Twins

I love finding people’s twins. There was this lady that comes into the library every few weeks or so and I kept trying to figure out who she reminded me of in her looks and mannerisms. I didn’t ever really get a chance to talk to her until last week and I finally figured it out. She reminds me of my mother-in-law. No wonder I have liked this patron so much! Now I look forward to getting to see her but I also look forward to seeing the real Camille in just a few short weeks!

Marc’s Schedule

Marc’s hours have been cut back quite a lot at Subway and we are looking for other forms of employment. But until that happens I am loving how much is being done around the house and yard. It is amazing what can get accomplished when you aren’t working 50+ hours a week!

Down to 18

I am finally down to 18 credit hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a big deal in our house and I finally feel like I have a little breathing room. We are still really busy but we aren’t drowning anymore which is a big deal. Almost half way done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FHE Group

We have started another FHE group. This one is very different from the one in Prescott and honestly we still miss our FHE group all the time! But here our FHE group currently consists of us and our neighbors. It is so much fun doing FHE with kids again and being able to hang out with them once a week, at least. This last week we told the story of the Good Samaritan but it was changed into a boy that had a bike accident rather than a man who was beaten and robbed. And the rivalry was between Arizona and Oregon (they had just moved from Oregon) and other things. The kids understood the story really well and we got a chance to show our “brotherly kindness” as we trashed talked each other through a game of Uno. Oops! We have met once and I can’t wait for our next meeting!

Halloween

I have never been a big fan of Halloween but I was really looking forward to it this year. I was going to be able to pass out candy at my house and be a real grown-up this year! But alas, Halloween falls on the one night a week that I close the library. As such I will be at the library rather than passing out candy. Oh well, there is always next year!

Missing New Hampshire

Fall for some reason makes me really miss New Hampshire. Marc and I both whine all the time about how much we miss New Hampshire. I don’t see us ever moving back but I do see us always missing it. The colors, the smells, the people, the culture, the food, the feeling of fall. I miss it all. In order to try and duplicate what little I can about the East Coast, I have bought apple cider and am going to make whoopee pies. Fall was always my favorite there and the next time I return I do hope it is in the fall and I could see all of the amazing tree colors and get to see all of my friends too!

Marc’s Running Crew

With Marc trying to get into law enforcement, he is all about working out all the time. He has even roped some of our neighbors and friends into running with him. I think that it is awesome that he enjoys his runs and that others are getting benefits from it too. I do have to laugh though, his runs used to take his 20 minutes tops and now he is gone for at least an hour a night. I guess they run for their twenty minutes and then stand around and talk after that. What silly boys!

General Conference

General Conference was this weekend and it is always such a blessing to get to listen to general conference. What a blessing to be able to listen to the words of the prophet and apostles today. I won’t lie though, some of the talks made me a little weary about what is going to come in the future. There were a lot of talks about waiting, relying and trusting the Lord. I do know that whatever happens it is for our good and that there is a purpose in it. After that, I guess I just have to trust in the Lord.

Finding my Blessing

You know how when you move something always goes missing? Well that thing happened to be my Patriarchal Blessing this time. I knew that I had moved it, it was just a matter of finding which box of papers it had gotten put with. I finally found it yesterday and it was such a blessing to get to read it again. I love that we can have that kind of direction in our life and what an anchor and support system it can be. I also love how much it makes me strive to be better to be worthy of the blessings discussed. I love my patriarchal blessing and if you haven’t read yours in a while you should totally reread it. I promise it will be awesome!

Made Up Words

Honestly, there are moments when Marc and I can be one of “those” couples. You know the kind that you hear talking and it makes you want to gag? The kind that is always, “You hang up first” “No, you hang up first!”. You know which ones I am talking about? Marc and I are that way in arguing over who loves or misses the other one more. The conversation usually goes like this:
“I love you!”
“I love you more!”
“I love you most!”
“I love you mostest!”
“I love you mosterest!”
“I love you mosteresterest!”

You get the point. Anyway, one night I decided to end this debate once and for all. I told him that I was going to make up a word that meant that I loved him more than he could ever love me plus one times infinity. He said he was going to make up a word that meant more than that. The conversation ended there that night but then I got the cutest text from him and don’t tell him but I am pretty sure he wins with this conversation:
Marc: “I miss you.”
Me: “I miss you too.”
Marc: “I made up word for miss you more than any other made up or not made up word :)”

I mean seriously I about died because I thought it was so cute but I can totally see how it would make me gag to read about it. I am sorry for any gagging that might have happened because of this post.

Crossing Your Legs

How many times can you cross your legs? Max is an expert in crossing his legs in more ways than I can count!

Sleepy Saturdays

Here are some pictures of us on our sleepy Saturdays. Carmel likes to sleep in a separate room from me so getting pictures of him is really hard. I will have to work on getting some more!







I finally found where he was hiding!

Cleaning

I totally got the bug to clean this weekend. I went through tons of boxes, mopped, vacuumed, rearranged, etc. It was so nice to work on the house and I felt so much better when it was all said and done. I can’t wait until I have more time to do it again. Maybe next weekend that can be my project again!

The only problem with cleaning on the weekends is that the animals really like when we have lazy days on the weekends. Normally Marc is at work and I am home working on school and so we have lazy Saturdays and the animals just sleep. Kiara was apparently upset that my cleaning was interrupting nap time because the next thing I know she is sleeping on my project. It was so much fun to snuggle with her though that I didn’t even mind!

Rainy Days

I had always heard parents with children complain about how bad rainy days could be with kids. I now know the feeling because rainy days are really hard with the dogs. The poor things aren’t allowed outside and they are all cooped up and can’t figure out why! Poor Kovu is the worst. Today is day two of rain and we are in for two more…. It could be a long two days for all of us!

Girl’s Night In

With the priesthood session of general conference coming up, I thought it would be the perfect time to have a girl’s night! However, everyone was either out of town or sick! I know, what is up with that? It ended up being Holly and myself and we had a blast making cupcakes. They were supposed to be these really cute ghost cupcakes but we ended up with some interesting creations and some sticky fingers!

What it was supposed to look like:


What it turned out like:










The ones that we created:

(The Earthquake)


(The Bug)


(Fire Pit)


(Love Girls Night In!)








(The ones that weren't really anything....)






(I ran out of ideas....)


The next one I want to try:

Girl’s Night Out

So apparently I only played this week. Friday night my neighbor called and asked if I wanted to go see a movie with her. The last time I saw a movie was before my parent’s Jerusalem trip because we took Mikkel with us. But anyway we went and saw a movie and hung out and it was so much fun! I love hanging out with Holly and getting a break from school.

While we were out partying Marc was back home with his friend Mark (trust me I get confused too!) working out together. They went running, did sit-ups and push-ups, stretched, etc. They had a fun boys night in while we had a fun girls night out!

Shopping Spree

This week I was able to go shopping with a friend. We just needed a girls night out and this was the best way to do it. We went and searched around the local thrift stores and went out to dinner that night. Megan found a $500+ grill at goodwill that she bought for her husband’s birthday for $150! It was an awesome deal and Kaleb should be ecstatic about it! I was able to find some bedding and a few decorations for one of our bedrooms. We have finally started unpacking and moving into the house a little bit. I was able to buy

• A wall decoration
• A decoration for the desk
• Matching set of bedding (fitted sheets, normal sheets, 2 pillow cases, and a bed skirt)
• Another matching set of bedding (minus the bed skirt)
• And a set of curtains

For all under $50! I was super excited and can’t wait until I finish going through more boxes and I can decorate that room a little bit!

Zumba!

This last week I was able to go to my first Zumba class with my visiting teaching companion. Side note: Jenni is fantastic and I love having her as a companion. But the class was so much fun! I have done Zumba in my living room before but being in a class was awesome! In fact I loved it so much, we are trying to fit a gym membership into our monthly budget. I can’t wait to go again!

In the meantime I have really enjoyed playing the Zumba game for the Wii. It is better than any Zumba DVD that I have found through the library and it is a really fun way to work out!

The Story of the Pop-Tarts

Okay so funny story about Marc. 9 times out of 10 Marc has a better memory than me but when it comes to the kitchen he suddenly can be very spacy. I am always putting the milk that was on the counter back in the fridge or turning off the stove because dinner finished cooking 20 minutes ago, or whatever. One such incident happened with some pop-tarts. Marc loves to heat his pop-tarts in the toaster. One morning he went to cook them and then did something else and before you know it he had forgotten about the pop-tarts. These poor pop-tarts sat in the toaster for several days before I took this picture. I wanted to see how long it would take Marc to realize he had forgotten them. I few days after the picture was taken I found the pop-tarts here. Apparently he remembered them and then forgot them again. Poor pop-tarts!

Good Samaritan

There are moments in life that make you realize that there is kindness and human decency left in this world. This week the teenagers have found it funny to start stealing from each other at the library. We have had several items stolen this week, most notable, a violin. We figured the kids stole it as a prank because why else do you steal a violin. The police were called, a report filed, and an article was written about it in the local newspaper. It made me so sad to think that they would do this to each other, even if they were trying to be funny. It really bummed out the staff but there wasn’t a lot we could do for him. After the article was posted in the newspaper, we had a patron come in to talk to me. I talked to her and apparently she had found the violin around the corner from our library. She had returned it to a different location because she thought that is where it came from and they had contacted the mom. Not only did this patron come to tell us but she went to the local middle school as well to make sure he got his violin back. The patron has his violin again but I was so impressed with what this patron did for this teenager and how much that act meant to his mom and him. Now if only we could get them to stop stealing everything else we would be good!

I have more animals!

Before anyone has a panic attack that I really went out and got another fuzzy creature to add to my little family, check out these pictures of what happens when the new neighbors come over for dinner!

Getting to Talk…Again

After being so sick last time, the Bishopric asked me to speak again. They let me use the same talk that I had prepared last time and I was so grateful to be able to talk about testimonies. I was asked to talk about a talk giving by President Eyring at the General Young Women’s Broadcast in April. It was entitled “A Living Testimony”. Reading and studying that talk really allowed my testimony to grow and created the desire to learn more and to be better. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives and I hope we don’t take it for granted and become casual in our worship. Being able to give that talk really has made a huge impact in my life. I was even able to incorporate sign language as I talked about the meanings of the different signs for testimony. The sign in LDS ASL is different than the ASL version. The regular sign means a proclamation of faith and the other sign means a true and good statement said with authority. I talked about how we can grow in our testimonies to be worthy of that LDS ASL sign as the prophets and apostles are. As I listen to their testimonies they are said with such authority that I can’t help but believe them. I hope one day that I am worthy for that sign and that my testimony can be said with that much authority.