Family Togetherness

On Friday, Blythe's great-grandfather, Grandpa Gordy, died.  He was 91 and had been struggling, so it was something of a relief, though always had to lose a loved one.  This evening, Kayaira called and asked if Blythe could come over to Grandma Dawn's and hang around with family for a bit.  Brandt wanted to go too, so we dropped them off and let them run around with the kids.  They went over to the park, and this evening, after they got home, I got this picture.  We are glad that Blythe's adoption brought about our family's adoption into the Norton family. 

Blythe with Grayson, McKenna, and Keyaira.

The Scouts Go Biking

This afternoon the 11-year-old scouts had a biking activity.  They rode 11.5 miles which should have only taken them an hour, but part of the requirement for the 10 miles ride was to stop and take compass readings to insure they were headed in the right direction.  I find this requirement absolutely ridiculous, as no one carries a compass when they bike around town.  Maybe if you were mountain biking, but even then, you are usually on a trail, not biking through the shrubbery.  I knew I couldn't stand stopping every ten minutes, so I met them at the end with popsicles and let Kent do the biking.

They had a good time and everyone finished, even though it was hard for some of them and it was very hot.  Brandt felt good about his efforts.  I need to get him out with me riding more.

The Tough Tofu (Biking) Turtles

Hiram and Casey Deccio, Zion Au, Brother Kearl, Daniel Means, Kent

Brandt, Andrew Lund, Paul Moreland

All the bikers.

Standing: Casey Deccio, Daniel Means, Kent, Dallin, Jenkins, Richard Jensen

Seated: Cole, Spencer Diestra, Truman Robertson, Hiram Deccio, Ken Dudley, Jamie Kearl, Paul Moreland, and Andrew Lund

Lying in the grass: Zion Au, Jose Lee, Francis Aliosio, and Brandt

Mom Retires

After a super long time working at BYU, my mom will retire on Monday.  Seems a funny day to retire, a Monday, but it's the last day of April, and so a Monday it is.  As Monday is a strange day to have a party to celebrate someone's retirement, Mikayla and I threw her a retirement party today.  Initially, Mom had been reluctant to invite very many people, saying she didn't want a big do, but then people began asking her if she was having a party, so the invite list got longer and longer.  We had an open house, lots of food and talking evening, which ended up being just about perfect.  Family came, neighbors and friends, and we all caught up with those we hadn't seen in a while.  The food was pretty dang good, too!  People have asked Sue if she is worried about what she's going to do with herself as she won't have to go to work, but Mikayla has surgery on Thursday and will need someone to take care of her and her children for two weeks, so Mom isn't going to get much of a break.  It will be wonderful to have her around and available to us.  Hoorah for a long career!  And Hoorah for retirement!

This is a terrible picture of me. 

I've got a mouthful of food, and I'm doing something really strange with my mouth.

But as it's the only picture from the whole evening with people in it, it will have to do.

Brandt's Sixth Grade Class

Top row:  Matteo, Spencer, Kaylee, Josie, Dallin, Enrique, Jacob

2nd row:  Owen, Joseph, Lily, Francis, Amelia, Evelyn, Jackson

3rd row:  Ellie, Cooper, Andrea, Sage, Emma, Rebekah, Michael, Mrs. Neilson

bottom row: Johnny, Myra, Bridger, Brandt, Kate, Ella, Josef

Here is Brandt's sixth grade class.  We can hardly believe school is almost over.  Brandt will graduate from elementary school.  Where has the time gone?  He has had a great year, loved Mrs. Neilson who has seen all the good in him, and enjoyed his classmates.  All the sixth grade has a panoramic picture taken today, too, and I'll include that when we get the digital copy before school gets out.

Selfies

Blythe is obsessed!!!! with taking selfies.  I find lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of pictures of Blythe on my phone.  I wonder when they get there because I don't let the kids play with my phone.  I obviously leave it unattended too often.  Wednesday, Blythe took all of these pictures: 

Today, Sunday, I found all of these.  Perspective unchanged from the way they were taken.

Field Trip Friday #89--Jordan River Temple Open House

This afternoon we got to tour the Jordan River Temple which has been closed for two years.  I love being able to take the children to temples, and this tour, in particular, was really good.  It's not that the tour was exceptional, just that they didn't ask us to remain silent as we went, so as the children had questions, I felt like I could answer them right then, rather than put them off until we were done and forget what they'd asked.  I walked with Blythe most of the way and she had great questions.  We have talked about the temple, so it was nice to be able to show them where things happen.  The Celestial Room was beautiful, we got to peek into the Bride's Room, and we passed several sealing rooms where we talked about their sealings to us.  It was really a sweet trip and I look foward to the time when Kent and I can go into the temple with the children, not just at open houses.  That's pretty soon for Brandt who turns twelve in two months.

This is the chandelier in the Celestial Room.

It's star shaped.

The Bride's Room

The Celestial Room

The Baptistry

The Recommend Desk

The blue and yellow in the carpet were the color scheme throughout the temple.

Lots of lovely blue accents in glass and carpet and furniture.

Cora Comes Over

Cora was over today.  I tried really, really hard to keep her out of Blythe's bedroom, because Blythe doesn't like Cora in there messing with her precious things.  Cora disappeared from the main floor, so I went up looking for her.  I found her in Blythe's bed, clutching Arctic Tundra, a white tiger Beanie Boo, pretending to be asleep.  She was faker snoring.  When I tried to take her picture, she hid.  I brought her back downstairs where she remained for a bit, but then she disappeared again.  Again I found her in Blythe's bed.  She let me take a picture the second time.  I got her out of bed and locked Blythe's bedroom door as we went back downstairs.  That Cora is a real character.

Blythe Speaks About Prophets

Today Blythe had a talk in Primary.  The theme was "Jesus Christ Restored His Church in the Latter Days."  She gave a talk about prophets and the protection we can enjoy in our day when we listen to living prophets.  She did a fine job, standing confidently and reading clearly.  Here's her talk:

Elder Soares is our newest apostle/prophet.  He is from Brazil.  He said in April conference, "Isn’t it a blessing to have prophets, seers, and revelators on earth in these days in which we live, who seek to know the will of the Lord and follow it? It is comforting to know that we are not alone in the world, despite the challenges we face in life. Having prophets is a sign of God’s love for His children. They make known the promises and the true nature of God and of Jesus Christ to Their people."

He continued, "Brothers and sisters, from the bottom of my heart, I testify that the prophets speak by the power of the Holy Spirit. They testify of Christ and His divine mission on earth. They represent the mind and heart of the Lord and are called to represent Him and teach us what we must do to return to live in the presence of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We are blessed as we exercise our faith and follow their teachings. By following them, our lives are happier and less complicated, our difficulties and problems are easier to bear, and we create a spiritual armor around us that will protect us from the attacks of the enemy in our day."  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Ministering

I love the recent change in the Church that does away with visiting and home teaching and now focuses on ministering.  While the Relief Society made that focus change at the beginning of the year, I appreciate that it has become a Church-wide initiative for all members.  Kent has always been good at ministering, I've tried to be good at ministering, and I'm wanting the children to learn early to be good ministers.

On Wednesday, I got ambitious and made bread.  I don't do it very often because it always seems like a production, but I pulled out the recipe from Camme Cox I've had for years, and gave it a go.  I mixed everything up in the Kitchen Aid, set it out to rise, did some other stuff as it sat on the counter, formed it into loaves after an hour or so, let it sit a bit more on the counter in loaf pans, then baked it.  It was all fairly simple and the results were terrific.  Four beautiful loaves of bread came out of the oven, one for us and three to give away.

Linda Pugmire had surgery on her shoulder on Monday, but she wouldn't let me bring her dinner.  What's the next best thing?  A warm loaf of bread.  Kent and Brandt had scouts, so Blythe and I wandered down to the Pugmire's house with our bread, to have a visit and see how surgery went.  Blythe likes the Pugmires, especially Taylor, so she came happily along.  We were with them for about half an hour, and then Blythe was ready to go.  

We had a second loaf to give to the Heiners whose two and a half year old granddaughter died last week and whose funeral was on a week ago Friday.  They had been in Michigan before the funeral, and I wanted to show them a bit of love.  The Heiners weren't home, but their daughter Kirsten, her husband Eric, and their three boys were home, outside playing in the yard.  We delivered bread to them and talked for a couple of minutes, then Blythe hit her talking tolerance level and asked if we could go.  We did.

As we began to walk home, Blythe asked, "Mom, why did we have to make visits tonight?  Couldn't you just have called people to talk to them?"

This is a great question and I wanted to give her a great answer.  "Blythe," I replied, "if you ever get the impression that you should give someone a call, you should do it.  That is a good way to keep in touch and see how people are doing.  But if you take time to put aside all the things you have on your To-Do list, it's even better.  Everyone is busy and everyone knows that everyone is busy.  We all have lots of things that need to be done.  So if you actually show up at someone's house to see them, they know that you are setting aside all your "to-dos" to be with them.  They know that you think they are more important than anything else you've got going on.  That's ministering in the way that Jesus did.  He made time for individual people, and we should, too."

We still had an extra loaf of bread sitting on the counter, and as we walked up the street, Blythe said, "What are we going to do with the last loaf of bread?  Can I give it to Sister Cutler?"  Elizabeth Cutler lives across the street from us, was Blythe's Primary teacher last year, and currently employs Blythe to help her dust and do other projects around her house once a week.  Elizabeth's mother is 97, in very poor health, but lives four hours away in Springdell.  Elizabeth has been spending every other week with her mother to give her sister some relief from caring for her mother.  It's been difficult for Elizabeth and Blythe recognized that.  I agreed that a loaf of bread to Sister Cutler would be wonderful, and she carried it over herself, making a little visit and doing her own ministering.  

Then this afternoon, Kent took Blythe for a scooter ride.  They were gone for quite a while, longer than I would have thought a scooter ride should last.  When they got back, Blythe came in and said, "Sorry we were so long.  Dad and I were ministering."

"Oh!" I replied.  "Who were you ministering to?"

"Saneh," Blythe said.  Saneh is a widow who lives around the corner with her somewhat mentally impaired son.  She loves Blythe and Blythe loves her.  "She was outside in the front yard," Blythe continued, "and we stopped to talk to her.  We invited her to come over and have mango ice cream with us tonight."  

We've been planning on having ice cream, so it was okay that she made the invitation.  In fact, it would have been okay even if I wasn't planning on making mango ice cream, because I love that she could see that Saneh needed an invitation to come to our house and visit.  She and Willy both came, along with the Pugmires, and we sat outside on the patio and talked as we enjoyed our ice cream.  It was a lovely evening, and I was delighted by our Blythe's sweet spirit.  She is learning she can be a positive influence on others and do good.  I'm going to continue having her minister with me so that when she turns fourteen and can be an official ministering sister, it will already be second nature to her.

Robotics Competition

Over the past couple of months, Brandt has been participating in an after-school Robotics Club.  Brandt has really, really enjoyed the once-a-week club taught by Melanie Hall, just for sixth graders.  They have been using Lego Mindstorm to build robots and then program them to do different things.  Brandt has learned the coding and had really a fun time with classmates.  Here is a picture that appeared on the school's Instagram page.

David Harrison and Brandt

Today, Brandt was able to participate in a robotics competition sponsored by BYU.  It was just for the school district, and teams from five different schools participated.  The students were instructed to create a robot that would compete in line following and ball tossing arenas. The students were also able to participate in three lab tours around the BYU campus; the Fluids Lab, the Robotics Lab and the Mars Rover. Engineering students from BYU helped to run the arena and took the students on tours.  Kent went over with Brandt and went on all the tours, and then watched he and David build their robot.  Blythe and I showed up for his competition time to watch his robot do its thing.  

Their robot did an excellent job of following the line.  It was steady the whole way.  It was also fairly slow.  When some students increased the speed the accuracy decreased, so Brandt and David opted for slower but steady.  The ball tossing didn't go very well, but they had an acceptable showing.  I know Brandt had a great time, he likes David and has been happy to be paired with him as a partner, and he was pleased to be participating.  

 

 

 

David filmed their robot going down the line.

It was slow.

He's got four minutes of robot swinging back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.

Gripping cinematography!

 

Brandt is making a coding adjustment.

That's Melanie behind him.