Jumping on the Trampoline

Carson, Jacob and Abigail 12/27/10

Daniel 12/27/10

And Jack Handey is His Hero...

While trying to organize, I came across a project Mikkel had to do his senior year in high school. He had to talk about his future plans, give himself advice, talk about something he's learned and give advice to freshmen.

Here are some of the things he wrote (this is word for word, without any corrections for grammar or punctuation):

I plan on getting married to the woman I will spend the rest of my life with. This has always been something I have wanted, since before I even liked girls. I knew I would get married to one so it's only natural that I would include one in my future plans.

If I could give advice to any freshman it would be this, STOP MAKING OUT IN FRONT OF THE WORLD!! This really seems to be a problem here, these people seem to kiss more than they do talk to that person. I guess that's all fine and dandy if that's all you want, but please, spare me, leave that sort of stuff to the privacy of your houses, cars or anywhere else that is semi-private. I love my girlfriend and kissing her is never a bad experience but not in public.

Running from your problems does not help at all. It may seem easier to run for now, but sooner or later, you will get tired, and then they will catch right back up, that's when things get bad.

If I could give myself advice five years from now, I would say that while preparing for the future, don't forget to live in the moment sometimes, because in the future, you won't have anything to look back on.

Abby Lyrics

Frosty the snowman was a happy johnny snow!

Feliz naughty dot! Feliz naughty dot prolinsdfo lwosighn felislkjs dot!

Jacob's Christmas Shopping List

Here is Jacob's shopping list for Christmas:

Waterfall

Look at this jungle, wow, beautiful! Mikkel and a few other missionaries went to this waterfall and hiked up to the top, I'm guessing there was a trail somewhere in there.

Hide and Seek

The three little ones are playing hide and seek. Daniel is "it"and this is what I hear "5, 9, 4... hey guys, I don't know how to count!" So then I hear (from his hiding place) Jacob yelling the numbers out for him. Daniel got them all right and even knew when to say "ready or not, here I come!"

Abby's next - she sings 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' (her own little version) and then yells "100! Ready or not, here I come!"

Palenque

Here's a picture of last week's p-day excursion and a little background on Palenque.

Palenque is a ruin city that is part of the Maya civilization that dates back to 100 BC to its fall around 800 AD. It is located on the western edge of the Maya empire near the present-day city of Chiapas, Mexico. The ruins left behind are very well preserved and maintained by local people as well as anthropologists. Currently, it is one of the most popular ruins for tourists from around the world to visit.

His companion is the one on his left. He's from Orem, UT. His mom and I have been emailing each other since we found out about the missionary moms email/support group. His mom sent this to me and said "I don't think your son is in the picture because my son is the only gringo in it"

Wow, Sounds Serious

Abby - "Mommy, Jacob and I got hurt. He hit his face on my brain!"

Another Peaceful Morning...

Overheard this morning through our bedroom door (as we were waking up)

(children yelling)

Abby - (running up the stairs) "Oh yeah, well I hate you - and your hair too!"

Me Too!

Abby: "Mommy, I hope I never get stinked by a stunk"

Wish Flowers

Abby - "Lise, do you know what this is?"

Lise (pronouned Lisa) - "It's a dandelion"

Abby - "No, it's a wish flower. You pick it and make a wish. Then you blow it and go tell your mom what you wished for and she buys it for you."

Elder Deal's Trip To The Zoo

Around the House

Here is a little look at some things we have around our home:

Somebody got hungry. I guess they thought if they kept trying they'd find a real pear eventually...

Daniel naming the people in the pictures on our wall: "Button, he's on a mission, Isabelle, Isabelle's goat, Jacob, Abby and dat's the baby... dat's me" (with a cute little sheepish grin on his face.)

Fish flops. (flip flops)

Gotta Love That Mexican Mail System!

We got a package delivered the other day - one a VERY LONG time coming. Mikkel sent this package right after Mother's day. It was returned the Veracruz mission office saying "unclaimed". We don't even know what that means.

Anyway, I said it was sent back - after he was transferred to the Villahermosa mission... this means it took two months to be returned, hmmm... Well, President Hansen called Mikkel (he said that was very surreal to hear from his former presidente) and told him "no problem, we'll take care of it". Fast forward a few months (gotta wait at least six weeks before getting impatient) and still no package. I called the mission office and told them the situation and they said they would send it through a private company - faster, more secure, etc. Another six weeks later I call again - "Oh yes sister Deal, we'll send it - I promise". Another six weeks go by and I call again - trying not to sound impatient - and start to explain my "plight" again and to my surprise Elder Checketts says "Oh, Sister Deal... I sent that last Saturday! You can expect it in about two weeks." TWO days later... my package came! I was so excited the delivery man was a little afraid to come up and have me sign for it! After I explained the situation, he seemed not so scared of me. He even smiled and wished me a great day. Of course, I did after that!

Okay, so now to what's in there. He sent some weird thumb-shaped lollipops that taste like cough drops (??) a cool palm frond fan, a queen sized hammock (that we can only use indoors - the sun will ruin it - where am I supposed to put this thing??) and Mexico's fourth religion... Lucha Libre masks. If you don't know, go watch Nacho Libre. Stupid, but funny.

When I talked to Mikkel on the phone at Mother's day he told me "there are three religions in Mexico. Catholicism, Futbol, and this. but I won't tell you what it is so it'll be a surprise." I responded "You're sending us liquor?!?" His response "Okay, there are FOUR religions in Mexico. Catholicism, Fubol, drinking and th

is!" It loses some of the funny in writing but it

really was quite funny!

So, the kids each picked out the one they wanted.

(Notice the cute little purse in Abby's hand)

Mikkel told us about each one of these guys. The kids thought they were cool stories.

Then, they went out to play - in their masks. Abby on the trampoline and the boys wrestling each other... of course!

At one point Abby stops jumping and says "Wait! I need to

put more weapons in my purse!"

Then Daniel took a break. Even Luches need nourishment!

Jacob

Jacob has been sick with strep throat all week - he's been pretty well bedridden. He's had a high fever (up to 105 a few times) and feeling BAD. The good news is that he's feeling much better and is almost back to himself again!

Yesterday, he was napping with his head on my lap when I had to get up to do something. Here's the conversation:

Me (speaking softly) - Jacob, I need to get up. Do you want some water?

Jacob - Just a minute, I have to finish my dream.

Me - What was your dream about?

Jacob - Daddy and I are fishing. I caught some fish.

Me - How many fish did you catch?

Jacob - Five.

Pause

Pause

Pause

Jacob - No, wait... seven.

Pause

Pause

Pause

Jacob - Now ten.

Pause

Pause

Pause

Later, when I asked him about his dream he looked at me with a surprised look on his face and asked, "How did you know about that?!?"

He'd been asleep the whole time!

What Can You Say To That?

Fred - "Daniel, why did you paint the dog?"

Daniel - "Betuz it was funny"

Artist's Protege or Evil Genius... Sometimes We Wonder!

Daniel got into the craft paint and we now know that green acrylic paint stains tan/brown carpet but fuchsia acrylic paint stains tan/brown carpet AND white dogs worse!

This was after a loooong bath to clean up the paint. We're going to have a pink pup for a while!

Yasir...

Daniel got playdough in his hair (also, all over my stairs I found out later). He washed it out and dried his hair with a towel but got interested in a tv show so this is how I found him - laying on the floor looking a little like Yasir Arafat...

Can You Say Ham?

Abby's first day of preschool was September 7th. Can you tell she's excited?

Daniel and the Freezer

So, I know it sounds totally boring but I've wanted a freezer for a very long time. This year for my birthday I finally got one - yippee!

Yesterday the man delivered it, got it in place and opened it up to give me all the paperwork, etc. Daniel puts his hands on his hips and says (very frustrated)

"Hey, where's all the food?!?"

The delivery guy said that was the funniest thing he's heard all year!

Mikkel's Latest

This email was very touching... I teared up a bit when he spoke of the young man he baptized last week. Above is the picture he sent.

Hello Family,

Someday, I'm going to write you in Spanish, and you'll have little idea of what's going on. What an idea.

So, we had a fantastic week, I kinda love my area right now, we're working like dogs here and we're seeing a TON of results. We measure progressing investigators here, and on Sunday my comp and I determined that we had 7 investigators that are progressing. We had 7 investigators in Church and 3 of them we didn't even know before Sunday morning, that means they came out of nowhere, and that we are going to baptise them. I'm really REALLY excited here, when will the fun ever stop? The other companionship in my district though kinda worries me though. I think we're going to have to do divisions, I wnat to know what's going on out there. I kinda feel like they are 2 good Elders, but neither are leaders, right now they're more followers, and with two followers and no leader, they're kinda workin blind. I'm going to go out there tomorrow to see if I can't help them out though. The good news is that they have two baptismal interviews, from out of nowhere, for this week. Pretty cool. I hope they've been prepared well, we'll see. I like the two missionaries, they just seem like an odd pair.

Anyway, we had a baptism on Saturday, did I mention that? He's an AWESOME guy, I REALLY hope that he goes on a mission, he'd be such a good missionary, when he prays, I kinda just want to cry, you can just tell that he's as earnest as he can be and he's just talking with his Heavenly Father, really cool experience with him. He commented to me that he got baptised in part for the faith that "I have in my eyes" sounded kinda like your "I could see the light of Christ in your eyes" story Dad. So, it was a way cool experience, baptising is great, but every now and then, you baptise someone extra special. He's one of them.

So, this is the last week of the change, I kinda feel like I'm staying here, of course, I thought that last time. Maybe it's more of a hope that I can stay here because of all the success that we're being blessed with. I thought the city would be harder, with people that are more closed, harder of heart but I guess I was wrong, this is one of my favorite areas of my mission. Although, I've never really had an area that I didn't like... what luck I've had.

So, I think I might come to terms someday with the going home thing, thanks for the advice, I'll certainly keep working until the end, that's a promise I made myself from the beginning, this really is my chance to show the Lord, and myself, what I'm made of. For now, I'll just work, and we'll cross the "going home" bridge when we get there.

I hate writer's block, it's like hitting a wall.

So, I didn't tell you last week, 2 Sundays ago, I ate something that Jacob will be fascinated to hear about. It's called "Mondongo" it's a soup made with lots of tasty things, and then to make a good thing bad, they toss in cow stomach. Yep, it's true, I ate cow stomach, it was chewy and skin colored. Tasted pretty weird, but the worst part was the chewiness. Probably on the bottom 10 list.

That's all folks, have fun, train the dog well, eat your vegetables and don't forget to wash behind your ears, Love you guys,

Our Labor Day Weekend - part two

Then we drove home and saw this gorgeous sunset.

Okay, so the first one has dead bug juice all in the picture but it really was beautiful!

The sky was on fire!

The kids LOVE their new puppy. Yes, at 100 pounds she's still considered a puppy. She's 18 months old and big dogs are considered puppies for the first two years.

She's actually probably as tall as she's gonna get but might gain a few more pounds.
Her name is Cutie-Pie-Honey-Darlin-Punkin but we call her Honey. So far she's super sweet and loves the kids as much as they love her!
Oh, by the way, she's a Great Pyrenees. We think this one just might work out for us all!

Our Labor Day Weekend - part one

We were going to take the kids to Port Aransas for the holiday when tropical storm Hermine derailed that idea so we decided to go to Dublin, TX. This is the site of the oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant and the only place they've always only bottled it made with real sugar... SOOO YUMMY!

Every year, in June they are officially known as Dr Pepper, TX. Here's the fam showing off that fact:

Then we ate some lunch at Old Doc's Soda Shop while we waited for our tour.

Then we saw how they bottle Dr. Pepper and several other sodas.

And learned how to tell if it's good enough to sell.
After that we drove up to Granbury (a small town outside of Fort Worth) and adopted ourselves a puppy.

Daniel Math

Daniel - "Mommy, dis is five."

Me - "No, that's three"

Daniel - "No, dat not fee, dat five"

Me - "No, Daniel this is five" (showing him five fingers)

Daniel - "No, mommy dat not five... dat's just a hand!"

Donny - This One's For You!

So, I've been thinking I'd like to refinish my kitchen cabinets but I never planned on using PURPLE nail polish, thanks Daniel!

And it was a brand new bottle of a super awesome color too - not so sure I like it staining my cupboards though...

Daniel's New Look

These are not the washable markers... why I didn't buy those I have no idea.

Anyway, the kids were playing so well together that I didn't realize what Abby was doing until it was too late. After a bath he looks like he's bruised from a head injury! I don't want to go anywhere where someone will see him until it wears off!

Later, it the tub - while I was trying to get him clean (Abby didn't know I was listening) she told him "Daniel, when we are grownups, mommy will die and then we can color on our faces as much as we want!"

By the way... I went out today and bought washable markers.

Okay, she did just see Isabelle shaving her legs the other day so I guess that could've been on her mind.

Plus, she came to me a little later and asked if I'd help her shave her face - like daddy, shrek and fiona do...

And for the record - no I didn't do either.

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!!! Abby just asked me if I would help her shave her legs... she's FOUR!!!

School Starts 8/23/10!!

Not that I'm excited or anything!

I'm definitely not sure I'll make it another six days...

Update on Last Post

Well, I did have fun at AnneMarie's. I did make it through two more airplane flights (although the one coming home was pretty bumpy) and Abby had her tonsil/adenoid surgery yesterday. She took a long time to wake up from anesthesia which worried the nurse. This in turn worried me, of course! But she finally woke up and ate a popsicle and asked for pain medicine. Since then she's been WAY too energetic for someone on pain meds! I thought I'd get at least a few days of calm out of her. She's not wired from the meds, it's just that they work well and she thinks she's fine enough to jump on my bed and run around... Three weeks is going to feel like an eternity. She can't do any running, jumping, SWIMMING, bike riding, playing outside... etc. We'll see how this works out!

On the bright side of this surgery thing - she slept in our room last night (we had to keep her close to check on her breathing because of possible lasting effects from general anesthesia) and there were times she was so quiet I had to touch her chest to make sure she was breathing... NO SNORING!!! Yippee!

Fun, Scary, and (hopefully) a Cure

First the fun... I'm getting ready to go visit AnneMarie for a few days. I cannot wait for this for many reasons - in no particular order - the weather, the mountains, the people (although I won't get to see Carson at all and Maren only some of the time. I still can't wait to hang out with AM), shopping for LDS stuff without having to do it all online, being there without children.

It drives me nuts when people here say (about Arizona) that "it may be hot but at least it's a dry heat..." To which I think "so is my oven and I don't see you wanting to live there." when it's 95 (humid) here it will be 115 there (or worse) and I don't care about dry or humid at that point 115 is worse any day! As for Utah's weather... the actual temperature is usually very similar to here but it cools down more at night and I prefer a dry 95 to a humid 95 - always!

Okay, done with the whine.

The scary is two-part. First, although I love to visit other places, I HATE to fly! From the second we start taxi-ing to finally getting into our destination gate, I'm a wreck. Call it irrational, that's fine but I still don't like it. The second part is actually worse - two days after I get home, Abby is having surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids. She has HUGE tonsils, even the doctor said "Wow, those are really impressive!". She's snored super loud for years, can't breath well sometimes, has sleep apnea and can be quite grumpy/hyperactive during the day. Research seems to point to tonsils being a huge culprit in all of those issues. The hope is that she will calm down because she will actually get better rest at night. Plus, now she won't keep the rest of the house up all night either. I'm sure Susie and Isabelle could swap stories... Abigail gets her tonsil size from me.

So, that's also the (hope for a) cure part... that Abby can sleep, breathe (easier during the day and constantly during the night), be in a better mood during the day, and that Isabelle will be able to sleep peacefully again. It's so scary and upsetting though to see your baby going in for surgery. Even when Mikkel had his several years ago, I was a nervous wreck. I still think that anytime a child needs to be in a hospital for any reason they should automatically prescribe stress meds for the mom!

Oh... great news!! Daniel is potty trained!!! He still has accidents once or twice a day sometimes but overall, he's doing great! In fact, he had three accident free days this week alone! I just hope he can keep it up while I'm gone and can't remind him.

It Works!

That thing Abby talked about in FHE really works! Last night Fred plugged his drill in to charge and this morning the charger was all melted and distorted with a little bit of charring on it. There's no smoke detector in that particular room and it's directly beneath my bedroom closet and Isabelle's bathroom. Had that thing caught on fire any more, we might not be in this house right now! Fred said "we must have been doing lots of apologizing!"

Whatever it was, I'm glad our home is still intact and we are still safe.

FHE

Abby and Jacob decided to give the family home evening lesson last week.

Abby gave a talk on apologizing. She went on for about 5 minutes about "Jesus loves when you apologize to mommy. If you apologize, you'll be safe. We should apologize to mommy because then we will be saved." I truly have NO idea where that one came from!

Jacob came next. His talk went like this (this is word for word... he wrote it out) "When I get 8 I will be bathtized then I will go to kollij (college) but first I will go to first grade and I will be good for always and for everone."

Abby then came back and said "I do NOT want to go to college... it will take too long!"

Mikkel's Last Baptism

In the Veracruz mission, that is. He will officially be in the Villahermosa mission on Thursday.

Soccer Fan

This was sent to me by my stepmom. She and my dad are serving a mission in Johannesburg, South Africa. Turns out Moroni is a real fan - he even has his own vuvuzela!

Random Pictures

Okay, I finally went to the apple store and learned how to add pictures so they would stay...

These are in no particular order, just as I found them.

An excerpt from one of Mikkel's letters:

So, fun story. I went to sleep and turned on my fan, as usual. Nothing exciting. I wake up in the morning and to my surprise, my fan is no longer on... hmmmmm, that's strange, let's check this out... nope looks just fine, I look at the wall and WHOA! Good thing these walls are made of concrete! Looks like the cable had a short and caught on fire during the night. So, i decide to try to pull the plug out of the wall, SPARKS FLY EVERYWHERE! Pretty cool, scared my comp, almost caught my pile of socks on fire... all in a days work. I eventually just yanked it out, one of the contacts stayed in the wall, I had to pull it out with a sock to protect against fatal shock. So, fun morning, woke up my comp and me pretty well. I bought a new cable though, it's working just fine, I'm using the same socket, but I moved my socks this time.

He has two pair - they both look like this.

Thank goodness for Missionary Mall's two year warranty on everything they sell!

February 11, 2010

Calf Scramble winners

Update: She's decided to buy a breeding goat since we have a place to keep it and we'd have to board a dairy cow... that darn budget won again!

Halloween 2009 - Trunk or Treat.

Daniel - 2

Abby - 3

Jacob - 5

Some of the young women in our ward.

Halloween Trunk or Treat 2009

Jacob

Isabelle was putting sunscreen on the kids the other day so we could go "swimming" (I put that in quotation marks because what that really means is Jacob is scared to go in the water while Abby is fearless so I go between trying to get him in and trying to keep her from going in without me...)

Anyway, I digress... so she was rubbing sunscreen on and mentioned that Abby's arms are bigger around than Jacob's. He's always been so thin (and a picky eater)that this doesn't surprise me, but it does make me think. I happened to get a coupon in the mail for pediasure (or something like that) so I bought some hoping it might help at least a little bit. I told them it was just for Jacob and Abby says "it's because you are too skinny Jacob!"

Later, when Fred comes home Jacob says to him "Daddy, Mommy bought me some special chocolate milk to make me fat!"

An Abby Funny

Abby: "Mom, I want to be Princess Go Poop for halloween this year."

Me: "What??"

Abby: "You know, the girl in Toy Story that has the sheep and kisses Woody"

Me: "Ooooooh, you mean Little Bo Peep!"

Abby: "Yeah, whatever."

Jacob's funnies

We discovered that we can stream netflix on our Wii so we've been doing it a lot the past few days. Today, after school Jacob wanted to watch something so I turned on "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show". After a few episodes, he wanted to watch something else so I put on "The Munsters". In case anyone doesn't know what that show is, it's a show from the 60's about a family of monsters (black and white of course). About half way into the show Jacob turns to me and says "I don't like this show, it's just all gray".

2 1/2 years ago we flew to Oregon for Christmas. It was the first time Jacob remembered flying (he flew at age 11 days but of course wouldn't remember that). After our layover in Phoenix, we were on the plane taxi-ing for what seemed like a long time when Jacob leaned over to me and said "Mommy, are we going to drive this thing all the way to Papa's house?"

That happened a while back but I was just thinking of it and wanted to share.

Aaaaagh!!

I guess I need to learn how to transfer pictures from email to this blog... The other day when I did it, everything was fine. Now the cute pictures aren't showing up. If I ever figure it out, I'll post them again... sorry!

If You Have A Weak Stomach...

You might not want to read this "recipe".

Daniel's new favorite food is a Mah-nays Sah-nich - you take a piece of bread and spread lots of mayonnaise on it, then put another piece of bread on top and enjoy!

I know, gross - but he loves it!

Funnies

Abigail - (singing) "Follow the Prophet, follow the Prophet, follow the Prophet, don't be a strange..."

Daniel - (banging on bathroom door) "Jacob, let me in!"

Me - "Daniel, Jacob is going potty... why do you need to go in there?"

Daniel - "Because, it will make me happy!"

Abby - "Mommy, look! There's some blue bottoms!" (They're called blue bonnets)

Wow!

I guess the lecture worked! I've gotten comments already and it motivated me to write again... see?

So, yesterday after church we went out to our car, loaded everyone in and poof... the battery is dead. Usually it's no big deal, right? Except we just took a road trip that would have charged up the battery REAL good. I went in and found the Bishop of our previous ward who said he'd help us and got the car started. This morning was crazy... the first day back after Spring Break and needing a new battery all in the same day is more than necessary to bring you back to real life!

The good news? Not only was the battery under warranty but the labor was free also - yippee!! We only had to spend an hour and a half in the dealership to get our new - free battery... pretty sweet! Plus, they fixed the metal-stick-thingy that holds up the hood so we could get to our battery without having to it up... bonus.

Missionaries and Stuff

Pico Orizaba

So, apparently Dad and Georgia actually read this blog because when Fred talked to them today they said they miss reading my posts. So, on the record... I emailed you guys last :)!

It's hard for me to keep this up because I never know if anyone even reads it. Soooo, if you read, leave comments so I'll feel motivated to write stuff for you. Thanks AnneMarie :)

Okay, I'm done lecturing. On the mission front, Mikkel is on a month long email "fast". I don't know if it's been a problem in the mission or if President Hansen is trying to help them appreciate it more or what, but Mikkel will be spending more time doing service on p-days and not emailing us until April 5 (two weeks away :[ ) and I'm really missing him! He's serving in a town called Mendoza which is in a valley of the tallest mountains in Mexico. He's gone from Temezcal (Steambath) - hot, humid and sleeping in a hammock without blankets to drier, cooler and needing a mattress and two blankets to stay warm at night (notice I said drier... not dry. It's still Mexico jungle so humidity is always there. And, the blankets are the thin cottony kind... not big heavy things so he's not freezing or anything!) When he told us about his area, I immediately looked it up on the internet only to find there's about 9 different places in Mexico with that name. Fred looked up the mountain - Pico Orizaba, it's elevation is over 18,000 feet. It's the third tallest mountain in North America, there's a glacier up near the top and it always has snow on it's peak - even in summer!

We have 7 missionaries now... Fred's two cousins are in California and Uruguay, Mikkel in Mexico, My nephews in Canada and Germany, then Dad and Georgia in South Africa.

Oh! I've made one more step towards completely becoming my mom. I was called as assistant ward camp director today. I think the biggest thing I'm lacking now is the cake decorating thing. Maybe when Daniel goes to kindergarten...

Bad Choices?

Okay, so you can judge me for letting my kids watch "Raiders of the Lost Ark" all you want (besides, it wasn't me, Isabelle started it for them... I just didn't stop it once I got home) but first you need to hear this...

At the end when the Nazi's are opening up the ark and all that stuff starts to happen - lasers going through eye sockets, people catching fire, blowing up and melting heads (my personal favorite part of the movie by the way) Jacob leans over to me and says - super calm-like - "Maybe they shouldn't have opened up that box."

I'm glad he can tell when someone makes a bad choice.

Calf-Catcher!

YOUTH WINS CALF SCRAMBLE AT RODEO

San Antonio –The calf scramble was held Thursday, February 11 at the San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo.

4-H and FFA youth competed for $800 certificates to purchase breeding animals to exhibit in the 2010 San Antonio Junior Livestock Show. Twelve certificates were awarded last night to those who caught a calf. Four of the winners were from Helotes, TX.

One such winner was Aubrey Brieger. Brieger is an 11th grader who participates in Helotes 4-H LSO. She plans to purchase a swine with her award.

Audrey’s twin brother was also a winner last night. Chad Breiger is an 11^th grader who also participates in Helotes 4-H LSO. He plans to purchase a swine with his award.

Zane Walz is also a winner from the area. Walz is an 8^th grader who also participates in Helotes 4-H. He also plans to purchase a swine with his award.

Isabelle Deal is the final winner from Helotes, Texas. Deal is an 11^th grader who participates in O’Connor FFA. She plans to purchase a dairy animal with her award.

Mission Update

Mikkel was called to the mission office for the third time in 8 days last Monday. He thought it was for a multi-zone conference but it turned out to be an entire mission conference. They announced that they are splitting the mission in two (adding a mission) and then left it at that. No one will know any more until around June when it will all take place. President Hansen doesn't know if he will stay in the Veracruz mission or go to the new one. None of the missionaries know if they will stay in the current or go to the new one either. So, there will be speculation and drama for the next several months until we hear more news.

The first two times he had to go to the mission office weren't so wonderful... He was transferred from Temezcal to Mendoza (a town in a valley of the tallest mountain in Mexico) and his companion there "liked to have fun, he likes to sin" (as Mikkel put it). He didn't like Mikkel much because he wants to work. Mikkel, being the senior companion thought he could just encourage the elder and it would all get better.

Well, a week later the companion said that Mikkel was the source of a week-long migraine and he wanted to go home. Mikkel tried motivating and encouraging with no success. The companion called President Hansen and asked "what do I need to do to go home?". So they and another companionship had to travel two and a half hours (each way) to the mission office to drop off the one going home.

Once they got home, they started doing the usual p-day stuff when they got a call saying "come back, we have a new companion for you!". So off they went - another 5 hour (round trip) bus ride to get a new companion.

This one is much better, he's from Whistler, Canada so Mikkel has a sweet place to stay if he wants to learn how to ski in a year and a half or so. They get along great and things are moving much more smoothly. They even had a baptism - Mikkel's first one since November, which is a long time in that mission.

Just for the record... the one that went home was a trouble-companion before Mikkel came along, it didn't start with him nor was he the reason for all the problems. That didn't make Mikkel feel better at the time but I think he realizes it now.

Bad Words

Jacob "Haley, there are two 's' words that are bad. One is bad and one is really bad."

Me (thinking - "what has he heard in kindergarten?!?")

Haley "What are they?"

Jacob "Well, the bad one is 'stupid' and the really bad one is 'shut up'."

Me (thinking- "Whew!!")

If only they stayed so innocent.

Cows - part two

She caught a calf and won an $800 voucher towards a breeding animal. She's been on such a high ever since! We're now just waiting for the information to come in the mail and the picture to come out in the newspaper. I'll try to post it when we get it.

Questions and Cows.

Jacob - "Mommy, can we walk on the outside of the planet that we live on, (you know, Earth)!

Abby - "Mom, why don't I dream in chocolate?"

Why don't I get the simple straightforward questions like "where do babies come from?" kind of questions???

On a "side-note" Isabelle is competing in the calf-scramble in the rodeo tonight. There are 24 kids and 12 calves. They let the calves go and the kids run for it... if you catch a calf and can put a harness around it's neck, you win! Well, you actually win money towards a breeding animal. If she wins, she's hoping to "buy" a dairy cow, (you can make a deal with the breeder to keep it at their place if you don't have space, etc). If she can get a dairy cow, we'll have fresh milk anytime she goes and milks it (she plans on at least once a week) and when it's time to show and sell it, hopefully she'll make quite a profit! Personally, I'm just hoping for fresh milk.

I remember going to my aunt's home to get fresh milk and let me tell you, nothing comes close! I don't really like to drink milk these days partly because it just doesn't have that sweet "fresh from the cow" taste...

More From Abby

We took Fred out for his birthday dinner last Saturday and as we were leaving, I told Abby we had to go home, take a bath and clip her fingernails.

She turned to Jacob and said "Jacob, we need to go home and take a bath, then clip off your fingers".

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful!

Abby - (sitting on the hood of the car - knowing she's not supposed to)
Fred - "Abby, why are sitting on my car?"
Abby - "Because I'm beautiful!" (shaking her head to make her hair flow in the wind)

That's just what we need a kid with ATTITUDE thinking she's all that!

:( :)

Isabelle got her wisdom teeth out Friday. That was also the last day of finals for her... stressful week! (that's the :( part of the title). She did fine but seemed to be in a lot of pain so my uber-mom alter ego took over and nursed her back to health. She got lots of Orchid Oasis (?) Jamba Juice so she was pretty happy about that.

Isabelle was heating up some soup yesterday, here's the conversation:

Abby - "What are you making?"
Isabelle - "Corn chowder"
Abby - "Does that sound good to me?"
Isabelle - "I don't know Abby, do you want to taste it?"
Abby - "Yes... is it food?"
(and that's the :) part of the title)

In Spanish

Abby - "Moneesa, Moneesa, Moneesa"
Me - "Who's that?"
Abby - "It's a in Spanish word."
Me - "Oh, what does it mean?"
Abby - "It means something like a human."

Jacob - "Mom! Daniel just spilled powder all over!"
Abby - "Mom, mom, mom" (I was talking to Isabelle and Abby was trying to get my attention)
Me - "Yes, Abby, I know Daniel just spilled powder, what do I need to do about it right this minute?"
Abby - " Well, I want you to get angry at him."

They're Watching...

The kids were in bed, not wanting to be of course, and calling for me to come do something for them. I'd already given them water, hugs and kisses, etc. so I decided to ignore them.

Our computer is in the game room just outside their bedroom and Abigail decided she'd get better results if she laid on the floor and called my name under the door.

Isabelle and I were at the computer and we were being super quiet so they would think I went to bed or just couldn't hear them (in hopes they would give up and go to sleep finally!)

Instead this is what I hear...

Abigail - "Mommy!

Mommy!

Mommy!

I know you're out there...

I see you, I see you feet!"