Updating for September

September has been very busy for us.  I started my 6th semester of college at the University of Alaska Southeast. (4 regular and 1 summer semester).  I am taking three, three credit classes.  Spreadsheet Concepts and Applications (Microsoft Excel 2007), Technical Writing, and Principles of Managerial Accounting.  I am taking all online classes this semester, which has some good and some bad things about it.  I went to a Relief Society Retreat last weekend that was amazing!  The theme was "Women of Light".  We had some amazing speakers and I stayed up all night (until about 3am) telling stories and keeping the ladies laughing.  =) I was also called last week to be the Secretary in the Primary Presidency at church. (primary is the children's organization at church, and the bishop asked me to be the secretary to the primary president, and I said I could do that).

Darwin has been sick for the last few weeks, and this week he actually got to stay home and rest.  I think he is feeling a little better now that he has some medication.  He has been able to take the boys, individually, to some UH football games.  Darwin took Caleb to the UH vs. USC game on the 2nd of September, and tonight he took Isaiah to the UH vs. Charleston Southern.  His work has a drawing for tickets to the games, and his name has been drawn three times now.  He can only buy two tickets (at a very discounted price...hence the drawing) so he has been taking the opportunity to spend one on one time with the kids.  He also got a calling at church.  He was asked to be the Elder's Quorum President for our ward.  (basically, he is the president of one of the men's groups...the elders.  click on the link to learn more about what that means).


Brooklin is doing a lot of running.  She runs about 30 miles a week and has a cross country meet every Saturday.  She gets up for seminary (she has to be there at 6:10 am every school day) goes to school all day, and the goes to XC practice until 5:30 pm.  She is doing really well in XC and we are very proud of her.  She is improving and is very dedicated.  She has had a recurring pain in her hip, but usually just runs through it.  We took her to have it x-rayed and the doctor said she would be fine...but not to over do it.


Caleb has been camping with the scouts twice this month.  He had a lot of fun both times.  The first campout, Darwin was able to go with him.  Caleb caught a fish with just a bamboo pole and a hook!  Yesterday was the second campout and he went without Darwin this time.  He forgot to put on sunscreen, and he came home pretty burnt.  We'll see in the morning if it got any worse...  Caleb was asked to be the 1st counselor in the  Deacon's Quorum at church.  (an explanation of that is in the same link as the elder's quorum link.)  We are grateful that Caleb is a worthy priesthood holder.

London and Isaiah ran in a cross country meet a few weeks ago.  They are good little kids and love to just play together.  London is participating in her school's chorus and  is going to preform some Christmas songs in December.  She and Isaiah are going to be in the Children's Primary Program tomorrow.  She is the narrator and Isaiah is giving a talk...and from what I hear, singing his little heart out. (one woman told me some of the kids that stand next to him during the songs hold their hands over their ears, because he is singing with such gusto!)

Well, it is late and I need to go to bed.  One other thing I didn't mention is that we all gave talks in sacrament meeting at church two weeks ago.  Isaiah memorized a scripture and said it in front of the whole congregation, London gave a cute talk (that she wrote all by herself!) on being reverent, Caleb gave a talk on being obedient (which he also wrote all by himself), Brooklin played the piano (and did a beautiful job), I gave a talk about adversity, and Darwin spoke about listening to the Holy Ghost.  We also had the adoption lady (Sally Lee) come to the house to do our 3rd homestudy for adoption.  (Hopefully this time we will be able to meet our baby!)

Like I said...we have been busy!

Little Cross Country Runners

Brooklin is not the only runner in the family. =)  On Sept. 15th I went to cheer on London and Isaiah at their XC meet.  They were really cute. =)  Some of the varsity runners from Brooklin's XC team were there to help out.  London got 9th place for girls in fifth grade, and Isaiah came in somewhere in the middle of his group.  He was pretty funny.  He lost his shoe twice (in close succession) and fell once (because his shoe was about to fall off for the second time).  He was already in second to last place when his shoe came off and he sat down on the track, put his shoe back on, and then took off like a shot!  He managed to make up a lot of time!  So proud of my kids for giving it their all and participating!

London's group

...and their off!

Her hair did some amazing things in most of these pictures! =)

Almost there!

Good job London!

Isaiah's group

On your marks!  Get set!  GO!!

This is the first time his shoe fell off.  He tried to just shove his foot into his shoe and keep running, but within a few feet he had tripped and fallen because his shoe wasn't on right.  So he just sat down, right in the middle of the race, and put it on right!  =)

He tore it up after getting his shoe on right!

Headed for the finish line.  He tried to stop and give me a hug, but I told him to keep running and I would hug him after he finished!  He's so cute!

Double Take (Funny!)

Our refrigerator sort of broke this weekend.  The door has that ice and water feature in it, and the water quit coming out when we pushed the lever sometime on Saturday.  We then noticed that there was water coming up out of the seams in the laminate flooring and it was starting to warp.  We yanked the fridge out away from the wall, turned off the water supply, used towels to sop up the water, and called the property manager.  We asked her to send a repairman out and then to come and document the damage so we wouldn't be docked for the damaged refrigerator or flooring.  She came out this morning to take pictures of the floor.  As she was about to leave, she stopped mid-sentence and said,

"Did that picture come with the house?!!?"

I turned around to see what she was referring to, because when we moved in their were definitely not any pictures still hanging on the wall.

I asked, "What picture?"

She answered, "That picture of Jesus!"  

I said, "No.  That is our picture.  We hung it up there."

She was really confused for a minute...it was kind of funny.  She said, "The people who lived here before you had that same picture hanging up right there when they lived here!  Are you guys Mormon too?!"  I told her yes, we are.  The people who lived in this house before were LDS (mormons) and many of the members of our ward here have mentioned that they were friends with them (the Gilliams) when they lived here!  It was pretty funny though. =)

Run Brooklin! Run!

Brooklin had her first cross country meet of the school year on Saturday.  The meet was at Pearl City High School.  She came in 30th out of 75 total girls (both jv and varsity).  She was the 4th girl in for her school and the first JV girl from her school.  They ran 3 miles and her time was 23 minutes 9 seconds.  She did awesome for her first high school meet!  We are so proud of her!

And they're off!

75 girls from at least 7 schools

Very beginning of the race

1 mile down, 2 miles to go

2 miles down, 1 to go!

...and then my camera ran out of batteries...

=P

I got every other girl coming in to the home stretch except Brooklin.  She ran by as I was frantically trying to shove the new battery into my camera.  Next time, I won't chance it.  I'll just put the fresh one in at the beginning.


Here is what her legs looked like after running through all the muddy red dirt.

 ...and finally...
here is our cute girl after cooling down after her run.  Good job B!