I was too busy secretly taping my husband's music abilities and made up Christmas carols.
(don't worry...he stays in the shower) :)
I had the TV on a digital radio station that plays Christmas music. I had it turned up pretty loud so I could hear it over the blow dryer and suddenly Al started to sing like a crooner/opera man.
I had to run and get the camera to record it. I must say, it is pretty priceless.
He started to catch on when I asked him to keep singing.
I'm sure many of you are wondering if he knows I posted these...and the answer is yes, after much coaxing.
The month of November is full of Birthdays: Mom, me, Ashley, Alan, Grandpa P., many cousins, uncles, aunts, and friends. On top of all the birthday festivities this year, Alan & I hosted our first Thanksgiving for my family.
Ash, Craig, and Ellie came down on Monday evening to arrive ahead of the supposed "blizzard". Tuesday was Ashley's 26th birthday...the day the blizzard was supposed to hit Utah.
My work went into "official emergency mode" on Tuesday afternoon sending nonessential staff home, calling additional staff in, and mandating elective areas close down. Dialysis rearranged their entire schedule to meet patients needs with the anticipation that we would be unable to get to the hospital in the morning.
Of course, me being the preparedness Nazi, I made Alan fill our 55 gallon water barrel and bring the cat in the house. I got home right before the blizzard of the century was supposed to hit and we watched and waited.
The snow really started to come down, but it wasn't anything like the forecasters had said. In fact, because it was Ashley's birthday, we all piled into the Jeep and ventured out into the storm to go to GoodWood for some BBQ.
We didn't have the right number of candles for her 26, so we improvised.
Classic Alan face.
Storm of the century, my butt! The storm hit a lot harder in Idaho. The roads were closed until late Wednesday afternoon. Mom, Dad, Chris, Anne, and the boys came down Thursday morning.
We had room for everyone (8 adults and 5 kids) and the dinner turned out awesome! (I didn't even think about getting a picture of the spread!!) We had so much food! There were 4 pies, 3 veggies, turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and home made rolls. Yum!
Kiddos watched a lot of shows and played Nintendo.
They both look like they are in a trance!
The adults chilled and watched football.
Then they kids went a little crazy dancing with some butt shaking and spanking.
After Thanksgiving was over, we celebrated another birthday (a little early)....Happy Birthday Alan!
Again, not the right number of candles for the pie....Yum chocolate pie!
All and all, it was a great week. Best of all, I didn't have a melt down or freak out because something wasn't perfect. I think we might have to have everyone at our house again and this time have Kenny, Carrie, Noah, and Jack present too!
Yes, it is true...I'm am officially getting older. Man, it sucks. Yesterday was my birthday. One of my high school friends reminded me how I got a little "upset" with him when he call me a "young 'un" back in the day. I think his official words were "she gave me a mouthful". Who me? Give someone a mouthful?? Never...
On the brighter side, I took my birthday and the rest of the week off from work. Oh, it is a glorious thing. Sleeping in, reading a book curled up on the couch (wrapping in a blanket), staying up late...did I mention sleeping in??
I had a WONDERFUL birthday. I woke up to beautiful roses, my favorite candy, a new book, and a very redneck card that made me laugh and gag all in the same moment.
Al and I went to lunch and then went shopping. My Mom, Dad, Ashley, and Ellie Ru came down to deliver potatoes and visit my Grandma & Grandpa P. After they had lunch with my Grandparents, we met up with them for some more shopping. I had not bought new clothes in a while. So I was WAY excited when I found a dress, two pairs of pants and a shirt that I loved. (Thank you again to Mom, Dad and Al for splurging on me.) Did I mention that I've dropped 17 pounds in the last 8 months? Vanity got to me after the years of grad school and stress of changing jobs and I've diligently shed it all off and now am back to where I was when Al and I got married. Woo-hoo! Anyway, then we all went out for dinner. I spoke to my brother Chris and his family and made his two older boys sing Happy Birthday to me (separately) so I could laugh some more. I received TONS of well wishes via Facebook, email, text, and phone. It's nice to feel loved. It was a perfect day.
Al and I came home to find this:
Munchie, our crazy cat, has been sleeping under the foundation of our house throughout the summer. However, as it has gotten colder, we have wanted to make sure she was warm (and when we get our landscaping started we will be closing up her hiding place under the house). So we went and bought her this cat tower/house. We put a towel in the bottom to make it softer and warmer. We then put her cat bed in the top one. She curls up in it and just purrs.
Such a good kitty.
As I write this, I'm listening to a new CD (compliments of my sista that knows me all too well) of instrumental Christmas songs and sipping a cold Diet Mountain Dew. It rocks.
Can everyday be as perfect as yesterday and today? Please??
We are not dead! We've just been MIA for a couple months for good reasons. 1. We sold our West Jordan House!! Woo-hoo!!!!!
I can't tell you what a relief it is to have the other house sold. So long, WJ house. You served us well!! Now maybe we can get blinds at the new house. Blinds would be a bonus seeings how my entire family is coming to do Thanksgiving at our house! We are excited to host our first Thanksgiving and I'm hoping that this will serve as a motivator to get blinds ordered and installed. Keep your fingers crossed.
2. Alan had surgery AGAIN. He had his right shoulder scoped to alleviate impingement syndrome and he has his left knee scoped to clean up scar tissue from his previous patellar tendon rupture and repair.
These pictures are really grainy b/c they are from my crappy cell phone camera. Al was getting his boogie on before he was laid up again.
I was laughing so hard, I'm pretty sure I snorted a few times. :)
He is recovering quickly and will back to work around the first of December. He does PT every Monday and can't be up on his knee for very long before he has to rest/ice/elevate it. He's been a trooper...we just hope this is the end to a long string of surgeries. Bad joo joo go away!!
I road my bike down to the visit a friend in my neighborhood and on my way back home, I started to hear some music. I really couldn't tell where it is was coming from, but as I got closer to our house, I could hear an old Snoop Dogg rap song playing. The music got louder and louder until I knew where it was coming from. Our 50year old next door neighbor was out in his back yard working in his garden "jamming" out to Snoop Dogg. I started laughing out loud.
I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover.
Okay, so today in Primary, we were talking about "obeying the the law". We were playing a game where we asked each child a question about what they would do in a situation. We asked one little boy (the one that is loud and crazy) what he would do if he hadn't studied for a test and was thinking of cheating off the test of the girl next to him. He was so sure of himself as he said:
"You shouldn't copy her answers,
because they might not be right."
So we shouldn't cheat because it's ethically wrong, but because we might get the wrong answers.
We are so lucky. (No, I'm not being sarcastic). We have some of the best neighbors ever! I previously posted about the mysterious neighbor who took a weed eater to our front yard. I wondered then if it was an act of service or just that he was sick of our white trash unfinished yard. Come to find out, he is just a nice guy.
Last Friday (Al's day off), I walked into the office to see what noise I was hearing. Then I saw it, our neighbor was in our back yard attacking the wheat field we had growing. I said to Al, "Curt is out there weed whacking our back yard. You have to get out there and help him!"
I had to get both Al and Curt on camera attacking our wheat field. Alan is in gray and Curt is in red.
I spoke with the neighbor's wife, Kay, today at a baby shower. She said that he could remember when they were both working crazy hours and how her mother (his mother-in-law) would come weed their back yard and what a sense of relief he felt having one thing crossed off his list. So he wanted to do that for us. Seriously...
We have been so blessed to have the opportunity to live in this neighborhood where people aren't just nice to your face, but they each truly care about you.
We have had some crazy summer storms here lately. Each afternoon we are hit with black clouds and a down poor of rain. You would think we were in Oregon or something with how much rain we are getting. It took summer SO long to start this year and now it is almost gone.
We ended up going to the neighborhood BBQ in the rain (along with MANY others). It was a great time. They roasted a HUGE pig for the Luau and it tasted amazing. Despite the rain, many people dressed up (including us) and had a great time!
Does anyone else feel like time is just racing by? I swear we just moved and it has almost been a year (in November). Ugh...
I had a "You too" moment the other day. A "you too" moment is when you automatically say "You too" to someone. For example, "have a nice day" and without thinking we all reply "you too".
Brian Regan (comedian) has a skit about this and I totally fell into that stupid mode the other day at Costco. I'm waiting in line for the worker to mark my receipt before I exit the store. I bought a spiral ham b/c we love making sandwiches and just snacking on ham. (We are carnivores at our house). Anyway, as she is checking my cart against the receipt she starts to say, "Enjoy...." I thought she was going to say, "Enjoy the rest of your day" or something like that. I didn't even really hear what she said until I started to walk away. She had said, "enjoy your ham" to which I had said, "you too". I then had to stop and say, "Wait, you don't have a ham." (really smooth on my part).
Anyway, there is my dumb blond moment for the week.
We went to Utah Lake on Saturday with some friends (Kimballs and Carters) and had the most EPIC day! Our last adventure out to Utah Lake consisted of white caps and wind.
Saturday was beyond perfect. With it being a Utah holiday (24th of July), we were almost guaranteed to have many boats at the lake, but that wasn't the case. It wasn't that crowded and the water was glass. I haven't slalom skied on Utah Lake in YEARS, but it was so nice, I couldn't pass it up.
The Kimball's daughter, London, actually slept on the boat! What 4 month old actually sleeps so her parents can play?
London asleep on the boat.
Her parents (Kimballs) doubling on wake skate. I love Marianne's face!!
Some how this is the only picture I have of the Carters (Dan, Rachel, and Anda) all with their backs to me. I'm so bad getting the camera out. Note Dan Kimball's face as he body surfs.
Alan surfing. He had to take it easy b/c his knee is not back to normal yet.
Nikki surfing.
My boat driving skills are improving. I didn't even submarine the boat! LOL!
I'm not sure I can call today's events "snicker stories"...it was more of "I'm gonna smack you stories". At the end of 2 hours, Alan and I felt like we had been through the ringer. I was irritated, flustered, and even threatened with "Do you want me to go get your Mom???"
Brad (from previous posts) was trying to give birth to his suit jacket and was flailing all over the floor. Christian, another boy who only cares about treats and coloring, was punching himself in the face and suggesting that everyone punch themselves in the face for his choice action for "Do As I'm Doing". B, visitor from previous post, indicated that her family had moved and that she was going to be in our class EVERY week. (I'm trying to get her out of our class by pointing out that she just turned 5 and thus should be in the class below ours, but maybe I should just suck it up for 1/2 a year vs an entire year with her after the new year starts).
Alan was trying to have a kid help him read about Jesus feeding the 5,000. Alan had him try to read ALL6 verses. We lost all of them by the end of 1 verse. By that time we had already done "Do As I'm Doing" twice with each kid getting to choose an action. We handed out papers for them to draw and color a picture of how they can share and then played a memory game.
I fear we have become the white trash people in our neighborhood.
We haven't started our landscaping on the new house b/c we are still hopeful that the other house will sell and we can use that money to landscape.
We started telling neighbors that we were going for the desert scaping look. Our front yard had desert type weeds and an inch of rocks covering it. Our back yard has wheat that is ready to harvest. (not joking) I don't know if they understood that we were kidding.
We've had one neighbor tell us that we should get some horses to eat our back yard down and then laugh.
Last week we went to Lake Powell with my family. (I need to post about that too at some point). When we returned, we noticed that our weeds in the front were all gone. Someone had come in with a weed whacker and taken care of it. I question if it was an "act of service" or if they were just sick of looking at it.
I had tried multiple times to weed whack our front yard without success. The weed whacker is LONG and way awkward for a midget like me. Plus it was just stripping the weeds of their leaves and then the string would break. Maybe the nice neighbor saw me out there looking like a total moron and felt sympathy. Who knows...
Last night, Al decided that we needed to take more control of our yard. So by flashlight we were out there weed whacking, sweeping, blowing, and gathering the remains of our slaughter.
Everyone knows that Al and I are new to kids in large quantities (that's an understatement). We do pretty good with them but really don't have a whole lot of experience to gauge what is "normal" and "abnormal" behavior. Who knows, it maybe totally normal for kids to undress themselves in public or want to pick another kid's scab.
After the first couple of weeks of primary, our little angels started acting more like what we thought were little devils. However, the last two weeks we ate our words. Introducing the "VISITORS"....
The last two weeks in primary we have had visitors. Suddenly our little devils aren't so devilish. 1st visitor: Let's just call her B. B is 5 and appeared quite reserved for the first 5 nano seconds. Then she released the inner B which consisted of randomly singing out loud to herself or screaming for NO APPARENT REASON, or poking the girl next to her, or stealing crayons.
2nd visitor: We'll call her K. K was too busy the entire class dancing to really know what was going on. She would twirl around in circles and then fall off her chair b/c she was dizzy from all the dancing. I found myself almost laughing out loud (in a mocking sort of way with pointing and laughing) but had to curb it b/c I'm supposed to be the mature adult. Not really.
We still don't know what is normal and abnormal behavior for kids but think we will take our wanna be exhibitionists over the visitors.
Each Sunday we go to chruch we just have to snicker about some of the things the kids say or do. I think I'll have to post some of these that really hit us and will call them our "Sunday Snicker Stories" and introduce you to our kids (with fake names of course).
BRAD:
This week started out with Sharing Time and one of our little ones (we'll call him Brad for purposes of this blog) being DRUG in by one of the primary workers. Brad is literally dragging his feet and uttering protest of coming to Sharing Time. His arms are already out of the sleeves of his shirt and 2 buttons on his shirt are undone (tie those sleeves together and we could have placed him in a straight jacket...which might have saved us a little bit of drama later. Oh well...).
Of note, Brad is our exhibitionist. Each week he promptly starts to undress himself as he sits down in any setting. This makes Alan extremely uncomfortable b/c he is not our kid and he's just not too sure what is okay and what is not. So Alan starts to squirm. :) Alan had to sit by Brad within the first 10 minutes of Sharing Time because Brad had progressed to getting ALL buttons of his shirt undone and was talking to himself with his belly.
20 mins into Sharing Time and Alan has to escort Brad out of the Primary Room. I checked the clock and made a mental note. After 5 minutes of no return of Brad or Alan, I started to worry. Much to Alan's dismay, Brad had picked his nose so hard that he gave himself a bloody nose. Alan took him to the bathroom and had to clean him up. Amazingly, there was no blood on either of their clothes when they returned. Alan walked Brad back into the Primary room. Brad is fully clothed and is smiling. Bonus.
Brad sits down and immediately takes off his socks and shoes.
We make it through Sharing Time and head to class. Brad IMMEDIATELY takes his socks and shoes off.
Our lesson is about being a peacemaker in our homes. Brad is going CRAZY throughout all the activities and lesson. Random screams of unintelligable things spout from his mouth as he pokes the other kids and climbs on his chair. So not a peacemaker.
Onto coloring. Harmless right?? Not exactly. Suddenly Brad drops his head (very dramatically) and begins to cry. Now, I'm not talking about a few tears and mainly noise (like when kids are trying to get what they want). No, he had snot, a river of tears, and bubbles around the mouth. He yells, "They hurt my feelings". He is pointing to the two kids next to him who are suddenly very intently coloring their father's day cards. When asked who hurt Brad's feelings, these two look at me with puppy dog eyes as if to say, "Who me? I have no idea what you're talking about ...I would never...".
Okay, so the peacemaker topic didn't go over too well.
She looks like a docile and trouble free cat right?
WRONG!! This cat is absolutely psychotic. I swear she is scared by her own shadow. The slightest bit of noise and her ears twitch around and then she pounces off into a "hiding" place.
We kept her in the basement through the winter because we felt bad putting her outside in the cold. We thought she would run away or get lost. Then Alan heard there was fox in the area and that was the clincher...Munchie stayed indoors through the winter. He did not want Munch to become fox bait. I think us trying to be nice only made her PTSD worse!!
Now that she is outside, she has become even MORE psychotic (if that was possible). For example, a couple weeks ago, she went missing for a couple days (not totally abnormal). We started to get a little worried. I started to hear her meow, but couldn't find her. I thought I was hearing things. (Alan has horrible hearing and he could never her what I was talking about.) But then the meowing got louder and more frequent. I could hear her meows in the garage but then they would stop. I looked outside by our front porch and could hear her really loud. It started to sound like she was hurt.
After looking around outside for her, we thought she may have found a way into the house from outside. Alan climbed into the attic with his headlamp and another flashlight and sure enough she was on the back beams walking back and forth.
She couldn't climb over to us because the insulation was so deep. Alan had to climb over to get her. The crazy cat had gotten herself into the house and then couldn't get back out.
We're not sure how she got clear up there but we are thinking she got in by our front porch. There is a gap by the stairs that tunnels under the house. At least that is the only thing we can think of. We hope she learned her lesson because now she just hides out in there, but has not climbed up into the attic again.
When we get our landscaping started and finished, we will have to fill these holes in. Until then, we hope the psychotic cat will stay out of the attic.
So I written about my new obsession with food storage in previous posts and my obsession has ONLY grown (as evidenced by the pictures below).
I think we almost have a year in some things. I still need to get more water...but we are getting there. I love the independence and comfort this gives me.
The other night, I was exhausted from work, but starving! Cold cereal was NOT going to cut it. As I was driving home, I started to think about what I could make that would be quick, easy, and filling. I wanted my version of this meal my Mom used to make for us as kids called turkey tetrazzini. I didn't have to worry about having any of the fresh ingredients because I had them canned.
I was able to go to my pantry and pull out the above items and create a yummy and totally healthy casserole in under an hour.
I am a huge believer in food storage and LOVE learning to use it every day.
P.S. My brother and his family were in town this weekend and his kids drank my powdered milk and even asked for MORE.
Yes, at our house, we drink powdered milk and even kids will drink it!
By doing a good deed and helping the primary out a couple weeks ago, we were then officially called to be the CTR 5 teachers in our new ward. We were sustained and set apart last Sunday.
Here's to 5 & 6 year olds! Woo-hoo! Here come your teachers....who, by the way, act like 5 & 6 year olds on a regular basis.
For four years our bedroom has been an assortment of random sheets, pillows, and blankets that don't match. It has been low on the priority of rooms to complete both in our old house and now in the new house. It made me feel like I was still in undergraduate where I slept wherever/whenever I could.
I wanted a serious change. So, Ashley came down to help me shop for bed linens and create an upholstered headboard for our master bedroom. I knew what I wanted, but I was just a little nervous to do it by myself. I think it turned out really awesome!
Now if we only had blinds so we could take the sheets off the windows and furniture that matched... :) Here's to one thing at a time.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
To top it all off, Ash and I were able to find all the batting, foam, and fabric for the headboard ON SALE (50% off). The project ended up being REALLY easy on the pocket book. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do tufting on it. Maybe I'll do that later.
On another note, that same weekend, I banged up my car. I was being extra cautious not to back my car into Ashley's truck as I backed out of the garage and ended up crunching the front bumper on my car in to the garage wall. How dumb is that? Some days I'm a total space cadet. It didn't dent my car, it just took off a couple streaks of paint. It still made me sick to my stomach.
Our ward split this last month and the entire ward is playing "substitute". We got called last week and were asked to substitute teach primary...the 5-6 year olds. Eeekkk. Alan's response was, "you know we don't have kids right?" Ultimately we said YES and jumped in today. Honestly, I was actually scared. Who wants to look like a fool in front of anyone, let alone a bunch of kids?
We split up the lesson and were pleasantly surprised. These kids were awesome! They were smart, funny, and really entertaining. I laughed so hard. One kid actually told us that he was going to avoid the "treat" at the end of the lesson because he was trying to be healthy! What 5 year old refuses candy??? In the end he took one treat vs. the two treats that the other kids were allowed to take.
Who knew that Al and I could actually survive primary and enjoy ourselves. LOL!
Did you guys hear about this? Some small business owners, who want to stay anonymous, put up this billboard in Wyoming. I saw it on a Fox news program that we DVRd last night and I have to say I laughed so hard, I thought I was going to choke.
However, I think a democratic hex was placed on me as I was laughing at the George Bush billboard. I was cutting up ingredients for my yummy dinner (market street grill's clam chowder) while laughing at the billboard. As I got ready to dump in the rest of the ingredients into the pot I realized I didn't have any clams. Clam chowder without clams kinda defeats the purpose. So I had to go to Wal-Mart at 7PM just for clams. I was ticked b/c I just went grocery shopping the night before and tried to be super organized so I didn't have to do any of these runs again.
I get home and pull out my grocery bag and all I have is my bananas - - no dang clams!!! I drive back to Wal-Mart and show the cashier my receipt and tell her I didn't get my clams. Thank heavens she was nice enough to let me go pick out another set of cans and walk out with them. Unfortunately, because of my delays, we didn't eat dinner until almost 9:30PM.
On a side note, I started using a coupon method to grocery shop and am LOVING the receipts that say "YOU SAVED XXXX". So I have to brag, I saved $32.59 on my groceries this week. Had I not used coupons or shopped the sales my total would have been $63.17. But I saved 51% of the real price of my food! I even got a few things for FREE!! It rocked!!!
Many of you may not know that I spent some time in Haiti with a great group known as Healing Hands for Haiti in 2002 and 2003.
The group provides medical service (focused on rehab) to the Haitian people. It is an amazing non-profit group. I never served an LDS mission, but my brief time in Haiti felt like it was my life changing experience. I had never been exposed to that degree of poverty and devistation. I was instantly humbled. On both of my trips, I stayed for approx 2 weeks each time and although this time was short in the scheme of things, I felt like I had been subjected to a lifetime of experiences that I would NEVER forget.
I was submerged into a culture that, despite it's poor circumstances, had found happiness. They were thankful for the basics that I never thought about: food, water, shelter, and love.
I spent a good portion of my time in orphanages where a large percentage of the children were left on the door step by parents who could not take care of them and loved them enough to give them up in hopes of them getting these basics.
Some of the orphanages had better funding, donations, and were better equipped to care for the children. Others made me cry as soon as I walked in...children lined up in a crib with no muscle tone to even hold their own head up because they have never been held and they were extremely malnourished. The Healing Hands group kept medical records on each kid and I would find a chart, look at the actual age of a child and gasp because they were the size of a 2 year old but they were actually 8.
This scrapbook page is of a fairly decent orphanage in Port au Prince on my first trip to Haiti.
Nothing could have prepared me for the heart ache I felt for the children I met.
The little boy in the picture below is one such kid. He was in a very, very, very poor orphanage that didn't have much of anything. Most of the kids in this orphanage had other disabilities (MS and down syndrome just to name a few diagnosis.) They needed so many supplies and would never get them.
This little boy was so sick that he couldn't even move. I could hear from across the room that he was choking on his own spit. I picked him up and could feel the fluid in his lungs shake his little frame as he struggled to breath. He was also burning up with fever.
I had to leave him that first day without providing him any medical assistance. It killed me, but I didn't have anything to help him and I had to leave to get what he needed. I hoped he didn't die before I got back the next day.
I had no way to give him the antibiotics and nutrition that he needed because he couldn't swallow without sucking everything right into his lungs. I went back to the clinic and scrounged to find a nasogastric tube, but they did not have one. They did have ONE dobhoff tube. These tubes are much longer and are meant to be placed into the small bowel to feed patients long term. This tube was an adult size (way too long) but it was the only thing I had. I talked with the physician on the team regarding antibiotics to take back with me, dose, and frequency. The first time I placed the tube, he was so lethargic that he could not even fight or resist as it passed through his nose (which is NOT fun and is painful). I crushed up the meds and then gave him nutrition. At the end of each day, I had to remove the tube, take it back to the clinic, clean it, and go back the next day to do it all over again. I did this for over a week. By the end of the week, he had his eyes open and even resisted the tube going into his nose. I was ECSTATIC that he could had rallied enough to fight. I remember telling him over and over to keep fighting.
I never saw him again. I checked back with another team to see if he had lived to see another medical team come in and he had. I will never forget him.
A couple months ago, I started to think that I needed to go back. In fact, I had contacted my old roommate, Erin, and asked her now that we are both done with grad school if she would consider going back. I started looking into when groups were going etc. Then, of course, I got caught up in my own life (moving, surgery, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) and before you know it, Haiti is in the spot light and comes to the forefront of my mind again.
January 12, 2010 - - 7.0 Earthquake rocks Haiti
The ONLY thought in my mind was: how can I get over there to help?
I looked into every organization that I could find and asked if I could get on their team. Each organization already had their teams assembled and were awaiting safety clearance before they went in. I checked with Healing Hands and they too were on hold. I even signed up with the DEMPS group at the VA (Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel System). I was told that I would be put on the list but that the DEMPS groups are deployed by location to the disaster and that the Utah VA may not even go but that I was on the list. So I took their training, started to get my immunizations updated, and expedited my passport (I hadn't updated it since I got married and changed my name). I didn't care how I got there, I just felt like I needed to be there.
Then out of the blue, I receive an email from my cousin who had heard of a Utah group (Utah Hospital Task Force Group) getting ready to head over and they were taking applications of interested people. I signed up IMMEDIATELY!!
Over 700 people applied to go and I was one of 150 people chosen to go on January 27th for 3 weeks. I was nervous and had some reservations about it, but knew I needed to go. Then, my husband injured his knee and we were waiting to hear if he needed surgery. I felt so torn. I felt like I needed to be in two places at once. I had to withdraw my name from the group to stay in Utah and take care of my hubby. He had surgery the day the team left for Haiti. I know I made the right decision to stay home, but it was hard to say no to this opportunity to go back and serve. Senior executives at the USAID office said that this group of 150 people was a group that "appears to be more 'put together' than any team I've seen during my time here at AID."
I watch the blog postings daily of the utahhospitaltaskforce.blogspot.com. I encourage anyone who needs to get outside themselves to read the daily records of what this team is doing for our fellow brother and sisters.
I would also encourage anyone who feels like they would like to donate to the cause to do so via www.healinghandsforhaiti.org. If you want to have your donation to go to the Utah Hospital Task Force, just indicate that as you process your donation online. Your donation will help fund another plane full of people to go to Haiti.
I'm not sure how I will get over there...but I will. I don't know why I wasn't suppose to go with the frist group, but God made sure I wouldn't be there because he gave me an equally important person to take care of here.
I have mad love for the Haitian people and cannot wait to get back over there to help.
Lake Powell is our favorite place to vacation! We would live on a houseboat year round if we could. While we were dating, we spent 3-4 weeks out of the summer in Lake Powell.
