Dear all,
First off, tomorrow, Calvin will be 5 years old! Happy birthday, Calvin! We hope you have a wonderful day and we look forward to seeing pictures of your cake and party!
A few weeks ago I included a picture of a Buzz Lightyear balloon that was being used in the kick off campaign for our new computer system at work. Within a week or so I noticed that he was gone and I wondered what might have happened to him. Well, a couple of days ago I had to go the to IT department for something and as I talked with one of the IT guys I noticed in the very next cubicle, there was Buzz, hard at work. I took a picture so you could see.
The Stake Preparedness Fair was a success. We had about 250 people come through; some stayed only for a little while, but others stayed all day. We had no idea how many people might come, so we had lots of baked potatoes left over, which we sent home with several families who probably had hash browns for lunch today. The only complaint we heard was that there wasn't time to take all the classes we offered. We had 4 classes at a time, at 10, 11, 1 and 2, along with over 30 displays in the gym. The classes included, preparing for a pandemic, emergency childbirth, preparing for your or your parents old age, using herbs and oils, what to do in the event of an EMP, how to stitch a wound, 72 hour kits...
We may have had too many baked potatoes, but the cookies barely lasted to the end. We had asked for 6 dozen from each of our 12 Wards. The potatoes were donated by Burke and Sid Hanks and were baked at the Jr. High kitchen. Lots of people worked very hard on this.
This afternoon we had our first meeting of the Stake Self Reliance Committee. This is a new program from Salt Lake, new to our Stake anyway. Evidently is has been a great success in other countries and is now being introduced in the US. Perhaps some of your Stakes are already using it. It will provide 12 week programs on four topic options: Starting and Growing a Small Business, Education for Better Work, Find a Better Job, and Personal Finances. Next week we'll have a kick-off meeting with the Bishoprics and Ward councils from the whole Stake.
Sister Janell Arrington passed away recently and Janie was able to take Gran to her funeral in Twin Falls, yesterday. I wish I could have gone, but I'm so happy that I was able to go to her 90th birthday party last fall.
This morning I spoke at the Homestead assisted living center, in St. Anthony. The Stake RS takes every 5th Sunday. Anyhow, I used as part of my talk, a story in the April Ensign about an old man in Romania who decided to have a dress rehearsal of his funeral. The point his great-granddaughter was making with the story was how important it is for family history not to be just about names and dates, but about passing down stories about these real people. I closed with part of chapter 4 in the President Hinckley lesson manual, when he spoke about being in the Temple with his daughter, granddaughter and great-grandchildren, thinking of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He recognized that he was right in the middle of those 7 generations.
I am hoping to start sharing some family stories in these letters and if any of you would like to do the same, it would be wonderful. Maybe we could carry this over into family reunions as well.
This coming Thursday and Friday, I'll be at a Qualis convention in Boise; our hospital will be receiving an award and my friend, Jana, and I have been asked to accept it. There will be 6 of us from MMH attending the meetings. So I'll leave work early on Wednesday and get to Heidi's and Kevin's that night. I'll stay with them on Thursday night as well. Friday evening the others in my group will head home, but I won't come home until Sunday, in time to be to a 4:30 meeting. I'll stay at Dixie's and Zach's on Friday and Saturday nights. Thanks to them for letting me come visit! I'm sure glad my boss asked me to go to Qualis this year!
Have a wonderful week. Love you bunches! Mom/Johanna/Nana
Hello!
Mom, I would love to include family stories! I think that is a brilliant idea! I'm glad the Preparedness Fair went so well. It sounds like a huge effort! But it also sounds like it was well worth it. That is really exciting!
Well, we had a fairly routine week here. School and work and all the regular stuff.
Spencer started riding his bike with pedals yesterday! That was pretty exciting! James took the pedals off last summer and he's really gotten the hang of balancing. Yesterday he tried it with pedals and got them figured out! He told us that he's not ready to pedal on any hills yet, though. Have to share something else Spencer said a couple of weeks ago, since I'm thinking of it. During the Sacrament, just after he dropped his empty cup into the tray he said with a little sigh, "I wish they used milk instead of water."
We had a couple of paper airplane orders this week. One of 50 airplanes to Florida and one of 250 to an Air Asia event in LA. The person who actually ordered them is an event planner with a very impressive website.
https://www.yazquiles.com/ I'm hoping she likes these and keeps us in mind for future events!
James got the wood shed done yesterday. Well, he still has one little corner piece of metal siding to put on, but everything else is done. It already has some wood in it! A couple of our neighbors had several dead trees in their yards that James and Stephen have worked hard to cut down and cut up. We probably won't have to go out to the woods looking for firewood.
Annie spoke in Sacrament meeting about Mosiah ch. 2 and why it is important to listen to the prophet. She talked about Great Grandpa Humphries and how hard it was for him to accept his mission call to serve in Japan and yet how blessed he was because he did accept that call from the prophet. She was pretty nervous about it yesterday, but she did an awesome job. She didn't look at all nervous!
I was sustained and set apart as the Relief Society President today. I was SO nervous as Sacrament meeting got closer and closer. But once we were actually sustained, I started feeling a little calmer. I'm so thankful for my two counselors. It was a sweet experience to me to all be together in the Bishop's office after church to be set apart. I am looking forward to working so closely with them.
I can't really think of anything else to include this week.
Love to all of you!
Aimee
Mom-
Thanks for keeping us all in the loop on the happenings in your area – it’s good to hear about all the latest news. Our Stake is actually starting the Self Reliance Classes in early June. Our High Councilman did a presentation yesterday in Ward Council and challenged us to have at least 30 names of members that we believe would benefit in some way from attending one or all of the courses that are available. I think it’s a good cause and hope that everyone who is invited sees the invite as warm and loving.
Macy loves the gifts you sent for her birthday – thanks again! The shorts are a little big right now, but that’s OK – it’s not quite shorts weather up here yet anyway. It’s still pretty rainy and cold. We are all ready for some warmer temps – hopefully this weekend. Macy had a pretty low-key birthday, but she still thought it was the “best birthday ever”, so that’s all that matters.
Aimee – thanks for your email as well. I honestly had a LOL moment when I read Spencer’s comment about the Sacrament water – too funny! We are still working on getting Maddie to take a piece of the bread – she thinks its contaminated or something?? I think she’s eaten it like once her whole life – if anyone has any suggestions on that it would be greatly appreciated – hope to get her taking the Sacrament before she turns eight….
I returned from Colorado one week ago today. Brad and I had a great weekend together. We spent Friday night with Nick and Kari and Saturday we stayed with Ben and Lyndsey, which is where we stayed up late watching the new “Rogue One” Star Wars movie. It was pretty good – I still need to see that other Star Wars movie that came out a while back with Harrison Ford – I’ve heard that one is good as well. Thanks again, Ben and Lyndsey for the excellent hospitality this past year – probably won’t be staying with you again until next fall.
Natalie went on a YW campout this past weekend, which meant it was just me and the girls at the house for almost 24 hours. We did fine, but they sure were happy when mama was back home – it’s not too common Natalie is gone overnight, so they get extra excited when she returns.
A friend of ours bought a new house recently that had a big pond in the back that had a lot of koi fish in it, which he wanted to get rid of as he has plans to fill in the pond. Anyway, we ended up with about 30 new fish for our ponds. We have had the fish in the ponds for about two weeks now; however, on Saturday morning, our neighborhood fish predator, the blue heron, was back and hungry! I scared him off before he got any bites, but we knew he would be back. We put a net over the lower pond, and picked up a new pellet gun at Fleet Farm that night in preparation for his return. Sure enough, when Natalie and the girls arrived home from Church Sunday afternoon, the heron was standing in the lower pond. It’s not clear how many fish he ralphed down before Nat had the pistol out shooting at him, but he probably got a little bit of a snack. If he’s not scared away by our pellet gun, he’s gonna go down with my compound bow/arrow – I’m pretty confident I can strike his big body from our deck or out one of the windows from the porch – time will tell.
Otherwise, everything is pretty normal around our place. I mowed the lawn for the first time this year on Saturday and all the perennials are starting to pop up more and more – all they need is some decent sunshine to really get going.
Hope everyone is happy and healthy!
Sam
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