Hi All
Sorry it has been so long since we had a new post. We have been pretty busy down here. Last week went by very quickly. Monday, Matthew had classes during the day and then basketball practice in the evening. I had Christi (the little boy I babysit) all day.
Tue, Matthew had classes all day and I had Christi.
Wed, Matthew had, I bet you can guess, classes all day, and this is his long day. He doesn't get home till after 6pm. I don't have Christi on Wed's so Luke and I went to the store. It was a long shopping trip as our grocery has the slowest check out you have ever seen, and we always have two orders since we have to use our WIC checks separate from the rest of the groceries. Luke passed the time by taking all the candy off the shelves and bringing it to me. Luckily I had M&M's in the diaper bag for the car ride home. They were a life saver. It probably took us at least 30min to unload the car because Luke wanted to carry things in the house too, but then got distracted with caterpillars and other things on the way from the car to the house and would set down the grocery he was caring and bring me something else in the house instead. I had to keep looking out for things I had given Luke to carry and make sure they all ended up in the house:). So far it looks like Wed was my busy day.
Thur, Matthew, more classes and I had Christi. Then we had a STS 70th anniversary Banquet we had to go to. Matthew had an invitation that said we were cordially invited, so naturally that meant it was required of him to go. Make sense to you? It doesn't to us either. Like we have said before, communication back her is really, really, really, awfully. The dinner wasn't bad though. The food was good and we were some of the first to get our food so that was really nice. Always sit close to the food tables. The speaker after dinner was terrible though. I had taken Luke for a walk around the Seminary so I didn't hear it but everyone said it was awful. Matthew will have to write something later, I am just glad I wasn't there to hear it. After the banquet we came home to eat root beer floats and watch the world series. That was the best part of our day.
Fri was great. All Matthew's classes were canceled and he didn't have to go in to do his chore because he got someone to cover for him. So we slept in to 9am. That is it latest we have slept in since we have been here. It was great!! We woke up refreshed and got to eat breakfast together. Boy was that something I realized I missed. We never get to do that anymore. So Fri we did nothing, except play games and rest. It was a well earned day of rest for all of us.
Sat, Matthew went to Liturgy in the morning, as required, and I stayed home with Luke because he woke up with a fever and I didn't want to take him out. When Matthew got home Luke was doing better so we went out to an Orchard/Cider Mill to get someones Christmas present. I can't say who or what because too many people read this and that person would surly find out. We didn't stay long because it was cold and rainy. We had wanted to stay and go through there corn maze and watch the cider being made but it was too wet and when we got there we just weren't in the mood. Anyway, we were on our way to pick up our discount food. We ordered food this month from an organization called Angel Food Ministries. Groups, usually churches, can become members of this ministry and they distribute food to people. Somehow they get a deal on the food, mostly meats. You have to order a month in advance. The food comes in different specials you can choose to order. You have to order the main box which is $30 but is worth somewhere between $50-75. This box has different meats (steaks, pork chops, chicken breasts, meat loaf, chicken fajita strips, meatballs, hot dogs) then we got pasta, sauce, juice, cookies, eggs, milk, corn tortillas, frozen veggies and other stuff I can't remember. Then there are other specialty meat boxes you can get for $21 worth between $40-60, we got steaks, ribs, hamburger and pork chops, a total of 7lb. There are also other different combinations of meats not always equal to 7lb. We just got the biggest box. You have to order for each month as the menu changes ever month. There are no income guidelines, which is nice so anyone can order. There slogan is "If you eat you qualify". I estimated with all the stuff we got (we got one main box and one special box) we will get at least 30 main courses out of it plus the other stuff, veggies, juice, milk, eggs, cookies etc, for $51. Not a bad deal!! I won't have to buy meat till after Christmas and since that is where most of my money goes at the groceries store we will hopefully save some money on food the next couple of months. We got back from the orchard and picking up our food and cane home and relaxed the rest of the day until we had to leave for Vespers. Luke wasn't feeling well on Fri so he slept most of the time we were out driving which ended up being about an hour and a half. Then he came home and took a nap after lunch for 2hr. Poor baby. Thankfully it only lasted about 24hrs. So now it looks like Sat was our busiest day. Boy, it looks a lot worse written down. I didn't think it was actually that bad.
Sun we left for Church at 6:30am and got home around 1pm. Then we had Daniel (a seminary student in the same year as Matthew) Elizabeth (his wife) and Nona (their 18 month old daughter) over for dinner. We had a really good time. They stayed for about 3 hr and only left because the kids were getting tired. They are about our age and have been married 3 years same as us. I think we are going to try and have someone over every week or every other week so we can get to know people better. I should be fun. If anyone has any good menu ideas for fasting let me know.

Well I have to go give Luke a bath and put him to bed so I can eat Cheese cake and watch the world series.

Have a good night
Love Stasia

PS.
Here are some of the new words Luke is saying.
ball
football
hot
bear
dog
book
please
me me (we think this is like mine)
Christi
car