OUR FAMILY

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Monday, August 25, 2014

"The fear of the Lord is

the beginning of wisdom."

-Proverbs

Gilbert temple

James left for the valley before 4am. I always feel sad when he leaves.

Today was the first day of school in El Paso, Texas. Molly started kindergarten, Emmy the fourth grade, Anna 7th, and James 8th. I really like James's haircut.

To put a little damper on the first day of school, they had a flood in their house last night due to a broken pipe. Nothing like waking up to a house full of water, but it will take more than a little water to get this group down. They are awesome!

While James is slaving away in the heat for President Greg Hatch, the Hatch's are on vacation in the Carribean:

Stacy had her home teacher, Chris Butler, come over while Paul was at work to give her a blessing. Janny, his wife, came with him. Stacy said it was the most amazing blessing she has ever received. Chris told her that her children will learn to love the gospel as they see the joy that it brings to her. She said he mentioned things that no one knew but she needed to hear. Some people are blessed with gifts of the Spirit and able to share those gifts with others.

Trenda Wilhelm in her scrubs.

Trenda is 16 but is taking college courses and will graduate this year.

Since today is Monday I wanted to share one of my favorite cat pictures:

Last, but certainly not least, here are some pictures of Lola taken by a friend of Trina's:

Don't you just love that face.

Is that a yawn?

So adorable!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Morning sky

For what doth it profit a man if a gift is

bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift?

-D&C 88:33

Mesa temple

James left early for meetings this morning. When he got home I asked him how his talk went. He said he didn't end up giving it. He said the bishop had scheduled two other speakers and they took up all the time. The bishop ended up asking him to give the closing prayer instead. He was a little frustrated because he spent all day yesterday preparing. I told him he would be blessed for being obedient.

In our ward Jordyn Applegate gave a talk on Personal Progress and did an excellent job. Kip & Alicia Hunsaker spoke on the importance of family. During Sunday School we discussed king Hezekiah and "Hezekiah's tunnel". Ruth Wilhelm gave the lesson in Young Women's on dating. It was good! After the block Rosie Lauritzen and I visited Lannie Gillespie as her visiting teachers.

James came home before I got there and had to break into the house. I thought I would be home first so I locked all the doors. I also forgot that since he doesn't have his truck he didn't have his keys. He climbed up on the roof and came down onto the balcony outside his office and got in. I am just so grateful he didn't fall or hurt himself. He had to do some training with our ward's elder's quorum presidency and he needed some materials he had left at home.

We had some sad news in our ward today. Paula Johnson's grandson who has been living in Boise, Idaho with his mother committed suicide. He was only 17 years old. The family is trying to raise money for his funeral so they can bring him back home to Show Low for his services and burial. Paula is a sweet sister who does alot of community service and although we don't know her really well we want to help.

I got this picture of Talon, Johnny, and Ruthie Wilhelm off Facebook.

James is their home teacher.

Talon was gone all summer and I

think Johnny and Ruthie missed him.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Saturday, August 23, 2014

"Christ's Atonement overcomes the effects of the

Fall, but it doesn't help us overcome bad habits unless we

receive and apply it over time.

The justified must still be sanctified."

-Brad Wilcox

James's project for this weekend was to write a talk. He is scheduled to speak in the Sierra Pines ward on Sunday.

At 10am I went down to help at the RS clothing exchange. Things were kind of slow so Wendy DeWitt sent me home.

James had promised he would take me to LaCasita for my birthday, so away we went. When we got to LaCasita we found it closed with a note on the door saying they were closed because of family matters and they would re-open on Tuesday, August 26th. I must say I was disappointed. We had lunch at El Rancho which was not as good as LaCasita but not bad either. I got a call from Sheri as we were leaving El Rancho and we talked all the way to Walmart. While I was shopping I was still talking to her until I got to the water. I told her I had to go because I needed two hands to lift the water. I love talking to my girls! James went to Home Depot while I was in Walmart.

On the way back to Vernon I read to James from the book "As You Are." He loves for me to read to him.

When we got home I spent an hour or so typing James's talk and then I fixed dinner while he was studying. For dinner we had chicken, bacon, ranch panini's. They were again delicious!

I watched Cedar Cove while James practiced his talk, then we went to bed because we have to get up early.

Sheri sent me these pictures of Lola today just to make me jealous and it worked!

At the Lego Store

My favorite!

I couldn't resist posting this one!

Friday, August 22, 2014

"The Atonement was designed to do more than restore us to the 'starting line' - more than just wipe the slate clean. It's crowning purpose is to endow us with power so that we might overcome each of our weaknesses and acquire the divine traits that would

make us like God."

-Tad R. Callister

("How Can I Lead a More Saintly Life" p. 89)

Earlier in the week James pulled the ligament in his left shoulder. Today while pouring concrete he hurt the elbow on his right arm. Hopefully he will be able to drive home. I am glad he's driving a rental car instead of his truck. Erik is still working on it.

I love to listen to BYU Devotionals while I am working on the computer. They are very inspirational and uplifting.

Annie Critchfield got married in Utah today. Annie was my visiting teacher when I lived in Chandler. I am so happy for her.

Annie and Cole

Arizona Hill, one of our young women, is getting ready to go archery hunting.

Today is Analee Hunsaker's birthday. This is the gift I gave to her and to the other member's of our Young Women's Presidency.

'Lead Kindly Light'

This evening I went to the church to help the Relief Society setup for the clothing exchange they are having tomorrow. There was an explosion of clothes in the cultural hall.

Somehow we were able to bring

order to what at first was very chaotic.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Thursday, August 21, 2014

I was sad that James wasn't able to come home today. When he wasn't quite so busy he used to come home on Thursday.

Here are some of the things I did today:

*I ordered all five seasons of Sue Thomas F.B.Eye on DVD from Amazon. I used my Amazon credit card points.

*I watched videos on the hasteningthework.org website.

*I took a nap.

*I talked to Stacy about her health problems.

*I talked to my cousin Rita about growing old. She said her son Rick, who is friends with Jared, moved to Queen Creek. He had been living in McKinney, Texas when Jared met him.

*I got a call from Darrel. He is going to be working in Show Low for a few weeks, starting next week and wanted to make sure he could stay with me. Of course!

*Kathy Crane brought me some fresh vegetables from her garden.

*I had made visiting teaching appointments with three people this afternoon but all of them cancelled except Rosa Westbrook. I had a nice visit with her and then I drove into town to get a Sonic cheeseburger. It rained on me on the way to town.

*Came home and watched a Hallmark movie, "Second Honeymoon", before going to bed.

Elk just passing through

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

"Just be the same person you are in the dark

that you are in the light."

-Jabari Parker's father

The elk either spent the night here or they were back bright and early. I guess they were just passing through because they didn't stay long.

I had an interesting experience during the night. I woke up and thought I saw a guy with a red baseball cap in my room. I grabbed my phone and ran in the bathroom and brought up Chuck Crane's phone number, "just in case." I accidentally pushed the button and called him. I immediately 'hung up' and put my earplugs in and went back to bed. Later I noticed Chuck had called back to check on me. I will call tomorrow and explain. How embarrassing!

James pulled a ligament in his left shoulder on a pour today and couldn't do much. Stacy has been in alot of pain and went to the doctor today. She has a cyst on her ovary and has absolutely no vitamin D in her body so they put her on a mega dose. No wonder she has been feeling exhausted.

I finished all of my Personal Progress requirements today. Now I need to make an appointment with the bishop.

Tonight for Mutual we played a game called: "A Minute to Win It." Trenda was in charge and there were four teams chosen to compete in these activities each lasting one minute: 1. Soda can, spaghetti carry, 2.Fruit Loop stack, 3. Elephant walk, 4. Cookies in your face, 5. Bootie shake, and 6. Balloon pop. Collin DeWitt was chose to be the judge and that's why you see him in so many of the pictures.