Beautiful 8 Year Old

2 Years Old

Shearing the Alpacas

Yesterday our neighbors shaved their alpacas. Kind of a neighborhood event. It was so much fun to sit and watch them. We learned a lot about them and the whole process. Very interesting. 1)Yes that green slime is spit. They will spit if they are nervous and some of them are very vocal as well. It's the weirdest sound in the world. Isaac got a little too close to one and actually got slimed too. He'll learn. 2) These two had quite the process. The one would literally wrestle the animals down and strap their legs down to a couple pullies and place a large bean bag on their necks to hold them down. The other guy would use big clippers to shave the fleece off the alpacas, the much easier job!! It really didn't take long once they got going. They also got their booster shots while they were down which they have to get annually, as well as toenails and teeth trimmed. 3)This two toned guy gets the best price for his fleece, and they told us his yarn is always the first to go. 4) Bonnie was a little concerned with the whole process and didn't like the "crying" sound some of them made. She's actually standing by the lone llama in the group, Casper, who is so friendly and just loves people. He likes to come up and say hi. 5) These are some that are still waiting to be shaved, so the before picture. 6) The after shot, although different animals. They remind me of the little lamb in the short Pixar film "Boundin" with the Jackalope. Kind of pathetic & funny looking I think. 7) This is Khora, our neighbor, and Jacob who is standing next to the bags of fleece. They bag the fleece by grade. The stuff that comes off the belly and back is graded differently than the stuff from the legs & neck. The kids liked to collect the "scraps" and came home with 4 ziplock bags of alpaca fleece remnants, which is incredibly soft, much less coarse than wool and also hypoallergenic. Other little tidbits we learned: You can raise 4 alpacas for what it would take to raise one horse. When the economy was good one alpaca was sold for $64,000. They own around 12 animals. They said they will make about $3,000 from all they get this year. We are planning a field trip this summer, where they show how they process the fleece to make it into yarn.

Vocal Recital

Afton had her end of the year recital last Monday night. Grandma Sorensen came with us as well as Grandma Rundell and one of Afton's best friends. She sang a Hannah Montana song, "Who Said" and she did a fabulous job! We love to watch her perform. She has really enjoyed her music class and has become quite the little star!!

Afton and her beautiful music teacher Jessica. She is so wonderful. She has brought out the very best part of Afton. She just loves her teacher. She is just so beautiful and has an amazing voice. Afton loves it when she yodels for them. Afton has really enjoyed her music class and has become quite the little star because of all the opportunities it has given her to sing in front of an audience!! Her teacher tells me how she just has a natural performing ability, good pitch, and a beautiful mezzo soprano voice.

She has a natural performing ability and Jessica has been able to get her to really break through and it's been great. This has been a great class for Afton to take and improve herself.

Spring Break

I just wanted to get on here and wish Dennis a Happy Birthday today! We have been spending the past couple days in Cedar City with him, so the party plans are on hold until tomorrow I think. He has been attending an APA Conference. Afton burned a bag of microwave popcorn the first night so we've had that lovely smell in the room ever since. We were able to take a tour the theater the first night. We all learned a lot about play production including what a Vomitiarium room is. We saw lots and lots of cool looking hats and ties and props. We got our picture taken with Queen Elizabeth in her beautiful poofy dress. The kids really wanted to swim in the pool while we were here, but the weather wasn't really that warm for the pool. I humored them though and they stayed in until they were starting to turn blue and I had to drag them out. Travis and Ronna came with their family last night. It was great to see them as well. We played at the park for a while, ate, and went to the Frontier Homestead State Park for the APA ice cream party. Dennis even won a tickets to a couple Shakespearean Festival plays. Brain power!!! (I was thinking really hard for those . . . and it worked!!)

Running? Me?

OK I just have to post this on here because I am just so happy with myself. Today I ran 1 mile in 10:22. A couple months ago I decided I was gong to pick up running, and I struggled. Then, I found a beginning running college course that was posted online and decided to try it out. This week is week 6 in the program. I'm supposed to run 6 minutes then walk 1 minute, repeated 4 times. This program works up to running 20 minutes straight in 10 weeks. I usually run 3 or 4 days a week, so it might take me longer than that to reach 20 minutes, but I'm so excited. I really need to build more muscle though so I'm trying to talk Dennis into going to the gym with me on Tuesdays. Today I only slowed for 1 minute the whole mile!! Now for you runners I know that it really is not a super great time, but the last time I timed myself it was like 13min. And to show you how far I have actually come, when I started toying with the idea last summer I couldn't even run a block without stopping for breath. My knees gave me problems last year as well, so I kind of gave up the idea for a while and just did aerobics and strength training. Yeah that's how far my body has gone during these baby bearing years. I remember when I was 18, I was in a PE college class and I had to run a mile for like a mid-term test. It was like a slow 15-18 minute mile or something like that and I remember about dying!!! Never, ever been a runner in my entire life and had no desire either. I find that I really enjoy it though. It's my time by myself and I'm competing against myself and no one else. I listen to general conference talks while I go and I love that. Dennis has mentioned running together a few times, but I am still really intimidated by that thought. I would surely slow him down and be self conscious about it the whole time. Maybe one day though, who knows.

In The Dark

I was reading at story about a girl who tried on her friends glasses for fun only to learn that the glasses actually made her see better. She hadn't even noticed her eyes were blurry. This reminded me of another story a friend of mine told me. She likes to do a bit of cleaning at night like mopping the floors and wiping down the counters,and other general tidy up type stuff. One night she went to bed thinking, "Yea, I did a pretty good job." In the morning when she got up, the sun was shining through the window onto her floors and counters. In this light she noticed that there were spots that she had missed. The morning light helped her see what she missed when she was working in the dark.

I think sometimes our lives are like that as well. I don't always notice when that I'm working out of focus or in the dark. Then God steps in and shows me what I've missed. Ways to improve my time with my husband or children. Spots that would make me an even better individual, mother, wife, friend or daughter if they were cleaned up a bit. Most of the time it's as simple as turning on the light. Like seeing just how beautiful my daughters smiles is even though she just spilled a glass of milk on the floor. Now I can hug her and smile instead of growl and stomp of to clean it up. I am so grateful for those times when my life is put into focus those Kairos moments.