Working Hard

Derek spreading the gospel to Everyone and Everything!

Happenings....

October sure did fly by pretty quick. A couple of weeks before Halloween, Kyle's sister Jamie had a murder mystery party. It was pretty fun getting dressed up and trying to figure out who was the murderer.





A couple days before Halloween we went to Thriller at Tuachan. It was awesome!



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Kyle's sister in law, well i guess my sister in law too, went through the temple a few nights ago and her and Kyle's brother are getting sealed tomorrow. Here's some pics of the fam.

Back to 1st Grade

I haven't had a school picture in FOREVER it feels like but we got ours today. I am LOVING teaching. I love my school and EVERYONE there. It's so fun being able to be my nerdy self and the kids think it's funny. It's a lot of hard work and is keeping me really busy. I feel bad for Kyle because he gets the stressed out side of me but he's handling it well. Hopefully there's more fun to come!

Derek Update

I wish it would rain here. Its been crazy hot every day. This guy got electricuted on our street and died. He was up in a tree cutting branches and he touched the telephone wires. We walked by like 20 minutes later and they were lowering his body from the tree. It was jacked, He was all messed up and toasted. I think i was on the news though. They dont celebrate halloween or anything here. So have a fun one. Wow this week was crazy. Tuesday was just a normal day. We had our District meeting in the morning then went and worked. Wednesday we had entravistas with President Monestel he didnt say much to me. Only basic stuff like, How was your family?, and junk like that. We went with some of the APs around are area and that was about it. Thursday my companion had to go to Managua for training because he is the district leader. So I stayed here with one of our zone leaders. He is from Wyoming so we got to speak some english to eachother. First we went to Santo Tomas which about an hour away from here. He interviewed some people for baptism then we left. After we went to his area and taught a lady that weighs like 500 pds, and is bedridin. I guess she wants to be baptized but cant because of her weight. That was Thursday and Friday. On saturday we went and mowed her lawn with machetes. Thats how they do it here. It was pretty fun. I was sweating like crazy though, it looked like I had just went swimming. Sunday was just a normal sunday. They are sending two more missionaries to our city. Hopefully that helps out the work because right now we are the worst area. It sucks because we work hard, just havent had any success. My companion is probably leaving this next transfer so he is way excited and he doesnt really care about the work here. Over all things are going good.

Love Elder Mclaws

Update on Derek

For all you family members out there and people who care Derek has been in Nicaragua for a couple of weeks now. Here are a few things he wrote in his last letter. I love reading his letters because it really helps me realize just how lucky we are living where we live and having all the things we have. Here is his email address if any of you want to write him.

derek.mclaws@myldsmail.net

I just have a standard toilet in our house. Most people have out houses just a hole you squat over. So having a toilet is a pretty good luxary. The food isnt bad. Its pretty plain. Its gallo pinto always and usually an egg or chicken. We had sardines the other day and i didnt like them at all. I sucked them down though. I feel bad because everyone is really poor. I felt bad because one of the sons of the family that cooks for us asked how much my tie cost and i said 15-20 bucks and he went crazy. 1 dollar is 20 pesos. Most people live off of less then what my tie cost. I felt so bad. I try not to tell people what things cost anymore. Dont be surprised if you are watching national geographic and its talking about native people who are crazy, and then you see me walking in the background. because thats how i feel here. I stand out like crazy.Ya its defenetly different here. Im trying to stay motivated and have a good attitude, buts its hard sometimes when you cant say what you want to say, but its getting better. Im starting to understand more and more everyday. The family that cooks for us are really good at helping me out. There son just got back from his mission to Honduras and he knows a little english so that helps. Also I have been reading the BOM in spanish and english. It really helps to see the contrast between how things are said. Over all its getting better. We have 3 families that we are consentrating on. They are the poorest out of all are investigators. One family lives in a runoff area. So there house is always flooded. They have a dirt floor, so its strait mud in there house. They have boards on the ground to walk on but that is it. They have a lot of faith though and they are very humble. The father was at church yesterday, but his wife and kids werent. I guess the kid was sick so she had to stay home. Were going to try to get them all to church next sunday. The other family is pretty poor to. Not as poor but pretty poor. The father and the kids were at church, but not the wife. I dont think she is really into it, but we are going to work on her this week. This other family we have been teaching, is either never there or tells us to come by later, but earlier this week the brother of the wife was there and he had read the whole packet that we left for them, he had a ton of questions and my companion answered them pretty good i think. As we were leaving he said that he thinks that this is the true church. We havent talked to him since because he has work. Were going to try to talk with him this week. They live on top two huge hills. Its wierd you walk up a huge hill and then up another hill. It kinda sucks but its not to bad. I have been expieriencing the buses. They are crazy. We had to go to another city because my companion is a district leader and he had to ask baptismail questions. It was about a three hour bus ride. I had to stand both ways because there were so many people. It was packed i couldnt move. They drive crazy too. Passing cars and stuff like that. I was in one coming back from an appointment, and the bus driver just mowed over a dog. The dogs dont move because i guess cars go around. So this bus driver just plowed it. Busses are pretty crazy. Well anyway everything is going good. Im learning a lot and working hard.

Love Elder Mclaws

Kyle's 25th Birthday!

This year Kyle wanted to have his family over to our house for his birthday dinner. We ate, played rock band, and hung out. I don't think the flash or something on my camera was working so the pictures are kind of bad. Sorry!

Blowing out the candles



Kyle and "most" his nieces and nephews



Jettster



Tash



Kambrie and Kenzlie

My classroom!

For those of you who haven't heard yet..I got a job teaching 1st grade! I'm really excited, but really overwhelmed with everything that I need to get done. Here are a few pictures of my classroom. I have a lot of work to do so i'll post some pictures when I get done fixing it up!

Back in 2

Derek is gone for 2 whole years! I don't know if I will be able to survive! We took him the MTC today and basically kicked him to the curb. I was pretty good about not crying until my sister started to cry then I couldn't help crying a little. Kyle and Michael stayed at the temple while we went and dropped him off at the curb. They probably stayed so they wouldn't cry and could still keep their masculinity. Derek wouldn't take a normal picture so basically in every picture he is making the funniest faces.

The Boys




Derek hates hugging and touching so I was trying to make him put his arm around me in the picture and that stubborn kid wasn't having it.



They were both trying to stand on their tiptoes to see who was the tallest


Grandma and Grandpa came out from NY to visit before Derek left

Michael's Graduation!

Where does the time go?!? It's been five years since I graduated and now my last little brother is graduated (not so little anymore). Time sure does fly!

My cute cousin!

We watched this cute little guy for a few hours on Saturday. He was asleep when we picked him up and woke up by the time we got home. He had no idea where he was or who we were. He got so mad and wouldn't get out of the car. Kyle brought out his Camaro and suddenly Adam was our best friend!

Happy (late) Mothers Day

We love our awesome moms!

Kyle's Mom


My Mom



Mandy (step-mom)


This is the present I made for Kyle's mom on Mother's Day! She loved it!



As I was looking for pictures of our moms I found these two pictures from our reception. They are pretty funny!

Projects

Since I finished school and have a lot more free time I have actually been able to finish a few projects. Here are a few of them and more to come!



This is a sign for the laundry room (duh) when I finished Kyle said "well if you think it's so much fun you can do the laundry all the time!



Some HOME blocks...I hated how all these cute decorations are so expensive so I have been trying to make my own :)



I made these for Natalie's birthday. She took the pictures of her kids (aren't they so freakin cute!) then I edited them and did the "My favorite things" vinyl. I love these! Oh and I have to say thanks to Jamie and Wade because they cut the wood and without the wood this wouldn't of been possible! THANKS guys your the best!



I wanted something cute to countdown Derek's mission so I came up with this idea and was really excited. Actually, the first idea I had consisted of Kyle drilling 700 holes into a piece of wood. He wasn't too thrilled with this idea so I decided to think of something else. These are for my mom (yes mom you won't be getting this 2 weeks before Derek comes home like you thought, I actually finished something on time) I still have to make mine... I still have 2 months right?!?



I really liked this, but I felt like it was missing something. I tried to get creative and pretty much ruined it. I am hoping to make another one that will be much better than this one.

Well that's about it for now. I finished Kyle's mom's mothers day present tonight, but I'll post that tomorrow just in case she looks at this tonight :)

The Pine View Quilt

Ok so i had to post this because it has taken me sooooooo long to finish it. Probably a little more than two years. I have the habit of starting projects and not finishing them in a timely manner. When I first started college I had all my sweatshirts from playing basketball and soccer in high school just tucked under my bed because they were all just getting worn out and dirty. I didn't want to get rid of them because let's face it, I have a hard time getting rid of anything that halfway resembles a memory. So I decided to make a quilt because then I could still have the memories, but they wouldn't just be old sweatshirts under the bed for the rest of my life. However, I could never find the time to just sit down and finish the dang thing. Kyle finally had to put his foot down and demand that I couldn't start another project until all of my old ones were finished. So without school taking up all of my time I finally finished it and am so excited. It didn't quite turn out as good as I wanted it to, but it was hard and I just wanted to get it done! On to the next project!

Mandy's Baptism

My step-mom Mandy got baptized Saturday March 27th. It was really fun to be there and experience it with her. In January my dad was gone for three weeks for work and the sister missionaries knocked on her door. She invited them in and started taking the discussions. A few months later she decided she wanted to be baptized. During the baptism Kyle realized that the sister missionary who gave Mandy the discussions was the sister of a missionary companion he had in Argentina. Sorry I don't have any pictures. I am kind of a bad picture taker.

Derek's Mission Call

My little brother Derek got his mission call. He was called to serve in the Nicaragua Managua mission. He had been getting teased forever about where he would end up going so I was glad that he was going to get to go foreign and Spanish speaking like he wanted. After he read where he was going he had to sit and think about where it actually was. It took us awhile to finally figure out that it is in Central America. It's close to Costa Rica so we now know where our next family vacation will be in 2 years (hopefully). He leaves for the MTC on July 7th, which means he has three months to let it all sink in. It's going to be really weird having him gone for 2 years, but I'm really excited for him. I keep trying to upload the video of him opening it, but it's just not working. Maybe i'll keep trying.

My latest creation

I had figured out how to make these a few weeks ago so for Tiffany's (sis in-law) birthday I made her one for her and her family. Then I made myself one. I think they are pretty cool!

Dangerous APPS

My wonderful husband got a call saturday night from what appeared to be the bank, but when he answered it it was really his friend Jake. It's a new app for cell phones called bluff my call. It is really quite clever actually. You can call anyone in your phonebook from your phone, but it shows up on their caller id as anyone you want it to. Well after he learned about this app he downloaded it right away and decided to call his brother pretending to be mall security and telling him that his store got broken in to. His brother was pretty calm about the whole thing and just said "ok i'll call the owner." If pranking one person wasn't enought Kyle had to get someone else. He decided to call his old boss at Foot Locker from Foot Locker's number. This time he pretended to be some guy named Jeffrey and convince Marty that he had broken into the store and was going to steal everything. One problem though....instead of Marty answering the phone, his wife did instead. Kyle (in his disguised voice) starts saying how he has broken into the store, etc. Well she starts freaking out a little and hands the phone to Marty. While Kyle is still pretending to have broken into the store we hear her in the background talking to someone. I look at Kyle and say "she is calling the cops!" And sure enough that is what she had done. She had called the cops and was telling them that someone was breaking into the mall. When Kyle finally came clean and they told the cops that it was just a prank the cops said they were going to have to call kyle. We thought he was going to get in so much trouble, but the cop just had to make sure it was actually a prank. I was so glad that nothing else came of it. To make things worse HE WANTED TO CALL ANOTHER PERSON! This app could be bad...very bad!

Christmas 2009

I know Christmas was almost a month ago, but oh well. This year we spent Christmas eve at Kyle's parents house and then spent Christmas day with my family. Kyle and I weren't going to get anything for each other this year because we figured we would rather spend the money on our house, but Kyle decided not to follow the rules and got me laser hair removal. I tried to be mad at him for not following the rules, but I just couldn't! I was so excited! At my mom's house my brothers got these blow up punching gloves that were really fun. They fought each other hard for probably 20 minutes. Then when my aunt and I tried we fought for probably 10 seconds before we were dying from laughter. Here is the video of us trying to fight (we weren't very impressive.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M6RYwnDpLc