Christmas 2009

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get update the blog. We are well into the new year now but I wanted to just show a little bit of what Christmas was for us. I found a fun recipe and cookie cutter when I was on vacation with Kelley in Washington last summer and so the dogs got homemade biscuits for Christmas. They seemed to love them!

The ward party gave us a chance to visit with the bearded guy!

Mark and I wanted to invite the spirit of Christ more into our Christmas celebrations and so we planned a time after Christmas Eve dinner to listen to stories and music to celebrate the birth of Christ. Each family contributed in their own way.

The girls sang "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and also "Happy Birthday". Wendi and Matt played "Silent Night" for us on the guitar and keyboard.

After the program, we went as a family to view lights.

Christmas Day we spent with my family. In the morning we started with a big breakfast and some spiritual thoughts. Watched some old family home movies. Opened gifts and then prepared dinner. Every year I make an ornament for our tree and sometimes it represents something that happened that year. For 2009 I wanted to remember that Mark became a CPA.

We were delighted to have the Elders join us for dinner! A little later on we started up the fire out back and roasted marshmellows. It was a wonderful holiday for us!

Humanitarian Donations

With a devastating earthquake in Haiti, there has been a big push and tons of advertising to donate to help with the relief effort. We know there is always a need for help everywhere at all other times. We do pay our tithing and our income taxes. Still right now we should consider to donate today whatever we can, big or small. I always have a hard time trusting so called nonprofit or not-for-profit organizations and how much truly goes to fund the actual charities.

I have found a solution. Our church, the LDS Church, has a website called LDS Philanthropies. All donations (100%) are released to actual efforts, and none (0%) to administration expenses (as those other organizations have high administration expenses). I have had two links on the right-side toolbar of this blog - one called "Humanitarian Donations" and the other is the icon named donate online.

Please check out the website directly:
https://secure3.convio.net/ldsp/site/Donation2?df_id=1280&1280.donation=form1


This is the message after I donated:

We are grateful for your donation of $xxxx to Humanitarian General Fund.

We appreciate your efforts to make a tangible difference in someone's life, and to bless the lives of others around the world. 100% of your donation goes to help those in need.

Sincerely,

Humanitarian Services

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Goodbye Scott

Mark's closest sibling Scott leaves tomorrow for Santiago Chile to be with his wife and three boys which have been living there since this summer. We have missed the family dearly and there will be a bit of an empty feeling as long as they are gone.

Saturday night we spent some time visiting and hanging out.

Mark and his siblings in order of birth (minus the youngest child who was not present for this photo).

Jacob Is Here

This is my good friend Sandy and her son Jacob. We have been friends from the very beginning of our journey in owning The UPS Store. We went through training together and stayed close friends ever since. Last year Mark and I went on vacation to Washington DC with her and her husband. Jacob was born Thanksgiving day and a week and a half later I had the opportunity to spend three days with them at home in Chandler. It was so much fun! Changing lots of diapers, getting urinated on several times and getting up in the middle of the night made me even more anxious to have my own!

Poor Skipper

Our poor Skipper had this awful cyst appear about 8 months ago and it grew to be the size you see here about two months ago. We had Skipper's teeth fixed which ended up removing nine teeth and they cut the cyst out at the same time. The vet did a great job and he has recovered well. Luckily the teeth removed were all front teeth which he does not use to eat with and so there has been no change in his diet.

With his surgery the day before Thanksgiving, Skipper had lots of people to comfort him through recovery.

Yipee! Mark's A CPA!!!

I know most of you already know this and I'm a bit behind on updating you all but here is Mark holding THE CERTIFICATE that we've all been waiting for. After years of hard work...he gets a piece of paper and the right to put 3 letters behind his name. Worth all the time and every penny!

To celebrate, Mark chose to eat at Texas Roadhouse.

History Comes To Life!

Yes, another vacation.....and our first stop was the Museum of History in Raleigh, North Carolina. There was a special exhibit on the history of Pirates with a focus on Blackbeard. It was very interesting. One of the sections of the museum replicated an old fashioned drug store. A couple weeks ago we ate at an original store like this in Liberty, Missouri. It was actually where President Truman worked as a child.

Before leaving Raleigh, we spent a couple hours at the temple there. This is now the 21st temple that we have been through!

The next day we drove 3 1/2 hours north to Williamsburg, Virginia to spend a couple days exploring the preserved colonial city. There was so much to see and do. Getting there a bit late the first day we headed to a tavern for some dinner and entertainment and then on to a one hour presentation about pirates and Blackbeard.

The next day we spent touring buildings and visiting the workstations of many of the tradesmen.

This is inside the Capitol building.

Here we are learning about the many purposes of the tavern in the mid 1700's.

This building is the governor's palace which was lived in by whomever filled the position at the time. Wow, it was gorgeous!

The kitchen at the governor's palace. These meals were actually made here in this kitchen to demonstrate how it was done as well as what kind of foods they would have ate.

The next day we spent some time at Yorktown, just 20 miles or so from Williamsburg. This was the site of a major battle in the Revolutionary War. This camp re-enactment demonstrated the way the men lived at camp.

Cannon demonstration.

Back to Williamsburg. Every day they bring the activities to a close with this march.

Some of the trades people we enjoyed learning about include:

The Carpenter

The Wig Maker

The Blacksmith

The Wheel Maker

The Shoe Maker

The next day we spent a couple hours at Williamsburg and then drove to Jamestown, Virginia (again about 20 miles from Williamsburg). Jamestown is the very first settlement made by the English on the North American continent. Here we walked through the recreated English settlement, explored the recreated ships and a Native American village from the .

That evening we were signed up to learn about the role of dancing to people of society in the 1770's

Being our last night there we splurged and went to a second show which was a one hour re-enactment of a which trial that ocurred in 1704. We sat in the jury box and participated in the hearing. At the end we, along with everyone else in room, got to vote on the outcome of the trial. Mark and I voted opposite each other.

Halloween Night

We took many of the decoration that were set up in the house and back yard and moved them to the front in hopes we could scare a few of the trick or treaters...and we did.