Every Weekend

I feel like so much has happened in the last few weeks...I have a ton of photos I could post but by the time I download them to my computer and upload them to the blog, well, it could be a few hours. Mostly Kevin and I both feel like we've been inundated every weekend with extra church-related activities and have been inundated every week with the rest of our lives! It's just crazy. We need a vacation!!

It all started on August 15-16 with our ward campout, which as activities chairperson I had the joy of being in charge of. We didn't get much sleep but we had fun, and Emily especially enjoyed herself. Then the sleeplessness continued with the second week of the Olympics. I suppose we joined most of the country in staying up late to view the competition. It was worth it. What an amazing group of athletes from all over the world, and what wonderful shows (opening/closing ceromonies) put on by the Chinese people. Impressive!

The next weekend was spent calling people in town about Proposition 8, which is the constitutional amendment that we are trying to get passed in CA that will add to our state constitution that "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in the state of California." It's that simple. All you Californians out there - VOTE YES on PROP 8!! This is something our church leaders have asked us to be actively inolved with, and of course the Boams have been asked to serve on the committee to organize and recruit.

The next weekend was the annual grape harvest for the Church's welfare raisin farm. I could write a book on this, but let's just say hot, dirty, and full of little white spiders. Doesn't that sound fun?! It actually isn't that bad. My mom has come the past two years to help out (she couldn't make it this year because she was out of town) because she thinks it's so fun. I think she has become famous in our ward, possibly even our stake, because of it! Each ward has to harvest five rows of grapes. Now before you think, "that's not that much," realize that each row is about a mile long. Yes, that's right - you can't even see from end to end. But our awesome ward had over 100 people out, and we got it done in about five hours. It's kind of a bonding experience. And the harvest was HUGE! Probably the largest in many, many years. Some of the individual bunches of grapes weighed about 10 pounds I think. Like 18 inches long and 10 inches in diameter at the top. We're talking lots of grapes. You cut the grapes off the vines with a curved knife or little clippers and put them in a big round tub, which then gets dumped onto a large (probably 3' x 4') paper tray where they are left to dry into raisins in the hot CA sun. After they are dried you go back and "roll the trays", which I have personally never done but I think they just pick them up in such a manner that they don't spill out and take them to Sun-Maid Raisins for processing. They go into their special round cardboard containers marked with the Church's name, then they get shipped out wherever they are needed. They told us that some of the raisins from last year's harvest were already on their way to the areas being hit by the hurricanes. The picture, by the way, is from the harvest two years ago - I didn't take any this year, but take what's in the photo as far as grapes on the ground and multiply it by two - no dirt in between, just solid grapes and large piles of them on each paper tray!

Grapes August 30, then this past weekend we went out and knocked doors for Prop 8. Kevin and I took both kids and went as a family in support of Proposition 8. Fortunately we met lots of friendly people and not many unfriendly ones. We thought that at least if someone disagreed, they would be a little nicer in front of the kids, as opposed to the people who start yelling at you on the phone. But we mostly met nice people. We will probably go out and do it again some evening this week. Then this coming Saturday is the Relief Society Fall Social, which I am helping out with because I am the activities chairperson. Then I think the next Saturday will be a Primary activity as they prepare for their Sacrament meeting program. That's six straight Saturdays, people! Kevin and I talked it over yesterday and we decided it's a blessing to be able to serve so much. It does feel overwhelming sometimes, but we know that we will be blessed for giving of our time and means and following our leaders' requests for service.

Speaking of blessings, Kevin has finally been promoted to a Corporate Account Executive III at AT&T Mobility! Way to go Kevin! I say "finally" because they have offered it to him and he has accepted about four or five times over the past year, and for one reason or another (corporate restructuring, mostly), it has fallen through. So now he gets much bigger accounts to take care of and (hopefully) a much bigger paycheck. Wahoo! And what will we do with all the 'extra' dough (other than paying off all our debts little by little)? Kevin plans to wait until Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) and go buy himself a large flat screen tv. As if we need another tv in this household!! Oh, well. Men will be men.

So anyhow, my Saturdays have not been used for cleaning my house, so it's a huge disaster, but other than that things are pretty much in order! Oh, did I mention Emily started a new preschool? She really likes it. Every day when I go to pick her up she doesn't want to leave because she wants to keep playing. It's so nice that she really likes it there! And Allison, well, she's pretty much the same, I guess. Still no sign of teeth coming in yet, and not yet crawling, so we'll keep you posted on that. Okay, now I'm going to bed!