The Wonderful World of Mata

Sorry for the posting lapse. My life has been CRAZY!! Lots of changes, lots of fun. Let's see, where to start? With the "bestest" thing.... we are getting sealed!! My David is by far the cutest, most romantic man and surprised me by scheduling our temple date without me knowing and then hiding a note in a Cracker Jack box! I had gently suggested a date and put it on a note in his lunch box. For days he didn't comment on the note and I thought that he just wasn't ready yet. And then...

The date is set for Wednesday, May 7th at the Logan Temple. It just happens to be the temple that my grandparents were sealed in. To add to the fun, my family from Iowa will be visiting that week, so my sister and mom will be able to be there!! I am beyond excited and have been waiting for this day for SO long. I am so grateful that David is just as excited as I am. Although I had to wait, I am glad that David took the time to fully understand the covenants that he is going to be making. He is incredible and I love him so much. I know that the Lord has blessed me in so many ways and I above all grateful that my family will soon be an eternal one.

Another big change is with our income. Or rather the lack of income has brought some changes. David is starting tonight at Pepperidge Farms. He will be working the graveyard shift. It's a pay increase AND has great benefits. He is also working with a recruiter and is considering the National Guard. I just returned to Olive Garden. Since David will be home, I won't need to find a sitter for Malia. As someone so delicately put it, "But don't you have a degree?" True, true. I could look for a full time teaching job. However, fundage is needed NOW, a job wouldn't be available until the fall, and as fellow teachers know, it is impossible to leave work at work when you teach. I wanted to be able to go somewhere for a few hours, make some cash, and come home and be able to give my full attention to my Malia and hubby. Plus, I like serving. I get to talk to grown ups! David and I are doing our best to dig ourselves out of the hole we've dug ourselves. May not be fun, but we are united in our efforts and know that we will be blessed for doing what we know we need to do.

We have also been having a great time working in our yard. We cleaned up our front flower beds and put in some new flowers and got some other fun plants from the Barrington's. Christina, my neighbor and friend, has become my unofficial gardening mentor. Thanks, Christina! Plus, Patrick and David like to burn stuff together. We also got the seeds for our garden and look forward to planting it soon. Turns out I like gardening. All I remember is growing up that I hated it when my parents made me work in the garden. Now it's pleasurable. It's the first time that David and I have lived in a house and have had the opportunity to do yard work. David, of course, loves to work outside. He prepped the garden, pruned the apple tree, and filled all of the holes in the yard that the previous renter's dogs had dug. Malia goes around throwing dirt OUT of the flower beds and likes to play on the little slide. Her baby even gets to go for a slide!

I've also been busy with my calling. We are in the middle of attending ward conferences. It's fun to go to all of the different wards and see what the primaries are doing. On Thursday, we had our Stake Auxiliary Meeting. I think it went pretty well. I put together a children's choir that sang prelude before the meeting. They were great and really set the tone for the meeting. The kids also sang today for our ward sacrament meeting. They sang "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" and it was really cute. It was funny, a couple of random kids joined our little choir. I guess their parents must have seen the kids getting up and figured they must have missed the memo and thought the whole primary was singing!

So other than the upcoming sealing, new jobs, yard work, and callings... life is pretty normal. We love to go bike riding as often as we can. The other day we went out and flew kites. It was fun. The wind was kind of spastic and the fun didn't last for long. Malia got bored quickly. Oh, well.

So that's the Matas as of late. I am very excited for my family to come visit. I only wish they were staying longer! I also wish David's family would come visit!! I wish everyone could come visit. Who wouldn't want to visit the illustrious town of Lewiston??