Your secret is safe with us!

Brett recently had a birthday and the girls and I were very excited to give him The Office on DVD. We had everything wrapped and they were doing well at keeping the secret until one Thursday night at dinner Brett asked, "is there a new episode of The Office on tonight?"

Saige spoke right up and said, "Hey Mom, remember Dad's birthday present?"

Brett got a big smile on his face and asked, "what is is?"

Madi said, "we'll NEVER tell"!

This is extra funny because of what happened around Christmas time. Amazon was having a really good sale on their games right after Thanksgiving. I bought the game Blokus for Brett because I knew that he liked it. The girls and I wrapped it and put it under the tree.

A few days before Christmas, Brett took the girls to Target and to pick out something for me. They wandered the aisles for awhile and came up on the games and toys. Brett picked up Blokus from off of the bottom shelf, held it up and said, "how about this one?"

Madi got a sick look on her face and said, "No. You can't dad."

"Why not?"

"Because you just can't"

"But mom likes this game-why can't we get it for her?"

"I can't tell, but you just can't. Because... because... because...we got it for you and we already wrapped it."

Brett said that you could see it in her eyes that she was struggling with the decision to tell him or not because she had promised me that she wouldn't tell him what his present was.

So, if you have a big secret, think twice before telling these two. They will have good intentions of keeping it but sometimes when you are 5 you let it out accidentally!

Morro Bay

A few weekends ago we were able to go over to Morro Bay with our friends-the Phillips Family.

We had SO much fun. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Breakfast of Champions!

Yesterday I was a bit late getting breakfast on the table so my girls took things into their own hands-they took their buckets and went in search of food. Good thing we have peas in the garden or they may have starved to death!

We got an e-mail TODAY! Many tears of joy!

Hey Nat!

How is everything going? I really want to know
what the news is saying because we havent been
able to watch anything yet. Here in Curico there
are certain parts that are fine. They have water
and electricity and our house got water back
yesterday. We are in a nice sector of houses
and so we are doing just fine. We dont have
electricity back yet but i think it will be
coming here in the next day or two. There are
certain parts of our sector that has electricity
and right now we are in a little internet cafe
so we are really lucky. Every city in Chile has
a centro (which is the center of town) and
in Centro is where we had most of the damage.
The old adobe houses and buildings that are made
out of mud are the ones that didn´t hold up.
I am not kidding you it was literally like
a movie. What happened was so crazy. We woke
up to it at 3:30 in the morning and i just sat
up in bed while the house sounded like it was
going to come down and it was swaying back
and forth. It was like a roller coaster ride.
So anyway we just kind of road it out for as
long as it was and then when it was over we
started laughing, we had know idea what had
just happened.We went outside and people were
coming out of there houses but all the houses
in our neighborhood looked fine we had no idea,
so we went back inside and went to bed. None
of us could sleep,but we laid there anyway
until 6:30 when our phone rang and it was one
of the elders in our zone that told us how big
it was and how their bishop came to get them to
go start helping people so we went outside
and talked to our neighbor who was listening
to the radio in his car and he told us that
Centro was in shambles so we got out our safety
kits and went toward centro. I cant wait til
I can send you pictures. This is the part that
was like a movie. People were walking around,
not saying anything, just looking at stuff.
The old buildings that were made of adobe
were falling over in the streets and one of
the big buildings in Centro is (its only like
3 floors and it wasn´t an apartment building
so I dont think anyone was in it) but it was
just totally demolished. Some of the old catholic
churches are in ruins and the whole front
of one of them just completely fell. Our chapel
however is as strong as a brick and nothing
happened to it. They said that this earthquake
was like 50 times stronger then the one in Haiti
and they said that the only difference is that
they build the houses better here. You should
see our house Nat. Looking at it you would think
that it should have came down, but it all of
the houses in our neighborhood were fine so we
are just lucky I guess. The beach that everyone
here in Curico goes to is about 2 hours to the
west of us and I guess that it got hit by a
tsunami and a lot of people died there. The mom
of one of the ladies in our ward was there for
the weekend and they haven´t received any word
from her yet so we are just praying that they
can find her. Other than that all of the members
in our ward are doing well. From what we hear we
are on the good side of things. Concepcion is a
mess right now. We have only been able to call down
to certain zones a few times this week and I guess
that it is just a mess. I have heard that on CNN
there are pictures of Curico so you could get on
and try to see what you can see about it. We have
only heard little bits and pieces hear and there. But
anyway I am just writing to let you know not to
worry, we are doing well. We have food and water
and we are in good shape. Keep me posted cause you
probably know more about it then I do. All around
Curico is doing well. I wrote you first Nat cause
I wanted to be able to tell you all that has happened.
I don´t really know how much I should tell mom cause
I don´t really know how worried she is so I will keep
my email to her a little bit on the lighter side. But
in all seriousness we are doing fine. Love you guys
so much and thanks for the emails.
I love you.
Elder Dalton
ps... We have felt some good aftershocks the last
few days but they are just little rumbles.
It really was quite the experience.  

Freaking Out!

Everyone knows that I am a big worrier, but when I first posted about the earthquake in Chile, I was optimistic and wasn't worried at all. I was thinking things like: what a great opportunity for Chance to serve and help the Chilean people, maybe this tragedy will bring people closer to Christ and allow Chance to teach our beliefs to so many people who in other circumstances would not have listened, etc.

Now, I am freaking out with thoughts like: what if he can't get food or water, what if the looting and violence becomes so bad that he is hurt or even killed, what if he seriously hurts his back while trying to help someone and he can't get the medical care he needs (he had back surgery a few months before leaving for the MTC), what if the next after shock is bigger than the last and he is not as lucky this time, what if all of the tragic things he is seeing will change him so profoundly that we won't even know him when he comes home, etc.

Nobody wins when we play the 'what if' game!

I just read this online (I really would be better off if I would turn off the t.v. and internet):

"Of the 708 reported dead as of Sunday afternoon, 541 had died in Chile's Maule region, and 64 in the Bio Bio region, both in south-central Chile."

Curico is in the Maule region. Chance is in Curico.

Mondays are the days he usually e-mails us. Tomorrow will be a very sad Monday because I am sure we won't be hearing from him. How many more sad Mondays will we have? How long will we have to wait before we hear again that he is okay? I hate the feeling of helplessness that I feel. He is down there, so far away from us, and there is NOTHING we can do to protect him. I want to fly down there and pick him up and bring him home where I know he will be safe. Big sisters are supposed to look out for their little brothers and all I can do right now is cry and hope and pray that God will look out for my little brother who is not just a brother-he is truly one of my best friends.

Prayers for Chile Please!

We are very concerned about Chile today. For those of you who haven't heard, there was a 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile today where my brother is serving a 2 year mission for our church (lds.org). We are concerned for Chance but we have heard that he is okay. It is a pretty cool story about how we received that news. Chance's companion is Elder May (whom we LOVE). Elder May's parents are Mission Presidents in one of the missions in Santiago. All communications are down in Concepcion where the mission home is so they couldn't get a hold of their Mission President. So, Elder May decided to call his mom. Then, Sister May called my family to let them know that they were okay. Chance definitely has the right companion right now!!! We are SO thankful. My mom heard from another Chile Missionary mom that all the Missionaries in the Concepcion Mission have been accounted for.

The only information that I heard specifically about Chance is that he was sleeping in the top bunk and it almost shook him completely out of bed. I have heard on some news reports that the initial quake shook for at least 90 seconds.

Chance is currently serving in Curico, which is just north of Talca. I found the following in a news article which tells just how big this quake was:

"Saturday's temblor comes about six weeks after an 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated parts of Haiti and killed more than 220,000 people. The Chilean quake, at magnitude 8.8, was 700 to 800 times stronger."

"The quake tore apart houses, bridges and highways, and Chileans near the epicenter were thrown from their beds by the force of the mega-quake, which was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east.

The full extent of damage remained unclear. Ninety aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater shuddered across the disaster prone Andean nation within 24 hours of the initial quake. One was nearly as powerful as Haiti's devastating Jan. 12 earthquake."

I will post more once we hear from him but it could be months. Thank you all for your concern. Please keep the Chilean People in your prayers.

Floor Update

So...after much scrubbing with straight acetone (the only thing that worked) it all came out except what was in the grout. Luckily it is in a spot that we can hide it. Thanks for all of your tips. Hope this doesn't happen to any of you!