Spritual Happenings

I have the honor of attending two very special events in one week. First, on Sunday Richard and I took Adrienne to get her Patriarchal Blessing. All I can say is, WOW! OK, so I can say more. I am aware that I do not know everything about my dear teenage daughter, but I think its safe to say that I know her better than anyone else here on earth. But the Lord knows her even better than I and that was very obvious to me while listening to her blessing. The Patriarch only had a couple of minutes to talk to her beforehand, and yet the things he said about her made it very apparent that the Lord was speaking through him. It was a very lengthy blessing, just when I thought he was about to end it, he would continue on. I feel so blessed to have been there and am so excited to see what the future holds for my beautiful daughter. The promises made in that blessing were amazing!!

This coming Saturday Annalina will be "bath-tized" a member of the church. She was still saying it that way on the way to her interview with the Bishop, so we finally corrected her. She still slips up occasionally! Anyway, we are looking forward to this fun and exciting experience with our darling eight year old daughter. I will be writing more about that later! If you live in the area and can come, please do, it is Saturday the second of January at 3pm at the Hillsboro Stake Center.

Playing in a Melting Winter Wonderland

Any tension from the snow ordeal last night melted away as I watched Annalina and Joseph in the snow this morning. We walked the short distance to the church and played and played and played! I am not a play in the snow kind of person, but its hard not to when the kids are having such fun!

Driving In A Winter Wonderland

This afternoon Joseph had a B-Day party to go to for a friend near the old house. Since I was going to be in Hillsboro to drop him off, I set up a play date with Annalina's friend Megan so she could come over and see our new house and they could play without pesky brother around to bother them. Sounds like a great plan, right??

On the way home is started snowing, a light wispy kind of snowfall, by the time we were home, it was heavy and sticking to everything. No problem, it wasn't supposed to last, but would turn to rain in a short while, so the weather guys all stated. So the girls played and I kept an eye on the weather, an hour and a half later we had three inches on the ground and it was still coming down heavily. We set out earlier than planned and it was a good thing we did. The roads were slick ice where the tire tracks were. I tried to keep one side of the van in the snowy side of the road and we did ok. Baseline was crawling along and the car in front of me kept sliding all over the road and this was freaking me out a bit, so we turned off the main road and took the long way by the library and out Evergreen. It went pretty smoothly.

I am a pretty confident ice and snow driver, in my early twenties I drove from Seattle to Portland alone in a huge snow storm, the three hour drive took me about 9 hours, so I am fairly comfortable driving in the snow, but I am not so comfortable driving alongside those who haven't a clue what they are doing. It only took 45 minutes to get to Hillsboro and pick up Joseph. Then the fun begins....

I decided to take Evergreen home since Baseline was so bad earlier. We made it pretty well until we got to Cornelius Pass Road, it resembled a slug, inching along ever so slowly! After waiting for light after light, and seeing people driving horribly, cutting each other off, ignoring traffic signals, etc, I decided to cut across to 205th, which would lead us directly home. The road connecting to 205th was crammed with cars as well, and as we approached the turn I needed to take the incline was just enough and the ice was just thick enough that I could not get going again. The stop and go traffic turned to just stop for me!

OK, at this point, Joseph was warmly dressed, but Annalina had no coat and was wearing her crocks. I did not have a coat either. I have no cell phone. I admit, as the mother of a scout, I should have been better prepared! But who would have expected this?? It was supposed to be raining! Anyway, there was nowhere in walking distance for us to get to in order to call for help. So I tried and tried to get the van moving, but we got nowhere. Cars just went on around us. I backed up and tried again and again, but no luck. Another car was pulled over and this one man got out and tried to push my minivan to get it going. Not gonna happen, but I was grateful at least someone was trying to help! About that time I backed up to the curb to throw in the towel and maybe cry my eyes out, when a truck pulled along beside us and got stuck as well. Several times I thought he was going to slide right into us. Then yippee, a police car pulled up with his lights flashing. What a relief!!! I was outside the car to see if I could help the truck get moving and the police officer hopped out long enough to say, "try not to plug this road up, there's a huge line of cars trying to get through!!" As if we could not see that!!! And they were off. I was on the verge of tears again, Richard was working very late and it would have taken him hours to get to us, even if I could call him, which I could not. Oh, did I mention I really needed to pee? Oh yes, just to add to the drama.

I was about to go ask the car stuck in front of us if he had a cell phone when three young men passing by on foot asked me if I needed help. YES! They advised me to back up and take a right, through a neighborhood that exits onto the road I needed to be on. I wasn't sure I could get traction to make the turn, but they assured me they were there to help if I needed it. I made it but even then I remembered the downward hill we were facing to get home. I tapped the brake like crazy and was thinking how grateful I was we just had the brakes done on the van, even if it had just depleted our savings! When we got to the intersection before our house, we saw the steeple of the church and both kids were excited we were almost home. To my surprise, Richard was home when we got there. He had almost as fun an adventure as we had driving the 3 miles home from work. I could not get the car into the garage and wasn't even about to try again. He hopped in and pulled it into the garage for me.

The whole way home Annalina prayed for our safely, she prayed for me to drive well, and then she prayed for someone to help us when we were stuck. Hearing her prayers helped to calm me. I was so proud of her. I told her this when we got home and she said, "well Mom, I'm about to be baptized, I have to practice!" The kids were very brave and patient, considering they were both hungry and tired. They did not complain and the prayers were very helpful! I am grateful to be home. I did call Adrienne and tell her not to try to get home tonite, so they will spend an extra night at their dad's house. I would feel better having everyone home safe and sound, but at least I know everyone is safe. It sure is beautiful out there, but I don't think I will be going out again until its melted away!!

Just our luck....

Friday night I needed some help getting the garage sale ready. Richard has been working lots of extra hours in preparation for year end at both Tek and Fluke, and had to work from 6am to about 10pm Friday. But he carved out about an hour and a half to come help me set up. Early into that block of time, he was heading out to the garage with a box and stepped on a piece of cardboard on the second step down. His foot slipped and his ankle rolled and he fell onto a big pile of empty boxes, which may have saved him from more injury. However, he has a wicked looking swollen, bruised ankle to show for it! Sunday after church I took him to immediate care and they confirmed he has sprained his ankle. Poor guy! After hobbling around a couple of days, his buddy from work brought over his crutches and now at least he can get around without putting too much weight on it. It puts a bit of a damper on continuing efforts to finish up at the other place. On a positive note, our garage sale went well and now everything left over has been hauled to the DI trailer. The upstairs is completely empty and clean and we are well into getting the downstairs cleaned up as well. We spent a couple of hours there this morning and will go over again tomorrow morning. It seems I cannot handle more than a couple of hours there at a time. Too overwhelming!! But it won't be long now and we can focus on our new life!

Preschool Christmas Program

Last night was Joseph's preschool Christmas program. It was short and sweet and packed with people. The kids sang many songs, then were asked individually by the teacher what they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas. When she got to Joseph, well, here is what he asked for....



Yes, he said a notebook and a pencil. And I believe few kids received laughter AND applause for their answers!! You may be wondering, are we so poor that we can't afford paper and a pencil for our sweet little boy? Not true, however Santa may be able to find a really special one for him. Annalina is always writing and drawing in her notebooks(she's got quite a stack already) and he is fascinated by this. So he made up his mind a couple weeks ago that he really wants his own notebook and pencil. I think he will be pleasantly surprised Christmas morning!!
After the program the kids got to decorate cookies, make some ornaments and visit with Santa! Annalina was really shy and did NOT want to actually sit on Santa's lap. It was funny, she was telling him what she wanted from a couple of feet away. He could not hear her, so I urged her to sit for a photo! Oh, and she would like colored pencils for Christmas. The preschool kids had their photos taken by the teacher, so I will post that photo once I have it.
Reindeer Joseph with his purple frosting covered cookie! Looking a little tired! It was a big night!

Heading out to the car, looking a LOT tired! Merry Christmas!!

Isn't it Great? Annalina is Eight!!!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest little girl I know! Today is Annalina's eighth birthday! What a blessed eight years it has been. Annalina continues to bring such happiness into our lives and we love her so very much. Since Richard has to work very late tonight and the older kids have a temple trip this evening, we decided to celebrate and let her open her gifts last night. Richard and I spent the entire afternoon at the old house working in the garage, so Adrienne picked up the kids after school and took them home. She then made Annalina a birthday cake, a white cake with white frosting, at Annalina's request! When Richard and Igot home, I got dinner in the oven and we quickly wrapped her presents. There was nothing in the budget for birthday, so I was lucky to have thought to get prepared a while back. We had gotten her a baptism dress and she really likes it, it will be beautiful on her. I got her a gingerbread house, since she got one from the Consers last year and loved it so much, she asked for one this year too! And she got two barbies that I had ordered as a Kool Aid premium many many many years ago when Adrienne was little, but she was never into barbies. I found them while sorting through the garage and thought she would like them. And of course, she did! She named them Kathleen and Rosie. We have had a family tradition with the older kids that they get breakfast in bed on their birthdays. We did not do this with the younger kids since they were kind of young and with the bunk beds, it didn't seem like a good idea to have breakfast served way up there. This year Annalina was so excited at the thought of breakfast in bed. So I got up early and made her eggs and toast with applesauce and took it to her room. She was very happy! Happy Birthday Annalina, your family loves you more than you will ever know!!

Joseph, Just Joseph

Today in the car on the way to preschool Joseph said, quite out of the blue, "Mom, when we turn a thousand, we die" and I asked him why and his answer was "a thousand is the last number" so I explained how numbers go on forever and he seemed a little disappointed that his reasoning was not correct! He is so funny! At first I was not looking forward to taking him to preschool and back since its about a half hour round trip, but I treasure the time we have in the car together. Joseph has always had trouble with several letters and their pronunciations, especially the letter s and l. So we work on that in the car. The other day he said he wuved me and I asked him if he could say "el" and he tried so hard and just about every other sound came out of his mouth. I asked him to try la la la la. And he did and finally got it and the proceeded to say I ullll-ove you mom! He was so excited and it is absolutely adorable how he enunciates the L sound every time. So he started saying every L word he could think of, including lollipop and Leila, his cousin's name. He is doing great and still says ullll, at the beginning of every L word. Oh and he was very excited that now he could sing Jingle Bells in Spanish correctly-"Cascabeles, Cascabeles, tra la la la la"(they have been working on that for the preschool Christmas program coming up). Joseph has quite a video game addiction. He LOVES to play Spyro the Dragon and I have to be very careful, because if it was up to him he'd play 24 hours a day and while it would be nice to have him occupied for so long, I know it is not good for him. One day he was very grumpy when I told him it was time to turn it off, so he had a couple days off from playing(he has been pleasant about it ever since). Well after those couple days he came to me and said, "Mom, I will be so good today, I will be a thousand good, and I have already been 40 good, so I only have 20 more to go". You just have to love the logic of a four year old! In case you can't tell, I adore my Joseph. I adore all my kids, but the stage Joseph is in right now is so incredibly fun. I wish I keep him this age for a few years. He is still so loving and sweet and will come up and hug me and snuggle out of the blue. His mind is always thinking, I love the things he comes up with. He is nice to other kids and is very sharing with his things for the most part. Kids are such a blessing!

Settling In

So we have been living at the new place for a full week now. The first night was loud! People coming and going till the late hours. I was getting worried that we had traded our quiet little neighborhood for a thriving metropolis! But the following night was quiet and peaceful for the most part. We decided there were lots of people visiting for the holiday weekend and that contributed to the sounds. Our bedroom is also very light, which is a good thing, except for early in the morning when the sun shines right into our room. The good news is if we decided to bring in some plants, they should do great!

Annalina is adjusting well to her new school. We took her in the first day and sadly her teacher was out sick. But there was much excitement about "the new girl" and she had no problem making friends. She is in the advanced math and reading class. The second day Joseph and I walked her to school. We got there a bit early and I asked her if she wanted us to stay for the bell and wait outside the door with her, or leave. She looked a bit worried and asked us to stay, so we did. She insisted on walking home on her own that day and the next morning she was off on her own again. She feels so grown up and its just down the street and around the corner, so I feel ok about it. I am glad she is enjoying school so much. She does miss her friends from Patterson and I think a play date will be in order soon!
On moving day we had packed up most of what we wanted to move, with a few exceptions. But after moving it all of course there was still a LOT of stuff left, mostly in the garage. I have held off on working on it too much since I am trying to get prepared for my huge final in A&P tomorrow. Once that is over I will be spending most every day at the house sorting and tossing LOTS of stuff. I am hopeful it will be ready for a good cleaning on Thursday and then a garage sale this weekend. Then everything left will be hauled to DI and maybe we can get it on the market. It is a little depressing going back. Without the people and the things we cherish, a home is really just a house. When I am there, I find myself wanting to leave and go to the new place and work on making it ours. I am looking forward to being done over there so we can get unpacked and completely settled in.