Monday was NYE and Dad and I went to dinner and played games with the gang (Knud's, Chance, Bond). Josh went to Kelly's to play games and eat with her family, Jill went to the Barron's house to spend the night, and James had Daniel over. We got home right about midnight and of course there are morters and fireworks going off in the neighborhood and Duke is a shaky mess. I swear one day he is gonna die from being scared. He wouldn't come out of my bathroom closet, and then we got him to come out and he went in the upstairs bathroom and got in the bathtub! No joke! So we finally got him downstairs and he slept with Joshua that night. Poor Duke!
Wow if only Duke was here in Spain. I feel like once a week they're setting off fireworks here they have to many holidays, and every one of them they celebrate with fireworks.
Tuesday we just hung out around the house. I needed to do laundry and packing and then Wednesday dad went back to work and the rest of us went to Fresno. Just as we were getting ready to leave, dad calls me and says - are you gonna go to the temple while you are in Fresno? I actually had put my stuff in the car but didn't think it would happen (but you never know!). I told him maybe. He said - no, you need to make sure that you go while you are there. Lots of changes! It's a little different, but very inspired changes I've heard they changed stuff but I don't know what. I won't be able to go for a long time as well so who knows if I'll even remember what they change
We went to dinner with Aunt Heidi, Dustin and the kids and gram and gramp on Wednesday night. Aimee was having a slumber party for the YW, and we kept Benny with us and he brought over his new Playstation 4 and the boys just played all night. Then Thursday my sister and I got pedicures, then I got Groupons for the Mb2 Go-carts and took the kids there.
Rob, Toni and the kids met us there and they all raced and then we went to Red Robin for lunch. We were able to go to the temple that night and the kids stayed at Aimee's house. It was awesome! I loved being able to go to the temple with my sister. I may not have a lot in common with my siblings, and we may not be very close, but we have the gospel and strong testimonies and that helps us have a great bond with each other. I really wish Rob was stronger in the Gospel, and I know that Heidi could use the Gospel in her life, but she had a lot of pride and would never admit it. And I don't think she would agree with some of the doctrine now. She has become very liberal minded. All we can do is bring up the gospel and bear testimony with people like that. We can't give up but we can't push them. Did lots of people ask about me and the mission?
Friday we had my cousin Dan's girls to grandma's house to play with Jill and Aunt Aimee picked up the boys. We let the cousins just spend time together and I worked on packing the car (of course!). After the girls were picked up by Bonnie, we got the boys and went over to see Grandpa Birdie. Man.... he is having the hardest time standing up and moving his legs. I don't know how much longer he can be living alone and independent. It was bad! I was thinking of sending him a letter but I don't have his address, could you send it to me? But he was in a good mood and told us a whole bunch of jokes - he would say they are clean jokes, but they weren't very clean!!!! That was hilarious!!! Yeah I've had some weird experiences with old people as well. I had an old man give me advice about sex one time on a bench in gandia. It was so awkward and just weird but old people don't care.
We started the new Come Follow Me for Families on Saturday. We decided we would review the lesson for the week on FHE night, make assignments for readings for the week, and then after church on Sundays we would have a wrap-up meeting and discuss things we learned and make an action plan. I'll attach the document at the bottom of this email. If you can't view it, I can send it another way. Just tell me tomorrow. It wasn't too bad as long as we involved the kids as much as possible. Jill is still so squirley and doesn't stop messing with James. It drives me nuts! I've been studying that book as well. I study it in Spanish for my language study. Its very well put together and I think it will help us out a lot. So we had an early dinner, the did our lesson, and now we are having a treat for "dinner" and the kids can clean up (cuz I need to do other things for choir and finish my email to you!). Dad has a meeting tonight - the stake is gonna do a trek this summer which means dad is gonna be one busy busy guy!!! I hope it all works out! I don't know how he is gonna do it all. I really loved having two hour church block today. It was so nice to finish nursery in just 50 minutes. The kids did great and as nursery leaders, we aren't quite as tired by the end. It is a nice change. We are also doing choir before church now, so that is amazing because we are home by 12:15 and have the rest of the day to focus on Family Studies and the many other things we need to do on Sundays. Josh is now companions with Mike Johnson for ministering and I know they will be going out a lot! Br. Johnson is amazing!
Any ideas for what I can do for your dad for his birthday? Idk go to some cultural food place in Sac or something. Some food from another country or something like that . Honestly I haven't been with him and a while so I can't help too much with what to buy or something. It's coming up soon! I need some help! I'm terrible at buying meaningful gifts. We are refinancing the house - our interest rate on our mortgage adjusts every year, and in the past it's been fine, but this year it went up pretty high, so we are finalizing a refinance this week. That means we will be locked into our interest rate and it can’t go up ever again. I have an appraiser coming out this week to do an appraisal for it. I started my classes. I haven't done any of the work yet, but I was reading messages from the teachers and updating my profile. Pray for me! I don't know how I'm gonna get everything done and stay sane!!!! It is not easy!
I've still been reading the Book of Mormon (started over) this week and will continue to be diligent. I learned from my reading the whole BofM in 80 days that we are all so much more capable of reading several chapters a day if we just put our minds to it and set goals. So I need to set a goal! I'm hoping that our gospel discussions with the kids will help them want to set their our goals to read the scriptures every day. I've thought about getting each of them their own blue BofM and a book light to read before they go to bed at night. What do you think? I would say it's a good idea. Idk for me I never studied on my own until seminary and even then I wasn't too great at reading a lot. The thing I've learned on my mission is you have to set a time for it every day or it won't get done. If the goal is to have them study daily, then we set a time up every day to get that study in.
I love you so much!!!!! I miss you and always look forward to Mondays. They are the highlight of my week. It is such a treat to hear from you. I pray for you every day and I think about you all the time.
I love you with all my heart,
Mom
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