Going into battle!

Well today was the first day I had to go to church all by myself! Yeah I know, whiner! But I've been really nervous. In our old ward we gratefully had my mom to play with and help with Merik during sacrament meeting but in our new ward it literally takes everything out of both Pat and I to keep Merik under control and not screaming and to keep Karma-who's nap time is during the meeting, from melting down. So today as a single mom I marched into battle backpack in tow but with a secret weapon, a new mr. potatoe head! Thanks to the many prayers of Pat I'm sure, it worked and we actually made it through all of church! I am so grateful that we did it one, and two that its over!

This week was a typical busy week! Not much to report, but Merik did get his first spanking! He ran out into the middle of the street, so there it was a valid spanking, but I don't know if my neighbors who I'm sure saw the new crazy lady beat her little boy in the road would agree. Don't you love kids?

So many freedoms we don't often see

Many of you know I spent 4 months teaching english in Moscow right before I got married. I lived with a wonderful family Tonya (the mom) and Dima (her then 16 year old son). Sadly Tonya passed away almost a year after I left but I have kept in close contact with Dima and love him dearly; he is my 3rd little brother! We were talking the other day and I expressed my deep desire for him to come visit me here in the states, something we've both dreamed about since I lived there. He explained they have 2 passports there, one that allows you to travel inside Russia and one that allows you to travel outside of Russia. To obtain one that would allow you to travel outside the country you have to be over 29 or serve in the military. No way around it (well, legal way!) Serving in the military in Russia is a very scarey and dangerous thing. They are not well taken care of and for someone like him, who has no family, its a fear that he'd be allowed to be in more dangerous parts because there's no one to miss him if something happened. (That is how Tonya explained it to me when I lived there!) I so often forget and take for granted the freedoms that come with being an american! We can leave when we want, he is litterally not allowed to leave the country. At a recent fireside I attended a South African man who had served as a mission president here in Colorado talked about the whinny attitude Americans seem to have! "You are richer than 95% of the world" he said! Think about that! 95%!! He also pointed out that every news program you turn on is complaining about something, blaming someone, when we have nothing to complain about! We complain about katrina and the trailers not being provided in time-THEY GOT TRAILERS? Our country is amazing and he told us it is so because we are a nation of action. When a natural disaster occurs we don't hope they survive we take work off to travel there to serve.
I know I seriously take for granted the things I have just because of my address. There are so many blessings that come from living here that we don't even realize we have because we're so far from the rest of the world. When I spoke to Dima I remembered! We have so much!

Merik's art project

Don't you love the decor of our room? Did you notice the stripes on the wall that took forever?? Oh wait, that's not what you're noticing? You're wondering about the lovely towels on the floor? Oh, you don't think they quite match? Hmm, I'll take that into consideration.



Oh wait there's a reason they're there! Yep, you guessed it, that big white spot...PAINT!!!! Are you kidding me?

Merik was playing, stepped on the paint can and it tipped over and popped the lid off. I immediately started hyperventilating, appropriately so, and Pat-thank heavens-just walked over and started scooping it up with a dust pan. Merik was so sweet and came over and started rubbing my back saying "paint make mommy sad" "its okay mommy, be fine". Well I was determined to clean it but in pat's wisdom he convinced me it was hopeless!

I guess its officially home!

Yeah Yeah Yeah, I know what you all are thinking!

Karma at Christmas!
Merik at christmas with his new Bicycle (the only thing he asked santa for-really! And he didn't even know we already had it!
Home swee home! (and the inspector's truck)

Hello Long Lost Blogger World! So things got really hectic and our computer crashed!-See I do have an excuse! Yeah, got to love that! Hence my leave of absence from this wonderful outlet of life. Things are fantastic and we feel so incredibly blessed! Merik turned 2 in Dec and is an absolute handful/hilarious joy in our lives. He says the funniest things but definitely is learning how far he can push his limits, which sadly for him, isn't very far! Karma is still adorable and still slow. We took her to her 9 month appt and again they told us to bring her back in a month for re-evaluation if she isn't doing a laundry list of tasks. Whatever! If the girl wants to chill her whole life away who cares!!!
Our biggest news surprisingly isn't a growing belly this time, its a growing environment!! We bought a house. It was an incredible and spiritually uplifting experience. We decided in January we were finally ready to get serious about expanding our ever suffocating walls. We began to look and houses with no prevail. I was obviously stressed about the location and just felt overwhelmed at the prospect of choosing where our family would live for the rest of our lives! How are you supposed to make that decision. So like all other overwhelming decisions I am faced with I decided I couldn't make it. I knew with the magnitude of how it would affect all of our lives surely the Lord would help. After much praying and fasting and much searching our realtor called and said he wanted to take us somewhere different from where we'd been looking. I was game! The minute we walked into the house Pat and I both knew! It was awesome. It felt like we'd always lived there and the spirit was almost waiting for us. Then we got to see the house and around every corner was something more than we'd ever dreamed we'd live in, let alone live in right now! We were so taken back and litterally just laughed as we walked from room to room exploring. Now that we're living here we keep discovering things that are just beyond what we would've put on our "build our own house" wish list, let alone "go find an existing house" wish list! We feel so humbled and so blessed, words just can't describe! Its amazing.
Moving into a much larger space has created some interesting situations however. I am constantly searching for Merik! I'll yell to him and ask him where he is and his answer is always the same..."right here!" like that helps! Its so nice to have a place to call home and its so fun to decorate-overwhelming, but fun! Maybe someday I'll actually be able to take a minute and hang something on the wall!
We are so excited and just so thankful!