BRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

We have been pretty fortunate this winter so far, that it hasn't dipped down below mid 30s very often. However, we had a bit of snow earlier this week...then it climbed to mid50s, before dropping like a rock to mid 20s today. BRRRRRRR!!!! I can't take it! This is when I miss the mild Arizona winters the most!

As I look back on the week, I realize we have accomplished hardly anything. We spent the week trying to sell Girl Scout Cookies (pre-orders, anyway), and (Julie) stressing about a paycheck that was due to come about 3 weeks ago but has yet to find it's way to our home, let alone our bank account. The latter has been a source of great anguish for me...not so much for Brian because he doesn't worry about money like I do. He's too busy earning it. I pay the bills. So when one is expecting an extra $1000 to help with things, and it doesn't come when they say it's going to come, it adds a great deal more anxiety to one's life. The last we heard was that it was mailed this past Thursday, so it should have been here no later than Saturday(yesterday). Guess what...no check! Argh! And with the MLK holiday..it will be at least Tuesday...if they mailed it when they said they would. So cross your fingers for us, please!

Anyway, about the Girl Scout Cookies. We are having fun with that. The girls are both in Brownie Girl Scouts this year, I'm one of the leaders. We are taking pre-orders and both girls have their sights set on particular prizes for selling a specific number of boxes of cookies. Courtney wants a prize that requires at least 140 boxes sold (she has 60 so far), and Jessica wants something that requires 120, I believe (she's sold 80+). Jessica has proven to be quite an eager seller. She gets out there. Courtney is not so brave, so I'm not sure she will hit her target. They may have to get the prize the other one wants and then switch. Who knows? We haven't even received the cookies yet or done any "cookie booths", so they will sell many more before the end of February. If anyone would like to help support the girls, we'd be happy to ship some boxes...already doing it for some family members! Who doesn't like Girl Scout Cookies? YUMMY (or ask me about "Cookies from Home" for the troops). (That's my one and only plug)

We had a nice Sunday. Brian was actually able to go to ALL of church with us. We drove together. He wasn't post call, or working, or sleeping, so we enjoyed that. For dinner, we had the missionaries over with the lady that I wrote about in a previous blog. Lisa and her daughter, Samantha, came over with 4 Elders. It turns out that Lisa lives in the boundaries for the Chester branch in our stake. So she is being slowly passed over to the Elders that cover that area. We had the two from our ward and the two from the branch. I don't think we have ever had that many people over for dinner at one time. Our apartment is small and not conducive to big gatherings...and it turns out I didn't even have 10 normal size plates for them to eat on. (Jess used a small plate.) Anyway, it was a nice evening. The elders gave us a lesson on "The Proclamation to the World" about the family. My girls and Samantha get along swimmingly!

I hope my coming week is more eventful so your blog reading is more enjoyable next week!
Love to all!

Saturday night and I ain't got nobody...

Well, I thought I would go for a bit of a musical title there, for you oldies buffs. The kids are all asleep and Brian is at work tonight. I do have a little someone keeping me company. We are dog-sitting for some friends who had to go away for the weekend. The dog is an 11-week old toy pug, named Roxy. She is an adventure, to say the least. I have not been around a puppy for a very long time, and when I did have a puppy, I certainly wasn't the one to take care of it completely (thanks, Mom). She has TONS of energy and has some really sharp baby teeth! Luckily, the owners gave us a crate, that I have to say has been a life-saver. I am learning quite a bit about puppies. For example, they are very unlikely to relieve themselves in a crate/carrier, because they are smart and don't want to be sitting in it. She will sleep in there also, but she will not sleep when she's outside of the crate... I mean, wouldn't you rather run around and chew on things and people?



Courtney and Jessica love to watch her. Courtney will pick her up, but Jessica keeps her distance. Ally does NOT like her so much. The only way Ally loves to see the dog is if I'm holding Ally or she is safe in her high chair. She freaks out when I take Roxy out of her crate. Roxy loves to nibble, which actually hurts quite a bit, so both girls spend a bit of time on the couch or on a chair while Roxy is out of her crate. They have bugged us to get a dog for a long time. This is a bit of a practice run for when we have a house. (I am never getting a dog while in an apartment.) So we'll see how the rest of the weekend goes.



So an update...The lady that I met at church last week who is not a member met with the missionaries on Wednesday morning at the church, so I went so she would have a "friend". Our ward's playgroup was also meeting so a friend of mine was sweet and took Ally while I met with Lisa and the missionaries. It was a very good meeting. I felt the Spirit very strongly in that room. She had had experiences in her life that were preparing her for this. She seems to be one that followed the promptings of the Spirit when it told her to do something that led her straight to the church, literally, even though she didn't know what was telling her to do it. She told the elders that she didn't need to pray about it, she already knew. I think that's what the missionaries call a "Golden" contact, right?

We met again on Friday night, this time with the kids, since she is a single mom and, at least for that night, I was too. I also thought it would be good for the kids to get involved a bit, even if was to "just" befriend Samantha. The lesson was supposed to be on the Plan of Salvation, but they changed it to the Word of Wisdom since she's a smoker. It was another good meeting but this time, since the kids were there, inlcuding Ally, who was up past her bedtime and quite cranky at points, it was a different kind of good. :) She will be at church again on Sunday and has promised to try really hard to quit smoking. She wanted us to give us hot chocolate or caffeinated sodas (she thinks those are just as bad...not quite sure why hot chocolate, but okay). In keeping with the "Do's"of the Word of Wisdom, I told her I would try to eat more fruits and veggies for a late night snack instead of chocolate. That's a huge thing for me, so wish me luck! She also expressed desire to get baptized but of course there is a bit of preparation that goes before that, so we'll see what happens, but YEAH! It's fun to be in on the beginnings of someone learning about the church.

So since we are dog-sitting this weekend, we haven't done much else this weekend. I have a picture of the dog on my camera, but having trouble transferring pictures still. I'm so frustrated.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll post again soon, hopefully with pictures next time.

"Flyin' high now"

(When my sisters were here, we had our "Rocky" experience with the steps to the Philadelphia Art Museum...yeah us!)

Okay, so I read my previous blog and I know what I'm going to do about the party thing. I just had a moment of feeling bad for my friend. And I don't like to hurt people's feelings so that played a role in my momentary lapse of judgement.

So Sunday was nice. Even though our ward changed times, from 11am, to 9 am, we managed to make it in time for the sacrament. Not in the chapel, but we still were there for the important part. Brian had worked ALL night the night before, had returned home around 5:30 that morning. He woke, to my surprise, around 8:30 and threw some Sunday clothes on so we could go to Sacrament meeting together, in separate cars, of course. He needed to come home and sleep some more. We don't often get to attend church together because he's works A LOT of Sundays. He does have a lot of time off...it just never falls on Sunday. I feel bad for him...and for me. :)

Anyway, he offered to take Ally home with him after Sacrament meeting because she technically needed a nap around that time. I was hesitant to expect him to do that. Past experience has shown that it might backfire and she would not sleep at all, making it so he doesn't sleep. But he insisted...crazy boy. While on my way home, he called to ask where something was and said that she hadn't slept a wink. I felt bad, but didn't really want to say "I told you so". He slept a couple of hours after I got home....Ally ended up not sleeping ALL day. She had some form of separation anxiety or something that day.

I got a taste of some missionary work on Sunday. While sitting in the foyer during church, we saw a lady and her young daughter come in and stand for a while and then sit. Ally made friends with them. I had no idea who they were. Maybe they were there to visit a friend but hadn't made it in time to sit with the friend in the chapel. I didn't visit with them right away. After Brian and Ally left and the other girls went to class, I saw that no one was coming to talk to them, so I decided to be "brave" and go be friendly. I found out they were just visiting, but didn't know anyone. They had decided to come and "see what was up". It became apparent that they were not members. So I put on my extra friendly face and got the daughter excited to go with the other kids. We took her to primary and found her class. She is 9 so ended up in Courtney's combined 9-10 year old class. I was happy about that, because I knew Courtney would be friendly to her. Then I went to the missionary class with the mom, Lisa. I introduced her to the missionaries who jumped right in...

We checked on her daughter, Samantha, between classes and she told me that Sam loved to sing. I told her primary was the place for her then! Lisa said she would like to stay for the 3rd hour, so we went to Relief Society where the lesson was, of course, on Joseph Smith and the basic timeline of the beginning of the church. She had heard of Joseph Smith before. I'm not sure of her opinion of him. I found an extra manual to give her...she wanted to borrow it, I told her she could have it...Set her up with a Relief Society directory and afterwards, she mentioned that she used to have a Book of Mormon but did not any longer. She said she would like one, so we went to the library and found a copy for her. She seemed very happy and was very grateful that I had taken time to help her and show her around. I tried to introduce her to everyone I could and I had so much fun. In talking to Samantha afterwards, she seemed to really enjoy herself also. I told her that I hoped I would get to see her again.

I talked the missionaries later on and they had set up an appointment with Lisa for Wednesday morning at the church and they invited me to come. So I plan on going. I hope she doesn't back out. She lives in a town near Delaware, so she's not in our ward, and probably not our stake either. I'm not sure why she chose our building but I look forward to seeing her again hopefully.

Today the kids started their first full week back at school and Jessica informed us beforehand that she had a tummyache, like she might throw up. She didn't really look or act sick, so I told her to try to go to school and if she still felt bad, I would gladly come and pick her up. An hour and half later...I had 2 messages on my cell phone from the nurses office (I had an appointment that I had to turn my phone off for.) They insisted that Jessica said she was feeling like she was going to throw up and that she said she's felt that way for a couple of days now. This morning was the first I had heard of it. :) But I went and picked her up (she was not actually in the nurse's office when I got there, she had gone back to class.) As we were walking up our sidewalk, she was holding my hand and SKIPPING. The rest of the day, she did not act sick at all. She ate, she played, she wanted to wrestle and tickle with Brian. I told her "If you are going to fake sick, then you really should fake sick. Moan, groan, pretend to have no energy." Anyway, she's fine and will be going to school tomorrow. :)

I hope you don't find this blog too boring. I'm happy to write about daily stuff that goes on so close family and friends can keep tabs on us!