Primary Presentation... check

Kali had her primary presentation today, on the way to church we talked about last year and having Grandma and Grandpa Torrie there. She really misses them. The presentation is probably my favorite sacrament meeting of the year. Kali's teacher said she was so well behaved and encouraged the other kids to be reverent too, I'm glad she's a good girl. She loves to sing, I could hear her the loudest at the end of the verses, I think she likes to have a strong finish. Everyone had a part, Kali's was "Reverence and keeping the Sabbath day holy strengthens my family", we had to remind her of that today a couple of times. The Bishop read the part in 3 Nephi where Jesus took the children one by one and blessed them and where the angels surrounded them, I really felt that today. Those children who can't sit still, put their hands in their noses and mouths, sing too loud or not at all, still have bed head or the most beautiful dresses but lovingly wave at their parents are just the ones that our Savior loves so dearly. If only we could be as innocent as a child. Church was totally focused on families today, it made me feel the spirit, it was a good day.
Next week we've been asked to sing "Families can be Together Forever" as a family. We have to sing it in C so that I can do it. We practiced tonight... it may be a gong show, we'll see, I better pray real hard.
Our Super Saturday was yesterday, I taught a class making block nativities and using vinyl to decorate them, I think I will give one to Kali's teacher. I made a watch with beads and a frame with a glass insert that says "Family", Kali has already put that in her room. She begged to come to Super Saturday, she loves crafts, I had to tell her that it was a day for Mommies to get away from their kids, she didn't like that, but had fun with her Daddy anyway.

October 28, 2009

Well, Spencer just bought a 1978 Honda Mini Trail bike. He loves it. He got it last week and he's been working on it almost everyday, I went to bed at 9pm almost every night last week. Before he actually brought it home, he slept about an hour a night thinking and looking for parts for this bike. He is seriously CRAZY. He dug a hole in my garden to make a hill to do some jumps off, he rides it around in circles in the backyard, he seriously loves this thing. Kali also loves it, maybe it will be hers someday.


Last weekend our stake did a mock disaster. We had to pretend the power was out, the water was contaminated and all the stores were closed for 36 hours. We used candles and flashlights, we had lots of stored water and we had enough food, so that was good. We couldn't use our furnace though because it uses a fan to blow the heat, so we were cold. Spence has a single burner stove so we used that to cook soup and boil water, for dinner we used our BBQ. I think we would do okay if we were really in these situations. Just not for too long.

We had some friends stay with us this weekend, they have 3 kids ages 4,6,7. They had a Adoption seminar all weekend so we got to babysit, it was interesting to have 4 kids ages 4,5,6,7. Spence thought it would be fun to have kids like this in real life, I liked that they played so well together, but it is a lot of work. Kali loved it, she wanted them to stay longer, but our house just isn't big enough for 8 people long term. Our friends are renovators, they gave us some invaluable advice for our next projects, it makes me excited, I just have to save up some money first.

I'm freaked about the flu, so I think I will get the shot. I just don't want to wait for 4 hours in a line up. President Monson gave me some good advice last night: "Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rain may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments. There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us."

October... and i'm freezing.

I can't believe I used to wear shorts in 10 degree weather. I think I was so used to 30 degrees, this is like a slap in the face.
I missed writing for the past couple weeks, nothing really exciting has happened.
This weekend we went to Sparwood, BC and stayed in a Bed and Breakfast, it was neat, my first time at a B&B. http://www.bobbyhutchinson.com/
The wonderful lady who owns it is fabulous, she is a novelist turned biographist (not a word, but made it up for a lack of a better one), she used to write Harlequin Romance novels. Her home was very comfortable and clean, I suggest it to anyone, it's only about 4 hours from Medicine Hat. She put us up in a room with a King size bed, and Kali was going to stay in a room with a double bed... but she slept with us. That was fine with me, even though I would love to have a king size bed, she would go undetected when she crawled into bed with us and that's not cool. Kali loved the idea of staying with someone and not at a hotel, she chatted Bobby's, the B&B owner, ear off. That girl cracks me up at how social and curious she is. When we woke up we had breakfast. We had delicious waffles, bacon, fruit salad, o.j., and Spence had a BLT. She had a menu and we could choose whatever we wanted, the food was great, we left full, and with a signed copy of one of Bobby's Harlequin romance novels. The real reason we went was to meet a guy in Fernie to buy a truck. Spencer bought a PURPLE ford ranger with 4WD, it's a bit of a fixer upper but that's his specialty. We caught some conference in Sparwood, then in Taber and drove home late last night. I was glad to be home. I think my favorite talk from conference was Elder Bednar's, I think he's great. I'm excited for the Ensign to come out.

The Adventure Race

Spencer and 2 of his friends, Trevor and Spencer Wallace, did a 12 hour Adventure Race yesterday. They did so good! They had to canoe, bike, trek and bike again all while trying to navigate with a map and compass to find checkpoints. The company who organized the race was absolutely HORRIBLE, nothing went right, they cheaped out on everything, had messed up all the coordinates and only had 2 people working the whole event, to make it worse they charged $300 to enter the race. The best part was hanging out with Erin all day; we were the support team, we put out the bikes for the boys, got the snacks, lunches and clothing ready, we even tied on the canoe. We had to wake up at 4am and drive over an hour to the race start, we got lost a bunch, and the roads were so windy I got motion sick and threw up. The boys had 3 transition points were we had to work, but other than that, we just hung out, watched a movie and played some crib, and ate junk food, it was awesome. Spence has a sore knee, but he feels really good otherwise, we're both a bit tired but slept so good last night. I thought it might be fun to do an adventure race, maybe not one quite that long though. I'm so proud of those boys, they worked so hard.

School's In... Kali Torrie... Present.

Kali started school this past week. On Wednesday they had her come in for some testing and meet the teacher, we brought her some banana muffins to butter her up. Ms. Werner is her teacher, she said this was the first time she's had muffins from a student on the first day, we're off to a good start. Thursday was her first half day, they staggered the kids and had half come in the morning and half in the afternoon. She loved it, but said she really missed me, I like that. Friday morning was her first full day, it started with a family pancake breakfast. Kali and I ate with some friends and I left her alone at school with mixed emotions. It's quite a thing to think about, my little 5 year old girl is going to school all day now... this is what it will be like till she decides to move away. A new stage, a new responsibility for her. I have to adjust to the idea that she will be making some of her own choices and hope that I have prepared her for some of the temptations she will be faced with. When I picked her up from school she told me that a boy in her class said a swear, I asked her how she knew it was a swear, she said she just knew. Later when Spence got home she told him about it, we probed for the "swear". She said a boy whispered in her ear that another boy in the class was a "poopyhead", I tried not to laugh, but it was so cute, she was quite concerned. We had a lesson about standing up for what she thinks is right, we told her that it's okay to tell people when she doesn't like something they are saying or doing. I'm so glad that she talks to me about her concerns. Now I just have to convince her to eat most of her lunch, sandwich first.

Home from Vacation.

Kali and I decided last minute to go to Utah almost 2 weeks ago. I got a job on Monday and we left Tuesday. We visited Spencer's brother Mel and his family for a few days and Spencer's other brother Mitch for a few more days, unfortunately Spence didn't get to come. We had a good drive there, thanks to the Wakeups. I had to tell Kali not to ask "Are we almost there yet?, How much longer till we get there?", I told her that if she asked one more time, she'd have to stay in the car for 10 minutes when we got there. That seemed to work.
We had fun hanging out with family, we shopped, ate and hung out. I ate at Costa Vida 3 times, had a dipped cone at Macey's ($.79) almost everyday and had great dinners at Chass', she's an amazing cook. We ate a Zucchini cake with chocolate cream cheese icing and zucchini brownies, so good ( I can't make it at home cause I'll eat it all). We also got to see some of our friends. We visited my friend Sara, she just had a baby, he's so cute, I got to hold him lots. We went to Provo to have dinner with our friends, the Bushmans. They used to live in Edmonton near us, they have a daughter, Scout, who is Kali's age, they played together as babies, Emily is a great cook too. We went to a great park in River Heights and played with our friends Jane, Emma and Claire the day before we left.
Kali loves playing with her cousins, especially Bree, for the first few days, I really didn't ever see her. She loves kids, but doesn't really get the teasing and fighting that sometimes comes along with it. I'm teaching her how to put kids in a head-lock, today she pinched someone for the first time after he pulled her hair. She's just too nice to fight back and she doesn't have enough experience. She starts kindergarten on Thursday, I think that will help, she's at a "7 Habits for Highly Effective People" School.
I was going to tell about my drive home. I left Hyrum, UT Thursday morning to come home hoping to be home by the time Spence got home from work. Kali got to Hell's Half Acre in Idaho, peed and did the hike then went to Idaho Falls to gas up. I couldn't find my wallet so we prayed and I remembered that I left my wallet in Logan at Macey's the grocery store the previous night. I called my sister-in-law, Chass and had her pick up my wallet and meet me as far as I could get on my 16th of a tank of gas. I actually had $2.79 in U.S. cash that I used for gas and went 65 m/hr till my gas light had been on for a while and stopped in Malad, ID. We waited for a while till Chass came, gased up and left at 1pm. So I got home at midnight, and was so sick cause I forgot to eat dinner. I slept really good and was so happy to see Spencer, he wrote me a song, it's so good.
Well, I start work tomorrow again, it sure was great to have the summer off. It's easy to get used to this teaching thing.

Kali and I are watching "The Mailbox". It's an old, short LDS video probably made by BYU or something. It's foreshadowing. I think I'd love to live in a senior home someday. I can wait though.

I've had a busy week, I got ambitious on Tuesday and cut out this 40 year old Lilac bush. It's huge, I used a long-handled lopper to take off the branches and a saw to cut back some of the stumps. When Spence got home he got our chainsaw started and we had fun. The next day we put the branches in the truck and took them to the dump, I cut and scraped my arms and legs all over. The next task is to dig out the roots, I wish I could just burn them. The bush suckers like crazy maybe I should "Round-up" the whole thing.

Monday morning Spence and I played "All or Nothing" on the radio, it's a trivia game. Here were the questions: 1. What is the most written about animal in the old and new testament? 2. What type of milk is Authentic Italian Mozzarella made of? 3. What do doctors, in the US, take more than 200,000 pounds out of Americans each year? The I got number 1 and 3 correct, then I googled number 2 and told Spence to call in. He won, he got $75 for Iris (eyeglass store) and $30 in Edo Gift certificates. We love Edo, and Spence used the Iris money to buy a lifetime supply of eyeglass cleaner.

We've had cats pooping in my flower beds and I finally rented a cat trap. My friend Erin gave me some cat food to use as bait and since Friday I've caught 3 cats. I took them to the SPCA. Driving by the SPCA I saw the landscape depot, I decided to buy some rock to decorate a couple beds in front of our house. I shoveled about a yard of rock and still have a bit more to do. I've been a bit sporadic lately and want to get lots done before the end of the summer.

Yesterday I did a Super Sprint Triathlon, it was so cold. It rained all day until right before my race and then it started again when I was finished. Spence was such a good help, he is awesome.

Kali starts school in over 2 weeks, I can't believe it.