Just some photos I was playing with

angelic:

From

bored angel:

From playing around

I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen:

From playing around

Cowles Family Reunion in UT

Here are pictures that David or I took while in Utah at the reunion.

You can see them three ways:

1. by pressing play on my blog.
   
2. going to my picasa album-- you can also print from picasa
3. they're in my facebook pics, but I haven't tagged anyone.
   

Sorry, no captions or anything. mei you shi jian.

Sidewalk Chalk

I'm finally getting pictures up from our trip to Idaho.

Here's some of Abby that I took.

Busy Sunday

-tried to be on time for church today- failed.

tangent: It's been my goal since we moved here... I have yet to meet the goal. Church starts at 8am and they start 5 minutes early. Abby typically doesn't wake up till 8:30am which makes getting her ready hard. I always have dinner made the night before. Abby's clothes out and her hair done the night before. My stuff is together and ready to go and my clothes are out. and still... we can't get out of the house by 8. ... some day.

- Got a second calling to be a part of the enrichment committee. I missed them calling my name to sustain me. :( I was set apart this afternoon though.

-Substituted for the youngest group in Nursery today (fortunately with 2 other ladies... so i wasn't alone) They're a hard group some times-- a lot of crying toddlers.

-Left Nursery for 15 minutes so that I could run into RS to do a VT moment. I don't think it went well. As I had nothing to say when I walked up there, but I chose to wing it. Hopefully I got my point across... hopefully. I didn't feel like I did, but oh well.

Side note:

1. I hate talking in front of people.
2. I hate talking in front of large groups of ppl I don't know.
3. I hate talking in front of people in large groups of ppl I don't know in Church.
4. I'm a bawl er. I try not to cry and typically I don't shed tears but still.. it's horrible.
5. I have Enoch syndrome, only he was slow to speak. I just have an embarrassingly shaky voice-- which even once my nerves are gone, my voice is STILL shaky

But like it says in Moses:

31 And when Enoch had heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth, before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying: Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?
32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good.

- Was set apart today after church.
-Then had a Enrichment meeting today...

And now I need to get the house ready because we're having a few families from the ward over tomorrow to have FHE.

We're also doing ward Temple Day this week. Which means it's going to be a hectic week for us being the family history consultants. People wanting names, trying to get names, getting them ready for endowments... Handing names out etc. etc. Plus we don't have a baby sitter. :(

But I think this is great!! I'm being acknowledged, I get extra blessings. I'm meeting more people in the ward, I'm being spiritually uplifted and I'm getting out of my comfort zone by talking in front of people. And I feel like I'm finally able to serve the Lord in the capacity I know I'm meant to do. love it love it love it.

ghosting

i saw this on leno and i think it's awesome. haha.

"but we're not old" cont. ..

I would put her in the old category!!!! She was around grandma's age (sorry grandma... for calling you old. haha)... but her husband was probably my mother's age.

At least she feels like she still has her youth. I hope I do when I'm her age.

She seemed like a nice enough lady. I hope they treat the cat well.

She almost took TWO cats--- I sooooooooooo wish she had. :( But she at least took one cat off our hands. It was the nicest of the group. She called me the next day and told me she named him max and that she couldn't believe how friendly the cat was. He didn't run or try and hide when he got to the new house. She said "we've blessed her life in more ways than we'll ever know"-- that's good I guess.

I was sad to see him go, but glad at the same time. We've become attached but with 5 cats hanging around still (that's right... FIVE I can't get rid of them. I've told every one I know and I've put ads up and everything!)-- we weren't THAT sad... but still sad.

On a different note:

They're all very friendly cats and typically come out and play when the kids are around. They ALL jump on my lap and rub against my legs and purr a lot. For some reason though, when these people came over, the cats went crazy!! They jumped out of our arms trying to scratch and get away. They ran under furniture and wanted nothing to do with us!!!

I hope this isn't a common occurrence because we still nee to get rid of the cats!! And we want people to see their loving side so they'll take them!!

"BUT WE'RE NOT OLD, WE LISTEN TO ROCK AND ROLL!"

My cat had kittens back in march... and we still have them. :(

We've noticed that she's pregnant again today... so we're rushing her to the vet to get that fixed before it's too late.

Anyway, with that being said I've been trying to get rid of them. It'll be hard because we've grown attached to each cat even though we haven't named them (best not to name them, if you're giving them away).

I've had ads up for a while and we finally had someone call today. She asked if they had shots and were neutered. I replied "no, since they were born we've been trying to move and then did move and have been trying to unpack boxes" she said very sternly "I DON'T WANT TO GET PERSONAL, OKAY?!!?"-- I was feeling like saying "whoah! down horsey! I'm just telling you the facts".

And then after she's done asking questions she says "let me tell you about myself" and I'm thinking, 'okay but I don't care as long as you seem a good person and take a cat'. She goes on to say, she had a cat for 15 years but had to put it down recently and they wanted a kitten to raise. I said, "ok sounds good" and then she continues, "we're retired but we're NOT OLD!!!" I said, "that's fine, you don't sound old on the phone anyway" and she's blurts "BUT WE'RE NOT OLD, WE LISTEN TO ROCK AND ROLL!"

hahhahaha... oh boy. "BUT WE'RE NOT OLD, WE LISTEN TO ROCK AND ROLL!" haha

She seemed a little out there, but still a good person that will love and spoil the cat like we did. Hopefully the cat and her get along and they take the cat. I'd like take control of my house again one cat at a time!

"BUT WE'RE NOT OLD, WE LISTEN TO ROCK AND ROLL!"

please, thanks, and olives.

For a while now I've been trying to get Abby to say "please". When she wants something I tell her to say "please" and if she doesn't, she doesn't get what she wants. So she hasn't been getting anything lately and she's been throwing a lot of fits because of it.

Yesterday she wanted a jar of green olives in the fridge. So I asked her to say please. For the first time EVER she said "ease" and that was good enough for me!! It made me so happy that I gave her the whole jar of olives. I then asked her to say thanks and she said with a smile "anx"

She was SOOO happy to get the WHOLE jar of olives. and I was so happy she finally said "please" AND "thanks"!!!

if at first you don't succeed. try try again.

Sourdough again:

It failed. It doubled in size, then I punched it down and shaped it again like i was supposed to. then it was supposed to double in size again... and it never did. it tasted fine but it was heavy and dense...

but if at first you don't succeed. try try again.

Sourdough Bread cont.

Well... I'm not a baker. I wish I was-- I'm working on it.

The first loaf i tried didn't rise. the second loaf i tried (from the same start) did rise but I accidentally baked it while trying to let it rise. It would have turned out beautifully and tasted great if I hadn't accidentally baked it too soon.

So... I'm trying again... with two different starts.

I'm keeping my original because I know that it's still good. And this week I made a start by using organic grapes. this "Italian sourdough starter, or biga, uses the wild yeast naturally present in grapes. The fruit also provides the sugar on which the yeast feeds." I also found out that the grapes expedite the fermentation process which means instead of waiting 7 days for sourdough you only have to wait 3 and should not wait longer than 4 because it will be too sour by then.

I'll tell you how it tastes tomorrow. I'm so excited!! I checked to make sure that the yeast is doing it's job and it's already rising so hopefully i don't screw this one up in the baking process!!

I also found out that you can freeze your starts until you're ready to use them-- good to know.

Thunderstorm!!

Saturday we had a thunderstorm during the day. You're probably thinking... so? But here in AZ, storms seem to be rare and we've had a shortage of rain this summer.

I... LOVE rain and probably shouldn't live in AZ as I prefer rain over sun. So saturday as I coming home from cleaning the church I decided Abby needs to be familiar with rain. And I wanted to share my love of rain with her. Thus, I decided to take the dogs for a bike ride with Abby and Andrew. This is the first time this summer that it has rained during the day-- for us, therefor the first time I've been able to take abby out in the rain!

Andrew, being the electrician that he is, did NOT think it was a good idea to go bike riding in an electrical storm. bike=metal in storm=disaster. I however, disagreed-- and when push came to shove, I won. :)

We took the dogs out and went bike riding. and we LOVED IT!! we stormed through puddles. and went to the park. It was an aerial flood so we took the dogs through the flooding areas and let them swim. We also took them through the jungle jim. The dogs went down the slide (on their own accord) and they couldn't control the traction so they flew 3 yards through the air on their sides and barely landed on their feet. Poor shelby couldn't control the traction jumping off the sides of the jungle jim and face planted into the sand several... several times but none the less kept doing it!

Everyone looked at us like we were crazy for 1, bike riding with dogs, 2 bike riding in the rain, and 3 playing in the rain.

Abby didn't want to leave the park and loved it. I think I was able to pass the love of rain on to her. When we got home and dried off we were so exhausted everyone slept-- including the dogs! AND the dogs got a bath-- nature's bath (which means, less work for me!)

(I would have taken pictures, but andrew says i'm not allowed to take any electronics near water... so sorry for lack of fun pictures!)