tick..tock..

We’re pleased to finally announce that Jason and I are working with LDS Family Services to adopt.  So now we get to wait.  Tick..Tock..Tick..Tock!

We look forward to the day when we can announce that we’ve been chosen to love and care for a sweet little one.  So for your support we ask that you keep us in your prayers and keep your ears open if you hear of anything.  We know with all our support and love from our family and friends that we will be blessed with with the dream of becoming parents.

Lights, Camera, Action

15 days later we have lights!  Its been the most exciting two weeks we’ve had in a long time.  We began our whole hurricane Ike experience with some evacuated missionaries from Pasadena who came Thursday night Sept. 11th.

Friday: Played games and with the dog all day long.  Raja misses the Elders already… We were able to watch some church dvd’s, had a nice dinner and just waiting until the storm.  We all went to bed around 10, by 11pm the rain started and so did the wind.  The power went out around midnight on Friday.  Lots of branches, pine cones and needles kept hitting the window and Raja got a little nervous, so we put him in our bed.  That solved his worries!

Saturday: Woke up had cereal and waited the storm out.  Played more games, and with Raja.  The storm stopped around 12noon.  After that we all got in the car to view the damage.  Out side our house it didn’t look so bad, all of our small trees fell over and would be easy to put back up, then we turned around behind our house and the street looked completely different.  Look for yourself…

Our Home…

The rest of Saturday -Tuesday were service helping to get trees off of homes, moving furniture because of water damage, clearing roads, and buying generators!    We picked up a generator from my cousin on Sunday evening along with a little ac unit.

As the nights got hotter, we were blessed by a cold front that enabled us to keep our windows open at night.  One week after the the power went out, Jason and I made a quick decision to take a little vacation and drive to Chicago to visit his family.  So we loaded up took the dog and went the 1200 miles to Chicago.  We stayed 4 days and came back late Wednesday night to a dark neighborhood!  So we continued with the generator, filing it with gas, and turning it on and off several times a day.  Cooking on the grill made a world of a difference because it was so hot inside!

Then the most wonderful message on Saturday around 11am…my neighbor across the street called to tell me she sees my lights on my house!  I hurried and took my wet clothes out of my friends washer, and speed home.  I was so excited to see lights!  Then within 10 seconds of coming home, I had a load in the dryer, washer, the dishwasher, and the vacuuming going all at once.  ha  I’ve done the best “Hurricane Cleaning” ever!  My house has never been so clean!

So its over… the cleaning in the neighborhood and other cities will go on for several months, but our life seems to be getting back to normal.

I’m very grateful for the safety of my family, and our neighbors.  We were very lucky!!!  I love the helping hands that members of the church give, I love our neighbors for their constant help throughout this.   I love generators and ac units!  I am very grateful for the knowledge that I had with being prepared.  Our one advise to others is…Listen to the prophet “…if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” D&C 38:30

We’re Safe!

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts, I wanted to quickly tell everyone that we are ok!  The hurricane came through pretty hard in our neighborhood, but we were very spared and very lucky!  We have seen several homes with trees in their windows, through their roofs, and rooms flooded, we’re pretty lucky.  We had three trees that fell down and some flowers that were destroyed but other than that we have tons of pine cones and tree limbs and leaves in our back yard.  Raja loves playing with them…

As of now, we still do not have power and our water is bad, we did get a hold of a generator and a small ac unit for our bedroom, thanks to my cousin Stephanie, which have saved us.  Our water is bad, so we have to boil it in order to not get sick.  We only lost about $20 worth of freezer/fridge food, which is amazing.  We don’t anticipate having power for a good week, maybe more.  Sorry we haven’t called anyone, our cell phones barley work, and I’m writing this at a friends house where I was able to do some laundry, thanks Jeff & Daniel!

Other than that, we are doing fine, its pretty relaxing at night not having the Internet, TV, movies, oven, lights.  Its been like camping except I have my bed! haha  I’ll post later, when we get power (might be a while) and show you pictures of our neighborhood and our house.

Love to all!  Remind me later WHY DID WE MOVE TO HOUSTON?  jk  We still love it here!

IKE!

Well I thought I should let all our family and friends know our plans for this wonderful Hurricane coming our way.  We’re planning on staying.  The city has mentioned they would rather have those that can stay…to stay so that the roads wont be too bad for those that need to leave.   I feel a lot safer in my home with all our food and water than being stuck on the freeway without gas.  So we’ve done everything that our church leaders have advised us to do and then some.  (Almost all of our neighbors and ward members are staying, just so you don’t think that we’re in a ghost town, being the stupid couple who refused to leave!)  haha  We hope and pray that all those in the Hurricane’s path will be wise in their decisions and that we can have as few casualties as possible.

We’ll keep you all informed as much as we can.  I do anticipate us losing our power, I just don’t know how long, I’ll do my best to inform you all of what happens.  God bless, we love you…

PS.  You might have to remind me in a few days, why on earth did we move to Houston!

A Puppy’s Life

Raja got a new toy this weekend and he is so excited!  Have you heard of the ChuckIt?  Man it’s cool!  

These are the reasons every dog owner should own one:

1) Never touch a slobbery tennis ball again!

2) You don’t have to throw out your arm to play fetch with a dog.

3) Your dog definitely needs more exercise than he is currently getting.

4) Your dog will take a VERY long nap after a good ten throws.

5) It’s the best toy ever.

And for added effect, the Rubber Balls seem to be a lot better!

Sarah and Yi Luo’s Wedding

We had a great trip to Utah this weekend. We had the opportunity to see a baptism and a wedding. What a wonderful time to reflect on the covenants we make.

The Luo’s wedding reception was a treat. Not only did they have a traditional ring exchange, but also had a traditional Chinese ceremony. It was fun to learn about the Chinese traditions and to hear the love and joy Sarah’s and Yi’s family.

Daniel’s Baptism

We attended Daniel’s Baptism this weekend.  He was so excited on Saturday morning that he got dressed as soon as he woke up and stayed in his church clothes all day!  We were glad we could be there!

I’m ok…

I thought it about time that I posted to let you all know that I’m ok…  I feel pretty sore, and I can’t do much other than sitting on the couch and watching a movie or reading.  But I’m learning to accept that. I should be up and moving more in the next few days.  As for now, I’ll continue to read and watch movies, and sleep.  The drugs are no fun, but its the only thing that takes the pain away!

Jason has been awesome taking care of me, I feel bad how many dishes and cleaning up he’s done, but he hasn’t complained.  Raja is bored out of his little puppy head, he has slept by the sofa every day waiting for me to play fetch with him or tug-a-war I’m afraid that it will still be a little while before I’ll be doing that.

Thank you for all your prayers, for your calls and emails, and who have brought us meals.  They have saved us!  I love you all

Sorry I’m not attaching a picture of me, I’m really not attractive right now!

The Dog Necessities

As you well know, Raja is an adorable puppy.  That said, having a puppy brings with it many joys and challenges.  There are a few items that we have acquired that ease some of the stress of cohabitation with a four-footed friend.

Challenge #1: Containment

Our puppy likes to wander.  We consider him “an outside dog that comes inside,” but with the summer heat as it is, he is a full-fledged inside dog.  While we sleep or when we leave the house or when he needs a nap, we put him in his crate.  We were not sure how big he would get so we bought him the biggest cratewe could find.

As a side note, we bought the cage from Amazon because other stores charged a hefty price to ship a hefty crate.

Challenge #2: Shedding

Supposedly Labradoodles don’t shed… much.  Well Raja has been know to leave a hair or two around the house.  We heard about the Furminator and decided it was worth a try. Check out the video!  Let’s just say Raja is A LOT more comfortable in the summer.

Challenge #3: Clothes

No, we do not put clothes on our dog. However, we affectionately refer to his collar as his clothes. Raja is on his third collar now. He grew out of the first one and chewed through the second one (try to imagine that!). We finally got smart and found the perfect collar.

Challenge #4: Curiosity

Being the deprived dog that he is, Raja has had an odd assortment of toys. Some of Raja’s favorites include an old dish towel, plastic pop bottles, and ice-cubes. He also has a small teddy bear, a squeaky animal (which we continually sew back together) and a kick ball we keep in the yard. Whenever Raja finds something he is not supposed to (and this happens more than we like to admit), we encourage him to play with one of his parent-approved toys.

Yet again…

Well I’m posting this for our few readers, who are our close friends and family.  I’m sad to say that yet again I have to go under the knife.  I’m having another laparoscopy done on August 6th!  So I’m asking you all to say a little prayer for me during that time so that I can hopefully recover a lot quicker than the last one I had a few years ago.  I love you all and appreciate all your support that you give us!  I’ll post when it happens and how it went.

PS. I thought it would be funny for them to add a zipper with all of my surgerys that I’ve had!!  This makes for #6 not counting my wisdom teeth being pulled!