Light the world 2023

We were so lucky that the East stake was in charge of the Giving machines that were brought to the Park Place mall. It is the coolest thing. They are vending machines that offer services to local and worldwide charities. The kickoff event had leaders of other faiths offer prayers and share the message of how they help and share God's love. As if the event wasn't enough we even got amazing goodie bags. They were filled with candies, chocolates, home made cookies and a little flashlight. 

The line for the machines were long so we came back the following Sunday. After we purchased several items ( I didn't want to stop, one day I will buy all the items in the giving machine!) We headed outside. Benjamin and Parkin were in white shirts and ties and we were stopped in the busy parking lot by a distressed young mother. Her car needed a jump and she wante to know if we had jumper cables. We did, so we drove closer to her car and pushed her car to a spot that we could access her battery. The parking lot was packed but we were able to get to her. She was so relieved. I as ked Adrian and Parkin what was the gift they were most happy about purchasing that day they both said helping the lady was their favorite way to light the world 💗

 

Spirit week, Halloween festivals

 This week was spirit week at school. What a crazy time to not be at the house with all my costumes and props ready to go. The worst  thing you can do on Spirit week is wear the wrong outfit on the wrong day. And that's exactly what I did. The first day was sport's day.  I wore my pink shirt for breast cancer awareness day . Side note the middle school decided each day....breast cancer awareness day...."okay kindergarten one of the days is breast cancer awareness day. All the girls stand up. You guys are more likely to get this life threatening disease than the boys, but boys maybe you will die from it too" That was a fun discussion. Wednesday was dress like a teacher or faculty member. One of the kindergarten paraprofessionals has the same dress as me so I asked her to wear it. The kids loved it. I also had three little girls dress like me. They made Mrs. Howe name badges, wore my favorite color and one wore jeans with boots and a Blue Leman T-shirt. I usually wear that every Friday. It was so cute to see them pickup on my preferences. Thursday was dress like country club or country. Of course I chose country, because my boots. Thursday morning I I'm in charge of early morning playground duty. I found a little girl crying because she was wearing a Princess Belle costume (Disney day was Friday). She was hugging her coat with embarrassment. I walked up to her and said nice country club outfit! I said I'm wearing country today but you chose country club that's a beautiful dress that you would wear to a country club ball. And I pointed out other kids that had fancy dresses on. Most kids chose country because everyone in Arizona has boots and a cowboy hat. I could see the wheels turning as she she slowly took off her coat. One of my previous kinders came running up in her fancy shoes and country club outfit and pointed out their matching shoes. The crying girl started to twirl.... changing lives that's what I do. A trip to the Goodwill and I secured a princess Ana outfit from Frozen for Disney day on Friday. Friday night I had a school carnival. It has been an insanely long week.

Saturday night we had the ward Halloween party. Bishop Walston took it to the next level and ordered a jumping castle the kids loved it. They also brought their A game by having homemade french fries being fried right on the spot they were delicious! Benjamin and I were supposed to go as Barbie and Ken for the ward Halloween party but this middle aged overweight woman was not pulling it off! As I left to go set up for the games I said come to the party as Cristoff....you know that character since you HAD to have a Frozen birthday party one year 

Anyways Benjamin did great! He bought a $2 vest from Goodwill and scavenged Nana's closet for a belt. He looked awesome! Adrian went has a bride ..not a murdered bride or a dead bride just a beautiful bride....Parkin dipped for a party. Olivia brought her roommate to her first ever trunk or treat event. Unfortunately attendance was lower than normal and there was no homemade root beer.Olivia, Shirin and Adrian had a good time trunk or treating 😁  Adrian went as a bride, not a zombie bride, or a dead bride...just a beautiful bride. Bella and Sam sent us a picture of them dressed up as the Vampires from the book series Twilight. 

Contentment

 I've been studying contentment. It's a tricky thing. The scripture I've been focusing on this week is 1 Timothy 6:6-8 "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content." So a long with contentment I've been studying godliness. Which apparently has a lot to do with how we speak. Dad was saying in Sunday school they talked about the need to always strive to better ourselves (godliness) and to be grateful for what we have (contentment). Godliness+contentment= great gain. I'd like to have great character gains! ...deep thoughts Lesley

Fall break with the Pershings!!

 Our vacation was awesome!! Bella and Sam were able to get the week off and it was also Fall break for Adam and Jen Pershing crew so we did a multi family vacation. It was so much fun. We went to a beach house in Florida and a lake house in Louisiana. Since we went to two very distinct and separate places it almost felt like the vacation was longer.

We ate out a ton and had far too much ice cream. Highlights were:

Lazy days on the beach

Bucees amazing gas station...that place is incredible

Crocodile show at the Fudpuckers

House hunting in Seaside, Florida (my beach house name would be Beaches n' Cream)

Bruesters Ice cream

Going on a river ride with the Roland and Susie Jones family. The moved to Florida after the station at Dm and they provided all our floats. We hiked for 1 mile then floated back to our parking spot . It was so beautiful and chilly!

Hawaiian food with the Jones family. They treated our whole crew to some of the best food!!

Visiting the capital building in Baton Rouge...the tallest capital building in the US, What a view!

Touring Bella's work.

Visiting the LSU cmapus

Boating in Lousina

Swimming int the lake

And all the movie nights!

Visiting Benjamin's childhood home town in Biloxi Miss.

Thorns in our trip, missed the connection flight in Vegas so we had to spend the night...expensive. The rented out the car we booked so we had to drive a Dodge Ram that someone has smoked in...

We truly has the best time. Bella and Sam are making quite the life together!!

LSU's tiger Mike

Dad's elementary school in Mississippi

We ate at Brusters ice cream a little too much. We will have to take you there!

Not a beach trip unless someone gets buried

Beach house cuddle

catching the rays, florida is known for its white sand. It actually squeaks like snow.

Full day kindergarten teacher

 Big change for me professionally. After fall break I started teaching full time. One of our full time teacher's husband is getting deployed so she is moving back home. I will be going from 17 scholars to 26   Luckily 16 of those kids go home at noon and the other 10  stay go to their specials classes like PE, art and music so I only teach for an additional 30 minutes but will bring in full time TEACHER'S pay!  The mornings will be legit crazy! But the afternoons are easy and I will now get paid to plan my lessons because I have more planning time built in to the full day schedule.

Renting the main house

 For the month of October we have not lived at home. I had the yellow barn house listed on Airbnb and forgot all about it and someone requested to book it...Benjamin calls it stupid money, I'd certainly not call it easy money because cleaning the house (particularly Adrian's room) is no small thing! But with two kids in braces and the fact that we are not independently wealthy (a saying Adrian wants me to stop saying) ..we couldn't pass it up. Unfortunately the guest house was also booked but hey that's the definition of stupid money. Nana and Papa have graciously opened up their home. We had one week in Louisiana/Florida for our fall break so that broke things up a bit. 

Luckily a couple of things fell into place before the booking happened. The dogs are outside dogs.  They kept eating off the table, eating trash, and they constantly shed. They are now backyard dogs. So we didn't have to worry about where to keep them. Benjamin's office is in the old preschool room so the dogs are being kept in the one of the stables complete with two dog beds and a couch, comfy rugs, water and food. We also cleaned out the pantry and kitchen so we were ready....well more ready then we normally would have been.

The people renting the house wanted single beds instead of the queen and king bed we had. So we quickly swapped them out. I think the rooms turned out so cute!

 

25 years go by!

 Not sure how it happened, one day at a time I guess, Benjamin and I just celebrated our 25th anniversary on September 19th!

5 kids

1 son in-law

1 apartment

3 houses

1 travel trailer

I double wide

Seven dogs, 8 goats, 2 lambs, 4 bunnies, dozens of chickens

7 cruises

1 marathon

Handful of triathlons

1 helicopter ride

2 surgeries

Dozens of church assignments

What a ride!! I don't think either of us would have predicted the many hills, valleys and mountains we would climb together. I am so grateful for the partnership we have. For our matching goals and  dreams. We walk the creek together almost daily plotting and scheming. We have the best kids, truly some of the most talented, compassionate and grounded humans. It's been amazing life. I love you so very much Benjamin Joshua Howe. Here's to many more adventures ones not even predicted.

To celebrate we went out to dinner and caught a movie. We are at Cheddar's and had a fantastic meal. After dinner before the movie we did a little shopping, although it turned out to be more perusing than shopping 😅 Benjamin said we each got $25 to spend.....before tax even 😂 We saw a fun adventurous film and then got the new pumpkin frosties afterwards. So yummy! We hope to go on a trip in the next couple of months. We'll see if we can make it happen.