My Favorite Prophet

On Sunday Joe was asking Christina some questions. Who was the first prophet on earth? "Adam" Who is the prophet now? "Gordon B. Hinkley" Out of all the prophets who is your favorite one? "Brother Chapin"
Brother Chapin is the 1st counselor at church and is just wonderful. He used to be a juvenile probations officer and is always cracking jokes. He is always telling Christina how beautiful and smart she is. We appreciate him and the great example he is.

I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it

Quote Destiny's Child... Daddy you've made it a week now. We are proud and optimistic. We love you. You are our beloved friend and pet. On a side note, Beyonce recently decided not to do a concert in some Asian country because they asked her to wear modest clothes. What is that all about? Is it really that hard to wear skirts to your knees or sleeves on your shirt? Tsk Tsk Miss Knowles.

Men for leaves, Women for cooking

Call me old fashioned, but I am a woman and I don't like leaf duty. It's dirty and mucky and time consuming. Sure, I'll do dishes, laundry and cooking... no prob. Kids! You got it! But leaves are for men. Even with a leaf blower, I didn't enjoy myself. The kids of course loved the piles and I was able to keep Maria from eating most of the leaves.

When Is Halloween Again?

I'm pretty sure Halloween is tomorrow, yet I've been trick-or-treating 5 different times with the babes. (Not including tonight and tomorrow night)
1. Alf Sorenson's Halloween Bash - On a scale of 1 to 5 about a 3 1/2, seeing as Christina won a fish that she named Daddy. The fish was actually in the kiddie pool at Alf's and makes me want to think about swim lessons at another facility next summer.
2. K-Mart Trick or Treating - Negative 3. Thank You Martha, you'd have been very disappointed, as were we. The newspaper made it seem like there would be trick or treating all over the store, however it was at the front, layaway and the slots. OK,right next to the slots.

3. Shoppers Square- 4 Good Ol' Reliable. While the candy is cheap, the atmosphere is fantastic. Not too many kids, plenty of junk to look at (and take pictures by) and friendly people missing lots of teeth. I find that even though they are toothless, they are the kindest and most gracious of all candy givers. Constantly giving compliments and oh so friendly. If only we offered better dental insurance.
4. Downtown Treat Street- Negative 3. Thank you oh so ghetto. Casinos, pawn shops, bars and 99 cent liquor stores do not add to a child's happy memories of halloween. However, Maria did seem quite happy with all the neon lights.

Trunk Or Treat

My favorite part of the whole night- a woman berating her child about not eating sugar because she'll get diabetes. Mind you the woman was doing this outside in the 30 degree weather while her daughter had on a short sleeve princess dress. Pneumonia anyone? It was a great turn out and the boys did a great job with the games. Christina was a pro, "Trunk or Treat, thank you! Next." And it was just really enjoyable. As a side note, we decorated our car as the "Moldsmobile" and gave out stale, I mean fresh, popcorn.

The Flu... We've Survived

Only 1 trip to the ER and we were good to go. Maria had a 102 fever, no throwing up. Christina threw up every 10 minutes for 3 hours straight (hence the trip to the ER for some medicine to make it stop) My poor babies! Thank God they are OK and bouncing all over the place.

Fall Smarts

During Maria's morning nap, Christina and I usually do some sort of art project or worksheet. I'm just so proud of all her hard work. She traces with ease, makes up very creative stories, uses scissors with such precision ( How come you are so good with scissors? Christina: Because I'm a surgeon.) and her work is just beautiful. I love that my husband doesn't mind our kitchen is a pretend school. Also, because we do so much, and because I limit myself to saving one piece of work every other month... thank you... I won't be one of those women on Oprah who end up on clutter specials... I'll share Christina's story about spiders. (This is word for word what she says with no prompting)

Coca the Spider

Spider eats pizza. The mommy eats pizza too! The spiders be a ghost for Halloween. Ding Dong! Trick or Treat! Then they get off their ghost outfit. They have a vacuum and a lollipop too. The End

2007 Pumpkin Family

They've been carved and painted. The seeds have been roasted. Our pumpkin family is completed.

6:30 AM TV shows and Front page of RGJ

So Joe has become a local celebrity of sorts. He recently graced the front page of the RGJ in a photo taken at local immigration rights meetings. Then he was asked to be in a public service show (6:30 AM mind you) where he brilliantly articulated why it is so important for Hispanics to know their rights. We are all human beings, not "illegals". I also wrote a letter to the editor, but the press here is mostly anti-immigrant so I probably wont be published. Anyways, what does it all boil down to? Deport hate, not families.

RIP

My heart and soul is devastated to post this, but yes... the Caddy up and died on us. Please take a moment of silence. This car was amazing in every respect. When in California, we would wave to other Cadillac owners and there was this culture of unspoken admiration for the fine automobile we drove. Alas, the crankshaft cracked. AAA did not help and abandoned us in our hour of need.... BOYCOTT!!! Now the car has become the young men's new project. Everyone adores the car. This is all just so painful.

Clutter

You spend $3 at a garage sale and what do you get? Clutter. Yesterday we went through all our baby toys and organized. It's nice to have an orderly home... kudos mostly to Joe. But Christina and I do our part too!

Oh so clever! Not so sanitary.

LIl' Ladybug

Is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life. Just within the last 5 days she's started sleeping 8-10 hours!!! Hooray! Life is so much funner with rest! But I must say that I never felt like I didn't have enough energy. Heavenly Father blessed me always and I pray that she will continue to sleep like this. Christina didn't sleep even 5-8 hours consecutively until she was year. Maria has always taken really good naps, she is my little sleeper! (Sorry if this is really boring to whoever reads, it's more for my own record keeping than anything so when future daughters Ella and Gloria come I'll have a guide)

Ferrari's Pumpkin Patch FHE

I have never seen a pumpkin patch so organized! It was really fun to see all the pumpkins, Daddy sized, green ones, twisted ones... The animals were so friendly and it was the first time I touched a sheep in 20 years! The hit was, of course, the 3 boxed wagon that the girls rode in. AND I had one of the happiest moments in my life when my little Christina said after we petted the goats, "It's so sad... the animals should be free." She is my child!!

General Conference

What love I have for the apostles and leaders of our Church. Another amazing conference! I look forward to President Eyring's service as counselor and Elder Cook seems fantastic. Hooray for Californians! My favorite talk this time was by Sister Beck on motherhood. I hope to raise my children like she said so one day when they go to the MTC it "won't be a revelation". However, I still have problems with Motab... I know my heart is not in the right place. I'd just rather hear their music and not see their faces. I'm waiting now for lightning.

When Kitty Cats Attack

This is a story not for the weak at heart. Yes. My child was attacked by the next door neighbor's mangy cat. We've never had any problems with it and it's always been nice, but alas, it's an animal and you just never know. She was giving it a leaf (mind you, being very gentle and putting it by his side) and all of the sudden he jumps up and whacks her face. She had her back to me and we both just stood there in shock. She turns around, begins to sob, her nose starts bleeding and the scratches on her face start to swell. She is Ok. But it was more terrible to hear her ask questions like why did he whack me? Does he not like me? Why is he being mean? than the actually scratches. Then I had to literally block the door and prevent Joe from going to Wal-Mart to get a pellet gun, "I'm not going to kill it, just shoot it." Thank you, no guns in our house. It was a good time to teach Christina about forgiveness and mercy. Now she says, "I will be merciful and forgiving to the mean kitty. He whacked me but I will not shoot him." And to think all this time I've been worried about the pitt bulls in the neighborhood, and it ended up being the stupid cat.

Potty Trained

Before Christina turned 3, I told her when you are 3 you will be a big girl and need to use the potty. I was not going to force her to potty train, I just said it because her diapers smelled and my heart desired for not having to change such stank. Yes, stank. So, she turned 3 and the very next day she started to using the big potty ALL BY HERSELF. She is such a great listener! We go potty probably 12 times a day, but there have been no accidents (a little dribble that was my fault... I was breastfeeding Maria, yada yada...) and it's heavenly. I'm grateful I never did the whole "training" because now she's ready and she just does it and I never had to clean up stank on the floor. (Thank you Sister Marchant and Sister Mooney for your
wise words... having 8 and 6 kids does really make you experts!)

Unitarian Fall Festival

Garage sale, jump house, face painting and food! The newspaper add sounded like this would be a great thing to do. While we did enjoy some beautiful art in the church and the 25 cent face painting which was more like going to a beauty salon (thank you, it took 15 minutes), I wouldn't say this was our funnest Saturday morning. However things turned around when we went to a craft fair at Reed. Christina got to see the Easter Bunny (??- I know) and jump in a funner bounce house. She also won a pie raffle based on her good looks alone, "Oh my gosh, like, she is the cutest thing ever! So... yeah, like she wins the pie!" quote high school track member girl. Then it was off to Red Robin's to celebrate Yaya's 64th birthday. Quite a lovely day, thank you Heavenly Father indeed that we are able to be around family! Finally, in tribute to my Mother and her wonderful elderly self... I adore you. You are the definition of a mother. You were, and are, constantly perfect. You are the reason for my happiness in life. You taught me truly what a mother is. I do not see motherhood as a sacrifice or as anything other than joy because of your example to me. Every single day of my life you were there to open doors, shuttle me, feed me (and countless friends), support and encourage. You are amazing. No other mother can ever compare to you. I was never fearful when you were by my side. I knew I could always call you, I knew you would never judge me. You are my air and water, everything I need in life and so much more. I love you like Christina loves her sword Tony... enough said.

Aliens...

Joe and Christina have developed a special play game called "Aliens". They use tasers (sticks) and "meep" bad aliens and often can be seen running to safety on their spaceship. Joe decided to further the creativity by buying some alien and spaceship legos. Christina loves the little detail of putting them together and pretending with her daddy. Being in the classroom, and living with a mother who was a teacher, I saw so many children with fathers who were not in the picture... I'm grateful for the wise words of President Hinkley when he said we have to put Fathers back at the head of the family. Our daddy is the best and words cannot ever express how thankful I am that he is who he is.

Swings!

It's funny how so many years pass by, then you have kids and you remember the joys of parks. I love to push my girls in swings! They are so happy. Christina always pretends to be some flying object. I love how small and simple things always bring such happiness!