The Big News!

We have been matched with a birthmother!  The baby is due November 26!

We met our birthmom, K, on June 8th.  She is such a beautiful girl.  We were so impressed by her.  She seems to be very confident and very strong.  We are so excited that she chose us and it just adds to our joy that she is the person she is.  She is just what we were hoping for in a birthmom!  And, her name begins with K so she fits right in with the family, hehe!

In primary I have been teaching the kids "Nephi's Courage".  On sugardoodle.net someone posted actions to the song so I learned them and have been teaching them to the kids along with the words.  They have absolutely loved it and really get into the actions.  Today I subbed for the Senior Primary and taught them the actions too.  There is one line that says "from the wicked Laban inside the city gates".  The action is to lean over like your asleep - pretending to be Laban asleep on the floor.  Some of the boys got really into this and would fall over on the floor and try to leap back up again for the next movement.  I really enjoyed watching them.  They did really well too and almost always got back up in time.

Allan got a new calling today.  He is now an Assistant Deacon's Quorum Advisor and Assistant Scoutmaster.  He is happy to be back in with the Young Men.  

We celebrated Allan's 27th birthday a couple of weeks ago.  He loves the homemade brownies that his mom makes so I made him his own pan and he has been enjoying those.  A couple of years ago Allan told me he wanted a manual for Microsoft Excel so that he could learn some of the engineering tools it has.  We couldn't afford it while we were in school though so I never got it for him.  This year we could finally afford it so I got it for him.  He had completely forgotten that he had wanted it so it was a really good surprise.  He's been having a blast looking through the book and learning all of the tools he can use to make his job quicker and easier.  I also got him a tie and a wallet.  His parents sent him some money and he spent it well this weekend on a Fondu pot!  Yum Yum! 

We were in Tucson this week for Allan's job.  They sent him to get some training on some computer software they use.  We were a little absent minded though and managed to forget a few things.

I brought my exercise clothes but not my exercise shoes.
We brought our scriptures but not our study journals.
Allan brought his keys but not his wallet!
We both forgot pajamas.
And, Allan brought an almost empty container of deodorant.

One emergency trip to Walmart  later and we were able to make it through the week, and Allan got a nice break from driving - and paying for things.  I am so used to Allan paying for things that we left one of the restaurants we ate at before the waiter came back with our credit card!  He chased us down in the parking lot though so everything worked out fine.

We tried to make the most of our trip by doing some shopping, visiting the Tucson Art Museum, and eating a lot of yummy food.  We tried to hit a different culture every night and we ended up eating Hawaiian, French, Thai, Greek, and Mongolian.  Allan loved the French food, but I think he enjoyed listening to the little old men in the booth next to us speak French even more.  I really liked the Greek cafe we went to, especially the baklava!

To celebrate having a baby Allan got me a massage.  It was WONDERFUL!  I have such a sweet husband.

My mom is working on a Vaudeville show for their community theatre and has enlisted me to help her a bit.  I've had a lot of fun so far brushing up on my theatre history and searching for some good acts.

 For Father's Day I surprised Allan with an appointment to the audiologist.  They are going to make some custom earplugs for him.  He's got really sensitive ears and uses earplugs during church so we're excited to get something that will work a little better for him.  I also got him some baby clothes! 

Happy Father's Day to all of you fathers out there!

Fun and Games

Allan's younger sister, S, came to visit for Memorial Day weekend.  We are really glad she came and had a lot of fun with her. We picked her up in Phoenix at the airport and then went to Colossal Cave. The cave tour was fun and the inside temperature of 70 degrees was a pleasant relief from the outside 100 degree weather. Allan helped point out all of the fault lines and showed us some of the different kind of rock.  I always really enjoy learning from him.

After we were done at the cave, we continued our trip on to Tombstone. They celebrate Wyatt Earp days every Memorial Day weekend, so we went and checked it out. We stayed in a hotel Friday night, and then spent all day Saturday walking around downtown Tombstone. There were mock street fights (which were hilarious!)

and a shooting gallery. S shot a gun for the first time. One day it will be real bullets instead of paintballs.  They both did really well though and hit their targets in the head and chest almost every time! 

Allan has been wanting to take me in an underground mine for a long time, and he finally got a chance to do it. We took a tour of an old underground silver mine. One of the best things about the tour was that their credit card machine ran out of paper right before we got there, and we didn't have much cash left, so the guy let us in for $5/person rather than $15/person. The mine was pretty cool to see and the tour guide did a good job. While we were there they told us about another mine tour that is a 2 1/2 hour hike crawling around in the smaller tunnels.  I want to go back and do that one! Allan isn't convinced yet though. ;)

We took a tour of the town in a old-fashioned trolley, looked through a bunch of shops, explored a museum, watched a comedy gunfight show, and went to the Boot Hill Cemetery where they buried everyone that died during the time that Tombstone was a booming mining town. The inscriptions on the headstones were definitely different from what you might see in other cemeteries. There were a lot of people that were killed by somebody else. One poor fellow's headstone said that he was taken for the wrong man and hanged as the truth of his identity was not learned until after his death.  A lot of headstones just said "Unknown" and only one that we saw said "Died a natural death".
 

We got home late Saturday night, and then took a slow Sunday of Church and not much else. Monday we got up and went on a tour of the mine that Allan works at. It's a very different mine from the one we toured in Tombstone. The tiny dark blobs in the picture are two-story tall haul trucks.  Allan showed us all of the cracks in the walls that he's been monitoring and showed us where they have begun digging a new pit.

After the tour we showed Sarah a housing development that we wouldn't mind living in someday, and then we went home and had a BBQ. We played Settlers of Catan that night for Family Night. It was S's first time, and she almost won despite our "help".

Tuesday Allan went to work while S and I watched a movie and went shopping. S taught me how to french braid and braid inside-out.  I've tried it on myself a couple of times and I keep getting stuck, I need someone to practice on! That night we went to the park and played croquet, Allan and I's new favorite game.  Allan beat S and I the first game when we were still only about 1/2 way through! 

This is Allan holding the ball for S to hit. We won't say how many times his foot got hit before she connected with the ball.:)  I recorded them doing this and now we have a hilarious video of Allan's true love for his sister!  When he loves somebody he never gives up on them! ;)

Wednesday S flew back home. We were so sad to see her go but we sure had a lot of fun with her while she was here.