The Happy Caterpillar and the Chicken

A few weeks ago, we bought the Babe some sidewalk chalk. It was on back to school sale and I thought it would be fun for him. The hubby and him went out in our entryway that day and drew a bunch of pictures and it was fun because people would comment on them as they came into our house. I guess the Babe got quite attached to 2 of these pictures, the happy caterpillar and the chicken as he named them because when it rained the other day he notice how they were gone. He doesn't quite understand what happened and so now for 2 or 3 weeks he has been asking me where the happy caterpillar and the chicken went. I tried telling him that the rain washed them away but he is still holding onto these crazy sidewalk drawings. I guess I don't understand how he could get attached to something so silly as chalk figures but not a stuffed animal or blanket.

New Church Calling

Today at church, I was given a new calling. I am now the Visiting Teaching Coordinator. This means that I help take care of all the visiting teaching companionships in the ward and help with the reports on how many of the sisters were visited ect. I'm really excited about this! I have been a V.T. supervisor before but never served as the coordinator. I love serving the sisters in our ward and hope that through the V.T. program I can help them. I wasn't lucky enough to get released from being the organist so I still get to that. But it's not so bad playing the organ every 3rd month. It's kind of fun because Russ is the 2nd counselor in the elder's quorum which is in charge of Home Teaching and now I'm in charge of Visiting Teaching. I guess the Lord has us in the right places!

I got set apart today and in the blessing he mentioned a few things that I wanted to note. The first one I think is funny more than inspiring. He blessed me to be 'a more efficient and effective mother.' I think the word efficient is funny. But I need all the help I can get in being a good mother so I'll take it. The other thing I liked was that he blessed me that I would be able to be healthy through the rest of this pregnancy and that everything would go well with the birth of this baby. I was just reassured that everything is going to be fine and I needed that. Yesterday the bishop as me to summarize this story in the Ensign about a woman who delivered her baby really premature and had complications. I freaked out of course. When I read the article in the first place, I wondered why they include stories like that. But the bishop assured me that he didn't ask me because he felt prompted to because I was going to have problems. I guess I'm getting nervous about this delivery already (6 weeks left). The last thing he said in the blessing that I liked was he blessed me that through serving the sisters in the ward that my relationship with my husband would be strengthened. I think that is neat. I don't understand how it works but I have a testimony that it does. And anything that strengthens our marriage is something that I want to do.

New Niece

We are thrilled that my new niece is here! She is healthy and good sized. I got this picture from my dad and my auntie and I were noticing that it sure does look like she has 6 toes and 6 fingers on her left foot and hand. But he assures me that it's an illusion. They counted and there's only 5 finger and 5 toes on each hand/foot. But congrats to my sister-in-law and brother!

Lesson Update

The lesson I taught last Sunday is successfully over which is great! I wasn't nervous at all! In my preparation, I read through my patriarchal blessing. In it, it says that was given the gift to teach by the spirit. I have never held a calling where I had to teach on a regular basis. Like I said before, I have only ever taught 1 relief society lesson before in my life. But on Sunday, I really felt like the spirit was there helping teach. It was neat! I actually ran out of time and didn't get to teach most of the stuff I had prepared. It was really cool to watch the sisters and help them learn.

One of the best parts happened when my visiting teachers came over this week. One of the ladies has a daughter that's like 20ish. She had just gotten released from a nursery calling on Sunday and came to relief society for the first time in a year or so. She hadn't been exposed to much of it before anyway being so young. Her mother told me how she came home from church and talked about the lesson and how it had helped her make some important decisions. It was sweet to here this mother talk about her daughter's experience and how happy she was with her decisions.

Our relief society only has 1 person called as a regular teacher and the rest of the time they just ask different people to teach. So it's not a calling, which is a relief! Overall, I'm glad it's over and it was a good one-time experience.

It's a Boy, no it's a girl, no it's a Boy!

Los Angeles Trip

We are exhausted but had a great time in LA this weekend! We left yesterday afternoon and drove the 4 hours to LA (yes it's 4 hours not 3 like people said). We stopped on our way into town at IKEA because the Babe was restless. What a fun store! Neither of us have ever been there before and besides their weird layout and confusing way to find things, it's kind of a cool place! The hubby says it's very European. Anyway we ended up picking out a dresser for little Lily McKay (or Gondwana we'll see).

We then drove like mad to make it to the 3rd inning of the baseball game. We saw the Dodgers play the Cardinals. Couple of fun things at the game. We'd just been there a few minutes when two guys 8 rows in front of us stand up and just start punching each other! It was crazy! Well actually one of them was doing all the punching the other was taking it. But 1 guy left with a few nasty bloody cuts and the other left we think for good. The other funny thing was the Babe saw for probably the first time a lot of people with cups of beer. We of course don't drink and haven't been to too many sporting events where people were drinking. So we were confused when he kept asking for apple juice but finally putting 2 and 2 together realized that he thought everyone was drinking apple juice instead of beer. Now that's an advertising slogan.

We exhaustedly checked into our hotel at like 11:00 but the place was pretty fun! We booked out room at hotwire.com and didn't really know what to expect. It was this cool skyscraper downtown called the Westin. We were on the 26th floor (of 32) and our room had floor to ceiling windows on one side the looked out to the other skyscrapers downtown. This morning, the Babe and hubby watched the people washing the windows on the skyscraper next to us (that's a job I don't want).

This morning we ventured across town some more to Santa Monica beach. I love the beach! I could seriously live close to the beach (not in So. California though). We played in the water, built sand castles and walked on the pier. I am sad to admit that we didn't fish on the pier; it was pretty much all homeless people fishing there. I will admit it was hot and we all got a little to much sun. The only drawback is driving 4 hours (which turned into 6 with shopping and stuff) with sandy bums. Note to self: if we make this mini-vacation again flip flop the days and go to the beach when you have a shower to go to at the end of the day and do the baseball game just before you go home.

We were blessed on our trip home. Just outside of San Bernadino (in San Bernadino national forest) there were forest fires that came very very close to the road. They were on the other side of the freeway from us but when we drove by they had come within 10 feet of the road but had been put out. The flames that were burning were close but not that close. The other direction of driving was grid locked for 15 miles!! We were sure glad that we weren't going that way. We wondered if they finally just closed down the freeway or what.

But we home and safe and tired. Tomorrow is the big lesson at church and so I better go get my beauty rest.

Legal and Redeemed

I am thrilled to announce that I finally redeemed myself and became a legal resident of Nevada. If you move here and are under the age of 25 (yes I'm that young barely), then you have to pass the written test again. Because I am completely stubborn, I refused to study for it. I took it twice about a year ago and failed by 1 question both times. I passed yesterday (note: without studying) with 6 extra questions to spare (it kicks you out as soon as you get enough to pass). I do have to question how they made up that stupid test. I mean who actually knows how many feet you have to signal before passing (100, 200, 300, or 500). I would just like to see people actually signal at all!

Today I did notice something. My son is very smart! I mean unusually smart for a 2 1/2 year old. Of course all mothers will say that about their kid. But mine is! He named 4 cartoon characters from a show he watched once! And their names were Leo, Annie, June and Quincy (not typical names). I couldn't even do it. Most of the time his smartness is annoying (like how he knows the exact sound of me opening anything sweet) but today I guess it was cute.



Thirteen Things we are going to do this weekend:

1. Driving to Los Angeles.
2. Going to the Dodgers vs Cardinals game!
3. Eating a Dodger Dog for the first time.
4. Catching a foul ball.
5. Staying at this really fancy hotel that we got a great deal on.
6. Going shopping for the baby and finding some great stuff!
7. Taking a long nap.
8. Going to the beach.
9. Tring fishing off the pier.
10. Picking up lots of beach rocks, wood, and other junk.
11. Eating at a great coast restaurant.
12. Probably getting stuck in LA traffic.
13. Coming home in time to teach my lesson in church on Sunday.


1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Family Reunion in Utah

We just got home from a 3 day 2 night family reunion in Utah! We had a great time but we're pretty tired. All 3 of us got sunburned and slept very little (or it felt like it). We went to a little place in Utah called Heaton Ranch. Some family owns this cabin and land so my family rented it out for our reunion. The weather was warm but nice (90's high and cool in the night). The Babe ran around the entire weekend with my brother's son who is his age and had a great time! My brother and his wife decided to stay home because she's real close to having a baby so we missed them but my dad brought his son. We mostly ate, watched the kids run around and mainly visited. We had 102 people there throughout the weekend and were fed till we couldn't eat anymore. There was a pond that some of the kids swam in (not us), a trampoline which the Babe loved and a big cabin for people to sit around and visit (or eat lol). I was lucky enough to get one of the 7 bedrooms (only because I'm 7 months pregnant) but most of the people slept in tents on the huge lawn. My sister from California (soon to be from Arkansas) came up with us and we had a good time visiting with her. My uncle from Alaska and most of his family were there whom we haven't seen in a few years so it was great to see them! We are so grateful that we have such good family! One of my cousins (or whatever) cooked all the tasty meals and we're thankful she was chosen to do that because they were all spectacular. My auntie on a mission in SLC and I stayed up too late gossiping I mean visiting. We tied the quilt for my brother's baby that's due soon and sent that on up to them. I love quilting or projecting with my aunties! They are so smart! We always honor a relative at each reunion. So this one we honored Grandpa Isaac Ison. He was the 2nd husband of Louie May Savage. We had a nice presentation on him and a cardboard cutout of him so everyone could take their picture with him. Overall we had a good time! We hope that the old people will chose to continue to have these and that we'll be able to attend. I'm not sure the Babe will have memories of this one but the hubby and I will have fond memories!

Thirteen Recipes I want to try....someday:

1. Crème Brule I've always wanted to make try to make this and this one looks so simple.
2. New York Cheesecake In my cooking efforts, I have always love New York Cheesecake and am constantly trying to find THE perfect recipe. It for sure can't have grated lemon peels in it and it must be baked.
3. Bottled Peaches I have wanted for a long time to bottle peaches but it is such a long process that I haven't.
4. Yorkshire Pudding I think this is what it is called. I had these once at a party and they look great and simple.
5. Lamb I don't have a recipe for this but I want to make something exactly like the guy makes in the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days! I think that looks sooooooo yummy! Look at the link.
6. Ranch Dressing As anyone knows, I have recently been searching for a good ranch dressing recipe. I've come to like the Hidden Valley package kind but I'm still searching.
7. Navajo Tacos I want to make these exactly like my mother made them growing up but she just says a little of this and a little of that. Every time I make them they turn out bad!
8. Stuffed French Toast I want to try the recipe from the Betty Crocker Recipe book but it takes overnight so I've never done it.
9. Good Roast As a Mormon, of course, I am looking for a good roast recipe for Sunday dinner. It always turns out dry. My mother-in-law makes really good roast though so maybe I could take notes from her.
10. Homemade Baby Food I've never tried this because it's so easy to just buy the stuff at the store. I'm sure it's healthier for the baby but time consuming.
These last 3 are from the hubby.
11. Blueberry Pancakes We've had the kind with the fake blueberries which I grew up on and love but I'm guessing his mom made them with real blueberries.
12. Apple Strudle He lived in Germany for 2 years and so of course these last 2 will never be as good as the german's. So I haven't even tried.
13. Spaetzle This is some sort of noodle type stuff? I think it looks like hash browns.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)