I'm feeling SO blessed

Some many things have started to come together this week and I am feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. 

I have made contact with a fellow genealogist who is breaking down walls and filling in holes for me on a line that has long been my "problem child".  I am so grateful that she is willing to share her information, scan her documents and pictures and email them to me.  I am so grateful that we have made contact and that the Spirit of Elijah is touching both of us.

Yesterday morning (at 5:30am to be precise) I was able to go to the temple with a group from my ward to do baptisms for the dead.  We were on the road before the sun came up and it was just beginning to shine as we entered the temple.  With my recent research I have been able to fill in some holes and had prepared names to take to the temple.  (If you have new.familysearch.org active in your area look at it, use it, it is an amazing tool to see what work has been done for your ancestors and what work still needs to be done.  It makes it so simple to then take their names to the temple.)  I chose to do the work for my great aunt and saved the other cards to take to Utah so that my family can share in the blessing of doing the work.  As I was doing the work for my great aunt and names for a friend in the ward the sun started to shine through the stained glass windows into the baptistry.  ...  The Spirit of temple work is so real!  The Spirit of Elijah is real and guides us and urges us as we search out our ancestors.

Things are starting to work out for where we will be after graduation.  I still don't have details but things are beginning to solidfy amid the haze that is currently our future.  Hopefully we will know in the near future.  

I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who is mindful of me, who loves me, who knows my future and has a plan for me, who gives me strength inspite my complaining.  I really am so blessed.

For those not on Facebook...

Josh finally got a bite from one of the dozen + jobs/post docs he sent is CV (aka resume) to.  He is flying out to New York on Tuesday for an interview with IBM in Yorktown Heights.  Wish him luck! We are pretty excited.  We'll see what happens and I'll be sure to keep you posted.

(and yes, we still haven't had word from the job at Northrup Grumman he interviewed for back in July :S )

1st day of School

Elijah was super excited to start up school again. He gets to go four days a week in the afternoons. His class is once again all boys and he actually ended up having the same teacher as he did last year, Miss Sarah. Sam was convinced that he would get to stay and go to school too. Needless to say he melted when we dropped of Elijah and he realized that wasn't the case. Luckily he hasn't melted everyday.

I got the camera out to catch a picture of Elijah all ready to go to school. Pretty soon the other boys (Sam and Josh) joined in the fun of taking pictures. It just happened that our clothes all matched that day. I have some pretty cute, goofy boys.

Family Photos

My brother Mat took some family pictures while we were out there last month. I'm excited with the way they turned out. I offically have the cutest family!

How could I forget?

I forgot to mention two big milestones that are going on right now. Elijah is learning how to read and Sam is potty training!

Elijah is having a lot of fun learning to read. He has a chart that he puts stickers on as he finishes a book. I went out and got him a prize for when he finishes the chart. He wanted Star Wars Legos. It is so hard to believe that he is bridging into Star Wars and Legos. Those are things for big boys. I guess my little boy is growing up. He can't open the box until he finishes his reading chart but that doesn't stop him from playing with them. He will play with the box making shooting noises and fly it around the house. He's a pretty silly kid with a good imagination.

Potty training Sam has been a night and day difference than Elijah. There hasn't been any fighting, crying, screaming, etc. that was part of the LONG potty training saga of Elijah (oh the nightmares!). Part of it is that I have learned to be more patient and part of it is just Sam. He's doing pretty well though we are still a ways from declaring him potty trained. His big triamph was going poops in the potty last night! The thought of no more diapers is so exciting!

Goodness... Time has flown

It's been in the back of my head for a while now that I need to update by personal blog but I didn't realize that I haven't written since the 10th. Goodness, what have I been up to?

Thats a good question and the answer is nothing much. If you follow me on facebook you probably know that I really hurt my back (probably a herniated disk) and was in a world of pain for a couple weeks. It pretty much knocked me out and everything was back burnered. I'm finally feeling a lot better now, though not quite back to normal yet.

The boys have been troopers keeping themselves occupied and making a disaster of the house, which I have finally caught back up on. Elijah started preschool yesterday and gets to go four days a week this year. He is super excited to be back and see his friends from last year and make new ones. The challenge is that Sam is DYING to go to school too and melts every time we have to drop off Elijah. I hope he gets over that soon or its going to be a L-O-N-G year.

Still no word about jobs for Josh. He has contacted a dozen or so groups doing quantum computing and has gotten a few maybes back but nothing solid. AHHHH! I'm going a bit nuts! I want something, anything, anywhere (within the US), and I want to know yesterday. It has been a true test of my patience and faith. I know things will work themselves out but I'm having a hard time with the timing. Deep breath... things will work out. Meanwhile Josh is steadily working on his dissertation and he will be graduating in December (Hallelujah!). We just don't know where we will be after that. :)

I've been keeping myself busy with crochet projects, family history and long distance wedding planning. I've actually made contact with some distant cousins working on the same line (all three of us)! I am very excited to collaborate with them. I'm hoping to break through on the Daniel and Daniels lines soon. I've also been posting pictures and information from my trip to my grandma's on my family history blog.

Well, I think that catches us up. I have a few pictures on the camera to upload, but that will have to be later. Sam is craving some attention.

Have a happy day!

The Long Awaited Beach Party

Elijah has become quite a party planner. If you have talked to him recently he has probably talked you ear off about plans for his beach party. He has been talking about it since April planning games, invitations, decorations and even the food.

While we were in Utah we finally had the long awaited and anticipated Beach Party. Elijah was in heaven. I don't think he was disappointed. Thanks Mom for all your help!

First we all got dressed for the occasion. Even Abby the dog got her hula skirt on.

Then it was on to the games. Thanks to pandora we were able to find some good hula songs. Bekah and Rachel taught my boys how to dance. We also played

coconut bowling (which turns out to be a good way to crack a coconut), musical towels (where you lay out the towls on the grass and walk around while the music is going and when it stops you race to find a towl to sun bathe on), water gun fight, and beach volleyball.

After the fun and games it was time to light the VOLCANO Cake. This was a big part of Elijah's initial plans. I have seen many pictures of volcanos over the past few months. Grammie and Elijah made it together with some help from Sam. It was a white cake with pineapple added, cooked in a bunt cake pan. Chocolate frosting turned it into a dirty mountain and white frosting dyed red and orange became the lava. A bunch of candles in the middle and we had an erupting volcano cake. Elijah was very proud of the end result.

Elijah is already throwing around ideas for the next party. He hasn't settled on a paticular theme yet but I'm sure he will soon enough. My kid knows how to PARTY!

Sam Man Says...

The other day Sam brought up his teeth. For some reason he was talking to Josh about going to the store and buying teeth. Josh explained to him that we didn't buy his teeth he grew them. Sam misheard him and thought he said "glue" which when Sam says it sounds more like "blue." Sam then said. "You don't blue your teeth, that would be yucky." Josh needed an interpreter for that one. Toddlers think the funniest things.