our all-go-no-quit disneyland vacation

we have been planning this trip for a while now. for the last few years i have wondered if we were the only family not going to disneyland. it seemed like we just kept having to say, "well, i guess we'll have to try and go next year."
but we finally made it.
and we were determined to make it count.
we researched things out to try and find a time when the park wouldn't be crowded and the lines would be short. since we homeschool, we can basically go whenever we want. our sources told us that the beginning of october and the beginning of may are the slowest times. since the professor doesn't teach classes during may and june we decided on may.
whether this strategy worked is debatable. to me it still seemed pretty crowded. i thought, "if this is a slow week, i would really hate to be here when it is 'busy.'" we found some lines were pretty short, some lines were long but moved quickly and some were just plain long. who knows, maybe everyone else googled it too and decided to come during a "slow" time. do you see now how that could backfire??

we checked around for prices and decided to go for 5 days, one park a day. each day you add to your ticket costs less, and if you want to go to both parks during the day {park hopper} it costs more. we figured we would be fine with one park at a time. {and we were.} we ended up doing 3 days at disneyland and 2 days at california adventure.

first stop: star tours

the tickets to the park were the most expensive portion. we found tickets on the website for getaway today and they seemed to have the best prices. but before we bought ours, i decided to check on ksl {our local website similar to craigslist} to just see if anyone was randomly selling their tickets for some reason. we didn't find any of those, but we did find a local travel agent who was able to get us our tickets for $100 less than what we had been able to find. {that includes every other travel agent as well as getaway today prices.} we paid $890 for 5-day tickets for the 4 of us.

minnie wanted to have her picture taken with me.

we also decided to spend less on our hotel so we could spend more days at the park. we definitely made the right call on that one. each morning we got up, showered, ate breakfast, and headed to the park. as soon as we got back to the hotel each night we collapsed and went to sleep. we were just across the street from the park at a best western. it was pretty basic, yet clean. the breakfast wasn't exactly spectacular, but our tummies were full every morning. but with so much to do inside the parks, it would have been a waste to spend extra time and money on our hotel. we spent $524 for 5 nights at the hotel.

 in radiator springs

it was a great trip and definitely worth the wait*. i just hope any future vacations we take will still seem fun!

*the last time i was at disneyland was....

wait for it....

1985.

An Outward Expression of an Inward Commitment

In light of the recent NBC special about being Mormon in America, I feel the following to be germane; this is one of the best explanations that I know of for a curious person regarding the temple garment...

On one occasion one of the brethren was invited to speak to the faculty and staff of the Navy Chaplains Training School in Newport, Rhode Island. The audience included a number of high-ranking naval chaplains from the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths.

In the question-and-answer period one of the chaplains asked, “Can you tell us something about the special underwear that some Mormon servicemen wear?” The implication was, “Why do you do that? Isn’t it strange? Doesn’t that present a problem?”

To the chaplain who made the inquiry he responded with a question: “Which church do you represent?” In response he named one of the Protestant churches.

He said, “In civilian life and also when conducting the meetings in the military service you wear clerical clothing, do you not?” The chaplain said that he did.

He continued: “I would suppose that that has some importance to you, that in a sense it sets you apart from the rest of your congregation. It is your uniform, as it were, of the ministry. Also, I suppose it may have a much more important place. It reminds you of who you are and what your obligations and covenants are. It is a continual reminder that you are a member of the clergy, that you regard yourself as a servant of the Lord, and that you are responsible to live in such a way as to be worthy of your ordination.”

He then told them: “You should be able to understand at least one of our reasons why Latter-day Saints have a deep spiritual commitment concerning the garment. A major difference between your churches and ours is that we do not have a professional clergy, as you do. The congregations are all presided over by local leaders. They are men called from all walks of life. Yet they are ordained to the priesthood. They hold offices in the priesthood. They are set apart to presiding positions as presidents, counselors, and leaders in various categories. The women, too, share in that responsibility and in those obligations. The man who heads our congregation on Sunday as the bishop may go to work on Monday as a postal clerk, as an office worker, a farmer, a doctor; or he may be an air force pilot or a naval officer. By our standard he is as much an ordained minister as you are by your standard. He is recognized as such by most governments. We draw something of the same benefits from this special clothing as you would draw from your clerical vestments. The difference is that we wear ours under our clothing instead of outside, for we are employed in various occupations in addition to our service in the Church. These sacred things we do not wish to parade before the world.”

He then explained that there are some deeper spiritual meanings as well, connecting the practice of wearing this garment with covenants that are made in the temple. We wouldn’t find it necessary to discuss these—not that they are secret, he repeated, but because they are sacred.

The garment, covering the body, is a visual and tactile reminder of these covenants. For many Church members the garment has formed a barrier of protection when the wearer has been faced with temptation. Among other things it symbolizes our deep respect for the laws of God—among them the moral standard.  

{reference here}

For a more in-depth discussion on the matter, may I refer you to the following article: "The Temple Garment: An Outward Expression of an Inward Commitment" from the August 1997 issue of The Ensign.

Dear Deer,

Thank you for leaving us a blossom on our lilac bush. You are so considerate. I realize now how selfish it is of me to want a lilac bush that is covered in blossoms. You obviously need them more than I do. I will try to become as considerate as you are.

Act Naturally

{this is where we pretend like it hasn't been a year since I posted.}
In my defense, my pause in posting pretty much coincides with being called to the Relief Society Presidency.

Behind the scenes

So on Thursday night The Professor told Cuddles, "There's some people that want to come over and watch you play wii tomorrow."
Cuddles said, "Ok."
And The Professor said, "They might video tape it."
And Cuddles said, "Um, OK... if they want to..."
And The Professor said, "And it might be on the news."
And Cuddles said, "Uh, I'm going to freak out."

Then later that night after he'd had some time to think it over he said, "This is a dream come true."

They came right after school on Friday. I was able to get my house basically clean. But, heaven help me, they went through the garage! oh well!!I let Easy take pictures of the picture taking...


If you want to know the rest of the story you can go here.
The Professor spent most of his morning today interviewing with Time, NPR, Newsweek and the local news.

What do you mean I haven't posted all year?

what happens to Easy's hair after lying around for a week

Sick kids. That’s the excuse I will be using.

Easy was sick for two full weeks. Fever. Cough. Other stuff you don’t want to know about.

Then Cuddles threw us a curve ball and waited until Easy was fully recovered and back to school before he decided it was time to get sick. Meaning that all the way from Marting Luther King Day until Presidents’ Day there was me at home with somebody sick.

When Easy first became sick I sat down with all my seed catalogs. Made a gigantical list of what I wanted and compared prices. It really really really really got me yearning for spring and actually almost believed it was coming soon. Until I drove to the doctor’s office through the snow and slid into the parking lot. Love that. But my head was spinning trying to make heads or tails of all the different varieties and price comparisons. I had to make a spreadsheet. Actually two.

Then I tried to put together a seed schedule. I learned a few things from last year {mostly of what not to do…} and I’m planning on this year being even better. I started the rosemary seeds first and then so far added begonias, pansies, and basil. And the impatiens are ready to go. Yay!

I have this dream of filling my yard with flowers and other good stuff. My role model is The Professor’s grandmother. This is her yard. My kids call it the jungle. But I figure if I can even get half that much stuff to grow it will be spectacular.

Off the floor

I’ve now been to Ikea twice. This time we actually bought something.

We’ve been needing to get some bookshelves since we moved in. I wanted something like these.

But my budget brought me to these.

So on Saturday The Professor and I made our way to Ikea. On the drive there, I said, “just watch, they won’t have them.” Then I thought, “Of course they’ll have them. They’re Ikea.” So we got there and made our way through the maze until we could find the shelves.

Sold out.

We ended up with these.

Same line, different size. The Professor was actually campaining for these ones because they can be hung on the wall and not just be boring regular bookcases. So we rounded some up and brought them home. Here is how they ended up. We were also the lucky recipients of a craft table that The Professor’s sister was clearing out of her basement. Turns out her teenagers weren’t really using it any longer. Who knew? So that, along with the fabulously aesthetic touch of the tent in the corner, things really came together.

I actually really like it. It could be just the fact that everything is not in baskets or boxes along the wall anymore. But it’s good to finally have this space put together in a way that lets it function. And when you get one thing out of the way, you can move on to the next thing. In this case, its moving all the kids craft stuff and office supplies into the hallway closet where the books were stashed and then finish moving all my craft stuff into my sewing room in the basement, then moving the kids storage out and the toys into the storage closet in the basement, and putting up the storage shelves in the utility room so we can move the storage stuff out of the garage then I can organize my craft room and clean up my desk and files. And then I think I will be done unpacking. Luckily for me, according to Elastigirl I still have a year to get it done.