Abby can put herself to sleep... yay

Today, Abby was playing and we could hear her talking... then all of the sudden it got quiet. So we went to see what she was doing. She found a bottle, went into her bedroom, climbed up her crib (we have no clue how she did that because we had no idea she COULD do that), and then fallen asleep inside her crib. She had put herself to bed and to sleep!

Pretty impressive we think.

Hearing my dad's voice in my head...

While I'm on my posting addiction today, I thought I'd mention something to my dad.

Dad- As I'm walking around my house, I'm constantly hearing your voice in the back of my head. And you're telling me to "clean up! pick up after yourself!" The funny thing about this is every time I hear you telling me this in my head, I don't do it! I say, "oh i'll do it later" just like I use to do when I was at home. ... I'm still ignoring you dad!-- whether you're here or not, I'm not going to pick up after myself. haha

What does this say about me?

Poor Andrew, has to live in a messy house because his wife won't clean up after herself every time she hears her father's voice in her head...

Youth Conference Sequel

So last night I got a call from the missionaries... a late call actually. It was almost 10:00pm. They had spent the entire day trying to figure out who I was and how to get a hold of me. Actually-- interestingly enough, they weren't the first random person for our stake to try and find me this week. Anyway... They hoped they had finally figured out which sister helped translate for Yuge at Youth Conference and gave me a call. Their first question was,

Missionaries: "Hello, are you sister orton?"
Me: "yes"
Missionaries: "Did you go to Youth Conference last week?"
Me: "Yes" -- and in my head I'm thinking, uh oh... what did i do wrong. :)
Missionaries: "Do speak chinese?"
Me: "yes"
Missionaries: " Did you help translate for yuge?"
Me: "yes, why?"
Missionaries: "OH GOOD, we finally found the right number! Hi we're the missionaries for the aqua fria ward"

hahah... poor guys. Anyway, Yuge (which I still don't know if that's the correct name for her) had talked a lot about me to her parents and the missionaries. They were 1, glad that they found someone who spoke chinese and could help at Youth Conference and 2, glad that someone was willing to befriend her.

They asked me if I was planning on coming to her baptism. I said, that I had not been invited and did not know when she was going to be baptised but that I would love to go. And so they invited me to her baptism. Unfortunately, we're supposed to be in California that day.

Then the next day (that was today actually), I got a call from Yuge's step father. He said that the missionaries were supposed to ask me if I could give a talk at yuge's baptism and was wondering if I had accepted. I said, that they had not asked me. So he formally asked me and I couldn't tell him no that I would be in California. After I accepted, I realized that I didn't know what language I should do my talk in. I asked and he said "chinese of course!" ..... which is not so great. Seeing as i'm STRUGGLING IN CHINESE and i don't know ANY church lingo! I don't even know how to say the church's name or how to say baptism in Chinese because we're not allowed to preach the gospel in China yet. This is going to be very interesting, by far the hardest most challenging talk I've ever given in my life. Apart from never giving a talk at a baptism and having not gone to a baptism in a very very long time... that alone isn't so great but to have to do it in CHINESE!? I am in way over my head.

Though, I feel honored that I made that big of an impression in her life that they wanted me to talk at her and her mother's baptism. Her having not very many friends and such, I feel that it's very important that I go. Plus, this is nice, I've never really had a missionary moment. SO we're leaving our vacation early to go to a baptism.

Now I just have to give a talk in chinese.... sigh. And my chinese side kick who ALWAYS helps me in Chinese... is off in Taiwan on a mission so I can't turn to her for help, because it'll be january by the time she gets my letter. Fortunately my life has been surrounded by RM who went on chinese speaking missions. I've gathered them in and told them they have to help me! Hopefully things will go smoothly....

hopefully. I won't say I'm not nervous... because I am.

Translating at Youth Conference

Well, I thought I'd go ahead and write what is on my mind. Last week, we had youth conference. I am currently a secretary in YW for our church's youth group. Our Presidency just changed last week, as we got a new president because our old president moved to UT.

In the middle of the switch things were going a little crazy. We were told not to plan for future activities; to just wait for the new presidency to come around. So we didn't plan for youth conference... we waited and waited and waited... and still no one was called.

So the question was, who can go to Youth conference? There is only one girl old enough to go to Youth Conference-- Bethany, who is 17.

The bishopric decided that since our president was in the process of moving she couldn't go. And the two counselors couldn't go because they are both pregnant and wouldn't handle the overnighter well. The bishopric also decided that I shouldn't go because I have a child at home..... why they decided this FOR ME, I don't know. And instead of asking another member of our ward to go, they were going to make Bethany go with her old ward (the ward she was in before the ward split last April). Any way, I felt like I really needed to go and I didn't think it was appropriate to have her go with a different ward and have her be an extra responsibility for the leaders in that ward. So I had to jump through hurdles with the bishopric and YW presidency to be able to go to youth conference.

When I finally got the "go ahead". Bethany's mom called, she didn't feel it was safe that I drove up to Youth Conference so we drove with the YM in the Bishop's car. Thank goodness that man is holy!--otherwise he would be a dead man. He scared the geebies out of me! He was such a horrible driver. I thought maybe he was tired, but he drove horribly to Youth Conference and back. Every time he tried to hear what the person in the passenger's seat was saying, he would lean over towards the passenger to hear him. And as he leaned over, he took the wheel with him! We almost swerved into cars every time the kid spoke to the bishop. I was hoping the boy would stop talking and just fall asleep to avoid any accidents. He was worse than a chinese taxi driver... in five minutes, he managed to almost crash 3 times, run a red light, go straight in a right turn only lane (side note: one of the YM mentioned this to the bishop, that he was in the wrong lane, and the bishop replied, "oh you're right! we'll have to merge!" The bishop's version of merging was pressing on the gas.... he barely made it past the car in the correct lane). And most of the time, he didn't even realize what he was doing-- like running through a red light! He also didn't use the round about correctly. ..... I think we would have been much safer if I were driving than bishop... anyway.

I went to youth conference. The friends that bethany was suppose to have I guess were more aquiantances than friends. And she ended up hanging around me most of the time instead of the other girls. We are only 4 years difference in age, so we got a long. I made her go to the dance and dance with me out on the dance floor. She's not a very big dancer but I am, however, I'm not a very appropriate dancer for church dances. So in order to save her embarrassement and me from being told to stop dancing inappropriately, we just hung out on the wall like wall flowers on wallpaper.

In so doing, we noticed a really odd couple dancing on the dance floor. It was a 14 year old boy with a narely beard that looked amish and a chinese girl that had not been in America long enough to have changed culturally. (AKA, she still wore her clothes like most Chinese kids do-- all those who've been to china, you know what i'm talking about. They were sports pants up past their belly button--which they can do because most chinese have flat butts-- and she had a red stringed necklace with a very yellow fake 20 k gold heart attached. Everything about her screamed Chinese). To me, I felt like I was back at home. To the kids around her, I don't think they understood. In fact, I KNOW they didn't understand.

Bethany and I watched the odd couple for a while and then realized that he was half stalking her and she had no friends. So I went up and asked if she spoke Chinese. She said yes and was so relieved that I could speak Chinese too.

Here's her story:

She grew up in Beijing (she's now 14). Her biological father left her and her mother when she was 1. She says that he's doesn't like her because he's had the chance to come back and see her and he's bluntly stated that he didn't want to see her. I wonder what that had to deal with, whether it was because she was female and he wanted a male which causes problems with the 1 child policy or what... I don't know. Anyway, and then not to long ago, her now step father was traveling through China and met her mother. They fell in love and he wanted to bring her back to America, so he did. A month ago, he and her mother got married in Beijing and moved back here to Phoenix. As far as I know, I could be wrong-- I haven't met her parents yet, but her mom doesn't speak English and her stepdad doesn't speak Chinese. Her now step dad, is LDS. And the Chinese girl (Her name is Yuge--- I think!? :S... this horrible but I never really caught her name because when she told me we were out on the dance floor and the music was really really loud) and her mother are taking missionary lessons from the missionaries with a RM translating.

So with that said, she was struggling through Youth Conference. Having no friends and not understanding the language. She looked lost and sad. So Bethany and I took her under our wing. I translated for her and we got the half amish/half stalker boy to stop bothering her. I unfortunately haven't had a chinese class in 3 years. It's been even longer since I lived in Beijing and it's been a year since I've actually literally spoken Chinese. I'm very sad to say that I struggled remembering my vocabulary. It felt like a knife stabbing my heart everytime I couldn't remember words that I remembered learning. Fortunately, I remembered enough, that when I couldn't remember a word, I could describe it in chinese, and then she could tell me what the word was. Unfortunately this made it very difficult and long to translate when I couldn't remember most words.

The other struggle I had, was the fact that I don't know ANY church lingo. NONE. And I was translating for church meetings. So... I was describing Satan to try and figure out what Satan's name is, in chinese. I was describing him as a very very bad man who does very very bad things... until she finally clued in on who I was talking about and would tell me. But any chinese was better than nothing. I felt horrible though that my chinese was sooo bad. I'm glad, however, that I was able to help her and that I had the feeling that I should go and do this because like the Stake Young Women's president said, this was no coincidence. And with that said, I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of each and every one of us. He loves us and wants us to be happy, and he will do whatever he can to help his lost sheep. And though I wasn't actually ment to be there to translate and befriend other YW, I know that that was Heavenly Father's intentions.

Apart from re-aquainting myself with chinese. I was mistaken for youth no one thought I was a leader because I talked and did things with Yuge and Bethany. And I got hit on by some football players. It was a great trip! Nothing like a little self esteem booster. :)

Abby's stripping addiction

Abby's new favourite thing to do is to take off her clothes. And our back yard has a see through fence and behind the fence is a running trail where we get a lot of runners, walkers, dogs, police... any one. And I always get funny faces and I'm sure it's because I let Abby outside wearing a diaper, socks, shoes, at least a shirt and pants or a dress and sometimes now that it's 70 degress (we think that's cold) she gets to wear a sweater. BUT when I let her back in... we're lucky if she's even wearing a diaper!

I noticed she likes to use her clothes as a dirt moving device. I hope she realizes soon that clothes aren't a dirt moving device.... shovels are!

She also does this in her crib. I leave her wearing pajamas and a diaper. I come back in the morning and I'm VERY VERY lucky if she has a diaper on!

Where does she get this from?? I blame Andrew's side.

A plastic knife, a vent, a coupon, and a piece of red hot cinnamon gum

If you're wondering what you can do with a plastic knife, a vent, a coupon and a piece of red hot cinnamon gum, let me tell you...

I was shopping at Bashas'-- a grocery store here in Arizona. At the time, I was grabbing Pillsbury Grand Bisquits off the shelf. As I was sorting through my many (already sorted) coupons, trying to figure out how many I actually had, to know how many I needed to grab-- something horrible happened.

I had NO IDEA I WAS STANDING ABOVE THE ONLY AIR/DRAINING VENT IN THE ENTIRE GROCERY STORE! And all of the sudden a coupon slipped out of my hand and floated gracefully down to the floor where it managed to miraculously slip into the only horizontal vent hole on the vent.

Fortunately it was still retrievable but very difficult. The vent was partially covered by those huge, incredibly heavy refidgerated product cases (as shown to the left)-- so we couldn't take off the vent cover. There was about a 3 inch drop from the vent top to the bottom of the hole the vent was covering. On top of that, the hole was slightly filled wtih about two cups of water. And my poor fat fingers could not reach the coupon!

I'm sure you're thinking--- dude, it's just a coupon BUT this coupon was my ticket to a FREE pint of Breyer's Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream! (Those of you who know me, know I LOVE Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!) And as Andrew always says, "It's really hard to beat free! The only thing that beats free is being paid to do it". ... so I couldn't back down, I was deteremined to get the coupon.

I embarrassingly walked over to the deli that was close by and asked if they had anything long that I could borrow. Questioning why, I told a kid that was probably a few years yonger than me, my situation. He couldn't believe it and thought that this was the most entertainment he'd had all day. He had no idea that the grocery store even had a floor vent (just as I had no idea). He took it upon himself to get that coupon out of the vent, as I had. He peaked down the vent and saw the coupon, knew he couldn't grab it and immediately asked if I had a piece of gum. I said maybe and as I was looking through my purse to find it he ran behind the deli counter. He came back with a plastic knife. While I found my ONE AND ONLY piece of gum (cinnamon flavoured) that I had in my purse, he then asked me to chew on it a while. After making small chat and chewing on the gum, we then stuck it on the end of the knife. Then stuffed the knife through the vent-- the gum barely fit through the vent hole. He stabbed the coupon with my gum a few times but the gum was too wet (apparently I have a lot of saliva). I blew into the vent hoping to dry the gum a little bit then tried again. We got it to stick to the gum!-- but then we couldn't get the coupon to fit through the vent properly with out having it fall back into the water. So with his two hands and my two hands we got the coupon as close as possible to the vent holes and then I stuck my fingers through the hole and grabbed the coupon.

It was a SUCCESS. I got my coupon! The Bashas' Employee was so proud! He said "now with all that work you better go get yourself some ice cream!" So as I was headed over there to grab the ice cream, I could hear the boy 4 aisles down, telling his manager and all the other employees that passed his exciting story. What are the chances that I JUST SO HAPPENED to be standing above a vent and that the coupon JUST SO HAPPENED to fall AND fit through the holes??? AND I of course, was in a hurry to get my shopping down before all the stores closed and sales ended.

As I went down the aisle to grab the ice cream, I found out that we went through all that work to find out they were out of Breyer's ice cream! :( I had to get a rain check.

Bread

I made bread today. I used my fancy schmancy bread machine I got from my mom (thanks mom). I used it to make the dough (it took 5 hours) and then baked it in the oven. Most of the time my bread machine burns my bread a half hour before it's supposed to be finished. Today though, I only made the dough in the machine, focaccia bread that is. and it turned out SOOOOOO good.

I'm so proud of myself. I made bread. go me.

Stand in Holy Places

This has a whole new meaning for me lately. There's been shootings a couple times in the last 2 weeks in our neighborhood. We think one of our neighbors is involved in last weeks shootings-- by the way the cops were hanging around their house today. Two weeks ago, Andrew pulled out his AR-15 when he heard some gun shots and started cleaning it (I think it's an ar-15... I don't know.. I don't know guns and I don't like them but I do have a great respect for them). When I got home from YW, he told me what he heard and then decided to teach me how to use it, if need be. We hear gun shots at least once a month and we live in a nice little suburb called Tolleson in Phoenix with nice new houses-- you'd never guess it'd be that type of neighborhood until after you move in. I'm glad we didn't buy because it wasn't until after we moved in that we realized we're surrounded by drug users and shootings and loud music that plays until odd hours of the morning from some one's car that keeps Abby up at night some times.


Yet, I still feel the spirit, the love of Christ and am completely content in my house. As President James E. Faust taught in his talk on Standing in Holy Places, he said "to fully enjoy life, all of us must find our own breathing space and peace of mind.How can we do this? There is only one answer. We must rise above the evil that encroaches upon us. We must follow the counsel of the Lord, who said, “It is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places.” ...surely another holy place on earth ought to be our homes. .. I can say that our home has been a place where we have sought to honor the spirit of holiness to the Lord. We did not always succeed. Of course not. But we tried."

And I feel the same way. We are seeking to honour the spirit of holiness to the Lord in our house and though we don't always succeed we are trying. And because we are trying I feel comfort and peace and safety in our house. And I'm grateful to my husband who has the priesthood, who was able to bless our home and bring the spirit into it. I'm grateful I can stand in a holy place. :)

Anyway... they're building a police station a block away from us so we're hoping things will calm down now. We've been using a police unit that is not stationed very close to us and it often takes them a while to get to our neighborhood. And I just wanted to share that as I'm watching the police which are parked outside of our house questioning the family kiddy corner to us.

Better get off and go to the store to get some free stuff with couponsense. whohoo. :)

A Change in Season

I'm so glad our weather finally changed. We're below the triple digits-- FINALLY. I enjoyed the warm weather but once the forecast reminded me what cool weather felt like, I missed it immensely. However, then I realized that all we have for Abby is warm weather clothes and a pair of sandles... so it's clothes shopping time. And I hate clothes shopping time because Abby looks good in almost everything I find, which means I have to pick and choose what she REALLY needs. If I had the choice, I would buy her a world of clothes.

Abby is growing like a weed (as my friend Kim says). She's jumping sizes and growing tall and her feet are finally growing (she stayed in the infant size 0-1 for the first 8-10 months of her life). She's really getting things down and I love to watch her figure things out. She folds her arms for prayer and somewhat shuts her eyes. Lately she's started to meekly whisper things during the prayer, as if she's saying it herself. If we could understand her, we'd just let her say the prayer instead of trying to talk over her. She also likes to sit on her little toilet while we sit on our big toilet, much to mom and dad's dismay. We'd prefer toilet time to be on our own... but she's gotta learn some how, I guess. She loves to play the piano and press the power button while we're on our computer. And today, she was dancing with me to he music on the radio while I was trying to pick up.

I took her to nursery last Sunday for the first time. She was very happy and content when I left and every time I peeked through the window to see how she was doing. However, the nursery leader brought her in 10 minutes before church ended saying that she cried the entire time she was in nursery. -- We have 4 nursery classes and over 40 infants in the nursery altogether. If ANY one of them starts to slightly wimper or seem like they MIGHT have a wet/dirty diaper they take straight to their parents. They don't deal with the kids at all... it appears. I can't blame them but a lot of them are learning quick how to get out of nursery. And I can't help but think Abby's going to pick up on it as well. She also doesn't do well with changing class rooms every half hour and not having something to snack on all the time... things we'll have to work on. :)

Andrew will hopefully FINALLY get his loans to come through for school this week so that we can FINALLY start to get our GI Bill from him being deployed twice (one was serving in Iraq). We were supposed to get several hundred dollars a month from the Veteran's Affair office for going to school and being a Veteran (which we rely on, being a "young and still going to school" family) but because of the bureaucracies, school, and people not knowing what to do on both the school's and VA side, we lost well over several thousand dollars that the VA should have paid us. And unfortunately this has happened more than once. The system for the army and the VA is not working and I'm pretty ticked off that they use this as a way to get people to join and then jade people of it. It's like working with a brick wall! BUT we've hopefully surpassed it and can get our money, which I'm excited about!!!

I'm also excited that he's finishing up his semester of online calculus. This week he has a final and then he's FINALLY done. It's been a hard class, especially doing it online and with a bad teacher. It's taken up a lot of his time and required a lot of outside the class room sources. And his work schedules will change. He'll start working the night shift and having classes in the mornings and evenings then sleeping during the day... not my choice. I hate it.

I'm in our church's youth program called Young Women, as a secretary. I can't wait for the presidency to change. Our president is moving soon and though I'm sad to see her go, things needed a change (it'll be nice to follow the church's guidelines and hand book again. And go back to the way things are supposed to be done in the church).

I love my house, my family, my animals and the church. I don't really have friends down here in Arizona. There's a lot of young moms like myself around here but not a lot of friendly, out-going, inviting ones. I'm thinking of going back to school, but I haven't found anything that interests me. I'm almost done with my Asian Studies degree but it just makes me homesick. And I'm slowly losing my mandarin speaking skills which is even more depressing. With paying veterinarian bills, I'm wishing I had gone for that career like I originally wanted. :)

Anyway, Halloween is upon us and I hope you all have a good trick or treat. I'm excited for the leaves to start changing colours soon and maybe fall. I've got my pumpkin and cinnamon spice smells out and my Halloween decorations-- though as always, I wish I had more. I love decorating my house to the holidays. BRING ON THE FALL...

I think I'm going off to make pull-a-part bread (aka monkey bread) and pumpkin roll... umm... sounds good.

I know the church the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, I love it-- I love how it works and the peace and happiness it brings in our lives. As I read the scriptures and pray daily I learn more about Christ and gain a better knowledge of Him and his eternal plan for us. It helps me get through my days, to have an eternal perspective on life and try and follow His example.

Best be off. Drop me a line when you read this. I love to find out who's reading it and hearing all about what's going in your lives. Hope all is well...

Yes to Prop 102

Romano's Macaroni Grill

I also have coupons for Ramano's Macaroni Grill Restaurant Favourites Dinner Kit. Stay In and Go All Out. Now you can make restaurant-style food at home in about 20 minutes — just add chicken!
There are four delicious flavors inspired by the chefs at Romano’s Macaroni Grill®. We tried it the night we got it and Andrew and I LOVED it. Andrew wasn't so much a fan of the restaurant last time he went, but this dinner kit was really really good. It was way better than hamburger helper and we honestly enjoyed it. If it goes on sale or we have a good coupon for it, we'll definitely get it! I have a coupon for $1.25 off when you buy a box. If you want any, let me know and I'll email you a coupon or send it via mail.

Coupons

I've been trying to save money by using a program called Coupon Sense (at couponsense.com). It has been working out very well. We had our pantry stocked up quickly and have been living on it for a quite some time lately as we're trying to get back into the work force from being laid off. You can't beat getting a grocery cart full of stuff for 35 cents. The other day the store wouldn't pay me the money they owed me for shopping there (as I had many coupons and such, it ended up in the negative and they owed ME 20 dollars). ... So I had to go find 20 dollars worth of stuff that I wanted at the grocery store... it being all free. It's awesome!

Lately, I've also been doing a program for general mills. They send me new products in the mail and I try them out and find ways to use them. The company sends me coupons with the products and if I like them, I can let all my friends know. So I have about ten paper coupons of 3 items I've gotten so far, I also have coupons that I can email people, who can then print them off and take them to the store to use.

So far, they've given me this:

New Pillsbury® Flaky Twists with Chocolate Icing conveniently helps moms make mornings even sweeter. The rich chocolate icing, warm flaky texture and aroma create an irresistible pull to the breakfast table. Simply twist, bake, and enjoy fresh-baked goodness straight from the oven. Enjoy those deliciously sweet family moments today!

To make you just...

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray or grease cookie sheet. Separate dough into 8 rounds; unroll into strips. Make a loop in center of strips shown. Crisscross ends of strip twice; pinch ends together to secure. Bake 11 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 2 minutes. Spread with icing.

They run normally (unless there's a sale from the grocer) about 2.99 each. The coupon I have is a dollar off and will expire in march 2009. So if you want them Let me know and I will send some off to you.

I love you mom!

We've been so excited that Abby's really starting to talk. Mainly just babbling on and on and on, but she's started to really sound like words are coming out-- and some words are! I'm almost positive she's making up her own words, though. Last Friday, she was in a really good mood in the evening and Andrew and I were playing with her all night. When it was time for bed time, Andrew decided to take her to bed. He said "good night, I love you mom" and Abby said very clearly, "I love you mom!"

It made my day! She can say I love you mom. She can also say "I want to go ooouutt" and she's constantly saying "Daddy?" and she's ALWAYS always always saying "meow" especially when she sees a cat, she tries to talk to them by saying "meow" and when I draw a circle with pointy ears and a nose with whiskers she automatically says meow too.

She's getting big! And I'm excited! And next Sunday she gets to go to nursery... that I'm not so excited about. Now that Andrew's in Primary, I don't have any one to sit with in Sunday School. I'll be bored to tears with out her.

Smurf

Some of you know but some of you don't... that two weeks ago Abby found some printer ink in a drawer. It was in a little bottle for refilling ink cartridges. She took it out of the drawer while I was trying to kill some flies that came in to the house from the farm that's behind us. While mom was trying to improve her backhand with a fly swatter that looks like a tennis racket, she decided to open the ink bottle and see what it did. She opened the ink, poured it on her hands, rubbed it around like lotion, apparently shook it and spilled it and got it on her hair. It looks like she tried to wipe it off her hair which of course made a few spots of blue in her hair turn into a head of blue hair. The dogs walked through it getting it all over the hall way and the back bedroom. It spilled all over the tile and a bit on the carpet, thanks to Abby and the dogs. I can't get it off our white walls and it's not budging from the grout. Brian, my brother in law, told me to kiss my house deposit good bye... but I still have a few tricks to try before I know the blue is permanent and to give up.

To try and make this whole experience better, I took some printer paper and put her very blue hands on it to make hand prints. These hand prints now serve as a remembrance of the day Abby, the beast, turned into a smurf and ruined the house.