Sunday, June 07, 2009

Taste of Freedom

I am at my parents' house ALONE! Noah fell asleep while I was nursing him and when I put him down on a blanket in the living room, he stayed asleep, so I left without him. Hopefully, he will stay asleep or wake up content to be with Matt until I get home. It is so quiet here. :-) I came here to pick up Eleanor's backpack that she left here Friday. I couldn't leave without updating my blog!

Our Friday evening was fun. We ate yummy chicken fajitas and brownies and then we cleaned up before watching "Wipeout". The kids LOVED the show! Zach played by himself at the beginning of the show and then he came into the kitchen, where the computer is, to ask me a question. The show caught his attention and he laughed and laughed along with the rest of us. It was cute to hear Kate laugh and talk about everyone falling into the water and even Noah laughed because that's what everyone else was doing. Now the kids want to watch the show with us every week.

On Saturday morning, I met Peter (President Dauk), Tiffany, and Nathan at Hannaford in Bucksport to head to the temple. I had no intention of going to the temple until Noah was 1 year old and could be left behind, but ever since this temple trip was announced, I have felt like I needed to go. I would decide to go and then talk myself out of it, but then I would hear a talk at Stake Conference or something would be said at church and I would make up my mind to go again. Well, a couple of Sundays ago I was back to my decision to not go when Tiffany announced to the Relief Society that if someone wasn't going because they needed a babysitter then she would be willing to stay behind to babysit. I couldn't leave Noah behind, so that wasn't going to work, but then she added that she would also be willing to ride down and babysit at the temple. I knew right then that she said that for me, so I talked with her about it after church and I committed to going and didn't change my mind again. I worried about how Noah would do during the ride and with Tiffany while I was in the temple, but I had nothing to worry about. He did great and the Dauk's 5 year old son, Nathan went with us, so Nathan and Noah had each other to play with. It really worked out perfectly. Noah cried himself to sleep once on the way down and once on the way back, but he didn't cry for too long either time before he fell asleep. He loves to nurse when he is tired, so I worried that he would just cry and cry and cry when he was tired and we were in the car, but he didn't. Nathan said that Noah was being so good that day because Noah was at the temple and I think Nathan was absolutely right. Noah was very good for Tiffany while I was in the temple. It was a beautiful day, so they were able to be outside in the sunshine and enjoy the beautiful temple grounds. I was nervous about doing baptisms for the dead since I haven't done any since I was a youth, but I felt like I needed to do the baptisms and confirmations for the 2 female names that I had brought to the temple. The male names I brought with me were done as well. On the way home, President Dauk mentioned to me that when we did my family file names, he had a strong impression that the people were near. I felt the spirit many times during the trip. Today during testimony meeting, Tiffany said that she knew I was supposed to be at the temple yesterday. When she was on her way out of the temple, she stopped to talk with a sister from our stake. Tiffany told this sister that she was on her way out because she was mainly the babysitter for the day and when Tiffany said that, she felt the spirit strongly. I was supposed to go to the temple yesterday and I went and I'm so glad I did. It is always a long trip, even more so with a baby in tow, but it is always worth it.

Matt and the kids had a very busy day at home getting things ready so we can plant a garden.
The soil was delivered.


Our grass has been growing and growing since the lawnmower quit working several weeks ago, so Matt also fixed the lawnmower. Here is what our lawn has looked like.

Here is a close up view of our very long grass.

I personally think this grass is where the ticks have been hanging out. It looks like snakes have been hanging out in the grass, too.

The cut lawn looks so nice!

But the lawnmower quit working again, so the lawn now looks like this.

Besides raking out dirt (which I think Zoe and Emily did a lot of) and fixing the lawnmower and trying to mow the lawn, there was also a trip to the grocery store and Lowe's and Matt fixed our water heater, which stopped working Friday morning. I took a very cold shower Saturday morning and it was miserable! But I took a nice hot shower this morning. :-) I got home last night a little before 8pm, so I was able to tuck the kids in bed and listen to them all at once tell me about their day. I was exhausted and ready for bed, but Noah was wide awake. I ended up feeding him in my chair where I fell asleep and I finally went to bed at 1am.

It was hard to get up and going this morning, but we did. Zach has been refusing to wear his tie lately, so this morning I told him how I had saw some young men at the temple yesterday and how they looked so handsome in their white shirts and ties. It was just what Zach needed to hear. He marched to his room, grabbed his tie, and I put it on him. Of course I told Zach how handsome he looked because he did. :-) Just about everyone who went on the temple trip yesterday shared their testimonies during Sacrament meeting today. It was a great meeting! Matt went to Rockland for their conference. They had originally scheduled the conference for Father's Day, not realizing it was Father's Day, so they changed it to today.

Noah is trying to walk more now. He takes a couple of steps and then falls down, crawls a bit, stands up and takes a few steps and then falls down... It's fun to watch him and the kids are excited that Noah is walking more.

2 comments:

HeatherT said...

I'm so glad you got to go to the temple!

And that is a lot of dirt. I hope your garden goes great. Ours has been a lot of fun...and yummy.

Gabriela said...

that's great you got to go temple-I haven't been in so long. It's at the top of my list of things to do in the States.

Your yard looks terrifi!