All on my own.. again

Matt's new calling as a High Councilman has finally come to reality. For the last month since Matt was called my Sunday's have remained pretty normal. I was getting used to having Matt sitting with us during sacrament meeting. Matt had his first speaking assignment and very early morning meeting. When he was in the Bishopric he wasn't sitting with us but he was there to help us get settled into our seats and stare down the boys when needed. I must admit that I was very worried about church, our new ward has a very quiet sacrament meeting, a reputation they are trying to keep. The morning started out great with us all ready to leave by 10:20, with snacks eaten and everything. After a little bit I realized that my watch still said 10:32 and it had been at least 10 minutes. The calm morning with me thinking that we would be able to be seated and enjoy some prelude music turned into "Kids hurry up and get in the car! We're late!" Now comes my frustration at being moved to the chapel that is 10 minutes away instead of our old chapel that was 2 minutes away. My first introduction to the ward with mom on her own was going to start out with us tromping in as quietly as a herd of elephants.
Then to add to it we also came in smelling like that herd of elephants. We are dog sitting and Carsten accompanied Bear out to do his duties. About a block from the church Sophie exclaims that it stinks like poop. I am a bit stuffed up and couldn't smell anything. Well, Carsten had stepped in Bear's business. With nice traction shoes on, wiping it off in the snow just wasn't cutting it. After getting the family settled I took Carsten into the bathroom and with my keys was able to clean them up and hopefully destinkafy. While at the sink I realized that Carsten had also walked all the way through the house with Bear's business on the bottom of his shoe. Despite the crazy beginning the kids did really well. We only had one outburst from B. during the closing hymn. With the kids in primary and J being the great little angel for mom that she is, I really enjoyed S.S. and R.S. And though I keep Sunday as my sacred no cleaning day, I did mop the floors and clean the carpets!

April Showers bring May...SKIING!

I was so excited to post that spring had come, all the snow was gone, the snow tires are off the car, we were spending hours at the park, the big new toy set was getting built (the list goes on and on) when 9am Friday morning IT hit. One of the fifth largest snow falls in a 24 hour period in Anchorage. By 7pm yesterday we had over a foot of snow. The crazy thing was that the day before it had been 60 and everybody was running around in shorts and tee-shirts. The snow is beautiful and I am grateful that putting away snow clothes was still on my to-do list. Oh well there is only 4 weeks left of school, it's light until 10pm and Kim will be here in 2. Kim, you might have to bring your skii clothes!

Fast or Slow

Benjamin asked tonight, "Is tomorrow Fast Sunday or is it Slow Sunday?"

Just thought it was funny.

Wish I had the camera

They have recently rearranged our stake. Our ward was like a mirror that had someone stepped on it and broke it into 4 pieces. Our new ward had a polynesian night activity as a get to know you. All 3 kids sat quietly at their table and ate their dinners. Then the entertainment part of the night. A sidenote: There is a large Tongan and Somoan community in Anchorage. In fact there are a Tongan and Somoan ward in a neighboring stake. A family was invited to do dances from around the islands and between dances the floor was opened up for dancing. Benjamin, who is a bit reserved around people he doesn't know, stood in the middle of the floor hands in pockets and knees slightly "bouncing" to the beat of the music. This was a vision of stake dances in another 10 years. During the second such dancing intermission Carsten joined him with hands in pockets, perfectly imitating his older brother. And of course, I left the camcorder at home. Typical.

This was also our first Sunday in the new ward. The kids did really well. We were a bit worried about B. who is always weary of change but he did great. C. of course went right in to nursery. S. was also a little on the nervous side but hopefully it will get better as time goes on.

We have also been attempting the potty bit, 100th times the charm. I stole Shannon B.s idea of a pull-up fairy who came and took them during the night. Thanks Shannon! So, there are no more pull-ups and so far I only have to do a wardrobe change every 4 hours or so. He'll do really well when we leave the house but at home he could care less. I wish he would just understand the money he would save us!:)

The joy of Johnny jump ups

It's just a cold

The flu finally hit this family and it has been a very quiet week and a half. The kids thankfully just ran fevers, without any of the other horrible side effects. Though you feel horrible for them it is kind of nice because all they want to do is lay on the couch, which means that I can get somewhat cleaned up with out having a mess created in the other room. Of course the worry was that Josette would get it. She has made it almost all the way through the cold/flu season with out getting anything...until now. But, I'm celebrating a land mark Dr visit today. This was the first "unplanned" dr. appointment that didn't send us to the hospital for either extensive radiology workups or a stay. So when they said it is just a cold and if it doesn't clear up in a week call us back I jumped for joy. I'll even take the nights of no sleep to hear those words for her.

On another note..we enjoyed a wonderful conference. We were warm and cozy inside while the snow fell outside. The snow had pretty much cleared out but the storm that hit the NW two weeks ago finally made it up here. I was bummed at first but it is so pretty and the roads stayed clear, so I can keep my running shoes out. My thought is that it covers up the brown. Summer fever is starting to hit. The camping trips, hikes and fishing is on everybody's mind.