Holding the Scriptures

I have been doing most of my scripture reading lately from my laptop computer with the internet scriptures. I enjoy the ease with which I can look up multiple scriptures at the same time, instantly go to other reference citations and connect to general conference and Ensign talks using key word searches. Even with all of those advantages, there is still something special about holding a paper and leather copy of the book in my hands that cannot be replaced by the ease of the digital version. It requires no battery, plug or internet connection. The tactile sensations of weight, texture and the turning of pages adds an atmosphere to reading and study that a screen and keyboard cannot reproduce. I have decided to take advantage of my carrying case more and take this volume with me when I travel outside of the house.

A Major Award

It didn't come wrapped in a box that said "fragile" but I won this wonderful perfume collection yesterday at the PX. I've been calling it my major award since I never win anything! I thought I'd share it all with you, it's no leg lamp, but you know...

Girl Scout Cookies

Very few people can resist girl scout cookies, and we are definitely not among that group. Coming out of the PX we went right over to the table and bought a box of our favorites.

Twilight

Ok, so I have posted before about how much I wanted to see the twilight movie, but unless I wanted to see it in German, I'd have to wait until our AAFES theater got it. So last night was the night.

I went with my friend Angela and Andrea and Sabrina (and Emily who wasn't in the picture) to see it. It was packed an it was a good thing we went early because I think they had to turn people away because there wasn't enough seats.
Poor Andrea looks half asleep...but it was just the flash blinding her in the dark.

The movie was packed with 12 year olds who kept screaming anytime anything happened. I think I need to see it again before I can even say if I liked it or not, I couldn't hear half of it. But I liked the characters though. I wish there was more with Alice, she was my favorite though. Anyway, I guess we'll have a twilight party when I come home!

Mouse and Keyboard

Jeffrey loves to do everything that Mom and Dad do, so of course the computer is very attractive to him. We have to be careful do not leave the mouse or the key board out. He is quick to drop everything to and run to the desk if his radar detects that we have left even for a moment. To counter act this we have a second keyboard and mouse for Jeffrey to utilize. Some times he will put his key board and mouse up on the desk when the screen is left on and pretends to be working at the computer.

Paper Chain

To get us ready to go back to the US we have made a paper chain that we put up in the window. On each peice we have written something that we are excited for. There are items such as movie theater, Walmart, mall, Wendy's and other things that are unique to the US. Of course family is on their several times.

Just another day...

Jeffrey's facial expressions are getting so much funnier lately. He's starting to understand a scowl and this smirk that he has been making constantly. He's such a funny kid.

When he's excited he will wiggle his fingers together. Here he was excited to see himself in the back of the camera. (After eating a bowl of chocolate koala cereal for breakfast)

I know we've posted before about his fixation with all furry things, but this frog goes everywhere he's tackled, hugged, shaken and slept the poor thing silly.

This is why you don't let kids dress themselves. This was the ensemble Jeffrey put together for himself. It was topped off with dad's beret, and dad's sweater vest around the neck. He loves to do anything that daddy does, he wants to be just like him. He's even started saying "Cow" when Cory says "Holy Cow" Jeffrey just loves his daddy.

There is just over a month until we will be leaving Germany, and it's starting to hit me how much I hate to move. I hate having to say goodbye and knowing that relationships with friends change and having to leave your routine. But the benefits of being closer to home far outweigh the nerves of leaving.

Bath Fun

With my flash I am able to get photos that would have been impossible before because of limitations of lighting and movement. I am able to freeze Jeffrey's movements while he is playing in the tub when the only other light in the room is the overhead fixture.

Bath time is still great fun for Pop and Tot. As soon as he hears the water running he drops everything and is ready to jump in fully clothed. Some times it is hard to get him out of the bath he is having so much fun.

Soft Friends

It is a good thing that we have plenty of stuffed animals and blankets for Jeffrey - he loves soft things. Whenever he is cranky, tired, or just feeling blah a blanket and an animal can do wonders for him.

New Batteries

Jeffrey pulled this toy out that he has not used in several months and we put new batteries in it for him. I can see improvement in his dexterity since the last time that he played with it.

Battle Staff

In the Battle Staff course I am in I am learning how to make and read graphics and overlays, like the one I made displayed above. Using fine tipped markers on peice of acetate I can draw the symbols that represent units, equipment, boundries, obstacles, movements and actions. This is useful when you want to illistrate an order or get an idea of what is happening on the battle field very quickly. The see through acetate makes it possible to tape to a map to give reference to where everything is taking place.

The overlay above represents about three hours of work. There are very peticular rules about how things are to be drawn, what lines touch or do not touch and the proper color.

Crafty

So I've been busy lately with a few projects, but this is the one I've spent the most time on, it's the first half of our trip in Germany with my parents, you can see the rest of it on my other blog.

Evermore by the Young Dubliners

So this is my new favorite song, seriously. I'm all about the songs that make you say awwww, and this one is all Irishy too.

I've never seen Dr. Who (we don't get it here in nowhereland) but this was the only clip I could find. So if you do enjoy Dr. Who...two for one.

They can't all be good days...

...yesterday was proof of that. Jeffrey started out the day just fine, we got ready for church and were set to be ontime, just waiting for daddy. Jeffrey was fine through the opening song and just kept asking for a binky (we're phasing it out, just bed time and nap time now) but I didn't have one. After the sacrament was almost over he was sitting on my lap (we're those keep them on lockdown kind of parents) he started to throw up. I panicked and tried to catch it in my hands. Why? I don't know. But when Cory got out his rag and we tried to clean him up, he did it again. So I picked him up and started to walk to the back of the chapel. Poor kid ralphed three more times before I was able to get him to the bathroom, sadly on the carpet of the chapel too. He was covered, I was covered and I was trying to clean him up. Cory came out and we tried to get Jeffrey cleaned up, had to take off almost all his clothes and then had to decide what to do. It was one of those moments that now I can laugh at, but at the time I just wanted to cry.

Two other guys had come out by then and had cleaned up the spot in the chapel and the carpet in the hall. My skirt was covered too so they helped me get cleaned up too. This is the first time Jeffrey has actually thrown up and let's just say I hope it doesn't happen all that often.

He was really not doing well yesterday though, couldn't keep anything down. I was worried (after a few more sick episodes at home) that he'd be dehydrated before the bug had run it's course. Germans are not 'in and out' people when it comes to the hospital and the prospect of spending the better part of the week with him there wasn't great. But he is doing better now.

So much better that already today he has (a) taken the DVD player off the shelf in an attempt to figure out the cords, (b) broken the screws on the utensil drawer after opening the child lock on it and (c) drawn a mural in dark brown marker on the wall. I think mommy's going to have some mommy time when daddy gets home from work.

Jeffrey's New Game

While I was cleaning up around the house today Jeffrey jumped in an empty laundry basket and I took a minute to give him a ride around the house. I tried to walk away but he signaled to me that he wanted more so I ended up spending about five minutes giving Jeffrey a laundry basket speed race around the house.

A while later he took me by the hand and lead me around the house for another five minutes. He took me from room to room pausing only long enough to choose his new direction.

Tricia helped me take these photos when she came home by getting Jeffrey to smile big and putting him back in the basket each time he jumped out.

A Visit from the Plotts

Our friends, the Plotts, have been gone for a very long time in different parts of the world and we were glad to see them return when we met up with them at church. Tricia made a great chicken and rice dinner last night and we invited them to join us. We have not invited a lot of guests to our home, but we always enjoy a visit with Dave and Holly.

After dinner our entertainment was a round of Kabooki on the Nintendo Wii. Jeffrey joined us with the second controler and kept himself busy.

Kahlil Gabrahn wrote in his book, "The Prophet," your friends are not those people that you spend time with when there is nothing else to do, but those you spend time with when there is everything to do.

Never Ending Wash

How can three people produce so much laundry to do all the time?! I enjoy cleaning the house for short amounts of time. It is quite relaxing to create order and makes it so that though the house may be messy in some rooms on some days it is never dirty. The one thing I have not been able to bring myself to enjoy is folding laundry. I can sort it. I can wash it. I can dry it and put it in a basket. I have an exceedingly hard time bringing myself to fold it. I do enjoy neat drawers and have an organization to how my pants are stacked in the closet, but the actual folding gets me. The worst is Jeffrey’s clothes. They are so tiny it takes a lot to create a full load of laundry, but then we are left with a stack of small items that seem to take the better part of an afternoon to fold.

Because I procrastinate the folding of clothes by the time I get to it another batch has built up to be washed which creates an illusion of never ending clothes to be washed, folded and put away. Stop the insanity!

Face Book

Tricia finally convinced me to join the 21st century by getting a Face Book account. I was amazed at how many people that I have not seen in years also have Face Book accounts and I was able to connect with them. A few months ago I missed my 10 year high school graduation reunion being here in Germany, but I was able to find many of the people that I would have liked to have seen via the web.

Utah.

So peeps, just 8 short weeks (or so) until our return to the good old US of A. We're more excited than 8 kids in 8 candy stores. We have a little bit of our time planned out, but what we really need to know (or I really need to know) is all the new places to see, shop at and eat! Plus fun things we can do with an almost 2 year old.

One In Thine Hand

While studying with the "Preach My Gospel," I came across a section on how the Book of Mormon and Bible support each other. Several scriptures were sited from the Bible that allude to the Book of Mormon, if you know to look for them. My study took me to a talk by Elder Boyd K. Packer way back in 1985 when the new addition of the scriptures was introduced. Although his talk is directly about how to use the new scripture study aids, he makes a very strong connection between all of the scriptures and shows how our modern day cannon of scripture fulfills the prophsey of Ezekiel recorded in the Old Testament.

Take Two of These and Call Me In the Morning

Tricia has been feeling sick these last few days so I made her some chocolate chip cookies. This is actually the first batch that I have cooked that turned out well.

Organized

The more we clean out our house in preparation to leave Germany the better it feels all around. It is so easy to collect a large amount of small, inconsequential, not needed items. The extra things that you say to yourself you should save in case you need them one day in the future build up. Once the 'future' has arrived it is time to make an assesment weather those things need to go away.

Aer Lingus

Tricia picked out this air plane from the Aer Lingus catalog that we were browsing through on our flight to Ireland. Jeffrey plays with it all around the house all the time. He likes the take off and landing noises it makes when you press the button on top.

Getting Ready to Leave

Professional movers will be coming to our home to help us pack and move, but Tricia and I have decided to go through all of our stuff before this date so that we can give away the things that we have not been using. The criteria is that if we have not used for the last three years here we will probably not use it in Colorado leaving no use in packing it up and sending it half way around the world to continue to not be utilized. It feels good to let things go that are of no use to us any more when we know people who could benifit from these items right now.

Jeffrey has a body

My friend Amy always does a Sunday Sunshine post. I'm not going to copy her, but I'll share what we enjoyed on this Sunday. Jeffrey is LOVING nursery. They've only ever brought him to me once at the end because he was so tired. (I can't stay in with him because I've got to get up to the primary and Cory is usually filling in somewhere so he can't be there either, we're those dump and run parents, hehe). I think he really likes his nursery leader and we're going to miss her, but she's moving to Colorado Springs too so who knows, we may run into her again.

Apparently today they talked about how they all had bodies, just like Heavenly Father. We talked about the same thing in Sharing Time and how we needed bodies as part of the plan of salvation. I'm afraid I scared a few of them at the end with the kingdoms, but it was fun to actually be the first one to teach that to some of the kids. I will miss my primary when I move, there are so many of them and they are so excited about life and the church that it's fun to see.

Jeffrey on the Phone

Jeffrey loves to talk on the phone. He has several toy phones, but nothing is better than having a chance to talk on a real phone when someone is talking to him on the other end. Here he is talking with Grandma Whittaker.

Happy New Year

The Morris's invited us over to their home to celebrate the New Year along with many of our mutual friends. The kids went into a room to watch kid movies and all of the adults enjoyed a fun night of games and conversation. At midnight the Germans light it up with fireworks from their back yards and many of the Americans that live off post love to join in. During the fireworks display we toasted each other with sparkling cider and wished each other well for the year coming.

Jeffrey and His Train

As I was at the computer doing some work I heard Jeffrey coming down the hall dragging something with him. When he came around the corner he had his new train set that we had put in a plastic bag with him. It was obvious that he wanted to play and moments like that are not to be passed up.

I was impressed with Jeffrey's ability to put the tracks together. Of course he was not making anything resembling a circle that would connect at any point, but he did understand how each piece connects and showed a delicate dexterity with his ability to move the trains along the track gently avoiding train wrecks by being to rough or fast.

Christmas Memories and Jewelry For Sale

Here are my recent projects for sale, the left three are $5 each and the one on the right is $8.

The left one is $8 the right two are $10.

This was Cory's late birthday present from my mom. Um, hello? Cutest thing on the planet for Jeffrey? Jeffrey's says "Mess Duty" and Cory's says "Grill Sergeant".

Cory got a new tripod for Christmas, he's already used it tons!

Jeffrey and me opening up a present from my friend Mistee. He was only sort of interested in presents this year.

I just love his feets, reminds me of my brothers.

Jeffrey thought Christmas was done after opening this present up from Santa (Santa only brings small gifts for our stocking in our house). He loves them though!

Happy New Year!!

Cory and Jeffrey fell asleep before midnight, but both woke up in time for the fireworks!

Jeffrey did not like the fireworks! Can you see his "scared, scared" eyes?

We spent the evening last night with our good friends, The Morris Family celebrating New Years Eve. We had so much fun and enjoyed the time spent with the people we'll miss in Germany, but what a way to ring in the new year, one which will bring us back to the US and include even more good memories!