Brief Update

Marty sharing some Steelers pride with these girls

These crazy, cute girls keep me running. 

Angela is excited to be doing a parent&tot swimming class this month, unfortunately all but one class have been cancelled due to storms. It seems a thunderstorm crops up every day around 5pm. She loves making messes and running away from me.

Natalie continues to love preschool and love her teacher and love the mysterious classmate named Kaitlyn who wears pink shoes.

Our last Friday off, we went to the temple. We're joining a babysitting swap where a few families meet at the stake center in Orlando once a month and one couple stays with the kids while the others enjoy the temple. It's amazing. We haven't both gone to the temple together in over a year.
Afterwards, we went to disney world for a bit.

If a certain sister of mine wanted to bring her kids down to go to disney world this spring, I would recommend a day at animal kingdom. Less crowded and stressful than magic kingdom, many fun rides, shows, animals and ambiance to enjoy.

Walking around Disney world last Friday, a few things jumped out at us. First, kids everywhere with screens stuck in their faces. Phones, Ipads, whatever. Second, so many hugely overweight people, many of them shuttled around on motorized chairs. We have arrived. We are now just like the people in the movie "Wall-E".

We had a very productive Saturday, catching up on some projects and much-needed cleaning. Finally did part 1 of painting after replacing this door frame a few months ago. Part 2, the trim, will hopefully come soon.

I made my first castile soap from 100% olive oil. It was easier than I had imagined. Now, to cure for a few months!

I failed to mention in my previous post, a couple of weeks ago a man in our ward died in a freak helicopter accident. He was a great man who will be missed. His death was a pretty big shock. He worked for a DOD contractor training pilots. His wife Carolyn is the relief society president. She is holding onto her faith, but will be processing this for a long time. She said a few days after his death that it just felt like he was gone on a trip and would be back. They had moved here last year for his job and all of their other family are out west, so I believe that she will be moving out there within a few months. They flew his remains to be buried in UT and she is still out there, tying up all the loose ends.

Unfortunately, Carolyn's absence has exposed the underlying dysfunction of our presidency. We have pretty much been a mess since the beginning. Carolyn did most of the work and just individually delegated specific responsibilities to the first counselor and I. The first counselor and I could not work worse together if we came from different countries and barely spoke the same language. I don't know why, but we just can not seem to communicate effectively, which makes coordination very difficult. We've really tried to make sure everything gets done and many sisters have been jumping in to help along the way, but it's just been tough. I've had a very full plate, with many church activities in the last 3 weeks. I just keep hoping that we will get released soon and I can drift out of the spotlight. The constant emails, texts and phone calls, to-do lists and impending meetings and events are just a lot to handle- I feel like I'm thinking about Relief Society all the time!