'Tagged'

I've been tagged by my good friend and old college roommate - so, here are the answers, Christi!

Two Names you go by: (other than my actual name...)
1. Ang
2. Pretty Girl (normally by my cute husband! :0)

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. My running clothes
2. My watch

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. New adventures... just about anything
2. Spend 'Family Time'
(My favorite is when the new adventures and family time collide!)

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. To fly to the USA to sing the National Anthem at a Baseball game
2. To help my children finish all their homework... in 'Spanish'!

Two pets you have or have had:
1. Four rabbits - that are quickly getting to the reproducing stage... horror of horrors! (We found out we have two males in the bunch; their were 'misdiagnosed' when we asked about gender!)
2. Three ducks - that our 'domestic employee' asked if she could kill, sautee in orange sauce and cook... Uh, NO, these are our children's pets...¡HOLA!

Two things you did last night:
1. Held Family Home Evening - with a water balloon / scripture quiz game! (My husband and I got soaking wet!)
2. Watched a movie with my husband!

Two things you ate today:
1. Yogurt, Pineapple & Cantaloupe
2. Beef "Estilo Mexicana" Burritos

Two people you last talked to:
1. My brother in Arizona
2. All four of my kids... that is usually four conversations at one time; so I couldn't really tell you which one was 'last'

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Swimming - training for the Mexican Invitational Swim Competition
2. Laundry, Cleaning and the life of a mom...

Longest trips taken (both in distance and time):
1. Salt Lake City, UT to London, England; Paris, France; Belgium, Wales, and Scotland!
2. Dallas, TX to Mexico - ok, in reality it doesn't seem like that far... but it is another country!

Your favorite Holidays:
1. Christmas
2. "Thanksgiving"

Two favorite beverages:
1. Water - as long as it is clean and purified... we are living in a country where that is a VALID question!
2. Cran-raspberry juice - or after a particularly hard day... I think shots of strait cranberry juice is about as 'hard' as I'll go! :o)

Another Mexican Birthday Bash!

After shuffling dates around our little six year old had a wonderful party on the day of her birthday, April 16th! She had decided weeks ago to have a 'Tinkerbell' themed party. ('Campanita' in Spanish) We delivered the invitations to her school only to find that another boy in her class had scheduled his party for the same time and same day! So, after shuffling schedules we decided to move her party up two days to her actual birthday, Wednesday! It was a bit chaotic making sure that all the other students and friends knew about the date change... but it worked out beautifully. We hosted a wonderful party and everyone had a lovely time - our little one had about 30 or 40 friends attend her party and we had a blast! Music, Food and a great Bounce House made for tons of fun! We wish you were here to play with us! Felicidades!

"Horton Hears A Who"... Can You?

If you are not yet familiar with the story by Dr. Suess of “Horton Hears A Who” it is a story of discovery and salvation all embodied within a children’s book about a big hearted elephant, Horton. This elephant discovers a speck of dust floating through the air aimlessly and hears something shout from the speck of dust. Our humongous Horton decides that someone or someones must be living on that speck of dust and he goes about against all odds to save the world on the speck of dust. That minuscule world, “Whovill”, consists of families, friends, neighbors and governments.

Horton endures ridicule and hardship from his jungle neighbors until finally; the story ends with the animals in the jungle (all those that shunned and mocked Horton for believing a world could exist on a speck of dust) finally hearing for themselves the voices of all the minuscule “Who’s” on the speck of dust. These animals then, not only believed there were people living on the speck of dust but they further decided to help Horton protect that world.

What a wonderful story (now a major animated movie) for our children to hear at bedtime. Horton heard and protected a minuscule world; made that world known to the other inhabitants of his jungle and finally the other jungle animals pledged to protect the tiny world of “Who” too!

Yet this story begs the question, Can we hear the “Who’s” in our world today? There are hundreds of thousands of families or widows and children ‘displaced’ in Kenya that are crying to be heard and many who are dying as you read this blog. There are others who are suffering untold cruelty and human indignities in Tibet while we sit in our offices on soft, ergo dynamic chairs. Where I currently live I daily pass people living far below my preferred standards yet they are faring much better than those in Kenya, Tibet, tornado and flood ravaged areas of the United States as well as innumerable other areas in our world.

What can we do? Horton spoke out after he heard the “Who”. We can donate that money that we were going to use to go out to dinner or we can go through our closets and find clothes, shoes and heaven knows what else that we have forgotten is there and donate those things to the charities that will truly benefit the people. We can raise the awareness of others in our workplace, church or playgroups simply by talking about the crisis and having suggestions of how others can help.

There are a few organizations I would recommend that utilize donations extremely well;:

Humanitarian Services - LDS Church www.lds.org/humanitarian
Catholic Charities www.catholiccharitiesusa.org
International Red Cross www.icrc.org/eng
UNICEF www.unicef.org/

Horton heard a ‘Who’… Can You?

Tip of the Day!

We have now been in Mexico for approximately eight months and last week was the first week I actually had to go and find a pair of nylons to purchase. Find is the operative word here - stores here had 'tights', 'knee-highs' and or 'nylons' but the variety left much to be desired! I finally found a pair of nylons in my size and the color I wanted, 'Nude'. Nude is always a safe color for me and I personally don't care for my legs to appear suddenly three shades darker than the rest of my body because that screams 'nylons'! So, I excitedly bought my new found nylons and placed them carefully into my closet drawer!

Sunday arrives and I pull the cherished purchase out of my drawer, open the packaging, begin to put on the nylons and notice that they are quite a bit darker than I would have thought. I run over to the bed... or hobble/hop over to the bed (remember one leg is in the nylons) and read the label again. Yes, it says 'Nude'... What is the problem?... Oh, WAIT, I am in MEXICO! Nude here would be the Mexican version of 'nude'... that is equivalent to my version of 'Bronze' or flat out 'Brown'! So, as of this last week I have had to submit to having my upper body appear to be my own skin color and my legs looking 'Bronze' or 'Brown'. (Not my favorite fashion idea...)

So, when any of you decide to come and visit us here in this beautiful country to escape and explore Mexico... please email me and I'll tell you my nylon size... so you can bring me some nylons!

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

For the 166th Anniversary of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints our church Relief Society Presidency chose to portray the parable of "The Ten Virgins" as taught by the Savior in the book of St. Matthew.

The women were all very excited to have an opportunity to portray the parable and take part in the program. (Although not all were excited about the prospect of being a 'Foolish Virgin'.) We had three narrators read the parable from "The Holy Bible" and then as each woman walked down the aisle (representing 'the wedding march') a paragraph was read that described their 'offering' at the wedding feast - five were virtuous and five were - let's say - offerings of 'the natural man'. We had great fun while sharing important principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (All this for only about $28.99 USD!)


At the end of the presentation a sister approached me and touchingly explained that this was the first time that she had understood the principle behind this parable. What a blessing it is to serve the Lord and to share His gospel! I was grateful that the Spirit was present and our hearts were prepared to be taught. When such humble, teachable hearts are taught through programs or talks prepared with the Spirit of the Lord truth is realized and testimonies are strengthened! What an tremendous opportunity we have to see truth taught whether it be in our families, our wards or missionary work!