Request for Prayers and Fasting....

Dear Family and Friends-

As you know these last 8 years have been very hard and difficult.  We have finally graduated, and have moved here to a great life in Yuma where we can finally relax.  However there is one more hurdle, and I mean HURDLE we have to pass, and that is the National Exam - the NAPLEX - and the AZ law exam.  I am very scared, and afraid for my husband.  I have been praying so hard and so long for him to get to this point in his life, and now I am praying even harder that he passes his NAPLEX and Law Exam on the first try.  As most of you know he had a difficult time getting through school, but we did it with lots of prayers and fasting, and I am pleading with you all now.  Please if you think of us at any point in the day please say a prayer for Will that he may be able to have clarity of though, and great recollection, and that he will be confident and able to pass the NAPLEX exam the first time, and the Law Exam the first time.  If we don't, we loose all that we have worked hard for, and will not be able to stay where we are at.  For my sake, I'm willing to work at Burger King to support my family, but I hope it won't come to that.  I am asking mostly for my children's sake, and for Wills sake to please pray for his success.  This test impacts all our lives very deeply and we could use all the prayers we can get on his behalf.  I hope and pray that he will be successful, and that once all of this is behind us, we can move on and enjoy some of the successes he has earned. 

Thanking you all in advance -

Amber

Ode to my new best friend....

Oh how I love you..my new best friend
How you make my life so much easier...my new best friend
How my back no longer hurts..my new best friend
How you get me all clean, and take away all my dust...my new best friend
I use you and then toss you aside and you still come back for more...my new best friend
I tear your head off, and throw you in the washer when you get too full of yourself...my new best friend

You come back better than ever...my new best friend

We should all have a best friend like you in our lives.

Here is the money shot.....

And here is what my new best friend cleans to earn its keep in my cleaning closet......

Thanks to all of your advise, I went to a janitorial supply store and got this mop for about 60 bucks plus the spray to help attract all the dirt better, and then when I'm done I throw the head into the washer.  It is my new best friend.  Now cleaning my floors takes half the time, and its one and a half times more fun to clean.

Happy Fathers Day

I have four very wonderful fathers in my life, and I am thankful for all of them.  They have each touch my heart and soul in ways that have made me a better and stronger person.

The first father in my life became so 65 years ago.  He is a very handsome man. Don't ya think so.  Very dapper. Eat your heart out ladies..too bad he's taken..my mom is a very lucky woman. Anyway he is a very quiet and soft spoken man.  A man of great strength, and wisdom.  A man who loves his family and yet also loves God.  A man who has many sides to him.  A man who has always treated my mother with the utmost respect and love.  A great visionary.  A man of many talents.  My father is my hero.  He took a child who was not of himself, and loved me and raised me and made me who I am today.  A man who loves his grandchildren and showers them with that love. My father is the best.  He has seen me through thick and thin, and has loved me unconditionally.  I will always love him, and am so very grateful that I will never be without my father.  I am sealed to him, and will always be with his for time and all eternity.  My father is such a quiet man, but when you get to know him, he will talk to you about anything.  He is a very smart man as well.  My fondest memories of my dad are when I was younger.  He would sit my sister and brother down for bed, and he would tell us about the "three armadillos".  Those three armadillos did so much.  They would go for walks and run into the mean alligators.  They would wander out of their dens and get into so much mischief.  Those three armadillos did everything.  Funny how they three armadillos did a lot of what my sister and brother did.  I couldn't go to sleep without those bedtime stories.  The time I got to sit next to my father and have him cuddle with me and tell me those stories, were the best times I had.  I also remember my father letting me hug him and just cry.  My best friend in the entire world (at the time) Suzie - our Irish Setter - was struck by a piece of road equipment and killed.  I was so sad, and couldn't do anything but cry.  I remember my dad going to pick her up, and take her to be buried.  I remember he came home, and held his arms out for me, and we sat in his chair and he just let me cry and cry.  I will never forget how much better he made me feel just by being there and holding me.  Thanks dad for all you have done for me, and for being my strength.  I hope you have a great fathers day.

My next father in my life became so officially April 28th 2001. But I knew him a year earlier.  Even though my father in law has only been in my life for the last 10 years, they have been wonderful.  When I met my father in law, he did everything possible to make me feel loved and welcomed.  He is what I call my gentle giant.  As everyone knows I am a shortie, and everyone always towers over me in height, and that is no different here.  Dad stands a lot taller than I.  I have a lot to look up to..literally!!  He is such a great guy.  Very warm and affectionate once you get to know him.  He has always been there for me, and has been wonderful to me.  After having two other daughter in laws that fizzled out, I was very apprehensive and scared to meet my father in law.  I was afraid he wouldn't give me the time of day or want to love me.  But quite the opposite.  He gave me all his love, and took me in as his daughter in law and has been great.  He is very quiet as well.  He too loves you silently, but you know his love is very strong, and that if you just said the word, he would be there in a heartbeat, or die trying.  He too is very handsome.  Eat your hearts out again ladies..oops too bad...he too is taken by my sweet mother in law.  I'm just surrounded by good looking men.  If my son gets any of these looks, I will be beating the girls off of him with a HUGE stick. Anyway I love my father in law dearly.  Over the last few years I have gotten to know him even better because we lived so close to him.  It has been wonderful to see him be able to enjoy life, and enjoy his son and his grand kids.  He is a great man.  Something a lot of you may not know either, is that this is a VERY, and I mean VERY intelligent man.  Worked hard all his life to give his family the best, and all the while read a lot of books to educate himself even more. You should NEVER play scrabble with this man, unless you want to loose.  He is great at it.  Like I said super smart.  I love you dad.  Happy Fathers day!!

Here is the third father in my life.  Also my husband, but a very awesome father.  Here is a man who tried so very hard to make two other marriages work, but finally made it to me, and Heavenly Father has blessed him for his righteousness with three children.  He is the worlds best Father to them.  He loves those kids, and would do anything for them.  He has gone back to school to provide a better life for those children, and has finally completed that.  We are so very proud of him.  He too is very handsome..Well I guess Isaac will just be a little heart breaker.  So much handsomeness to go around.  Anyway, this man is very loving, and very kind.  He is a great support to me.  He is a wonderful husband who would do anything for me as well.  All I have to do is ask.  He has taught our children to love life, to love science and especially to love the Lord.  He has shown this by word and by example.  He is the best thing that had ever happened to me.  He makes life worth living.  I don't tell him nearly enough how much I love him and how much he means to me.  He is my knight in shining armor.  I am so grateful that I will also be able to share in the eternities with him.  I could think of no better person to be there with than him.  He is a great mix of both my father and my father in law.  He is very loving, and strong.  He is super intelligent, and has a great love for education.  He also loves the Lord.  He also though is a super funny guy, and can make me smile no matter what.  I love you hon.  Here's to an eternity with each other.

Here is a future and when I say future, I mean future father.  He won't be a dad for many many many years.  And girls I mean it.  You will have to go through me to get to him, and I'm not going to let just anyone go out with him.  Isn't he cute...he is gonna be such a heart breaker when he gets older.  He is the biggest ham you have ever seen.  Such a little comedian.  But he too is a little lover.  He gives me great kisses, and LOVES to give me hugs all the time.  And he tells me all the time "I love you mommy." as he hold up his little hand in the I love you sign language sign.  He is my little boy.  A future father who is learning everything from his father, and his two grandfathers.  What better examples and influences could he have.

Finally  my fourth father.  My Father in Heaven. My Father who loved me so much he sacrificed his son so that I may once again live with him.  My Father who loves me and watches over me from afar.  My Father who I may not be able to hug right now, but I can still talk to him, and hear him give me advise.  My Father who will allow me to be with my husband and other father for time and all eternity.  My Father who sacrificed everything just for me.  My Father who will forgive me and still love me no matter how much I may have messed up.  My Father who gave me life its self.  Thank you Heavenly Father.  My only hope is that I will be all that you foresaw me to be, and that I will make you proud of me, and that one day (not any time soon) I will be able to return to you and your open arms.  May you know how much I love you, and hope that you too have a great Fathers Day.

JUST FYI - To my previous post...

Can I tell you I HATE HATE HATE idiot people who don't read things carefully and know how everything in the world is spelled.

OUR NAME IS SPELLED WEIGT NOT WEIGHT.

I am so tempted to change our name again to SMITH.  How the hell do you mess that name up...you can't!!!

Now we can't cash our check, can't get the car fixed, and cant get Will to the mandatory meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday in Scottsdale which is about three hours away from here. 

GGGRRRRRRRR!!!! What a fine mess we are in here in YUMA.  Now we have to wait for another check to come from corporate, which won't get here till about Thursday, and then he gets another check on Friday.  SO we have to go another week without pay.  Can anything else go wrong here.  Lets see...

Kids sick with 103 degree fevers and vomiting all over..Check, Check and Check
(no insurance...so no antibiotics... the tell tale white pustules are on the throats, but can't do anything about it)

Cars transmission goes bad, and axle goes bad...so unable to drive..Oh a big Check on that one

Can't go to the Ward activity since we have no transportation, and I have no ward directory or any one's phone numbers or addresses...Check on that one

Can't buy toilet paper and we are down to the last 1/2 a roll...check.

Husband gets paid and we can't cash the thing due to an idiot who inputs it wrong..Check

Jumping into the pool with rocks attached to myself...negative..but getting there.  I'm so frustrated.

Sorry if you all didn't want to read this, but I figured I better write it down since this is how I keep my journal.  I print this off once a year into book format, and keep it.

Hopefully in a year we will look back and laugh, but as of right now, all I am doing is crying.  Hope you all are having a better time than I am.

How I feel right now...

*** This is a Rant entry..be forewarned ***

I am so mad today.  Things are going along fine, and we have been struggling, and I have tried my best to hold it together and be happy and positive, but right now, I am having a VERY hard time being positive, and I haven't even found out yet if my husband actually got his paycheck yet. That would just be the icing on the cake for me.

This is what I want to do to our van.....

I am so angry right now.  I took the van in and it was put up on a lift.  The mechanic pulled me aside, and showed me everything.  Apparently not only do the front and rear motor mounts have to be replaced, the axle is shot, and there is something loose in the transmission.  Now, the motor mounts we have to pay for, the transmission and axle are more than likely covered under the drive train warranty.  We don't have long enough history at Wills job, even though we have a signed contract for two years, to qualify alone for another car, and he has two mandatory meeting to be at up in Phoenix (3 hr. drive each way) on Tuesday and Wednesday.  What in the world is going on here.

I have thought so many bad things right now that they aren't worth mentioning, but I am just so angry.  This feeling will definitely not be brushed aside with just a hug and a kiss from Will.  I don't know what I am going to do here.

AAAHHHHHHH.  I really do feel like hitting something, and my car is looking better and better and the hammer is right next to the van!!!

I won the lottery...

Or so it will feel like it.  If you ever want to feel like you won the lottery, just go three and a half weeks without a paycheck or any incoming money of any kind, and live on $21.00 for those three and a half weeks.  Wow, hopefully on Friday the 18th we will get our first paycheck.  Man, the things we need.  You don't realize what corners you can cut when you really have to.  I think out of this entire experience, I will be so glad to be able to stop wiping my kids bums (have to use as little toilet paper as possible - got to make it stretch).  You know if you have kids, you have gone into the bathroom at one time or another and found almost an entire roll wadded up in the tank.  I needed to avoid that issue.  I will also be glad to get some toothpaste so my kids can brush their teeth again.  We ran out of toothpaste yesterday.

But looking at my husbands pay amount,(and it is only about 1/4 of what he will earn once he passes his boards) it looks like we won the lottery.  It will be so nice to be able to run to the store and pick up what we need whenever we will need it.

In fact, that noise the car has been making since about the third day of arriving here, I finally took the van in to get an estimate as to what it was and what it will cost.  Come to find out it is the front and rear motor mounts that have gone out, and need to be replaced.  Now here is the strange part.  I go into panic mode seeing how much it will cost us (remembering I'm still on our old way of paying, and not having any money) and when I pick up Will, I tell him the bad news.  I am apologizing up one side and down the other, and freaking out over how are we ever going to pay for this, and all the while Will is sort of snickering to himself.  I ask him whats so funny.  He puts his arms around me, and says "hon, it's OK, we can manage that just fine".  I keep saying yeah right, how, and he tells me that he gets paid weekly, and we will have more than enough to meet our needs this time, and that soon we will be able to have a reserve.  When I looked at the numbers he was right, but still being in that mindset of "where is the money going to come from" is hard to get out of.  It will take me some time to get over freaking out over stuff like this.  Thank goodness for Will.

Also on another note, since the gentleman Will is working with in the pharmacy is Pakistani, he doesn't care about Sundays off, and so he gave Will all Sunday's off. That is great.  He gets to go to church with us all the time.  I'm so grateful for all my blessings.  Now if they will deliver on Friday the check, then we will truly be blessed, and things will work out.

It's final...

Well, I was hoping that all the rumors were wrong about the bad schools here, but apparently they were all true and then some.  So, I have the kids on the waiting list for this really awesome charter school where the kids are super smart, and it uses all the latest technology in the classrooms.  But till they get in, I am officially home schooling the kids.  I am going to be using the Heritage Home School program.  So it still will cost us about a grand a year per kid, but this includes all materials, and it is catered to each individual child, and they also test the kids on a quarterly basis to see if they are on track or where they need more help.  Now all I need to do is get money together to get the tests on the kids, and then get the materials to start.  Now we can do family vacations whenever dad has the time, and when the extended family has time...now if I can only get myself into a routine so I can get myself all organized to do this.  It will be challenging I'm sure, but I don't want my kids to loose their love of learning, or their high scores.  Now I have to find others who home school so that I can get into a group to play or do field trips.  So much to do....

Blessings and Curses

I have a few things right now in my life that I find absolutely wonderful, yet at the same time most horrible.  I just find it very funny that things your grateful for can sometimes be a double edged sword.

GRATEFUL: I'm grateful for the van getting us here with no issues at all.
CURSES: The Van HATES this lower octane gas, and lets me know so every time I drive it.

GRATEFUL: I'm grateful for the swimming pool in this hot hot heat of 113
CURSES: The kids won't do anything or talk about anything except for the pool and how long they can stay in it, and when can we hurry home so they can get back in it, and wake up at 7am so they can get in it.

GRATEFUL:  I'm grateful for my new home with ALL hardwood floors, no more pushing a vacuum around.
CURSES:  Its ALL hardwood floors.  Your feet get all sandy and everything sticks to them, and you have to sweep and mop on a daily basis, and when the kids have been outside in the pool you sometimes have to sweep and mop on an hourly basis. (Any ideas on a great mop/broom would be AWESOME)And the dogs click and clack on the floors with their nails.

These are just a few of the things I though about today that I absolutely love and hate all at the same time.  Now I know what people mean by a Love - Hate relationship.

ARIZONA

Well, here we are in our new home. I'm way excited to be here.  Our home is much bigger and nicer than I thought it would be, and the pool is such a blessing, especially with the latest temps of 110 and 113.  It's hot no doubt, but with a pool and shade it helps a lot.

When we first got here, I forgot to put the sunscreen on the kids and they played in the hotel pool for only an hour, and look what happened...poor kids. But now we know we swim with a shirt on over our suite and we put on SPF 50, and then swim.  Then in the evening we can go without a shirt since there is shade over the pool, and the kids wont get the sunburns.

There are NO radio stations out here except for all Mexican radio, so I will be using my Cd's a LOT.  I feel like I am visiting my grandparents Lund's home while here.  There are palm trees everywhere, and orange trees, adobe style houses, and grapefruit and lemon trees everywhere.  I love it.  Reminds me of when I was little.

We have hibiscus flowers all along the front of the house.  they are just baby plants but the few flowers are so pretty.  Can't wait to get some money to add some more plants.  We have free reign to do with the yard what we want.  I'm way excited.

Graduation

Well here are a few pics from Will's graduation.  It was a very nice ceremony.  It was made even better by having our loved ones with us.  Will's mom and dad made the trip from Illinois, and my parents made the trip from Utah.  It was so much fun and the kids enjoyed having both sets of grandparents there.  We always love having family around, and especially to celebrate such a big success in Will's life.  I'm so proud of him.  He worked hard and it will now pay off for his hard work and dedication. Love you honey!!