Fear

That would be fear of the unknown known. We just found out that Erik gets to pick his permanent assignment on Wednesday. Since he told me the news, my stomach has been in knots. We're loving his schedule know, and he LOVES the station he's at. While there is a chance that everything could stay just how it is, there is a bigger chance that everything could change. It's knowing what those changes could be that worries me. We've dealt with day shift (not likely for a rookie), evenings (which we have now and are enjoying), and nights (the shift that I fear). I remember the stress and exhaustion that came with the 5 weeks Erik spent on night shift. I was stressed as I tried to find ways to entertain Jordyn upstairs or out of the house so Erik could sleep, he was exhausted because it was near impossible to keep Jordyn out of the bedroom since she knew that her daddy was in there. Remembering those feelings and knowing that that is a looming possibility fills my heart with fear. Another, and greater fear, is that Erik will have to switch stations. He loves the station he's at and I enjoy the fact that he doesn't have to deal with a lot of "big crimes", that he's mainly doing traffic (which he REALLY enjoys doing). I fear that he could go to a station where there's an officer involved shooting monthly, or he's dealing with hardened gang members or other such crimes where he is more likely to get hurt. Don't get me wrong, all stations have those possibilities, and I fear pray for his safety daily, but some areas are worse than others. However, I know that whatever assignment he gets will be what is best for us and that Heavenly Father will up us through it.

Happy Mother's Day

Jordyn wishes you all a Happy Mother's day from our new porch swing (the only thing I asked for this Mother's Day).

New Addition

There will be a new addition to our family in a few months, and it's a girl! (no mom, I'm not pregnant) I'm going to be getting a new sister (no, my mom is not pregnant either). My little brother is FINALLY getting married!

I met the unlucky victim lucky girl, Karen, when I went home over New Years. She's really sweet, but she'll have her hands full keeping Colt in line. The two lovebirds met on Southern Utah Universities (SUU) ballroom dance team. The rest of this post is dedicated to Karen. It's just a few snapshots of Colt, to help you see what you're getting yourself into.

I don't have many incriminating photos, so if you want more just talk to Toni or Heather, they'd LOVE to help you out! I'm SO glad you're joining our family! Congratulations to my favorite little brother and his future bride!!

Planes, Trains, and . . .

Trash trucks, these are the things that my little girl is fascinated in right now. She loves to watch the planes fly over our house, and enjoys hearing the train whistle as it chugs along the nearby tracks, but I've never seen someone get so excited about hearing and seeing the trash truck. Every morning, she runs to her window to see if she can hear the trash truck. Most mornings I have to remind her that it isn't trash day yet. Last Thursday, we were fortunate enough to be up before the trash truck came, as we were getting dressed, we heard that familiar rumble as the truck emptied cans on a neighboring street, so we dressed quickly, grabbed our waffles, and headed out to the front porch, and there we sat and watched and waited as we ate our breakfast. Then, the moment we'd been waiting for arrived, the trash truck turned down our street! It was like Christmas time for my little girl, she squealed with delight as the truck rumbled down our street with the trash men picking up the trash and throwing it into the trucks hungry belly. She even got waves and smiles from the trash men as she waved hello. She then proceeded to run down the sidewalk for fear the truck would disappear, she watched in awe as the truck gobbled up the trash from our street, as it was slowly making its way to another street she waved good-bye, and to her sheer delight, the truck honked its horn in return. Nothing could fill her with more joy than to watch the trash truck, so we anxiously await Monday morning, when it returns to our street.

Randomness

Here's a bit of randomness from the end of April. I love having a little girl with lots of hair, usually, we just pull the front back to keep it out of her eyes, and let her curls run wild, but occasionally, I'll try something a little different. The other day, I did a french braid that went around Jordyn's head, it turned out really cute, the only problem was that her hair is very fine, (and very curly) so it soon fell out.

I've been making all of our bread for the past month or so, but I usually just use my mom's classic white bread recipe (which is delicious), this past week, I decided to try something a bit different and I made wheat bread, it turned out fantastic, and the first loaf lasted about 3 days!

Any one who knows Jordyn knows that she LOVES water, she loves to drink it, and she loves to play in it. Needless to say, she's enjoyed the rainy weather we've had lately, here's a few pictures. . .

*this one is after the rain had stopped. The winds had blown the cover off her sandbox, which then filled up with water (so did the sandbox unfortunately). Jordyn decided that it would be great fun to play in the mud puddle, and enjoyed every minute of it. I didn't mind her playing in the muddy water, until she decided she was thirsty.

Peanut Butter

Hello, my name is Amy, and I'm a Peanut Butter-aholic. Yes, you read correctly, I am addicted to peanut butter. I enjoy both creamy and crunchy. Each has its places where it shines, creamy is best on hot foods (pancakes and toast) where as crunchy is best in cookies and on sandwiches, and both are good on a spoon straight out of the jar. Needless to say, we go through the stuff relatively quickly at our house (and it's not just me eating it, Erik takes PB&J sandwiches to work for dinner). So when our ward was given the chance to work at the Church's peanut butter cannery, you bet we jumped on it. Not only did all the workers get a free jar of the creamy goodness, only the workers had an opportunity to buy a case of the stuff for food storage (Erik would only let me buy one, he wasn't sure if we'd like it, fortunately, these assignments come regularly). Our shift was from 10pm-2am last Friday. We were fortunate enough to have Erik's mom stay at our house to keep an ear on Jordyn (who was asleep before we left). It was a very interesting experience, we were able to see the entire process that goes into making peanut butter, and actually got to do most of the work. We did everything from putting the peanuts into a hopper (the machine that roasts them and causes their shells to fall off) then to sorting out any burnt pieces or non-peanut items that accidentally got through the hopper (things like shells, or small twigs), next came the adding of other ingredients, we lined up the jars and the peanut butter go poured in, the lids tightened and sealed, then came labels and expiration dates before the jars were packed into boxes and sealed up. The cannery runs 24 hrs a day, and is manned by a few hired employees and mainly volunteer work not only from the surrounding stakes, but the Houston Food Bank also supplies volunteers as use the peanut butter in their stores. I'm glad that we had this opportunity to help out those less fortunate, and experience something new (and I am also glad for the case of fresh peanut butter sitting in my food storage waiting to be consumed).

A Silly Day

The other day, as Jordyn and I were playing outside, she decided to pick me some flowers. Even though Erik will kill me for saying this, wild flowers are not hard to find in our yard. In fact, some days it looks like they are growing more abundantly than the grass is. However, this task still took some serious concentration from Jordyn. In the end, I had a handful of little yellow flowers (minus the stems, she literally just picks the flower).

Later that day, we were getting ready to head somewhere with Daddy so I told her to go and grab her shoes, this is what I saw when she came back. . .

She had gone into the bedroom and grabbed some of Erik's shoes and walked into the kitchen with them on. I'd say those are some pretty big shoes for her to fill!