What’s Walmart?

We watched Wall-E today and had a talk about it in the car today.

Ella: Is Buy-N-Large real? 

Me:  No, but there are stores just like it where you can buy basically anything.  At Walmart you can buy almost anything you can imagine.  Name something.

Ella: Chair

Me: Yes

Isaac: Legos!

Me:  Yes.

Owen: Milk

Me: Yes. Do you remember going to Walmart?

Ella:  Yeah, I saw the Easter bunny there when I was three. (In Oregon). 

Me:  Right, and remember last summer when we bought some live goldfish for grandma in Utah? 

Isaac:  Yeah, there was SO MUCH STUFF at that store!

Me:  That was at Walmart.

Ella: No, because Walmart is in Oregon. 

Me:  Well, you know how we have two McDonald’s here, one in town, and one in Tafuna?  There’s more than one Walmart too. 

Isaac:  So Utah has 2 Walmarts? 

Me: Utah has like 100 Walmarts.  They’re everywhere all over the country.  And then there’s Costco which is like our CostULess.  You can buy big packages of stuff.  They even sell gas and TV’s and tires, maybe even cars or houses!  I don’t know.

Ella and Isaac:  Wow!


As I ponder returning to "normal" life, I don't know how I'll be able to fit into a society I've been so critical of, yet jealous of, for so long.  I hope my kids can hang on to--at least for a little while-- the simple mindset we've become so accustomed to here.  Where choice is limited to availability.  And as frustrating as that is, it's just fine.

Melinda and Ephraim 1999

Raise your hand if you remember these days.  

We just scanned and fixed these photos yesterday. Just wanted to share. 

I'm seriously considering that haircut.

Photo credit: Lovely Pammy Palmer

Farm Game

Ma Temple is remarkable.  What amazing thing has she done now?  Well, have a look.

Ephraim's family used to play a Farm game and a Bible board game when he was young.  Ma wanted to share them with her grandkids, but the games are obsolete now.  So she copied, cut, and glued all the pieces (and these games are piece intensive), covered other second-hand game boards with the copies she'd made, and mailed it all to us.

Last weekend our family tried the games.  They were a BIG HIT!

These photos are from the Farm game.  I don't know where it came from but it's awesome!  It's set up similarly to Monopoly, but the rules are way different.  You have to build your own organic farm. vIf you land on "Poisonous Pesticides" you have to go to Ecology School, lose a turn and give 1 token back to the Co-op.  Some cards have Burma-Shave ads.  When you win you get to wear the "Organic Farmer of the Year" pin ... until the next time you play!

 Ephraim had so much fun remembering playing with his family.  This booklet talks about rules, AND it gives information about Land Grants, agriculture policies, and farm business.

 This card gives you tokens for using frogs as natural pest control.

Thank you Ma Temple!

Coming Up for Air

May was so hard.  The end of May especially.  It was so busy.  Every aspect of my life required a lot of attention.  I struggled through each day.  Now in the middle of June, I'm putting pieces of life back together and enjoying the peace of being at home all day.

Now that I'm coming up for air, I'll post about life. Some events I may or may not post about are:
Linus had a birthday, we brought treats for the class.
We said goodbye to some good friends.  May is a time many people leave.
Ella's feet fell apart, she couldn't walk for a week, and had to go to the doctor a few times.
Ella had a birthday.  And was baptized.
We took our friends children to the beach on Memorial Day.  10 kids in one car.
We got five days notice that we had to move back to our old house.  During the last week of school.
We had to get our phone and internet moved next door, which can take weeks, but only took days.
We had to live between two houses a few days.  Dishes in one house, food in the other, like that.
We had a music festival at school, which I helped organize and direct.
We had a kindergarten graduation, fortunately I only had to show up and conduct. (Thank you organized teachers!)
Our principal had to go off island the last week of school, so as Vice I was in charge.
We had Samoan Day, an Awards Ceremony and our first ever Eighth grade graduation, I was in charge.
We had to coordinate report cards, finals, clean up, paychecks, student records, etc. all in that week.
Ephraim lost the car keys at the beach, then found them hours later after walking two miles in the dark.
We had to clean up and give back the big car we were borrowing, and pick up the small car we're borrowing. (Our windshield should come end of June.)
My masters program classes began online, requiring family cooperation, and internet service.
In church we had to do trainings, visits, meetings, and one of my counselors left for the summer.
We endured the normal joys of life with four little kids- little sleep at night, sick husband, dinner, dishes, chores, etc.

I was given some wise advise to choose good days--to choose to see the good that comes each day.  We have been very blessed.  My children a superstars, and Ephraim and I are noticing our capacity increasing.  I'm reminded of a scripture, "And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions;.. yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me." (Alma 36:27)  I know many people who have long term trials and concerns, and I admire and pray for them.  I know our trials are very individual.  I wouldn't trade my basket of burdens for anyone else's, because they're meant for me.

This is not supposed to be a "Wo is me" post.  More like a "Whoa, this is me" post.  I guess I'm growing up, and becoming a big girl finally.  But thank heaven for June and July--I need a break.

Memorial Day

We like to make our Memorial Days memorable.  This time we were looking after the Monsons kids for the day while Helen and Michael were in New Zealand having the time of their lives.  We took the kids to Sliding Rock.  The ocean was pretty rough, so we had to be on guard, but they had fun in the pools and on the sand.

 Part of the fun was riding in the Yukon.  Ten hyped up kids belting "We Are the Champions". Now that's memorable!

Smaller Wheels

Remember how our car was vandalized, oh, in April?  So we've been car-beggars for a few months now.  Recently we went from this one (Thank you Pili's):

to this one (Thank you Lowson's):

Although our kids don't legally fit inside, it's okay.  The gas mileage is A.MAZE.ING.  We went from spending $100/week to $25/week.  Love that.  Shouldn't we all downsize?

We're just happy for amazing friends who've helped us keep going.

Ella's Baptism

On June 2nd Ella was baptized.  It was a lovely day.  We'd all been looking forward to it for a long time.  Ephraim and I were amazed that we're old enough to have an 8-year old!

Baptism is a special time.  In our church, we follow the example of Jesus Christ's baptism.  A person must be at least eight years old to be able to make that decision for himself or herself.  The baptism is performed by a person who hold the priesthood power of God, which Ephraim does.  And the baptism is by immersion, the person goes completely under the water, which represents a death and rebirth as a disciple of Christ.  Ella had made her decision to be baptized.  She said she wanted to follow Christ's example and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  We support her in her great decision.

For the program Ella and Isaac sang "As a Child of God" in a sweet duet.  I love when they sing together.  Ella's primary teacher Sister Sewell spoke, and Ephraim spoke.  The baptism was lovely, and the confirmation was very special.

Funny picture from the "cleanest" person around.

Ella was too shy to share her feelings in front of everyone, but the next day at church she was given a chance in testimony meeting where she read what she wanted to share.  She was so brave!  She talked about the peace she'd felt when we'd gone to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House in Utah a few years ago in 2009.  She felt so happy and peaceful.  She knew it was a house of God.  That's where she first knew what the Spirit felt like.

My Fillmore family has a tradition for baptisms.  When my oldest sister Shellie was getting baptized, my mom sewed her two white dresses, one to wear to the church, and one to be baptized in.  Ever since then, every girl in my family has worn those same two dresses.  I wore them, all my sisters wore them, and all my nieces have worn them.  As a girl uses the dress, her name and baptismal date is stitched into the hem of the church dress.  A few weeks ago my mom sent the dresses to me for Ella's baptism.  We were so excited to participate in this special family tradition.

Now it was my turn to stitch Ella's name in the hem.  I thought it would be easy, but it WASN'T.  I was in the process of moving next door, so I didn't have all my sewing supplies.  I had to make do with the tiny sewing kit I had handy, so the Ella's name is in the darkest color thread, it was all I had.  I started stitching, and it always looked pretty bad, so I unpicked it three different times.  Think about it, my sisters have a million kids, quite a few girls.  I only have ONE GIRL.  This is my ONLY chance with this dress.  I had to sew it nicely.  On my fourth time I worked carefully, and though I'm not totally pleased with how it turned out, it's good enough.

  Ephraim and Ella prepared a special treat Sunday evening.  Cinnamon raisin bubble bread.  Delicious!

We love this girl!

Ella's 8

May 30th is a special day in our house.  It's Ella's Birthday.  And this year she turned eight.  We posted 8 eights around the house for her to find in the morning.

      

 In the late morning my helpers made two cakes for Ella's birthday.  It was a messy process, but we made swirl cupcakes for her class.

 In the evening Ephraim and Ella decorated her perfect eight-year-old birthday cake to her exact specifications.

 And she got lots of books for gifts.  She ready them all within a week!

 Isaac made Ella an iPod touch:

We love Ella so much.  She's a lovely girl and a huge blessing to me.

Isacc's Kindergarten Graduation

Isaac is our proud graduate of Kindergarten!  The teachers planned a nice ceremony at the church.  And being the vice principal of the school, I got to conduct the meeting, which was a real treat for me.  Isaac's awesome teacher Ms. Helen had them sing "We are the Champions" by Queen with lyrics modified to reflect their math and spelling lessons.  It was really cute, and my kids have been singing it around the house ever since.


He was really excited about all his lei's.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Helen.

Isaac is really curious about many things, especially animals, technology, and space.  He's the kid who raises his hand to tell you random science facts in class.  He's definitely making Ephraim proud.  Isaac has become much more mature this year--practicing more self-control, expressing his feelings with words, and thinking of other people's feelings.  He still has that great smile and sparkly eyes, and he always tries to make people laugh.  He's always been that way.  We love this boy.  He is a champion!