There and Back Again: Week 56 GRATITUDE for THANKSGIVING!

HAPPY THANKGIVING! We hope you all feel loved and that you have a lot to be grateful for. We were able to leave Wednesday morning to drive to Kansas City to spend the rest of the week with our son Ben, our daughter in law, Courtnie and grandson, Wells! We worked really hard on Tuesday to make sure the Visitor's Center and Jail grounds looked great.

We woke up Wednesday morning, packed and got into our car. To our DISMAY there had been a wind storm in the night and it had not only undid our work it added ten times as much debris!!! First we cried, then laughed maniacally from frustration, then WE WERE SO GRATEFUL to the Nauvoo Crew who came up with the vacuum truck and cleaned it up.

We are grateful we arrived safely to Kansas City, Grateful to find Ben and his family all well and happy. GRATEFUL to help him dig fence post holes for the picket fence he's building to keep little Wells Safe from the busy road that goes right by their front yard.

We were grateful to have such a delicious dinner!

AND to be able to play fun games with Courtnie's family Wednesday night and with Courtnie and Ben the other days.

We were grateful to go to the giving machines at the Union Station in Kansas City. Grateful to have the means to use the machines to buy people things that they couldn't provide for themselves.

SO FUN to go to the Christmas Tree Lighting party there as well.

WE were grateful to interact with our sweet grandson, Wells and create memories with him.

WE are grateful that we were able to attend Ben's Christmas Concert where he was able to play his cello! We were grateful to spend time with his family in natural and quiet ways.

We were grateful for the rainstorm that stopped us from digging fence posts on the second day and gave us time to lay backsplash tile in the kitchen! AND the rain kept the concrete moist so we didn't have to keep going out there and watering each post.

We are SO grateful that God blessed this project and our bodies that we finished mounting all the tiles on both walls in ONE day!!!

I don't have any finished pictures! BUT, I'll have Ben send one when the grout is finished so stay tuned for next week. We are grateful that we got back to Carthage safely.

Here's a link for a giving machine near you. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/welcome/christmas/light-the-world/giving-machines?lang=eng ALSO I have a new blog for stories I'm writing. Check it out here https://dreamsshehad.blogspot.com/2025/11/chapter-1-bit-of-good-fortune.html