Only 1 more left

Ryan received another secondary application today. We have only 1 school left to ask for our precious money. We'll see if any of them are kind enough to schedule an interview once they review his applications.

And another

We have now heard back from 3 of the 5 schools that Ryan applied to. They are all requesting his application fee and/or secondary application. Hooray!

And another

AADSAS just mailed out the paper copies of his application on Monday. I guess the schools received them mid-week. BECAUSE...WE GOT ANOTHER SECONDARY APPLICATION TODAY!!!!!! Ok, I'm excited, nervous, scared, sick to my stomach... But, the anticipation will be over soon, hopefully. Just a few more months of this...

Halloween and other stuff

After seeing every one's Halloween posts, I decided that I need to explain our family's holiday tradition. When we discovered Ethan's allergies, he was still little (9mos). That year Halloween wasn't an issue, since he was only 15 mos old. We took him to a few houses, I held the bag, and Mom and Dad ate the candy; he didn't get any. The next year, he was just over 2yrs. I didn't feel comfortable letting him trick-or-treat, knowing that people would be putting his allergens in a bag that he was holding. We decided from that year on, that the kids would not trick-or-treat anymore--none of them. We did not want E feeling left out and did not want to compromise his safety.

We decided to make it a big deal to pass out "safe" candy to other trick-or-treaters. I think we have the scariest house in the neighborhood and it's not that scary. We don't have anything that is gory/sick/wrong (You know what I am talking about, you've seen the Halloween isle.) We always do the webs/spiders, scary music, fog machine.... Last year Ryan made a coffin out of scrap wood to put in our "tree hole" in our front yard (we tried for 2 years to dig the stump/roots out and finally finished this past year). We dress up as vampires (although E prefers to be a ghost) and pass out a TON of candy. Each kid that comes gets a huge handful of nut-free, egg-free, peanut-free candy. I think I bought 5 huge bags this year and they were all gone by the end of the night. It always takes a long time to find safe candy, since EVERYTHING has nuts/peanuts/eggs in it. This year we had smarties, tootsie mix, dum dums (actually made in a dedicated nut/egg/peanut-free facility), mini tootsies, a Wonka mix-can't remember the name. Out of all the candy on the Halloween isle, those were the only ones we found that were safe for E. Others like skittles/starburst are free of the major allergens, but he is allergic to the juice in them.

I think we only had about 5 kids crying when they came to our door b/c they were so scared. A few stood on our driveway, not wanting to knock until their parents finally walked to the door with them. One kid asked me, "Why is your house so scary?" It's not like we are trying to make it scary for the little ones, we just want to make sure our kids get a fill of all the Halloween festivities in just a few hours of passing out candy.

After it was all over, Jayke told me, "Mom, I don't like Halloween anymore." He thought it was too scary. The funny thing was: he wanted to decorate for Halloween since October started and I wouldn't let him until 2 weeks before. Even then, the outside decorations don't go up until an hour before the kids come knocking. Anyway, I think it was a success on our part, as parents, to introduce some "opposition in all things" to our kids. Without knowing how scary evil things are, how are our kids going to be able to make a choice to choose good? Just imagine if our kids actually saw something that WAS the typical sick/twisted Halloween stuff!

Another subject altogether...For those of you in AZ, I really loved the stake conference we had today. We have been really strapped for cash lately, so Ryan went to a VW swapmeet to earn some more money, so that means that I had all 3 kids to manage by myself for the 2 hours. It really wasn't bad. We got there 30 minutes early, so we could actually get a seat. We prefer to stay in the chapel, near the front, b/c most people with kids sit in the back and feed their kids--not something we want to be near with E. Most of the chapel was reserved, but as I was walking through the isle, I saw the stake president and asked him if everything in there was reserved. He said no and pointed to an empty row, right in center front. Hooray! We were surrounded by a bunch of elderly couples and had openness in front of us. I gave the kids the run-down on what they were and were not allowed to do and told them to sit. They were absolutely perfect until about 1 1/4 hours into it when they started to get fidgety. Yeah, I was sore too! The kids stood up and silently stretched their bodies for a few minutes and sat back down. Kate started crying in her tiny "feel sorry for me, please" whimper. She was crying, "miss daddy, miss daddy, miss daddy". I have to say that it was so cute. Yeah, I let her sit on my lap and I rocked her after that, what else could a mom do when her child loves the parent who is not there? After the meeting, all of the older couples reached over and told me what well behaved kids I had (I'm sure they were groaning inside when they saw a mom with her 3 young kids and no dad sit down right in front of them.) I found out that the one directly behind us was our stake patriarch. I'm so glad that my kids are so well behaved!

Anyway, just a few notes on some of the things I wrote down during conference. They are not direct quotes, but the best I could do. They at least convey the message that was given.
*Are we just active or are we truly consecrated? I like this b/c most of us are always drawing the line at active/inactive. Who’s to say that just b/c we come to all of our meetings that we are actually living the way God wants us to live? Just b/c we do the actions does not mean that our heart is in the right place.
*(Talking about the 3 temples to be dedicated) Don't just dedicate a building, dedicate our lives to be fully consecrated. Just b/c a temple is coming closer to us, does not mean that we are ok now. We need to work even harder to make sure that we live our lives in a way that puts God first, not our own desires.
*Fill up, go on, and pray again. Yes, God blesses us, occasionally we are in tune enough to notice it. When he blesses us, we should fill ourselves up spiritually/emotionally and then keep going onto the next challenge where we will once again pray for His blessings.
*It's not enough to carry our scriptures in our hands, we need to get the doctrines down into our hearts. This just reminds me of the scripture in Samuel where it states that the Lord looks not on outer appearances, but on the heart. People around us may see us carrying our scriptures around and think we are spiritual people, but unless we actually open the scriptures and put the doctrines into our hearts, those 5 pounds we're carrying in that scripture case will just make your arm a little stronger and not help you at all as a person.
*When the people in the scriptures were righteous, they prospered. When they rejected the prophets and their counsel, they were in bondage. This one struck me a little differently today. I always said righteousness=prosperity, wickedness=destruction. It was not said that way today. It was specifically said if they rejected the prophets and their counsel, they were in bondage! No, they are not destroyed, but they were no longer in control of their lives. Isn't it funny how the scriptures are right and this cycle repeats itself throughout history!
*(speaking of the election and the marriage proposition) It is not a political issue, it is a moral issue....It would ruin our society...It's not about tolerance (as others would tell us)...If you want to follow the brethren, go the the polls and vote in a way to protect marriage.
*"Something doesn't feel right...I couldn't see anything wrong with it..." Just b/c WE don't know what will happen, doesn't mean that God doesn't know what will happen. He has given us the Holy Ghost to warn us of situations that we need to be wary of. Listen to those feelings.
*(about the state of the economy/world right now) Learn how to receive revelation...We should live in faith without fear. Make sure your young ones do not live in fear. I loved this one b/c we were told that we SHOULD NOT FEAR. I know we have all heard it before, but it really hit this time. There is NO reason to fear if we put our faith in God and are ready to receive revelation when it comes. God will not forget us, EVER! And, just b/c there is turmoil all around us, does not mean that we have to succumb to it, too. Let our children have hope in their future and look forward to those amazing events that will take place during their lifetime.
*(Ending) We will do those things that we have been taught and prepare for the difficulties that will come.

Other thoughts: I just loved that all the situations happening in our world today were discussed in the meeting. They truly are inspired of God. God knows what is coming and He is trying to help us prepare for it. He doesn't want us to be afraid of what is around the corner. It's coming, whether the world wants it to or not. Jesus will come again, whether it is tomorrow or a hundred years from now. We need to be especially vigilant in preparing ourselves and our families for when that day comes.

Was it worth it?

We just finished a time-of-use pilot program with SRP last night. They only offered it to the 1st 15,000 customers with the new "instant read" meters. Basically, all the new meters they are installing are digital and can be downloaded to SRP at any time. No more meter readers walking through your yard to check your monthly usage...Maybe that's a good thing with the AZ heat in the summer. Anyway, I called and asked about it in March and they said they would forward my name to the department working on that project. I never heard anything, so I figured I was too late. The last day of April I get a phone call from SRP if I was still interested in the program and I told her yes. She gave me the details of the program: May, June, Sept, and Oct from 3-6pm weekdays would be 27.5 cents a KWH. July and Aug during the same hours, it would be 32.5 cents a KWH. All other hours, including weekends and major holidays would be 6.3 cents a KWH. The rest of the year is just on the basic plan, so no different pricing and no peak hours to worry about. I thought, OK, only 15 hours a week to worry about for 6 months, it shouldn't be too hard. And in the back of my mind I am thinking that the off peak price seems less than the winter rate. The basic winter rate is 8.3 cents for the first 400 KWH and 6.39 cents after that, so my off peak summer prices ARE lower than the regular winter rate. After she finished telling me the details she says, OK, it starts tomorrow-we'll get you switched over. I had less than 24 hours to prepare my house for complete shutdown for 3 hours...Thankfully the previous owners had already purchased a water heater timer and all I had to do was set the times on it. We changed the thermostat on our AC to turn down to 75 at 1:30pm to pre-cool the house and at 3:00 it went up to 85 then back down to 79 at 6pm. Let me tell you, it was MISERABLE some days. And with Ethan's allergies, we can't just pick up and go play somewhere without serious planning. At 3pm, I would faithfully go through the house everyday and unplug everything except the major kitchen appliances and turn off all the lights. We kept a ceiling fan on in the rooms we were in, but all the other ones were turned off. We waited until 6pm to cook dinner, so it was usually 7-8pm before the kids ate. That was hard on them many nights, especially b/c I have to make everything from scratch and can't just go buy a freezer meal from the store. Some days I was prepared enough to do all the prep work in the morning and just heat it up at dinner time. That didn't happen very often, though. It was a long, hard 6 months, but we saved a lot of money by doing it. We are also more aware of the electricity that we use and the kids are always telling ME, Mom lets turn off that light and use the sunlight so we don't have to pay so much money for it. Yes, my kids do say that! Anyway, this is what we saved each month: May $40, June $57.90, July $88.44, August $87.64, September $61.00, October $37.98, for a total of $372.96 over the 6 months. That's a ton of money and the savings helped us a lot. Normally our peak summer bills run almost $300, but this year with our decrease/awareness in usage and the cheaper prices, we never hit $170. That was nice! If we are still here next summer, we will definitely do it again. Although, I think I might figure out how to cook with a solar oven for next year...Anyone have design plans for a good one or know where I could get a quality low-cost one?