What an incredibly full week we had. On Monday I stopped at the mailbox on my way home and had a letter from Salt Lake. My official sealing cancellation letter was inside, signed by the first presidency. Phil got his letter as well this week which means we have all the clearance we need to be sealed in the temple for time and for all eternity. We called the temple and set our sealing date for Thursday, April 9th at 5:00pm at the Tucson Arizona temple. I'm so excited. It's been such a beautiful experience to see so many prayers answered, so many promises fulfilled, and to see how everything lines up just the way it should.
We had Family Home Evening with our ministering couple, the Massey's. They came over and we had a lesson, a treat, and played Book of Mormon Jungle Journey (a board game). We had a lot of fun and I'm grateful for their loving service and great examples. I was able to work in earnest this week on my wedding/reception invitations now that I have a firm date. We were also able to make arrangements for a photographer, catered lunch, etc. I still haven't ordered a dress yet, I just can't find what I want. I think I will get something close and then just alter it myself.
Helen was able to attend the temple on Tuesday night with her young women's class. She and Felicity were supposed to meet with the Bishop for their yearly interviews, but since Helen was gone I stole her interview time and got the first signature on my live ordinance recommend, the recommend I'll need to get married in the temple in April!
Our Wednesday was busy! Phil and I were both at home, awaiting the delivery of our new barn. The long and short of the story is that we need some extra storage space at the ranch. Between all the animals' feed and gear (think tack) and my beekeeping equipment along with all my tools (and saw) and yard tools my little barn was full. My bedroom closet was full as well with hunting and camping stuff as well as Christmas decorations and such; there just wasn't going to be room for another person's clothes, much less their hunting and camping stuff and tools, etc. We knew we'd have to have some more storage until we can build a proper shop at Two Jack Ranch which we don't want to do until we sell the house in Benson. Anyway...we bought an additional barn and they delivered late Wednesday morning. Phil had cleared a spot for it next to the corrals. They drove it down the road, already constructed on a big truck and unloaded it with this specialty forklift thing which the guy used to drive it into place, it was pretty cool!
Wednesday after school Phil and I took Arlo to Corona Foothills to watch a junior high wrestling match. Phil has been playing around with Arlo wanting to teach him to wrestle, but figured Arlo didn't really understand the concept, so we went and watched an hour or so of the match. Arlo had a good time and I think Phil did too.
Arlo had his 2nd grade music performance on Thursday. It was a spring-themed event, he was irritated with me that I made him wear a nice shirt. He did a good job singing and dancing, although I must say the highlight of the performance was when he full on, no covered mouth, no attempt to stifle it, sneezed on the back of the kid in front of him. The kid's expression of disgust while he used his hand to wipe the back of his neck was priceless. My kid is so gross!
I was off on Friday and as coincidence had it so was Phil. I dropped the kids off at the bus stop and then he and I went to the temple for the morning. When we were done we went down to the courthouse and waited in line to get our marriage license. The courthouse is always a great place for people watching and when you're there for a reason you're happy about it doesn't seem so awful. We secured our license and then went and had lunch before it was time to pick up kids from school. It was a pretty great day.
Saturday was a long and exhausting day. Phil was contacted by some folks in his ward that they had organized some help for us with the Benson house. We spent time on Friday evening buying supplies and making lists of things that needed to get done. We also rented a U-Haul so that we could move some of the things from Phil's house to the new shed/barn. We had a few people come in the morning and help with removing the tree branches we had trimmed the previous week. I put Felicity to work painting the trim in the front of the house. We cleaned, patched holes, and packed things up in the house pretty much all day. We didn't get as much help as we were hoping, but it was nice to have a few extra hands. We loaded the truck and wrapped things up fairly late, in fact it was almost dark when we got the truck back to the ranch where we had to unload it into the barn. I was dirty and exhausted by the time we finished up.
We had church on Sunday morning and our Stake President attended our meeting so that he and I could meet after Sacrament. We had another interview, which went well, and he too signed my live ordinance recommend. On Sunday evening we drove down to Benson and met with Phil's Stake President so he could have his interview and because he wanted to meet me. That also went smoothly and now with two clearance/cancellation letters from the first Presidency, two living ordinance recommends, and a marriage license from the State of Arizona we have everything we need for our temple marriage...5 1/2 weeks to go!
