8 weeks!

Just 8 more weeks until we leave!

Our mission call is here !

We are so excited!  Our official mission call came today!

For the young missionaries, there are lots and lots of page of instructions... but not for the senior couples, I guess.  One page from our Stake President!   Just 1 month and 3 weeks to go!

Cascade park

From Cascade Park today- 

Here is the spot that your RV/trailer goes in.  Nice and close to the house. The hook-ups are hooked on to the house.

There is another spot that is down off the hill and further away from the office, and is not quite as convenient.  The phone doesn't work there very well.  It is between the tractor shed and the garage.

 

Scouts...

I have been a Boy Scout committee member for a really long time.... 30 years or so.  I am in charge of advancements and membership records.   I am happy to report..... I turned in our recharter today - only 2 months late!  

I will hang my head in shame.  (I wonder who will be doing it next year?)

:)

Service Mission information...

Here is an email sent and received from the couple we are replacing at Cascade Park Campground:

From: Cascade Park Camp [mailto:cascadeparkcamp@ldsmail.net] 
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 1:10 PM
To: MitchellCreations.com
Subject: Re: Cascade Park Camp
My husband got some coordinates for you so you can see what Cascade Park looked like last summer. Do you do google-earth? You can put in these co-ordinates up in the SEARCH on the left hand corner and it should bring you right across the continent to Cascade Park in Washington - 48 06 40 N 122 01 26 W

On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 12:15 PM, Mitchell Creations! wrote:
Thanks! It is fun looking around. Where would we be parking our 5th wheel? I don’t see a camp ground (where campers are parked).

From: Cascade Park Camp [mailto:cascadeparkcamp@ldsmail.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 1:52 PM
To: Mitchell Creations!
Subject: Re: Cascade Park Camp
When you look at the house, on the left side of it there is a big tree and a white 5th wheel trailer sticking out from it. That is the RV hook-up for missionaries. There are no RV camping spots, so to speak, just for the camp missionaries. Needless to say we get to be close neighbors. The office is on the other side of the house, actually part of the house. Anyway it will be fun and exciting to meet you.
Are you still snowed in? When do you start your westward trek? How long will it take for you to get to Washington?
It is cold here, but we have not had much snow. A flake and a skiff here and there is about all.

Ice Storm

We are having quite an ice storm, here in the South!  It rains ice and sticks to the trees, bending limbs down and snapping weak limbs off.  If it falls over a power line - we go without heat or lights.  Bummer.

Icicles hanging from the Dogwood Tree

Ice on the deck - I poured some seed on the deck because the birdfeeder was frozen.

Cold stormy weather...

When the weather gets bad, my bird feeder gets really busy!  Here are a male and female cardinal and some Carolina Chickadees.

What the birds knock out of the feeder, the doves eat from the ground.

Having fun with friends

Doreen Williams

Started of the day going to the mall to walk.  Doreen Williams usually walks with me, and she did today.  We usually walk 2 to 3 miles each morning.   I can really tell my stamina is much better than when I don’t walk.

I went to visit Celia Ashwell today.  She signed up

Celia on her computer

for Facebook just to watch us on our mission… how cool is that!  She had signed up for FB, but couldn't figure how to use it, so I went to her house and we worked on it.  She also got an email address, which she hasn't had for several years.  Go Celia!!  This picture shows her with her granddaughter.  

Rockdale County has cancelled school for tomorrow because it is suppose to snow again.  So far, the local kids have missed 4 days this year due to cold or snow. 

A special day!

What a beautiful day!

Rebekah was baptized today.  The WHOLE family came!  Her Little Rock grandparents and Uncle Jonathan (Betsy’s only brother), her Uncle Richard and new wife, our whole family and cousins.  We held the meeting in the chapel, we had so many people come.   McKenzie and Samantha played their flutes while Lorrie played the piano and Betsy sang.  Both Grandmas gave talks, Jeremiah and Timothy give the prayers.  What a great day.

I had a vinyl job for Bishop Phil Kimble and got it done and delivered; New signs for his business trucks.  He then asked if I could do a rush job – a T-shirt for his daughter.  She hates Idaho’s cold weather so the shirt said: -8 (degrees) is Great – and then I put a few snowflakes on the shirt.  I thought it was cute. 

One of the nice things today was the weather was so nice.  The kids played outside, jumping on the trampoline.  And in the evening, Tim and I had a nice soak in the hottub… the frogs were singing and singing and singing and we could see beautiful stars above us.  What a blessed day.  :)

The Interview

Mission update:  We had our Bishop interview on Sunday and our Stake interview tonight… yeah!!      President Johnson was a lot of fun and made me feel really good about going on our mission.  He asked why we chose to do a service mission and I told him that we were not quiet people and we needed to go someplace we could be loud and laugh.  He laughed.

                I watched Jeremiah and Rebekah this afternoon after school because Betsy had a late class.  While Beck was at the house, Betsy called her and reminded her that she needed to clean her room or not go to the Princess Ball Friday night with her daddy.  Right after dinner, Rebekah and I went to her house and we started cleaning her bedroom (she had already worked on it for an hour but when she came over for dinner, she had chalk colored her hair so I am not sure how long she actually worked on the room!)  Tim took Jeremiah to Karate and we stayed and worked on her room.  We only took out one large garbage sack full but we made quite a nice start on her room.   Her other grandma comes tomorrow so we needed it decent.  My goodness, that girl has a TON of clothes!    We left at 6:30 for the mission interview and took Rebekah with us.   She played on the iPad while we were busy, and counted how many rooms are in the church (40).   When we got home, we went back to her room…the only thing I really wanted to finish was to clean the bird cage….. and we got that finished just as her mom got home from school.  Yea! 

We are going on a church service mission!

We are going on a church service mission!   I am so excited!

 As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints, we believe in service to our fellow man and spreading the happy words of Jesus Christ.  Each of our 4 sons served 2 year proselyting missions and now it is our turn.

Ours will be different from the boy's missions.... ours is going to be a service mission and it will be for one year.

One of the "perks" of being old missionaries is that you can pick what you would like to do and Tim has been looking over the Church web site at the senior (that is us!) missions that they (the Church) need filled.  There are things like, family history center, genealogy center, work with Young Single Adults in England, take care of church camps for .... wait, what?  church camps?  outdoors?  trees?  water?   Hey!  that is right up our alley!

"Full time Senior Church Service Missionary Opportunities
Duties may include: Office work, grounds maintenance, heavy equipment use and maintenance, custodial work, cooking, construction, building maintenance, directing service groups and overseeing equestrian program.  Copuple or individuals to serve 5-6 days per week, for 12 - 24 months"

How cool does that sound!