The Best is Yet to Come, Week Meal Prep, ASC on My Own, a Missionary Pot Luck, and Macomber Romance

Sarah and I have had a really great February. A lot of learning, a lot of experimentation, a lot of growing. First off, for the last two weeks we have made food for the entire week on Sunday. It is an hours long process but it pays off in the end. One of the things that has been new for Sarah is she has been driving Uber for our family, and so she and I are in need of food throughout the week that is (hopefully) already prepared. Especially if we're working with my schedule of getting up for work at 3:15am. So last week made some asparagus soup, a pork shoulder roast, quiche, cole slaw, and whiting fish. This week we made a fish soup, pork shoulder roast (from last week using the bone) soup, some more cole slaw, and cut up some kiwi. We have some pork chops that we'll cook day of. But it's been great and super helpful.

Forrest has been out of town for the ACDA National Conference in Ohio with Abrahm, so he told me to run both Phoenix and Gilbert ASC locales. On our way to the Phoenix locale (which is at the institute at Glendale Community College) Sarah and I went to an English pub called George and the Dragon and got some Fish and Chips and some Curry Chicken Pastie. Sarah wanted to get the Scotch egg, but unfortunately they didn't have it. It was a nice time to be with my wife on Wednesday night in a new place.

Then Phoenix ASC was so cool. They didn't have any previous conceptions about how I was as a choral director, so I could just be cool and the didn't even know. It was a really good night and I felt like I really was getting my footing. Gilbert ASC was really great too. I felt the flow when we were going over my song, Supplication to the Lord. I just knew how I wanted them to practice it. However, when we got to Soon I Will Be Done, I sorta just fell apart a little because of the timing of some things. Forrest wants me to take Gilbert ASC on my own this week because he has a commitment with his sister that he doesn't want to miss and he wants me to do Soon I Will Be Done, so I am definitely going to have to study that one out so that I can successfully teach it.

Sarah and I have successfully gone to the temple every week for 3 or 4 weeks now on Friday, and have enjoyed every minute of it. We hadn't gone to an endowment in a while, but it was really interesting because we have seen some of the new changes and have liked what we have seen.

Stephanie Redd Large asked us to watch her kids, Claire, Rosilyn, and Jacob. We said we could, but we had a prior engagement with our ward at a Missionary pot luck. Stephanie didn't mind so we took them to the pot luck with us. We were supposed to bring some kind of food that related to our missions in some way, so we brought Corn Tortilla Chips and Salsa, because I served Iowa Spanish speaking. Sarah did want to make molasses cookies that one of the woman from her mission taught her, Carole Beanie, but we didn't have time to bake them.

The kids really enjoyed eating all the different kinds of food, Claire attempting and succeeding in using chopsticks to eat a hot dog. I sat next to Jacob as he ate a cheese pizza, Goldfish crackers, and other things. The combinations of foods there were astounding. The kids then found the nursery and began playing in the nursery. We also got to meet the Bishop's wife, Sister Higley, even better. We also had an interview with the bishop a couple weeks ago and it is nice to know that he has noticed our presence at church. He put our names in the recommendation lists as people that can work at the temple (when we asked him and told him we would be willing to hold a calling).

Sarah and I had the miracle of receiving $1220 in scholarship money from my school in Ottawa, and we used the funds to pay off our March Rent early, which we are sure made our landlords very happy.

Sarah and I have been reading more of Debbie Macomber's books together. It's been great. We finished, The Best is Yet to Come from the Oceanside series and have started Cottage by the Sea.