TJ climbing a tree
The beginning of this week was fairly routine. Tim worked on his homework and I trained with Spencer in the morning and worked on odds and ends during the day. This week I've been working a lot on preparing primary lessons for August, comparison shopping (Amazon vs Sam's Club vs Wal-mart) for our school year groceries, and our paper adoption profile.
Primary lessons are a bit unique in our branch. Since we teach sharing time over the phone it makes it difficult to do engaging lessons with games and visual aids. To help with this, we prepare a month's worth of lessons in advance and create a packet with activities, pictures, and handouts for the kids. We then mail the packets to each of the family at least 2 weeks before the month begins so they are sure to have their packets before the first Sunday. It can be a bit stressful to have to plan everything all at once, but it's nice to have it all planned in advance.
I've been working on creating a spreadsheet with prices for the items we want to buy for the next 9 months. We would like to purchase as many items as we can from amazon with free shipping, because then we don't have to worry about shipping it. However, it is often a lot more expensive to buy things from amazon because they will add in the shipping cost plus some to the price of the item. I spent lots of hours comparing prices and at first was getting really frustrated because it was really time consuming and it seemed like I was finding nothing to buy on amazon. The longer I worked on it though, the more productive it seemed to be. I've actually found quite a few good deals. I still have several hours of searching to go though. The plus side is that from September-May I won't have to do much shopping at all.
Over a year ago Tim and I put together our online adoption profile and adoption website. We also made up some pass along cards. However, we've had on our to do list for quite some time to make a paper profile. Some potential birth mothers don't have access to internet or prefer looking at physical profiles. Because of this, our agency has a binder of profiles for these girls to take home and look through. Putting together a paper profile for this binder has been a big project the last few weeks. (Thanks for all those who have given suggestions and critiques.) Sometime next week I will get a bunch printed so we can send them to our agency. However, I would love to print up extras for anyone else that may be interested. I don't know if any of you have connections to any businesses or organizations that may be appropriate to carry something like this, but if so, let me know. Comment on this post, email, call, or text me if you think that you may be interested in some of the paper profiles.
Primary lessons are a bit unique in our branch. Since we teach sharing time over the phone it makes it difficult to do engaging lessons with games and visual aids. To help with this, we prepare a month's worth of lessons in advance and create a packet with activities, pictures, and handouts for the kids. We then mail the packets to each of the family at least 2 weeks before the month begins so they are sure to have their packets before the first Sunday. It can be a bit stressful to have to plan everything all at once, but it's nice to have it all planned in advance.
I've been working on creating a spreadsheet with prices for the items we want to buy for the next 9 months. We would like to purchase as many items as we can from amazon with free shipping, because then we don't have to worry about shipping it. However, it is often a lot more expensive to buy things from amazon because they will add in the shipping cost plus some to the price of the item. I spent lots of hours comparing prices and at first was getting really frustrated because it was really time consuming and it seemed like I was finding nothing to buy on amazon. The longer I worked on it though, the more productive it seemed to be. I've actually found quite a few good deals. I still have several hours of searching to go though. The plus side is that from September-May I won't have to do much shopping at all.
Over a year ago Tim and I put together our online adoption profile and adoption website. We also made up some pass along cards. However, we've had on our to do list for quite some time to make a paper profile. Some potential birth mothers don't have access to internet or prefer looking at physical profiles. Because of this, our agency has a binder of profiles for these girls to take home and look through. Putting together a paper profile for this binder has been a big project the last few weeks. (Thanks for all those who have given suggestions and critiques.) Sometime next week I will get a bunch printed so we can send them to our agency. However, I would love to print up extras for anyone else that may be interested. I don't know if any of you have connections to any businesses or organizations that may be appropriate to carry something like this, but if so, let me know. Comment on this post, email, call, or text me if you think that you may be interested in some of the paper profiles.
| paper_adoption_profile.pdf |
Thursday around noon, my mom, Tim, and I left for Utah. Gus and Cynthia (my brother and sister-in-law) invited us to come stay for a few days in celebration of Julia's baptism. We took my mom down to their house in Mapleton and then Tim and I left to see his sister's Kaylin and Melissa in Salt Lake. It was good too see them. The visit was a bit too short, but I guess it was better than nothing.
It was really fun to stay with the Gharts. We miss seeing family during the school year when we're in Alaska and we just can't get enough of it during summer vacation. Friday we went to the museum of art on BYU campus and had a pizza picnic lunch at the duck pond. We watched movies, played games, and ate good food. We packed in as much fun in one day as we could.
Saturday morning was Julia's baptism which meant more family. All the Hart's in the Utah and Idaho area showed up as well as all the Christensen's (Cynthia's family). I think we had about 50 people at the brunch following Julia's baptism.
Spencer, Lisa, and I took off from the party a little early to head to Stansbury. Next week we're racing in a triathlon there and we wanted to familiarize ourselves with the route. Lisa's husband Rob met us there and we went for a 22 mile bike ride and then a 1/2 mile swim. It was a lot of fun and it made me excited for the race next week.
Saturday evening we stayed at the Black's house. Once again staying up too late talking and enjoying one another's company. Spencer, my mom, Tim and I drove back to Idaho this morning. Spencer needed to be back to teach Sunday school and I also needed to teach primary. Of course, since I teach over the phone, it didn't really matter where I was as long as I had a quiet place with a good phone. :)
Summer vacation is quickly slipping away! We're trying to enjoy every minute of it.
It was really fun to stay with the Gharts. We miss seeing family during the school year when we're in Alaska and we just can't get enough of it during summer vacation. Friday we went to the museum of art on BYU campus and had a pizza picnic lunch at the duck pond. We watched movies, played games, and ate good food. We packed in as much fun in one day as we could.
Saturday morning was Julia's baptism which meant more family. All the Hart's in the Utah and Idaho area showed up as well as all the Christensen's (Cynthia's family). I think we had about 50 people at the brunch following Julia's baptism.
Spencer, Lisa, and I took off from the party a little early to head to Stansbury. Next week we're racing in a triathlon there and we wanted to familiarize ourselves with the route. Lisa's husband Rob met us there and we went for a 22 mile bike ride and then a 1/2 mile swim. It was a lot of fun and it made me excited for the race next week.
Saturday evening we stayed at the Black's house. Once again staying up too late talking and enjoying one another's company. Spencer, my mom, Tim and I drove back to Idaho this morning. Spencer needed to be back to teach Sunday school and I also needed to teach primary. Of course, since I teach over the phone, it didn't really matter where I was as long as I had a quiet place with a good phone. :)
Summer vacation is quickly slipping away! We're trying to enjoy every minute of it.
