clean chairs, fries, bell tower, "stuffed" animals, friend

Emily can't say we didn't do anything for spring break.

Just on Saturday alone our family helped the ward scrub down every single chair in our stake center. A bazillion of them. Emily actually babysat Brig while he slept for the first part (he had another rough night).

We then took Emily and her siblings to Ripples for overpriced fries, onion rings, root beer freezes, blackberry milkshake and a fresh lime. I should post one day about my childhood memories of Ripples.

In the afternoon, the talented Alpha Smoot, invited us to her recital at the BYU bell tower. Yup, she plays the bells. We hung out on the lawn while she played a bunch of songs up in the tower. She is awesome. How cool to have that on your resume. THEN, we got to hike up the 100 winding stairs and play the bells too! Yaw does not like heights but we talked him through it. Randy and Brig laid on the grass below.

Bean Museum was across the street so it was our next stop. Yaw doesn't like animals. Ella loved them and asked me very tenderly if all these dead animals were up in heaven with Pres. Hinckley. We watched a documentary on Elephants. It was touching. I cried. Emily decided she should take better care of our turtle and begged us to go right then to the store to buy him a better bigger home. Since then she has forgot to feed him for 3 days.

At home we continued with our spring cleaning and then Emily escaped to her friend Molly's home for the evening.

Emily, it wasn't Disneyland but it was a good day.

Spring Break Day

It snowed and snowed all night long. The trees are confused. I am confused. I hope we will have fruit this summer. Driving through town I saw many beautiful trees with broken limbs. It is feeling and looking less and less like spring break and more and more like christmas break.

I am appreciating my dishwasher and clothes dryer by not using them. Okay, I am not using them because I can't use them, not because I felt that I needed to appreciate them more. They are broken. Oh well. I didn't have a dishwasher or clothes dryer in Ghana and I did fine. The whole country of Ghana does fine without these appliances and a lot more. Boy are we spoiled. Ella and Yaw had fun drying the dishes. I enjoyed being with them. Maybe all families should have their dishwasher break for awhile. It provides ample opportunity to communicate and spend time with one another. Now for my clothes dryer. I will have to be more creative in thinking how to get my family to help out with this activity. Wish I had a clothes line. While in Ghana we had a great clothes line in our courtyard. The few times that it rained we just brought our clothes inside and hung them around the house. I have thought many times since my return that I really want a clothes line in my own backyard. Even if I did have a clothes line I doubt this crazy weather would dry anyone's clothes. Grateful for my mother in laws house close by.

Brigham had a visit from his friend Eamonn today. What a great young man.

Emily babysat, made cookies with Eden, baptisms for the dead at the Mt. Timpanogos temple, and will top the night off with a late night with her cousins at Aunt Sandy's home.

Yaw and Ella are feeling more and more like twins. They play, fight, compete, and then play some more all day long. They put on their boots, hats, gloves, and coats to build a snowman for their spring break today. They have had to have multiple bathes after being soaked through with snow and mud from playing outside. Yaw told me today that he likes Salsa. RR told him that it was american shito. Ella insisted that she was a kitty and wanted to drink milk by lapping it out of a bowl.

RR and I signed Yaw's adoption papers today. Our great friend/lawyer Randy Christiansen who did Ella's adoption for us will now be able to file Yaw's papers with the court. We did so much work in Ghana that I kept putting off that we had to adopt Yaw here in our country too. Hopefully all will go smooth and we will get the adoption order back soon so we can take Yaw to the temple to be sealed.

I was blessed with a great visit from Anne and Alpha Smoot this afternoon. Alpha is graduating from BYU this month in Photography. This semester she has been taking a class on how to play the bells at the bell tower on campus. She is giving a concert on Saturday. We get to go. She said that she would even take us up the steep 100 steps to the top of the bell tower. We live close to the bell tower and hear it all day long as it reminds us of what time it is. On Sunday I have a goal to be at church before the bells ring. It is still a goal I am working on. Brig has always loved the bell tower. When Brig was more vocal he used to comment about it every time we would drive past. I think he thought it was home to Quasi Moto (sp?). Wish we could get him up to the top. Alpha is a talented and beautiful young woman. Last year she presented us with a handmade book of photographs that she had taken of Brigham for one of her photography classes. It is truly a work of art and such a treasure for RR and me. We are so grateful to the Smoot family. Over the years they have blessed our lives in countless ways.

Today

Even though snow is in the forecast, spring is making itself present with flowering trees and daffodils and lush green grass.

Brig seems to be having a tough time today. It seems like he just was sick. Grateful that he is able to rally and fight back. Trying to ignore the hard reality that one day, no matter how hard he fights, he won't be able to rally and will lose. However, I shouldn't use the word 'lose' because I know Brigham will have not have lost. He will have won his battle not only here on earth but he will have also won his place next to our Father in Heaven for all eternity.

Emily is home for spring break today. She babysat this morning for our neighbor. Now she is cleaning her room. Not much of a spring break. Hopefully we will get to Disneyland in the next few weeks.

Yaw is still busy learning and experiencing new things every single day. Today he took his first shower here in the states . He liked it.

Ella is going to her last day of BYU preschool with Mr. Brad today. She is bringing him some goodies to thank him. She loved her time at the Y, hopefully she loved it so much that she will want to go back there one day. I have seen her confidence bloom. Wish her preschool experience could last longer but students have their finals.

RR rode his bike today in the rain. Grateful he still has a job.

As for me, I woke up early and went to the temple today. Now I need to clean my room.

Grateful for today.

Jules

Living in America again

I have been back from Africa for almost two weeks now. How sad that I have no post or picture of our newest member of our family. Tomorrow I will officially introduce our sweet son. I wish that I would just take the time to finally figure out the computer and learn how easy I am sure it is to post a photo or how to change my blog page decorations instead of having my 12 year old daughter do it since I have no clue. I hope she has time to teach me tomorrow. Maybe she will teach me how to change and add photos to my Facebook account too. While she is at it I hope she can remind me how Twitter works. Either her or my sweet RR who is the one who actually started each and every one of these accounts for me. Tomorrow.

Journey to Ghana!

Okay sis, I need to get in one more post before I take off on my journey to Ghana. Wow and what a journey it is. Just today we found out that our adoption that was supposed to be done this week is not going to be done. We were scheduled to file our I-600 form with the US Embassy monday morning. You need to have completed adoption forms from the Ghanaian side to submit with the I-600 form and we don't. So now an already anticipated stressful 2 weeks just got a lot more exciting. We now need to get over there and get the adoption done first. My faith is kicking in. Need to have faith like the brother of Jared. I will miss you. Wish you were coming along. Thanks for helping with things on this end. I never leave my family. This is huge for me. I do have peace that this is the right thing to do. Hard to believe that I will meet my son in just a few more days!
Love you so,
Jules

A Story

Once there was a beautiful black walnut tree living in our back yard. It was strong and healthy and fed all the neighborhood squirrels with its delicious nuts and provided beautiful shade for us on hot summer days. One year it decided it had a different calling. Our big black walnut tree died. That same year, wonderful people (Make a Wish) wanted to build Brigham his wish of having a Tarzan tree house. They were worried that our walnut tree might fall down and hurt Brigham and his friends while playing. Our walnut tree had to be cut down. It seemed so sad, for our tree gave so much. RR was inspired that we would save its beautiful wood for something very special. Some more wonderful people (the Banks) took our beautiful wood and dried it and got it ready for that special something. Years went by, the wood patiently being stored in another wonderful person's workshop (carpenter Alan). Then one year, another wonderful person (brother Chris) came up with the perfect design for that very special something. Years later our beautiful black walnut tree is now back home with us. It truly is something very special.
The End.

Finally done

After many years of storing the wood and deciding on a design. Brigham's casket is finally done. I didn't want it ever to be done. Alan King, our carpenter, knew this and didn't want to call me. In fact, he tried calling Chris so he could let me know but he couldn't get a hold of him. It was a hard phone call for Alan to make.
Today King Cabinets delivered Brigham's casket to our home. It is beautiful. I think I am okay with it being done. It will be a blessing to be able to enjoy it for a while. It almost seems like it was made to sit in our front living room window. I have wanted a bench there for years. Now I have one. It will be Brigham's Bench. Something we will all use while he is living.
Thank you to Alan King for this priceless gift.