Wordless Wednesday - Last Day of Antibiotics

 

Look better?

Baby Doll's 1st Volleyball Tournament

The volleyball season has officially started! On Friday, Baby Doll skipped school and we headed for Syracuse. I was only an hour or so, but we didn’t want to drive home late and come back early, so my sweetie used his Marriott points to find us a free hotel for the night.

We didn’t have much time after checking in before we had to drive 10 minutes to the tournament site.  Baby Doll was playing outside hitter, but she was still subbing in and out. With about 10 girls on the team, only an elite few played all the time.

After the first few sets, Baby Doll stopped subbing out.

Pool play ended early and we got back to the hotel in time for Baby Doll to have a quick swim.

Dinner and a movie and we tried to sleep. We had to be at the gym in Kaysville at 7:15AM.

More pool play before they were assigned the Bronze bracket.

Volleyball days are long and there is lots of waiting while other teams play.

And the gyms are all so cold!!

But Baby Doll continued to play. It was rare that she ever subbed out. The final game was against another GSL team. They split and went to a third tiebreaker game.

14 - 14!! It was a nail-biter, but our girls finally came out on top, 14 - 16!!

We got home just after 6. It was a long day, but a good one.

So proud of my girl.

Birthday Freebies

You know, Thursday was my birthday. I spent the day running around with Scout gathering up all the freebies we could get. I got a couple of shirts from Torrid, 2 pairs of earrings from Kohl's, a winter coat from Penney's, mascara and blush from Sephora, spray perfume from Bath & Body Works, buttered popcorn from Megaplex, a bear claw from Panera, lunch for both of us from Kneaders, an apple fritter from the Holiday, a cookie from Crumbl, a frosted lemonade from Chick-fil-A...

Ok. To be fair, I had $25 in found money from a random Tupperware bowl I sold the day before and my sweetie kicked in $20 more, but most things were free and I needed the coat.

Then for dinner, we went to Buca di Beppo for dinner. It was NOT free.

Except for the ice cream.

Wordless Wednesday - Slowly Getting Better

Finally.

Rough Weekend

Oh it has been a rough weekend! On Sunday morning, we headed for church and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. About an hour in, my leg felt like it was on fire. When I got home and removed my boot, I saw this.

After listening to Sport speak in the 1st ward,  I headed for the urgent care. They gave me some antibiotics and I rushed back for our monthly birthday party.

Tadpole turned 6 and he couldn’t wait to open his gifts.

I went to bed early, but on Monday, my leg looked like this.

The infection was spreading. We drew a pen line so we could keep a closer watch.

Tuesday morning was no better, so back to the urgent care and additional antibiotics. I will let you know what tomorrow brings. 

Baby Doll is Selling Cookies!

And she would love your help!

Click here to help her out.

Thanks!

Carnitas thanks you too.

Guest Blogger: Samy Kind Back Covers by the Dog Walker

 I've been writing the first two Samy Kind books ever since the memorable Cap Stone project. I'm excited to show you the second book with it's back cover to know the summary plot. Here's also the summary plot from the first book. I hope you can read them and like them.

Wordless Wednesday - Dog Walker's New Book

 

Available for Valentine's Day.

A Quick Little Trip

We have been working on cleaning out Grandpa's room all week. We put a bunch of his things at the care center, but 8 large boxes and 4 small pieces of furniture needed to go to his hous for storage. Today was the perfect day since my 3 youngest boys could come and carry everything.

Sport had not seen any of the remodel. so we had to give him the tour.

After we left the house, we drove around town a little. We even took pics of the new temple.

Then we drove to Mt Pleasant for lunch at the Dairy Freeze.

It was a good day.

Hanging out with Grandpa

It has been sort of different having Grandpa in the Care Center. Baby Doll and I stopped to visit a few days ago. We even had dinner with him in the dining room.

I think I like this new arrangement. 

Guest Blog: Gramps by Skittles

After Christmas Gramps moved out of Grandma's house.  While Grandma was on vacation we went to see his new home.  We walked all the way around the building looking for his room.  We noticed most of the doors were decorated for Christmas.  Gramps's door was not decorated.  I felt sad he wasn't included.  My mom asked his new friends if they decorated the doors for all holidays or just Christmas.  We started planning a Valentine's Day door for Gramps.  

My mom called all her siblings and asked for photos.  My dad went to the store and bought decorations and picked up the photos when they printed. 

We went over on Thursday, but Gramps was already sleeping when we got there.  So we tried again on Friday, this time closer to dinner. 

When we got there Dad and Carnitas stayed in the dinning room to visit with Gramps and his friends.  Mom, Queso and I went to decorate the door.  We were just getting ready when Burrito showed up from school.  It was a good thing, because Mom needed someone tall.  I kept Queso from escaping while Mom and Burrito got the door covered with a table cloth.  Once the background was on, Queso and I helped stick hearts and photos on the door.  Gramps came to see how we were doing.  He loved it. 

I miss him but I am glad we can visit. 

Guess Who's Coming Back to Town?

 You got it! The Harlem Globetrotters!!

I was so excited to receive an invitation to take my family again this year. Remember when we went last year? Most of the kids knew nothing about the Globetrotters until I started sharing my memories from when I was a kid. Meadowlark Lemon was my favorite, but did you know that Wilt Chamberlain also played for the Globetrotters before I was born?

Hey, let's make sure we see the Globetrotters in the Delta Center on March 13th. If that doesn't work for you, check out their tour schedule and pick somewhere close to where you live. Make sure you use the code USFAM to save 20% on your tickets.

Just for fun: Did you know that Marques Haynes once dribbled an entire fourth quarter? (This was before the shot-clock, of course.) These players are truly amazing!

Tickets Now On Sale SAVE 20% for ALL Harlem Globetrotters Games with promo code USFAM https://www.harlemglobetrotters.com/world-tour/schedule #globetrotterpromocode"   (Discount Expires 7 Days Prior To Game Date)

Greetings from Ghana - Do You Believe in Miracles?

 Big email, my apologies, friends and family.

Monday:

It was preparation day so that Elder C and I could get ready for the week. We did laundry, cleaned the apartment, and travelled to a city called Ho[e] (in later emails, I am just going to call it the garden tool city). We had to stay at four other missionaries' apartment because Tuesday morning was our zone council. That is what our was.

Tuesday:

We came back to Mafi-Kumase in the afternoon, and we met with two of our friends to teach them. After we taught them, we went to our New Years party that we helped set up. We had to wait for people to show up after we finished setting it up, and they showed up around 7:15 pm. So we celebrated with our branch and then we had dinner during the party it was called jollof which was a rice cooked similarly to Spanish rice and had a vegetable powder they call banku mixed in with it. It was really good. We had to leave at 8:30 pm so that we could keep obedience and be getting ready for bed that night.

Wednesday:

That was the busiest day we had to teach. We had to teach seven people, but then two were not available. During those times, we contacted nine different people to schedule their next lesson and to confirm if they were around if we were teaching them today. There was a point during our day when we had sat under a tree together and ate lunch so that we could get ready for our next lesson. It was a great and humbling experience for the both of us, but it was definitely the Lord's hand softening the hearts of the people around us. We then had to head back home for a repairman to come and fix our propane tank line. The line is being held in a position where the calve will not cause leakage from the valve. It is a temporary solution because the propane canister was manufactured off center.

Thursday:

We had interviews with mission President Beeson. I noticed some of the missionaries who left the missionary training center the same day as me had mentioned that their meeting was one on one. Our interview was in the garden tool city and involved both of us, which was really cool. We  gave us encouragement by telling us about his departure from one city on a mountain to another city below and the road had a lot of potholes but he looked up and saw the town below the mountain and told us, "it was a great way of showing me the vision of God is bigger than our own." He then encouraged us to invite those had slowing progression to be baptized. After our interview, we went back to Mafi-Kumase and invited two more people to be baptized, and they said yes! We were really excited to have more people in the font on January 21st.

Friday:

We had ten contacts on Friday, which means it was a lot of work going on from the Lord. We also had three lessons, which was also great.

Saturday:

We had thirteen contacts and five lessons it was a great day. We did extend an invitation to be baptized to two of interested people. One said no, and the other said they would think about it. We decided that we won't pressure either of them, and we will teach them more principles and see from there.

Sunday:

It was the second busiest day out of the week because we had six lessons and four contacts. We eventually got home around 6:45, and the power went out due to a really bad storm, so we ate dinner in the dark and went to bed without the fans on. Though at some point, the power came back, and now we have everything working properly while I was writing this.

One thing is for sure don't take anything for granted because at any point you could lose it. I don't have a link to a talk, but I will just mention it. 

"They saw our day" by Lance Richardson.

Scripture of the week:  Helaman 6:3-7

"3 Nevertheless, the people of the church did have great joy because of the conversion of the Lamanites, yea, because of the church of God, which had been established among them. And they did fellowship one with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great joy. 

4 And it came to pass that many of the Lamanites did come down into the land of Zarahemla, and did declare unto the people of the Nephites the manner of their conversion, and did exhort them to faith and repentance. 

5 Yea, and many did preach with exceedingly great power and authority, unto the bringing down many of them into the depths of humility, to be the humble followers of God and the Lamb. 

6 And it came to pass that many of the Lamanites did go into the land northward; and also Nephi and Lehi went into the land northward, to preach unto the people. And thus ended the sixty and third year. 

7 And behold, there was peace in all the land, insomuch that the Nephites did go into whatsoever part of the land they would, whether among the Nephites or the Lamanites."

Traveling Together - Coming Home

Friday was our last morning in Georgia. We gathered our things early, cleaned up a bit, and hit the road by 9:30. It was a couple of hours to Atlanta and my sweetie was nervous about missing our flight.

But everything ran smoothly and we got to the airport and through security with 2 hours to wait. 

We ended up right by the Delta Sky Club. My sweetie decided to check his number of free vouchers and before long, we were all visiting the buffet and watching the planes land.

It wasn't too long before we were on the plane.

The Dog Walker didn't like the turbulence...

Home, safe and sound.

Guest Blog: Traveling Together: Game and Movie Night by the Dog Walker

We haven't done much for our last night in Georgia, but we pretty much did inside activies, like watching the Mission Impossible marathon, taking naps, and playing games like Skull King. 

Teach and Drama Queen showed me that game when I visited them in New Jersey, so that was my Christmas gift to them. Some of them were a bit intriqued of my naivety on playing Skull King. I was surprised to know that Skull King had almost the same game routine as Pinochole after Mom and Curly taught me and Baby Doll. 

Besides the movie and games, I also drew a bunch of pictures on the computer for my next Samy Kind book. I'm hoping Mom will edit it soon so I can publish it. Anyway, we had to make sure all our luggage has been packed before bedtime, because we will be heading for the airport first thing in the morning. It's been a fun trip to Georgia.