reunion (with the blog)

It's been some time since I've blogged. After several comments, prodding, exciting events, and lots of new news, I'm back. I won't get in too deep but I will just summarize the past few months and post a few pictures...because lets be realistic, that is the real reason we blog, right?

We went down to Greenwood at the beginning of June to celebrate my nephew's birthday. Preston, who is now FIVE. I can't believe how old he is! Stop getting so big!

I had the opportunity to visit the Beal's in D.C. for the 4th of July. Here is Porter with Buttons. Here kitty...

While in D.C. I harvested honey... It was very interesting and surprisingly fun!

Ashley was able to visit as well. It was a fun time. Ashley, Natalie, and I with Dad.


Mom, Porter, and Natalie

July 18th, our very special niece, Ella, joined our family.



While Brittany and Ella were in the hospital, the boys came to stay at Grandma's. We got to do some fun things. We played in the pool...

And we made cupcake cones. I love these boys and I'm so glad they live so close!


We celebrated Dad's birthday at the end of July. He got a new toy. This is the only thing he has ever really wanted, and he deserves it more than anyone I know.

August means the State Fair in Indiana... Keri and I got to go and see some new baby pigs, and ride the rides. It's a tradition.

They've finally started on our house!! We are so excited, I've been out there several times to take pictures and they're only this far... But it will be done eventually.

Natalie, Quincy, and Porter came in and stayed with us for over a week. We went to the symphony on the prairie last Saturday... Porter at the symphony

Bruce and I at the symphony

I took off work last Thursday so that I could go to the State Fair...again. But this time with family. It was so fun to watch the boys ride the rides. Preston and Collin started in the bumble-bee

Preston, Dad, and Collin with the cows. After visiting the pigs, we were getting ready to go see the horses and Preston started protesting, "I can't go in there, I don't like the smell." We convinced then that the horses don't smell like the pigs.

Last night was Natalie& Quincy's last night here. We went out to dinner to Bravo. It was great!

Mom and Dad, looking fabulous!

The Beal family. We will miss you so much! good luck in Dubai!!

Oh, and I got new glasses.

Thanks for being so patient! Hopefully it won't be so long next time!

birthday

my husband...
betsy, brittney, lindsey, keri
michaela & kyle
just the girls... lindsey, betsy, me, keri, amanda, brittney, michaela. why didn't anyone tell me about the flying bunnies? one landed in my hair. you see it? up there. yeah, on the left.
nhs alum. kyle, me, keri, linds, brit, amanda, chris

my best friends birthday was yesterday. we went out to champps to celebrate. some of our friends i haven't seen for a long time. it was so much fun to catch up and to celebrate such a special day. happy birthday, keri!!

Before I get fired...

i just wanted to make a mother's day post about my sunbeams. how i love my sunbeams. they bring me such joy! i am actually getting a bit choked up just thinking about how sweet they are. i love them all so much. i want to thank the parents (especially the mothers, on this post-mother's day) of my sunbeams for having such sweet children and for sharing them with me each sunday.

yesterday was mother's day. it was a wonderful day, despite the rain. after sacrament, i walked into primary. i sat down in the middle of the front row. caroline was the first one there. she quietly came in and sat down.
caroline: "you know why people lick their fingers?"
me: "why caroline?"
caroline: "because when the pages are sticky, it separates them so they don't get stuck together."
me: "you're right! caroline, how are you so smart?"
caroline: "i'm a very smart girl."
me: "you are a very smart girl."

diana walks in, sits down.
diana: "i brought cookies!" (shows me her box of girl scout cookies)
me: "diana, you're so nice to bring treats!" (she brings something each week to share)
diana: "sister joray, my shoes match your purse!"
me: "you're right, diana! what color are they?"
diana: "umm, WHITE!"
diana didn't ask for her mom one time! Not once!

nathan comes in and stands in front of me. (caroline to my right, diana to my left)
me: "nathan do you want to sit on my lap?"
nathan: "yes." in his voice, (which i love so much).
i begin "going on a treasure hunt" on his back. "going on a treasure-hunt, x marks the spot. line, line, dot, dot, BIG questions mark. spiders going up your back, bite! all the blood is rushing down. spiders going up your back, bite! all the blood is rushing down. tight squeeze. (blow) cool breeze. now you've go the chills!"
nathan: smiles, "can you do that again?"
me: "yes, but you have to whisper." i do it again but only the motions, no words.
nathan: "can you say it too?"
me: "no, because gracie is giving a talk about her mother."
nathan was quiet and content the whole time! he was snuggly. he melted me.

kaia walks in.
kaia: "can i sit by you, sister joray?"
me: "there aren't any seats by me, could you sit next to diana?"
kaia sits in the seat next to diana.
kaia: "sister joray, look what i drawed!"
me: "did you do that for you mom on mother's day?"
kaia: "look sister joray, i got a bracelet."
me: "that's a pretty cool bracelet you have, kaia."

kalia walks in and stands in front of me.
kalia: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER JORAY!"
me: fighting back tears, choke. (her mom, ana, is standing beside her). in my head; don't cry. "kalia, it was so nice of you to remember my birthday! can i have a hug? you're such a sweet girl, kalia."
she quietly sits on the other side of caroline.

katie walks in.
me: "hi katie!"
she sits on the other side of kaia.
katie: "sister joray, look at my sparkly shoes!"
me: "katie, where did you get such sparkly shoes?"
katie: "my mom."
me: "i like your sparkly shoes."

layton comes in. he sits in the last chair in the row, closest to the door. i look at him, smile and wave. he smiles shyly, hides his head. we play this game for a few minutes.
layton didn't cry, didn't ask for mom or dad. was just cute and smiley.

they were perfect. my perfect sunbeams. not one was crying. not one was rowdy. not one was being irreverent. just perfect.

we go to our classroom. i begin the lesson with an opening prayer. during the prayer i crack one eye open to make sure everyone was doing what they are supposed to; fold arms, bow head, close eyes. i was caught!!! "Amen."
nathan: "i saw, you PEEKED!! hahaha i like the prayers when you peek. "
i couldn't help but to laugh a little because it's true. i was peeking. i should be an example by not peeking. but i did.

i was in a good mood, feeling like i could take on the world. within minutes it turned to complete chaos!! i couldn't get through the first half of the lesson. i didn't feel like being grumpy so i kind of let things slide. someone was on the floor with a chair on her back acting like a turtle. another someone was climbing the window sill. one of them was stealing another one's chair, "he took my chair". someone else was lifting her dress over her head. while i was busy telling the someone with her dress over her head that "little girls don't lift their dresses up", the door opens, it's sister gorge, the primary president. whoops. she saw the mass chaos! quickly i try to pull it together. too late. i let it go too far already. "class, we have a visitor! how should we act when we have a visitor?" i received cooperation from most with whom i went on with the lesson, while the other few were being rep remanded.

well, needless to say they calmed down in time for a few activities and sugar cookies. i can assure you that not every sunday turns out this way, only the sundays when primary presidents come to check in. and this is why i may be fired.

it was a good sunday. my sunbeams were happy and i was happy.

we missed jacob, skyler, and morgan with us in class yesterday! we hope to see you next sunday!

we got dirt!

It's been some time since I've posted a real post. And this one won't be much, my apologies. We're not pregnant. Bruce told me I needed to update so people don't really think I am. No one is going to believe me when we really do decide to extend our family. Anyway, Bruce and I are going to build our first house. We are so excited! We have our piece of dirt and are ready to get the ball rolling. It won't be complete until December so we will move back in with mom and dad. We are kind of excited because it will be nice to be in a house again and it will also be nice to save up some money. I just have a few pictures of our dirt and some of my sweet nephews. I'll blog about it later. Sorry for the short and uninformative update.






home sweet home
our address will be 12708....
braddock lane
preston during his first soccer game. i cry at some point each game i watch. he's so big!
collin being a shark. it was hilarious! he's so cute!
porter-bug. don't you just want to snuggle him?

Good news...

We have some really good news! Sorry I can't write about it now. I'm running out the door for a meeting. Stay tuned though.

Tag!

How To Play This Game of Tag
Post these rules on your blog.
Answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog.
List:
3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random/surprising facts
Tag five people at the end of your post by leaving their names .
Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here it is:

Joys:
1. working on projects. I always like to be doing something...artsy or organizing...
2. Spring! The nice days in Indiana are few and far between. We must take advantage of the 3 days of spring here.
3. babies and toddlers
4. my sunbeams

Fears:
1. being trapped in something underwater or just being trapped underwater
2. driving between 2 semi-trucks on a highway and both of them coming into my lane at the same time. That would stink.
3. growing (excessive) masculine facial hair. I can deal with peach fuzz.
4. yeah, I agree with Melanie, public speaking for sure.

Goals:
1. find a house, buy it, and have all of our stuff packed up and ready to move at least 3 weeks prior to moving.
2. get to the point where I enjoy exercising and then do it...everyday.
3. travel the world

Obsessions/collections:
1. craigslist.com
2. mls #'s
3. organizing and cleaning

Random/surprising facts:
1. I like war movies
2. I enjoy cooking
3. I'm obsessed with getting on my computer everyday to look up random things

I'm tagging... Balls, Megan, Courtney, Ana, Miriam

Mini lionhead/ Newfoundland

This post may have gone on way too long and not that I want to beat it to death because my animals mean a lot to me. But for all of you who were wondering what Gus (the bunny from Utah) really looked like and I know most of you do... I found a random picture of him on my phone. Thank goodness for camera phones ;)

I am in love with animals. Except birds and cats. I don't really like them... at all. If money, space, and time allowed, I would have a zoo in our apartment. I can recall the first animal we "had" besides our dog, Brandy and our cat, Kendra. Yes, I said Brandy and Kendra. It was in our house on Stony Creek Overlook. Under our deck we had a "secret passage" there was a window in the basement and when you were outside on our deck you could lift a section and you could see into the basement. There is probably a name for this, I just don't know it. Anyway, there was a frog and a salamander living in it and they were our pets. Mom and Dad might not know about them. Then there were the 5 stray cats we took in and then gave away. The egg Natalie and I stole from the robin's nest at the north pool. We kept the egg in a brown bag under a lamp on dad's desk until it hatched, lived a day or so, then died. Of course, there was Beau. He was our dog and FAVORITE pet for 13 years. There was RD-lucky, another stray cat we fostered who got his neck shut in the front door on the 4th of July by a careless friend. Jacques, the box turtle, who "ran away". 400 goldfish. The 2 water-frogs who jumped out of the tank, down the stairs and later dehydrated on the entry-way floor. Our favorite fish were buck-eye, who was black and had HUGE eyes on the sides of his head and later turned gold, fatty, fatso, large fish which were supposed to be small (we ended up donating them to our neighbors' backyard pond). Now that I think about it, every animal we owned was supposed to be "mini" yet always seemed to grow 50 times its normal size. We had 2 mini-lops (rabbits), Demi and Chloe. They were sisters who eventually turned into cats and then had 2 litters (one was obviously not a sister but rather a brother or something) 7 bunnies in the first and 6 in the second, then THEIR babies turned into cats. When I say cats I mean they became the size of Lucifer from Cinderella. We kept Demi, Chloe and Dante, from Demi's first first litter. Then there was Trey, a bunny I bought while out visiting Brittany and George in Oregon. He was so sweet and little when I got him. Apparently he didn't do so well on the flight home because he was never the same and I hated holding him. He scratched too hard. There was Dexter, a stray cat I adopted in Utah. Gus, a bunny I bought in Utah and then had to get rid of. I think that covers it. Let me know if I've left anything out. I'll try to find some pictures of my loves and definitely one of the bunny-producing compound. I'll post them for you.

The pictures are in! I put them in groups of 3 so I didn't have to scan so many times. I regret to say that I don't have any pictures of any of the stray cats, the fish, the frog and salamander, the robin egg/bird, or Gus (the rabbit from Utah). But I have documentation of the ones that REALLY matter...Enjoy!

Beauuu. We dressed him up in doll clothes. He loved it. The second picture is when we first got Beau. They made me sit on a stool to hold him, I wasn't big enough yet... The 3rd picture is Beau cleaning up after the bunnies. He was such a good vacuum.

What a good dog! We would always get phone calls from people in the nearby neighborhoods, "We got your dog, he got into the trash again", "Okay, we'll be right there." Beau always knew when trash-day was. Shaking a box of Cheerios and asking if he wanted a "cookie" couldn't bring him back. Nothing was better than fresh trash. Little scavenger.

Demi and Chloe, before they turned into cats and before Chloe was really a boy. They outgrew their indoor cage and we had to build them an outdoor one. The second picture is Chloe...chillin. And the last is Demi. She was probably pregnant here.

The top picture is at Brittany and George's house in Oregon. George is holding Solomon (their bunny) and I am holding nice-Trey. We named him Trey because he was our 3rd one. Little did we know about Demi. The 2nd picture is mean-Trey. The 3rd picture is a picture of the bunny-producing compound that I promised. That was a pretty sweet set-up, I'm not gonna lie. Before our neighbors made us move the "eye-sore" it was bug free. When we moved it to the new location, it was home to many species.

This is Demi's 2nd litter. I have pictures of the first but people are in them so I didn't want to post them. They got big FAST! They are cute little things though. The bottom one is Demi with her kids. Poor thing. I got mad at her because she kept having babies. So I gave her away. I didn't realize the trauma she must have gone through. I guess I didn't understand she probably didn't like that arrangement anymore than I did. I feel terrible now. We didn't realize bunnies mature much faster than humans and we left Demi in with her babies too long...hence her second litter. Chloe and Dante liked to cuddle. We had to separate them because they kept fighting or something. So Chloe would hang out in the yard all day and come home whenever. He was doing so well that we left him out overnight. Some animal had him for a late-night snack. I was so sad.







Now I'm married and am getting anxious about my next pet. I really want a Newfoundland (dog). It's really big and expensive and we just don't have the time we would need to invest in an animal of that nature yet. Stay tuned. But yesterday after Brittany, Preston, Collin and I fed the ducks, we walked to Uncle-Bills. I was so excited because I never have company with me when I go into pet stores. As we walked into the store, my eyes zeroed in on the cage. It was like tunnel-vision. The lionhead rabbits!! They're so stinkin cute! So don't be surprised on your next visit when you are greeted by my new love.

As you see, it's fur resembles the mane of a lion. Don't hate.
So cute, so cuddly.

Red-headed boy not included. Just to give you an idea of the size of a Newfoundland. It's big.
Love it. Love the mange, love the slobber, love the eye boogs. Love it.

Old habits die hard.

I hate cleaning. I have this problem, and I come by it honestly, but everything has to be perfect. Especially when it comes to cleaning. I can't help it. While growing up, our chores would undergo a thorough inspection. If mom found that you tried to cheat by dusting AROUND the base of the lamp on your nightstand, rather then picking it up and dusting under it, you had to redo it. If you were drinking a glass of water and set it down on the counter, you must be finished with it. Because if you were to go back to that same glass of water, you would only find it in the dishwasher. I have done this to Bruce more times than I care to imagine. So, I told him, "If you are still planning to use this cup, put it to the left of the sink, then I'll know not to put it in the dishwasher." He is really good about putting it to the left of the sink, and I am really good about putting it directly in the dishwasher.
It takes me my ENTIRE day off to clean our small apartment. By the time I wipe down all the floors, dust, vacuum, clean the kitchen and bathroom, push the laundry through and fold it (sometime refold it), Bruce is home from a long day of work.
Can anyone help me? Not only do I wish I could allow someone to finish their drink, I wish I could allow a sink full of dishes appear, or for a few specks of dust to accumulate on our dresser. Maybe if I had kids or a project going on that would take my attention away from my compulsiveness. I will take advice from anyone. Thoughts? Ideas?

Projects

The nice weather has brought about a wonderful change in my personal life. I have the desire to do things again!! In the winter, the only thing I enjoy doing is sitting in my pajamas watching movies and waiting for a lot of snow. This past week Indiana had a little taste of spring, the sun actually came through the clouds...hallelujah!!! I decided I wanted to dig into the depths of my creativity and test some new waters. Paint. I refinished our stools and I painted a piece of wood for our family home evening boards. Oh, and I made a fruit pizza. Yeah for spring!

First you have to "prime" them...
Progress
Final product... it does look really good in the apartment. I know what you must be thinking.
Obviously we don't have any children...
We had some fruit we needed to use up...it was the ONLY way

Cirque De Sole

Poor elephant.
This elephant got across the balance beam. I was very impressed. I was so nervous for him. Can you imagine if he fell? Oh my gosh, that would be scary.

Tiger jumping through the ring of fire. The cats kept opening their mouths and their whiskers would separate and they would hiss at the trainer. I thought one of them was going to eat him.
again...
Look how BIG!
The elephants were amazing. I think elephants are my new favorite animal
He knelt at the end

You can imagine our surprise when the first act was introduced and 8 dogs appeared. And this girl was dancing for the dogs
Yes, that IS a poodle jumping through a ring of fire. haha, thank you dogs.
This trainer was MEAN. The second tigger from the right (in the foreground) wasn't cooperating and received a whip across the face. It was loud and it made me pretty upset.
The Siberian tigers were really pretty.
Here is a good picture of the kittens.

We went to the Shrine Circus last night. Not quite the Cirque De Sole, but a close second. We had a lot of fun. I think I cried like 3 times...At the circus? Yes. Why? Because the elephants looked miserable. They looked like they needed the assistance of a veterinarian. Badly. They were walking around in a circle giving rides to little children with sticky-fingers (you could pay to ride them before the show). I really wanted to ride one because it's on my "bucket list" but I didn't want to go by myself...The second time was when I saw the clowns who were old men in costume. Men who have probably defended our country at some time or another and are now dressed up as clowns to entertain. And the last time, I walked out to get Bruce to show him where our seats were (he met us there) only to be welcomed back to our National Anthem. I looked to find the flag and not far from it, Shrines saluted. I can't quite describe in words what I saw nor what I felt but I can say that in that moment, I was so proud to live in this country and none other.