Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle...


I highly recommend this novel. I just finished it yesterday, among children pounding at my door to get to me.
It's been a long time since I read a book that was this deliciously written! Another tip...spend the money to buy this book in hardcover. You will want to lend it out or keep it around your house for years. This will be a classic for sure.
What surprises me the most is that this is David Wroblewski's first attempt at a novel. Are you kidding?

Props to David!

The basic plot to this novel is young boy, born mute, works with his family to raise special dogs. Don't let this throw you off if you aren't a "dog person" involved with the deaf, or a boy. I'm neither of the three and still thoroughly enjoyed this story, so much I had to post about it.

So if it is not in your budget to go out and purchase a new book, remember you also have the library, friends and papperback swap. Post if you have read this book and let me know what you think.

Enjoy your day! Enjoy your book.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Just a TEASE...

Look at the fruit I get to enjoy ALL YEAR LONG! I have yet to get a bad watermelon.
I forget most of my gringo friends are enduring winter.

Thinking of you!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Finally Getting My Act Together...

I've actually sat down at my computer with my camera AND the sync cord. The kids are downstairs with my sweetheart...and I am LOCKED IN, upstairs.

Boy, I'm good.

I have a few family pictures to share.

Troy got 100% on guitar hero. If any of you have tried to play with your kids, you know how difficult this is! He barters the game {it's a friend of his} for time on his "rip stick". It's worked out well for both Troy and his friend.
This is what I am soooooo pleased about. Having a dinning area to eat our family meals. The table is one of those plastic, fold down ones from Costco {or our version of Costco} so it's a tight squeeze. The table cloth on top is a shower curtain {the material kind, not plastic}. I highly recommend using one of those when you have little ones at the dinner table. Everything just wipes right up!

Making sure that we have been able to sit as a family for meals has been a battle. I've realized how important it is to me since living the "puda vida" here. At first we didn't have a table big enough. Then we ended up rearranging things to slide 2 tables together. Next, I actually placed a big board on top of a little glass table. That worked well as long as no one leaned on it. One day I needed to take the board off and Paige forgot. Next thing you know, she is lying on the tile floor covered in glass.

I don't know how she didn't get hurt, but she was fine.

So today, as I set my table for Sunday dinner...I was very {emotional} thankful for that opportunity!
Thursday, as I came back from my little jaunt to the grocery store, I worried when I couldn't find our youngest. Panicked, I raced upstairs to look and this is what I found. My sweet one, sound asleep!

Dallin said, "Yah, he fell asleep here about half an hour ago." Dallin just continued to work on his blog.
"What! You let him stay like this for 30 minutes!" I was so outraged that I made Landon wait another 5 minutes while I got my camera. Sorry little one! But it was too cute to pass up.



My perfect angels picked the most beautiful flowers for me the other day. {They look so innocent!}

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Our First Sunday in our New Ward...

I've had so much going through my mind about our Sunday experience. As most of you know, it's been pretty tough for our family on the Sabbath. Between the 45 minute bus ride, 3 kids with car sickness, no air conditioning, from start to finish being gone 5-6 hours, the language barrier, not many kids the same age as mine, preparing 3 meals before 7:30 am and attending a tiny branch; I really struggled with Sundays.

Then, I struggled with the fact that I struggled with Sundays!

"Why can't I just enjoy it?" I'd ask myself. {Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the members, but I NEVER looked forward to Sundays.}

I always thought that if I had been a pioneer for our church, I would have rocked. I would have driven the wagon out west, set-up camp, taught my kids about the Lord, helped others in need, cooked the meals and fought off Indian attacks, all without complaint!

Now, I wonder. Maybe I'm not as VALIANT as I hoped I was. :)

As I sifted through my thoughts, I came to this conclusion:

It's all about service...you love "whom {or what} you serve. I did serve...but the language barrier created a wall as to how far I could serve.

I was in the Primary presidency...I prepared things, organized and worked hard. But the depth of the relationship I could have with most of the other members was stunted...because of lack of communication. I couldn't tell someone that their testimony meant alot to me { I didn't even understand what they were saying} or explain that I knew how hard their trial was and was there to help in anyway.

I only smiled and said, "Hola."

So I've determined that I'm going to get this language down!! I'm going to stop fighting it and pony up! {and I've been blessed with more understanding and empathy for those pioneers who struggled with the journey west.}

Like I mentioned earlier, we attended a ward today, not just a branch. {A ward is a group of church members (usually 200-800 people) that attend LDS church services together. A branch is a smaller group, not big enough to make up a ward {usually 20-150 people).

It was just wonderful! Troy had a group of 4 or 5 boys in his class. Yipppe!!! We are now close enough that he will attend young men activities during the week. The primary actually had more than 2 classes. And sacrament meeting was overflowing. We all felt so welcomed. It was interesting for me to note that our ward is made up of members from many different (Spanish speaking) countries, so they were all doing a bit of translating from their native terms. We have families from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama.

The best thing is, I can't wait for Sunday.