Andelin Adventures – Page 183 – A blog about Kyle and Rebecca's family

Jeremy is in Primary!!!

Well today is Jeremy’s first day as a Sunbeam. He was so excited to go to church (having no idea that he would be in a different class today) so he could take his scriptures to church. But when we took him to the gym to sort out the Primary classes (and not his nursery class) he started to look worried. We took him to his new teacher and she was really nice, and greeted him by name. But Jeremy was not convinced. So when the other leaders came around to say that they could go to the primary room now, I stayed with Jeremy’s class and helped him get on a chair in his row. And I pointed out that Ethan was already in the room in his row, and that Tyra’s class came in and sat right behind Jeremy’s row. He seemed to be doing just fine (aside from his scriptures constantly falling off his chair because they are too heavy for him to really hold them), so I slipped out to go to my class.

When I went to pick Jeremy up from his class, his new teacher said that he was just fine and very reverent, and he did an excelent job of coloring (not scribbling) his picture. 🙂 So he has officially moved out of nursery and into primary, and it’s actually really wierd not having any kids in the nursery. Dinah won’t be old enough to go to nursery until March, and ever since Ethan was old enough for nursery we have had at least one and sometimes two kids in the nursery.

FHE

Well I admit it, we have not been very good at having family home evening (FHE) each week. I want to, and every now and then we try to improve. We even decided we would have FHE on Sunday’s instead of Monday’s (Monday is the day that the Church sets aside to have no meetings so that families can have FHE) since Kyle isn’t home Monday’s but he is home all day on Sunday’s. A few months ago our Bishop and one of his counselors came to visit us and the Bishop flat out asked Kyle if HE was gathering our family each week for FHE. Kyle had to say no, because he wasn’t. If and when we have FHE it’s because I initiate it. Since then we have tried more seriously to have FHE each week. We did for a few weeks then it fizzled out again. SO this year we are going to try harder at having FHE each week. I sat down with our Family Home Evening Manual, some binders of FHE stuff that we have gotten from previous wards, the Primary lesson manuals that we have, a book called 52 Weeks of Family Night, and a book called Short & Sweet with a Treat (which also has 52 FHE lessons), and I made a list of all the Sunday’s in 2009 and planned out which lesson to use on which Sunday. I of course designed my list to be flexible, but at least we have something planned for FHE for each week for this whole year. If something comes up and we need to change a lesson, then I will just move the lessons around in my excel file. 😀

7 Year Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday was our 7th wedding anniversary. Kyle took me out last night to see Bolt ( a new Disney movie) in 3D. We got some popcorn and realized as the movie was starting that it was just WAY too salty. I kept eating it hoping further down the bag it would be ok, thinking that maybe they poured the salt on the top of the bag so the rest should be ok. It wasn’t. It was salty all the way down the bag. I couldn’t make myself finish the bag. Kyle kept munching too probably because it was there to munch. But I think he gave up on it earlier than I did. We ended up telling them that it was too salty and they refilled our bag with popcorn that wasn’t so salty and we took that home. After the movie Kyle took me to Red Lobster for dinner, since we had a gift card. We decided to do the make your own dinner and split it. Dinner was really good, but we were definately all salted out and really sensitive to salt for the rest of the evening. Kyle ended up with a bad headache and I needed to drive us home. (Kyle slept almost all the way home, which provided a pretty boring drive home for myself) But we have been married for 7 years and that’s a good thing and that’s what counts. 🙂

Christmas party with the extended family

Granny, Laurel & Roine and the cousins came over for a Christmas dinner tonight. The kids always love playing with their cousins. I was just finishing up with the dinner/dessert preparations when they arrived, so we ate first. And the food was delicious (if I do say so myself 😉 ) The turkey turned out moist as usual, the stuffing was delicious and not soggy at all since we had cooked the rice to just barely done before making the stuffing and putting it in the bird. Kyle was amazed at how well the ham turned out having been just thrown in the crock pot to warm it up. The rolls turned out super fluffy and just perfect, and everything else was just yummy.

After dinner Kyle whipped out Lego Star Wars to show to Alex and they played a couple levels. Then Ethan, Lars, Alex and Sylvia took turns playing various levels of the game.

Then we opened presents. Ethan had already opened his (since Granny had already handed it to him and we didn’t have time to tell him to wait until after dinner, he just ripped it open) So Tyra, Jeremy & Dinah got to open theirs. Wendy got a book from Karen, and Laurel & Roine gave us an emergency potty. Laurel wanted to give us something for emergency preparedness, but didn’t want to give us something we already had……sooooo ya. 🙂 We gave Laurel & Roine and family an ice cream maker and we gave Karen a box of swiss colony petits fours.

After presents, Kyle turned Monkey ball on for the kids to play so that more than just 2 kids could play at a time and they had so much fun doing that. Although Lars and Jeremy were NOT sharing very well. When I took the controller from Jeremy after a race to hand the controller to Lars, Jeremy had a huge fit. Then when that race was over and it was Jeremy’s turn again Lars was the one to throw a huge fit at being told to hand the controller back to Jeremy.

Dessert was delicious, chocolate mousse in chocolate bowls. Very yummy, so yummy that Jeremy had a second kid sized bowl. Dinah LOVED it:

Goodbye Jewel :(

Well the last of our baby bunnies died today. 🙁 Actually he wasn’t a baby anymore, he was almost 7 years old.

We found his mama just roaming Kyle’s parent’s neighborhood one night in February 2002 after visiting his parents. Liesl was driving Kyle and I home, and we saw the rabbit just sitting there by the side of the road. I said to Kyle “I dare you to go out and pick it up.” Liesl stopped Kyle got out and the bunny didn’t even try to run, she just sat there. So Kyle had no problems with picking her up and brought her to the car. The next day while Kyle was at work, my mom came over to visit and to bring a bunny cage for our new pet. She picked up the bunny and was petting her and said “Uh, she’s pregnant.” Since I didn’t know how soon the bunny was going to have her babies, and mom didn’t bring a nesting box because this was kind of unexpected, I decided to put the bunny in our bathtub with some towels so that she would be comfortable and have a place to have her babies. THAT DAY, later on, she had her babies. EIGHT of them. As they got bigger and started to show personalities, I named them. We called the mama Esther (because it kind of sounded like Easter bunny), and the babies were Rolly, Spot, Spaz, Nippy, Turbo, Blinky, Precious, and Jewel. Spot was the only girl of the bunch (aside from Esther). The bunnies grew and were lots of fun. They were our first babies. Our babies before we started having babies.

Nippy was the first of the bunch to pass away. It was summer time and he just got too hot. Kyle and I were out of town at the time and some of my family were taking care of them while we were gone. When we came home there was one less bunny. 🙁 When we had to move out of the house in Fullerton, we took our bunnies over to my parent’s house because we couldn’t take them to our apartment, and I went over to do laundry about once a week and visit the bunnies. And then time passed on and Kyle and I (and now Ethan) moved to Utah, and we left the bunnies with my parents until we could get a place where we could bring them up to be with us. Every time I went to California I would go out and check on my rabbits, and feed them and spoil them. One by one, over time they all died, except Jewel. Which was interesting to me because Jewel was the only one of the bunch that had been neutered (that is another story). When Jewel was the last one, I decided that I would just put him in the van and bring him home with me. And he lived quite happily with us here in Eagle Mountain since then. He was completely content to stay in his cage. He didn’t care too much to be loose, I guess he felt safer in the cage. He had a bunny litter box in his cage and was very good at using it.

The past few days he just hasn’t been acting normal though. I would look over and he would be in a weird position, looking up and breathing slow and his teeth would be showing. When I would go over to look at him he would hop over and snap out of it though. Today he didn’t. Kyle took him out of the cage so he could just sit on the floor and strech out and he just flopped on the floor. The back half of his body wouldn’t cooperate with the front half of his body, and he was kicking and sqeaking (which he hasn’t squeaked since he was a baby). Then he just stopped breathing. 🙁 Kyle picked him up and asked Ethan to go get a towel to wrap Jewel in, and he just held him for awhile. I was just so sad, and in tears. I knew he was a senior rabbit and someday he would go, just as I have had the thought that Chewy is getting pretty old and won’t be with us forever. I just started calling vets to see if I could find one in today that could help. But the ones that could help weren’t in today. After calling around to find out what we should do with his body we have decided that the best option that we have been given is to just bury him in the backyard. Of course there is a lot of snow out there and the ground is most likely frozen, but that beats taking him to the animal shelter and paying them to take him. I am so sad, and I just can’t believe my bunny is gone. So Jewel bunny born 27th February 2002, died 27th December 2008 around 2 PM, 6 years 10 months old. Goodbye our cute fuzzy friend.