Happy Thanksgiving

There doesn't seem to be much to say...

...Thanksgiving was great. Visited, ate, played games. On a spur of the moment, Hannah and I went and, as she calls it, "gray Thursday" shopped. We were at Walmart for 4 hours (that's what happens when one of the items you are there for goes on sale at 6 pm and another at 8 pm), but it was actually rather pleasant as all the shoppers seemed to be happy and were courteous. Of course it took a lot of persistence to find items that even the workers didn't know where they were. Hannah managed to be 3rd in line for a laptop that they only had 3 of, so that was nice.

...Saturday we went and saw "The Forgotten Carols." It's a great way to start off the Christmas season.

...Eric gave the youth fireside tonight. He spoke about his mission. His testimony at the end was absolutely powerful.

...and that's about it. Good week. Looking forward to an even better one next week. At the very least we should have a few photos to post as tomorrow is Hannah's 19th birthday!

Eric's home!

Glen and I picked Eric up in Salt Lake on Wednesday (thanks Teresa for letting us stay with you!). The family of the Elder next to Eric in the photo below bought FCHHM (Family and Church History Headquarters Mission) t-shirts for every young elder in the mission (we think there are about 80-something Elders), which was really nice of them.

After we met up with Eric at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (where the Elders and Senior Missionaries going home this month had lunch with the mission president), we went to his apartment to pack up his things. Can I just say that it was a miracle Glen got everything packed in the car and we didn't have to leave anything behind? Eric had a lot of stuff. Luckily his 3rd floor apartment had a balcony that faced the street we were parked on, so many things were just thrown over the balcony railing and didn't have to be hauled down the stairs. Then they could be stuffed into the nooks and crannies in the trunk and car.

Glen and Eric were kind of crunched in the car for the 7 hour car ride home, but we made it back to Fallon safely. We first stopped off at the church so that our Stake President could release Eric from his calling as a missionary. We then went home where Hannah and Alex were there to great Eric. Alan, Grandma P, and Grandpa P came over with some "Welcome Home" signs that everyone had made for Eric.

besides the signs for our house, Gma and Gpa put one on their fence

The next day was Eric's 23rd birthday. We invited the family over for cake and ice cream, giving them a chance to see Eric after 2 years (OK, 1 1/2 years since we saw him at Andrew's wedding in April 2013). Eric talked a little bit about his mission. It was a really nice evening.

Today Eric, Glen, and I spoke in church with Hannah singing a beautiful arrangement of "I Stand All Amazed." Eric will be giving the youth fireside next Sunday at Kathy's house where he'll talk more about his mission. Today his talk was mostly about The Proclamation on the Family with The Plan of Salvation, families, and family history work being the focus.

So, now he gets to change gears and figure out how to structure his life after the last 2 years of it being all laid out for him. Good luck with that Eric. And it's great to have you home!

scouting advancement for Alex

Well, I caught a cold and my brain is fuzzy, so this will be short. It was a slow week for news, anyway.

There was a scouting advancement ceremony on Wednesday. Alex has earned his next rank plus 3 merit badges. Congratulations, Alex!

First Class badge plus wood carving, citizenship in the community, and orienteering merit badges

Click here to see Alex and Ben's new stop animation video of the week (I love the music they chose).

News for the week

Ryan's email on Tuesday said that he was getting a new companion the next day. We'll find out tomorrow who he is and where he is from. That's always a bit exciting. Ryan is still in Lafayette, Louisiana and has less than  6 months to go now.

Eric's email didn't say much, but he did send a photo of him with brand new FCHH missionary Elder Devin Teichert. Elder Teichert is from Fallon, but his family moved away quite a few years ago. Eric has only 10 days left on his mission! Devin has 2 years minus two days left to go.

Friday, due to it being a teacher Professional Development day, the students didn't have school. Alex spent part of his day making a stop motion clip of a card tower. Click here to watch it on youtube.

Friday night we had a gorgeous sunset:

Sunday we came home from church to find one out that one of Hannah's dogs, Zoe, had passed away while we were at church. We've had the dogs for 9 years now. We held a little funeral for her in the afternoon.

Glen and Hannah's project today: making a map of the missionaries serving from our stake. Most are serving in the United States.

 Glen went ahead and put a pin in for Eric...he's the red pin on the left of the yellow one in Salt Lake. Ryan is the green pin down in Louisiana. Jiaxin is the green pin near LA and Michael is the yellow one in Mexico.

Looking forward to another good week. "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" opens this Thursday at 7 pm. As with all the musicals on the CCHS stage, Glen's contribution was working on the set. It runs this weekend and next. We'll go see it with Eric on the 21st. Weird.

Alex ordained...

Last Sunday Alex was ordained to the office of a teacher, like most 14 year old LDS boys. His duties remain pretty much the same which mainly consists of passing the Sacrament on Sundays, although now he won't sit on the stand occasionally as the Bishop's messenger anymore.

Bro. K, Joseph, Grandpa, Bishop, Alex, Glen, Gary, and Alan

For Halloween Hannah had a very simple costume for work. She dressed up as an ant. She wasn't sure how an ant would act for a photo...

Halloween night we had a little scare. Not as much as the family who wound up in their truck upside down on our property. They (mother and her 2 kids--around age 10 or so?) were OK because they had been wearing their seat belts. They were able to crawl through the broken windows to get out of the truck. The mother had taken the corner too fast so she plowed through the signs and wound up in the weed patch next to our driveway. She had been speeding and apparently drinking.  :( They are so lucky/blessed.

On a happier note, we were blessed with rain in the valley and snow in the mountains this weekend. What a great way to start November off.

looking east from our driveway