Odds and Ends

Its been nearly two months since I've written. I think there a lot of reasons for missing on writing.

• Not really happy living here- so its hard to write.
• Busy- well kind of not always 
• Feeling like there isn't anything to write about. 

I have tried to be happy, I really have. I am happy just not about living in Boise. It doesn't feel like home. I don't see us being here long term so its hard to be fully invested ™.  I miss my friends a lot. I wasn't one to see friends or talk to friends everyday but I miss knowing that I can go to lunch or dinner with Robin or Rachelle. I miss going to Alyssa's house for playdates and marathon talking sessions.  I miss my hot chick nights with Bridget and Robin.  I miss walking to Days and ALWAYS seeing someone from my ward. I miss my Edgemont ward and neighborhood so much. I loved going to church and having so many friends.  

Okay that is enough of what I miss. Lets get onto what's been going on.

• Last week we attended our THIRD ward in the FOUR months that we have been here.  When we first came to Boise we were faced with the decision of attending the ward that our apartment belongs to or just go to the ward where we are building our house.  I opted for the apartment ward, Lou wanted the house ward. I was wrong. We went to the apartment ward for a few Sundays, we knew it wasn't where we we were suppose to be.We started to attend our ward within our house boundaries. We both felt at home.  Last week we found out that our Stake was changing ward boundaries and we would be attending a new ward once again. We went this past Sunday to our new ward. It seems nice enough, its quite large,(apparently it was very small before the changes) it was really loud during Sacrament meeting but maybe that was just the excitement of changes.  Lou and I were lucky enough to talk in our ward the last week we attended. It was funny it was like a welcome talk and a farewell talk (even though we didn't find out until that night that we would be part of the ward that was changing) .  Its so funny when we were looking at houses one of the reasons I wanted Southeast Boise and not a growing place like Meridian is because I didn't want changes in our ward!! Silly me.

• The kids have had this entire week off. I LOVE it. In Utah they always just had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Friday after Thanksgiving off. Its been so fun to get ready for Thanksgiving and have the kids around.  

• Speaking of Thanksgiving. We will be spending Thanksgiving in Boise this year. It will be the first year I'll make the meal. I am so so excited. We'll miss Lou's family but it will be so fun to be just us too.  I have been planning for a few weeks the menu and the day. I have some fun ideas, that I'm really excited about it. We'll have turkey (I found a copycat recipe for the Honeybaked Ham turkey recipe... that we love) , ham, homemade Lionhouse rolls, mashed potatoes,  green bean casserole, stuffing (lou and josh like it, me and kira don't), stuffed mushrooms, a cranberry- apple pie relish, salad and of course pie.  I bought my family's traditional snacking food to eat throughout the day too.

Beautiful flowers Leann and Jeff sent me for Thanksgiving, saying they are going to miss us but wishing us luck :)

• We are starting a new tradition on Thanksgiving.  After dinner and pie we'll open our Christmas season box.  I thought it would be fun to put a box together to welcome us to the Christmas season.  I bought a few Christmas movies, books and candies to put in the box.  I am sooo excited about his box, like beyond excited. I think the kids will love it.  It will be fun to think of new things to do every year with it. I almost bought Christmas shirts for the kids to put in but the movies and books were adding up :)

• So I was going to take a mediation class this fall. I was pretty excited about it. But as I looked more and more into the training. Every training class is held on Sundays. You have to take quite a few courses before you are certified. I didn't feel right about that at all. So I won't be doing the mediation training anymore.

• Our house is delayed again but that's okay. We need things to be done right, there were a few major things that the inspector and Lou didn't like when we had the inspection. So hopefully CBH will agree to fix those things, the way we want them fixed.

That's our update for now.  Hopefully I'll write more than every two months!!

Togetherness

We get to see Lou in a few days. That's all I can really think about! This is the longest we have been apart our entire marriage.  Its hard knowing he'll be home for such a short period of time before he goes back to Boise.  We will sure make the most of and enjoy the days we do get with him.

Saturday will be me and Lou's 11th anniversary. 11 years is a long time but it is really hard to remember what life was like before I married Lou.  In 11 years Josh will be 18.  That is weird to think about, that in the same amount of time that we've been married, all my kids will be adults.

Today I went visiting teaching. I sure love my companion and the sisters we visit teach. It has been such a blessing in my life.  I love that the sisters we visit like to be visited and make it so easy for us to visit.  I like that my companion is the same way.  I have visited the same sisters for the two years we've been in the ward.  We are all in different stages of life, my companion about the same age as me has three young kids at home none in school yet.  One of the sisters we visit teach has three kids ages 12-18.  The other sister we visit has two kids, both returned missionaries attending BYU.  I enjoy talking with these sisters, I like that I am able to learn from their life experiences. Having friends that are not your age and not in the same circumstances as you is a great experience.

I have felt so much love from my friends this week. Robin came over Saturday night, we watched Felicity.  Rachelle has called and texted. Alyssa invited us to spend Saturday afternoon at her house and we ended up having dinner together.  I have such good friends. I don't know if I have ever had as good of friends as I do right now on a whole.  (there it is getting so comfortable with how life is that Heavenly Father makes you pack up and start over again)



I also have been talking to my mom much more frequently on the phone, same with my sister Sharon. Talking with family although they live across the country is so nice. Although it would be much nicer to see them every week, talking will have to do.

lou is home

yes a pic from Halloween, I finally took them off our camera. Do you like me and Lou's couple costume? I am a witch and lou is a muggle from HP 1 when Seamus says "me dad's a muggle ; mam's a witch" 

• we picked up lou from the airport this morning, yay for lou being home.
• last night was the only night I had to work when lou was out of town but I got there and they said I didn't need to work because our section was super small for everything that was going on and they weren't going to have a Scoreboard page.  It was nice though I stayed for an hour and the kids were in bed when I got home. Our neighbor's the Grows watched the kids for me, they first went to the Grow's house and played Wii then Tabby their daughter brought them back to our house and put them to bed. Its so nice to have nice neighbors who are more than willing to help out!
• Friday night I hung out with Robin. We watched Downton Abbey and ate yummy lime flavored popcorn. Don't judge it was really really good, it was just a hint of lime. We also had mint m&m's and cadbury mini-eggs. I had totally forgotten that Cadbury puts out their mini-eggs at christmas time now, it was such a happy surprise when I saw  them at the store. 
• Today i have been super tired, no idea why I got over 8 hrs of sleep last night. I nearly fell over playing the piano for the Children's choir after church today I was so tired. 
• tonight we are having dinner at the Jensen's house. We went a few weeks ago. They have a big dinner every Sunday with lots of people over. I visit teach Kelly and Lou and Corey get a long really well.  There was a bunch of college-aged kids a few weeks ago at the dinner, our kids felt like they fit right in with them, happily sitting at the "kids table" with the college kids. 
• last Sunday I went with Alyssa and her friend Kate to the Messiah Sing-A-long at Abrevenal Hall. I meant to do an entire blog post about it but alas the week escaped me. We had such a good time. Alyssa's husband Jared, recently started working for the Church so we were able to park underneath the Conference Center, it was great to not have to worry about a parking spot. When we were walking there we saw Doug and Elizabeth Finlinson (Sharon's brother-in-law and his wife). The music was so beautiful. The soloists did a great job as did the choir. I love singing it even when I don't really know it all. Alyssa and I went a few years ago to the one in Provo so it was lots of fun to do it again but this time in Salt Lake. The spirit was very strong. It was a great introduction to the Christmas season.

I'm grateful for...

I know I do this like every other day. I need to do it EVERYDAY! I do think of things everyday and I am online everyday so c'mon Diana do it EVERYDAY!

Yesterday I had a beautiful afternoon with my friend, Robin. I am grateful for Robin and the friendship we've shared for the last several years. I was so happy driving to University Mall to meet Robin at the Starbucks to enjoy a peppermint hot chocolate together.  I decided it was a perfect time to see if KOZY 106.5 had started to play Christmas music yet, lo and behold both KOZY and FM 100 have started playing Christmas music. It set the mood for my day so perfectly. I thought while driving and listening to the joyous, timeless music, I just love this time of year. I love the months of November and December more than I love most things in life. I love the weather, I love the mood in the air. I love the music, I love Thanksgiving, I love Christmas. I love EVERYTHING that goes along with getting ready for those two wonderful holidays.  Yesterday I was grateful for this time of year and good friends and family to share it with me.

Today I am grateful for my sweet daughter, Kira Grace. Today at church was Fast and Testimony meeting. In our last ward children were not allowed to bare their testimonies in Sacrament meeting. We had too many of those moms that would bring up their 2 year olds and whisper in their kids ears what to say, I guess. ( I always found those testimonies really awkward and uncomfortable). Kira told me during Sacrament meeting that she wanted to share her testimony. I told her she had to really think about what she wanted to say and once she knew what she wanted to share she could go up and share her testimony. Well most of the meeting she wrote down thoughts and sat quietly thinking about what to say. There were five minutes left in the meeting when she told me she knew what she wanted to share. I told her to share it with me first, she did then she went up to the pulpit, full of confidence.  Kira said My name is Kira Allen and I would like to share my testimony. I am grateful for the church and I am grateful for the scriptures. I think it is hard sometimes to believe when you read and to know that Jesus and Nephi lived so long ago and did the thing that they did. I know if I read and study, the more that I do I will have the Spirit tell me that they are true. I will know they are true. I hope to be baptized someday. I hope to be married in the temple someday, I hope to go on a mission someday. Kira then closed in the name of Jesus Christ.

I loved that testimony. I will forever remember how brave she was going up there, how little she looked sitting waiting in a chair on the stand. I will remember how strong the spirit was when my seven year old shared her beautiful, simple testimony.