26 January 2025

Another week down and we're almost to the end of the first month of 2025.  I feel like January is the "free trial" of the new year.  We're trying to establish some new habits and make improvements around our house and its off to a good, but slow start.  Everyone's schedule has been hectic.  Phil worked a couple of overtime shifts this week in addition to working his normal shifts on Thursday and Saturday.  He was gone Monday for a captain's meeting/training.  I headed to the gym super early in the morning on Monday for a 5AM class at Orange Theory and enjoyed it.  I love getting my workout done early in the morning because it just sets a good tone for the rest of my day.  The kids were home for the MLK holiday and I would say that that was nice, but I don't know that I saw that much of them!  I had to work and they kept themselves pretty occupied.

I did another class at the gym Tuesday morning and then spent the rest of the day sore!  It's a good problem to have.  Dad was home and he and Jude hung out together most of the day.  They read books, played outside, and drove the tractor.  Arlo has been enjoying wrestling so far this season.  He had a meet on Wednesday and unfortunately didn't have a match.  Corona has something unholy like 57 boys on the team and they wrestled against Desert Sky Middle School who has a normal number, so even after having most of their boys wrestle two or three times, there still wasn't enough  people for Arlo to get a match.  We enjoyed ourselves anyway and cheered on our friends.  

I took my third class at the gym on Friday morning at 5AM, its what they call a "Tread 50" class.  It was fifty minutes on the treadmill at varying speeds and inclines.  The interval treadmill work out is great for me and I always feel tired, but energized when I'm done.  I did about 4 miles in the fifty minutes.  Phil came home in the morning and it just so happened we were both off from work.  I had a hair appointment in the morning and he and Jude had to come visit me at the salon because I forgot my purse!  My stylist was excited to actually get to meet "Captain Blue Eyes" in person.  Isn't it funny how you have these years-long relationships with folks in the beauty shop and they never actually get to meet the people you talk about?  Anyway, after dropping off my purse Phil and Jude went to play at McDonald's for awhile before heading home.  Then the three of us went to do Norma and Ruth's grocery shopping and pick up our own groceries.  We got kids off the bus and Jude went to Nana's house to spend the night and then Phil and I enjoyed a date night!

We went to the thrift store and milled around for awhile.  We ended up buying two pairs of shoes that will eventually be for Jude (a pair of boots and a pair of wrestling shoes) and then we picked up two more pair of like-new boots to sell on eBay.  Fingers crossed we can make a little money.  We went to Red Robin for dinner since we had a gift card.  We had a great time.  I love getting to hang out with my sweetheart!

Friday was also a great day since it was my 72 week weigh in.  I do an official weigh in and record my measurements every four weeks.  I was down a pound from last week, which is great, but I'm so close to the end, this losing it half a pound at a time is painful!  I only have 5.4 more to go!  I will say, however, a picture is worth 1,000 words...or 147.6 pounds.

And to that point, this picture made me cry.  Every four weeks I have someone take an updated picture of me in my workout clothes so I can see my progress in a more tangible way.  While trying to take this week's picture Jude jumped in and the only way Helen could get him to step out was by taking a couple of photos of he and myself.  When I saw this candid photo that I wasn't posing for it brought tears to my eyes.  Is that really me?  Is that what I look like?  I know that I have lost weight.  I know that I look different.  My mind hasn't necessarily caught up though.  I will still hold up a pair of jeans in what I think is my size (I'm not all together sure what size I am) and think, "Those are way too small, there's no way..." and then they fit comfortably.  Using my measurements to shop for clothes online I hesitate before putting the small/medium in my cart because I don't think that's right.  I was in the grocery store last Friday and Phil was pushing our buggy with our family's food (a lot of it "health" food for me) and I was pushing our neighbor's buggy (mostly junk food) and I turned to Phil and said "I'm always afraid people are going to see me pushing around all this junk food and thinking 'no wonder she's so fat'" to which he responded with a strange look and reminded me that I'm not fat.  Maybe one day my head will catch up with my body and I will internally see myself the way I actually am.

I got to catch up with Felicity on Friday night.  School is going well and she's seeing more and more clients as part of her everyday instruction.  She also went to the Gila Valley Temple by herself this week to do proxy endowments.  I'm so proud of Felicity and the responsible young lady she's become.

Saturday was full!  Phil went to work and Jude was still over at Nana's.  I dropped Helen off at the high school at 7AM where her theater troupe was going to a state competition at the University of Arizona.  Arlo and I went to church to meet the teacher's quorum (14/15 year old boys) for a shooting activity.  I brought a few of our guns and was just an additional adult at their activity which was fun.  Arlo had a great time and I think most of the other boys did too.

After the shooting activity I drug Arlo to Sahuarita where I had to make a stop at Tractor Supply, Ace, Joan's, and Walgreens.  I did treat him to lunch and a pop before we headed to Nana's to get Jude.  I picked up Helen in the late afternoon when they got back to the school from their competition.  She got a "Superior" rating for one of her pieces and got an "Excellent" but was disqualified for the second piece she was in, so she was a little disappointed.  I guess one of the judges was pretty strict with the black only attire rule and Helen's shoes weren't black.  Oh, well, now she knows.

After getting home I hurried to finish hemming the dress we bought at the thrift last weekend for winter formal. Helen also asked me to put sleeves on it so that she didn't have to wear something over the top.  I got to pull out my dress form and use it to measure out the sleeves that I added from the material I took off the bottom when I hemmed it.  I think it actually turned out pretty well considering it was a rushed job.  

Helen got ready over at a friend's house and when I picked her up at 11PM from the school she said she had a great time.  She looked beautiful!  She and her date danced and enjoyed time with friends.

It was HARD to get up for church on Sunday, but we made it...with a couple minutes to spare.  Phil met us there as he was coming from work and we enjoyed our meetings.  Jude just LOVES primary, I'm so grateful that he looks forward to being with his friends and teachers all week.  He told us all about what he learned about the temple on the way home. After church we met in the Bishop's office where Dad ordained Arlo to the office of a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood.  We're proud of Arlo and his continued commitment to do what is right and in learning to serve others as he advances in the priesthood. After having lunch I took a nice long nap when we got home!

19 January 2025

Short-ish blog post coming your way.  I was up VERY early on Monday to be at the gym for a 5AM class.  I hadn't been since before the holidays, so it was good to go and get back at it.  I ended up going twice more this week along with running a couple miles a day at home.  Feels so good!  I know you haven't had a weight-loss update in awhile, I'm still hovering six pounds above my goal...so close!  I'm hoping with some renewed resolve and increased activity this week to report that I've hit goal in the next two weeks or so, wish me luck!

Jude got to go with Dad to music class on Monday and in the evening we had Family Home Evening.  We were studying the first section in the Doctrine and Covenants and we split our activity in half.  Jude and Phil and I played two (painful) rounds of Candy Land while the big kids finished up homework, and then Phil, Arlo, Helen, and I played Dumb Ways to Die with Jude as our official dice roller.  Here's how Jude wanted to watch the Come Follow Me video we watched as part of our lesson:

I don't remember which days Phil worked over time this week, it seems like it was a lot.  Jude and I hung out though.  He played with toys and Play Doh, rode his tractor, swung on his swing set, and watched TV.  Scooby Doo is a current favorite and somedays he even takes a cat nap on the couch in the late afternoon before the big kids come home.

Helen stayed after school every day this week for musical practice and Arlo had wrestling practice.  His first "wrestle-off" went well with him winning, he lost in the second round, so he'll be wrestling on the "B Team" again this year.  I worked so much last week that I was able to take Friday off this week.  It was nice because Phil was home too.  He and Jude and I ran errands on Friday morning and had lunch out.  It was nice.  In the evening I took Helen to a young women's camp out.  It was more like a slumber party as the girls were just in tents in one of the leader's back yards, but it counts I guess.   Phil and I were invited to a birthday party in the evening and so many of our favorite people were there.  It was a great opportunity to catch up with our friends and enjoy some adult time.

Phil was working on Saturday and Helen and I left the boys at home in the morning and ran off to the thrift store to see if we could find her a dress for winter formal.  We were lucky and found something that will require minimal adjustments and we had a good time trying on shoes and shopping around.  We stopped at Joann's as I was in need of some wide-width quilt backing.  The Joann's in Tucson didn't have what I wanted, but the one in Sahuarita did.  We stopped for some lunch before heading home.  In the evening we had a kick off meeting for Trek.  Our stake (a collection of nine congregations or wards in our area) is doing a pioneer trek this summer in lieu of youth camps.  Helen and Arlo will both be old enough to go and Phil is going as the medical director.  It also looks like I'll be going to keep Phil company.  You can read about Felicity's experience at Trek here.  Its a big event and huge undertaking.  We enjoyed the kickoff meeting and then afterward stayed for dessert.  

I have had a backlog of work piling up at my sewing table.  I was commissioned to make not one, not two, but FOUR memory quilts from a huge pile of button up western shirts for a friend.  It was behind finishing my baby quilts and Christmas preparations, but now its time to jump on that work.  This week I prepared all the shirts by cutting them up into workable pieces and adding stabilizer to the back.  I did all the designing work and then I started the first one.  I finished it Sunday evening and am happy with how it turned out, I hope my customer likes it just as much as I do.

Sunday was nice and low-key.  We had church at 9AM and Phil met us there as he was coming from work.  Jude was so excited to go to Primary.  He loves it and loves being with his friends. I taught Sunday school and I think the lesson went fairly well.  We discussed both the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants and Joseph Smith's First Vision.  We chilled when we got home and enjoyed time together. 

12 January 2025

It was back to normal life this week after the holiday break.  Helen and Arlo had school on Monday and I had to be back at work.  My work week was insanely long and stressful.  My program is doing increment planning and I'm supporting a brand new product owner which meant they needed a lot of extra help.  Jude also had his fourth birthday on Monday.  Four, can you believe that?  He is certainly transitioning from toddler to little boy and I feel like we're turning a corner on how difficult he is to manage.  Don't get me wrong, he is still INCREDIBLY headstrong, demanding, and stubborn, but trips to the grocery store seem less stressful and difficult lately.  He's also doing great with potty-training.  I feel like he's 98% potty-trained and he doesn't have accidents at night 90% of the time which is a huge win.  One of my favorite traditions is creating a "things I love" image of the kiddos on their birthday and adding all the best photos from the year to their Facebook album.

Dad worked overtime on Monday during the day.  He went into work the previous Saturday morning and got home Monday afternoon around 4PM.  Felicity helped me by taking Jude to music class Monday morning and then after class she took him out for a birthday treat.  They got some balloons (his favorite), Bluey sunglasses, and Dairy Queen.  What a good big sister!

I'm grateful I had the foresight to bake the cake layers for Jude's Bluey cake in the morning before I got on my computer because once I got to work it was heads down all day.  Once Phil got home he helped me make some buttercream and tint my fondant and I was able to put Jude's cake together in about an hour.  It has been a long time since I made cakes on the regular.  I miss it a little, although I don't miss the mess. It was, however, nice to dust off my tools and put something together for Jude's birthday.  I think the cake would have turned out a little better if I had had some more time.

We met Nana and our cousin Jaidyn at Peter Piper Pizza in the evening and set the kids up with credits to play in the arcade.  Jude had a great time and I think the pre-teens did too.  Arlo made quite the haul at the claw machine (insert eye roll) I can't wait to find a place for five cantaloupe-sized bouncy balls in his already over-stuffed room!  We had pizza and even though the employees looked at us a little sideways they didn't say anything about us bringing in the cake.  He opened presents and was so cute, everything he opened was met with the exclamation of "oh my goodness!".  

Phil worked on Tuesday and then overtime on Wednesday, he came home to sleep Wednesday night before heading back to work on Thursday. I'm so appreciative he's such a hard worker, he's really going to have earned that retirement when the time comes! 

Jude was pretty much living his best life this week while I was stuck at my desk with my insane work schedule.  I'm grateful Felicity was still home because she really helped with shuttling kids around.  Arlo started wrestling try-outs this week and Helen had after school rehearsal for the musical.  It was a lot!  Here's a picture of Jude enjoying a snack in front of the TV.

He did play with some of his new Christmas and Birthday presents this week, the Play Doh was a favorite.  It hurt my organized heart to find that he took 15 (seriously 15) canisters of Play Doh in an array of colors and mash them all together into one giant blob.  He was very direct with me that he was happy with his choice of joining them all together and spent literally 90 minutes to 2 hours everyday this week making long snakes the color of something that looked like it belonged in the toilet.  

Arlo was selected to participate in the middle school honor band and had after school rehearsal on Thursday and Friday.  This worked out pretty well since the rehearsals were at Cienega and Helen got out of her rehearsal right around the same time.  I'm really proud of Arlo and his commitment to improving his musicianship.  They practiced both days which culminated in a performance Friday evening.  Phil worked overtime for half of the day on Friday so Felicity again came to my rescue when I needed someone to take Helen to the orthodontist.  It normally would have been my "off Friday" but I had to sit in a few meetings in the morning as planning continued.  In the afternoon I did our shopping and the neighbor's shopping and put together a meal for another family.  Phil got home in the afternoon and we were supposed to go out with friends, but I didn't realize that Felicity was double-booked.  Helen and Arlo were visiting their dad and Helen and Felicity had plans to see Hadestown in Tucson.  So we didn't have a babysitter and couldn't find one last minute.  Oh, well.  We enjoyed a quiet evening in.

Our Saturday was busy and started with Phil getting a call for some overtime availability so he once again headed back to work.  Jude and I cleaned and continued decluttering/organizing in the house which is going more slowly than I would like, but its almost done.  He helped me with animal chores too, I had him haul the hay to the goats with his tractor; he really enjoyed that.

I had to run to Walmart in the late morning to pick up some wrapping paper and to do some shopping for Felicity.  I wanted to restock her supply of in-dorm snacks and staples.  After Walmart we stopped and got a pop and then went over to the fire station to visit Dad at work.  We hung out in his office/bunk room and Jude had to try the bed out.  

Later in the evening we went to a friend's birthday party and Jude enjoyed playing with new toys in a new house.  He also enjoyed birthday cake!

Saturday evening Jude fell asleep at a descent hour and I was able to spend some time wrapping up some of last year's quilts.  I got several back from being quilted a few weeks ago and needed to make and affix labels to them and then get the binding on (my least favorite part).  They did turn out beautifully and the one quilt with the woodland animals on it that I was worried about being wonky was just fine after it was quilted.  It squared up nicely and laid flat and I didn't have any problems with it.  I was shocked.  I also put binding on the superhero  quilts I made for the boys, Jude approved when he got to see his finally finished.  One quilt is a baby gift for my cousin who is having her first baby next month and the other is going home with one of Phil's firefighters whos wife is having a baby.  I ended up making three quilts for fire family babies in the last two months!

Phil got home Sunday morning in time to join us for church which was nice.  Jude really enjoyed primary and I heard reports that he was well behaved and even helped out in singing time.  We had to wait for Dad to wrap up his missionary coordination meeting after church and Jude occupied himself by opening the door for anyone that was leaving.  It was cute.  We enjoyed some lunch when we got home and then it was time to say goodbye to Felicity as she was heading back to school.  We'll miss her, Jude especially, but we're grateful she has the opportunity to learn and experience new things at college.  And that is a wrap on the week!

05 January 2025

This week was beautifully un-busy.  I loved every minute.  On Monday Felicity and I took a trip to Tucson.  We picked up a few extra totes for packing up Christmas stuff at Sam's Club and then we were going to stop at the thrift store for their half off sale...now that turned out to be a dumb idea.  The parking lot was over-flowing.  People were parking at the bank next door.  We decided that we didn't want to battle the crowd, instead we went up the street to Hobby Lobby and were pleasantly surprised at how much Christmas stuff they had left-over for their 75% off sale.  I may have picked up a few things for next year.  We had lunch and then came home to start putting Christmas away.  

Phil worked on New Year's Eve and so it was just Felicity and Jude and I at home.  We enjoyed a quiet day hanging out at the house.  I was awake at midnight, but we didn't really ring in the New Year per se; I was working on my annual "purge".  Essentially I go through each room, every drawer, closet, and crevice and get rid of anything we're not regularly using.  We were happy to get the other kids home on the first and we spent time catching up and enjoying a family movie together while eating through the Christmas leftovers and goodies.  Felicity was especially happy to have her sister back.  Helen even let Felicity practice her braiding skills.

Phil worked an overtime shift on Thursday and I made good progress getting things put away.  I think everything is all packed up (including my new finds from this year's sales) and I made sure all the totes were labeled and ready to go back out to the shop.  I'll probably leave them out for another couple of days...I'm still looking for the little Asian king from our Fisher Price nativity set and I know I'll come across Christmas stuff the second I take the totes out of the house.

Our Friday was eventful.  Phil worked on taking down the lights.  It was the last thing to put away because I don't like heights and hate to get on the roof; I avoid it if I can.  We did the grocery shopping for our neighbor and picked up our own groceries.  In the afternoon the neighbor called me to ask if I had animal control's phone number.  She said there was a strange creature digging in their yard.  What she described to me was a badger.  They're not terribly common in Arizona so I was skeptical.  Instead of calling Animal Control Phil and Jude and I went over there to check it out.  There was a HUGE newly dug hole near their front porch and so we stuck the hose down the hole and turned on the water while Phil waited with the .22 around the side of the house.  Sure enough, a freaking badger immerged from the hole, wet and irritable.  Phil shot the badger, the safest option as it surely would have gotten under the house and started wreaking havoc.  You know, just Comadurans doing redneck stuff.

Phil got a call from the Battalion Chief early on Saturday morning offering him another overtime shift.  I vaguely remember him kissing me goodbye and leaving.  He's starting out 2025 strong as he heads into his third and last year of working on his "high three".  As a recap, Phil's pension when he retires will be based on an average of his three highest paid years, that includes overtime, so he's been working as much overtime as possible since he hit his twenty-year mark two years ago.  I continued cleaning and purging on Saturday while the kids enjoyed their free time.  Everyone's sleep schedule is all over the place...kids staying up till all hours of the night and sleeping until noon.  Monday morning is going to be miserable for more than a couple of us!

Arlo got to go out with Nana to celebrate his birthday this weekend.  He had a great time and enjoyed eating out with Nana and playing at Round One.  Helen worked on Saturday to replenish her stash of play money.

Jude had a birthday party to attend on Saturday morning.  He had such a great time playing at the park and seeing his friends from church.  He was very well behaved and talked about how much fun it was for the rest of the day.  

Phil worked his regular shift on Sunday, so it was just the kiddos and I at church.  I taught Sunday School, an introduction to our study this year of the Doctrine and Covenants.  We mostly discussed “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World.”  I think it went fairly well.  Jude had his first day of Primary as a Sunbeam (the 3-4 year old class) and really enjoyed it.  His teachers said he was very well behaved and enjoyed being with the big kids.  We're looking forward to celebrating Jude's 4th birthday on Monday.  Phil is working more overtime Monday morning, but should be home by the evening to help us party.  I'm not looking forward to going back to work next week.  I've been off for so long, I don't even know if I remember how to do my job!

29 December 2024 Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  What a lovely holiday it has been in the Comaduran home.  Our week was packed!  On Monday we set out to check off some more holiday traditions from our festive list.  When Phil got home from work we piled into the truck and drove to Tempe to go to the Phoenix Zoo.  We had a great time and just finished seeing our last exhibit as the zoo was closing.  

Jude enjoyed the squirrel monkeys and the emperor monkeys were another family favorite.  I love the orangutans, I wish Jude had been a little more patient there, but alas.  He enjoyed the Harmony Farm and climbing on the tractors and petting the goats...I told him if he spent too much time petting the zoo goats, our goats were going to get jealous!

When we were done with the zoo we drove to our favorite pizza place: Organ Stop Pizza.  We got there just at the right time, the line wasn't too crazy and we were able to get a good table.  By the time we left the line was out in the parking lot and there was a thirty minute wait for a table.  

The music was great, we enjoyed it and the atmosphere and the food immensely, as we always do.  If you've never been, I highly recommend it next time you're in the Mesa area.  I even caught a video of Jude pretending to play the organ.

After pizza we went over to the Mesa Temple to enjoy the lights on the temple grounds.  We enjoyed the lights and most of the displays, but it was very crowded and we didn't last too long before the big kids got grouchy and overstimulated and it was time to head home.  Dad stopped to treat everyone to Dairy Queen before the long drive and that helped ease the tension of a long day of crowds.

Phil and Jude drove to Benson on Christmas Eve in the morning and delivered Christmas goodies to friends and family.  I opted to make cinnamon rolls as a backup gift, since I was weary of sending out my shifty tamales.  While in Benson they ran into Phil's friend Steve and got a cute picture of Jude with Steve's little girl.

 While he was gone, I finished making custom Christmas mugs for our nieces and nephews.  I think they turned out cute!  

We went to Nana and Papa's in the evening and enjoyed dinner and family time for Christmas Eve.  

We were really spoiled as always.

The kids retreated to their bedrooms when we got home and Jude wanted to watch a movie in the family room.  But not before putting out some cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer.  The big kids rolled their eyes (hard) at this.  You may recall that I never did the Santa Claus thing with the older kids.  I never wanted to confuse them and I wanted to focus on Christ at Christmas, but Jude's been talking about Santa all year and we decided we would play along at least for a couple of years.  Anyway, he wanted to remember to leave a treat by the fireplace. Phil and I then locked ourselves in our bedroom and I worked on wrapping gifts while he worked on putting together Jude's new electric ride-on tractor.  

We were up WAY too late.  Then when we were done and were ready to put presents under the tree we found that Jude had fallen asleep next to the Christmas tree waiting for Santa.  We snuck around him placing gifts and trying not to make too much noise which was almost impossible since our live tree was anything but live anymore and even the slightest bump caused a shower of dead needles to fall down around everything under it.  

We managed to get everything under the tree, including the large tractor without waking Jude up.  We then moved him to our bed so that he wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night and get into the gifts.

The kids, including Jude, slept in till about seven.  I recorded Jude's reaction Christmas morning, he walked right past the tree and presents into the living room to see if the Santa cookies were gone.  He then ran down the hallway to inform the rest of the kiddos that "Santa came!".  We opened our gifts, enjoyed warm cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate and had a very nice morning.  

Phil really hit it out of the park this year, I got two ADORABLE new Christmas ornaments and he got me a dress form for my sewing room (I can't wait to use it!) and the most beautiful wool duster-length coat...now if it would only get cold enough to warrant wearing it!  I also got some ornaments from the kids and a new pair of iPods from my sweetheart. 

I also have to brag on Felicity for a moment too.  This year I had the kids do a sibling "secret Santa" so they didn't have to buy or make a gift for everyone.  Felicity picked Jude and as a college student saving her pennies she opted to make him a gift.  Look at the Unicorse puppet she made!  He's SO CUTE!  If you haven't seen the Unicorse episode of Bluey, do yourself a favor and click the above link!  If you're not familiar with Bluey, your world will be just a little bit better if you scoot over to Disney + (or YouTube for that matter)  and watch a couple of episodes, our family loves Bluey right now.

Helen and Arlo went to visit their dad for the week and the rest of us hung around the house eating junk and watching movies and enjoying our new Christmas goodies.  I even caught an afternoon nap, it was glorious!

Phil picked up an overtime shift on Thursday and since he was gone I set out early to run some errands and check out the Christmas sales.  I didn't find much of anything.  When I got home I did some cleaning up and made a trip to the grocery store to pick up things for our Comaduran family Christmas get-together; we're hosting at the ranch and I'm making Café Rio sweet pork with cilantro rice and black beans!  When I got home Jude wanted to take a bath, so I got one started for him in our bathroom, he loves the great big garden tub.  After several minutes I went to check on him and practically panicked when I got to the bedroom door and could hear that the water was still on.  He let it fill to the VERY top.  The tub doesn't have an overflow drain so I don't know what his plan was because it was within an inch of the top.  He was floating there like a crocodile with just his nose and eyes poking out from the top, the rest submerged.  He keeps us on our toes!

Jude got to go to Nana's on Thursday night for a sleepover, something he hasn't had the opportunity to do very often.  He was extremely excited to pack his brand new Bluey suitcase that Nana had gotten him for Christmas and head over there.  Felicity and I had an appointment to go to the temple first thing Friday morning so I thought it would be fun if he stayed with Nana.

Felicity and I left bright and early for the temple Friday morning.  She was going to be going to the temple on Saturday and I wanted to walk her through doing proxy ordinances so she'd feel more comfortable going on her own later in the week.  We did some initiatories and then an endowment session and both went well.  We grabbed lunch on the way home before picking up Jude who had a great time with Nana. I loved spending time with my oldest in the temple.

Phil worked the first shift of his tour on Friday so he was gone another day.  Following the temple I spent most of the day cleaning up and getting ready to host the Comadurans for our Christmas get-together. 

Saturday morning Phil met me at the church bright and early as he was getting off from work and we were assigned to clean the church building with a couple of other families.  We knocked that out fairly quickly and then got back home in time to set up for lunch as the first of our family arrived around 11am.  We hosted Phil's aunt Diana and uncle Jack, his mom, his aunt Dorothy, his aunt Linda, Rick and Mindy, Kirby and Brook and their family, and Salina and Ed and their kiddos.  It was a lot of fun.  The boys shot bows in the backyard, the cousins played games, we did a puzzle and ate a lot of food and enjoyed visiting.  It was a lovely day.  Phil picked up an overtime shift in the evening so just as everyone was leaving he headed back to work.

Felicity and Jude and I enjoyed church on Sunday.  It was Jude's last week in nursery.  He got to sit in Primary for Singing Time second hour and I heard he was really good (fingers crossed he does that next week too).  

I helped teach the fifth Sunday lesson second hour, I was asked to do a recap of our study of the Book of Mormon and I chose the theme "How has studying the Book of Mormon this year brought me closer to Christ?".  I think it went fairly well.  Phil worked his second shift on Sunday so we were without him, but our day was pretty low-key.  I made some initial efforts to start cleaning up and "de-Christmas-ing" the house.

We got our family photos back this week from the photographer and I couldn't have been happier, they are so beautiful.  If you're local and looking for a great photographer, please consider the talented Chantell Nicole Photography.  Enjoy!