The Call Came!!!

I (April) drove home on Friday to open my mission call! I have been called to serve in the California San Jose, Spanish speaking mission! I am very excited, but also kind of nervous! I report to the MTC on January 12, 2011. It just feels completely right and I already have a testimony that it is where I am supposed to go. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to serve the Lord and teach people this Gospel. It is the TRUTH! I don't know what I did to deserve to be born into it, but I am thankful every day that I was. I only hope that I can do it justice and bring it to the people that are being prepared to hear it...and not mess up! :) I feel so incredibly blessed to have my supportive family behind me with every step I take. They let me make this decision on my own but are so excited for me and the choice I made to go. I am going to miss them SO much but I know this sacrifice will be worth it. I cannot wait to forget about myself and all my selfishness for 18 whole months! I am so excited to dive into the Gospel and learn so much more about this thing that I love and is such a big part of who I am. I am thrilled with the idea that I might be the tool used to bring it to someone else and then they can be as happy as I am! I am a bit intimidated by CALIFORNIA and SPANISH, but I know I can do it with the help I am going to have. I have already had so much help and encouragement and little tender mercies that have helped me get this far when the adversary tried to convince me that I can't do this or that I am not smart enough, spiritual enough, or strong enough to handle a mission. But I am with help! Anyway, I am rambling, but thank you for letting me get my thoughts out! Thanks so much for all your support! :)

Adios!-haha
April

What I've been up to...

Well...since nobody else posts, I figured I might as well update you to what has been going on at BYU lately...

MOAB!

This past weekend, our ward had a campout in Moab. We left on Friday afternoon and got back on Saturday night. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! It was hot, and I got burnt/tanned!

This is Delicate Arch, the one on Utah's lisence plates and every post card in the state. It was so amazing and the view was fantastic! Steph and I got up on Saturday morning and ran a few miles and then we trail ran up to and back down from a few of the arches. It felt great, although we were a bit sore the next day!

There was this cool slope with really soft dirt, so we ran down it and jumped and tried several times to get a good picture...this is the best we could do. Lindsay, Steph and me.

Me, by our beautiful campsite.


Campsite!

Dairy Farm!

For my early childhood education class, we were discussing the differences between a theme, project, and unit. Then, we had to plan a unit and a project investigation. For our project, my group and I decided to do MILK: From Cow to Carton! We planned the ideas, lessons, fieldtrips, etc. Then, we had to do one of our activites. So, we woke up early and went and toured a dairy farm about a half hour away from Provo. This Diary farm supplies welfare square and the bishop's storehouses! It was SO much fun!

All the cows walked into the milking barn single file, get hooked up and milked - 3 times a day! Each cow produces about 10 gallons of milk every day. With 4,500 cows - this dairy is busy!

The calves were so cute! When we arrived, one was being born. We got to get out of the truck and watch it, but it was coming out wrong so the guy had to hook up a metal chain and a pulley system to get the calf out. He finally got it out, but it was stillborn. While the guy was helping the cow give birth and trying to get the calf out, my friend (from California) asked our (gorgeous, but married) tour guide if it hurts the cow. I couldn't believe she actually asked that, but he responded hilariously. He said, "no, she really likes it, it actually feels really good to her." She asked, "really?" We all yelled, NO! and then laughed really hard. It was so funny.

Festival of Colors

Every year, there is an Indian Hindu festival of colors, and we have always wanted to go. We were determined to make it this year. It is at this temple thing they have and we throw colored chalk on eachother. We got covered, as you can see. We decided to leave before the big throwing-of-chalk - I guess you couldn't even breathe. We had fun, although we don't really care to go back again. Oh, and Steph's hair got dyed pink from the chalk - we had to have her friend open her salon and scrub it with a bleach solution for 20 minutes!

Thanks for letting me share! Hope everyone is doing great!

Pudding/Food Fight!

Some girls that we are really good friends with in the ward decided to throw a pudding fight last night. I had been working on homework really hard all day, so I got talked into joining, and I am glad I did! This is my very first food fight! Besides pudding, we used yogurt, oats and flour.

This is the before picture of the girls! Kristi, Mandy (my new roommate), Laura, Me, Lindsay, and Bonnie

This is our "fierce" photo.
All of us!

This is the girl's after shot.

All of us, after the fight was over. One of the boys snuck ketchup into the fight...and targeted me with it, I think I had at least 1/2 a bottle squeezed onto my head. I shampood a few times last night, so I think I smell okay now!

WooHoo for food fights! We are probably going to do it again sometime. :)

Hope everyone is doing well!

BYU!

At the end of last year, I realized I had hardly taken any pictures, so I am trying to do better this year!

This is from our ward Halloween Party! We had a contest- everyone got a little pumpkin and all the apartments tried to steal each other's pumpkins. The FHE group with the most pumpkins got this basket for a movie and pizza party. My FHE brothers are kind of borderline cheaters, so we won! I successfully stole two -without cheating! They were so proud of me.

This is Steph, Kristi, and Me in our costumes. You probably recognize mine, I wore it last year. Maybe one year I will make a new one! Steph's is awesome though, she is the house from the movie "Up!"

The other night, a few of us went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. We did the corn maze and a bunch of other stuff, it was a lot of fun! This is Robby, Steph, Me and Jacob. Kristie was there too, but she was taking this picture.


This is from a while ago, when Melissa, Ryan and Celeste came down and we went to Lagoon. I guess we like to take pictures in these head hole things. This is Steph, me and Audrey! We had a lot of fun! Thanks Dad and Melissa for winning tickets!


Hope everyone is doing well! Happy Halloween!

Lately...

Hello everyone! Since there hasn't been a new post in a while...I figured I would give you an update!



Steph and I got to fire the cannon at the game! We get shirts next time that say "I fired George Q!" (George Q is the cannon's name)

Steph and I went to True Blue Football. There are big slip and slides with blue foam shooting down them...it was fun!

We did a freshman year roommate reunion, although Megan couldn't come, it was a lot of fun!

This is the six of us from freshman year, reinacting our favorite pic from that year! It was Kristie's birthday party! We had a huge party and our whole ward showed up! (At least all the guys :)) Hope everyone is doing well! BYE!

WE'RE FINALLY UP AND RUNNING!

Did you all give up on us blogging? Life has been crazy. After a big ribbon cutting ceremony with the governor and an all day open house on May 29th, we opened for business on June 1, 2009. We have received several truckloads of furnishings and had some wonderful help from friends and members of the student branch in unpacking and putting everything in the right room. Things are running more smoothly each day. This is our 4/5 age room. The kids have named it the "castle room" because of the big loft. You can see that each room has a carpeted area and a "wet and messy" area with easy-to-clean floors. We also put bulletin boards in each room to display the children's creations. Most of the classrooms also have a "sand and water sensory table" to put different things in

for the children to play with. There is also a painting easel and a handwashing sink on each of the wet areas of the rooms. This shows some of the "tummy time" activities that we have in the baby room. Each infant will have its own crib and developmentally appropriate activities to do. We are trying to avoid swings, vibrating bouncers, etc. in order for the babies to have more time being held and interacted with. We have four rocking chairs and lots of fun books and sensory toys and activities. We didn't put any carpet in the infant room so it would be easier to sanitize it. We use mats under the activities to make a soft playing surface.

This shows our wonderful "blowout sink" in the infant room. It got used for the first time today when our first set of twins (10 months old) had diaper blowouts at the exact same time. Weird huh? (We are getting another set of 7 month old twins on July 1st) They both fell asleep at the same time and then woke up 15 minutes later crying. They had both had very messy bowel movements. The little girl loved her "bath" in our super sink. There is baby bath soap in the soap dispenser at this sink.

This pic shows the "mobile" side of our infant room. We keep the mobile infants separate from the nonmobile ones. Notice the low "cruising" type of shelves which encourage the babies to get up and walk around the furnishings. My granddaughter, Celeste, loves this room.

Here is a sample of the "dramatic play house" that we have in each room except the infant room. We invested in some Community Playthings furniture which is Amish made and very durable. It is quite expensive but usually worth the extra money.

This is part of our toddler "potty training" bathroom. It has three child size toilets and some very low sinks that the children can use without help.

Our "super room" is one of the favorites in the building. On all of these rainy days, it has been good to let the children come in and run around and ride our indoor ride-on toys. The school-age children love to come in and play dodge ball. The basketball hoop came in today but is not yet installed. I'm sure it will also be a hit.
This is one of our two custodial closets. This one also has our washer and dryer and two of the three water heaters. The big 100 gallon water heater is to service our kitchen. Then we have two Rennai water heaters which service the classrooms and are set at 120 degrees and will never allow the water to get hot enough to scald a child.
We also have two of these wonderful storage rooms which will allow us to rotate toys and equipment. I wish I had one of these in my home.

We have had about 30 children each day since we opened. We are signing up new kids each day. Dee will be glad when it fills up so he won't have to worry about paying all of the bills. People have been very complimentary and are "spreading the word". I fear that we are being cursed by some other childcare centers and child care homes for "stealing" their clients though. I really think there are plenty of children to go around though. We are just going to be the best that we can be and I'm sure the business will take care of itself. We have some excellent employees and are very pleased with their work and dedication. Thanks for reading and for all of your encouraging words.

Baby Elsie's Blessing and Building Progress

So sorry that I am so slow about blogging. There are not enough hours in a day right now. Elsie was blessed on the last Sunday of March and we all went over to their place for dinner afterward. Kara designed and made this beautiful dress (with a little help from me because she was afraid it wasn't going to get finished on Saturday) Elsie is growing so fast and cooing and "telling stories" a lot! Kara and Drew seem to love being parents.

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. We will try to go over and take some more pictures today because it has changed a lot already. It is supposed to be done by the end of May. This is the "Super Room" which is a small scale gym with a protective wall covering on the lower 4 feet to protect the walls from balls and ride-on toys. It will allow the children to exercise their large muscles when the weather isn't conducive for outdoor play.

This is one corner of the commercial kitchen. I will take more pictures of the appliances which are in now.
Here is a sample of the baby diaper stackers. We will purchase changing tables to go under them. They all require a hand washing sink right next to them.

This is part of our "potty-training" toddler bathroom. A couple of the sinks are low enough that we won't need step stools. The toilets are also in now. There are three mini toilets and a couple of regular size ones.