Summer Happenings--Part 3 (July, Second Half)

To finish out July:
We got home from Jacob Lake on a Sunday afternoon and Maren was heading off to Girls Camp early Monday morning. She had packed everything before our trip, so she was ready to go. She loves Girls Camp, and was especially excited for her first year as a YCL. She did a great job and really enjoyed herself.

While Maren was at camp, I was "lucky" enough to be doing inventory at the library. Actually, it's not bad, just repetitious. I was able to work all my hours in three days and rewarded myself with a nice relaxing massage--ahhhh :)

We celebrated Pioneer Day by eating at Smashburger for lunch and grilling up hot dogs for dinner that night. I'm sure the pioneers sacrificed all they did so that things would be better for those who came after them. I am truly grateful for them. (And I'm sure if they had had Smashburger, they would have eaten there...)

Carson witnessed an amazing miracle in July. In his words: "So we have this recent convert in our branch by the name of Brother D. He's always working. Unfortunately, he doesn't make a lot at his job; 50,000 CFA a month. So it's enough to skate by. But, due to some problems with the bank and another guy for whom he signed this big contract who then skipped town, he owed the bank 1,390,000 CFA. For you folks keeping score at home, that's around 2,600 USD. And that's A LOT of money here. So he received notice of it and that he had eight days to set up a loan plan. So he was telling us this and he was visibly distressed. It was quite sad. He was super stressed and worried about what he was going to do. But despite all this, he asked us if we would take his tithing to church so that we could pay it for him. He wasn't sure if he was going to be at work Sunday and he said that if he left his tithing money at his house that he might spend it for something else. So he gives us 3,000 CFA to pay on Sunday. So I was very touched by his faith and diligence with his commitments that he has made. But now is where the story gets crazy. So we show up to church on Sunday and it turns out that he was there. So I gave him his tithing back and he promptly paid it, but then he told us something amazing had happened. He said, "come to my house on Tuesday and see the great miracle that has taken place in my life." So we show up and he starts telling us his story. He went to the bank to set up his loan payment plan and they gave him this folder full of stuff that he was supposed to fill out. On his way home, he ran into a branch member who used to be a banker in Bamenda and he told D that that loan plan was a trap and that if he filled out the stuff that he would be stuck. So he said to D, "Give me that. I'll tear it up right now to show that you don't need it." But D said that he had a feeling not to give it to him, so he didn't. When he got home, he opened up the folder and within was a paper that said, "this document certifies that Mr. N_____ D____ has paid in full the given amount and is no longer indebted to us." (More or less like that) And it was stamped, signed, and authorized and everything. It was legit. So somehow, his 1.3 million franc debt just got paid. It just was paid. It wasn't the guy who ran away who paid it. The money just got paid. He kept saying, "Jesus paid it, Jesus paid it!" It's a true, real, bona fide, miracle that I witnessed this past week. There's no other way of explaining it. It just got paid... It was an inspiring story about faith and blessing of tithing paying. My goodness, it was amazing." What a wonderful experience for him to witness.

Maren and I were able to spend a few hours at The Living Planet Aquarium and that was a lot of fun. Here are pictures from that day:

Summer Happenings--Part 2 (July, First Half)

Still reeling from all the repair bills in June, we kicked off July with our dog, Dexter, having some serious vet bills. (Read that post here) We were blessed that an anonymous benefactor paid some of those for us. (Read that post here) We were also blessed that we only had one other repair bill in July (garage door spring). Another blessing we received in July was that the Deals were able to visit us for several days before we all headed down to Jacob Lake, AZ for a family reunion. It's always good when family comes to visit. Despite the chaos, I think everyone had a good time while they were here.

On July 11, we drove down to Jacob Lake for the Allen Family reunion (my dad's cousins). Jacob Lake is about 45 minutes north of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful! The weather was nice, we had very little rain and the temperatures were mild. Besides the day we visited the North Rim, I mostly sat around eating and talking with relatives I hadn't seen in a long time. From the Henrichsen contingent we had Dad & Georgia, along with Nanette's & Chris' families. It was good to see 2/3 of my siblings and their families (we missed the Taylors a lot!) Dad & Georgia had just finished a 5 week long-distance bike ride from the Oregon/California border to Jacob Lake so he was sporting a great beard! (Their blog about this is here) All too soon, it was time to head home. We were lucky enough that Dad & Georgia stopped in Utah on their way home for a couple of days. It was our last chance to see them before they head to the MTC in September (well, they will probably be at our house the night before the MTC, but that's not the same).

Here are pictures from early July when Nanette & I took her younger kids to Cabela's in Lehi:

What's wrong with me? I think I was channeling my inner child...

I asked the kids to make polar bear faces...it's a little dark to see details

so here's the close-up of the "polar bear faces" 

And here are pictures from the Grand Canyon and the family at the end of the trip (all the scenery ones are from the walk we took to Bright Angel Point from the North Rim Lodge):

The black dots in the background are bison

What a good looking group!

The clouds were gorgeous that day!

My cute kids (minus the missionary)

(with a little photoshop help)

Most of the Henrichsen family (missing were Taylor family, Elder Carson, Isabelle&Jon)

I guess I can see why people say we look alike :)

At a scenic stop coming down from Jacob Lake--it was so clear and beautiful!

Dad & Georgia at the end of their trail--impressive!

Eating our lunch tailgate style after walking out to Bright Angel Point 

Love my family!

Summer Happenings-Part 1 (June)

Well, it's not quite Labor Day, so summer isn't officially over yet, but Maren started school this week, so it's pretty much over at our house :)  I didn't do a very good job at posting about what we did this summer, so now it's a catch-up set of posts (That happens a lot here, doesn't it??)

June started out pretty low key. Aubrey was in Vienna, Austria for Spring Term Study Abroad , so it was still just Maren and me. She went to our stake's youth conference, AFY (American Fork Youth). It is patterned after EFY, just shortened to 3 days. She had an amazing experience. I'm so grateful for wonderful youth leaders in our ward and stake who spend so much time and expend such efforts for the youth of our area. The rest of our days were spent sleeping in, going to work (me), volunteering at the zoo (Maren), meeting up with friends for lunch & dinner (me). I celebrated my {11th} 39th birthday mid-month. Aubrey was scheduled to come home on the 19th, but missed his flight and didn't make it home until June 20th. Just after my birthday, the repair costs started--cars, vacuum, and several others. I wrote a post about all that here. So June didn't end quite as low key as it had started. I did finally buy myself a smartphone this month. I'm already loving it, but am not attached to it 24/7.

Elder Hatch had a baptism in June--here's a picture:

Aubrey's Study Abroad group was able to visit 7 countries: Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, & Czech Republic. Wow! He had an awesome time and would go back in a heartbeat. Here are a couple of pictures (from the nearly 1400 he took):

Parliament building in Vienna

Aubrey in Melk, Austria

Nineteen

How is it possible that it's been 19 years since Carson was born? It kind of makes me feel old...but this post is about Carson, not me :)

Happy birthday to my tallest son. You are doing great things in Africa that are helping you become a great man. You have selflessly given two years of your life to serve the people of Cameroon and Congo. You've only been gone a little over 7 months, but you've already learned, seen, and given so much. Your life will never be the same. I miss your loud laugh, our conversations (although not the debates or the huge shoes by the door), and you making me laugh every day (but you do make me laugh every Monday in your emails). Even though I miss you every day, I wouldn't trade it for anything for the experiences you are having.

Here's what I said on Facebook today:

I know you won't see this for a while...but just wanted you to know how glad I am you joined our family 19 years ago today! That little baby with such huge eyes and well-developed lungs has turned into a wonderful man doing great service for two years in Africa. 

I hope your birthday was a great one--I saw a picture of you wielding a machete today, so something makes me think that it was pretty good! Love you tons!!

Day of Helping Hands Service in Yaounde'

Big Step

Today I took a big step.

I took Gary's name off the last of our joint accounts.

I don't know why I've waited so long to do this. I switched most of our accounts over to just my name within the first few weeks and months after he died. I needed to wait a little while on these last two because I was still receiving royalty payments in his name. But after a year, I really didn't need to still have his name on them. So why after nearly 3.5 years did I finally decide to do it?

I don't know.

But this morning I just decided it was time and if I didn't take care of it immediately, I may never do it. So I went to the banks and took care of it. I wasn't emotional or anxious or sad--just business like.

And now it's done.    sigh

I'm sure it was the right thing, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

Lagoon--April 2010