We Love Zimbabwe!

Last year around this time our family was privelaged to help a few pro golfers gather items to ship to Zimbabwe (click here to learn about them...they rock!). Matt's brother Marshall was privileged to get to know these ladies on his mission and we are so blessed to still be in contact with them! An e-mail we recieved showed us where some of last years donations went....

Both Harare Stake Young Women’s Camps received sleeping bags, journals, hygiene kits,clothing, towels etc. (almost 500 Young Women in total) HOW COOL IS THAT??? I cried when I saw all the pictures of these girls loving their new things. Also something that was said is that some of these girls only own one pair of clothing. Can you imagine?? Also, if you don't remember here is what Matt's sister Krystal gathered for her Young Women project:

And here is Matt and I delivering the goods and Matt on top helping pack up the crates:

A few days ago Reeve and her friends (the golfers) found out that their golf sponsors are allowing them to trade their "goods" they would normally be sponsored with at events for 2 empty crates to ship to Zimbabwe!
We are thrilled about this news and are planning to make a trip down to Utah in the next while (between the 15th and the 25th of NOVEMBER). We have started gathering items to take down with us (including a ton of clothes from our closets that will hopefully be used by some of those sweet girls!) It is a lot funner for me to give things when I know EXACTLY where they are going and when I know the person who will be handing my things over to those who need it. (A lot better than taking it to DI and never knowing what happens to it!)


If you or anyone you know would like to help us gather items, here is a list. (Notice that there are many medical items as well. If you know any doctors that would be interested in donating, that would be fabulous! ) Also, as you look over the list remember that every little bit counts. We are not giving a ton ourselves, but we are giving...and that is what matters! If you do not have any of the items or do not want to go out and search for them, Matt and I will be making a trip to the dollar store to buy things to take- so money is welcome if you wish! Thanks Everyone...love you all! :)

·        Books (Bibles especially as the African people have a GREAT reverence and respect for The Lord’s word, Bibles in turn will allow the Children an opportunity to become literate)

·        Reading Glasses (strengths +1.5 to +4) While we were distributing Bibles to the Children out in the bush from your last shipment we further realized the vast importance of reading glasses as there are thousands of Orphans and often times their only living Relative will be a Grandmother who knows how to read and could teach the Children, however she requires reading glasses!! (I have recently acquired my first pair!)

·        Water Purification tablets & purification bottles

·        Baby Milk Powder (for Mom’s with HIV to feed their babies) & Baby Bottles to feed them with

·        Nutritional Food Supplements (i.e atmit)

·        Tuna fish in oil

·        New born kits

·        School kits

·        Hygiene kits

·        Notebooks to write in

·        Pens

·        Clothing(babies, children/adolescence etc.)

·        Primary children’s Church clothing, smaller white shirts, pants, dresses, children’s underwear etc.

·        Missionary clothing for Elders - white shirts, ties, suits, shoes, backpacks, belts, sweaters, overcoats (including smaller sizes)

·        Missionary Clothing for Sister Missionaries

·        Antiseptic soap / Bath soap

·        First Aid kits (however NO medicines) Bandages/Band-aids/splints etc.

·        Seeds

·        Laundry soap

·        Towels

·        Blankets, Sheets (linen)

·        Underwear

·        Sweaters

·        Socks

·        Shoes

·        Hats

·        Toys/balls

·        For the Stake Young Women’s Camps (500+ Girls) - Sleeping bags, Journals, Pens, Towels, Hygiene kits, clothing

"Last year we spent MANY hours sorting through the clothing into sizes so that it might be easily distributed once it arrived as we do not have a warehouse in Zimbabwe which to unpack the goods into. Therefore, as cheeky as this might sound, we would be SO, SO GRATEFUL if the donated clothing could be packed and labelled according to sizes" i.e.

·        BABY

·        CHILD – Girl             

·        CHILD - Boy

·        TEENAGER - Girl     

·        TEENAGER - Boy

·        ADULT –Female         

·        ADULT - Male

WE DID IT!

We met our goal of making 100 pairs of baby leggings!! WAHOOO! (We actually made 130 pairs...that's 260 socks people!!)

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH to everyone who contributed in ANY way!!

We had a great sewing/cutting/tying crew that showed up today...and I couldn't be more greatful for the help! You ladies are AWESOME!

Here are some pics from the day! (Sorry to those who left before we got our group shot!!)

If any of you are still wanting to help or need to get me your finished leggings, PLEASE try to get them to me by the end of this month! I want to try and have them sent off to the Webster family by the 1st of October!

Again, THANK YOU so very much for all of you love and support! It means so much to me that all of you would help me out with this project!!! <3

Leggings Update!

First of all THANK YOU to everyone who has volunteered to help make leggings, donated money, or bought socks! You are all WONDERFUL!

I am confident that we will meet and exceed our 100 legging goal!!

*If you have talked to me about giving money but have not been able to meet up with me, please call, text, or e-mail me ASAP so we can arrange something!*

We are still in need people to come help sew the leggings on the 8th of September...so let me know if you can help!!

I have made a couple pair of leggings to practice...it is so FUN and EASY!!!

Aren't they adorable?!

I can't wait to see all of our finished products!!

*Baby Leggings*

Here’s a little more info about the information about the service project I’m doing!

A few months ago I was introduced to the story of the Webster family. Their daughter Makenzie was a healthy baby but fell ill with SMARD, a rare disease. She was almost 5 months when she died. You can read more of her story here:

To commemorate Makenzie's life, her mother Kendra is doing many things. One of them will be to take leggings to Primary Children's on the anniversary of her daughter's death (December 13). Makenzie wore these cute little leggings her mom made her while she was in the hospital.
They kept her warm and looked so cute!

So, why am I telling you all of this?? Here's why:

*To help, I have set a goal to make 100 legging pairs! (About $200 worth)

If you want to help, here’s what you can do:

*Donate money to buy socks to make the leggings. (A $10 donation can make around 5 pair of leggings!)

*Volunteer your time on September 8^th by coming and helping sew the leggings. (E-mail me for more details)

*Buy knee high socks (women’s or girl’s sizes) and give them to me to sew.

*Buy socks and sew leggings on your own and give them to me to deliver. (I will send you the pattern)

*Buy leggings and give them to me to deliver (this costs more money but is less time consuming).

Please let me know ASAP if you are interested in helping me with this service project!

I am very excited about it and am sure it will be a success!

I know I can do it with your help!!!

If you want to help or have any questions, here is how you can contact me:

Call/text: (208) 201-2742

E-mail: mbbitter@gmail.com

Uploaded some cell phone pics...

I decided to clean off some pics on my cell phone...they're all pretty old and pretty random, but I thought I would share anyway :)

In no particular order, here they are:

Me...my hair looks so dark!!

"Halloween" at the Painted Turtle

My sweet little nieces & Seth :)

New climbing shoes!!!!!!!!!! (Which I may be using TONIGHT!)

Matt & Marsh's first check for 2M! I was proud :)

The CUTEST tiger I have ever seen!

Not sure why I have this, but here's Mitch with a dog...what else is new!? :)

Projects

Because it's the last week of the semester my mind is wondering and FAR GONE from anything school related. And it doesn't help that I've been in school for over a year-and-a-half. (Just sayin....)

SO... consequently I have been day-dreaming over all of the many projects I am going to attempt to do/start over my break. FYI and for me as well, I'm making a list:

• Make 100 pairs of baby-leggings for this awesome family. (Let me know if you wanna help!)
• Start a quiet book for my future little ones. [Thanks for your crafty blog Sam, I get ideas from it (: ]
• Finish sewing a couple of bags I have been neglecting.
• ORGANIZE MY RECIPES! (Any ideas for this one?)
• Recruit my BFF to come help me organize my kitchen cabinets/closet. (Yes Liz, that means YOU!)
• Have a sewing day with my sissy's and mamma to make some pillow dresses for all the little princess's in my life. (And possibly to re-stock the baby-shower gift storage.)
• Organize "my room". It's bad people...real bad. I'm talkin' sewing, scrapping, schooling, crafting, decorating CRAP EVERYWHERE!!!!! (Excuse my language.)
• AND....I really want to make one (or two...or three...) of these and maybe a few of these (I might make a bunch of the tutu's for this charity...later this fall though). So cute! I can always use them for gifts for all my babies (AKA my nieces & nephews)!

I'm sure my list will grow and only a fraction will get done, but a girl can dream right?

Anywhoo...I'm off to attempt to study for a final or two...wish me luck.

P.S. Two posts 7 days apart...come on now, that deserves some props! ;-)

Shocked?

Hello world...Yes, I'm blogging. Shocked? Me too.

I started feeling guilty that I still check everyone else's blog...but I never blog . So, here's a bit of an update on our happenings...

• I'm almost done with the semester...YAY! But, I will NOT be posting my grades this time...I've been...ummmm...well....a bit of a slacker! :)
• I registered for my last semester of course work before I students teach...WAHOOOO!
• Matt got nationally trained as a rock climbing/rappelling instructor through BSA and coordinated the Cedar Badge rappelling in June.
• Matt is gearing up for grain season... :-/
• I have had 2 more miscarriages (march & june) which brings the grand total of little ones we may get to raise someday to 5.
• We found out why I am miscarrying (we think)...most likely my thyroid (hypothyroidism) and just a crappy malfunctioning immune system.
• We have gone fishing a few times this summer...I love just being outside and NOT doing homework!
• We have hung out with family pretty much all summer [Nephews being ordained to the priesthood and baptized, playing cards, riding the 3 wheeler (may she rest in peace...long/funny story), playing at the dunes, shooting squirrels (and any other creature that moves), watching fireworks...etc...etc...]

Kacy, Yandie, Me, Krys....YES, the wind was blowing.

After a long, cold day of riding on the dunes...so fun!

Yandie & Me cruising around the farm...Doesn't her beauty put any ounce of mine to shame?!

Spring on the Henry's Fork

Here fishie fishie...
Daren, Me, Matt in St. George (February...I know...forever ago!) Me and Matt riding on the rocks!
We are going on our 3rd year of marriage...and we couldn't be more in love :)
We have been working at the Rexburg Temple as ordinance workers for almost 1 year...and it has been the biggest, best blessing in our lives!
Matt is busy as the Elder's Quorum Pres. in our ward...it's so neat to see him serve and fulfill his priesthood duties!
I'm the 2nd counselor in the R.S. Pres. and love the girls I work with and love getting to be trained and learn so much from our stake R.S. Presidency! It's definitely a learning/growing experience for me!

Anywhoo.... I hope everyone is doing awesome!

Christmas!

Can you BELIEVE that Christmas is OVER???!!!! I can't. In fact, my decorations just don't seem to want to come down. I think that i'll pretend it's Christmas until at least February. :)

Anyway....

We started our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve at my parents house. This lovely little picture below is of my handsome husband helping out in the kitchen. Yes, he is wearing my mom's apron. What a man! :)

We had fun helping my parents get ready for company and cooking some yummy food! My dad showed Matt his famous clam chowder making skills and I got to do the grunt work (such as grating and chopping miscellaneous things...)

All of my siblings came except for Joe. We took pics of each family and of all the grandkids! (Minus Dannette) Looking at this pic I can't believe how big they are all getting! Especially Austin and Justin! They are turning in to handsome young men! Who would have thought!? I feel old... Here are my parents and some of the coolest kids around:

After we ate, sang, played, and opened presents we sent everyone home and made our way to Matt's parents house. We stayed the night there and helped Santa do his thing at the Bitter house.

The next morning we opened presents with the whole fam. It's always so fun Christmas morning at the Bitter house! And I can always count on getting a sugar coma after making my way through my stocking!

Matt got a bunch of reloading stuff and a few calls (technical boy/hunter terms...don't worry nothing exciting). I got an awesome jewelry box thing, some clothes, books, and...dum da da dum....AN IPOD TOUCH! I had no idea Matt was going to buy me one! I sort of lost my iPod that he bought me last Christmas (anyone seen a Pink Nano anywhere?). So, after that I didn't think he'd get me another one...but HE DID! And, IT ROCKS....seriously, everyone should have one.

Another highlight was the gift exchange we did this year with the Bitter's. I had our niece Brynlee's name this time. I made her a dress up chest and bought some clothes for it. When she opened it she proceeded to put on every outfit in it! It was so stinkin' cute! It made my painting effort worth it! So here she is...the cowgirl/cheerleader/fairy!

The rest of the holidays we pretty much crashed at the Bitter's and bummed around eating food, playing the Wii, playing other games (hearts, sequence)..... It was wonderful!

Matt had fun hanging out with Mitch and practicing with the new calls. They spent some time calling coyotes too. It's amazing how Matt will wake up at 5 in the morning to fish or hunt but yet when it's time for work or errands with me it takes a blow-horn to get him up!!!

Now it's back to reality this week. We spent today helping Ayanda (our new friend from Zimbabwe) getting registered and what not for classes. Tomorrow will be the same and I'll have to take care of odds and ends for this semester. Then on Wednesday I start another semester of 20 credits! At least this time I won't be working on top of it!

I am so excited for 2010 and I'm sure it's going to be a fabulous year! 2009 was great and so much happened in such a short time! I can't help but be excited for what lies ahead!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is enjoying the new year!