Photo Friday!

Yea, I'm so bad having not done this in several weeks but better late than never. Last night after desert and right before story time the boys posed themselves for this picture and requested that I take said picture, so I thought I would share it with you! Happy Friday to you all!

Free Cereal

I can't believe I forgot to blog this because it was hilarious!

Last Friday towards the end of our date we decided to head over to Hy-vee to buy supplies for treats--much more fun to make them at home than to go out to get them. We decided to get some fun cereal to make a treat out of and knew that the Malt-O-Meal bags were buy 2 get 1 free, so we thought that was a good deal and decided to do it. But it said that only with a coupon could you do that and that is was something like buy 2 at $2.79 get the third free. Yes, I'm a numbers friek, so I remember everything. But I couldn't find the coupon in the add, so went up to the register and asked her. She couldn't find it either but said she trusted me and would do it. But then the cereal rang up as 2.89 and 2.99 and I asked her about it. She didn't know what to do, so she called her manager. By this point James was thoroughly embarrassed, so I just told her it was find and to just leave it. But she wanted to do it right, so she called him anyway. He came over and she explained the situation. He pulled out his little key cleared the screen and told her to just continue checking us out. We just looked at each other--all three of us--and didn't know what to say. He casually walked away as if he had done nothing strange. The checker recovered and finished checking us out--2 more boxes of cereal for $.99 each. So, we got 2 boxes of cereal and three bags of Malt-O-Meal for exactly $2. Score for us!

Seminary - Book of Mormon

I prepared my first seminary lesson of the year today. Man, I love teaching seminary. Anyway, I feel that our focus this year needs to be on finding Christ in The Book of Mormon. Did you know that:
Christ is spoken of in every 1.7 verses of the Book of Mormon as compared to the New Testament where he is mentioned only every 2.4 verses?
There are over 100 different names for the Savior in the Book of Mormon?
The Book of Mormon has been translated into over 100 languages, like Bislama, Igbo, Neomelanesian, Kekchi, Sinhala (one of two official languages of Sri Lanka), Papiamento, Bikolano, Quiche, etc., etc.?
The deep emotions involving the Lord's attributes of love are recorded 211 times, while the judgmental passions of God are recorded 99 times. This illustrates that the Lord showed forth doubly (two to one) his passions of love?
Open the book to nearly any page and you should be able to know something additional about Jesus Christ?

I am so blessed to have this calling. If you come across any wonderful tidbits of inspiration as you study the Book of Mormon, please share with me!!!!!

The simple things in life

As I prepared a side dish for dinner tonight (really ended up being the main one), I was reminded of the simple things in life. This may sound silly, but it's true. I made a fruit salad. Now, when we make a fruit salad, we always add something; a dressing, a little cool whip, some yogurt, all of the above. I left it plain. Simple tonight was oh so good. I wonder what it would be like if we quit trying to make everything just a little bit more. O.k., I'm not very good at expressing the philosophical, but the salad was great!

Us

What are we up to? Nothing quite as fun as all of you, it seems :)

Last week was education week for me, and that was super fun. I signed up to be a volunteer, so I attended classes in the mornings and took my shift in the afternoons. By the time my shift ended at 6:15pm I was done, too exhausted to coerce myself into walking all over campus to any more classes. I got plenty of inquiries about my pregnancy as I stood at my assigned classroom. AND, I officially got my first unwanted belly rub! Haha. It's been something I've been worried about since before I got pregnant - that some random person would come up and grope my belly without asking. I was proud of myself for not freaking out.

Justin has been enjoying his two weeks of a "break." This is what a Justin-style break is: ONLY working full-time. In times like these he wonders what he would do with himself if he always had this much extra time. Who raised this guy?

We're working on completing our birthing class next week. Our teacher is a doula and we've been so grateful to hear so much about how to work through pain without relying on pain meds. If you haven't heard yet, I'm going to be trying a natural birth! Yeah, we'll see how that goes...

I'm getting super excited for my baby shower! We registered at Babies R Us yesterday. I can't believe it's all so soon. My baby shower is in less than a month and my due date is in less than two! Wow, not sure we're ready for this. We're going to be parents.

Love my new house

I just have to say that I LOVE my new house! Thank you so much Joe and Heather for coming and helping us finish it up! Things are starting to settle down now that the neighborhood is back in school. This has been a crazy work week for me but it should settle down now--yea! Thanks again mom for helping me with the ppt. If only everything were Mac friendly--geesh! The boys love their new neighborhood, though, Michael wishes there were more kids his age--well, who weren't girls, anyway. :) Other than that things are pretty normal. I'll have to think up some fun stories to share but now it is time to work again. Darn. Enjoy a few pics of our new house!

long overdue

Just thought I would post a few pictures of what we have been up to.

Starting school has been a real joy. The kids were so excited the first night they could hardly sleep. April wasn't feeling well last night and I told her she might not be able to do school today. She was very upset. Yeah!
My first attempt at homemade fruit rollups. Good. I made them a little too thick. Note to self for next time.
April making pizza crepes. Not too bad. I really preferred the chocolate crepes we had for breakfast the next morning.
Nothing new, just Collin being really cute.
New carpet in April's room. Lyle and Joe did this. It is really nice and April loves it.

Vicki and I slaved away (o.k., not really slaved) making three batches of jam. They are so yummy. Currant black raspberry and crabapple mullberry ( this is my favorite). I am seeing a definite theme to our recent activities. Me like food!

Now I want to hear about you!