May

Life is just going by way to fast. It looks like the last time I logged in to my blog was back in March. I swear that April came and went just as quick as the Tornadoes are taking place down in the south.

April was full of fun and exciting times. Nathan and I have been busy working, doing our church assignments and working some more. We took a trip up the Salt Lake City, UT for General Conference and to visit with friends and family. We left on Wed April 1st and drove up through Las Vegas, NV and stayed with family in Cedar City for the night. Kelly and Paul King and the kids. They were so funny and we laughed a lot!!

We then left and went and spent all day in Provo and had dinner with a mission companion of mine, Tina Nunez, Renkin. We had a great time. We were able to visit the Hinkley Alumni bldg which was just beautiful. We walked the BYU campus and had an enjoyable day. We drove up to Salt Lake to spend the night with some friends, Sarah and Jon Belnap which was awesome. They are so funny. We talked and laughed a lot and took them out to dinner to thank them for letting us borrow their air mattress, the bathroom and a tie from Jon, since Nathan forgot his :o)


We went to the temple on Friday along with everyone else that was from out of town. I walked in to the waiting room and sat down next to Nathan and I looked behind me (because we were sitting in the very front row) and I happened to see the Baldwins. They are in my parents ward, up in Vancouver, WA. How funny is that, that you have to go to another city for a special occasion to run in to people that you know from another city and ward ;o) As always, the temple was so calm and so sweet and wonderful. We had a wonderful time.

Friday night we spent in SLC with the Belnaps and we were in bed early so that we could get up at 5am to go stand in line for general conference, especially for the solemn assembly.

We stood in line and met lots of awesome people. There were people that were from a stake that I was once in while I lived in Vancouver, WA. Others were from Rexburg and lots of members from AZ. We even ran in to an elder that served his mission with me. I looked at him and thought, "no way. That can't be an elder that served with me." I kept watching him though because he looked exactly like that elder so I eventually got the nerve to ask and sure enough...it was he. He even said that he saw me and thought, "nah, it can't be the hermana, she looks different...it can't be her". Ironically, he lives in East Mesa, AZ. We talked for about 30 minutes. It was so funny.

Sadly, we didn't get in to general conference so we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg and watched conference there at the Legacy Theater. That is the best kept secret. The screen and clarity were perfect.

While Nathan attended priesthood session, I went to Deseret Book and had a few things signed by Simon Dewey and by Chiko Okasaki. That was awesome.

We had been trying to get in touch with Nathans brother who lives in Chandler, AZ to meet up with him while he was up for conference too with his girlfriend, but it never happened. We called, he would call and we kept missing each other. We even drove up the Grace, ID which is only a 2.5 hr drive from SLC to say hi to the Wicke Mother, Dot, the sister Kathlyn and her family and to finally meet Randy and Ashley another Wicke brother and his wife. We finally drove in at about midnight Saturday night and got up about 7 am on Sunday to meet the family, have breakfast and watch general conference.

I have to admit, the weather was wonderful. It was cold, it was snowing in some parts. The wind did blow and I hate the wind, but the coolness of the air was great. The winder was up the dress while standing in line, while at the temple, entering and leaving. We kept hearing that it was supposed to snow while we were up there and we think that the Lord heard my prayers and kept the snow from falling until we were ready to leave all together to come back to Phoenix ;o)

We left Grace, ID Sunday evening and stayed at Belnaps again and left early Monday morning. We did make one more stop before leaving at the Hamilton home. The parents of Randy, who is married to the Wicke eldest daughter, Carolee. We had a good visit and some breakfast and were on our way.

Well, wow, after all of that the following weekend, some friends of ours, Kelli McKim and Jonathan Bruzuela got married in the Mesa, AZ temple and I was asked to help with the reception and the food and so I went and it was awesome to see people that were in our ward and to visit with friends.

The following weekend, we went to Snowflake due to another friend having a time share up in Heber and we stayed at the Bison Ranch. It was beautiful. We went to the wedding reception and saw people that we hadn't seen in a long time.

We also went to the temple Saturday morning and enjoyed an awesome time there with Nathans baby brother, his wife and her father. We had spent that afternoon with them in the hot tub that was on the grounds. We went with Traci Astle, Kelly Sindel and April Cronin. Steve Busch is our friend that got married.

We have been extremely busy with our callings as ward mission leader and ward missionary (me)...our ward was also split and the ward is still the biggest ward in the stake. Hard to believe but oh, so true. Our bishop rocks and he is doing a great job. I also recently started to sell Pampered Chef products so that I can make a few extra dollars to make the car payment. We'll see how that goes.

Well, that was the month of April and now we are beginning the month of May. My busy season at work has also started. Oh, before I forget, I was asked to move teams from an awesome manager and teammates to join a team that is on the bottom of the barrel and be its leader. Apparently the manager needs a leader on the team because he has 11 that don't know how to lead step up to the plate. We are down a team member and I am going to give my recommendation when the time comes. I am going to recommend someone that he interviews that my new boss doesn't like. That should do. That'll work great because then it will be someone more like ME and because Nathan made the suggestion.

Nathan and the school year is coming to a close so he is nervous that he won't have a job beginning this summer. He'll be fine as long as he remains faithful. Everything will work out. He actually asked me about a masters in administration, so he is seriously thinking about something. He doesn't care about being in the classroom, he doesn't care about that aspect of education but the administration side, he enjoys a lot. He'd be a great administrator as long as he has willing teachers to do their job and do their job well with little or no resistance and ability to change as needed.

We have a few activities going on this month, May. I actually already started working my over time hours on Saturdays as I am allotted the time to do so because of my title at work and because I work my tail off during the work week so a lot of our activities will be Saturday afternoons :o)

The fathers and sons outing is next week so I'm trying to get Nathan to go with a son that doesn't have a dad that he can take. We'll see. I also have enrichment night where I am able to create ceramic statues that the church puts out and so we'll be adding one to the house!! Exciting and also one for the Wickes for mother/fathers day. We can't decide which to do so it will be a surprise for everyone :o)

I normally can't keep up with myself so Nathan has to pull me out of the clouds because I go so fast.

I do know that I will have time for the swimming pool. It is clean and ready to go for the summer. I have climbed in already a couple of times and it was still a little cold. it was fun though, I am not going to lie!!

Graduation is coming up in July so I am looking forward to that. We will be painting all the doors in the house too, front, back, garage and all the doors in between. They are just dirty and no longer white ;o( so the painting will probably take place within the next couple of weeks.

We haven't seriously turned on the AC yet. Nathan can't sleep with it warm but yet doesn't want to turn on the AC any less than 82 degrees, such as I. I could care less. Turn on a fan for me and I am happy as long as it isn't directly on my face. We do well, except when he decides to jump up and run around the house at night and not have a clue what he is doing because he is sleep walking. Seriously, he will poke me, he will push me off the bed and he will get up and rock like a small autistic boy and then get back in to bed and not have a clue what he did. It is quite entertaining yet a little scary.

Talk to everyone later. I need to get dinner ready as we have an activity as member family home at 6PM.

Have a great week and I hope to be back on line a week from today. Stake conference is the end of this month so I hope to stay on top of things and not fall behind and be chastized by stake leaders for not keeping a journal.

Karen Nihipali Wicke