Sweet note from the Curry's

I recieved a sweet note from our landlords aka adopted grandparents. I thought it was so sweet I wanted to share it. Bill is an artist this is one of his pictures. They used to own a gallery but shortly after thier only daughter died of a brain hemmorrhage and left her 2 kids and husband behind, then Nita worked at the gallery to keep that off her mind, well one day she wasn't thier and her worker was. a guy came in with a gun and shot the worker. After that she had a breakdown and shut it down. He is very talented. So this little background of them is to help explain the note. She has surgery last week and she really has no kids to take care of her. She has a son here in town, but he isn't to swell at helping. he tries, but his wife is a bit controlling so he is not much help. Nita is concerned she will have no one to take care of her. so when she got home from surgery I bropught her a bouquet and dinner. i did not expect anything in return and this what I got in the mail. This card with a note!

One of the highlights of our summer is planting and caring for a Owen really loves it and gets excited to watch it grow. He loves to water it!


Owen had just found a worm and turned to tell us with excitement!

Austin found the fallen Grapes and loved them!! Then he figured out that there were lots more on the bush!

Yes, he is not only a trashboy and grap-eater, but also a tornado that makes a big mess and keeps moving on to th next thing to destroy!
Nates new fathers day tent in our living room. We had popcorn and watched a movie. Then had a slumber party! We had to test it out to see if we liked it!! :)







Their new pool!
Austin wasn't a big fan, but Owen and Dakota LoVeD it!!

Nate teaching my sister and I to shoot his big guns while she washere to visit!

My sister and I both decided we are not meant to shoot these and that they are scary!! Believe it or not the little one kicks much harder than the big one. And Notice Nate's smile. He is laughing at how stupid we look and how horribnle we are at shooting!!

Does that not look like a bad tough guy!!
Santa rosa state park swimming pool/Lake.

Dumpster diving

So we now have a dumpster diving baby. Austin loves to get in the garbage and dig out stuff, sometimes to play with others to eat. Somedays he pulls out some hidden treasures! Today he found some yogurt still in the cup, you can guess what he did with it. Sometimes he pulls out old broken toys that I was trying to sneak throw away, or annoying toys. Sometimes it is left over candy. Well today his treasure didn't treat him well. He pulled out a can and sliced his finger on it. Poor Boy. I tried to out pressure on his finger to stop bleeding but it didn't want to. I tried to put a bandaid on as tightly as possible without cutting off circulation, but he pulled it off. oh, my little trashboy. He gets into everything, climbs on everything and learns everything the 1st time he sees it. You can imagine how that is with 2 older siblings who, to put it nicely, can be hooligans. I just got called to be in charge of the Christmas program for our Branch. That will be interesting and a new adventure. The movie theater here is for sale so we are trying to buy it for $60,000. We are trying to get a fat down payment on it and doing the math can have it paid off in 5 years. Nate's over time just got cut off so that puts a damper on plans, but we have prayed about it and have confirmation after confirmation that it is good for us to do. So we will see for sure if money works out or not. We know some may call us crazy and sometimes God's Plan looks crazy from the outside, but you still have to faith to follow and not be chicken. You never know until you try and the worst that happens is you fail and by darn get back up and try again. So we love to hear encouragement, but never discouragement. We get enough of that from the world and ourselves. We love you and can't wait to see you all in August!

ENCHILASAGNA

So a lady in our branch made this yummy, well it is called chicken lasagna but, I think it is a mix so I Call it enchilasagna. It takes a little bit of work to make, but the efforts are so worth it!!

ENCHILASAGNA

8 TBS Butter
8 TBS Flour
4 C milk
1 TBS + 1 tsp Garlic salt, divided
3 tsp parsley flakes, divided
salt, pepper, and red flakesor powder to taste
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast cut into cubes
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles, not drained
3 TBS dry onion flakes
2 TBS fresh garlic minced (I used 1 TBS garlic powder)
1 tsp onion powder
12-15 lasagna noodles (your preference)
Grated Swiss cheese
Grated Monterey jac Cheese(these are the flavor key)


Preheat Oven to 350. In a 5 qt. saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add flour blending well. Slowly add milk stirring constantly untill all is added and mixtureis smooth. add 1Tbs garlic salt, 2 tsp. parsley flakes, salt and pepper and red pepper to taste. Simmer the sauce over low heat, stirring occasionally, while cooking chicken as follows.

Put 1 TBS water in a large skillet and add to pan the chicken (I used Tofu), chiles, onion flakes, garlic, onion powder, 1 tsp parsley flakes, 1 tsp. garlic salt. Cook over medium heat until chicken is white throughout, stirring occasionally, Add cooked chicken to pan of sauce and cook over very low heat for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile cook lasagna noodles according to package directions; drain well

Mix together 4 cups of cheese in a bowl.

Coat bottom of lasagna pan with a little sauce so lasagna doesn'tstick to pan. Add a layer of 3 lasagna noodles to pan and top with about 1/8 of cheese, then 1/4 of the sauce, then another layer of cheese. Continue layering until all ingredients areused, ending with sauce, then cheese.

Cover pan then bake for 1 hour(I did 375 for 40 minutes). uncover pan and let sit for 15 minutes before cutting portions and serving.

This is so good and the tofu Is good for you and tastes really good in this if you wanted to adventure out and try it. If not chicken is great!!!! It is so worth the work. Out kids love it and Nate loves it!! I also doubled the recipe and made one in a disposable pan and froze it!

Tongue Twisted

So today I was telling Owen and his friends how to crack the coconut on the trampoline. I started to say, " You count to 3 and then y..." my tongue twisted as I tried to make an effort to think of the right word and the only word I could get out was "Ya'll." The language is getting to me. OH NO!!! Just for your interest, some other phrases or words they use here are, yes ma'am, no ma'am, Yes sir no sir and so on. Also, Instead of saying I am going to do this really quick or get this quickly, they say I am going to do this right quick. The first person i heard say it was mt neighbor, I thought it was just a funny phrase she used, then I heard most everyone use it as time went on. Some words they use are not so favorable. I don't here swearing too often, but I always here people take the Lords name in vain. that is hard to hear! I will keep updating you on the different language that is used here. One thing I really liked is how all of the kids say yes ma'am and sir and the adults too. It was hard to here at first just cause I felt old and that their normal short yes or no was prolonged. I am lazy when It comes to speech. If I can shorten I will!! lol

TUUUCCCUUUMMCCCAAARRRIII!

Well we are good here. We are adjusting to Nate's weird work schedule. He gets this Thursday and friday off. I am excited. We thought about going to the zoo in Amarillo. Or they have a quarter-horse museum. We don't know yet. Or just relax and do nothing. Maybe polay a little Mario Kart!! Nate seems to like his job and the people he is meeting. I am making him be social. 3 nights a week me and some ladies go walking. Carolyn and Suzy. THey are really nice. Suzy is a few years younger than my parents and Carolyn is older. All our neighbors are older with grown kids and grandkids. We do have one neighbor, suzy, whose youngest is 7 and oldest 15. Owen and Daniel, 7 year old, play together alot! They have fun. This neighborhood we are in is one of the nicest in town. We don't typically have to worry about cars speeding by or cars at all for that matter. It is not a busy area. And it is old people, they drive slow! lol Today we went to our neighbors softball game. Her name is Tori, she is Suzy's daughter who is 10. Dakota loves her and follows her around and Tori is really good to take care of her. Tori comes over and helps me sometimes. She cleaned my Kitchen the other day. :) The 15 year old, Eliano, loves Austin and Austin loves him. He helps me out alot too. All of Suzy's kids say "yes ma'am" and "No ma'am". They are good kids, but it took me some getting used to to hear ma'am. Now Owen and Dakota are saying it. The people here are really nice. Suzy has lived here her whole life so she has an in and introduces me to everyone. She is awesome. Did I mention her husband is a Leuitenant? So nate works with him. He loves Archery and hunting!! Nate and him seem to get along well. Carolyn is really sweet and very easy to talk to. She is one of those friendly loves everyone type. She never says bad things about people. Everyone is really good to help me with the kids. Now if I can find another mom my age I could say my circle of friends could be complete. Although I can never have too many, but the ones I have are great! My neighbor had a baby Tarantula in her yard and I called the exterminator cuz I wasn't going to have those roaming around!! I haven't seen any since. We have an area for a garden. We have bought seeds and now have to plant. We have grape vines in the backyard and from what I understand they are, DELICIOUS!! The kids seem to like it here. Owen misses his friends in Rio Rancho and UTAH, but has one here that helps. Dakota is talking alot. Some of her favorite phrases are: "Austin crying" Austin awake" "Do it self" Mommy go get diaper. Lol she cracks me up and is so strong-minded. She is so big and independent. She is a nurturer, a lover and definately a girl! Austin is walking all over the place while holding onto furniture. He is like a storm and he will be clean for days then one day he hits and destroys everything along his way and is on to the next thing before you can finish cleaning up the first. He is getting 4 or 5 teeth all out once. they are just starting to poke througha little bit.. I still can not officially say he has his 1st tooth. He is talking a few words and will try to imitate yuo. It is soooo cute. Owen is telling all sorts of tales. He even tried spreading rumors about me and they spread fast here. He told our neighbor today that I went to the doctor and that I had a baby in my belly. Ummm.. NO it is NOT true! Today he told me as we watched the many birds we get in our back yard that, " He saw a big daddy bird the other day and the baby and mommy too." Me: Oh yeah. that is cool. O: THe baby was looking for his mommy and daddy. Me: oh. where were they> O: He found his mommy but not his daddy. Me: oh. really? Where was his daddy. O: Work Me: hmm. What do birds do for work? O: they bite people. Me: Oh that hurts. THat is sad. O: No, they bite bad people. Me: ooohh! Then a few minutes later after watching the birds some more he came back and said, "they eat worms for work too." I thought this was a very interesting observation of his considering our situation. We just moved to a new place and Nate has started a new job where he fights bad people. Just thought it was interesting. Well that is all for tonight. I am tired! Peace Out

Duty Station

Hey you all, Has any one heard of Tucumcari New Mexico? I hadn't either until now. I will soon be living there with my little family. It is along the Interstate 40 near the Texas boarder, about 3hrs away from Rio Rancho. It's a small town of about 5,900+ people. There is a lake near the city and lots of ranches. Maybe I will buy me a couple horses, cows, and maybe even some ducks. Owen wants a duck and a rabbit. That is one good thing about small towns. You can have that kind of stuff. There is a small branch out their. Not sure if they have a church or what, but at least there is a branch. Not even sure if they have a Wal-mart or if we have to travel for an hour to go shopping, that will be interesting. :) I think we will head out that way in a couple weeks to check out the town and try to find a place to live. Cost of living is cheap there. So that will be nice. I am a little nervous but excited. Hey if any one does come to visit, we can atleast go to the lake :()
Dad Hall, sorry the more I try to make some money the further away from Nephi I get. Thank you for all your support. That goes for everyone. Thank you so much for your support. I don't ever call or write, but I hope you all know your greatly appreciated. Thank you for sacrificing so much so my family could come with me to New Mexico, and so they could come up and visit you all. That was awesome. Sorry I couldn't make it. I wish I could have come with them. We are tring to come back in August. Thank you again for all your help, and support.

Read the 2nd post first.

I forgot to tell you how the lady who helped me off the plane commented how I was a brave mom. I told her I was just crazy. She smiled and said, "maybe a little bit of both." That made me feel good that somebody noticed my efforts. I would do it all again! dakota on the way down to the ground aka landing. puked with all of the turbulence, but not bad an was mostly liquid adn I caught half of it in the puke bag. Because we were not supposed to get up while landing, I pushed the attendant button to get a towel or something afraid that we would be rushed off the plane before I could clean her up. The attendant, seeming annoyed, got right up to my face and said, "Is this an emergency?" I said "no, but she puked everywhere." she then nicely said, "Oh." and walked away to get towels. I guess you are not supposed to push that button while landing unless it is an emergency. Oh well. It has been atleast 8 years since I had been on a plane. Excuse me for not knowing. lol :)

LOOOONG TIIIME!

Thier first flight!! YEA! It felt good to let Owen have his wish come true. He akways said he wanted to go on a plane and Train. In december he got to go on the rail runner and now a plane. I always told him "someday you can," And someday came alot sooner than I thought!

Dakota's new hair cut. It needed something and this was perfect!

"Do as I'm doing, follow, follow me..."

Keagan and vanessa, Owen and dakota made me in vanessa's words, "prettier than yourself." lol If this is prettier, Man! i must be some piece of art!

Kid size playhouse at the Gateway Discover.

The mounds of snow that NM doesn't get!

My little caretaker. It came in her blood.

I know it has been a long time since I last posted. But I try. We just came back from visiting Utah and the kids got to fly on a plane for the first time. Owen really loved it and we were right by the left wing, so we got to see all of it's action. The hardest part was rounding up all of the kids and trying to get them to keep up with me so we made the flight on time, but we had time to spare. We flew on southwest. It was pretty good, but I was a little dissappointed at it's employees. I thought they would be a little more helpful and friendly! Oh well I guess that is what you get for $70 tickets. :) But we did manage to have good people around us who were willing to help and not get paid for it. I didn't know when we went through security I would have to strip coats and shoes off of the kids and myself. So I was in a hurry and started to do it despite how exhausted I already was (and sweaty) from carrying Austin, the carry on bags and trying to round up dakota the whole way. she kind of gets off into wonderland. A kind lady behind us must have noticed and started to help me with the kids shoes adn coats. Bless her! Once we got onto the fligth the kids were great and they thought their lap trays were great. Dakota was certain it was a foot rest! lol :) We sat down got settled in and put our seatbelts on. I explained to Owen and Dakota what was going to happen and that it might feel bumpy. He enjoyed the ride and kept asking if we were in the sky as the plane was trying to get on the runway. He thought it was cool to be in the clouds. Dakota thought she was pretty special to get a drink and pretzels and put them on her tray. Owen also enjoyed choosing what juice he wanted. Austin seemed to not be disturbed by it all. He wnet about his busy self and me trying to entertain him. People seemed to watch me, I porbably would too. It wasn't long after we ate our snack and drinks that they said "Welcome to Albuquerque." It definateley did not seem like an hour and a half. It was quick! It felt quicker than sacrament, but was the same. Maybe it was just more entertaining so time flew by. :) As the plane landed I grabbed our bags and tried to squezze the kids and I through the small small small isle to the front exit. One lad was kind of standing in her seat ans a bit in the small isle waiting for the next stop and my wide load came through. i warned ahead of time to excuse me and my whide load, very nicely. She didn't seem to think that it mattered. So as I tried to carefully walk past one of the bags bumped her and she said something with an annoyed tone. I didn't hear her, I chose to ignore her rudeness. I think she may have been one of those people who look at the mom in the store with the crying child in absolute disgust. Oh well! I was trying! But to make up for her I was trying to rush the kids off the plane and out of the hallway thing as fast as little feet would distractedly walk! The attendants seemed annoyed and rushed, so one sweet elderly woman took dakota's hand and sweetly hurried her along with me until we got to the bag claim. Their are always those people in the world who are willing to be A Good Samaritan! Thank Goodness. My prayers for help were answered throught those amazing helpers who are willing to listen to the good spirit and help their fellow sisters and brothers!! Nate was originally supposed to pick us up from the airport but a few days before they told him he wasn't going to get those days off any more. So I called 3 or 4 people before our amazing R.S. President here in the ward said she would come pick us up. She carried most of the bags at bag clain and took Owen and dakota to the car and buckled them and came to pick me up on the curb along with Austin who fell asleep the minute I put him in his car seat. He was so exhausted! The kids not long after. We have the most amazing R.S. Pres. I have ever known. I hope God blesses her as big as He can!! She deserves it!! We also have good neighbors who watched the house for us and checked the mail while we were gone! AMAZING!! thanks to my wonderful hubby I had a clean house to come home to. WOW! I am so blessed with good family, kids, friends and leaders who are willing to help at the drop of a hat. Utah was fun. we stayed in Nephi for a week and then Cedar city for a week which is where we moved from. Through out those weeks I spent good time with my sisters, Grandma Cari, Grandma and Grandpa Hall, Jen, Stacie, Jake, Caleb, Alyssa, Grandma and Grandpa Searle, Angelica, Elena and Amaya, Mick, Matt and the kids that they entail. lol I am to Lazy to type it all. All in all we had a great time doing the many things we did with the many people we saw, such as Gateway Discover, Jump on it( a place with a lot alot alot of trampolines to jump on), Shopping in St. george at the mall and buying me New Clothes! The kids went 4-wheeling with grandpa and saw the horses and got to ride. I got to visit the Velveeta Twins, who are the most amazing 84 year olds I know! We also went swimming at the New rec center in Cedar city, The kids loved this and are like fish! Dakota especially! I got to play swim tag with Jaden and Gabe. We also got to hang out with Julien, Maze Layla and Ethan at their house. And Angelica and I made bread while the kids played. It was fun filled and I hope I didn't miss anything. Oh yeah the amazing College videos that my sisters made of them doing dumb abd obnoxiously hilarious things and gags and cooking shows and commercials. lol ;) And experience the gravity forces of Alien Hills and the children who pushed us. lol Or the the witches force, I haven't really ever got out of the car and asked how we were being pushed up the hill with the car in neutral and turned off. To chicken to find out. lol good times Playing Tetris on the Wii with Suzy and her hubby. Good Friendsm family and always good times! Thank you all! We love you! And thank you for your support through these times of testing and strength building! Thank you!!!!