Diapers and babies

Nursery. It seems to be the newbie calling in so many wards. Eric kept saying that I would get it (I kept hoping I wouldn't!) and I did. Today was my first day in the nursery at church and really, it wasn't so bad. There were eleven kids and three of us teachers. We only had maybe 3-4 of them cry, two messy diapers, and one eaten crayon.

Nursery leader was my very first calling outside of Young Womens and for the 8-ish years since then I have tried to block that short period from my memory. I was the only nursery leader in there, had absolutely no experience with kids, and was terrified to death. My mom had to come to my rescue more than once. It was probably the most stressful calling I've had! But I think it will be much better this time. The other two girls working in the nursery are incredibly nice which is good. The kids are adorable and, though maybe this week was just a fluke, really well-behaved. And in what other calling do you get snack time?

We found our camera!

The reason we have had so few pictures posted lately is due to the simple fact that we couldn't find our camera. Anywhere. We tore our apartment apart looking for it, knowing that the last time we had seen it was at home. I had resigned myself to the fact that it must have slipped its way into one of the many packed boxes in our closet. Then, after almost two weeks, it decided to show up again! And where was it? In Eric's school bag. Which of course, we must have checked along with everything else a dozen times. I went to get something else out of his bag, reached in, and pulled out the camera. Quite a pleasant surprise.

So, here are some pictures! Yay!









The Church has a really awesome visitors center here in San Diego for the Mormon Battalion. Its only a 5 minute bike ride from our house so we stopped by earlier this week. And we got this cute picture!





Eric really can't get enough of shell hunting. He's gone three times this last week. I don't know how we are ever going to get him to want to go to class!

Settled In

Ever feel like the moon is getting mixed up and pulling you back and forth instead of the tides? Yeah, me too. This has been quite the past few weeks of settling into San Diego. First, let me say that we love it here. So far, the weather here has made me wonder whether Kiersten and I are mistakenly in Camelot (which Kiersten and I happened to watch this past week). The weather has been amazing! Never going above 80 and never going below 60. And every single every day sunny!

In the midst of this heavenly beauty, though, our car decided to have trouble, ending in a mechanic quote of at least $1500 to fix it (the timing chain). That was a slap in the face. For the first few days, Kiersten and I spent every waking minute looking for a possible replacement. However, with the budget we had (not a lot) and the condition of the cars that we were seeing, we were not happy. You know it's not good when you get out of the car you just test drove, step back into your own car that needs a $1500 repair job, and feel like you have stepped into heaven.

So, what did we do? Having seeing the options, Kiersten and I decided it might just be worth it to invest in repairing the car, especially since we had little hope that the replacement options would last any longer than our current car. The sun rose early Labor Day morning, and we were grabbing the keys to head over to a mechanic recommended by a new friend in our ward, when a quick phone call told us that the mechanic was closed on Labor Day.

That was music to my ears. Kiersten doesn't get many days off of her internship (her Christmas break doesn't start until December 27), and the thought of spending her day off at a car shop was not a happy thought. So, we packed ourselves some sandwiches, spotted a section of the beach we'd been wanting to visit, and biked nine miles (we didn't dare drive the car) to the beach. I must admit, I am in love with San Diego beaches, and our recent find of Bird Rock has made my beach visits paradise. If anyone loves tide pools and shell searching, then this is the place to be. On our way back home, we stopped by the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center (I was in desperate need of a break before the big hill). If you come visit us in San Diego, we'll have to take a swing by there for a wonderful experience. The day was then topped off with hot dogs grilled on a George Foreman, watermelon and chips and dip. A much better day than expected!

Tuesday, however, was not to be spent at the beach. Slowly I drove to the mechanic shop some fifteen minutes away. The mechanic was just as friendly as my friend had said, and he estimated the repairs at only $980, but somehow I didn't feel any less at ease. The repairs were expected to last all day, so I walked to the bus stop for what ended up being a two hour ride home. And there I waited for news on the car. You can imagine my excitement, then, when Joe (the mechanic) called and said there was good news. The timing chain was fine, and all that was causing the problem was a bad guide. Suddenly the $980 estimate became $360. And to think that we almost replaced the car!

Sadly, the car then decided to fail the smog check (good ol' California), so Wednesday morning I was back at the shop handing the keys off to Joe. This time, instead of riding the bus all the way home, I decided to only go halfway home and spent the morning and afternoon at Bird Rock scavenging for shells. The only replacement needed on the car was a vacuum tube, the car passed the smog check, and I could hardly conceal my smile as I said bye to Joe hoping that I would never see him again.

And now, life is back to normal. We have a car, it works, and maybe now we can finally go and get that trash can for the kitchen. Life is good. Very good. And did I mention that San Diego is heaven?

In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In San Diego-lot.

Another missionary in the family

My little sister Lilly has been eagerly awaiting her mission call and this past week it came! She opened it yesterday with all of the family there except for us and Ruthie and her family. We wish we could have been there too- we are only 2 hours away now, for goodness sake, it should have been possible. Darn car trouble- but that is another story. So we just got to listen over the phone as she opened the letter.

So where is she going!?!

Missouri Independence Mission! She is super excited. And we are excited for her too. It looks like she might get the chance to work at some of the visitors centers at the different LDS church sites in her mission, which would be really fun. She leaves November 3. Only two short months away!

It's crazy to think that my baby sister is going on a mission. In my eyes she is still just that- my baby sister. But I know she will be an amazing missionary. She has been looking forward to this for I don't know how long. I love you Lilly, you will do great!