Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies

Now that we were living at Grandma's house, it became the hot spot and the 'meeting place' for almost every family event. I remember as a little kid, Grandpa would let us get up on the roof to watch the fireworks. Mom was always sooo nervous. There wasn't much (Girls night out) around for miles then, and we could catch a glimpse of some fireworks downtown and maybe from the air force base a few miles away. It was by chance that all my family made their plans to come over to our house that night. I called up a couple of my girlfriends, Shauna and Teresa, and invited them over for our BBQ. What were my chances of my two hot friends not already having plans for the 4th! They came over and we ended up having a huge water fight with the kids! Everyone was soaked to the bone! (Me, Shauna, and Teresa) We all ran out to my house where I found dry clothes and then back to mom's for some bbq chicken, bbq corn on the cob, baked potatoes and root beer floats! Then we got up on the roof with all the little ones and this time it was Cynthia's turn to be sooo nervous. "Sit down! Quit moving! Samuel, where are you going! You kids are driving me crazy! Please don't fall off the roof!" was all she could say. We put glow in the dark necklaces on everyone so we could see where all the kids were and if one was sliding down the shingles... no, no one fell off the roof :) Like Cynthia who turned out to be just (AE Twins! ~Hot Scott) like her mother, Sonya was not far behind being like her mother Cynthia. Sonya was nervous about climbing down the ladder so we had one person under her, one next to her, and one at the top. We helped her along by saying, “You’re doing great! You could be a firefighter! You’re almost there. Good job!” She climbed down the ladder with ease. Next, it was Cynthia’s turn. When she got that distressed look on her face and grabbed John a little tighter, we couldn’t resist once we realized how nervous she was too by saying, “You’re doing great! You could be a firefighter! You’re almost there. Good job!” This time the view was spectacular! We could see Anthem, Surprise, Peoria, Glendale and even the downtown fireworks. What a show! What a finale! What a night! Two of my best friends and my family on a night of celebration for this great country and the best dang bbq ever! What more could I ask for?
Well, I suppose I could ask for a job. The bank account was growing thin and I knew I needed to find something soon. After much fasting and prayer and discussing different options with my family, I felt the strong desire and need to go back to school. I wanted to go full time during the day so I started looking for part time work that would work with my (Me and George/BYU~UofA Football game) schedule. Restaurants, grocery stores, retail... they all wanted me to work on Sunday. I just couldn't do it. I decided to become a mobile notary because it was something I could do in my spare time and it paid really well. Then by chance I heard that University of Phoenix paid 100% of your schooling for their full-time employees. I applied and was hired by July17! But, only as part-time. So no free schooling yet. But I LOVE my job and the people I work with and my boss and it's only 20 minutes from my house and it's only 4 days a week and in the evenings so (Shauna and I were cheering for BYU) I could still go to school during the day at community college and still be a notary during the day. Yay! It was all falling together! I was enjoying this schedule a bit too much. Get off work at ten, go out with friends and play till 2 or 3 in the morning and then sleep till noon. I was soon wasting my days.
Cynthia called me and said that at the girl's school they needed lunch assistants for the kindergarten class that would just be for an hour every day. I was a shoe-in and it gave me an excuse to get up at a decent time to start my day.
But the best part about working at their school was that I got to see my niece Sonya everyday. I live for those little hugs from her in the cafeteria among all the noise and spilled milk and grapes being tossed across the room. She's my little angel. (Sonya~ age 7) She has the most beautiful singing voice. I think she takes after me. These kids have gotten me out of bed for more occasions than I can think of. We all took shifts on Saturday mornings going to Veronica's track meets and soccer games while Sonya also played soccer and Samuel and David played on the same T-ball team. One morning I picked Sonya up from Samuel's game to take her to her soccer game so that Cynthia could stay with Samuel. We reached the park and were walking across the street. I held her hand in my right hand as we crossed. I realized I needed something from the car so we went back. As we again crossed the street to the park, Sonya was now holding my left hand. She squeezed my hand tight, looked up to me and said, "First this hand was covered in love, and now this hand is covered in love." Where does she come up with this stuff!? I told her that she just melts my heart and then exclaimed, as she ran onto the soccer field, "Kick their trash!" And I think she did kick another little girl in the shins that day. :)
Disclamer~ (Some of my details may be a bit sketchy, but I will do my best to remember what I can) I was at institute class one afternoon and heard a story about a boy who took the initiative of preparing himself for his mission. Through reading his patriartical blessing, he learned that he was to serve in a foreign country where he would speak another language he did not already know. He was already pretty fluent in Spanish from the courses he took in high school. He wasn't sure where he would go but he wanted to sign up for the Russian language, but the classes were already full. He could have just taken a Spanish class and earned an easy A but he decided to see what else was available. He ended up taking a Mandarin speaking class. He received his mission call and found out he was going to Madrid, Spain! His parents thought he was joking because this was the same mission his older brother had just returned home from. So off he went to Spain. Within the first few months of his mission, he was called into his mission president's office where he learned that he was being sent to another area where he would help setup and organize a branch for a group of Mandarin speaking people. I taught tons of Chinese people when I served over in England, but in Spain? It just goes to show that the Lord knows where we are needed and will give us the tools we need to accomplish those things he has asked us to do, but we need to do our part in learning how we can become better instruments in His hands. Instead of waiting for our call and assuming we'll 'learn it all in the MTC', what can we do now to make those (Sister Missionaries Rock!) blessings become realized. (Melanie~on the right, one of my best friends and Desiree~now Hermana Reader. I love these two girls!) One part of my blessing says that little children will come to me with love because I loved them and they shall rise up and call me blessed. I was out on the playground one afternoon with my kindergarten class and one after another my kids kept coming up to me and giving me hugs. The other lunch assistant observed, "You're really good with kids, they all seem to like you so much." To me it was just normal the way I always acted towards them. But my heart was touched later that week when I reread the words in my blessing and understood that it was a part of my blessing being realized. I love those kids so much. On any given day my stats are; opening 32 milks, tying 18 little shoes, giving out two stickers, writing 1 nurses pass, putting two kids on the wall, giving 24 high fives, blowing my whistle 3 times, giving 35 amazing hugs and feeling my heart double every time I walk off that playground.
My parents are known for doing spur of the moment things like deciding on getting take out instead of fixing dinner that night, or going out for ice cream after a movie instead of coming back home. Ha ha ha, so imagine my surprise when John pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to go to California with him and Mom for the weekend. Just like that? No planning for months in advance? I thought for sure John was dying or they were planning on telling me I was getting kicked out or something. I decided to play along. They figured we hadn’t had a family vacation yet that year and school would be starting soon and this was the last weekend available. So around 11 o’clock Thursday night just after I got off work, Mom and John, Gordon and Jeanette, Jared and Connie and I all loaded up and we were off to the Golden State! We drove all night and got there just in time the next morning to arrive at the gates of Disneyland! We were so loopy from playing road trip games and making fun of each other in the car the whole way there. But we fit right in because wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we walked in the gates there were my two favorite (Jared and Connie) characters, Mickey Mouse and Goofy! I felt like a kid again! And it was a great chance for us to all be together and have that little time to bond. Just like the games we made up along the way in the car, we made up another game while standing in the hour long lines called, “We hate all the people in the park with speed passes!” Word to the wise, it’s so worth paying the extra little bit to get a speed pass. Trust me. So the next day we were off to Universal Studios! I had never been there before so this was all new to me. John turned out to be the (Jeanette and Mickey) biggest kid of us all! If there was something we wanted, he got if for us. If there was something we wanted to do or somewhere to go, he made it happen. Our feet were sore, our tummies were stuffed, our wallets were empty and our cameras were full.

But this wasn’t the end of my adventure… A few of my girlfriends were meeting up in LA for my friend’s birthday. I found that I’m spoiled just enough that my family drove me to meet up with them on their way back home to Phoenix. So I stayed an extra day down in San Clemente were we walked up the boardwalk, did a little window shopping and topped off (I swear I'm kissing Matt Damon!) our trip with some Baskin Robbins before heading back home. What a crazy weekend!