Moore May Showers!

May has been a very different kind of month.  Colorado is known for having over 300 sunny days a year.  Well, we have had all cloudy, rainy days so far in May and this is the last week of the month!  This morning when I opened the blinds and the sky was blue and the sun was shining, I was smiling!  I am definitely a person who needs sunshine and blue skies!  But, as they say, with every cloud there is a silver lining!  Our silver lining is that it is incredibly green and beautiful here!!  Very lush and almost tropical (except chilly not hot).

The Lefthand Creek behind our house is quite high.  Last week, it was so high that we began to get alarmed and reset our sand bags around our fence and windows.  Luckily it has gone down some, but it is still high and very swift.  We know what it is like to live by a river now, not just a calm little stream.  Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are having a hard time swimming in the swift current.  Here they are taking a little stroll through the neighborhood.

We have had a lot of fun with our stake calling as missionary housing specialists.  We got to go to our zone conference this month which is all the missionaries serving in our stake (pictured below).  We got to do "10 Moore Minutes" with them so we shared some tips on cleaning and keeping the host families happy!  I stole Nancy's Minionaries idea and made them for our zone.  They loved them.  "Minion means follower, disciple, companion, devotee, helper, proselyter, and servant (of the Lord , in this case :)  Our missionaries are all of these things so out came the 'Minionaries'!"--from Nancy's blog.

This was the first year in many years that we haven't had a missionary to Skype with on Mother's Day.  It was kind of a sad thing, but I did get to Skype or Facetime with all the kids so it was a pretty special day.  I'm very blessed to be a mother of six wonderful kids and the stepmother of five wonderful kids and the mother-in-law of many wonderful kids!  My quiver is full and so is my JOY!

I miss my sweet mom on Mother's Day (and every day).  She and I were always very close and my kids were blessed to grow up with her nearby.
 

Longmont hosts several Art Walks starting in May and going through the Fall.  We went to the first one on a cold, rainy evening.  We didn't stay too long, but we had a fun time just strolling along Main Street and looking at all the talent that we have in our city.  We had pizza at a new place in town that had live music.  It was a fun time!

We have the missionaries living with us again!  Elder Johnson and Elder Welch are the zone leaders and we love having them here.  It is amazing what a great Spirit they bring into our home and we love having kids with us again!

This is a month of many goodbyes of some really good friends.  Gerilyn Brown has been a dear friend since before Eric was born.  She lost her dear husband, Lee, our friend and stake Patriarch, just over a year ago.  She has decided it's time to move nearer to her kids in Boise and to serve a mission!  We are excited for her but so sad for us!

Our good friend, Linda Christensen, was in Denver visiting her mom and came up to our ward for church.  She and Gerilyn came over for Sunday dinner.  It was fun to catch up with Linda and so hard to say goodbye to our Gerilyn!

Jenny and Glen Clawson and their kids are leaving our ward as well.  They are going to Lehi, Utah and we are going to miss them.  I'm sad Jenny has her eyes closed, but this is the only picture I took and I wanted to include them in my post.

Ryan and Maryann Soderquist are leaving us and moving to Boston!  They came to visit when we were on our mission and now they are moving out there.  He works for Amgen which is located a few steps away from our Cambridge apartment.  He and Mike served in the Bishopric together and as home teaching companions for a few years.  Maryann and I served on the RS committee together and we love their cute family so much! 

Life is full of change and grand adventures are in store for all of our friends who are moving on.  We are now praying for new families to move into our ward and it seems to be working!