The passing of Tiny

Five years ago at a ward Harvest Festival, one of the carnival games prizes was goldfish. Between that harvest festival and one at the school, we ended up with 8 fish. So we bought a tank, rock, food, etc.. and we finally had pets. (Mardi had waited so long.) They began dying almost immediately. But several lived for a good long time. Tiny outlived them all and has been living alone for probably two years or so now. (He's the one at the top of this picture.) He began to act weird a couple of days ago and Mardi was very emotional. Yesturday he died and last night Joel conducted a burial in the bathroom with Mardi, Keddi and Shinara looking on. Shinara began to bawl. She had told me several times over the last two days that she prayed for Tiny. After the second time of telling me I decided we needed to talk about death. (An emotional time in which we had to pull out pictures of my grandma who died a couple of years ago.) Well, she was inconsolable as she looked at Tiny in the toilet. I asked what was the matter and she said "I don't want Tiny to be gross!" We pointed out that Tiny was the only thing in the toilet at the time and that fish like the water and needed to be flushed. After a few minutes the sobs subsided and with tears, she and Keddi flushed tiny. (Mardi decided to leave before the deed was done. Shinara's outburst caused her to be very emotional again.) Mardi unplugged the tank and will need to get it cleaned out since we won't be replacing the fish.

Last night (after the funeral) we got a call from Joel's sister Lindsay. They had a pretty good earthquake (they live south of San Fransisco) yesturday and phone lines were down. They are fine and from what she told us, the boys thought it was quite fun as the house shook. I imagine there will be lessons about earthquakes and earthquake safety in the near future at their house! We are glad y'all are alright!!!

SUSHI

Several weeks ago we convinced some friends to go to a new sushi place we frequent because we love the sushi rolls. We had talked about it with them before and Scott was excited but Jen wasn't. She said "Oh now, I don't know. I'm southern...food should be cooked!" She was a good sport though and she tried what we gave her. But a piece of our favorite roll went in her mouth and came right back out again. It had raw salmon on top and she just couldn't do it. But there were others that she tried and actually liked. (The cooked ones.) Anyway, I tell you this to preface the following picture. I didn't get a picture of Jen but this captures both Jen's and Shinara's feelings about sushi rolls!

The older girls like sushi rolls and Joel has been wanting to take them. I fed the little girls pasta before we went so that if they didn't like it, they wouldn't be hungry. It looks like we will need to wait a few years and try again, but, like Jen, the little girls were great sports and tried everything that we asked them to.

Primary Program

Thank heaven it's over! I'm going to vent for just a moment. I was called as 1st counselor in the primary presidency in March. The president put me over music, nursery, sunbeams and writing the primary program. Here's the problem. Since February of this year we have been without a chorister. For most of the year we have been without a pianist. A fabulous lady in our ward offered to sub as the chorister until one got called. That was 5 months ago. Then last month, our third or fourth pianist for the year up and moved. Sis. Martin (the permanent sub) plays the piano. So, she moved to playing and I found myself leading the music every week trying to prepare the children for the program. The children didn't know the songs that well because of the lack of having an actual chorister that the children identified with as the chorister. It makes a huge difference to children when they can identify who the teacher is. They listen and learn better. To add to that, we only had 20-25 children participate. (We have a way too small primary!)

The children pulled off a fabulous program. Unfortunately because the microphone is "testy" alot of the talks and parts were lost on a lot of people, but the spirit was strong. There are a few little girls that sing their little hearts out and two of them belong to me. Keddi and her friend Sage always sing at the top of their lungs, which might normally be a bit irreverent, but if they didn't, no one would know what the children were singing about!! But yesturday, they were a bit subdued and it was Shinara that would sing out the words she knew best. And from what I understand, she added some dancing and bench climbing too. I use alot of hand signals to remind the children of the words and she acted many of them out right along with me. What are ya gonna do? Yes I was standing out in front of them but did not see most of Shinara's performance because I had to concentrate on leading and bringing in certain parts....

Anyway, I'm exhausted and glad to have it over. But I still have no chorister, and now they want the children to do a program in the ward christmas party. I'm going to turn them down for a song in sacrament if I don't get someone called soon though! I now have two pianists, who already have callings, and Sis. Martin is one of them. I guess I will still have to lead the music . Oy!

School Harvest Festival

Why Supergirl?
Ya got me! While looking at costumes in Party City, Shinara spotted super girl...for $30.
NO WAY!
I explained that it was just too much money and my sweet girl, (like her sisters who have heard that before) said "o.k. Mama" and hung her head, just slightly, in rejection. I went home and scanned the internet in search of a supergirl that wasn't quite so much. To no avail.
Meanwhile... Mardi was able to choose Pochahontas for a school project which they have to dress up for. She decided that's what she would be for Halloween too. So I went to Wal-Mart and looked in everyone of their costumes isles, from front to back, for an indian costume. With only five rows left, I came across a Supergirl costume that was size 4-6. She had decided she could be superman or batman?!?!? if need be and here lay the only Supergirl costume in the store....in her size. I almost put it back amongst the costumes where I'd found it. But as the youngest of four, she will have to "do with" alot of hand-me-downs. She doesn't ask for much and how often can you do something that brings utter joy to someone else? I called to her and showed her the costume. I was not dissappointed. Elation spread over her little face as I asked if she'd like to be Supergirl for Halloween. (It was still more than I like to spend but the others' costumes were not costing much this year as Tersa is wearing something she'd worn before and Keddi is also wearing something from my costume box.) Anyway, as you can see, she loves it!
The Harvest Festival at the elemenatry school took place Fri. night. Neither Tersa (Diva) or Mardi (puppy- same as last year) are dressed as they will be for halloween and Keddi didn't have her green face because I didn't realize we'd thrown away our face paint. (Wicked Witch of the West. Quite a change for her not to be something glittery and pretty!) The festival didn't have the variety of things to do this year which was a bit dissappointing, but both Shinara and Tersa won cakes (oh goody!) and the girls enjoyed themselves. We were there far longer than Joel cared to be but we like it when he comes with us.

In case you're wondering.

The site I got my last background from has had to quit. She was unwittingly using copy-written pages for the backgrounds that she had the right to use for her own blog but not to use in creating backgrounds and letting others use. Bummer.