Back Again??

I had the brilliant idea last night that I should start posting on this blog again, and maybe do some redesigning. My life is crazy right now: Jake is gone, I am trying to graduate from school, and I am starting an internship this week. But I also have been able to meet many of the candidates in our upcoming elections and I feel a duty to write about it. I have had so many people ask me about these elections, I thought this would be an easy way for me to share my thoughts. Though I will also try to include posts about the kids as well. We shall see how this goes...

Our Honeymoon...7 1/2 years late

As part of our spring break trip we headed up to Oregon to visit Jake's mom. She was kind enough to volunteer to take on the kids for a couple of days while Jake and I took off on our own. We never went on a honeymoon and never went on a vacation as just the two of us, so we were very excited. We left on my 27th birthday for our trip to Cannon Beach. We splurged on a great hotel right on the beach, and even though it was cold we had a great time. Tropical beaches can be fun, but northern beaches are just so beautiful and peaceful. It was just what we needed. Thank you Benita and Mark!!!!
On our first day we just walked up the beach and explored the town, then enjoyed lava rock massages back at the hotel (heaven!!) The next day we went to Seaside, up the road. It is the end of the Lewis and Clark trail. We have been to St Louis, which is the beginning of that trail, and now we've been to the end. We enjoyed shopping and scouring the beaches for sand dollars. We only found a few whole dollars, but we got a bucket full of 'half-dollars'. We were told it is really hard to find whole dollars because all of the birds dig them up and crack open and eat them. We also explored further up the coast and crossed into Washington for a bit before heading back.
On our last day we went into Ecola State Park (right in between Cannon Beach and Seaside. We did a bit of hiking on the main trails, and then we found a little-used trail that led down to a small beach in between the cliffs. It was completely deserted and we enjoyed the serenity there. It was such a beautiful peaceful place. We ended the day at the temple in Portland before heading back to see the kids.
I just put the pics in a slideshow because I had so many to share. If you slide your mouse over the pictures you will see the captions I wrote. Warning: these pictures will make you want to travel here! It was beautiful!!!

Our New Temple

A new temple has been built in southern Arizona! It is in Thatcher, AZ. It is officially meant to serve the members of our area, as we are considered to be one of the core stakes for this temple. It is pretty exciting for all of the people here. Right now we are supposed to go up to the temple in Mesa, it takes us over 3 hours to get there so we don't go much. This temple is still a good 2 hours away, but we'll take it. Hopefully it will be much less busy than the Mesa one. It is a very small temple, but beautiful. We are excited to officially attend it after the dedication. Jake and I went up to be volunteers at the open house for a day. We sat in the front of the temple under the white tent (that won't be there when the temple is officially open) and helped people put plastic booties over their shoes. Yes there were many bootie jokes thrown around all day. It was fun to get to be involved in that event. The open house goes for the rest of this week and then next week it will be dedicated by President Monson! We haven't had the chance to take the kids up to the open house to go through the temple, but hopefully we will get up there before the end of the week!! There were no good pictures without fingers, so I had to go with what I had. That's what you get when you ask a stranger to take your picture!

I'm Back!

So it has been quite awhile since I have written anything on this blog. It is bad because this is really the only sort of journaling/scrapbooking that I do. I hope to take pictures and posts from my blog and turn them into a family photo album, I am currently looking into companies that do that. So I need to get back on it. I have included a few recent pictures just for fun. We did get a new camera back in March, but have been having many computer issues that did not allow me to upload pictures. Now we have an external hard drive that we store our pictures on. It is safer that way anyways. This computer may be on its last leg soon. We've had it for 6 years or so. It still works though, so we probably won't get rid of it until it dies.
Jaxon and Kailey have become best best friends. I am happy to say that I do feel like we were inspired in not preventing any pregnancy after having Jaxon. Before we had him we said he would be our last, but we both felt strongly that we needed to have another one soon. Maybe Kailey couldn't stand to be without her best friend for very long. They just love each other and play very well all day with minimal fighting. (Though I can't say the same about Jaxon and his older sisters.) Here he is helping give Kailey a bath:

We usually throw her in with the rest of the kids, but she usually requires much more bathing than the others (like after every meal) so she still gets a quick sink bath now and again.

These are my helpers when I was cooking up my first ever batches of strawberry jam. Strawberries were on sale for 88 cents a pound (as opposed to 2 pounds for$5) so we stocked up. I made 14 jars of jam and froze the rest. It turned out extremely well (if I may say so myself). I am starting to get a hang of this canning stuff, if only I had a garden to can from!

These pictures are specifically for my relatives with extreme culinary talents (Aunt Hope, Amber) and for my mom who made me the apron that inspired my cake. I LOVE the color purple (though I've never seen the movie) and my mom made that apron for me for my birthday. They had a cake decorating class at my church a couple of weeks ago and I decided to make a cake to match the apron. It was my first ever time working with fondant. It is a LOT harder than it looks!! This took me several hours (and that was in coming to the class with the cake already made and frosted!) But I thought it turned out alright.
Me in my apron with matching hat and earrings:
It was a super fun class, and hopefully I can create something nice for Mckayla and Lyla's birthday this week!

Classics Challenge

So I know that I have a lot of catch-up blogging to do, but I have become a bit of a bookworm since moving to Arizona. A friend of mine joined an online reading challenge, so I decided to join in as well. To learn about this challenge and join go HERE.

I actually challenged myself to read 'the classics' awhile ago. Because, though I wasn't able to attend school at the time, I still wanted to be educating myself. I usually feel very enriched by reading some of the classics. I have also been struck by how many of these books have influenced culture and society today. I thought it was interesting that they had a list of 'future classics' for a bonus read. I am going to share some of my recent reads that I consider to be classics (or if they are on the 'future classic' list) and would love to hear some suggestions for classics I should get in for this challenge.

Recent Classic Reads:
*The Woman in White *The Count of Monte Cristo *The Jungle *The Odessy *The Hiding Place *To Kill a Mockingbird *1984 *The Great Gatsby *Animal Farm *Beowolf *Canterbury Tales *Othello * Treasure Island
And some of my recent reads that are on their 'future classic list that I highly recommend:
*The Life of Pi *3 Cups of Tea *The Atonement *1776 *Girl with the Pearl Earring *Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

Suggestions from anyone????

The goal is to read 6 classics before October 31st of this year. Plus a bonus future classic if you want. My six right now are (subject to change)

1. Frankenstein - I keep seeing this on classics list, but it seems so strange to have it on there. I'm very curious about it now.
2. Fahrenheit 451 - I already own it, so I have no excuse
3. Huckleberry Finn - Same deal, I already have it but haven't read it yet
4. A Tale of Two Cities - I just have yet to read anything by Dickens and it is a shame.
5. Pride and Predjudice - Cliche I know, but it is my favorite movie, and I really should read the book.
6. Alice and Wonderland - My girls have recently become obsessed with this movie and I would like to see what the book is like.
*I also would like to do the 'school classics' like Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, etc but I'll get to it someday.
Bonus: I'm not sure. I am thinking of reading 'A Town Called Alice', I have had it recommended like a classic, but I am not sure if that is the full title or not. I am open to suggestions.
I challenge all of you to join in the challenge and chat with me about books!!!!

First Post of 2010!!

Well if you are wondering where I have been take a look at this link. We are officially on the market as of December 19th, FINALLY! I have been working very hard on this house. And though there is still work to be done I am mostly done and it is showing-worthy. We have had 3 showings so far and one request to rent the house, but we'd really rather sell so we are still pursuing that avenue. We got the house on the market and left for Colorado, and I guess I'd better start with the low-light of our trip so that y'all understand where I'm coming from. After some time in New Mexico and Colorado we were heading to my mom's on Christmas Eve and between Jake's dad's and my mom's houses are several mountain ranges buried in snow. Going over one we ended up sliding off of the road and getting stuck in about 5 feet of snow. A few good samaritans tried to dig us out, but we were irretrievable we had to wait to be rescued by a tow truck. We were stuck in the snow for about 2 1/2 hours. Everyone was fine, we had food and water and gas to keep warm. The front bumper was all cracked and hanging off so the tow truck driver had to wire it on for the rest of our drive. Now the van is in the shop and I am driving a rental car. Something that sucks is that my camera was in my purse and in the accident a big bottle of water poured into my purse. It didn't spill on the floor or anything, the purse held it in. But it drowned my camera and a few other things. I didn't notice because I was a bit caught up in our being stuck in the snow. I have not been able to retrieve our pictures from the camera yet and we didn't get to take any Christmas pictures which also bites. I am hoping to get some from my mom soon. But until then we will be picture-less on this blog. That is our low-light hopefully the highlights will be coming soon.

Future Design Star! (In my dreams)

So I am going to brag for a little bit and maybe this will explain my absence of blogging. We are trying to get our house ready to sell and on the market. Jake and I are incapable of moving into a house and doing nothing to it. We immediately start looking at where we can knock down walls. Some things we had already done, and some we started just to make the house look good for selling. We were worried that we would lose money on the house since we have only been here a year and a half and the market is bad. So we thought that if we put in some sweat equity it would help. Only time will tell. Your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. So here's a few of my projects that we've been working on. A lot of it was started and worked on while Jake was here and I have been doing all the finishing touches. Above is my family picture wall. It was a big blank wall that we couldn't put any furniture against because it is also a narrow walkway. So That was my idea and I like it. Below is also my own pet project. It was a tree ring that had a stump and weeds in it. So I (with Jake's help) dug it all out and filled the bottom with gravel then I (on my own I might add) put two additional rings of bricks with matching bricks that were stacked under the deck. Now we have a fireplace. I have added seating and such as well.

This is the view to the side of the front door. It is our sitting room/office and you can see into the dining room. What you don't see is a huge giant custom bookcase that we got when we thought we were going to live here forever. It surrounds our piano. And the desk is in the other corner with cabinets above. I like it. I prefer an office out in the open and not in a closed room. That's just me. We painted this pretty much right after we moved in.

This is our biggest project ever and it is done as of TODAY!!! It was pretty bad before. It had retro-brown cultured marble tub surround and sink. With matching floors and cabinets to boot. When we started we had no idea how big of a project it would be. Due to a major mold problem that was not disclosed we ended up ripping out most of the drywall and some of the insulation, not to mention the floors, marble, and cabinets. We gutted the place. That tiling was done by Jake and I (I was the official tile cutter) and all of the plumbing, cabinets, counter tops, and even the toilet is new. After a week without being able to shower in my house I took a shower in it today!! YAY! It works! Don't worry we have been bathing at friend's houses. My other shower is not quite functioning yet though.
So that is our handywork. And my only finished things at this moment. I have one week left. Let's see if I can do it!!! Keep your fingers crossed.

Two Books

I had previously joined the two book groups because I had gone to both and couldn't decide between them. This month one group read 'The Count of Monte Cristo' which I decided to read first because I had picked 'Three Cups of Tea' for the other group and was to lead the discussion so I wanted it to be fresh in my mind. this turned out to be a mistake because 'The Count of Monte Cristo' turned out to be a VERY long book. It is my fault for getting the unabridged version, not realizing just how long it was since I got it on audio on my ipod. I had to have a rush of listening and listen to 'Three Cups of Tea' in 2 days, barely finishing it 30 minutes before the club was to meet. I thought I'd give a little review of the books for those who are interested.

1. The Count of Monte Cristo- Very good, but VERY long. Longer than I thought it would be. And even though it was long I still kind of felt like it ended abruptly. There was just so much story ingeniously woven together that it took a long time to get through. Definitely Dumas' greatest work IMO. It gets a bit sinister, but it is an awesome story. I think everyone knows or has heard the story, but you would never know how complex this twisting, turning plot is unless you read the book. No movie could ever do it justice. Though it is long, you won't feel like it drags on, it continues to be a nail-biting page turner to the very end. If you like action, you'll like this one.

2. Three Cups of Tea- Awe inspiring. This is a life-changing true story of the difference one man is making in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I think every American should read this book and see a different view of how to fight 'The war on Terror.' What struck me most was the love this man has for those people. Such hatred is being cultivated in America towards muslims and it is really sad to put them all under the same umbrella. This book makes you want to get up and do something and make a difference. It made me feel so insignificant and feel like I needed some loftier goals to work towards. I really recommend this book, especially in the political climate we have in our country.

One More from Lyla

This was the other day while we were at the store:

Lyla- Mom can sometimes kids wear a swimsuit with booby holders?
me- What?!
Lyla- You know the swimsuits that just have booby holders and panties.
me- not my kids.

Funny Sayings

I have some very talkative girls. Jaxon talks a lot, but he still mostly just jibber-jabbers. My girls are non-stop talkers so I thought I'd share some of the funny things they have been saying lately.

Lyla- Mom, were you ever a baby?
me- yes, we all were
Lyla- was it 100 years ago?
me- no I'm not that old
Lyla- 65 years ago?
me- Lyla I'm not that old
Lyla- But you look really old to me
me - Thanks Lyla

Lyla to Mckayla- Do you want some of my french fries?
Mckayla- No, I don't like french fries.
Lyla- Yes you do, you always like french fries.
Mckayla- No I don't like them anymore
Lyla-Why?
Mckayla- They're too Frenchy.

I had a bunch of things I wanted to write, but now that I sit down to write something I am drawing a blank. Look for a second installment another time.

PS.

PS. It is not that late here. It is barely 11:00, the blogger thing always says that it is super late when I post, but it's not. I am not much of a night owl anymore and I am off to bed right now. It must be on EST or something and I don't know how to change it. Any suggestions?

Lost Lost Lost

So I have spent all day continually searching for the Jetta key. I took the seats out of the van to transport stuff to Kyle and Hana's garage and had used the jetta for errands. Anyways I was going to go grocery shopping yesterday but I couldn't find the Jetta key. And though I had the van key and the van was empty, Kailey's seat was locked inside the jetta. I have cleaned house continually and worked and cleaned all the while looking for the key. I was able to get the girls a ride to school this morning with the Williamsons, but I really don't like to ask favors. Anyways, I had looked everywhere I could possibly think it would be. I was really frustrated and I knew I could not sleep tonight without finding it because it was driving me insane as to where is could be. I said a prayer asking for help (which I should have done right from the start) and began to look again. Not 10 minutes later I found it. It was a very clear answer to my prayer. We have a blue jar on our counter that is supposed to be a cookie jar, but as cookies don't last long enough at our house to be put into a jar, it is where we always throw our loose change. I don't even remember thinking that I should look in the change jar but I just lifted the lid without thinking and saw 2 lemons in there. This of course led me to reach in and pull out an array of things: lemons, candy, a straw, a small toy car, and the KEY!! Yay! I wonder how the key got in there? I just am totally confounded. It must have sprung legs. I guess we'll never never know.

The frustrating thing about politics

I voted yesterday in our local battle. There was only one thing on the ballot. A yes or no to a budget override for the school district. Because of budget problems at the state level our school district has lost over 1.5 million dollars in funding and has done drastic things like firing all art, music, and pe teachers, making schools share librarians, counselors and nurses, and shorter school days. Now the vote is to cut funding to the schools even more. It makes me so mad. There was a smear campaign saying that this would cost tons of money to everyone and the school district is just irresponsible, etc. But the truth is that this would just ensure that the appropriate tax dollars make it to the schools and it makes education the priority (as it should be).
Anyways. We lost. The schools will suffer even more.
I think there are 2 parties responsible for this. 1 - the retirees. You may think I am stereotyping and am being unfair, but they will vote down funding for the schools every time. The proof was when I went and stood in a very short line to vote I didn't not see a single person there without a significant amount of gray hairs on their head. From the time I got out of my car, till the time we drove off. I was the only person who was not a senior citizen. I had a few pro-override signs in my yard that kept getting pulled up and thrown down. And who is walking their dogs down the sidewalk day and night? Senior citizens. I don't know why they think it will benefit them to have crappy schools.
But who is really responsible? And what is so frustrating about politics? THE PARENTS!!!! Why weren't they at the polls!!! I have heard so many complaints from parents, and the principle sent out a newletter explaining the changes and how they were out of her control because of the complaints she had had. But yet, these parents didn't go out and vote! There were less than 8000 votes total and it was 57% to 41%. I know that doesn't add up and I am not sure how there can be a gray area in a "mark yes or no" vote. I was standing outside with our PTSO president who was trying to catch parents during the parent teachers conferences last week to hand out fliers with override information. He said that at least 70% of the parents had no idea what was going on and didn't want to stop and talk about it. This is for your kids! You need to talk about it! There was one guy who went by and TJ caught him to give a flier and he briefly explained what the whole thing was about. The guy had no idea. He wanted the school to get the programs back and to have regular school days again, but he had no idea. How can you not know!!!!?! There are signs posted on every corner of the city. You can't drive to the grocery store without seeing at least 20 yes or no signs. And the bigger clue... Your kids! You'd think that they would want to know what was going on when so many changes are made at your own kids school. You'd also think that more would get out and vote on an issue that has such a clear, distinct impact on their lives. But no.
After all the signs posted, fliers handed out, phone calls made, speeches given, we still lost. That is frustrating. It just seems like no matter how hard you work people still don't care and there is nothing you can do about it. They want the changes but still won't take the time to go to the polls. It makes me so mad. It just makes it all seem pointless. I hope the community we are moving to has better support for schools and more involvement in government. We'll see.
There is my opinionated rant for the next little while. I should do this more often.

I think it's Fall!! Oh wait, maybe not.

Last week we had to put a hold on some of our outdoor projects because we had a cold front move in. It was a shocker since we had been swimming only the week before. It was chilly enough that I had to go the store and buy jackets for all of my kids after I realized that we didn't own any jackets or sweaters for any of our kids. I still haven't gotten much more than light jackets because they just don't sell thick warm winter clothes here. I thought we had finally hit the start of fall weather. I felt like we needed jackets in the morning on the way to school though by the afternoons we are in T-shirts again. However, it warmed up again by Halloween. I made everyone wear jackets and sweaters under their costumes, thinking it would get cold as the sun went down. But everyone was stripping down after a short while. And today we were dying in the car on our ride home from the airport without air conditioning. It is crazy how much warmer Tucson is than us when it is so close. This week fall is officially gone again because we have record high temps. It's okay because we are enjoying getting to spend as much time outside as possible.

Hold the Roadtrips please...

My family has started to have a tradition of getting together (as many of us as possible) on Thanksgiving and leaving Christmas for other gatherings. Last year many of my family members made a huge effort to drive all of the way down here to Sierra Vista to spend Thanksgiving with us. This year my mom is hosting thanksgiving. I had been thinking for a very long time that that was where we would be spending thanksgiving this year. However, I am not so sure now. We took Jake to the airport this morning and after spending some time with him and saying our good-byes we stopped at a drive through right outside the airport for some munchies. Just 10 minutes after getting onto the highway Kailey is screaming because she is hungry too. So I pull off onto the access road for some privacy while feeding her. During which time Lyla decides she needs to potty. Since we are near the outskirts of Tucson there is only a ghetto Circle K. I needed gas and air, but after getting all of the kids out of the car and taking them inside we discover they don't have any public bathrooms and there are no gas stations nearby. I didn't want to drive back into Tucson, but Lyla decided she didn't really have to go potty and she was just kidding. Then 30 minutes later she can't wait and we are in the middle of nowhere. I pull off onto a Ranch Road exit and she has to pee in the dirt. By the time we get to Benson (the exit on the interstate that is about 30 miles from Sierra Vista and the half-way point to Tucson) it had been over an hour since leaving the airport. I took the van out of cruise control to stop at the exit and it started making scary noises and refused to accelerate. I was able to pull over and had to get out and check it out (not that I could have done anything). When I started it up again whatever happened stopped and we went on our way. By the time we got home we had taken over 2 hours on a drive that is usually just over an hour! I am not feeling confident about going on a mong car ride anywhere right now. Especially in our van that would probably not make it. Suggestions anyone?

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. It really started last weekend when we went to our Stake wide Fall Family Fun Fest. It was a huge event. My biggest complaint is that it did not go long enough. We didn't get to do everything. The girls sang in the talent show, they got their faces painted, got snow cones, cotton candy, played various games, played on the jumping castles, and (last but not least) I won Second place in the chili cookoff!!!! And just so you know how extremely huge this cookoff was, there was at least 50 crockpots of chili and I was 2nd place! Just to brag a bit. Anyways, on Friday the 30th Jake and I went to a grown-ups halloween party that was really fun. We ate food and played Bunco, which is now one of my favorite big group games to play. And on Saturday we went to the trunk or treat at the church then went trick or treating a little bit and went to a halloween party to top it all off. So can anyone guess what we were?
Maybe Jaxon was buckwheat......

Or maybe Kailey was a baby Dora...

Maybe Mckayla was Tina Turner with Lyla as Lady Gaga....

We bobbed for apples at the party, but after Jaxon touched the water a couple of times with his nose he discovered the real trick to getting the apples out of the water. At least he did try to get one with his mouth.

Lyla got hers without ever getting wet at all.

Mckayla managed not to get wet either. I don't think they get the point of boobing for apples.

Here's your next Halloween costume hint. Kailey is playing the perfect part in....

Any guesses?

Got it yet?

The Pacheco Family Mariachi band!!! Ey yie yie!!!