Hopeful's: 2008

Not much...

to write about except all the blessings!

Lilli had a such a nasty cough that she wasn't breathing very well, with a crazy fever and I really worried that she was too sick. Bruce gave her a blessing on Mon. night and took her to the hospital Tuesday. They discharged her that day after many tests and still have not gotten back to us. She is doing much better, on antibiotics and doing breathing treatments. The kids seemed to have gotten a less potent version that they are almost done with, altho' they did have to miss almost a week of school.

Bruce is feeling a little crappy but we are hoping a nice weekend will help him feel better.

Our Christmas is not as lavish as some, but I think that's the point. We are grateful for all these blessings that can only come from God.

My Christmas prayer for all of you, is that you would realize how much God loves and blesses you and cherishes your faith in Him and your efforts to be Christlike.

Remember that we love you too and hope that you all have a great Christmas.

Out of debt (almost)

Got the documents today saying that we paid off a car loan (a car that we haven't had for almost 2 years) today and it feels great. Just want ya'll to know that it is only because of 2 reasons;
1-Stake presidency asked us to get out of debt - that was and continues to be a huge blessing.
2-We were doing everything we could do get out of debt-not eating out, not borrowing, waiting to buy groceries even if we didn't have any fresh food. That was a big one.
There were many times that we fed the elders with our last few items and there was always enough to eat, miraculously, and we were always blessed for it.

There were things that we didn't do right and we still owe $, but it is more manageable.
Some mistakes we have made has been using a line of credit with the intent to pay it off the following paycheck. It doesn't work because you never know what is going to happen- like a hospital visit! Then you can't pay both! Another mistake we make is spending all of our money the week (or the day of) after we get paid (because we don't know if the silly thing we want to buy, is going to be there or any other dumb reason)
One thing that helps me not to buy is to remember/tally all of the same things I have at home (shirts).
Aaahhh, I could go on and on about Bruce's project car but I love him and I hope that one day, it will not be a project car.
I want ya'll to know too, that food storage has been a huge blessing. Even eating rice and beans everyday is a blessing because it's still nutritious food!

There were and are a lot of prayers to strengthen us, to give us patience and to live in the present and enjoy the best things in life.
I know you might get sick of hearing it, but having a relationship with our Saviour Jesus Christ is and always will be the way to receive the guidance and peace that comes from obedience.
It takes a lot of faith to be who God wants us to be and it gets scary, but I know that it is a blessing and I'm so grateful that He loves us, wants to help us and desires to be close to us too.

Love you all and I know that God blesses you for your diligence in obedience.
John and Diane, please know that we are thinking of you and praying for your family, Much love!

D-man!

Here are some pics.

Soooo Dylan got his cast off yesterday and was upset because there was all this dead skin on his arm (Looked like a nice tan that was flaking off) and said he that they had cut off his dead arm and it was not until he took a bath and I scrubbed it all off, did he say 'look at my new arm' (appearing to be happy about getting his cast off.) He's a funny boy! By night time he was jumping off the couches and doing all his usual tricks even though his elbow is kinda stiff.

He has a temp. sling is mostly to protect him from re-breaking it for the next week.

Other than that, we have no news but we had some costumes pics but I can't find the card! From last Sat. trunk or treat. We are having a kids candy-free Halloween party (nothing fancy or scary) on Friday night. Let me know if you want to come to it!

okay

i'm a moron.
I was just trying to change the depressing backround on the blog, thot I deleted it and felt compelled to make a new one, with right background.
anyway, I don't think I can keep up with 3 blogs, especially when 2 are not really viewed, so Unless I make something cool (not really) that I want to show my sisters, yu-zen blog will be used for only that purpose.
Hopeful will be a calendar of free events in the Metroplex,
and Hopeful's will still be a family blog.
Sorry about the confusion but at this point, I'm too cranky to care. Stomach bug.
Hope you are not sick too.

Happy Anniversary! Happy LATE B-day to Dylan!

Well, today marked 9 years together and looking forward to an eternity with the Man of my Dreams (Bruce has always been better than what I dreamed about). Except when he buys fixerupper cars.....

Well, I guess the longer you are together, the less it takes to impress the other, cuz I had no money to buy him what he wanted (a used base guitar) and he didn't even have gas in his car. We were looking pretty pathetic.

I was blessed with an amazing neighbor who was kind enough to give me some chicken today.

I decided to make fried chicken, but since I have never had fried, I made a poor judgement call to broil some chicken.

I don't recommend broiling unless you know how to broil or you don't mind it catching fire.

Which mine did.

I'm pretty sure I cursed profusely (Does it count if it's in Spanish and noone heard me?) but I don't remember now.

My kids were fortuneatly outside and did not witness my anniversary dinner debacle.

Funny thing is, I had already browned the chicken so I really didn't expect it to go downhill but ya never know, I guess.

So after browning, broiling, burning and then baking it, I served it with a heavy heart because I felt like I wasted all that precious meat.

ahaha, it was not meant to be!

It was still pink (cooking time of over 60 minutes) so rather than add to intestinal distress/ poisoning to my anniversary gift, I ripped it out of my family's hands and threw it in the pressure cooker, for another 30 minutes.

Thankfully, it was all eaten and not wasted.

Oh yeah, we got an anniversary gift from church, tonight even!

A STAKE CALLING! YAY!

Honestly, it was freaking me out. They asked me to go with Bruce but since I needed to unwind, I went to Yoga class;

all the while thinking; I'm gonna have to pray about it, if they call him to be a poly!

I don't know why I was thinking that, but man, the idea was stressing me out!

So I get home, wondering what they asked him and he has the gall to tell me;

'I'll wait till the kids go to bed to tell you- The kids don't need to know!'

What!!!!????

So after a tortuous 10 minutes of last-minute homework, I looked him in the eye and said

"SPIT IT OUT ."

He kept smiling and wouldn't look at me for too long.

He finally told me and I was thinking; "That's it?"

I told him of my fear/worry and he laughed and said 'that's illegal'.

He asked me how I felt about it and I told him that I felt it was great, cuz I had something scarier in mind.....

Dylan in retro; I have been so busy trying to please the school nazis' homework brigade that I haven't really been blogging so sorry to Dylan if anyone thinks that I don't love him because I didn't blog about his birthday.

We had a party planned, bought an Ironman cake in rainbow frosting- What boy wants a rainbow Ironman cake?! 20 minutes before the party doesn't leave time for complaining.

We were going to go to a cool waterplay park and after the kids got here, we called to check the prices and THEY WERE CLOSED! Oversight, I know.

I swear stuff like that always happens when I try too hard. I was trying to make his party a big deal because we haven't really ever done a big party for him.

I'm out, I feeling guilty about it again.

Check out this blog to laugh tho'

http://www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

Please pray for Dylan....

My sweet crazy boy has broken the 2 bones in his forearm; jumping off the preschool playground. I took him to Arlington Memorial Hospital and Bruce met me there.
Dylan has been in pain since 11:30am because the hospital was waiting for a orthopedic dr. to come fix him up, but never did.... so Bruce left that hospital.
Bruce is now trying to get him treated at Cook's. I really hope he doesn't need surgery.
Thanks for any prayers or thoughts.
Elisa

Yoga, Baby!

Hey all!

I passed my yoga written exam. with a 95! I should be getting my certificate soon.

Now comes the hard part; I need to teach real classes to be any good at it.

So my plan is to apply at HS Rec. Center and see if they will let me teach or substitute on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I would love to see familiar faces,

But Please know that it will be my first time teaching.

I am also hoping to teach a prenatal yoga class and a Zumba class if I get any people interested.

Some fun things we did when my sis was in town; political discussion about abortion,

Spray painted my daughter's hair.

Played Cranium;

This is a new family from Utah that we are so happy to have in our stake; Kim and Mike Z. Please say hi if you see them at church!

watercolor painted,

Nightmare come true; Child wounded on wall, to the shock and dismay of entire doctor's office staff while in the care of his babysitter. This was the day Nikki got into town, then later, I locked my keys in my car with all 4 kids at Walmart.

Yeah, not fun.

Jon-ton hanging out with the big boys.

Alteration to bird's nest egg. Does it look wierd? It's suppoused to be a bird.

Political posts

Hey, so obviously I hit a nerve about Obama
and so I would like to publicly invite anyone to leave comments
and write the facts that they know,
So, let's have a discussion, no name calling though,
as you will see that I will moderate comments (but I try to post it all.)
I understand that Obama has a powerful persona and image and honestly,
it's a little scary, but I don't know enough about Bush 2
and I would really like some more info, so enlighten me please.
Thanks!

Michelle Obama?

Did anyone hear Michelle's speech? Holy crap, she is a good speaker! She did not look, talk or act nervous and she really got her message out there! I was impressed.
Anyway, for all you undecided; Let hope, not fear, be your guide.
I know who I am voting for! Above voting and beyond my opinions, I do want to clarify that I will do God's will, no matter what.
I am sorry if ya'll think ill of me for my choice, but if John Mcaine is going to continue Bush's policies and antics then, no thank you! I might give him a chance if he completely detaches from Bush and does what he does best; fight for what's right.
By the way, I did vote for Bush.... but only the first time. I defintely did not know enough about him or the other candidate. This post is not an attack on anyone and I'm sorry if anyone took offense. I have different beliefs and feelings about many things, I want to tell you that I respect the difference that exists between all people. I also love and cherish the similarities we all share.
I was not trying to offend anyone and please don't take it personally but I would rather be hopeful than scared. Like my adopted lovely last name- Hopewell! I love the Hopewell's!

Galveston anyone?

We love Galveston!

Here are some pics.

The bikes were so fun!

This is the only souvenir shop we went into and One of the kids (?) got ahold of the price gun and proceeded to 'price' everything. The ladies who worked there were not happy with all the stickers, but I pretended not to notice, bought my $1 sunglasses, walked away as fast as I could. Hehehe.

As I was taking these pictures of the (rats w/ wings?) I'm pretty sure I missed a bomb by an inch. Eva wasn't scared of poop at all and fed the birds twice.

This was Roxy's birthday party for all the august Birthday's. I think it's safe to say that It was more like for all of Summer celebration and was a yummy fun surprise to celebrate w/ cake, ice cream, goody bags and all kinds of fun stuff. All the kids!

I found these shells at the beach, in front of our hotel/room. They are much prettier in person but extremely delicate. These are dyed pearls that I looped thru the shells.

Diane taught me how to boogie board. Yay!

Dylan/I on the ferry. Best 10 minutes of my life.....

Lilli loves babies! She never stops loving on them, even when they cry and push her away. I wonder where she got that from......?

Ethan found these awesome hermit crabs and for some reason there was a dead fish on the cement by the pool. I told Ethan to feed it to the crab but I don't think he liked the smell.

The bikes were awesome. Daddy Hopewell refused to pedal so noone wanted him to ride w/ them. Poor Josh and Jeni got stuck w/ him! There was one time when he tried to jump on our bike but since we were ahead, he had to grab John and Diane's bike, while it was rapidly moving out of his path. It was so funny! We also played bumper bikes with John and Diane.

Bruce the shark!

We were dying on the way pedaling back, notice the both of us biting our lip.....

It would have been perfect with the Bjorns and Jordan. Crazy, but perfect!

August

First day of school and I already love it. Of course, my kids haven't come home yet, but it will be okay! The kids had their last three days of vacation this week and we wanted to do something fun together.

So, I found an awesome article in "Texas Monthly" magazine about the top 25 water-swimming holes in Texas. Most of them were around Austin, but then I found the only one in Tarrant County!

So Bruce took Moday off to hang out with us (yay!) and We ended up going to a Spring-Fed lake in Fort Worth. We had a blast, Stayed there for 5 hours. It was a little pricey for me $12, but kids under 6 are free.

We rented a tube,

and slid down the slides (Eva top)

Ethan went down this crazy tall slide 3 times, twice alone, once terrified, despite being held by his daddy.

Bruce swung on a trapeze a few timesI just just soaked it all in.... I tried to play with the kids but I guess jumping on the tube when you're sitting on it, is a lil' scary for some.

Oh, the best part?

Finding out 2 days later, that the "Pool" that we had visited/enjoyed so much was one of the first places where the bacteria 'Crypto' was detected and had an outbreak.

I don't know if we are lucky, foolish or blessed but we sure did have fun. Oh, by the way, I was very strict when it came to keeping the babies from 'messing' in the pool.

Have a great weekend!

August B-days in my family!

HAppy Burfday to all August babies!

So this post is unbearably self-indulgent and if I had really awful pictures of myself on this computer, I swear I would post them, (Not shy about that.)

Well, it's 1:26am and I'm officially 30. Whatever.

Vega is like a sister to me, she rocks!

This is the banner to my new etsy shop; 'the Mad Vine.'
I will be listing all my crazy ideas with the purpose of establishing a business for working women who need to be creative and help their families.

This is pretty much me all the time; hungry, tired, dirty and sleepy. My happy face!

I just bought a Zumba DVD cause if I'm going to work out and be sore, then dang it, I'm going to enjoy it. (no one seems to enjoy yoga as much as I do-prenatal yoga anyone?) If anyone wants to learn zumba with me and come over and dance on my dance floor, please do! I have decided to dance more, especially after I realized how much I enjoy it. I would love to someday open a international dance studio where anyone can come and learn dances from all over the world and feel good!