Mark passed his oral exam this week!! He has been studying for weeks but was still nervous about it. On April 1, he met with his committee members over Zoom and they each asked him questions. He felt it went very well. After the exam he left the Zoom meeting so the professors could decide if he passed. He went to Dr. Conover’s office and he and the other professors (still on Zoom) told Mark he passed! Mark asked if it was an April fool’s joke which everyone chuckled about. Now that he has passed he can apply to be a PhD candidate. He’s been doing all this studying on top of his other class work and research so it will be a relief to have one less thing on his plate.
Mark and I decided we wanted to celebrate Holy Week this year. We used the book “The Holy Week for Latter-Day Saint Families” by Wendee Wilcox Rosborough. Each day we read about the events the week before Christ died, looked at the artwork, read scriptures, and chose an activity to complete.
On Palm Sunday we wrote blessings on a “palm” leaf.
On cleansing the temple Monday we walked around the temple block. It was really nice to be near the temple even though we couldn’t go on the grounds.
On parable Tuesday we talked about the example of the Good Samaritan and dropped off a treat and uplifting quote to a ward member. We did our Passover meal on Wednesday because we didn’t know how long Mark’s exam was going to take on Thursday (it ended up taking two hours). Our Passover meal really wasn’t traditional, but it was our first attempt and it was neat to learn about the different foods and what they represent. I had to run all over town to find lamb to buy and finally ended up with ground lamb from Walmart. So we sort of had lamb burgers on flat bread with horse radish sauce haha.
On Thursday we read about betrayal Wednesday and looked for opportunities to serve each other. We celebrated Good Friday with a fish dinner (ok it was actually shrimp… A for effort, right?). We also dyed Easter eggs!
Saturday was Salvation Saturday. We decided to write letters to AJ and Tanya, our nephew and niece serving full time missions. We also enjoyed watching general conference all day!
Just for fun on Saturday morning we hiked the Bonneville Shoreline trail. This is my favorite hike because the view is beautiful and it’s flat-which is my kind of hiking.
Between sessions of conference on Saturday we went to my parents’ for a little picnic. My sister Marisa was visiting them for a couple days so it was fun to see her as well.
The Easter Bunny made a stop at our house on Saturday too! Mark got a new shirt (he needs new clothes now that he has achieved his weight loss goal!), Home Improvement on DVD, a shooting handbook, and a gift card to Jamba Juice. I got the first three illustrated Harry Potter books (they’re soooo pretty. I looked at every picture!), a pastry mat, a can opener, and a Denman brush (a brush I just learned about for curly hair). In attempts to be healthier, we asked the Easter bunny to use nuts for our bunny trails with just a little candy rather than doing the trail 100% candy like usual.
Flynn got a trail of treats and a new toy!
Our Story: The Bell Family 