The best way I know how to describe my Max:
"Max is a party. Wherever the MOST fun is at any given moment, that's where he is at. (And it sometimes gets him in trouble😁)."
But he did not get in trouble this time. He IS the "Heritage Hype Man" fulfilling his duty. He is his school's biggest supporter--and they LOVE IT!
We had a FANTASTIC summer but now it's back to school for Max Tatum, & Me!!!
Quick backstory recap: Call it a mid-life crisis but I NEEDED a change in my life. My kids are growing up and I'm about to loose my 3rd kid and I HATE IT!!! I also wanted to start using other parts of my piano brain and get back to performing. So I saw that Heritage was hiring a part-time accompanist so I applied--had to make up a resume and everything as I haven't worked outside my home in 22 years:). I had to go through an interview AND an audition--there were three people applying for this job. I was offered the job of the Heritage Academy Choir Accompanist and I accepted. I cut back to teaching piano to only 3 days a week (instead of 4) and now I get to go to my kiddos school for a couple hours every day. Neither one of them are even in choir but that's okay. I get to "insert" myself into their lives, I get to be a part of their school (which I LOVE), and I get to see them in action and watch Max crush his Senior year. So I'm happy. Look at my beautiful #3 and #4 babies: Tatum in 10th Grade and Max in 12th Grade.
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| Senior Year (2022) |
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| 1st Day of Packer Preschool (2008) |
It's hard to rank my most favorite thing about serving in the Branch but our Missionaries were definitely way up there. I swear, they sent THE BEST out to our Branch and we had many opportunities to work closely along side them and feed them most weeks (some weeks more than once). We LOVED having the missionaries in our home. It was always my goal that the missionaries could come in our home and just be comfortable--just be a normal teenage boy at home for a Sunday dinner. I think we accomplished this most weeks. Dinner conversations were wild at times but gosh we had the best laughs with our Branch missionaries.
Two of our favs--Elder Miller & Clark (both from UT)--came back to AZ this past weekend for a visit and they stayed with us in our home. It was AMAZING having them back in our home as normal guys this time. We of course fed these giants (Miller is 6'9" and Clark is 6'4") and many more laughs were had. Max & Ashton E. (both young men in the Branch) spent the most time with these guys. They played a lot of basketball--both on a court and in our pool--and even went to Golfland Sunsplash for a night out. We laugh that Max at 6'3" was the "baby" of the group (because Ashton is 6'7")😂
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| Laser Tag Names??? |
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| Frog on the Golf Course... |
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| Bumper Boats--Ultra competitive apparently:) |
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| Late night swimming & milkshakes |
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| Poor Miller was the first to fall asleep😂 |
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| "If returned w/out proper use: 2% interest monthly and needs to be returned in person in cash💗" |
So I had no intentions of having 3 kids get their wisdom teeth out in a 3 month time period but here I am. Ethan is now 20 and was going to be home for several months so I decided to just get his out this past April before his internship with Intel began in May. He only had 3 wisdom teeth so no big deal. Well, my poor Ethan is a bleeder and I had one of the scariest few minutes ever with him after his surgery. We were about a mile away from our home when I looked over at him in the passenger seat. He looked at me and BLOOD, LOTS of it, rolled out of his mouth and down his chin and all over his chesr/shirt. I was seriously panicked for about 2 minutes (that felt like an eternity). I contemplated just heading to an Urgent Care but decided to get him home to see what I could do. And the poor guy just kept asking me over and over again, "Mom...is this my fault? Is this my fault???" BROKE.MY.MOMMA.HEART.💔. Well, after getting him home and Max helping me get him inside and settled in my bed, we got the bleeding to stop. He did have to change his shirt and I brought over a small trash can for him to spit blood into (so he wouldn't swallow it and make himself sicker). I had to go get his medicine and Max was begging me NOT to leave him there to watch Ethan alone--he was more scared than I was. But I assured him he would be fine and that I wouldn't be gone long--and everything was fine from that point forward. Ethan actually healed very well with no infections/dry sockets and very little swelling. This was the only pic I took of the event that I called, "The Murder Scene": (the dark liquid in the trash can is about 2 inches of blood/saliva).
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| Throwing "Gang Signs..."😎 |
Last month (June), we were released from our service in the Santan Branch after 3.5 years--but then asked to keep serving thru the end of July. LOTS of emotions for sure. We have worked harder than we ever have before and some days it seems like little progress was ever made. These past 3.5 years have been full of ups and downs but overall, an AMAZING opportunity for our family.
This month of July has been CRAZY out in our little Branch. We feel like the Lord wants to be SURE that we have given our all and that we are still willing to be squeezed even more. Our Primary President, Sis. Pablo, has had a rough year to say the least. First, back in February of this year, her son was stabbed in the head and had surgery to have the knife tip (that had broken off in his skull) removed. He miraculously pulled through. Then her 40 year old nephew had a massive heart attack in June and dies. THEN her son, who survived the knife attack, was then hit by a car in Coolidge and was once again in a life or death situation. However, this time he passed (after an excruciating week of tough decisions). So with all of this going on, we haven't seen much of Sis. Pablo at church and our other Primary counselor has been working and traveling a lot this summer. So I've kinda been running the Primary on my own for the past 6 weeks--I even pulled in my Tatum to play piano for me one Sunday. NEXT our Branch President comes down with COVID this past week so he is unable to conduct or be at the funeral for Sis. Pablo's son. So Chris had to step up. He helped to conduct the funeral, drove the casket in his own truck out to the Blackwater Cemetery--about a 20 minute drive from our Branch building, and then he dedicated the grave and ran the services there. (I just played piano and rode in the truck with him out to Blackwater). Some of the most interesting things we've EVER been asked to do but how happy we were to do it. I just HAD to get a couple pics because honestly, how often does this happen AND will it ever happen again?! A permanent memory of mine forever now.
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| Bro. Germaine & Bro. Meeker just "winging it" and doing a GREAT job! (See the blue casket in the truck bed on the right???) |
So here is a quick summary of a few of MY TOP 10 most memorable/treasured experiences of the past 3.5 years (that I don't think can or will happen anywhere else):
1-My boys helped dig Bro. Sweed's grave
2-Dogs in our Sacrament meetings--multiple times🐕
3-A Cat at "Scary Larry's" baptism🐈
4-Drunk/high people at our building
5-Our Primary Program that we pulled off in Oct of 2021 when we weren't allowed to sing:)🔔
6-The other Ward members we served along side--hard work develops strong bonds💪
7-My Primary Kiddos💗
8-The Missionaries we served with and fed almost weekly--some were like our own sons:)💙
9-Saving 178 puppies and their mommas🐶🐶🐶
10-Loading up a casket in the back of my husband's truck and driving it to Blackwater
We will be returning to our home ward next month and while I am excited to see my old friends and jump back into our normal church life here in Chandler, I will definitely miss our little Branch building and members of our little Branch. My kids are worried that our "White Ward" is gonna be "SOO BORING!"😂 I will cherish these years forever. 💗💗💗
You know it's a good year when you get to see some of your most FAVORITE PEOPLE OF ALL TIME TWICE!!! Last July, we were able to meet up with Jill & Rob in South Carolina on our trip and then they were on our side of the US this summer so we met up again--and this time we got a picture!!!
Jill and I kinda knew each other growing up because the Deming Ward was part of the Silver City Stake in NM. So we had some interactions with each other at Girls Camp and other events but not a lot. Well, it was the middle of my 2nd year at NMSU and I was facing some tough decisions. Things with my long time/high school boyfriend were NOT going well. I had been rooming with my best friend from high school but she was getting married at Christmas--and we were kinda getting tired of each other too. I was also trying to decide if I should transfer to UNM because they had the major I wanted and at this point I had actually already applied to UNM, been accepted, and got my credits all transferred. But when I went up to Albuquerque for a campus visit, I left in tears because I hated it! I couldn't explain why, I just couldn't see myself there. So my mind was ALL over the place and I just couldn't make a decision. Then one day at church, Jill walked up to me and asked what I was doing the next semester for a roommate--because she knew mine was getting married. I told her that I was most likely going to just keep my dorm and pay the "single" rate. That's when she asked, "Can I live with you???" I of course said "YES!" and in an instant, my mind felt at ease. I knew I was staying at NMSU and I knew that I would be living with Jill. She was an answer to my prayers.
That semester living in our huge "barn room" (#207 Rhodes Hall) was probably my most favorite semester ever. Jill was a fabulous roomie and because I was living with her, this strange boy from New York hung around A LOT too😉. Rob and Jill were just so awesome to be around and boy we had lots of laughs and FUN that semester. Then Rob left on his mission to France and I was able to talk Jill into moving in again with me for the next year in Apartment #2. So all in all I got to live with Jill for 1.5 years and I consider her one of my bestest friends of all time. Just love her (and "Slobby Robby) to pieces and was so glad to see them TWICE in a year.
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| Jill, Tara (another roomie from Apt 2), & Me |
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| Rob, Jill, Tara, & Me |
We did our best squeezing everything in our last two days in Italy. We decided to go to Vatican City/Sistine Chapel on Saturday (since they are closed to the public on Sundays). Vatican City is considered a different country in and of itself--it is HUGE. We walked all over it and even climbed to the top of St. Peter's Basilica--almost as many steps as the Eiffel Tower!
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| St. Peter's Basilica |
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| Views from the top |
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| The Swiss Guard |
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| Elder Garrity & Max |
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| Max showing his "mussels" while eating "mussels." |
