My Christmas in July

At Christmas time I always find myself remembering special experiences from the past. One of the most memorable and special experiences for me was my experience in shepherds field. As most of you know I had the opportunity to spend a summer in Israel, where we studied in depth the life of our savior. We traveled to many of the places where he lived and preached, in the last 3 years of his life. While we were there, I was really looking forward to our visit to Bethlehem. However when we arrived at Bethlehem and visited the church there, I was very disappointed. It was a dark and dreary church and all the ministers were dressed in black (I have no idea what religion they were from). There were tons of ornaments and trinkets all around. We went down into the cave where THEY thought the savior was born and I remember feeling sad. I remember thinking we have no idea WHERE exactly the savior was born. Where he was born is not the important thing we should focus on, it is WHY he was born.
Later that evening we traveled back to Bethlehem (it is only about a 45 minute bus ride from Jerusalem). Except this time we did not enter the city. We stopped at some fields just before you enter the city. We sat on the hillside and the view was spectacular. The sun was setting and just across the valley you could see the lights of Bethlehem. There was no church and no ornate ornaments; it was just a simple field. However the spirit there was amazing.
My journal entry (July 27, 2000) :
"I am trying to imagine what it would be like to be a humble shepherd watching over your flocks and then have an angel appear to you and tell you that Christ, The Savior, the person that is going to redeem you from your sins has just been born. Then a multitude of angels surround you and you have the opportunity to sing praises to your God. How lucky were those shepherds!"
We spent the rest of the evening singing all of the Christmas songs in our hymn books. I have never felt the spirit of Christmas more powerfully than I did on that July evening. All of us there left with a renewed testimony of our Savior. He is our Redeemer and was born into humble circumstances "to bring us good tidings of great joy."

Sunday will come!

At testimony meeting today one of the ladies spoke of the funeral of Elder Wirthlin and bore testimony of when he and Elder Oaks came to the hospital to bless their missionary son. When I came home from church I watched some of the broadcast on the internet and was inspired to share with you a quote. I know that some people struggle in the winter months with depression and others may just be passing through some rough times. May these words bring peace to your soul.
From the speech given by Elder Wirthlin's son:

“Dad had a simple yet powerful witness of the resurrection. He always liked to read what Alma taught his son Corianton ‘The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea and every limb and joint will be restored to the body; yea even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.’ (Alma 40:23) ”
“Dad’s special witness of the resurrection was best expressed shortly after mom passed away. These words have been ringing in my ears all week. He spoke of the contrast between the gloom of the Friday when Jesus was crucified and the joy of that Sunday when Jesus was resurrected. ‘Each of us will have our own Fridays, those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We will all experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays, but I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death, Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next…Sunday will come!’”

http://www.lds.org/move/index.html?type=conference&event=178&lang=english&articleid=091

Some pictures of everyday life for our family.

Roy loves to have Mercedes look like a princess and he loves to put lots of clips in her hair. You can tell when Roy has done Mercedes hair because he will put 5 clips in her hair! When I came home from a meeting the other day, Roy and Mercedes had been playing dress up!

We recently watched Stewie the cat, while our friends went out of town. I love animals of all kinds and have missed having a pet. Roy claimed that he hated cats, but by the end of Stewie's stay the two of them were best friends!

Mercedes loves to cook with me. So I sit her on the counter and we spend the afternoon baking, occasionally. Bread is our favorite thing to make. I found this apron and some kids cooking stuff for her that she loves to use when we cook. I don't know how I ever cooked without her!

It's a boy!

So we had our ultrasound on Monday and found out that we are having a boy! We are very excited. Now comes the hard part...figuring out the name. We know for sure that the middle name is going to be Thomas after my dad. The hard part is the first name, we don't want it to be too american or too peruvian. I like Ryan Thomas but Roy (doesn't Roy and Ryan sound cute?) says that it is too american. I also think Oscar is cute but my dad says that he will call him Oscar Meyer Weiner and Roy is not too big of a fan. We also like Lucas but Lucas Thomas Benites is kind of alot of S's. Votes? Suggestions?

Mercedes first day in the snow

When I came home from work the other morning we had about 4-6 inches of snow. So I woke Mercedes up to show and she wasn't quite sure what to think. I told Roy we needed to get her some snow boots. Of course a few hours later Roy came home from work with snow boots, so we took her out to play. It was so much fun. She loved every minute of it and cried when we came back inside.

Mercedes and Vicki in the snow.

Halloween!!!

Once again, life has gotten ahead of us and the blog has been swept under the rug. If you haven't heard we are expecting another baby! I am about 16 weeks now and finally feeling better. I think it's a boy this time but we will find out next month. Halloween was so much fun. It is one of my favorite holidays.

I love going to Schmidt's to pick out our pumpkins!

We dressed Mercedes as a pig because piglet is one of her favorite stuffed animals!

Even scarier than a ghost!!!!

So Roy and I moved into a new house this July. We love it, it is a great house and we feel very blessed to live here. We are just renting but it is so much better than the small apartment that we had. There is just one problem...the house was empty for a few months before we moved in, so there are lots of spiders! I find a spider almost daily in our bath tub and a few weeks ago, I am pretty sure, a brown recluse crawled out of the kitchen sink, when I was going to do the dishes. I screamed and Mercedes screamed, it was pure drama. (I sucked it up with the vacuum, because I can't here the crunchy sound when you step on it!) I am pretty jumpy all the time now. I shake everything for spiders and I am scared to get things out of the cupboards for fear that I will find a spider. I pretty much always have the creepy-crawlies. I am even scared to watch TV on the couch, because I just know spiders are lurking close by. Our washer and dryer are in the garage and Roy said he found a huge spider the other day in the laundry pile, so sorting laundry is just down right terrifying. There is one thing that I always do religiously and that is shake my bedding before I go to sleep. So last night I performed my routine and went to bed. This morning Roy got up early to go to work and I was laying there trying to go back to sleep and then the worst thing happened. A spider crawled across my cheek!!!! I felt the tickle on my face and flicked the spider off of me and sat up in time to see it crawl behind my pillow. Luckily Roy was still home because I was hysterical. Roy didn't believe me at first but then he saw the spider. In his words, "it was not a small spider." So at 8:00 sharp I called an exterminator and they were at my house by 9:00 to spray. (I think they came quickly because I started crying when I talked to them on the phone.) So hopefully we are spider free. The guy who sprayed was really nice and very generous with the spray. I already have a hard time sleeping...I am sure things will not be getting better anytime soon. (I am moving the bed at least a few feet from the window for the next while). I HATE SPIDERS!

Do you believe in ghosts?

So my family (my mom, brother and perhaps father) believe that maybe they have a ghost living in their house. What do you think? My mom found dirt on the floor of the house a couple of weeks ago and she was the last to leave and the first to come home. (They called everyone with a key and no one had come over.)
Then a couple of nights ago my mom was in the bathtub and heard the dryer turn off. Then she heard the door to the dryer slam shut and then turn back on, so she went downstairs to ask my brother about it. He said he thought it was my mom and vice versa. So my brother loaded his gun (yes, I know a very dumb idea, we have talked about it and he won't do it again) and they went looking through the house (my mom yelling "come out, we have a gun" lol) . They didn't find anything downstairs so they went upstairs looking. When they were upstairs they heard a crash downstairs, so they woke my dad up. They didn't find anything but no one slept well that night. The next day, my mom's day off, she went to my sisters because she didn't want to be home alone. They ruled out the possibility of a racoon or squirrel because there are no droppings in the house and squirrels or raccoons don't turn dryers on and off.
Then on Sunday night when they came home a cup of pens and pencils was turned over in the kitchen and the clock on the bathroom wall was knocked off onto the floor.
Practical joke or ghost? What do you think?

Where do I even begin?!?

I
am not even sure where to begin. I can't believe I have not updated our blog since July? That's what working night shift will do to you...turn you into a slug! We have done a little bit of everything from camping to Raging Waters, birthday parties and of course...a whole lot of nothing. When you work every other night you either sleep to go to work or sleep because you are recovering from work. I am growing to hate it.

Roy has been working so hard too. He works 7 days a week. We basically have two nights off together a week! We know it is hopefully just a temporary thing and we are counting our blessings. Roy loves his job at Stein and Mercedes and I are just glad that he is finally doing something that he likes. So here are some pictures of summer adventures! I can't believe that summer is over?!?

We moved!

So I have been meaning to update the blog for quite some time. So much has happened to our little family (which is when it is fun to blog, but I haven't had the time). So here's a little update until I can post some pictures:
--We moved!
We live just walking distance from our apartments. (Yes, we are still renting) It is the cutest little house. We live at 1720 E 7200 S, to be exact.
--Our car broke down so we had to buy another one. I hate car shopping! The last car I got, I bought from a friend and never even looked at another one!
--Roy got a second job. He will be working at Stein Erickson Lodge on the weekends. We are so excited.
--Mercedes is doing so good. She hasn't had any spells in the month of July and only one spell in June. She is walking now and is cuter everyday!

Fiesta and Cake....!!!

Our angel...Mercedes Marie

Tagged?!?

So I was tagged a few days ago...Mercedes hates it when I am on the computer, so responding becomes very interesting. Here goes: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself.

JOYS: mercedes (she is the best kid, and a big mommies girl), Roy of course (he is always very supportive), the rest of the my friends and family!

FEARS: Mercedes health (I always worry that the doctors aren't telling me the whole truth about breathing holding), that I will actually need a food storage (because I don't have one), that we will never afford a decent house.

GOALS: FOOD STORAGE! exercise more (maybe qualify for the Boston Marathon), stop procrastinating (I have a zillion more goals, because I need more help than most!)

OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS: this new card game "hearts" that I learned at work, scrapbook stuff (I just collect the stuff, I don't actually scrapbook),Coca-cola from Primary Children's cafeteria.

RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS: I love to watch and listen to the news(how old am I?), I hate to eat breakfast and usually don't eat until 2 or 3 in the afternoon (but I also eat until 2 or 3 in the morning), I love scary movies (not horror films, just good scary movies).

So now I guess that I need to tag a few people: how about anyone who actually reads this and has not been tagged? (Cheap, I know but it is getting late and I am tired)

Adventures with daddy!

I had a shower to go to on Saturday, so Roy and Mercedes went shopping. Roy is such a good dad he took Mercedes, in her new outfit (he bought her, of course!) to the book store and they bought a few children's books together. Roy loves spoiling Mercedes. It has been really fun to watch the two of them together. Roy also loves Mercedes to look perfect. She always has to have the matching hair bow and shoes for her outfit. He is going to create either a shopping addict or a complete Tom Boy.

Mercedes' spells

So this is Mercedes' holter monitor that she had to wear for 24 hours. We are still waiting the results, but I am assuming that no news is good news. For those of you who don't know, Mercedes has breath holding spells (5% of children have them). She starts to cry and then holds her breath until she passes out. She only does this when she is extremely tired. However, she has had a few VERY scary spells. When my sister was watching her she passed out but didn't start breathing again and they had to call the paramedics. She also had a big seizure, that lasted about 2 minutes, with the one of the last spells. These breath holding spells can be linked to iron deficiency so we have her on high dose iron. We placed the holter monitor to make sure that she doesn't have bradycardia (low heart rate) periodically and she has had an EKG to rule out any abnormal arrhythmyia. We also just recently saw a neurologist, for the seizures. He wants to do an EEG to make sure that she doesn't have any irritable brain waves. Although low heart rates and seizures during breath holding spells are "normal" , we are just covering our bases and making sure that we are not missing anything important. Since we have started her on the iron, each spell has been much less traumatic. I don't think that these spells will go away completely (she will outgrow them between the ages of 3-5). But hopefully, very soon, we can have some peace of mind.

Cute.....hermosa .... linda

This is Mercedes and Vicki. Yes I know that Vicki is a crazy name for a stuffed animal...Vaca=Cow in spanish hence the name Vicki la vaca. Mercedes loves Vicki and would take her anywhere, if we would allow it. Even in the bathtub!

Roy's video to Mercedes and me

This is the video that Roy made for Mercedes and me. He is so creative. I am continually amazed at his artistic ablilities.

So here is one of our latest pictures. I was ATTEMPTING to do Mercedes hair with some new bows that I had bought her.