San Diego Vacation

We returned yesterday from our vacation in San Diego. Fortunately my mom and the Trawick Family were able to join us again this year. Tuesday morning, Mario and I got up really early and headed for an Endowment session. What a wonderful day it was to finally go to the San Diego Temple with Mario. That is something that Mario had dreamed about while in Afghanistan. when we returned back to the cottage, Mario picked up Erin and took her back so they could walk the Temple grounds and have a lunch date. The rest of us stayed behind and played a football game on the beach. On Wednesday, despite many obstacles like a lost recommend and no church clothes, Eric was able to go to the Temple with Mario and Grandma. After the Temple, we went to the new Mormon Battalion Historical Sight. It was amazing. Then Mario took the twins and their friend, Jesse, to the zoo (since they were all free.) On Thursday and Friday, we enjoyed Legoland, my favorite theme park. We ate lots of smores, boogie boarded, and had a fun time just spending time as a family. Thanks go out to my mom for taking all the pictures since I hate lugging a camera around.

Early Christmas Present

My mom flew in yesterday so she could go on vacation with us to San Diego. As an early Christmas present, she took Erin horseback riding today. They took a 90 minute ride through Colossal Cave Park. The weather was perfect, low 70's.

Braces Off

Today was an exciting day...after 16 months, I got my braces removed. Now I have a permanent retainer behind my front, bottom teeth. The orthodontist felt like I had a better chance of keeping my teeth straight with a permanent one rather than one I only wear nightly. It will be nice to eat a Subway sandwich again without having to dig out the lettuce and bread from my braces.

My mom flies in tomorrow and our family leaves for San Diego next Monday. I think the weather should clear and warm up a little before we go. I sure hope so. I am excited about taking the kids back to the beach and LegoLand. Sister Park said I could borrow her wetsuit and I think I might take her up on it. The ocean is so cold. But boogie boarding is so much fun.

Conference Weekend

Our family really enjoyed General Conference this weekend. I printed out new bingo cards for the three younger kids and they set up a comfy area for themselves to watch. I always relax on the food during conference weekend and we have a little conference party. Maybe that is why they get excited about it. Maybe it is because they get to stay home in pjs (with bed-head) and not have to get dressed up for church. Regardless, I am happy that my kids get excited about it.

Some highlights for me:

*Hartford Temple announced

*President Eyring's talk on Trusting in the Lord-a topic that has been crucial for me this year as I have gone through Mario's 6th month deployment and also the Reduction in Force Board which we still don't know the results.

*President Monson's talk on Gratitude-I definitely have a lot of improving to do in this area.

*Personal Favorite Talk-Elder Larry Lawrence-His talk was about parenting and having the courage to say no to your children. Saying no shows that you love them. Nathan yelled out something like "Mom always says no to junk food." I don't have the transcript yet, but I will print it out and read it over and over again when it comes available. He talked about parents being on the same page when it comes to raising kids. Spouses need to support one another in making decisions about activities for children. He cautioned against sleep-overs because as a Bishop he discovered that is a time when kids were most likely to break the word of wisdom or be introduced to pornography. He also talked about the importance of eating together as a family and of the bad influence of movies and video games. I can't even put into words how much Mario and I enjoyed this talk. I look forward to it coming out in print.

Mario and I always try to put into one or two words a theme for each conference. Recently the theme seemed to be love. This time, we thought the theme was on agency. Many, many talks mentioned pornography. I seem to remember a time when it wasn't mentioned, then came a time when it was in 1 talk. Now, it seems to be in every other talk. Mario and I are committed to doing our best to keep our children from that evil addiction. We are trying to be a good example to our children and we strive to keep the commandments and follow the Prophet.

Dead, Frozen Mice

This is a headline that I read on Fox News today...Navy Bombs Guam With Dead, Frozen Mice.

I shouldn't even comment on this because I will probably have nightmares tonight involving mice since I am petrified of them. But because the article involved Guam, I was intrigued and read the story. The Navy is flying over the jungle in helicopters and dropping mice filled with acetaminophen. But why? They are trying to kill off the Brown Tree Snakes. I dislike mice way more than I dislike the snakes so I am glad that I no longer live in Guam. We moved to Guam when Eric was just under 3. He was so excited to move there because he had heard about the snakes. To his disappointment, we didn't see many. Mario once saw one on a car and grabbed it, twirled it around and threw it to the ground. I don't think I was with him because I would have highly discouraged him from doing that. The snakes never bothered me other than every time there was a power failure (which was often), the local government blamed it on the snakes getting into the power lines. I always wondered if that was just an excuse.

We loved our two years in Guam. Mario volunteered to go there because it counted as a short tour (with family) which was equal to a year alone in Korea. It was our second military assignment and it was exciting moving across the world. When we arrived, we quickly heard about the frequent earthquakes and experienced one the second night we were there. It was pretty scary. I met my really good friend, Irene Horner, while still in TLF. She was a very close friend for the entire two years. She taught me to run and when we weren't running, we worked out together all the time at the base gym. Guam was hot so we didn't spend much time outside between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm. But the base had lots of activities for the families. We went on frequent field trips with the base playgroup. Some other things we enjoyed were going to Tarague Beach, eating Mongolian BBQ, and swimming at the base pool. We even fit in a family trip to Australia.

I got my first and only speeding ticket while stationed there. They took away my license for 4 weeks, but September 11 happened right after so they reluctantly gave it back to me so I could take Eric to preschool.

My best memory of Guam was going to the animal shelter "to just look." We came home with a new member of our family...Buzz. He and Erin both weighed 17 pounds. At first Erin was scared of Buzz and would climb up on the couch to get away from him. But as you can see from the picture, she grew to love him as much as the rest of us.

Sleepovers

A few years ago a friend asked me if our kids do sleepovers. I had never even considered it before but her question gave me a chance to think about it. I thought back to being a a kid and all the sleepovers that I had. Nothing bad happened during any of my sleepovers, thank goodness. But when I was doing my student teaching in college, a professor told me that 1 out of 5 homes had children being abused. Not all of them sexually, but that number was very shocking. Too many stories about molested children and boys getting together to look at pornography made me decide that day to say no to all sleepovers. I know I can't protect my kids from all things, but there are some things that I can do to help keep them a little safer.

Last night, Eric's friend, Andy had a sleepover for his birthday. Normally with sleepovers, we just tell the host that the kids can stay until about 10 pm. Andy was having a camp-out in his backyard. But, Mario talked Eric into skipping the evening party and staying home with him to watch a movie. Eric joined his friends this morning at the skate park. Andy told Eric that he was smart not to stay the night because one boy brought his cell phone and started to look up porn late that evening. Andy got upset and went to sleep in his own bed. I was so glad that Eric wasn't put into that uncomfortable situation. Eric said Andy seemed to understand at that point why we don't do sleepovers.

I feel bad saying no to all sleepovers but I feel that we have to say no to all because the kids won't understand if we say yes to some and no to others. It is just easier to forbid all.

I pray that my boys will stay away from all forms of pornography. It is scary as a parent to boys because you know how addicting it can be. But what may be even scarier is having a daughter because you have no idea if the man she decides to marry will have an issue with it. I read in the Ensign all the time about women who marry men and have no idea until after the wedding. All I can do is teach Erin to make sure she knows how to recognize the Spirit and make sure she gets that confirmation from the Holy Ghost that the man she chooses to marry is a worthy man. I can't believe how many women marry these men without getting that confirmation.

Knee Update

Today I went to Physical Therapy. I have been going twice a week for the past 3 weeks and I have been diligently doing my exercises at home everyday (except Sunday). I must admit, listening to the dr and doing the exercises as I am directed really works. The physical therapist was pleased with my progress and she said she would get me on the treadmill in a couple weeks to get me back to running. Wow, that is so exciting but scary at the same time. I am so scared that I am going to re-injure myself. I am glad that I have a couple more months of therapy so the therapists can help me along the way. I am so thankful that my insurance is paying for all of this. The surgery alone (without the surgeon's fee) was just under $10,000. The physical therapy is over $2000. Thank goodness for the military's good medical insurance. I just wish their dental was equally as good. Speaking of dental, my braces come off next week. Hooray!!!