Memorial Day 2011

Have you noticed that as you try to catch up on your blog, your catch up list keeps getting longer causing you to not feel so great about getting all caught up...?! And, if you get far enough behind, you begin to forget the significant events you wanted to mention in your post? Guess that's a good thing for those who would rather have pictures than read a bunch because when the significance leaves, the text is minimized.

With that said, on with the post...

Memorial Day weekend we decided to head over to Pocatello. We spent some time at Loveland's and stayed at Mark & Amy's. (Mark & Amy were camping for the weekend and let us use their home anyway.) We visited, ate, vegged, watched movies,  watched the yellow finches at Mark & Amy's bird feeder, Amanda stopped by on her way to west (always GREAT to see her!), visited and left flowers at family graves, shared family stories, ate, laughed, snacked, visited, showed off my new camera!, watched movies....basically just had a very relaxing weekend with family.

Showing off my new camera:
Well, OK playing with it...

The Yellow Finches:

 

Some of the Family Graves we visited:

 

(Ann & Kevin, thank you for sharing the grave of your baby girl with me.)

On the way home we stopped at a couple Idaho Landforms.  Gabby (one of Dan's nieces we were living with) was working on a landforms project so we decided to stop at Register Rock and Shoshone Falls on the way home and take pictures for her. Neither were places I'd been before so it was educational for me as well.

Register Rock:

 

Shoshone Falls:

 

 A blast from the past: Evil Knievel!

We saw this house and decided that we should buy it, we're just concerned that it may not be big enough for visitors. :)

Though very relaxing and laid back, it was an enjoyable visit and weekend away from the job and house hunt stresses.

P.S. My new Camera is the Nikon Coolpix S4100. Yes, it's purple. No, we didn't pay that price.

A New Blog Post List:

 -June Birthdays

 -Independence Day

 -Summer Lightening Storm

 -Hawaiian Garb

 (I make these not to tease but to help me remember what's still to record. But if you feel teased too, even better)

Sidney Phone Home

Amanda and her mom were out to sea on a cruise on Mother's Day. As a result, Sid received permission to call us the Sunday after Mother's Day. So knowing that our call was a week away, imagine our surprise when the phone rang on Mother's Day and Dan answers to Sid saying, "You have no idea what I have been through to find your number!" Apparently he has a limited memory for phone numbers and Dan's is outside the limit. He could remember his mom's, her husband's, Amanda's, Loveland's, and Mark & Amy's but not Dan's. He tried his mom, Robb, & Amanda just in case they might be available to visit and left them messages (wanting to be sure the next Sunday worked for a call). He was also wanting to get Dan's number from Amanda.  He then wracked his brain to for other numbers he remembered. He called Kevin & Ann's and received no answer. Then remembered Mark & Amy's, no answer. He decided to call Kevin & Ann's back and the 2nd call someone answered. He had a few minutes with Matt, Rebecca, and Emily before he hung up and call us. (Thankfully they had our number!)

We had a short visit with him mostly to make sure the 15th would work for a call, of course it would! We were able to catch him up on some things going on with us, our move & job hunt. He shared some things with us as well about his mission.

Sid had written and let us know that we could Sykpe with him! We then began to figure out how we could do a conference video call with Skype. Thank goodness that was available so we all were together, in our respective homes, visiting and seeing each other. There was some confusion at first since Amanda, her mom and us were already conferenced when Sid called home. Finally, after a few attempts and glitches fixed (Elder Rudd's the M.A.N.!) we were all linked together.

It was so fun to see Sid and hear his voice. Amanda had some issues with her webcam but she could see all of us even if we couldn't see her. Sid's camera wasn't very great so when we all got together he was tough to see but that's ok, it was better than nothing!

Of course we pulled out cameras and took a few pictures of the event!

The Man of the Hour! Fuzzy but there.

Amanda's webcam issues.

Here we all are, finally!

Amanda's camera would periodically freeze. We got to look at this pose of her for awhile and it cracked us all up. The look on Sid's face is priceless too. (The guy next to Amanda is someone she's dating right now.)

I even videoed part of our visit too: (Blogger's not willing to let me upload the videos so I'll have to try to do them at another time. Cross your fingers that it will work.)

Overall, Sid's doing well and LOVING his mission. This week was his 18 month mark and so now we count down the days until he comes home in January. He's had some amazing experiences thus far and we're sure the remaining 6 months will be just as great, if not better! He's had super companions and has managed to work almost from east to west through the whole the mission boundaries.

All of our visits with Sid have all been so wonderful. It'll be tough to wait until Christmas for another one but thankfully we have regular emails from him. (Probably more regular contact with him  now than we'd have if he were home.) Keep up the GREAT work, Sid! We love you!!!!

Timber!

The tree's demise was no surprise. We knew it was coming down to make room for an addition to the house, we just didn't know when it was coming down. The day before Dan left, we awakened to find some commotion in the back yard.

He thinks he's hiding but I see him up there.

These guys know what they are doing....

...after maybe an hour the tree looked like this!

Muchas Thankas

Did you know there's a National Volunteer Week? I didn't, which I suppose is not a good thing, but now I do. It's in April, which is also National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Because Safe Harbor had so many other things going on in April, we delayed doing any celebrating and thanking for our volunteers.

I had the idea that I'd like to do a gathering/party for our classroom volunteers I'd been working with. They all stayed much longer than their required 15-50 service hours and became such good friends that it seemed that we needed to do something a bit bigger for them. So a BBQ was planned right before we moved so I could be there too, not to thank me but for me to to be there to help thank them.

The crisis nursery had been given some small, portable grills which Dan and Bryce put together. After that was finished we loaded it with charcoal, the only problem is that there wasn't any lighter fluid in the charcoal and I didn't buy any. We used come paper to try to start the grill but with the winds whipping around us, all we lit was the paper. So much for a traditional summer BBQ.

We moved inside to finish prepping the food. There was plenty so if anyone walked away hungry, it was their own fault.

The party wasn't a surprise. So as part of the fun we drew names and gave that person a $5.00 white elephant gift. The ideas started popping and everyone did a great job coming up with some super creative ideas.

Marta was so creative with her gift. She hunted thrift stores for just the right items. Her person (Karson) wasn't able to attend but Marta show us Karson's gift anyway:

Marta determined (correctly I might add) that Karson is one who would suddenly break into song while strolling through the forest in a Snow White kind of way. So Marta hunted for all the little figures and hot glued the figures and flowers onto the hat for Karson to wear when that urge strikes.

Nick received a package of mustaches similar to these:

Found the picture here.

It didn't take long before everyone was sporting a different mustache while we played games:

Abby

Nick

Marta

Sarah & Bryce

I don't understand why everyone laughed hardest at my mustache. It got so that no one could look at me without cracking up. And Dan wouldn't give me a kiss either. So much for building my self-confidence.

This is where I received our little one. Definitely another creative white elephant gift.

We played games together and just laughed and laughed. Karson, Kourtnee, and Hannah were all missed. We tried to schedule it so everyone could be there but life has a way of altering the best laid plans.

Those I worked with at Safe Harbor are as much apart of me as the children we helped. Each of teens at the party graduated from high school this year, as did Karson and Hannah. I wish them all the best as they move forward with college, work, and all else their futures have in store for them. I truly miss each one of them and hope we will continue to stay in contact. Everyone I worked with at Safe Harbor have left hand prints on my heart.

Survival of the Fishest

So when we loaded up the truck (the 2nd and final time in WA) I had to work. Hesitantly I left Dan in charge of moving all our things with the aid of the ward members who volunteers. I left for work confident it would all be moved but concerned that it wouldn't be done quite right without my expert overseeing. When I came home I was anxious to see how everything went.

Now you need to realize that several of the friends who helped us load the truck this 2nd time were some of the same who helped us move in the first time only three weeks before. Talk about giving service!

Anyway, when I returned home I surveyed all that was done and began asking about various items to be sure that everything was done. Good thing I didn't trust Dan when he said he got everything packed up from the kitchen and I checked cupboard and drawers to be sure. I opened a drawer and found ALL of our silverware still there. Whoops. Major Whoops.

I continued to survey and double check then realized our addition was missing. Since I received him/her (that story to come) Dan continued to tell me we couldn't take him with and threatening to send in down a drain to the ocean before we departed. Of course I protested each time seeing as it was our "child" he was talking about. Noticing that it was missing I began to get very suspicious of his actions while I was away all day working.

Thankfully he confessed. He said that he gave it to our home teacher's daughter who had come to help us move, for the 2nd time. She's 10 and just adorable. She was thrilled to take over our little guy/girl and introduce it to their other fish.

I was ok that our little Sushi, Fish, Goldfish, Plates (as in Golden) Guppie, Nemo, Captain Jack, Moby Dick, Shamu, Willy, Scales, Agent Orange, Joe Fierce, Jaws, Snuggles, Chowder, Zhivago, Bond James Bond, Pip was going to a loving home. I suppose it could have been difficult for me to try to transport a live fish in the car, but this doesn't mean that Dan was right.

Bye my little pet, it was nice knowing you for a little while.

On the Move Again...

...Not real thrilled to be on the move again...

I know that my post right before this one (2 in 1 night! A new record for me.) but I did include pictures to break up my ramblings.

Here are a few more pictures which are from Dan's departure from Kennewick and my drive to Boise and I'll  do my best to keep the commentary to a bare minimum...

My car, loaded with lots of last minute stuff...

 

Just me driving along the highway.

I always thought this sign was pretty cool and I finally stopped to take a picture.

Truly a beautiful day for a drive!

As I reviewed my pictures for these last two posts I realized there are a few more things that I want to blog about. So here's my list and a teaser all in one:

Our Fish's Move Survival

A Thank You Party

The toppling of a great tree

Seeing Sid for Mother's Day

Memorial Day Weekend Road Trip

June Birthday Celebrations

Are you looking forward to more??