The "D" Date

So, I have a little catching up to do!

 

People often talk about the blessings that come to their family when they have a missionary serving out in the world.  When we have missionaries in our family, it is very true we receive blessings--many blessings.  It just appears that many of them are not financial ones!

Michelle and Josh, when you were serving missions, it seemed like we had something major break down every month--ending with Dad actually losing his job for six months!  Now that Dallin is out, we're seeing the same pattern again!  Our freezer broke a few months ago.  And a few weeks ago, when we started watering the lawn for the first time, we had a pipe burst.  Water started coming down through the ceiling in the basement bedroom!   We had to cut into the ceiling to fix the pipe.

 

 

And Josh cut a hole in the bottom of the wall so we could have a fan blow in the hole and get some air flow going across the ceiling and down the wall to help the drywall get dry. 

 

After a few weeks of airing everything out, everything's all fixed now--and I will finish the painting this week.  We joke about all the things that break while we have missionaries out--but there is no doubt in our minds that we are blessed, in many ways, while we have a missionary serving--and we wouldn't want it any other way!

 

 

Even though Dad had to do it alone, he was will the first one out of the building after the Priesthood session of General Conference!  He still went to Sonic--but this time he got dinner for me, too!  Then we enjoyed eating our dinner and watching basketball together.  He missed you boys.

 

 

Do My Eyes Beseech Me?!

I came across an old quote board our family used to write on to record funny things we said.  One of the quotes on the board by Dallin was, "Do my eyes beseech me?"  Bwhaha!  I'm not sure what he was talking about, but I thought it would be a good intro into the next couple pictures.

 

After dealing with problems with my eyes for about four months, and not improving much, the eye surgeon determined it was time to do surgery.  So I had one bump in one eyelid and about six bumps in the other removed.  And let me just say, it was one of the most horrible experiences of my life!  I was awake the entire procedure--and the anesthetic didn't work! 

 

Josh took this picture upon my arrival home.

 

 

And this was about an hour later when we took the bandages off.

 

 

But, its been about ten days since the surgery, and I am doing a lot better.  I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow.  Thank you, Afton, for all your prayers!

 

 

Our alphabet dating had been put on hold for a little bit . . .

but Friday night it was finally time for the "D" date!

 

I was in charge, and we started with "dinner" from "Dominoes!" 

By the way, we love their cheesy bread!

 

 

We played a "dice" game, Farkle, while eating our dinner.

Dad won the first game.

 

I won the second.

 

Then Dad was a very good sport and agreed to take "dancing" lessons from YouTube tutorials!  We waltzed, did the cha cha, and a little bit of swing!  I rewarded him with a "donut" for "dessert."

 

Then we ended the evening with the "DVD" "Despicable" Me 2.  We even had "Dots" and "Dove" chocolate.  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to keep us awake.  But it was a "delightful" evening.

 

 

Dad determined that our two trees at the front of the house were an eye sore and needed to be removed.  Part of the problem was that we allowed them to become completely overgrown.  We tried pruning them for the first time last year.  But it seemed to speed up their deterioration.  So, Saturday was the day.

 

 

Josh worked hard sawing the trunk.  Dad worked hard holding the top.

 

You can see how bad they looked on the back side.

 

Time for tree number two!

 

Getting the roots out was a little tougher!

 

Success!

 

Elizabeth was the photographer.  She wanted to get a picture of all the little treasures we found in the dirt!  The question is, were they buried by squirrels or kids?  Hmmm.

 

Ta da! Now we're going to get two big flower barrels to put on each side.

 

 

So, I'm sure you have all heard of an impromptu talk or testimony.  It's when the bishop calls someone out of the audience to come up and speak--without any previous notice.  But have you ever heard of an impromptu musical number?  Well, it happened today.  The last speaker in our sacrament meeting commented on a musical number the Beehives had just sung.  He said, "Someone once said that the church needs good music and more of it--and good talks and less of them."  Then the speaker ended his talk about five minutes early!  When this happens, Dad often calls the parents of a missionary to come up and bear their testimony.  But today he said he was going to follow the advice of the last speaker.  So he asked Josh to come up and end our meeting by playing a hymn.  So Josh went up and played his version of "I Stand All Amazed"--using only the hymnbook to help him.  He did an amazing job--even thought he hadn't played or practiced that song for months.  And the amazing thing was how it affected the congregation.  It was sooo quiet while he played.  Both Dad and I got comments from numerous people.  Some said that were amazed at Josh's talent--how he could play like that without any preparation.  But a lot talked about how it affected them.  Sister Eanes told me, "I have always heard about testimony being born through music.  But that is the first time I've felt it." 

 

 

Dad had a Bishop's Youth Discussion tonight.  It was centered around the Trek--so Dad went dressed as "Pa."

 

 

 

And it's Sunday night . . . so we would expect nothing less than this from Josh.