This Week @ the Ricks' Home

Man, I am really drawing a blank as I try to think back to remember what went on this week at the Ricks' home. Think.Think. Think.
OK, John helped jog my memory.

I really enjoy Sunday afternoon with my husband. We have a routine after church. We lock the bedroom door and let no one in for about an hour, if we are lucky, usually more like 30 minutes...but I love the wonderful conversations we have during our alone time on Sunday. Our conversations usually turn to spiritual things, probably because we were just at church. This time the conversation turned to Alma 41:4 and how this is our time to prepare to meet God. John and I decided to use that as our family home evening lesson. We compared it to preparing for a test or a soccer game or anything. When you prepare for something you are studying, practicing, learning all you can to do what you need to accomplish the task. You are actively working.  As Elder Bednar said when he spoke in our Stake Conference, we should be active agents not objects waiting to be acted upon. So, we've decided to ask each day what we will do that day to prepare to meet God. Actually asking each morning can help us remember what our purpose is each day.

After our family home evening lesson John wanted to take us bowling on the base but when we got there we found out it is closed on Monday. As we left Jordan asked if we were back in Alabama. I guess she considers the base to be a different state. So funny! Instead of bowling we went to the dollar theater and watched Rio. The movie was better than I thought it was going to be.

In my last post I talked about how my schedule was all out of whack. This week I decided to do better. I planned to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. After being away at girls camp, I've been a little behind on my personal reading in The Book of Mormon so I have been reading extra to try to catch up. Monday I woke up earlier, grabbed my Book of Mormon  and started reading right after prayer. I didn't want to get out of bed worried if I got out of bed I'd get distracted. It was good, but I was so sleepy. I ended up reading 7 chapters but I had two tiny naps in the process. My eyelids were SO heavy. I just could not keep them open. On Tuesday getting up was a little easier and reading was wonderful. I didn't fall asleep once and I had the spiritual experience I was praying I would have during the 90 day reading challenge! From that time on reading has been so easy and extra enjoyable, so now I'm way ahead.

John and I had our date night early this week because I had a coupon for Logan's steak house. Coupons are awesome! After dinner we went and reserved copies of the new Star Wars The Old Republic game and the Star Wars complete movie series on Blu Ray. We are super excited about both! The game is going to be so awesome. I can't wait to play!  
Then we walked around a few stores together, just to spend time alone before heading back to the mad house. We always laugh and joke around and have a wonderful time being together. I love us!

Stamp Club was at Amy's photography studio.
 
It was nice to finally see it in real life. She has done a great job decorating the place.
For our project we decorated a pair of scissors and pens.
 

My sister-in-law, Taryn, came over Friday morning so we could run errands together. She still needed a few things for her daughter's birthday party coming up. She also wanted to come to our house to use my crafty tools so we made it a slumber party. That way I could help her make some things she needed for the party. Having daughters old enough to babysit is awesome! We were able to leave Jordan and Jayna at home while we ran errands. So nice. We had lunch at Five Guys. She had never been there so I had to take her! We went to so many stores. It was fun. We joked we were on a shopping spree. Spending $5 here and $5 there. Hahaha. We didn't get home until dinner time. Finally, we got started on our projects. I had to finish a few things for my nephews birthday party the next day. I was helping my sister Amy with a carnival game and I needed to make his gift. As soon as I sat down to get to work I realized I didn't have the paint colors I needed. I also needed a belt to complete the gift I wanted to make. So, Taryn, Natalee, and I hopped in the car and ran to the thrift store to grab what I needed for Avery's gift and then to Hobby Lobby before it closed. When we pulled up to the thrift store we only had 30 minutes until Hobby Lobby closed so we had to hurry. I found what I needed and it was only 99 cents. I ran to the register and when they rung it up the total was only $.53! It was on sale for half off. Woo hoo! We made it to Hobby Lobby with 20 minutes to shop. We got what we needed and headed home, but decided to make a quick stop at Wal-Mart for soda and chocolate since we knew at this point we'd be up late working on all the projects.

I decided to start with the game. Amy asked me to make a cardboard box into a strong man game. You know, the one where you hit it with the hammer and see if you can ring the bell. She said keep it simple. I don't know why, she knows me better than that. I ended up decorating both sides as well. I had to after seeing this guy in the new Stampin' Up! catalog.
 

He is found with the stamp set Under the Big Top.

I call him Mustachio. Isn't he awesome? I just love him!
 


I even used a small pot lid as the bell. I originally attached it with hot glue but it kept falling off. The next day at the party John suggested I cut a hole to fit it in. What a great idea! I asked, "Where were you at 3 am when I was putting all this together?" He replied, "In bed asleep like normal people." Funny. Real funny. :)
 

Taryn had to cut out 60 something stars then paint them green, paint the dowels for the wands, cut butterflies and stars to add to each drinking straw, and (as if she didn't have enough to do) she decided to stamp and punch out thank you tags to put in each goody bag. Natalee helped her out where she could.
Here is what the little blue room looked like around 3am. The desk was so messy we had to start working on the floor.
 
This is what we looked like at 3am. Taken with the web cam.
 

I finally finished painting around 4am. Then, I had to get started on the birthday gift. I knew what I wanted to make. I bought him his very own real measuring tape and flashlight so I wanted to make a little tool belt type thing to carry it around in. The problem was I had no idea how I was going to make it yet. Being so tired I was worried I was just going to totally mess it up. I was blessed to figure things out in my mind quickly. I wrote each thought out step by step hoping it would help me get through the project more quickly and with less mistakes. I still messed up twice, but nothing that wasn't easily fixed. I think it turned out great and Avery loves it. (Amy took these pictures for me.Thanks!)

 


I plan to create a tutorial on how to make one of these to share on thelittleblueroom.com soon.
Here's a couple of cute pictures of my dad with my youngest nephew. I should have asked dad to take off his glasses so the similarities would show even more. I call Bryce his mini me. He looks so much like my dad!
 


The kids "clowning" around at Avery's party.

At church Sunday the congregation sang There is Sunshine in my Soul Today as our closing song. That is our family song, a song we memorized as a family so we can sing it when we are scared or need to get rid of bad thoughts or just for fun. It isn't a song we commonly sing in our ward so it was exciting. Jordan enjoyed knowing the words and singing along. Sunshine was in my soul. :)

Well, that wraps up another week at the Ricks' home. Thanks for stopping by.