Wal-Mart

This is my new favorite website www.peopleofwalmart.com Thanks Mo for sending it to me.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I am an avid recycler. I'm actually slightly compulsive about it. My husband thought I was crazy when we were newlyweds but now he's gotten used to it. I love the new city bins that were recently delivered. They have made it so easy to recycle now--no sorting just throw it in the bin. I love the fact that my recycling bin is more full than my garbage bin by the time trash day comes around. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm not just consuming, consuming, consuming and throwing it all in the city dump. Call me anal, but it irks me when I pass a trash can full of empty plastic water bottles or aluminum pop cans. How hard is it to take it home and put it in your recycling bin? It bothers me when people don't care especially when members of the church don't care. If anything, we should care more. I despise the mentality that the Lord has given us this Earth to use it's resources however we want--just use it up because "there is enough and to spare." There is only "enough and to spare" if we use those resources righteously. There is an island of trash the size of Texas floating in the ocean off the Asian continent. That is crazy! The size of bloomin' Texas! I wish I could do more but it makes me feel good that at least I'm doing my part to limit how much of my trash is dumped in the landfill. It's awesome that most items can be recycled. The city of Boise has made it so easy so just do it! It will make you feel good.

This is the best article I have ever read regarding LDS theology and environmentalism. It's pretty lengthy but interesting. http://josephsmithconferenceloc.byu.edu/shop/pdfsrc/40.2Handley.pdf

James and Ruby

James never ceases to amaze me. His memory is so keen. Tonight while brushing his teeth he recited half of the sacrament prayer. It came out of nowhere. Think your kids aren't listening in church? Think again.
Last week while eating at my in-laws, Adam's brother said something was stupid and James turned to him and said, "Damn it, Aaron, don't say stupid. It's a bad word. You know better than that. How many times do I have to tell you?"
By the way, Ruby took her first steps tonight at the Elder's Quorum activity. She just stood up and took three steps. Hip-hip-hooray! I'm excited for Ruby not to have dirty hands and knees anymore.

Under Construction

Our street has been under construction for several weeks now. At one point, we had a huge pile of dirt right in front of our house. It's actually been kind of nice because it's been easy entertainment for the kids, especially James. He will sit and watch all of the trucks work thoroughly enthralled in all of the diggers, bulldozer, rollers, and sweepers. In the evening, after the workers have gone, James and the neighbor boy play in the huge piles of dirt. Even Ruby wanted in on the fun. She kicked until I finally let her down so she could crawl up in the dirt. James has been in heaven being able to watch up close all of the trucks working.

More Distribution Items

I love church distribution materials. They are so inexpensive and obtainable even while living on unemployment. I read about the new church art book in the Ensign a few months ago. It's only $3.50 for over 130 pictures/photos of prophets, Book of Mormon/Bible stories, Church history, temples, and other themes. This has been a great teaching tool and James loves his new book. He can tell me what most of the pictures are about or name the people in the pictures. It's been great for family home evening as well as a good 'quiet' book for church.

A couple of weeks ago, James kept asking me where his scriptures were because we didn't want him playing with our nice leather bound sets. I told him I would get him his very own scriptures. We went to Deseret Book and bought a hard back copy of the Book of Mormon at distribution pricing (ask for distribution pricing and they give it to you) which was $3.00 and then we had his name inscribed on the front for $4.00. He was so excited to have his own Book of Mormon with his name on it. He carried it around and wanted to take it to church. He loves the pictures inside and pretends to read. I figure, $7 is a small price to pay to get James excited about the scriptures.

Happy Birthday, James (over 2 months ago!)

Our darling little baby James turned 3 this past June 28th. I can't believe he is getting so big and grown up. He is so much fun and he always keeps me laughing with his crazy little comments. He is all boy and loves anything that's loud and obnoxious and has four wheels. He love, love, LOVES trucks, hence the construction theme birthday cake I put together for him. It was really fun making the cake and coming up with interesting and edible look alikes of the real items. James was pretty excited to dig in.

He loves to read and we make weekly trips to the library. He usually has his books memorized by the time we return them.

He also loves The Wiggles and knows all of their songs. It's pretty amazing because it's the only tv he'll watch and he's been watching them for a year and half now. I would have thought he would be sick of them by now but he's not. He loves music and particularly the Wiggles music. I have to admit that I thought they were pretty lame when James first started watching but now I find myself singing along. I'm glad that he prefers to watch something musical because at least he's learning about rhymes, rhythm and music as opposed to watching something mindless like Sponge Bob (for the record, I HATE Sponge Bob).
James is also a good big brother, although he can get pretty rough with Ruby and I don't dare leave him alone with her for very long. He likes playing with her and has recently started picking her up and putting her in his fire truck bed. He sticks a rain hate on her and says she's helping him put our fires. So cute.

Explanation

A little explanation regarding my last post. One of my host families tried to borrow money from their exchange student to pay their rent. The dad then asked me if it was written in the rules. Ok, even IF it wasn't, doesn't it just go without saying? To make an extremely long story short, I had to remove the student from the home and she ended up sleeping on our couch for four nights until I could move her to her new host family. By the way, the student ended up at a mansion on five acres in Eagle, Idaho. She was happy, to say the least. So glad it's over and I was able to find a new family for her so quickly. The Lord definitely heard my many, many prayers that day.

A Little Advice

If you ever host an exchange student, please, please, please don't ever try to borrow money from them.

James Says

Sunday before church James came out of his room wearing my headlight and said, "There's a hamster loose at the church and he's trying to kill us." Oookay.