didn't really want to go because I could work better here but I went with him.  I was glad I did because we hadn't been to the office 5 minutes and Elder Landon Rogers the last Assistant that just went home came in to see me with his family.  If you remember I missed him last time there when he first came.  It was so good to see him.  He is such a fun person and so helpful and funny.  We talked for quite a while with his Mom and brother and him.  We took pictures of him with us and the Williams's.  I was glad I went back after that.

Larry continued to work on the internet and the Williams's did also.  They could not work without it, but I discovered that I could enter the Baptisms and Confirmations being offline so I worked on that and I opened an order that we received today and put that away.  It took them until almost 5:20 before the internet was fixed.  Elder Williams went and bought another router and Larry called AT&T again and they finally sent out someone to work on it.  At first they thought it was on their side that it was not working but then the old router did not work.  They put in the new router and it started working but most of them were so tired from trying to fix it and not getting their work done that we finally went home about 6:30 p.m.