OMG - Guess who got his DTG

Oh my goodness, Chase has finally finished his Duty to God requirements. Since the new Duty to God Program has been introduced, Chase was a bit cloudy on what he needed to do since he had earned the Deacon and Teacher certificates for Duty to God under the old program.

Well he buckled down with his Young Men's leader and his mom to get it all figured out. He had a big push the last 3 weeks before he turned 18 and was interviewed by his YMs President and then his Bishop.

Last Sunday he was awarded in Priesthood (this award is not to be given in Sacrament meeting, though it is equivalent to the Young Woman's Personal Progress which can be awarded in Sacrament meeting) without his mom present and I had just arrived from another ward in time to watch the Bishop award this to Chase.

The Bishop mentioned that Chase was the first one to earn this award in our Ward since the new program began. The medal/coin is pretty cool . . . but not as cool as the spiritual awards I'm glad my son now has from going through the steps of earning it. Congrats Chase!

Andrew "Guess who's son is giving a talk this Sunday on earning his DTG" Brown

Shed Raising Party

My sister Deirdre is tired of clicking on my blog and seeing my bloody finger so I'm updating my blog out of obligation . . . that and we just had a Shed Raising Party!

So my neighbor moved and was willing to sell us his shed. I talked my dad into helping me figure out how to get it moved (some dis-assembly required?). He figured we'd need to remove the roof, and each of the four walls . . . my dad's a realist. I'm an optomist and figured once we removed the roof we could get enough bodies on the shed to carry the rest of the shed over.

So here's the kicker, while my neighbor has an RV gate, I do not. I don't really have the need for one and wasn't ready to add an RV gate just to move this shed into our back yard . . . so that meant that everything needed to be picked up and raised above the block fence - hence the shed RAISING party.

So we started with moving the roof off the shed and moving it over the fence and off to the side. We did this with Glory and I, Leslie and Jacob, Deirdre and Wade, my three oldest kids and my dad (10 people in all). It was pretty tough to do and so I knew we had our hands full to move the rest of the shed.

I walked around the block and found all the neighborhood kids still hanging out playing sports and asked them to come and help us . . . 6 more bodies!! Together, the 16 of us lifted and carried the shed over to the wall, hefted it up way above our heads and set one side on the wall. Quickly 4 bodies ran around the fence to our backyard and we shifted the shed a few more feet. We continued this process until we were all over in our yard and then we set the shed in place. No one was hurt and no structural damage was made.

We let the neighborhood kids leave at that point, informing them that they had each earned a chest hair for their hard work. We then carefully placed the roof back in place and screwed the roof back onto the structure.

I'm guessing that the shed weighed about 1000+ pounds without the roof. So I'm grateful to my family for helping me make this a successful move and for the 6 young men that were so willing to help a neighbor in need (a cheap neighbor no less as they didn't may any $$ for helping). I'm glad I have a dad that is a realist but it pays to be an optimistic and know that sometimes you can just get that needed help from the very folks you see every day that you call your neighbors.

Andrew "glad no one got hurt" Brown