Week #2: Change: I'm Ready! and Landscaping Love

This Week...

...I gave a talk in church. It was one of the best experiences that I've had giving a talk. I was able to deliver my thoughts with minimal crying, thus being more easily understood. I focused mostly on our progression and evaluating if we are still doing so. I used two talks from the October Conference, "What Lack I Yet?" by Elder Larry R. Lawrence and "Yielding Our Hearts to God" by Niell F. Marriott. Each one focuses on being willing to ask Heavenly Father what we need to work on personally and then having the courage to act upon the promptings we receive. We typically don't like change. It's usually a scary thing. This time however, I said, "I'm ready." I'm ready to make changes for the better; to get insight from heavenly Father in areas that I can't see I need to change or where my self perception is off. Change: I'm ready! This is going to be my word for the year. Can't wait to see what it brings.

(google images)

...We are packing up. The house sold! The showings are over. The inspection was done and accepted. The appraisal is done: it came in at selling price. ;) That was the hard part. Here comes the easy part: packing! Just throw everything in boxes and drive it down to the new house!

...Emma had her orchestra concert. She has really enjoyed learning to play the violin and I'm glad that we could provide her the opportunity. She does so well at everything that she does. Such a beautiful young woman she is turning out to be. Emma also enjoys her teacher, Ms. Giorgi.

...they painted the exterior of our house. Yay! I think we did a pretty good job of picking paint colors.

...the time to do our front yard has come. It's cold and wet, but it's going to be great! First we have to get the irrigation lines in. We rented a trencher and our home teacher let us use his truck. Elder Cordon and Elder Whiting came to help us set the lines. Thank goodness for service hours!

Then we picked out some trees at Jobs. We got a Blue Spruce! One that isn't supposed to be mammoth. So fun! We also got a red leafed Maple and another Maple variety. Alex was great to take us all around the farm to get what we were looking for.

Huesitos Landscaping came and sprayed the back of the lot with a ground cover to keep the dirt down. 

Curbing went in next. Ryan and the guys at Custom Creative Curbs did a fantastic job.

Then we made another trip to Jobs for landscaping plants. Kathy had all the time in the world to help us. I mean really, what crazy homeowners buy landscaping plants in January?!

We got a load of weed barrier fabric and rock to prep the area before we planted our new plants. Our friends, Adrian Sandoval and Royce Barney came to help us. We were very grateful.

The last task: lay sod. Once again it was cold and wet. Jason's brother Travis came to help us get the job done.

...Jason did a police presentation for Mrs. Plewman's Fifth Grade class. This is Emma's teacher from last year. Even though Emma has moved on, Mrs. Plewman contacted us about Jason coming in to help out with their Investigator unit. Jason was more than happy to and we scheduled a day. It's always so fun to go with him on these visits because he is making a positive impact on the students. He talks to them about the job and his equipment. He also talks to them about honesty and integrity.  

...we took some photos with our some of our favorite friends The Riners are going to be moving soon. Clear to Missouri!

...Elder Schultzka got transferred out of our area. It's always so sad to say goodbye to these missionaries when they move on. It's so great to get to know them as we work together in missionary work for our ward.

Week #1: 10 Birthdays and Carpet Install

This Week...

...we had more K'nex creations. We don't even have instructions for a lot of the things they're making. They just look at the picture at the back of the catalog and figure it out based on the color of the pieces.

...Emma played a trick on Paul. And he was a very good sport about it. It was the whole get-a-little-closer trick with Paul and his pancake. That's when Emma made her move. She pushed his face into the whip cream. Paul tried the same trick on Lainey, but she didn't take it so well. Oops! She's just a little too young to be able to handle that one.

...my blog book came this week. Kent and Julie had us for Christmas. They put money towards my blog book for the year 2010. This was my first year doing a photo a day. The book was huge and so was the bill. Note to self: Cut out the Table of Contents pages. No one looks at them anyway.

...they're getting ready to paint the trim. This means we're getting close people! They tape everything off and then come through and spray all the mill work. What a process!

Before

After

...we celebrated Paul's birthday. The big 1-0! He was super excited for his birthday and presents. I'm just glad he's ok with my homemade attempts at his skylanders birthday cake ideas.

After the presents and cake and ice cream, we played a game of dump the balloons over the edge of the landing. It was great fun the first time, but it quickly got old. They were good about collecting them once they were dropped, but it was when they tired of cleaning them up that the game got old real fast.

Paul got some K'nex for his birthday. A new set meant new opportunities to build. I couldn't get them to stop and go to bed.

We had family over to celebrate Paul. It was great to be able to sit around the table and visit.

...carpet went in on the weekend. It wasn't supposed to be done until next week, but they came early and got it done. It's so nice and soft.

...we're trying to figure out landscaping. In just a few days we will be working on the front landscaping. We've been trying to figure out where we want the curbing, the trees, and the bushes. It's so hard to picture! We took some spray paint and marked out the different flower beds. That helped a lot, but they're going to ruin all our hard work when they do their final leveling.

...Emma and I started doodling as we read the scriptures. We read a chapter from the Book of Mormon and then draw pictures to go with it. It has been such a refreshing way to read the scriptures. It has helped her to stay awake and pay attention. It has helped me to connect on a new level; to look at them from a new angle. (Emma's are on the top, mine on bottom)

     

...Shelly Norman and I met for lunch at Frost Me Sweet in Richland. It was so fun to get together and catch up on each other's lives. We shared our word for the year with each other. We wrote our word down and then swapped them at the table. Then discussed why we chose that word. So fun! We took a picture with the statue of a dog in the parking area. "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

Day #1 & #2: Is it January Already?

On These Days...

...we enjoyed the end of our Christmas Break. It was entirely too short. We have enjoyed every lounging, game playing, pajama wearing, late sleeping, movie watching, K'nex building, treat eating, present opening, Personal Progress and Faith in God doing minute! For New Year's day, Jason's parents stopped by and brought us root beer float supplies. Yum! Then my mom and sisters came to visit and play games. We had taquitos and spanish rice for dinner with avocado pico de gallo. We played games, watched movies, set up our Time Out For Women hotel reservations, and had a taste test!

Cherice brought her mini popcorn popper. Shelly got it for her for Christmas. They are teeny, tiny kernals and they taste SO GOOD!

...we worked on Faith in God. The kids made a fishing pole out of k'nex and we attached a magnet to the end. Then they made paper fish and we put the different scriptures or assignments behind them with a paper clip. Thus we had fishing for faith! It was a lot of fun!

...we had more k'nex building...and a hair cut. They were getting kinda bushy.