Sammy Goes to Africa

My friend, Sam Kariya, is part of an organization called Koins for Kenya. It is an organization that helps provide education supplies for schools in Africa. They build schools, put in sewage drains, build playgrounds, and gather school supplies. It is unbelievable the types of things that these schools do NOT have! Sam's family has been involved with this for a long time and have made several trips to Africa to help out. Anyway, they are going out on a new excursion on the 22nd of July and need our help. I have posted this blog (copied from Sam's blog) of a simple way we can help. They need pencils. I'll let you read the post, but if you would like to help, you can drop off some pencils at my parents house in Aurora, or mail them there (PO Box 111, Aurora, UT 84620) I'll make sure that Sam gets these before she leaves for Africa. There are lots of other ways to help to. So, if you would like to know more about it, visit her blog: http://sammygoestoafrica.blogspot.com/ Thanks everyone!!!

Keeping it Simple

The more I go to Africa, the more I realize you gotta keep it simple.

This year my mom and I want to take enough pencils for every student...(we're talking thousands. Simple just got complicated.)

So here's the deal, we need your help!

We are looking for brand new pencils, the fancier the better! (except mechanical)

I think all-a-dollar has them in large quantities for cheap.

And I bet if you look around your house you might find some!

Let me know, I'll pick them up from you.

We are also going to provide pencil sharpeners for each school, which run from $20-$50 a piece. If you'd like to donate specifically to this project, let me know.

Background info: children in Africa learn without the benefit of pencil or paper. If they are lucky enough to ever get a pencil, it is sharpened with a knife.

Last year, as my mom was sitting in her classroom,

having just done an Africa presentation for her students, one of those students walked back into her room.

He held in his hand a pencil box overflowing with pencils.

Sparkly pencils, smiley face pencils, birthday pencils, you name it, he had it!

He held the box out, and told my mom he wanted her to take it to Africa. Of course she was excited, but curious as to where he had come up with all of them, she asked. To which he replied,

"I have been collecting these since kindergarten. And I want you to have them."

Being the emotional person that she is, my mom started to cry and told him she couldn't take his collection. But he insisted.

So, off she went to Kenya with a box full of beautiful pencils. After arriving in Kenya, she took the pencils and walked to one of the schools Koins has built--

a very primitive two-room building.

Upon arriving, she asked the headmaster if there was anything they needed. Mind you, they have no water, no school lunch, no books, no desks. So, much to her surprise, the first word out of his mouth was "pencils."

Because of that generous boy, she was able to hand him the treasured box of beautiful pencils.

Once again, don't ever underestimate your ability to make a difference.

Peyton's Giggle!!! HILARIOUS!

This is SOOO FUNNY!!! I was at a friend's house and her dog was playing with a toy--growling and running around. Peyton just started giggling. Then my friend Kylie got into it with her and she laughed harder and harder! I was wiping tears off my face because I was laughing so hard! It went on and on for like 15 minutes-- so long that you can see in the background that my friends just went back to crafting. What a child I have. :) She makes me so happy. I'm so lucky to have such a happy baby with such a fun personality.

Summer fun!

I haven't posted anything about summer in Georgia yet. We have been having a good time. Dave has been working really hard out in the humidity selling security systems for APX. Peyton and I have been playing, swimming, napping, etc... Well, my life hasn't been that easy I guess. I am still doing accounting work online for a firm out of Salt Lake, as well as taking a Master's class online. So between work, school, and Peyton, I stay pretty busy. We do make time to enjoy ourselves though and here are a few pics of that.

THE GEORGIA AQUARIUM

A few weeks ago we went to the Georgia Aquarium. It is supposed to be the largest one in the United States and the ONLY aquarium in the world to have a whale shark. They are HUGE! Other than that we saw giant sting rays, huge fish, different kinds of sharks, beluga whales, crabs, and other things. It was a fun day.

It was the perfect activity to do with a baby. Even Peyton thought it was all so neat. She just stared at the water and fish with awe! She was so happy all day long :)

This is the whale shark. When I think of whale, I think of huge and slow. When I think of shark I think of sharp teeth and ferociousness. He must be mostly whale because he didn't attack anything. :(

These were the cool jellyfish. I had never seen one before. They were so cool to see blob around.

This is a group of our friends out here. We have been lucky to find such a fun group of people. They all like going out and having fun on Saturday nights after a long week of work. We're the only ones with a baby in this group, but they don't seem to mind us toting the little princess everywhere we go. :)

OUR APARTMENT IN CARTERSVILLE, GEORGIA

Here are the apartments that we live in. (Thanks Jenny for the pictures!) We are actually living in Cartersville about 45 minutes North of Atlanta. It is such a nice little place.

Here's the gorgeous pool that we spend a lot of time in. Peyton LOVES the pool. I usually keep her in as long as she can stand it, then go outside to the pool for a few hours. She kicks and squeal and just loves it! I've been getting a pretty good tan, so I can't complain either. :)

Georgia is the home of Coca-Cola. The Coke museum is right next to the aquarium. We didn't go but heard that it is pretty neat and you get free coke samples. This Coca-Cola wall is the place where Coca-Cola was first sold. :) My friend Jenny Cox took these pictures and told me the story. I thought it was neat so I'd share it with the rest of you (thank Jenny)!

These two are of downtown Cartersville. It is such a cute little place with old fashioned shops, railroads, and other cute stuff.

DINNER AT SISTER BOYCE'S HOUSE

A lady in our ward named Sister Kelley invited our whole APX group over for a potluck dinner one Sunday. I bet we had about 50 people there! We all brought something and there was plenty of food to go around. She is such a cute lady.

This is what I brought. It started out as just scooped out watermelon balls, but then I thought it needed some more color so I added orange slices... then apples... then cherries and strawberries. Once I started I couldn't stop the creative juices from flowing, so this is what I ended up with. Way more than I had intended on doing at first. :)

Here are all the tech wives and sales wives (almost everyone anyway). It's sort of funny--all the tech wives have brown hair, and all the salesman's wives have blonde hair. Weird huh?

In the middle of all of us here is Sister Kelley. She is the greatest! She is actually from Taiwan, so she and Dave always speak in Mandarin together. :) They BOTH love it.

ROCK N' RHYME BABY TIME

The Cartersville library does an activity for babies every Wednesday morning. They sing songs, play with toys, see puppet shows, and learn little things. Me and my friend Cortnee took our babies and they seemed to really like it! Peyton has always loved books, but this was something more. She was a little shy at first to be around so many others, but she warmed up. It was really fun for both she and I to get out with some friends and do something different.

(I promise we usually don't match. I got there and realized we were both wearing pink shirts and khaki shorts!)

I love those pretty blue eyes!

This is Cortnee and baby Zoey. Peyton gets so excited when she sees Zoey. They are cute little friends :)

PEYTON & MOMMY

Just trying to pass the day away by playing on Dave's computer!

And here is me and Peyton being bored! This little girl must have been a monkey in her last life because she loves to be upside-down! I wish I could even start to tell you how much I love this little monkey. We play and giggle all day long! I never knew having a baby would be so much fun. Had I known how cute and how fun she would be, I probably would have had a honeymoon baby. :) My life is just so much more fun with her!

Family Time:

Before we came out here to Georgia, we had a few weeks that we got to spend with our families in Utah. It was so good to spend time with them before leaving for the long summer. My family hadn't been able to spend much time with Peyton, so I think everyone enjoyed those few weeks. Here are some fun pictures of things we did. :)

My mom's 2nd grade class is doing a reading unit on a chinese girl. The students have seen some chinese characters and learned a few words, so my mom asked Dave to come in and speak to them and teach them a little more about the language and culture. It was really neat. While he taught, my mom read Peyton a book. Here it looks like she is reading herself a book--my little genius baby! She LOVES books. I've read them to her since before she was born and they just make her so excited!

Some of the kids started asking Dave how to say weird words and after we left he admitted that he made up some of them. ;) He is such a good teacher. The kids REALLY enjoyed having him. After he left and I would go to my mom's class they'd always say, "You're the one with the Chinese husband!" :) kids...

As an early Father's Day gift, we all pitched in and bought my dad a Border Collie. He had wanted one for quite a while. They named her Izzy. this is the first day that we brought her home. Izzy was still a little timid, but Peyton was way excited! She loves dogs!

I fed Peyton some baby food carrots and Izzy thought she'd help me clean her up. I love Peyton's chubby-cheek facial expression here!


Playing outside with Anna's new swingset

Anna LOVES Peyton and even shares her seat with her on the swing. :) They are such cute cousins.

Peyton in the bouncer

Out for a morning walk. Both babies are like, "Really, a picture now?" Anna is at least attempting to humor me with a forced "Cheese" under her binki. :)

3 College Graduates!

I started this post a long time ago and for some reason never published it. So again, here's a late one, but better late than never right?

In April my family had 3 college graduates. I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Accounting on April 10th. I have clusters (mini-minors) in Business and Spanish. It was kind of a long road that started with my first two years at SUU, then a mission, and my last two years at BYU-Idaho. Just before graduation I got the honor of receiving the Newell K. Whitney Award for an Outstanding Accounting Student. It is an award given to 5 accounting graduates each semester based on GPA, service, future ambition, and character. I was VERY surprised to receive it. I'm still unsure on why they picked me for one of the awards...

My parents came up for graduation then helped us move out of Rexburg. Just before the ceremony started, Peyton blew out of her diaper, so she is wrapped up in her carseat cover. :) Six years after high school, a mission, marriage and a baby, I finally made it! I would like to say that's the end of school for me, but I start a Masters of Accounting program at SUU in the fall. Then after that, I'll study for a few months and take the CPA exam, and THEN be done... so I still have a while. :s

At the end of April the twins graduated from Utah College of Dental Hygiene. Their journey started with their Associates and pre-reqs at Snow College, then because they are so smart and amazing they got accepted to Dental Hygiene school their first try! (I like to brag on them) They studied VERY hard over the past years both in the books and in practice as they pulled all of us in for cleanings and made me call numerous hispanics for their appointments too. They had national boards and all sorts of hoops to jump through, but they made it! My parents are so proud of them. Luckily they really are done done. No more school for those lucky/smart girls! Lana has already landed a great job in Richfield, and Lindsey will be looking for one in Kentucky when her and Wes get settled there for his Orthodontic schooling.

Not to change the subject, but I love this picture of my dad and Peyton. She just loves him :)

2 proud hubbies and their beautiful/graduated wives. I'm sure they are just as happy as the twins are to have all that stress over!