Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Seven Various Thoughts
1. The girls and I just watched a creepy movie, Conjurer, that we ordered from Netflix. I had each of them pick out 3 or 4 movies for us to get this summer, and Amber picked this one. We wanted some creepy movies to watch, and of course, we didn't let her get any that were rated R. Horror movies that are PG or PG-13 are hard to find, but we did find some. It was a pretty good movie, but we were disappointed in the ending.
2. We've been playing lots of games lately. We went over to Steve & Lil's on Sunday night. JJ, Allyson and Joshie came home with us, and spent the night. The next day, we went swimming down at Mom & Dad's and played lots of games. They stayed for FHE on Monday night, along with Shelli, who had come to pick them up. We taught her how to play Acquire, which I'd been wanting to show her for along time. That was really fun. Then I had my mom, Aunt Diane and Kathy over last night for games. We played a couple games of Rummikub, then Aunt Diane taught me (and reminded everyone else), how to play 63. It's a card game that my mom and aunt used to play with my grandparents when they were growing up. It was so fun. Everyone brought snacks and I had even bought some Spanish peanuts, in honor of Gram. She always had a bowl full of them when we played games.
3. I'm all set now to begin my Masters' program in the fall. The first class is September 7th. I'm excited about this new journey. I'm also excited that I won't have to travel far each week, just to Auburn every Tuesday night.
4. I'm reading a Jodi Picoult book right now, but I decided that once I finish it I am going to be more picky on the kind of books I pick out. The plot is good and everything, but she puts some language and scenes in there that are not very wholesome.
5. It's been so fun having the girls home. I knew it would be fun having Ashley here, but I didn't know if it would feel awkward to have Amber around. It's actually been much better than I thought. She's been nicer than I expected her to be. There have been a couple of incidents that we are not happy about, but overall, she has not been hostile.
6. JJ is going to be going to EFY in a few days, and when he was talking about it to Ashley, I decided to see what she would think about going next summer. I had been thinking about taking Ashley and Emily next summer to BYU for EFY, but I didn't know if Ashley would even want to. I talked to Emily about it a couple months ago and she seemed open to it, as long as Ashley went. Ashley sounded like she really wanted to go, too, as long as Emily went. So hopefully, it will happen!
7. I want so badly for all of the girls (all 6 of them: Olivia, Felicia, Amber, Emily, Ashley and Megan) to have wonderful experiences with living the gospel (EFY, youth conference, stake activities, FHE, family prayer, Young Women, Personal Progress, etc), but unfortunately, they only have a small amount of those things in their lives. It is truly so sad to me. I struggle to understand why it has to be that way, when they all have righteous fathers. I know Heavenly Father can't take away their mothers' agency, so he has to let them live their lives, but all the girls will have to pay for it. They will all suffer the spiritual consequences because of it. Mike and Dan are almost powerless when it comes to their girls' lives. We try really hard to give them those experiences when they're here (and I know Mike does, too, with his girls), so they get a few Family Home Evenings a year, go to church less than 10 times a year, and family prayer and scripture study when they're here. That's it. Oh, Ashley & Emily have gone to Girls Camp twice, Amber went to Girls' Camp 2 or 3 times, Amber went to Youth Conference once and a few stake activities. Olivia and Felicia stopped even going to church with Mike a couple of years ago. They go to Young Women's sometimes, and that's it. Megan goes to church every other week with us. I'm so sad for all of them. The saddest thing is that they don't even realize what they're missing.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Olivia & Felicia - 17!
Felicia & OliviaThey turned 17 on Monday, July 14th! I can't believe they are 17. It seems like they were just born. Only one more year and they will be adults! AAAAGGGGHH!
They came over to our house in the afternoon on their birthday, and they just hung around with us. It was really fun. They always make me smile. Felicia really wanted her hair French braided. I had to do one side 4 times and the other 3, but it was really fun. I love doing the girls' hair, but hardly any of them want anything done to it. Then we went down to my mom and dad's and had supper and cake and ice cream. Mom, Dad, Mike, Amber and Nathan and I were there along with Olivia's boyfriend, Chris (Ashley & Emily were at Girls' Camp). It was really fun. I sure love my nieces!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Vacation
Well, we got back from vacation on Sunday afternoon. It was a really relaxing vacation, which was good for all of us. We stayed at Friar Tuck in Catskill, New York. The decor of the place was really neat. It is set in medieval times, so the hallways in the inn are brick and the doorways are curved at the top. It felt just like you were in a medieval castle. The individual buildings for time shares were like little cottages. We spent quite a bit of time in the pool at the resort, and we also went to a water park, Zoom Flume, for a couple of days. Nathan and I took a little trip to a Firehouse Museum, which was fun. (I was so proud of myself. I drove there myself! For those of you that know me and how incredibly horrible I am at directions, this is a great feat. Of course, I wouldn't have even attempted it without the GPS. I just love that thing.) We also played Shuffleboard and Bocce, which they have at the resort. I'll be making some digital scrapbook pages of our vacation during the next couple of days, and I'll post them as I make them.
I never finished writing about Larry, the little boy we did respite for, the week before we went on vacation. It was really fun having him here. He's an adorable little boy. We only had him for a week, but we found ourselves thinking about him during vacation. When we went on the train ride, I was thinking, "Larry would love this." His favorite thing to play with was Nathan's trains. He and Nathan got into arguments because they were both so strong willed. They even argued about who was going to talk first. I wanted to take them swimming a lot and maybe to the beach one day, but the weather was horrible that week. I only ended up taking them swimming a couple of times, so we had to come up with things to do inside most of the time. That was a little challenging. Anyway, whoever adopts him will be a lucky family. He was getting more comfortable and loving with Dan and I as the week went on. He loved following Dan around in the evenings, talking and asking questions. It was so cute. He's such a sweet little boy. Even when he was grumpy, I found myself grinning because he was so darn cute. I kept thinking how sad it is that his forever family is missing all of his cute mannerisms, expressions and the way he pronounces things. His mom would be cherishing those little things, just like all mothers do. Hopefully, he'll get to his forever family soon.
Ashley left for Girls' Camp this morning. She's been really excited about it. I'm so glad she wanted to go. I already can't wait for her to get back. Four weeks in the summer is not enough! We've been having a great time with her here. Amber has been in a pretty good mood so far, too. Megan was in heaven with both of her sisters here. We had to drop her off on the way back from vacation, but I'm sure we'll have her a couple more times before the girls go back.
The girls played Nathan's Game Boy and Megan's Nintendo DS while we were on vacation. They had never played a hand held game before! I couldn't believe it. Anyway, they were hooked and they played them a lot at the resort and in the car. They really like Mario Brothers and Catz. It just goes to show, you never know what kids are going to like.
We got to see a lot of Dan's family before we went on vacation, too. A lot of them had come for Joe & Crystal's wedding, and some of them came right after. It was really fun seeing all the kids, especially the new babies. There were three that we hadn't seen yet. We also got to meet Hannah's boyfriend, Cam. He was really nice and seemed to fit right in. He was holding the babies, and just seemed comfortable around everyone. The best thing is that they ended up getting engaged a few days later!
I never finished writing about Larry, the little boy we did respite for, the week before we went on vacation. It was really fun having him here. He's an adorable little boy. We only had him for a week, but we found ourselves thinking about him during vacation. When we went on the train ride, I was thinking, "Larry would love this." His favorite thing to play with was Nathan's trains. He and Nathan got into arguments because they were both so strong willed. They even argued about who was going to talk first. I wanted to take them swimming a lot and maybe to the beach one day, but the weather was horrible that week. I only ended up taking them swimming a couple of times, so we had to come up with things to do inside most of the time. That was a little challenging. Anyway, whoever adopts him will be a lucky family. He was getting more comfortable and loving with Dan and I as the week went on. He loved following Dan around in the evenings, talking and asking questions. It was so cute. He's such a sweet little boy. Even when he was grumpy, I found myself grinning because he was so darn cute. I kept thinking how sad it is that his forever family is missing all of his cute mannerisms, expressions and the way he pronounces things. His mom would be cherishing those little things, just like all mothers do. Hopefully, he'll get to his forever family soon.
Ashley left for Girls' Camp this morning. She's been really excited about it. I'm so glad she wanted to go. I already can't wait for her to get back. Four weeks in the summer is not enough! We've been having a great time with her here. Amber has been in a pretty good mood so far, too. Megan was in heaven with both of her sisters here. We had to drop her off on the way back from vacation, but I'm sure we'll have her a couple more times before the girls go back.
The girls played Nathan's Game Boy and Megan's Nintendo DS while we were on vacation. They had never played a hand held game before! I couldn't believe it. Anyway, they were hooked and they played them a lot at the resort and in the car. They really like Mario Brothers and Catz. It just goes to show, you never know what kids are going to like.
We got to see a lot of Dan's family before we went on vacation, too. A lot of them had come for Joe & Crystal's wedding, and some of them came right after. It was really fun seeing all the kids, especially the new babies. There were three that we hadn't seen yet. We also got to meet Hannah's boyfriend, Cam. He was really nice and seemed to fit right in. He was holding the babies, and just seemed comfortable around everyone. The best thing is that they ended up getting engaged a few days later!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Respite
We've been doing respite this week for a little 5 1/2 year old boy. He's been really good, and it's been a fun experience to have him here. He's adorable, and has the cutest facial expressions and lisp. The only problems we've had is that he and Nathan are both strong willed and they've gotten into a lot of arguments. Other than that, he's been really good. The weather has not been cooperative this week, though, so we weren't able to do a lot of the fun things I had planned. It's been raining all week! We've been doing lots of stuff inside. Luckily, Nathan's toys are new to him, so he's kept busy.
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