It takes a village

We were sad to see the Wright family move on to greener pastures in Utah this week.  Both Nathan and Rebecca served as youth leaders for our kids--and they were amazing!  I'm thankful for good people, like the Wrights, who love our kids and set powerful, righteous examples for them.  Looking back over the years, we have been greatly blessed by many, many neighbors, teachers, friends, and church family here in Ridgecrest who have taken an interest in Rhiannon and Wade and encouraged them.  

Here's another recent example, from our bishop, Ephraim Washburn, who is also one of Wade's cross country coaches:

He is a busy man, with a busy family, job, and calling, and it meant a lot that he'd take a moment to reach out to Wade, who really needed that pick-me-up.  Cross country has not been easy for him, but we're proud of him for sticking with it!

A few days after that, Rhiannon got a little envelope in the mail from a sweet lady in our ward, Connie Roberts, who wrote about how much she'd appreciated Rhiannon's impromptu testimony at a special stake conference last Sunday.  Rhiannon immediately called her on the phone to express her gratitude for the thoughtful note, and said they both got a little teary-eyed and that the ensuing conversation with Sister Roberts made her feel like a million bucks.

There are more--Sister Decker, Rhiannon's new seminary teacher, who spoiled the class with pancakes on Friday morning, to neighbors giving jobs to Wade and paying him very generously, to everyone's interest in Rhiannon's college plans, for Scout leaders who compliment Wade openly and express their gratitude to him for his example.

And on and on.  We are very grateful for our kids and so happy to have the help and encouragement of good people as these two grow up!

I needed more copies

I had to laugh at myself last week when my spring semester institute class was set up online.  We've been going for 3 weeks, and 6 or 7 students were coming each time (bless them!).  Out of curiosity, I checked the numbers--I had 9 students officially enrolled, out of almost 400 young single adults in Ridgecrest.

Eeek.

If I'd been feeling a little too prideful and a little too confident, that news certainly burst my bubble!  If you're doing the math with me--those 6 people coming represent 1 and a half percent of the people invited to the class.  Not a great statistic.

At the same time, out of that 400, several are away at schools out of state.  Some have married and moved on.  Some are attending Tuesday night classes at the community college or working.  Some are serving missions.  So, there's that.  It made me feel a little better, haha!

Well, I just kept plugging along, spending massive amounts of time on lesson prep for that special group who find the time to come.  Oh, how I appreciate them!  They brighten my day and lift my spirit with their comments, love, and participation.  It's a pretty good weekly gig I've got going on, and I am very thankful for it!

Over the past week I'd been stressing about the next lesson about the law of consecration and stewardship, from several sections in the Doctrine and Covenants. I chose to cover it in one lesson instead of the two available.  SO MUCH MATERIAL.  I felt like I was tripping over myself during the actual lesson and kept trying to find quotes and info I'd read to no avail.  There was just so much information it wasn't funny.

But here was the great part.

I started the lesson with those 6 wonderful people, and a few minutes into it, there were 13 of us!  So many there that I ran out of copies, haha!  A wonderful young woman, Emma, had returned THAT DAY from serving a mission and was getting released that night.  Instead of going home and spending time with her family she had missed for 18 months, she came to institute and brought her siblings and a friend with her.  I was amazed by her example and loved having her there.

It was a really special night!  I've said it before and I'll say it again--nice people make the world go 'round!

Wade spells his way to 2nd place at the district bee!

January 28th was a really fun night for Wade!  He participated in our district spelling bee and came in 2nd place after 17 rounds!  We are really happy for him--and you can see how happy he is in the photos below!

With our wonderful Richmond principal, Mrs. Glennon

Last year Wade got out in the first round and was pretty disappointed.  This time, without him knowing, Rhiannon and I put together a fun list of "prizes" for each round Wade passed.  He was pretty excited about this list and made sure we came up with 6 more prizes for the 16 total rounds, haha!

Wade made it into the paper twice--this was two days after the event and he made the front page!

Wade got great support from his sis and his lovely teacher Mrs Kyte.  Mrs. Kyte's son left his pack meeting early so that he could come, too--what a nice kid!!!

Jason was on travel for work in Arizona, so I was texting him the play-by-play.  I thought for sure Wade would get out on "susceptible" and "rendezvous," but he didn't!  And the crowd was audibly impressed when he got those right!

Look at that cute kid, smiling for his mom's camera! :)

Two weeks have passed and Wade is still feeling the love from this accomplishment.  Mrs. Kyte brought his favorite treats (Doritos) to share with his class the next day, and she presented Wade with his favorite candy bar (Milky Way).  His principal recognized him in front of a huge school assembly.  So many people have dropped off their newspaper copies, too!  He got a sweet card in the mail from his former Cub Scout master, Karen Grant, and the funniest of all--Mrs. Knehans, another fifth grade teacher at his school, bought some "sarsparilla" online and gave Wade a 4-pack to share with his family.  We had fun with that!  Sarsparilla was the word he got out on--he will never forget how to spell it now! :)

Way to go, buddy!