The Office is back!

My favorite quote from this week's season premiere (which was great!) is: "I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious." - Michael Too funny.

Sharing Time Idea - Service Topic

I was recently in a rut trying to come up with an interesting lesson on Service for my Sharing Time in primary. I wanted to share what I came up with with any of you that might need it in the future. Service Game (Not so catchy, I know) Type of scripture references, quotes from stories, freebie, picture references etc. and cut into strips. Example: My topic was service so I typed up 10 scripture references I found in the Index of the Bible and Book of Mormon, then I searched LDS.org for short stories about service and used one quote from each. For the freebies I made up scenarios like "you made your sister's bed for her. Move ahead one space!" or "You saw a friend teasing a younger child at school and you didn't stop him. Move back one space." I gathered pictures from the Gospel Art Picture kit and just wrote their number on the strips of paper. Draw a windy road on a chalkboard and divide into spaces for the teams to move their mascot along the board. Divide your class or group into two teams and assign a mascot. Let the children take turns rolling a die. The child moves the mascot forward however many spaces the die was rolled on. Then they pick out a strip from a jar. The teacher or child read the strip and talk about whatever is on it. If its a scripture you open your scriptures, read the verse, and apply it. Or look at the picture and talk about it. Etc. Whoever reaches the end of the road first wins! Maybe this will help one of you teachers out there.

Sprinkles

Some of you might know I have an obsession - its food. I love to try new foods, unless its disturbing foods like "balut," a Philippino delicacy, that my husband, who ate it in the Phillippines while serving his mission for the LDS church, has tried to get me to eat. No way, Jose. I especially love to try new restaurants that I've seen on the Food Network. I figure, if THEY think its good than its got to be. I'm not going to lie though, sometimes its a flop. Sometimes THEIR taste is too refined for me. I think this is one of those times. Today I experimented with Sprinkles bakery in Newport Beach. I bought four cupcakes for a whopping $13....ouch! (All in the name of experimentation, bear with me). I gave the red velvet one to my youngest sister Mae (she's pregnant and working full-time still so I knew she could use a pick-me-up). I am waiting to hear her opinion of that one. The milk chocolate was so-so. Luke didn't like it much. The strawberry cupcake was good but not as "strawberry" flavored as I usually like it. Maybe I'm too used to box mixes? Then the coconut lemon cupcake is the one in the picture. Honestly, I am too cupcaked out to eat much more of this thing. But I think I can decidely say that I'm not blown away. If this is gourmet than hand me the box mix please! I'll keep my $3.25 a pop to myself thank you very much. You can learn more about Sprinkles here: http://www.sprinklescupcakes.com/ Maybe there is one where you live and you can see for yourself.

Bath time photo op

The latest craze in bath time fun, looks fun doesn't it? Now if only I could have a tub big enough for me to try too...."when you dream, dream big" - as Ryan Shupe would say.

Too cute to go unnoticed

This morning I was in my bedroom folding some laundry and I heard a cute conversation Ethan had with his dad. It went something like this... Ethan: Guess what, Papai? Guess what? (Papai - pronounced pa-pie - is the Portuguese word for Father and that is mostly what Ethan uses to address his dad. Not to be mistaken with Pop-eye the cartoon character) Steve: What, Ethan? Ethan: I love you. Steve: Thank you. I love you too, Ethan. I call this a "seal the deal" moment. Its in moments like these that parenthood is no longer an obligation or a responsibility. Gratitude, humility, and love in its purest form sweep over me and I can not question (at least for this marvelous moment) the decision I made to become a mother. The deal has been sealed. It was a great way to start the day.

How clean is YOUR house?

Have you ever been cleaning your home and as you go along from room to room cleaning you realize there is more work to do than you thought? This happened to me this last weekend when I was cleaning my own home. I was in the bathroom and noticed some hard water build up. I was in the kitchen and noticed my cabinet doors needed some polishing (isn't that what you do to wooden cabinet doors?). The list just kept growing and growing. The dining chairs needed new pads, my car carpets needed to be steamcleaned, the paint still needed to be touched-up in the bathroom, the carpets needed to be steam cleaned. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do it all right then. And to be quite honest, I was feeling a little overwhelmed. How did this all get this way? Why do I feel like a one woman show? (sigh) So I dutifully wrote a list assigning tasks to each day (while I was trying to listen to our Stake Conference speaker...hmmm...). So far, so good. The chairs are re-padded and the paint has been touched up. But I'm still feeling overwhelmed. The mountain looks too tall to climb. I got to thinking about every one else's homes. How clean are they? Am I the only one that has this insurmountable mountain to climb? I recall seeing a BBC program once where this woman's house was FILTHY. I mean, think of the filthiest place you could EVER imagine and then you've got it. Pans in the sink, never washed but re-used...nice and crusted. The oven was so built up it looked like Pompeii had exploded within it. The bathroom....I don't even want to do there. Ew. There wasn't a clean place within the entire flat (isn't that what the British call their apartments?) you could step without stepping on some thing. Anyway, I've never actually been inside anyone's home that remotely resembled that but I got to thinking about it and thats what led to the poll I have put on this here blog. I'm just curious.

Facebook

So I got myself one of them facebook accounts. I guess its another thing "everyone" is doing. My friend sent me an invitation to hers so I ended up with one of mine. I'm addicted...

Would you rather....

My friend (and old college roomie) Katie did this post first. We used to play "would you rather" back in college when we were hanging out in our apartment. We would each make up different would you rathers. Here are a few for you to answer: Would you rather hit every red light for the rest of your life or pass gas every third time you sneeze? Would you rather be able to fly or selectively hear people's thoughts? Would you rather have three eyes (all on your face) or one leg? Would you rather only eat your favorite food for the rest of your life or never eat it again? Would you rather marry the love of your life and be with them for one day or marry the second best and spend a lifetime with them? Would you rather poop your pants on a date or throw up on your date?

Bathroom and Heater Closet Remodel

Here are the before and after pictures of our bathroom and closet. The bathroom used to be lemon yellow with baby blue cabinets and normal blue circles painted on the walls for some sort of pattern. I think it was hideous. I'm so happy with what we were able to accomplish in there. Thank goodness for Steve and his parents! And the addition of the closet is such a difference because we're not wasting that space any more.

Miss Teen USA Contestant Stupefied by Question

Oh my gosh!!! This is hilarious! There are so many things I want to say about this but I will refrain.

First day of Joy School

Ethan had his first day of Joy school today. We are doing this co-op school with other families in our ward and stake. There are six kids in the group (the extras in the picture are siblings). The teacher today told me Ethan was a little sad but he did well. I'm sure he'll adapt really well once he gets to know everyone's house. It felt odd to run errands without Ethan but it was also a lot easier to do. Here's a picture of the group (from left): Caleb, Patrick (CJ's older brother), Rachel, Amelia, Aimee, CJ, Ethan, Brian and Marie (behind him, one of Brian's older sisters). We're looking forward to a fun year of Joy school.

Luke is 2!!!

Last Saturday we celebrated Luke's second birthday! We had a lot of fun playing at the park and having the family over for hamburgers and birthday cake. Thank you to everyone for the fun presents. Here are a couple of the pictures from his birthday. I can't believe he's already two. We went to his two year well check with Dr. Tse today. Luke is 35.5 lbs. and 37" tall. Dr. Tse is always impressed with how big he is. Luke didn't like his shot one bit, thankfully thats over with. Luke is doing really well holding up two fingers for his age but he tells you that he's three or four. He's anxious to be like his brother. Happy Birthday Luke! We love you soooooooooooo much.

Luke with his new Bosch drill. :)
Ellie, Luke and Ethan enjoying their cake. Luke picked out strawberry cake so I don't want to hear any more flack about him having a pink cake! :)