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.