Busy, busy, busy!

I am the Director of Public Affairs for the Allen Texas Stake. I LOVE IT!!

What this means is I work with a committee to plan events, often service oriented, targeted at helping the general public and people of prominence have an accurate understanding of our church and what it's core beliefs are.

So this year we've been asked to plan a "Day of Service" to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Church Welfare program. My local church leaders have a vision of 1000 people from our local congregations serving on Saturday October 22nd.

This means, I've been working for the past 3 months or so having meetings with our contacts within the community to find projects for 1000 people to do. I've spent countless hours on the computer and phone and in meetings trying to work this all out.

The day dawned early, Stephen was gone for Boy Scout wood badge training which meant I had to farm out my kids to a good friend--who really was superb because she got all 4 of my kids, including Matthew for 6 hours.

Then I drove around from project to project taking photos and seeing how things went. I'm happy to report that everywhere I went I saw members of my church hard at work serving. It made me so proud to be a member of my church!!

BY THE NUMBERS:

1,260 people
5,070 hours of service
94 projects

equals ONE TIRED (but happy) GAL

My last living grandparent

Glenn Robertson Lewis

July 5, 1920-September 27, 2011
(photo taken last Summer, at a family reunion to celebrate his 90th birthday)

Beloved Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather.....

He had prostate cancer that had spread into his bones. He was diagnosed in July and we were told he'd last about 6 months. We were expecting a funeral in November or December, I was caught a little off guard when it happened at the end of September, but we're grateful that he felt no pain--amazing since bone cancer can be one of the more painful ones. The cancer was never treated, he was 91, we just wanted to make him comfortable and we did.

Things I want remember about my grandfather:
1. He LOVED good music and singing. He loved to gather around the piano and harmonize. He also whistled a lot and I loved to hear him whistle.
2. He used to create treasure hunts for us when we were little, he'd lead us to little stashes of candy and we thought it was great fun.
3. He always used the term, "mighty grateful and thankful"--it was one of my favorites.
4. He was always a gentlemen and was kind and loving to my grandmother and his second wife Jean (who he married after grandma died) He and Jean enjoyed 22 years together, I firmly believe she extended his life because she made him so happy.
5. He LOVED a family game night. He introduced us to all games played with Rook cards, Rummikub and Mexican Train played with Dominoes.
6. His testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ was firm and he shared his testimony and other counsel in monthly letters to all of us.

I am grateful for the legacy he has left me, and I will try to live up to the Lewis name.

*****

So you know from my previous post that attending a funeral in the middle of the "Boy Scout Training Gauntlet" was going to take some doing. I live in Texas, the funeral took place in Utah. I wasn't going to take 4 kids via plane or car by myself. So I am "mighty grateful and thankful" for my wonderful Mother-in-law who was able to come and care for my kids for 48 hours while I flew to UT for the funeral.

She really outdid herself, I am so amazingly blessed. About 6 hours before I was to get up for an early morning flight, Sam started throwing up. A very strong virus had hit the kindergarten and first grade at school and he threw up all night long. I felt so bad to leave her with that, thankfully no one else in my family got sick (but she did when she got home--I feel guilty).

But while she was here she made perfect chocolate chip cookies, waffles and homemade pizza. She brought a pumpkin painting craft for my children:
And my empty pots were filled with beautiful flowers perfect for fall.I feel so loved. I was able to go, alone, and grieve, and reconnect with family, and knew that my children safe and happy and well cared for.=)


And the funeral was perfect, the music was amazing--Grandpa's love for music passed down to his grandchildren. The grandsons sang an amazing version of "I need thee every hour", and all the grandchildren sang a version of "Oh My Father" sung to the tune of "Come thou fount". The talks were wonderful--my grandfather planned his program down to the speakers, the poems, etc. I know he was happy with how it turned out.
Cousins flew in from Germany, Norway and Turkey and my brother who lives in Japan, came in as well. It was another reunion and so nice to see many of them that I wouldn't see otherwise. I especially loved the time spent with my brothers and my brother Aaron's family. I got to meet a new niece who is so precious!=)

It was a long 48 hours but I am so glad I was able to go. I'm grateful for my knowledge of the resurrection and the principle of eternal families.

Matthew is getting B-I-G

So, Matthew has turned 18 months and is officially in Nursery. Here are some pictures of him on his first official day of nursery:
His 18 month mark fell on a Sunday. The week previous I'd gone by the nursery to ask if I could bring him during the last hour of church, he saw the toys and pushed himself off me and wanted to try--he did GREAT! It's been 3 Sundays and he's still doing great. His transition has been so smooth!

And I just had to load this photo--he LOVES playing outside. We often walk to this park near our house, and I often get comments about his beautiful blue eyes--this is a photo of both of those things:

Peek-a-boo!!

The Scouting Training Gauntlet

It is week 5 of a 7 week "Boy Scout Gauntlet"--Stephen is a scoutmaster for our church run troop. He really likes this assignment and it's a good fit for him and his love for camping and outdoor activities. But it keeps him very busy and that sometimes is hard to balance.

As a scoutmaster, he has monthly camp outs with his troop. 2 of the 7 weeks are out with the boys camping. THEN he is a certified rock climb instructor with the BSA and he needed to re-certify so he has 2 weekends (one of them right now) rock climbing and these are all day Friday and Saturday trips. THEN after we already had these things on the calendar, President Fisher (Allen Stake Presidency) approached Stephen and "strongly encouraged" Stephen to sign up for "Wood Badge" and intense leadership training for Boy Scout Leaders. This would take 3 additional weekends, 2 of them being "Sunday Friendly" and therefore Thursday-Saturday. It was amazing that he even had the particular weekends still open, and even more amazing that all 7 things have happened concurrently!

So he wasn't able to coach Sam's soccer team this season. He wouldn't be able to make it nearly all of the games. This was really hard on both Sam and Stephen, we're hopeful we can make it work next season!

But soccer has continued nonetheless, and Sam continues to enjoy it and really likes being a defender. This is him with one of his good little buddies on the team, his friend is great on offense and so they make a great team! So every Saturday I've braved Celebration Park as a single mom going to root my Sam and somehow corral Matthew. I'm sure I'm hilarious to watch but I'm beyond caring what people think of me. Sam likes soccer, it's important to him that we're there to cheer for him, it's part of being a family.


It hasn't been easy to have Stephen gone, it's meant a heavier load on me and Stephen isn't a fan of being away from us, most of the time he has been home he's blowing through the door and back out again or busy packing and loading up gear. We're really looking forward to November when this is all over. We're even pondering our children having their own camp out with Daddy which we know they'd enjoy. But I've been blessed--truly--we knew this was coming, we prepared for it. I have attended the temple praying for the added strength to get me through this time. And at those moments when I'm feeling overwhelmed I've been carried and blessed with the added patience, health and strength to get me through.