Chapman

Caci and I had a good time at our stake conference here in Ventura, CA. Today President Wood of the 7o spoke. What an eloquent speaker. One interesting and funny story he told was of his call to the stake council when he was younger. A visiting authority told all who were called that he would just be setting apart without blessing because he a plane to catch (back in that day the visiting authority set apart everyone from the nursery to the stake) and that if they did their job, they would recieve blessing. Well, it went just like that, “I set you apart…Amen.” When the visiting authority got to President Wood he paused and asked if he knew him. President Wood told him that they did not know eachother but that he knew his brother who served as a missionary under his hand when he, the visiting authority, served as a Mission President. “Ralph Wood?! Are you the brother of Ralph Wood? Why young man, you need a blessing!” And so he was set apart and blessed. In President Wood’s words the blessing went as follows: “… and now I give you a blessing, that as you come to know these men in this stake that lead these saints, you will come to find out that they are nothin’ but a bunch of rascals - but its the best the Lord has to work with. And as you magnify your calling, you will find that you’re nothin’ but a rascal too! Amen.” He then related that to the humbling experiences of Moses, trading the word “man” with “Moses” being nothing, which thing he had never supposed. It was a wonderful talk.

Well! Usually the family is running in horror at the excess of pictures of me! If all I have to do to have everyone begging for my picture was get fat, I would have done it a long time ago! This was taken about 5 minutes ago—22 weeks 3 days!

Yesterday was SOOO much fun!! We got up super early at 6:00am and headed down to San Diego to spend the day at Sea World. IT WAS SO FUN!! We saw so many awesome shows such as the “Pet’s Rule” show where dogs, cats, birds, and pigs did the CUTEST show. Then we saw the sea lion show where these two cute sea lions are trying to save their submarine from sinking, and then the dolphin show where the dolphins did incredible stunts, and then we saw the Shamu show which was very inspirational. We also went to the Bat Ray pool where we got to feed the Bat Rays and touch them. They were so slimy and rubbery and it was SOOOO cool!!!! They would suck on your hand thinking you had fish and it would tickly like a vacuum; it was AWESOME. And then we went to the starfish pool and those were AWESOME, too. We went to the dolphin pool but it they kept swimming JUST out of our reach—always 4”-5” away, just teasing us. I was very frustrated. Then we went to the Shark Reef and saw all the incredible sharks. The freshwater aquarium was really cool, too, because of the piranha, electric eels, albino fish, and all kinds of things. The whole park was just SOOOO cool! OH! And we went to this acrobatic show with all these gymnasts, acrobats, ring twirler people, etc. It was AMAZING! These people were SO strong and were doing all kinds of amazing stunts into the water which was in the open bay. It was cool. We also got to go to In n Out (We have only gone twice this summer! Last summer we ate there almost every day!)

I have not been able to find many cute maternity shirts (besides the ones Lia lent me), so I went to the fabric store to make my own. I got a bunch of really cute fabric, and then came home to make my creations. My first shirt was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute but WAY too small. I guess I was making it to my pre-pregnancy size rather than now, so its back to the drawing board.

Trevor has been having a great time watching 24—its awesome and we recommend it to all. He now is dead set on becoming president of the United States and is calculating how he can get rich and in the political circle before the age of 35 when he can run. He is already working on his campaign ideas and political platform—he is just too funny!

As an update on Alex—he is becoming very hostile. I don’t think he likes California. He has seemed very depressed ever since we got here, so I went and bought him some friends—5 goldfish. We put them in, and then about 2 hours later we went to see how they were adapting. The tank was all cloudy and then, out of the murky cloud, like on a horror movie, three mangled fish carcasses appeared against the glass. We think it was a warning from Alex. It was very scary and disgusting. The next day there was no sign of the carcasses. The other two fish have been living in terror ever since the attack. He also learned how to hiss—whenever I take him out he will glare at me and hiss ferociously. Yes, he is no longer the sweet delicate Alex we all once knew and loved. He is turning into a California hoodlum.

Has anyone heard the news? Rumor has it there is a prodigy in Ventura who is going to take the body boarding world by storm. Trevor heard the rumor, assumed it was him, and decided he better get the gear to go with the title. Saturday we went to Ventura Surf Shop and bought the most expensive board in the store, pro flippers, and a really snazzy rash guard—oh the joys of marrying an epicurean. While Trevor was searching for the most expensive board in the store (he really was—that is not a figure of speech) I was searching the racks for the cheapest board, told Trevor a turtle neck would work just as well as a rash guard, and opted to make him flippers out of old Tupperware lids and rubber bands. My thrifty suggestions did not go over well with Trevor and he walked out of there ready to dazzle. He looks so cute strutting up and down the beaches in his little outfit—everyone watches him and thinks he’s pro. Hey, without the look you are just a good body boarder! After we suited him up we went to the beach and body boarded for awhile. It was A LOT of fun—I got pummeled into the ground a couple of times by some massive waves; I don’t think Jace was having too much fun nor enjoying the gallons of seawater I was drinking. When I finally stopped to dry out and read, I had the WORST rash guard sunburn line on my arms. It looked ridiculous. Anyway, I decided that in order to get the full California beach experience I should read “Jaws” while watching all the surfers on the beach. It has been quite entertaining and it has brought a whole new dimension to the book.

After Trevor was worn out from body boarding we went to In ‘n Out and then went to our pool and ate and swam.

Trevor and I have been going through withdrawals ever since “Lost” ended; we are in anxious anticipation for the next season. So, we decided to start another super intense series: 24. We went to Blockbuster and got the first 8 episodes and watched the first 4 that night. Holy cow was it intense!!!! My goodness!! Sometimes I would forget to breath. Trevor would have to close my eyes a lot, though, because it is very scary sometimes. We finished the next 4 episodes yesterday and we are now officially hooked. We still like Lost better, but 24 will be a good fill in until the next Lost episodes come out.

Other than that the week has been pretty uneventful. Oh! Except when we were body boarding we saw a couple pods of dolphins!! It was cool! We were hoping they would swim up and play with Trevor, but no luck. Oh and I discovered the coolest thing yesterday. Sometimes I get scared of robbers when Trevor is at work, so I am always looking for church music to put on so I won’t be afraid. However, I have no CD’s and Trevor only has punk CD’s. So, I always have to resort to a play list of 5 songs that we listen to every Sunday that consists of various songs from “The Sound of Music”—it drives me NUTS!!! Anyway, I found this radio station called kzion that only plays church music! It is the coolest thing!! And it reminds me of Utah and BYU. I super like it!