Lots has happened. Where to start?
BYU played a good game yesterday. It was a rough start though. I saw a tweet that was like, why does BYU always play to the level of their opponent? Fortunately, that was the first quarter only. Momentum changed in the second quarter with a blocked field goal by Corbin Kaufusi, several interceptions, and 24 points later, they were leading at half, McNeese only having 3...but of course, they scored first. It was on BYUtv, so I was able to watch the rest of the game later. Unfortunately, I had already gotten a spoiler of what the final score was before I could resume watching. Dumb phone, haha. I watched the 2nd Half later that night with Sarah. The second half was a little slow, and by the end of the game, I was falling asleep. I couldn't even watch the postgame show. Yeah, we ended up watching it really late. Tanner deferred to Zach Wilson after several plays in the second half. He did pretty good, no touchdowns though. They ended up with two more field goals to make the end score 30-3. And I think we are now ranked 20. CRAZY. Can you believe it, we now have a 3-1 record after the first four games? Washington next week to look forward to. That'll be the test, for sure. If we win, we will have a 4-1 record, which was unthinkable before this season started. And to be ranked as well is another story. The BYU 2018 season is a crazy story.
That same evening, I was invited to eat dinner and celebrate Gracie's 14th (or 134th) birthday at a restaurant called Bobby Q's, which is a Famous Dave's without the Feast. It was Gracie, Uncle Jesse and Aunt Kerry, me, Janell and Steve, Peter, and Aunt Ann. The food was really good. Amazing really. One of my favorite lines from that party was someone asked Gracie, I heard you can deadlift 140 lbs, is that true? And Gracie said yes. Then Uncle Steve comments: I deadlift 240 lbs every morning when I get out of bed before I go to work. Haha. It was a nice atmosphere. We were sitting out on the patio. Uncle Jesse was asked to pick up the candles for Gracie's cheesecake. Well, he pulls out a 1 and then a 3. We were all like, Jesse! Gracie is 14! He gets a big smile on his face and pulls out a 4. We stuck with the joke and put all three candles on the cake. He also picked up some sparklers to add. It was super nice. Can't believe Gracie is that old. It seems just like yesterday you were holding her and reading a book to her. She's growing into a remarkable young woman.
Sarah and I had a temple date this week on Friday again. We both did initiatories. I originally wanted to do an endowment, but I arrived too late. It was good though, since I go pretty much every Friday evening, I recognized the same ordinance worker in the initiatory booth. It was actually kinda special to run into someone that I know. It seems that happens a lot to me, which is really good. I'll be sad. Gilbert Temple is closing down for the whole month of October. Which means that I will have to head to the Phoenix temple for all our temple needs, since both Gilbert and Mesa will be closed. I think Mesa will be closed until 2020 for renovations.
I have an unofficial calling in the Guerrero Park Branch. Last week I told the music chairman, Hermana Castaneda that I play the piano. Well, I was asked to play the organ today. The last time I played an Organ was at someone's funeral. But it was actually really cool. The chorister told me to look at her to get the beat right. She also said some other stuff that I didn't understand. I played four hymns, one of which I didn't know that well. It was cool to choose the different settings depending on the type of hymn I was playing.
I got to church early this morning. Why? Jocelyn Fenus Palmer called me on Friday evening and told me her husband, Wes, was in Phoenix and needed a ride to the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, as his Uber wasn't working and he didn't have that much money to begin with. I picked him up early this morning and drove him. He's here because he is getting a trucking job, and here he learned the different basics of truck driving. My first time in the Sky Harbor was actually not that bad. It is comparable to the Salt Lake Airport, maybe a little bigger, but still manageable. I got out alright using the GPS.
I slept in the parking lot of the church for a while since church didn't start til 10:50. I got in a conversation with our Elders. I can't remember their names but they seem to be pretty good guys. One is a transfer from Nicaragua Mission. They both are in the 20 month or so mark. I also met the sisters for a bit. We had a lesson on Jonah that was really good.
I think I told you last week, but Carlos Santos and his wife invited me and another couple over for fish tacos after church. His wife, Elizabeth, made some really good fish tacos, probably the best I have ever had and I asked her for the recipe and she told me it was a secret, haha. I got to meet her sister (who's name I cannot remember), and a couple from the ward named Alex and VidiDiana and their little 5 month old baby who was smiling at me a lot named Natalie. Alex, Carlos, and I got into a conversation about the second coming and events leading to it, things about Missouri and Iowa, and Adam-ondi-ahman. Then we played a game called Last Word, which is very similar to the game STOP! that we play as a family, in that a category card is flipped over along with a letter card and in a matter of a few seconds, you have to be the last one to come up with a word that goes along with the category, and whoever has the Last Word, wins a step towards the finish on a board game. I was third, but I wasn't as competitive as I normally was. It was definitely a fun time and I look forward to introducing Sarah to them. I did show them pictures of our wedding and our proposal. The girls were all like: Awwwwwwe!
It was definitely just a regular week at work. With Special Ed kids, anything really can happen. Gavin has been really hyper the last week. On Monday, he ran outside 3 times without permission. The first I was able to catch him right outside the door before he got to far. But the second time he got far. I took out a radio, for caution, and two boys who were visiting from Ms. McGraff's classroom that were visiting us, came following. On the radio, I announced to the security guards that Gavin got loose. Fortunately, he ran to the fence and we calmed him down and walked around, and ran a bit. The third time, I was helping change someone in the bathroom, when another teacher told me he got loose again. I stopped what I was doing and grabbed the radio, alerted the security guards and ran after him. He ran to the fence, which is his normal routine for walking outside. And we were able to get him to walk back after he got to the fence. The security guard followed us on a bike both times.
It seems all the craziness happens at the end of the day, right after one of the aides Tiffany leaves. On Friday, we were about to feed them snack before it was time for them to go home, and one of our potty trained kids, Ryan, didn't warn us that he had to go to the bathroom, so when he got to the kitchen, he just wet his pants and a big puddle was dripping underneath his wheelchair. Ryan is probably our most high functioning kid, which made the occurrence a bit strange. One of the aides took him to the bathroom to wipe him up and change him, and I was asked to mop up the pee on the tiled floor in the kitchen.
I had to leave class early on Wednesday, but I heard that Jenna, one of our kids that gets easily distracted, wandered off on the way to the bus. Fortunately, the teacher was praying and hoping to find her before something happened to her. These can be normal occurrences.
I left early because I had an interview with Amazon on Wednesday afternoon. Well, it turned out to be less of an interview and more of a hiring event. I had been discouraged because the scheduled time of work that I had chosen to work would leave me staying up really late at night in north Tempe. But after they did the cotton swab drug test and taking a picture for an ID card, I asked the hire-er questions, and she said after the first two weeks of training, which is that set time that I chose, I will be able to schedule my hours based on availability of shifts. That was super good news. I thanked her and happily drove home from the event, listening to music as I went. So, hopefully I get to start a new job this week. It definitely was good news.
There's also been a lot of drama between the different aides that visit our classroom during the day and our aides. We just got a fourth aide named Celia, that use to work with some other kids in a different classroom. Well, that girl she was working with got an aide named Lynn. I guess Lynn is not a very nice person to other human beings (even though she's always been good to me), and not very good to the student she is with. And, to top it all off, she comes with another student who is in need of someone to change him before he eats, and she wasn't willing to do that. Well, the start of the week, specifically Celia, was saying that she wasn't suppose to change kids, nor feed Buddy. Anyways, it's gotten better by the end of the week, but at the start of the week, I was really annoyed with how the aides were treating each other. It just wasn't good feelings, and these kids demand and deserve our undivided attention and we need to put differences aside, and serve these kids to the best of our ability. Those are my pent-in two cents. But of course, it's gotten better, like I said.
I've been able to make friends with the girl that comes with Buddy, named Savannah. She's actually a sweet girl who just needs some good attention. Otherwise she gets into trouble. But it has been nice getting to know her and making a new friend. Also, there is a boy I help change named Jesus. He's pretty cool. He calls everything mostly blue, and sometimes purple. And Buddy squeezes my hand really hard.
Sarah went to her dad's birthday party in Torrance this weekend. She skyped me in a conversation with all those who were in attendance. She also was able to go to the LA County Fair with her sister, Athena. She had a great time at both events. Also, Mom and Dad invited her for dinner on Thursday. I had asked our parents to look for the title to my car, but they didn't find it, so Sarah called me and skyped with us and asked me to find the Title, which I did. Then, I was able to get Kerry in on the call, and Ann who was visiting. They had a good conversation. The only one who was missing was Aunt Kristen, darn.
We're preparing for Sarah to come out here really soon. Can't wait to give you the news. BTW, we just got a PO BOX in Mesa, if you want to send us stuff. It is:
PO BOX 449
Mesa, AZ 85211
I'm glad you liked the comics that I sent you. I have a few more that I liked this week and a meme about your and you're. Send me a line, if possible.
Love you,
John
