Missionary meals

One of the reasons I don’t blog very often is because sometimes I don’t feel like there was anything out of the ordinary during the week that was worth sharing. Then today the missionaries came to eat dinner. I feed them the last Sunday of each month. We also have our FHE on Sundays because Mondays are Mike’s busiest days. So we were talking about prayer and one of the Elders, who has been a member for only 2 years, said that last week he was feeling down and that he was feeling like going home. They have had a hard time finding people to teach, he said that he felt like he didn’t know the reason he was here if they weren’t teaching anyone. Mike is usually very humble, he never brags about the kind of missionary he was, but tonight he told us that he was one the hardest working missionaries. He said he would work so hard that the mission president started sending missionaries who were struggling to him, he didn’t know it at the time but because Mike would work so hard his companions would just notice how much happier and effective their days were. I don’t know if I am explaining myself well. I am not saying that the missionaries who cannot find people to teach are not working hard enough. I guess what he meant is that his way of working on the mission field was contagious. He told the missionary that the best advice he could give him was to work hard and never stop trying. Then at the end of the day, even if they didn’t find a lot of people, he could rest knowing that he did everything on his power to find investigators. He also told them that sometimes you don’t understand the point of your mission, and that he didn’t get the point of his until  a couple of months before going back home when the mission president told him the reason he was getting the kind of companions he was getting. Mike’s mission president knew that he could turn around any missionary who was struggling. For some reason Mike is very reserved when it comes to sharing some of the things that happened during his time in Chile. I get it sometimes tough. The other day he was talking with our neighbor, who is a very good friend of ours, and he told him that one night somebody pulled a gun on him and asked him for money, he said he just told them that he didn’t have any and was left alone. I had never heard that story and Mike didn’t even now I was listening to what they were saying (I wasn’t spying or anything though).

Some Sundays I don’t feel like cooking, and today was one of them. I was regretting signing up to feed the missionaries. However it all changed when we got to talk to a missionary who was in need of some comforting words. I also told him that some of the blessings that come from serving a mission come after you served a mission. If Mike hadn’t served a mission he wouldn’t have known how to speak Spanish and could have never gone to Mexico, and then we could have never met. Now not only we are married in the temple but my parents also will have the opportunity to go to the temple. Also, If it wasn’t for the missionaries who taught me I probably wouldn’t have gone to church regularly and had discussions every week because Mike was not there with me teaching me.

Sometimes I feel like I cannot be a good missionary because I feel that I lack knowledge, but then I am reminded that I the only knowledge I need is the one that comes from my heart.

On a different topic, I don’t know if most of you know but I don’t drive. My family has only had one car our whole life. My dad takes the car to go to work. I always took buses or taxis to go wherever. Or my dad would drop me off at school in the morning and then pick me up at work at nights. So even though is not a very good excuse I never felt like I needed to learn how to drive…until I got here. Even here I had Mike or his parents all the time dropping me off and picking me up from places, I took buses, and also still didn’t have a car anyway. Every time Mike has tried to teach me I freak out, I am scared to death, my hands are sweaty, I shake so bad, I am just a wreck. However, the time has come where I just have to do it. I bet you cannot even imagined being home unable to go places because you can’t drive, and let me tell you it IS horrible. So since my neighbor Steve lost his job he is been trying to help me. However he just got a new car and he is afraid of me doing something bad. I don’t blame him. Mike in the other hand says he wants to teach me but since he works more than 12 hour a day we can’t do it. Saturdays are the one and only day I get to be with my husband, and I am not about spending my day terrorizing my neighborhood with my learning. I am really good at school so I only read the driver manual once and scored 38 out of 40 on my knowledge test and I now have a learners permit. So I guess I am going to hire a driving school and hopefully with the help of professionals I can get over my fears and start being independent. Besides I don’t like going grocery shopping (or any kind of shopping) with Mike, he doesn’t let me buy things I don’t need. What’s the point of shopping if you don’t get one or two thing you don’t need? Right?

The weather has been nice up until today. We love going outside to walk. This is how Lisa rocks the streets. I can’t get enough of these sunglasses.

Also, Lisa has some hair growing very uneven where her bald spot was, so I decided to take her to have her hair cut so it would grow even once and for all. But then I chicken out and only let the lady cut half an inch. Mike said it was the most pathetic first hair cut ever. I guess it was.  She was really good and had a lot of fun riding the “taxi” though.

Mike's B-day

I have known Mike since 2007, and the only time I have surprised him on his birthday was when we had just met and I still called him to wish him a happy birthday. We had just met and for some reason I remembered that it was his birthday and decided to give him a call out of the blue. He said he was very surprised. Other than that year I have been unable to surprise him on his birthday. He always catches me red handed, or he decides to check our checking account, or he just guesses what I am planning, or he actually doesn't like the present. It is so annoying!!

Anyway, this year I decided to send him one of those edible arrangements to work. He likes fruit and chocolate so I figured he would like that. I called the place and arranged for them to deliver the thing right after lunch. At around 1:30 pm Mike calls me and tells me he is coming home early so we can go have dinner together!! UGH!! Then I had to tell him that I had sent him something to his office. He told me he was not going back to his office. So I had to call the place and tell them that we were going to go pick the arrangement ourselves. So at the end Mike had to go pick up his own “surprise”. I think I am going to give up trying to surprise him. . We went out to have dinner, and then we bought Ice cream and ate it with the fruit basket. That is all, we got home at 7:30 and he fell asleep at 8 because he is always so tired.

He turned 28 years old. Needless to say how much I love him. I am really proud of what he has accomplished. He works so hard, sometimes too hard. He is off to work before 7 in the morning and comes back after 7 at night, or later when he goes to school. It is really hard to be alone all day long. Sometimes when he comes home I just want to have him do the dishes or put Lisa to bed, but then I remember that he is also super tired. He is a good husband and tries really hard to make me happy. He is a good man and deserves the best; I hope one day I can surprise him.

Lisa is being crazy like always. I think I have said this before, but she really is an active baby. She has been standing on her little legs since she was 3 months old, the started scooting when she was 5 months old and crawling at 6 months. She has also been walking around furniture for a couple of weeks. Sometimes I am happy she is doing all these things, but then I think that there is no rush. I actually wish she wouldn't be doing some of the things she is doing. Now I have to be extra vigilant because she is all over the place. I remember when I could put her down in the floor and go do something because she couldn't even flip over. Now I cannot do the same, I have to put her in her pack and play while I cook or clean and she hates it, but then if I let her run free she gets into everything, like the dogs food and water. She is being a little fuzzy this week, which is not normal. So I put my finger in her mouth and felt a tooth coming. I do not want them to come yet, I love her toothless smile so much!

I couldn't resist these sunglasses. Mike says it is a stupid thing to buy, but when he saw her he took it back and said she looks too funny! Now he loves when she wears them. I do not know why she doesn't even try to take them off. I thinks she knows is cool.

Ella always eats as soon as we put her food in her bowl. Today she did not and when we turn to see what Lisa was doing she already had some of Ella's food in her hand. Also she splashed water form Ella's bowl all over the floor. Ella is a great dog, she is usually kind of rough when playing, but when Lisa is around she is very gentle. I have been teaching Lisa that it is not okay to pull Ella's ears or tail, and that is not okay to climb on her or run her over. I am of the opinion that kids should not treat animals as toys. The fact that they are gentle and let them do it does not mean they like it. Besides not all animals are as nice as our family pets and our kids should know what to do or not to do with strange animals. I do not know at what point Lisa would get it, but we will keep trying.

Sorry about the blurry pictures. I do not know how to take good pictures of a baby who cannot stay put for a second.

One of the things I said I would never buy was baby shoes. Non walking baby shoes. I thinks there is no need and it might hurt their developing feet. However, I came across this shoes and could not resist. They were on sale and have a Swarovski Crystal detail, besides they are pink! This is another buy that got me in trouble with Mr. Mike, but in my defense this is the second pair of shoes I have ever bought for her and they were less than 15 dollars... Ok I have no defense.

Is hot in Atlanta

Lisa likes to be shirtless now that is hot here in Atlanta. I turned my back for two seconds and she grabbed my FHE assignment and put it in her mouth, then she realized it was not tasty!

Lets blog again

It’s time to blog again. I have had so many people telling me to star blogging again that I felt a little guilty. So many things had happened since I posted the previous pictures of me at 32 weeks pregnant with my Baby Lisa. So I will do my best to write down things as they happened.

MAY:

After months of stalking dogs at adoption events at the Pet smart close to our house I finally got a furry friend. I originally met her at Pet Smart and fell in love with her. I wanted to get a dog that would have a hard time getting adopted because of her appearance. Ella is not a dog that you would consider super cute and fluffy, but since we met her she has given us so much love and devotion that really is impossible not to love her back. Since I was pregnant at the time the rescue volunteers actually turned me down, they told me that they wanted to make sure that Ella would go to her FOREVER home, and being pregnant was something that they consider a reason why people dump their dogs at shelters. Needless to say I got VERY offended that they would conclude I was that type of person. Then they told me that Ella was a very energetic dog and that she wouldn't do well in an apartment, which I thought was very logic. I do not know if you guys has ever watched one of those dog shows on the T.V, but the adopters always say that they knew which one was their dog as soon as they saw him or her. Well, that is exactly what happened to me. When I walked in front of Ella’s cage she tried to reach with her paw, and when I got down to her level she rubbed herself against the cage for me to pet her. I have loved her since. After I got turned down I started looking at shelter, which made me cry so much more than once. Sometimes I would like to be different; sometimes I would love not to care like I do. When I walk through those places my heart hurts for those animals, they are scared, sometimes cold or too hot, they want to be touched and loved. I could not chose one from the shelter, so I wrote back to the Georgia Homeless Pets Rescue and told them that if they did not give me Ella I would go and adopt from somebody else. They immediately answered back to tell me that actually Ella was becoming depressed and needed out. The deal was that we were going to foster her until the baby was born and then wait to see if she was okay with it (not the baby, they were worried about the dog) and then decide whether to adopt her or not. Ella has loved Baby Lisa since day one.

JUNE:

We had a special visit. Mom and Dad Anthony came to Atlanta. It was so nice to see them. They are truly like my parents, I love them so much and it makes me so happy to see them.  They helped us set Baby Lisa’s nursery. They took apart a changing table that Grandpa Larsen made so they could travel with it and then they put it together again here. Sherrie also made a super cute bedding set for the baby’s crib. I think that is one of the most special things someone has done for me. Is hard to admit, but I get really sad very often because I miss my parents, my siblings and my friends and now that we are here by ourselves it gets even harder because I don’t even get to see the Anthony family either. Sherrie took me to the fabric store and let me chose the colors and everything, it was so hard and tiring for her even though I tried to help. I love Lisa’s crib so much and I appreciate all the work Sherrie put into it. I have so many good memories of that visit. It was when they were here that I discovered the most delicious crab spread in the world. I still crave it all the time! We also ate at some very interesting places that Mike has found here in Atlanta. It was sad to see them leave. As I said, since I have been here Dave and Sherrie have been so good to me. They are so special to me.

JULY:

Oh July! The worst and best month of my life so far, I was so big and uncomfortable that I just wanted to disappear. Baby Lisa would not stop moving. I kept asking myself if and when she would sleep. I was being kicked all day long and all night long. I was taking two classes online at the time and I could not sit for more than 30 minutes because she would start kicking me.
With the help of Dara and Aunt Kay Lynn we were able to buy a ticket for my mom so she could be here when Lisa was born. My mom works as a secretary in a Lab, she earns very little money and by law she only had 14 days of vacations. She had told her boss that I was due on August 3^rd but that it could be sooner, or later. I was not having any signs of labor. On July 26^th her boss went into the office and told my mom that I was taking too long to have my baby and that she wanted to go on vacations. She wanted my mom to be in the office while she was gone so she needed my mom to leave the following week. My mom told her that I was not in labor yet and that she only had 14 days. We didn’t want to get my mom here until I went into labor. My mom’s boss said she was sorry but that my mom needed to take her vacations starting Monday July 30^th. Obviously I was devastated, I didn’t want to be induced and I didn’t want my mom to come for nothing. I cried my eyes out the day I had to buy her ticket.  We prayed that I could go into labor on my own while my mom was here. Monday the 30th came and my mom traveled for 18 hours. We went to pick her up at 11:30 at night. At 2:00 am we got back to our apartment. After carefully introducing her to Ella (who later became my mom’s best buddy) we were getting ready to go to bed and we discussed my next day’s appointment. I was going to ask my doctor is he could induce me so that my mom could be here for the delivery. I said my good nights and told my mom I was going to put one more load of laundry in the dryer before I went to bed. When I bent down to pick up the laundry basket… Guess what? My water broke, and off we went to the hospital. Lisa Marielle Anthony was born 12 hours later on July 31^st. I know it’s a cliché, but that day was truly the happiest of our lives. I will never forget the eyes of my baby looking into mine for the first time. I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for granting me that wish, having my mother with me was so special. I always thought Mike was going to be the “Coach” type of husband during the delivery, but actually he just went a little numb. He says he did not know what to say or do to make me feel better. My mom knew and I am grateful for the opportunity to have them both with me at a time when you have no control of anything.

I was extremely lucky to have help for the first three weeks. My mom stayed for two weeks and then Sherrie came right after my mom left. I am so grateful for the things I learned from both.

AUGUST:

Three days after I came from the hospital I had to go take my two finals for my internet classes. I spend all night studying, it was awful. I am very proud of myself, I managed to score A+ in both classes History and Math.

On August 25^th Max was born and on the 26^th my sister’s baby Roberto was born also. I am not sure about the details on Max’s delivery, but my sister broke her water at 2:30 in the morning and her baby was born at 5:00 in the morning. All natural delivery, no pain meds unlike me.  I am so jealous.

SEPTEMBER:

The only thing I can remember from September, besides all the baby duty stuff is that, 1) I got a haircut and 2) I decided to make a tutu for Lisa for Mexico’s independence day (which is actually on September and not on 5 de Mayo) and from then I became a little crazy and made her like 10 tutus.After I figured that Lisa wasn't going to wear all the tutus I decided to make some more and donate them for the rescue dogs. I also made pearl necklaces for the lady dogs for the adoption event.

 
OCTOBER:

We met Dave Romney and his wife to go see BYU play at Georgia Tech. It was very fun to see the difference on the fans. While we were walking towards the stadium a group of Georgia Tech fans were saying that they kept seeing babies all over the place. Did you know that in the stadium they do not have changing tables in the women’s bathrooms but they do have them in the men’s bathroom? I thought it was nice. Mike had to do all the diapers. Lisa did not do so well, she got scared whenever something exciting happened and the fans went crazy. I spent most of the time away from people, but we did have fun being around BYU fans. All the missionaries were there with the mission president.

NOVEMBER:

We went to the pet fair. Ella’s rescue group had a booth there and they had albums with the pictures of all the dogs available for adoption. Since we were fostering Ella she was in those albums and I started getting phone calls from people interested in her. I was not giving her up so I decided that it was time to adopt her into our family officially. She became Ella E. Anthony on November 2^nd .

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving. I traveled with Lisa by myself. It was very stressful. I had to change flights with very little time, but we made it and we had a wonderful time. Mike met us there a week later. We had family pictures taken. Not my favorite thing to do when I still have baby weight on me, but they turned out very well at the end. Baby Lisa was very good with everybody except for Aunt Lisa. I don’t know why. At the end she started liking her, I think.

Mike gave Lisa a beautiful baby blessing. It was really nice to have Baby Lisa's uncles and grandpa there.

Lisa and Ella were pirates for Halloween

DECEMBER:

Lisa and I went to Mexico for Christmas. It was very sad that Mike could not join us. He had taken days off for Thanksgiving and had to stay in Atlanta. Lisa met my Dad and my siblings. It was fun to be there and have so many people eager to help with her. I felt spoiled having somebody wanting to change her diaper, play with her, and give her baths all the time.

My nephew Roberto was baptized in the Catholic Church. The following weeks my Dad asked my sister if it was ok to give the baby a blessing in our church and they said yes. My Dad was very nervous, but he did very well.

 

JANUARY:

We came back from Mexico, it was very sad lo leave. I have never cried so much. I think it was harder to see my family say goodbye to Baby Lisa. It made them very upset; I hope we can go back soon.

I was very happy to see my husband and to come back home. It is interesting how HOME becomes the place where your spouse is. Every time I go somewhere I feel like a visitor now. Mike, Baby Lisa, and Ella are home.

We had been looking for a hose for a while. We live in a really nice area in Sandy Spring Georgia. With our budget we could only afford an apartment or a town home. Mike kept telling me that we could afford a family home if we moved out of Sandy Springs, which is really expensive. I did not want to leave this area, it is just so pretty. I am also used to the ward here and to have the Temple so close (although we are not very good at going lately). Right after I came back from Mexico I went to see a house that had been in the market for 2 days. While I was there with our agent (an LDS agent who was super nice) the agent for the house told us that they had several offers already. I texted Mike that I wanted the place. We put and offer two days later. A week later the agent told us that our offer had been accepted, and that is how we bought our first place.

Mike also started his master at Georgia Tech. He loves it.

FEBRUARY:

We close on our home on the 28^TH and we were supposed to move the next day, but something happened with the wiring of the money and they told us it would take 10 more days. We had to leave our rental apartment on March 1^st.

MARCH:

The agent felt bad that we had to stay in an Extended Stay and gave us the code to get into our place even though it wasn't official. So basically we were evicted from our rental and the we broke in into our place.

March 5^th was my birthday. Mike got in big trouble for mot making an effort to do something special for me. I have not forgiven him yet. Our neighbor Steve gave me a gift card and we went to eat sushi. I LOVE sushi.

Mike’s boss was fired and the temporary Account Manager is actually his professor from Georgia Tech. How is that for a coincidence? He really likes Mike and has already given him a lot of projects. Mike told me that he is going to be super busy. I don’t know how can that happen if Mike already works from 7 in the morning to 7 at night. He has gone for two days without seeing Lisa this weeks, and had to work all day on Saturday.
We also met with Uncle Russ and Aunt Kay Lynn. It was very nice to see family. They took us out for dinner and we had a wonderful time. I love hearing bout their adventures.

Our precious Baby Lisa has been a joy. Here is a timeline (sort of)

1 day old

1 day old

Going home from the hospital

1 week old

1 week old

2 weeks old

3 weeks old

1 month old

1 month old

2 months old

2 months old

3 months old

3 months old

4 months old

4 months old

5 months old

6 months old

6 months old

7 months old

8 months old

8 months old

8 months old

8 months old

8 months old

8 months old