the thing

This things grows outside of my apart. I'm taking the picture from the third floor. What is it?

Something real?
hmmmm.... ok
Tonight we're having a Halloween party and I am stoked because I am making most of the food. It'll be good and if your not there then your a square.
I had a midterm on Tuedsay which sucked because it was right after Iplayed volleyball and I was all hot and sweaty and I couldn't grip my pencil right because my hand was too sweaty so every paragraph has different handwriting because I had to grip the pencil differently to keep if from slipping.
The midterm is in film and I have the same teacher Tiffany had but I think he's kind of a weirdo because he always mumbles really quickly and quietly then starts laughing except only half the class understood him so only half the class will laugh so he thinks that we all didn't understand his joke so he'll explain it over again and we all just think he's crazy so we sit and stare at him quietly but he wont continue until the whole class agrees out loud that they understood the joke. He also explained to the class what the sound effects guy will use in order to get the sound of a babies head being smashed. We all though the was crazy but he explained it in detail. WEIRDO!
FYI I don't like seminary because my teacher thinks we're all decendents (spelling i know) of Nephi and that the Golden Plates are in a museum somewhere.

So there is my life. happy?

Its been a while...

So I have actually been meaning to do this for days but keep forgetting. Anyway here it is. Things are going good here. As Dad mentioned in the Hillyard Herald, Meric and I are looking into being foster parents. We submitted our application and had an interview with a social worker. She will determine if we are accepted into a 10 week course (starting in January) that teaches us how to deal with some of the issues the kids might have. The course is also designed to help us get to know the other people who will also be foster parents, kind of a support group. After the 10 week course, the social worker will give all our information to a review board and they will determine if we can become foster parents. Now when a child is taken from theit parents and placed into foster care the goal is to reunite them with their parents eventually. There are some situations where the parents either lose or give up all rights to their child and the child then becomes available to adopt. Our ultimate hope is to adopt, but even if it is for a little while we would like to give a child a good home. So that is where we are now. It will be a while before we know more.

A couple of weekends ago Meric and I did a volksmarch. Apparently it is a German tradition where you walk a lot and drink beer. It was a nice walk around a lake and we were encouraged to bring the dogs, so we went. It was a lot of fun and the dogs loved it. We got a stein for doing the walk and the dogs got treats.

Last weekend Meric discovered a new hobby, geocaching. For those who don't know it is kinda like a scavenger hunt. There are marker all over, you get the coordinates and you go find it. They are marked according to their difficulty. When you find it some have boxes where you take a trinket out and put a new one in its place, while others are just lists that you write your name on. Then you go to the website, mark found and write a little bit about finding it. I make fun of Meric for doing it, but it is actually fun when you find it.

So the other night Meric and I went out to dinner. We get our order and are enjoying our food and about half way through the meal they bring out our order again. We told the waitress we already got our food and she said "oh well, it touched the table I can't take it back" So we got 2 for the price of 1. Leftovers worked well for lunch.

BFL update: We are actually sticking to the diet and exercise! Well kinda, we haven't done our cardio days because we overdid it on our backpacking and volksmarch. Meric's knee is bugging him and my hip is sore. So right now we are letting our injuries heal, but I plan to start running again next week and we are doing good on the weight lifting. As I bragged to Tiffany and Dany, I made a great cheesecake that was diet friendly. Thats right cheesecake while on a diet! I am really enjoying trying new recipes and changing them around to fit the diet but taste good all at the same time.

One last thing. Meric and I got our tickets for going home on Christmas and I am not coming to Spokane. I was playing around with the idea of heading to Spokane when Meric headed back to NC but I didn't want to be away from him on New Year's Eve so I won't be heading to Spokane. Hopefully I can figure out a trip sometime after the 10 week course for foster care. (I can't miss a class or they will make me take it again)

Anyway I guess I have rambled enough for now. I know you all have a lot going on so blog about it!

Sooooo

I was just wondering.... do you remember when we gave our selves "Von Trapp" names? I was wondering if you remembered what every one's was?

hello everyone,
just wanted to say that I am pregnant and getting eloped to a guy named Joey.

have a nice day!

My Boring Life

Here I go. Not much is happening on my end but again I don't want mandy to make up things about me so I am going to make up stuff about myself. Its easier and usually alot nicer. My room is almost done with everything, I should have pictures at the beginning of next week. Dad and Ella were nice enough to paint my bookcase and I still need to paint the dresser this weekend.
I have been working with Tara and the kids as far as going to church and they seem to be responding well. It is amazing the things that Tara remembers even after many many years out of the church. Nae Nae is getting excited and as you know asked Dad to baptize her. I have been to the 2 lessons with the missionaries, even though I have usually just been in playing with the boys to keep them quiet. But the first time, Dule asked if she could say a prayer before I left, it was a very good prayer. We started off going to her Valley ward and then came to Shiloh Hills ward when grandma was in town but then Tara feels more comfortable in Shiloh Hills ward so we haven't been back to the Valley ward but the missionaries are from that ward. So I guess we will see how long this lasts, please include them in your prayers.
I am also hearing exciting things from my mission as well. A family that we reactivated in my 2nd area, one of the daughters who was living with her boyfriend, they got married and he got baptized. I saw a picture of them all dressed up for church and it made me happy. Mauricio, as many of you recognize the name, he recieved his first calling, 2nd counselor in the Young Mens Presidency, he is also getting excited to send in his papers next year. Also Juan who was my very last baptism in the mission will be recieving his endowments on the 20th. My companion who taught him with me and I will be going to our respective temples on that day to support him.

Anyway, thats about it. Its pretty amazing how much you can write about nothing. Love you guys!

Brand New

One of my favorite bands, Brand New, was coming to Portland. I have already seen them in concert twice but Robbie was ready to see them again so he decided to make a trip down just for the concert. He came down, bringing with him McKenna (who's never been to a concert) and his cute little girlfriend Kyrstin, also known as Go Go.

Of course the day before they get here I go home with the flu, but after a lot of medication and sleeping I was well enough to make an effort. I took Tuesday off (because I was too sick to go to work) and they arrived around 2:30. They took a little tour of my new apartment, we all sat and relaxed for awhile before heading out for a pre-concert dinner at Red Robin. Since I have never actually met Go Go face to face (even though we have been Facebook buddies for awhile now) it was a good opportunity to get to know her. Despite her apparent flaw of being fond of Robbie, she's very sweet and cute.

We then headed back to my apartment where Nic was waiting and cooking away. We hung out for a couple hours and then headed downtown. McKenna got a full flood of drunks, mosh pits and sweaty disgusting people for her first concert, but being the "trooper" she is, she ignored it all and just rocked out to the music. In the end, I think she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

We headed home where Nic made sure everyone was fed and happy, then we all crashed out almost instantly. I snuck off to work early while they all were still sleeping and this morning they rolled out.

All in all, it was a good visit.

PS: Click this link to take you to the sound that is coming from the ceiling of my apartment. Yep. you guessed it. I've got bats! My boss (who is an ER doctor) kindly informed me that if the bat gets into my apartment, animal control requires that I get the rabies shots no matter what. Yes, the series of painful shot in your stomach. I called my landlord and left a message saying "There are bats in my ceiling. I would like there not to be bats in my ceiling. Thank you". I am waiting to hear back from them.

Backpacking

Meric and I went backpacking over the weekend with one of Meric's coworkers (Cherice) and the dogs. The weather was great. Nice and cool and the rain held off until we were in our tents for the night. It got just a little chilly over night but not too bad.

It was a lot of fun but really hard. I am so sore I can hardly move and I have blisters on both feet. It is amazing how comfortable laying on the ground can be after walking for so long with a huge pack on your back. Sometimes we would stop and just sprawl out in the middle of the trail.

The dogs had a blast. Emmy and Lucy loved being the leaders and Lucy is great when you need a little help climbing up a hill. I usually was behind and Jasper was so cute and would keep coming back to check and make sure I was coming. It was funny cuz Cherice noticed right away that Jasper was a momma's boy and asked us how we got him so well trained, we laughed and said he just came that way. Lucy was Cherice's tent buddy, and as usual we have another person who would be willing to take Lucy if we ever decided to get rid of her.

In all we went just over 13 miles in 2 days. That is including the 1st mile and a half we went on the wrong trail. The trail started on one side of the parking lot, met up with another trail that looped back to end on the other side of the parking lot. Well at the start of the trail there is a road right next to it and we started up the road, missing the trail. After 1 1/2 miles we reached the end of the road at some camp ground and the trail went off into some bike trails. So Meric ran back to the car, got the map, noticed the right trail and drove back up the road to pick us up so that we could go back to the parking lot and start on the right trail. Kinda funny to do an extra 1 1/2 miles, but we called it our practice run for the real trail.

I attached some pictures from our trip. Jasper loves having his picture taken.

My cake

This is the cake I made last night... it's a triple chocolate cake mix, I put chocolate chips in that, a choclate whipping cream frosting and chocolate chips on top of that.... it's nothing like what devin makes but it was still pretty good!

ALthough the pics didn't turn out that great.....

Toby

Mom wanted me to post this picture of Toby all snuggled warm in his blankets! He's a very very lazy dog!

The Clutters

Okay Mandy, message taken. It's just to me, nothing exciting happens, so it's hard to find things to say.

But.......after reading the Hillyard Herald I have to set a few things straight. I am NOT a mean boss. I do let Lissy have time off. As a matter of fact I MADE her take time off to go on Dora's field trip. Okay, it's not like it hurt me. Either she would have been at work helping me, or on the field trip helping me. I mean it's all about me, right? Wait, I was trying to make a point. The point is that I am a nice boss and Lissy will agree with me (or she'll be fired!).

Anyway, so it's been a nice couple of weeks for us, Dora especially. Her dad has been in Arizona for 2 weeks, so she didn't have to go over there at all. It's been very nice, but went by too fast. He came back today, so Monday it will be business as usual. Although it's been since May that she's spent the night, so it will just be after school twice a week.

Dora was student of the week last week. It was a nice treat, kind of like being VIP. She got to lead the class in line whenever they went to PE or something. She also got to do a lot of other cool things. It also meant it was her week to do an oral presentation of a science experiment. I was proud of her. She had already done the research and found her project before I even got home and found out she had a project. She made a "homemade" lava lamp. It was pretty cool and everyone liked it. I bet she did great on her presentation too. She is still loving her drama class. They play fun games using their imagination and acting skills. She has her friends playing some of these games at recess now. Friday she went to Lutherhaven with Lissy on a field trip. Lutherhaven is an outdoor ropes place. They usually do a lot of "team" type activities dealing with trust and confidence. This is part of the yearly "care day" they do. It's a lovey dovey day where they get to know each other and learn about being a team, while also feeling special as an individual. The parents have to write care letters letting their child know how special they are. Dora had a good time and liked having Lissy along. Her favorite part was the car ride to CDA with Lissy and 2 of her friends.

Ella is the same handful as always. Like Dad said in the Hillyard Herald, we thought she was getting sick on Tuesday. She woke up sounding yucky and she said she didn't feel good. She was a little clingy too. She woke up normal on Wednesday and has been fine all week, so that's good. Her new thing is the WSU hoodie Jason bought her at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago. She absolutely loves this thing. She wears it all the time and looks really cute in it. The first week was pretty warm, still in the 80's-90's and she would still wear it all day when it was hot! Luckily this week was much cooler (50's-60's). I have to wash it almost every night because she wears it all day, every day! She's also impressing Aunt Lissy with her vocabulary, using words like strictly and especially correctly in sentences.

We've been working on getting the yard ready for hibernation. Jason got the yard all mowed for the last time and I got the rose bushes trimmed way down. Jason has been cleaning the garage to take down the air conditioners. It's also been nice with all the rain we've had not to worry about Dora's ceiling leaking. Thanks Mandy and Meric!!

Jason's also been cleaning the garage so he can get the stereo ready to play it's "spooky" music and he's making room for the fog machines to do their thing. Yep, we're getting ready for our 3rd annual Halloween party. He also bought new skeletons to decorate the yard. We were slowly cleaning it up last year and the old ones got buried under 6 feet of snow!! It was interesting to find hands and feet a little at a time as the snow melted! Ella is really excited for Halloween. She's going to be a unicorn, thanks to Mom finding Dora's old costume at their house. Dora's going to be a dementor, from Harry Potter. Basically she'll wear a black shroud and conceal herself under it. Should be fun!!

Today we took the girls and Grandma Shirley to Green Bluff. Ella loves apple cider. It was really cold and rainy today, so we didn't pick apples like we usually do. We went to Hidden Acres for apricot jam, an apple crumb pie, and two mini pumpkins for the girls. Then we went to Harvest House for their famous pumpkin donuts (thanks for getting me hooked Devin!). We also got some already picked golden delicious apples and some d'anjou pears, with of course some apple cider. It was fun, even though it was cold.

Okay, and sorry to end thing on a sad note, but I learned some sad news yesterday. When Jessica had come to Devin and Kristy's reception we talked about her sister Dee (many of you have met her a few times). Dee had a lump in her breast and was to under go surgery at the end of September. I didn't think much of it, no one did, because Jessica has also had several similar lumps under her arms. It's part of their screwed up bodies due to all the prednizone (spelling?) they've been on all their life. It's just something they have removed and then go on. Anyway, they did the surgery only to find out that the lump was definitely cancerous. So now their looking at the options. At the moment it's a year of chemo and maybe have a shot, or a year left to live. So anyway, it makes me sad for both of them. So if you all could include both Jess and Dee in your prayers, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

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Even Mandy will have to admit—that I’ve made a lot of comments!!!!!!!

I forgot to tell you...

So I forgot to tell you in my last post that Meric is evil. He made me watch Marley and Me and of course I cried. It was a cute movie, but I cried.

This morning got off to a nice start: 10 FREE Apple Pies. Yes being in the military has its benefits. Of course now we have 10 pies we need to eat or give away, but it is really nice. I guess they do this every year and will do it again in a month. They tell you a location and you wait in a long line of cars (it really wasn't too long of a wait) and when you get up to the pies they just hand it to you through your window or throw them in your trunk. Pretty cool.

Then we headed to Raleigh to go to Costco for some dog food. It was a good trip and when we got home our lawn was mowed! I was going to mow the front lawn (I take care of the front yard and Meric does the back) but I wasn't feeling well the last few days so I didn't get it done. It was a nice surprise and now something I don't need to do next week. But we still don't know for sure who did it.

Meric is off to Preisthood session of conference. It is kinda weird cuz it starts at 8pm here. So late. Our regular sessions are at noon and 4. So weird, so late.

Lissy: 1 blog is not going to be enough for long.
Kelli: Where are you?
Devin: Is this how it works? Is not enough we want to hear about how you are doing!
Dany: It has been a while since we have heard from you.
Dad: You do the Hillyard Herald so you are off the hook for blogging but I still want comments.
Robbie: Are you there?
Kenna: Keep up the good work! And I still haven't watched Supernatural.
Mom: Eventually the computer excuse won't work anymore.

Have I forgotten anyone? Write more, don't let this die! I am far far away and want to know how everything is day to day there.