Almost a Christian

Last Sunday, in Sunday School, we read in Acts 26:26-28 where King Agrippa (after Paul has testified to him) says, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." The Sunday School teacher then read a great quote, that I'm 99% sure she said was from President Harold B. Lee. I've tried to find it and actually found a similar quote given by President Faust back in 1979. Essentially, in both, they caution us to not be like King Agrippa and be "almost a Christian." Do Here are President Faust's words:

"Almost. What a heartbreaking sound is the word “almost”! Almost some of our good members keep the Word of Wisdom, or just about go to priesthood meeting and sacrament meeting, or almost hold family home evening. Some of us almost but not quite—pay our tithing.
Since the time of the Savior there have been those who believed, but for social pressures have been fearful of standing up and being counted as believers." (in Canadian Area Conference, 1979).

The quote our Sunday school teacher read asked, Do we almost ponder the scriptures or almost do our visiting teaching or almost go to the temple regularly? This has really caused me to reflect over the past week. I do have a testimony of Christ. I do consider myself a Christian. Yet, I know that sometimes, it is easy for me to get busy and put off doing things that are important but not pressing. I am sometimes guilty of these sins of omission as Elder Maxwell often referred to them. I'm usually not doing things that are bad, but I am not always doing the things that are best.

I went to a fireside about a month ago where Alex Boye' spoke. He is an amazing and talented singer. The spirit was strong and it was an amazing meeting. Anyway, he said, "We can only become like that which we know about and think about." In other words, if I want to be like the prophets or like Christ, I need to faithfully study the scriptures, think about their words, and come to know my Savior personally. In John 17:3 it says, "And this is life eternal, that they (ME!) might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." I want eternal life!

more fall fun

So, my sister, Suzy has been here visiting this weekend. Hurray! The girls have been vying for her attention and so happy to have her here. Me too! It's been fun to talk and play our favorite card game, Split, and visit with each other. Sadly, she leaves to return to Phoenix tomorrow afternoon. We'll miss her.





Saturday morning, I took Michelle, Ella and our neighbor Kodi to the zoo for "Boo at the Zoo". Every year, they have a Saturday where kids get to dress up and trick or treat at the zoo. (Businesses from Salt Lake hand out candy at tables set up around the zoo, and get free publicity for doing so). My girls woke up way too early, and there were so many people there this year. It was crowded last year, but I think it was worse this year. But I noticed that it got a little better at the end, just before we went home. Note to self: If we are crazy enough to go again next year, go in the early afternoon instead of the morning. Ella was tired and a little cranky for about half of the time. Michelle and Kodi liked it though.





Friday night, Michelle and Ella and I went to the Red Butte Garden for their Halloween lights and activities. This, I thought, was well worth it. The gardens are beautiful and have been decorated with lights. They had a magic show that had Michelle in stitches. She thought the magician was so funny (and he was... I was laughing too.) They had a station where you colored elf masks, another area to paint pumpkins, another to make glow in the dark wands, and another to make music with gourds, drums, etc. They had storytelling and a haunted forest. Then if you stop at all the booths along the way you get a prize (a pretty decent one too.) I will definitely do this again. Michelle, especially, enjoyed the activities. It seemed to be fun for the whole family. I didn't dress my kids up (didn't know to) but most people did. Yet another chance for the kids to wear their costumes! Seriously, my kids are getting some wear out of their costumes this year.

(FYI: Top 2 pictures are at Red Butte; the third picture is a slightly unhappy Ella as a giraffe and Kodi dressed as Violet from the Incredibles at Boo at the Zoo.)

trunk or treat

Here are the photos from the preschool trunk or treat.

Fall Fun

We are having so much fun while I am on my break! There are so many fun things to do right before Halloween. On Monday night, we all went to Gardner Village. They have a little petting zoo and the girls got to ride a pony and pet all the animals. Then we had dinner at Archibald's. Finally, we walked around Gardner Village and saw the Halloween decorations and went on a horse-drawn carriage ride with a witch. We got to be part of a rat chorus. The girls had a lot of fun.

Yesterday, Michelle had preschool. They got to wear their Halloween costumes to school. Michelle is Snow White this year. Michelle picked out the costume. As I was helping her get ready yesterday, I realized that she actually really looks like Snow White with her short, dark hair. During the last 15 minutes, the students came out and sang to the parents. Then they had a little trunk or treat.

great deals

I love to find bargains. The girls and I went to Sears today. I was looking at their clothes in the clearance racks and found a bunch of shirts and shorts for $2.50 and $2.99. So I bought them for the girls for next summer. Well, when I checked out, everything was 50% off of the clearance price! So I got like $12 items for $38 (and that included two regular priced items that were a total of $20 for just those two.) Two of the items were only $.59! Can't beat that. I figure I"m heading to another Sears tomorrow and see if they have great deals like that too!

no more school

I'm on break, Hurray! Hurrah! It is our fall break and I am off for the next two weeks. I am thrilled. I have all types of plans for the girls and I. So many fun things to do with Halloween next week. And time to catch up on some scrapping and get a little rest. And the really great things is that there are only like 22 days of work between now and Christmas break! (The bad news is that means that I have a lot to teach my students in the next 22 work days.)

So I think we've told most people, but we are sending in an application in the next couple of weeks for Michelle to attend a charter school. I feel just a teensy weensy bit weird since I'm a public school teacher and a public school defender. I'm honestly not doing it to keep her out of public school. But this year a charter school opened up around the corner from the school where I work. It is a dual immersion school. So in every class, half of the students are native Spanish speakers and half are native English speakers. For half the day, they have a Spanish speaking teacher and half the day they have an English speaking teacher. Dual immersion programs are considered to be the best way to educate kids to be bilingual and biliterate. Currently, my district has one dual immersion school (the only one in the state of Utah until this year with the new charter school). So our plan was to send our kids to that school. But while it is in my district, it isn't that close to my school and would be tricky getting my kids to and from there. But this school is literally two blocks from my school, so it would be perfect. Alfredo has always spoken to the girls in Spanish. But we want them to be able to read and write in Spanish, not just speak it. So this would be perfect. Charter schools do not charge tuition. Unlike private schools, they are overseen by the state board of education. Two of the teachers at the charter school are teachers I've worked with previously and respect. It seems ideal. The charter school has a lottery system, so there's no guarantee that Michelle will get in. But I'm hoping that by applying early, it will increase the likelihood.

photos of Alfredo's surprise party

This is Alfredo's friend, Ross, from work and his family, Alyshia, Amy and Phoebe. We've all become good friends. Several other friends/family came to the party (Janene and Chris; Dan and Heather; pictured below, as well as Phil and Elaine and Conrad and Shannon). My girls loved the cake as you can see from the pictures. Michelle got a kick out of her blue mouth and tongue.

ruby

On Tuesday, Ella said to me, "I want ruby. I want a ruby." I didn't know what she meant. I don't like jewelry much and certainly don't have any rubies in my home. And where would she have heard about rubies, anyway? But she pulled me to the kitchen counter and started pointing. Turns out, she wanted root beer. We had a party for Alfredo last weekend and had a 2 liter bottle of rootbeer left over and it was on the counter. I'd given her a tiny bit the night before (her first taste of rootbeer... Alfredo thinks root beer tastes like medicine and we don't drink much soda, so we rarely have root beer in the house.) She obviously likes root beer and wanted some more.

Spooky Saturday

In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, and because I'm having such fun posting and I'm not sleepy yet, I thought I'd post a couple of flashback photos of the girls on Halloween two years ago. This year Ella will actually use the giraffe costume that Michelle is wearing in the photo. Ella was about 6 or 7 months old and was a turtle. Michelle was 2 1/2. Sorry that I can't figure out how to turn the photos so they aren't sideways.

Spanish

Alfredo speaks in Spanish to the girls. We hope that they will be truly bilingual when they grow up. However, they are definitely exposed to more English than Spanish and English is their more dominant language. We think both of our girls are smart and beautiful, but Ella seems to have a real talent for learning language. She was putting 2-3 words together at about 15 months and now speaks in complete sentences most of the time. She often uses words that surprise us.

On Friday, Alfredo took the girls to the mall and to McDonalds for lunch. They drove past a large building and Alfredo pointed to it and told them to look at "el edificio grande". Ella immediately repeated "edificio". Michelle tried to say "edificio" but didn't pronounce it quite right so Alfredo repeated it again and told her to try it again. After a couple tries, she got frustrated and told Alfredo to "stop talking that made up language and speak a real language."

Later on Friday, Alfredo used the word "righteousness". Michelle said, "Daddy, I told you that I don't speak Spanish. Talk with real words... in English." :)

Michelle speaks/understands more Spanish than she lets on. And she can roll her rrr's like no other. In fact, as a baby/toddler, I could always tell if it was Michelle crying even from another room because she did this cute trilling of her r's when she cried. She's lost that cry now that she is older, but she can still roll her rrr's as well as any native Spanish speaker. Mirielle, with all her ability to learn vocabulary, can not roll her rrr's at all.

Dictionary of Panameno-isms, Part 2

Ella Bo Bella: Our nickname for Mirielle or Ella. I sing a little song, "Ella, ella, bo bella fee fi fo fella, ella." Actually you can use any name and keep the first sound the same but change just the end of a couple parts. Anyway, Ella and Michelle love this song and used to make me sing it over and over with everyone's name that they knew. So we started calling Mirielle Ella (since Michelle couldn't pronounce Mirielle when she was only 2) and then Ella bo Bella. Even Bryce and Sylas call her Ella Bo Bella.

Kodi Bankerhead: Kodi Bankhead is a friend of Michelle's and one of our neighbors. She is an adorable blond haired five year old and the daughter of our good friends Dan and Heather. Well I don't know why Ella started saying their name as "Bankerhead" but it sure made Kodi mad one day when Ella kept saying, "Come here, Kodi Bankerhead." She wasn't doing it to be mean or tease Kodi. But now Michelle and Ella both talk about Kodi Bankerhead and the Bankerhead family. Maybe it's because Michelle learned a song in school called "My Mother is a Baker" which she sings, "My mommy is a banker." Who knows? Sorry, Kodi! :)

Paci (pa see): The nickname "Binky" for pacifier has never made sense to me. Who came up with that? How do you get "binky" from pacifier? Anyway, we never called it a binky. We always called it a pacifier and that got shortened to "paci" instead. Ella never liked having a paci, but Michelle loved hers until she was nearly 3. She still refers to them as pacis when she sees other kids with them. (The picture above was taken when Michelle was not quite 3 and shows her "paci" and her "siccy pup" and her grandma.)

Surprise!

Today is Alfredo's birthday. So last night I took him to dinner and planned a surprise party for him. Our friends Chris and Janene helped out. Janene watched the girls while we went to dinner. Chris went to our house and set up the party and let everyone in. Then we picked the girls up and went home where everyone shouted surprise and nearly scared poor Ella to death. It actually worked and Alfredo was actually surprised by it all. Only a couple minor hitches. I had a headache all day and came home from work not feeling great. I decided to lay down for a few minutes. I told Alfredo to make sure I was up in 15-20 minutes. Instead, I slept for an hour. We were supposed to leave for dinner at 5, but didn't drop the girls off at Janene's until quarter till six. So our guests had to sit around waiting for us for over an hour. Thanks everyone!!! Hope you talked and laughed and had an okay time without us!!! We love you guys!

I took some photos which I would post except I'm having some technical difficulties. I used my digital camera at a young womens activity a few weeks ago and I must have traded cords with someone because suddenly my cord doesn't fit in my camera's USB port. OOPS! Hopefully, I can get my real cord back tomorrow and post some photos. I will never claim to be the most tech-savvy person... obviously if I switched cords 3 or 4 weeks ago and I'm just now noticing!! Silly me.

conference

I love watching conference. I was upstairs finishing up the breakfast dishes when the first session started on Saturday morning. Michelle started calling, "Mommy, mommy President Hinckley is on." I told her I would be right down. She told me to hurry so I didn't miss him. When I came down, she scolded me, "Mommy, you missed President Hinckley talking." (I missed his welcome to conference/announcement of opening song/prayer; not an actual talk.)

My favorite moment had to be when Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin was speaking. He began shaking as he spoke. Elder Nelson came up and stood beside him and supported him as he continued giving a beautiful talk about service and love. And then several apostles helped him back to his seat. Somehow, to me, this testified of the truthfulness of the gospel as much as any of the talks. The love that these men have for each other is evident; they show that love by their words and just as much by their deeds. I want to be more like these great men... to notice when others need help and to give that aid without being asked. To just notice what others need and to then do it.

Confession time, though. Ella woke up about 15 minutes before the Saturday afternoon session ended. She usually wakes up fairly happy from naps, but on Saturday she was crying and crying. Then Michelle called to me. She was in the office and had gotten into my scrapbooking stamp pads and had stamped her chest and stomach and had gotten ink on the carpet. She knows not to play with the stamp pads and knew she was in trouble. She started to cry. I yelled at her and completely lost my temper with her. I ended up turning the last ten minutes off because both girls were crying and I couldn't hear and I was so frustrated. Here I was, listening to conference and I am losing my temper. I'm so not to "perfection" yet. Oops. The rest of the day/weekend went much better and considering how young my girls are, they did a good job of playing quietly and half listening to conference. They noticed anytime someone said "Jesus" or "Joseph Smith" or "temple" or "President Hinckley". They are good girls.

Dictionary of Panameno-isms

Siccy pup: This is what Michelle calls sippy cups. It's one of the few mispronunciations/baby talk type words she still has and I'm in no hurry for her to lose it. I find Ella, and even myself at times, referring to sippy cups as siccipups.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star: Otherwise known as "Carl's Junior." It has a star on the sign, and so Michelle began calling it "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" at least a year and a half ago.

More to follow in the future... I want to remember the cute things they say.

who will be my hubby?

So, last Friday, Alfredo was home with the girls. For some reason, Alfredo told the girls that some day they would grow up and get married. Ella said, "I will marry you Daddy." Isn't that sweet?

When Alfredo told me that on Friday evening after work, I asked Michelle who would be her husband. She said, "I want Daddy to be my husband." I told her that Daddy is my husband and asked who else she wanted to marry. She said, "Only Daddy." Then both girls said, "Daddy is my husband. Daddy is my husband." I asked Michelle if she wanted to marry her best friend, Brycie. She said no. Maybe his brother Sylas. Too cute.