Thanksgiving

Wow. What a wonderful week this has been for Karen Wicke. I didn't work on Monday at all because Nathan had his surgery for his skin cancer and we didn't get home until about 1:30 and by the time I would have left home to get to work, it would have been about 2-2:15 and to drive all the way for only 4 hrs, sorry, Karen wasn't willing to do that; so, for the week of Thanksgiving...I only had to work on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday after work, Nathan and I went to Costco to do some last minute Thanksgiving food shopping. He wanted to make his "frog eyed" salad that I had never heard of in my life and of course I wasn't eating any of it as it was full of sugar and marshmallows and other gross stuff such as fruit cocktail in heavy syrup.

I also have to say that I finished my 11th Masters Class this past week and am extremely excited as the Lord is blessing me a TON to get this degree completed. I can't believe that a masters degree I will have the end of February. I am stoked.

Thursday morning we got up at 8:30, finished up the dipps and packed stuff to take the Thomas' and Laurel Wickes for the day. We spent all day there. I think we left about 10 PM. I did make my famous Karen mashed potatoes in the microwave and everyone ate them so I am proud to say that I still know how to do them. I am also proud to say that I also ate them. I think I had about a cup full with gravy. After a while I didn't like the gravy though because it was full of grease and my pouch didn't like that.

Ben Wicke was there. Darwin and Collette Wicke were there too. We had a great time. We played games and enjoyed each others company. Ironically, I even got a nap and a little bit of homework done. I did some reading and responding for the 12th class that started this past week too.

Dads birthday was Tuesday and when I called of course, nobody answered so I am asumming that the day went great.

On Friday, what did I do? I got out of bed at 8 and went to the dentist. They wanted to fix the filling that I already had. They took out what was there and just redid it. I have been told that I have the best teeth ever. The dentist is totally amazed that I have such great pearly whites. I am so pleased to hear that as I am a huge brusher when it comes to teeth. I told her it is because I have an electric toothbrush and it is all about the toothpaste and she just laughed.

I also went and trimmed the ugly blonde color out of my hair. It was terribly fried and I was so sick of it. I hate my hair as it is still trying to grow and it is still trying to keep its strength and not fall out anymore.

I came home that afternoon and went to town getting all my stuff done that needed to be put away from Thanksgiving and all of the Christmas stuff brought out. It has been a fruitful 4 days. I was able to set up all 14 Nativity Scenes that I have and each one looks so beautiful in their perspective areas. Nathan and I put up the tree last night and then said, "screw it, just leave it, we'll do lights tomorrow". Well, it is tomorrow and we haven't done anything to it. We woke up at 8:32 and we had to be at church at 9. I was showed, prayers said and dressed including hair/makeup at 8:50 and we made it to church before they sang and said the opening prayer. Can you imagine? Oh yes, we did it. I even drove, if that tells you anything.

It was a lovely Sacrament Meeting. It was an awesome time for the ward members to share their favorite hymns and why and then everyone sang a verse from it. Nathan shared his and it was, A poor wayfaring Man of Grief. It was so awesome. The spirit definitely touched everyone. Sunday School was awesome as well as Brad Dunn is the new New Members Teacher. He and I served in the same mission. He served in 1975-77 and I in 1997-1999. What a fabulous thing!!

After church Nathan and I went home teaching. We went to find the 2 guys on his list, Jason and Heath. Jason is 22 and just had a baby out of wedlock with a daughter of a family in the ward that is also semi active. The mother just finished an ugly divorce and has a 14 yr old girl at home along with the 18 year old and 9mon old baby. She said that her son moved to Colorado to live with her brother, his uncle. I could feel that she is hurting and my heart goes out to her. I know what she is going through with the daughter and the baby and her 14 year old that doesn't want to go to church. She can't make her go to church if mother doesn't go either. So, it goes 2 ways. Jason, the father of the baby and the guy that we went to go see initially works 2 jobs just so that he can support his son, William.

The other guy, Heath wasn't feeling well so sent the girl that lives there to tell us to come back later. She said that they were divorced and then said that they were getting back together and that is why they are living in the same house. I asked...all I have to do is ask and they tell me. Wow, it isn't hard.

Because I felt like I had to do something for the family today, the baby, the divorced mother and everything else, I wanted to cry and fall apart so I came home and read Alma 8 ironically. This is all about The Tree of Life, Lehi' vision. It was perfect for what I needed to know today and what I can do to be of service to those in the ward, for my sweet, sentive spouse, for myself and for my extended family. It was amazing how calm and peaceful I felt as I read it and I know that everything happens for a reason. I know that the tree will stand, I know that the rod of iron will always remain firm. I just need to grab a hold of it and not let go and take a bite out of that sweet fruit and just turn and smile at the people in that spacious building.

Everything will work out in its own due time. Nathan is a feeler and I am a doer. Because I had gone through such an emotional time already with that family and felt at peace with the answers that I had gotten from the scriptures, I changed my thoughts, repented and moved on but because Nathan didn't know what was going on, he felt hours later that I had gone through something and needed closure that whatever the issue was, was fine and that he didn't need to do anything. Because I didn't say anything to him about it, Satan was tearing at his heart saying things like, "your wife doesn't need you because she got closure on that family without you. You aren't needed, your family doesn't need you so why be married?". These thoughts came to Nathan again today because I had left him out of my mind and feeling conversation so Satan used that to get at him as if I seriously don't need his full support. It just didn't dawn on me to say anything. I didn't think anything of it because it was a feeling of passion and love for this family that I needed to feel along with humility and I just didn't think anything of it to say to him about.

Well, here I am. I have taken Ka'le down to the park twice today for a walk. Once earlier when it was not so cold and then after Nathan and I spoke about what had happened and then just returned before sitting down to write.

This next week, I am going to try to get to work at 5:30-6 AM so that I can leave early. I want to be home as the sun is going down so that I can beat the traffic.

I will write again next week. Until then
Aloha,
Karen Leihua Nihipali-Wicke

Wedding

I was recently married to a wonderful man named Nathaniel Wicke. We are the same age, have been down similar roads, we even lived in the same states at the exact same time and never saw each other. We were both in Ogden, UT at the exact same time. We were both in western WA at the exact same time and we both moved down to the Mesa, Phoenix, Glendale, AZ area at the exact same time so my take on it...we met at the right time as God brought us together and we recognize that.

We are both working in education, he works directly with elementary students in AZ and I work with educators across the country. We enjoy it.

I am finishing up my masters and he will be starting his project management program in February, when I complete my program.

We are both ward missionaries in our ward and we love it. The work is strong and moving right along.

We both watch what little football that we can [since we are broke, we don't have all the channels we would like for HD and digital stuff, but that is OK].

I love to cook and he loves to eat. We have a great time together as we go on walks and talk and laugh.