Gift of Tongues, Not Voice

This excerpt from Matthew's letter made me laugh out loud. If you have ever heard him sing you will laugh too.

"But funny story this week we were at a baptism of someone in our district, and I was singing the opening song and the lady next to me was like what medicine are you taking for your throat, you are sick. So I had to explain to her I just sucked at singing and she kept trying to tell me I was sick. So an example of how I suck at singing still, I think it is even worse in Spanish."

He was blessed with being able to speak Spanish, not so blessed in the singing department.

Daddy/ Daughter Party and other Crap

 

 Last Wednesday for Mutual they had a Daddy/Daughter Party. They had games, line dancing and a pie contest. I win a prize for my apple pie. This is funny, because it was not homemade, it was a frozen Marie Calendar's pie that I baked. Dale brought home a treat from one of the games they played...See picture below 

This little beauty was from the cow pie throwing contest. I found it on the floor next to the toilet in our bathroom, only I didn't see it for what it was. I jumped back when I saw it thinking it was a critter in the house, reached in, turned the light on, only to see Dale left a load of painted foam crap on the floor. It was pretty funny. Now I need to find out where these were bought, I'm thinking Girls Camp! 

Lazy Summer Day

I was going through some old pictures and came across this picture.

This is my mom, sister Becky and myself. 

We were fishing with the bamboo rods my dad's cousin bought us when we were on vacation in Grand Lake, Colorado.

I love this picture and the memories it brought back from that vacation.

There are no Coincidences

When Matthew purchased his shoes for his mission, they didn't have his size and color he needed in stock at the Missionary Mall. They did have a pair at another store so we purchased 2 pairs, one we would pick up before he entered the MTC and the other pair would be delivered to him at the MTC. They ended up delivering 2 pairs of shoes. Matthew being in the MTC wasn't sure what to do with the extra shoes so he sent them home. I was going to mail them back to the Missionary Mall or just pay for them and he could have them when he got home from his mission.
About a week after we got these shoes we got an email asking for donations of shirts, pants and size 11 shoes for a young man in Nigeria who was going on a mission. We have a couple in our Ward, the Weber's, who work there and live there, but Carolee comes home frequently. This young man's parents have both passed away. The Branch President in Nigeria, usually doesn't ask for donations because he wants them to be self reliant, but this young man had no parents so Carolee sent out this email when she was home last. You've probably guessed by now that we had a pair of size 11 shoes. Coincidence, I think not. I sent a check to the Missionary Mall and gave the shoes to Carolee to take back with her. I just got a neat email from her yesterday with pictures of Ben, aka future missionary.


Hi Marti,

I keep forgetting to send you a thank you from Ben for the shoes you donated for him. He was over here a month ago just after I got back to Lagos and tried them on and they fit great! I'm keeping a suitcase here with clothes and things for his mission, so he's saving them till then. He is leaving on November 24th for the MTC in Ghana and will serve in the Calabar, Nigeria mission. It's interesting that his mission covers the area of his home village, so he's excited about the possibility of going back there and teaching some of his extended family. He says the shoes are so nice that he's worried about ruining them on the bad roads on his mission. He says he will save them for church and times when he knows they will not get ruined by the mud. He is very grateful for your generosity.

I was so worried a week and a half ago -- he called to say he had been in an accident when he was riding his bike to work. I had been worried about him riding his bike to work as he goes along a very busy road and the drivers here are very reckless, but he wanted to save money for his mission so he was riding his bike rather than taking a bus. He was hit by a bus and he said his neck was broken and he had a bad gash on his leg. I was afraid that he was seriously injured with a neck injury. But he said he was walking (with a stick) after a few days in the hospital, so I hoped it wasn't so bad. It's kind of sad here how the hospital system works -- he was dropped off at the hospital by someone on the scene of the accident, but they don't treat anyone until there is a payment for the treatment. Ben called his employer, who sent someone out with money for his care. You may think medical care in the US is bad, but if you see hospitals here -- where patients have to provide many of their own supplies and things are quite unhygienic -- you're really grateful for the US health care system! Ben came over yesterday to visit us and show us his injuries (I think also to get a meal and some financial help....) and it turns out that it was his collarbone that was broken. His gash in his foot is healing well -- we gave him some first aid supplies to change the dressing as he said the hospital wanted him to come back to have them change it but he didn't have money for that.

Thankfully, he's on track to go on his mission on schedule and he's convinced that the devil is out to get him to change his plans, but he "belongs to God and God will watch out for him." He was quoting scriptures right and left and says he is studying hard to prepare. He has a wonderful spirit and will be a great missionary. The second picture is of him yesterday, and shows his great smile.

Hope you're all recovering after Homecoming festivities and having a great Sabbath day at your house!

Thanks again!

Carolee

 Ben putting his new shoes on.

I was touched that he thought the shoes were so nice and he didn't want to ruin them, and we do take a lot for granted here. I really do have an easy life. I am truly blessed!!

All For the Cause

This is a picture from Jacob's game last night. Notice the pink shoelace....His team decided they were going to wear pink socks for the game (NFL, Breast Cancer Awareness), but didn't ask the coaches. Someone asked the coach right before the game and he said , no, but Jacob snuck in a pink shoelace. Dale so wanted a picture with the boys in pink socks with a caption that would read:

"Boys in Puberty Support Breast Awareness"   

Happy Birthday Dale

 

Well since we were busy running kids around for Homecoming on Dale's Birthday, he got his cake and ice cream on the 17th instead of the 16th. Dale and I were able to go out to eat on his actual birthday. When I dropped Makenzie's group off at the Mexican Restaurant down the street, I could see it wasn't busy so I went home and got Dale and we went to eat there, so did other parent's from Makenzie's group. Someone behind us had a birthday and they cam out singing and Dale said, "We're not going to do that tonight." Guess What?? I don't listen very well. I got the eye of some friends at a table across from us and motioned with my eye's and head that it was Dale's birthday. Enough said! Here they came with the sombrero and a sopapilla with whipped cream and fruit sauce. they sang and then put whipped cream on his face. I didn't have my camera with me, but our friends did and at least caught a picture after they wiped the whipped cream off his face. Now he just needs to decide if he wants that ipad for his birthday. Happy Birthday Dale! I love you!!!!

HOMECOMING 2010

Here are Brittney and Makenzie all dressed up for Homecoming. They both went in groups. Makenzie had a group made up of 8 girls and 4 boys. Someone made the comment that was good odds for the boys, to which one father replied, "let me go dust off my shot gun."
Brittney's group was all couples except for her and another girl. she said it was odd taking group pictures, but dinner, dance and after party was a lot of fun!   I spent the evening transporting Makenzie's group around. Brittney's group had a party bus, but it picked them up from the restaurant so I had to drive kids from pictures to the restaurant. The party bus was the fun part. After the dance it took them to a house so they could all change their clothes. The neighbor was irritated that the bus was blocking 5 feet of her driveway at midnight, that when they returned at 2 am she called the police on them. I guess this neighbor has a history of calling the police on the neighbors, so the cop came and said nothing to them. It makes for a great story though. Also when they were out driving around on the party bus, they all had to use the restroom. The bus driver went into a very nice hotel next to to Minutemaid Park(Astro's Ballpark) and said she had a bus full of Swedish gymnast touring the city and need to use the restrooms. She came back and told the group they were Swedish gymnast and they went in and used the facilities. They got this bus drivers name and number so they can use her again for Sadie's and Prom. Both girls had fun and I though they both looked so beautiful dressed up!

Mums the Word

Makenzie and Brittney with their Homecoming Mums

Brittney made both of these. Makenzie is wearing the one Brittney made when she was a freshman, I just fixed it up some to fit Makenzie's activities. Brittney made hers in her Floral Design class.  

Who's Counting

Matthew has been on his mission for 3 full months, that's 1/8 of his mission, but who's counting.

Jacob's Hit and Run

Jacob got player of the game!!

All for A Good Cause

 Yesterday my heart was full as I watched Makenzie and many of her friends and classmates hold a car wash to raise money for a classmate, Lauren, who was just diagnosed with  Leukemia.They were able to raise over $1800.00 !!! Makenzie also told me how many people just gave money even if they didn't get their car washed. They were in a McDonald's parking lot and people would give them their change from the drive through. It has been neat to see all the things the kids at her school are doing to help support and raise money for Lauren, and it was good for these kids to see the generosity of the community. I ran some dry towels over to them and Lauren just showed up. I looked at Lauren's eyes as she looked on at her friends, I can't even begin to describe what I saw. I just sat in my car and shed a tear or two, not out of sadness, but because I was so touched by the whole scene.

Who says that teenager's  are no good??? I just proved them wrong!    

News of the Week

Let me start out with the bad news, actually it's not so bad, Brittney was cut from the Basketball Team. This is actually a blessing in disguise. She really wasn't having too much fun and she probably knew from day one that the coach wasn't even considering her since she always had her playing on the team with the Sophomores. They did ask her to stay on as manager since all her friends are on the team and she has been with them over the years. Brittney accepted this on one condition, that is that she only had to go to the class period and could still work out with the team, but not stay for after school practices. The coach accepted those terms, The coach told her she would get Brittney her Letterman's jacket to which Brittney replied she already got one last year for academics.Brittney has tough classes this year and has been a little stressed and I think a load has been lifted off of her shoulders. Brittney also has a math tutoring job, that pays well, and she can continue to to have time to do that.

We found out on Thursday(10-7) that Jacob was selected to push a button to launch 3000 rocket simultaneously, for a world record, at the Scout Jamboree that is being held this week end. This was a random drawing of around 20,000 scouts. There is going to be a lot of media and he needed to be in an official scout uniform. We had the shirt but had to round up pants(Jacob doesn't even own jeans let alone scout pants). We did find some scout shorts to fit him, but now he has to wear scout socks. His leader had socks for him to wear. I'm excited to see what he looks like in the full uniform. I sent Dale with a good camera to capture this for me.

We got our email and some pictures from Matthew on Wednesday. He sounds like he is doing well and I love his smile in all of his pictures. I couldn't be happier that he is serving a mission, even though I miss him a lot! He was able to look at my blog and he saw the one of me sorting all his clothes and he sent me a note not to throw any of it out.

And this is a random observation I made yesterday. I was in my car waiting for Jacob to get out of football practice. When practice is over, the boys usually walk real slow because they are hot and tired, yesterday they all ran to the locker room, I guess they aren't so hot and tired when it's Friday!!

Video of Jacob's Hit

This is bad, but I find great joy in watching this over and over,

Jacob's Highlights in Still Pictures



Jacob laying someone OUT! They stopped running it to his side!



This is a kick off return for a 70 yard touchdown
Bear with all the pictures and I even took half out.





You think he's going down....but wait




Still not down




Doing a spin move





He is still in there. I thought he was  going down.



He is pulling away from the defenders



And he breaks free!




Run Jacob Run!



TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!