045 Tuesday to Tuesday (Feb. 25-Mar. 3, 2015)

Good to finish February’s post.  Let’s start with Mallory. Miss Mallory took her own good time to decide to come on down. After Bethanne, we figured the Lord would not let us have anymore. I had already done as much damage as I could with the rest of them, maybe he thought I’d had enough practice and should be kept away from the little ones. So we sold or gave away all our baby things and found out the next month that we were expecting. I wasn’t as sick with this pregnancy as I had been with the first four. For one thing, I wasn’t taking massive amounts of iron. I wish I had known that the iron would make you sick, but needless to say, the first four pregnancies are still hard to remember. Consequently, I did get around better the last time. Amy came two weeks late to the day; Katie, Adam, and Bethanne came two weeks early to the day. When Dr. Henderson told me the due date for Mallory, I told him when the baby would come. She came exactly when I expected her, two weeks early. I woke up that day cramping a little, but nothing to worry about; however, it didn’t stop. I finally called the doctor, and he said to come on (from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham). I went to get Craig from work and drop off the kids at Jan’s. The night I went into labor with Amy, I called the doctor and told him I wasn’t having contractions regularly. He told me to drink a little wine and go back to sleep. With Katie, my water broke so I knew I was ready to go. With Adam, I woke up in the middle of the night and knew I was in good contractions so called Aubrey Smith to come stay with kids. With Bethanne, my water broke slowly so I went to be checked out and stayed to take a baby girl home. With Mallory, I didn’t start contractions until I was in the car for the 70 mile trip to St. Francis and Craig was managing to hit every pothole on the road. I went to the doctor’s office, he checked me out and sent me right over to the hospital which was connected to the doctors’ offices. I was put in a wheelchair, and Craig took me over. He then proceeded to hit every wall between the doctor’s office and the hospital delivery area. By the time we got there, I was screaming for him to be careful, and he was screaming for me to stop screaming. The nurses looked at us like we were lunatics, and I thought they were putting in wagers on how long we would make it together.  Hahaha  However, after getting in the delivery room (no putting me in the "let's see how long we can make her suffer room," she managed to show up 30 minutes later. I kept telling them I wanted drugs - no going the natural way for me - and they said I was too far along for them. The doctor was no where to be seen, and the nurse tells me, "don't push, don't push." I showed her. What were they going to do, let her fall out on her head. I pushed, and that doctor walked in just in time to catch her. I thought if he didn't show up, they would not be able to charge me for his services. He was new to the practice, and I don't think he stayed long.

Mallory's first picture

Grandma Lenhard's note on Mallory's stats.

Dr. who delivered Mallory

Mallory was a cute surprise. I couldn’t stay but one night in the hospital because we didn’t have insurance. We had paid our bill in advance, and one day was all we got. The kids came with Craig to get us, and they couldn’t get enough of her. She did have jaundice, and we had to take her home and keep her sitting in the sun for a week. It was miserable because I was sure I was going to kill her because she wasn’t getting enough UV light or whatever it was she needed.

Mallory loved her older brother and sisters. She would follow them around and try to do what they did. We moved to Columbus, GA, when she was about 2 1/2 so she never remembered Tuscaloosa. 

Almost 5 months old - in Tuscaloosa

Mallory was a good student, although now that she is grown, she tells me she totally manipulated the teachers by crying sick every time something was coming up she didn’t want to do. She could play sick with the best of them, and I, like a good mommy would come get her. She laughs about how easy it was to do. I wonder how she will feel when Parker does the same thing.

I love this picture. So cute in glasses.

So much to do and she is blowing bubbles.

It was interesting raising Mallory who stayed with the same group of kids throughout her school years. All the rest had to start over when they came to Georgia, but Mallory was different. She did change middle schools in 8^th grade to go to the new Midland Middle School. I really did not like that Principal, but she made some great friends there. When all the older kids had left home, she stayed with us for four more years. She went to Columbus High, and I worked right around the corner at a middle school. It was fun to go to and from school with her. 

Such a sweet girl

What? You said to make the bed? Later!

Her babysitters!

Mallory still believes in magic! How fun!

Let’s get to it:

We had wanted to start inspecting missionary apartments this week, but we didn’t have the new transfer list as to what apartments were still open, and who was where. We went to the office to pick up some mail, and asked if we could be sent a copy of the list.

We also had Denise’s team meeting this Wednesday morning. These meetings are getting intense, but I have to say that Denise is gaining better control over her emotions. She didn’t attack everyone like she has done in the past. She has problems with her housing manager who is part of her team, and she doesn’t like the social worker who keeps up with her older kids. She usually gives them what-for. The housing manager wants her out of housing, but she really does need to stay there, at least for this year while she gets used to Timmy and her older kids visiting arrangements. That meeting takes up a good part of the morning, and then we had to take Timmy to his school because he had missed his bus. It was cold, and there was still a lot of snow on the roads in her area. When we went to pick them up, a car had pulled over to the side of the road before we got there. When the driver came out, he tried to pull out on the road and proceed back in the direction from which we had come, which including going up an inclined road. He couldn’t make it, so he proceeded to back out of the road to the stop sign where he could turn and go an alternate route. We were glad we were headed downhill. So, we took Timmy to school and brought Denise back to her place.

Thursday has turned into my math day. I tutor on Tuesday, and I get a lot out of the way, but Thursday allows me to finish anything I didn’t get through before to be ready for Pathway that night. We had to hold our class in the RS room, so we went early to try to get it set up.

Today was also the birthday of our little Ian. Actually, he isn’t all that little anymore. He is a cutie for sure, and one day mom and dad are going to have their hands full with keeping the girls at bay. We love to see pictures of him as he grows. It does seem that he manages to bang himself up with crazy stunts. He will be a tough kid at this rate.

How quickly they grow up.

We were able to get to the Milwaukee Genealogical Society Meeting on Friday. We had hoped they were going to be working on the planning for the German and Indian Summer Fests. It wasn’t to be. They were going to meet the next morning, so we made arrangements to go then.

That night we went with the other senior couples, the Carters and Barleys, as well as the Armstrongs to see Phantom of the Opera at a high school in Wauwatosa (about 15 miles from here). A family in our Pathway program, Ann and Mike Calabro, had two of their children in the play. We didn’t realize until we got there that Zac Calabro (their son) was playing Raoul – the one who loved Christine. It was a wonderful musical, and they did a great job. One of their daughters, Zoe, was a dancer in the play. The Calabro’s had bought our tickets in the front row, and sometimes it wasn’t as easy to hear the words distinctly, but we love it. They will have Blithe Spirit in May and hope to be able to go then.

We didn’t get home until late Friday night, so Saturday morning we slept in (got up at 8:00). We had to get back downtown to the Milwaukee Library for the genealogy meeting. They were having a genealogy class, but we did not want to have to pay for it, so we waited outside for a while before we went in at the last minute. The speaker was discussing changes in the city and the history of several of the places here. There are some that we are going to have to see before we leave.

We then spent some time discussing the upcoming festivals. We are looking forward to working at them this summer. It sounds like we will have more room in the tents this year, which will be great. When you can hardly move around to show someone how to use the program on the computer, it can put a damper on the fun.

Alright, who let March in? How in the world is time going so fast. While we look forward to going home, we know we have things to do here. It just seems like time is moving at a much faster pace than it should. On March 1, Sunday, we picked up Victor to get him to his new Ward. He was not happy about it at all, but he went. We wanted to introduce him to his new missionaries, but they came too late to do it. Then we talked with his Bishop to be on the lookout for him. We met a few of the other City Branch members who were now in the Milwaukee 1^st Ward. After the Sacrament, we left with promises that someone would take Victor home. We wanted to be at our new building to get to know the people there. When we walked into the Parkway Ward, it was quite a new feeling. The building was full, and we had to sit in the back on the hard chairs. Never again we hope! We met a lot of good people. The Armstrongs are in the ward with us so we are really excited about that. We look forward to working with them in the unit.

Our Bishop is new, having just been called. He is really a neat man. It is obvious how much he loves the Ward. There are many callings that have to be made because everyone in the unit will have something to do, whether its work with the children, the women, or the men.

In one of our Zone Conferences, we were encouraged to FAST, meaning we would F = feast on the words of Christ that our testimonies will grow; A – Act according to the word of Christ that we may become more like Him; S – Sanctify ourselves that we may be totally committed to follow Christ; and T – Testify of Christ and the Atonement that others may grow in knowledge and testimony of Him.  As we FAST, we were preparing for the arrival of a General Authority on the 20-21^st of March. He will visit our mission and talk to all the missionaries. We are excited that we will be part of that. It is not often that we get a General Authority out to see us.

We have been learning a lot about how to raise families. There are some really good guidelines that can help us stay close to our children that they may understand and desire to follow the Saviour. What should we do: (1) hold family home evenings – at least one night a week (preferably on Monday) we gather the children together to have a bonding time; (2) hold family scripture study; (3) bring the family together for family pray each day; and (4) commit ourselves to wholesome activities for the entire family. It sounds so simple, but we know how we allow the world to get in the way of having time for our families. We must work to do these minimum things in our families if we want to hold onto our children.

We are on this mission to serve others. Sometimes it can get hard, but we have to ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do,” “How would He act,” “What would He say.” If we can remember to include Him in our plans and follow His example, imagine how much better we would be. The Savior must have had very little time to himself. Everywhere he went, people would come to hear him, receive blessings, challenge him and his work, ask for help. Yet, He was always on the lookout for those who needed Him.  He was concerned about the individual, and He was involved in teaching each person how to be better. Service was and is God’s work. We must be about our Lord’s work for when we serve others, we are serving Him.

On Monday, we had had some snow during the night, but the roads were relatively clear. As long as we stayed on the major roads, we were ok. Craig was in need of a haircut, so he managed to work one in that day and then we decided to go to Racine which is on Lake Michigan south of us. It was a very nice ride, and when we got there, we couldn’t believe the ice on the lake. It looked so cold but beautiful. It did not look hospitable, but it had the colors that made you want to sear them on the back of the eyeballs to recover them when you needed to bring back the memories of how beautiful it was.

That's ice that is melting now, first of March, 2015.

There is a hole-in-the-wall diner there that has good Mexican food. We got a couple of plates and ate there before heading back. Craig had been there before with the missionaries, so he knew what it was like. It was my first time, and I wasn’t disappointed.

We took a little time riding around the area before heading back to Milwaukee. We have found that we don’t actually have a set P-Day anymore. If we say it is going to be Monday, then things come up that we have to do and the same if we choose Saturday. So when we get a little time and can take a trip, off we go. This was one of those days.

Tuesday found us going to Denise’s to help her get to the pharmacy to get her medicine. She had been without it for a couple of weeks, so we took her to pick up the prescriptions and then to the pharmacy. The snow was still lingering in this part of town, and parking lots were not always cleaned. Knowing we had several meetings in the afternoon, we bought all of us some KFC (which is so bad for us and we try our best to stay away from it) and took them home.

This day also saw me again taking 3-4 hours tutoring some Pathway students. I will be glad when the math part is over, because it takes way too much of my time. Before we went to the tutoring session, we had been asked to attend a District meeting in the North Stake which was quite aways from the South Stake building where we have the tutoring. We told them we could come, but we would have to leave early. It was a great meeting. The APs had to be somewhere else that day, one set of Sisters and one set of Elders cannot meet together, so we had to be there in place of the APs. These were great missionaries, and we were blessed to be with them.

It had been a busy day, and we were tired when it was over and we could go back to the apartment and prop up our feet.

Our Scripture for March is from Doctrine and Covenants 68:4 -

            And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture,

            shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord,

            shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.

What a great scripture – good one for all of us to memorize.

We love you all.

Elder and Sister Lenhard