9/26/10-10/2/10

Sunday, September 26, 2010
I have never felt so involved in a ward conference before!  I was asked to make new table clothes for the sacrament table, which turned out pretty good.  (You can't really go too wrong when you are just hemming and adding lace to a piece of white fabric!!)  I also had to be at the church for choir practice at 7:30, play the prelude, play for all the songs during the meeting (usually another girl plays the sacrament song to give her practice), as well as postlude.  The entire new stake presidency even spoke to me...in English!  Wow, they all speak English!  One of the new counselors is the husband of the ballet teacher at the school we used to go to.
In Sunday School, I was even given a scripture to read.  I said that I didn't have my Bible in Spanish so they gave me theirs!  Dang it, that's our standing excuse not to have to read!  So, when it was finally my turn to read, I start to read but another person starts reading at the same time.  I thought I had gotten out of reading but then my friends had the teacher (her husband!) have me re-read it for everybody.   I couldn't even count all of the thumbs up and pats on the back.  Chris asked if I ever thought it would be such a big deal to read a scripture in church!  Oh, the small things in life that we take for granted!!
Relief Society went really well also.  I seem to be understanding a lot more and not getting quite as overwhelmed and frustrated.  I'm not sure why but I have noticed a definite change in my level of understanding the past few weeks.  I even think I got the main ideas of the lesson!!   It was pretty funny when the speaker asked two sisters to come up and then they compared the differences between the two.  I asked my friend why they didn't have me go up.  Everybody around me got a good kick out of that and kept telling me to go up.
After the lesson, I was mobbed by people asking questions about the quilting class.  I have a feeling that there might be a few more people than I was expecting.  I've even had people ask if they can bring their nonmember friends.  

Monday, September 27, 2010
I am so burnt out on storms.  After a month of nonstop rain in Alaska and what feels like tropical storm after tropical storm here, I am ready for the dry season!  I was so sick of the rain today that I did not want to get out of bed.  Luckily the kids were more motivated than I was and did all of their homework....in bed!!
Since I wasn't about to walk over to the country club to play in the rain or to swim in the cold pool, I had to get a little more creative today.  We made homemade taffy.  Morgan especially, is enjoying cooking more and is learning a lot more.  All the girls helped to "pull" the taffy while trying not to burn our hands.  We also had to be careful not to break our teeth when we ate it!!  It definitely isn't a soft taffy!!  It was delicious though.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Today was another typical rainy day filled with piano lessons, preschool, piano class, and choir.  Due to the large quantities of rain, there weren't as many people today.  I don't think that I am the only one that is getting sick of these crazy storms!  I don't remember any tropical storms last year!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010
When I arrived home last night, there was a note taped to the door saying that there was a surprise for me.  While I was at the church, the kids had all worked together to clean up the downstairs and set it up for the quilting class today.  They were so proud of themselves.  They had an entire bucket of rags from their "skating" party to mop the floors!  It was a good welcome home!  We still had more to clean before the quilting class so that's what we did for most of the morning.  Five adults and four children showed up.  I was a little surprised that there weren't more after the response that I had on Sunday, but it was the perfect amount for the space that we had!  We had lots of fun and everybody seemed to be happy about the class.  I even learned some new words!

Thursday, September 30, 2010
Yesterday at the quilting class, my visiting teaching companion asked if I had a clown costume that she could use for kids day at school on Friday.  I told her that I didn't but Morgan decided to make a costume.  I took it to her house today and when I got back home, Morgan had created another costume.  She is in high heaven when she has free reign of the craft supplies!

The ladies bringing in food for the workers at the job site!

Morgan and Cole worked extra hard this week in their schooling.  They got all of their lessons done today so that they won't have school tomorrow so we can go see Angel Moroni put up.  They are also very excited that there is only one week of school left for this school year.  The end is in sight!  I can't believe that we have almost finished an entire year of homeschooling and everybody is still happy!!

Friday, October 1, 2010
Everybody had to get up extra early this morning to be at the temple site by 7:45.  At 8:00 they started to open the crate to get Moroni out.

 Once the crate was open, the workers had to do some modifications to the bottom of the statue so that it would fit properly once it got to the top of the temple.  It took FOREVER!  I had to keep calling my friends to let them know that it was really happening.  The people that weren't on the job site couldn't see what was going on and a lot of people had to leave.  In order to touch Moroni, everybody had to wear white gloves so that it didn't ruin the gold plating.

Before sending Moroni up, they had to put some foam over his head for protection from the crane.  Chris said that it looked like he was wearing a toupee.

 

Chris had to climb up this scafolding in order to secure Moroni at the top!

The kids and I running around the jobsite.

Chris is the one on the right.

All of the people who were still around after over 2 hours of watching.  Sully and two of her kids are the ones in the very front!  I hadn't had a chance to see how many people were there from the beginning but it was very touching to see how many people were there.  There had been no formal announcement, so everybody had just heard by word of mouth.  It hits me hard every time I think about what this temple is going to mean to the saints here.  The small sacrifices that our family has made will be great blessings to more people than we can imagine!

Laina got to use the camera!!

After Moroni was in place, Chris had to go up in a basket on the crane to put the lightning rod in Moroni's head.

Thank goodness for safety harnesses!!

Following the placement of Moroni on the temple, we took Alysa and Laina to Teacher Lily's for the Kid's Day festivities.  They had a pinata, snacks, and a gift exchange.


Saturday, October 2, 2010
We were blessed to watch general conference today.  We were especially blessed that the internet actually worked so that we could watch it!  It was very exciting to hear of five new temples.   I wonder if Jacobsen Construction will be doing any of them!!
I was very pleased that the kids sat and listened to conference with very little interruptions!  Morgan just started cross stitching this week so she kept her fingers busy.  Cole and Alysa were each working on making a hat on the looms.  It is amazing how much better they listen when their hands are occupied!