Easter is coming

Rachel is a confused little girl. Often while sitting at the table she sees the Easter window clings on our window bursts out with: "Easter is coming! I love Easter!" But she has no idea what Easter is. She goes on to call out, "Where are you Easter? Do you want to come to my house, Easter?" Or when I get off the phone 50% of the time she asks, "Was that Easter? Is Easter coming to visit me?"
I think maybe she thinks the Easter bunny's first name is Easter and last name is Bunny. Every once in a while she'll say something like, "Easter is going to bring me candy and presents!" Or "Easter would like this carrot!" At least she's excited for Easter. Whatever or whoever that ends up being. :)

The rest of the visit

While Savannah and Jared were here we also went to the zoo and went on a lovely hike to enjoy the beautiful Tucson weather.

It was St. Patrick's Day when we went to the zoo, so we were all green.

Rachel got tired and decided a nice, hard rock would be the perfect place for a nap.

We had a good time checking out all the animals. Giraffes are some of Rachel's favorites.

Unfortunately I got zero pics of/with Savannah and Jared at the zoo. But they had fun, too.

And on our hike I didn't even bring the camera, so there's no documentation of that excursion. We went on just a short 0.7 mile hike in to the picnic tables where we had a picnic lunch. During lunch Rachel had her first encounter with a jumping cholla (a.k.a. teddy bear cactus). She didn't much like it, but we got it out of her leg with minimal problems and a(n uneccesary) bandaid made everything better.

It was fun to have Savannah and Jared come visit. We'll have to go visit them one of these days...

Lakeside Park

Last week my sister-in-law, Savannah, came to visit and brought baby Jared along. She left Todd back in Cali to slave away at work.
Rachel had a ball with Jared. She loved talking to him in baby talk (and still is on a baby talk kick), loved pushing him in his stroller, and liked playing around with him.

We decided to go check out the ducks at Lakeside Park one afternoon when they were visiting. Jared was his usual happy self.

We brought bread to feed the ducks. Though I think Rachel ate more of it than the ducks did.

Grandma with her two grandkids:

And of course we couldn't leave the park without stopping for some fun on the slide.

Good times were had by all.

Sleeping

We have enjoyed about a week and a half of lovely bedtimes. All because one night in the middle of Rachel's screaming and fighting and trying to open the door to come out to the rest of the house she said, "LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN!" in a most desperate voice. So I told her if she would stay in her bed I'd leave the door open. And she went right to bed and fell asleep. Every night now she tells me to leave the door open. I do and she stays in bed. (Except for the occasional one last potty trip.) It is heaven.

If only naptime was that easy....

Gardening

It's spring. Remember how my goal for January was to get the garden prepped? Well, I finally got it done. Just about a month late. But still in time for planting (which is in Feb/March here in the desert).

I'm doing a modified Square-foot garden method and have about 3 sections planted so far. I'm also working on the drip system, which seems to take the longest of everything. I'm excited to have more room this year for more stuff.
The only problem is that the peas that I planted in December are totally at their prime (see down at the far end of the garden), but I really should be planting the cucumbers I have planned for that square now to beat the heat. But I just can't bring myself to pull up such tasty treats. I may just leave them and see if it's horrible to plant peas in the same place 3 times in a row. I'll do crop rotation next year. :)

Our other new addition to the backyard this year is a cara cara naval orange tree.
I have yet to put it in the hole that Jake's mom dug for me. There used to be a horrible feather palo verde tree in the corner there. We had some company remove it because they said they'd remove the root ball, too, so we'd be able to plant something else there. Too bad they didn't do their job! Janet found roots and a stump just a few inches down. Lame! I've called the company twice, and am waiting for a call back from the owner now. We'll see if they'll come fix it or just give me my money back . I'd rather just have them fix it. I want my oranges!

Visitors

Jake's parents came down to visit and help nurse their son back to health. And save my sanity. It was perfect timing in so many ways. I was getting a little tired of being on Rachel duty all day every day, since Jacob was forbidden from lifting anything over 20 pounds (ie. Rachel), and doesn't have the dexterity to bend down to her level much. So the extent of his involvement was only allowed to be basically reading books to her and anything that involved him being able to stay sitting on the couch. Which left bedtime, meals, housework, etc. all to me. I don't know how single parents do it. I definitely need a break every once in a while, even if it's just once or twice a week where I don't have to do the whole bedtime routine. My parents are great about helping out, and it's nice to have them so close, but I try not to take advantage of their generosity too much (especially since they had Rachel almost the whole time Jake was in the hospital). So it was really nice to have my in-laws come help out with her for a few days.

Janet and Rod picked the perfect days to come: with my new calling I had 4 meetings in 3 days and they were here to put Rachel to bed, and take care of her while I was gone (since Jake isn't allowed to do that). The also allowed me to spend more money than I otherwise would have--I got to go shopping without Rachel to cut my shopping trips short. I got groceries, clothes, and more. It was really nice to have a little alone time out and about.

While they were here Rachel had a ball with them. Unfortunately I was a total slacker with the camera, and the only picture we have from the whole time they were here is of Rachel coloring with Grandma:
It was great to have them here and helping out so much. We're glad you got to come visit! Thanks for everything!

And for a Jacob update: he's not needing pain meds at all these days and is getting around more easily. He'll probably be heading back to work sometime next week. Which may just save his sanity--I think he's getting pretty bored just sitting around at home.

New calling

A couple of weeks ago the Bishop randomly stopped me in the hall to introduce me to someone. I thought it was probably just someone in our ward, since I don't know half the women with the changes a few weeks ago. We talked for a minute or two, then I went to Sunday School. And thought, "Hmmm. That's a little wierd that the Bishop would introduce me to some random person in the ward." A couple of days later I started thinking maybe it was someone from the stake, maybe trying to put names with faces about girls camp possibilities. I got a call to meet with a member of the stake presidency a couple days later and thought it must be about camp.

Unfortunately, the day of my appointment, Jake decided to go spend hours on end in the ER, so I called and rescheduled, then called and rescheduled again when he was still in the hospital a few days later. I went to church on Sunday and SURPRISE, the Stake Young Women presidency was released, and a new one called minus the 2nd counselor. Which made me think maybe that would be my calling. After Jake got home from the hospital President Kemp came to our home and my suspicions were confirmed. So now I am in Stake Young Womens. I kind of think it's a good thing I had that it was put off for a week so I was a little prepared when the calling was extended for what it might be, and not in complete shock.

I'm just a month short of having served in my ward YW calling for 2 years and it has been so great. I'm going to miss the great people I've gotten to work with, both leaders and young women:
Luckily, I'm not completely cut off from them. :) I still get to hang out with them and work with them as part of my new calling. Just not as much.

So this first week has been quite the whirlwind: ward conference in my home ward, another ward's New Beginnings to attend, getting set apart with the other presidency members, a presidency meeting, and a camp meeting. And another meeting on Sunday. Whew! Meetings, meetings, meetings. We have a few things coming up in the next 2 months (ward conferences, youth conference, the YW broadcast, stake auxilary training, and camp planning), so it's kind of like drinking from a firehose trying to get a grasp on everything that's going on. But I'm sure in a few weeks it will feel less overwhelming.

I am really looking forward to this new calling. I am especially excited to meet people throughout the stake. In our last stake I had been in 9 different wards in the stake at various times, so I knew members in every ward. Since we moved into this stake I've missed that a little bit, so this will be a fun chance to meet lots of great people. Yay for new challenges. I'm just glad I have the Lord's help, otherwise this would feel a lot more overwhelming. :)