Happy Birthday, Mike!

Today is a birthday with a very high number in it for Mike. :) Because we have eight years between us, it is fun to tease him about how old he is. We had his birthday dinner last night as he is working all day and into the night tonight. What a bummer, but we made sure that we celebrated him last night. When I got up yesterday Katie had already got the candles out for Mike's cake, which was really cute. He got to take a nice nap while I made his cake and dinner. He loved it. So here are a few birthday facts about Mike.

• Mike is my best friend. Although, when we first got married, it wasn't necessarily that way. One morning, very soon after we had been married, I turned to him and told him that he was my best friend. He was taken back with a face that said, "Really?" I was horrified. Was I not his best friend? I kid you not he said, "No, my friend Dean is." It hadn't quite figured into his head that I could be (okay, that could have something to do with our short courtship and engagement period). I am not sure how long it took before I dared brooch the subject again, but he SAYS I am his best friend now. :) Not that we don't have friends we enjoy talking too and doing stuff with, but I would prefer spending time with him over anyone else.
• Mike, if you didn't know already, loves cars. When we were on our honeymoon we would pass cars and he would say, "Oh, I want that car" over and over again. We visited a car racing school on our honeymoon. When we pass a classic hot rod, he slows down and rolls the windows down so he can hear the engine rumble. And during our marriage we have been storing/restoring a '68 Mustang. He LOVES cars. He says someday he would love to have a ranch with a bunch of Mustangs...that would be cars, not horses. You never know...
• Every day when he comes home, the kids scream "DAD!" and run to him. Sometimes when they think that he is about to be home and they think they hear the door they will start screaming and I will have to stop them. They hate it when he doesn't come home at night before they go to sleep.
• Mike lived in El Salvador for 4 years between the ages of 6 and 10. He loved living there until civil war broke out. He has memories of driving back and forth between El Salvador and California during his Mom's breaks from working at the La Escuela Americana. I can't even imagine how long of a drive that would be.
• Mike has the gift of teaching, speaking in groups. He is able to put a speech together and present it with amazing ease and he does it really well. It is truly a gift. He is really able to motivate those around him. He has the gift to sell something, in his case usually scouting, to people. It is a talent I would love to have. It is somewhat genetic, his mother was a teacher and his grandfather was an insurance salesman.
• Mike will tell you that he is not that smart and that he hopes the kids get their smarts from me. Don't believe him, he is very intelligent!
• Mike got a degree in Political Science and when we got married he was a democrat. Don't worry, he has changed and has come away from the Dark Side ;). The most I have felt the PoliSci influence was this election cycle. While I had no intention of watching the conventions of the different political parties, we watched A LOT of it. It was actually very educational. It was nice to see it for myself instead of getting the spin from the news. (Now I realize how much they spin, too).
• Mike is a huge fan of the Cubbies and the Steelers. How does a boy from the west coast become a fan of east coast teams, you ask? In Oregon they only got television broadcast from Chicago, thus the Cubs became his team for baseball. He hopped on the Steelers bandwagon in the 70's when they were awesome and never got off. Last night one of his Cubbies, Zambrano, had a no hitter. This was the first no hitter for the Cubs in 36 years, and a first for Zambrano. His Steelers won last night too. He was pretty happy to hear that, a little gift to him from "his" teams.
• Before Mike and I started dating, he came up behind me after an Oregon Football game (I was working on the sidelines as an Athletic Trainer) and put ice (that I had just dumped out) down my shirt. My roommate had broken up with him not too soon before that and I remember thinking that I had given her really good advice (I really didn't know him, I only meet my roommate 2 weeks before they broke up). I think the word "loser" went through my mind at the time. Don't feel too bad, he still laughs about it, and I have changed my mind about him :).
• He is an awesome man, whom I am so lucky to be married too!

Happy Birthday, Babe! I love you!

For our Families...

It may seem melodramatic to say that this election we can all be a part of helping save families by how marriage is defined. However, it is not.

It is a little shocking that we are even to this point. If these amendments/propositions do not pass then it will affect our freedom of speech, what our kids are taught in school, and very likely our freedom of religion...among other things.

I know in California where my parents and much of my family live, they have not only heard about it, but they have organized the members of their church across the state to call and walk the neighborhoods, door to door, to talk to people about the issue. I volunteered yesterday for the first time here in Arizona to help our campaign and we have donated already to the cause and want to do so again. Even if you are out of state for California, they need your help. The proposition they are trying to get through will change the law back to redefining marriage between Man and Woman only.

Here is the same link as above to an article that you can read that will help you see why this is so important. A little part of the article here on how you can help, "If you are willing to put together one of these 800 calling teams, please provide your contact information, including email, address and phone number to Family Leader's executive director, Peter Knobloch at mailto:pknobloch@san.rr.comand we will contact you to give you further information. You do not need to know the issue well. We will give you an easy script to follow. " If you live close to me and you would like to be in a calling party with me (we can make it a party at my house and I will try hard to make it not lame...) let me know. I will head one up if I have enough help. (Did I just volunteer...oh, scary) Many different churches and individuals are helping with this. If you need courage, think about praying about it, and let us all work on it together!

Burn, Baby, Burn!

So what could this post possibly be about? Exercising and feeling the burn? Nope. Burnin' rubber on the asphalt? Nope. My hunk of burnin' love, Mike? Nope. It is about my actual baby burning.

Yes, it all started when I decided that, instead of calling a babysitter to watch my kids while I worked with our Youth Group on Tuesday (Mike was out of town), I would just drag them along with me. People do it sometimes. It is volunteer. The Young Men were in charge of the activity, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard to keep an eye on them. They did well for quite a while. Then the boys started playing tag in the gym and Christian started to participate. Then it moved outside, unbeknownst to me. No problem. EXCEPT that they had been dutch oven cooking pizzas outside in the parking lot. Which means that there were live coals still in the parking lot. My dear precious child, who would love to go barefoot all the time and had been reminded that it was time to put his shoes on (but did not), ran outside in chase of a boy. A little while later he came back in and sat down a few yards away whimpering and looking at his foot. Never one to make hoopla out of a small hurt, I ignore it, knowing he will come to me if it really is more than a stubbed toe. A minute later I look back and he is gone. Shortly, Katie comes and says in a slightly more than concerned voice, "Mom, Mom, Christian is hurt!"

I start to get up, but then think, no, I'll see if he is really hurt if he can't walk back to me. So I send Katie out to have him come show me. I mean, how many times have you had an overly excited child come tell you someone is hurt to run out and see that same "hurt" child laughing and running again. And he was JUST there and didn't say a word to me. (I think it was because of guilt since he wasn't supposed to have been outside, but he isn't saying...)

Seconds later he is CARRIED in by another boy. Oh. He IS hurt. In his cute shaking voice that instantly breaks your heart he says, "Mom it really hurts. I stepped on a coal outside while I was running." Oh. No. But I can't see anything (his feet were dirty, but no puffiness). Then he starts to whimper harder, so I take him in the kitchen and start to run cold water over it. At this point he starts to really cry and I quickly weighed my options while some men got cold water for him to stick his foot in. My friend Annette who was there to pick up her kids and who often plays the single mom while her husband travels (much more than mine) was awesome and offered to take Katie for me while I went to Urgent Care (Thanks!!!). Women are awesome. They see a need and just step in. Always the consummate mothers. (Okay, obviously not from my own example above, but once I really realized...).

So after two doctor visits within 16 hours, great gooey stuff for burns, Tylenol with codeine and good friends that helped, Christian is stuck with a second degree burn between and on his big and 2nd toe for awhile. He is already running around though. And he loves the codeine...luckily we only have so much. :)

So the moral of the story...if they are dutch oven cooking at the church and you might need a babysitter, get one even if the logistics of getting them home is a bother. That way, you won't burn, baby, burn....

A Day of Cleaning...

This was a spectacular Saturday. What could make it "spectacular" you ask? A day of organization and cleaning. For the first time Katie cleaned her room completely by herself. That is awesome. This is from the floor, to her bed, to her counters. I was so thrilled that I took a picture of it to prove to her later, that yes, she can do it and there is proof. She did it again on Sunday and you could tell that she was so pleased with herself. Bliss.
Not only did my daughter clean. My husband decided that it was finally time to do some major hauling out of his closet. He got rid of at least half of his closet including his "Christmas Stripe" or "Candy Cane" shirt. Trust me, it was huge. We took nearly 100 items of clothing immeadiately to the thrift store. (Mike's idea, he didn't want to be tempted to get stuff back out. I supported him 100% of that drive.) Now look at this closet. It could nearly make me cry if it wasn't making me jump for joy. And it isn't even completely done yet...just you wait. Okay, don't. I won't bore you again with my joy of an organized closet!!!

Grandma and Grandpa visit Arizona!

We were so lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa come down to Arizona last weekend. We had so much fun. They had been on the road visiting National Parks (Zion's and The Grand Canyon) on the way here and we wore them out even further once they got here. We dragged them off to the Arizona Science Museum after Katie's baptism and we had a lot of fun.

First, we went off to digitally alter some heads. My mom already had great hair, now it just got a bit amplified. Yes, she let me take the picture so I could show Mike, who was detained by his mattress at home. It is not clear whether or not she had any idea it would make it to the blog. It is too funny not to share though. Katie loved changing her head too. It was fun.


Then they went to play with the water table and see how the forces of nature affect our earth.
Grandma and Grandpa liked it too. On Monday, there was no rest for the weary...and that would be Mike apparently. My dad got Mike going before it was too hot and got our tall grass mowed, found the trunk of our Mesquite and blew the front yard off. Mike washed their car, much to my Mom's pleasure. It was a good morning.
Mike found some relief with the kids on the last official day of summer in the pool. It was a fun and relaxing (for me) day.
The kids are still wanting to move to California the next time we have to shove off, so I guess that means it was a successful trip. :) Thanks Mom and Dad for coming. We had a great time and miss you! (You know, you could become snowbirds... :))

Katie's Baptism Day

It has been a very busy week as to why I haven't posted this earlier. Last weekend we had a very special day with Katie getting baptized. She has been looking forward to this for a long time and she was so excited. It went so quickly, but it was so wonderful. The spirit was definitely strong during the program. She shared her baptism day with her friend Brinley, which was an added bonus. We were very lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Rawlins here to share in her baptism day. They have a goal to be at every grandchild's baptism and we are so glad that they made it for her special day. (And can you believe, I don't have a picture with them from that day. I was trying to stay on schedule...drat!) Katie asked my Mom to talk about baptism and Brinley choose family friend Stefan Dobbe to talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost. They did a wonderful job of bringing the spirit in. Our friend Amy Seiter played the piano which was beautiful. Katie's primary teacher Marie Buell conducted the music. As you can tell from above Mike baptized her which was so neat. He was really nervous as this was the first time he has ever baptized someone. He did stellar and Katie went all the way under on the first time. It was a beautiful special day and Katie is really excited to be an official member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had many friends come and join us for the special occasion and Katie's and Brinley's teacher Mrs. Farnsworth came too, which was so exciting for the girls.

(Thanks Chelsea for the pictures of Katie and Brinley together, I wouldn't have those either without you! Do I have permission? :) )

Congratulations Katie! We are really proud of you!