Good news bad news better news

So lets get the bad news out of the way: John was laid off on Monday (a week ago). We aren't very excited about that.
But the good news: I went in to the doctor today and I'm pregnant! We've been trying for 3-4 months now and just found out that we're going to have a baby.
Now some people would think that finding out I'm pregnate just after John got laid off is bad news, but we feel really good about it. And when we went to the temple the day after he got laid off (before I knew I was pregnant) I just had this amazing good feeling, so we really feel like evrything is going to be fine.
The better news: it looks like I'm going to have somemore sewing work soon and we're pretty sure that we can prepay the hospital for the baby (8-9 small ish payment before delivery) so weather or not we have insurance shouldn't be a problem.

Recapping July

So July has been busy!
We shingled the playhouse roof and have spent a lot of time working in our yard and Grandma Earl's. For all you non-relatives that read this, Grandma Earl turned 90 this year and she's still going. She lives in her house with her widowed brother Uncle Karl. They have some one who comes in and helps around the house and a little in the yard. Some one mowes the lawn, but most of the garden has been left to go totally wild for the last 5 years but it was starting to go wild from the far corners in about 5 years before that, and since she has about a 1/2 acre lot thats a lot of yard!
Well we've started to reclaim the yard from nature. It's totally like The Secret Garden there's still a lot of good stuff growing under the weeds and creeper vine, we just need to give it some TLC. And maybe you've heard those jokes about "Nature's a mother!" well some days thats how it feels working out there, and then John whips out the weed eater and 30 minutes later we go oh well maybe that's doable. I'll have to do another Grandma's yard post after I get the pictures off the camera.
Little John and I started a once a week mommy & me tumbling class, he loves it. And we're in the last week of our mommy & me swim class, which it sooooo much fun!
We keep canning: cherry pie filling, blueberry pie filling, raspberry jam, tomato juice, maraschino cherries (non-alcoholic), danish cherry sauce, and just canned raspberries. And we froze the ecsess purple carrots from the garden, because we don't have a pressure canner.
My mending and alterations bussiness is picking up a little, I just altered a wedding dress for a girl.

Recapping May and June

So May was a good month because school got out.

Ben went to his first ever fancy dance on a date. He took Amanda Wendel from down the street, they look so good!

My grandma Earl (she is actually my Great-Grandma) had her ninetieth birthday so we celebrated with a great huge part with all the reletives from out of state that we don't get to see very often. Someone found out that you can get amazingly good deals on huge orders from Maddox so we got the food from there. YUM!!! Two different flavors of cake. After the lunch we had an open house so that all of her friends and neighbors could come and see her.

We made and frosted donuts, chocolate and vanilla frosting!

Little John decided the sand box is more fun with water.

We started buildingLittle John a playhouse in the backyard, we modified some plans off the internet. John's parents came over and helped a lot. The weather was hot not foggy, the fog in the pictures is Little John's fingerprints on the camera lens but no one noticed until too late.

We enjoyed a nice picnic up the canyon.

We made jam and our sticky helper is so cute!

We went to the zoo and Little John was mezmerized by the elephants, they are deffinately his favorite animal.

We ran the Race For the Cure 5k with my Aunt Juli and her daughter Kate. It was awesome! I hope to do it again next year. Maybe next year I'll jog part of it with the stroller instaed of just power walking with the stroller.

My brother Ben graduated from Box Elder High School and Seminary. At the high school graduation things were getting boring since the speakers just go on and on and on. Then all of a sudden, at the back of the students there was a great commotion with everyone looking all over and looking under their chairs. It turns out that someone had let loose a mouse. Ben appreciated the break from the monotony. After a while they caught it. Then there was some more commotion because they had let loose more than one mouse. It kept the audience very well entertained. It also kept the sutdents awake. Oh, and some guy wore a kilt, it was cool.

We spent a lot of time working on the playhouse.

We took Ben for a ritual "last meal" before shipping him out to boot camp.

We spent a weekend with my sister Heather in Loa, UT (near Capitol Reef Ntl Park), for her baby shower.

We made arricot, pinapple apricot, and apricot plum jam

Little John ride his trike a lot.

For Father's day I helped Little John collect stuff and we put it in plaster to make Daddy a paper weight (I gave it a few coats of sealer to protect it).

We are loving your year pass to the Jensen Historical Farm (where we went to Baby animal days) We saw lots of chickens and washed clothes.

Little John loves bubbles!

My Mom entered an online contest and won a Pizza Party! So we had a bunch of friends and family over. The kids loved the backyard.

We took Little John to the pool.He lasted about 10 minutes because once the wind picked up it got cold.

Nana (my mom) lets Little John get away with things sometimes. Like making the backyard a nudist camp. He decided sitting naked was a mistake, but had fun doing everything else.

Typed by Sarah Snow the cooliest ever!!!! ('Cuz I don't type, I chicken peck:D)

Stage managing part 1

So this is going to need at least to blogs to cover all this.

So there is this popular local community theater, called the Herigage Community Theater

And Ben has done technical theater there in the past.

Lately John and I have been talking about me getting back into theater. I had quit for awhile because I was settling into a new state, then I was pregnant, then I was nursing, then John got a job and I'm the only person home most of the time. But I was starting to get a bit stir crazy and its hard to make new friends (that are adults) when you're called to work in the nursery. So we had decided I was going to try doing a show this summer.

One day Ben gets a phone call, they need a tech crew for a show at the Heritage. So I talk to John and show up with Ben at rehersal. The show is called the Women and it calls for a cast of like 45 women. Thats not a very reasonable number for community theater, so they've double and triple cast people for the supporting and bit parts, cutting the cast down to about 25. All women. Ben and the director, Ross, are the only guys. Ben totally realizes the opertunity he has here and never goes to rehersal with out applying body spray and hair gel.

I think I should take an aside here and tell you first of all that theater is more than a hobby to me, its a core part of my DNA. I remember auditioning to be in Merry Poppins in about first or second grade before I ever moved to Utah the first time. I got the part but was encouraged to make the right choice after discovering many rehersals and performances would be on Sunday. I dropped the show, but the preformance bug had bitten me.

I continued to do backyard shows with anyone who was willing (these were terrible, but the costumes were usually good). And in 6th grade I did my first auditioned for the part show. I also built set and found costumes. I moved to Utah and auditioned for the fall show and didn't get a part. It was so long ago I'm ok with admitting that I was totally crushed, but not all was lost they needed people for the tech crew. Long story short: I sing, dance, and act but plenty of other people do it better than me (especially singing if it's allergy season). So after being just part of the chorus for a few shows, and having to help move scenery anyway, I found my calling behind the scenes. I still auditioned for the shows I thought would be fun to be in, but I wasn't crushed anymore because tech is my thing. I was in a few shows, and I enjoyed them, but even then I was doing a lot of tech.

And so I learned to do everything I could, and it was a blast all through up to high school graduation. And then for a truely inexplicable reason I traded all that to study biological engineering (science is a big interest to me and I'm good at it, but it doesn't get me excited the way tech does). My motivation was good, I wanted to study genetics and cancer, what with all my family history of it. So I quit theater and fought with engineering for 3 years. I finally came to my senses and dropped engineering for biology because with just a few more credits I'd be able to graduate. And I teched another show and fell in love all over again with the crazyness backstage.

So that seems like enough for this post. Later.

Deck and mancave (pics)

So now the deck is done!
1. Helping Daddy 2. I hold it and John attaches it 3. I got you some screws Daddy
4. Always wear your seatbelt, he fell out right after this picture 5. Ben giving Little John a ride (Ben doesn't need that wheelchair he got it at a yard sale to play with) 6. They're under the trampoline, and yeah he fell over doing that 7. Enjoying the new deck


So here is the grand tour of the mancave!
1. & 2. You go down the library hallway to get there (we have 5 bookcases in there)
3. The view from the door 4. The shelves we built him for his birthday, anchored to the wall and painted, he's started to put stuff on them 5. This is to give you some perspective, the shelves are taller than me 6. He puts his laptop on the shelf and sits in the banana chair (the arrow shows which shelf in the big picture)


And of course its all decorated!
1. This curtain hides the stuff we'll store back here 2. This is the beautiful marblized finish I gave his floor, it took a month of washing to get all the paint off my feet (it stuck like nail polish, but I was out of remover) 3. This beautiful rug keeps John's toes warm, his Dad brought it back from the first Desert Storm 4. I made him a lampshade 5. It makes neat patterns on the wall when it's on 6. The switch plate is covered in tinfoil and John painted this picture himself 2 years ago

The art of story telling

So I read Crystal's blog about fairy tales and I made this comment :

"Fairy tales rock! I've read them since forever. I love to read different nation's versions of the same stories, there's lots of versions of Cinderella for example. My favorite is a beautifully illistrated version of the egyptian cinderella."

And it got me thinking about how much I enjoy them and how I like to tell them to Little John. I started telling them to him when he was just a few weeks old to soothe him and keep myself awake during 2 am feedings. I still tell him them in the car and sometimes on those sleepless nights when he's awake for an hour or 2 in the middle of the night. (I can't just let him sit in the crib and scream, but if I let him get up and play he might make a habit of it :()

I tell him classic Grimms' tales and shortened Disney movies (like my favorite, Mulan) and Hans Christian Anderson and sometimes I just make stuff up. I read an article about how story telling encourages kids' imaginations and builds language skills and stuff, but mostly I just enjoy doing it.

I enjoy reading aloud, but there's something about story telling that really appeals to the preformer in me. If I'm not driving or trying to get Little John to sleep, I love to decribe things with my hands and sometimes I get up and act out the monsters and battles. Little kids love that! I started doing it when I'd babysit, as bedtime stories. And the best thing is little kids are such non-judgemental audiences. They don't care if you forget the details or tell it different than last time, so long as you're into it and animated.

I don't tell the tales quite the way you'd find them in print. As hard as it is to belive, I can't remember all the details at 2 am. Sometimes I make up the details and sometimes I just skip bits I can't remember very well. And I've added my own personal twist to any tale I tell. As I tell the story I always specify that the kings daughter is old enough to date and that's why her hand in marriage is the prize for whatever nasty task needs doing. And also of course the hero is old enough to date too. And I tend to elaborate on things like clothes and the country side (when I'm fully awake that is) and I love to do different voices for different characters. (I do that when I read aloud too) I also love to add sound effects and cheesy melodrama things like "da-da-daaa!".

When I make up stories sometimes I barrow details from other stories I've read. Sometimes my stories follow a regular pattern (begining, middle, end), but a lot of them are silly nonsense that either end very quickly or ramble on and on. The good news is Little John doesn't seem to mind if the stories are real or not or make sense or not. He especially loves when I tell stories about him and Daddy doing things together, even when its nonsense stuff.

As he starts to talk more and more clearly I plan on having him help with the made up stories. Things like what color things are, what weapon the hero uses, what kind of car the bad guy drives. All the little details. I'm really excited to see what neat things he comes up with. I already know he has a good imagination because he holds his cars up to his head and babbles at them like they're telephones.

I still read fairy tales myself and will totally read them to my kids. If they grow up and would rather read text books, that's cool, its their choice, but at least they had the choice. It bugs the heck out of me when people are like "I don't let my kids read that magic stuff because they need to understand reality" (and yet most of these same people let their kids watch cartoons, go figure). It reminds me of that poor little girl in Miracle on 34th Street, no hopes or dreams, no fantasies.

Sorry, my soap box ran away with me there. What I meant to say is: I've read lots of fairy tale collections (among other fantstical stories like the tales of Sinbad the Sailor and Arabian Nights), but there is this collection I've heard such great things about but have never been able to find them so I can read them. They're a series of collections (I think) called the Blue Fairy Book, the Red Fairy Book, the Lilac Fairy Book, and so on. I think there are 7 or 8 all together. Maybe I can find them on Ebay or Amazon. Oh, well, my next story post should be about my other love, scifi. Anyway I should go. Go share a story with a kid. Later.

The silver lining

So now that I've depressed everyone with our sickness (and possibly shared the germs), here's the silver lining. While being cooped up, those who were feeling up to it have done a lot of good work.
We put together, anchored to the wall, sanded, painted, and painted again the shelves for John's man cave. I made and hung a curtain to hide stuff stored at the back in the space to small to use as part of the man cave.
We dug, moved, and fertilized the garden boxes (the dirt here is such junk we use the square foot gardening method (mostly)). We planted peas, lettuce, and blueberries (although the weather may have killed one of the blueberries). We transplanted the raspberries. We seeded the bare spots in the lawn and spread peat moss to keep it moist. And even though the one blueberry may be toast all the wet/snowy weather means I haven't had to water the grass seed.
After being cooped up the old furniture arrangement was definitely old so we changed it up and it's much more cozy and conducive to conversation (but everyone can still see the TV, so we're all happy).
And John's had the chance to give lots of blessings. I love that we have such convenient access to the priesthood. And I always feel so comforted, even just listening to someone else's blessing. John says he makes better decisions than he might otherwise, because he knows I'll ask for a blessing and he wants to be worthy to give them. I think that is so awesome.

Welcome to the party!

I had a great birthday today and thank you all for coming to my party today! (Now to really complete the experience you should go find some party food to munch on :D) So the costumes have been great and now for the awards! (if you don't see a picture click the name to go see it)

Cutest astronaut:
Ashur

Harry Potter- these were all so great I couldn't pick just one!:
H
Most of the ward
Sauers
My Mom

Cutest ninja:
Jonathan

Cutest superhero:
Little Kenny

Best hat:
Me


Best partners costume:
John and Little John


Shiniest armor:
Jessie


Most convincing alien:
Ben


Best mohawk:
Little John


Honorary mention:
Bridget's kids

Costumes that deserve awards that I can't find pictures of:
Pirates- John and Brandi
Potipher's wife- Clerie
"paper boy"- John's Dad

Costume stories:

Cutest kid costume story:
Monique (Jaxon)

Funniest costume story:
Clerie had to do a quick costume change for the play she was in. Her "dad" had just died so she runs just off stage and everyone rushes her into the next costume for the "funeral". She runs back on stage to kneel at the casket (with her back to the audience) and weeps. This is normally an emotional scene but she can hear the audience smothering laughter. She comes off stage at the end of the scene and the tell her that in the hurry, her skirt was tucked into her bloomers. (they had full period costumes obviously) She laughs about it now. Today she wears a uniform in Iraq instead of costumes. Go Clerie!


Costumes we wish we had:

Cleverest wished for costume:
Paul
I came up with this costume in high school actually, but never made it. Let me explain what you'd need first. Some blue and gray material, lots of stuffing, and a red LED light. I would have two square patches on my chest and the LED on my back. When someone asked what I was, I would say "I'm a logitech optical mouse!" Then I'd "click" my buttons and show off my LED. Geeky, but it could be cute and unique.


I costume I always wished I could have...
All of them! It would take too long to list them all, but my current desire is for "Susan's battle dress/armor" from the new Prince Caspian movie and a wig of waist long cornrow braids in black or red hair. Random, I know.

Well thank you all for coming to my virtual party. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I think I might do it again next year, but maybe a different theme to keep it interesting. And maybe more people will "show up". The more people, the better the party. Bye.

Virtual Party!

So some time around March last year I decided I wanted to do something awesome for my 25th birthday. And since we were sopposed to be in our house by then I decided to have a costume party, because there just aren't enough oppertunities in regular life to wear cool costumes.
Well obviously I'm not going to be able to follow the plan, so instead you are all invited to my virtual costume party!
I am posting a request for people to blog about their favorite costume (have worn, are making, always wanted to wear, ect) and if possible post a pic or 2. You need to do this by the 25th of this month. I will then do an awesome birthday blog about costumes I have worn, made, seen, ect.
I may also have a second blog with non-blogging freinds email responses to this invite. (Depends on how many people follow through)
So dig through your photo albums and use your scanners, because I will be awarding prizes. Happy blogging :D

Little John is so precious!

Ok so it's been a bit since I updated you all about how precious Little John can be.
He gave me real kisses this week! I was addressing a postcard and he came up and reached for me, so I bent down so my head was by his. He closes his little mouth, pushes it against my face and opens it again with a tiny pop sound. And then he did it again a few times. My heart just melted! He's been making kissy noises for a long time, but this was diffrent. And afterwards he just walks back over to his toys and starts playing again, like he has no idea that he is so sweet my heart is puddled in my toes.
So not quite as sweet but just as adorable, he loves phones. He has loved to push the buttons for a long time now. But just recently he holds them put and talks to them. And after he talks for a minute he holds it to my head to talk. Now if I could just get him to talk when there's a person on the other end of the line! He clams up if there's really someone to talk to, but he smiles really big and waves hello and goodbye. It cracks me up.
I love him so much!

The adventures of Indiana John and his intrepid sidekick Carolyn

Alternate title: The day we took the train, trax, and a bus.

So yesterday we decided to go down to Salt Lake and do a dry run of John's commute, to be sure he makes all his connections and figure out just how long it will take so he won't be late on his first day. So we left around 9:15... ~~~dissolve from shot of narration to scene of parking the car~~~
The adventurers grabed their bag and headed out for the large building near the buses. "Hi we'd like to buy tickets to the Frontrunner (the commuter train), can we do that here?"
The woman, slightly overdressed for the occasion, looked up from her papers, "Tickets are purchased from the machine at the platform." She gestured slightly in the vauge direction we had come from.
The train pulled up just as we arrived at the ticket machine, "Hurry John, they only stay at each stop for a few minutes." Quickly navigating the touch screen the heros were briefly stalled by the credit card swipper machine, which lacked any instructions about which way to face the card in the slot. At last the tickets were printed out and they were on to the platform. Pushing the "open door" button, we made ready to board quickly, but nothing happened.
"Maybe they aren't letting anyone else on 'cuz they're about to leave," John hypothosized. That would mean a 30 minute wait until the next train! "Wait!" called Carolyn, "the button isn't green but the one on that door is." Zipping over to the next door, John pushed the button and the door opened. The explorers climbed aboard and quickly secured window seats at a table.
The train pulled smoothly from the station and our heros read and played DS all the way to SaltLake without interuption.
Disembarking at the end of the line, we made our way to the Trax platform. (The street car trains) "Which trax line do we want, Sandy or University?" John queried. Consulting her growing selection of maps, Carolyn replied, "We can take either and then transfer to the university line to get to our bus stop." Just then the Sandy line pulled up and we boarded.
We transfered lines and got to our stop without complications. "Our bus stop is just down this block," Carolyn said setting off. But on our arrival our route number was no where to be found on the sign. "Well lets go to the other stop," John suggested. Back tracking and proceeding North, the adventurers spotted thier stop just past a McDonalds, pausing to consider the rumbling in their stomachs they decided a brief detour was in order.
Following lunch (which aside from the uncarbonated soda, was quite good) we made our way to the stop. Unable to locate a schedule, Carolyn called the posted phone number. "Can you tell me when the next bus is for route ..." John looked over their maps while he waited. "... I see, thank you."
Carolyn explained that the 307 was an express bus that only runs for a few hours in the mornings and evenings. But only carried passengers one way, into SLC in the mornig and out of SLC in the evenings. The exact opposite of the way they needed to travel!
Thier spirits undampened, the intrepid travelers consulted thier maps. They soon discovered another bus that would take them close to their destination. Setting off at a brisk pace we were soon riding the Trax again. "Now we just transfer to the Sandy line and we'll be at our bus stop in no time," Carolyn said confidently.
Getting off the university line they didn't wait long before a South boundtrax came along. We climbed aboard settled in and began working a Sudoku puzzle, since it would be a bit of a ride. After several stops Carolyn looked up in confusion, what were they doing at the Stadium? The Stadium was on the University line. Realizing the error we quickly got off and took the next Trax downtown. Arriving at the stop to change lines our heros paid very close attention to the arrivng trax trains before boarding again.
Spirits slightly dampened and in need of a snack, we settled in to ride to our stop. John whipped out the DS saying, "I need to kill something."
Many stops later we disembarked only to discover a 20 minute wait for our bus. Taking advantage of the cold we snuggled together while getting an update from my Mom, on how Little John was doing. Advising her of our circumstances so far we let her know not to expect us any time soon.
Soon the bus arrived and an uneventful 25 minutes later we were walking away from our stop. As far as we could tell from the bus map we were 2 blocks up and 2 blocks over from our destination, so we set off on foot eager to conclude our journey. However, it was not to be.
After 45 minutes of steady treking up and down steep, snow covered sidewalks we straggled into an Artic Circle in desperate need of a bathroom break and a pick me up. Over a hot fudge sundae, some chicken nuggets, and a soda (carbonated this time), we reevaluated our prospects.
Deciding to take a differnt route to the bus stop we stopped into the Smith's for some provisions before setting out. While at the store Carolyn decided to return a phone call she had missed, from her brother Rick.
Finishing at the checkout John asked how the call went. "Great!" Carolyn replied, "He's racing us to the bus stop and will drop us off at the trax station!" With renewed hope and energy we set out on our new route. Looking at the very small and unlabeled bus map, we had selected a more circtous path to the bus stop in the hopes that it would be more level.
After trudging through the snow in a mostly northern direction we came across a friendly mail delivery person. He pointed out on our miniscule map were we were and which way we needed to go next. Follwing his directions west at the T-interesction were were able to navigate the rest of the way to Fort Union Blvd ourselves, without further incident.
Just as we got there Rick arrived and we were soon zooming along the freeway. Rick decided to use this excuse to drive into Salt Lake (he picked us up in Cottonwood Heights) as a chance to visit his favorite German deli. We tagged along since it was right by the Trax and he bought a kinder egg for Little John. Soon we were hugging him goodbye and on the Trax back to the Frontrunner station. Once on the train we broke out the supplies and relaxed for the ride home. John struck up an interesting conversation with a fellow passenger who turned out to be an industrial engineer for the government. Before long we were back at the car and driving the last little bit home. ~~~dissolve back to narrator~~~
So we decided that John will drive the car to work at least for the first couple days. And incase anyone was worried we don't have any blisters from all that walking in damp boots.

John got a Job!

So we got the best present for Christmas! John got a job! He interviewed last week and they loved him. He says his knowledge of Revit (an engineering program) is what hooked their intrest. The company is in Salt Lake City (cottonwood heights really) so he is going to take the commuter train and then a bus for the last little bit. The train doesn't come all the way to Brigham yet but the nearest station is only 15-20 minutes away (depending on traffic and weather). (To all the Phonecians- the trains and street cars system here is way better done than the "PHART" and is a reasonable way to get around) The commute will take about an hour all together, but since he doesn't have to do any of the driving he's excited to read or stuff (the train has wi-fi but we Ebayed the laptop). The company that hired him is called River consulting http://www.riverconsulting.com/ and they do big industrial buildings mostly out of concrete. He is so excited because he gets to do plates and shells analysis (figuring out if concrete ceilings will crack (plates) or concrete domes will collapse (shells)), which he learned to do in collage but didn't get to use at his other job. He starts on Jan. 5th and we're going to do a dry run of the commute before then to be sure he won't be late. He says he'll be the bottom man on the totem pole (well they hired 6 bottom men), but he thinks thats good because then he has room to work up. Even though he's bottom ranked, he still gets his nice benifits: health, dental, and eyes. And this might be what I'm most excited about, because we haven't had any real health problems (colds, ear infections), but the worry that something could go wrong and we don't have health insurance (especially for Little John) has been eating away at me. But no more worries! So Merry Christmas to everybody and ours will deffinatly be a happy one!
PS. please pass this info on to anyone who knows us- that John now has a job and thank you everyone for your prayers.

Mamma Mia!

So we watched Mamma Mia today and this is the most hysterically funny movie I've ever seen. The sound track is all Abba songs, the plot is amazingly twisted. It sounded like it might be a chick flick but John loves it and my anti-musicals teenage brother loves it too! I am totally amazed about that. And even though the guys like it this is the perfect girls night in movie, where you all sing along (it has a sing along setting:D) at top volume while eatting chocolate ice cream!

I can't wait to see what Sarah thinks of it, I bet she goes nuts. Little John loves it, he "sings" and claps and laughs and dances around. It is so adorable!

This is from our family pics at Thanksgiving, I love it 'cuz he's laughing :D

Wow its cold here!

So yesterday at church Little John had one heck of a poopy diaper durring sacrament meeting. So I fish all through the diaper bag and find a diaper but no wipes, then I remember seeing them in the car. So I ask Sarah to run out to the car and grab them and I'll meet her at the bathroom with Little John (it takes 2 people if we have to use the cold fold out of the wall changing thing). So she hurries in and I strip off the diaper and she's over there struggling to get out a wipe. I'm like his tush is hanging out here hurry it up a bit and she tells me the wipes are frozen! I try to get one and she's right- its a solid block of frozen wipes. So she makes me some "wipes" with warm water and paper towels (not the first time I've had to resort to that sadly) and we get the whole thing taken care of. We opened the wipes again after church and found that at least some of them had thawed out. Man , I thought they were made with rubbing alcohol. I didn't think that stuff could freeze. This would never happen in Arizona. In AZ I would have opened the box and probably found that they were all dry from the heat LOL.

Elder Hizer arises from the internet

So I experienced a small miracle today. (If I had been checking my email daily I would have had this miracle on Monday. I get emailed when anyone comments on my blog.) I got a comment from a guy in Wamego, KS, where Elder Hizer is serving right now. This guy's family have a dinner apointment with Nathan tonight! And they wanted to make him feel at home, so they googled for him and found my blog. They asked what his favorite foods were. (You can read the comment on my post "Ode to Elder Hizer" in Oct)
I am so excited. I told the guy what Nathan likes to eat and asked him to email me a pic of him and his companion. How awesome is all of this?! Next time I feed missionaries I'm going to have to google them, who knows what can happen. I knew God worked in mysterious ways, but I never realized that could mean google.