The town of Calipatria and beyond

Coming soon. . . where we live, work, and play!

Four Tag-my favorite number by the way Michelle

    

You can see the funny face she makes when she's excited about something. . .

    

I've had this dress hanging on the wall in Mere's room to add some color and I realized this week it might actually fit her now! So she wore it to church today and looked adorable! It is just sweet how the little skirt flares out and I am so thankful to the wonderful family in Vernal who gave us this and many other clothes their granddaughter grew out of! 

A) Four places I go often: Market Square (the grocery store in our little town across the street from us-cheap but limited produce:), Walmart-yes hanging out at walmart has now become our way of getting out of the house for a change of scene the new one is close by and quite nice, church, post office (our town is so little everyone has a PO box cause they don't deliver mail)

B) Four people who email me regularly: my dad and others it varies-mostly blogging and lots of fun ichating with my brother Thomas

C) Four of my favorite places to eat: haven't found any I'm too keen on-but I'm sure there's a good mexican place out here since we're so close to the border-Saki likes Subway

D) Four places I would rather be right now: the beach, the temple, with family, always anywhere with Saki!

E) Four people I think will respond: surprise me : )

F) Four TV show I watch: we don't have a TV but we enjoy watching Monk and Perry Mason (old black and white show) online

RAPPELEZ

Just a reminder that we update our blog on Sundays and I'm sorry to those who have blogs we haven't had much time to look and catch up because Saki's been taking a class online : )

Eggless Cookies

So I need to remember to take my camera when we go out, we went to a birthday party yesterday for our neighbors little girl in a nice park-they have 3 cute girls who live in our complex and they also have the most adorable puppy dog! We stake conference today and yesterday and in between Mere had fun crawling on the spongy grass at the park by the stake center. Saki and I enjoyed being together-he hasn't been on call for quite a few weekends and he's so fun to hang out with : )

  

little sailor girl is having fun exploring our house, but I think she gets bored at home sometimes...

  

Here's a tasty eggless oatmeal cookie recipe for those of you who don't have eggs in the fridge when you want cookies, or who don't like spending lots of money on eggs. 

1 C butter

1 C brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

BLEND the add

1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

BOIL 1/4 C water (can do in the microwave), dissolve 1 teaspoon baking soda in it

ADD 2 C oats and if you'd like raisins, choc chips etc. 

BAKE at 350 for about 5 minutes-I added more oatmeal, the cookies are a bit crumbly but are tasty : )

Protect Traditional Marriage

Dallin H Oaks
"Tolerance obviously requires a non-contentious manner of relating toward one another’s differences. But tolerance does not require abandoning one’s standards or one’s opinions on political or public policy choices. Tolerance is a way of reacting to diversity, not a command to insulate it from examination."

Yesterday, was a nice day weather was a liitle a bit cooler than we encountered two months ago. We went to Brawley to join other members of our ward in a campaign on Proposition 8 of the state law. You may have heard that legalizing same-sex marriage is on the ballot in the state of California. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints along with other religious affliations and coalition groups have been working around the clock to protect traditional marriage. On this current election, Proposition 8 has resurfaced after it was passed for in 2000 general election. Our position on this issue is that marrige between a man and a women is divinely instituted and sacred. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms, “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society. We have no animosity toward our fellow brothers and sisters who are for same-sex marriage, they are entitled to their own opinion and beliefs. But, we believe that this amendment can lead to more harmful as well as damaging results in the future as we may have noticed now.
If same-sex marriage becomes a recognized civil right, there will be substantial conflicts with religious freedom and seperation of religion and state. In some important areas, religious freedom may be diminished. We are living in a world of transformation with the trends evolving from one end to another. Sometimes you feel that you’re still in the same place with minute changes involved until things like this pop-up and we realize we need to stand up for our beliefs. We should continue to be aware of our what is happening around us, our voice need to be heard, and not having other people dictate to us of what we should do. Advocates of same-sex marriage are suggesting that tax exemptions and benefits be withdrawn from any religious organization that does not embrace same-sex unions. If the opposition wins this battle of the Propostion 8 then the status of this state is viewed in a negative way.
Some law-makers have gone far in twisting words out of context. those who would impose same-sex marriage on American society have chosen a different course. Advocates have taken their case to the state courts, asking judges to remake the institution of marriage that society has accepted and depended upon for millennia. Yet, even in this context, a broad majority of courts – six out of eight state supreme courts – have upheld traditional marriage laws. We plead with you our families and friends to support this campaign for Proposition 8 and weed out the same-sex marriage idea. For further details on this endeavor log on to www.protectmarriage.com and www.lds.org on the subject Divine Institution of Marriage.

God bless America.
Sakiusa, Elizabeth and Meresiana Vakalala

Conference Weekend!

Here's the dress from Kristin and Andrea--yep, it's still big so I did a little knot in the back, and it's fits her so nicely, the knit skirt just flows! Very cute, photos don't do it justice. And the yellow overalls from Grandma and Grandpa-big too, but I couldn't resist, so refreshing to have yellow, and the puffy little legs are adorable...



The six months between conference gets shorter every year and it is so refreshing to hear the Our prophet Thomas S Monson and his apostles and others speak clear, unwavering truths!