Dedicated to My Sister Becca

The other day we were listening to some classical music on TV, and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture came on. If I remember correctly, this is the song my sister Becca wants played at her funeral, real cannons and all. I don't know how well cannons would work in a church, so I thought something like this would be better.



(For the best part, skip forward to the 5 minute marker on the video when the cannons start flying!)

Sam's First Scripture in Primary

Sam was assigned to give the scripture in Primary today. He practiced all week long and knew it all by heart. As Sunday got closer I would ask him if he would do it all by himself, and said that he wouldn't--grownups are supposed to whisper what to say in kids' ears. That totally brought me back to my cute sister's post about her daughter's Primary talk experience. Sam is far from being shy. He has just been conditioned in the 5 1/2 months he's been in Primary that parents are supposed to whisper kids' talks and scriptures to them.

We got to church early so he could practice saying it in the microphone--something he has been dying to do forever! He said it fine without our help.


But as soon as it was time to do it, he insisted I whisper the words in his ear. He still did great, even though I had to help him. I just wish everyone could have seen this instead (the following video was taken before church in an empty Primary room):

Oh, and if you couldn't understand the scripture reference, he recited Moroni 10:5.

Memorial Day 2010

As I mentioned in the previous post, we decided to not work at our bakery on Memorial Day. We work hard, and decided to give ourselves a break. We wanted to have a nice getaway, but everywhere we thought about going, the forecast said it would rain--north of us, south of us, east of the mountains--everywhere! I really wanted to go camping, but I didn't want to be cold and wet the whole time. So in the end, we took two day trips.

The first day we explored Olympia. The second day, we went to Seattle. We had a year pass to the Seattle Aquarium that expired May 31st, so we went one last time. We started with a yummy breakfast at IHOP, and then caught the bus down to the aquarium (parking downtown is expensive! Plus, Sam really likes taking the bus!).

(For those of you who get my blog posts in your email, to see the following video, I think you have to go to our actual blog at camillataylor.blogspot.com)

Each time we visit the aquarium, we always walk through Pike Market Place, and then have lunch at Subway. Sam just expects it, so we couldn't disappoint.

When we got back home, the rain had stopped and a bit of blue sky was finally starting to peek out, so we decided to try having a BBQ. Though in the end, we only had a little bit of charcoal which was pretty old, so it didn't really work very well at all. We ended up taking our BBQ dinner back up to our apartment and made our hamburgers there. It was still yummy!

Even though our plans didn't go as we had hoped with the rainy weather, we still had a really nice weekend away from responsibility and had a great time being together as a family!

I am our Mailman's Adopted Daughter

Somehow I think I have been adopted as our mailman's daughter he never had. Working at our apartment complex's office, I interact with our mailman just about five days a week. And to top it off, he is also our neighbor and regular customer at the bakery. He enjoys talking to me about his days in the military, about the beaurocratic problems in the United States Postal Service, and about his photography excursions chasing wild animals.

For Christmas, he gave Chris, Sam, and me photographs he had taken--war planes for the boys, and flowers for me (and we gave him a loaf of bread, quite the original present, huh!), he has offered to do a family portrait for us one of these days, though we have never taken him up on the offer.

He frequently tells me that we work too hard and deserve a vacation. He then continues on to list all the cities we could day-trip to and the restaurants we should eat at. When Chris and I were debating what to do with our store for Memorial Day, our mailman encouraged us to not work it and do something fun.

When we decided to follow his advice and actually take a break away from our store for Memorial Day, I told him were thinking about going camping (though in the end we did day trips to Olympia and then to Seattle instead of camping), and he freaked out on me afraid that something bad would happen to us.

Him: Do you know the difference between a Black Bear and a Grizzly Bear?

Me: No.

So he drew me a picture of each kind and explained how to handle each situation if we happened to run into one.

He also went over the basics of snake bites, spider bites, what to do if we run into other types of potentially dangerous wildlife, where to store our food, etc. He asked if we had a good enough camping equipment and knew the basics of camping. Yes, Mr. Mailman, we have been camping before. We're not totally ignorant! He probably repeated the phrases, "Just be safe" and "Just be careful out there" five or six times!

It was kind of funny and sweet that he cares about our safety. I just wish he would care less about our mail--he can get pretty nosey sometimes!

(and in case you were wondering the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear, here is a little lesson for you in case the pictures don't give you enough information. Black bears are smaller and have bigger ears. Grizzly bears have a shoulder hump and have smaller ears. They also have different profiles as you can see in the sketches.)

Sam Learns About Prayer

A few weeks ago, Sam and I were going through our bedtime routine of stories, brushing teeth, and saying our prayers. As I was tucking him, he was saying how he was scared that he would have bad dreams, so I told him that we could say another pray to Heavenly Father for help to have good dreams and not be afraid. Our little prayer went something like this:

"Heavenly Father, Sam needs help. Please help him to have good dreams and to sleep well all night long. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I finished tucking him in and went in the other room. About 45 minutes later, Sam came running out of the room with a huge grin on his face.

"It worked, Mom! The prayer worked! I had a good dream about Team GeoTrax (a movie and toy that he has)!

Prayer works! And Sam knows it too!

Happy 10 Year Anniversary Class of 2000

Major life changes since high school:

• Went to Southern Virginia College for a year and a half
• Went on a mission to Switzerland, France, and Luxembourg
• Married Chris
• Gave birth to our cute Sam
• Graduated from the University of Utah
• Taught one year of middle school French
• Became a small business owner
  

Here's to 10 more years of adventures!

(and I think Chris and I look pretty much the same...maybe we need makeovers!)