Nail Polish...ADVENTURES!

One of the most amazing things is how quickly and distinctly chio understood/expressed/decided that she liked girly things. Like, a lot. A lot a lot. One such thing is having her nails painted. I think you could count on your hands the number of times Kiora had painted her nails before she had chio...lets just say that number has drastically increased.

Here is a video of when they came to visit of us putting on nail polish together.




My mom was trying to take the following still images, but I am glad that she accidentally captured this as a movie, because you can clearly see chio carefully looking at her nails and holding them still, then blowing on her nails, and then (this is the kicker) lovingly admiring them right at the end!! isn't that CRAZY?! :-D What a great capture mom! :-D




She is just learning how to talk ...and yet she instinctively knows how to hold still long enough to let the paint dry, separate her fingers really well, and to blow on them so that they dry faster. Crazy.

And, she is also acutely aware of when she needs to have her nail polish replaced.


Here is the finished product!

I think it is totally awesome. I can't wait for her fingernails to get bigger so we can put designs and what-nots on them! Yay!

Everytime that chio has come to visit, we have had nail painting parties. I LOVE them!!

In fact, from time to time I have visions of mani- and peti- parties when she gets older.... trips to get our nails done at a salon with the other cousins maybe....spa girls nights at home with avocado and cucumbers.... Oh what fun is in store! :-D I hope she still likes doing this when she grows up! :-D

The kids dancing

Oh my goodness. You know how kids do something really cute, and you don't think that they will keep doing it, but then they do, so then you finally decide that you really want to get a video of it, but by the time that you get back with the camera and have made a big deal out of it...they are not gonna do it any more? Ya know? Yeah, I do to.

But!

Luckily.

This is not one of those times! :-D

For your viewing pleasure, I present an evening of dancing, twirling, and crawling all over uncle Mark :-) It was a lovely time!
















love you guys! :-D

The TEEK and MOMMY come to visit!

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

I hope the above smiley faces also convey to you the joy I felt when the Teek and my mom AAAAAAND chio and alex came to visit!! :-D

It was so nice! They came out in the fall to see the leaves, and I was still pretty busy with school, but I am so super glad that they came to visit!!!! YAY!!! I LOVE when people come to visit!!! :-D


They were so adorable. I loved watching them wrestle, it was such a foriegn thing. I think it is something that happens when a brother is involved. I remember being so perplexed when my cousins Johnny and Barry would beat the living tar out of each other, and then be all "we're cool, we're watching a movie together now, no big deal" like...two seconds later. Crazyness. Apparently, chio and alex love to wrestle too.

I was so mesmerized by this crazyness, I took several pictures of the action:



Look, they even got Susan (Chio's beloved doll) involved in on the carnage


And then look! Two seconds later!


perfectly cool.... that's the kicker! crazy I tell you! Crazy! This was a regular occurrence during their visit. I think I was supposed to help keep the wrestling down so nothing was broken (like the air mattress they were sleeping on), but I pretty much failed at that job. I have discovered that getting out the camera is NOT the way to discourage a particular behavior. Go figure...

Speaking of the airmatress, this is what it looked like when it was set up in our front room. You guys are ANGELS for coming out an staying with us in that cramped little apartment. This is it folks. That is the entire floor space in our apartment. :-) What saints you are for being willing to come and stay with us! :-D

One of the really fun things they did while there were here was going and look at Purdue Campus. It was a lot of fun for them, I cannot be sure though, since they went out so that I could get some sleep (school is no fun) and so that I could work on an assignment. My mom took the camera along to take some great photos! Thanks Mom!
Mark tossed them up and down, they played on the toys in Armstrong Hall, they slid down the banister, they went and played around the fountain, all in all it was a good trip to Purdue.

Spanish Branch Elders

So, one thing I have come to find interesting serving in a small branch is how close we get to the elders while there here. One thing that helps this relationship, is how loooooooong elders seem to be in our area.

For example. I will share with you the longest two elders that have stayed with us: Elder Hernandez, and Elder Yi.


This is Elder Hernandez (left) and Elder Heath (right). (....and that handsome boy in the middle is my bestest friend Mark!!!)

First I'll tell you about Elder Heath, just becasue we tried to convince him to be a nuclear engineer and I think he actually just might go to school for it. Maybe. My fingers are crossed... Anyway, he grew up in Richland Washington, and I may have mentioned it once or twice, but if Mark and I could pick anywhere to live, without having to think about distance from his or my family (or you know...having a job) it would be in Richland Washington. Awesome possum pie.

We convinced Elder Heath when he was going to go home (or we tried as hard as we could) that he should go into nuclear engineering so that he could live in Richland Washington forever and make a wonderful living :-) Wouldn't that be just such a happy ending!?

But, the point is not that Elder Heath should be a nuclear engineer. The point is that Elder Hernandez stayed in this area for a whopping 13 months . THIRTEEN MONTHS PEOPLE! That is a long, looong time to be in little ol' West Lafayette IN .

Next specimen. Here is elder Hernandez (left), again, with his companions Elder Cunningham (centerish) and Elder Yi (right).



Elder Yi, not to be outdone by elder Hernandez, stayed with up for 9 months or so the first time around....and then CAME BACK! for another 4 months or so.

It was the craziest thing when I went to pick up the missionaries for a dinner appointment, and low-and-behold, there was Elder Yi! I just about jugged him! It was so cool and such a surprise! I never expected to see him back again. He has the funniest stories. His parents came over from Korea (not members), he doesn't speak Korean, and now he speaks spanish.

We also got Elder Heath back again once too! And he was companions with Elder Yi! What are the odds, right?

I thought it was pretty crazy.

Then, we had a long period where the missionaries were only in our area for a couple of transfers (I think that is normal actually) and it was so .....weird. I almost didn't know what to do.

The elders that come to the branch are so awesome, we really love having them come out. It is sad that we don't live in the same building anymore, it was really nice to be able to give them food all the time.

But there you have it! The tradition of the the elders staying forever in the branch. We have been in the branch for 4 years almost...and 2 of them have been with the same missionaries. :-D

Goothie Comes to Visit!

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

I hope those smiley faces can convey to you the happiness I felt when the goosie came to visit. Yay for people visiting us!! :-D

Normally I get to spend time with the goose on skype and she looks like this:
But then she came to visit and we got to spend time with her in the flesh! and she looked like THIS!:




In honor of her visiting and of us being in the same place, we made cinnamon rolls.

Chocolate infested cinnamon rolls. Don't those sound super nummy? They were! It was at this time that we realized that there is just something fundamentally wrong with me and the way I cook. There we were, Goose and me, goosie and I, side by side, in the same kitchen, cooking the same thing...but somehow, at the end of the day, I was COVERED, totally COVERED in flour...and the goose? Not a speck! Well, perhaps ONE speck, the one that had rubbed off of me onto her when we bumped shoulders or something.

Don't worry.

I spanked the goose with my flour covered hands. That'll teach her!


Aren't you so glad you came to visit your sister goosie!?! :-D

One thing we did when goosie was here was we went to Chicago. (my mom has told me that my gramer has drastically improved during my stay in Indiana....I must say I agree with her)

Mark drove.


Goosie rode shotgun



And me? Well, I am not sure what I did, but it involved sitting in the back seat with the camera and taking bad driving pictures of the scenery :-) See, the view is better from the front so I wanted the goose to get to see the cool buildings. When we got to Chicago, we went to the temple and I think we worked and goosie did a couple of baptism sessions.

I love the Chicago temple. Every time we go there, I get to see all my friends, and it's like going home. It is so nice to have one that close and to get to go there so often, we are totally blessed. I will be really happy when the Indy temple is built too! :-D I can never decide how to take pictures of the Chicago temple. Sideways is probably good, right? (jk. I can't figure out how to get the pictures to flip, so I gave up. Sorry everyone!)


After we went to the temple, we drove down town and had deep dish pizza. For the first time! (for me and goosie).



We were recommended to go to Pizzaria Uno, where they say the deep dish pizza was invented, in the heart of down town Chicago.


It is not expensive, but they do not take reservations, and the place is really small, so it is a long wait. I very much think this is it worth the wait! (if you have time that is) After this pizza....Mark and I went on a deep dish pizza making adventure, and that was pretty much the only kind we had for a long time. The Teek and Alex helped us perfect the pizza making adventure, they are GREAT at deconstructing and getting the tastes right. Anyway, on this particular trip, I volunteered to stand in line while Mark and Goose drove around down town and took pictures of the buildings. This helped us save on parking, and gave the goosie a chance to see the cool buildings. Mark is a SAINT for driving in Chicago traffic. It's a war zone.

And really hard to navigate. Where exactly are we supposed to drive, pray tell? Do no enter sign, no left turn sign AND left turn on signal sign with a left turn signal?.... yeah....i don't know either.

Here are some of the lovely shots the goose took!




So much fun!


I also particularly like the story behind this one.


Seconds before, this bird was RUN OVER BY A STROLLER. RUN OVER! get out of town, right?! And he didn't even fly away, he just kept walking around! Yeah, I'd say this bird deserves getting his picture taken and his story remembered.

After that, we walked around some more down town, and then we headed home. We didn't get to do a whole bunch while we were there, but we were really glad to get to spend all the time we did at the temple. We promised the goose that the next time she comes, we will go and do more fun things down town. And we will!

Love the gooth! Thanks for coming and visiting up!! :-D

Hiking with Trevor and Sam

Mark and I accompanied Trevor and Sam on their hiking merit badge, it was a lot of fun. We did the Wabash Heritage Trail, and I can't remember how long it was, but it took us about all afternoon. Don't worry, I packed snacks. I'm all about the snacks. Here are the intrepid hikers at the start of the journey:

I believe handsome Mark instigated the face making. I think its so funny when some people make faces, but not everyone. he he he. :-)
The trail was really nice. We got to walk through wooded areas (cleared of all the nasty poison ivy, oak, etc.) thank goodness! ...

...and over some cute little creeks (really nice bridges, loved the bridges). We probably crossed a creek a million times or so. Roughly.


In addition to crossing creeks, the trail also took us across the wabash river, and we got to go over an old rail bridge that they converted into a foot bridge. And consequently, this is what happens when you tell the intrepid hikers to "strike a pose!" It kinnda looks like Trevor is gonna punch Mark...but Mark doesn't seem to mind too much.

Good times.
We also went across the foot bridge into Lafayette down town. Then we consulted the trusty map and discovered that we did not, in fact, need to cross said bridge, and we retreated back into West Lafayette and continued on the trail that passes BENEATH the bridge.... not across. Trixy trixy distinction. We got to see lots of pretty trees...


....and even some that looked like they were cuddling! :-D What cute little cuddly love bird trees! :-) I wish Mark and me could grow some cuddly trees, that would be so cool. It's on my wish list.


We kept crossing lots of little creek things, it was so neat the people had made such cool bridges and stuff the keep the trail nice, it was a lovely little path. I particularly like this tree that was stretching out over the stream thingy. I think that would be such a cool tree to find as a kid in a secret place and go sit out on it and read books or something. Its like a magical tree place. I always wanted to find a magical tree place when I was growing up. Me and my friends would find tree places and have to pretend that they were magical and awesome, but it is harder when you live in a desert, believe you me. I remember pretending that this particular branch of the arroyo was magical and secret and we got this big card board box to hid under (cuz it was blazing hot) and we used sticks to dig out little shelves to put our "things" in the walls....Good times.



Shout out to the Goose! :-D Took the picture with the goose babies just for you! *MUAH!*

We also found some pretty sweet vines to go swing on and pretend to be tarzan.
Totally.

Awesome.


Yeah, this is also an activity I never did growing up. Go figure, right?

At some point, the trail stopped being all nice and marked (somewhere around the waste treatment plant) and we got lost. Well, I thought we were lost, Mark thought we were not lost. Good thing Mark was right! :-)

Eventually, weather we were lost or not, we climbed up the 231 bridge and Aunt Lauren came and picked us up. It was such a nice day! So glad we got to spend time with you guys!

Trek Bonnets

We made bonnets for Trek! Super stylish, eh?

One of the girls said that she wanted red spots...so we made red spot bonnets. We made four of them :-) We wanted to match...but on second thought, we should have made them to match what we would be wearing...and not match each other... oopsie :-)


I was really glad when one of my MJ mom's told me about oiling the sewing machine-I think I may have mentioned this before- but in humid places, you need to oil the machine, like, a lot.

This was totally a new concept to me, since I think I had only ever oiled the machine once in my whole life (and actually...I think my mom did the oiling, I just did the panicking about breaking the machine and then the watching my mom rescue it with oil)

This about sums up my experience with oil: Use the machine without oil and the world is a dark and terrible place... Oil the machine and everything is sunshine and goodness. It has given me a new perspective on the phrase "a well oiled machine." SUCH a difference. I love you sewing machine oil! And seam ripper, I love you too! (thanks the goose!!) :-D


Have you ever wondered about how wonderful sewing machines are? They are wonderful. Ingenious. And not only that, but when I go to the sewing machine store, I am overwhelmed by the simplicity of it. So many things are universal!!! Needles, bobbins, screws!!! :-D

Oh the interchangeability!! :-D

STARK contrast to ordering parts for equipment I use at work. Is it english? Is is SI? What brand is it? What model, what make, what year? I think you will need to get it custom made. Then NOTHING will match. Ever.

Anyway! I want to show you the hats


We stuck plastic soda bottle strips in the ribbing to get the bonnet rims to stick out straight. There were options of putting in cardboard...but we were going to be getting wet, and that's disgusting. Who wants rotting cardboard up in their face? Not me!



Mark helped with the straps :-)

And modeled the final product.



So handsome! :-D What a good sport.

Since I am REALLY good at sewing, I actually attached the rim to the wrong side of the bonnet, and all the evidence of the gathering was exposed! *GASP!* I thought it looked better that way ( read: I didn't want to unpick anything) so I added a little red ribbon to it, and pretended it was lace detail.

I think they turned out great! I was highly proud of them.

Trek Photos

The long awaited trek photos! I got all nostalgic looking through them again :-) I decided to post them as an album, enjoy! We sure did :-)

The mighty Hunter

Mark spent the week in San Diego being spoiled with beautiful weather, beach side hotels, and free food at the JPC conference. Oh, and surfing. Oh, and touring The Midway air craft carrier (fun fact: did you know they used 3,000 potatoes and 10 tons of food daily?! whoa). Anyway, like any good conference, the JPC gave away good toys. Marks favorite: the laser pen. Said pen has replaced his regular ol' Bic pen as his constant companion, and he takes great pleasure in flashing things with the red laser light and (get this) the blue LED light right next to the laser light. Two buttons: two lights-it's so well equipped, the pen makes me feel like James Bond. Strangely enough, the pen also makes me feel like a cat. Who knew chasing laser light points was so fun!

Anyway! Last night, Mark found another awesome use for his laser pen.

See, we have this pesky fly that has been in our room, and just when are falling asleep it will land on us and keep us awake. Fly torture. We have not been able to kill it or get it to leave. Until....Mark's brilliant idea struck. heh heh heh.

He took the laser and shined it on the fly. At first the fly would fly away, land again, and Mark would shine the laser on it. After a while the fly stopped leaving and instead would just walk a few inches to get away from the light, and Mark would follow it with the laser. Then, it just stood still...

WHAM!

That's when Mark pegged Mr. Fly with the post-it-note stack! HA!

Aren't you impressed with Mark's new hunting skills?

I sure am :-)

Trek

(I will post pictures...when I discover where I put the CD :o( I have a DVD slideshow/movie of pictures, but I couldn't get it to post...so I will have to wait for the CD to surface...)

"In July 2009, seventy-six youth from the Lafayette Stake participated in a re-enactment of the Mormon handcart pioneer movement..."

Mark and I had the opportunity to be a "Ma" and "Pa" to 9 kids ranging in age from 14 to 18 years old. It was simply remarkable.

We dressed in "period" style clothing, the women in dresses to their ankles, long sleeve shirt and bonnets, the men in trousers or overalls, button up long sleeve shirts (and suspenders) and hats. We wore normal tennis shoes or hiking boots :o)

It was incredible to watch the youth. The first day, we walked the longest and were given the least amount of food. We had a tin of crackers and some cheese and a mason jar of trail mix for lunch (for all 11 of us to share). We walked and walked and walked, and when we got to camp, we had dinner-- "onion soup". It looked and tasted like brown water with little floating things in it (rice, we like to tell ourselves ;o) ). Incredibly, when we handed it to the kids, they just sat there silent for a while eating it. Not complaining. Not saying anything. Just balancing the tin they were to eat out of on their knees and staring at it. Gradually they started talking and joking about it a little, but there was not any complaining. I was surprised :o).

That night, there was a staged "raid" where men on horseback with guns and masks came into the camp, shooting and yelling and asking for our leader. The "trail boss" went to talk to them, and as a group we could hear them talking. The bottom line was "you Mormon? y'ain't welcome here!" So in the middle of the night, on the supposed threat of gunpoint, we had to move our camp --UP HILL--to another location. As parents, Mark and I knew this was going to happen, so we were able to help the kids. When we struck camp again, we were told that we needed to "debrief" the group :o) We had a discussion about how the kids were feeling, and what they thought. Then we had family prayers and went to bed again.

The next morning, we had more food --corn mush. :o) I thought it was pretty good actually, kinda like sweet polenta. The best part of breakfast was watching how overjoyed everyone became when someone came around with "great news!" --We got TWO WHOLE SAUSAGE LINKS A PERSON FOR BREAKFAST TODAY! yay! :-D The kids were SO happy. To be honest, I was so happy too! :-D SAUSAGE! JOY!! :-D

Perspective is a crazy, crazy thing :o)

That day after we had walked a few miles, we went to a property near the river and had a sort of fireside about the three boys who carried people from the Martin Handcart company across the frozen river to enter the Salt Lake Valley. To commemorate their sacrifice, the boys on our TREK lowered all of the hand carts down the steep bank into the wildcat creek, pulled all the cars across, and then carried the women across the creek. There were a lot of tears that happened.

While we were all across the creek talking and playing a bit in the water, the man who gave us the fireside stood at the bank dressed in military gear and announced that the Mormon Battalion was being mustered, and that all able bodied men needed to leave. NOW.

As we watched the adult men and boys leave, there were MORE tears as we realized that they were leaving us stranded across the creek.

The wife of the man who called the boys to arms gathered us on the sandy banks and we had a little talk. A talk about women; about strength; about Faith. About the work that we are called upon to do as sisters. About a work that sometimes we have to carry on seemingly alone. About being able to do that work.

As Ma and daughters, the girls and I made a circle and said a prayer. We asked for angles to help us. And then we set about getting the carts across the creek and back up the river bank

So! While the men and boys had lowered the carts down the creek bed and pushed them across, they were able to talk to one another. Now, the women and girls had the task to push the carts back across the creek, and UP the now slippery and very steep bank without talking.

As we pushed, the men and boys were not allowed to help, or saying anything as encouragement. They lined the bank and had to watch. And they sang hymns.

It was incredible to watch the sisterhood and strength of the women in that Trek. As a cart would come forward, the girls and Ma would get in front and behind, and then their sisters from other carts would come and help it across to rocky creek. And then they would grab the cart and somehow manage to get it up the slippery back. As soon as the cart was up, it was pulled out of the way, and then everyone went back to help the others.

I slipped under the cart as we pulled ours up--the banks were clay. The repeated passing made them extremely slippery, and they were very, very steep.

After all the carts were up, we had a group hug and a big cry, and a lot of people thought the women’s pull was over--but no. The trek so far had been relatively flat terrain. To get to the creek however, we had gone down a big asphalt hill. And you guessed it! Now the women had to pull the cart, dripping and everything, up the biggest hill we encountered in Trek. Without talking.

There were lots of things said silently when we climbed that hill. A lot of prayers offered and answered. I was so proud of the girls. All of them.

We all of us learned something about respect for women that day.

Anyway, as TREK developed, we walked less, played more, and were fed more :o) We all learned an appreciation for what we have. I didn't hear barely any complaints as we went along. For comparison, let’s just say there was WAY less complaining on trek, then on, oh, the 2 mile hike for girls camp. I don't know why, and I was pleasantly surprised :o)

One day we had lots of pioneer games, and got to shoot powder rifles, make taffy, wash our hair (JOY!), have a dance with people playing the fiddle, baked bread over the fire.

Oh, yes, the bread. THAT was an adventure in itself! The ma and girls made the bread, measuring out the ingredients without any measuring utensils. Yes, you heard right! No utensils! CRAZY! But, not to fear, I had been practicing at home for this exact purpose. Pouring a teaspoon of salt into my hand and staring at the volume it occupied in the sup of my hand, for example. But anyway, the ma and girls mixed up the bread, and then while the youth went off to play, I went over to my friend Ma Janene and we kneaded the bread together! It was SO FUN! :-D Anyway, after we broke camp and moved on, we let the bred rise all day in the cart. It got pretty bumpy, and at one point ours toppled off. And landed in the dirt. But! I didn't care, and neither did the kids. :o) I picked it up off the ground, picked out the little bits of stick, brushed off the dirt, and put it back on the cart. We cooked it that night, and every last piece of it was eaten. With a grateful smile :-D And, oh, was it yummy!

One of the last things we did as a TREK group was had a big, big feast when we made it to ZION :o) After we had eaten, we moved the chairs into a big circle, and we did something life changing called "affirmation". During affirmation, the group was divided into three smaller groups. When your group was called, you would go into the center of the circle and the remaining people would put their heads down. Someone would call out some trait, like: "this person was kind to me", "this person has a testimony of the savior"," this person stand up for what they believe in," "this person is my friend,"...etc. After a trait was called out you would go around and touch three people to whom you thought the quality applied on the shoulder. You would do about 15 traits, and then the groups switched. Man-oh-man, were there a lot of tears! The spirit was so strong, and it was such a powerful witness for many to know that people are watching them, and that they have these wonderful qualities that they didn't even know about. After affirmation, and more group hugs, we had testimony meeting. The Ma’s and Pa’s were asked not to say anything, but to let the youth have all the time. It was so lovely. There was one Ma who did give her testimony, and it was very powerful. I was very humbled by the whole experience. I tried my best to be a good Ma…but I wasn’t so good at it :o( Our poor kids! :o) I think they all loved Mark, so that gives me hope :o)

As I watched this video again to post it, I was struck by how strongly I feel connected to the people I went on this TREK with, youth and leaders. It was such an incredible experience, and I am so humbled and grateful to have been a part of it. As a leader I gain incredible respect for the youth, for PARENTS! (man-oh-man! did I ever!) and for the pioneers. I am so grateful for their sacrifices.