One Year !!

A free poinsettia Joe's Food Center.  Walt found it!

Can’t believe it has been a whole year since we have started this journey.  I was thinking if we were young Elders, we would still have another year to go.  Glad we’re only 18 months.  Our grandchildren are growing and changing like crazy.  Most of have grown 4-6 inches since we left.  Slow down!!

This week was a lot of getting ready for round 2 of Seminary and helping the Smiths. In Seminary this year (semester) we (as a church) are studying the Book of Mormon.  It’s wonderful to have every class be focused on the same scriptures.  Families (Come Follow Me Book), Sunday school and Seminary all on the same page.  Love it!!   The Book of Mormon is the easiest to understand of all the scriptures.  Along with wonderful doctrine (same as the New Testament), visit from the Savior to the American continent; it’s an easy story line to follow; even has battles.  

This week the Smith’s (Renee is still in the hospital) moved to Newcastle from Upton.  This way they are close to Renee and would be needing to set up their own place eventually.  They were living with Renee’s mom and step-dad when she got diagnosed.  We helped move on 3 different days.  Monday was stuff from their storage unit.  Most of their stuff was put into storage when they moved in with her mom.  There was some things he wanted to throw away that are Renees and won’t need them anymore.  I suggested (strongly) he give it to her mom.  Don’t throw away anything - I commented.  You may see no sentimental value, but others might.  Renee is still with us, but all of us know we will lose her in the next few months.  I know that I treasure anything that is Michelle’s.  We are storing most of Michelle’s stuff so if the kids want things as they get older, they will be available for them.  

We had a decent group of helpers on Monday, and Thursday.  Thursday was the move from Upton.  Monday, I took Nic  (4 yrs) to a sister’s house in Newcastle that frequently helps out with him.  What a blessing she is to them.  Meanwhile, the men got to do the lifting and moving.  It wasn’t too bad, not too much stuff.  After dropping off Nic, I went to help get things in order.  It doesn’t take much for a place to be overwhelming when moving.  We have LOTS of experience with moving.  We put furniture together, emptied boxes, and unwrapped all the dishes and kitchen things.  Two sisters from our ward wanted to wash up all the linens and kitchen things since they had been in storage for 18 months.  That was so kind of them.  There were about 7 boxes of kitchen things, which looked overwhelming.  So Walt and I (his suggestion) unwrapped everything and stacked it on the counter for the washers.  At least that got rid of all those boxes.  They washed up the stuff on Tuesday and put most of it away.

Our Tuesday was spent on the road and appointments.  We had District Council in Gillette.  On the way, we stopped at Gary’s to put cheese in his freezer.  Monday we shredded 21 lbs of cheese.  We bought the big blocks at Costco and shredded them with the attachment to the Kitchenaid.  Gary is so kind to let us use his large upright freezer.  I think he doubted that we would fill it.  After our council meeting, we ran some errands and picked up our final food order from Walmart.  Love the pick up option.  At this point we will (hopefully) have most of what we need to get us through the end of our mission.  Richard was throwing away a shelf, so we snagged that on Monday.  On our way back from Gillette, we put all our frozen veggies in Gary’s freezer and had a nice visit with him.  He doesn’t like us having to drive so far to pick him up, for church, so has opted out of church every Sunday.  Probably once a month is all he’ll come.  We need to find a ride for him.  Our final appointment for the day was a dinner and a lesson.  We were done by 7:30.  

Walt grating the cheese.  I cut the blocks (the left hand bottom corner) and packaged it for freezing

The shelf from Richard.  We filled it up nicely

This is the other shelf we put up before.  The cinderblocks and boards were all given to us or salvaged.

Tuesday was New Year’s eve, but didn’t really feel that way for us.  We texted all our family at 10 pm, midnight for them and went on to bed around 11.  There was a party at our house in PA.  Too bad we couldn’t be there.  Evidently Abe set off some pretty good fireworks.  Next year, we’ll be ready.  

New Year’s Day - Wednesday!!  We spent the whole day cleaning our place.  The two weeks of Christmas were just crazy and most things got neglected.  We had all this food that needed a place, so we were quite busy.  Our basement now resembles our basement at home - food storage.  We finished putting away Christmas stuff, and cleaned everything.  It felt really good to knock it all out.  Both of us were exhausted by that evening.  This was not a good thing, since we had the second move on Thursday with the Smiths.   We also got a chance to visit Renee.  I had picked up her laundry the night before - just me.  I was glad for an opportunity to visit her alone.  I made us both cry.  I had wanted to share my feelings with her about how much it has meant to us to be a part of their spiritual journey this year and how much I admire and love her.  We don’t know how long she has, and I wanted to tell her personally.  We hugged and cried, and then laughed at some silly stuff.  I wish she could express her emotions and thoughts.  That has to be so hard to not be able to express or communicate with people.  It is getting quite difficult for her to write on her tablet now.  

We kind of lucked out with that move.  We met the helpers at the gas station in Upton.  Most people have never been out to the Smith’s (a ranch) and it’s hard to give directions.  We pulled up and there were 3 trucks ready to roll.  So glad to have that much help.  After getting that stuff all loaded, Richard asked if we could keep the kids while unloading in Newcastle happened.  No problem - easy.  We fed them lunch, and gave them their Christmas presents.  This gave them something to do while hanging out with us.  It felt like being grandparents.  They played with the Lego sets and the Uno Flip game.  Richard called to let us know we could bring the kids back.  He sounded quite overwhelmed.  Once we got there, we totally understood.  It looked like everything was brought in and just stacked where ever.  Moving is a tricky thing.  It takes at least 2 people to direct things.  Poor Richard.  We jumped in there and helped get things in order.  Furniture where it went, boxes emptied and most stuff put away.  

We didn’t get home until 8 pm.  Richard treated us all to Pizza Hut.

Haley opening her Legos

Nic opening up his cars

Nic and Richard looking at Richard's Lego set - Star Wars

Friday was a “to do list” kind of day.  Some financial things, phone calls, etc.  We also worked a lot on Seminary things.  Class starts on Tuesday of the following week. (Today).  Richard called in the afternoon for Walt to help move their chest freezer and a cabinet.  An in-and-out project.  

Saturday was our mass production of egg sandwiches.  On Sundays, I don’t cook breakfast for Walt.  He heats up an egg sandwich.  The pre-made kind have a lot sodium, and we got a great price for English muffins at Costco.  So we made 24 breakfast sandwiches.  Since it is only on Sundays they are eaten, they will last minus 2 weeks.  Hard to believe we only have 26 weeks left.  Walt and I are a great team.  I felt like he ended up with more work, but it all got done.

Love having a griddle at times like this

Walt in charge of toasting muffins and assembling

24 tasty breakfast sandwiches!

The rest of the time we were working on seminary stuff.  Since we are studying a different scripture book this semester, there is a lot of prep work at the beginning.  It’s all good.  Then we got a phone call from Richard.  They had brought the rest of their stuff from Upton - mostly clothes and toys and it was quite frustrating wrangling the kids and trying to get the boys to take care of their stuff.  Could we possible help.  We went with the intention of staying just an hour.  I handled the boys - I rock at bossing children - but nicely; while Walt helped Richard with his stuff. Haley just went to town setting up her room.  She had even figured out where she wanted all her shelves, pictures, etc on her walls.  We got the place all set and even got the kids to clean their bathroom.  Then Richard was called by the hospital to come and set up Renee’s eye movement device.  It allows her to “type”, etc with her eyes instead of her hands.  They have Dr. Steven Hawking  to thank for the wonderful technology for ALS.  So we took the kids for pizza and then to our house to watch a movie on Walt’s computer.  Again, like being grandparents.  Those kids need all the extra love and attention they can get.  Life is really hard for their whole family and won’t look much better for a while.  When Haley was showing me her room, she pointed out a guardian angel statue.  She said it was for when things get hard.  Bless her little heart.  

Sunday was really good.  It was fast and testimony meeting and there were some awesome testimonies shared.  Our Sunday school class was also very good.  Saturday, I read through the lesson and the corresponding scriptures.  It made such a difference in my attention and participation.  I think most people were involved.  After church, Walt had some Executive Secretary duties, so I set up for Seminary.  I figured I was there any way.  Afterwards, we had lunch and both took naps.  I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before.  Walt is always ready for a nap on Sunday.  Napping is just a good Sunday thing - it’s a day of rest.

We hope all of you had a great start to your New Year.  It’s a time for new beginnings and a fresh start.  Both of us are ready to improve our efforts here, we feel we’ve not been up to the standard we had at the beginning.  We both want to improve our Spiritual Preparedness.  We love you all and miss our family.  We hear a lot of Senior Missionary couples express their gratitude for modern technology.  We feel the same.  It keeps us connected to our loved ones.  Have a good week.  Parents, enjoy the kids going back to school.

Sorry there aren't more pictures this week.  We'll work on that.

Love, 

Elder and Sister Vann