Punkin' Mania

So, I LOVE Halloween! The thing I love most about Halloween is the pumpkins. My parents and I took my neice and nephew (Bryson, and Kiana) to the pumpkin patch. Oh my Goodness! It was beautiful. Rows and rows of round, orange funness.

Kiana was trying to pull the cart while Bryson was pushing the wheel barrel.

The kids let us take picture but Pedro HAD to sit next to both of them. It's so cute that they smile when you tell them to now.

Me with the kids. Sterling had to go to school.

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids.

The pumpkin patch was so much fun and the kids had a BLAST. Sterling and I are going over to their house to carve the pumpkins this week.

Happy Birthday Kim

Kim,

This is for you Happy Birhtday. Make sure to turn up the volumn because the kids are a little difficult to hear.

Our get away

We babysit a lot for some friends of ours. Conference weekend was his birthday so we took David (the baby) overnight so they could go up to their Time Share in Park City. They offered the rest of the time to us during the week. We went up on Tuesday night and left on Thursday night. It was a really nice hotel. Very beautiful. On Wednesday we went back down to the city to have a cheap lunch and go to the Factory Outlets. We bought Christmas for most of Sterling's family for pretty inexpensive. I love to have my Christmas shopping done by the end of November so I can enjoy the holliday. Thursday we just kind of stayed in our room because the view was so beautiful and we just wanted to relax and spend time together.

Sterling and Peddie on Wednesday morning. The bed was huge. It was strange to feel like Sterling was on another continent while we slept.

The Shower!! I was AMAAAAZING! It was really large with marble tile. A little bench, and a sauna. To turn on the sauna all you had to do was push a button. I fell in love with the sauna. The steam and the heat took away a lot of the pain that I experience from my fibromyalgia.

The tub! It was huge and obviously a jacuzzi tub. I thought I would really enjoy the tub because I thought it would help with my pain like the sauna did. I didn't really like it. I don't like to be hot. I would MUCH rather be cold than hot. When I was in the tub I would get so overheated that I would get nasueas. I didn't enjoy it very much. Sterling did.

Animals weren't allowed so we snuck Pedro in. He would obviously have to go out to go potty so we put him in my back-pack to go take him out.

On Wednesday we went out to lunch. It was McDonalds. BUT, they had picnic tables. We bought Peddie a double cheeseburger and we got meals. Sterling gave Pedro some of his fries. What a generous dad he is.

I wish you could all see the waterfall that's behind us in this picture. It was gorgeous. This is at the front of the hotel. They had an enormous waterfall built into the building. It was stunning. We took this picture just as we were leaving so it was too dark to pick up the waterfall.

All in all we had a GREAT time at the nicest hotel we've ever been to. The best part was the company we had. Eachother.

Conference

My family has traditions during conference. Every Saturday after the Priesthood Session we all go out to dinner at a nice restaraunt. (my dad pays) The women usually get together before and meet at the restaraunt to wait for an open table. (It can get pretty busy) It used to be a pretty big bill because all the siblings, their spouses, and any of their kids 12 and older went. This year my mom and sister were in Texas with my brother Kim and his family because his baby is in the childrens hospital. My brother Kirk and his family didn't come down from Logan. My brother Kris came but didn't bring his family. So, It was just Dad, Sterling, Kris and I. We went to Archibalds. (EXCELLENT!) On Sunday morning we all go to my parents house and they feed everyone an enormous breakfast. My dad usually wakes up at about 5AM to get breakfast going. (Hashbrowns-2 kinds, eggs, cinnamon rolls, bacon, ham, sausage, juice) This year it was only, Dad, Sterling, and I for breakfast. Prep time was significantly less.

Dad and Sterling getting breakfast ready. (*Note my dads uncanny ability to match plaid bottoms with a striped shirt. My brother Kris has inherited this ability along with wearing socks with flip flops. It takes real talent to pull it off. At least both patterns were blue.)

Dad and Tucker cuddling in Mom's chair. Tucker had to "suffer" with dad while mom was out of town.

Pedro cuddling up to listen to the words of the Prophet.

We watched the Sunday Morning Session at my parents with my dad. The only downside to having such a wonderful breakfast right before conference is that you're so full you can't stay awake. Usually I'm the one that stays awake while Sterling falls asleep. This year Sterling was the only one to stay awake. He even leaned over and hit my foot because I was "snooring" too loud for him to hear. (I don't snore! I just breath loud!)

Hairy Boy!

I cut Sterling's hair a while ago and it ended up looking like he had just joined the military. We're trying to cut costs so I took another wack at cutting his hair.

The Before

In "The After" picture it doesn't look like I cut much but I had a pile of hair to prove contrary.

The After
It doesn't look like I cut that much but in person you could definatley tell a difference.

I did a much better job! I better have because I had him stuck in that chair for the majority of one of the conference sessions. To be fair to myself he wasn't real cooperative. I told him to put his head up and he would for a min but he kept putting it back down. He's a trouble maker.

When the adversary gives you lemons...

make lemon pie.
So, literally everytime we start the adoption process something financial happens that sets us back. About a year and a half ago we went in for orientation for adoption and got the paperwork to fill out. We were refinancing our condo so that we could have the money to pay for the adoption when Sterling got in a wreck. We found out that following day that our good for nothing insurance company had cancelled our policy because the DMV didn't file the medical clearance paperwork that the Dr's office had faxed over. Lewis Insurance stated that they sent out a letter to us letting us know what was going on but we never got one. Granted they had our first apartment address on file with them but all of our mail was being forwarded and we got a little post card that told us they had moved offices!!! So, needless to say the balance still owed on Sterling's '02 Mazda Millenia (which he loved dearly!) was about $10,000-$12,000. The other guy had like a '98 or '00 Mustang. He sued us and we settled for $4,000. Between everything all of our money for the adoption (plus A LOT more) was used. To make that situation worse the company that towed our car told Sterling he couldn't touch the car. They at least let him get the school books he needed for that quarter out but he had other books in there, all of his CD's (there was a lot), his mission scripture, and our Temple clothes (the ones we were married in. Plus, Sterling's temple pants weren't only the pants that he married me in but they were the same pants his dad married his mom in) :( , We had to refinance once again to get the car paid off so we could get the title to give over to the junk yard so we could get our stuff only to find out the they had either crushed it or sold it so EVERYTHING was gone! We were pretty devastated.

The hundreds of dollars of school books we "couldn't touch"

The damage. (he was T-boned) Thank heavens that he was alright.

We were just saving up to be able to pay the $1000 you pay up front for background checks, home inspection, and whatever else you need when our condo leaked into the condo below us ruining stuff in both of our condo's. Luckily the insurance (we got a new company) paid for most of it but we had a deductible we had to pay.

And now, we have sold our condo (didn't get as much as we wanted out of it because we had to refinance TWICE), moved in with Sterling's parents, and have money in savings to pay for the adoption. Our plan was to save the adoption money, and take our income to pay off ALL of our debt and save money for a down payment on a house. All of a sudden, on Saturday Sept. 27th I (Konni) am pulled aside at work and told they are letting me go. Yes, that is right! I am unemployed. To make the situation a little worse Sterling hadn't been to work in a couple of days because his anxiety and depression was the worst I have ever seen it. He would just lay in bed. He wouldn't smile, he didnt' want to talk. I was so worried about him. He hates his job and just couldn't get over this hump of anxiety and depression to pull himself out of bed and go into work. He's back at work now but he still has to force himself to go in. He's doing better. He will laugh and smile now.

The point of this whole things is 1. to let me vent and ramble on about it. and 2. to give you the moral of our story.

The moral of the story is When the adversary gives you lemons, make lemon pie out of it! We have been praying all day everyday. Our relationship is better between us and our Heavenly Father. We are showing our faith by continuing forward with the adoption. We know that we are doing the right thing because the adversary is blocking us at every turn and we will NOT be stopped. With the help of our Father in Heaven and our Savior we will overcome this too and bring a wonderful little spirit into our Eternal Family. We have each other and the Lord had brought us together. We have little Pedro (and Milton & Charlie) to tide us over until the child that has chosen to come to us through our birth mom makes his/her (I want a boy, Sterling want a girl) grand entrance. We pray that the Lord might stregthen us and all of our friends and family to get through all of our trials.