24 March 2024
VOLUME 12 – NUMBER 548
Aura, Yaretzie, Itzel, Antonio on vacation
Several months ago I let Aura know about an organization called Inheritance of Hope. They provide a retreat, counseling and support to families who have a parent with a terminal illness. Aura applied and this month they were able to go! Aura said they had a wonderful time.
They were able to give her several ideas as to what she could do to remain a part of her children’s lives as she moves on to the next part of hers.
Footage from stormtrooper YouTube video
I decided that it would be cool to start up the Stormtrooper Family YouTube channel with just some YouTube Shorts. The one we did this week is titled The Emperor Wants His Pizza.
Caleb and I went to Little Ceasers dressed up as Darth Vader and a stormtrooper, and we ordered some pizza. I think it was super fun. Isaac filmed it, and with a little editing, and some music layover, we posted it on YouTube.
It's our goal to try and release at least one short every week, and hopefully put some longer videos on there as well.
Braden, Brooke, and the girls at a farm
I went to my first Jazz game on Monday. I went with Readings, Riley, and Brandon, who is Carsons friend. It brings back some memories when we used to work them with Mom.
The Jazz played the Timberwolves. They were close until the end. Jazz ended up losing by 10 points—114 to 104. I had enjoyable time, but when we were leaving the garage, the line was so long that we waited for about 30 minutes to get out. While we were waiting, Brother Reading was playing some loud music and talked about the game.
On Wednesday, Riley came over, and we played Throw Throw Burrito most of the time. I had so much fun playing.
Thursday I had a young womens meeting with all of the class presidencies in the stake. Saturday Monte, Riley and I went to Swig, and then to lunch together.
Children playing Throw Throw Burrito
Endia and Cougar came over this week and brought a new game that was really really fun. It is called Betrayal at the House on the Hill. Its a game where your a group of people that explore a house and try to figure out some mysterious things that are going on there. Every round has a different story, and different objective and motive.
On one round we had to get bread for some witches to get them to not eat you, and I was trapped on a certain tile. Caleb got stuck on the same tile I was on. Neither of us had food, but then Kai came onto the same tile, so Caleb attacked Kai but failed. Then I took my chance to take the bread from Kai, and I escaped.
Then it came down to just me and Endia, and we both needed food. We went back and forth taking the food from each other, Finally, my luck gave out and Endia got the food. It was also really funny, because Endia's character didn't ever directly attack my character. She just took the food from me every time I got it.
Children playing games
I went with Mom to her work at Utah Foster Care, and we did a pottery night. I had a hard time deciding what to do, so Mom helped me. We came up with a rose, because in school I am learning about Romeo and Juliet.
The next day she took me and Isaac to help supervise kids while their parents went on a date. I was the guard at the door to make sure no kids got out to wander around the building. I really liked that job. When they tried to get out, they could not get past me!
It was a lot of work, but we did it. Isaac had to be in Mom’s office with Mable, because a staff member was allergic to dogs.
Braden and Ellie picking berries at a farm
London, Ashton, and I all did a little getaway to Heber! It was really simple. We stayed at a hotel, ate at a couple restaurants, drove through the mountains, and went to the movies to watch Cabrini. Good movie!
I also met up with my friend Jack Anderson this week. He introduced me to his girlfriend. We had a fun time at Cafe Rio. It was really fun to spend some time out of the house, and it has gotten me very excited for the future.
Caleb at a mission reunion
In Minecraft, I was hoping to get a better sword and better protection for my iron. I have been able to get a steady food supply and getting good levels to get more enchantments for my armor, bow, crossbow, tools and weapons. I got my levels from killing a lot of fish, looking for coal, and going to the Nether to get quarts.
I have also been helping Dad with his project. He is trying to get across the ocean by making a long bridge to find land.
Right now Isaac and Kai are the most powerful people. Kai has full Neatherite, and Isaac has the most steady food supply.
Visiting dogs in dog area of side yard
On Monday of this week, we held three different kick-off sessions for teachers and supervisors at the MTC who will be testing some new training materials for us. We are excited for this because up to this point there has not been any attempt to unify all the separate training areas with the same training onboarding and evaluation tools.
On Friday, we had an offsite with the manager team at Taylor Godfrey’s cabin. We had some trainings and team building activities that resulted in tears from non-stop laughter.
I am so grateful for my job, and even more grateful for the people who I work with that make each day so enjoyable.
Dad’s MCOM 320 class
Have you ever read the book titled, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie? It follows the idea that once you get started down a road with one simple action, it grows and expands and becomes a long string of actions.
So here’s my frustrating story. Google Fiber recently announced that they are providing higher-speed internet access in our neighborhood. We’ve had a couple struggles with our internet, and we would save about $50 a month by switching, so I switched.
When I switched, the new mesh network in our home wasn’t compatible. So we upgraded the mesh network. Next, our old cameras weren’t compatible with the new mesh network, so we upgraded them, at considerable expense.
By upgrading the cameras, it became possible to set up a screen in the kitchen that would allow Mom to see multiple camera views at once. After I set that up, we were having streaming problems with all our cameras continuously streaming to the screen, so I had to upgrade out internet from 1GB to 2GB (say goodbye to the original savings).
Finally, I discovered that because our cameras were continuously streaming to the screen app on the kitchen TV, their batteries were draining quickly, so I had to buy cables, and hard wire the cameras.
So the next time you are tempted to give a mouse a cookie…DON’T do it!
James and Israel