Meriden 4/20/14

April 20, 2014

Happy Easter!!  I hope that everyone had a fabulous Easter!  I am so grateful for the Atonement and for all that our Savior did for us so many years ago.

This will be quick tonight.  We went to some friends’ home for Easter dinner today.  It was great spending time with them; we were there a bit longer than I would have liked.

We spent a couple days looking at houses.  We have a couple possibilities, but still, nothing that I’ve really fallen in love with.

I continue to train; in fact, I’ve run 5 miles a couple times (which is good for me).  Except for Monday, the weather has been amazing this week; so one day, I did run outside and it was nice. My bike is almost ready to ride outside.  I’ve decided that I really need to get out and bike more, then maybe my legs won’t be quite so tired after riding 15 miles and then I would be able to more easily run 3 miles after biking.

I did sub ½ day and I’ve been working on applications for a few different school districts.  I should have them ready to mail out by Wednesday. 

We went to dinner with some friends Friday evening which was lots of fun. 

I sang in our ward choir today.  We sang “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”.  The choir director is very good and the song was beautiful. 

Jim leaves on Friday to go back to New York.

This is a bit short, but that is really about all the news.  Have a great week!

Love,

Meriden/Mom

 

Meriden 4/13/14

April 13, 2014

Hi Family!

Jim’s home!  Thursday, I went to the temple, then went to the airport to get Jim.

Our AZ house did close on Wednesday!  Yay!  We don’t need to worry about that anymore.

The other big news of the week is that I passed the Praxis math test that I studied for.  It was pretty tough.  Part of the problem is there are 50 questions and a two-hour time limit.  I’m a bit slow, so I skipped over the questions that I knew would take me more time and in the last 5 minutes, I guessed on about 8 questions that I didn’t have time to look at. 

Yesterday, Jim and I drove to Cape Girardeau to run in a color run.  It was a lot of fun.  There were a few sisters from our ward who also ran.  Two of the husbands came and watched kids.  Afterwards, we went to Olive Garden to eat.  We were pretty colorful!  Jim and I brought a change of clothes, so I felt a bit cleaner, but still had color on my face and in my hair.   We didn’t get as colorful as when we did the Run or Dye in Tucson last year, but it was still fun. 

Friday was my birthday.  I celebrated by swimming 40 lengths at the pool…that’s 1000 yards.  I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like that before.  I was pretty tired afterwards and left me feeling tired for the rest of the day.  Jim and I went out to eat for dinner.  My dinner was awesome, but unfortunately, Jim’s wasn’t as good.  I got some new tires for my quad and a beautiful picture done by Jon McNaughton of a mountain stream with mountains in the background. 

I continue to train for the triathlon next month.  I’m down to less than 5 weeks now.  Hopefully Jim will be able to get my bike working in the next couple days so I can actually ride my bike, rather than the stationary bike. 

I just received a new call, or actually it’s an assignment, to be the girls’ camp cook.  I laughed when I heard that because I am not crazy about spending a lot of time cooking.  I’ve been to girls’ camp for 1 night in my entire adulthood, so I am very clueless about what is going on.  Apparently, I really don’t have to cook for the entire camp, the wards do their own cooking, but I need to help plan menus, buy food, and give food to the wards while at camp.  I’m guessing there will be a few more things that I will be doing, but hopefully I’ll get it all figured out before camp starts.  The stake camp director is in our ward, so it will be easy to work with her.   My only regret is that I will be gone one of the weeks that Jim is home.  At least he will be home to take care of our dogs and the camp isn’t far away so, he’ll be able to come visit.  Maybe we’ll put the dogs in a kennel for one night so he can come and stay the night.

Have a great week!! 

Meriden/Mom

Meriden 4/7/14

April 7, 2014

I can’t believe that it’s been 6 years ago today that Mom/Grandma Slocum passed away.  I remember that weekend very well.

Spring is finally arriving to MO!  The daffodils are starting to bloom, dandelions are popping up, the grass is turning green (our lawn needs to be mowed), the leaves are starting to come out, and so are the snakes.  I saw 2 garter snakes in our backyard both Saturday and yesterday.  I hope they stay around. 

Conference was pretty amazing…as usual.  I look forward to listening and reading the talks. 

Last week was pretty much the same as normal.  I subbed 2 days, swam, ran, biked, and studied for this test I will be taking tomorrow.  Wish me luck!  I really want to pass it so I don’t have to take it again.  Fortunately, or maybe it’s unfortunately, I only need to get 25/50 questions correct to pass the test.  I guess Missouri needs math teachers, so the passing score is pretty low.  It’s the lowest of all the subject tests.  My home teachers came over last night and gave me a blessing.  I’m grateful for the priesthood!

We had our first threat of severe weather last week.  Thankfully here, we received rain and a little thunder.  The bigger storms were north of us.

Jim/Dad comes home Thursday!!  In time for my birthday!

Our AZ house, if all goes well, will close on Wednesday.  We didn’t get nearly as much for it as we wanted, but at least it is sold and we won’t have to worry about it anymore.  Now, if we can just find a place here.

Have a great week!

Meriden/Mom

Meriden 10/20/13

October 20, 2013

Hi Family!

I know that it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve written, so I have a bit of catching up to do. 

Nathan’s farewell was today.  He gave a wonderful talk about how his family helped him prepare for his mission.  I did record it, but I don’t know yet how to save it on a computer.  I need to figure that out.  He has a unique and fun sense of humor that he used in his talk. 

If you haven’t already heard, our biggest news is that we are moving to Farmington, MO in December.  Jim is leaving tomorrow to take one of our cars (pulled by our truck) and some boxes to look for a house.  He’ll need to take one more trip back there before our big move in Dec.  So, life has been crazy trying to get everything ready.  Jim resigned from Raytheon a couple weeks ago so he would have the time he needed to prepare for this move.  We both feel really good about what we’re doing.  We’re praying for miracles as we need to find a place to live and we need jobs in MO.  Jim will go active duty in January and go to Syracuse or South Dakota to work for a couple months, then back to Farmington.  We are definitely taking a leap of faith, but feel that we are being guided. 

Right now, we plan to lease our house; if we tried to sell, we wouldn’t get anything close to what we have into it.  At least we’re not upside-down like several people in this area are!  We’ll most likely rent a house in Farmington until we get settled in and both of us have jobs.  I’m working on getting my MO teaching certificate and will sub until I can get a full-time teaching position. 

The first thing Jim (and Nathan) did after resigning from Raytheon, was to take parts off the truck that Nathan crashed, and replace them with parts from our other truck (that is basically the same truck but 2 years older) that has a dead transmission.  That was a several day project.  They had to borrow a high-powered torch to heat up the front part of the frame to bend it back into position.  They finally got everything back together.  So, most of the truck is green, but one of the side panels, the hood and the front are red.  The only thing that isn’t working yet is the AC, and Jim will get that recharged in the spring. 

I’ve been trying to pack a couple boxes every day.  That doesn’t always happen since I’ve been pretty busy.  My calc class keeps me busy as I need to do quite a bit of extra studying (practice) to understand what I’m suppose to be learning.  I’ve been subbing about once a week. 

Nathan has been helping Jim and hanging out with friends.  He is going to the temple for the first time on Saturday!   We don’t have his mission travel plans yet; pray that all will go well with getting his Visa.  The missionary department starts the Visa applications 3 weeks before he’s scheduled to go into the MTC.  They say in the letter they give to Nathan that it could take up until the Friday before he is suppose to leave before the visa comes.  We’re assuming that they’re not having problems getting Visas to Colombia since he is scheduled to go to the Colombia MTC.  I know there have been problems getting Visas for Argentina and missionaries had to serve in the States until their Visas came.  I hope that all goes well for Nathan’s visa.

That’s about all the news for now.  I’m grateful to know that the church is true and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us and who cares about the details of our lives!

Love,

Meriden/Mom

Meriden 8/18/13

August 18, 2013

Hi Family:

This time of year is our monsoon season (from about the first part of July to September).   Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a very good monsoon year.  We usually get some really good storms and will get 6+ inches of rain during the 2 months.  We haven’t gotten near that this year.  We still have several days where there is enough moisture for it to get cloudy and we get some sprinkles, and somewhere in the valley will get some good rain, but the storms have mostly been small and very isolated.  It’s disappointing because the storms can be fun, and water runs in the washes (that can cause problems for driving).   Hopefully, we can get some good storms in the next couple weeks.  One of the nice things about monsoon season is the amazing sunsets!   I love to go outside at sunset time just to watch the colors in the sky.

Nathan has been busy working at Wal-Mart.  He’s decided that he doesn’t want to work at Wal-Mart forever!  Only 2 more months.

Jim left Friday for South Dakota for Air Force stuff.  He’ll be there until Aug. 30.  Yesterday he drove to Mt. Rushmore.  Hopefully he’ll get to do more sightseeing in the Rapid City area.

My summer break ends this week as I start subbing and next week I start my Calc 2 class. 

My Sunday School lesson today was about the Nauvoo period.  We talked about settling Nauvoo (I read the part of Joseph Bates Noble’s journal where he got really sick and Joseph Smith healed him, see below), the missionaries that went to England, and the Lord’s guidance to several people in D&C 124.  I especially like 124:87…

“87 Therefore, let my servant William put his trust in me, and cease to fear concerning his family, because of the sickness of the land. If ye love me, keep my commandments; and the sickness of the land shall redound to your glory.”

Look at the footnotes for the word redound.  I challenged my class to do something missionary related this week to help the missionary work in our ward and to read their patriarchal blessings.  I would like to give y’all the same challenge. 

Have a great week!!

Love,

Meriden/Mom

From Joseph Bates Noble’s autobiography:

About this time a general conference was held at Quincy, at which some six or eight persons were called to go on missions, and I was one of the number.

We soon commenced to move our families up the river about fifty miles, to a place called Commerce, afterwards Nauvoo. Quite a number of us crossed the Mississippi River, to the Iowa side, to avail ourselves of some log cabins that had formerly been used as barracks for soldiers, at a place called Montrose.

Our exposure during the previous winter caused a great deal of sickness. I and some of my family were attacked with bilious fever. I think I can safely say that one half of the families of the whole people had more or less sickness, and many died. Two of my children were buried; and I was nigh unto death. So low was I that my wife asked me, in tears, if I was dying.

At this time Brother Elijah Fordham, a next-door neighbor to me, was very sick; indeed they were preparing clothes for his burial. In this trying hour the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Prophet Joseph Smith, and he, with Brothers Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Parley P. Pratt and others, came to Brother Fordham's house and commanded him, in the name of Jesus Christ, to arise and walk. He immediately jumped from his dying bed, kicked off the drafts from his feet, and came into my house, following the brethren, and shouting, leaping, and praising God with all his might.

President Smith, while leading the way to my bed, made this remark: "Brother Noble, you have been too long with me to lie here." As soon as I saw him the tears of joy burst from my eyes. In a moment he was by my bedside, and took my by the hand. Without waiting for the other brethren to get to my bed, he commanded me, in the name of Jesus Christ, to arise and walk. I arose, and while putting on my clothes I fainted. When I regained consciousness I was on the bed, and Joseph was standing close to me.

As soon as my eyes met his he said, "Wherefore didst thou doubt?" and again commanded me to arise.

While he was speaking I felt the healing virtue flowing through every part of my system. I immediately arose and walked, rejoicing and praising the Lord with all my heart, for His blessing resting upon me, by which I was made whole.

Brother Fordham was more active and stronger than I was. He never sat down in my house, but as soon as Brother Joseph had given directions to my wife concerning some nourishment for me, he left with the rest of the brethren. They went and administered to others who were sick, and called them up in a similar manner.

Joseph, at this time, rebuked the Elders for administering the form without the power. Said he, , "Let the Elders either obtain the power of God to heal the sick, or let them cease to administer the form without the power."

Meriden 7/29/13

July 29, 2013

Hello!

The big news of the week is that Nathan got a job.  He is working at a Neighborhood Wal-Mart about 35 minutes away from here.  He works in the meat/dairy department, mostly emptying boxes and stocking shelves.  So far, they are giving him about 40/week, but even though he told them he didn’t want to work on Sunday, they still scheduled him for Sundays with Wednesday and Thursday off.  Hopefully, they will be able to change that.   They had scheduled to work yesterday from 7-4, but because Nathan already had an appointment to get his patriarchal blessing, they were able to change is schedule to work from 6-10.

Nathan did get his patriarchal blessing yesterday.  It was amazing.  I was impressed with the optimism in both his and Aaron’s blessing about their possible future lives, even with the crazy world that we live in.  Nathan was given a lot of good council in his blessing.

Saturday morning, Jim and I ran in a 5K through the pecan trees.  There is a pecan farm close to where we live.  Nathan was suppose to run, not me, but because he had to work, I ran.  I hadn’t been training for a 5K (still running and walking, but not specifically training), so I had one of my slowest times, but still not bad considering I haven’t been running well.   Jim hurt his left calf while running.  He’s had problems with it before, but seems to be getting better.  All three of us are signed up to run in the Run or Dye 5K in September.  (http://www.runordye.com/locations/Tucson-2013)

We had 3 pallets of decorative bricks and 1 pallet of topsoil delivered to us and Jim and I put the bricks around an area next to our house that we have some plants, but will be adding more.  It’s going to look real nice.  I’ll send pictures when we have more done. 

I continue to index almost every day.  I was able to help Jim solve a mystery with one of his great-grandparents yesterday.  That was cool. 

Have a great week! 

Meriden/Mom

Meriden 4/22/13

April 22, 2013

Hi Family!

Normally, I write my letter on Sunday, but last night, I needed to do homework.  My NY trip put me behind and I did homework most of the day Friday and Saturday, and still didn’t get it all done and I had an assignment that was due last night.  I was up late (for me) to get it done. 

My NY trip was great.  Even though I’m still in catch-up mode (hopefully I will be all caught up by the end of today), it was worth the trip.  My trip back to Tucson on Monday was uneventful, just long.  I was sad to hear about the Boston bombing.  I had a friend who ran in the Boston marathon; thankfully, she finished before the bombing and was fine.

Once home, Tuesday and Thursday I was at school; Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, I spent most of those days doing homework.  Fun!  Saturday night, I did go to a wedding reception; I really needed to get out of the house and have some adult company.  Three weeks from tomorrow, I will be done with this semester.  I will be taking Calc II during the summer, then I should be done!

Nathan had a good week.  He had a track meet on Wednesday where he ran well in the 2-mile.  He also had a meet on Friday up in Glendale.  He ran the 800m but he hurt his leg again.  He did finish the race, in what I think was a good time, but not as fast as he could have run if his leg didn’t hurt. 

We finally had Nathan’s birthday dinner yesterday.  I made a very yummy cheesecake for him.  Nathan wanted a drizzle to go on it, so I put some strawberries in the Vitamix with some sugar, then heated it up adding some corn syrup and cornstarch in it.  It was really good.  Nathan wanted an Oreo crust for the cheesecake, so I made ½ Oreo and ½ graham cracker crust. 

That’s about all the news for this week.

Love,

Meriden/Mom

Meriden 3/24/13

March 24, 2013

My frustrating news is that I’ve been fighting a cold all week.  It started last Sunday; I thought it was pretty much gone by Wednesday, then Thursday it came back with a vengeance.  I’m still fighting it today.  So, I really didn’t do a whole lot this week except for school and homework.  Yesterday, I made it to Wal-Mart, but was ready to come home after a short time of being there.  After school on Thursday, I went to the base Firestone because a tire needed to be fixed.  I then went to the commissary.  As I was driving toward the gate, I was stopped at a stoplight, I noticed 2 airmen go in the middle of the lanes going out of the gate.  The light turned green so I went, but noticed one car wasn’t moving.  When I got to the exit, the 2 airmen stopped me and asked why I didn’t stop for the National Anthem.  Everyday at 5:00, the National Anthem is played.  Well, I didn’t hear it (I was in our Passat and it’s pretty insulated); I did see other cars moving.  Oh well.  I’ve only been on the base 2-3 times at 5:00 in the last 13 years, and I wasn’t feeling well; the playing of the National Anthem definitely wasn’t on my mind. 

Today was my day to teach Gospel Doctrine, but since I haven’t been feeling well, I haven’t felt like preparing a lesson, so I had this “brilliant” idea yesterday.  I called 3 people and had them choose 1 part of the lesson to give, each taking about 5 minutes (which I knew they would take more time than that).  Then, when I got to church, I told another person that I wasn’t feeling great and really wanted to go back home.  I told him of my lesson plan and he agreed to finish the lesson for me.  During Sacrament meeting, I was looking at the lesson and read the story about Samuel Smith, who went on a mission to the eastern states, but didn’t feel very successful.  He did place at least 2 Books of Mormon, one with Phinehas Young and the other with John Greene.  Well, John Greene’s wife was Rhoda Young, Phinehas’ sister.  Phinehas and Rhoda were Brigham Young’s siblings.  Because of those Books of Mormon, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were baptized.  Then I wondered how Joseph Bates Noble found out about the church and it was on a mission of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.  So, at the beginning of Sunday School, I told those stories to introduce the lesson, then left.  Later, I texted my friend, who was one of the three who gave part of the lesson, to see how it went.  She thought it went really well and would like to see lessons like that more often.  So, I may need to incorporate having others teach the lesson more often and I would just start and end the lesson. 

Nathan left at 5:30 am yesterday to go to a track meet in Chandler (about 2 hours from here).  He was to run in only 1 event, the 800 meter run.  Unfortunately, about 300 m into the run, his hamstring pulled.  That was disappointing; he had a real good first 300 m.  He won’t run in Wednesday’s meet, but hopefully the meet after that.  He didn’t get home until 1:30 this morning.  That was a long day for a short race. 

Nathan is on his 2-week spring break, so he’s been doing some schoolwork and spending time with friends. 

Jim is still doing great!

Have a great week!

Meriden

Meriden 3/10/13

March 10, 2013

Happy Spring Ahead Day!

Thankfully, we don’t change our clocks, but I don’t like being on Pacific Time. 

I had 2 tests this past Tuesday.  I’m feeling pretty good about my Calculus test; I’m pretty sure that I did a lot better than the test covering the same chapters that I took last semester.  Unfortunately, because this week is spring break, I won’t find out until a week from Tuesday.  On my other test, in my Business Math class, I didn’t do nearly as well as I wanted, so I’m still hoping that I’ll get an A in that class.  We also did a final presentation on a project.  I don’t think my team did as well as we could have.  Oh well.

I didn’t sub this week; I spent a lot, I mean a lot, of time studying and doing homework.  I did play a fairly easy, but nice arrangement of “I Believe in Christ” in Sacrament meeting today.  It went better than I expected. 

Nathan ran the 1-mile and 2-mile races in his track meet on Wednesday.  He didn’t run in a relay that he has wanted to run in because of his hamstring muscle (which is doing better).  Nathan did well in both of those races.  He’s not as fast as he would like to be, but he is faster than he was last year at the beginning of the season. 

Because spring break started, I decided that I wanted to do something fun, so Nathan and I went to dinner and a movie.  We started off at Sports Authority to get Nathan some new running shoes, then to Kohl’s, then to Texas Roadhouse (Nathan did something for me several months ago and I told him that I owed him dinner at Texas Roadhouse; neither of us can remember what he did for me), then we saw Oz the Great and Terrible, and then to Red Lobster to get desserts to go.  I don’t get out much to do “fun” things, so this was real therapeutic for me to get out and do something fun.  It was fun to spend the time with Nathan.  I can’t believe he’ll be gone in a few months. 

This is short, but this really about all the news for the week.

Meriden

Meriden 3/3/13

March 3, 2013

Happy March!  Ours has started out with very nice weather…well, too warm as it got to 80 yesterday and probably will again today.  I’m not ready for the 80s and would love to have the high temps in the 60s and low 70s for several more weeks.

My week was pretty normal.  I subbed twice, once for a 6^th grade science teacher and the other for the advanced math teacher at a middle school.  I like subbing for the math teacher because she teaches 1 class of geometry and 2 classes of Algebra 1 to 7^th and 8^th graders.  These are good kids who are for the most part; good in math…that’s why they’re in those classes.  Unfortunately, she has one class with students who really struggle with math with several of those have behavior problems.  Last time I was in that class (a couple weeks ago), I kicked out 4 boys.  Friday was much better, thankfully! 

School was good this past week!  I got a 97.86 (I have no idea where the .86 comes from) on my Statistics test!  I was pretty excited.  I wanted to drop that class, but was 1 day too late, but now I’m glad I stuck it out.  We are now learning things that I learned in my business math class so it’s helping reinforce my learning.  Calc is going better this semester.  We have a test on Tuesday that I feeling much better about than I did last semester. 

I did get out and run a couple times this week.  Yesterday was the best run that I’ve had in a couple months.  I was glad for that!

Today is my day to teach Gospel Doctrine.  I teach every other week and play the organ for the weeks that I don’t teach.  I really enjoy “teaching” Gospel Doctrine.  I’m enjoying the Doctrine and Covenants.  Unfortunately, it’s a book of scripture that I don’t read often enough.  Today’s lesson was about the restoration of the Priesthood.  I am so grateful for the Priesthood.  I don’t understand everything about it, but am so grateful for it.  Dad (Grandpa) was such a great example of a righteous priesthood holder and I am grateful for his example. 

Nathan worked on schoolwork and scholarships this past week.  Last night, he went out with some friends and played soccer and watched a movie.  Nathan missed his first track meet this past Wednesday because he pulled his hamstring during practice while sprinting.  He had this same problem last year.  So he has been working on strengthening his hamstring muscles so that he can sprint without injuring them.  He also went to a podiatrist this week; Nathan has low arches in his feet that affect other muscles and joints when he runs.  He puts inserts into his shoes that seem to help.   He just got a new pair of inserts and so hopefully that will help him.  If not, he can go to an orthopedic doctor to get specially made inserts or running shoes. 

Jim is still in NY and doing well.

Have a great week! 

Meriden

Meriden 2/24/13

February 24, 2013

Hi!

We received more snow this week!  I wish it would accumulate more, but it sure was fun to see it.  Wednesday morning, it started raining, and within about 20 minutes, the temperature dropped 10+ degrees and we had snow accumulating on the ground.  I attached a couple pictures that I took.  We go a bit crazy here when it snow!  I don't remember a year when we got 3 snow storms.  

This was a short school week since all of Tucson gets 2 days off for rodeo break.  It was nice not having to go to classes on Thursday and having some time to get caught up.  I took a Statistics test on Tuesday; I’m hoping that I did well.  I won’t find out for another few days.

Nathan found out on Friday that he was accepted to BYU.  We pretty much expected that, but it’s nice to know for sure.  He is considering a couple other schools because the scholarship money will be better.  Some schools offer National Merit Scholarship Finalists quite a bit of money to go to school there. 

Nathan worked on a couple scholarship applications this week.  I hope that a few scholarships will come through for him.  He continues to stay busy with track, school, his internship, and friends. 

As you know, Nathan has a motorcycle.  I’ve been quite impressed that he has been able to fix his bike when needed.  Part of his motorcycle has been on our kitchen table for a few weeks, but hopefully he’ll get everything put back together soon.  Pretty soon it will be warm enough for him to ride again. 

Friday, I went for a walk/hike with a couple friends and their kids.  It’s a pathway south of Tucson that goes 2.6 miles to a development called Rita Ranch, then you turn around and go back.  It’s a nice walk through the desert, next to a train tracks, and it passes by some huge solar panels.  I was late, so I told my friends to start without me; I ran to catch up to them.  The running felt good.  I’m not running enough right now, so the little I do actually feels good…when I’m done. 

I made reservations to go see Jim in NY in April.  I’m pretty excited!  He’s only about an hour away from Palmyra, so I’m excited to see some of the church history sites!  We’ll also go see Niagra Falls! 

Have a great week!

Meriden