Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Every Goodbye is Another Hello

For the past 3 1/2 years I served in my ward as the Mia Maid advisor. I was just released on Sunday and asked to be with CTR 7.

Reflecting on my time in Young Womens:
I had a lot of good times, difficult times, and growth. I will miss the small things that seem insignificant to most people. For example, one of my Mia Maids will be getting her provisional license next month. I won't be there to ask her to see it and make a big deal about it. Those are the moments I'll miss. Or how the girls chatted about "Bobs." A word for super hot guys. I will miss the stories about school and families and what is happening in their lives.

We had some fun experiences. Like the time we turkey attacked the camp leader after she received a stake calling. The Mia Maids had written notes on turkeys, with their names on them, and then taped them on her door. While they were in the process of putting them on someone opened the door! They ran off screaming, laughing, and hiding. We laughed because their names were on the turkeys! The door closed and they continued on. Then they knocked and ran. We had to drive by to make sure their camp director had found them. Loads of fun.

Or the time we went on our backpacking trip. One by one our Mia Maids were unable to go. We ended up with four only to hear that one had broken her wrist (I think) the night before!! She was a trooper and came anyway. Then we heard about the creatures in the forest (thanks to our bishopric member telling a ghost story) but didn't believe him until the next morning when my counselor and I saw an incredible, intricate, hieroglyphic about two persons high on the tree!

Good times. I don't think anyone knew how difficult it was for me and how hard I pushed myself. The first few months of the calling were great. Then I got pregnant with Megan and was told I would have a miscarriage. Yikes, emotional wreck for a week and a half. Then I was sicker than sick until about the 5th or 6th month. Then Megan was sideways and splitting my hips open so walking was terribly painful. After she was born I was up every two hours until she became sick at 8 months. I didn't sleep for months while she coughed and puked each night. Megan still doesn't sleep through the night but she's not sick like that anymore so although I'm tired I'm functional. Mutual nights made me stay awake until 8:30 which was far beyond my ability during that difficult time with Megan. But somehow I managed. And got through.

And now to my new calling. I was deeply sad to hear primary. It felt like a death sentence. Solitary confinement. I had no idea how socially isolated primary would be. So if the bishopric wanted to encourage me to attend enrichment by putting me in this calling...mission accomplished. If they wanted me to look at all other callings and think that any other calling would be better than where I am...mission accomplished.

Although Sunday was hard, and I knew it would be, I have a good co-teacher and good kids (yeah!) I will be however, giving those lessons some ZIP! It's hard for me to be reverent for 3 hours so I can't imagine how hard it is for them. (Yes, I HAVE to be reverent - especially during sharing time...kill me...kill me now!) So at least my lessons will be fun. I am glad I get to be with those kids and I know most of them.

I made deep friendships while in young womens and I'll miss my friends. That was probably the best part about serving in there. I have good friends...and people like me.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christmas Letter

Reflecting on 2011


January: Kendra's last semester in pre-school; Mark and Kendra sang at church


February: 9 year anniversary, Yeah!

March: Kristi attended 3 baby showers for sisters in our ward; and she discovered a kidney stone; we built a grow-box, but the garden was a total failure :-(


April: Pics with the Easter bunny; Kristi's Easter feast with our neighbors


May: Disneyland; Mark's birthday


June: Kendra turned 5; Megan turned 2; Mark flew to CA for a buddy's wedding; Kristi went backpacking with the MiaMaids from church; Mark goes camping with Kendra (not over-night)


July: Mark's family reunion, Kristi's family reunion (same trip!)


August: Galloping Grace (free horse riding) for the girls; Kendra began Kindergarten (we love her teacher, Mrs. Clink!)


September: Megan began attending a music class; Mark had a great idea of having bees in our backyard...until he was stung


October: School carnival; Halloween


November: Kristi's birthday; Thanksgiving with Mark's parents in St. George, UT


December: Christmas with Kristi's parents in Oregon

We have so much to be thankful for. It's nice to reflect on the year and remember the experiences. It's especially nice to reflect on the times with friends from this and years past. We are thankful for our family, both immediate and extended. We are especially grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Jingle Bells

Megan loves to sing Christmas songs. My favorite is when she does this in the store.



Gingerbread Houses



Mark's family has a tradition of doing graham cracker houses at Christmas time. We invited our neighbors over to do it with us.



She made a train.


This is our neighbor's little boy - he's two.


Megan's squish face and the house she made.


Our neighbor made a manger.




Mark's castle.


Kendra's house.


Mine looks so awesome!

Letter To Santa

I saw a blog where a mom did a "letter to santa" party for her girls. I wanted to do one too! But I did it for my girls and the neighbors. First they wrote a letter to santa, and then they decorated gingerbread cookies and drank hot cocoa.



Megan had a hayday with the candy - I eventually moved it from her grasp.


Table setting - thankyou to all those creative bloggers!

Snow Day

When it snows in Albuquerque it usually melts within a few hours. For that reason we take advantage of it while we can!



This is a ton of snow for us to get - especially in early December. Kendra's school was cancelled so we had loads of fun.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Santa

Why are my children scared of Santa? I told Kendra she could eat her candy cane that Santa handed to each kid if she'd just go up there. Megan began to cry when Santa talked to her so he just focused on Kendra after that.

We found Santa at the festival of trees. The line was super short with only a few kids ahead of us.




I was surprised that Kendra even talked to Santa because she did not want to see him. The awful things I force my children to do!



Now she knows Santa is nice so perhaps next year I'll get a pic of her on his lap.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Smarty Pants

Kendra received an award today for being "proficient". Basically she is passing Kindergarten. She was VERY excited to get an award and ran to me and hugged me tightly after it was done. I was glad I went.

It's official...I hate my camera. It has problems and it wouldn't take a picture on her way up. I took like 10 seconds before it took a picture. Oh well. Her teacher is the one on the very left and next to her is the assistant principal.




Kendra all happy showing her award.


The two girls next to Kendra are the other ones that received the proficient award. They compete with eachother on counting and reading. Kendra is the quiet competitor her teacher told us.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Veterans Day

We spent Veterans Day making sugar cookies. It was very messy, but the girls had fun. When Kendra has a day off of school it's a special day so we do something fun together.






Megan

I tried to secretly videotape Megan as her elephant and dolphin talked to eachother. This is what happened:



Thursday, November 3, 2011

Galloping Grace Pumpkin Patch

A lizard ran into our house and Mark was able to catch it. The girls got to pet it. Life is good.


A couple of weeks before Halloween Mark went shooting with his buddies. My friend and I went to a free pumpkin farm while they were gone. It was run by a non-profit organization. The way the make money is if you buy a pumpkin from them.


They got their faces painted like butterflies.
The girls and their friend posing with their pumpkins.


A hay bale maze - like a corn maze - but on a smaller scale.


"mommy push me" said in a whiny voice.


Megan on her tractor.

Kendra and her friend.


Megan playing with the duckies on one end...


Kendra sending them down on the other.


Halloween

Kendra's school had a carnival a couple of weeks before Halloween. The only thing the girls wanted to do was get their hair painted.





Mark's pumpkin that he spent a great deal of time on and was really proud of. Too bad it was moldy in a couple of days!


The girls' costumes. I take pride in making a costume for them each year.



We had a Halloween party at our house this year and invited some friends, neighbors, and people from Kendra's bus stop.
Here are some pics:


That's George our nerdy mummy.


I made a bunch of games for the kids to play but am most proud of this one.




Pumpking Bowling.



Bat theme:




We set up a bunch of tables and chairs in our garage. I just loved how Megan picked her chair and sat there...and waited.



Sandia Sunset

Sandia Sunset
Our mountains are beautiful in the evenings. We took this picture from our backyard.