Our weeks are all soccer for the next two weeks, then we'll have a summer break. Evelyn made a goal in her last two games. Her soccer season is finished, but she's saying that she wants to do it again next year. She had been saying that she didn't want to. I'm not sure how much she actually wants to versus her just having fun on the last day. I'll ask her again in a couple of months.
I'm all sunburned from two sunny Saturdays watching soccer. Usually Jer will go to two and I will go to the other two, but he's been busy with the Republican party conventions and voting. I'm just glad that even though we're busy, it's not unmanageable.
Evelyn made this flower crown in Activity Days. I got to help with that one too. Her leader called and said that she was the only adult there and needed some extra hands.... so I helped girls hot glue Easter flower crowns. It was adorable to see them happily chatting and making.
I found these awesome chocolate bunnies from ikea…. they have slots to them and you assemble them just like putting together the ikea furniture.... it's hilarious and fun.
Easter was very low key. We'd had all our Easter parties the week before, so it was just eating chocolate, church, family time. Dad got a new game called Brain Games for the kids. It's pretty fun. It's fun to do the challenges, but some of the kids.... ie: Sam.... get too upset if they don't do well on them.
Our neighbor is a Spanish teacher and his class was doing a fundraiser to be able to raise money to help build homes and orphanages in Ecuador. It was more than we usually spend for Easter, but honestly if someone says they're fundraising for Ecuador I'm sold.
Jer spent a couple of days replacing our water softener system. We got a quote for one and it was $2,600.... so Jer got on Amazon, ordered the same system and installed it himself (with some cursing of course) for $600. We hadn't been planning on replacing it, but the hard water and the Utah minerals has been making all of us itch like crazy. We also applied for a home equity loan because we now need to replace our roof. We applied for extra because we're going to try to finish our porch while we're at it. We weren't wanting another loan, but we do need a new roof. Thank you Jeremy for being willing to do hard things to bring costs down!
We were able to attend the temple with Jer's parents to do the temple work for Judy's brother who died a year ago. She asked him if he wanted his work done before he died and he said yes, he might have even done it himself if it weren't for the anti sentiments of his wife.. It was really neat to be there as part of that. We went through an endownment session and then up to the sealings. My favorite part was the sealing to their parents. What a neat experience. The Holy Ghost was clearly there and I loved that during the prayer, the man prayed that the hearts of those that had passed and whose work we were doing would be softened. I'd never heard that one in a prayer there before. We had a quick dinner in the cafeteria and then home to spend time with my brother, Seth.
I really don't mind the changes made in the temple ceremony. In the 15 years that I've been endowed the ceremony has changed 3 times. My Uncle took me to the temple and told me about when the endownment had more of a performance feel to it too.... That had been about 15 years before I was endowed. My view is, as long as I am faithful to the covenants that I'm given to make with my Heavenly Father then I will be considered faithful. I'm not responsible for covenants made by Joseph Smith, Moses, Abraham, or Adam or the way they were made... just for me. If current revelation changes the way that I make those covenants, I'm still responsible for my part in those covenants. I will miss some of the symbolism, but I do like that it's more streamlined.
