Daenon's New Toy

Since I've been working I started paying Daenon to do most all the kitchen work (food prep, kitchen cleaning, etc).  He has to save half of what he makes for his mission.  He saved us enough for a nice MP4 player.  He loves it.  One more electronic device for me to compete with. I do appreciate his help in the kitchen!

An Educational Resource for the World!

Finding an affordable and user friendly curriculum for high school level courses is always a challenge for homeschooling families. Damon and Tiffany ran into this website and told us about it.  It will be helpful in educating Daenon, wish it had been there for the other children.  This is a wonderful idea and can be used by so many people in so many ways.  The website is: http://www.khanacademy.org/.  A little learning is a dangerous thing, learn a lot!

The Khan Academy

Way Over Due

My gift from Brandon was an overnight get away for the two of us to San Antonio.  We haven't gotten away just to get away for years.  It was wonderful to spend time together just to be together.  We stayed at a charming Bed and Breakfast, had a Mexican dinner at a restaurant on the River Walk, and took a 3 mile walk around some beautiful botanical gardens.  I also got time to READ undisturbed on my new Kindle that Kylee and Ryan got me for Christmas. I love my Kindle. I'm now a fan of eReaders!

The Stereo System

Dover and Shalayne's Christmas project was installing a new stereo system in the green car that they were taking to Utah. The old stereo system was awful and didn't have a CD player or and auxiliary jack. They got it in okay but then the car wouldn't start. It started easily from a jump. It took us 5 days and so much frustration to solve the problem. It turned out to be a simple problem. The battery connection hadn't been reattached tightly enough. We were trying to fix it all ourselves, we had the battery tested, it was fine, we thought maybe it was the alternator, that would have been massively expensive to fix. We read and read about related issues on the internet. It was from Dover calling the stereo manufacturer that he got the clue about the battery connections and sure enough they were lose. One of the connection wouldn't tighten so it had to be replaced, but it was easy to do. In the mean time we had to drive Dover to work and function with only one car while we tried to figure out what was wrong. It was stressful and time consuming, but we solved the problem ourselves with only a $2 part. The stereo system is really nice and made the 3 day drive to Utah much nicer for them. The green car was packed when they left.  I have no idea how they got everything in the car. They were squished!  Unfortunately we didn't have time to take pictures :(

The Computer that Daenon Built

Christmas was really great for Daenon. He got the components to build a super power computer. We decided to let him have his present early because we knew it would take him a little while to put it together. 

We sent him on a major scavenger/clue type hunt where he had to call different family members and solve clues, puzzles, riddles, or find answers to questions to get letter and numbers that would give him the location of his gift. It took him a good half of the day. Grandpa and Grandma Dover gave him family history questions, Kylee a sudoko puzzle, Shalayne a cross word puzzle, Meghan gave him a riddle about a movie her children love, Ron made him learn about arthritis, Auna had a scripture related clue, Ryan gave him a riddle. This was Ryan's riddle: 2 in a Corner, 1 in a room, none in a house, and one in a shelter. What is it? I'll give you the answer at the bottom of this post. Brandon gave him 2 questions from the Constitution, Dover gave him a math problem, and my questions came for the December New Era. The computer parts were located at Damon and Tiffany's home. Once he had all the letters it didn't take him long to figure out that they matched Damon and Tiffany's address. We went to their home and Brandon had the computer parts hidden all through out the house. He had a note from a devious elf that gave him the clues to the location of each item. 

Once he found everything he was soooo excited to get started. He ran into a lot of problems. This was a complicated computer he wanted to build. (He's had the parts for this computer picked out for several months, unknown to him we order the parts from his list of what he wanted.) He learned alot. The mother board was DOA (dead on arrival). That was a big hurdle. Ryan,over the phone, helped Daenon learn how to test the mother board and other computer parts. Daenon learned a lot.  It took him 5 days  to get it up and running. When he had working he was so excited and felt such a sense of accomplishment. It is a fast computer.  Everyday he he goes on and on about how much he loves his computer.  (Riddle answer: the letter R.)

San Antonio with Shalayne

On Monday December 22^nd we took a fast day trip to San Antonio.  We enjoyed the old buildings, the River Walk. and our last dinner at Salt Grass Steak house. With Dover leaving to Utah we won’t have his 50% employee discount.  We ended the day with an evening at 6 Flags.  We all felt quiet Christmassy! 

A Family Temple Trip

Our ward spent all year planning a ward family temple trip.  It was for everyone, every age, whether or not they had a recommend.  The whole ward met at a chapel in a stake center close to the temple.  We had a devotional before doing sessions and baptisms.  The younger children had a tour of the temple grounds and then were baby sat at the stake center.  It was a wonderful experience.  We had several little miracles that day.  Dover had been trying and trying to get someone to cover his shift at work.  If he wasn't successful we would have to make the 1 hour drive participate in the devotional and then leave so we could get him back to work.  I had been praying that he could work things out and was committed to at least going to the devotional.  At the last minute, literally as we were walking out the door, he found someone to cover his shift.  Shalayne didn't have her recommend and we couldn't get a hold of her bishop.  She has had to attend so many different wards because of Sunday soccer conflicts.  She didn't feel like her bishop even knew her and the counselor that did know her had been released.  She tried to get a hold of her bishop but wasn't successful. We weren't going to put pressure on our bishop to bend the rules and interview her and give her a temporary recommend, but I hoped he would feel inspired to do so.  At the last minute he did.  I never would have hoped this if I wasn't as confident that she was worthy.  He gave her a temporary recommend just for the day so she also got to do baptisms.  I was able to go and help with the youth baptisms and do initiatory.  I love the promises of the initiatory. Brandon was able to baptize Dover, Shalayne, and Daenon.  Knowing that Dover and Shalayne would be leaving for Utah it was a particularly special to spend that time together in the temple. After the temple we had a fun family dinner at Pei Wei's.  That morning had been awful!  I'm sure the adversary was trying to do everything in his power to prevent us from getting there.  The contention level in the home was so high.  We were all miserable.  We went from hell to Heaven.  I'm so grateful for the temple.