There are moments in life where you experience pure joy, and on November 17th, I experienced one of those. Our dear friend Nic chose to receive his Temple Endowment in the Meridian Idaho Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and Hunter have been working towards this day, and it finally came! I absolutely love this picture of them, with the painting of the Savior shouwing through the doors in the background! Nic hasd been a wonderful friend to our family since 2014, and it was wonderful to accompany him on this journey. We're so happy for he and his wife Hunter!
Most of our family got to be there (only Sky & Jesse and Libby were missing). Even our missionary son Peter! This was a total surprise to me. He found about the occassion and got special permission from his Mission President for he and his companion to come.
We were gathered by the fountain outside the Temple waiting to go in, and all of a sudden the door to the Temple opened and I saw two missionaries come out. At first glance, I thought, "Man, that is a sharp looking missionary." At second glance, he looked really familiar, and then it really hit me that it was Peter!
I was grinning from ear to ear the entire Temple session, and it was truly a wonderful, wonderful evening.
Earlier in the afternoon, I got to play with Kaladin and Mary.
As soon as Mary got here, she got started on this project - finishing the bathroom in the Office!
Mary has taken up this kind of work as her new hobby, and she showed her talents and skills in this project. To begin with, the toilet was in, half the flooring (this shows the flooring complete already), and the shell of the shower. Bruce, Sky & Peter had gotten that much done in August before Peter left on his mission. So Bruce & Mary worked together to get the rest of it done. I love this picture of these two hard working souls!
The beginning of the shiplap on the wall.
And now - the finished product!
We are so grateful to Mary for sharing her skills and hard work. I love it! Thank you, dear daughter!
I have watched this video (more like listened to it) dozens of times. This warm-hearted interaction between Jesse and Petey just fills my soul with joy! Wait for it, at the end, to see the cutest little dance moves! At :30 seconds, you can hear Sky takling to Nellie too. So sweet!
We had a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner with Joseph & Becca, and Becca's parents. They kindly invited us to be part of their Dinner, as all of our other children were away spending the day with their in-laws, on a mission or at college. (Libby made the brave decision to stay at school instead of coming home to prevent the spread of COVID infection). It was a wonderful dinner, as you can imagine, because Becca and her parents - Sean and Lisa - love to cook! We appreciated their wonderful food and great company!
And, two more piece of news...
1) We sold our Kawaii GM-10 Baby Grand Piano. Here it is pictured at our old house.
It's still a very tender subject, and I shed a lot of tears, but I was blessed in numerous ways to make it bearable. The first was that about a month ago, as I was saying my evening prayers, a very clear impression came to me that it was time to sell the piano. I was not playing much, and there was simply not space for it in the small 12x20 Office space that I have. So I had some time to work through the mental and emotional side of that. I had thought, however, that we would keep it until after Libby went on her mission. Fast forward to the week of Thanksgiving. Some financial things came up that made it apparent that we needed to sell some assets. I knew right away that the piano was one of them, and I was very aware and grateful that my previous impression and preparation were a distinct blessing. I listed it on Facebook, and it sold at full price on the very first showing on the next day! It went to students of our old piano teacher, Jeff, nonetheless, and he was able to vouch for the piano to the buyers, because he had helped us pick it out in the first place! That warmed my heart, and it makes it easier to part with, knowing it went to a great family.
It took a week to schedule the piano movers to come and pick it up. So I played and played in that week! My favorites were Evensong (which has come to have a deep spiritual meaning to me) and Love One Another - a dear personal favorite. Mary, Joseph and Joshua all got to play it and Becca, Celeste and Dad all joined in singing around the piano with me. Treasured memories!
I hope Jesse and Libby forgive me someday, because it was really hard on the two of them that we sold the piano. But there will be another piano in the future, and I'm grateful we were able to enjoy this one while we had it.
2) We listed our RV! https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/198826488381601/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined
This is another of our assests that needs to go. Thankfully, since our piano has sold, and the bathroom is finished, when we sell the RV we can move into our Office (and take up tiny home living!). We had a showing the first week we listed it, but it didn't work out for the buyers. Our next showing is this Wednesday, so we are hoping some good news comes from that. We are feeling very blessed!
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