November 2015

I left my Alaskan home in Monday, and got on a few airplanes until I made it to Salt Lake City. How amazing they we can get on an airplane and be almost anywhere we need within a number of hours.

Our friend is taking good care of our animals and home and we are ever so grateful. It’s not an easy job and it’s so so helpful to us. Thank you Emily! When I left, I was a bit sad to leave the animals, and my family members too, but we’ll be home in a few weeks, just in time for the local nutcracker!

My plane ride was great. I slept, listened to good música, and read a super great general conference talk for 1996.

I miss Brazil. Well what I miss are the Brazilians, the people who gave me so much unconditional love, people who don’t have much but who are willing to give it all, people who make the best rice and beans seasoned with garlic and onion and some meaty thing probably, people who are humble, beautiful, and who have taught me to be more Christlike. I hope they all know how much I love and appreciate each of them and all they have given me. 

There’s one Brazilian lady, Isabela, who would tell us the English she knew. She had a tape and workbook or something that went like this: “I’m eleven….” and then “I’m eleven too!” And I love hearing her say that. I miss her. For some reason that plays on repeat in my mind “I’m eleven too!” And sometimes I even say it out loud. 

Speaking of more elevens, today is eleven eleven, Veterans Day! At school (3rd-6th) they did good things to commemorate and remember Veterans Day and I learned when Veterans Day first began! I forgot now, maybe 1919 with Roosevelt? Not sure though haha, I need to study up on my history!

Chris told me how he has national pride on this day, proud for the values that were fought for, and for those who served and gave their lives, proud of that old America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

11-11 is also especially special because you get to make wishes all day long! I used to be big into wish making, but I’ve forgotten about it the past few years. I guess my wishes all came true! :) At one point I’d wish eveytime I through a banana peel, since I ate so many bananas. I shall start wishing more and throwing good thoughts out there, because there’s still plenty of good wishes I can make. 

  Natalie and I made pie and yum!
There are many suffering in the world, so much suffering that I don’t even know about. I know we can make it through our pains though, and with God, we are capable of so much. I’m grateful for the freedoms we have here in America, and especially in Alaska, and I hope we don’t lose them! Either way, we’ve always got the freedom to choose. Oh! Also, when we obey, we’re free! I think I was listening to a talk from general conference that said that, how obedience to God is freedom! So let freedom ring, my friends.  :)

Yesterday’s Christmas light magic:

    
And today’s… Nice. They got knocked down. :( 

November. I love November. It’s a time to gather, a time to give thanks, and a time to prepare for Christmas! I wore a Christmas/winter sweater to church today and listened to some Christmas music tonight. It was delightful. I wore some nice blue tights too to keep my legs warm in the cooler weather.

Right now I’m in bed alone, wishing Chris was here to keep me warm. But I at least have our dog and a couple cats. They sure are nice to cuddle with. ❤️ I dropped Chris off at the airport tonight to go to an aviation conference in Texas. We’ll be apart for two weeks, until I meet him in Utah. We’ll spend Thanksgiving time in Utah, Vegas, and California, then we’ll be HOME for a good while.

It’s always hard to find someone to take care of our animals while we’re gone, but with good effort and the Lord’s help, it always works out. Still working on finding someone to stay here for the few weeks we’ll be out. I’m sleepy. Edel girl just jumped up on the bed to perfectly spoon with me! That’s nice. If only the cats will cuddle with me too. We shall see haha.

The animals, especially our German shepherd, Edelweiss, are plenty of work and make our house lots dirtier and so there’s always something to clean, but I love them anyway.

I miss Chris. He’s such a good cuddler and I love it and his love.  Here’s a sad airport picture. Funny that we’re not both looking at the lens at the same time, because Chris always gets on me about looking at the camera lens and not at my reflection in the screen hehe.

Here’s some catch up of the Last two weeks since being home from Brazil.

Not pictured: changing the cat litter (ugh), washing the walls and carpet from a dirty puppy that’s gets hair and dirt all over. Also not pictured: the unhealthy eating of unhealthy foods I’ve been doing lately (oops, time for changes), me not going visiting teaching, staying in bed late like a bum sloth, my skin growing more pale day by day, my cat getting fatter, our fluffy cat missing, and other minor and less minor struggles that we go through, but life is also full of these wonderful moments that are pictured.

At Katy’s 7th birthday party with loads of temporary tattoos and with my sister who is a great mom.

  Natalie and I adventure walking from the beach to home. Cats included! And check out those delicious fall leaves!

Walks with Chris are lovely. He always walks our dog Edel and half the time I don’t join, but if Piper is outside, she always goes haha. She’s such a spaz sometimes. Like right now as she’s attacking my rabbit fur! Turd.

  My mom, sister, and nieces and I hang out a lot and I love it so much. Here we are with a pile of Brazil stuff I needed to go through. 
Kiana’s Homer missionary farewell. She is such a gem and she and her brother create great music together! She’s off to the missionary training center and then to Italy for 18 months!

Watching a sunrise at 9:20 am, from my favorite perch of dead trees and stumps in the swamp.

Kindergarten teacher by day, sloth by night! ;) Sometimes I teach kindergarten, or anything else needed. I love subbing.

  I went to pick Natalie up from school with Edel. I took her a cookie too. It was so great to walk home together and she loved it. 
I had a special afternoon with Katy too. She was wearing all black because she and Natalie got in a fight and Katy said Natalie didn’t like black, so she wore it, hahaha. Here she is making an egg!

  Natalie and I played at her school playground and it was awesome. Super fun. I don’t want to forget how to play! On this day Natalie was wearing all black. Katy picked it out for her and it turns out Natalie doesn’t really mind black. 
Lots of good things in this picture. I remember reading that the number one need of a dog is exercise. We do what we can to exercise edelweiss and keep her happy. She’s a lot of work, but she’s a really good dog and I love having her here with me when Chris is gone. And when he’s home too.

  Fresh salmon from din din!
Seminary one morning. News flash, they changed some of the scripture masteries! Who did that?! It totally threw me off.

  We made homemade corn tortillas! They were delish and we had a yumm Mexican feast and rented movies or watched BBC stuff on Netflix. I love making food together and need to make it happen more often. 
I got a yummy salad when we went to our friend Richard’s birthday dinner put a bajikkion craisens in my salad. So I made a smile with it. I only like about five craisins per salad. How do you spell craisens or craisins?

  Super awesome clouds one morning. 

Beach walk to help Chris take a little break from being at work all day. He’s been working so much, too much, but it’s temporary.       Natalie reading! She had a hard time reading in school her first couple years, but loves it now!!
These moccasins…. Fixing them for Natalie’s Halloween costume.

  Katy dodging a picture because she got upset since she couldn’t do what she wanted on my phone. 
A drive by picture of beluga slough. Wow! Going to meet our good friends for dinner. Such beauty! We saw a bunch of whales in the bay too on our drive out to the end of the spit. It was awesome. And then I ate a yummy salad and tasty mac n cheese for dinner. :)

  I voted! For our bishop to be a city councilman. 

The best and pinkest morning sky I’ve ever seen. This is one of the only reasons I’m thankful for daylight savings. Otheriwse, daylight savings is silly silly. But today I was able to get out of bed and have loads of time before church. It was great! Our life is good and we are grateful. :)