June was a whirlwind for me. I can see that July probably will be as well. Perhaps it was the busyness of May, I don’t know. I had three final presentations due on the 4th/5th for school. That might also have been part of it. I did finish my classes and did well again, all A’s. I am always relieved when I get my report card and that’s what it shows. I work really hard to do that and it’s good to see that it was worth the effort.
I gave a lesson on the Addiction Recovery Program on June 3rd
during the Priesthood and Relief Society combined meeting. Dave and Deb
Snowberger helped me. I think it went
well. I now serve as the group leader for the Marshall group. I have yet to be
called officially, because I have to turn in Church-Service Missionary
paperwork for my call to be extended, but I’m functioning in that capacity
already. I’m so grateful for the program and the way it has really helped me to
see some addictions and problems in my own life, but more importantly it has
helped me to better understand how to use the Atonement more effectively in my
own life. I can’t really imagine where I would be today without it. I talked
about some of the many misconceptions that people have about the program-one of
which is that it should only take 12 weeks to complete the program since there
are 12 steps, but anyone with an addiction or other serious problems knows that
it takes a long time to overcome something so huge and in some ways we are
never free as long as we are still living. Satan works so hard on us and really
knows how to get to each of us.
June 6th was Megan’s last day of school. She also
did very well in her grade report. Most importantly though I saw a major
improvement in her effort the 2nd half of school. I wanted to see
that very badly because I knew she wasn’t doing her best before.
On the 16th the entire mutual took a 34-mile bike
ride from Kalamazoo to South Haven. It’s a state park trail. They had lots of
fun. I rode only four miles, as I was a support vehicle driver, but I enjoyed
myself overall. I had hoped to get more of my book read, but I didn’t and that
was all right. When we got finished it started raining and by the time we got
to the beach and settled in to some degree it really started to come down. We
even had hail for a few minutes. We had planned to bbq some hot dogs and have
chips and such for dinner, but the grill hadn’t been put away properly and the
piece to connect the propane tank was missing. We ended up getting Little
Ceasar’s pizza. Not my favorite, but we were all hungry and it was cheap.
Finally the rain stopped about the time we got the pizza so after the youth ate
we let them play on the beach for awhile before heading home.
I spent a great deal
of time in June working on Girls’ camp stuff. I did the crafts there this year
and when I wasn’t busy there I was helping in the kitchen. I love going to
camp, but it sure does wear me out. We ended up painting bricks mostly. They
were meant to be princesses to go along with the theme. It was lots of fun and
I enjoyed the people the most because I enjoy being around the Young Women and
other sisters from the Stake.
For the bike ride and camp we had two vehicle incidents. On
the way to the bike ride the
car just in front of us discovered their engine overheating and pulled over, so
we did too.
Turned out that they had a hole in the line for the radiator and they actually
had nothing
in the radiator. We hadn’t gone far, so we turned around and went back to the
Church and switched out vehicles with another van. It put us about an hour
behind schedule though so that was a longer day than we had thought it would
be. We were grateful that it happened however because as we moved forward to get
where we could turn around we realized that there was a rollover about where we
would have been had we not pulled over when we did. We were so thankful for
prayer let me tell you. On the way to Girls’ Camp my car wouldn’t start
initially because the motor for my air shocks killed my battery. After we got
it jump started we were doing well for about a half hour when all of sudden I
couldn’t see the van behind me anymore. I slowed way down and then pulled over.
After waiting for quite some time and still not seeing the van, I decided to
call. Luckily I had the cell number of the other driver. I wasn’t entirely sure
I had before then. It turned out that as she was driving down the road her rear
left tire literally rolled off the van and she had pulled over just in time-she
was literally sitting on her rear axle. We were delayed 2.5 hours that time,
but again all were safe and it worked out in the end. We were so thankful that
the Lord was watching over us. Amazingly nobody was hurt, the van was able to
be repaired pretty easily (there was no major damage at all) and we were able
to get new transportation figured out fairly quickly and be on our way again.
It was a crazy beginning to camp though!
While I was at Girls’ camp the scouts were at scout camp.
Andrew took them up on Sunday and then came home and then went back up on
Friday and stayed the night before coming home on Saturday with the boys. At
around 2am they had a storm come through and some of the boys and Andrew got
quite wet. Andrew hadn’t put up his rain fly thinking he wouldn’t need it. That
same storm swept east and took out power all along the way, it has yet to be
completely fixed.
I have decided to reread “The Work and the Glory” series by
Gerald N. Lund. I loved the series the first time and since I own it I thought
I would reread it this summer. I had hoped to finish before Youth Conference,
which begins in about a week. I just finished the 4th of nine
volumes yesterday however so I seriously doubt that I’ll be able to finish the
other five in a week. I should explain that better. I began reading the first
part of June and have finished four books now, but not nearly enough to meet my
goal. That’s really not that big of a deal to me though. I had started
rereading to better remember those things that happened in early Church
history, but specifically Nauvoo. We are going there for Youth Conference. I
won’t finish that part before we go to Youth Conference, but that’s all right
because either way I will better appreciate the sacrifice of the Saints.
Andrew is loving his new position at work. He is almost
excited to go to work each day. It has been a huge blessing in our lives. He
just found out from a new HR person from corporate that after he has been
functioning in this position for about a year and they (the company) like his
performance they will pay his tuition for schooling for as much schooling as he
wants to obtain. This is fantastic news for us in several ways. One of which is
that tuition will be paid for. The 2nd is that he is attending a
program where books are included as part of tuition which means they are really
paying for all of it. It’s so fantastic to see the blessings of the Lord in
that area of our lives. We only hope that they will give up and make him
permanent instead of temporary soon. They already told him that as long
as they have work he will be there, and that they aren’t about to run out of work because
there is plenty enough for two people, but we’d like it to more official than that.
as they have work he will be there, and that they aren’t about to run out of work because
there is plenty enough for two people, but we’d like it to more official than that.
On the 21st or 22nd I took Krissy in
to get her nails trimmed. We have been grinding them at home, but she doesn’t
want us to and was getting quite cranky about it. We weren’t able to finish, so
I took her in. I got to see my good friend while there and later that day she
called and asked if we’d like a couple of bunnies for free. I talked with
Andrew and then Megan and of course Megan wanted them and promised to take care
of them. I called back and said we’d take them. We picked them up on the 23rd
and then Megan and I left for camp two days later. Megan wasn’t sure she wanted
them by the time we came home from camp, she had a hard time adjusting to the
fact that they weren’t quite what she expected. I wouldn’t let her back out of
a commitment so easily though so she still has the rabbits. Their names are
Johnny and Allie.
We thought we had sold some old chickens to another small
business, but she never showed up to take the chickens. So now we still need to
get rid of some chickens and will sell them whole to whomever wants them. We
are hoping several people will want them. I don’t have room for 15 chickens in
my freezer I will tell you that. I am glad that some have stopped laying and
will be gone though because the longer we have the chickens the less I enjoy
the eggs. We just have too many for my taste. I could be happy with two at this
point. Two eggs a day was plenty back before we had chickens. I didn’t use two
every day, but it averaged out to about that number.
The last piece of news is that we got a 2nd car
in June. We looked around quite a bit and found an Infinite I30 which is a
nicer version of the Nissan Altima. It took quite a bit of work to finally get
it, but now we have it and are glad for it. Having two cars makes things so
much easier. We are hoping to have it paid off early fall this year. Andrew
discovered it needs several major repairs, which we didn’t know before we
bought it. He will be able to do most of the work himself, but while we go to
Youth Conference he has to take it in for some welding that needs to be done.
Since he doesn’t have a welder, we will take it to somewhere that does. I don’t
remember exactly what it was, but the engine mounts are all gone I think and so
they will be lifting the engine back where it belongs and installing a bar to
keep it there. It will be worth it in the end if we can get the car to last at
least three years which I think we’ll be able to do pretty easily.
Well I think that’s it for this month.
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