This week

This week, the kids got in trouble for opening a new skein of yarn to tie each other up and then they cut it off instead of rolling it back up.  Now they are no longer allowed in my sewing room.

Friday, we went and mowed the lawn at the Robertson's (I'm listening to a lecture series about where the legend of King Arthur came from while we mow.  I'm loving it.  It's very interesting).  Then we went and put kids to bed before picking my friend, Sylvia Villareal, up from the train station.  She's staying with us for a month while she goes to one of the 5 English schools here in the valley.  She's a curator at the Contemporary Museum of Art in Quito, Ecuador. A lot of the shows that she want to bring in are from international places, so she's here to learn how to be a fluent English speaker.  She and I lived together as missionaries and having seen each other for 16 years.  She is a marvelous lady.  At the age of 19, she was baptized and disowned by her dad.  He still doesn't speak to her and refused to acknowledge her leaving or coming home from her mission.  She is still the only member in her family.  We went to temple square and she about cried being able to see it all.

We got to go to the temple with my parents on Saturday to do sealings.  It was so neat.  We walked in, handed our recommends to the desk, hugged my Great-Aunt Rosemary that was the greeter, walked into the lobby, hugged my Aunt Beth and Uncle Son that were just leaving the temple, walked 5 more steps and hugged my Aunt Margo that is a temple worker, walked passed the counter and hugged one of my Latina friends writing names for the prayer roll, dress and went upstairs where my parents were waiting at the sealing office, did the sealings (I love the new phrasing by the way), went back to the changing room and run into a lady that I grew up next to.  I kind of picture that this is what heaven will be like with family and friends.

My Evelyn has quite the imagination.  In one drawing she drew the temple, me her and my friend, an earth with an alien on it, and a marshmallow dying in a cocoa cup and the spirit flying away.

Sunday, Sylvia came to church with us. She is like most Ecuadorians.... super little.  She says I'm tall.  I'm average here.  Ada is taller than she is.

Sunday, Lia had her 15th birthday at our house.  Usually they would have done a quincenera, but between them having a baby 2 weeks ago, not having any money, and just having their reception for their temple sealing.... they settled for a backyard hangout.  I can't believe she's 15.  She's loving high school so much more than jr high.  I'm glad.  Jr High was hard on her.

Evelyn holding Thea

Sunday night, my brother Seth invited us to go stargazing with him and his really neat telescope.  My Mom and Dad brought glow sticks and the kids had a party.  We were able to see the texturing on the moon and 4 of the moons of Jupiter.  It was really cool.

My hard working and ever patient husband started re-venting our furnace, water heater and bathrooms.  Apparently that is one of the main causes of the leaks in our roof.  They were all vented improperly.  He worked on it all day for Saturday (except going to the temple and cleaning the church that morning), and Monday on Labor Dad while I took everyone else to Salt Lake City.   He's made good progress, but he's planning on working on it for the next three nights and probably this next Saturday too.  Then he's going to take down our solar panels and our roofing neighbor is going to replace our roof.  There are 3 layers of shingles up there.... so it's time to strip it all down, redo all the flashing and put on a fresh layer.  We can do most of that, but we've got so many things going on that I'm happy to pay someone else to do this one. Not so fun paying off the loan, but doable.