Life has all kind of twists

Well, I was released as a seminary teacher on Sunday. I am not exactly sure of all the details, but I know that the Lord is in control. It is actually an answer to prayer for me and the new seminary teacher. I do have a new calling. I am the Nursery leader in primary. It is so much fun and I really love those kids. They love me too. It is nice to be appreciated by so many. I am sad though because I received a call this morning from a mother of one of my would be seminary students asking if we were having seminary this morning. Her son really wanted me to be his teacher this year. I taught him over the summer for sunday school. a couple of the kids were really sad that I was not going to be their teacher any more. But I told her that I was released and that the new teacher is going to be amazing. She seemed kind of disappointed. But life goes on, right? Right!!! I know that growing is an ever changing process that I don't fully understand how it works in all the details. I just know that Heavenly Father knows though. I am glad of that. Aren't you? If I was completely in charge of my life than it would be a mess. I am glad that Heavenly Father allows us to rely on him for help and advice.  

I went to the new teachers house yesterday to give her all of the books and stuff for seminary. I am sad that I am not going to teach. I was told by the Stake President that if I were to continue to teach that I would not be able to be as effective as I wanted to be because others would not allow me to succeed. I think it is sad that Satan uses even members of the church to accomplish what he wants, but I think that it is for the better that it all happened how it did. I am grateful for all that I learned and to have been able to work with the youth of the church. I am really excited because now I am going to wake up early to exercise instead. I am hoping that now since I won't be so stressed out that I will actually be able to get pregnant. I am hoping and praying that it will happen soon. 

Last sunday was my first Sunday as the nursery leader. I am the only one called in there right now. It went really well. I helped in the nursery when I was in my last ward, so I was trained by the best. I loved how they did everything. It was so structured and organized. I pretty much did what they did, but just a little different. It goes by a lot faster when there are things for the kids to do except play the whole time. 

Emma with Brendan's sunglasses. So cool!

Gardening...

Here are some pictures of my little growing garden. It has been really fun. I am excited for next spring when I have a whole huge garden. I hope it will be successful. It will be in the ground then and I will have a lot more variety. 

These tomatoes are so good when they get ripe. It looks like I will have a lot of ripe ones pretty soon. We have been having tons of rain lately so I haven't had to go out and water them. 

Tomatoes and a Bell Pepper. these bell peppers are so good. They are so sweet. They haven't grown as big as I thought they would, but they are perfect. I wonder since this one is turning red if it will have a different flavor. We are going to make some pizza tonight. I think I am going to use this one on it. Mmmmm!!!!!

We had a storm the other day and this one got knocked off. I was a little sad because it had tomatoes on it and it was flowering which means that I am getting more. I decided to put it in this cup and put it by the window and it started shooting out roots. When the roots get big enough then I will hopefully plant it back outside. The tomatoes in the bowl fell off when the plant got knocked over. I decided to see how they would turn out if I let them ripen inside. The red one I am going to put on the pizza as well. They are so juicy and sweet. I love them. I am so excited. 

This is a serrano pepper. Hot!!!! don't ever eat it plain. bad mistake, for me, not Chris. My tongue was on fire and even milk couldn't calm it. I only took a small bite. Never again!! I picked a lot of them off and gave them to Uncle Alan. I knew that he would use them. I had way too many to know what to do with. I am looking forward for more to grow though because I am planning on making more salsa and canning it and putting it in our food storage in the basement. 

The plant on the left here is also a tomato plant. It grows the bigger tomatoes. I have a few growing on it now. They are getting big. Yay!!! Who would have thought that I would be doing this? It is actually quite rewarding and fun. I have enjoyed it very much. 

Our little project

As you can see in the pictures our beautiful walls. I know, It is ingenious. Who ever thought of that design....Clever!!! ...I know. It is sheet rock. It makes it look like we live in a dump. We have tons of projects here. No, we don't live in the projects, but we have our fair share of them. It is exciting to know that we are getting things done though. Slowly but surely. There was only one sheet of wall paper on it. Thank goodness! But they painted over the wall paper. I was ready to get it all off because our house reeked of stale cigarette smoke and old person. Yuk!!! Let me tell you, it is 100% better now that it is off and out of our house. I can breath!!!

Emma loves to read

Emma loves to read. She is very persistent when she wants to read a book. She will come up to me and say "book." If I put the book down by me she will pick it back up and put it back in my hands and say "Booook." So, I have to read to her. I am glad that she loves books. I didn't much care for them back in the day. 

Papa and Zeke

Zeke is such a sweet kitty. He loves to be loved. He also loves to love. He is so funny. This video he decided to love on Papa and make him his pet. 

We got such a kick out of this video. I am glad that i got it on video. 

More projects

Emma and I decided to go and play outside this morning. Chris and I have stone that we were going to put in our front yard and do a little landscaping. I decided that today was the day. I know that I can't wait for the perfect day to do it or wait for Chris to do it because he is so busy working. Plus by the time he gets home I know that he is tired. So I decided to just do it myself. It was fun working out the little details and getting things put where I wanted it. I think it is going to look really good when it is finished. Especially when we put more dirt in and plant some flowers and such. I love working in the yard. I grabbed some stone, put it in and Emma was looking at my back and said, "oh, hi bug. spyer. hi spyer." I knew what that meant. I had a spider on my back. I went to the door to see if I could see it in the reflection of the window. Sure enough I had a huge spider on my back from the stone. I went inside and flicked it into the sink and it was toast. I am glad that Emma told me. She would have loved it if a spider were crawling on her. She thinks that everything is her friend. Even flies. We were at a friends house last Sunday and she was having the time of her life thinking that a fly was playing with her. Every time  a fly would go past her she would start to laugh hysterically. She loved it. It was so funny. I love that little angel. 

Our fun in the summer time

Swimming

Emma loves to swim. We have gone to the YMCA pool a little bit this summer. She doesn't like the slides much, but she loves to go in the deeper area with mommy and daddy. She especially loves it when the waves are going. We put her on a tube and she holds on and just has a blast. Here she is in her swimsuit, which you can't see and her sunglasses on her head. She is so adorable. We were playing in the swimming pool in the back yard this time. 

Potty Training

Today, was potty training day. We started at 7:00 am and finished 12:00 pm. We potty trained all of her dolls, which, by the way, all had pull-ups on. When they went on the potty chair they all got a treat or a drink of juice, even Emma. We sang songs with her on the potty chair and read books and ate lots of snacks and drank lots of juice. Overall it was a success. She went potty 5 times today. There was one time that she was sitting on the chair and started to pee and it started spouting out of the chair all over the floor. She then proceeded to rub her feet all in it. She thought that was fun. We blowed bubbles, which she loved. She loved to blow the bubbles herself. When she got even just one bubble out she went crazy with excitement. It was fun. I didn't think I would last all five hours. A half hour in to it I was ready to go back to bed. But I kept thinking to myself that the end results are worth it if you can have some extra cash that you can use on other things instead of diapers. What things do you say, well, you know, like a new bike for myself. 

Exercise

I wish that I could just watch people exercise and me lose the weight. I have been bad when it comes to exercise these past weeks. I love to do it, I just have had a lot to do lately. I really do love to exercise. I love the way I feel when I am doing it and how I feel when I am done. It gives me a lot more energy during the day and I am more likely to eat a little more healthy. 

Chris, the neighbors, and my new toys

We have the greatest neighbors. They are Catholic and love to pick on us Mormons. We have fun picking on them. They pick on the fact that they are Catholic. They are both I would say in their 70's; Clay and Pam are their names. Clay says that the Catholics are good for nothing, and that they are the most lazy people on the earth. He's fun! Pam is a sweet lady. She came over the other day and asked if I could use a crock pot. I like to cook and couldn't turn it down. It is a big one too. She also started telling me how she doesn't cook or bake a whole lot and that she doesn't use her Kitchen Aid anymore and asked if I liked to bake and cook. At that time that she asked me I was making Crescent Rolls from scratch, which by the way are so delicious. I had flour and dough all over my fingers. She was telling me that her daughters don't cook or bake and that she would have just taken them to the Goodwill if I didn't take them. So now I have 2 Kitchen Aids (and yes I will use them both. especially during the holidays) and 2 big crock pots. 

The other day Chris was talking to Clay and he was commenting on how he liked us, that he feels like he has known us for a really long time. He told Chris that we were old spirits in young bodies. I thought that was interesting. I know it is because of the gospel that we are living and that we keep the world out of our lives as much as possible. They are just great people. 

Tyler

Tyler is Clay and Pam's grandson. His mom works a lot and so every once in a while he will spend the day at his grandparents house. He is 11 and is a very good kid. For some reason he loves Chris, Emma and I. He comes over just to hang out. occasionally he will go in the basement to play on the wii if I am cleaning or something. The other day I was scraping paint and wallpaper off of the walls and he grabbed a scraper and started scraping without me asking or anything. He was making the comment that scraping was his favorite thing to do and that he could do it all of the time. He is quite a funny kid. He craves attention though. He just wants to know whether he is doing good and loves the praise. He isn't about negative attention though which is good. I don't mind having him come over. He loves Chris though. He is always asking me whenever he comes over when Chris is going to be home from work. When Chris gets home they go downstairs and play on the wii. Tyler eats it up. It is funny, because when Chris and I were searching for a house, we prayed to Father in Heaven to put us in a place where we were needed. We definitely feel like we are needed here. 

Emma and bath time

Emma loves her bath time. When she knows that it is time to take a bath she will grab for the bubbles and with her cute little lisp say "bubbles." When I pour the bubbles in the water she gets so excited. She loves to give herself a beard and thought that was pretty fun, but now she has a new thing. she loves to eat the bubbles. She puts some in her mouth and says, "mmm, this good." she is such a ham. I love her so much. 

Chris and Alaina:  3 year Anniversary

Chris and I had our three year anniversary on the 5th of August. We had so much fun. The night before I made a crock pot dish so we could wake up to the smell of our breakfast. It was so good. We had a potato and ham dish that was in the crock pot and I made some biscuits and gravy and eggs over easy. It was so good. We had orange juice to go with it. I gave him a card which if you want to know what it says you will have to ask Chris. It is funny. It would seem dirty, but since we are married it isn't. 

these pictures were taken a couple of Sunday's ago. I was happy because I curled my hair with a hair straightener. It was awesome. My hair never does what I want it. It has never looked that cute before. I know you can't really see it, but it was awesome. 

Anyways, after breakfast we went to dads to give him some of our leftovers and made him some fresh gravy and sat and chatted with him for a while. It was his vacation so we were able to hang out with him in the morning. I love dad. He is such a great man. We could have spent the whole day with him. Oh, Emma stayed the night at Angel's the night before our anniversary so we didn't have to worry about her. She also stayed another night so we could have the whole day to ourselves. I missed her, but I survived.  Okay, so after dads, we went to the Humane Society and looked at Kittens. that was my gift to Chris. He got to pick one out and name it  and everything. We got a long hair white Kitten with a black tail and light brown on the body. He has blue eyes and is the most cute and cuddly kitten. We named him Zeke (Zeek). My gift from Chris was a bike trailor. He found it at a garage sale and bought it for $30.00. The guy got it for his dog who only used it like 3 times and didn't like it. It is practically brand new. It is a dark blue. I am way excited. 

I have a small garden in my back yard. I have 2 tomato plants, bell peppers, and serrano peppers. So far we have had the best tomatoes, so juicy and the sweetest. mmm! so delicious. Next year I am getting  10 tomato plants. We picked one big one and put it on our homemade pizza. It seriously was one of the best pizzas ever. The other day Chris and  I made a veggie pizza with some bell peppers that we picked from our garden and other store bought veggies. It was so good. The dough was perfect and it was just phenomenal. Today I made some Pico de gallo sauce and some salsa. I used some serrano peppers from the garden. I made some homemade chips and man, let me tell you, THE BEST ever. better than at a restaurant. I know, that is really good, but I am serious! Oh, especially with the chips. MMMMMMM!!!!!!

I want to make a whole bunch and can it so we can just have it on hand. I am thinking of asking a friend to teach me how to can. That will be a great FHE activity. 

Okay, I got off track. Back to our Anniversary. After the Kitty we dropped him off at home, made PB&J's grabbed some chips and went to the YMCA swimming pool on the south side of town. We dove off of the diving board, me once, but Chris a couple of times. We went down the slides. One you can go down on a tube. The other one you go down and it shoots you in the deep water by the diving board. I attempted to climb the wall, but found out that I am super weak. Chris could do it. He is a lot stronger than I am. I tried to climb a couple of times. I have no muscle strength. I have to start working on that for next year. After the YMCA we went to see Emma and play with her for a little bit. Then we went home and made homemade pizza from scratch and watched a movie. I can't remember the name of the movie for the life of me. Alright, I looked it up. It is a Nicolas Cage movie. It is called "Knowing." Totally unbelievable if you have any knowledge of the gospel, but a good movie non-the-less. And that was our day. It was jam packed full of fun and excitement. I just wish all of our days  could be like that. 

I hope you have enjoyed this long blog. I am not the best at keeping up but will try to keep up. I have tons more I need to post and more videos to put on. Stay tuned in for more a little later. 

Love to all, 

The Greens