Happy Hallowween

This is just awesome. Follow the simple instructions.

Spider Game

Saturday with Julia

Yep, that's right, I get to have Julia all to myself this Saturday morning.  Bryce and Michelle are at the temple and Justin is at work.  We've been chillin' as newly acquainted aunt and niece.  It's been fun, and we've been working out our differences as they come up :)

Love the hair Marquie!

I thought this was cool.

yay or nay?

HELLO EVERYONE!!!! I MISS YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!!
These are pictures of a new do? What do you think?



Now: (Before)Later: (after)
hehe. i love you guys!
all of your pictures are so much fun!

There's a reason

I'm convinced that our slower than normal blog is a testament to lives of crazy, hectic joy!  Things here continue to be amazing, and we are every day grateful for our blessings and the wonder of the gospel and our family.

Let's update:

1. We enjoyed a nice trip to see Mom and Dad.  Liz spent a week and I headed for a long weekend at the end and drove back with them.  The trip itself was exhausting, and at times a little annoying as we wandered through DC, dealt with the new pooper, and generally ate more than anyone should.  Yummy.  The great part of the trip was seeing Mom, Dad and Marquie in the same house again and experiencing with them their new home, the area, and everything in their new life.  Marquie even got an afternoon off school so she could visit the caverns with us.  We also had a chance to catch up with Sarah and Andy Mueller, old friends of ours who joined us at the zoo.  For those that are not familiar, Sarah is Sarah Johnson Mueller (of the Rand and Orianna Johnsons—say it in a snooty voice, it's so fun!  Try it with your own name, and you'll smile.  Guaranteed.) and the saint that passed my mission address to Liz.  The Lord has a hand in all things.
2. Liz is the new Cub Scout Den Leader in our ward.  She loves it.  I hate it.  We have the meetings here, and she dominates my cooking space, while displacing dinner and expecting me to take care of the ever-restless two year old while cooking dinner around her.  I manage, and she has the time of her life with the boys.  They teach her a lot, and she them.  It's a good relationship!
3. School for me is absolutely taxing.  I'm in the throes of preparing my first concert, and there's a lot of hype surrounding it that I definitely did not create.  It makes me nervous, but I'm excited for it overall.  I think the success of the concert will have a heavy bearing on my employment for the next few years.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but that would be a rare occasion indeed.
4. We got approval for South Africa.  Now we're exploring the many possibilities for raising the money to get ourselves there.  It would be nice if we weren't on such a tight schedule, but we're working on a finite time frame, and that's how it is.  Any prayers you have to spare would be greatly appreciated.  I know, none of you have actual issues in your lives, so you can spread your faith thin on my professional dilemmas.
5. Photos?  You ask so much.  I'll try to come up with some.

Who else has an update?

Use is up, wear it out, make it do or do without

This phrase is one we have all heard many times but I have never really applied very well in my life.  So, I am turning over a new leaf.  Michael's shoes broke this week, so we glued them back together instead of running out and getting him new ones.  We'll see how it works!

Photo Phriday

It's a crisp fall day here in our part of the country. Dad is on his way to rainy, but warm Orlando, Florida. Marquie is expecting big things for her birthday this weekend. Notice, not just one day--the whole weekend. She even gets Monday off school! I googled the mall in Winchester (where the stake center is--about 20 miles). I'm thinking we'll pay it a visit tomorrow.

Anyway, here's a pretty fall picture Marquie took, of course. Hope to see lots more Photo's!

I'm with Heather! BLOG PEOPLE!!!!

Schedule

I think my picture sums it up for us all....

If you don't already know, my surgery is scheduled for November 18 at 9:30a.m. If all goes well, I should be home Friday. I can leave as soon as I can eat and survive on oral pain meds. The surgery takes about 3 hours and will be in Harvard. That is pretty much it. Love you all!

BLOG PEOPLE!!!

Relief!

The results are in... My left kidney is functioning at only 15%. The doctor seemed surprised by this. I however, am very relieved. I will be meeting with him this week to go over surgery stuff and schedule. I am planning to schedule the surgery the second week of November. Thanks to all for your prayers. Feel free to call with any questions.

My Gospel Study

Today, I began my study prep for teaching my young women class next Sunday (that's because last week it got to be Saturday before I even remembered I teach the young women on Sunday). Our lesson is on preparing for change. So, in my scripture study this afternoon I looked up the words "change" and "prepare" in the Triple Index. I came up with some interesting insights I would like to share with you.

First of all, "change". Mortality is all about change: change of heart, changed from a fallen state, changed from mortal to immortal. Also, God cannot change: "I change not", if God changed he would cease to be God. I thought it interesting that in order to reach the state of Godhood, our lives must involve change, but once we get there, we can change no more. I tried to recall if there has ever been change in my life that has not resulted in growth and development. I really couldn't recall anytime change has not greatly blessed my life, even if that change was difficult.

Now, "prepare". I noticed, as I read through the index on this one, that most of it involves God preparing a way: He prepares lands, gives commandments and prepares a way, prepares the atonement, prepares men's minds and hearts, and prepares the way for all men. Prophets and leaders also prepare: the way for the Lord. The Elders prepare the saints for judgment. Even angels get involved by crying prepare ye, prepare ye!

The few things that involve us preparing are: we must be stripped of our pride, labor diligently, bear afflictions that humble us and prepare us to hear the word. We must prepare our minds for the morrow, stand with our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel, gird up our loins, not fear (if we are prepared), accomplish the things which the Lord has commanded (which He of course, prepares the way for), bind up our testimony, pay our tithing and receive and obey instruction.

Thus we see that "this life became probationary state, a preparatory state, time to prepare to meet God."

The most profound thing, to me, as I studied, however, was to realize that the biggest part of preparation and change comes from the Lord. Change is mandatory for our exaltation and the Lord is there all the time preparing the way for us that we might accomplish that change.

Give the index a shot. See what you come up with!

Belated photo friday

I had the opportunity to visit a lighting seminar at Cantingy Park in Wheaton, IL. Pronounced CAN-TEE-NEE. Cantingy is a city in France of great importance during World War II. This park had the most amazing war museum that I have ever seen. This had walk through, life sized dioramas of various locations and battles of the multiple wars of this country. They also have a tank parade containing about 50 old tanks. I would recommend this to visit should any of you come out to visit. Here are some of the pictures I took. The darker ones aren't that great. You just have to be there.

The coolest thing!!!

Well...at least for me. It is said in business that if you are googleable you are not as important as you could be. To do this open up your Google search engine and type your name followed by your industry. If you are found on the first page of results you are doing awesome. This is where it gets really cool. Type Joseph Petersen Horticulture. Just try it. Yeah! I'm #1.

Photo Friday?

We still do that? Who knew! We managed to find some photos, despite the super crash of our computer and camera issues. Yeah for pictures. Anyway, I thought I would give a sneak preview. I'm so proud of and I... our first collage. Yep, you guessed it, I always did them with mom. Poor Joe!

Photo Friday

Well, today is Friday! And, I see no photos. I did spend much of my day, however, viewing many photos while I tried to put together a MM Mouse page (which I hope you all have done, also.) But, it made me realize just how important this blog is. What a great overview of our year. I'm sure there are things missing and many things not photographed, but overall, it was lots of fun to review the year. And, it's especially fun to review the year in pictures. I especially miss the blogs from Michelle and family. Sure wish they could join us!

We had such a fun week, last week with James, Liz and the boys. We spent most of the time here at home, but did get one day, and what an adventure that was, in Washington, D.C. We went to the zoo, and the national mall (the monuments and capital building), drove by the White House and topped it off at the temple.

We also got to spend an afternoon in the nearby Skyline Cavern. It was a mile of walking and lots of beautiful cave formations.

Marquie has especially missed the extra people in our home--no really. It's just too much quiet time here with just us old folks. This week has gone by so quickly.

Being the nice mother that I am, I spent much of my day cleaning Marquie's room. I needed to wash her sheets and decided that she could use a little boost. I only cleaned her room, not her outer room. I did pick up her dirty clothes, but I did not wash them.

Anyway, here are some pictures Marquie took, of course, of our week with the Hutchings family!

Podcast - the new radio

Lately I've taken up quite an interest in Podcasts.  There are podcasts for all sorts of things - news, book readings, random interesting subjects, and just about anything.  I like them because I get a new episode at least weekly from each one.  I also feel that the news podcasts are a little more down to earth than some of the more common media.  These are a few of them that I like and would recommend:

"The Classic Tales Podcast" - this one is a different reading each week of what the host feels are classic literary works.  The last one I downloaded was Jeckyll and Hyde

"This American Life" - This is my favorite one, but it's hard to explain - they basically pick an interesting phenomena each week and highlight it.  My favorite was one entitled "Enforcers" that talked about a group of Americans that scam Nigerian email scammers for fun.  It was very fascinating.

"LDS General Conference" - you can get this easily through iTunes store for free, and you can download any general conference session that you want, even ones from the past.

"NPR Planet Money Podcast" - this one just barely started up, and it's a daily catch up on what's going on in our nation's financial situation, and gives the nitty gritty details in a broken down way.

There are lots of other good LDS podcasts you can download, that have good talks and speeches.  It's a fun way to spice up your ipod if you get tired of listening to the same music over and over.

Oh yeah...I realize we haven't really posted in awhile.  Justin and I are working hard with school and work and church and everything going on.  Our life is pretty busy, and I'm sure most of you can relate.  This weekend was Julia's baby blessing and it was really wonderful.   A bunch of Bryce's family was there, and us and G&G Workman were there too.  When sacrament meeting started and it was getting time for the baby blessing, Grandma and Grandpa weren't there and Michelle said a little prayer that Grandpa would be able to be here to participate in the priesthood circle for the blessing.  Lo and behold, the bishop forgot to have the blessing during ward business, and it had to be postponed until after the sacrament.  Grandpa was here by then and it all worked out.  The bishop was embarrassed that he forgot, but Michelle politely explained that his forgetfulness was an answer to her prayer.

Other than that everything is basically normal.  Justin is a little stressed with the workload of the Flagship program, but finds solace in working at the MTC.  He really enjoys it, and just hopes that all of his future jobs give him just as much fulfillment.  He gets new set of missionaries next week, something that hasn't happened for 6 months now.  I'm working hard to not fall behind on my school work while I work for two professors.  TAing isn't that bad, except for the mountains of papers and tests to grade, and I wish I had more time to devote to the more fun research job and start interviewing immigrants for UCIP (Utah County Immigration Project).  If everything works out, I should get an ORCA (which means $), and have my name on a published paper by next year.  Lets hope for the best!!

The best reason to buy an iphone

This has actually sparked some interest in me. It looks awesome!

http://gizmodo.com/5062569/windows-mobile-running-on-an-iphone

SHOPPING!!!

Unfortunately for Joe, we braved the outlet mall today. I generally attack The Children's Place with mom, but..... I have to say, I think we did very well. We purchased 11 pairs of pants, 6 shirts, 2 pair of p.j.s, 6 pair of socks, a robe, and a belt for.... $125. While Joe does not comprehend what a truly amazing deal this is, I think most of the rest of you can look past the sticker shock and see how really cool I am! I am so proud. We also went to Costco. That is always fun until you have to pay for it. It was a really fun day, but now I think I shall sleep for the next few days.... HA.

For those of you I haven't been able to speak with, an update. Joe has his surgery to remove all those extra intestines (he is special!) scheduled for December 19. While this does not allow him to come to the reunion, it does keep him from having to take 2 weeks of his vacation time next year. Yeah for vacation time! The kids and I will still be attending. No, I am not leaving him unattended, (how cruel do you think I am?). Yes, he will probably still be in the hospital on Chloe's birthday. What do you do.... cake in the hospital! Yes, he can eat it.

I met with my doctor on Thursday and he wants to fix me almost as much as I do. He has requested two tests. One to check my pancreas (apparently similar symptoms), and an hour long picture taking of my kidneys. This test will show how much work each of the kidneys are doing. If the left kidney is less than 20% he will probably be willing to remove it. Otherwise..... we won't go there.

Other than that, life is super! Even with that, life is super. I was reading this week of a new drug being introduced to elementary school kids. It is a mix of heroin and something else. Anyway, they made it look and taste similar to pop rocks candy. They give it out, kid eats it all and either overdoses and dies, or is addicted. People are calling in bomb threats to schools everywhere. One elementary school evacuated only to have snipers placed on the roof ready for them. Why do I tell you this? To say hurray for home school. I too think we have come to a time when we must return our focus to our homes. We better control the environment, teachings, and overall standards. To Marquie who attends public school, you are a true shining example of Christ to those stuck in this crazy world. Be strong!

Happy Happy happy! Love you all!

I'm the Winner

While I had no intentions of visiting mom and dad before March here I find myself, so I just have to gloat that I am the first to visit!  Yippee!  

It is a lovely house with plenty of space for the boys to play.  It has been a delightful visit so far and I'm looking for it to continue.  Now I just need to find a way to do something fun.  Somehow they landed themselves 1 hr from DC and 2 hr from the temple with no hope of public transit.  Hmmm. . . we may need to rethink this.  I would still like to go to the zoo and the temple and see some fun things . . . maybe tomorrow or Thursday or if I'm really patient I'll wait until this weekend.  I think it is time to start planning and I promise to take some fun pics!  I haven't heard from anyone in awhile.  I hope you are all doing well even if you all seem to be sick.  We're praying for you!

HOMECOMING

Yes, everyone, homecoming was amAZING!!!!!!!! I just thought I would share some of it with you. Aren't they pretty flowers? I sure think so!!!!! :D It was SUCH a lovely weekend!!!

Sacrilege

I did a bad thing; a very bad thing.  I modified the German pancake recipe and eliminated almost 30 points from the recipe.  Yes, I think in points; is there a problem?  The plus side?  They were STILL delicious.  I was quite afraid about the potential results, but I held on for dear life and said a little prayer that our Saturday night breakfast wouldn't be ruined.  On the contrary, it was delicious, and quite a hit with the boys at their first German Pancake experience.  Here's what we had (and yes, Dad, you can still eat these):

• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
  
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp.? salt (whatever the recipe says)
• 3 eggs
• 6 egg whites

Make it as usual.  When you cut it into 8, they are 4 points each (instead of the 8 they used to be!)  I dare you to try them.  They still rose high, they still sunk back down, and they were still eggy and delicious.  I enjoyed them plain, as is my long-standing favorite way to devour them.  Having not had them for so long, I couldn't tell any difference at all.  They were a little less yellow, but the flavor was right on for me.

By the way, why do we call them German pancakes?  And from whence did they come into our family?  I must know!

now for my pictures

we worked really hard for this picture! these 2 are WAcky-Tacky Day
lovely, isn't it?
Decade Day above!!! 80's!!! It wasn't amazing, but I tried!
above: 3 friends! haha
You all are going to think i'm crazy, but I had so much fun with this! It was homecoming week, so of course all sorts of crazy things happen....:D

moms pics

see? she's doin' it!!!!!!!!
AH! in our yard! that white thing, that's our front porch!
somewhere down the road. :D