Fun Times, Fun Friends

We had a great week and this weekend was even better! Our friends Carric and Jenny came for a quick visit from Arizona and we had so much fun with them. Abby did not want them to leave. They arrived Friday night and unfortunately could only stay until Sunday evening because Jenny has to take a class in L.A. this week. Nevertheless, we were so happy to see them--even if we wanted it to be longer. We attended Matt's department chair's retirement party, had a picnic at Hart Park, went to a very interesting Ward party, ate at a local Bakersfield ice cream favorite--DeWar's, they sang in our Ward and I was honored to play for them, and we talked and played. They are so good with Abby and she loved playing with them. Here are some picture highlights.

Fighting with swords on Saturday morning
Abby showing off her abilities on the bar.
Matt, Abby and Steve Smith, Matt's Department Chair at Bakersfield College. We also had Steve and his wife Diane over for dinner Thursday evening. They are so nice and we are sad that he is retiring and they are moving. But we wish them the best.
Carric and Jenny swinging Abby on the way into the retirement party.
Trying to feed some not-so-hungry ducks at Hart Park!
Picnic time
Peacock at Hart Park
Jenny is quite the artist and she can do unbelievable things on an etch-a-sketch. Here is a picture she drew of Abby.
Ice cream at DeWar's
Carric braiding Abby's hair after her bath on Saturday night.
After Church
Quick nap before dinner after Church
Tuesday when we went to gymnastics Abby said, "We need to take a picture for Grandma." So we took a picture before gymnastics and swimming! Grandma's these are for you.
Wednesday Abby had her first piano lesson. Now I realize she is only 3 years old and I do not normally recommend teaching kids that young. She is so excited about piano I thought--why not? So I found a "pre-reading" set of books and we learned about soft and loud sounds, short and long, black and white keys, etc. It was really fun and we sit down and practice for a few minutes each day. Here is a picture during her first lesson.
Thursday I teach four piano students and so Abby gets to play with her friend Levi. I found them sitting in a chair starring out at the pond with swords in their hands. They are adorable.
Finally, more pond evolution. . . .this week we bought some plants for the outside and Matt planted half of them. He also laid out some mulch and it looks pretty amazing. We are supposed to get some fish this Wednesday! I think we will wait to get a turtle until after we visit Grandma and Grandpa in L.A. in a week or two.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! There was a time in my life when Mother's Day was not my favorite day. I so longed to be a mother and that opportunity seemed so impossible and out of my reach at times. How grateful I am for Abby's birth Mom, Amanda, that saw us on the LDS Services website and gave me the greatest blessing--the chance to be a mother. I now cannot imagine my life without my Abby and treasure every moment with her. Now I find myself waiting once again for that amazing opportunity. Abby prays every night and day that Heavenly Father will bless our family with a new baby. What an incredible big sister she will be! I know that day will come and I am always learning to be patient!

We are so grateful for the mother's in our lives. We are especially grateful right now for my Mom, Karen and Matt's Mom, Barbara. What great examples they are to us of love, faithfulness, generosity, patience, determination, and hard work. They have taught us so much and we know that we are who we are today, largely because of their examples. We wish we could be with them everyday, but life has a way of keeping things busy. We hope they know just how much we love them and how much it means to us that they love Abby so much. She treasures both grandma's and keeps you in her prayers constantly. I pray that there are countless more Mother's Day's to celebrate with both of them as we could never thank them enough.
Barbara
Karen
We also love Matt's Great Granny Ruth! She is an inspiration to us all!
Jen and Abby
Here are a few swimming pictures from this past week.
Pond Update:
Friday morning we went to the pond store and picked up some plants. Now the pond looks a little more like a pond and we treated it for future fish! Matt has worked so hard and it is really coming along. It is so peaceful!
Garden update:
Yes, more is growing!
Jalapeno Peppers
Roma Tomatoes (look in the middle)
Saturday I had the opportunity to direct my first stake choir in Bakersfield. I directed a Stake Women's Choir that sang for a Stake Relief Society Event on Temples. It was a 3 hour event and it was wonderful to make music, hear good speakers and socialize with amazing women. I love directing choirs and this just made me ache to do it more. The women sang beautifully and brought the most incredible spirit to the meeting. I cannot wait to sing with them again. I snapped a picture when we were all done--it's tough to take pictures of choirs at Church events!
Saturday night Abby wanted flowers on her toe nails, so I painted our toes to match.
By the way--I have the best husband. He normally has meetings on Sunday mornings and I have choir, so we don't really each other until Church. He went downstairs--I thought he was grabbing a quick breakfast when suddenly he called us downstairs. He had made strawberry pancakes and bacon and had it all ready for us to eat. It was so yummy. Then he said his meeting was supposed to be in 15 minutes (he was not ready) and I felt so bad. Finally he laughed and said, "My meetings are canceled!" Now he is making dinner--I love this man!

Forgotten Pictures

Abby turned three in February. She had pictures taken and I forgot to put them on the blog. So here they are. I know I'm biased, but isn't she adorable?!

Moving up in the World

Many of you that follow the blog have seen my almost weekly updates on Abby's gymnastics and swimming classes. This past week Abby moved up to an older class! There are far more kids in the class and Abby is pretty much the youngest. I was not sure how that would go, but she was great. There are two teachers--Sarah and Sunny and they each have half of the kids at a time on an activity and then they switch. I think Abby will really enjoy this class.

Abby climbing up the rock wall.
Abby's teacher telling her to 'finish' after she flipped over on the rings.
Abby holding a 'V' sit.
Walking on the beam.
Abby was the only one in her swim lesson, so she had a private lesson. The teacher was really good with her one on one.
Thursday I was asked to play the piano for the Bakersfield Women's Business Conference. It was quite the event! My friend, Stephanie Holladay is in charge of much of the conference and she asked if I would donate some time and play the piano. I played for about 5 hours and was able to attend the luncheon. It was an excellent lunch, although the speaker was quite interesting. Let's just say we share a few different views on things!
. It was interesting to watch people as they walked by. I don't think some people even heard the music. They were too busy deciding what booth to go to and get free things! Many other people stopped to listen and really seemed to enjoy the music. I played some of my Dad's songs a couple times and those always attracted people. Many asked what song I was playing! You're awesome Dad! The biggest crowd was for one of Jon Schmidt's songs, "The Dumb Song." It has some big glissando's that always attract attention! Thanks to our wonderful friends the Henrie's for playing with Abby during the day. She had so much fun she did not want to leave!
Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. The piano is set up on the right.
Aaarrrrgh!
Saturday our Bishop's son turned 4 and had a great pirate party. Abby loves pirates so she was more than happy to dress up and fight with a sword! We all had a lot of fun at the party.
Pirate Abby.
Abby and her friend Levi (his brothers take piano lessons, so he comes over every Thursday!)
Abby and the Bishop.
Cool cakes.
Grant the birthday boy with one of his cakes.
Trampoline
Speaking of moving up in the world. . . It looks as though we might actually be able to grow something! We have not had great luck in the past, but we are trying a raised garden. We planted strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries, peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, etc. Matt is afraid it will not get enough sun because of where we placed the garden. To our surprise I noticed something red in the garden this week. When I looked close. . . .a strawberry! Hooray! We have a strawberry!
And a baby green pepper.
Amazing!

Trump? Really? My Thoughts on Donald Trump

He is a self aggrandizing promoter who personifies much that is wrong with America. I’m not sure if he is really even serious about running for president or just using it as yet another way to draw attention to himself to increase his reality show ratings.

As a presidential candidate he has built his reputation on the Obama birther argument, that is, the ridiculous idea that Obama is an illegitimate president because he really was not born in the United States. Besides the fact that Obama’s mother is a citizen (which automatically makes her son a citizen regardless of where he is born), researchers have presented decades-old newspaper articles announcing Obama’s birth in Hawaii, and Obama himself has released both his short and long form birth certificates. Still, iron-clad evidence is no obstacle for irrational political extremists. The sad part is that he is actually influencing the political discourse with this garbage, and as people pay attention to it they are distracted from genuinely significant issues. I’m not sure if Trump is that stupid himself, or just courting this idiotic segment of the population for his own benefit, but in either case I don’t want somebody like that running our country.

The other way Trump has built support for his candidacy is through his supposed prowess as a businessman. Who better to save the American economy? Did nobody notice that Trump (or companies bearing his name) declared bankruptcy four times in the past two decades (1991, 1992, 2004, 2009)? If he was your personal investor he would probably put all your money in speculative companies, make lots of quick cash, take his cut, and then jump ship when your portfolio crashed. He is a user, and the economic roller coaster that he and corporate slime-balls like him create is the last thing our nation needs.

Happy Easter

Well this is definitely an Easter we will not forget. Before we traveled down to LA for Heather's surprise party they had unfortunately experienced the flu. But everyone was better and it had been enough time, that we didn't even think twice. On the way home Saturday Matt felt pretty awful and spent the rest of the day in bed. He was supposed to speak in Church on Easter and I planned on giving his talk for him if he was not well enough. I was also directing the Ward Choir. Then at 4 a.m. I started in with the flu and so we all ended up missing Church. A wonderful woman in our Ward directed the choir and I heard they were wonderful. How can it be Easter Sunday without going to Church?

Abby is so far still healthy (knock on wood) and has been quite bored with her sick parents today. She did open up her Easter basket this afternoon and immediately put together her puzzles. I am sure we will have to fight with the swords later. A friend of hers left his sword at our home and she has played with it a lot. So I found swords for all of us to enjoy.
Abby is such a wonderful little girl. She keeps asking us if we feel better and just wants to be cuddled with. I can't wait to feel better!
While Abby and I were in Tempe Matt worked so hard on our backyard. He finished as much as he can do on the pond. He is going to get some more professional help to do the electrical wiring and pump and filter so that we know it is done right. But just look at all of the rocks he hauled in and put in place. (The tree in front is our clementine tree--it will not go there when it is planted!)
He also put together our raised garden. What an amazing man I married!