Little slugger

Yesterday the wind FINALLY stopped blowing and Rachel got to plan in her first game. I have to say that after all of the postponing, the 4 inning game seemed to fly by. As you can see from her nice windup, she hit the ball nice and hard each time, unfortunately she hit almost every one straight to the first baseman, and it didn't help that we were playing against the returning champions from last year --which means they can actually catch the ball.

It's Official....we jinxed it

Some of you know that the last couple of places we have moved to were promptly cursed with some of the worst weather on record. Our first winter in Boston was one of the coldest on record, the second winter was one of the snowiest in decades. The first summer after we moved back to Phoenix they hit an all-time record of 29 days over 110 degrees (not to mention the number of days over 100). My mom was asking the other day if I thought it would happen again...and apparently the curse has followed us here as well. This weekend with all of the wind and dust I heard the familiar phrase, "it's not usually this bad." The locals said it in Boston, they said it in Phoenix, and now they are saying it here. So today when I dropped Rach off at school and her teacher said "I can't believe this wind, I mean -it is usually windy in the spring here, but not this windy and dusty. " I found myself saying "I'm sorry, it's all my fault."

Tball opening day

Yesterday started out nice and we got to enjoy the opening day of the 2nd annual Chinle little league. There were about 15 teams from our city and surrounding towns. Seeing green "grass" (turf) was amazingly enjoyable. Unfortunately...the afternoon turned into this and Rachel's game was canceled--so she has yet to play an actual game. (I'm begining to understand why this town is a basketball town).

So cute for sunday (*note* the headband she is wearing is one I made for her when she was an infant ;-) it didn't seem too tight so after getting a good laugh I let her go ahead and wear it.

Daddy Daughter story time

This was just too cute -from last weekend just before bedtime. and Sam and his brother Mike happily reading their girls a bedtime story.

Poop pictures

I would have cried too if it got on my hand, and my shirt, and my glove ;-)

Cant help but laugh while rachel is crying because a bird pooped on her at tball
Amber

Adios chinle! Hello sunshine !
Amber

Trying posting by cell phone
Amber

Mommy Daughter Party

So this book I am reading totally deceived me. It looks like a happy story about childhood friends, even the blurb on the back cover sounded that way, and look at the cover--doesn't it look happy and fun?! So now that I am totally hooked -they threw in a depressing twist, that made me very annoyed and sad, but since part of the book is about a Mother and her daughter, it also made me want to just spend a fun day with Rach. So when I picked her up from school we went to the store and I let her get a doughnut-(which she asks for every time, and every time I say 'no'). We headed home to plant some of our new flowers, and we cranked up our favorite CD (taylor swift) and opened the sun roof and were singing along. When we got home I snapped a picture to remember our fun day

Then I noticed flurries of SNOW coming in the sunroof! Come to think of it, it did seem a little chilly

Easter morning

Rachel was excited to find that the easter bunny came in our house this year! The bunny left this basket in her room with this cute stuffed animal and fun straws in her room, and then left a trail of candy filled eggs into the living room where there were more hidden. So fun!

What to say...

Sam told me today that a doctor is coming out to Chinle later this week to see if he would like to move here. He is married and they have kids Rachel's age and so the hospital asked if we would show them our house and tell them about living here. The question is, ....if they seem fun--Do I tell them what it is really like...or do I tell them whatever it takes to get them to move here? :-) hmmmmmm

HUGE!

Did anyone else watch the ACM awards and see Carrie Underwood's dress? It was gigantic! the "train" draped all over the stage. I was just bummed that they took the camera off her when she was done, I really could have used the comic relief to see her try and get off the stage in that thing. I can only imagine that a bunch of assitants jumped up to help her carry it off.

Happy Easter

a tie-die glitter coloring kit--and Rachel was definitely a fan. I
Rachel learned this from her dad--pull faces when mom is holding the camera and she won't have a clue :-)

weekend escape

We took off to Flagstaff this weekend for our bi-weekly escape from the desert. Good food and a good movie. I will say it was a little far to drive to end up sitting in the front row of a movie theater (a 'Harkins' no less-which means we really were right next to the screen).

We drove there and back in on Saturday so we weren't there very long. I did make a quick stop at Target to grab a few new books. Then I spent a couple hours on sunday sitting on my patio in a lawn chair in the sunshine reading. Now that is a good day.

(p.s. I am secretly excited to see the Hannah Montana movie-so glad I have a daughter I can take so I don't look ridiculous :-)

It's 9am...and I am EXHAUSTED!

Today was one of those mornings. A Little Miss Diva Day --if you will. Rach was taking f-0-r-e-v-e-r to eat breakfast, so I thought I would help her out by picking out some clothes. I was even nice, and found a cute skirt and tights that I would find acceptable (even though it is about 28 degrees outside).

When she walked in she just stared at it. Apparently my choice was not as grand as I thought. She said "if I wear this I am going to be the purple girl." hmm whatever. Itold her I was going to take my shower and if she didn't like it-that's fine, just pick something and get dressed. So after my shower I come in to check on her and of course, still not dressed. She found something she wanted to wear, only she can't reach it-because it is in the top of the closet. (which means it is there because it is off limits, it doesn't fit) The dress is too big, and besides her pink tights are not clean. So she finds her white tights and brings them to me "well can I wear these?" Well, I guess you could...wait--are those clean or did you get them out of the dirty clothes?" (no answer). I can see they are dirty so I tell her she can't wear them today, I tell her she can't wear them, and she starts putting them on, then puts the shirt on, then the dress.

Then she says most of the dirty parts will be covered up-the dress is long and she will wear her black boots. Maybe I am wrong, but something isn't right. The dress itself is cute, but it's too big, and back to the part where the tights are filthy! lol! So I stand my ground and tell her she needs to change. Here is what she thought of that. (by now I am seeing the humor and snap another picture). Her life is soooo hard.

So the morning continues and I finally get her to put something else on, here is what she left with. When I told her I wanted to take her picture she struck a diva pose like this was her favorite outfit. Wierdo! :-) (ps -this close-up is proof they are dirty)


She is my little girl, and I love her.

I do have another similar story to tell from yesterday. Okay so I show up a little late to school and when I get to her classroom they are gone--already left for the buses. So I hurry to the office to get a slip to be able to take her off the bus. The wind is blowing, and it is very dusty, and I jog toward the buses to make sure they don't drive away. The bus driver sends her up and she glares at me. Now let me explain. She did enjoy riding the bus..until the fun wore off and she got sick of the hour long ride. She hasn't riden the bus in months. She has a friend that always tries to convince her to ride the bus and before I leave Rach always whispers in my ear "I want you to just pick me up." So even though I was a little late, I made it, I was there to rescure her. Only she starts tearing up and says "Mom, I told you I wanted to ride the bus today." Crap. She did say that, yesterday, and while I did forget -even if I had remembered I would have assumed that she had since changed her mind since she always does. I apologized and told her "well, I am here now, how about I take you home today and you can ride the bus home tomorrow." I thought she might go along with that, but she replied "but I don't want to lie to my friend. I promised I would ride the bus today." So I found myself running back to my car through the dust storm...by myself and went home and waited for her to get home on the bus.

And she arrived happy as can be.

The Church in the News

Here is an article that was on the front page of the Arizona Republic today.
LDS confilcted on illegal immigrant growth

I thought some of you might be interested, I also found some of the comments kind of interesting as well. Some say we are helping the problem by providing assistance to illegal immigrants, some said they understand that it isn't the missionaries job to enforce laws, and some said churches shoudl be held to the same standards as employers "if they recruit and assist illegal immigrants they should lose their tax exempt status and be fined according to the same laws as employers." hmmm interesting.