Friday, April 26, 2019

April Shenanigans...

Claude and I are attending an Adult Religion Class each Wednesday morning. We are really enjoying this time to learn together. I missed the first one because it was the day we were going to pick up the Mini's for their spring break visit. I visited Papa while Claude attended. We are studying the New Testament. This is one of the treats of having a hubby home during the daytime. We get to do some things together.

We also finished up our transaction with Strategic Wealth Designers. We are a bit more set for some more years of retirement. Feels good to take care of those things.

Each month on the second Thursday we have a Stake Self-Reliance Committee meeting. This month we combined with the Lexington Stake's committee for some special training. The Church is adding the BYU Pathway Connect to the Self-Reliance umbrella. This is an amazing program to help people attend college that might not be able to go away to college. Maybe a person who had to quit college for some reason and wants to go back and finish their degree. The Pathway Connect allows them to get their first year for a nominal fee with credits that will transfer to BYU-Idaho. Classes are on-line and the participants must attend an Institute of Religion class each week. They can continue until they have a bachelor's degree. This is being implemented in only two stakes of the Church so far and our stake is one of those two. Friday morning we had three of the region and area leaders over Pathway to our home for breakfast. They did the training on Thursday evening and wanted a follow-up of what we felt before they left. It was a good meeting. 

We would meet with Bob and Pam Bylund who will be the service missionaries to lead the BYU Pathway Connect in our area on Thursday, April 18th. We formulated and shared some ideas of how to train Church leaders in our area and get people registered before the first session starts in August. And we are off and running with this new program. We will meet in our next Stake Committee meeting to firm up our plan with the stake committee.

My sister, Junie, came for a brief visit. She arrived Monday, April 15th, in the early evening. She had all day Tuesday with Papa. She took him for a car ride and visited with him. Wednesday, Claude and I picked Papa up after our Adult Religion Class and brought him out to the house for lunch and an afternoon visit. This was a good move. Junie was taking medicine for a bad pain in her neck and it makes her very sleepy. This allowed her to sleep in and still have half a day with her dad. She would leave Thursday morning. When we took Papa back to the nursing home Wednesday, Claude took this great picture of Papa and two of his daughters. My only regret is I didn't think to do this with Neffie when she visited. This picture is printed and on Papa's wall in the nursing home. He was very happy to get it.
April 18th was Jake's birthday. This is the picture I posted on Facebook. This was taken a year or so ago. Love our son. He is a great young man. Where did these years go?
We had to have some flashing added to the roof our our home.  We learned of this need when water spots appears on the wall of our living room by the door to the deck. I thought it was water from when Claude power washed the exterior. Alas, it was flashing on the roof that was not there so the water was running into the wall. We had that repaired but we opted to repaint the living room wall. Claude went to Ocer Paint who sold us the paint we currently have upstairs. The paint we used was discontinued. They were able to make a match out of another kind of paint. Claude set to work on April 19th prepping the wall for paint.
I sent this picture to our family via our family Facebook page asking them what they thought of the new look. Jake assured us the blue trim was to die for. I told him his dad felt it had a Danish Modern vibe to it. Andie thought the blue was cool and we should add some stripes. Nissa simply knows her mother well and was sure I would add some stencil to this new design. Ah, Family, ya gotta love 'em!

Claude finished his painting only to have a bubble in the paint over the light switch. I noticed it as I walked by when putting laundry away. I showed Claude and he immediately knew it was because the sheet rock must have let some in and bubbled up. Hmmm... Claude let the paint dry and then removed that bubble and spackled the spot. When that dried he sanded and then painted. Looks great. We are back to our normal look. Yeah!!
On Saturday, April 20th we received a note from Andie. They were all watching TV and suddenly Bailey piped up and said, "Oh, I can't wait until Grampa sends us another Omaha Steak set!" The girl is a carnivore! This is Claude's tradition with the guys in our family at Christmas. They each get a box of Omaha Steaks. It is nice to know they are appreciated.

Easter found our Roper family heading to Church. Katelyn fell back as Drew and Raelyn walked in to Church and took this picture. She has a picture of her mother, Nissa, walking with Evan, Claude's father and holding his hand. She also has a picture of her walking with Claude. And, she has a picture of Raelyn walking with her grampa. Now she has one of her hubby, Drew, and their bundle of energy, Raelyn. 
And, while we are talking about the Roper's. Here is a picture of our soon-to-be-born third great-grandmonster, Amelia. Katelyn is ready to give birth.
Monday, April 22nd, was a sunny day. I picked Papa up and we did something different. I took him to the Church and I practiced the hymns for this coming Sunday. Then I had Papa find hymns he loved and we sat for an hour and a half with me playing the organ (which he could hear) as I played hymn after hymn. He smiled and remembered and occasionally I would hear him trying to sing again. My plan had been to do that for a bit and then take him to my home for a haircut. I determined the better part was to stay and sing with Papa. We could cut hair another day. We finally stopped because the arthritis in my hands was causing a great deal of pain and my fingers were not moving as they should. We will do this again some time. We left the Church and went to Burger King where I got Papa a chocolate shake. He and I sat with the car windows down and enjoyed the breeze and his chocolate shake. Good afternoon with Papa.

While I was gone, Claude sent me this picture. It seems a bird was sitting on the decorative birdhouse on our front porch. Fortunately, it did not take up residence.
Tuesday, April 23rd, I did my first weeding of this year. Oh my do my legs ache. Got a good bit done. Will do more next week. It sure feels like the weeds are much more prolific this year than last. We had a wet year and that may be the reason. 

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