E Bay Perez

Someone from church told Eric that he should use the L Tom Perry name approach. Then his name would be E Bay Perez. We thought that was a cool idea. Instead of calling him E1 (as in Erin is E2) or Ericson, I think I will just call him EBay. Pretty catchy! Try it the next time you talk to Eric.

BTW, EBay is one of three freshman that has been nominated for homecoming prince. He finds out Friday if he was selected. He's telling me it is mandatory for him to attend the game and dance now. Too bad he's grounded and has a 9 pm curfew.

17 Miracles

I ordered 2 copies of the movie "17 Miracles," one for our family and one for my dad for his birthday. I got it in the mail today and so we watched the DVD tonight for FHE. I had heard good reviews so I was anxious to watch it. The kids were into it right from the beginning because the first scene was about cannibalism. It quickly jumped away from that scene thank goodness.

The movie was based on the Willie Handcart Company. It was sad to think about what these pioneers endured. Mario and I both want to read Levi Savage's journal after watching this movie. Believe me, neither of us have pioneer history and neither of us has ever been interested in pioneer journals until now. The man was publicly humiliated but was humble enough to never be offended. In the end, it was obvious that his opinion was correct, but he remained faithful and humble. There is a lot I could learn from Levi.

We really liked this movie and we are anxious to watch it again so we can write down the miracles as they occur. We could only remember 12 of the 17 and we couldn't find them listed online anywhere.

I hope my Dad likes the movie as much as we do.

Ward Changes and New Calling

It has been 18 months since the last boundary change so I guess it was time again. The church is very huge and strong here in Tucson. We live in an area that is called Rita Ranch and Mesquite Ranch. Between these 2 neighborhoods alone, we have 2 wards. We now have 4 wards meeting in our building until they can get a new one built down the road a few miles. I had a 3 hour primary meeting last night to shuffle kids and callings. It is sad to see 12 active families (including Dawna Herr's) be moved into a different ward. But I'm sure we will still see them often since our boundaries are so small. They only live about 3 miles away. Visiting teaching is a breeze. I really could ride my bike to each house if I wanted to.

Mario was ordained a High Priest on Saturday and put in as a High Priest Group Assistant. We'll see how he likes meeting with the older guys. Their responsibility are the widows and also the unordained prospective Elders. Mario says he needs to go out and buy the large print scriptures so he will fit in. It sounds like their group could use a little personality in there, but Mario doesn't think his joking went over so well. I think he is missing the YM a little. But change is good too.

Powder Puff Derby

I am the Primary counselor over Activity Day Girls. One of our leaders suggested having a pinewood derby race with the girls and their dads. It was a huge hit and we had over 30 girls participate.

Erin's 7th Grade Picture with Braces

Isn't she beautiful? Only 1 more year until she is a teenager. Only 4 more years until she can date. But we haven't decided yet if we are going to really LET her date.

Lockdown Update

Well, after 4 hours, they finally let us go home. But it was under tight security that we were allowed to get to our cars and then we had to be escorted off base.

I finally calmed down and did a little shopping with Mario at the BX. We made the best of the situation and split a Baskin Robins Sundae. We were able to watch the news during the lockdown and we made it to CNN news. They were incorrectly reporting that a shooter was on base and people were shot. The military police warned us not to believe what was on the news. They told us that what the news was reporting was incorrect and it hasn't happened "yet.". We laughed and they realized their mistake and corrected and said hopefully it won't happen at all.

At 2:00, they asked all military to leave the building so they could set up a system for getting us civilians and dependents off the base. I didn't like having Mario leave especially since we didn't really know what was going on. But he had to go direct traffic. They finally let the rest of us leave at 2:30.

The base was on lockdown until about 5 pm. The base commander made a statement to the news at 6 pm and said they never found a gunman or a weapon. So we don't know if it was false report or if he got away.

I was so thankful to finally leave. But I am grateful for opportunities like this because it gives me a chance to reflect on my life. Have I lived a good life? Do I have any regrets? I can honestly answer that I think I have lived a good life. My only concern if I died now would be my kids and of course Mario.

As I wrote that sentence, some bombs went off on base. Our whole house shook. Scared us to death. All the neighbors ran outside. Fortunately Mario was able to get through to the base right away. They said it was controlled detonation. Thanks for warning us!!! It is 11 at night and the whole neighborhood was scared. We honestly thought terrorists were attacking the base. Poor Mario told me that he experienced that many times in Afghanistan. How scary. I am not sure I will get much sleep after all this anxiety today.

I'm updating this now Saturday morning. More bombs went off at 1 am. Even though I knew what it was, it still startled me out of my sleep. I hope Mario never has to go back to Afghanistan, I don't wish that loud boom and ground shaking on anyone. It was so frightening. I got very little sleep.

Lock Down

I came to meet Mario for a few minutes on base. I didn't realize the base was on lock down until after I drove in. Now we are stuck at the BX, lights down, away from windows and we have been told there is a threat to the base and someone has been subdued. No other information. So I'm freaking out because I want to get home to the kids who are on half day. Mario isn't worried at all and is trying to distract me by talking about our vacation in December. But I can't concentrate on anything except getting out of here alive. At least I am with Mario to ride this thing out. I think I'm the only one out of the hundreds of people here who is scared. Apparently this is normal for the base but I am not accustomed to this at all.



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