They're starting to arrive

My weeks fly by so fast I hardly know what is going on. Alycia's wedding has snuck up on me. She is getting married in two days. Wow. This week has been an exciting one however. People started arriving on Friday and today at one time we had twenty two people in the house. Let's see if I can remember them all.

Me
Lisa
Kira
Evan (my oldest grandson)
Brandon
Serene (his wife)
Sydney (my oldest granddaughter)
Ben
Sharley (his wife)
Alycia
Alex
Sarah
Boyd Shaw (grandpa)
Carol Shaw (nanna)
Lisle Crowley (Alycia's future father-in-law)
Brenda Crowley (Alycia's future mother-in-law)
Trevor Crowley (my future son-in-law)
Courtney Brinkerhof (Trevor's sister)
Derek Crowley (Trevor's brother)
Tiersa (Alycia's friend)
Stanton (Trevors friend)
Patrick Carey (Ben's friend)

They were roughly divided into three groups. One was in the family room watching a movie, another was at the table playing "Settlers of Catan" and the last group was in the front room trying to visit above the noise. It was loud and I loved every minute of it.

Saturday I spent the day on the house and yard. The morning was mostly dedicated to getting Ben's moving van loaded up. Ben, Brandon, Alex, Sarah and myself headed to Ben's storage unit and loaded his moving van and then Ben and Brandon drove to Anaheim to haul it all into his new apartment. The rest of us headed home and while Sarah helped Lisa with the house Alex and I finalized the yard. Alex then headed to a young adult activity and dance and Sarah went to a youth dance while Craig McPhie came over and helped me build ramps through the house and for the van for Evans electric wheel chair. I then cleaned in the house and later in the evening I got involved in another wild game of "Settlers". Some where during all of that Bill Casper called and asked if I would substitute his Sunday School class. I agreed to but he teaches the adult class. I have no problem teaching kids but it is quite different trying to teach people who know more than I do. When we finished up our Settlers game at 2:00AM I printed out the lesson and started to prepare for it. I'm not very effective at 2:00AM. I finished it up during Sacrament Meeting. I did a passing job on the lesson but it was barely passing. I should have been better prepared. I guess the good thing is, if I don't do a great job perhaps they won't ask me next time.

The fun thing is that most everyone I mentioned earlier were at church and it was fun to introduce them all. Unfortunately they had to sit through my lesson. We then all came home and ate some very delicious shredded beef on buns. It was delicious. In the afternoon Grandpa, Brandon and I headed to the airport to pick up Kira and Evan. Evan recently got an electric wheel chair and the extra freedom it gives him very nearly turns him into a normal little boy. I drives that machine very well except for the fact that he's two years old. He drives it like a normal two year old walks. The difference is that when a normal two year old bumps into things they hurt themselves. When Evan bumps into something he hurts what (or who) it is he hit. I think the house and adults will survive but that wheel chair weighs in at nearly 300 pounds and it could be ugly if he runs over a cat or little Sydney.

Sydney and Evan are so funny together. It was a blast watching them play. I think they will grow to be good friends.

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The average American donates $800 per year to charity. The next highest country to donate to charity is England where the average person donates $16 a year.

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