100 dresses

3 Ne. 24: 10

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house; and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

We had our "100 dresses" enrichment night. It was a big success! If you haven't read this book, it is worth a family home evening to read and discuss. It is not very long and has a few sketch like illustrations.

It was a very moving night as one older sister stood and was brave enough to tell of her history as a battered wife from her first marriage. I was moved as she described her ordeal and realized how this simple act of gathering dresses had meaning.

Many of the women who leave to go to this shelter do so with nothing but the clothes on their back, and sometimes their children's back. The extra clothing they receive is essential so that no one has to return to the dangerous environment.

Our ward was hoping to gather 100 dresses for the local battered woman shelter. Many sisters went out into their neighborhoods and sent flyers to their neighbors, both member and non members. By the end of the evening we counted over 250 dresses.

The representative from the shelter was a bit embarrassed to explain that she could not take them all as they simply did not have space for them all. No matter, instantly everyone was brain storming on who might need them or where to deliver the extras.

what a great evening!

Sister Sarah

I am a proud parent of a honor student

we just finished up parent teacher conferences for Emily 3rd grade (age 8) and Morgan 1st grade(age 6). Our school requests that the student be present during the conference and help to describe the highs and lows of the school year so far.

Emily made a poster with sections to demonstrate each subject. She described in detail the topics they had worked on. She was so articulate! She did spend some time describing her field trip to UNR and the pooping turtle... Her teacher asked her what goals she would like to set for herself. Emily talked about working on reading and math and then she asked her teacher if she could help others in the classroom with reading. She had the whole thing planned out and how it would work! I was just a proud mama, she was really thinking about helping others.

Morgan struggled when school started with being attentive and focused. But her teacher said that since that time, Morgan has really turned around. She no longer is noisy and chatty but she also helps the others at her table focus. She mentioned that Morgan is asked often by classmates for help and Morgan never gets annoyed by the frequent requests. She is also reading at a 3rd grade level and is going to an excellerated reading group that is set up like a book club. She loves it.

I have to go to Enrichment meeting tonight and talk briefly about how I help my kids learn about serving, it is nice to hear once in a while that they are doing it on their own too.

I love my babies!

SP

engineer joke

An engineer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want." Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The engineer said, "Look I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's cool."

Milwaukee, WI

1. Very Cold

2. has great beer (I hear)

3. Kurt and Lynda Pyrah will be headed there to serve a mission.

For those who had not heard, Chris' folks had submitted their mission papers 5 weeks ago. Ironically, it was about the same time Chris' dad had his heart attacks. But it doesn't look like there will be any residual worry about Kurt's heart and they will be entering the MTC on Dec 1.

They are planning to take "flat" portraits of each grandkid to take pictures and tell stories of the adventures they have with the flat- grandkids on their mission. For those who don't have a clue what I am talking about, a "flat" portrait is a life size butcher paper cut of yourself and a photo for the head. Flat-Emily, Flat-Morgan, and Flat-Jacob are excited to head to Wisconsin too!

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's bobblehead

Ever since the episode that Dwight was given his likeness in a bobblehead, I have dreamed of how I might obtain the like. But in pricing on the internet you would be surprised at the cost associated with submitting your photos to replicate yourself in plastic miniture. So two years later, I checked to see if the cost has come down since the hype is subsided.

Unfortunately the cost remains about the same...I would even pay to just have my bobble head in jpg format...

A girl can dream...

October Photoblog winner

I am excited to announce the winner!!
Will B is the winner for his very artistic take on the "BOO!"

I will put the blockbuster card in the mail.

Boo (late)

I know its too late to submit this boo picture, but here it is anyway.

"Boo!" Hoo!

We wanted to sneak in one more "Boo" picture.

Don't you remember me?

So Autumn and Grant were up visiting this weekend. Friday night was obviously Halloween so the kids got decked out in pretty cool pirate costumes (I will post pictures as soon as I fix my camera) and went trick or treating. There was a haunted house so we decided that would be fun and went in to do the not so scary version. As we entered the dark smoky corridor a young man yells out "Autumn, don't you remember me Autumn? I was your third grade boyfriend Autumn, don't you know me?" and yes she rolled he eyes gave a half hearted wave to this poor broken hearted creature and just kept walking.

Nancy comes to visit Jim

Here we are at the Green River Lakes in the Wind River Mountains.