Monday, April 27, 2015

Dallin's Pictures - April 27th

Welp, here's my new companion (on the far left)!  It is Elder Ortega, who was my trainer, again--hahaha!  Nobody has seen this before.  I think a big part of it is that my area is flat and his knees have been really bad.   Also the Elder that he just finished training--his new companion is my trainer's trainer...so we are just a big happy family right now, haha!
 

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Surprise!

This week was full of surprises!
 
First, for Family Home Evening, we had a surprise birthday party for Josh and Elizabeth!  Since their birthdays are not until June, it really was a big surprise!
We decided since they are leaving next week, and won't be with us in June, we would just celebrate their birthdays right now.  We started out with yummy philly cheese steaks for dinner.
 
 
Then it was time for presents!



 
Josh and Elizabeth had been making all kinds of smoothies in our Nutri Ninja--so we decided to give them one of their own!

 
For our party game, Dad wanted to play Farkle.  Josh won the first game, and Elizabeth the second!  We thought it was only right we let them win--since it was their party.  :)

 
And then it was time for birthday cake!
We taught Elizabeth about the traditional lighting of the candles pose.
She nailed it!



 
 
Josh got another surprise this week!
He thought he should get in to see a dentist before he left. After his check up on Tuesday morning, the doctor announced he had NINE cavities--and one was really bad because a previous dentist had not originally filled the cavity correctly.  So the dentist cleared his schedule in the afternoon so they could get as many done as possible--since Josh was leaving in six days.  They ended up filling all nine cavities--but the last one, the bad one, actually needed a root canal.  Josh was in the dentist's chair for over three hours!  Poor guy--Elizabeth bought him a frosty to help ease the pain.

 
 
On Saturday morning Elizabeth and I got to hear Sheri Dew and Wendy Nelson (Elder Russell M Nelson's wife) speak!  And guess what?  Elizabeth became a huge Sheri Dew fan like me!  We wanted to get a picture to document the day--we forgot we had a built-in photo bomber in the family. 

 
Elizbeth said she'd been paying attention to all of Dad's photo bomb faces and stated that she could do the exact same face.  Ta da!  Again, Elizabeth nailed it!

 
And this final surprise kept happening over and over and over again.
Josh and Elizabeth have been doing some packing this week in preparation for their move to California this coming week.  While getting things in and out of storage, Josh brought out Dallin's life-size cut out.  He has been placing it all over the house--and it startles me every time I see it!  It's been in the family room, living room, bedroom, closet, and office.  This is where I found it after church today.

 
This was the scariest one--in my bathroom!  It wasn't until today I found out that Elizabeth had actually put it there!  And here I thought she was completely innocent all this time!  Pa, ha!  In fact, I actually put the cut out in Josh and Elizabeth's shower last night.  Then I went and told Elizabeth about it so it wouldn't scare her!  Next time, Elizabeth.  Next time.


Monday, April 20, 2015

Dallin's Pictures - April 20

So turns out there is "green" and a river in Lima. Its Rio Chillon.
For exercise we woke up early and ran to it.
 
 
 
We also had a big Family Home Evening with some members and less actives.
 

Sunday, April 19, 2015

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.


Friday, April 17, 2015

A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life of the Pages
15 April 2015
 
Brian:  Working on the computers with Mom.
 
 
 
Kathy:  Ta da!  After several months of searching, I finally found the bike rack I wanted on Craigslist!  And Josh installed it for me!

 
 
Ty: Enjoying our last evening with the Osborne family at Big'z Burgers. We have really appreciated having family nearby and will miss them. 
 
 
 
Michelle: One of the few moments of relative calm in my day. (And Afton's first of three cheeseburgers in the day).
 
 
 
 
Afton: I'm going to miss my cousins Zoe, Ethan, and Ellie. Or second cousins? Once removed maybe? My mom's cousin's kids.
 
 
 
Eliza: The fifteen minutes that helped me survive the day of moving out of our house.
 
 
 
Josh:  I'm famous!  Brother McKean found and took this poster from BYU-I and gave it to me.
 
 
 
Elizabeth:  People warned me about Colorado in the Spring!
 
 
 
Jayna:  After a long day at work I'm about to break into this beauty that I found on clearance at the store today!
 
 
 
Dallin:  We made a dish from Bolivia--it was pretty good!
 

 

 

 

Monday, April 13, 2015

Dallin's Pictures - April 13th

Here's my Inca Kola!
 

It was also a birthday of Gloria, who we are teaching.  We're hoping she and her husband get married in May then baptized. 
 
 
This is Arroz a la Cubana. It is just rice, eggs, and fried banana, but it is one of my favorite things here, it is so good.