I'm a LITTLE Giddy

Today is a Ukelele type day, am I right? I feel so great after conference. I especially loved the talk Sunday morning by our prophet about change and loving before change gives us loss/enjoying the journey type stuff. I haven't watched general conference online since like 1999--and even then the feed wasn't very good. Luckily, back when we couldn't just go watch it at church because church was in our living room, we had a satellite radio (no, not XM radio--it just got the tv signal from satellites like they have for tv stations--besides conference, we also would listen to "Walker, Texas Ranger" shows when it was really dull and we had no tv--you'd hear a lot of fabric rustling when they were fighting--come to think of it, that may be why I thought this post was so funny--and yes, I know I blogged it before). I was worried we would have to zoom down to the church building or something if conference wouldn't come in. Nope. We had a high-quality veiwing experience. Well, I guess being in the mission field isn't as rough as it used to be--makes me feel kinda old. . . pardon me while I go calculate my age now.

Comfy Couch

We updated our plaid couch. (We bought it from the lady that used to live in our house--it is really nice and clean, but not very, um, well it's better now.) I love that Robert sews stuff. I had him make these pillow covers. (the blue fabric is perfect! We found it at Wal-Mart for 1$ a yard. I might make valances out of it too.
) We'll add butons or something later to the blue ones, and maybe some round pillows, but for now I think this looks great. Over Labor day weekend we are going to try to replace the floor. I'm so excited. Everything is coming together. All we need to do now is finalize where we want to put up pictures, build some bookshelves, and find some more seating. Uhhh. . . there's probably lots more I'll think of doing, though, so we will probably never really finish ;P

Celebrate Erie

They closed off a few blocks downtown over the weekend for this giant city party. (Seriously, it was HUGE. And by nightfall the whole place was so packed we had a hard time getting out of there.) "The Foreigner" played (don't ask me, my favorite musical group was probably "Barney and Friends" the same time this band was popular, but a lot of people seemed excited about them). It was a lot of fun (and apparently we missed all the good stuff like the children's museum games because we got there so late, and the fireworks because they were on Sunday). They had a chalk walk all down one block. The pictures were pretty neat--there are some really good artists here. Next year we'll have to do more there.

Little Italy, Erie

In honor of our Italian sister, we went to Erie's Little Italy for their Italian festival and Procession of the Virgin. We didn't stay long, but it was neat to see the people there. There was a casino in the church basement and a raffle that included a party pack with hard liquors. A little different than the church functions we're used to.

Painting!

Of course Joanna wanted to help us paint. She did a pretty good job. We probably should have moved that pillow before she started, though. Oh well, nothing happened to it. We painted most of the house beige, but there's also some blue and green.

Grandpa the Electrician

During inspection, our electrical box was considered unsafe. So, Grandpa Gardner took a day to replace it. He did a great job. As far as I can tell, he didn't get a single shock from the experience. We were certainly grateful. He saved us a ton of money.

We've got a lot of work to do

The Elder's Quorum came over and helped us get everything out of the trailer. Now where to put it all! It's all a little overwhelming. At least we have someone to do the yardwork for us. (Actually, she won't let us touch the mower when she sees us using it--it's Nana's).

We finally made it. After a grueling 4 day drive (literally eating and sleeping on the road) we arrived in Erie, PA. The kids had seen better days, but they did pretty well on the drive. We were lucky to have Grandpa Gardner accompany us and keep them entertained.