Update on life

June-September 2013

Hello Sister Kerr, Elder Willis, Elder Adling, and my blog:

            Since I have so many of you to write, and so much to say, I figured, as usual, a mass letter would work. Life has been good these past few months. We have had so many visitors and so many vacations!

            First, Bassey came in March. It was nice to have her. We did Philly site seeing stuff. We saw the Liberty Bell, Reading Terminal Market, the Philly Mint (my first time at the Philly one), babysat Severin, saw Love Park (which we had to drive by 5 times just to get a parking spot at. But we did get our picture! Right, Bassey?! J ), and more. The weather wasn’t very nice, but is it ever? She tried out the new futon my mom bought. Oh gosh, which is a story in and of itself!

At Reading Terminal Market with Bassey

                                                

     So, the futon: I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a futon my mom purchased online. I borrowed my friend’s car to pick it up. The people at Wal-Mart were not very helpful, but customer service does not exist out here so I guess I should be used to that by now. The customer service woman said my item was extremely large and made me come to the back to look at it. I was a bit surprised to see how big the box was, but felt that I could still make it fit. She made me measure the back of the car and the futon box to make sure the box would fit in the back of the car. Because she did not have a measuring tape for me to use, I had to use a roll of stickers that were bright orange and said “$2.99.” (Not ghetto at all). After all the measuring was done, with the back seats put down, I determined the box would fit.

            It took forever to get my friend’s back car seats down because I had no clue what I was doing. While I was doing it, my phone fell in between the seats without me noticing it. When I realized it was missing, I went back into the store for a half an hour looking for my phone. Eventually I found it in the back seat so I was finally ready to load up the futon. Oh ya, it was raining cats and dogs this day and was extremely cold, making the whole experience that much better.

            I finally pulled up to the front of the store with my car. There were 3-4 workers who were helping me.  Well, supposed to be helping me. We tried to put the box in the car but it would not fit. As this was going on, 2 of the 4 workers just stood there saying that it wasn’t going to fit, and one worker, was, I kid you not, I think had mental problems (and I don’t mean that rudely in any way). So there I was, in the pouring rain, having the workers just stand there, not helping, and telling me it isn’t going to fit. And, because I was parked at the front of the store, tons of people were standing around and watching this whole circus act. Great, just what I was hoping for.

            I can’t even begin to tell you how annoyed I was. Needless, to say, I was then determined to make it fit! I asked the workers to take the futon out of the box to try to make it fit in the car. They began to help me unload the futon from the box, murmuring the whole time, saying it would not fit in the box and it would not fit out of the box. Oh ya? Wanna bet?! (Side note: I am sorry to Sister Wynder who tried to teach me in Seminary that murmuring is not good but I argued that it was).

            By this time, one worker did start to help me. It was proving to be a pretty close match, and I mean close. But, I was going to make it fit if I had to die trying. After about 20 minutes of careful packing, un-packing, and re-packing, and with the back, middle, and passenger seat full, the whole futon was in the car. It did seem like a lot more furniture than I had expected, but it didn’t matter, it was ALL in!

            I got home and Jeff started to help me unload. The first thing he said was: “That seems like a lot of furniture!” I said, “I know” and told him the whole story, emphasizing the fact that I was determined to make it fit because they were so unhelpful! Well, I picked up the receipt they gave me, and either Jeff or I looked at it, I can’t remember who, BUT, we both realized  

I accidently came home with the wrong item. The store gave me the wrong item!

This is what I was supposed to come home with...

                                 

This is what I actually came home with (don’t even ask HOW it all fit in the car- just know it was determination and stubbornness).

            I immediately called Walmart to tell them what happened and ask how to fix things. Walmart said that I had to take it back. I told them I could not (it was actually more like would not) and they kept insisting that I had to. I said, “Ok, well I can’t. I borrowed a car, and your store is far away. The item you gave me cost $700 and mine only cost $150. That is fine, I will just keep what I have and you can keep mine.” Then, of course, all of a sudden, they were willing to come to my house and pick up the furniture and drop off my futon! I am shocked, that telling them how much money they would be losing changed their tune… ! A few days later they came and did the switch. When they came they also gave me a $25 gift card for the trouble. Free delivery and a gift card! Horray! I promise that story was way more painful than it probably sounded.  

            Anyways… Jeff’s family also visited. They came the day Bassey left. It was his mom, dad, his youngest brother Steven, and youngest sister Lindsay. They got in on Saturday night. The next day we did church, nothing fancy there. Then, on Monday it snowed, which Steven loved of course! He was so excited to build a snow man on our front lawn. (I actually just learned how to do a snow ball this past winter. My friend Angie taught me. You roll the snow to make it bigger, not clump it all together, who knew)?

            With Jeff’s family we did a lot of sightseeing. We did the mint, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and this super cool horse carriage ride around town. We rode around town and learned a ton about early Philadelphia. I def learned the most from the carriage ride than I have learned being in Philly so far. For example, there were these black metal things on the steps of every early house. These were boot scrapers because Philadelphia was a wet and muddy city. I also learned that people were taxed by the amount of front steps they had. This was a tax implemented by England. There were a lot of two step front porches. I can’t remember if this was Philadelphia or not, but I did learn once that in some place, the people were taxed by the amount of closets they had. On the Philly tour we learned that Benjamin Franklin was the first to invent fire insurance. What they did is, if you bought fire insurance, they would put a sign outside of your house. And, if there was a house on fire, the fire insurance agency would come see if the house had their insurance. If it did not, they did not put the fire out! Of course, they probably sold a lot of fire insurance on the spot. What is really neat is that some houses still have the original fire insurance signs. Basically, the tour was cool, uh, minus the horse hair. Haha. Hmm. What else did we do? We ate at a restaurant I have wanted to eat at. They had yummy bread. We took Sev with us to sight see. Sev loved Steven. They played hide and go seek together. Steven was super cute with Sev (who now refuses to be called by his real name. He is now “Robin: Boy Wonder”). We also visited DC. It was hot and crowded because it was spring break that week. Well that’s all I can think of right now for that visit.

I still have my mom’s visit to talk about but I will break up the visits with random life stories:

-The kids in our Sunday school class make fun of me bc I guess I close my eyes super hard when we pray. They have also started slapping each other on the face during prayers. Great.

- This idiot tried to rob a gas station with a black grocery sack over his finger, which was pointed like a gun. Someone knocked the bag off his hand and saw that it was just his finger. No big shocker that he was arrested. Dumb. So dumb.

-This other guy robbed a cash register but did not get away with it because he had filled out a job application to work at the place he robbed, with his real name and all. Again, so dumb. Oh ya, I watch the news now. Can you tell?

-Sev is Robin, his dad is Joker, his mom is Battman, and I am Catwoman. Jeff is teaching Sev to call him Thor, but Sev wants to call him Iron Man. I told Sev “You are stubborn” and he said, “I am not sunburned!” I am pretty sure I am getting smarter by working for Sev. He loves space. I was reading him this space book. There was this space car looking thing so I told him that is what it was called, a “space car.” He just looked at me, laughed, and said, “No. That is a Mars Rover.” (Wow- talk about dumb now, huh)?  I also thought he was calling outer space a “super guppy” but it turned out he was calling it a “spiral galaxy.” Another time I was giving him a bubble bath and said, “These are bubbles.” He said, “No, they are oxygen and hydrogen for the gasoline.” So basically, I just shouldn’t even try. I should just come and listen to him. He is so cute with a microphone. He shouts, “Hey-woe ederbody… the show is over.”

- Sister Tk and Elder Adling, I saw “Wreck it Ralph.” Didn’t you two like that movie? Also, Elder Adling, I went to Applebees. They have these stupid I-pad things and then don’t even tell you that you get charged for using them! So not happy about that. I am blaming you personally. So fix it ok?

-Michael and Eddie. Michael has asked me so many times, “When are you going to be someone’s mom?” He sounds so annoyed when he asks it too! Yikes. At Chuckie Cheese he went into the men’s restroom all by himself. Normally I take him in with me, but since it was not crowded and his brother was there I let him go into the men’s restroom.  He came out and said, “I didn’t use the toilet. I used the other one… on my tippy toes.” He was so proud of himself. I asked him if he had washed his hands and he said,  “There was no water, so I just used a dry paper towel to wipe my hands.” Haha. Ok Michael, not the same thing. Although, that is a step up since the time he peeped and wiped his mouth with the same piece of toilet paper! When we went to the park last week there was a little boy who accidently stepped on Michael’s finger and Michael said, “Helllooooo…. I’m right here!” Haha. It was priceless. His password for his phone: “Michael runs fast” or “Michael soccer.” I thought you might like that Sister Tk. Michael was carrying this heavy bag from the library to the car. He is so cute. I overheard him saying to himself. “You can do it Michael,” to which he said back to himself, “Thank you.” I love that kid. I love Eddie too. J Eddie fell while on his bike and his grandma asked if he was ok. He got up, started to dust himself off and said, “Does it look like I’m ok?!” Haha. His personality is so serious. I love it. We got some free ice cream from some radio station give away. Eddie said, “It says ‘free ice cream!’” I told him that things were never free. Sure enough, it was! Of course, “see I told you so” came as we were in line to get the ice cream.

-I was babysitting and met a girl from San Paulo. She learned English from the missionaries in Brazil. Yay missionaries teaching English.

-I was babysitting for the Andalins. Roger is two. I asked him if he went poop in his diaper (because it was dirty) and he told me, “No, the dog did.” Ya, nice try kid. Later on, after his nap, I went to go check on him, and didn’t know he was coming down the stairs. I turned the corner and he scared the heck out of me. I jumped back. Poor kid- I startled him and made him jump back. Clark, is 7. He is hilarious. Jeff loves him. I told Clark he couldn’t do something and he said that I was “ruining his life.” I told him that was my job as his babysitter. He did make this really good cake though! He asked me “Can we make lemon meringue pie?” I said, “Uh, no. I have NEVER made that in my life.” Then he offered up something else fancy. I said, “how about cookies?” He said, “How about pound cake?” So he looked up a recipe online and we made it. It was sooo good!!

-Worse day ever today: I am too big for my grey Old Navy pencil skirt. So sad.

- I decided to be funny one night. So I got on workout clothes, put my sweatshirt hood on, blasted out the “Rocky” theme on my phone and started to go downstairs where Jeff was. I started going down, and just as I got to the bottom of the stairs I totally ate it! I don’t even know how it happened. I missed a step going down and rode the last three steps going down, on my tush of course! Jeff immediately got up and walked away. I didn’t realize he was on the phone with a patient at the time. Whoops! So much for being ultra cool. L
- When we were at the park this summer there was a little kid who growled at Aiden. Aiden, in his high pitched voice said, “Hey!! What the heck creepy kid?!” Haha. So funny to hear it. The best part is that the kid was growling bc Mason had been growling at him a few minutes earlier.

-Poison ivy. L Well, I got poison ivy this summer, and I got it bad! First off, poison ivy sucks, ok? So never get it. I will admit I did I have the chance to avoid it. We were having a big 4th of July BBQ at our house this summer and I wanted the make the front yard look nice for it. We have these three random bushes that I have always hated and wanted to remove, however, since we are renting, we cannot remove them completely. But me, being the super genius that I am, decided I would just cut them down to stubs. So, I got out a saw, sheering scissors, and a bunch of other yard work tools and went to work. Now, I will say, I had been warned that one of the plants had poison ivy in it, but…

1. I didn’t care. I wanted those nasty looking bushes gone.

2. I thought poison ivy lasted for a day or two…. WRONG! Oh so wrong!

Well, after 5 hours of working in the yard, and what Jeff called “demolishing the bushes,” the yard was finally done. All nice and bare, just the way I like it. Flash forward two weeks: I am on the plane flying home to CA when my arm starts to itch. Random. Not! I had poison ivy for a month!!! It was terrible!! My body itched all over, 24/7. I took baths twice a day and that did seem to help. I rubbed every type of cream and took Benadryl, but there was no avail. Not for about an entire month. I would wake up itching in the middle of the night! It was miserable. Now, I am dealing with trying to reduce the scarring. So kids, the moral of the story is: DON’T GET POISON  IVY, OK?

Our lawn before I mowed it. It was my first time ever. I do it all the time now!

After the mow. I know, I'm a professional.

Yay no bush!

Boo poison ivy!

-Oh ya, thought I was going to die once. For the 4th of July, Kaela and Mike came down to visit us (they are moving to London for grad school soon). We decided to go to Center City for the big fireworks show. Basically, we were waiting for the show to start when a huge stampede of people started screaming and running towards us. I wasn’t sure if it was a bomb or a gun, or what. I thought, if it was a bomb then I should run, but if it was a gun then I should hide. Mike grabbed Kaela and me and we all jumped in the bushes nearby. People were shouting that someone had a gun and shot it. Not long after we saw a man tackling another man and holding him down until the police arrived. Soon, every type of police known to man came: cops on bikes, cops on motorcycles, cops on horses, cops on foot, etc. We were quite shaken by the whole thing. The next day we read that it was just a BB gun that was shot and caused all the chaos. So dumb, who brings and shoots a BB gun to a 4th of July firework event? 

            Funny side note: before the whole BB gun event occurred, Kaela, Mike, and I had been making fun of the cops on the bikes. There were about 30 of them, just cruising around in a large group, like a school of fish. We were making fun of them asking what good they could do. Well, I will tell you this, as soon as the gun shot thing happened and the bike cops were not around, all of a sudden we had a new found appreciation for the bike cops. We were like, “Wait, we take it back. Come back! Where are you? We won’t talk smack on you ever again!”

 

 My mom’s visit in May:

            My mom, Christian, and Elijah came at the end of May. It was Christian and Elijah’s first time on the airplane. Although they were afraid on the takeoff and landing (Elijah more so than Christian), they did enjoy the flight. They loved the beverage and snack cart.

            The night they came it was Jeff’s 30th birthday. We had a surprise party at our house. It was a little crowded, but the more the merrier, right? We had different kinds of desserts. My mom got to meet Sev and his parents. She has heard so much about them, so it was nice for her to finally meet them. All the kids loved Sev’s dad.    

            With my mom we did the typical sightseeing stuff. This time, however, for the first time, we went to Valley Forge. My mom went there years ago, but I never had. They still have the house up that Washington rented during his time at Valley Forge. Washington rented it instead of just taking it from the home owner because he wanted to be different than Europe; during war, the European government used to seize any homes, buildings, and lands that they wanted/needed. Washington, wanting America to be different, did not want to rule this way. Interesting, huh?

            So the best part of my mom’s visit was when we went to Independence hall. We were waiting at the visitor’s center to do our Independence hall tour. We had about 45 minutes to kill. While we were waiting there was a small Phillies (the baseball team) parade in the visitor’s center. Christian was HILARIOUS! He was all about the parade! So basically it was the team mascot, some team cheerleaders, and some colonial musicians walking from one end of the center to the other. They invited all the kids to follow the parade. Christian was right up there, right up front, with the mascot and cheerleaders the whole time! The mascot had his arm around Christian, in the front of the line. He had the biggest smile on his face the whole time. He had no inhibitions. Elijah, however, was more reserved. He stayed in the back of parade. Later on Elijah said he had stayed back because the mascot smelled (a fact that Christian later on confirmed). But that didn’t stop Christian; Christian in general is less shy or embarrassed than his brothers. Elijah cares more what people think of him. It was so much fun to watch Christian, who by the way, thought it was a parade for the Angles because they have the same colors as the Phillies.

            After the parade the two boys got their faces painted. Elijah got a small American flag on his cheek, and Christian of course, got his whole face painted. A few minutes before they got their faces painted, a man from CBS news came up to us and started asking questions. Christian, of course, had plenty to say. The man was a writer for the CBS news website. He recorded what Christian said on a tape player and informed us that he may use the information for an article he was writing, well, sure enough, a few hours later, we found the article.

Here are two pictures. The first is a screenshot of the CBS website. The second is a picture of the reporter taking a picture of the boys for the article. 

                 

Phillies Focus On A New Ticket Market: Tourists (written by Paul Kurtz)  

            PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Phillies are hoping to extend their fan base to out-of-town tourists by offering tickets at the Independence Visitors Center.

            Eleven-year-old Christian Cobo, of Orange County, Calif., walked into Independence Visitors Center with his family just in time for a midday spectacle that featured a fife and drum corps, the Phillies Phanatic wearing colonial garb, and a brief Phillies’ highlight video.

            It turned out to be a life-changing moment for young Christian. “I really like the Angels,” he says, “but when I came here I said, forget the Angels!  The Phillies is awesome.”

            The big buildup today was for the announcement that tourists can now purchase Phillies’ game tickets at the visitors’ center.  “What this will do is give our visitors another option for evening activities,” he tells KYW Newsradio.  “Summer tourism season is the height of the season for us, and we get a lot of people come in in the afternoon and are looking for evening activities.  And now we’ll be able to say, ‘How would you like to see a ball game?’

Isn’t that great?! And the best part is that he quoted Christian directly! “The Phillies is awesome!”  Haha! No editing whatsoever involved in that quote, can you tell?

Well, I guess that leaves the summer left, but, this letter is getting super long. Jeff called my letter a book. I hope this finds you all doing well. Miss and love ya all!

Ps. Jeff has four ortho interviews: Oklahoma, Oregon, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh. Hopefully he gets a few more. We are finally fourth years. Yay!