New calling

At the beginning of March the Bishop asked me to come into his office and asked me to serve as the Primary President. I knew all of the Presidencies in the ward would be changing, but I didn't expect this calling. I know most people would be completely overwhelmed and think what a hard calling and how much work and stress it would be, but I didn't feel like that.

6 months ago I would have felt those same feelings, but because since November I have been serving as Primary Chorister this calling was actually a relief. I know, that is sad, but I had such a hard time as chorister. I didn't mind planning the songs and activities, because I love primary songs and games and I know the songs are true, but I stressed every week about standing in front of people singing. I am not a singer and I don't sing loud. It was a constant worry for me to choose a song that the kids didn't know and that I would be singing a solo, or that I would have to teach them a new song and I would have to sing it for them to teach it to them. I was usually fine once I was standing up and doing it, but the same anxiety came back every week when I was preparing. I am grateful I had that calling, and looking back it was fun and I do feel more comfortable singing with the kids and in front of them now than I did before, but I was excited for the change.

Unfortunately I was only going to be at church for 1 week, gone for a week, back for 1 week, then gone for 4 weeks! Luckily, the presidency before us had things under control and my counselors and secretary are awesome! They handled things perfectly while I was gone. I felt so bad to abandon them, but they were great! Now that I am back from all my travels I finally feel like I can give this calling my all. I have always loved kids and now I have a whole primary to love. I am still learning some of their names, but on Sundays when I am sitting up front looking at all of them I have a tiny glimpse of what our Father in Heaven feels for us. I don't know these children as our Father knows us, but I still love them. I want them to be happy. I want them to have strong testimonies. I want them to know they are children of a loving Heavenly Father. I want them to know how important temples are and to have a strong desire to get married there someday and an even stronger desire to continue in faith their whole lives. I want them to feel the spirit on Sundays and know that the things they are taught in church are the true way to happiness.

There are 58 children in our primary and 45 of them come regularly. It is a very musical primary though, because it for the most part a military ward. From March through June they will be reorganizing the Primary, the Young Women's, Relief Society and the Young Mens Presidencies. There are so many families moving. We are loosing so many of our senior primary children. We are also loosing teachers. So in the next few weeks we will probably be completely redoing teachers, classes and primary in general. After everyone leaves we will have 1 class that will only have 1 person in it. I think we will be combining different classes and possibly making a junior and senior primary. It will be interesting. Hopefully we can get it all organized soon so things can be stable again for this kids. It is so hard for them to be reverent when things are constantly changing. I just hope we can make changes according to the spirit and that it will all work out the way it is supposed to.

Randomness throughout February and March

Ever since we moved into our house I have been trying to figure out what to do with our living room. It is really long and skinny, so I decided I wanted a faux fireplace on one of the walls. I saw a cool pallet headboard on someone's blog and I thought it would be perfect for a faux fireplace, so I started collecting pallets. There is a house being built across the street from us and I asked the contractor for pallets. He is amazing! He will just carry them over for me and just knock on the window so I know they are there. I also asked him if he had something that would work as a mantle and he gave me a solid piece of wood that was like 3"x6'x8". Lauren also got a fence panel from him for a project. Then I bought a fireplace from the auction for 3 pounds. So my project was only 3 pounds so far!

So on a rare warm day Lauren and I decided to start our projects. I was having a hard time getting the pallets apart and things just weren't working out the way I had hoped. Lauren was going to use the fence to cut the slats into a circle for a big clock, but the way they were cut they were uneven and wouldn't work for a clock. So she suggested I just turn it sideways and use it instead of the pallets. We cut it to the right size, carried it in and leaned it against the wall and I LOVED it!!! We rearranged the living room (for the 20th time) and I am now happy with my front room. We also got new(used) couches somewhere in there. I don't have my chair done yet, but hopefully it will warm up again and I can recover my chair and put it in the front room. Someday I'll post pictures!

3 pound fireplace(fence in background)

pallets

mantle

Something else that went on was the day after we got home from Liverpool and Wales Blake was outside with Parker and Broden. Parker fell and was crying so he brought him inside. I just thought he was being fussy. Then later that night Parker was standing behind Blake on the couch and Blake leaned back onto him. Parker started SCREAMING! We thought at that point something must be hurting him. As I watched him closer I realized every time he fell and caught himself on his hands he would cry. I felt along his arm and when I touched by his wrist he screamed. I figured it must be broken. So the next morning I took him to the doctor. The doctor seemed to doubt that it was broken. I had given Parker Ibuprofin that morning and it must have worked because he was only a little uncomfortable when the doctor touched his arm. But the doc ordered x-rays anyway and sure enough it was broken. So he got a fun cast that went past his elbow. He was supposed to have it for 6 weeks, which would be getting it off the day we were supposed to leave for Rome. So they scheduled it for the day after we got home.

The day before we were supposed to leave for Rome I was starting to feel really bad for the babysitter(Lauren) that she would have to deal with the cast and the smell. I was hurrying around getting the kids ready for school and before I realized it Parker had climbed into the shower and was playing with a soaking wet towel. Hmmm, his cast was kinda wet. So, I called the doctor to see how wet was too wet. They said bring him in and they would check it. As soon as the tech walked in the room he said, "Oh, I can already smell it." They looked at his record and thought he was close enough to his day to get it off that they could just take it off. So they removed it, we got and xray and he was good to go. YAY!!! No more stinky cast. He slept from 8:00pm until 11:15 the next morning when I finally woke him up. I think it must be uncomfortable to sleep with a huge hard thing on your arm.

The day he got his cast

Done with his cast!

 Something else random that happened. I cleaned the bathrooms, yes I do this occasionally. Then my face started itching. I figured it was from my hair and dry skin. So I just pulled my hair back for a few days and put lots of lotion on. Then a few weeks later I cleaned with the really strong toilet cleaner again(I only use the strong stuff every couple weeks, not in weekly cleaning). The next morning when I woke up I said to Blake that my neck and face was all itchy again. He rolled over and looked at me and said I was having an allergic reaction. Sure enough, my face was swelling and I was itching like crazy. I took some zyrtec and it seemed to help, but I'm a little scared to clean bathrooms now. I'll stick to the general cleaning and let Blake use the strong toilet cleaner. Too bad:)

First day of School

One morning when I was walking Remi to school the Head Teacher stopped me and told me they would have some openings in reception soon so I needed to reapply Broden for reception. So I did and he was accepted. We couldn't decide when we should start him because he was going to be staying with a friend when we went to Rome, then a week and a half later he would be leaving for the states, so he would miss 3 days before their big break and a week after.

The Head Teacher said they would prefer he started Monday the 12th of March because they had 4 new students starting at that time. So we decided we would do it. It was so fast I think the shock of sending him to school all day every day didn't have time to set in. He was ready for it though. He was so excited to finally be going to a big boy school.

All ready to go!

The whole uniform

uniform, bag, lunch and done with pictures!

February 17th we loaded the car and headed to tour Eric's mission. We woke up on the 18th and drove to Liverpool to explore there. First we went to the Liverpool Cathedral. I was massive!!! We thought 1 hour of parking would be plenty, but it was too big to see in 1 hour. Especially because the kiddos thought they could just run wherever, so we had a hard time staying together. It is so amazing to me that the could build buildings like this so long ago.

Liverpool Cathedral

Broden, Remi and Blake in front of the Cathedral

Cool building

Eric giving us the tour

 After the Cathedral we parked and walked around by the docks. We saw the "Yellow Submarine" or the little yellow boat that gives tours. It was driving along in the water, then drove right up the ramp and down the road. I didn't realize it could do that. The kids were pretty amazed by it. Remi even included it in all of her art work in the car on that trip. It was pretty cool.

The "Yellow Submarine"

Another cool building

Remi and Eric enjoying the view(it was freezing)

 This statue is where the saint from England boarded their boat to come to America. It amazes me the faith these saints had. They were willing to give up everything because they knew the church was true and they wanted to do what the prophet asked them to do. They had a long hard journey and I'm so grateful they were willing to do it. They were a good example of giving up everything for their religion.

Another cool building

 After our walking tour of Liverpool we headed to Preston to see the temple. The MTC is also on the temple grounds. It was fun to hear Eric's stories about being in the MTC and see it. The temple was beautiful and peaceful of course.

 After the temple we walked around Preston. We got to see where the first baptisms in England were performed. The river was huge! The park around it was so pretty.

I'm so sad I didn't take more pictures while we were there. After we walked around the park we went back to the car to find a ticket on it. We were only like 4 minutes past our parking time and couldn't see a parking officer anywhere to talk to. Finally we tracked one down and I realized that it was a ticket because we had improperly displayed our parking pass. I talked to her and she said there was nothing she could do, I would have to mail it in to fight it. So I did and eventually they let us off without paying it. Thank goodness:)

Then we went to downtown Preston. It was so funny when we were going to park. Eric said go up here then turn left and go down the hill. The last little road on the left won't have any parking signs, so you can park for free. Sure enough, we followed his directions and found a free parking spot!!! Not a big deal in Idaho, but a big deal in England. The things the missionaries learn. We also saw the house of one of his converts. That was cool.

We walked through some of the shops in Preston and ate at a little cafe then headed to another of his converts house. He had been dating a member when Eric was on his mission and Eric taught him and he got baptized. He married the girl and they now have 2 little girls. We visited with them for a long time and had tons of fun. Their house was amazing. He bought it through an auction and they remodeled the whole thing. They had picture albums of the whole process, so it was fun to see that. The building process here is so different than in the US.

After we left their house we headed back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we went to Eric's old ward in northern Wales. Blake went to park the car with Parker, so Eric and I went in with Remi, Broden and Alissa. People just assumed we were married and they were our kids. It was fun to meet people Eric worked with on his mission. He had to explain to everyone that I was just his sister:)

After church we went over to a family's house for dinner. We visited with them then tried to find a cool hike to some castle ruins, but we couldn't find it. Instead we went to some of Eric's converts houses and got to visit with one of the girls he baptized. She was really nice and I think she appreciated the visit. Then we went to a castle and let the kids get their wiggles out before we stopped by Eric's old house for a picture then headed home.

Sunday bike ride

Sunday, February 26th Blake, Remi, Broden and I got to go for a bike ride. Eric stayed home with Alissa and Parker. It was so nice to just be able to jump on our bikes and go without making it a huge affair. It is kind of a process to get the bike trailer, the bike seat and everyone all ready to go. So us 4 just jumped on our bikes and rode to a little nature area by our house and walked around for a while. The Remi and Broden had fun climbing trees and hiking around.

Oops!

I thought this day deserved a post of its own. It was such a good day. I got the house clean, laundry done and dinner all made and ready to go in the oven all by about 3:00. Then at about 4:30 I was at the front door talking to someone and I looked back towards the kitchen to see Alissa standing next to the stove and the food on top smoking. It hadn't been cooked yet, I had just started to preheat the oven. I ran in, and scooted her out of the way just as the glass pan exploded!!! There was glass EVERYWHERE. Counters, floor and in the other pan of enchiladas. It scared Alissa so bad and I was furious.

 I was so excited to have a relaxing evening with everyone and not have to worry about what to cook and stress about getting it done while still trying to do reading, piano and homework. Not to mention I had made an extra large batch of chicken enchiladas so we could have leftovers. So all that food plus the pan was a huge chunk of money going in the garbage. I was so mad I just left the mess for Blake to see. Well I cleaned up the floor and counters a little so it was safe. So instead of yummy enchiladas with home made guacamole we got to have grilled cheese and tomato soup:(

If you look close you can see glass all over the counter

Here you can see the glass shards

Valentines Day

I like to make fun dinners for Valentines Day, so this is what I came up with. Simple but fun. We had Chicken Cordon Bleu with salad and Jello. I tried making the salad as festive as I could with the semi heart shaped eggs and red tomatoes:)

I have a horrible memory, but I'm pretty sure we had the Ingersoll kiddos over for dinner in trade for them watching our kiddos.

Wednesday Eric had meetings in London, so at lunch he went and got us all Wicked tickets. Blake and I headed down after work and met Eric at a "pub" for dinner, then headed to the show. It was so much fun! The kids stayed the night with Ingersolls and had a blast. We are so grateful we have such good friends we can trust to watch our kids.

Fun Pub in London!

Outside the Theatre after Wicked