The Chaotic Connew Clan

July a recap

2011-08-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well the Kitchen isn't finished (originally thought it would be complete in May, then June ...you get the idea) , we are still at the painting point- thanks to a combo of hot mud and painters tape, not getting on well, and pulling off our fresh paint. I am hoping that painting will be finished this week and that next week brings, back breaking work with cement board -that is laying it on the ground over a layer of thinset-, after that i believe comes assembling the cabinets but at this stage i have lost track of what happens when ,i just know the stress continues.

Matt has been working at Microsoft now for just over a month and whether or not he is loving it (he is) is 'almost' immaterial to me just seeing him come home in the evening is astounding the latest time he gets home is almost the earliest time he used to get home while working for Amazon. As i said earlier renovations in our future kitchen continue so he is still busy busy busy

July 27th we celebrated our 9th anniversary - yes we have been married forever and yes we are ancient, to celebrate we went on an underground tour of Seattle, it was fun and informative. Followed of course by dinner. seemed very low key this year, we didnt even get each other anything, maybe we are tired of each other ;p

On saturday the 30th we celebrated our sealing date as a family since it is the date we became a forever family ( In Ireland and the UK you have to be married civilly before being married in the temple, we were married on a Saturday in Ireland the temple was closed in the UK on Monday thus we were sealed on a tuesday- in case anyone is wondering :) ) Since the theme for 9th anniversary is pottery the 3 of us went to a color me mine studio and painted a plate each - they will fire and glaze the plates for us and they will be ready for us to eat off of by the end of this week!

Emma is continuing half-heartedly doing school work while i enforce it half-heartedly/half of the time , summer seems to have finally arrived in the Northwest and so i let her run around and play as much as she can while the sun is out - most of the time anyway. - We are both pretty sick of math facts but thankfully the reading part of the curriculum is not a hardship!

That is all

video killed the radio star

2011-07-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Facebook killed Blogger

will Google+ kill facebook?

I hope not cause now all of the stuff i would have put on my Blog is on Facebook, sure it isnt as cohesive as a blog post would be but when you are sharing everything you do online already you dont feel you have anything to share in a blog post!

another catchup

2011-03-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

so i guess with Facebook i kindof feel like i never have anything to write on my blog cause its all on Fb now but just so something is here i thought i would post the pictures of my 13 days of valentines, then matt took me to dinner on Valentines day...

It was a fun project, it certainly kept me busy for half of february!!!!!

A quick note about my birthday (March 10th), after presents on my birthday including flowers balloons a hair cut games a kindle a bag of 30 gifts,earrings and dinner and dessert with friends. Matt took me away for a night - thanks largely to the fact that the Dacus Family put up with my darling crazy energetic daughter over night! The whole thing made me feel really special which is certainly not how i felt when i woke in the morning to me being 30. I think certain ages really make you sit down and think about what you have done to get to this milestone (millstone) or what you haven't done. What Ifs are hard to deal with. I looked at where i thought i would be, what i wanted for myself and i cried. I cried because I have not become the person i was hoping to be, I have not achieved the things i expected of myself. I know this doesnt mean i havent achieved other things or blah blah blah but that is just how turning 30 made me feel.
Luckily once your mind is sufficiently occupied by being totally spoilt you tend not to think of 'how much of a failure I am' and just have fun. waking up the day after my birthday, I didnt feel the need to 'take stock' this doesnt mean that i like being 30 because 30 is still ancient, But really i dont have a choice but to be 30.

Christmas

2011-01-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

I almost feel like ignoring the blog since it has been so long but a christmas update is required!

We arrived in Ireland on the 10th december and flew out on the 6th January . we spent christmas In the uk with Wendy(matts mom) Beth (sister) and Warwick (or almost uncle warwick as Emma called him :) ) we had a great time and Emma did really well santa and family spoilt her rotten. she was thrilled to get to do it all again when we got back to Ireland!

Emma spent most of the month of december conspiring with her cousin Robert (4) and when she could she would get the rest of her cousins to do her bidding (3,2,20months,the 7month old was impervious to her charm :) ) Basically having an absolute blast so much so that when we got home she did not know what to do with herself poor little only child that she is!

Matt had a blast getting his DIY on working with my Dad - he was so active he lost over 10lbs! over christmas period i mean really!!!!!
i on the other hand while increasing my activity level by shopping everyday ate all the christmassy foods like pate and cheeses everyday to so while matt lost 10lbs i fear i may have found a few of those he lost!

I was able to meet Racheal for the first time and matt was able to meet Racheal and Megan (i met Megan briefly in sept 2009 when i came over for Elaines wedding (i was in Ireland for 3 days!). For me this is the hardest thing about living so far away while i miss my sisters and parents i hate not being able to get to know my nieces and nephews!

it was great to get to spend a chunk of time with family

One of the presents Matt and i got was a night away ! family booked us into a hotel in the wicklow mountains (stunning views-sorry no pics you can check here to look at how awesome the hotel was. Matts Favourite part quoting his facebook status " Few things in life are better than all you can eat bacon and sausages!!" the breakfast buffet the ol' fry up not that anyone here could get close to a fry up in ireland or england for that matter, bacon ,sausage, black and white pudding (if you dont know what im talking about check here to try make black pudding check here hint black pudding ingregients include a pint of pigs blood :) )
then of course eggs, mushrooms fried tomatoes toast baked beans(i leave these out yeuch! only baked beans i like are courtesy of Ben Nelson and whatever way he cooks them! )

Ok now that my mouth is watering thinking of the fry up i might as well include other foods i miss from Ireland/UK (american translation in brackets!)
chips (french fries) from a chipper better yet garlic cheese chips(fries with garlic mayonnaise and cheese all melty on top) mmmmmmmn
breast in a bun from hillbillies(chicken breast in a bun from a chipper in Cork)
chocolate
prawn crackers
prawn cocktail flavour crisps(chips, as a side note prawn cocktail sauce is made with mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcester sauce and paprika and sometimes some Cayenne pepper so imagine that on a chip! in no way is it like the marinara type sauce you get here)
im sure there are others but that will do for now!!!!!

we finally had some spear photos taken the first time since there where more than 1 grandchild that we have had a decent photo taken of all of us! while it certainly was drama filled to get in there it will be great to have until one of my other sisters pops out another one. Jenna and Cath both say no not I which leaves Melissa (currently only dating) to produce the next grandkid!!!!!hopefully soon we will have some pics to show from that in the meantime see my profile pic on facebook!!!!

sorry for the long rambling post i am out of practice!!!

car shopping

2010-09-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

SUCKS!!!!

man we havent ever had a problem with looking at cars before and we have always gotten what we needed and generally something we have liked. Not so anymore. On monday (09/20/10) while at the library our car was hit by a truck, luckily we were not in the car and luckily we were not hurt (I was opening the car door for emma to get in ...unusually i was doing this on the passenger side as opposed to the drivers side which is where we would normally have been- had we been on that side of the car with how far towards the back of the car Emma stands she most certainly would have been hit and most likely severely injured if not killed) Heavenly Father certainly watched over us that day.
But this left us with a transport problem, our car is undrivable and with the damage -according to the assessor most certainly a write off- we now are in need of a new vehicle. I cant stand salesmen (well thats not entirely accurate i dont mind them i just hate feeling pressured) and MATT is the one who is susceptible, its like we walk onto a car lot and Matt is ready to walk off the lot with a car- it doesnt matter whether it is new or old in or out of our price range we are taking one home, a few times today i felt like i was dragging him away from a car and off the lot.
In the past we have always gotten a car that is right for our family and our situation. But Im not sure which car is right for us right now? maybe its because we didnt see this coming? maybe its because i have had our chevy venture longer than any other car we/I have owned?(pretty sad since we will only have had it 3 yrs at the end of october) the gas mileage is horrific in it and THERE are ONLY 3 of us after all. granted like matt likes to point out every item of furniture we own we have been able to fit into our car(except our matress which prob would have fit had we tried)- including some appliances-a fridge freezer, an oven a deep freeze oh and he has also gotten a lawn tractor in there .

But now what car? and how much? should i buy a beater and save for THE CAR? whatever that car is -with the list of things Matt wants and the things i want in a car I think it might not exist yet :)

advice?

Oh and btw matt and i are doing P90X and are blogging about that here: http://connewsp90x.blogspot.com/

as requested a pic of the dress....

2010-07-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

and yes that is me in it!

I WISH!!!!

something about the strip down the middle brings the image of a greek or roman godess where there dress is more flowy in the middle to mind!

8 FREAKING YEARS!!!!!

2010-07-27T22:43:00.000-07:00

it has been an awful terrible 8 years and also a wonderful amazing and awesomely great 8 years ( and no we obviously have not been married for 16 years)

last year we had just moved, the year before we were just about to move, the year before that matt was a student , and the previous 2 times same, so it has certainly been a while since we have been able to celebrate!

Since Matts motorcycle accident i have been taking him to work and picking him up, when i dropped him off this morning i was in the mood to buy me some clothes. I have been wanting to buy a few clothing items for months - a swimsuit- for example, since our tax came in last week i felt carefree enough to just go and do it! so i headed to one store and there i found a dress perfect for my date. I was also able to pick up a few other items and since the store was having a big sale i got 7 items for a little under $120 - yeah that sounds like a lot but for clothes in my size it is very very cheap!!!

Anyway i continued my shopping spree(Picking up a friend on the way) and added earrings and shoes to my outfit.

Then i picked up matt :) it was a loooong shopping day and a short work day for matt (i dropped him off just after 10 and picked him up just after 4!

Matt took me to Angelo's an italian restaurant, it was AMAZIIIIING!!!! they catered completely with what matt wanted they brought out buttered bread for matt while i enjoyed garlic bread, instead of a side of pasta with some red sauce on it they just made buttered noodles for him (there was parmigiana on the table) . our waitress was amazing she teased matt but made sure everything was unseasoned and to his liking. Matt obviously had steak with a side of pasta and salad (which i ate-choice of soup or salad) I was able to have cream of asparagus soup it had some fresh veggies in it and was really really good! that was the side to my LASAGNA i think i have done a post previously about my love of my Dads Lasagna , i have not been able to find anywhere here to even come close, in fact they are usually blah in comparison. every time i try a new restaurant and they have lasagna i have to try it incase its any good. Since i was eating in an Italian restaurant they of course had lasagna. it was soooooooooo goooooood amazing wonderful yuuuuuummy! still nothing on my Dads lasagna but when i crave lasagna, i now dont have to travel to Ireland to satisfy my tastebuds!

....Dad that doesnt let you off the hook though.....

anyway we had a great evening i wore my amazing dress -it felt Grecian goddess to me-, managed to not lose my earrings until after our date. and matt even put a shirt on (as oppossed to a T-shirt , generally he doesnt walk around without a top on...) and wore his church boot.

So 8 years, what have we learned

after 8 years we may fight less but boy we still have some whoppers,

we dont see eye to eye on some things , but on eternity together, we do

we dont enjoy the same things, movies outings activites , shopping, even socializing we dont agree on!!!

we still love to hold hands after 8 years and hope to one day be one of those old couples who still hold hands... unless one of us is pushing the other around in a wheelchair....

probably other stuff but hey i cant remember!!!

nyhew it was a great day

Prayer

2010-05-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

While i have always had(for as long as i can remember) a testimony that prayers are answered I have also felt that answers to MY prayers where elusive at best.
A few weeks ago it happened to be my turn to say family prayers, being mindful of Matt and how he was a little down about work I asked that he be able to find the fun in his work again. As Matt and I where getting ready for bed the next night, he was telling me about work (having forgotten my prayer from the day before) and how he was finally doing some coding, in shock i looked at him (knowing he enjoys coding) and asked if he remebered my prayer.
Never before have i been able to see an answer to my prayer for what it was. That night after thanking Heavenly Father I moved on with my prayer (wondering if it was just coincidence and i was being silly) and talked to Him about me needing others approval and compliments, for me to feel good about myself and how this was something i needed to tackle or maybe i should try getting those things from Him not really coming to any conclusion I finished my prayer and went to sleep. The next morning i awoke and Matt as always had already started his morning but came in to say good morning and he proceeded to tell me how special i was and then encouraged Emma to do the same. 2 coincidences in such a short amount of time? I dont think so.

My Heavenly Father loves me, He answers everybodys prayers including mine, not always in the ways we expect not always with the answers we want but if you REALLY want an answer you will get one.

I am very grateful for this communication with my Father in Heaven.

chat with emma

2010-04-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

found on my chat log from while i was napping today

me: i LOVE YOU MATT LOVE EMMA
2:17 PM Matt: Why aren't you calling me daddy?
me: SORRY DADDY
2:18 PM Matt: I love you too Emma
Is Mommy asleep?
me: YES
Matt: What have you been doing?
me: NOTHING
2:19 PM Matt: Have you been playing with the dogs?
me: YES
Matt: Have you been watching tv?
2:20 PM me: NO
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Matt: Are they kisses?
me: YES
Matt: Is anyone else there?
2:21 PM me: NO
Matt: Have you been playing any games?
me: NOT RELLEY
2:22 PM OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Matt: What are they?
me: HUGS
2:23 PM Matt: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Are you bored?
me: NO
2:24 PM Matt: What have you been doing so that you don't get bored?
me: TALKING TO YOU
2:25 PM XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOOXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
2:27 PM ARE YOU THER
17 minutes
2:44 PM Matt: I am now
Sorry, I needed to talk to someone else at work
2:45 PM me: daddy i love you
2:46 PM mommy woke up
2:47 PM Matt: I love you too emma
Go give mommy a big hug and tell her we both love her
2:48 PM me: bye
Matt: bye

repost one of my fav tags

2010-04-21T22:47:00.003-07:00

ATTACHED OR SINGLE?
Attached,to lots of people family friends, but mostly to this guy

BEST FRIEND?

just 1? nah, there's Matt mostly.. then there's my 'other' best friends!!!

CAKE OR PIE?
which i prefer? which i identify most with?
i think i would be a pound cake... heavy
i would most like to eat a pie as long as it doesnt involve pumpkin ...yeuch

DAY OF CHOICE?
i can choose a day? a day of the week? the year? ...The day i choose is a saturday..when matt gets done maybe i will see him on saturday

ESSENTIAL ITEMS?
hmmmm my passport, birth certificate and i would hate to lose my photos but stuff i can live without its people i need
if anyone has a more recent family pic feel free to send it to me!!!

FAVORITE COLOR?

Red, used to be black until a friend bought me my first red dress at 16 and i was hooked

GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS?

well if its real worms id prefer to eat the gummy Bears otherwise it doesnt matter..unless they are sour then they are mine!!!!!

HOME TOWN?

Ballincollig, Co. Cork Ireland!!!!!

INDULGENCES?

Ice-cream

JANUARY OR JULY?

July the month i got married and sealed for time and all eternity

KIDS?

i have no baby goats as of yet but i do have a little girl does that count?
Emma she is 6

LIKE OR LOVE?
I love Ice-cream
I like chocolate
I love cuddles
I like my car
I Love holding hands

I like sleeping
I love Lasagne
I love my family
I like a clean home(that's generally some-one else's)
I love the gospel
I love kissing My Husband

I like to shop
I love reading
I like being crafty
I like to tickle Matt....

Because I LOVE to hear him laugh
MARRIAGE DATE?

27th July 2002
yes almost 8 years

NUMBER OF SIBLINGS?

3 sisters

PHOBIAS AND/OR FEARS?

snakes, spiders, family members dieing,
and i really dislike ants

QUOTES?

"no misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse." Elder Jeffrey R Holland

“Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?" President Henry B. Eyring

"I'll bite you" moi
"she's your daughter" moi
probably others but cant recall
REASON TO SMILE?

Today as Emma swam on her own without any help
Matt having a few extra minutes just for me!
friends, comedy,
things emma says

SEASONS?
there are 4 of them
not a fan of the cold but winter because thats when its christmas!!!!!
TAG SIX...

I tag YOU, you, You, yOu , yoU and YOu!!!!

UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME?

Hm im an open book really
I have at some point in my life been able to speak Afrikaans, French, German, Irish and Italian. Luckily English stuck!

VEGETARIAN OR OPPRESSOR OF ANIMALS?

Oppressor of animals, refer to my post on the word of wisdom for more info!!!!

X RAYS OR ULTRASOUND?

well doesnt it really depend on what the problem is? i mean i would like an Xray to see if my arm is broken but an ultra sound for precious cargo in ones tummy?

FAVORITE FOOD?
LASAGNA i miss my dad's lasagna mmmmmmmmmm

ZODIAC?

Pisces ...love the water baby!!!

ahem

2010-04-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

if you dont know whats being going on my life check face book!!!!!.

i have been listening to conference and it is great!!! i will def be watching the talks again to get more out of it since with lots else going on it has been hard focusing. um well that's it I think

another catchup i guess!!!

2009-12-22T09:52:00.003-08:00

well blogging is better than cleaning!
Emma is now doing 2nd grade English and 1st grade maths!(while she is still technically in kindergarten!) goooo Emma!!!! we have ripped out emmas walls so we can insulate and hope to be done before Christmas! instead of doing the insulation last night we decided we should probably get Christmas food in the house so we went food shopping! we now have the turkey and the ham phew! we are still not ready for Christmas! not one gift is wrapped!!! i owe matt a gift and Matt still needs to take Emma out to buy one for me! I hope Santa is more organised than i am or we may be in trouble!

sometime after christmas i will post some before during and after pics of Emma's room

hope everyone has a very merry christmas and remembers that christmas isnt about the gifts It is after all about celebrating the gift of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

quick catch up!

2009-11-23T15:50:00.003-08:00

since i last blogged we celebrated Emma's 6th birthday, with our visitors from Ireland namely my cousin and her hubby and also my Mom and Dad. This was their first time back in the states in 30 yrs!!!!! it was great to have them here and show them around a bit!
My mom and Dad will be back after Christmas for a while before we send them to the MTC!
For Emmas Birthday we started a new tradition. i wanted to wait until she would enjoy it so for her 6th birthday we went to get a manicure and a pedicure! Emma Loved it! as did her Granny. It was Granny's first time too! anyway i hope this is a special thing that Emma and I can do every year!

My parents then left for New Zealand on the 3rd Nov, my cousin and hubby left to go back to Ireland in the 4th and then Matt left to go to the UK on the 7th! it was very strange to have a full house and then it was just Emma and I!

Thankfully Matt was gone for just over a week instead of the 2 weeks to 4 months we were expecting! so i wasnt lonely for long!

I guess the other big massive huge news is... Wednesday will be Emma's last day of school! we have enrolled her in a K12 home-based school with me as the learning coach!

matts birthday

2009-10-11T16:07:00.002-07:00

Matt turned the big 3 0 this past friday. We didnt do anything major went out to dinner is all really , he got a number of cards and tons of messages on facebook!his presents were few but included a Super Dad t-shirt from Emma. and a pair of bike boots from me(we went out on sat to get these)
I made him a birthday cake which if i do say so myself was yummy!!! i made an ice-cream cake!
cookie crust followed by chocolate icecream with chocolate sauce on it with vanilla icecream and cool whip on top! the icecreams where of course lactose free. anyhew matt 'said he liked it but i told him he had too !!!

Mission call

2009-10-04T15:11:00.003-07:00

Soooo My parents received their Mission call on Friday, they waited until most of the family where together(i.e we obviously were not there due to geographic restrictions!!) to announce where they where going, but small pieces of info where leaked such as they where entering the MTC in Provo on the 25th January!!
which i find pretty funny considering this is their second mission and NOW they go to the mtc, when we have moved away from Provo. typical!!!! we also Knew it was going to be a CES mission, and now we know where!!!! They have been called to Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Port Elizabeth is where I was born. Christmas 2010 should be awesome!!!!! we will all be trying to go there for christmas, I was 7 the last time i had christmas in the middle of summer! Exciting!!!

back to school equals...

2009-09-23T10:20:00.002-07:00

early mornings
packing lunches
early mornings....
and getting sick!
Emma has barely been back at school 2 weeks and is home with a cold!

she starts a soccer class tomorrow (nothing to do with her school),w e asked her if she would like to do some dancing a sport or music and she said she wanted to play soccer ..Her Uncle Stewy would be proud! :) Her daddy sure is!!! Im sure he would prefer rugby but she is only 5 after all! i still want to start her with some piano lessons but we will see how this goes for now. its a 2 month class once a week.

In other news well there isnt any it looks like Matt will be heading over to the Uk in November although no flights have been booked yet. if all works out he will only be there for 2 weeks if it doesnt he may be there up to 4 months! but 2 weeks is more likely!
anyhew no news, still lots to do in the house before we even get to painting.

busy busy busy

2009-09-09T10:08:00.003-07:00

well this past weekend i flew over to Ireland for Elaine's Wedding it was a blast and she of course stunning it was fun to catch up with some old friends at the wedding and seeing what everyone is up to!
It was definitely weird being home without Emma! haven't been home without Emma since she was born!I got to meet Megan for the first time what a cutie and i also got to meet chloe and evelynn again-they didnt remember me and when i go over next they probably still wont remember me, thats the really hard part of being so far away and not being able to watch them grow up! Robbie is old enough now that he does remember which is great! we miss you guys!
Anyway while we -err- I was home some sort of payback was going on the first night i was there 2 people where stabbed around the corner from us, and the second night a bunch of people smashed all the windows in a bungalow threw trash all over the place and tried to set fire to the place, while someone was inside! thank goodness the second night i had come home 'early' (before early morning :)!! )from the wedding. Imagine if i had gotten in their way?!!! anyway so no one really slept very well and eventually when the morning finally arrived we found that Cath's car window had been smashed-she had picked me up from the airport since she lives in dublin and driven me down to cork. Unfortunately no one carried windows for her car and they had to be ordered, and we had to travel back to dublin! We are blessed with a dad who can fix or sort out a make do until fix, for anything! honestly i was expecting whistling and other noises coming from the make shift window-white pvc board i think duct-taped into the window area! it worked wonders! no noise at all! there was other smashed car windows but thankfully the other vehicles in the family were untouched.
Needless to say i had a great time but my body is still in recovery!

On to current news Emma started school today -officially this time! she is a kindergartner! wow! not amazing really she has the same teacher but there will be 14 new students out of the 17 total in the class and she gets to be SNACK LEADER! a very highly sought after position i might add since you get to do the calendar announce what the snack is and basically be as in charge as a student can be! kids get to do it about 2-3 times a year i guess and since she is one of the few returning students to the class it makes sense to pick her so the other kids can see what goes on!

she has started to read literally everything and she is adding and subtracting its inspiring how much she loves to learn!

Cath has challenged all the females in our family to complete 1 10 min exercise video on sparkpeople.com

so today i started on day 1 of the new you boot camp check it out see if can fit 10 mins in a day!

what to post what to post

2009-08-23T15:42:00.002-07:00

well nothing much is going on here really.
we seem to have a knack for buying dud appliances lately, the dryer has to be run 3-4 times to dry the clothes and if i leave it too long before turning it on again it starts to smell which means..back into the washing machine which requires like 4 extra rinse cycles to get the soap out of the clothes. then we bought a second lawnmower as it came with a bunch of attachments. each would cost as much as we paid for the whole lot including the mower. we got it home not even 5 mins later the belt snaps. then yesterday we take out the other one(first mower we bought) to take photos of itso we can sell it and guess what it wont start. yes fun. then we are putting the accessories for the new mower away (dozer blade rototiller plow etc etc) and we discover a big soapy?? puddle in our basement garage...soapy you say yes soapy. we then discover the source. a pipe with a corner join thingy in it also had a space for a pipe to join from the top but since no pipe was joined there...yes dear reader no cap was on it so the water from the washing machine(the one that requires excessive rinses...) was just spilling onto the floor....

true there is a lot to be done to the house and the little things are annoying but all in all it is still worth way more than we paid for it and is going to be awesome when we are done with it....we just have to get our tools to work so we can -you know- get to work!!!!!
other than that we are getting on well in our new ward the age range is similar to the last ward lots of older but a few more middle??? young??? couples etc

thats all!

computer is up and running

2009-08-02T21:34:00.002-07:00

woohoo now i can spend endless hours on the internet...or well not really!
i really dont have time now for photos of my holiday , but we are home... in the new home emma is still not 100% but feeling a lot better i was sad to say bye to vegas early i love vegas but glad to get my baby home to where she felt a little bit better surrounded by her stuff! and so happy to see Matt it had been way to long soooo long in fact we are bugging each other cause we have been apart too long.

I Had a great holiday but would never ever repeat it. my Fav part was our trip to Mexico with Mely i loved seeing the real and tourist sides of mexico and also eating real mexican food that was AMAZZZING!!! i can never look at taco bell etc the same way again its ruined for me!!! Emma i think mostly enjoyed talking to and petting all the animals on the ranch in particular the little puppies and letting the calves lick her fingers or really her whole hand!
We got to go to calico a ghost town in california somewhere that was a blast. i revisited San y sidro which Mel and i went to 2 years ago and then continued our trip down memory lane by her buying hundreds of shoes!!!!
other things we got to do drive through a tree pan for gold and also pan for precious stones we stayed in some real wierd parks that would make your head spin just driving there and we also got to meet a cayote and a raccoon and hundreds of squirrels . we saw the golden gate bridge which was pretty unimpressive but i guess is similar to the Eiffel tower in that it probably was impressive in its day! we spent a little to long in san diego and we were left with little to do. But Mely definately showed us a good time!

what else funnily i am itching to go back and visit more with Tia and see Asa smiling! after saying i wouldnt visit in the summer i went at the hottest time!

we had our first house guest this weekend Michael Larkin came up to do some interviews , poor guy was pretty much left to his own devices in the evening as matt and i still try recover from moving!!!!!!
the heat wave in Seattle seems to be drawing to a close with rain forcasted for thursday and temperatures not going above 90 the past 2 days .The temperatures have made it clear that insulation is at the top our list to get done in the house ceiling first then windows (which matt thinks are fine...) then insulate the walls doesnt it sound fun???? ok well maybe not! this weekend we finally secured the last of our needed appliances we now have a washer and dryer and a stove!!!! woo hoo.... next we will talk about the dishwasher...i might be saving up my blow money for that!!!

we also bought matt his bigest toy yet (other than the house) a ride on lawnmower yeah 1/2 acre lot might not sound huge to you but when you add brambles and a slope to the mix a ride on was needed i have some pics of that in our minivan! ill have to get it together and get it up. i think its gonna be a while until pics of our house are posted since it is a disaster! the kitchen is a horrid orangey colour and the cabinets are old very very very old and i dont really want to think about putting my stuff in the drawers but since i have bleached them it should be fine right???? the lounge has a pink ceiling and .....you get the idea!!!!!down the line though ill get them up. i believe Emmas room is next on the list after insulation

so a long hiatus from blogging and a long post to make up for it ...any questions?

Holiday drawing to a close

2009-07-19T15:33:00.002-07:00

when i get a couple of hours i will write about our whole trip!!!
right now i am in phoenix Arizona getting ready to say bye to Mike, Tia, Annabelle and Asa(Asa is adorable very cuddly and seems to be just so good natured and very happy!). Then we will head to the grand canyon tonight. catch a peek at the big hole in the morning then head to vegas! we leave vegas on wednesday, i will drop the girls in salt lake city and continue my journey with just emma and i all the way home, i will have to stop somewhere to catch a few winks but i should arrive sometime thursday! just in time to do final packing arrangements to move into our new home on saturday! so after we are settled i will post the pics!

2009-06-22T22:01:00.001-07:00

Their family is always so fun to be around. We had a fab weekend in oregon now bring it on california

2009-06-22T21:59:00.001-07:00

We also went 2 silver falls and saw 2 of the 10 waterfalls there. man what a hike. The rest of our time we spent with Dean CAndice and kids

2009-06-22T21:53:00.001-07:00

In oregon we stayed with my Aunty Mary for the weekend we went on a river cruise where Emma Mel and CHristi got to steer the boat

2009-06-22T21:52:00.001-07:00

Today we travelled from oregon to california it was a very lonv drive but we took the coastal route and saw some whales!!!

2009-06-22T00:15:00.005-07:00

(3/3) leaflet of what to do and promptly figured out that despite the ad there was nothing to do in ellensburg

2009-06-22T00:15:00.003-07:00

(2/3) entrance....rainer was 122 miles away! We ended up driving to ellensburg which i had seen advertised on tv we went to tourist information gathered the

2009-06-22T00:15:00.001-07:00

(1/3) The gps had said it was a point of interest 27 miles away from the ranch so off we headed while it plotted the route we headed to the freeway

2009-06-22T00:09:00.011-07:00

(6/6) experience they also have a giant slip n slide which they all had a blast on. Wednesday we got upearly ready to go to mount rainer .....

2009-06-22T00:09:00.009-07:00

(5/6) afterwards from tring to keep the canoe steady with my feet!! I did not want to fall out! It was fun and emma while a little weary enjoyed the

2009-06-22T00:09:00.007-07:00

(4/6) thingy which they found out was quite flammable when dead! Tuesday we were able to go canoeing on the lake there it was fun but boy! My legs hurt

2009-06-22T00:09:00.005-07:00

(2/6) doubt matt will figure it out for me soon. So to catch you all up i am on a road trip! Our first stop was a 2 day camp up at ensign ranch in Cle Elum

2009-06-22T00:09:00.003-07:00

(3/6) washington . We arrived there last tuesday and had a great time mel and christi figured out how to make a fire with some big logs and some sort of leaf

2009-06-22T00:09:00.001-07:00

(1/6) Thanks to matt i am able to blog while i am wandering down the west coast. We havent quite figured out how to post pics from my phone yet! But i have no

2009-06-21T23:49:00.001-07:00

Hi checking Says

Visitors

2009-06-12T16:37:00.002-07:00

It is always nice to have visitors especially ones that want to go and do stuff.Melissa and Christi arrived Tuesday evening and so far our week has been jam packed! unfortunately its looking like the flights to the east coast cost way to much so now they are looking at ways to entertain them selves this side of the country so we are looking for things to do here, and hoping they dont get fed up with us and be bored to tears!

so any suggestions or fav destinations welcome!

Thank YOU.... a new day

2009-05-31T09:46:00.004-07:00

thanks for all your kind words by email on facebook and here too!thanks for caring!
i really do try to start out my day like this (cue music!) sometimes i win sometimes i lose but every morning is the beginning of the rest of my life!

Its going to take a while before i am back on my feet but that doesnt mean i stop trying. enjoy the music

Duelling with Demons

2009-05-25T09:39:00.002-07:00

I guess my blogging hiatus deserves a little explanation.
I have been battling my inner demons for a while now and the last few months have been particularly rough, Matt has had to take a few days of work as i was completely non functioning, add to that yet another medication change which left me a twitching mess, seeing me at my worst you might have mistaken my 'twitching' for a seizure..not quite as violent as a seizure but with all my limbs shaking uncontrollably it seemed to me i wasnt far off, thankfully i have been transferred off that medication to another of which i am at the maximum dose which has a higher risk of actual seizures.....not sure if this is a forward backwards or indeed sidewards move i guess time will tell.

Matt has had to go to work late so he can take emma to school during my twitching and non functioning days ,as well as interrupting his work day to go pick her up.
I am so grateful that Matt has always had the type of Job that i can -when needs be- be his top priority. I am so grateful that he sees me as his top priority, when i indulge in- i am a terrible person, i can't do anything right, why are normal everyday things so hard for me, why me?- feelings, he can at once extoll my virtues and all the wonderful things i do do and all the way i am a good person and while i may not believe the things he says, i do believe that while i might value my life very little, Matt values it enough to help me get through the dark hours .

I find Joy in nothing, I feel alone even with lots of people , i feel as if the light has gone from my eyes i feel hollow and empty.
My Journey with depression isnt over, every day is different i may wake up happy and with one thought i can transform it into a day of tears.

So while this all remains true, i along with my doctor and my gyn are coming up with a plan to allow my body some rest and give my anti-depressants to work. Even writing anti-depressants makes me feel ashamed, i dont want to be one of 'those' people who are on 'happy pills', i do not want to walk around in a haze and it makes me sad to think that people will view me as less of a person, as an invalid or suffering 'mental illness' this is not 'mental' it is my stupid hormones i can do nothing about it my choices are stark suffer this or face the possibility of uterine cancer or hemorraging. knowing how bad i feel now i can scarecly believe that the other option is worse, both lead me to face my mortality and probably both would lead me to wish for an early homecoming. I made this choice and now i have to live with the consequences.

When i agreed to come to Earth did i know this was the burden i was being called to bear?No doubt i did. Did i comprehend the full implications? I would like to think not but i believe i did. This 'small moment' may seem like an eternity now but later I WILL see it for what it was.

While i know their are others who are in similar situation to Matt and I, there is no one who can help me bear my load as much or as well as Matt, I love him....I think he sometimes enjoys 'being my white knight' He is the most important person on the earth to me, just as it should be....

As Matt approaches his dotage (He turns 30 in october!!!!!!) I am reminded that soon i will be repaying the favour by stopping him from being the grumpy old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn and reminding him to use sunscreen on his head.
He is MY Mattman and YOU cannot have him

Im sure later i will rethink this post and delete it so if you manage to catch it before i do, excuse the indulgence of my feelings but what else is a blog for right?

mothers day

2009-05-10T15:08:00.003-07:00

This is what Emma made for me at Lowes yesterday! our camera charger is ..who knows where, otherwise i would share a photo of how cute she looks with her lowes apron and her goggles(both of which she gets to keep) using the real hammer to nail everything together. Daddy helped of course but when she was done they put soil in and a little plant! then she got a badge that we can attach to her apron and a certificate of completion! then when she goes next she takes her apron and completes another one and gets another badge! it was so much fun and will become a regular daddy daughter activity, if you dont know(i didnt!) Lowes does a little workshop for kids every other saturday or so, the next one is a ready to go kit so call your local lowes and sign up! the first 50 get a dvd on emergency preperadness i imagine! It is of course free! since Lowes do it we checked, Home depot also do it ,once a month the first saturday of the month. Lots of fun for a daddy daughter date or family fun! it was a blast!

Matt and Emma made me breakfast in bed this morning an omlette(with plenty of cheese and fried tomato yummmmmm, my mouth is watering thinking about it!

Emma sang to me in sacrament she sang the loudest and the best out of all the kids ! even the older ones where whispering!
She sang this:

mothers i hope you listen and love this song soooo cute!
we bought a trundle bed for our visitors coming next month, My sister Melissa or Mel as she is widely known! and my cousin Christi. they will be sharing emmas room and we are getting ready to rearrange the room already! we just need to find matresses now......

the financial peace university course we are doing is going very well and we are onto babystep 2, which is dumping debt, our debt being the motorbike loan. im still a little dubious about what getting rid of the loan will do for our credit score, so we havent fully got rid of it just yet until i figure out what it will do for our credit score.

we also started babystep 3 at the same time, which is saving up 3-6 months emergency fund. we have a 3 month fund already (thanks to our tax refund!!!) our budget is going well, thanks to much moving of figures around! but like dave ramsey says "It's your money if you dont like it(the budget) change it!"

We have enrolled buddy into obedience class, we hope to get him to the point where we can let him run off his leash and not worry that he will follow the oh so interesting smells and never come back! We are also hoping his nipping behaviour can be curbed -its not so cute anymore!

I am walking again! Most days anyway and the days i dont i can do wii fit! its been fun to have someone to chat to and get buddy out walking too! I'm going to wait a few weeks and then maybe suggest we invite a few more people to join us, get a group walking!

Matt will finally finish being on call midday Tuesday !Yeah!until the end of the month anyway!

Also you might notice on the left towards the bottom of the page i have added the saver blogs that i follow there are plenty of tips for everyone ..in the USA anyway!
so go ahead share the blogs you follow that help you save money, or let me know what your money saving tips are!

Long month

2009-04-26T15:20:00.002-07:00

Does anyone else feel like April has gone on forever??? Maybe its just me then. Nothing much has happened. Matt and i started a financial peace university class together on Thursdays. It's a 13 week course, we have already been twice. its good, hasn't taught us anything we didn't know, but forces you to look at your finances and figure out where everything is going. It also points out things we should be saving for like tires for the car, car maintanace and repairs, stuff like that- usually we just cut back on something else the month those things have to be payed for..needless to say this way is better. I think we have thought more about our budget and where money is going more these last 2 weeks than ever before! we have sat down and worked on a budget on at least 3 seperate occasions, Until we are both happy with it and sure we havent forgotten anything!

What else? Emma sang in the choir for the preprimary play. Considering the oldest person in the show was 6, They where amazing! it was about the 3 billy goats gruff, it lasted about 30 mins but it was great.They sang a lot. Next year when she has a part we will remember to bring the camera!

Emma gave her first talk in primary today, she has said prayers and recited scriptures but this was her first talk. Of course she only told me about the talk this morning but i managed to write a talk out and get her to memorize most of it before she gave it in Primary. Her very proud daddy was with her to give her prompts, and every one told her and us what a great job she did! hopefully next time we will have a bit more notice!( note to self Ask Emma every sunday if she has an assignment)

Matt is going to be on call from Tuesday for 2 weeks the first week isnt a big deal as he is a secondary so will only be called if something goes majorly wrong and the person on call needs help. The second week though.....he will be the first called so heres hoping for a smooth week that week.

The other news is that Matt was granted his H1B visa(work visa) for october, so we are here for the next 3 years!!! Emma and I will have H4 visa's so i still cant study or work but i will get over it!

we have had quite a few beautiful not too hot not too cold days lately and Friday evening we introduced Buddy(our puppy) to the beach what fun he of course tried to drink the water, eat a dead crab and catch the sticks that matt threw into the sea, since he is a snifer we arent confident about letting him of his lead yet ,so i had to hold the lead and be pulled into the water! we also found out that buddy can indeed swim!! anyway we all had a great evening there, but now buddy needs a wash!

So I have been thinking about Marriage and the Gospel a lot lately. I was thinking how in our marriage we make decisions about wether to grow closer or further apart with every kind or angry word or deed we do. These choices are made daily. So to it is in our relationship with the saviour, every day we can and do make the decision wether to move closer to, or further from Him. Are we living his word- the gospel -the way we should? are we striving to improve or are we just going through the motions. Both have consequences but only one will result in happiness. I guess the reason i have been thinking about this is because we have been looking more at our choices regarding how we spend our money.. Sometimes we lose sight of the bigger picture and when this happens you know we are moving in the wrong direction!

Any way heres to the end of April woohooo!!!

Easter

2009-04-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

Where is my BABY???????

2009-04-08T10:47:00.003-07:00

She looks so much older! so SO so different

she loves it! her hair looks a lot thicker, and her fringe orbangs whatever you want to call it is short enough to be out of her eyes and long enough that we can put a clip in it if we want
but my BABY *sniffle sniffle* is gone!!!

In other news and luckily you cant really see it but she got a black eye at school yesterday! her 'best friend' either jumped on her nose or kicked her in the eye she told me both things at different times yesterday its her right eye and if you look really closely at the pic you might see her eyelid is a little swollen but i doubt you will see the purple!

conference weekend

2009-04-05T14:52:00.002-07:00

so what was your favourite part? favourite talk? favourite line?
Mine was Elder Holland's talk , as soon as he stood up i said uh oh the heavy hitter! i didnt take any notes i just cried the whole way through it did encourage me to ask matt for a blessing which i have wanted for a while now but didnt want to ask for.

this has been an amazing conference

Tia the flash card worked better than any conference activity pack i have ever used!!! Emma payed attention in the 3 sessions we used them in and in the last session didn't care about the candy!

i cant wait to get the conference Ensign to re read all the wonderful uplifting hope giving talks!

i put down all my thoughts in the previous posts read if you want, but dont feel obliged they are long!!!

final session of 179th annual general conferance

2009-04-05T13:01:00.003-07:00

Dallin H Oaks

unselfish service, deny your own wants and serve
missionary service
temple work
"Forget yourself and go to work"
lose yourself in the Lords service,
you can never love the lord until you serve his people

Sacrifice our time and talents
work in cooperative ways in the community
faith leads us to service

you cant be a life saver by looking like all the other swimmers on the beach

nothing but God will make you happy

sacrifice is out of fashion

the 'ME' generation

entitlement is selfish ,blessings are obtained by obedience to the law upon which it is predicated

getting something for nothing is contrary to gospel

attitudes in attending church-
dont go to church for me go for others to think of others to say hello..etc
we are happier and more fulfilled for what we give not what we get.

David A Bednar
in the ordinances of the temple we more fully take upon us the name of Jesus Christ

blessing of protection from going to the temple

we do now and will face great challenges to the work of the lord, but God will never us forsake

use your temple recommends,

Gary E Stevenson

You are never lost when you can see the temple, guidepost so you dont get lost in the mists of darkness

pitch your tents toward the temple

visit temple more often

young children should visit temple grounds
we can make our homes a house of the lord

understanding the eternal nature of the family will draw us to the temple, the temple

say temple as if it is capitilized
Temple House of the Lord Home

the ultimate purpose of all we teach is to unite families eternally,
make your sacred home the house of the Lord

Jose A.Teixeira
we are not alone
the ability and power to choose is a gift
choices have consequences attached which may or may not be immediately identifiable
we have an internal gps -right and wrong because of the light of christ-conscience
maintain a strong signal with the divine

follow the prophets and receive the blessings promised

F. Michael Watson

book of mormon will bring us closer to the saviour than any other book,
pray with thankfulness

L Tom Perry
are we missing in action? when friends neighbours and family members need us
3 objectives for the members of the church
it becometh every man who has been warned to warn his neighbour
we should be finding people to hear the gospel so the missionaries can concentrate on teaching

open your mouth,
the good shephard is calling after you, dont let a ravenous wolf in among us so we will not be destroyed

lost ewe

President Monson
study the messages and apply them in your life
live closer to the lord
pray always
express love to your children ,pray for them
word of caution: avoid destructive content wherever they may be, be clean...dont let satan entice you down any path
if you have a problem with pornography STOP NOW (at least i felt he was saying it in caps!)
going to the temple is a privilege

sunday morning session

2009-04-05T09:17:00.002-07:00

Elder Uchtdorf

running from one idea to the next to find the answers to the souls questions,
all ideas fall short
the gospel of Jesus Christ can unlock the door to true happiness,

the more we are filled with the spirit the more we extend ourselves to others,
to keep your testimony strong
..stay with it!
nourish it

get of the sidelines and practice what we preach
strengthen family by commiting to live the gospel
start where you are, it is always the right time to walk in his way, it is never to late.

Elder Neil L. Anderson
(newest member of quorum of 12)
You are a nobody if you ever forget it the lord will remind you and it wont be pleasant
-said by pres packer at a stake conferancethat elder Anderson was attending with him

be a light to the world

we are not alone in wanting to good or in praying to our Father in Heaven,

there is much we can learn from the good people all around us, we must not shrink what is uniquely found , Priesthood, Book of Mormon, Prophets of God

Elder Steven E Snow-presidency of the seventy

change is essential,
how can we prepare for change
-follow the prophets
listen to what they say they offer
- keep eternal perspective
-have faith
move forward with faith as we face a world of negativity, faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind
- be of Good cheer!!
He has not forsaken us
laughter and a good sense of humor can help with the bumps of life

how do we deal with unexpected set backs? same way!

Sister Barbara Thompson-counselor in relief society presidency

each of us will at some point be poor in some way and need help are we not all beggars?

Elder Jeffrey R Holland

i didnt take any notes, i just cried

President Monson

it would be easy to become cynical about the future,
focus instead on our blessings as members of the church
make Saviour center of our lives
persevere
pray
our knowledge of the gospel and the testimony of Jesus and our Father in heaven will sustain us and bring joy into our hearts,

heavens blessings await us

saturday afternoon session

2009-04-04T13:04:00.005-07:00

we instituted the hear this word and show me the picture on your flash card and get candy.....emma had 2 before the choir started singing... its gonna be a lucrative session for emma i reckon maybe i shouldnt have used this as the candy

new rules!!!! everytime she hears one she gives us the card until she has heard most or all of the words!!!! that way maybe we can keep sugar overload at bay!!!!!

presentation of general authorities etc

wow sunday school presidency and sunday school board all released and also the young mens preidency ... changes happening??

robert W cantwell
managing director of church auditing?
Brook P Hales
church numbers etc

Elder M. Russell Ballard
listen and learn... some of lifes most meaningful leassons come from those who have walked before you

parents and others..examples of faith..duplicate

for your most important questions - scriptures,
learn form history and others lives and dont repeat it
pride cycle throughout scriptures..

our choices individually and collectively result in spiritual consequences for us and our posterity.

boundaries of good taste and public decency are being pushed to the point that there are hardly any boundaries at all

pride cycle- where are we today in the cycle

you dont have to spend time being a laman or a lemual to know that being nephi or jacob would be better.

meaning and message should be written on your hearts.
be open and receptive to the influence of the spirit in your lives.
you cannot do a google search to gain a testimony, you cant txt faith!!!!-LOVE THIS!

Quentin L Cook

Stumbling blocks to faith

when we live according to the gospel we are looked on favourably
our attitude toward other churches-they do much good,repsect and appreciation towards those with differing beliefs...

love teach and never give up, persuade all men to repentence

Kevin K Pierson

True faith must be centered in jesus christ
faith is a spiritual gift
do your children know that you know

faith -an attitude of complete obedience

personal righteousness is a choice

continually holding fast to true principles nothing wavering

opposition in all things,

6 destructive d
doubt-not a principle of gospel, negative emotion inconsistence with our divine iddentities as children of God

Discouragment.inevitable part of life but need not lead
destraction
lack of diligence
disobedience
disbelief- decision

all attack and erode our faith

choose faith not fear

Rafeal L Pino

Their tragedy helped them live more faithfully so they can be worthy to be parents to their daughter who died at 3.

there is no tragedy in death

adversity touches everyone being in the gospel just means we can be more ready to face it confidently.

Richard G Scott

when a temple is nearby , set goals to go to it so other things dont get in the way

what is there that is more important?

leave enough time so you are unhurried

remove your watch

we can do the best we can the final outcome is up to the Lord

when we keep the temple covanents and live faithfully come what may we have no reason to dismay or feel despondant.

Russell M Nelson

salutation to our father
respect and worshipful attitude
request for spiritual nourishment
acknowledge

lords prayer serves as a pattern to follow not as a prayer to repeat

pray to be of one heart and one mind with our leaders,

if companionship of the holy ghost is that important we should pray for it too

ways in which our prayers can be enhanced
song of the righteos
fasting- 24hrs is plenty- dont do too much or uncessery

length of our prayer
Public prayers should not become unscheduled sermons, private prayers can be long but public should be short

language formal and proper, thee thou thy and thine these words help us be humbe and can enhance our prayers

we should pray whenever we desire. counsel the Lord in all things, dont cease to pray in our hearts

pray with faith and trust

the flash card game worked wonders it made Emma pay attention and we had to listen harder to make sure she wasnt trying it on!!!!

all in all the only card she had left was Pioneers.....maybe we missed it? anyone hear it?

all in all since she got 3 before we changed the rules she got a total of 18 rolls of smarties ...

hope you all enjoyed this session I definately did!

conference opening session

2009-04-04T09:02:00.002-07:00

A great opening session of conference! definately lots of talks i will enjoy re reading! Hope you enjoyed it too

President Monson, opening remarks

Neal L Anderson called as newest member of the quorum of the 12

53,000 missionaries,

serving each other helps the Lord accomplish his work

Elder Robert D Hales
children are growing up in times of economic uncertanty

some debt may be necessary but when we cant control our wants we get into unneccessary debt,

hope in the saviour and the doctrines ofhis gospel
,
Our situation is not beyond his reach
wont suffer beyond what we can endure
"get thee behind me satan" learn to say
learn to ask for help

what s a provident provider
we are all responsible to provide for ourselves and our family
avoid excesive debt, "thou shalt not covet"

debt weakens relationships

how to overcome temporal wanting- addiction of wanting things

we cant afford it- 4 most caring words

are you buying this for yourself?- is the purpose of this gift to show you love me and are a great provider or so you can look better,

we can afford it but we dont need it

pay tithing, fast offering

family budget

dont satisfy every immediate want

the appetite for worldly things can only be overcome by turning to the Lord

Margeret S Lifferth- primary presidency

great need to nourish youth and children, respect and reverence,
showing respect to each other are critical for youth and children
are we being the examples we need to be

teach line upon line
self mastery is root of self respect

Michael A. Neider- young men presidency

to discern message of spirit priesthood must do their homework

seems like this will be a good talk for young men and their leaders to use.

Allan F Packer

though there are serious challenges ahead this is still a wonderful time to live, these are the days when prophecies are being fullfilled

we need to recognize prompting from the spirit, we need to practise and apply gospel principles until they become automatic, we need to be aquainted with the spirit

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

we need strong christians who can persevere , make important things happen through faith.

covenants supply strength

in times of stress let your covenants be paramount

Elder Henry B Eyring

God gave us the gift of living in mortality so we can recieve the gift of immortal life

we must be transformed through making righteous choices

Book of mormon is the assurance that the Lord has the power to comfort us

if you endure the trials and afflictions well- you will be exalted
we are being prepared for eternal life. Accept trials as an opportunity to grow.

did we do everything we could to prepare for these times??

dont let tragedy erode your faith

what HAVE i been doing this week???

2009-03-29T15:34:00.002-07:00

ummmmm, ummmmm,ummmmmmm

Well i have been playing on the drums from guitar hero world tour alot, thats about it actually. Emma is on spring break this week and we are going to make our stuff for the freebie tag check out the previous post there are still plenty of spaces left!

someone tried to break into our car during the night we reckon the alarm must have scared them off of course it didnt wake us which is a little worrying, it loks like they tried to crowbar their way in beside the window???? makes me think it must have been a kid young teenager anyway, luckily they didnt smash the window in while they where trying , unfortunately until matt can bend the metal back in place the window isnt really sealed so if it rains the rain will get in, and since we are in seattle its not if it rains but how much! luckily emma doesnt have school so i wont be doing as much driving!

today in church we talked about food storage, how the church has moved from eat what you store and store what you eat to store what will sustain life... basically grains and beans. our food storage at the moment is maybe 2 months worth of day to day food, so im hoping we can get better at this although we are going to wait to hear if matt will be granted a H1b1 visa (a few weeks) before we start putting our beds on stilts to store the wheat!!!!\

Matt is working nothing new there and is really enjoying playing basketball on saturday mornings at the chapel - even if he complains for a few days after of aches and pains! we have been playing the guitar hero together most evenings and it is definately a better way to spend time together than watching the tv!

next weekend is general conference i would like to encourage you all to watch it even if it is just bits and pieces if you cant make it to the chapels etc you can watch it at http://www.byutv.org/ check the listings to see when you can watch, there wil also be a few pieces over that weekend about president monson. so I'm sure it will be a great weekend! i may put some notes up next weekend from one or 2 of the sessions!

ok well thats what up!

a freebie tag!

2009-03-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

im reposting to see if anyone else is going to take me up on this offer it will be form emma and i and since she is off this week its time to sign up NOW!!!!

I signed up for a homemade gift from Tia, in exchange i get to 'share the love'

so if you want a homemade gift by me!!! heres what you gotta do! post a comment on this post,(first 5) and share the love by posting a similar idea on your blog!

way better tag than tell me 190 things i never wanted to know dont ya think!

im reposting to see if anyone else is going to take me up on this offer

plod plod plod

2009-03-22T14:54:00.002-07:00

thats all thats going on right now in our lives , matt has been so busy he has worked past midnight 2 nights in a row and forsees this week being more of the same,

Emma is doing great in school, I am also not up to anything of note!

last tuesday was s.Patricks day obviously and this was the day the relief society held the relief society birthday party i wore my one turquoise (green) blouse and wore emmas green hair braided hair band.

it was a good evening actually as we talked about this article
by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. he talks about angels. We had been asked to come prepared to share our mortal angel stories as in Elder Hollands talk he said "when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day".

It was a very beautiful meeting where sisters shared how their mortal angels had helped them. i have had many angels in my life some know who they are some probably dont. big things and little things that they have done have blessed my life beyond measure. The angel story i chose to share was from a time when i felt that i could not live any longer -not that i was suicidal just that i didnt see how i could live, that if i lay down surely my father in heaven would take me home as i could no longer bear it. A family friend -Fiona- came by and prayed for me as i couldnt she read the scriptures for me she talked to me she cried with me and promised to come back for as long as it took for me to be able to do those things for myself. I am eternally greatful for her she blessed my life. I dont know if i ever expressed my gratitude but fiona i love you and thank you thank you so much for what you did for me.

so i am going to 'tag' everyone who reads this to think back to what your mortal angel did for you, and record it.. somewhere anywhere , so you can be reminded that we walk and talk with angels everyday and maybe we can be more concious of being an angel to others.

music

2009-03-20T16:56:00.003-07:00

so i have been really enjoying the song just dance by lady gaga. cause it makes me want to go out dancing!!!! reminds me of the times when Elaine would text me or i would text her and then we headed out on the town to go dancing!!!! anyhew here are some of the cool songs i like right now im not keeping it on the side cause on my browser it just ends up covering half the post which drives me bonkers on other peoples blog so enjoy it until it falls off the page :) and yes i like katy perrys i kissed a girl and no i never did so dont even start alright?????? :)

book group

2009-03-12T16:04:00.002-07:00

soooo i agreed to start a book group....which is great because i cab choose not to put forward silly books like Emma or any of those silly old books (yes Becky that was directed right at you :)!!!!) so i need help with ideas of books you enjoyed reading or would like to read and discuss with a book group!! Im open to anything really as i guess others might enjoy those 'silly books' so help me out! leave a comment!

quick note

2009-03-11T15:58:00.002-07:00

we had a really great time in oregon over the weekend . we got to see Ceanne get baptised what a great experience! the Elliott family is so nice! We stayed with Aunty Mary but spent most of our time at Dean and Candice's. Candice is such a great hostess! we had a blast I am sure they must be glad we are all gone as it was quite packed! while Paul and 3 of his Boys where their Emma played with Malachi and they got on like a house on fire , then later Emma shared her time been Ceanne and Hayden(4) towards the end you could tell she needed some alone time! she is definately not used to sharing all her time with lots of kids! we left a lot later that we should have but our house is way less fun that theirs!

Emma and i chilled out at home monday though we did have to take matt to work because of the snow. we picked matt up fairly early..because of the snow.. and went shopping i bought strawberries and chocolate so i could coat the strawberries in it and of course cream, while matt and emma where picking out my birthday presents!!!
by tuesday morning i had forgotten it was my birthday(blocked it from my mind maybe??) Until Matt and emma reminded me by singing Happy birthday and letting me open my presents spongebob operation , cadburys creme eggs and matts gift to me was laser hair removal woohoo i have waited a long time for it!

Matt is working alot of hours lately so we picked him up from work late and picked up kfc on the way home at home we played operation which i lost to both matt and emma pitiful isnt it? then after emma went to bed i ate my chocolate covered strawberries with some icecream while matt and i played rummikub.

so i had a pretty good 21st birthday.....again! :)

memories emma at 3!

2009-03-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

wordle!

2009-03-04T16:56:00.002-08:00

click on it to see it more clearly. biggest word is the word i mention most often!

dum de dum dum dum

2009-03-01T11:13:00.002-08:00

oh dear my life is boring..........
nothing happening matts working emmas going to school and i am doing nothing!!!!

we had a snow day on thursday in that the road i needed to take to get to emmas school was to dangerous with ice and slush, and then on friday it was a gorgeous day , Emma was snack leader this week and was very upset when she couldnt do it on thursday and then on friday matt took the car keys with him so she was late as we had to wait for matt to come all the way back home!!!!

we managed to get a really good deal on meat it was on beef 1.98 a lb then we bought 50 dollars worth and got 10 dollars off!!! yeah!!! funny but when we bought that and a few other things we spent 60 odd dollars and our bill said we had saved over 100 thats what i like to hear!!!

we are going down to Oregon next weekend for Ceanne's Baptism so maybe i will have some pics to put on here next week

short but sweet cya next week!!! he he he

not much going on

2009-02-23T10:32:00.002-08:00

emma was off this past week and i wasnt feeling particularly great so she watched cartoons and played her games and coloured and basically did her own thing.

buddy is driving us crazy with his biting and we hope to get it under control sooner rather than later.

we ran out of money this month because of some unexpected expenses .this is upsetting to me becasue our freezer is almost empty our potatoes are mostly gone we didnt get to put any money in a savings account this month and the only good thing is we are having to bake bread rather than buy it (until our flour runs out anyway) which smells and tastes really good. thank goodness matt gets paid on friday though.

emmas 1st tuition payment for next year is due next month as well as next months tuition so i dont see us saving next year. I feel bad that i am considering taking emma out of her school as it is so expensive especially since it is the cheapest option other than public school that is. we still dont ahve all the furniture we want in our apartment and have used a lot of free stuff from freecycle and craigslist some is great some really needs to be replaced and we have been here 6 months very depressing.
on the upside emma is getting a good education we do have very good health care coverage and also we have a retirement fund .

with how much matts earning i thought things would be easier turns out more money means better healthcare better schooling and better budgeting! we survived in utah mostly on case lot sales and very cheap chicken (34c a lb) we have been here 6 months and havent seen anything like it yet. so it really is like moving to a different country learning how to shop and where to get deals and bargains is expensive. whine whine whine whine

we were invited to dinner last night we had stuffed peppers- it was stuffed with a pasta (with meat) sauce with loads of mozzarella it was sooooo yummy and a lot more healthy than the pasta version im sure i think i will have to try find a recipe and try it next month, for dessert we had a 'Hawaiian dessert' it was i think yellow cake topped with whipped topping with coconut and pineapple. the lady that invited us had invited the missionaries over and asked if we could come too i have never fed the missionaries such a yummy yummy meal! it was wonderful afterwards we played mexican train dominoes lots of fun definately worth considering as family presents for next year!

Matt gave a talk at church yesterday and short of naming names told off those who have refused to do talks or accept callings he said basically if you are asked/assigned the answer is yes. he also told people to stop complaining about the lack of activities when no one attends the ones that are held. it was a good talk though i was a little uncomfortable when he mentioned that he knew of two people that all it took was a phone call and they came to church and right after one of the members whom i have only seen at church twice since we have been here got up and walked out. but as Matt says he says it as he sees it

sleeping finally!!!

2009-02-15T14:45:00.003-08:00

so a few days ago we suddenly came to the realization that Buddy poops to a) get out of his area b) get some attention and if this doesnt work he barks to let us know thus the mid night barking! friday marked 2 weeks and saturday morning at 7am when buddy started barking we realized he let us sleep the whole night!!!!! WOOHOOO!!! crazy isn't it!oh the excitement for sleep!!! he is doing really well with his litter training and mostly gets it right! most accidents are due to feet in litter bum not so much!!! he is also biting us less thank goodness!!! emma and i have recieved numerous bites while the alpha male in the house has recieved all the love...go figure!!! he is now sitting on emmas lap quietly letting her hug or pet him, he looks at matt and I with the typical puppy dog eyes that say"Help me, please help me!!!!"

Matt has been complaining his ears hurt for a few months and longer than that on and off, about 3 weeks ago at church i declared his ears must really be bad as he was singing in tune!!!!! Friday we finally got him an appointment to talk to a doctor about his ears 40 minutes later i get a phone call to say they had put gromits(tubes) in his ears!!!! and had vacuumed out gelatinous goop out of them too! so while matt may never again sing in tune at least for the next few months his ears will bother him less!!!

then theres the news that matt got himself guitar hero. happy valentines Matt!!! (we got the guitar made by metop not the offical wii guitar and then the game we got 2 for 1 guitar hero3 and guitar hero aerosmith) I am useless at it. i cna use 1 hand at a time not 2! matt is totally in to it tho!!!

This morning while i was sleeping peacefully dreaming of toast and matt was in the shower emma was trying to burn down the apartment. while the smoke alarm is a wonderful indicator that diiner is ready apparently not so good when the apartment is filled with smoke ..go figure

when matt exited the shower he smelled the smoke opened our bedroom door ran to the kitchen to turn of the toaster... or the oven... or???? eventually emma let him know she had put food in the microwave...namely a plastic plate cookie dough and a metal spoon for 14 minutes and she did not notice that the apartment was filled with smoke. Our microwave is dead the insides are melted the plastic plate could now be used perhaps as a play plate for a Barbie doll our apartment stinks of smoke our clothes reek and even my church bag stinks with all the windows open and extractor fans going i still have a headache.

i hope every one had a great valentines weekend for our date on friday matt and i went and made a candle(a heart naturally) and went out for dinner for valentines day we took emma to see bolt which we thought was great bought guitar hero had 18 roses arrive at the front door for me matt and emma both got candy .matt got a 'property of my wife' t-shirt emma got a daddys girl tshirt and tiara ,
all in all it has not been a dull weekend!!!!!

Oh and i said opening prayer in sacrament meeting:)

the connew clan is happy to announce

2009-02-01T13:49:00.005-08:00

A new addition to our happy family!

most people know that we have been waiting a along time for this announcement but the time is now!!!!!!!!

posting his pics below!

yeah we have a puppy!!!!!!!!!! he is 8 weeks old a puggle mix (a pug beagle plus a few others thrown in ) very cute very affectionate only problem is he does not like being on his own at night! so we have had 2 sleepless nights so far!!!!

Edit: his name is Buddy!

not much to say

2009-01-25T18:29:00.002-08:00

really not much to say! not much happening, slowly getting organized i am finally happy..ish with my bedroom. Getting there in the kitchen, just a few more bits and pieces to move around. still haven't figured out a good shoe storage solution so have to work on that for the hallway. then will try figure out what i want to do with the lounge. We are hoping to be able to buy a place in October and then i will start all over again!!!!

this week we sorted out a savings account with dollar savings direct

when we opened it it was at 4% but has since dropped to 3.5%, which is still pretty good . we also sorted out contributing to Matts 401K (pension plan) so this way we are saving for a home and for our retirement!
Have been having to drive matt to work again this week as he had a faulty battery and will continue the madness this week but hopefully we will soon be into a good routine.

We noticed about a week ago that Emmas bike had been stolen. Matt was more upset than Emma was, especially since i assured her we would buy her a new bike closer to summer!

Yesterday we found Matt a cheap meccano set something he has wanted since he was younger ....a lot younger... but if its the little things that makes boys happy what can you do!!!!!

I am trying to start up the Des Moines Ward Chapter of 2 good things and have the go ahead to send a sheet around next week to see who is interested. They seem to be very into the Once a month activities so im not sure it will work out and i dont know if i have the guts to try do it through craigslist!!!

that is all for this week , i already wrote about the inauguration and since have been continually impressed we aren't even a week in yet so dont hold me to that!!!

inauguration

2009-01-20T10:16:00.003-08:00

Well today i watched on tv as Barack H. Obama was sworn in as the President of the United States. Historically speaking having an African American sworn in as the president is a momentous occasion. Now we all wait some lieing in wait to pounce on him as mistakes are made others hoping the mistakes will be small and all hoping that his promises will bring the change we all seek for our home and the world.

Idealistic or what???

new years resolutions?? a look back at december

2009-01-18T15:21:00.004-08:00

So if my new years resolution was to write in my blog less i would be doing great!!! this week i have been sick so wasnt in the right frame of mind(boo hoo) to write and update i arrived back last friday the 9th it was good to sleep in my own bed but totally understood emmas wishing that we didnt have to leave its always sad leaving Ireland but at least this time i know i will be back soon.

since being back matt has bought himself a motorbike a honda cb919 hornet in a lovely black and yellow.
Emma has gone back to school and is doing well. So far i have bought some groceries and thats about it! today we spoke to someone about babysitting yeah!!!! maybe a datenight in my future!!!!

but looking back here is a look back at the fun month in ireland

And here is the pictures of My dads Lasagne being made ..my all time favourite lasagne is my dads lasagne and he told us his secret..my mom makes the white sauce!!!(he says anyway!!) since my dad was not well this lasagne was made by my mom dad and stewy!!! and it was beautiful and gorgeous and yummy as is obvious from the empty plates and very full tummies!!!

Like a house on fire!!!

2008-12-29T05:49:00.005-08:00

wow isn't it maddening and crazy how much of a run up to Christmas there is? and then in one day swoosh all done! after arriving back from visiting Matt's mom and sister we chilled out for a bit before going to check out a new sofa that my parents wanted even though we decided the sofa was a no Matt and my Dad decided that the computer desk still had to be moved. so they spent most of their day occupied with the rearrangement of furniture while the rest of us just hung out .
In the past we have taken Emma Christmas shopping for the family and decided to take her again this year. we were heading to the €2 store we passed a thrift store and decided why not look around! well lets say for the same amount of money o would have spent in the €2 store we got better stuff for everyone my sisters got jewelry and her cousins got usable toys! we did get the spouses (matt david and stewy) stuff from the €2 store silly string was what they got as for granny and pop a transformer sponge and bubble bath for Pop and a Hula hoop for Granny! it was a fun day. Robert Emma's cousin is 2 so he also helped pick out stuff to gicve to his cousins! most of this week has actually been devoted to shopping mostly for food but we kept picking little bits and pieces up for presents. We finally wrapped the presents on Tuesday night!

Wednesday we went carol singing and dropped of some cookies to those we carolled to it was fun and as always totally embarrassing! Emma Matt and Pop were confined to quarters as all where sick and we didn't want them getting sicker! after carol singing we worked our way up to My Aunt and Uncles house(their family had also come carol singing with us) for some hot chocolate and mince pies! in case someone didn't like mince pies we also brought apple pies turns out just about everyone prefers apple pies to mince pies!!!! so on top of the hot chocolate and the apple pie with cream and custard was custard custard and more custard which the next morning i regretted! no one should eat that much dairy in one sitting! but since custard is one of those things you cant really get in America i have to have it while i can!!!!!

This week Emma and Robert spent a lot of time with each other and like the title says they get on like a house on fire... that is really really well until the house burns down! anyway its a good thing for both of them Robert doesn't have an older sibling and Emma doesn't have a younger sibling so they are still ironing their understanding of each other out! My mom cant help but comment on how much their relationship reminds them of how my cousin Michael and I where when we where little there's even the same age gap ,except Michael was the older kid and i was the younger!

Christmas day and Emma was up at 4 am we contained her ..mostly other than she had to go check if Santa had been yet..until about 6 am then we came downstairs and jumped on Mel (she was sleeping in the lounge) Cath joined us not long after then we waited to be able to wake my parents at 7 . we even ate some breakfast! just after 7 Emma was sent to go wake Granny and Pop (Well she's a grandchild they wouldn't be mad at her!!!!) and there was a knock on the door Jenna was early!!!! and since everyone was up the fun began!!!!!!!!b we received loads of presents my favourites of course where from Emma she bought me a watch earrings and a necklace which she picked out herself -she did a good job of it too!!!! but i got tons of other great presents!as did every one . Later we met my aunts family at the chapel as no one had a house big enough! there's almost too many of us for my parents house without adding uncles and aunts into it too! so we used the relief society room since we were using a big space we also invited the missionaries and a few other people! Dinner was lovely i think Stewy did the biggest amount of cooking and it was well worth it well I appreciate it at least!!!! yum yum yum!!!!
St Stevens day as it is called in Ireland (the 26th dec) was to me even better than Christmas day maybe because the stress was over with? we all had a fry up for breakfast thanks again to Stewy- fried eggs scrambled eggs sausages(real ones!!!!i.e. nothing like those you get in America) bacon black and white pudding (look it up its a meat..sort of)even a few potato wedges we just sat around the table and laughed and laughed and laughed)

The true meaning of Christmas

a celebration of the birth of our saviour Jesus Christ and what a magnificent gift he was from our father in heaven. and the gift he has given us the way to return to our father in Heaven. Family is a great way to feel the true meaning of Christmas loving each other and enjoying each others company! and now i guess i need to start working on those new years resolutions!!!!

hope you had a great Christmas and have a happy new year!!!!

mini Connew Christmas

2008-12-23T12:47:00.003-08:00

we have had a great week I arrived home Tuesday a little later than the scheduled time but here none the less!!!! since then i have had the opportunity to get to meet and know Chloe and evelynn a little anyway!!!!! what cute sweet little girls and so different!!!! it has been fun to have the house full of little kids running around and causing smiles and mayhem!!!!

Matt on the other hand worked until friday and then arrived here saturday evening! Sunday morning we flew to London to spend the day with Matts Mom and his sister Beth and Warwick Beth's boyfriend! We started the day with Emma helping Beth make scrambled egg fro breakfast then we headed to the tube station and we experienced the underground. Emma being Emma had a hundred and one thousand questions! she held Beth's hand fiercely and told beth she loved her over and over! our end destination was the Natural History Museum. We spent our time in the dinosaur exhibition (If you didnt know, Emma loves dinosaurs!!).
when we were done with the dinosaurs we headed back to Beths apartment where we enjoyed a mini Connew Christmas with Warwick being an honorary Connew for the Day . I feel bad because I really did mean to pick Warwick up a pair of socks but now I think I am in the market for a pair of socks with a christmas tree on them! just as a reminder!!!(inside joke!!!) the food was amazing as well as the home made christmas cake! yum thinking of it is making me hungry!!! just as well christmas is around the corner!!! we exchanged presents and we are delighted with our gifts and emma is thrilled with hers. paddington bear may not have been a big hit at first but when she was miserable on the plane that's who she wanted and last night when she woke up in the middle of the night it was paddington she wanted!

we left beths very early on monday morning and spent most of the day shopping and Matt was moving furniture fixing computers and building his Meccano car!!

Today we wrapped the christmas presents and picked up the last few things for christmas dinner!!! hope everyone has a great christmas!!!!

leaving on a jet plane!

2008-12-14T14:13:00.003-08:00

so this week has been all about if the presents are delivered on time if the homemade gifts will be finished (they arent!) how we will fit everything into the bags remembering what i have forgotten to do etc etc etc!!!

so not much to say other than i hope i have remembered everything and i hope we get there in one piece!

it snowed here last night not as much as we are used to in utah so we werent worried about it. But here since it is a rarity the infrustructure to deal with it isnt in place! not fun so anyhew i will be updating my blog from Ireland next!!!

10 Things i want for christmas Tag - Part B

2008-12-07T19:53:00.008-08:00

Well, Keri-Anne seems to think she can tag from this blog back to this blog and get me to do a blog post (as I am really bad at posting) so here goes.

no "I want peace on earth or anything sappy"; This is strictly superficial. I want you guys to tell me about your desire for an angora sweater or china plates. If you are tagged you have to list at least ten material wishes and tag ten people

1. Harley Davidson V-Rod. The picture says it all:
2. Tickets to go see Pink Floyd in concert. Although this might be harder than it sounds seeing how they no longer do live concerts. I might have to make do with tickets to go see Australian Pink Floyd instead.

3. Lego Mindstorms NXT. It's one of those computer programmer gadgets. It's a lego brick with a computer inside that you can make to do lots of fun things.
4. Sharp Zaurus SL-6000L. It's a PDA, that runs Linux!!! It's actually more powerful than the computer I owned when I first got married!
5. Mini Cooper.

6. My own workshop where I can build things. Things like our own kit car, or repair motorcycles, or build my own furniture.

7. A whole bunch of power tools to go in the workship. Ban saw, table router, pillar drill, lots of fun toys!

8. A trip to Machu Picchu. The photos I've seen are just stunning.
9. A new pair of Dr. Marten boots. They are very difficult to get in America.

10. The latest Terry Pratchett books. I have most of the Disc World series, but there's a couple of his latest books that I don't have.

I tag the husbands of the first 10 people who read this as it looks like it's the wives who do all the blogging. Leave a comment to state you consider yourself tagged (or intend to get let your husband know they've been tagged) so that the 11th person knows they've been let off!!

10 Things i want for christmas Tag

2008-12-05T16:04:00.011-08:00

no "I want peace on earth or anything sappy"; This is strictly superficial. I want you guys to tell me about your desire for an angora sweater or china plates. If you are tagged you have to list at least ten material wishes and tag ten people.

1. a bunch of cds i really like la vida loca from cold play, so what from pink, someday from nickelback all summer long by kid rock what about now by daughtry apologize by timbaland time of my life by david cook wont go home without you maroon 5 the new one from lifehouse the name has currently exited my brain,id also love something from snow patrol and also anything from josh groban or jack johnson.

2.a maid

3. a personal trainer or a walking partner - (i think Tia needs to move here so we can go walking again!!!)

4.massage and manicure and pedicure.

5. the latest Kathy Reichs book

6. Kitchenaid (but i think matt would use it more maybe it should be on his list)

7. shoes

8. Green card....

9. ...so we can buy a house

10.....so i can get me an edumacation
i tag: Matt ,Jenna, Catharine, Mom, and anyone else who wants to!!!

Cuddles with Emma

2008-11-30T15:21:00.002-08:00

this week was thanksgiving and of course black Friday!
we had a nice family meal of beef! since we aren't too worried about celebrating thanksgiving and will I'm sure be eating turkey on Christmas day we didn't feel the need to eat it that day!
Also this week Emma was mad with me whie we where all out and told us that she did not want me to come home with them (matt and emma) so i dutifully climbed out the car and they drove off. They came back a few minutes later and we got down to the reason Emma was unhappy with me -not enough cuddles- Before Emma started school we started our morning with cuddles in my bed! now we dont have that time and she is not happy about the lack of cuddles. Now we do cuddle but not enough. so since we dont have a specified time that we can devote to cuddling i need to find other ways to make her feel as loved as she did when we cuddled in bed in the mornings. any suggestions???

Also this week we put up our christmas tree's I will do a post about that when we finally finish decorating ours.

we spent thanksgiving evening in the ER as matt has been suffering some pain in his right side,unfortunately after CT scans X-rays blood and urine tests they found nothing so now we are hoping the pain goes away on its own.

Black friday (-so called because traditionally this is the day of the year stores go from being in the red to being in the black) started late for us this year as we got home so late the night before but thanks to online shopping and the 50% off sock sale at our local store we managed to get enough socks and tights for emma to last for hopefully quite a while ,and i also managed to buy Matts christmas presents and emmas presents too maybe one more depending on what she asks santa for!!!!!!!

Now my side of the family is going to be recieving home made gifts so start practicing your wow isnt this beautiful but oh my goodness where can we hide it face !!!!!!! and i still need to make them!!! 25 days to Christmas!!!!!!

parent teacher meeting!

2008-11-23T10:02:00.002-08:00

This week marked Emmas first school report and the first parent teacher meeting. obviously she is amazing! teacher said she does something new everyday! kind of like me try something once then never do it again!

My Mom and Dad finish their mission tomorrow!!!! I cant believe it! we are so proud of you mom and dad! what an amazing example you are to us!

we have been getting our apartment ready for thanksgiving namely to put christmas decorations up and this week we will have to buy those decorations!!!

I have been suffering migraines every other day this week and am looking for a migraine cure?? anyone? i cant live on painkillers especially since they only half work! wierdly enough i havent been suffering from sinusitis which i thought i would since i always did in Ireland and since the weather hers is comparable i thought i was going back to sinusitis but seems the migraines have taken the place of the sinusitis. ok so no one wanted to know that.

Matt has been spoiling me since im feeling so rough!he made me breakfast in bed yesterday! sweet!

not much news lately! I am getting ready to start making christmas presents this week that will keep me busy but again i can talk about WHAT i am making just that i will be busy next week!

new tv

2008-11-16T14:56:00.002-08:00

considering how little we watch it im not sure that we needed a 42" flat screen tv but whatever! now we have a tv one more temptation for me to try avoid! we bought it yesterday and as soon as emma saw it in the car she asked "is that for my room?" um... yeah.... a 42 inch tv for our 5 yr old i dont think so!!!!!!!

thats probably the most exciting thing for this week matt has been doing a course this week the AWS hack attack , basically he gets to use Amazon Web Services to create a cool product. at the end if you win or do the best project you get a trophy if you dont win you get a 2008 competitor emblem for your phone...or something. Anyway Matt wants the award and it looks promising!

this week we were also able to figure out going to see Matts mom and sister!!!
now we just have to figure out christmas presents? hints???anyone?????

busy!!!tired!!!! great

2008-11-09T20:01:00.002-08:00

so this week has been busy hence no posts about the week before there are now so keep scrolling down after thisone and read about Emmas Birthday and Also Halloween!

This week i joined the gym!!!! yeah!!! i havent attended any classes yet-bar one aqua fit class- but i intend to i have used the treadmill and been swimming not amazing but a start non the less! we have also this week bought too much actually but things we have wanted to buy and had planned on putting off but it was the first paycheck and everyone knows you have to blow the first one!!! we havent yet but we have bought-a toaster a crock pot a coffee grinder(for those times when you do not have confectioners sugar handy and you need some -just whizz it in here -a trick i learned from my mom!!!) some storage furniture for emmas room and also for the end of our bed and a few other things for clotehs etc! the most and biggest purchase we made where TICKETS HOME!!!! i am soo excited as is Emma and Matt i can't wait to hug my Mom and Dad and tell them how proud i am of what they have accomplished! i also cant wait to meet my 2 new nieces! Chloe will be one before i get there that is terrible!!!!!! Matt wont be there for very long only a week and is disappointed that he wont get to see his family but hopefully he will be able to come over again in late August early September (as I have a wedding to attend!) and we will definitely know the dates (since we will have the money to book earlier!!) well in advance so the dates can work for everyone.

The Elections where held this week and i am thrilled that Barack Obama was elected as president and has been said whether we voted for him or not we now need to support him!!it was a memorable and definately historic day!
Although i know i have been busy this week i cant think what i have been busy with!!! must just be this and that nothing important but either way i am tired!!!! And its great!

Emma turns how old ? 5 no way!

2008-11-09T19:20:00.002-08:00

Thursday(30th oct) i picked Emma up from school, she is usually happy but today she leaped in the car and her excitement couldnt be contained! she informed me they where going to Celebrate her birthday the next day at school not only would this be fun but it meant they got to have cupcakes for snack. 'Who provides the cupcakes" i asked suspiciously- thinking that already today had been very busy and this evening matt was making Emmas birthday cake for sunday as we would be gone saturday and friday evening was halloween not to mention the Interview Matt had with the Stake presidency that evening too- " Well" Emma answered "who evers childs birthday it is" .Just to clarify i ask her "does that mean i have to?" she shrugs and replies confidently "it doesnt matter" phew im off the hook its only involved caring mothers that do that.."You or Daddy" she continued. uh oh A call to the school later and the responsibility for 17 birthday cupcakes with napkins are firmly placed in my hands.
Thursday was a busy day! so Emma and i rushed to the store to pick up a mix then rush home so i can shower then rush to pick matt up rush home sop he can change rush to the stake center and we are in and out in 10 minutes! Congratulations to the New executive Secretary of the Des Moines ward!!
Anyhew i got to deliver the very pretty strawberry flavoured butterfly cupcakes and watch the celabration of Emmas birthday in her class ! they all loved the cupcakes and they tasted pretty darn good too!!
we got home late on friday after the halloween activity so left a little later than planned to go visit Aunty Mary and Sasha in Salem Oregon (3 and 1/2 hrs away) we arrived a little before midday and promptly had to go buy ourselves some clothes as our sunday clothes wher in matts suit bag on our bed !!!!!! after that we got to do some fun stuff with Emma she got to ride a carousel 3 times!!!!!! play on a playground and then later she met her second cousins Ceanne Justin Hayden and Brendan! Dean and Candice where throwing Sasha a gowing away/ Birthday party -she is moving to arizona and her bday is on the 10th! It was great to meet Candice and see Dean again- He may be a dad but seems like the same big kid i adored when i was a kid! Now usually I am not fond of big crowds especially ones where i know very few people but i had an absolute blast just a ton of fun and Emma also had heaps and heaps of fun! playing with the other kids jumping on their big trampoline going down the slide and for food there was curry good curry i havent had a good curry here only nasty ones that was great WE HAD A BLAST!!!!!
then the cake came out First we sang Happy Birthday to Sasha then we sang to Emma i believe we sang to Hayden after that!! all for the same cake!!! lots of laughter! the Ceanne (and family)Gave Emma a towel with her name on it I am jealous it is bigger than my towel that has my name on it!!!!!

Sunday morning Aunty Mary made us scrambled egg and toast for Breakfast- Sunday being Emmas actual birthday, Aunty Mary had made a cake for her so after our scrambled egg she got to blow some more candles out....though we didnt know to begin with they where trick candles!!!!!! and then had cake(brownies) and icecream as a second breakfast!
And if you think the celebrating stopped there you are wrong! She opened a present from Aunty Mary a puzzle which you will see in the pics after of the saviour with a little girl on his lap! we left to drive home after sacrament meeting and when we arrived Matt let Emma help him Decorate her Birthday cake from us!!!! found the idea in a magazine then tracked it down online to here
I think they did a pretty good job the cake was strawberry and since we didnt have anyone to call to share it with the new bishop and the missionaries got a biiiig piece! it still lasted until i threw it out last night!!!!

she got a dinosaur book and duvet set from Grandma, as mentioned the halloween/dressup outfit from Granny and Pop and cards galore! from us she got the sleeping beauty Dvd and 2 new games for her Vsmile all in all i think she had a great birthday!

Halloweeeeeeen!!!wooooOOOoooooOOOOOoo

2008-11-09T17:43:00.002-08:00

Since we didn't get around to Carving the pumpkin on monday night (the 27th) I decided tuesday night there would be no excuses! so before i picked Emma up i cut the top off, hoping that Emma would love taking the goop out (knowing from last year i definitely did not like it!!!) Unfortunately Emma disliked it as much as i did so we shared the gruesome task! When we picked Matt up later we then found a template online and matt carved the pumpkin while Emma and i got the pumpkin seeds ready to eat (we roasted them) It was a great way to get into the mood for Halloween.

I think it was on the Monday that the Early Birthday present for Emma arrived from Granny and Pop which she loves! it was a witch costume with spider web design needless to say we found a spider halloween basket to match her dress and her hair band which had a spider on it(came with the dress)

On Friday for Halloween we went Trunk or treating which i thought was great , probably not as much fun as trick or treating for the kids but just as rewarding , it was our first time trunk or treating and for those who have no idea what it is let me explain! We went to the chapel car park which we share with 2 other wards here we decorated the trunk(boot) of our car and the kids get to trick or treat to the cars they pretty much keep going until the candy runs out!

After the candy ran out the Spanish speaking ward had 2 pinata's for the kids to hit One of them was spongebob with a witches hat I told Matt i wanted it so when the pinata came down and the kids scrambled for the candy matt was up and got me the witches hat!! i think i look rather fetching dont you???? Emma was a contendor for best costume but lost out to some toddlers(one girl and 1 boy both no more than 18months i would say!) Unfortunately they where just too darn adorable!!!! Halloween was so much fun and even though half the time we couldnt understand what was being said in the hall (most of the other wards left after thetrunk or treating so there where more spanish speakers than English!) We had an absolute blast tonnes of fun!

A new kind of Mom

2008-10-28T18:52:00.002-07:00

huh?! i hear you say yes i am a new kind of mom. I used to be the mom who was at home with her one child all day. when we were having a good week we played outside did crafts, and laundry and tidied the house together on a bad day she played in her room and i did my own thing that was the old way of life.

Now i am a new mom
I am the grouchy hate housework dont want to do housework ,have nothing else to do kind of mom.
I am the spend 2 hours in the car driving kind of mom
I am the watching the clock so i can go get her from school so i have something to do kind of mom.
I am the go shopping multiple times during the week even though one trip would have done but i have nothing better to do type of mom.
I am the want to get involved in stuff but dont want to let anyone down so in case my child gets sick i better not kind of mom.
I am the scour the internet and books for new ideas of what to do then dont do any of them kind of mom

I think i am a mom who needs a friend that will drag her out to do stuff.only problem is i am terrible at making friends, besides where will i find these friends to make???? i need a really great hobby.

But i am a new kind of mom

whining week

2008-10-26T14:53:00.002-07:00

yes you read right. whining week. to tell you about my week would require a lot of whining so in order not to whine in point form:
1 car had to be repaired-needed to take to 2 different garages over 2 days
2 our counter top had to be fixed and this required me to be out of the house until 7 pm this turned into 2 occasions wher i had to be out of the house for that long

the whining is about all the annoyances involved.so I am going to try not to whine about it!

Matt has put his back out and so is in a lot of pain.
Emma was able to go to the pumpkin patch on a school trip on friday she came home full of mud and a cute pumpkin which we hope to decorate soon. she is growing like a weed and we are glad matt gets paid this week as she is in need of some clothes!

congrats to Camilla and Alan on tying the knot, we are glad you have found your Happily Ever After!

Since i have no other news and i dont want to whine! I am signing off!!! have a good week!

Tag and tagged again

2008-10-21T18:31:00.005-07:00

1. Post the Rules to your blog
2. Answer the six 8 items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by commenting on their blog.

8 favorite TV Shows:

kitchen nightmares

csi

csi new york

csi miami

House

the closer

the view

countdown with keith olberman

8 Things I did yesterday:

read an entire book

drank 2 chocolaty chocolatre chip creme frappacinos at starbucks

walked in the rain

dropped matt at work

dropped emma at school

ate at kfc

went to bed early

had a shower

8 Things I look forward to:

matts first paycheck

getting to go home for the first time in 2 years!

matt getting his own vehicle so i dont spend over 2 hours in the car everyday

being perfected

the weekend

getting to meet my nieces for the first time

sleeping in

going to the temple

8 Favorite Restaurants:

the golden steer (WA)

Luigi malones (cork, Ireland!!!)

hillbillys(also cork !!)

sizzlers

Wendys

T bone (UT)

Steak Out (UT)

Subway

wah yun (their hot and sour soup yuuuummmmm ...also cork!!!!)

8 Things on my wish list:

financial security for my family extended family and friends

giving Emma A( <--- Im not pushing my luck here :) ---) sibling

For Matt to settle into his job and enjoy it!

To stick to our schedule

Be a lot lighter and not have to do anything to achieve that (well it is a
WISH list not a goal list after all!)

To complete third level education and get a degree in something...(right now a toss up between chemistry and psychology)
travel to greece and Italy-see the history in these places
go to the Holy Land

here is the picture tag
fourth picture from fourth folder
this was taken just after Emma met her Granny and Pop and 2 of her aunties,we are still in the delivery room, the bear in the photo is her first teddy and if you look closely you can see the bear has wings-we have those too but the wings were because i initially went into the hospital October 31st..so they brought it with them for her Halloween outfit!!! luckily(!!?) we held on until after Halloween!

8 People to Tag:

Suzanne
Nicole
Becky
Jessica
Caroline
Cara
Tecia
Alicia

new rule :never say nothing has happened until you go to church!

2008-10-19T14:42:00.002-07:00

Matt taught his lesson today and of course we expect a calling soon for him...Today i received 2 callings!!!!as soon as i walked into the building a counselor on the bishopric told me he needed to talk to me! I was called as a relief society instructor and also as an activity specialist for the stake Christmas activity! I am excited about both callings even though i don't know what my activity calling entails yet im sure it will be an experience!!!!

this and that and then some

2008-10-19T09:52:00.002-07:00

This week hasnt been particularly anything really!
we had a visit from Camilla and Alan on Saturday ,we enjoyed having a chance to meet Alan.Also a chance to catch up on all the news from home that no one tells me!!!!!!!!

We finally had some of the stuff on our apartment fixed and on Monday they are fixing the worktop and resealing our bathtub which means fumes, which means No-one is allowed into the apartment until after 6 pm and even then it is still going to stink.
So i am taking the car to the garage on monday and waiting for them to check out a clutch problem and also to do a safety inspection so i can register the car here. then i guess window shop for hours? I guess i will figure it out!

Matt is getting to really like work now including the forgetting the time.... 6 years later and we are still working on it!!!!!!!!
Matt is teaching in Priesthood today so wish him luck!!!!

Matts first week of full-time real life actual work in almost 3 years!!!!!!!

2008-10-12T09:37:00.002-07:00

So Matt started work on Monday and after having a few hiccups finding the place he still got to the orientation on time-early even! After dropping Emma at school i went home sat on the sofa and thought what now?
6 days later and i still don't know, i do know i need to get a schedule of some sort going so i don't fall behind on everything that i do need to do!!!!!

Monday evening i thought was a sign of things to come when we got home from picking Matt up at the train station at 6.30,Emma has to be in bed by 7 for our early mornings and i was left wondering how we were going to manage this new twist on the schedule. Turns out Monday was unusual as tue-thurs we have been picking Matt up at the station before 5 so phew! He spent most of the week reading about procedures and stuff, Friday his group asked him to help out on one of the pieces.....of whatever it is that they do, and he wowed them with how fast he did it, yes wowing them is great thats what we want him to do....what we dont want though is homework...so Friday evening Matt brings the work home and i think to myself have we gone back to school?

Anyway except for those few hiccups he seems to be impressing those who he needs to impress!!!!!

Thursday was Matts birthday and so Emma and i made a birthday cake for him, after we picked him up we went to go pick out his present -a helicopter. he hasnt been able to play with it much but we will have to find a nice big open space that he can try it out in!!!!!

Emma had a day off on friday much to her dismay as staying at home is boooooring , this comes a few days after she complained about having to go to bed because she would prefer to go to school than go to bed!!!! nice to see such enthusiasm!!!!!

I am teaching lesson in relief society today so wish me luck!!!!

Respect for McCain

2008-10-10T20:13:00.006-07:00

I may not like him as a candidate, but he earned my respect (some anyway) for this:

Now granted his campaign has been really hammering out the Muslim, Arab etc thing and lately the (tenuous) connection with Ayers has really been put out there. In the last 2 weeks more and more supporters at McCains rallies have been shouting things like "terrorist" "Bomb Obama" "Kill him". While we can't blame McCain or Palin for what their supporters think or say, there have been questions as to why they carry on inciting such hatred at the rallies and why no one has said or done anything to stop it. Today was the day.

Thank you McCain for admitting that Obama is a good guy. OK you didn't say he isn't a terrorist but you did say we didn't have to worry. That must have been hard to admit.

Like I said I may not like McCain as a candidate but I do not HATE him, and maybe after this, McCain supporters may dial back the hatred to dislike.(I am not accusing any McCain Supporters of Hating Obama..other than the ones who do!)

blatant favoritism and i make no apology ! i think this is cool!

2008-10-03T20:13:00.002-07:00

And heck if you dont like Obama he is still right!!! lets all take this attitude and sing it with me....

'YES WE CAN'!!!!

things that bugged me about this debate

2008-10-02T19:22:00.002-07:00

Firstly I have only been half listening as I will watch it when Matt comes home.

when i started watching I was very impressed with Palin
but did it look at times like she was looking at a teleprompter or was it just me?

then some things started to irritate me, Biden obviously could not attack palin as it would have made him look bad and her look good. But why is it Ok for Palin to keep handing Biden backhanders?? that really irritated me. They both attacked their bosses tho so i guess maybe that made it fair?

another thing a maverick is by definition "a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates." so I really am unsure what a team of Mavericks would look like?

Im thinking lets not use team of mavericks phrase again

Biden and Palin where well matched so far as their background stories go which is good so they couldnt use it to prop themselves on.

I did not like the moderator she seemed a lot stricter with time than the moderator last week.

Palin was trying to connect with the joe six packs- which i think she would have achieved if you had only watched half of it.

I dont know that i would trust her with the country but i certainly feel slightly better about her. she seems like a nice soccer/hockey mom but should we trust her as a vp?She does seem to avoid questions and talk around issues. But honestly when she does try to answer questions sometimes she gets it wrong(historically not necessarily this time) so maybe the best strategy was to talk around the issues. In saying that it does smack of a politician anyway doesnt it? not answering questions??!!!!

I guess the only thing i had really to smile about was the when biden siad" Neither I nor Obama support same-sex marriage."

Maybe i will add more later , I enjoyed the debate not as much as the mccain/ obama debate but still i hope it peaked someones interest!

Post debate challenge for a guest blogger!!!!!

2008-10-01T17:31:00.002-07:00

I cant really say my post about my current political views was received well by all those who read the blog, but well tough! It is through differing opinions that the right way emerges! ok this doesnt apply much to gospel doctrine, but in applying the principles of the gospel it does, people do things differently, people also have different priorities even though we might believe the same things (or may not) the things we rate as more important or( more important for right now) are often times different. Isnt that what makes the world great?
I am opinionated- I like that in a person. I have some opinionated friends and we agree and disagree on things, but at the end of the day does it matter? does it change our opinion of each other? If it did we would only be friends with those who are identical to ourselves. And lets face it how often do we change our minds anyway? To be exposed to differing ways of thinking is to expand your mind (Ok not all the time!)

So I will carry on bloging about the debates-If they excite me as much as the last one did- And hopefully even if you dont agree with my point of view they might excite you to at least WATCH the debates research the candidates and form opinions or broaden your understanding.

If you like what you see in the debate for either candidate and want to blog about it as a guest blogger here by all means email me after the debates (no later than the next day so after the vp debate send me an email by fri night etc) I am looking for your opinion tho. not the media's!

First presidential debate!

2008-09-27T10:41:00.002-07:00

OK so it is no surprise that we are heading towards the end of the campaign season here and boy am i glad it is almost over. It has been going on for way way way too long.

As you can now see on the left, exactly who Matt and I would vote for if we could in fact vote and i can just hear some of my friends thinking thank goodness that we can't. We favor Obama, a logical thinker who last night at the first presidential debate showed respect and control while McCains clear contempt for Obama was very off putting. While there are a few policies that Matt and I do not 100% support, we support more of the way Obama portrays his policies and how he will run the country, while we are very wary of McCain.

While Mccain may feel we should as the beach-boys song says(?!!!) Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran we dont particularly think this is the right or conscionable way to go. Talking, which is the starting point in Obamas plan, to deal with 'rogue states' seems a much better plan...to us anyway. We are not saying we oppose war, we oppose going into war WITHOUT an adequate attempt at the talking part first.

We also are having trouble believing McCain will keep lobbyists in check as his campaign staff seems to be..well, full of them!

It does seem unfortunate that the reasons to vote for Obama in part are because of all the reasons not to vote for McCain. I believe Obama in a crisis situation(arguably like the one we are currently in) will put his energy and passion into finding a solid solution. While McCains anger (perhaps misplaced passion?) makes me worry he will bomb someone out of frustration..does he come across as having a bit of a temper problem? And in this case it doesn't work for him..while I think he could have used his anger productively (ie show passion for the things he will fight for) I dont think he can. His anger is not controlled.

Now I must admit probably for the first time in the last 2 weeks that last night McCain didn't come across as a bumbling idiot to me, but he actively was able to put up some good points - even if factcheck.org had a field day with some of the things he said.

The world opinion of America was high before 9/11 and probably a lot higher after 9/11 but in recent years has dropped signficantly. This is sad. America is a fantastic country and as such I believe could (would? should?) regain it's status in the world of a place to look up to. Having a leader that you can look up to has a lot to do with that image.

i think Obama is that leader i dont think that McCain is or could ever be that kind of leader. The way he would deal with other countries and their leaders (no, I won't mention Spain!!!!) could potentially further harm international relations whereas Obama I think has the ability to heal rifts with those disenchanted with America. Thus, enabling a greater global eforrt in dealing with those countries who could potentially affect the freedom of this country and others. I believe a global effort would reduce the terrible monetary strain the war(s) we are engaged in now and those we will undoutably be engaged in in the future will cause.

I think Obama has the vision to take this Amazing country to where it should be. I think McCains ability lies in the bomb bomb bomb arena.

And dare i mention the real possiblity of the country ending up in Govenor Palins hands..this possiblity is very very very frightening. Maybe I'll talk about that after the vice presidential debate next thursday :)

if it is for free it is for me!!!!

2008-09-21T11:58:00.006-07:00

Monday we decided to see if we could find the freemont troll which was under a bridge we didnt find him. what we did find was this
(4x4)for free!!!! we were planning on buying this:

(5x5)

when matt started work but like i said if it is for free..... the one we want is bigger and a different color to the one we got(we got the white one we wanted the light birch) but there was also a significant price difference. we were going to buy the bigger one for $199 instead we got a smaller one in the wrong color for $0 i like the savings! (these awesome shelving units are from the expedit range from Ikea)
in just over a week we have gotten 2 bookcases this shelving unit 3tvs (i will explain the 3 in a moment) and a sofa. All of these things bar the shelving unit we will be able to recycle to someone else when we are able to upgrade.
the white shelving unit right now its looking like we will keep since we always need more bookshelves!
the 3 tvs wepicked up where from a group of 7 and they had been left standing outside it gets a little wet in the mornings (dew) so we took 3 in the hopes 1 worked. out of the 3 2 work and matt is going to figure out which one we keep for playing wii and also emmas vtech games on.

we are starting to get things organised slowly and with the good news that matts work authorization card has been ordered for production he may even start work soon woohoo!!!!!

naturally continuing the free tradition matt found a free cut and color ad on wednesday and on thursday i shed my long hair for a new sleek cute look ! if it is for free it is for me....for the time being anyway!!! :)

just a tally of ikea furniture we have or will be getting

Have or will have

our mattress
our bed
Emmas bed
Emmas mattress
2 side tables
computer desk
dining room table
dining room chairs
shelving unit
sofa
old frying pan
new pots and pans
toilet brushes
bookcases
trash cans
another shelving unit
lamp
storage solutions for emma's room

hmmm i think i like Ikea!!!!!!

first Hannah, then Tia ...I cave!

2008-09-18T17:15:00.005-07:00

Well my friends seem to all be shedding their hair for new sleek short do's . I have been wanting to get rid of my long boring hair for a while but decided to only get it cut once i had lost some weight. that was a year ago ahem. last night Matt spotted an ad in the free section on craigslist. it said free cut and color, he convinced me to do it. what we did not expect was that the cut and color would be at a high end salon ($180 for a cut) called SEVEN,
Anyway i went in at 9 am and came out at 12.45!!!!, i was able to donate 10 inches of hair to locks of love

then still had another 4 odd inches chopped off to get my new do! heres the pics.......

This last one though it shows nothing of my hair really is matts favorite pic *sigh* so here you go!

as you can see i got a red in my hair its a very warm color and still keeps my brown color but brings it up a notch to a rich deep color. i love it!

i havent had my hair dyed since a month before i got married over 6 years ago! it feels GREAT!

not much going on

2008-09-14T16:45:00.003-07:00

This week we have spent mos of our time putting an alarm in our car, as at the beginning of the week it was broken into.nothing was taken and we were warned that they could have just been looking at it to steal later so matt had to install an alarm upside is we can now lock and unlock the car remotely without using the key yeah!!!!!
Emma has loved school (even though i forgot show and tell on monday) she started french on tuesday sign language on thursday and they did some P.E. on friday(rolling down hills outside playing soccer etc) and was very dissapointed that she could not go to school on saturday

Monday was also our first time making home made pizza! we invited the missionaries to join us and we made and ate yummy pizza it was a lot of fun, if it didnt use up so much cheese we would do it again soon! it was really fun and a rather nice way to use our left overs from the sunday!

Matt went out with the missionaries again yesterday to visit 3 families! and is going again on saturday.
Today we gave our talks and Emma also shared her first scripture in primary. my talk was on Our obligation to find our ancestors and matts was on how the temple binds family together. and Emmas scripture was

doctrine and covenants 112:10
10 Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.

something we could all do better!
Thanks again to cath for doing the guest post so who is next???

Guest blogger! thanks Cath!

2008-09-09T15:33:00.008-07:00

Since Emma is going to a Montessori school ,People have been asking me questions about what a Montessori school is . Since my sister - Catharine- is a Montessori teacher I figured she would answer the questions better than I could so I asked Cath to do a guest post for me!

The funny thing about the Montessori Method of teaching is that we get two different types of criticism, the first being that it is way too structured, and the other being that it is way too unstructured. A good Montessori school should get the balance between the two. Yes, there are schools that get it wrong, or schools who claim to be Montessori, but are not really, and this is unfortunate for the Montessori methods reputation.

The structured part is that each piece of equipment used needs to be used in a very specific way. It also needs to be taken out a specific way, and put back where they find it. (Anyone here with young children have a problem with us teaching them to put things away? nobody, I thought so J ...) we also teach a child how to enter, leave the class, how to behave in the class, how to lift up and move a chair, the list is endless. There is also a specific timetable for each day, an example (in my own class) would be arrive to school, playtime (puzzles etc), Montessori work time, art time, lunch, circle time, and weather permitting, play outside/gardening. These are the structured things we do.

The unstructured part is that the children get to choose whatever equipment they would like to work with. Might not sound like a good idea. But coupled with it being structured, it can be a great learning environment. They can only choose work that they have been shown how to use, and put away. The teacher decides when each individual child is ready to learn something new and will say, “John, when you are finished what you are doing I would like you to come to me so we can learn something new today”. If the teacher has decided to start learning numbers, for example, she will be able to tell straight away whether John is ready for them or not. If he is not ready, she will put them away, and say something like, “We will try these again another day, now you may take out some other work that you have been shown how to use”. The reason the learning is “child led” is because each child learns at a different rate, and each child is interested is something different, John might be interested in numbers, while Mary is interested in colours. The child doesn’t exactly tell the teacher when he/she is ready to learn something new, the teacher takes queues that they might be ready for something else. And if the child never shows interest in something new the teacher encourages, gives them a little push, and they always appreciate it. You might be surprised at how much the children actually enjoy “working”. The materials are made so that they can be fun, and not boring.

Just a quick note on discipline, the Montessori Method believes in praising a child for doing well. But when it comes to bad behaviour, then in my school (here I can only talk for my school as everywhere is different) we use a time out chair, still inside the classroom, it works great. But discipline in ANY pre-school would have to be discussed with a parent before the child starts in the school, so that everyone agrees on what needs to be punished, and how the punishment will be carried out. I’m sure most places do use the time-out, and I think it is perfect if used right. I don’t see why anyone would think that Montessori schools don’t discipline the children.

Ok, so now what the method is, well, first of all, it is just a different way to teach children. I am not claiming that it is better, or worse than any other way. If I give myself as an example, I know that in secondary school (high school for all you Americans reading) I learned a lot better when I was given an alternative way to do my last school years, then if I had done what everyone else was doing. (Listening, studying… not my cup of tea!) So just like the Montessori Method, it’s just a different way of learning. We teach the child using their senses, and use practical and hands on ways to teach things. There are different sections/areas to the Montessori way, I will tell you a little about the main ones.

Practical Life

In this section, the teacher actually makes most of the materials as you can’t really buy them. We teach how to pour, from one jug to another, they do this by actually pouring, starting with peas, then sand, then WATER! Imagine a 3 year old pouring water J but they do it. It is to teach them how to pour the milk onto their cereal. They also “spoon” things from one bowl to another. So they are being taught how to feed themselves, and how to hold a spoon properly. (Which is also the beginning to holding a pencil) There are LOADS of things we do in practical life, I can’t explain them all, but here is a short list. Opening and closing jars, polishing a mirror, stringing beads, cleaning their face, using keys, using scissors (real ones, not pretend ones, no accidents to date), manners, and we also teach them how to use velcro, zips, buttons and even buckles. Just like the title, everything is to teach them practical life skills. And here in Ireland, they start all this at 3 (I don’t know about America, but 3 or 4 is when they start pre-school here)

Sensorial

All the materials in this section are to help heighten the child’s senses. We have boards to show rough and smooth, and can be used as a matching game. We have sound boxes, also a matching game (can also be used to detect a hearing defect), colour boxes, matching again, and then teaching the names. Then the visual sense, we have various blocks and rods and the children sort them from smallest to biggest, shortest to longest. Some of these also help further the pincer grip (used for holding a pencil)

Maths

There are loads of materials to help children as young as 4 to not only count, but to do addition and subtraction. To start them off, we have sandpaper numbers, so they can feel the shape of the number as well as learn the name. To help them to understand that 4 is bigger than 1, we have rods. (Hard to explain, I will try) the smallest rod (representing number 1) is 10cm long, and is red. The next rod is 20 cm long, 10cm being red and 10cm being blue. The next rod is 30 cm, 10cm red, then 10cm blue, then 10cm red. Get the idea? Then we teach the number symbols to go with the number quantity. And there are more exercises to further their understanding of numbers. The spindle box and the golden beads. There are huge amount of games you can teach with them. And they are always able to see the quantity, and the number symbols to go with it.

Language

Again, there are just tons of materials to go with this one. The major ones would be the sandpaper letters, and we teach them by the phonetic sound rather than the name of the letter. After they know these pretty well, we move onto the large moveable alphabet. Basically a box with all the letters separated into compartments. Then they get 3 letter phonetic word pictures, like a dog. Ask the child what the picture is of, and then help them hear all the sounds in the word, they then pick up the sounds (letters) one by one and put them next to each other to form the word, dog! Before you know it 4/5 year olds are spelling, and reading. We also begin them writing, firstly by having them use insets, where they just go around the edge of the inset, which are shapes, and then they draw horizontal lines free hand, within the shape. They love the designs of using different colours, or different shapes on top of one another, all the while, steadying their hands to be able to write.

There is also plenty of other areas in the Montessori method, geography (teaching where the child lives), nature (all about trees, animals ... anything about nature), art (it should all be the child’s work, not just them colouring in printed pictures), history (usually a lot about dinosaurs), science (example, learning about the rain, and how it got up in the clouds, and simple science experiments like learning what sinks and what floats), gardening (self explanatory!).

I think that’s all folks! Sorry for boring you if I went on too long.

hungry hungry emma

2008-09-07T16:22:00.004-07:00

Well you all now should know that Emma has started school. She is loving it and we hope to keep it that way! we got our car back on friday and the warranty company paid almost all of the cost we eventually paid just $300 which is great considering the price was $2600 !!!

there is still no sign of matts work visa yet so he wont be working next week.
since Emma was in school Matt and i took the opportunity on wed and thurs to go to the temple it was great!

Since we cant afford to go out to eat we decided to make our friday night meals a little more expensive than usual so we dont feel too hard done by :) so we naturally had steak and chips. Emma ate all of her food ( we had given her more than we usually do) and some of mine and THEN she had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich!!! hungry little girl!

Aunty Mary and Sasha came for a visit on Saturday on their way home from a cruise! we had a great time chatting and watching Emma play! we even got a trip to IKEA in.

not much else has had happened really this week!
next week Emma will be doing a scripture in primary and Matt and I will be the only speakers in sacrament...If you know me you know how much i just love giving talks in sacrament...O Joy

Emmas first day at school

2008-09-03T15:59:00.005-07:00

Today was the day! the big day! Emma started school!
we started our day bright and early at 6.30 am Emma bounded out of bed with a big grin informing me its school day today! As we packed her school bag with lunch and also her ' in case of accidents bag' and put her in the car with all of that as well as the earthquake bag you could barely find her!

We set off for school just after 7.30 eager to see what character would be advertising on our way to school (Yesterday it was batman) today it was a wrestler with a chicken head. we also pass a 'cloud factory' (from dragonland) on the way to school but today they weren't making many clouds.
we got to the school and Emma leaped out of the car saying bye mommy as she headed straight into the playground! No fear at all!

We picked her up about 2.40 she was yawning and of course couldnt remember anything she had done today! through a series of questions we found out she played with clay a computer, painted and had circle time. her favourite part of the day was playing outside of course! so while i can't tell you what exactly what happened at school she had alot of fun and im sure she learned something!

cars a continuing saga...

2008-08-31T14:58:00.005-07:00

IF YOU HAVENT READ MY PREVIOUS BLOG READ THAT FIRST THEN CONTINUE!!!!!

this week we have gone from this
to this:

To this:
On our way to church this morning our tire had to be changed as it was completely flat (due to a nail in the tire) so we(meaning matt in his suit) changed the car tire and took the car back to the rental place where they upgraded us from the cute little chrysler pt cruiser to this very nice Dodge Charger it looks sporty and yet very professional . anyway we like it and the missionaries informed matt they will be calling him this week before we take iot back to get a ride somewhere..anywhere in the charger!!!! However with a retail price of $23,210 we will be driving it carefully ...very carefully .

Reasons why to leave for church early and aim to be 30 mins early?... incase you need to change a flat tire.

needless to say we do like to be at church early (except when it starts at 8am) so we had time to change the tire, exchange the car and arrived to church in the middle of the first speaker. Not bad not bad at all.. way to go to Matt who hasnt changed a tire in a long time, and hopefully wont have to do it for a long time!

It never rains but it pours!

2008-08-30T17:44:00.002-07:00

This phrase is not entirely true here in seattle or for that matter in Ireland , where it rains a lot but doesnt often pour (often being relative to all the time :) !!!)
I can understand why it is the scottish that settled seattle the weather is very much like they have n scotland and also ireland just a little drizzle and the threat of a down pour, coming from that part of the world they must have had the attitude of if we dont do it in the rain it will never get done!!!! How true this is! Appropriate clothing is all you need here, most of which we dont really have because for the past 2 1/2 years the weather we were prepared for was hot and dry and cold and dry- here we need to prepare for warm and humid and wet and cold!(not utah cold tho!) that instict you have in ireland to always have an umbrella or coat at hand has been put to the back of our minds and now we really have to concentrate on remembering "It might rain at any moment"!!!! so i would have changed the name of the post to "It rarely pours but boy does it rain!" except....

Our car is in the garage for basically a new transmission, when we bought the car from the dealer we also bought a warrenty from them on the engine, so hopefully they will cover the cost of repair but honestly we all know how these things work it will be a toss up as to wether they will cover all or some of the repairs. Jenna and David if you guys remember the problem we had with the car in Vegas? it was this problem that prompted us to take the car into the garage again(last time they checked it out said there wasnt a problem.....) anyway we got a call from the garage telling us the transmission had a big problem one that had been around for quite some time-from before we bought it. Now of course this is a big wopping pain in the behind, but if the warrenty people covers the whole thing not a big deal right?? Wrong!!!! we have no car and Emma starts school on wednesday..our car is in the garage until probably friday! so we have to rent a car. it is a nice little zippy car and we rented it for dirt cheap(the internet is a wonderful thing) but still it is more money being hemorraged out of our pockets, with Matt not being able to start work yet, we are getting a little worried about the lack of incoming funds. So everyone cross your fingers and toes and say a prayer that the warrenty covers the expenses.
thats why the title is what it is!

A lot of people have asked how the meeting with Emmas new teacher went.Well it went great! Emmas teacher at a guess is in her mid 30's really sweet showed Emma around, told her about stuff then told matt and i all the stff we need to send emma in with. The Spare change of clothes i think we can all understand! but then she told me about an Earthquake kit i need to pack for emma for 2 days...An earthquake kit???????? so i still need to get that ready for her im thinking lots of chocolate for the food part? what do you guys reckon?

Emma is so excited to start school and i am excited for her i think she will love it..what am i not looking forward to??? 6.30am wake up time, anyone who knows me knows i am not a morning person so traffic beware!

New ward

2008-08-24T17:34:00.003-07:00

we met our new ward today... The ward is much older than our BYU ward but i think we will like it here! or at the very least be ok here, they have 3 missionaries out in the field right now with another leaving in october they also have a service missionary couple in the ward as well as another missionary couple who are in charge of checking missionary flats helping them with moves as far as i can tell. we sat next to a couple in sunday school and later found out that he is the stake patriarch and also a temple sealer. So the ward is definately fully functioning! Lots of people introduced themselves to us! and i have already been asked if i would sing in the choir! Emma has 1 other person in her primary class and not very many in primary not more than 20 i would say not more than 10! Seems to be a small ward about 120 people there (Matts estimation) definately more real world than BYU I imagine. We found the cannery and we will have an opportunity to serve there in october, I'm sure that will be fun as it will be in the wet section doing 65cases of 12, pint bottles of salsa, there are also plenty of activities in relief society going on i didnt have a chance to find out about them today but one i am interested in is one called TLC- Temple, Lunch, Conversation. this is something I could really get involved in since I will have plenty of time on my hands and i wont need to organise a babysitter! I had been thinking about doing this myself anyway but it would be great to do it with others meet with them get to know them etc.

Matt has already got himself involved an allday tuesday thing because he said he was at a loose end anyway...guess he must be tired of me already! loose end...humph!

Tomorrow we (all 3 of us) have an appointment to meet Emma's new teacher at her new school! this should be fun we will get to see what we have signed her up for!!!! and she will get to feel comfortable with her new teacher! she is very excited when i jokingly told her i wouldn't let her go to school she would have to stay at home with me forever she had a little lip quiver and rushed to daddy to tell him that i wouldn't let her go to school!!!

we found a store here called Winco. thanks to Bethany, it is like a bulk buy store, big barrels of sugar spices etc and then you pay per lb put everything in little fruit and vegetale type bags , we were very excited as this makes prices pretty cheap in comparison to the other stores here.

So to Sum up . i think we will be ok here....just dont hold me to that early days and all :)

Goodbye Provo Hello Seattle

2008-08-20T19:52:00.004-07:00

Well ok its kent but they are pretty close. we left mid morning on monday and travelled through the day matt and his friend Michael in he truck towing....our mini-van, between the 2 families we had waaaayyy over estimated the amount of stuff we had and so we stuffed our minivan full of stuff discarded the rest piled in the car and trucks on monday and off we went. Luckily their car gets better gas mileage so i was able to spend a lot less on gas, anyway in the car it was Emma, and Nathaniel(sp?) in the back and me in the drivers seat with Bethany having to negotiate with the kids keeping them entertained so all in all i probably had one of the easier jobs either way it was very exhausting...for the guysit was alot worse after less than 5 hours of sleep they set of again on tuesday morning(as did we) arriving about 10am nd started lugging our stuff upstairs all 3 storeys of them we are on the 3rd floor so this was no mean feat! they took a break just before 4 so we could go get our bed at ikea and they went to go sort out their lease after picking up our mattress we went to their apartment and again the men started unloading there, luckily they had 2 others there to help. 1 more turned up a little late and matt convinced him to help us move the rest of our stuff upstairs and with the 3 of them things moved fairly quickly. last night our lounge looked like an absolute disaster but today we have a little more organisation going on our dining room table is by the kitchen (probably temporarily) our bookshelf is packed 2 deep with books piled up agains a wall and more boxes still closed. our rooms are now the problem really!!!

in both bedrooms clothes need to be put away and in Emmas room toys need to be unpacked(partially done) sorted (hear the groan?) and put away. we did get her new big bed up(promised to her for when we moved) and she is thrilled with it . so tonight she will get to sleep on it rather than half on her matress half on the floor.

we have found the nearest store and the prices are a little higher but not to much. hopefully in the next few days we will find our way around a little more!This is Emmas room, alot of her stuff was packed in with other stuff as padding so it has just been sort of dumped into her room as we have cleared the lounge, as soon as the lounge is cleared i guess we will have to start making pathways to her bed :) the bean bag will be coming back into the lounge as our sofa too so that will help... i think..... Just a quick update to let you all know that we arrived safely and that we miss our old home(s)! Ill post more later!

Matt has graduated!!!!!!! and we had some family pics done too!

2008-08-14T17:00:00.002-07:00

Thanks to Amy Bennion our photographer check her out at http://www.amybennion.com to see more of her work! thanks for making the occasion memorable for us!

yeah we have somewhere to live!!!!

2008-08-10T10:45:00.002-07:00

we got approval (credit approval that is) for living in an apartment....now if we could just sort out actually getting that visa for matt so he could you know WORK!!!!! to you know pay for the bills n stuff yes that would be nice.....

in other news this week..... well there isnt any
i have packed up the computer
moved emma into our room
and us into the lounge
Lots of packing and cleaning

Matt has 3 exams on monday and then has one on wednesday. So hopefully we will be ready to go go go come saturday. Wednesday and Thursday are Matts graduation. We are both very appreciative of the support friends and family have been to us during this particular stage of our lives-the student phase that is...We are very thankful for the prayers offered on Matts behalf , also the monetary support as well as all the words and emails of support. Now we are ready to move on!

well Matt is I am as ever slow to change..it will be yet another adjustment!

things may go a bit quiet for a while until we get sorted but we wil try keep every one up to date!

Tough week

2008-08-03T10:19:00.004-07:00

This week we have been battling with trying to get an apartment to live in when we get to seattle, it hasnt been easy and i think we might finally have found a place, we find out tomorrow. I dont recall moving to BYU being this much of a headache but this move is provong to be a lot more stressful than our last move. I still have plenty of packing to do and of course a ton of cleaning,
Matt is approaching the end of the term with well GLEE! he cant wait to be done and I am starting to want to never move!
Emma is starting to act up a little and i guess it is to be expected as we are uprooting her from everything she has come to know, she has lived here more than half of her life so we are trying to be understanding...me being stressed leaves the understanding to a very minimum level but i am trying non-the less.

About a week ago it rained heavily cooling us all off and we thought it was wonderful until thurday.... when all of a sudden hundreds of baby spiders started playing on our ceiling so at about 2 am we started to vacuum them up take the cover off the light and vacuum what we thought where the rest, needless to say friday night we had a similar experience, so maintenance was called (i called them while Matt did battle with them) maintenace turned up and sprayed bug spray and advised us not to turn the light on and to call maintenance again on monday to get an exterminator out there have bee a few other problems in the quad too...darn rain!!!!!!!

well in 2 weeks we will have the apartment closed up all our stuff packed and be staying in a hotel waiting to leave on the monday.

time is flying along, Emma is trying hard to spell her name whole name her middle name is posing a problem and the closest we have got is cafrinn. guess we still have some work to do on the "F's" an "TH's"!!!!!!

Thanksgiving point

2008-07-27T12:15:00.005-07:00

So yesterday we had the rare opportunity to spend the WHOLE day together, so we decided to go to thanksgiving point, they have tons of stuff happening there so expcet more posts about it before we leave becasue we didnt get time to do everything, infact we stayed in one building we arrived at 11am and left just before 4 pm, what did we do? lots!!!!

we went to the museum of ancient life it is pretty big with quite a few large ..DINOSAURS...yes now you get why we where there so long... Emma loooooooves dinosaurs she is not at the point of knowing there different names or anything but dinosaur hunting or looking for dinosaur bones is her favorite thing to do.

(thats us uncovering dinosaur bones at a hands on exhibit)

Even if it wasnt her favorite thing to do this museum was pretty cool! I didn't take pictures of the thing we spent most of our time at tho, it was a sand and water play area we built dams and showed emma the effects of erosion(the point of the table) and how this erosion helped bury dinosaurs and also helps uncover them. it was a lot of fun and there was a little tunnel so small kids could go into the middle of the table where it was raised up so they could reach the table while adults and bigger kids stayed on the outside it was a blast.

There was also this massive shark swimming about, matt decided the shark could have emma as long as the shark left him alone!!!
Luckily the shark wasnt interested and we were able to go to a 3d dinosaur show, not so much of a story as it was an informative show about dinosaurs we enjoyed it though, probably the 3d aspect!

we spotted this dino just hanging out in the passageway and emma took a break to just chill with her(her name is SARAH duh!)

thinking that we would have time to do other things in thanksgiving point we got tickets to the gardens and the petting zoo area too...we ran out of time so we will have to use those tickets.. before we leave!!!!
we also found out about this thing they do in the museum it is called the Dino-snore program
you stay all night sleeping under the massive dinosaurs watch the dinosaur movie it says do the work of a palentologist how fun would that be for a kid??? for me even???? sounds awwwweeeesooommmeee!!!!! (thats awesome!!!) only problem is its every second weekend of the month so will we have the time to do it before we go???? i guess we will see!!!!

6 YEARS LATER!!!!

2008-07-27T10:34:00.007-07:00

Today we celebrate (sort of) our 6 year anniversary . so to all those who thought we would not stick it out i think its fair enough to say at this point ha! or so there!!! of course i will do that again in another 6 years!!!!!

We have had our ups and our downs sometimes it seems more down than up ! but when we are good we are very very good!!!!!

We stand now stronger than ever before facing life's troubles together hand in hand.

So in these 6 years what have we learned?!

1. It is very important to be right..- whether you are or not...
2. Mornings are for Matt , not for me.
3. Asking more than once is nagging when i do it, asking more than once is 'reminding' when matt does it.
4. The highest volume wins.
5. There's left and the other left
6. I sneeze in 3's
7. Keys are good at hide and seek
8. TV's where only meant to have one remote...and 1 user :)
9. Potatoes are very versatile...as is mac and cheese
10. Dishwashers are not a luxury item they are a necessity for a happy marriage
11. Men really are from Mars
12. Women really are from Venus

We are truly blessed to have been sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. I think it has made us work harder at staying married, we are in this for the long haul!
The promise that IF we obey the commandments and endure to the end doing all we can do, THEN we will be blessed to live with our spouse our family and our Father in heaven for all eternity , what a wonderful blessing that is

Emma swims!

2008-07-20T15:05:00.006-07:00

OK, so it is a small step, but doggy paddling on her own she stays close to the side for when she gets tired but she is fearless she just started doing it.

This week has just been very stressful this week for me and Matt has also been crazy busy. But we are officially 1 month away from moving!!!! Luckily I have been packing a while so me being stressed isn't causing any problems! If there is anyone from Seattle reading this ..we still need a place to stay...!!!!!

Today i realised that i did not have comment moderation set up on Emma's blog..so i thought no one read it!!!! ha ha silly me all fixed now so this week I will get her to do another post!!!!

ok well hopefully I will have more to blog about next week but for this week I hope the other post i did with the young pictures of Matt will tide you over!!!!

On another note, we were challenged last Sunday to find an if then commandment/promise and work on it.. so this week I started thinking about a blessing I had saying if you do... then I will.....

Needless to say I did not want to do the if part. But while thinking in the shower (showers are stress free zones) I suddenly realized I did not have a good reason to not do my part, so I started.
Sounds simple doesn't it?!!! But like I said its that stubborn streak of mine always getting in the way!! So here is hoping I fulfill my IF part so the Lord can fulfill his THEN part....
Something interesting to think about I think :) as an example the word of wisdom obviously is one I have been trying to work on and it says in doctrine and covenants section 89
18And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, ^ashall receive ^bhealth in their navel and marrow to their bones;

19 And shall ^afind ^bwisdom and great ^ctreasures of ^dknowledge, even hidden treasures;

20 And shall ^arun and not be ^bweary, and shall walk and not faint.

21 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the ^adestroying angel shall ^bpass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.

So IF you remember to keep and do the things in the word of wisdom , THEN you will receive all those things and we could all make use of these amazing gifts/blessings
cool isn't it?!!!!

So What IF-THEN commandment/promise have YOU been avoiding because of a stubborn streak or some other excuse :) ???
(you don't actually have to tell me just think about it!!!)

Tag I am it ...a different one this time!!!

2008-07-18T20:22:00.013-07:00

ATTACHED OR SINGLE?
Attached,to lots of people family friends, but mostly to this guy

BEST FRIEND?

just 1? nah, there's Matt mostly.. then there's my 'other' best friends!!!

CAKE OR PIE?
which i prefer? which i identify most with?
i think i would be a pound cake... heavy
i would most like to eat a pie as long as it doesnt involve pumpkin ...yeuch

DAY OF CHOICE?
i can choose a day? a day of the week? the year? ...The day i choose is a saturday..when matt gets done maybe i will see him on saturday

ESSENTIAL ITEMS?
hmmmm my passport, birth certificate and i would hate to lose my photos but stuff i can live without its people i need
if anyone has a more recent family pic feel free to send it to me!!!

FAVORITE COLOR?

Red, used to be black until a friend bought me my first red dress at 16 and i was hooked

GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS?

well if its real worms id prefer to eat the gummy Bears otherwise it doesnt matter..unless they are sour then they are mine!!!!!

HOME TOWN?

Ballincollig, Co. Cork Ireland!!!!!

INDULGENCES?

Ice-cream

JANUARY OR JULY?

July the month i got married and sealed for time and all eternity

KIDS?

i have no baby goats as of yet but i do have a little girl does that count?
Emma she is 4

LIKE OR LOVE?
I love Ice-cream
I like chocolate
I love cuddles
I like my car
I Love holding hands

I like sleeping
I love Lasagne
I love my family
I like a clean home(that's generally some-one else's)
I love the gospel
I love kissing My Husband

I like to shop
I love reading
I like being crafty
I like to tickle Matt....

Because I LOVE to hear him laugh
MARRIAGE DATE?

27th July 2002
yes almost 6 years

NUMBER OF SIBLINGS?

3 sisters

PHOBIAS AND/OR FEARS?

snakes, spiders, family members dieing,
and i really dislike ants

QUOTES?

"no misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse." Elder Jeffrey R Holland

“Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?" President Henry B. Eyring

"I'll bite you" moi
"she's your daughter" moi
probably others but cant recall
REASON TO SMILE?

Today as Emma swam on her own without any help
Matt having a few extra minutes just for me!
friends, comedy,
things emma says

SEASONS?
there are 4 of them
not a fan of the cold but winter because thats when its christmas!!!!!
TAG SIX...

Chelsea, Shelsea, Suzanne, Nichole Fox, Megan Warren,Caroline

In the hopes that one of the above will take the tag :)

UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME?

Hm im an open book really
I have at some point in my life been able to speak Afrikaans, French, German, Irish and Italian. Luckily English stuck!

VEGETARIAN OR OPPRESSOR OF ANIMALS?

Oppressor of animals, refer to my post on the word of wisdom for more info!!!!

X RAYS OR ULTRASOUND?

well doesnt it really depend on what the problem is? i mean i would like an Xray to see if my arm is broken but an ultra sound for precious cargo in ones tummy?

FAVORITE FOOD?
LASAGNA i miss my dad's lasagna mmmmmmmmmm

ZODIAC?

Pisces ...love the water baby!!!