Agent Maria & Barbies in Bondage

I am slow this week ;)  We are doing well despite being a little grouchy.  Sam has been so fussy the past week or so and it is starting to wear on me….plus Audrie has had a few meltdowns that are also beating me down.  I need to get more sleep too, which I’m sure is a MAJOR factor in my attitude.  I will be working on that today, (the sleep part which hopefully in turn will help the grouchy part) ;)

 

It’s been a fun week.  We’ve had some seriously funny things happen.  Some of you may have seen my post on facebook, so disregard if you have.   Sunday we were moving a little slow because I was trying to teach Tyler a little bit about family search (which I am still learning myself) and we were looking for baptism names he could take for his first trip to the temple.  (BTW Grandma Whicker if you have any male names for baptism we would love to get some from ya!)  After being on the computer for a while I looked at the clock and started bustling around to get everyone ready.  I send the girls upstairs to brush their teeth….which I should know better by now that I have to go upstairs and watch them obey otherwise they can be real stinkers…this was no exception.  Some time went by and not one of the girls had returned with clean teeth, or returned at all actually.  So Andy sensing my frustration went upstairs and came back down with his phone in hand and a half smile on his face.  Recognizing that he was finding something humorous I asked him what he was looking at on his phone.  He then handed it to me while explain what he had found upstairs.  There was tape, fan blades and the entire Frozen cast BOUND to the fan in Kaylee’s room.  Arms behind their heads and everything.  I couldn’t stop giggling….these poor barbies!  And how in the world did they come up with such a thing- not to mention in a relatively short amount of time?!?  Oh my goodness.  I am still laughing about it (see attached).

 

I guess my kiddos just needed to continue to make us laugh because once we were at church the funnies continued.  Sam was looking that that pop up temple book with Audrie during the sacrament.  On one of the pages there is an Angel Moroni that is on the top of the temple.  Audrie was trying to explain to Sam that the Angel Moroni had a hat on (I’m not sure where this originated).  After finally helping Sam see what Audrie was saying she leaned over to Andy and whispers, “Audrie said that the Agent Maria has a hat!”  Of course she meant the Angel Moroni, but I am still not sure where the hat came from- maybe the trumpet somehow??  Either way I’m not sure I’ll be able to see Angel Moroni the same again J  Good times.

 

We watched my cousins kiddos this weekend.  It wasn’t too bad except for one part.  The oldest kiddo woke up hysterical and just couldn’t gain control and ended up vomiting all over me (Oh yeah!).  She finally went to sleep after that, but that was the only bad part.  Their kids (Kemarie and Jerry Whiting) are so mild mannered; starkly contrasting our loud boisterous nature.  They were all really sweet and I am glad we are able to be the “family” in this neck of the country.

 

Our big ward split is happening this Sunday.  I am anxious about it! This will be our 6^th ward and 3^rd stake we have been in (and that is living in 2 houses).  It’s crazy how much it’s growing constantly in our area…unbelievable actually.  Cami said her stake just got split a couple of weeks ago and it’s the same story all over Houston (and we’ve been in the area for 11 years!  It hasn’t slowed down at all while we’ve been here.)

 

Rowan Family Days & Pumpkin Patch

You know it’s funny I have to REALLY think about it when I spell ‘heart’ now…it’s pretty funny.  But then again we all know I am not the best speller, or even close as I have had many misspellings as of late and Lyndsey ALWAYS finds them ;)  Love ya Lynds.  Most of the time I don’t realize I even have put “pue” instead of “pew”, which is even more embarrassing.  It’s very dyslexic of me, which perhaps means I am in fact mildly (or moldy as I said before) dyslexic J  Good times.

 

It’s been a fun week!  We tried our darndest to do something fun for Columbus day and it kind of fell through, but we still had some fun.  I was determined to find a REAL LIVE pumpkin patch, but we had to deal with what our area offered.  It was a cute little pumpkin patch, but a very, very small patch of live pumpkins.  Most of them were pre picked and brought in.  Anyway, we knew it was going to rain that day, but decided to get there RIGHT when the park opened to see if we could beat the rain.  Well within 2-3 minutes of buying our tickets and grabbing a wagon it POURED cats and dogs, I mean torrential downpour.  We were absolutely soaked within seconds.  The older kids thought it would be fun to go down the slides and do the hay maze in the rain, but Sam, poor Sam wouldn’t have any of it.  Getting rained on was NOT fun in her book and she did NOT want anything to do with it.  See attached.  Pretty cute if you ask me.

 

Saturday was Andy’s annual family work party.  They have cut down on the way they do things this year, not nearly as big and they have made it local.  So instead of driving to Louisiana they did a smaller, day time event for the corporate offices just around the corner.  It was fun.  Tyler Zip lined and played bingo, the girls went down the water slides, got their faces and hair painted, had a gazillion cups of shaved ice while Andy and I mingled and played as well.  Ever since we won our ipad at this event three years ago the main thing the kids look forward to is the big raffle at the end of the evening!  Every year I always tell them ‘guys we probably won’t win anything so don’t get your hopes up’!  And EVERY year we have won something except one.  But we used to be able to put one ticket in per family member, but the last couple of years it was only one ticket per employee…no wonder we always won, we are bar FAR the biggest family hanging around the corporate office folk ;)  They always have the prizes up on display for all to see beforehand and Tyler had his eye on the Playstation and the xbox (which we probably would have had to sell if we did get, lol, I am such a mean mom).  Anyway, they started the bidding and about 3 or 4 prizes in they held up a mini ipad pulled a ticket and said, “Andy Hart!”  I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT.  The only ipads we own are won from the very same events.  Crazy.  Then the final prize was a custom made BBQ (it was a raffle on it’s own that they let each family member put in a ticket for) and they swirled around the tickets and yelled, “Audrie Hart!”  I mean, seriously!?!  I couldn’t believe it.  So we went home loaded up with prizes J  My kids expectations are going to be SO HIGH now hahahaha.

 

 

 

Andy is at mutual with Tyler and Audrie is at A-days.  He is helping with an activity about missions.  He has been prepping for weeks!  It’s been pretty cute seeing how much thought and effort he has put into this one night.  You should see the plethora of food he made and brought to represent his mission! He has several mission stories that he is going to tell, some of which were new to me.   I wish I could have gone tonight to hear him, but it’s my turn to be home on Tuesday nights after years of me going.  I hope he takes a couple of pictures. 

 

I had a lady in our ward come to my house to do my hair today.  She cut it and I got some really sutble highlights, which I am now having remorse over, but they are subtle enough that it won’t require maintenance.  I just need some change and I thought this would do it :/  I met this girl at the craft Super Saturday evening that the ward put on and I instantly felt a connection with her.  She is clearly different because of all of her tattoos and loud look, but she has a real tender spirit about her.  Anyway, as soon as I heard that she did hair in your home I knew I needed to have her over.  She was a doll and I am anxious to be her friend.  Hearing her lifes story really puts things in perspective for me though…people can really cause hardships for others, it seems so unfair sometimes!  This lady has had one rough life, but she is still going to church and is trying to be a good girl, which gives me such a sense of hope considering my meager problems. 

 

On Sunday it was announced that there would be a special meeting for our ward and one other ward in our stake where a new ward will be made.  I was CERTAIN we were going to be split and put into the new ward the last time this happned a couple of years ago but was shocked to find out we weren’t.  This time I am even MORE certain that we will be apart of the new ward, hahahaha, so we will see.  I like change, always have, so this is exciting for me.  New people to meet, new friendships, new callings, new challenges, I just love the prospect of it all!  I wonder where I get that from?  Do any of you sisters feel the same way?  Mom? Dad?  Maybe it’s from all our years moving around?  I do remember whenever we found out we were going to move as kids that I would often think “Okay what to do I want to change, or do differently when we move?  They will only know me how I am when we get there…should I cut my hair, or try to be better in a certain area of my life?”  It was always neat to think I could start over wherever we went.  So maybe that is the source of my love of change.

 

Glorious

If you haven’t downloaded the song attached, you need to before I tell you this story.  It is by David Archuleta from the movie coming out “Meet the Mormons.”  They are letting anyone download it for free, so go for it!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GytW_rgr0RM

So as you all know my life has been focused on Audrie and her struggles for about 4 years now and it’s always in the forefront of my mind.  Always.  It’s probably a little unhealthy how much I think about it, but it’s all out of love.  Anyway, yesterday was dyslexia therapy.  When I drop her off at the therapists house usually I sit in the car for an hour reading, fiddling or working on necessary things.  This time after watching her walk in I didn’t do anything different except while sitting there I remembered about this song (I stumbled across it a couple of days ago) and wanted to download it.  So I did.  And it instantly tugged at my heart strings. 

 

The third time I listened to it I had something begin to happen.  I don’t really know how to explain it, but I suddenly felt all our ancestors around me.  Hundreds of people; from my line and the Hart line.  Then in my mind I saw multitudes of people, faces of people I once knew, all dressed in white emanating love towards me.  They were somehow all telling me they were part of Audrie’s symphony, and I HEARD them say, without words, “we are working on our side for her.  You are not alone.”  Then as quickly as it began it ended.

 

At first I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what was happening.  Then afterwards my heart felt like it was going to burst with love and I just couldn’t contain myself.  Tears, lots of tears just flowed.  I’m certain that this is not only the case for Audrie, but for Katie and each one of us.  There are MANY unseen faces working for us, part of our symphony, trying to help us and influence those involved in our lives.  The power and love I felt are inexplicable.  The only word that truly begins to describe it is simply Beautiful.

 

I love you all and remember we are never alone!

Rice Experiment

This is going to be short as I put all my energy into yesterday and I am feeling quite tired this morning. 

 

I wanted to share with you an experiment we are going to start today for FHE.  It is called the Rice Experiment.  I have tried really, REALLY hard to help push out any negativity in mind for the past couple of weeks and this lesson is hopefully going to be a memorable one for the kids.  My sweet children are struggling with talking kind with one another and I had heard of this experiment quite a while ago and wondered if it was legit.  It’s kind of silly, but it will (hopefully) prove a point.   Kindness matters, and unkindness hurts.  Check it out here.

 

This is also the same place I found the “clicker” experiment.  Do you guys remember that?  You count the positive thoughts you have with a clicker you keep with you at all times?  Another experiment we will do eventually, but I think we could ALL benefit from things like this J  In fact I was thinking we could base our 2015 P& G Whicker Family Reunion on this very idea.  Everyone would get a clicker at the beginning of the week and at the end we would have a devotional  that would let everyone share how it affected/effected (I STILL don’t get that one right) each person.  If you don’t remember check it out here.  (very poor graphics, but I love the original video, the new one is good, but the original is so funny and real)

 

Other than that I am not going to lie this week has been tough.  I have shed mucho tears over Audrie and fighting the school on particular accommodations.  The good news is that I am now feeling peace about it all.  I just have to keep telling myself what Andy keeps telling me, “Heavenly Father has a plan for that girl.”  And I am trying my darndest to have faith and getting rid of those doubts.  So far I am doing well (pat on my back!).

 

Women’s conference was AWESOME.  I had so many little whisperings to my heart.  Audrie came with me and REALLY struggled sitting still, but it was a great excuse to get her all to myself.  If there is one talk to listen to it’s Elder Uchtdorf’s.  LOVED it.  I keep thinking “I hope Katie is listening to this, I hope Katie is listening to this.”  If you haven’t Kate (and you happen to read this) then please do!!  Love, Love, LOVED IT.