Catching up...

July 24 - Allan has been inviting a friend from work to come to church with him all summer.  The Elders finally tracted into him and scheduled an appointment.  Allan had the opportunity to go with them and teach him a little more about the church.  It didn't really go anywhere, but it was a great experience and a huge blessing from the Lord.

July 27 - Allan went on a camp out with the Deacons (the 12 year old boys) in our ward.  It decided to rain all night long that night, but they managed not to get too wet even with the holes in the tent.  They went fishing the next day and caught several fish. The biggest accomplishment though was that nobody got seriously hurt.

While Allan was gone I babysat 3 little girls ages 3, 5, and 7.  The two older girls are super shy and will rarely speak or acknowledge others in public.  I was expecting them to be more comfortable at home but still have a relatively quiet night.  When I came to their house they were their normal shy selves.  Then their parents left.... It was like opening the flood gates!  As soon as their parents were out the door they started talking all at once and didn't stop until after I put them to bed!  They showed me all of their favorite toys and books and read some books to me, played hide and go seek, the My Little Pony game, and High Ho Cherry Oh, and then I read them some bedtime stories - all while they talked my ears off!  It was a blast, and I hope I get to watch them again in the future.  Our last round of hide and go seek I thought I'd make it easy on them and hide behind the kitchen curtains.  They are very thin and there isn't any space behind them so I thought they'd see the form of my body...and my feet and ankles poking out the bottom.  That turned out to be the best spot imaginable!  They searched and searched for me and finally resorted to yelling my name saying they couldn't find me (while they were standing in the kitchen!).  It took all I had not to bust out laughing.  I started to move the curtains back and forth.  It took them a while to see it and then one of them said very calmly "Oh look.  The curtains are moving.  I wonder if she could be behind them."  And then they talked about how it must be me because the sliding glass door wasn't open and there wasn't a fan on, then they came and moved the curtains.  Now I know that the best place to hide in hide and go seek is the place I think will be most obvious!

July 30 - We got a call asking if we could do Foster Care Respite for two little girls ages 2 and 1.  We would care for them 24/7 Aug 5-11.  We would need to get certified in a week.  We said yes.  I know, we're crazy, but we thought it would be fun and a good chance to see how child friendly our house is!

August 2 - We found out that they found someone else that was already certified for respite care.  We were bummed and relieved because that week was going to be busy for us anyway.

August 4 - I went to a 2yr old's birthday party and had a water fight with some little ones.  So fun!

August 5 - For Primary we did the Olympics.  I can't take any credit for this (or really anything else I do since I get most of my ideas from other people's blogs) because the Primary President started this with the kids on the last Sunday in July.  She gave me all of her stuff, and I continued it this week.  It was super cute and a ton of fun.  I chose different children to be judges for each event, and they really enjoyed telling us if we got a gold, silver, or bronze medal.  I am happy to report that we got mostly Gold medals!  Woot! Woot!  It also gave me a good idea about what songs and verses the children knew best and which we need to work on some more.

August 7 - I helped a friend clean out a little old ladies house.  She has recently been moved to a nursing home to get better care.  Always fun to serve!

August 8 - We made a trip to Phoenix to visit K and go to a birthmother support group with her.  It was an amazing experience, and I wish that I could go every time they have one.  These women have gone through quite the trials, and I am so amazed at their strength and faith to overcome.  We really enjoyed seeing K and her mom again and are excited to spend some more time with her on the 18th.  More on this in another post.

August 9 - Helped a friend clean her house.  She's pregnant and super sick.  That morning her little boy got stung by a scorpion!  Poor little guy.  So I went over and helped her clean up a little to see if we could find (and get rid of) any other scorpions that might be lurking about.  We didn't find any, but her house looked great afterward, and since her son was on benadryl and slept most of the day, she got a much needed rest that evening.

August 10 - For the first time in several years Allan beat me at checkers!  It was a monumental occasion and (although I was sad to end my winning streak) we had a great celebration for him.  Streamers, brownies, ice cream, a parade.....just kidding.  I did wish him a hearty congratulations though!

August 11 - We re-stocked our food storage and now have a full 6 month supply.  Woohoo!  Now to figure out how to put it all away....

Present - Today in primary we worked on the second verse of I'm Trying to be like Jesus.  I found a really cute idea on sugardoodle.net and promptly stole it (or used it rather).  One of the children came up and looked at themselves in a mirror and then at a picture of Jesus and told what they had in common - two eyes, a nose, etc...   and then I asked all of the children in general "Who has two eyes like Jesus", etc.  They were all so excited that they looked like Jesus.  I talked to them about doing good things so they would look like Jesus in their countenances.  Then I used that idea to learn the song asking them to listen for ways to do good things and be like Jesus.  At one point I asked "What are some lessons Jesus teaches us?"  The little girl I used to babysit, M, says "Don't go outside, you have to not go outside alone when your mom doesn't know."  A couple of questions later I asked "What do we need to watch for?" (the song says watch for the day of gladness...) and M says "Watch out to not go outside alone when your mom doesn't know."  Little M must have gotten into some trouble this weekend and it was fresh on her mind!  The kids had a lot of fun and I think they learned the song pretty well.  I lost my voice about half way through though so we'll see how they do next week.

I also subbed for the 6 year old class today which was a lot of fun.  But, I forgot to give them the snack their teacher asked me to give them.  Oops.

The lesson in Deacons Quorum this week was on respecting women.  The brother who was teaching the class asked "How can you respect women?" One of the deacons promptly answered "Just listen and keep your mouth shut!"  the only other answer was "Obey".  Sounds like they'll do well in life.  Haha! Also, just to prove that they are boys, when asked what their mothers do for them, most of their answers had something to do with how their mothers feed them. Speaking of that, I need to go feed Allan.:)

The Fairest of Them All... Sort of...

I babysat some cute kids on Monday.  While we were playing a game one of the boys looked up at me and said "You're like Snow White.  Hair as black as ebony...well sort of...on that side"  (Which was the side the sun wasn't shining on. HAHA)  He got interrupted but I imagine he was going to say "skin white as snow and lips red as blood".  I guess I need to work on my tan.  But, if he wants to compare me with the woman known as "the fairest of them all" I am definitely okay with that. ;)

This weekend our city celebrated Pioneer Day.  They go all out here.  The Pioneer Day celebration is bigger than the Independence Day celebration!  This year there was a rodeo, a dance, a parade, a lot of food,  a pageant, and fireworks.  It was a really fun weekend. 

We started by going to the rodeo and happened to see one of our friends children in the barrel racing competition.  She was VERY good!  She turned sharper than any of the other competitors, but she wasn't quite as fast as a couple of them. We left right after her because it started pouring down rain.  We went to the dance and learned a new line dance.  We both love to dance and really enjoyed practicing the steps we learned in the class we took last summer.  Thank goodness Allan has such a good memory.  I had forgotten almost all of them!

We went to the rest of the festivities with some friends of ours and enjoyed watching their sweet little girls.  Things are always so much more fun when kids are involved because they find magic in so many little things.
Here are a couple of our favorite floats.

I think this guy was my favorite though.  I didn't get the best picture but he was laying down on his horse with arrows sticking out of his back.  He rode his horse backward quite well!

 

The pageant was great.  They all had great singing voices.  They square danced and performed one of the youth dances from the Temple celebration a few years ago.  They reenacted several stories like the Sweetwater Rescue, and told other stories that we hadn't heard before.  I actually cried twice.  If you know me well you know I don't cry easily.  

We enjoyed the fireworks too, especially when our friend handed us some earplugs.  The fireworks were really close to where we were sitting so it was pretty loud.  There was a slight breeze so after the fireworks exploded we could see their ashes slowly floating away - it was very pretty.  We were also grateful for the breeze because it saved us from the ash falling onto our heads.

Allan's custom earplugs came in and are working great!  He no longer comes home from church with a huge headache!  Hooray for modern technology!

I did bubble wrap again in primary this week.  The kids were so excited they literally couldn't stay in their seats.  As we sang some of them would slowly creep up, hoping that I wouldn't see them, and then try to stomp on the bubble wrap.  I also introduced a singing ear - one of the teachers would walk down the hall while we were singing, listening to see how far they could be heard, then tape the ear to the wall to mark the spot.  I told the kids to walk around the church after class to see how loud they were.  They were very excited about seeing it.  It failed though because someone stole the ear before church got out!  Who would want to steal a big blue ear?  I'm going to try again next week, hopefully it won't get stolen again.

A Mom and A Dad

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to babysit for a woman who recently went through a divorce.  She has great kids and I had a lot of fun with them.  While we were playing a game one of her boys asked me if I was having a baby.  I told him that we hoped we would be receiving one in November.  Then he said, "So your pregnant."  I said I wasn't pregnant and he looked at me like "How is that possible!?"

Trying to explain adoption to young children can be really hard and very confusing.

I told him that there was another girl that was pregnant and that she was thinking about placing her child with Allan and I.

He asked, "Why would someone do that? Doesn't she want her baby?"

I told him that she absolutely wants her baby.  She loves her baby very much and wants it to have the best and happiest life possible.  She wants her baby to have a mom and dad to take care of it, so she's thinking about placing it with us.

Then he smiled his understanding and said, "That's what we want, a mom AND a dad."

We then had good talk about divorce, I told them that my parents are divorced but my parents married again and now I have four loving parents instead of just two!  They seemed to receive some comfort from that and they told me how they hoped their mom would get married again.  I told them I hoped so too.

Having a mom and a dad is one of the biggest reasons women place their babies for adoption.  Often times they have the ability, through their own means or help from family, to parent their children.  It's not that they don't want their child - they do.  It's not that they don't think they could do a good job as a parent - they can.  It's not that they aren't enough - they are.

But they want their child to have a mom and a dad.

Two parents who love each other and have a good relationship with one another. This is what we hope to give to a child.

"Does my Mom know?"

Allan and I had a lot of fun this week.  We started the week off with a game of croquet for Family Night.  Allan beat me soundly the first game.  The sun had started to go down so for the second game we raced each other instead of taking turns.  I beat Allan on that one - but just barely.  We went and got some ice cream that night too, to celebrate our freedom from school loans!  Hooray!

We made some chocolate chip cookies on Tuesday for Allan to bring to work and they were delicious!  I was so relieved because I ALWAYS mess up on chocolate chip cookies.  When I make them they are always flat and hard.  Thankfully Allan was there to help me this time and everything went well.  They were a big success at work!

I made Grandma's sugar cookies on Wednesday - they turned out great too!  I had good luck in the cookie making area this week.  Thank goodness for the Lord's tender mercies!  The little girl I used to babysit broke her leg so I took the cookies over to her on Thursday and we frosted them together along with her brothers and sister.  I really enjoyed being with them and they really enjoyed the cookies!  Unfortunately I left them with a messy house and bellyaches!  They just couldn't stop eating those cookies.  I left to their dad saying "Wow, these are reeeally gooood!!" Grandma's cookies never fail to please! Allan wants to say - Especially when Kami makes them! 

I got to do some volunteer work this week as well and that was a lot of fun.  They do a food drive here on the second Wednesday of every month.  A semi full of food from a food pantry in Tucson comes down to one of the ball parks.  We help unload the truck and then hand it out to the people as they drive by in their cars.  It is me, a couple of elderly women, a couple of men, and all of the missionaries in the area.  I have gone once before and planned on helping every month but we have been out of town the second week of every month since I last went!  They were surprised to see me again!  Hopefully I'll be able to go more often in the future.

On Saturday we had lunch with a man that Allan works with who is from Sierra Leone.  He made us a delicious African meal and sent us home with leftovers!  It was so yummy!  He also showed us some pictures of where he lives - which is gorgeous - and of his beautiful family.  He is here working on a Ph.D.  He and his wife have 4 children the youngest of whom was born after he left and he has never met.  He will be here for at least 3 more years and they don't have the money for visits with in that time.  Hearing his story made me very grateful for the opportunities our country provides us.  I am so amazed at the sacrifices that some people make for the betterment of themselves, their family, and their countries.  It makes the sacrifices we have made seem so very small.

At church today one of the little boys rushed up to me to show me that he had remembered to bring his scriptures.  I told him how proud I was of him and then told him I would be babysitting him tomorrow.  He got very excited about it and started talking about how much fun we were going to have together and then he stopped and said "Does my Mom know?"  I love kids so much!  They are hilarious!  I assured him that his mom definitely knew!

Allan surprised me with some beautiful flowers this week!  They are so cheerful and really brightened up our home!

IT'S A GIRL!

On Tuesday we went and visited K and her mom, M, again for K's ultrasound.  We are so thrilled to be inviting a little girl into our family!  Here's to frills and lace and all things girly!  Hooray!

The first thing she did was give us a big wave!  Then she yawned - which of course was adorable!  She looks like such a beautiful healthy baby girl and we can't wait to meet her!

We had so much fun with K and M and got to meet one of K's cousins too!  We loved meeting another member of their family!  Allan's parents got to come with us and meet K, M, and K's cousin also.  We went out for ice cream after the ultrasound and got to talk for a little while.  It never seems long enough.  We can't wait to see them again!

I tried Bountiful Baskets for the first time last week.  We got a lot of really good produce and I am excited to continue doing it!  It is a lot of food though for just the two of us so I will probably only do it every other week instead of every week.

Allan's parents came down to visit us for the week.  We had some banana squash in the freezer that we needed to use up so Allan made banana squash pie - which is a tradition at Thanksgiving for his family.  We decided that we would make 3 pies and started to get everything out that we would need.  Then we realized that we only had one pie tin.  So we went to the store and bought two more.  Allan continued making the pie while I started on the pie crust.  I got about half way through the pie crust when I realized that I needed an egg for it and we didn't have any!  So, off I went to the store again.  When I got back Allan was done with the pie filling and was waiting on me to finish the crust.  I got the crust finished and was rolling it out when I realized that I forgot to double the recipe and I put in too much salt.  Sheesh!  By that time it was 10:00pm and the pies take a while to bake so we decided we should just go to bed and finish the next day. 

The next day I made another pie crust and everything seemed to be going smoothly.  My pie crust recipe said that you should put pans under the pies so that they don't boil over and drip on the oven.  So I did.  We cooked the pie for the specified time and pulled them out of the oven only to find that the top was well done but the bottom was still raw.

To end a long story the pies ended up being a little on the over-cooked side.  His parents were still thrilled to eat them though!

Allan took us on a tour of the mine and the mine's processing plant which was a lot of fun, as always.

We also went to the Temple and did sealings.  We wanted to get a picture of all of us together so I went up to this elderly couple that had just come out of the Temple.  While I was walking up to her she got this huge smile on her face, opened her arms wide, gave me a great big hug and said "How are you?!  I haven't seen you in so long!"

I have never seen this sweet lady in my life.

There is a girl who lives in a town near ours that looks a lot like me.  I have been mistaken for her several times since we moved here.  People say "hi" to me wherever I go!  I thought that this place was just extra friendly until I realized that they thought they had grown up with me!  That's not the first hug I've gotten either!  I'm sure it won't be the last!  Good thing I like hugs!

I said I was fine, asked her how she was, and then asked if she would mind taking a picture for us.  When she left she looked very confused - probably because Allan was not who she was expecting to be my husband!  I'm so grateful that she took the picture though!

For Independence Day we barbequed and played games and Allan and his dad worked on our car a little bit.  We had so much fun with Allan's parents and were so sad to see them go.  Hopefully we'll see them again soon!

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.