Oceanography Trip

Joseph and I went on an Oceanography trip this week.  The trip was a field trip as part of a school club.  The school hired Project Exploration.  They put on trips all the time for schools.  All year we've been attending the Oceanography club learning about the oceans and sea animals.  We left for California early Monday morning and upon arrival in San Diego we went to Coronado Beach to create sand animals and then we went to Seaport Village for dinner and to walk around.  Afterwards we went to the movies and saw the new Disney movie Oceans.  Then we headed to our hotel to sleep as Tuesday we were getting up bright and early for a busy day. These are Joseph's videos of his visit to Seaport Village.

Coronado Bridge

Seaport Village Part 1

Christmas Gift Shoppe

Seaport Village Part 2

Did you know hair gets darker when it's wet.

Sam loves his purple eyes.  They really are blue with a ring of violet around the pupil.  But if you tell him they are blue he will either yell at you "MY EYES ARE NOT BLUE THEY ARE PURPLE!" or he will respond calmly, "Well actually... they are purple."

He loves his BLONDE hair.  Mom's hair is brown.  Dad's hair is brown.  Adam's hair is blonde.  Joseph's hair is almost brown.  Josh's hair is brown.  When he takes a bath and his hair turns brown he gets upset that his hair isn't blonde.  The other day, he ran into the bathroom while his hair was still wet, and upset said "it's still brown."  About an hour later he ran into the bathroom and got very exicted, "My hair is blonde again!!"

Three-yeear-olds, crazy temperaments and funny attitudes.

Give Aways

A whole lot of my blog buddies (I read their blogs whether I know them personally or not) are having give-aways.  This will be your one-stop shop linking to those give-aways.

My cool friend at My Frugal Lifestyle is having a give away of some really snazzy designer purses that another blogger she knows makes!!  I like the Bella Blue style.  The designer is LauraOh! Designs.  Read her other posts this week as it's give away week all week!!

My really cool author friend Sarah M Eden, you might remember me being interviewed in her blog, is having a give-away and drops random clues on her blog.  She recently had one of her books released and it is on sale now at Deseret Books.  In fact, it's in the top ten!!  Way to go Sarah!  Read the latest clue here.

If you live in Utah (I don't) and want to attend the Utah Valley Women's Expo, you can get free tickets here.  And while you are at the expo enter the give-away for the wheat grinder.  You can read more about it on the same link.

Good luck.

Disney Volunteers

Last year Disney had the promotion where you could go to Disneyland (or World) on your birthday for free.  I registered the whole family, however the only convenient option was for Joe and me to go for our birthdays and anniversary.  I bought 2 discounted 2-day park hopper passes online so we could each go every day.  On my birthday I used my free pass and Joe used his first day ticket.  On our anniversary we both used our tickets at both parks, and on his birthday I used the last day of my ticket and he used his free pass.  Since our birthdays are 2 days apart and our anniversary is right in the middle it makes celebrating easy.  This was Joe’s first visit to Disneyland and both of our first visit to California Adventure.

This year Disney’s promotion made it possible for the entire family to go all at once.  The only problem was actually trying to get registered for it.  Everyone was trying to register for the promotion.  We were able to finally get accepted to volunteer somewhere and I was excited about that.  I have heard there are volunteer vacations that people can do but I don’t know much about them.  I remember reading a brief article once about them in LDS Living magazine.   So I was excited that that with this promotion, the kids could earn their ticket and go.  All but Sam were eligible

The first appointment that I set up only would take adults.  I would have done it but it while partially while I was at work so Joe got to take it.  It was working at a bake sale for a retirement community fundraiser event.  He had fun.  They even fed him.  I should have done this job.  What I got to do with the boys (Adam, Joseph and Joshua) is yard work.  We brought 3 hibiscus plants.  The boys each planted one.  Then we asked what else we could do.    We went and placed mulch down over a flower garden.  Then we shoveled gravel and moved it from a big gravel pile to another area where they were laying down plastic.  Under that plastic had been weeds, which Joseph had helped weed.  It was fun nonetheless. 

About a week later, we received our vouchers by email.  Now it's time to plan a trip.

Photos

Adam working hard

Joshua posing

Joseph planting
Adam posing

Give Away Winner

I had a give-away but it didn't go over very well.  Maybe next time.  Any how, I kept points in excel and today it gave me a random number and the winner is:














Jana


I'll email you to get your address and mail you the fabulous prize.

Faith

I earned my Beehive, Mia Maid, Laurel and Young Woman Recognition awards while I was a youth.  Due to changes in the current YW program, women can earn the new personal progress medallion by completing the same requirements as the young women AND earn an honor bee charm AND earn another medallion (they have both silver AND gold.)  Our ward has decided to allow and support the Relief Society sisters who are willing to earn the medallions for the first or second (or again third) time.  I decided I would earn them now too.  I've read through the whole book and decided to start with Faith. 

I pray.  I don't pray regularly, but I do pray.  Sometimes it's in the middle of the day and only in my mind, but I need to get back into the habit of praying morning and night.  So I decided to start with the first Faith value.  It requires reading scriptures (and conference talks) about Faith and making a habit of prayer for 3 weeks.  I started Sunday, although I started reading before that, I figured it'd be easier to remember which day I started praying if it were a Sunday.  I've done well, I’ve forgotten to pray a couple mornings and so I prayed when I remembered. 

So here's the point of this message - Ether 12: 6 "...Faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."  The majority of this that I am referencing is that you can't receive a witness (testimony) of Faith until after you've been tried.  I've had many trials of my faith.  Not necessarily doubting my testimony but more of doubting things that will come to fruition because I cannot see the future.  I am going through one right now.  My knowledge tells me we won't get a house.  We had planned to buy, but due to a miscommunication, we are going to continue saving for a larger down payment.  We still want a house, so we are looking to rent.  I have faith that we will find something wherever it is best for us to live.  Faith tells me that it'll all work out.  I need to trust in the Lord that he'll do what's ultimately best for me even if it's not what I want.