August 4, 2024

As I typed the date on this blog post I was reminded that today was the birthday of my step-father, Dennis Stone. He would have been 97 today but he passed away at the young age of 49. Coincidentally, I was just talking about him with my granddaughters, Danica & Alyssa, this weekend. There were many great things about him and I loved him very much but I was talking to them about the fact that he was an alcoholic and what impact that had on my life. I was warning them about the dangers of drinking and that it is like playing Russian roulette, you never know if you are going to be the one to become an alcoholic. His death at 49 was a result of too much drinking and smoking and his heart gave out. We missed having him be a part of our adult lives because he said he would rather die than give up drinking and smoking. So sad and we have missed him all these years. I was 21 when he died.

This week has been a busy week, a fun week, and a hard week! Dealing with so many new cars has been overwhelming. We think we have picked up all but one of the new cars which means we have 26 new cars this go around. We have 18 RAV4's, 6 Maverik trucks, a new Highlander for the President, and a new Transit van for the mission. We went to get new cars on Monday & Wednesday but in the mean time we were also trying to trade out some of the cars we got last week. Trading out the cars is not a simple process because each trade takes about an hour because the Orb Com devices have to be removed from the old cars and installed in the new cars. We have to figure out how to meet up with each set of missionaries---will they come to us or us to them? Then everything has to be tracked in the computer. Old cars have to be put for sale and new cars assigned and synced with their area. Cars have to be cleaned out, license plates removed, etc. We are hoping to get these all out and gone before we go home but it is going to be close.

In the midst of new cars we were also busy with other things. Our replacements, the Kanzlers, were in town for a grandson's wedding so they wanted to put some items in their apartment. Originally they were going to have our apartment but with the Bready's leaving it worked out better to put them in that apartment. The Bready's left the apartment in great shape but we wanted to do just a little last minute cleaning and staging of the apartment. That went well and we had a nice visit with the Kanzler's when they came by. We also fed the Elders and that is always a treat to have their spirit in our home and be given a little lesson by them.

We tried to get as much done as we could at the first of the week because on Thursday afternoon we left to go out to the coast to meet up with Tracey, Danica, & Alyssa. For my birthday I told the kids I wanted to do a crabbing experience. They all pitched in and Tracey was our host for the event. We rented a house in Rockaway Beach for 2 nights and had a great time. For the crabbing experience we went to Kelly's Marina about 5 miles north of Rockaway. They rent you a boat for (2) hrs, (3) traps to catch the crabs, and then cook them for you when you bring them back. We got our boat and traps and set out for our adventure.

To catch the crabs you throw your traps out in (3) different locations and then come back in about 15 minutes to haul your catch in. In the (2) hrs we had we did this over and over again. The tricky part is to haul the trap in fast enough to not lose most of the crabs. The traps are kinda like basketball nets with dead fish secured to the bottom to attact the crabs. The net rests deep in the water and it was AMAZING how many crabs would come in to the trap to feast on the dead fish. Most times when we pulled the traps up there were 15-20 crabs in the net. A few times when we did not pull fast enough we only had 5-8 by the time we got the trap in to the boat.

Once we had the crabs in the boat we had to decide if any of them were male and big enough to keep. You identify if they are male or female by the markings on their tummy and we had a special ruler to measure if they were big enough. The rest all had to be thrown back. That means lots of touching of the crabs and trying not to get pinched! It is a very fast activity with crabs flying every where as they were tossed back overboard. Usually we only had one from each haul to keep and after a while we decided that even some of those weren't big enough and we threw them back. In the end we had (8) crabs to take back but we must have hauled in over 150 crabs!

Once back on shore Kelly's crew took our catch and determined if all (8) of our crabs were keepable. They weren't, but we did get to keep 4. They boiled them for us in a special cooker and then the fun (not) started when we got to clean them and work on extracting the crab meat out. The girls, and even Elder Rowan helped even though it was not their favorite thing to do. We ended up with about 2-3 cups of crab meat. I enjoyed eating some dipped in garlis butter but none of the rest of them would eat it. I am planning on making some crab rolls and eating the rest with a little lemon butter!

What a fun birthday experience! Thank you kids for getting this for me. I loved the experience and feel so much more educated on what it means to go "crabbing." Would I do it again? Probably once was enough but I am glad I had the opportunity. We enjoyed visiting and ended our trip with a visit to Short Sands Beach. It will probably be the last time we go while on our mission so it was a perfect ending for us even if the girls were not too excited!

Our week has not been without it's stress. We are very concerned about Ryan. He has a tumor in his nasal cavity that appears to have spread to his lymph nodes. He first had a biopsy on his lymph nodes but the doctor did not get a good sample. Then they realized he had the tumor in his nose too so this week they did a biopsy on that. They kept him on the table until they made sure they had a good sample and we are waiting for the results now. Hopefully Ryan will know something by Wednesday but we are all scared. It could still be benign and the problem with the lymph nodes could just be from the infection in his ears. We are trying to keep the faith and remember that with our Savior all things are possible. But that doesn't mean he will not give us trials, just that he will help us make it through those trials. I am reminded this week of the scripture from Alma 26:12, "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things." Ryan has vowed to fight whatever this is and we know with the Lord's help he can do it!