Doing Good Always Makes Me Feel Better!

Today I had the opportunity to make dinner for some friends of ours out here. She recently lost her baby at 25 weeks pregnant, and my heart went out to her and their family. We don't know them well, but they lived in Cville too before here and some of their best friends are also our best friends and so I felt like I was doing something for all their Cville friends who wish they could be there. They have 4 darling kids, 3 boys and a girl, and this baby was a boy too. As I am only 3 weeks behind her in my own pregnancy, it was a time of lots of reflection, and my heart aches for her as the thought of something like this happening makes me so sad and would be so devastating. I am sure we will get to know them better and they will be our good friends too soon. Hopefully it will be more happy times we will interact then this! Anyhow, fixing dinner for someone else always guarantees we will eat well too, so that is a good thing. I fixed a homemade lasagna, rice krispie treats with Valentine M&M's, a tomato, cucumber, mozz and basil salad, a fruit mixture, and bread!!! I took a picture of how yummy and colorful it is - we are excited to eat it here, and I hope they enjoy theirs. Doing service was a good thing for me today, and made me feel so good inside (I know, sappy, but so true). It always makes me reflect on my life and blessings, and helps me realize how much I am actually blessed with. So it might have been a service to them, but actually I feel I got the benefit of it as well as it really helped me, especially on a day I was having a lot of nausea and not really enjoying my pregnancy. Today I am grateful I could feel the baby move and that, altho the nausea is no fun, things are still going well in my own pregnancy. I hope their family can find peace in this rough time!

A pic of the yummy food!

This weekend we had a busy schedule, with Chip working on Saturday morning, then playing in a B-ball game with our new ward and we all went and cheered him on! I met a bunch of new ladies in the new ward we will be going and they were all so great! Then it was Costco, the beach, dinner at our new landlord's house where they fixed us some Israeli food (Cash loved it) and told us about their Jewish beliefs and asked us about Mormons, and then it was off to the Santa Monica Pier for a ferris wheel ride! It was a great weekend!

All of us - pixilated due to shots from the Iphone

At the top of the ferris wheel!

My boys!

Cash looks miserable, but he had a great time!

Here is his smile!!!

Our new ward was SUCH a blessing. I instantly felt welcomed, Griffin went to the nursery and did great all by himself without us having to go, Cash loved sunbeams, and tons of people came up and introduced themselves and welcomed us to the ward. There are a ton of activities for us to go to during the week, such as playgroups, music day, pre-school, and more with people here, and I am just so grateful it was so much better than our first experience a couple weeks ago in another ward. I am sure in the end we would have liked the other one too, but this one just seems to be such a perfect fit for us. I know we will really like it there. So we are moving, yes again, from Santa Monica to Beverly Hills, where my zipcode will be 90211 (really wish it were 90210!) and we are way excited. It is a house, so we will not have to climb stairs to get into our place, it is twice as big, it is a great place with a yard for the kids. The lady is leaving to Israel for 4 months and so her husband is moving into the guest house behind the house and we are taking over the house. They have a dog, which he will take care of but my kids can play with - so perfect since we won't ever have pets of our own, but they can enjoy.....and the best part - they have a maid that comes twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, to clean house and she also babysits. They have had her for 20 years and she is great. I am way excited about this. Reminds me of our Ayi in China!!! So it will be great, and we move next weekend. Also, we will be getting out of our crazy parking place that has these really annoying poles that now both Chip and I have hit and made matching scratches on each side of our new car!!!! So yes, things are looking up here. I actually might go as far to say I really like it! Have a great Monday!