Daily Tender Mercies

This morning at church we had a pretty packed meeting. They opened the third overflow which I haven’t known them to do. It was our bishops son’s farewell. I guess he was pretty popular around here. He played basketball last year at SUU. During sacrament meeting Gehrig was drawing and Nolan bumped him. Gehrig started screaming hysterically at him. Rachel had already taken Gracie out to use the bathroom. so I had to drag Gehrig out while holding Nolan. I took him outside to talk to him. When I finally got him calmed down we went back in to sit down. I could hear singing and it was unusually loud. At first I thought it was someone practicing in the primary room. When we got back in the chapel I noticed it was David Archuleta! We became big fans of his last year as we watched him on American Idol. It really was quite a surprise to see him singing in our ward. A sister in our ward plays keyboards in his band and tours with him. He sang The Spirit of God. It was amazing!

I spend the morning doing yard work while Rachel & the kids deep cleaned the car. Tonight my step-brother Tyson got married. Honestly, 10 years ago I never would have thought I would be witness to this day. He was always a wild kid. I remember one night when we were all living together he had a big party and there was drugs, alcohol and lots of loud music. They were in the basement and Toby couldn’t sleep so he turned off all the power in the house. Tyson came up looking for the power circuit and asked if we knew where it was. We played innocent and acted as it we didn’t know (it was in Toby’s room). They finally gave up looking an took their party somewhere else. I guess a couple years ago he got his second DUI and decided to change his life. He stopped drinking and has been clean and sober for two years now. My mom was saying tonight that the judge that married them was the judge that ordered him to entered rehab. So it was good to see him happy and getting married to a nice person. It was raining in various places in the valley. It looked as it it were going to rain during the wedding ceremony. I prayed that the clouds would pass them by so they could enjoy their wedding. God was certainly merciful. The dark clouds seemed to go right around our area and it turned out to be a beautiful evening for them.

I sort of took the day off today. Rachel was so sick last night. She was up about every hour. I had plans to attend an event with Dan, but I could tell Rachel would have really struggled if I was gone all day, so I took the day off and helped out with the kids. Still, when I do this sort of thing, it seems at the end of the day the house is a disaster. I don’t know how she keeps up with the kids and the house. It was Gracie’s last day of school so she was home for most of the day.

In the afternoon we went to an ice cream place called Sub Zero to celebrate Sam graduating from high school. I think that place is my new favorite! I got pina coloda ice cream with strawberries. It was like "tigers blood" flavored shaved ice in ice cream form.

Today was the kids last day of T-ball, so we went out to eat at the Ice Berg afterwards. I was excited to get home though because our 46" TV arrived in the mail and I was anxious to get it set up! It’s a beauty. I’ve got some cleaning up to do because I just through all the packaging on the floor as I was setting it up. It works much better with the media center computer I built.

I made some short videos and opened Inzolo for beta testing today. It’s still got a ways to go before I think people would pay for the service, but inviting beta users was a big step for me. It’s moving along though and I’m excited for it.

I went for a hike today during lunch. It was a beautiful day. I took my phone with me this time so I was a bit more prepared I guess. I found that I had excellent reception as far up as I went. I wish I had more time to keep going, but oh well. I snapped a few photos with my iPhone along the way.

My parents went to Midway this morning to visit the cemetary there. They decided to drive out to visit us as well and see our new house. The brought a treat for the kids. The kids were pretty excited to see them and it was fun to have them come visit for a while.

I got a call at about 8:05 this morning. It was the elders quorum president. I told him that if he ever needed a teacher on short notice he could call me. I wasn’t expecting that short of notice. Apparently the person that was supposed to teach forgot to let him know he was going out of town. Since he couldn’t get a hold of him and he had to stay home with is sick daughter he called on me. Fortunately the lesson was on Elder Eyring’s priesthood session talk which I had read just a couple of weeks ago so it was still pretty fresh on my mind. I think the lesson went well. I enjoy teaching and mostly getting discussions going in the quorum.

We spent the afternoon at Rachel’s parents house. Chris & Emily came down from Logan to visit for the holiday weekend. Leslie has moved back home, so we had almost everyone there. Cade is still out of town selling alarms. We swam for a little while. It was mainly me and all the kids. I was mostly there to keep an eye on Nolan. I’m surprised at how well he is doing in the pool already. We just put him in a life jacket and let him loose. Our kids are little water babies. Nolan kept going down the water slide. I think he could have done it all day long. After swimming we had a barbeque and played Mario Kart and Guitar Hero on the Wii for a while.

I had a fun time playing Ultimate Frisbee today. I’ve been losing weight with the exercise I’ve been getting and I like that the hike I went on even helped me jump a bit higher. Once I got home I got on the scale and finally broke the 225 barrier. I don’t know the last time I weighed less than 225. I was 220 when we got married so that is my next goal. Sure, it was low because I was dehydrated but I don’t really care. It helps me to keep pushing forward.