Michael and Lydia Spencer

High on a Mountain Top

2011-12-08T19:55:00.001-08:00

This is SO late in posting but its been crazy busy. I think I will make my new years resolution to be a better blogger. Anyway, Here bellow you will see that Mike and I took a Vacation to Utah this past July to visit family and meet the guy in this photo with the Zebras on his T-shirt. His name is Zach Panter. He is Maria's(pink shirt) fiance! Yay! We had a terrific time! I can say that no hiking in Kansas will EVER measure up to hiking in the Mountains. Trail or No trail. The hardest part for me, besides the obvious, was the lack of oxygen. Mike considered the "paved path" as "not much of a hike". He would prefer to go on a path less modernized.

left to right- Alisha Bohannan(Sister-in-law), Lydia Spencer, Michael Spencer carrying Isaac Bohannan(Nephew), Zach Panter (soon to be brother-in-law), Maria Bohannan soon-to-be Panter, and Suzanne Neises(Lydia's Mom)

We also went camping! (which I said I would Never do in the Mountains for fear of Bears!) Thankfully Rebekah(Lydia's 6yr old Niece) said a prayer that no bears would come and eat us or bother us. She continued to remind her mother and us that we didn't need to worry about any bears because God will protect us because she asked. Such Faith! And ya know what..She was right!

Uncle Mike and Rebekah making S'Mores. Uncle Mike was a favorite.

Suzanne (Lydia's mom) was able to come with us on our little adventure! She was also nice enough to let Mike and I use her full sized blow-up matress. We put it on our cots and we slept like babies! Poor mom had the one she slept on deflate on her in the night.
Isaac (the littlest guy) slept in this make shift baby caged area. This little fence came in handy! Great thinking Alisha!

Playing toss the kid was fun and a good upper body workout. We just tossed Seth (pictured right) back and forth until we got worn out. Lucas's kids are like little fish. They just keep swimming swimming swimming! Wish we still had that kind of energy!

Well there is SOO much more to post on this subject but We will post more at a later time. (pictures too!)

Michael is a Betterist

2011-07-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Michael has a Betterfly account. He is a Betterist in Mormon Studies and Spanish Translations.

Michael Spencer

Wichita Mormon Studies Betterist

Check me out on Betterfly!

Family Vacation 2011

2011-06-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

The Spencer family took a little family history vacation this year to Neosho, Missouri. We stayed at the Eagle's Nest campground in Noel and Canoed the Elk River. It was a great adventure!

Lydia's Great Grandmother on her Father's side who has been a mystery for years. We finally found her burial plot. Location: Kenny Cemetery, Neosho, Missouri. There are still many questions about her family lineage.

There were many displaced creatures due to the recent flooding. The river rose 20 feet above normal just a week before the trip. Thankfully it went down enough to camp. The Alligator snapping turtle (above right) was wandering near our camp. He was one tuff dude!

PROM 2011

2011-06-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

I did my own hair and makeup. I was going for a dramatic look.

This is Mike with the Northwest High Grizzley. FIERCE!

This year Mike and I went to Prom together. This will make Prom number 2 or us. We attened the Daleville, AL High School Prom in 2008. The theme at this year's E-School Prom was Masquerade. Mike was the Phantom and I was, well just a lady in black. It was really fun!

Playing Catch up

2011-04-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

Mike and I have had a lot happen since our last blog so I will try to go month to month and let you know a little of what happened since November.

November 2010

Most of our time was spent with no plumbing.

The first sign there was a problem was when sewage began coming out of the pipe our washer hose drains into. And Boy did it stink!

We had one guy come out and he and I added a clean out inside the basement because he didn't know where the outside one was, then he snaked it and put acid down the pipe but the problem came back a couple days later. He felt bad so he returned $100 of the $175 he charged.

Then we had Reddi Rooter come out and the guy was super nice! He was an older gentleman who really knew his stuff. He knew exactly where our outside clean out was. The clean out was 1 foot under the ground. Whomever had done work on this pipe before buried it. (Thanks previous owners!) Anyway, the pipe was also tilted and he said he thought it might be broke off. He tried to snake it but it broke his blade. He said he was positive that it was broke off somewhere. We would have to dig it up. SO we paid him and hoped that when we dug it up we could do the fix ourselves.

POOR Mike! He dug the 5ft deep, 5 ft long and 4 ft wide trench. He spent hours digging in solid ground. (Keep in mind this is November and the ground isn't exactly soft)

Too our dismay, the pipe wasn't broke in just one place but 3! Clean off the foundation, off the clean out, and off the main sewer line.

I was able to get out some stress by creating a hole in our wall in the basement to give access to the area where they would need to replace the pipe.

So, we had another Reddi Rooter guy come out and he was super nice but could only tell us he would have to come back another day because of the size of the project. He said he would come with another guy and charge us for one man labor ($115 per hour). Estimated cost was $700. It would have been a thousand more had we not prepped the area.

When they come out again, it isn't that guy at all. It is another guy! He says he has another guy coming and they have to charge for each man. ($115 X2 per hour) The second guy doesn't even get there for another hour but they start charging when the first guy is there!

Needless to say, they got it done quick so I didn't complain. Overall this experience cost us around $1000.

Oh, the Joy of Home ownership!

Mikes brother, Steven and his family came to stay with us for a couple days. It was a great visit!

For Thanksgiving things my mom came to visit. Somehow her few days stay turned into a month. lol Gotta love mom! We had a good visit though. I got her to leave some nice clothing items behind. AND Some family photos.

December 2010

We spent this time getting our house together for company for Christmas. We planned to have Jay, Malissa, Maria, and my mom. For Christmas we went up for a day to my dad's for a family reunion. It was great! We brought back with us Malissa and Maria (my sisters).

My brother Jay came down the next week.

Over the Christmas break we had a house full of people. There wasn't a bed or couch that didn't have someone sleeping on it. Luke and Alisha (my brother and his family) came down from Utah! That was great! We had Misty and Ben (another sister of mine and her family) and BOY was it a mad house! At one time we had over 7 kids under the age of 10 at our house. Mike decided that we shouldn't have that many kids. lol (He used to tell people we wanted 8) It felt good that everyone was happy to be at my house. When everyone left, right before New Years, it was so quiet! It was kind of bittersweet moment. Nice to have your home back but you miss all the entertaining people.

January 2011, went by with snow day after snow day. I think we missed at least two days of school a week all the way until March. We had a great time sledding!

February 2011

Mike and I took Toby up to Missouri to visit my friend Lacy Walker before she moved back to Atlanta, GA. She ended up working so we saw her for a couple hours late Saturday night. We got to spend some time with Jay, since we stayed at his place. We helped him clean since he is a bachelor and they aren't the best at it. We went with my dad, step mom (Marilyn), and my grandma Bohannan to my youngest brother Ethan's basketball game. It was fun! We all went out to eat for my grandma's birthday after. We ate at a little Mexican restaurant in Knob Noster. We then went and saw the house my Aunt Connie is having built.

We didn't get to see Malissa and meet her boyfriend Brent until Monday at lunch. He seemed nice. He has a HUGE pickup truck! Hate to pay for that gas. We then headed home.

March 2011

I, Lydia, turned 27 on the 10th of March! Mike bought me a laptop! Mostly because we needed a new computer anyway. He uses his work laptop so I get this one all to myself!

ADOPTION

As you may or may not know, Mike and I put our application in for adoption through LDS Family Services. Because of all the problems with plumbing, holidays, and weather we didn't have our first Home visit until March. We are excited but nervous. There is no guarantee of placement and it can take years. Lately we have been trying to get our photo collage together as well as our training and baby proofing.

April 2011

Mike and I spent the first weekend in April watching General Conference for our Church. It was awesome! You can check it out on LDS.org. It is sooo wonderful to have a living prophet of God to guide us! I forgot but in December I got a new calling! I am no longer 2nd Counselor in Young Womens but am the NEW Ward Bulletin Lady! I make sure everyone knows what is going on for that Sunday and I have a calendar. I enjoy creating themes for each week. One week I used the quote from a favorite movie of mine called Pollyanna.

"When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will."

I also included a quote by Dieter F. Uchdorf about looking for the good in people.

Well, I will try to keep yall posted. Sorry I am a slacker! But better late than never!

2010-11-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

2010-11-02T17:53:00.001-07:00

I, Lydia, went with a friend to Dillards and got a Mac Makeover by a Dude! It hasn't been recreated since. Wish that guy could fix me up everyday. Now all I need is someone to dress me and do my hair. Wouldn't that be nice!

2010-11-02T17:36:00.001-07:00

The Spencers went all out for Halloween this year. The costume choice was inspired by Toby (the dog). Mike was Shaggy, Lydia was Velma, and Toby was Scooby Doo (of coarse).

Toby really enjoyed all the attention he got! By the end of the night he had no spots left and everyone else had black hands..lol

2010-11-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

One.....

Two.......

Three......

CHEESE!!!!

Pictured: Michael, ChadrickPierce, Melissa Pierce, Lydia

2010-11-02T17:24:00.001-07:00

Oops it's been a while. Sorry yall! We have been busy since we posted last. We had some friends we met at church stay with us for about 5 months so they could get on their feet. Then there is all the busy summer activities and Lydia started a new job. She is a ESOL LRE aka teachers aide. Along with that job came another one, the recess and lunch aide. She subs sometimes for Latchkey too. Toby had grown alot too. He is enormous! 82lbs and half Lydia's Height! OOH and we are also adopting through LDS Family Services. We put our application in and are working on the Home Study. Well, we will try to keep this up to date more often. Especially since we want to have people see our blog for adoption.

Toby November 21st 2009

2009-11-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

Toby Sure has grown! He is now bigger than Hi-Shi (our cat) See how cute he is. He just Loves Mike. He is his Daddy. lol Thanks to Rachael for sending me these photos.

New Pictures of Toby!

2009-11-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

Isn't He Adorable!

Toby!!!

2009-11-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

This cute little guy is 9 weeks old and will be a Big Boy someday. His name is Toby. We adopted him from the Kansas Humane Society. He is a Doberman Boxer mix. He is a funny guy..He is obsessed with leaves. He will pick one up with his mouth, by the stem, and will walk around with it..sometimes eating it. He loves the brown crunchy ones. He is a lovable guy. We have already started training him. He is SOO Smart! Oh and a funny thing..our cat "Hi-Shi"..is 20lbs and Toby is 17 lbs. They are almost the same size. lol If you see them in person you will laugh. Hi-shi is the cat pictured. Later I will post them together.

2009-11-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

This is what it looks like when a pinata is broken open. They were fast little people! lol If only we could have gotten the kids to help us clean up everything this fast! lol

2009-11-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the pinata's made by Lydia and Rachael. Lydia painted both. They almost look shocked that someone is pounding them. (ha ha ha) Doesn't the picture with the kids look like they are excited to pound out the candy! We added some extra's inside them..including bouncy balls, plastic bugs, rubber rats, and more. The kids were like "Look there are bugs in it!" lol It took alot of work to make those pinata's. Next year we will buy some ready made. They both had 5 lbs of candy in them. Well Here is to another great Year of fun and festivities!

2009-11-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

Mike and I try out the picture booth before it is taken down. I think it turned out pretty good. I am wearing a Dorathy wig. lol

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-04T14:53:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again. Time to have a Chili Cook off! The Primary at church took charge of the Trunk or Treat Festivities. We included Pinata's, candy, cake walk, face painting, and even a picture booth! It was soo much fun!

Lydia's First Quilt

2009-10-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here is some closer images of the quilt.

2009-10-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

A friend of our at church was due to have a baby the beginning of December and so Rachael and I decided to make her a quilt. The day we were looking over Rachael's collection of fabric we learned that she was admitted to the hospital because of high blood pressure. They were scheduled for a C-section the next day. SO, Rachael and I got to work. We spent 2 weeks and over 14 hours making this quilt from nothing. It was quite a process. Rachael has experience in sewing but me (Lydia) I have none. We were quite happy and proud of the final results. We are also glad to report that Baby Dylan is going to be ok and so is Marnee (his mom). We hope you will enjoy viewing the quilt.

PANAMA

2009-10-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

Back tracking just a little...Mike spent a month this past summer in Chitre, Republic of Panama. He was part of a teacher exchange program. He spent most of his time teaching prospective and current teachers how to use a teaching method called "Power Teaching". They all really enjoyed it. During the weeks spent there he stayed with a couple different families, one of which is a former Major League Baseball player, Olmedo Saenz. He took Mike all over looking at sights and also involved him in the branding of his cattle. (Mike kept the books) The people of Panama were very kind and generous. Some even made things for him to take back home.

Although it was a great experience for Mike, we were both glad when he came home. For me it was mostly because I was packing and cleaning, getting ready for our move. It was 2 weeks after his homecoming that we moved out.

If you ever get the opportunity to go and serve in another country, we would recommend it. (preferably not in the middle of a move)

Auburn Tigers vs Arkansas Razorbacks in ARKANSAS

2009-10-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

We made sandwiches in the Car on the way up and back. Good way to save money. They were good sandwiches!

Unfortunately Auburn did not win but it was fun to go to a College football game. We had the best view in the Nose Bleed section. We could see the band perform its different poses and the stadium was located on a hill so we could see the beautiful Ozark Hills.

2009-10-13T11:26:00.001-07:00

2009-10-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the camp ground. It was cold but beautiful!. From Left to right is Rachael and Jason Walker, Lydia and Michael Spencer. As you can see, Mike and Jason are funny guys.

2009-10-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

This is Rachael and Lydia on our way to Arkansas to go camping and see the Auburn Tigers play the Arkansas Razorbacks. We found these shirts at Target for $5 AND they glow in the dark! How cool is that!

2009-10-08T16:02:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture that was taken of Maria and Malissa (Lydia's Sisters) This past summer. Aren't they beautiful!

2009-10-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

It snowed last Spring and Mike got to have his fun in the Snow.

My mom came to visit for my niece, Sarah's baptism. She must have brought it from Idaho. She is pictured bellow. Isn't she cute! She's single too!

2009-10-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

Aren't they Pretty with those Big eyes and Long lashes! This one is actually the male.

2009-10-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

Lydia has gotten back in touch with her middle-high school BFF. Went Sedgwick County Zoo with Kamber and two of her 3 adorable kids. If you get a chance you HAVE to feed the Giraffe! It is SO fun! They are Way cooler up close!

2009-10-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Michael!!!

He is 27 years young!

Looks the same as when I married him.

Camping in the Great Plains

2009-10-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

In the picture you will see Rachael & Jason Walker, Daniel & Monica Dickenson, and Us.

These are our new friends from our new ward at church.

We like each other so much that we all went on a camping and hiking trip to Lake Kanopolis State Park. We hiked 6 miles up and down steep hills. (can't call them mountains since this is Kansas but it sure felt like Mountains to me since I obviously carry more

"rocks" in my back pack.) Next time we will make it longer than just an over night.

Then we literally slid over to Mushroom rock, just a mile or two from the Lake. The road was really sandy, so it was really slippery. Jason was braver than me, he went around 50 or 60 mph, making his car load all car sick. Poor girls! It was fun. We should have taken video of me getting on and off the rock. It was scary for me but funny for everyone else. Mike and Jason just swung down from the tree to the side there, like Monkeys!

New Niece!

2009-10-04T21:42:00.001-07:00

We welcome our new niece, Katie! Born September 14th, 2009 8lbs 21 inches long.

She has very excited brothers and sisters!

2009-10-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

Most recently, we have bought our first home!

It is a 1978 built 3 bedroom 2 and a half bath. Finished basement with Wet bar, fireplace, built-in desk/counter, and a Good Laundry/storage room. Nice fenced in yard. Back yard has a wood playground set for visitors with kids. Also a small fenced off area that will become a garden next year. We have great neighbors who watch out for everyone and their cat. (tell you more about that later) We are 10-15 min from anywhere important. There is a Beautiful Park just down the street. We love it!

2009-10-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Michael and Lydia Spencer's New Blog!