Livin' La Vida Loca

Best blessings this week: 

1. Willa being home! I just adore that girl. Everything is more fun if Willa is there. Griffin is happier when Willa is here. I am happier and have more fun when she is home suggesting cool birthday presents for her siblings, showing me great Tik-Toks (ask her about the slang sommelier), and giving excellent hugs.

2. Dinner at Brook Beaty Park with the Perez-Verdias. One of Alan's dear friends (Alejandro Perez-Verdia, we went to his wedding in Cancun and Alan trained him in EP) is moving to Kansas City! We had such a great evening visiting with him and his wife Cali, sister Maria de Los Angeles, and brother-in-law Ivo while the kids ran around and played like cousins on their first meeting.

3. First book club of the year. Imagine going over to Betsy's house and visiting with her--smart, fun, very kind--as you are offered beautiful appetizers and all your best friends in the area show up. She has calm piano music playing (which she wondered if it was too much or too pretentious), and then you get to visit and discuss identity and thought together. Then I walked back across the street and went on a short walk with Alan and the cats while the clean kids tried to go to sleep. Just perfect!

4. A re-written anniversary date to Jasper's and the temple. We sat in the room that overlooks Indian creek and just ordered all of the summer specials: fresh capreze salad made with mozarella that was stretched and made for us as we watched at our table, crushed fresh tomato pasta for me and rigatoni with melon and proscuito in a cream sauce for Alan. We finished with coconut Italian wedding cake and sealings at the Kansas City temple. So much better than our date last week!

5. Dinner at the Odle's house. We have people over to dinner all the time so Alan can get to know them and scope them out for callings. It is rare for people to have us over though. Wayd and Aubrey (the opera couple in our ward) had us over on a rainy day for tortilla soup and their fun conversation. It was so much fun to watch them tell the story of the opera Carmen to us with great drama, singing a few bars here and there and telling us which arias were the best and which were the hardest. We are excited to see them perform it next month with KC Opera!

6. School is making Eve and Griff really happy this fall. They are doing great as they year is starting up. Bless those teachers!!!

Challenges of the week:

1. Willa feels pretty crummy and doesn't have the stamina to do all the things with me. Just some of the things. I wish I could take away that particular challenge, but I must allow it, because I don't know how to remove it and because I am hoping it somehow brings her greater meaning and understanding.

2. Fitting everything in is always a challenge. Alan has meetings all day from 7am to 6pm today. Usually it is easier to be the bishop on a Sunday (by schedule) than a doctor on a Sunday, but today will be a long one. I also have a couple of things to do, but I could blow most of them off without many people noticing.

3. I'm having trouble getting the right groceries into the house. I've just been bad at it this week! I explained this to Alan as he was feeling ignored in his dairy and meat needs. I hope it helped him. Next week I plan to be better.

One of the best things I heard this week was a literature professor explaining how the poetry of the Psalms always follows a particular arc: someone in a dire struggle needing help, remembering the Lord, and a statement of faith in him. As I thought about it, this arc is the arc of every story in the scriptures. It's a great way to view life. It's the way to enter into the Lord's rest, even as we are in the midst of conflict and strife.

So today I am going to sacrament meeting because I am looking for succor from the Lord. I know it is only in Him that we can securely put our trust. And it is great to know where to lay our burdens down.

Griffin's beautiful eyes, edited by him.

Eve did this to her own picture! Hahahaha!

I have been collecting deodorant for a service project today. Our stake collected about 1100 deodorants to give away to people who need essential items (and live in OUR ward boundaries) to help kids go back to school. About 15 area churches, nonprofits and businesses are participating.

FHE treat at Summer Salt Ice cream as a storm rolls in.

This was the book for book club. No idea who took this or why.

Archer and Noah came over for popsicles and fun one day.

My darling Willa Jane!

These real headlines looked like Onion headlines to me and I thought Wyatt would like them.

The REAL anniversary date!

Gretchen Frandsen's baptism! It seems like she wasn't born all that long ago. Check out the balloons.

Eve, Lalaina and Andres at the park together