Stake Primary Activity

On Friday, October 24th, I got to attend a Stake Primary activity with our kids.  We started in the Temple Street Chapel with our Stake Primary President telling the kids about the importance of the temple and telling them the story of when President Lorenzo Snow saw the Savior in the Salt Lake Temple.  We then all walked over to the temple and the kids got to go touch the temple wall and the door handle going in to the temple.  There was a wedding party that had just come out of the temple, so Emma was extremely excited to see the beautiful bride in her wedding dress.  Once all the kids got the chance to go to the temple doors, we headed down the sidewalk to where they all got their picture taken on the new bench.  We finished off the activity with a temple shaped cookie in the gym.  It was only a 45 minute activity, but it was packed with experiences that I hope my kids will never forget.  Each child also received a small piece of granite with that was from when the original temple was built.

This morning, I received an e-mail from Sister Burwell, our Stake Primary President.  I want to remember the story of the kids little plaques and our beautiful bench so I am including the e-mails here.

Dear Presidents,

Thank you again, for helping us with our temple activity last Friday.  We continue to hear from grateful parents whose children are still talking about how they felt about touching the temple and holding a piece of the very same stone that was used to build the temple.  For those who weren't able to attend, the granite used for the little plaques was cut from large slabs of stone that was left over after the temple was built.  The leftover granite was dumped in a field which Paul Brauti was given and he donated the stone to the children.

I just thought you might like to read this explanation about how the new bench came to be on our temple square.  Brother Joe Paulson headed the committee to focus on the temple for 2014.  He sent us the following email and I pass it along to you. 

There have been many miracles surrounding the temple activities for the Primary and Youth this week.  We are grateful for all of them!  :)

Sister Burwell

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joe Paulson
Date: Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 11:28 PM
Subject: A history of the bench
To: Carol Barr

Last year when President Low asked for some ideas on how to focus on the temple in 2014 I told the presidency that in Utah at the Oquirrh Mountain temple they had built a bench across the street at the stake center donated by the funds collected from the Primary children in the area.  The bench had the inscription "I Love to See the Temple" and was backless so someone could sit one way and look at the temple or turn the other way and have their picture taken with the temple in the background.  We had a committee work on the idea but when the idea was presented to the temple presidency they told us that the temple department would not let anyone, Stake or individual, donate anything that would be placed on the temple grounds nor did they think that the temple department would even consider it.  They did enquire for us and the answer was that the temple department did not budget for a bench since there are already benches on every corner of the temple block.  A few months ago when Elder William Walker (over all temples in the church) visited, President Low wrote him a letter with this explanation:  We sing "I Love to See the Temple" in our Primary and teach the kids to want to go there some day.  If they come down and visit the temple and sit on any of the six benches, what do they see?  They see the street, traffic and everything but the temple which is behind them.  Can't we have a bench that will let them see the temple?"  Elder Walker went around the temple and checked several of the benches and immediately approved the new bench.  On the 14 October the bench was installed.

The Temple Department chose Bethel granite from a quarry in the area in Vermont near where the Prophet Joseph was born. It is the same quarry that President Hinckley selected to supply all the granite when they started building the small temples. Southern Monument Company of Lethbridge built the bench this summer.  Now all the Primary children from the stake have been invited to come and have their picture taken with the beautiful Cardston temple in the background.  They can now sit and see the temple.

All Fixed

In January, my brother Roger borrowed our van to go to a job interview after his car quit.  While there, he ended up getting stuck and while trying to get unstuck, a good Samaritan ended up putting a large dent into the tailgate of the van.  Roger was very upset about it, but it’s just a van.  The door still closed, so we weren’t in too big of a rush to race out and get it fixed.  We got a quote to have it fixed, but it came in at about $2800.  Neither of us had that kind of money, so we just left it.  We’d also asked at auto wreckers to see if they had a door, but it was still going to be $1000 plus possibly having to paint it too.  Anyways, we’d just left it until this week when Dad called me and said that he’d found a tailgate at Cooper’s in the exact same color as our van and in excellent shape.  The cost?  $250!  Amazing!  I told him to get it and then called Lennard with the good news.  Later that day, Lennard went out to Cooper’s and brought the door back with him.  Then, today, Dad pulled our old door off our van, put it next to the new one on the front lawn and started switching the ‘guts’ of the tailgate.  He got it all swapped out and we now have a ‘new’ door that still has the backup camera and automatic opener!  I feel so blessed to have such a talented dad that watches out for us all the time.  Roger was pretty excited that the bill was $250 instead of $2800 too!

A Visit to the Fire Hall

Ben has been obsessed with fire trucks this year.  He continually asks for a fire truck with a ladder (which he got a Lego one for his birthday).  He is dressing up as a fireman for Halloween.  You get the idea.  Well, Lennard managed to arrange for us to go visit the fire hall this afternoon.  As soon as he got home, we loaded the kids up and headed down.  Danny showed us around and Ben was in heaven!  Emma didn’t want anything to do with it and was glued to my side most of the time, but Ben crawled through trucks and explored everywhere he was allowed to go.

   

Fishing

Lennard has been gone for three days to do a safety audit in Warner, so when he got home this afternoon the kids were very excited to see him!  He decided that we needed to do something together, so we headed out to the stocked pond by the water treatment plant.  It’s all catch and release and the guys claimed that you don’t even need bait to catch fish there.  We got all set up and the kids were so excited to be fishing with daddy.  Unfortunately, the only thing we caught were weeds!  We didn’t see any signs of fish, but it was also quite windy and cold so it doesn’t really surprise me.  The kids had fun and that’s all that matters.

Insulation

Lennard is always looking on Kijiji for the next ‘deal’.  While he was looking, he managed to find a guy that was selling a bunch of insulation.  He contacted him and ended up making a deal with him.  I couldn’t fit all the insulation into our truck, so mom and dad volunteered to go to Lethbridge to pick it up for us.  I’m so glad that they did because I don’t think I would have even found the place and if I did find it, I wouldn’t have been able to load it all!  (This was on October 1st)

We were able to borrow Ralph’s lift again, so after we got all the foam and trim put up on the East wall, Lennard started putting insulation up in the ceiling.  We ended up with about 1/3 of the roof done with the insulation we got.  The west wall is done and half of the north wall.  It’s better than nothing!  We’ll add more as we get some more cash flow!

Happy Thanksgiving

Lennard and I were glad to get home in time to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It wasn’t even at our house this year!  Although I love hosting it, it’s sometimes nice not to have all the mess.  As there were too many of us to fit in the dining room, mom and dad set up tables in the garage for the kids to use.  Ideally that would have meant that we could eat in a quieter atmosphere… but between kids turning the lights on and off downstairs, not eating, and Emma being more than a little clingy (I had to sit with my leg touching hers), it was still a little chaotic.  I guess that’s what happens when you’re part of a big family!  Dinner was delicious and I definitely ate more than I should have.

(No pictures of Ben… he was actually downstairs eating!)

Road Trip

We left early Wednesday morning and headed to my father-in-law’s in B.C.  It was so hard leaving the kids with Emma sobbing for us to stay, but I knew she would be fine with my parents.  Mom said that she was fine within half an hour.  We had good roads, rainy for a bit, but nothing too crazy.  The fall colors were beautiful to see all through the mountains.  We hit a bit of construction, but thankfully we were through it quickly.

We drove straight through and were extremely tired when we arrived.  Thankfully we were able to head straight to bed and get a good sleep.  The next day was FULL of sorting, packing and cleaning.  When Dad said that he was ready to downsize I don’t think any of us knew how much ‘downsizing’ he was planning on doing!  We went through everything and about 2/3 of his condo got packed up to head home with us!  Alicia and Rigel had flown in the day before and had got a lot of sorting done already, so we just kept going and got a lot done.

 

By the end of the day, we had the majority of stuff packed and ready to go.  We then took a much needed break and headed in to Vancouver to our favorite Chinese restaurant.  It took us an hour longer to get there because of traffic, but the wait was worth it.  The food at the Flamingo is to die for!  Yum!  Merlin & Marilyn Olsen met us there and we had a good visit during our dinner.

Friday morning was spent packing up the last few items and then we decided to get going and start loading the trailer.  Dad had arranged for help to come load on Saturday morning, but we didn’t want to just sit around.  We started loading and managed to get the majority of it into the trailer!  It was a lot of work since Dad’s condo is in the back corner of the complex and we had to bring everything down the hallway, out through the fire exit, up a ramp and then into the trailer.  We even had room to spare!  Dad was able to call and cancel the help for Saturday.  About part way through loading, Aunt Alicia and Uncle Jack came to visit.  It just happened to be Aunt Alicia’s birthday too, so it was doubly nice to get to see her. Lennard was shocked at how much she reminded him of his mom.

Saturday morning it was pouring rain, so we were really glad that we’d loaded the trailer the day before!  We still had a few things to go in the trailer – mom’s bed being the biggest item.  Thankfully we were able to take the entire bed out without having to undo anything.  Once we got the last few items loaded, we got our suitcase into the truck and said our goodbyes. 

We drove part way home Saturday and then got a hotel for the night and drove the rest of the way today.  We got home, had some leftovers at my mom’s for our dinner and then headed home with the kids.  They were very excited to see us home and we were glad to see them too.  It’s been a long few days, but very productive ones!  (Now to convince my father-in-law to move here… love you, Dad!)

Pure Joy

Going in to Stay and Play this morning, Emma saw all the leaves on the ground and raced over to them.  She started grabbing handfuls and throwing them up into the air.  She kept exclaiming, “This is so fun!”  I grabbed my iPhone and snapped a few pictures.  The pure joy on her face made me stop and realize that I don’t need to be in a rush all the time.  It only took about two minutes of our time to pause and let her have this moment of fun.  I’m so thankful that Emma is in our lives and that she helps me see the beauty in the little things.  Thanks, Emma.  I’m glad you had fun!

Changes

I'm writing this tonight in hopes that I will be able to look back on this period of time and understand it someday.  The past two weeks have been rough... really rough.  For some reason, Emma has become extremely clingy and fearful.  The only change we can think of is that she started preschool, but she absolutely loves it and is excited to go.  We've talked to lots of other parents that have said that their children have gone through the same kinds of things after starting school, so we're hopeful that with time she will adjust and relax a bit.

To give you an idea of what we've been dealing with, two weeks ago Monday, she woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream.  She was completely convinced that a bad man was coming to take her away.  It took us at least an hour to get her calmed down and then we were back and forth numerous times after that.  Since that time, she has always gone to sleep in her own room but has only slept one night the entire night there.  Almost every single night she ends up in our room.  We won't let her sleep with us (I know some of you think that is horrible), but she brings her blanket and pillow and sleeps on the floor. At least that way we are all getting to sleep most of the night.  Before we let her sleep on our floor, she was up multiple times and would cry and freak out if we even attempted to leave the room.

Even getting her to bed sometimes is a chore.  Most of the time she does okay as long as she's assured that we are in the next room, but tonight she has gone on and on with questions like:  "Is the door locked?  Don't go downstairs.  Are you up here?  What are we doing tomorrow?  No one can get in?  Are you still there?"  It's exhausting!  I can't even go tidy up downstairs because she will freak out.

Not only is her sleep way off, she won't leave my side!  She's is completely fine going to preschool and hardly glances at me when I drop her off and is her normal happy, outgoing self.  She goes to Primary without any issues.  We go to Stay and Play and she will play and interact with others and have no issues leaving my side, but if we are home... watch out.  I can't leave a room without her asking me where I'm going or having her follow me.  If we are in the van and I even step outside the van without her, she completely melts down - screaming, flopping around, etc.  It's not pretty!

I am really, REALLY hoping that she will return to being her happy, secure self soon.  I hope that we can figure out a way to make her feel safe and and secure.  I feel so lost as to what to do for her.  I can only hold her on my lap for so many hours a day, especially when Ben demands a turn!  So there you go... if you have any suggestions for us, we're open to them!