church tomorrow

It's Thursday night- this week flew by and the 2 weeks of Spring break flew even faster.

John is out of town until Friday night.

They are showing recorded broadcast of General Conference on t.v. at the church tomorrow.

I'm going to stay home.

I know I will be happier and more successful listening to and/or watching Conference here at home, so that's what I'll do.

Writing that on my blog is committing me to do it and I'll probably start watching/ reading at the beginning.

Unless I get some suggestions from one of you.

Any suggestions or favorites? Which talk stuck out to you?

I've made some mental notes of things to do with the kids tomorrow that will help the day feel more like the Sabbath (especially since we're not attending church), but I welcome suggestions.

What do you do or not do on Sunday?

or, if that's too personal, serious or lengthy a response, 

another question

but also one I've been thinking about, and commenting on, this week.

What are your tricks for getting the kids ready for church, on time, happy, and cute enough for the "obligatory" pre-church photos (you know the ones you all posted of your cuties in their Easter finest, Christmas best, blessing days etc. etc.)??

pics from the Friday I sent them to church without me and baby Canyon (when Canyon was just days old and we were both in recovery mode).  I was in pj's and they went to church with Grandma- hence time for "pre-church" photos.  

Should I offer a reward/ prize for answering my question(s)?  

Canyon's blessing

We blessed Canyon at church quite a few Fridays ago (but I'm just getting around to posting about it).

My Dad was in town.  

We missed having other family (a lot, and still do), but enjoyed a beautifully simple blessing with just Dad, Grandpa and our branch President.

and the attire?

He's got a lot of Asher's hand-me-downs.

But this time we decided to buy something for him to wear that's all his own.

with a touch of Arabia

and the crisp white fabric that seems to be appropriate for important church things.

I thought it was cute.

plus it was tailor made just for him and small enough to fit (he was 3 weeks old when we blessed him and still at the stage where 0-3 month stuff looks huge on him--- ahhh, those days don't last long)

Ivy was blessed in the same dress that I was blessed in as a baby, 

maybe Canyon will pass this along to his sons someday.

or maybe they'll think it's too much like a dress.

I still think it's cute.

lucky us

preface: sort of a stream of thought post- forgive me. 

Growing up, my mom was always very good at recognizing and, in a way, celebrating holidays.  She goes to town with the big holidays like Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, but she still did (and does) a little something for the smaller ones like St. Patrick's Day.  Nothing too fancy, we of course had something green to wear to school, probably corned beef and cabbage for dinner, and I remember a few times waking up to green milk in the fridge that she claimed the leprechauns dyed in the middle of the night.

We had our own little visits from the leprechauns here in Dubai, only they left the milk alone and went straight for my children's faces.  Ivy and Canyon both have green coming out of their noses and the not-quite-green-but-yellow-ish goopy eyes.  Thanks a lot leprachauns!  I would have preferred food coloring in the milk.

So we spent much of the afternoon at the doctor.  Asher came along too- although his nose and eyes are fine. We got a list of purchases for the pharmacy, and heights and weights on all of the kids. Asher is 1 meter tall and Ivy weighs 2.7 kgs LESS than Asher (this was a surprise to us), and Canyon has gained approx. 1 kg since birth.*

The doctor was wonderful.  So nice, so close to home (an easy walk from our house to her office), and very thorough.  Since we were her last patients of the day, and the baby needed to eat, I nursed Canyon and talked some more with our doctor about non-doctor/patient stuff.  We talked about where we were both from, why we moved here, what we miss about home, etc.   Seemingly normal stuff, but because she is Iraqi (and only recently moved from there), our conversation touched on a lot more things that the basics and therefor was not just "normal".  She left Iraq and moved here just over 5 years ago.  I remember the US entering Iraq while John and I were on our honeymoon.  We'll be celebrating 6 years next week, that means, whoa, she left after the war started. What was that like?  How?   

Does she have any ill feelings towards the United States?

or toward me because I am American?  

Does she want me to say I don't like Bush?

or that I didn't vote for Obama?  

Or vice-versa?  

Should we talk about the war?  

should we not?  

Should I say I'm sorry- I didn't make the decision?

Or should I feel proud that I'm a citizen of a nation that rescued her country from an evil dictator?  

I guess it all depends on how she feels. Oh boy, I wish I was better informed and really had a good solid stance on how I feel about every aspect of this war.  

I decided to tell her what I thought based upon what little I know and have read, despite what she might think of my answers.  But, I was also curious as to her feelings and her thoughts about what I think I know.  

Is it accurate?

While I realize that we didn't go to war to "rescue" Iraq from an evil dictator, we went first and foremost for other reasons, I am happy that we could save the Iraqi people from the terror of Suddam Hussein, and to be perfectly honest, after reading some of the stories of things he did.  I often wonder if getting him out of power could have ever been cause enough. Because what I have read sounds like terror.  Evil and terrible.

I asked if this opinion was valid and she acknowledged the great price that both countries have paid in this war, but that she felt Iraq is much, much, better off now than it was before the war (those were her words). That made me feel better. 

When reading about Iraq under the reign of Saddam, I often think of Hitler. 

Is it valid?  

Her opinion:  "Saddam was worse than Hitler".

In spite of the mistakes that have been made and the terrible cost in lives and in money as well as national moral and support.  It was nice to hear that in her opinion, Iraq is a better place now. 

This experience was another reminder for me to step up my game.  To be more informed, to understand my world enough to be confident in my opinions.  Not that everyone will agree with my opinions, but I will be confident in them because they are based on my own personal study.  

AND I was also reminded of how lucky (or more accurately- BLESSED), I am to be an American.  Blessed (and lucky) for sure!

and the kids should be feeling better soon.

*I haven't really converted to using the metric system yet, I just think it's funny.

Visitors to Dubai- 10 day Stake conference

i love this second picture for two reasons, one it looks like Ivy is being reprimanded, by quite possibly one of the nicest men on earth, and two it shows Ivy's cute hair is finally just barely long enough for little pigtails and I LOVE it!

I'm sorry I didn't share sooner.

We were lucky and blessed with a fabulous church meeting a couple weeks ago.  It was Stake Conference. (read more about it here, it's a good article that gives you the details -)

Elder Holland and Elder Causse along with their wives came to speak to us.  They are both amazing- so comfortable and easy to be around.  

I felt so much goodness from them

I felt inspired to be a little better, but at the same time proud of who I am and what I am doing.

Mostly though, I thought a lot about the circumstances I am living in right now.

I remembered this past summer when another General Authority from the church Elder Neuenschwander came to visit and spoke briefly with the adults in our ward.  He told us that while most of us will say that we are here in Dubai because of our job (or spouses job) that we had a greater purpose in being here.

Again at Stake Conference, Sister Holland stressed the same thing- twice.  Thursday night and Friday morning.

I believed her.

At different times in my life, I have felt very strongly that I was put in that place or situation for a reason.

I haven't really felt that about living in Dubai specifically.  I feel blessed that we are having this experience living overseas with our family.  Blessed that we have a job in this troubled economy.  Blessed that we are enjoying beautiful weather (right now) and that we have made some wonderful friends.  And blessed that while I live far away from most of our friends and all of our family, I feel love and closeness though emails, phone calls, and even blog comments. 

I recognize my blessings, but recognizing my purpose in being here, in Dubai specifically, is more of a challenge.  I feel inspired, motivated and challenged to figure out what that is. For the most part I feel like we are here in Dubai because we chose to be.  John was looking for a job after grad school and finally things fell into place with a job here. It just happened to be half-way around the world from home, but it was a job, we're not the first family like ours to move here, and we won't be the last.  

It's hard to feel like we were inspired to move here, or that this is where we need to be right now. BUT at the same time, it's a little bit exciting and empowering to look at things that way. When I think that I am supposed to be here, that there are things for ME to accomplish HERE, then I realize that I need to step up my game.  That I should be doing more things to put me in tune with the Spirit.  That IF it's true that I am here because I have a Heavenly Father that wants me to be here, then I need to stop thinking and wondering about when and how we'll go back to the States and what I would be doing if we were there.  I need to think about what my talents are and how I, with those talents, can make a difference.  It's also hard because my immediate thoughts are really BIG.  They are outside of my family (because I know my purpose there) and I don't even know where to start or how to get started.  I want to figure it all out.  

I guess I write all this and share it so that I commit myself to living life with more purpose AND

maybe you'll take on the challenge with me, because I'm sure many of you are living where you need to be as well.

"Split happens"

that's a direct quote from our newly called branch president at church when he spoke in church Friday.  

Rumors have been buzzing around since I returned from the States a couple weeks ago that our ward at church (congregation) would be split in half because it's getting so big, we can't all fit in the building and the growth is expected to continue.  Admittedly, I didn't like hearing the rumors.  You know me- I love crowds, big groups, the more the merrier. I also love seeing lots of friends for the primary and teenage kids.  Splitting would change that, no matter how it was done. I was so sad hearing the rumors.

However, last week the Stake Presidency flew into town and on Friday they split our very large ward into two congregations- a ward and a branch.  We are in the branch which isn't much smaller, it just is easier to form than a ward and we are told we should be a ward by the first of the year.  I'm still a little sad, but mostly I have been surprised at how optimistic and positive I feel about these new changes.  It gives us a chance to get closer as a smaller group, I can still socialize with the same people in either congregation of course, and Asher's primary class was cut in half, but is still large (6 kids), Ivy will also have a good size nursery group.  I'm hopeful that both the branch and ward will continue to grow in numbers and I am amazed that here in Dubai we now have 3 church congregations (they split this ward just 2 years ago as well).  I can thank prayer for my change of heart about things.

It's a small world

speaking of songs getting stuck in my head.  Some experiences (and locations) come with soundtrack in my mind.

While the International branch that we attended in Moscow is similar to our ward in Dubai in that the congregation attendance dwindles in the summer months (most ex-pats go home)

I am happy to report that I've still got it.  I haven't lost my touch of being able to find someone I know, wherever I go*.  Even if the odds were against me! 

*this isn't totally true, but many of you like to claim that it is, so we're going with it.  

At church I ran into (here's 4 again)

1. The brother of one of my (our) very fun, very creative, upbeat, hilarious friends in Palo Alto (who is also the son of one of my favorite professors at BYU).
2. A cousin of another of of our highly admired, stunningly gorgeous and well respected friends in Palo Alto.
3. The former boyfriend of a former roommate of mine.  at BYU.  Freshman year. (ya, that one took us a while to figure out why we were looking so familiar to each other).
4. AND the former roommate of a former boyfriend of mine!

so fun!  

now if I could just get the song out of my head before bed tonight!

we love smoothies!

because:

It's HOT outside

fresh summer produce from the US is kinda pricey (berries and peaches specifically)

We're missing (and craving) Nana's freshest homegrown produce (berries and peaches specifically)

Ice cream is really pricey here (and not very good from our experience)

Plain yogurt is abundant and cheap

Smoothies are filling and nutritious for growing kids and "prego" mom

AND they're yummy!!!

yesterday we had breakfast with some friends and I brought the blender to make smoothies as part of my breakfast contribution.  My friend from Australia informed me that it was a first for her!  So for anyone else that may need help in making one.  Here's our typical and very flexible recipe.

1 1/2 cups fruit (we use frozen)

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

ice

honey and/or banana to sweeten 

milk and or fruit juice (to help get the desired consistency)

I dump it all in the the blender in the order listed and then blend away.  Sometimes it looks like it's not making much progress, so I stop and stir or shake or add more liquid.

With the plain yogurt most of the smoothies need a little help from honey to make them sweet enough to be called "yummy".  However, I have found that if we using bananas makes them pretty sweet too.

*I purchased cups with snap on lids and straws for the kids after those pictures (and I gave them a bath)

*Thanks Anna for suggesting smoothies last time we talked.

Check out this headline.

Last week at church they shared this headline from the pulpit. 

Mormons plan first temple for Middle East

(you can read the article by clicking on the headline above). 

While the use of the word "temple" is inaccurate, the news is still exciting- just think how much more exciting it will be when the wording is correct.  Someday!

Until then- we're assigned to the Frankfurt temple district which means we'll probably visit the temple again when we go home or on maybe we should plan a vacation to Hong Kong or Tahiti or Nigeria or Fiji or Australia!