On December first I had a Belly dance recital. I was in two completely different pieces.   

First was the Oriental. This piece is a mix of belly, and ballet. Belly dance was influenced by the Russians When they took over Afghanistan. They added ballet elements. 

The next piece is called a taqsim. It is an emotional piece. You don't follow counts you follow the musical lines. There is also floor work but I didn't get pictures of that.

                                      

So much fun!!!! 

This year for Thanksgiving we were invited to spend it with a Maori/ Samoan family in our Stake. This was how we cooked 2 pork butts, 2 chickens, potatoes and some squash. Some of the Rupp family got up early and started a bonfire in the ground. Our family got there around 9 am and helped them put it in the ground. 

At noonish we went back to the Rupp's home and unburied our food. That lump is our food.

Unearthing, note the steam coming out of the ground.

The Unearthing. Those are wet burlap sacks thrown over the food.

YUMMY!! Everything is still covered with wet cloth but it's out and it's done!! Time to eat!!!

 Three months with no posts! Lets start with Halloween for this catch up session.

Kyle was a red neck. Well a more obvious one anyways!

Batman and a Skeleton were so scary.

My alter ego.

We were on our way to our ward Halloween trunk or treat. What you don't see is that my contacts were driving me crazy. Kyle had to run home while we were there to get my glasses. I guess I was the crying witch this year. 

The other night I had a dream that turned out to be a premonition. I dreamed that one of my children had been seriously injured and I couldn't get to the hospital because I didn't have a car.

Now, due to the fact Kyle got a new, better paying job, he now has to take the car. I don't mind because I usually don't go anywhere. We also own a small trailer that we used to haul our stuff from Ga to Id and from Nampa to Middleton. That trailer is now in our garage. The boys have been told MULTIPLE times not to climb on it. BUT, you guessed it, they didn't listen.

Today at approximately 3 pm MST, I stand up to go tell the boys to come in and wash their hands so they could have their 3 o'clock snack. At the same moment a blood curdling scream emanates from the garage and Gavin opens the garage door to tell me that Andrew had fallen off the trailer. So I run into the garage, AFTER yelling at Gavin for playing on the trailer. Andrew is flat on his back just screaming and crying. I crouch down and ask him if he can sit up. He does so then I pick him up and ask the neighbor kid what happened. The boy tells me that Andrew took a header of the highest part of the trailer (go figure). When I asked Andrew where it hurt he told me his whole head and neck. Warning bells!!!! So I get a hold of Kyle and he says that I should find a ride to the nearest urgent care clinic. I call my Relief Society president because of her proximity to my home ( completely forgetting my next door neighbors were LDS(DOH)). Luckily she had a sister with her that could drive me to urgent care. Sweet Sister Post drove me to a clinic here in Middleton. The nurse there (who also happened to be LDS) assured me that Sis. Post wouldn't mind driving me to the ER after the Dr. at the clinic said to take him there. Sister Post drove me the 10 minutes to the ER AND waited until Kyle got  there. By that time Andrew was complaining that his head, neck and stomach hurt. I'm thinking CONCUSSION! The logical side of me is thinking "he's going to be fine" the mother side of me is thinking "I didn't call the ambulance. He could die right here. What's wrong with me? How could I let this happen? Etc, etc." When we saw the NP she did all the testing right there and POOF all his symptoms went away. He was happy giggly Andrew. I was still nervous wreck mother. Kyle was Kyle. As we were waiting to check out when to our surprise a gentleman from our ward walked in. He was the Chaplin for the church in that ER! So we took advantage of him stopping in to say hi and gave Andrew a blessing. So now we are all home after stopping for pizza for dinner due to the lack of dinner prepared, though sister Kondi gave us some Mexican chicken for Carnitas we decided to just stop for pizza. When we did stop for the pizza when who should walk in but Sister Green (that would be Emma for you Middleton 6ers) The support of this ward has been amazing. So long story short Andrew doesn't even have a bump on his head from falling 4 feet onto a concrete floor on his head. I guess he is taking after his uncle Joel and cousin Eli as the dare devil in our house. Oh how I wish I had a girl to sit and just have a tea party with...this excitement is going to kill me!!

With some gentle prodding from my father in Indonesia, I am writing on my blog today. There have been a few happenings since the last entry. Gavin has started Kindergarten. He's going half day AM and is absorbing his classes with the enthusiasm of a 6 year old. He picks up on things very quickly. Well at least with school work that is. Soccer on the other hand, he has decided he is not a soccer player. So I guess my dad was right. We'll try baseball in the spring. I guess its not in my genes to be a soccer mom either. I get so bored at the games. I don't understand the game (though there isn't much to understand with youth 6 soccer). As my family can attest I don't like running. So the idea of running from one end of a field to another just to kick a silly ball into a net seems like a waste of time to me. Baseball I get. Hockey I get. Even Football is within my grasp to under stand. But basketball and soccer and the likes, no. 

Speaking of exercise, I finished my second semester of Belly dance learning some of the Oriental moves. We had a recital of sorts. With performances by every class and a few extras it was a fun night. The boys got to see mommy doing something she enjoys. I've lost weight and gained self esteem through this art form. Now I'm in my 3rd semester and I'm doing 2 classes. Drills which is just basically exercise class using belly dance moves. Then I am taking a class called Taqsim. I am so excited to learn this form because it's mostly to do with the melody line and you don't follow the beat. That makes it difficult for some to learn because there are no counts. Your movements follow the instruments and melody so it's more interesting(in my opinion) than a choreographed piece.  

Kyle and I are enjoying our new ward. They have pulled us in with our callings. My visiting teachers have enveloped me in joy and laughter. Our home teacher is diligent and kind. We have neighbors who are wonderful and the boys are making friends. We've gotten in contact with our work colleagues and went to a seminar last night. We are so excited to be part of a real team now! Our up line is helpful and guiding us onto the right path to make our lives more enjoyable. 

So this past weekend we went camping with our new ward. The Middleton 6th ward. Our campsite was in a place called Garden Valley and was just north of a "resort" called Silver Creek Plunge. This is some photos of the camp out.

 From the top of the mountain we had to go over/around. This was taken at 5021 feet above sea level. I would have taken a picture looking down, but it made me nervous. 

 This mountain stream ran right by our campsite. It was FREEZING!! All that mountain snow and ice melt. Brrrrr!

 The boys got to have their first banana boats on this trip. They asked for it for breakfast the next morning too!

The view from the top of yet another mountain. Kyle and I have decided that we are in love with northern Idaho and are going to build a house here and live forever. 

 My handsome boys.

We had tons of fun. We stayed from Thursday to Saturday afternoon. We took our new pitty to the party too. At last count we had 106 ward members and 8 dogs at the camp out. Moose was so well behaved. The boys were dirty from Thursday afternoon til Saturday evening. We love to go camping!!

Almost done!! Because of Kyle's work schedule we have been moving the last few items in our house at a very...very...slow pace. I still don't have couches, and the boys don't have their bunk bed. And my cedar chest is sitting all alone in my old apartment. So I've been spending my days unpacking boxes and rearranging boxes and throwing things away. It's been said before but I say it again...how do you accumulate so much crap??? **Sigh**...I do have some photo's of our house. They just aren't uploaded on the computer yet. When they are I will post some here and on Facebook.