July 2012

Our melted dishwasher!

Despite some mechanical hiccups July 2012 turned out to be a pretty good month, one where we felt really blessed.  At the end of my last entry I mentioned that our fairly young dishwasher died on us and that it went out in a great cloud of smoke. What we discovered is that the wiring to the heating element malfunctioned, overheated, sparked, and ultimately melted itself to the plastic casing on the underside of the dishwasher.  There was no repairing it, replacing it was our only alternative.  So we began July preparing to spend a big chunk of change on a new dishwasher.  As J-rod's only day off the first week of July was the 4th, we then planned to spend a good portion of that day at Lowe's picking out a new one.  Blessings were sent our way and by the middle of the afternoon on the 4th of July we had a "well-taken-care-of 2 year old 'upgraded'" dishwasher installed.  A family in our stake (who's daughter and son-in-law are in our ward) had recently replaced all of their kitchen appliances and were looking to find new homes for the ones they changed out.  As a result we were able to replace our old one for only $75.00!!!  Seriously blessed!

Not too long after replacing the dishwasher, on one of our extremely hot AZ afternoons my car overheated while C-sta and I were out running errands. For the second time in four months I had to have my car towed to the mechanic.  No fun!  J-rod and I thought my radiator had blown and again we prepared for a hefty bill.  Fortunately it turned out to be a cracked manifold that connected three hoses and it wasn't as costly as we had thought it would be.  Once again we are so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who watches out for us!

The rest of the 4th we enjoyed as a family by going to see "Brave", swimming, grilling up some yummy steaks, watching fireworks from across the country on t.v., sitting on our drive-way to watch the fireworks from the high school that sits behind our house, and then setting off some fireworks of our own on our street.  It was a fun day!

Having fun at swim lessons, town pool

Underwater in our pool.

When the kids finished up swim team and lessons mid-month we were finally able to devote some mornings to a favorite summer past-time that we all enjoy: sleeping in! : )

Swimming until the last possible second 

before the dust storm hit us!

A few days later, storm free pool fun.

Along with sleeping in we also attended summer-time movies (where we discovered a few new favorites), went swimming in our pool, worked on better organizing our house in preparation for the new school year, weathered some pretty crazy dust storms, and enjoyed watching our cute little Jeffery as he and Copper play and enjoy each other's company.  Apparently that last activity captivated a lot of our attention as I found that most of the pictures we took of this month were of the two of them. : )

First picture:

"You got something in your teeth Copper. 

Here, let me help you get it out".

Last picture:

"There, there. All better buddy?"

Best buds in the making!

Bishop's Night.

In the middle of month J-rod and I headed up for a half day and evening of fun at Girls Camp.  The theme this year was "I Know Who I Am" so the leaders incorporated a lot of owls into the decorations, t-shirts, crafts, etc.--it was super cute!  We really enjoyed being up there with the girls and the leaders.  The theme of the day was "What's in a name" so the after dinner program included a fun game an uplifting segment where each bishop shared stories from their personal history of either family members who they were named after or family members that honored their name.  It was so neat to hear all of this great stories and gave me cause to reflect on the great women I was named after and evaluate how I am doing on honoring them and the names I was given.  After the program we visited with our ward girls and leaders as we shared a strawberry cheese we brought for them as a surprise (a tradition Jared began when he was called as bishop) and then joined them for their testimony meeting.  It was so neat to hear the many sweet and growing testimonies shared that night.  

On a side note, it was also nice to note that we had our very one "Bear Grylls" (think of the show "Man vs. Wild") on hand as one of the priesthood members there for the night.  As the girls lined up to share their testimonies I heard one of them exclaim, "aw, don't hurt it!" followed by a very distinctive rattle.  Off to the side of where the girls were lining up, our "Bear Grylls" had quietly spotted, corralled, and was then ultimately able to dispose of a rattle snake that clearly had come way too close to where we had gathered for testimonies!  Afterwards he showed us the rattle and I have to say, that is the closest I EVER want to come to one of those!

Ward Pioneer Day activity.

A fun little photo shoot with C-sta.

At the end of July 2012, we spent a lot of time as a family watching as the Summer Olympics began in London. In light of the Olympic games I was asked, "what event would you like to compete in (you know, if your life was slightly different than how it is and you were a professional athlete). Second....make up an event that you would win the gold in." My answer was, "without a doubt, if things were different and I had the opportunity to compete in the Olympics I would LOVE to compete as a swimmer.  In high school I was a sprinter and enjoyed swimming all but the butterfly.  My favorites were the breaststroke, freestyle, and relay events.  I'd be happy to swim anything from a 50m to a 200m.  A made up event in which I think I could be a pretty fierce competitor for the gold would have to be the, "running into someone I know, no matter where on this planet I may go" event. " : )  Ha, ha!