News Flash!

I was extremely excited to hear some news from my mom this last weekend. President Monson has announced two new temples, the first that he has announced. They will both be in my home state of Arizona. One of them will be in the Gila Valley, which is the area I grew up in. Growing up, my parents often took the trip over to Mesa to attend the temple. Then all of us kids did for youth baptisms. All of my siblings have been married in the Mesa temple (except By and Jessie, the black sheep of the family). It is a beautiful, wonderful building, one of the oldest temples in the church. It will be a great blessing for my family and those in my hometown and neighboring small cities to have this temple. The drive to Mesa is about 4 hours each way, so it took a lot of sacrificing to get there often.

The Gila Valley was a great place to grow up in. I really loved it. It is a pretty small area, compared to other places I have lived, like Columbus, or Provo, but very special. My hometown is called Duncan. You can see it in the lower right corner of this map. The temple will probably be closer to Safford/Thatcher/Pima because more people live in that area, but a 45 minute drive is WAY better than the previous drive to a temple. Can't wait until it gets done!

WREB Part II

Here's the second part of the WREB post, for those of you who are interested. By the way, Ryan and his friends enjoyed an Indians/Yankees game on Friday night. I've heard he has pictures, but haven't seen any yet.

The test seemed to go pretty well, but I, for one, will probably not be totally comfortable until the results come back. Cross your fingers for us!

I picked up the perio patient and a translator at 9:00 from Pataskala and we took off up to Cleveland. We arrived right on time to get lunch and have the treatment. I crocheted and read while I waited. They finished up the treatment and we took off for home. Not terribly interesting, I guess. The patient has been in the US for a year. She is from China. She is living with her nephew who has lived here for about 15 years, since his late teens. It was very interesting to talk with him about China. I don't know much about that country and it was interesting to learn some things. By the time I got home, I was ready to be done being in the car for sure! Poor patients, the van still wasn't done in the shop and so we had to take the smurf. They were good sports about it. I did feel a little bad that someone had to be left out of the conversation. Either Li, if we spoke English, or me, if they spoke Chinese. Oh well, we survived it.

Ryan and Mike took their time getting home, stopping to get a fun airplanes for the kids and eat out. Ryan said it was great to just take him time after being hurried for 3 days. Kim was really excited about the plane and put it together with Ryan this morning. They flew it off of the balcony and it seemed to work pretty well.



It has been fun to have Mindy here. Unfortunately I haven't had a whole lot of time to visit with her. I wish she could stay a whole week more so we could have sister-bonding time. Oh well (sigh), I suppose her husband misses her too.

I have neglected to take any pictures of Mindy on this trip. You'll have to forgive me. I had great intentions of getting pictures of Mindy with the kids, but it didn't happen. I am still pretty wiped out from the weekend, and it is already late from staying up talking to Mindy, so I better head to bed.

Once again, thank you, thank you to our dear Aunt Mindy for being willing to come and stay with our kids so we could get this done. It was great to know they were in good hands.

WREB Part I

Well, I just got home from Cleveland, where Ryan is taking the WREB. What a stressful few days! It all started early Thursday morning. He and a friend left at 4:30 so they could be sure to get there by 7:30 for orientation. They also had a little written test on treatment plans (I think).

I followed around noon (in the smurf, since the van is being repaired . . . still). It was great fun to spend the afternoon and evening together. We have never left our kids overnight before. We appreciate my sister Mindy coming to help out so we could have a little getaway. Neither one of us slept too well, though. Maybe I need the kids making little noises to help me sleep! I actually think both of us were pretty nervous about the test coming the next day.

Thanks to his friend, Mike again, I didn't have to take Ryan to the school early in the morning again. Instead I had a leisurely morning doing things I never have time for, like plucking my eyebrows. I also listened to an hour of the Worldwide Leadership Training from the church this year. I really enjoyed it and look forward to hearing the rest of it.

What I thought would be a 20 minute drive turned out to take about an hour. The directions I had to the school weren't great and the traffic was pretty bad too. I did make it before Ryan was ready for me though. He took the Endo portion of the test in the morning and was ready to do an amalgam filling on me in the afternoon. We walked over to the hospital cafeteria to get some lunch and then started on the filling. Things seemed to go pretty well, so hopefully all will turn out well.

I dropped Ryan at the hotel and then took off for home and our sweet kids. They were excited to see me and now I get to relax for a few hours, sleep, and get up in the morning and do it all again! I am taking a patient and an interpreter over for a perio treatment in the afternoon. We were hoping the van would be done today, but no luck, so, sorry to the patients who will have to squeeze into our little smurf (which if you don't know, is a little blue, two-door Geo Metro). I am planning to wait for the patient while she is treated and then turn around a bring them home. Hopefully since we don't have the van Ryan will ride with Mike (again) so we won't be totally squished in the smurf.

Thanks Mike!

Aunt Mindy

I just wanted to post quickly and say YIPEE!! Aunt Mindy is coming. The kids (and the adults too) are excited that Aunt Mindy is coming tonight.



Aunt Mindy is so much fun. She has a great imagination and more patience than I do (we'll have to see if that holds up after she gets done watching these two for three straight days!)



Uncle Scott is equally wonderful. He loves babies,as you can see, and is always great about helping with the kids. Thanks for all you have done, and especially for sharing your sweetie with us for a few days!

Joining the 21st Century

Well, I finally broke down and got a cell phone. We had decided to do this after our move and just decided to do it a little early so we would have it for the WREB this week. (By the way, wish Ryan well for that!) I ended up with the same phone as Ryan, though in a purple color to make it a little more feminine. It is a Nokia 5300 Express Music. He has enjoyed using his as a music player and I hope to do the same with mine. I have enjoyed it for the 1 1/2 days I have had it.

Look Ma, No Hands

I finally was able to snap a shot of Glade standing without support. He is doing this more and more now. I keep waiting for him to take off walking. We'll see how long it actually takes for that to happen. Other than the occasional one step, no news yet. (Ignore my clutter in the background, please! :)

Happy, Happy Birthday Kimberly, Dear

Well, I have officially been a mother for 4 years now. It has really gone by pretty fast. We had a little party for her and her friends this last week, okay, a big party, but since we are moving soon, it was hard to decide. There are just so many kids her age in our ward! I made her a crown cake. It didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped, but hopefully you can tell what it is with all of its "jewels".



Kimberly is a very spirited girl. She loves to dress-up, pretend, play games, do puzzles, exercise, watch movies, do crafts, and countless other things. She also loves music, Glade, and playing with friends. She is hard to keep up with a lot of the time. Lately she definitely has ideas about what she wants to do and will let you know it!



I think she had a great birthday. Hard to believe she is 4 already! We sure do love our sweet Kim!

Look Out World . . .

Here I Come!

Our sweet Glade got his first tooth this week, finally! I thought they were never coming in. Pretty sad to have a toothless son as a dentist, right?


Glade has gotten very busy at walking around things. He is starting to balance for a little while without holding onto things and even took a step by himself a few times on Sunday. Isn't he too young for that? :) Oh well, hopefully I will be able to keep up with him. I have had to clean out some drawers in the kitchen that he kept getting into, so hopefully we are done baby-proofing for a while. He's a very busy boy, but also so sweet (just ask anyone that knows him and they'll tell you he's an angel, right?). We sure do love him.

SPRING!

It's finally Spring around here and we have really been enjoying the great weather this week. We made time to go to the zoo, and hope to go a few more times before our pass runs out at the end of this month. It was nice and cool when we got there and then started to warm up. It was about the best time we've had at the zoo. The animals were really active and Kim had a great time. Even this bear was having a great time. Kim thought the tiger was cool. It kept pacing right by the glass where we were watching it.

Experience has taught me with Kim that you can't rush things. I ran out and bought her a little tricycle when she was like 18 months old at the Twin Sale and she has just gotten where she can really ride it in the last 6 months or so. Now I can actually take her on a ride while I push Glade in the stroller and she does pretty well and setting a good pace. She does love to take rests under trees though, and sometimes we have to stop at each tree to sit under it just for a few seconds. At least she is enjoying being out though. It was great to see daffo-down-dillies (daffodils, for those of you that don't speak my language) and popcorn (or blossoms on trees). YIPEE, SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

Jane Austen

I had an extremely deprived childhood (just kidding, Mom) bereft of Jane Austen books and movies and never even saw Pride and Prejudice until after I was married. Since then, I have discovered that they are about the ultimate chick-flick you can get. I have really enjoyed this season of Masterpiece on PBS, since they were showing the complete works of Jane Austen. I missed a few at the beginning, but have seen all the others. I just finished watching the last half of Sense and Sensibility and loved it.

I am also fortunate to be married to a man that is great with computers. Our computer has a TV tuner card in it and we purchased a pretty big HDTV lately to use as a monitor/TV. So anyway, It was great fun to record all of these and enjoy them at my leisure. Thanks, Sweetie!

Rails-to-Trails

So, I guess there is this nationwide program called Rails-to-Trails that takes old railroad beds and turns them into trails for biking and hiking, or walking, I guess, since a railroad is not very exciting of a hike. We drove out to one in Hilliard on Saturday between conference sessions and rode the section they have there. I was a little worried, since I haven't ridden outside for a while. You know, pregnant, little baby, wintertime, I have had all kinds of excuses for not riding! :) I have been riding on the rollers inside a little bit, which is good, but lately I have just been itching to get outside since the weather has turned nice. So anyway, we rode the 6-mile trail and back and I actually did pretty well after the first few miles. Lucky for me, Ryan was pulling the kids in the trailer, so I had a little easier time of it. It was a good ride, although very straight and flat. It was nice to get a little bit out of the city and enjoy being outdoors.

Cleaning

Well, the time has come again, as it does each week, when I can't stand the clutter of my house and it has to be picked up. Try as I may, I am not perfect at putting each thing away after I am done using it or getting Kim to do so. We have been trying harder, but somehow our house always seems to get cluttery.

A few months ago, I had a great idea. I was getting sick of fighting to get Kimberly to put her things away. I am sure I am the only mother that has this problem, right? :) Anyway, I decided to make a game out of it. I made a kind of picture scavenger hunt for her and I still do it sometimes. I probably should do it more often. I just draw small pictures of the things that need to be taken care of (they often end up looking nothing like the actual item that needs to be taken care of, since I am not a great artist, and I get asked what they are, but oh well!). She thinks it is great fun to go running around the living room/kitchen/dining room finding the things on the list and then they have to get put away before the reward - a sticker. This little game has taken a lot of the headache out of getting her to clean up. It takes a little extra time, but it is worth it! She is always proud of her sheet with all of the stickers on it.

Laurie Berkner

Kimberly LOVES music. I do too, so we have a lot of music in our home. When we went to the library last week we were lucky to discover a DVD by our favorite children's artist Laurie Berkner.



We really love her music. Most of her songs are new compositions and they are fun to listen to. Surprise of all surprises, I don't get sick of the songs! I enjoy the harmony and melodies and just wanted to say, if you haven't heard her music, check it out.