2/21/11-2/27/11

Monday, February 21, 2011 to Thursday, February 24, 2011
Nothing too exciting to write about.  (Plus it was so long ago that I can't remember!!)
The girls helped to clean all of the shells that we found.  Any good ideas for craft project that involve shells??

Friday, February 25, 2011
Today was Carson Bottema's birthday and we (Whitneys, Bottemas, and Orellanas) all went swimming at the club.   There were 6 boys ages 9-13 so Morgan opted to stay home and do homework!!  I can't say that I blamed here...especially after sitting on the side of the pool listening to the crazy kids having a blast!  Alysa, Laina, and Isabella had fun though!

Taylor, Georgy, Cole

Sebastian, Isabella, Alysa, Laina

Taylor, Juan Fer, Carson

Saturday, February 26, 2011
Sully's daughter was celebrating her 15th birthday.  In the Latin culture, a girls 15th birthday is a big deal and is called a Quincenera.  Natali is also in my piano class so we went to the party.  I had to drag the entire family but we went!  Once we got there, the little girls had a blast playing on the trampoline (in their church clothes!)  Chris, Cole, and Morgan were absolutely miserable the entire time.  We got there 45 minutes late, waited for an hour and finally left to go to McDonalds to get the kids some food.  When we returned, Natali and Sully had arrived and the party began.  There was a big dinner which Sully had cooked.  There was also music, dancing, etc.  It was awkward as usual being in a different environment but I was glad to be able to go and support Sully's family.

Alysa and Laina in the tree house at the party.

Alysa and Laina in the little playhouse.

Sunday, February 27, 2011
In Relief Society, I was reading the lesson in the Ensign when all of a sudden the teacher said, "Hermana Whitney."  I looked up completely caught off guard.  She repeated a question to me very slowly and I understood the question and answered!  She had asked me what things I do with the kids in the house.  I answered that we do school, clean, and cook.  The people that she asked after me answered, "We have family home evening.", "We read scriptures.", "We say prayers."  Why didn't I think of all that???
After surviving that, I was called out of class to have a visiting teaching interview!  GEEZ!  They're killing me!  I was assigned some new sisters and some of the same for a total of 5!  Luckily 3 of them are in the same family!

Since I hadn't stuck out enough already today, I decided to go to a stake women's choir practice.  I have no idea what it is for but I went anyway.  The stake music coordinator remembered me and even called me out by name to see what part I sing.  (To be honest, I really don't sing!!)  I was doing pretty good until they decided to combine two songs together with each part singing something different!  I didn't quite get the instructions so I did a lot of lip syncing while watching the person next to me to see what I was supposed to be doing!!  On top of that, I couldn't pronounce a bunch of the words in the song and some beats had 2 words combined into one and there was no music to read, etc!  I need to decide if I am going to go again next week!!  (:

When I got home, Dave, Spencer, and Tom came for dinner.  They had just gotten in to Xela for a week of work.  Dave brought a bag with 30+ books that I had ordered!!  He said that at one point there were 20 packages sitting in his bedroom for us!  The books all came from different used book stores from around the country so they were getting multiple packages each day!   Cole should have plenty of reading material to last him for a little while!