as of late

this is super long, folks. but stick with it. or not.

i've been trying my best to keep busy and be productive with my time. it's actually been a lot easier than i thought (at least, the "busy" part - "productive" is another story...)

#1 - dallin. oh my lands, he takes up so much time. it's so fun, but so exhausting. he has mastered crawling, knows how to flip over while getting his diaper changed, can pick up anything with those pincher fingers, pinches mom with those pincher fingers, eats everything, laughs, babbles, roll over in his sleep, digs in the trash, and pulls himself up to standing all the time. in fact, he can stand up without holding on to anything. if he is sitting in my lap on the floor, he can just stand up....i have to offer some help with balance, of course, but not much! he loves bath time, and is particularly interested in the drain. whenever daddy walks in the room, dallin just starts laughing, because he knows he's about to have fun. if jonathan isn't looking at him but dallin wants attention, dallin laughs to get jonathan's attention. and whines to get mine.


he knows how to find all the wrong things in the room. if i have two small items in a room full of stuff that is otherwise baby-proof, dallin finds it. he also can feed himself chunks of sweet potato, and LOVES it. he is constantly learning new things. for example, just now he learned how to take his shirt off...this is probably because the shirt was really loose - i learned it slows him down if he is wearing clothes that are too big for him:) we are working on getting him to go to sleep on his own at an earlier time. i think we can do this.


anyway, dallin. yeah. that kid. keeps me busy.


#2 - pilot training. yep, it finally started! today is day three. i think it's going to go by quickly, but that we're going to have some long nights. granted, it's jonathan (not me) that will be kept busy by pilot training (or UPT), but with jonathan so busy, i lose my dishwasher and laundry folder.

shoot.

(i made jonathan smile for this picture before he went to his first day of school. the lighting is kind of weird here...)

and in case you were wondering why he will be so busy, here's a little taste:

these are most of the publications he is responsible for. don't worry, they are all front-and-back. and yes, he will be tested on all of it (not like the books and packets we had to buy for college classes, and then we didn't use them more than twice). once he tracks (meaning he moves on from the T-6 to either a "heavy", fighter/bomber, or helicopter route), he will have more information specific the the category of plane he is flying. then once he graduates, he will be given an assignment and we'll finally know what plane (or helicopter...or UAV) he will be flying. and then he'll be given even more training with that one.

point is, if you hear your southwest airlines pilot was a former military pilot, know that you have a well-trained pilot up front.

the other point is, pray for us.

#3 - i have other projects to fill in the time when dallin is sleeping and i don't want to face the dirty laundry on the floor because it means i have to face the clean laundry in the dryer.

for starters, i made a wreath. i like it on most days, and jonathan insists that "it's gorgeous" (he's a good husband) i bought a wreath for $3 at ross and took it apart, added some of my own pine cones and the oranges i dried last year, and glued it on a $3 grapevine wreath from wal-mart, and that was that.

and then who remembers this number? (please excuse the mess, but i think it adds nicely to the effect...)


i turned it into this number:


it's not perfect, but i feel pretty good about myself - especially since i've never done such a big project by myself before!

#4 - i have a few other little projects i'm sure you'll be hearing about, i'm sure. i've been a little more consistent with working out, and some days i can almost convince myself i like it. ish. i'm trying to make more foods from scratch, and so in the past week i've expanded my cooking horizons, making granola, whole wheat bread, and homemade ravioli. i thought they all turned out pretty well. i've also painted our tv stand (it's a terrible paint job, but i no longer look at that corner with disdain), and started finally recovering the pad on the rocker. i have a couple antique shop finds i'm going to be revamping, and i'm excited about them. it's been really fun for me living out here, because there aren't any craft stores at all. so i have to get really resourceful. even when the outcome isn't so hot, it's fun to have a challenge. i know most of my little projects aren't that exciting, but i've had fun with them. i feel like such a nerd writing about them, but, well, it's what i've been up to, so there you have it.

#5 - one of my other projects is the matter of food storage. jonathan and i have been trying to figure out how to do it for a while, and so with the help of foodstoragemadeeasy.net, we decided to just take the plunge and start with a month's supply of food. we brought in an extra shelf from the shed, and...


it felt good to have that supply. living in such a remote area, it's nice to know we have a backup plan in place. we still need to get water (especially since we have been without drinkable water at least twice since we've been here) it's in the works.

i also wanted to throw in this story:

for those of you unfamiliar with our faith, we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. we believe we have a living prophet who talks to God the same way Moses and Abraham did. our prophets have long been counseling us to build a supply of food storage. it is something that helps in times when finances are low, or natural disasters, etc. one thing i love is how our church really emphasizes self-sufficiency. this is a perfect example.

anyway, jonathan and i have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do this. currently we are trying to pay off a student loan as quickly as possible, while building up some savings. this means that we don't have much extra cash laying around, waiting to be spent on much beyond the basics. but we felt strongly we should get our food storage going. so we opted to start with a month, so we can test it out and see how the whole rotation routine goes. as we were walking through wal-mart with a cart approaching overflowing, jonathan and i just had to keep reminding ourselves to picture Pres. Monson's smiling face and not focus on the cost.

when we came to the checkout stand, i stood at the front, helping to load bags into a second cart. jonathan and dallin were in the back, loading cans, etc. onto the conveyor belt. a man walked up to jonathan, talked to him for a bit, shook his hand and walked away. jonathan looked at me with something of a surprised expression.

as we proudly walked out, feeling good that we were trying to follow God's commandments, i asked jonathan what that man had to say.

he said the man just asked if jonathan was in the armed forces, what branch, and if he had deployed yet. he then told him that he himself was a former marine, and that when he joined the marines he had a young family much like ours. he said he remembered how it was a hard time, and that with children, they were financially strained. he told jonathan he would like to give him a gift. seeing that the man had a bill in his hand, jonathan respectfully declined, but the man insisted. bill in hand, he shook jonathan's hand and walked away. he gave us a $100 bill. he didn't look particularly wealthy, and he didn't make a big show of it. just a quiet gift.

it was so touching to us, both that this stranger gave us such a generous gift, and the God would bless us so quickly for doing what we can to follow His prophet. i feel a little bit guilty - surely there are others who would benefit more from that money, but for some reason it was given to us. both of us were tearing up as we walked out of wal-mart.

i told jonathan we should write Pres. Monson and glenn beck...i thought they were the people who might appreciate this story the most. the goodness of God and the american spirit.

hallelujah.

i love those moments when you get a reminder of how very aware God is of us. this was one of them.