Homecoming, Omaha, Leaving MTC, P-day, Birthday, Client of the Year, Lunch

Things have been pretty crazy the last 9 days.  Here’s what we have been up to.

Sarah had her Homecoming date and dance.  She got ready for the dance with friends.  Here she is before her date:

Her date’s name was Jerrick.  Sarah didn’t know him very well, but they seemed to have fun together.

Here’s their small group:

They did join up with a bigger group later on.

Here are some other pictures they were able to get as well:

They did their day date the week before.  They hung out and played games.  They also went to the Homecoming football game as well.

For their Homecoming date they went out to eat at Ruby River Steakhouse.  Then they went to the dance. They followed the dance by watching a movie and talking at a friend’s house.  Sarah said she had fun.  She didn’t get home until around 1 am.  I was the lucky one who got to stay up for her and I was DRAGGING the next day.  I am getting too old for this--haha!

Daniel got a lot of different experiences at the Provo MTC. While they are there they practice their teaching skills with investigators.  These investigators are sometimes old missionaries who come in to help.  After one teaching session Josh got this text:

It is pretty cool Daniel got to meet and practice teaching an old missionary who served with Josh in his mission to Chicago.

My Mom’s birthday was this past week.  We hosted everyone for Sunday dinner to celebrate.  We had a pasta bar and Johanna and her family came as well as Michonne and her family came. Bryan was out of town so he didn’t make it.  Anyway, my Dad wanted to make sure she got a birthday present from him.  He had made arrangements with Johanna to have her pick up a present.  This was all before he passed away.  Johanna brought this present and my mom got to open it.  It was a tender reminder about how thoughtful he was.  It ended up being a practical gift for her.  She likes to make bread, but can never get the loaves the same size. He wanted to help her with that so he picked out a food scale for her.  Johanna ordered it and even brought it down for my Dad to look at before it was her birthday to make sure he was okay with the scale.  The scale got his seal of approval.  That all happened before he passed so it was a bit emotional for my Mom while she opened it.  He was a sweet husband.  I am glad we all got to celebrate her birthday together.

Tuesday was Daniel’s second P-day in the MTC.  It was also his travel day.  He was flying out to Omaha, Nebraska that day.  They had all the missionaries travel together on public transit to get to the airport.  I just assumed they would be bussed to the airport so it was crazy to find out they would be using public transit to get there.  Daniel got a few minutes to call us while he was waiting for his flight.  Aaron was gone on a business trip so he just got me and Josh.  It was good to hear from him.  

He was a bit nervous to actually be making it to Omaha, but I am sure things will go well.  We share a google picture account so we did get to see some of the pictures he took while he was in the Provo MTC.  Here’s a few:

Elder Mancil and his companion Elder Smeltzer:

Here’s a picture from his flight:

Since Daniel’s P-day was over by the time he got to Omaha, his Mission President and wife posted some pictures on their Instagram story.  It was fun to look through the pictures and try to spot him.  Here’s all the arriving missionaries at the airport:

We got a quick glimpse of Daniel in the backseat of the van:

We did get this email and picture at the end of the day. I am glad to know he made it safe and sound!

Cute Elder Mancil:

The next day they shared some pictures of all the new missionaries getting assigned to their trainers.  They had all the trainers line the gym and sing ‘Called to Serve’ while the new missionaries walked in the gym.  Here’s Daniel:

Then each new missionary read off which trainer they would be assigned with.  Here’s Daniel’s turn:

It was fun to hear him read it and see the trainer’s reaction.  I hope he will be good for Daniel!!  Aaron found the trainer’s Mom on Facebook and we have been messaging with her.  It has been fun. It sounds like Daniel got assigned to start in the Cottonwood area of Omaha.  I hope things go well! We should hear from him Monday to get more information.

I hope he is doing okay.  I don’t think you EVER STOP worrying as a mom.

Matthew got an award with Chrysalis.  We were surprised with it as well.  A few months ago someone approached Aaron and asked if he would be willing to speak at a Chrysalis function in the future.  He said sure, but didn’t hear anything more about it--no details, no days, no times.  Anyway, Aaron and I got a text from Matthew’s house manager asking if she needed to change his pick up with Paratransit from work since he would be getting an award. I was driving home from work at the time and knew nothing about any award.  I called Aaron and he didn’t know of any award either.  He texted back to Allison saying as much.  She then said something like you are speaking and Matthew is getting an award on Friday.  What?!  She didn’t know we knew even less about it than she did.  She gave us a bunch of people’s phone numbers so we could get more details.  This happened on a Monday evening.  We didn’t hear back from anyone until Wednesday evening.  Yes, Aaron was supposed to speak for 15 minutes at a House Manager’s Conference about our experience with Chrysalis including the good and the bad.  We had to juggle a few things around to be able to make it--Aaron was supposed to be on an interview panel at work and I had to work.  Luckily everything worked out so we could be there.  I was there just for moral support--I was just glad I wasn’t the one speaking--haha!  Aaron did a great job.  Here is a clip of his talk:

Afterward Matthew and another female client were awarded with clients of the year.  Wahoo!!  It was a surprise for Matthew.  He was pretty excited when he walked into the room. Here is the presentation of his award:

Matthew really has made remarkable progress while he has been with Chrysalis.  I am grateful that he has had this opportunity.

Here is the cool gift Matthew received:

Chrysalis was kind enough to given Aaron and me a sweatshirt for speaking.  Again I had the super easy job as moral support so I was just fine with this!!  Aaron did a great job.

Sophie is always up for some good food.  Since Aaron has been out of town this week and I have been working some crazy hours our dinners have been quite casual.  Josh was making a quesadilla and offered to make me one for dinner this week which was so nice.  I will never say no to a quesadilla.  It looks like Sophie seems to like quesadillas, too.  She wouldn’t look away the whole entire time I ate my dinner--haha!

Again I have been working quite a bit this week.  A lot of my clinics have been down in Salt Lake City which means I drive on the West Davis Corridor to get to them.  Let me just say that since the West Davis Corridor runs along the Great Salt Lake there are BUGS everywhere and get splattered all over my windshield.  Ewwww!  As I was driving home from a clinic the other night there was a really pretty sunset.  I tried to take a picture of it, but it is hard to see it through all the splattered bugs in my windshield.  Getting a carwash done is on my to do list this weekend if you didn’t know....

Also my car hit 120,000 miles on it and is still going strong.  Wahoo!!  Hopefully it will last a few more years.

I was gifted a bunch of peaches from my Sister in law Michonne this week.  I was excited because my family all loves peaches.  I was able to make some canned peaches and peach jam.  We should be set for the next year on jam, but only a few months on the canned peaches.  Sarah takes those down pretty quickly.  She even had the courage to ask me right after I finished pulling them out of the canner.  I have a rule that if I go through that much work to can them, I get to have a few days to look at them before they get opened--haha!

Aaron and I stopped by to see Daniel’s girlfriend Katie at work.  She is doing well and still missing Daniel.  It was good to see her and catch up with her for a few minutes.

The youth activity this week is bigger and better.  They divide everyone up into teams.  They gave each team a paper clip and told them to try and trade it into something bigger and then try to trade that into something bigger.  After about 90 minutes they came back to show what they ended up with, but they had to relate it to a gospel topic.  The kids seemed to have a pretty fun time.  Here’s what the teams ended up with--TV, jar of pickles, Trump coin and a bike.

Noah’s friend’s introduced him to airsoft BB gun.  They all got together last week and played with some.  Noah came home with some bruises and welts to prove it.  

They had a good time, though.

Noah found some funny memes this week he shared with all of us:

Josh put these missionary pictures together.  It makes me sad that Daniel is gone, but I know he is where he needs to be right now.  I am glad Josh is back home, though.

Here’s a picture that Josh shared of him and Daniel sharing some soda together before Daniel left for the Provo MTC:

Josh, Sarah and Noah are connoisseurs of sushi.  They all went out for dinner the other night.

Looks yummy!

Josh has been participating in the YSA (Young Single Adult) Ward activities.  They did a bunch of crazy Highland games activities the other night.  A lot of people really got into it and painted their faces to make it even more exciting. He said it was fun.

It has been a hard week for me.  There has been a lot going on and Aaron has been out of town on business.  Josh was kind enough to ask me to go out to lunch with him yesterday.  It was great and just what I needed.  Here’s to hoping things calm down next week!!