Project 365

So, I've seem to have let my blog go for the last few months. I blame this on Facebook. I love Facebook because I am able to keep in contact with my family and friends really easily. So in hopes of resurrecting this blog I have decided to start Project 365.

What is Project 365? Well, it is basically taking one picture a day for a year. For me I am going to take pictures of things I am thankful for, and that speak to the day at hand. So, with no further a due.....

I am thankful for:

An early morning Carmel Macchiato on a snowy day. I have been getting up early taking Aaron to the trax station for the last couple of weeks and today since the kids were out of school I took him all the way to work. We made a short stop at starbucks. It was a treat that only happens 2-3 times a year. It was a treat to spend a few minutes alone with Aaron this morning as well.

Stuff.

Well, I never quite know how to title my posts and lately I haven't even really had anything to blog about. Sure there have been things happening, but I guess life just gets in the way and I end up not blogging. AND since I got a bit of flak ,from people who shall remain nameless (hint, hint MOM!!... J/K!) , about not updating enough I thought I should go ahead and update....

So, I'm going to post what is going on with each of us right now.......

Kaitlyn: Had a good year for 4th grade except for a falling out between her and her 2 best friends at school. She made straight A's all year and is excelling in reading. She is thrilled that she got the teacher she wanted for 5th grade, and I'm hoping for a better year friends wise this next year.

She has been having severe allergies. The poor girl has a runny/stuffy nose just about all year and then in the spring/summer months she gets these horribly puffy, red, watery, itchy eyes. I took her to our pediatrician to find out if there is something more we could be doing and he recommended we take her to an allergist.

So, today she went and had allergy testing done. She is very happy to report that she is not allergic to our cats or dog. However, she is allergic to all grasses, several trees and several weeds. We are starting some eye drops to see if they help. They also have her on some nasal spray (that should be interesting the first time she tries it) as well as having her try a netti pot. If you are not familiar with a netti pot let me assure you that it does not look pleasant but I have been told that it really isn't that bad. What you do is take body temperature water mixed with a baking soda/salt solution and pour it in one nostril and come out the other side. Like I said not pleasant, however, Kaitlyn told me she wants to try it because she is really tired of these allergies. The Dr. has also advised us to have her do immunothearapy (allergy shots) with the thoughts that the shots will eliminate these allergies so she doesn't suffer with them her entire life. They are quite involved starting at 2 per week and then slowly going down to a week, then a month, then to have nothing! She told me before they even tested her that if she was allergic to cats she was doing the shots, now that she knows she is not allergic to cats I'm not so sure she wants the shots but she did say it would be nice not to have allergies anymore. So, we are going to think about it a pray about it. We will see how the other treatments work for her and decide by her next appointment in 3 weeks.

Aidan: He had a wonderful year of kindergarten. He progressed quite a bit this year! I am going to have him read to me every week day this summer so he can keep his reading level up. He keeps me on my toes though and is always cracking me up. His latest Aidanism "Hey Mom, I'm roasting like a chicken!" Where does this kid come up with this stuff ?!


Aaron and I are going through some tough decisions right now. We are thinking about leaving our church that we have been members of for the last 5 years. We have been through a lot with this church, from pastors leaving to changing the constitution to several things in between. We met with the Sr. Pastor back in May and he told us to go to him with any questions or concerns and when Aaron sent an email to him and the associate pastor Aaron was called by the associate and basically chewed out. Aaron was called rude and was told that as the chairman of the deacon board he isn't a leader in the church. We have pretty much decided that there are things going on in this church that we can't support and do not condone. We were trying to work through things, and several of our friends have already left. We felt like we had made a commitment to this church and wanted to continue on there. We love the people, but we feel that it is best if we move on. I was still struggling with not leaving and had told Aaron I would commit through December since I had already been asked to choreograph a piece for Hands of Praise for Christmas, but because of things that have been done and said I really don't think we are going to make it that long. Aaron and I don't really know what else to do and will continue to pray about it. We could use lots of prayers in our decision making process though.

PTA, Moving and other stuff....

Well, it has been quite an eventful week. The cat is back so that is good. Kaitlyn got up yesterday morning with a fever of 103.9 I was supposed to substitute teach Sunday School, but I ended up finding a sub. She is still running a fever and it keeps getting pretty high, so if she has not broke the fever by tomorrow I will get her in to see the Dr.

Moving on.... A few weeks ago I received a call by a one of the moms I know through Aidan's class. She was asking if I would serve on the PTA executive board. I went ahead and accepted because I think it is time for me to get a bit more involved in our kids school. Up until this year I hardly stepped foot into the school because I had Aidan and thought it was too disruptive to the classes to be there. Today, we had a meeting. It was interesting to meet all of the other ladies on the board, but I'm still not used to walking into a room full of people of a different culture. It is hard to know how to act or what to say. They were all very nice, but most of them knew each other in some capacity. Still, I am trying and that is what matters, but it is definitely outside of my comfort zone. (If you are from UT please don't take offense to this. It is just me talking about MY feelings on what I am seeing through my eyes and I'm sure what I am seeing and feeling is not always accurate). I will be serving the next year as PTA secretary. I am looking forward to it, but I'm also guessing that is why I haven't found something that I want to do next year as far as a career path.

OK, OK I know for all the moms out there they are waiting for me to talk about the moving part of this post. Don't worry nothing is official or anything. There is a possibility that we may within the next 3-5 years (could be sooner, could be later, could be not at all) of us moving to Denver. Whey Denver? Well, because one of Aaron's co workers did some research on how to save their company some money and it looks like Denver could save the company about $200,000 (I'm not sure if that is per year, per quarter or what). It is a big time savings. Also, UP's relationship with the college is starting to deteriorate. So, they are looking at moving the program all together. I'm not sure how I feel about moving. On one hand I think it would be a good change and on the other I feel like I don't want to pull the kids out of what they know and move them into the unfamiliar. So, right now I am just praying that God has His hand in this and whatever He wants for us will be shown. I really hope though that the decision is made before too long. Because if we are going to pull the kids away from here I want it to be before Kaitlyn starts Jr. High. (2 1/2 years!)

Well, I think I'm going to wrap this up for now. I've got to go tend to Ms. Kaitlyn.

Please say a prayer.

Kaitlyn's kitty Dusty got out of the house yesterday while it was snowing. He has been missing since and she is so sad. We have put up some fliers around the neighborhood and I'm going to the shelters today. I've also put ads on KSL and Craigslist. I'm hoping that somebody has found him and that he hasn't just run away. Kaitlyn is very sad right now. It is breaking my heart that she is hurting and I'm trying everything I can to fix it.

I am happy to report that after running around to different shelters. Calling someone who had listed a cat with Dusty's description and going to their house. We came home to find the cat on our front porch at 7pm this evening. Kaitlyn is very happy that he decided to come home, and I am relieved that she doesn't have to hurt anymore.

Happy Happy Birthday Aaron!

I hope you have a wonderful year! I love you, so much. I thank the Lord everyday that he brought you into my life.

Some Happy Things....

So, we've had a wonderful weekend. We celebrated my friends birthday at her house on Friday. We made sushi, played a fun game called "ticket to ride" and she had bought a cake from a company called "Nothing Bundt Cake" that was so, so good!

Kaitlyn and I were invited to go on the cross country ski and tubing trip with the girl scout troop that we were involved with last year. It was great to see the girls again and spend some time with them! Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, but the weather was beautiful and we had such a fun time! I can't believe how awesome Kaitlyn is on cross country ski's! She didn't fall down at all. I woud love to get us all some ski's someday so that we could all go together. It is an excellent workout! I told Aaron if I went every weekend I would be seriously skinny because it uses ever muscle group you have!

When we were driving home I called Aaron to let him know that I was on my way and he informed me that my friend Stacy had called. We had lunch together on Thursday and then walked through some shops. I saw a bed I liked but Aaron was not with me and I didn't take it any further than liking it. Well, Stacy was calling to let us know that the bed I liked had gone on sale for 40% off! So, Aaron and I went to look at it and he liked it. So, I finally have a new bed! We do have plans to eventually change the wall color to grey with wide silver stripes and get new bedding so it will go really well with the new bed. Please ignore the book shelves in the picture. Since we are working on the basement they are temporarily in our room. Also, I plan to paint the little wood night stand black sometime this week (and hopefully find new knobs in a brushed nickle look). We also have some large prints that I need to get framed that will go in here as well. I'm still on the lookout for a dresser though. And since I'm on our room let me just go right on over to the bathroom. My mom has this cute little black shelf in her bathroom that I love, and I had these glass door knobs from my great grandmother's estate that I just had sitting on a shelf. I asked Aaron to help me make a shelf like my mom's and this is what he came up with! I need a little something to hang off one of the knobs but I just love this little shelf. I found these metal prints about a week ago for about $6 a piece and they go with the look we are trying to do in the bathroom. I've had the shelf for awhile now, but Aaron just hung up the prints for me. It is so fun to see things finally coming together!

Something else that is making me happy right now is playing Uno with Aidan. He seriously loves that game, and it is one of my favorites as well. So, almost everyday for a week before he heads off to school we play a game or two or three. He is actually really good at it too and can beat me quite often!

And since the weather has been cooperating lately Aidan and I have been walking together in the mornings right after Kaitlyn leaves for school. We will take Cookie with us and she is always so happy to go. Aidan is a good walking partner for me because he likes to run almost all of the way.
I've been trying to run with him and I can run further and further each time...so yeah! I can't quite keep up with him yet, but I'm trying and that is what counts!

One final thing. Some pictures of the progress of our basement (for my mom since she asked to see). I'm not sure if you can tell from these pictures but the picture of the stairs is to show that we ripped out the wall there. It came all the way down and we can't believe how much it opened up the space! The next picture is showing the utility room that Aaron framed in. He is doing such a great job on it! The last picture is the start of what will be a game room. It is the area all the way towards the back of the basement for those who have been down their before. We also have figured out what we want to do in the bathroom and figured out that my laundry area will be a closet rather than a room because their just wouldn't be enough space for an entire room, but that is ok with me.

My Find for the day....

So today Aaron and I went to Home Depot to measure and price some doors and things for the basement when I came across this bathroom vanity. The entire thing was only $24! That was marked down from $199.
We also bought 16x16" tiles to put in the kids bathroom that were on sale a few weeks ago, so we think that we will put this in the kids bathroom too. I have been wanting to replace the kids counter top anyways and I would have spent more just to replace the counter than this entire vanity! The top is a solid surface (corian I believe). I think that the faucet will cost more than the entire vanity! We will probably replace the knobs on the front as well because I plan to do a dark wrought iron look in their bathroom.
Aaron has been busy working on the basement and has finished framing the utility room and has started framing in the laundry closet. We also have a plan for the bathroom that will be down there as well. It is pretty exciting to see it coming together and everything we have bought for it has been out of pocket. We are trying very hard not to not to purchase anything on credit, and we have doing very good at it for about 2 years now. It is a little rough at times when we really want to do something and needing to do it in stages, but it is so worth it in the long run!

My little girl is growing up.

We have seen signs of it. I've been avoiding it, but Aaron even mentioned that it might be time for me to talk with her. I took her to buy a book and talked with her about some of the things that could happen any time now. I didn't want her to be surprised by it or to get her information from friends. We didn't go into how babies are made, just what is going on with her body. She took it pretty well and I told her that if she has any questions to come ask me. I hope I didn't traumatize her too much... I am totally unprepared for her to grow up.

So, I've caved...

I've been seeing these cute blogs, but I kept resisting. I liked my simplistic blog. I enjoyed seeing everyone's cute blogs but I thought that my photos stood out better on a more simplistic design. Well, when reading my friend Kim's blog I loved her new template and decided to look around at the website where she got hers. Well, before I knew what I was actually doing I found all these cute blog templates and just could not resist...HE HE! So, Kim I'm blaming it all on you my friend!

Other things going on right now with us:

Aidan Turned 6 last Wednesday! I'm not sure what happened because one day he was a baby and now he's a little boy! He had a great day! He chose Red Lobster for dinner...which was another commercial that convinced him he needed it. He had never been there before, but he loves seafood so he really enjoyed himself. He also had fun opening gifts. All he had asked for was a star wars game for his DS and an Utah University football jersey. Well, he got the star wars game, but we could not find a jersey so he ended up with a U tack jacket instead. He said he loves it, and I told him when football season is started up again we will go up to the U and get him one.
We also have plans to take him to the Long Beach Aquarium in March. I'm looking forward to visiting with family and getting out of Utah for a couple of days.

Kaitlyn got her parts, for the musical she is in, on Friday. She is really excited. She will be Cracker Jack cockroach, Phantom of the Opera, is singing in a trio, and will be a bride. She really wanted to be Cracker Jack and that's what Miss Nancy gave her.

Aaron is doing fine after his car accident 2 weeks ago. Poor guy has had about 5 massages since his accident. The car had so much damage that we thought that it would be totaled. We were surprised to hear that all the parts are in and they are starting work on it. It will be interesting to see how it runs after repairs. Aaron is pretty sure he wants to get rid of it when we get it back, we both hate that car, and it's fine with me because I don't drive it everyday.

I'm doing pretty good. Back into the full swing of Children's flags and dance, and HOP is also back in session. This years spring performance should be really good! We are doing "Experiencing God through loving the world". I can't wait to see it all come together!

So scary and feeling blessed!

You know that a phone call beginning with "I'm Okay, but..." is never going to turn out very good. I received a phone call like that yesterday morning. To find out that Aaron had been in a car accident. He was just past the 15-215 split when he hit a very large patch of ice. He started to loose control of the car and it fishtailed a few times before finally spinning him all the way around. He came to a stop facing the wrong way on the shoulder of the on ramp to the 215, with the drivers side up against the K-rail. He saw a big Ford F150 coming towards him hitting that same patch of ice. There was not much Aaron could do, so he braced for impact. Luckily, nobody was hurt much. Aaron does have some whiplash that he is seeing a chiropractor for. The driver of the F150 was trying to say that Aaron was stopped in the middle of the highway, but you can clearly see that their was damage to the back bumper where the car was against the rail. What was really scary was that in the course of 30 minutes while waiting for the Highway patrol there were 2 more accidents. Aaron finally asked the officer if they could get someone out to spray the deicing solution so that it wouldn't happen anymore, and a few minutes later there were 3 plows that came and took care of it. I am feeling very blessed right now that he wasn't hurt more and that the other people were not hurt. Aaron is a little frustrated that he got cited for "exsessive speed for road conditions", he was only going 20 MPH when he hit the ice and asked the officer what an acceptable speed would have been on ice...The officer didn't have an answer but told him to take it to court, so that is what we will be doing. Now we are just trying to deal with all of the insurance stuff and I'm waiting for the tow truck to come pick up the car. Aaron wanted to have it towed yesterday and the officer told him it was fine to drive! I told him that he could have got pulled over for driving it like that! Anyways, I am thankful that Aaron is OK. It was quite a scary phone call though!

I need to write this down before I forget it....

Yesterday, when Aaron got up he saw Aidan sitting in front of the television. Aidan was watching an infomercial and when Aidan saw Aaron he said "Hey, dad come here you've got to see this!" Aaron said "What are you watching bud?" Aidan says "It's the Rug Doctor! You've got to get mom one of these! It cleans down deep." Aaron said "You think mom would like one" "Yes, Mom NEEDS one" says my son. Aaron asked him if he would rather watch cartoons. The answer to that "No, I'm learning about the Rug Doctor so that I can tell mom all about it!"

Apparently, he was pretty impressed. We are thinking we may have to go rent one so that he can use it :D And who says infomercials don't work!

I know, I know. It has been forever.

It has been so long since I last posted anything that I'm sure people don't even check my blog anymore. Honestly, I have thought about posting and have great ideas of an entry and then I just get doing other things and don't post. I want to try to post more, mostly for my own record keeping of the kids lives. So, I'm going to go back a bit in this post and try to catch up on some things...

November was a great month. We had Thanksgiving with some good friends of ours. The turkey turned out great and the time with friends was also great. We went and saw the movie "Bolt" and laughed all the way through it. Definitely a must see! The day after Thanksgiving was a blast. I got up early (3 am. ) and went black Friday shopping with the same friend that we had Tday with. We had a blast and were able to help each other get everything on our lists. We also went to First night at the Gateway and saw the "Upside down piano man" it was a fun way to kick off the Christmas season.

December was also a great month. We had 2 parties here at the house. One for the deacon team and one for Aaron's co workers. Both were fairly small in number, but it was a fun time to just get to have people over and get to know them better. We had our Hands of Praise Christmas Concert this month as well. I taught 3 girls a flag routine to Silent Night by Sarah McLaughlin. They did a super job learning the routine and performing it in front of an audience without me in front of them! The concert was a big success and many people told us this one was probably the best concert ever! We went caroling at Pastor Kevin's house

because he has been going through some spiritual battles and it was freezing, but we had fun surprising them. Christmas Eve we performed some of our H.O.P. songs for the service and enjoyed all the other acts as well. I love the candlelight portion of the service. Afterwards we came home and read the Christmas story from the book of Luke which is a tradition of ours. We then let the kids open the jammies and robes. And as usual they both got a Christmas book. We read the stories and sent them off to bed. Santa came to fill the stockings and on Christmas morning we woke up to a huge snowstorm and had a very white Christmas! We enjoyed opening our stockings and gifts...Aidan loved his Nintendo DS and Kaitlyn was thrilled to get her very own Ipod nano. We then spoke with our families on the phone. Then we headed over to our friends house to have Christmas dinner with them. It was such a nice time, we got to meet her mom and Step father and his sister and brother in law. Their kids had also gotten DS's for Christmas and the 2 boys sat right next to each other in the chair and played their games the entire time we were there...It was very cute and I totally forgot to get a picture of it! After dinner we had been invited to go over to some other friends house and we had a good time playing with their Christmas
present, Rock Band. Aaron had 2 weeks off and we pretty much just relaxed and had a good time being a family....
Kaitlyn celebrated her birthday on Dec. 30th. She turned 10. We went out to dinner and then Dakota spent the night. Kaitlyn had her party on the first Saturday in January (after the new years) and invited 5 girls to go sledding. It was a lot of fun!

January has been a fun month we celebrated New Years with our friends playing Rock Band again. Everyone made it until New Years. I spoke about Kaitlyn's party already. Other than that there isn't much else to tell right now. Well, I guess that catches me up to this point at least.

A reminder to myself....

So, I have been having some trouble with my Pentax K-10 D. All of my low light pictures have had ALOT of noise (for those of you who are not photographers that means you can see a lot of pixelation in them). I have been really upset because I loved all the pictures I have been getting until a few months ago when we went to my brothers wedding, and some of my shots, like the one up above didn't turn out so well. Well, I've been reading online what some of the problems are with my camera and started taking some test shots here in my office. Then I decided to take off what I *THOUGHT* was my UV ray filter that I usually leave on all the time. Only to find out that I had my polorize filter on! And for those of you who think I'm speaking greek a UV filter is clear, a polarize filter darkens things a bit so that when you are shooting at a place like the beach or lake it cuts down on the glare! So, yeah when we went on vacation in June I put the polarize filter on because we were at both the beach and lake and then forgot to take it off. So, YEAH! problem solved and this is a note to myself to remember to check the filters next time my camera is doing something I'm not so happy with, because chances are that it is the users fault and not the camera!

Things that are going on in UT.

Well, we are here and I'm finally updating! We have so much going on.

Kaitlyn had her sleepover with 7 other girls. They had a great time, ate a ton of junk, played games and stayed up until 5am. 5 is when I told them it was finally time to sleep because they came up to Kaitlyn's room and turned on the light, which is right across from our room.
Other news on Kaitlyn, she had a performance on Saturday night with Up with people. Up with People is a neat group of young adults from all over the world. They come to different cities and do volunteer work and then have a performance before they leave. They asked the theater group Up with Kids to come perform a song with them. Since Kaitlyn is in Up with kids she went and had a great time! She is loving being in theater and is quite good at it. She is also involved in our dance/flag team at church and is doing fantastic at AWANAS! She is doing very well in school this year too. We are really proud of how she is growing up. She has picked some fantastic, sweet girls to be her friends and really cares about the new kids that come into her life.

Aidan is doing well in Kindergarten. He loves it! I tried so hard last year to get him interested in learning and it seems like just having him in a school environment has made all the difference this year! He is also involved in our dance ministry at church, one of 2 boys, I was surprised he wanted to do it again but he is our little ham and loves anything that involves singing, dancing and acting. He wants to be in Up with Kids but we decided to wait a year so as not to overwhelm him while he is adjusting to being in school everyday. He will play soccer again next spring which he is really looking forward to. He is a spark in AWANA's and has a fantastic memory! He is getting so big and is losing all of his babiness! I had a little moment in church a couple of weeks ago and everytime I think on it I tear up. Aidan was all snuggled up against me and the pastor was praying and thanked God for sending His Son to die for us. With Aidan leaning up against me I had the thought, "God sent HIS SON, like my little Aidan. Would I be able to send my little guy if I knew he could bridge a gap between God and man?" It has totally changed my way of thinking lately. It is such a beautiful thing God has done for me!

Aaron is busy with work and church ministries. He has taught a class every week for 31/2
months, they usually have a break between classes to get caught up on scheduling and developing other training projects. He has been building a new class from the ground up as well. Which means a lot of late nights for him. He will be traveling to Houston next month for a few weeks and then in December he has 2 weeks of vacation that we are looking forward to! Aaron also has been busy working with our Deacon team at church getting projects done and various other tasks as well as teaching our Sunday school class. I am so proud of him, he never has a complaint about all he is doing and does everything with a loving heart.

Well, I guess that just leaves me. I have been working on various volunteer projects. I am very involved in our Children's dance ministry teaching flags. So far I only have 3 girls, but for the start I think that is a good amount. They are doing fantastic in learning the routine! I am also still on the Hands of Praise team and seem to have taken on a bit more responsibility with that as I have been asked to help choreograph a piece! It is exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. I am also on the Deacon team at our church (as a Deacon's wife) and that has led to quite a bit more responsibility, I have pretty much become Aaron's secretary and send out any and all information that the rest of the team needs...this is a much bigger job that I had anticipated, but I really enjoy doing it. We are working closely with our pastor on growing the service ministries at the church. I am also busy trying to get kinks worked out of the Evanjafrica sponsorship program that we started in the summer (Mom and Linda I am so sorry I still haven't sent those things to you!). Other than those things I am busy with the kids taking them to their various activites and keeping household things done as well. I have found a few moments to scrapbook here and their and have started my Africa album. I'm hoping to keep motivated and get it finished as it is a huge project! So, if you are wondering where my posts have been lately it is just that I have had very little time to do so. My life is so full right now! God has really been blessing us here in UT. I will try to update more, but sometimes I think it is just always the same old thing and people will be tired of reading about our various activities.

First day of school, a new kitty and dance.

Things have been good in the Wampler household! The kids started school and are both having a great time. They have already both been on their first field trips. Kaitlyn went to see the Utah Symphony play at a high school and Aidan's class did a walking trip to the park.
I got to go to the park with Aidan, but he thought it would be more fun without me...HA!

We are planning on having a G.N.I. (Girls Night In) the first weekend of October so that I can get to know the girls Kaitlyn has been hanging out with at school. She has gathered a nice group of girls that she has played with the last couple of years and while I've met them and most of their parents I would like to get to know them better. So, We are having a sleepover. Kaitlyn is really excited.

One other bit of news. Kaitlyn went to a birthday party last weekend, and after I dropped her off she called me to say that they had some kittens and if we said it was OK then she could get her name into a drawing. After speaking with Aaron (who I was kind of hoping would say no...HA!) we decided to go ahead and let her put her name in. Well, she got a kitty. His name is Dusty and he is VERY playful. He has been hissing at Cookie quite a bit this week, but I think he is finally getting used to her. Although, now Cookie is afraid of him! :0)


We have also started up again with children's dance ministry at our church and I was asked to choreograph a flag piece and teach some of the older girls. I have 3 signed up (one of them Kaitlyn) but the piece is going to be so pretty! They are working hard and are learning things very quickly! It is so awesome to be able to teach them something that I love, and to be able to praise God at the same time...Who knew he would ever use that skill for his purpose! The girls are trying to convince me to do the piece with them, we will see. I think it looks great with just the 3.

Kaitlyn has also joined a local theater group. They are going to do the place Enchanted, but with some Alvin and the Chipmunks mixed in. So far the teacher has been great and I think Kaitlyn is really enjoying it! She has only been to one practice so far, but she said she had a lot of fun. The performance will be sometime in May.

The kids have also started back to AWANAS. Aidan is loving being a Sparky! They changed the program a bit and I think it is even more fun for them. I love that they are learning verses every week and are learning to spend time with the Lord every day. Aidan is incredible with his memorization! He learned John 3:16 after I read it to him once, and now he is excited that he has his own book and can keep learning! Kaitlyn's is a bit harder in TNT, but she is doing great and is working hard to keep learning her verses and doing her book work. We have decided to make our verse memorization part of homework time and it is working out great.

So, once again we are crazy busy. Aaron says that I always start my posts like that, so I figured I would put it at the end instead. :0) I hope everyone is having a great fall! The colors are starting to come out here and it is just beautiful!

Vote For Me.

A special Thanks to my friend Celsete for sending this to me! HE HE.

For the record....

I have sat down a couple of times to update on my brother's wedding and such, but I have been getting distracted and not really being able to concentrate on what to write.
I do plan on updating soon, my baby starts kindergarten next week so I'll have lots of free time.

The Evanjafrica kickoff went really well and I have a lot to do with that.

Also, I'm not sure which "Mary" posted on my blog, as I know a few, about missing family (which I do miss them all the time and wish that we could live closer) but no we have no plans to move back to California at this time. Aaron's job is here in Utah and unless they build a training center in California, Utah is where we will be. And right now even if we wanted to move back we couldn't sell our house. The housing market is so terrible right now. So, there are no plans to move even in the distant future.

Hermans Hermits, Evanjafrica and a wedding...

We have been so busy! On Friday we went to an outdoor concert to see an old favorite of my mom's...Herman's Hermits. It was a blast! Peter Noone was very funny and all of the songs were great. Now you might be wondering why the heck would Aaron and I go see one of my MOM's favorites. Well, I grew up listening to them and I still love those goofy songs.




...I Henry the VII I am Henry the VIII I am I am.... I'm sure you know the rest of the song so I won't keep going, but we did have a great time!


I also have been keeping busy with another project. The man who runs the orphanage we visited in Africa, Carlos, and his new wife are coming for a visit in August. It should be fun, but we are also trying to start a new "adopt a child" program. It is very time consuming starting a non profit, but I think God has meant for me to be very involved in this. I really have a heart for the kids we visited and much of my ministries at church have fallen away, and I was pretty hurt/sad/angry about it but now I know why God was putting those all on hold... I was meant to be a part of this project. The timing is also perfect because Aidan is starting Kindergarden, so I will have afternoon's free to work on whatever needs to be done... since it won't stop after all the kids are "adopted". So, if you are in UT and would like to hear more about Evajafrica and what we are doing please contact me and I can fill you in. I am so excited to fill you in more and would love for you to come meet Victor and Christina and let them share stories about the kids in their orphange.






One last thing...my little brother is getting married on Sunday! I can't believe it and am so happy to go visit my family.... I still can't believe my little brother is old enough to get married!

Happy Anniversary!

(A few days late!)

Aaron and I "celebrated" our 11 year anniversary this last Saturday. I put celebrated in quotes because we did no such thing. Aaron worked hard all week at "World Changers" and was pretty tired, scabbed up and sore. So, we put off the celebrating for another day, but I want him to know that I am more in love with him today than when we got married 11 years ago!

Happy Anniversary to my best friend! I love you!

Grandpa and Camping on a budget.

Well, the first thing I need to update on is my Grandpa. He is doing better and has been sent home. He has a home health nurse coming to visit him and I believe he is still doing physical therapy, but he is doing better. So, that is a huge praise! Thank you all who have been praying for him.
Other than that things have been quite on my little blog world because we were gone for 10 days. We went on our first vacation in 2 years! It had it's ups and downs but we had a good time.
we got about 2 hours away when the truck started acting "funny". It was going slower and slower and then started making some weird banging noises. Aaron and I were thinking that it was the transmission because we just had a bunch of work done on it. Then Aaron discovered that it was the fuel pump. We coaxed the truck and trailor to the nearest off ramp (where there wasn't even a gas station!) and called AAA...thankfully I had bought the membership the day before. We were then towed to a littleWe left on Friday, June 6, with the reservations and plans to camp in Tahoe for the night. Well, town in Nevada called Well's. You may have heard of it if you are in UT because there was and earthquake that destroyed much of the old town not too long ago. At the mechanic's shop we were then told that we would be there until Monday...with our only means of transportation our bicycles. Luckily, Aaron had brought his work laptop for the kids to watch movies on, so there was that to do. There was also a park with a tether ball that Kaitlyn enjoyed. So, we had to get creative on what to do. We quoted movie lines, colored in the kids coloring books, went to the park until it was too cold and windy, watched movies, and joked. While not the best of circumstances we made it ok.
We also had to decide what to do with our trip. The money for the repairs ate up about 3/4's of our budget that we had planned for vacation. We had thought about canceling all together and then trying again in August, but with the rising price of gas we figured that we wouldn't do it if we tried to wait. So, we rearranged our trip schedule. Cut out going to the redwoods and took extra days in Frisco and Tahoe. We didn't do some of the things that we had planned, but the kids had a good time none the less.
So, on Monday after the truck was put back together we set out for a long day of driving into San Francisco. We stayed at San Francisco RV Resort (which is parking lot camping, but that is all you find there anyways). It was nice in the fact that we were right near the water and could hear the waves rolling as we went to sleep.
Tuesday we went to Golden Gate Park and saw the Japanese tea garden. This was the one thing that Kaitlyn asked to see so it was good that we were able to have an extra day in Frisco because we would not have had time to see it otherwise. The garden was really peaceful, we got up early in the morning and headed straight there, so there weren't many people there while we were going through it. I think Aaron and I enjoyed it almost more than the kids.
We then drove over to the golden gate bridge and had lunch. After lunch we tested Aidan's fear of heights and walked out on the bridge. Aidan didn't like it so much and pretty much clung to Aaron. I did manage to coax him out to look down into the water, but he made sure I was holding tight to him. Kaitlyn really enjoyed it though and would have liked to go farther, but we thought it was best not to take Aidan any farther than the first tower.
After the bridge we went to the beach and the kids had a blast! Aidan really got into playing in the waves, which he would never do before. They dug in the sand, got wet and dirty and just had a great time.
On Wednesday we spent the day at Pier 39 and Alcatraz. This was what Aidan was looking forward to. I thought he would be really scared by the audio tour, but he really enjoyed leading us through the jail. If you ask him he would tell you this was his favorite part of the entire trip. Kaitlyn enjoyed learning some of the history. And got her Jr. Ranger guide and read it all on the trip home (we forgot to get one before we started the tour and by the time we though to it it was time to go, so she just got the booklet to do on her own). We then walked down to fisherman'swharf and Ghiradelli's square. We had some yummy ice cream at Ghiradelli's and that is when we figured out that Aidan gets really crazy when he has had a lot of sugar. I guess I really try to regulate how much sugar they have and have never seen that side of him. We then took a drive to show the kids Lombard st. and there was a tower that we drove up to see ( I don't remember the name of it right now). It was a very fun and full day. Poor Kaitlyn though had a severe allergy attack that day. Her poor eyes were so puffed up and itchy, and that was even after having a Claratin that morning!
On Thursday we loaded up and headed to Tahoe. We were finally getting some real camping in! It was really beautiful there. We were very close to the lake so that we were able to walk over and hang out on the beach. The kids had a great time playing that evening.
On Friday we drove up to Emerald bay look out point. Aidan is grumpy in those pictures because he had just gotten in trouble. We then took a drive around to the lake to stop at a grocery store and a bit of souviner shopping for Kaitlyn. After that we went to Taylor Creek visitor's center and did some hikes. The kids got to do a smoky bear trail and earned some fun smoky bear things for answering the questions. We also got to see the Stream profile chamber where they put plexi glass walls so the kids could see the fish swimming in the stream.
On Saturday, we pretty much hung out at the lake all day. And like our beach day in Frisco I think the kids liked this best. They dug in the sand and got wet (the water was COLD though!) and just enjoyed doing a bunch of nothing.
Sunday was a day spent driving home....a long drive home. And while our trip didn't start off the best we ended up having a good time and sticking to a very tight budget. There were things that we wanted to take the kids to do, like rent a boat in Tahoe for example, but I think what we ended up doing was perfect. It was a nice blend of sightseeing and just hanging out. And while we would have loved for the kids to see the Redwoods we know they will be there another time for another trip.

(I have more pictures from our Tahoe portion of the trip, but blogger isn't letting me post them at this time. I'll post them when blogger is being nice to me.)