Taysoms in the News

Name that Baby

2012-01-27T12:13:00.003-07:00

People have been asking who Matthew looks like and I don't really know, so I'll let you decide for yourself. Can you name the baby? And who looks who?

So, what is it like having 5 kids, crazy, but I don't really know the reality of it yet. My wonderful friends and neighbors have been bringing meals for the last week, so many yummy things each night, and my sister is here helping take care of the kids and the house, so all I've had to focus on is Matthew.

When she leaves in 10 days or so will be the litmus test.

Here are the baby photos with the answers, how many did you get right? The color of clothing and the baby bow should have helped narrow down the possibilities.

Our new arrival

2012-01-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

Matthew Scott Taysom

January 18, 2012 Born 11:26 am

8 lbs 14 oz 21 inches

Long fingers and toes

Loved by all, even Lydia, who was convinced that I was having a girl,

she wouldn't trade her new brother for anything.

Welcome sweet, new baby boy.

Baby has arrived

2012-01-19T09:36:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to announce the arrival of our sweet baby boy, Matthew Scott Taysom. More details and pictures will be posted later.

It's not a summer day

2012-01-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Our weather here in Florida has been mostly in the 80's. There have been a few cooler days here and there, but mostly shorts and t-shirt weather.

Today the air is significantly cooler, right now at 10 am it is about 55 degrees. Lydia went outside and then came promptly back in a said,

"It is not a summer day"

I said, no, it is not. I love the cool air and love that it is not a summer day. It is nice to have warm winters, however in the 80's doesn't make it seem like winter at all, I would like it to be in the 70's, or at least not be so humid so that it feels pleasant to be outside. Regardless, I love a day like today with crisp cool air.

After getting geared up in a jacket and hat Lydia went outside again, but soon returned to say,

"I forgot a jacket for my legs."
"No, you need pants on." I replied.
"Oh, pants." she said, as if that was a novel idea to wear pants.

The Countdown is On

2011-12-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

I finally just added the widget to my sidebar of my pregnancy countdown.

It's obvious, from my lack of posts, that I have been a slacker blogger for this whole past year. I'm not making any promises for next year, but I hope to make it more of a priority.

So, anyway, my pregnancy is soon coming to an end, and really it wont' be any too soon for me. I just hit my 36 week mark, but compared to my other 4 pregnancies I feel like I am at 40 weeks. My belly is huge, my hands and feet are swelling like crazy and I lack motivation to do much, partly due to trying to keep the swelling down, the more active I am the more swollen I am, but if I sit to rest, I don't want to get up.

Thankfully my children have been great helpers lately. The boys are on dish duty and do a great job keeping the kitchen from mountains of dirty dishes. Charlie is learning to do a great job mopping the floors. Friday we had a "clean the house" day and I made them badges to wear that held their chore cards so they could move their cards to the back of the badge as they finished.

example of badges we used

clips attached to the badges

They probably loved the badges so much because it is a new thing, we've never used them before, but it was great because the badges clipped to their shirt and on the back of the card that said the job I listed the steps of what was expected for that job to be complete.

For instance Tom was in charge of cleaning the patio. the steps were, pick up garbage, put the big toys in the garage, put the small toys in the toy bin, line up the bikes and toys with wheels.

Tom did a fabulous job and the patio looked great. The chore badges were very helpful in keeping the kids on task. I didn't have picture cards for the girls, so they just came and asked me what theirs said and then ran off to do it and came back to ask about the next one.

One thing I have been enjoying lately is sewing. So far the baby has a couple blankets and burp clothes, my next project is to make a nursing cover. Not knowing the gender of the baby has made it harder in choosing fabrics and such, but I found some fabulous fabrics that i made the rag quilt with.

The other children have benefited from my sewing marathon. They each got a new apron, which actually the boys helped make their own. And I made the girls towel wraps for Christmas which are great for them to wear after baths or after swimming.

Mostly I'm trying to keep myself distracted from wanting to have this pregnancy over now, and rather just enjoy these last few weeks before our lives are changed forever with the addition of a new little one. One thing I have to look forward to is my sister Susan coming to spent some time with us, before and after the baby is born. She will be here in two weeks and stay for almost a month.

Wonderful Christmas

2011-12-27T14:01:00.002-07:00

Going to see the lights at the Fletcher Farm

We had a very nice Christmas day on Sunday.

Tom got his Christmas miracle. Jeremy was scheduled to work on Sunday and Tom was hoping that dad would get home early and be his Christmas miracle and what do you know Jeremy was home by 8:30am and never did get called back into work.

Since Jeremy wasn't going to be home for the kids to get to open their gifts early in the morning they must have figured there was nothing to wake up for, not one of them was awake before 7:30 am - that was my Christmas miracle, getting to sleep in.

We got up and made a pancake breakfast and daddy showed up just in time to eat with us. We then opened a couple of gifts and then got ready and went to church.

After church, which was only one hour, Sacrament meeting, rather than all three hours of meeting, we opened more gifts. The gift Jeremy was most excited to give was his gift to the girls.

He figured what little girl wouldn't love their own pink bb gun. Becca was indeed very excited, Lydia wasn't sure she wanted anything to do with it.

This is the only picture we took on Christmas, all the rest are videos.

We were invited to our neighbors house (the Wetterlings) for Christmas dinner and had a wonderful feast with them.

Later we came home to Skype with the grandparents, first my family and then Jeremy's family.

Being 8 months pregnant I can't say I feel very motivated to do much lately, I'm big and tired. My wonderful husband had Monday off and he helped clean and get all the Christmas decorations down and put away, it was so nice to not have to do that myself. We usually don't take it down the day after Christmas, but that was when he was available to help and I was very glad to have his help.

Videos you must watch

2011-12-23T08:02:00.002-07:00

We love Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson at our house and the Piano Guys are doing a great job making videos that are awesome to watch.

Here are a few favorites:

Carol of the Bells (one of my favorite Christmas songs)

Here is a video from a recent concert - I would love to go to their concert

"Where are you Christmas" - with Jon's daughter singing

This next one is very fun to watch - a favorite of my boys, spin off of Star Wars, and a neat side note, a friend of Jeremy (from high school - Ali Morris) made the costumes.

Cello Wars

This one is Tom's favorite and we bought the single and he listens to it over and over and over.

Michael Meets Mozart

The most awesome thing about watching these guys, beyond their talent, is watching the joy they experience as they play their music, I love listening to their songs, but I also love watching them, it inspires me to want to improve my talents and take joy in what I do.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

A few Funnies

2011-11-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here are a few fun finds from Pinterest. They bring a smile to my face.

and bears, oh my!

2011-11-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

We had an uninvited guest trying to take up residence in our neighborhood.

Yesterday I got and email about a bear sighting in our neighborhood.

I didn't know there were bears in Florida, alligators yes, bears, no.

I figured he was just passing through the neighborhood so I didn't worry about it too much.

Then this afternoon the neighbor kids (carpenters) who were over playing were walking home and soon came running back telling me they saw the bear.

I drove them to their house and just then the bear came lopping across the street.

Wildlife control had been called so we hung around watching the bear, thinking the wildlife control would be there soon. The bear seemed content munching on nuts from the tree and didn't seem bothered by the people cautiously gathered on the opposite of the road.

Over an hour later the bear was still passively under the tree and wildlife control finally came.

They weren't shooting bullets, just pellet bags (or some such thing) that would be enough to cause the bear to run off and not want to come back again (hopefully anyway).

All this caused for an interesting afternoon, but I'm really not wanting to hear of bears in our neighborhood again.

Halloween

2011-11-01T12:54:00.000-06:00

Charlie - Obi wan Kenobi Tom- magician

Lydia-Rapunzel with butterfly wings Becca-Rapunzel

Group of kids that came to the halloween party at the clubhouse and then we went around the neighborhood trick-or-treating together.

Lydia heading up a walkway to got trick-or-treating.

News and fun

2011-08-30T12:37:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile.

We got back from Utah at the beginning of August and have been busy homeschooling since then.

My news is that I am pregnant, 20 weeks, so not really new news, but haven't really been spreading the news.

It's been raining a lot, we didn't get any effects of hurricane Irene, ironic since we live in hurricane territory, yet all up the east coast is where it hit.

Lydia turned 3 last week.

Since I'm not too full of words I'll share a few funny's.

Is this not so true.

Do you need ideas for pet costumes?

Sometimes you have to think outside the box and use the same materials, but get a different result.

this isn't really funny, it's a sad but true

way to look on the bright side

a fun way to go

I always wondered what they did on their time off

Meal time

2011-07-21T11:14:00.001-06:00

Being a good parent isn't an easy task. It is easy to slip into "easy" mode and let kids get away with things because then there is no resistance when the kids are getting their way, but it isn't doing them any favors.

The past few weeks I've really let things slide and I've been a lazy parent letting my kids get away with sloppy behavior and attitudes. The past couple days I've come out of lazy mode and my kids did not like it. But today has been a really good day. My kids know I won't put up with their laziness any more and after rebelling against me for the past couple days they are realizing it is better for them if they just obey and cooperate and then life is happier for us all.

Becca decided to test my resolve today. Lately she has been wasteful with her food at meal times and I have been letting her get away with it. Today I decided that was the end of that and told her she had to stay at the table until she finished eating her breakfast. I don't think she thought I was serious.
At first she poked at her food, then she sat back and tried to ignore her food. One time I caught her trying to spoon some of hers into Lydia's bowl. Once everyone else left the table and she was all alone she became angry and started crying and screaming. She carried on for almost 2 hours.
She must have finally realized I was not going to let her leave the table until she was done. Once she finally started eating it took her ONE minute to eat. All of her antics for one minute of eating. And surprisingly she was happy when she finally finished and I praised her for eating her food and she went on her merry way to go play.

I am so glad I followed through. There were a couple times I wavered and considered telling her she only had to eat a few bites or thought about offering to rewarm her food. I'm glad I didn't interfere and just let her deal with her own problem.

Spending the summer in Utah

2011-07-13T14:04:00.001-06:00

Six weeks ago I was laying on my bed, in Florida, realizing I didn't want to spend the summer in the Florida muggy heat. I checked plane tickets, which up to that point had been fairly pricey, and found a good deal and booked 7 weeks in Utah. For the month of July Jeremy was assigned clinicals in Davenport, which is 4 hours from our house, so he wasn't going to be around, which made the decision of leaving even easier.

We have been staying with Jeremy's parents in beautiful Pine Vallley and we go to St. George about once a week and visit other family and visit my parents. My parents live in a small house and now that my sister lives in their only extra bedroom, there is even less room to stay, so we usually just do day visits with them. Plus it is much hotter in St. George than in Pine Valley, and I prefer staying out of the heat.

The kids are having fun spending lots of time outdoors, and I don't even have to take them to the park so they can run and play (in Florida we don't have a yard, I have to take my kids to the park so they can play).

I grew up in Idaho on an acre an a half, we had lots of room to run and play. I have always wanted the same thing for my kids. For now this comes as close to my ideal as possible for now. The one thing I wish we had was bikes for our kids so they could ride around while we are here in Pine Valley.

The first weekend after we arrived in Pine Valley was Jeremy's family reunion at a State camp ground near Manti Utah. It was a beautiful place and the kids had a wonderful time playing with their cousins.

Last week was Tom's birthday, he turned 7. For his birthday he wanted to go see Cars 2, which had just come out in theaters. We invited the grandparents and some cousins to join us. It was an awesome movie and the graphics were incredible. After the movie we went back to my mom's house for pizza and cupcakes. My mom made Tom a fun cupcake snake, using skittles to put the snake pattern on each cupcake. It was cool and Tom thought it was cool.

I'll have to add pictures after we get back to Florida, I don't have any way to do it here.

I glad my in-laws have Internet, when we lived with them 2 years ago, before we moved to Florida, they didn't have Internet and that was a long 6 weeks. I would take my kids to the parks in St. George that had wifi so I could search for apartments and do other online tasks while they played at the park.

I try not to be on the Internet too much, but those few weeks were an eye opener as to how dependent I am on the Internet. I pay all my bills online, do all my banking online and when ever I have a question or need to find a recipe I look online.

2011-06-09T10:07:00.000-06:00

Amazing talent from such a young girl - she has a beautiful voice. Her name is Jackie Evancho and she is 11 years old.

Good for a Laugh

2011-05-31T20:26:00.000-06:00

Digital Scraping

2011-05-05T13:24:00.000-06:00

I enjoy digital scrapbooking. A few years ago I learned how to digiscrap using PSE (photoshop elements) and made many wonderful scrap pages. As fun as it was, it still seemed to be too time consuming, I spent too much time in the design (which I love doing) and lately I haven't been doing anything.

I just found out about scrapbooking with Picasa, free online from google, and it has been so easy to do. I completed the above four pages in a short amount of time, this gives me hope to be able to get more of my pictures off my computer and into books where the kids can look at them.

At the top of my blog there are tabs, one is labeled "Digi Scrap" and I have listed in there links where I found out how to use Picasa for digiscrap and also links for free supplies. Digital scrapbooking can be completely free, except printing the pages out. I have never paid for any of my supplies, I just look for the free stuff.

The key to using picasa is layering. Make a mosaic collage of photos then create a new collage with multiple papers and the photo collage. Then add the words and viola a completed page.

The hardest part for me is to get an idea, I usually look for other people who have the design style I like and use their stuff for inspiration. The two blogs that I learned how to use picasa (clover lane and persnickity) had wonderful examples of their scrap pages andI looked to their stuff for inspiration.

For anybody who has been intimidated by digital scrapbooking because it seems to hard, complicated, intimidating, time consuming, costly or whatever other excuse, you no longer have an excuse.

Go for it

My Fairy Tale Wedding

2011-05-03T15:24:00.002-06:00

It was a beautiful wedding, the marriage of Kate and Prince William, a real life version of a fairytale. Everything was so beautiful and well put together. The wedding dress was stunning, the bride was beautiful, and the Prince was very handsome in his regal uniform. I loved that they rode away in a horse drawn carriage.

The thing that struck me the most was the high contrast between this "perfect" wedding and my very simple wedding -- they spoke the words "till death do us part" whereas my wedding included the covenant of "eternal marriage" that death cannot break.

A family is forever

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of which I am a member, Christ's priesthood has been restored with all the blessings and ordinances, including the ordinance of eternal marriage which takes place in a Temple.

This life is the time to prepare to meet God. God has a plan for us and part of that plan is for us to be happy here on earth and also in the eternities. My family is my joy and the covenants I've made bind me to God and to my husband and my children. They are a reminder of what is most important so I don't get distracted by the lies the world teaches.

My fairytale wedding didn't exist in the details of the wedding, my fairytale wedding exists in the covenant that I made and that I truly will live "happily ever after".

Things kids say

2011-04-20T18:15:00.000-06:00

Becca got a bag of clothes from a neighbor. My kids love hand-me-down clothes. Lydia was feeling sad because she wanted some "new" clothes too.

I said, "Becca, will you share some of those clothes with Lydia".
Becca responded, "Ok, I can give her all the weird clothes that I don't want".

Problem solved.

Happy helpers

2011-03-30T09:24:00.001-06:00

I love happy helpers. The other day I was fixing lunch and turned to see Lydia (age 2) unloading the dishwasher, towel in hand to dry the ones that were still wet. No one had asked her to, she just wanted to help. I stood watching her for a few minutes than went and found my camera to take a video.

The thing that is nice about having many kids is that the younger ones learn by watching the older ones. Lydia has seen her brothers do the dishes many times. Now, being short like she is she can't reach the cupboards to put the dishes away, but she was able to successfully unload the whole dishwasher and set all the dishes on the counter and put the silverware in the drawer

Then, after finishing the dishes, she and Becca wanted to help make sandwiches. The only problem with small helpers and jam is the stickiness that gets on everything.

I found this photo on my camera. Apparently the boys gathered all their toy cars and trucks together for a photo shoot.

This photo is from January when we made our surprise visit to Utah. Christmas day we decided we were missing family so much that we hopped in the car and drove non-stop to Utah from Florida (a 40+ hour trip, left on Saturday night and arrived there Monday midday). Jeremy flew back to Florida to finish the semester that ended the fourth week of January and the kids and I stayed in St George for the month.

We very much enjoyed spending time with family and friends for a whole month. The kids particularly enjoyed playing in the snow, in Pine Valley. Coming from Florida we had no snow clothing, so we bought and borrowed warm clothes. I didn't even own a jacket and had to buy one, and some sweaters.

Waking up, swords,

2011-03-03T09:07:00.004-07:00

I read other peoples blog, have thoughts and ideas I want to remember, so I am going to make my own blog post with links to those posts I want to remember and be able to find in the future.

Scripture study. I keep a scripture study journal, and I found a blog that gives great references and resources for scripture study time. One great idea I gleaned was to format talks to print out and paste in my journal, it shows how to condense a long talk and be able to print it out on one page. This is great because I like how it puts it right there in my journal for easy reference later on, rather than trying to find it in my stack of print outs.

Learning to listen. Moss Moments is one of my favorite blogs. Today her post particularly was what I needed because I often wonder how I'm supposed to do it all and her post reminds me that I am not supposed to do it all. One child at a time, one project at a time, one moment at a time. I need to ponder and listen and then act on what I come up with.

My brother Myke is funny and quirky and I enjoy reading his posts.

One of my favorites was his post "weather go home" about winter weather in Rexburg Id. He posted lots of great pictures illustrating the ridiculous winter weather one must endure in Rexburg - the post was so funny to me because it brought back all kinds of childhood memories.

I want to remember his post about the secret of waking up the first time the alarm goes off. I had never heard of this idea, but it makes sense

- practice and train yourself to wake up when it is not the actual time, like the night before, run through the scenario a few times and after a few nights of this see if your practice doesn't pay off.

Sword Play - totally cool "toy", that allow boys to be boys without the shedding of blood.
I love movies that have sword fights and I think it would be cool for my boys to learn how to sword fight.

Battle Swords in Action from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Ukraine Temple

2011-02-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

I served a mission in St Petersburg Russia in 1997-98 so I have a personal connection to why I feel so thankful that the Russian people have a Temple in Kiev Ukraine. LDS.org posted a video clip from the dedication and the multicultural presentation that the youth performed.

As I watched the video I felt the Spirit and gratitude and Love for the Russian people and hope for the future and wished I could have been there to watch it all in person. One elder from my mission was able to go back for the dedication and it made me wish I could have had that opportunity too.

Temples are part of God's plan for us and are vital to eternal salvation. What a blessing it is for us to live in these days and watch as Temples spread across the land and dot the earth and come closer to the people of the church so that each may have the opportunity to go to the Temple.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-19T12:36:00.002-07:00

Winter is Here

2010-12-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

It is cold outside - at 10 pm it is 49 degrees and for Florida that is cold. It got to about 54 degrees today and it was very windy. With the sun shining it wasn't too bad, but with the sun gone down, it feels like winter (or at least fall). I am cold intolerant now, or maybe it's because I don't own a coat, and it is colder than just sweater weather.
Anyway, I opted to not take my children to the park, even though I told them this morning that we would go, because I didn't want to be out in the cold. I think if it hadn't been windy I would have been okay, but the wind was very blustery and I didn't want to be out in it.

The wind has been around for a few days. Saturday was windy, but warmer - in the 60's. I did a photo shoot for my friend and despite the wind we were able to get some fun family photos at the pier.

My favorite was the feet picture - I've always wanted to do one of those.

Tonight when I put Becca to bed she wanted me to read books. I asked her to read to me. So she read "Rapunzel" to me. A book or two after Rapunzel she picked it up and said, "Mom I'm not going to read this one again because it is too scary".
I think she said that because the picture of the witch that takes Rapunzel is very scary looking in the particular book that we have.
She was so cute to read me book after book. Then I sang her some Primary songs and Christmas songs and she quietly drifted to sleep.

I was able to have such a nice bedtime with her because Lydia had fallen asleep much earlier, so I was able to have just me and Becca time.

Wednesday Words

2010-12-09T13:43:00.002-07:00

Although it is cool weather outside today, it is not as cold as yesterday, when I had to turn the furnace on because I was too cold in my house. I love the chill of the air outside and the warm air coming from the vents, blowing down on me. When I was a child our vents were on the floor and I would sit on them until I was toasty warm.

I am thankful for friends. This morning I taught a geography class with my boys and my friends 2 girls. We both homeschool and it is so wonderful to have a friend on this journey with me that I can turn to for support and understanding and that I can borrow her kids so we can have mini classes.

Today I was reminded that we really do need others to support us and help us accomplish our goals. Thinking out loud, with another person validating my thoughts, gives me support to move forward and renewed energy that I just don't find when I try to self motivate.

We are being more diligent about having family scriptures and prayer in the morning before Jeremy leaves and we are being blessed. I feel more peace in our home, the kids are getting along better, and I feel more calm. I know that God really does bless us when we keep His commandments and when we strive to "always" remember Him.

In our studies we have been focusing on a topic a week and reading verses on that topic and than discussing the practical application. This week's topic has been about love and today we talked about showing love to each other in the family. Since this month is December, we have also been singing a Christmas song and reading a Christmas story.

Today's story was about the little boy who saw a fancy car and when the man who owned it walked up to it the boy asked about the car. The man said his brother gave it to him. The little boy, who had such a pure heart, replied, "Oh, I hope I can be a good brother like that some day". When the man asked the boy if he would like a ride the boy said yes, but asked if they could go to his house so they could show the car to his crippled brother. The man was so touched with the kind heart of this boy to his brother, they went and got his brother and took them both for a ride.

I didn't choose this story to coordinate with our scripture topic, but it illustrated very nicely the scriptures we read about showing love within our families.

Playing pretend

2010-12-08T15:00:00.001-07:00

It is so fun to observe children as they play pretend. Today some friends came over to play - Emily, Alex, and Nathan Adcock, and Sydney Carpenter. They wanted to play "store" and "Santa Clause", so they have the big blue beach umbrella set up with the play kitchen and small plastic picnic table under it. Then they hauled down some "toys" for Santa to hand out for Christmas.

The Set Up

"Santa" (Tom) handing out the gifts

I think pretend play is so fun for their imaginative minds and keeps them playing for a long time. The only problem is the clean up after - imaginative play for my kids involves a lot of stuff. Maybe it's more like they are putting on the play and all the stuff is their props.

Lydia is fun to watch as she plays with toys. Her little three-wheeled scooter has a basket attached to the front and a few minutes ago I noticed her putting her Barbie in it to give her a ride. Lydia usually has some type of bag or purse to carry her stuff around with her.

Lately her naps have been off schedule and she falls asleep late in the afternoon and therefore prolonging the time she goes to bed at night. Last night such was the case, and although I tried to put her to bed around 9pm my efforts were futile and finally I relented and let her come downstairs with me. She played with some toys while I read a book.

First she played Mr. Potato head with her Potato head family. "where's the mommy shoes" "arm" "feet" and she kept saying all of it out loud as she assembled baby Potato with the mama size parts. Then she sang the "clean up" song as she put all the pieces back in the container and put it back on the shelf and brought over the bag of animals and ponies.

I really hadn't been paying attention to what she was doing until I noticed that all the Mr. Potato head was cleared away and she was now lining up all the animals and grouping the ponies all together.

Sometimes having all the children around all the time doesn't allow me to observe the one and it doesn't allow them to be their own self doing solitary play. I think that is why I don't mind when one child stays up late. When they all stay up I just get irritated because I want the commotion and messes to stop for awhile. But when just one is up I can focus on their cuteness and the nuances that I miss during the day time.

Taking Pictures

2010-12-07T11:28:00.001-07:00

I took pictures of the kids today to make ornaments for the tree. Individual pictures go okay, except Lydia won't smile and Charlie is hard to get a non-cheesy grin from.

Trying to get a group picture is an adventure.

First, try to get them all together

Next, try to get the girls to put their hands down from their face

Finally, try to get the girls to keep facing the camera (Tom is assisting Becca in looking at me, so helpful)

Due to an "accident" with scissors (ie. Becca trying to cut her own hair) Becca now has a short and sassy haircut. I think it is adorable, just don't call her "cute", she prefers "beautiful", cute is for little girls and she isn't little, now that she is 4.

Funny Lydia

2010-11-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today Lydia has been calling me "Taysom"

she'll say - "Taysom, can I have a drink"

or

"Taysom, I need help"

or whatever it is that she is asking for.

I have no idea where she got it from, but it is so funny when she says it

See that expression - defiance, independence all wrapped into one - she rarely smiles for the camera, she usually won't even look. This photo is curtesy of my friend Lisa from our Thanksgiving craft we did a few weeks ago making candy turkeys.

Spontaneous and halloween

2010-10-30T23:13:00.000-06:00

I've been reading through my past blogs - made it to two years ago, didn't take long since I don't blog too often.
Anyway, I realized something about myself, that I already know, but became more apparent
- I like being spontaneous.
I don't want to think and plan, I just want to do.
Maybe it has to do with no expectations so there can be no disappointment. I love to just go with the flow, let the wind take you where it will.
That's not how I live my life on a day to day basis, but I try to break free as often as I can.
Sometimes I can feel when it's been awhile since being spontaneous and free and I hear the wind calling my name.

Last month when Jeremy had a week between semesters I told him we needed to get out of dodge. I planned a rough outline for our weeklong trip, but we only stuck to the agenda for 1 day. It was such a fun trip and really filled my spontaneity cup.

Today was a fun day. We went to the Swamp Buggy Parade in Naples and I loved it just as much as the kids did. After it was over they were asking when they could go to another parade and already planning going to next years Swamp Buggy parade.

Halloween is such a fun holiday - everyone dressing up in costumes - so fun to see how creative people are. The other day I was in a bad mood and complained to Jeremy that I didn't want to do halloween and maybe I would just run away with the kids until it was over so I didn't have to do all the halloween things.

I just need to emphasize that I was in a weird mood so that Jeremy will believe me when I say that I really do like halloween - I just don't like planning for it (there it is again, I don't like to plan, I just like to do).
I even dressed up - yesterday as a witch (with fun orange stripped tights) and tonight I put on a 70's afro wig and sunglasses.

fighting

2010-10-23T09:06:00.002-06:00

Guess what my kids were fighting over this morning?

cleaning the toilet

Charlie choose for his chore to clean all the toilets, but Tom was mad because he wanted to clean one too and then Becca said she wanted to clean one.

I couldn't believe they were actually fighting over who would get to clean them.

They finally worked it out and each of them cleaned a toilet.

I was just glad I didn't have to clean them.

I hope they always want to clean the toilet - I may never have to clean one again.

Charlie's Birthday

2010-10-11T14:26:00.001-06:00

Today is Charlie's birthday - turned the big 8.

Looks excited for his birthday doesn't he?

We went to the beach to take some 8 year old pictures of him, this was the only one with him looking at the camera with a nice smile, all the rest were silly, guess he is getting too cool for pictures - too bad.

As a baby he was the most photogenic, always had the smile ready to go, such a beautiful smile, such a beautiful baby.

We were at the beach at sunset - it was spectacular!

Charlie got a new pair of shoes, which he was very happy about. He found them at the mall a few weeks ago and really wanted them, I went back last weekend to see if they were still there - and they were on sale, glad I waited to buy them.

And the crem de la crem

a pocketknife.

Charlie has wanted a pocketknife for a very long time and was so excited to get one.

Charlie will now be in Cub Scouts and Jeremy told him the first thing he will have to pass off is knife safety.

So Charlie is a very happy boy today, but this girl wasn't.

Isn't that such a sad face.

Teaching obedience

2010-09-15T15:47:00.002-06:00

Motherhood is a learning adventure.
As a young mother with my first child I read many parenting books, so I could know how to be a good mother. I think all it really did was confuse me and cause me to be too soft or too strict.
Time and children have been a good teacher - and finding others who are good mothers and asking them questions and observing what they do.
I have learned so much along the way and I have so much more to learn.
Today I read two wonderful blog posts written by a mother I admire (pregnant with her 7th child). Although I have never met her, I learn so much from her blog posts.
So her recent topic was obedience and she shared very generously things she has learned along the way.
(post 1 and post 2).

I am diligently focusing on teaching my children obedience. I homeschool my children and no learning can truly take place if they are not able to obey. There are varied degrees of obedience. My goal is to work towards quick and happy obedience.

In the past when working with and teaching my children if they cried I assumed I was doing something wrong and I needed to change my approach. While that may have been true if I was using a forceful method of some such, reading the above mentioned blog post made me realize that I actually was caving in to my children and letting them be in charge, rather than calmly working through what was a tough moment for my child and helping them gain a skill.

Sunday we had a family meeting and wrote a short list of rules we are working on becoming compliant with. We posted them in the kitchen so both the children and parents alike could be reminded of our goal this week.
One of those goals is to eat food at the table. Now, this has always been a rule of ours, but when I am not watching the children will wander off with food and eat in the family room or living room. Last week Lydia had a bowl of cereal (dry, no milk) that she was wandering through the house with and scattered it in about every room of the house.
It was then that I realized that I "allow" many of the messes in my house since I don't follow through on the "rules" that go unheeded. So mostly the rules are posted to remind me to follow through and help them become habit.

This afternoon, I was reading the second post about obedience and she was saying to follow through with firmness (use the word "no"), yet praise for the littlest compliance. As I was reading Lydia asked for an apple. I told her yes, she could have an apple and asked where we eat food. "table" was her reply. I handed her slice of apple in a bowl and escorted her to the table. She tried to circumvent me and go to the office to watch tv with the other kids, and I gently reminded her where we eat.
She cried and protested, I was firm and kind and gently took her bowl of apple slices and set it on the table. She persisted and I persisted. She laid on the floor to protest and I returned to the computer. After a moment I noticed the quiet and turn to see no Lydia and an empty bowl.
I found her in the office, holding a sock. The sock looked like a guilty accomplice and sure enough she had put her apple slices in the sock to hide the evidence being smuggled out of the legal territory.
I had to stifle a laugh as I carried her and her sock to the table.
I am happy to report that was the end of the battle and she remained at the table and didn't leave until she was done.

Overall I am too permissive as a parent, but reading these articles reinforce my desire to gain the skills of finding the balance of becoming firm and fair, of being fun and easy going and not feeling like it has to be one or the other. I can see that I have made progress over the years and I am grateful knowing that I have done an ok job so far and mostly my kids obey, when they want to - it's jumping that hurdle and helping them to obey when they don't feel like it. Truly I want to learn to teach them how to be "strictly obedient in all things" like the young stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon. I think that is a worthy goal to strive for, not obedient for the sake of being obedient, but learning to be obedient in the small things helps us learn to be obedient in the more important things - not just to preserve us in this mortal life, but more importantly save our eternal life.

what's your name

2010-09-08T21:39:00.001-06:00

Tonight I was asking Lydia to say her name

Me: Lydia, say your name.
Lydia: Ly-di-me
Me: Lydia, what's your name?
Lydia: Ly-di-bug

Lydia can always bring a smile to my face (except when she is smearing toothpaste on the carpet, which she has done in the office and my bedroom and the hallway, at least she likes to brush her teeth, I just wish she wouldn't squeeze the tube in the middle and then carry it all over the house).

Lydia turned 2 a couple weeks ago. She is definitely past babyhood. She's even potty trained.

She still hasn't gotten past screaming - or screeching, as grandma calls it.

We were at the library today and Becca was trying to take something Lydia had and of course Lydia screamed - it was a short, one time scream, but it was enough that a librarian from another part of the library came over to see what the commotion was about.

Some day we won't have to be the center of attention because of her scream.

Becca as the human mr. potato head. (or mrs. potato head).
Lydia got a family of potato heads for her birthday and all the children have had fun playing with it.

They have been very creative in finding multiple uses for the parts and pieces.

As to other talents the children have. The boys recently discovered their ability to do a back bend.

Tom asked me how to do it, and amazingly I can still do one, although we won't be taking any pictures of me doing one.
It's funny to watch as they try to get the hand positioning right in order to push up into a back bend. The girls couldn't figure it out, although they gave it a good try.

Tom is showing his lost tooth and showing off his lego creation.

Blogging is therapeutic. Today was a rough day for me, but taking time to look at pictures and post a few things helps put things in perspective. My kids are sweet and precious.

The day to day gets in the way of seeing that sometimes - as I let things like dinner and messes and crying and tantrums obscure the good and the wonderful.

It really is about the moments - remembering and treasuring the moments, the individual, the little things.

(Good music and crying helps too :)

Learn to Listen

2010-09-01T09:23:00.000-06:00

There are many skills to learn in life. This video talks of the most important skill I could ever learn.

Funny Faces

2010-08-18T15:19:00.000-06:00

Oh what do you do in the summertime? How about - be silly.

Or how about be super cute and pose for the camera.
I gave Lydia a haircut. She won't ever keep ponytails in, so long hair seemed pointless, always a mess and in her face. So I cut it short and it is so cute.
I know that the picture of Lydia is blurry, but it was the cutest smile and even blurry it still looks good.

Loose Tooth

2010-08-12T20:30:00.001-06:00

Do you see the one that is not like the others? The one that is leaning forward? Eager to fall out?

Tom is so excited to lose his first tooth, but he doesn't want us to yank it out.
Kids get so excited about this. Now Becca and Lydia are walking around, wiggling their teeth saying that they are going to lose a tooth.

This is not rain - it is condensation on the windows - all the moisture in the air. It is on the outside of the windows. Growing up in Idaho we had this on the inside of the windows on winter mornings and I remember wiping a circle clear to watch out, waiting for the school bus, and writing in it while waiting.

This target has been drawn on the window for the kids to shoot at with their nerf gun that Tom got for his birthday. Lydia seems to love it the most and is constantly bringing it to me so I can reload it for her.

Charlie is our resident photo taker.

Update on Lydia with her potty training. She is doing really well, but most days there is at least one mishap. She is so funny that often she will strip off all her clothes to go potty and then puts them all back on - I'm not sure why she has to take her shirt off too.

Jeremy has been studying at home this week and it has been nice having him around more. He hasn't been studying as well as when he goes to the library to study, but it has been nice for the kids to see him more. Yesterday he took a break and took the kids to the pool then he came back and studied more.
He is halfway through his toughest semester (at least I hope it doesn't get rougher than this) and then he has one more semester before he starts clinicals.

The Joy of Bugs

2010-08-06T19:14:00.001-06:00

This is a cricket, a very large cricket. I don't know who put him in the jar, but it was the girls that were carrying him around in this large mason jar.

Becca really likes her bug, but only if the lid is on. At some point either she or Lydia took the lid off and Becca got all worried that he would get out in our house.
But she wouldn't put the lid back on herself, she got one of the boys to do it.

Lydia loves to carry the bug around. This isn't the first cricket they've caught and put in captivity. Last time Lydia was very possesive of it and wouldn't let anyone else carry her bug.
This time she was more willing to share.

They are conscious of the fact that bugs can't live in jars and after an hour or two they set their bug free.
Becca didn't want to have anything to do with the release. She's fine with the bug as long as there is glass between her and the bug, once the lid is off she backs up.
Lydia was the brave one to release the bug back into the wild.
After I took the lid off she shook the jar upside down, and shook and shook.
The cricket wouldn't let go and just fall out, so I just set the jar down and let the bug crawl out on his own.

Farewell to our bug.

We had a joyous time with you.

Joys of Children

2010-08-04T16:23:00.000-06:00

It was raining so hard this afternoon and the thunder was loud.
After a few unsuccessful attempts to play monopoly (Lydia scattered the piles of money, they couldn't find a dice) the boys gave up and decided to go out in the rain.
They pulled out the rain ponchos and went in the backyard to enjoy the rain.
They found a frog, made it a home in a bucket with leaves and rocks.
Then they came in to put their swim suits on, no more trying to stay dry in the rain, they wanted to enjoy it fully.
Oh the joys of being a child.

The boys were invited to a birthday party today and Becca was so sad she was not invited.
I didn't want her to be sad all afternoon so I offered to buy her a pack of gum.
I never heard another word about being sad she didn't get to go to the party.
"Oh mom, thank you so much for buying me my own gum". This simple thing really cheered her up. I don't buy gum much and my kids love gum, so this was a real treat for her.
I love that her problem was so easy to fix.
Oh the joys of gum.

Lydia is doing awesome being potty trained. It's fun to watch when she senses she needs to go, she stops whatever she is doing and says, "mom, I go pee" meaning that she needs to go.
Oh the joys of kids who potty train themself.

karate and pottytraining

2010-08-02T20:07:00.002-06:00

The boys had their first karate lesson today. They were so excited. I told them about it last Friday and it has been all they have talked about the last few day. And now, tonight after their first lesson, Tom is already counting down the minutes until their next lesson on Thursday.

Lydia has decided to potty train herself. For months she has 'played at' using the toilet, meaning that some days she'll ask to go on the toilet and I help her and then days and days go by with no interest. I've never encouraged or discouraged her, I just help when she asks.

Yesterday morning as I was getting her ready for church she refused to put a diaper on and insisted on wearing underwear. I obliged her, although I was very nervous about the idea - I didn't want to end up with a big wet spot on my lap during the middle of church.

At her request I took her to the bathroom at least 4 times for the 3 hour duration of church. She never did have an accident and successfully peed each time she went to the toilet. All my kids were telling her what a big girl she was and praised her. She would smile big and knowingly, feeling like she really was one of the big kids.

That night she asked for a diaper to wear to bed. This morning she went straight for the underwear again. She never had an accident all day and again at bedtime asked for a diaper.

What a kid. Not quite two years old, yet very self motivated. She is funny - when she uses the toilet by herself (when I don't go in the bathroom to help her) she takes off all of her clothes, even her shirt. I'm not quite sure why she takes her shirt off, but she'll come out of the bathroom and throw all her clothes at me and ask me to put them back on her. I guess she still wants me to help with some part of the process because she is more than capable to get dressed herself.

In fact, most mornings she dresses herself and then comes in to show me that she is dressed for the day. Sometimes this is where my laziness pays off. Mornings are slow for me and often I'm still in my jammies a few hours after getting up, often because I like to get my morning chores done before I get showered and I don't want to get dressed twice, once before shower and once after. Anyway, so I don't really think about getting my kids dressed either.

Despite that, or maybe because of that, each of my kids (well, maybe not Charlie) from a young age have gotten themself dressed in the morning. I say not Charlie because most days I have to tell him to get dressed and he is the oldest of them all, so he follows my bad habit.

Living with Joy

2010-07-29T19:45:00.002-06:00

Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. Thomas S Monson

Today I took the kids to the park. It wasn't too hot, but we still didn't stay too long, 85 and humid brings on the sweat quick.
Becca has been asking to go to the "swing park". Last year she was scared of swings and this year she loves them. She loves underdogs so she can go high. She asks me to push her again and again and again and again and I do because it brings her joy.

Becca lives life with joy! She has a quick smile and an infectious laugh. She is fun to be around. She is very creative and imaginative.
Last night I was studying my scriptures and Becca went and found hers and sat at the table next to me. She asked for my pencils that I use to mark in my scriptures. She said she wanted to study like me. She can't read yet, but she sees that I highlight in my scriptures.

I don't condone such marking of scriptures usually, but she wasn't being destructive, she was following my example of how I study, however her marking is much more excessive and exuberant than mine. This is now her favorite page in her scriptures, because it's the one she studied. It's all a learning process. Charlie used to over highlight in his scriptures and now he is learning to be more selective. I have to admit all the pretty colors on Becca's page make that page look like a happy page.

I love my girls. I can't believe they are both sooooo blond. They are cute little stinkers.
As Lydia was falling asleep tonight she was murmuring "pretty mommy, pretty", what a sweetie.

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”

I have an abundance in my life and I enjoy happiness in my life. I am thankful for that joy and abundance.

These are the faces I love.

Botanical Gardens

2010-07-23T09:22:00.001-06:00

I took our kids to the Botanical Gardens in Naples, we went with my neighbor Liz and her kids.

It has a Kids Garden where the kids spent hours (literally) playing and having fun. In this picture Tom is carrying a watering can. The kids spent a lot of time filling and re-filling and watering the plants and flowers. The little house in the background had table and chairs inside and brooms for the kids to sweep.

They were so busy at work. I wish I could inspire such voluntary, intense effort at home. They each were so busy helping and cleaning and watering, and I just sat back and watched.

It was a hot day - almost 100 degrees. I sat in the shade and that helped, but getting wet is what helped the most.

We didn't come prepared with swim suits or towels, so the kids just got wet in their clothes. I didn't want to walk around wet, so I just splashed a little on my head and neck to cool me off.

Lydia didn't like wearing wet clothes, so she took them off. I tried to persuade her to put them back on, but to no avail. So I let her go all natural.

More watering going on. This really was a favorite activity. This was such a beautiful place.

I would love a back yard like this. If these gardens were closer we'd be there at least once a week, if not more often, but it's at about 40-45 minutes away. A little too far to go too often, especially with all the other driving around we do here - it is all so spread out and we don't live near by anything.


Giant lilypads

Those giant floating green things are lilypads. The little ones in the foreground are more of what I think of when I imagine lilypads. The large ones are very thick and the underside is poky, like a cactus. The fun thing about the botanical gardens was seeing a variety of plants.

Watch Out

2010-07-10T11:49:00.000-06:00

You better watch out, my boys are armed and dangerous.

And they are ready to get you

This sweet get-up is from the dollar store (so I don't think they still have all the pieces in working order), but they spent a week working hard doing their daily chores to earn the points needed to acquire them. It's all in the right motivation.

Except for this morning for the past few weeks they (Tom, Charlie and Becca) have been making their beds and getting dressed every morning with no reminders from me. It's a beautiful thing.

Beautiful Message for Mothers

2010-07-04T15:54:00.000-06:00

As mothers we always need support and help. We are doing the work of God, raising our children to return to live with Him.
"The love of a true mother comes nearer to being like the love of God than any other kind of love."

Here is a beautiful that will warm your heart and make you truly glad you are a mother, and know that what we are doing is the most important thing in the world.

I really appreciated seeing them show mothers with "real" children, that were uncooperative and being children, to help remind me it's not just my children that behave that way.

Raising Righteous Kids

2010-06-29T22:26:00.004-06:00

I don't want to merely raise kids that "aren't bad", I want to raise kids that are good, pure, kind and praiseworthy.

I am very proactive and protective in the things that my kids are allowed to see and do.

This picture of Lydia shows her sweetness and her innocence.
I want to protect and preserve that innocence.

We are taught to seek after anything that is lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy.
Things that kids see and hear stick in their brains and become part of who they are.

I don't want them to be exposed to things that "aren't bad", I want them to be exposed to all things lovely and praiseworthy.

I want them to see and hear things that teach morals and values, that show them how to be kind, not sarcastic, that show them how to love one another, not every man for himself.

As I try to make sense of concepts in my mind I often try to link a concept with imagery to see if I am figuring it out. As I was thinking about this idea of "not bad" verses good tonight I had the following thought come to mind:

As a mother I am like a designer helping a room come to it's full potential.

Am I going to allow the room to do what ever it wants and allow anything and everything become part of it

Or am I going to be more selective and show it it's true potential.

To come to Zion, it is not enough for you or me to be somewhat less wicked than others. We are to become not only good but holy men and women. Recalling Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s phrase, let us once and for all establish our residence in Zion and give up the summer cottage in Babylon" (see Neal A. Maxwell, A Wonderful Flood of Light [1990], 47)

After I typed this post I found someone else who posted on a similar theme, check out her posting. To quote Chocolate on my Cranium "What signals am I sending to my children when I allow them to see or read or listen to things that are mostly good instead of all-the-way-good, the best? As the mother I need to set the example. I have a responsibility to teach my children between good and evil."

Getting Prepared

2010-06-28T15:14:00.001-06:00

It's raining outside - as it does about every afternoon at this time.
The thunder is treacherous sounding and is a daily reminder to get prepared for an emergency.
This morning the power went out, for maybe 3 minutes, but still long enough for me to contemplate if I had any idea where a flashlight was or what we would eat if the power stayed off.

A year ago I bought food for our 72-hour kits, then we ate it when 6 months rolled around, but I never bought replacement food. I might have to do MRE's again. Then I will only have to replace it every 5 years or so.

Here are some links to information I want to keep track of:
365 Days of Premade Meals
72 hour kit - list of everything you could possibly need
72-hour kit easy meals
Freezer Bag Cooking
Year supply of food, one month at a time
Lessons From the Hurricane

Our Visit to Utah

2010-06-15T08:24:00.002-06:00

Courage

2010-05-28T20:12:00.002-06:00

Right now, now that I am feeling good and past a couple challenging weeks, it is already hard to remember the hard times (of fighting exhaustion and the lack of desire to do anything) because I feel so good today.

So today is not the day that I need a reminder about faith and courage, but surely enough that kind of day will come again and when it does I can re-read this passage from an article on Meridian Magazine about courage:

President Henry B. Eyring tells the tender story of being with his father during the famous scientist’s last days, through the end of a long struggle with bone cancer. In great pain, it was hard work to move him from a chair to his bed, and the nights were long.
President Eyring said, “One night when I was not with him and the pain seemed more than he could bear, he somehow got out of bed and on his knees beside it—I know not how. He pled with God to know why he was suffering so. And the next morning he said, with quiet firmness, "I know why now. God needs brave sons.”

It takes brave sons and brave daughters to live with faith in a difficult world. It is easy to be cynical, easy to give up. It demands nothing of us, if our faith blows over in the first strong wind. Our faith and courage have to surmount strong winds of even gale strength. That’s how we know who we are. That’s how we find out who He is, when he encircles us in the arms of his love.
But we must be warned too, that it is in our deepest exigencies that Satan comes calling. He would like to zap our courage, turn our insides to putty. He wants us to think our faith is unwarranted and useless. He wants our memory to be marred so that every trace of what we know about God is revised out of our life by our terror or discouragement.

Brigham Young used to describe our challenge: "The men and women who desire to obtain seats in the celestial kingdom will find that they must battle every day."1 We battle not just against the conditions of a fallen world, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” but more significantly, “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Satan is ever nipping at our heels with his insidious suggestions that we should fear, that we cannot do it, that we are all alone, that our lives will come to nothing.
He is a tenacious sort who does not give up. Thus, on our journey, even after we’ve received times of revelation and conviction, even after we’ve been to the mountain and felt God, even after we’ve seen rescue before, he will still send his fiery darts at us attempting to make our hearts faint. Courage is not just for one time when we’ve been assaulted or one moment of desperation; it is the mode we must have for every, every day.

Paul said in Hebrews, “Call to remembrance the former days, in which after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions” (Hebrews 10:32). What? Again and again we must exercise courage, and again and again we must seek deliverance? Yes!
It is not once, but becomes the pattern of our lives, that even after we’ve received revelation, even after we’ve seen God’s hand, we will be assaulted by Satan, tempted to despair, and must look again for the Deliverer.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said we need encouragement because we face opposition often “after enlightened decisions have been made, after moments of revelation and conviction have given us a peace and an assurance we thought we would never lose. 2
We know it well. The job we were inspired to take becomes more difficult than we imagined. The way we were shown to go is fraught with thorns and thistles. The marriage we were impressed to enter includes illness, economic deprivation and times we are strangers to each other. The child we feel so connected to at birth becomes our biggest problem in life. The investigator slated for baptism does not show up.

Paul therefore advises, “Cast not away therefore your confidence.” This is a powerful admonition because he makes it a question of our own agency. He says, “You decide to ‘cast not away therefore your confidence.’” You choose to be brave. It is in your hands to be courageous and faithful—even if you must wait and then wait again for deliverance.
He says, “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38). Even in our difficult times we can choose to draw back or press forward with hope.
He assures us that we can have courage because God will come. “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10: 35,36).

When the wait seems long, I think of what the Duke of Wellington, who won the Battle of Waterloo, said of his British soldiers. He said they were not braver than other soldiers; they were just brave five minutes longer.
When our courage and faith, flag, we can choose to be brave five minutes longer, five days longer—or if need be, and things are tough enough, we can take it minute by minute with our hand in the Lord’s.

Joseph Smith, who always impresses with his faith and boldness, said it this way, “Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage...and on, on to the victory” (D&C 128: 22).
Again, a choice, a decision. We decide to cast away our fear, instead of cast away our confidence.
Joseph Smith can say that, because he knows God, and courage for life’s journey will always be a product of that knowledge.
When life is too much and courage would falter, remember what you know. Remember Who you know, the One whose face will be so familiar to you when you see your Father again. He is perfectly capable of doing His own work which He proclaims is saving you.

To add to this beautiful message, if you need some soul soothing music try these beautiful songs (scroll down in the blog post and you will see the link for download) that you can download for free that I am enjoying immensely.

Beach Day

2010-05-25T19:56:00.002-06:00

Where are all their faces - well, in a hurry to get to the beach apparently.

We tried out a new beach at Sanibel Island, it was beautiful, but I'm not sure it was worth the hour drive. I love the top picture of Lydia - a very determined walk, and the skipping one of Becca.

The boys were busy at work catching fish.

Can you see it?

How about now?

There are two fish (not broken in half like Jeremy thought when he saw the picture).

It's so fun to watch my boys work together, they really are best friends and are always working together on some project or other.

My Best Helper

2010-05-25T19:28:00.000-06:00

Lydia is my best helper. At 21 months old she is the perfect 'mommy helper'. This photo is a common occurrence - she climbs on the counter and gets my keys, sunglasses, and phone - because these are the things that mommy needs when we leave the house, and it is her cue to me that she wants to go somewhere.

She is also really good at helping me with other things. She is really good at picking up and at taking things to the trash. The cutest is when she helps with dishes. She knows where the silverware drawer is and can reach her little hand up just high enough to get the silverware up and over the drawer and gets it in there in a hap-hazard fashion.

The cutest is watching her climb out of the van and pushing the button that closes the door - she has to stand up on tip-toe and reach as high as she can to reach the button, but she loves to be the last one out of the van so she can close the door.

Lydia radiate pure sweetness and she gets such joy out of life. Today she was peering down in a crack in the sidewalk saying "bug, look mom, bug" and she wanted me to get down and look at the bug.

She has thus far been a bit timid at the pool, but tonight when we were there she was warming up to the idea of getting in with us. At first when I was trying to coax her into the pool she would run away and say "no" and if any of the other kids would get near her, she would bolt away. Later Becca was jumping into the pool to me and it caught Lydia's attention and she wanted to try to. Then I was doing "ring around the rosies" with Becca and Lydia really wanted to do that. She wanted it again and again and was even okay when I would dunk her on the "all fall down" and she would say "ashes, ashes" to indicate that she wanted to do it again.

These are my joy

2010-05-19T07:41:00.001-06:00

Lydia likes to hide, especially if I am asking her to come to me - like to come get dressed.

Do you see the feet?

Here's the cute face peeking out.

Cute, cute. I don't know how I got such blond little girls, my hair is as dark as theirs is blond.

Friends at first are friends at last.

These are my joy.

It's a Bug's Life

2010-05-07T08:43:00.000-06:00

We are all about bugs and creepy crawly things around here. The boys are constantly finding bugs, crickets, lizards and such things to make into their pets.

This was Max, a pet bug for Tom. Last week, when Tom adopted "Max" they spent the afternoon together in the back patio, building with blocks and crawling around. Tom literally spent hours with his new bug friend and was very sad when Lydia got ahold of Max and pulled off all his left legs. Poor Max didn't handle the trauma very well and his life ended soon after.

This picture of Charlie doesn't need much in the way of words, it is just a funny picture of how dramatic and silly he can be.

This beautiful little dress was given to us by a neighbor (thanks Liz) and the girls are having all kinds of fun dressing up in it.

Singing in the Rain

2010-04-18T19:50:00.000-06:00

It rains a lot here. Yesterday and today lots of rain. Today it rained all afternoon. I love the rain and I love walking in the rain. Charlie got out his umbrella and went outside and I couldn't resist, I had to go out too. I borrowed Becca's mostly-broken umbrella that still provided enough protection to take my camera outside and snap a few pictures.
Later we pulled out the rain ponchos and went to the deserted beach for a family walk in the rain along the shore. We only have four ponchos so the little girls were wrapped in towels and carried. I didn't feel brave enough to take my camera to the rainy beach - so there are no pictures of our lovely walk of the blue covered figures roaming the solitaire beach (it was awesome - not a single soul in sight - I guess we were the only ones crazy enough to go out on a lovely rainy afternoon).

Awsome

2010-04-16T15:29:00.001-06:00

Here is a video of awesome things. It will definitely bring a smile to your face.

And here is a link to the blog 1000 Awesome Things

That blog held a contest to give away his new book and asked for people to post comments of what they thought was "awesome". Here are some of my favorites:

ya know what’s awesome? Generous Fellow-Customers. I work at a Starbucks, and some dude couldn’t get the coffee he ordered because his debit card didn’t work. a lady noticed this while she was doctoring her cuppa at the condiment bar and came up to buy his coffee for him. i also appreciate the little generosities of that stranger behind you in line at the groccery store who will lend you the 5 cents you’re missing. or how about this: One day at a Starbucks drive-thru, someone decided to buy a drink for the person behind him in line. when that person drove up and found out his coffee was paid for, he decided to return the favor for the person behind him. this continued for 11 cars! true story. big or small, whether it’s for me, or even if i’m just a witness, those donations always make me smile and renew my faith in humanity. Awesome! :)

Pumping gas to the exact dollar.
You’re watching the numbers digitally whiz around, dollar amounts climbing at a disproportionate rate compared to the gallons you’re getting. No matter, when that thing shuts off you have two options (given that you’re willing to disregard the warning against “topping off” at the pump): 1) leave the amount as-is, forcing yourself to pay an uneven amount: $23.47. OR 2) Squeeze that pump, watch those numbers after the decimal, and work your magic until you can click off at an even $24. Yes, that is awesome!
Note: There is a rare third option which is that your pump randomly and accidentally shut itself off on an amount that just so happened to be an even dollar amount. With this you’re scoring, like, triple awesome points, so be sure to celebrate the rarity of it.

Our Adventures

2010-04-12T19:04:00.001-06:00

We've been busy out and about having fun and learning about nature and animals.
We went to the "U Pick" farm to get strawberries to make strawberry freezer jam. We met with three other families, so there were 14 children total. The kids had a fun time gathering strawberries. Lydia was the cutest to watch. She had a little green basket and gathered her own strawberries. She was insistent to carry it herself and every time I tried to carry it for her she protested, holding it tighter to herself. She dropped the basket many times and re-gathered her berries into the basket, covered in dirt. Even when I put her in her car seat she insisted to hold them on the ride home.

The picture of Tom in an apron fast asleep in his bed was from last week when Tom had been playing "kitchen" in the girls room at bed time. He was sad when I said it was time to put it away and go to sleep. Always one who wants to be prepared, he went to bed in his chef uniform, ready to play when he woke in the morning.

These last pictures are from the "Imaginarium" - a wonderfully fun, hands on learning place. The kids got to pet a baby alligator, a tarantula, a snake, and stingrays. Even little Lydia petted each of them - she was particularly taken with the tarantula. Charlie got to feed the stingrays, the other kids were a little too nervous to feed them.

I don't have any pictures, but my sister Susan came to visit for the weekend. It went all too quickly. We picked her up Thursday night at the Ft. Lauderdale airport and had dinner at the IHop before coming home. Friday we went to the beach for a few hours. Saturday we spent many hours at the pool with other friends and later Sue and I went to the California Pizza Kitchen - so I could share my favorite dinner of "Pear and Gorgonzalla Pizza" with her. Sunday it was rainy all day, but we were able to take her to the beach one last time at sunset, so she could enjoy it one last time before she had to leave early this morning.
Thanks Sue for coming to visit - it was short, but worth it, we enjoyed having you.

Inspiring Story

2010-03-31T07:18:00.000-06:00

Here is a eye opening story of what it means to be "rich" verses "poor".

The Rich Family In Church
By Eddie Ogan

I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.
By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.
When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1.
We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.
Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.
The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change.
We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.
That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.
We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.
But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.
As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.
Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night.
We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor.
That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed—I didn't even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!
I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor. We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way.
Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.
Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.
When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church."
Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100."
We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so? From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

Getting Ready for Conference

2010-03-29T20:49:00.000-06:00

The church website now has a page dedicated to printouts and activities for general conference for kids. I think I might print out the notebook pages for myself as well. They have a picture of each person and then lines for taking notes.
It has been nice that this month's theme in Primary is Prophets and each week we have been learning verses to the song "Follow the Prophet" and have also been singing the 12 apostles to the tune of "Books of the Book of Mormon" in the Primary song book. Additionally, I have been working with my boys to memorize the poem in this month's Friend magazine "I Love to See the Prophet". Tom gave it as his talk in Primary and was so excited that he was able to do the first verse by himself.

Flying fingers

2010-03-15T12:31:00.002-06:00

Here's a pianist with talent - boy can his fingers fly.

10 years later

2010-03-14T21:00:00.002-06:00

Okay, so here is my dear husband 10 years later.

Not quite so baby face as he was 10 years ago, but he doesn't really have a beard, just once last year and now he's trying it again this year, but every day he threatens to shave it off. I really like his beard, oddly enough, he looks really good with a beard, however, the beard combined with the mesh-back hat screams "Redneck" and I don't claim him as mine when he is wearing that hat.

Today was such a beautiful day, but did you know that it was daylight savings time change today? I did not, luckily I wasn't the only one late to church today. Primary was fun. We had the jr Primary kids act out some of the Old Testiment prophet stories and then sing the verse from "Follow the Prophet". The senior primary kids, by class, taught the rest of us the song verse of one of the old testiment prophets. It was fun to get them involved and I'm glad that was the plan for today because my lungs are very irritated and trying to sing sent my into coughing fits.

After church I was so tired. Jeremy had stayed home with Tom, who also has a cough, and he had the kitchen all clean and food ready to make dinner - it was such a nice thing to come home to. My throat was sore from coughing, so I indulged and had a large bowl of ice cream for lunch. I don't eat ice cream very often, I prefer cookies for a treat, but that cold, creamy ice cream felt so good on my throat.

I kind of take Sunday as my day off from normal duties of food and kids and Jeremy is really good to indulge me. I dozed on the couch for awhile, it's amazing how much a lung cold takes out of me, and when I came to I saw 2 little naked bums running around the house. Lydia is into taking it all off, at least 10 times a day, so that was normal for her. Becca, however, is usually dressed, although it is in a different outfit about every 2 hours or so, so it was unusual to see her running around naked.

After curry stir fry for dinner, that Jeremy made, our friends, Fenus's and Prescott's were walking by and invited us to join them on a walk. It was such a pleasant evening, and it was so nice to get out of the house. I am so glad we have wonderful friends, and that they live near by. There are at least 6 others student/utah families that live really close by and they are all so wonderful and feel like family which is such a blessing since we live so far away from our family.

Young

2010-03-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your input on my shoe dilemma. Unfortunately our van unexpectedly needed new tires, so my car gets the new treads instead of me. Oh well.
So today I am rearranging the home office so that my computer is in there, next to the printer, because even though the printer is "wireless" I don't seem to be able to set it up right, so I need to attach it via the cord. Now that it is all set up I wanted to try out the scanner so I can scan in some of our pre-digital photos.

This picture was taken about a month after Jeremy and I met. Next month we celebrate our 10 year anniversary. If I can get myself to be ambitious enough I would like to put together a nice book of our photos and memories from the past 10 years.
I'll kick it off with sharing the details behind the photo above.
That photo was taken Dec 4, 1999. My parents who lived in Sugar City, Idaho decided to come to Provo to celebrate their anniversary (which was a little out of character for my parents). I thought nothing of it at the time, I was just excited for them to meet Jeremy, who I had met the month before on an online singles website. We met my parents at the Hires restaurant in Provo and had a nice lunch and a nice conversation. The photo was taken after lunch out in the parking lot. I don't remember if it was my camera, Jeremy's camera, or my parents camera that took this photo. Meeting Jeremy in person put my parents at ease at the guy I had met online (the real reason they came to Provo) and I was happy my parents got to meet the man I was falling in love with (and am still in love with and will always be in love with).

New Shoes?

2010-03-03T12:36:00.007-07:00

I've been wanting a new pair of shoes for a long time, but it is so hard to find shoes that I like. Most of the shoe places just don't seem to have any shoes that I like. So today I searched the internet and I was able to find a selection of shoes that I like. I just need to narrow it down and choose one pair.

I need help deciding, which one would you choose?

I need more imagination

2010-03-02T13:02:00.002-07:00

When you see one of these beauties what do you think?
Old, out of date, don't want it.

But what if you had a little imagination, like these people did, and turn it into this.

I have my own real kitchen, but I want one of these for myself, but really, I think my kids would like it too. Here's the link for more pictures and info.

God's Love For Us

2010-03-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

"Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount--that is the measure of God's love for you." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Intertube fun

2010-02-23T12:23:00.003-07:00

Kids always find an alternate use for items. Becca brought the intertubes in the house and the girls found them to be great "movie watching" chairs.

However, it wasn't long before Lydia was sound asleep on the floor and Becca opted for a more comfortable chair to watch "snow white".

I am so in love with these pictures. I'm excited at how well they turned out. I read an article about light source for taking photos and it an A+ tip, look at the light in those photos - completely unedited. Here is a link to that article if anyone is interested.

Tom

2010-02-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

Tom is a cute kid who doesn't want to hold still long for the camera. I want a nice photo of each of my kids to hang on the wall (I didn't buy school photos, I figured I could do my own, but here it is the end of February and I still haven't done it, until today). He asked if we could just take two pictures and then he could be done. I told him it would be a few more than two, but it wouldn't take too long. After I had taken 10 shots, he asked if we were done yet. I said, "not yet, I need to get a good photo" and cute little Tom said, "they are all good pictures". Right you are Tom, all of your pictures are great because you are such a cute boy and that came out in each of the photos.

becca

2010-02-22T12:52:00.003-07:00

Becca is such a beautiful little girl. She is fun to photograph and it is so easy to get fabulous smiles out of her. Becca is three years old and full of life and fun. She laughs easily and loves to get others to laugh too. Becca is my story girl. She always is wanting stories read to her or told to her. At bedtime she likes me to make up stories and have everyone she loves be in the story. Becca also loves to dress up. This pink dress, in the photos, is in her dress up box and she has changed into it about three different times today, with other outfits in between each time.

Lydia

2010-02-21T15:59:00.002-07:00

It's been a long time since I have done any digital scrapbooking. Ever since we moved (last August) my photoshop elements has not been working. Last week I took my computer to the Mac store and the wonderful people there got it working (for free) and now my kids and husband wonder if they will ever be able to separate me from my computer again. I just have so many months of catch up to do, and some relearning since I am rusty. I was brushing up my skills doing some tutorials on one of my favorite digiscrapbook sites (Jessica Sprague) and it inspired me to make this layout of my sweet Lydia.
Lydia is turning 18 months old this week, which means she goes into nursery at church next week. Jeremy will be glad for that, since he is the one that has her for the last two hours of church, while I am in Primary doing music time. I think she is excited. She has gone in there a few times when Jeremy or I have gone in to help and today when I told her about nursery she smiled and said "yea". Lydia really is pure sweetness. Her sweet smile says it all - she really is as cute and sweet as she looks in those photos. I hope she always keeps her sweetness and her even temper, I need at least one child who is calm and sweet, I get too much drama from the others.

Florida Field Trip

2010-02-18T08:40:00.002-07:00

I took the kids to an orange farm where we could pick our own oranges.

whole wheat bread

2010-02-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

I had a fun time today making bread with friends. Some of my friends have expressed interest in learning to make bread and this week I finally did something about it. We got together this morning at my house and we started with grinding the wheat and then experienced the process of making bread - which after it was over they realized it's really quite easy and not time consuming to make bread. I can go from start to finish (bread out of the oven) in 1 1/2 hours, with only about 15-20 minutes of my time involved, the rest is rising time and cooking time. Of course our favorite part was eating the bread when it came fresh out of the oven.
Sharing this experience with my friends reinforced how much I love homemade bread and how much I love making it. Later I went over to help Kandis make bread at her house and Kara came too, and despite having spent the morning making bread there wasn't anything I would rather be doing. It felt so great to have a skill that I can share with others. Bread is such a yummy skill to have. Here's my recipe.

Perfect 100% Whole Wheat Bread
4 Cups WW flour
1 Tbls dough enhancer
1 Tbls high gluten flour
2 Tbls instant yeast (SAF brand is best)

    Mix the dry ingredients well and then add:
4 Cups water - hot, but not too hot

   Mix all together well and then let "sponge" for 15- 20 minutes (sponge= let sit without disturbing)
   Add in
1 Tbls salt
1/3 Cup honey ( or sugar)
1/3 Cup oil
6-8 Cups WW flour

Add the additional flour one cup at a time until the sides of the bowl are clean and no dough is sticking to the sides. Be careful not to add too much flour - you don't want tough dough.
Knead bread in mixer for 7 minutes.
Make into 4 bread loaves. Let raise for 30 minutes (or until double in size, don't let it rise higher than the sides of the pan, it will rise a bit more while cooking).
Cook at 350 F for 30 minutes.

If you don't want to cook all four loaves at the same time, freeze some of them. After shaping, put in loaf pans and put in the freezer. After they have frozen wrap in plastic wrap. To use, let them thaw and raise and then cook them. I prefer to cook all the bread and after it cools, wrap and freeze some of the loaves and then pull them out an hour or so before needed, or can quite defrost in the microwave.

This dough also makes excellent rolls. I shape the rolls at the same time that I shape the loaves, but I let them rise until the bread is done baking (1 hour total) and then I bake them 15-20 minutes - I put them in as soon as the bread comes out.

Take time to laugh

2010-02-10T13:37:00.002-07:00

Have you ever watched Brian Regan - he is the funniest comedian- my sides hurt from laughing. The video labeled "walkie talkie" is short and sooo funny.
Enjoy!

Cookies and mustaches

2010-02-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

Charlie made mustaches for Tom and himself, I thought it was pretty clever. Tom wanted to make cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip is our favorite, and of course the dough is our favorite, the cooked ones are okay too, but really, it's all about the dough.

Fingerpainting

2010-02-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

We did fingerpainting with Becca and Lydia today, we took off shirts so they didn't get dirty, but maybe I should make them some smocks to wear. The finger paint is homemade, I found an easy recipe. The girls enjoyed mixing the colors - Becca was all about making purple, and they loved how the paint felt to smear around. I'm usually against messy projects, but I think I would do this one again with them.

Precious

2010-02-02T15:40:00.001-07:00

How is it that the littlest, messiest, noisiest people are so precious? Lydia is such a stinker. For instance, right now while I am trying to type she is screaming, climbing all over me and trying to help me type, and mad that I won't let her. But she is also so sweet. Just a moment before all the trauma she was giving me smiles and kisses. And now she is back to laughing and giggling and snuggling with me.

I love her little feet - so little, so chubby, and the cute little toes.

I love to make her laugh - she has the cutest laugh.

She has crazy hair, not as crazy as Becca's, but still, it's crazy, although, it has a slight curliness to it, I don't know where she gets that from.

Lydia is my constant companion, she doesn't like to be out of my sight. Sometimes that is obnoxious, but I remind myself to enjoy it, although my little shadow is less than helpful sometimes (hands in everything while I'm trying to cook, pulling folded clothes on the floor, pulling things on the floor that I just put away) she won't stay little for much longer and soon I won't have a baby anymore

It's real

2010-02-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jeremy's first day in his master's program. He went to orientation all day and then we went to an evening orientation for the students and their spouse. We met a few other students that are from Utah (I guess there are 8 students from Utah in Jeremy's class, this is becoming a popular school for Utah people, it's nice to have others from "home", it makes home feel a little less far away).
Today is Jeremy's first day of class. He has class all day Tuesday (three classes) and part day Thursday (one class). The rest of the time is study time.
Although we moved to Flordia 4 months ago, it finally feels like we are here for what we came for. It was nice to come early and get settled before school started, but it never felt real until now.

Camping

2010-02-02T10:16:00.001-07:00

Last Monday Jeremy took Charlie and Tom camping. They went with some friends, Aaron and his boys Luke and Jordan, and Art and his son Nathan. They left Monday afternoon and returned Tuesday afternoon. They came home smelling like campfire, so I think they got the fire going okay, I think they even did smores. The dads all came home exhausted - sleeping on the ground is rough - Jeremy said he is going to get a cot before he goes camping again. The boys had a fabulous time and it is definitely one of the funnest things they have done recently.

The Good News

2010-01-24T19:00:00.003-07:00

The following was so heart warming and uplifting that I wanted to share it.

"The Good News is that He who commands us to love is the most loving being in the universe. He is also the pleasantest. Heber C. Kimball provided a wonderful window on the soul of God:

Often when I have been in the presence of brother Brigham, we would feel such a buoyant spirit that when we began to talk we could not express our feelings, and so, "Hallelujah," says Brigham, "Glory to God," says I. I feel it and say it.
Some of the brethren kind of turn their noses on one side at me when I make such expressions, but they would not do it if they knew God. Such ones do not even know brothers Brigham and Heber; if they did they would not turn a wry face at us. I am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured Being. Why? Because I am cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured when I have His Spirit. That is one reason why I know; and another is--the Lord said, through Joseph Smith, "I delight in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance." That arises from the perfection of His attributes; He is a jovial, lively person, and a beautiful man. (Journal of Discourses, Vol.4, p.222, emphasis added).

Was there ever a more ennobling and encouraging doctrine than the reality and goodness of God? Regularly each Latter-day Saint sings glibly that “I am a child of God.” When the significance of that truth settles into our hearts, it changes everything. We travel life’s byways under the watchful eye of a Father who understands us, loves us, and wants us home with Him.
Knowing the character of such a Father, helps us progress. We are never more like our Heavenly Father than when we love others as He loves us. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” (I John 4:11). "

Beach

2010-01-23T06:39:00.001-07:00

We went to the beach twice this week. The first time was on Wednesday, late afternoon. We got there in time for sunset. The ocean was calm, the water was gently lapping the shore. The colors in the sky were soft pinks and blues. The sun was a deep orange. It was so peaceful and beautiful. If Lydia wouldn't have fallen in the water and gotten soaking wet and if Becca had eaten dinner instead of falling asleep and as consequence was now so hungry she didn't want to stay at the beach, we would have stayed longer to enjoy the beautiful evening. But, it was short lived and after 15 minutes we left, I was sad to leave such a beautiful scene.
Yesterday was our second time at the beach. While the boys were at school the rest of us decided the day was warm enough ( 80 degrees) that the beach should be pleasant. It's interesting how the ocean is so different from day to day. Wednesday it was calm and serene. Today it was quite the opposite. The waves were crashing into the beach and there was a dense fog that limited how far we could see - not even a hundred yards before the fog engulfed what was beyond that short distance. Although the air was warm, the water was cold. It was shocking the first time the water lapped my feet, but as always, it doesn't take long for the once cold water to seem pleasant. Walking along the beach with children, especially toddlers, who literally toddle along. There are shells to examine, and sand to scoop (and throw, that is Lydia's favorite thing), waves of water to chase and people to wave to. As we walked down the beach, away from the groupings of people who set up near the parking lot, the fog even further separated us from other people, and except for the occasional passerby who was also walking along the beach, we felt like the beach was our own private sanctuary. The fog made it seem dreamlike and the overall effect was so soothing.

Sidewalk chalk art

2010-01-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

How are your skills in sidewalk chalk art? Check out this youtube video of some sidewalk art from two missionaries in Moscow Russia.

New Year

2010-01-09T19:37:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year! Is it really 9 days into the new year already? How time flies. It's been rainy and cold so we've been indoors more this week. We wanted to go for a bike ride today, but it rained all day. The kids got to play with some friends this morning and then they spent a majority of the rest of the day building with legos. This picture isn't from today, I unfortunately didn't get a photo of today's creation. Jeremy and the boys come up with some great things. Just yesterday we added to our lego collection with a bucket of legos we found at a thrift store. All of our legos are second hand. They are too expensive from the store, so we keep our eyes out for used ones and so far have four buckets of legos, which apparently is enough to build large creations.

I wanted to share a link to Book of Mormon charts to mark off as you read the Book of Mormon. One in particular caught my eye. It is in the shape of a temple and by the time you read the whole Book of Mormon the temple is colored in. I want to post it in the living room and use it for our family scripture study so we can see our progress this year.

I don't want to grow big

2009-12-28T19:26:00.001-07:00

Parenting comes with a big learning curve. Even with four young children, I sometimes forget that growing up is hard for little ones. We just think they are throwing a tantrum or trying to rattle our nerves, but really, it is a challenge for them to deal with all the emotions and complexities of life. I was reminded of this tonight when I was putting Becca to bed. I was trying to get her to stay in her bed and go to sleep, and I was sitting in the hall waiting to herd her back to her room if she came out, but she just sat on the floor and cried. I asked if she wanted me to tuck her in bed, but she didn't say anything. Finally she said, "I don't want to grow big mommy, I just want to stay little". I think she is really feeling the transition from babyhood to preschool age. She turned 3 a few weeks ago and life has been changing a lot for her lately. She is potty training, next week she will be in Sunbeams instead of nursery at church, and in general she is just getting older and definitely no longer a baby. I get frustrated with her tantrums and her attitude, but after tonight I think I will be able to respond with more empathy and remember what growth spurts felt like, and how sometimes you just need an extra hug and a little extra understanding.

Charlie just lost his other bottom front tooth. It fell out during primary. I am the Primary music leader and I was doing singing time and he was trying to get my attention. Finally I called on his franticly waving hand and asked him what he needed to share, and he pointed to his empty space in his mouth. On the way home from church he lost his tooth in the car, so he didn't have it to put under his pillow. I told him he could just write a note and the tooth fairy would come. He woke up this morning and he said, "the tooth fairy didn't come". Oh, that forgetful toothfairy, that wasn't the first time she forgot. I asked if he remembered to write the note and he said no. Well, now we know why the toothfairy didn't come, there was no note and no tooth. Lucky tooth fairy that she gets a second chance to get it right.

2010 Family Home Evening Lessons

2009-12-22T22:06:00.002-07:00

On Sugardoodle website, Angie Campbell has posted weekly lessons for the year of 2010. Click here to go to this great link for simple FHE more geared to younger children.
Although this is not mine to give, it is free and available for personal use. If I could, I would print one out to send to my friends and family as Christmas gifts, but I guess my gift is letting you be aware of this and you will have to print it out for your self.
Merry Christmas.

Enjoy the Show

2009-12-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

I love Christmas lights. Some people have too much time and money, but I enjoy their creativity. This video I got from youtube is a must see for all Christmas light lovers.

card

2009-12-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

I put my scrapbooking skills to good use and helped my friend Kara make this for her Christmas card to send to friends and family. I also took the pictures of her cute family. I am happy to be able to use my skills to help other people. The great thing is they think I am helping them, but really they are helping me. My skills are able to grow and expand when I am challenged and I was happy to see that I was able to put together something that is beautiful to me and Kara seems happy with it too.

beach day

2009-12-12T21:03:00.001-07:00

For all those who are bundled with furnaces cranked up and snow swirling come join us for a day at the beach. We went to Marco Island today, which is about a half hour south of where we live. We wanted to go for a bike ride and go to the beach. There isn't anyplace we have found that we can ride along the beach, so the closest we could find was riding along the sidewalk past all the resort hotels that are beach front and than we parked our bikes and enjoyed some time at the beach. We just did some digging and collecting. The kids found over 20 dead stingrays. They had a lot of fun running up and down the beach collecting them. Even Becca was picking them up and carrying them back to our stash pile.

photo shoot

2009-12-11T19:57:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share some photos I took for my friend Kandis. They turned out so cute. I always get nervous about taking pictures for other people. Sometimes I think I would like to be a photographer and do family and kid pictures, but I'm just not there yet - my skills of interacting with the "subjects" and knowing how to pose them and feeling like any of the shots are going to turn out. In the end the pictures always turn out good (or good enough anyway), and I feel fine doing it for friends, hoping that they don't expect too much of me, but the thought of having to please a paying customer is stressful and I don't want the thing that brings me pleasure (photography) to be the thing that brings me stress. So for now I'm fine with family and friends allowing me to practice on them and let me express myself through this artistic medium. I think one thing I need to remind myself of is I do better with non-posed pictures. I like to observe and let people do their thing and take pictures of what is going on. Most of my favorite pictures I've taken are when people are just doing their thing and I take a picture of it.

What a cute little family. I am so happy we got so many fun shots and the place that served as our backdrop was beautiful, so many textures and colors in one small area. Kandis was great because she had great ideas and suggested many of the poses and locations. I like working with people that know what they like - it makes it easier for me- plus, then they are usually happy with the results, because it is what they had envisioned.

Family Night Fun

2009-11-30T19:49:00.001-07:00

Little Lou

2009-11-30T19:17:00.006-07:00

What a cute stinker. Lydia is my little monkey (well, all of my kids have been and are monkeys, always climbing on things and into everything). All these pictures are within a 10 minute time period. We put our Christmas tree up on a stand we created out of food storage buckets and a big box, so Lydia can only reach the very bottom of the tree. After three older kids and years of not decorating the bottom half of the tree we finally got smart to move the tree out of reach. However, I think we could have put the tree at regular height. I have successfully trained Lydia to not touch the DVD player which is right at her level and very demanding of her attention. "uh-oh" is a very powerful statement, when combined with short time outs in her high chair. Now all I have to do is say "uh-oh" and she turns around and walks away from the DVD player, or whatever else it is I don't want her to touch.

Funny

2009-11-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a funny photo to bring a smile to your face.

happy birthday

2009-11-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to our Becca Princess.

Today she turned three years old. Becca wanted a "kitty cat" birthday with lots of pink. The above picture was our breakfast cake, which was cranberry bread (that none of the kids liked) and we had eggs and bread for breakfast. For Charlie's birthday last month we did a scavenger hunt for him to find his gift and Jeremy hid it in the oven. So this morning when Becca came downstairs and saw the table all decorated for her birthday she headed to the oven and looked in it and was disappointed that there was no gift in there. After breakfast she opened gifts.

Becca got an apron and chef hat and pots and pans. The pots and pans are made out of metal and all of the kids had great fun playing with them.

I made these little, individual cakes for Becca's birthday cake. I baked a sheet cake and then used a lid to cut the circles and layered them two high for each cake. For the frosting I tried marshmallow fondant. It was quite easy and fun to use. I was able to roll it out and just lay over each little cake and then the shapes I cut out and added on top. The kids loved having their own little cake, and we even put candles on everyone's cake and let them each blow out their own candle.

Motherhood

2009-11-23T21:10:00.001-07:00

Here is a beautiful quote from Sister Hinckley:

"I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk’s lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden. I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

This quote warms my hearts and lets me know that I am doing it right. My priorities are in the right place, I am focused on what is most important.

I had a fun afternoon with the girls today. Becca wanted to play a game, so she got one out of the game closet. It was a puzzle game, with a spinner and 26 cards - each one with a letter of the alphabet and a picture of the word. After getting the puzzle part put together Becca and I were trying to play the game, but Lydia wanted to be involved, but her way of being involved was to pull things apart and scatter things. Becca was getting frustrated and so I improvised and gathered all the letter cards and just started handing them to Becca one by one and asking her what the picture was. She liked doing this and I remembered I had a box full of picture flash cards. I got those out and she loved going through all the flashcards. I would show her the word and then she turned the card over to see the picture. Then I pulled out the cards that had just words and I would show her the words and she would repeat it. Then she started picking out the letter 'o' on each word with that letter. She was having a great time and I think we did that for at least a half and hour. I had a fun time doing it with her. She turns 3 this week and I was amazed at her attention span.

We had a good family home evening tonight. Tom came home from school today and announced that he is staying home from school tomorrow. This is so not like Tom, he loves school and even when he was sick he wanted to go to school. I asked him what the problem was and he said some kids at recess were making fun of him. He was trying so hard not to cry when he was telling me this. Oh how this breaks a mothers heart. I took it in stride and talked with him, and held him.
Charlie has been having trouble with this too, so for family home evening we talked about loving others. First we all took a turn to share what we are thankful for. We have a little footstool that each of the kids took a turn standing on to tell us their thankful list. Even little Lydia got up on the stool. It is so cute that even at the young age of one year (15 months) she sees what the other kids do and she does not want to get left out. She was mostly proud of herself that she was able to climb on the stool and stand there without falling off (because she did fall off on her first try). When it was Jeremy's turn he explained that he was glad for a loving family and how that influences us to be able to love others. He explained that sometimes other kids don't feel loved and they act that out by being mean to others. We talked about what we can do when others are mean than we did a little role playing. We sang "Jesus Said Love Everyone" multiple times until the boys could sing it by themself. I am really big on primary songs and helping my kids learn them - it might have something to do with me having that calling in four different wards, but mostly it's because I love the primary songs and think if our kids can have those songs in their hearts they will remember the messages when then need a little extra help.
The name calling seems to be the main issue both boys are having - which I think is probably a common issue for kids that age - I mean, even within our own home I hear name calling going on - I think it just hurts more coming from school kids, especially if others kids catch on and further reinforce the hurt. So we suggested to the boys that if someone calls them a name they could respond, "no, my name is...". We also suggested they could just ignore the remark and then Charlie suggested they could invite that kid to play a game with them. I hope something helps and that it doesn't become a problem that really does make my kids want to stay home from school. At bedtime Tom announced that he is staying home from school, so despite our lesson, he still doesn't want to face recess tomorrow. I'm waiting to see how he feels in the morning.

Twilight

2009-11-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

I went to the new Twilight movie on Friday with my new group of friends. We made tshirts for the occasion that say "Twilight Geek" or "Bite Me Edward". I'm not a die hard fan, but it was a fun outing. Florida has been good for me in making friends and getting out and doing things. Nine of the girls in this picture have husbands in graduate programs and they like to get out and do things. It seems like at least every other week something is going on. I'm grateful that they are so inclusive and thoughtful to invite everyone. It's a large group, but the feeling seems to be, the more the merrier. We all have children, most have two, I have the most with four kids, but Kandis is pregnant with her fourth, so soon I won't be the only one with so many.

Sweet Moment

2009-11-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

After school we went on a bike ride with the kids. We have a bike trailer for the girls to ride in and the rest of us have bikes. We rode around our subdivision and then to the park that is in the next subdivision. The park there is nicer than our park. It has wood chips instead of sand under the play equipment and there is a nice large grassy area for running and playing soccer. The kids were having a fun time on the playground and kicking the ball with Jeremy, so I took a walk around, trying to shake off the afternoon blahs (of feeling so tired, all I really wanted to do was take a nap). Charlie came over by me and started walking with me. I asked him how life was going and he said "not very well". I asked him what was going on and he said that some of the kids at school are calling him "puffy pants". That some girl had started calling him that and some of the other kids have caught on and do it too. I asked him if had told those kids that that hurt his feelings and is not nice to say unkind things. He hadn't. I hope he has courage to stand up to those kids, and that those kids are sensitive enough to stop teasing. We never want it to be our kid that is being teased, but I think better to be teased than to be the agressor.
So, the sweet moment came a few minutes after that conversation. On our little walk we came to a bench and sat down. I was asking him about his turning 8 next year and what he thought he needed to do to be ready to be baptized. "I need to read the scriptures". I asked him if he would like to read the whole Book of Mormon, or have me mark verses for him, and read parts of it. He was certain that he wanted to read all of it. Then we were talking about his feelings about the gospel and he said he loves Heavenly Father and loves church and wants to be an eternal family. As I was listening to him I recognized this was not just a little boy repeating what he has learned at church, he really feels this and knows this. It was a heart warming moment. Charlie really is such a sweet little boy, although I'm excited for him to be growing up and be his own person, I am already starting to miss the little boy, so sweet and innoscent, I hope he never really grows out of that.

Today

2009-11-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

Today's Sunday School lesson was about family history. I usually dismiss the topic of family history thinking, "well my parents have that under control, so I don't need to worry about that". Today, however, I was feeling guilty for my dismissive attitude. The teacher mentioned that one important thing about family history is the stories - getting to know and remembering our ancestors. We need to be sharing those stories and preserving them. I think that is something I can be working on. Gathering stories and sharing those stories with my family. My grandparents (who have all passed on) and my father and mother-in-law in particular are good at sharing stories. Unfortunately I have a poor memory and only vaugely remember bits and pieces of stories they have shared. My hope is to gather some pictures and stories and maybe make little books so I can read them to my kids and so they can look at them on their own.

One Nation

2009-11-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

I love our great country and I believe that the founding fathers had great faith in God. This Youtube shows a painting representing the faith of our fathers.

Shall I falter or shall I fiish

2009-11-04T20:47:00.001-07:00

Have you ever watched the movie "Rudy"? It is one of my all time favorites. It is a story of a young man who had a seemingly impossible dream, who was able to realize that dream despite insurmountable odds and obstacles. A lesson to learn from Rudy's journey is to never give up. Try, try, try again. Two main qualities that he had were: 1- a positive attitude 2- he always gave his all - he didn't do things part way - he lived with all his heart. We learn from him that a winner is someone who gets up no matter how many times they fall.

I've had chronic fatigue for 11 years. I am much better than I used to be, but I still have my up days and my down days. For years I hoped for some explanation and for some hope of being "cured" so that I could be "normal" again (for those of you who have been pregnant, just think of the days when you were so exhausted and that is what I feel like on a regular basis, a better name than chronic fatigue would be chronic exhaustion, it is so much more than just being tired). I stopped looking for answers from doctors and pills and turned to God and myself. I pray for strength and understanding and then I try to apply what I learn. So many times I fail to live up to the knowledge and understanding I've been given, but I keep trying.
I know I need to get regular exercise and focus on eating nutrient dense foods. I do really well for awhile, start feeling a lot better and then I falter in my good routine, have a bad day and fall off the good habits. The one thing I have to say is I keep getting back up and try again - sometimes I'm down for a long time and pout and whine and don't want to do the hard thing, but then God blesses me with the strength I need to try again. Without God's help I don't know if I could ever generate enough strength for the catalyst I need to start the forward motion. Truly, sometimes I look back and remember how helpless and hopeless I felt one day and by the next day my attitude, outlook and ability had changed and I once again had the strength I needed to try again.

Watching the movie Rudy tonight was a good reminder of why I keep trying. Last week I was having a "wo is me" day and I thought "why should I bother to keep trying, I always end up back down here, so why get up again so I can just fall again?" I am so glad that I don't let those bad thoughts keep me down. I am so thankful that God blesses me and that my perseverance wins out in the end.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T20:35:00.005-06:00

Jeremy is a golfer, Jenni is a fisherman, Lydia is cute, Becca is a princess, Tom is SWAT and Charlie is a firefighter.

Lydia was a Ladybug for our ward party on Wednesday night.

We had a fun Halloween day. Earlier today we took our bikes to a park with a nice bike path and once we were hot and sweaty we went to the splash pad, to cool down. That was definitely one thing that was very different about today - it was so hot and a bit humid. I don't ever remember sweating while trick or treating before. And, the bugs were out - lots of mosquitoes.

The kids got tons of candy. We only went to part of our subdivision and only a few houses on each street had lights on, yet even from those few houses their bags were filled to overflowing. A lot of the houses gave each child a handful of candy. At the end of trick or treating the kids were complaining that their bags were so heavy, despite the weight, Becca wouldn't give her bag to me to carry, she wanted to carry it.

Bedtime

2009-10-26T20:39:00.003-06:00

Tonight as I put Becca to bed I took a few minutes to enjoy her sweetness. "Mommy, tell me a story about Tom and a cow". So I told her a story about Tom and his magic cow and that Tom was going to play marbles with his sister Becca. She sat up and said, "okay, I'll go get Tom" and wanted to go live the story instead of just listen to it. I got her to lay back down and then she wanted a story about Peter Pan and then she wanted a story about a pig. Then she wanted me to sing to her. I asked if she would sing to me. "OK" she said and then sang "I love to see the Temple". She sang most of the song and then couldn't remember the end - "mommy, you sing it to me", so I did. Then she wanted me to sing to her the "church" song, so I sang, "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints". Then she wanted me to sing the "follow" song (Follow the Prophet). By this time I realized she could stay up all night with story after story and song after song, so I asked her if we could sing that tomorrow and get out the musical instruments to do with it. "OK". The way she says "OK" is the cutest thing ever - it's always with excitement and a sing-song tone to it.

Lydia was full of kisses today. She has been sick the last few days and today is doing much better. So as she toddled around this afternoon she kept coming back to the kitchen where I was and made her kissey noise and lifting her face to mine. I would lean down and give a kiss and then she would wander off, a few minutes later she would come back, make the kissey noise, I would kiss and she was off again. Then she gave kisses to each of the kids and then Becca came to get kisses from me - there were kisses all around. It's so good to see her feeling better. Yesterday when she still wasn't quite better at odd moments she would just lie down on the floor, rest for a minute or two and then was up and off again.

"He Lives"

2009-10-24T10:08:00.001-06:00

We've moved to Florida

2009-09-18T16:50:00.002-06:00

Well, we made the big move to Florida. It was a long five day drive, but we made it and we survived. The kids did surprisingly well on the 2700 mile trip across the country. Jeremy drove the moving van and I drove our minivan. The children tooks turns riding with dad in the moving van. Thank goodness for car tv's and video games, coloring books and snacks. Most days we were in the car 10 plus hours.
Florida is hot and humid. At least St. George was only hot. We took the kids to the beach on the first night we got here. Yesterday and today we have come to the community swimming pool. The kids like the pool better than the beach - they don't like the sand - I don't like it either, it sticks everywhere - the car is full of sand. So, I think we will be coming to the swimming pool much more than we will be going to the beach - which is fine since the pool is closer and has no sand.
I love our townhome we moved into. It is a four bedroom with a two car garage. The two small bedrooms were painted pink and blue - how perfect is that, so the girls got the pink room, which Becca is totally in love with and the boys got the blue room. The master is a golden yellow color - it is a very nice color.
We thought we would be okay to sell off our furniture and get new stuff here, but now that I have been looking around for furniture I wish we had just brought our stuff with us - I remember what a pain it is trying to find furniture that is "me". I get so confused by all the beautiful furniture and overwhelmed by the prices that I just can't make any decisions. I'm going to yard sales tomorrow to see if I have any better luck,

Living Primitively

2009-08-18T17:41:00.002-06:00

We sold our house last month and moved in with Jeremy's parents in Pine Valley - 45 minutes north in the mountains. I love it there. It is beautiful and the weather is mild. The kids have lots of room to run and explore. The drawback is living so far from town and having no internet. I am in serious withdrawals. I don't know how to do anything without the internet - it is my connection to the world. I can't even pay my bills without it. I've probably become too dependant on the internet.

A little update on us. This week Jeremy and I are going to Pennsylvania for his interview at Hamot school of nurse anesthesia. I'm excited to go back to Pennsylvania. We are taking the baby with us - on the plane - I'm concerned at how well she is going to travel - she does not travel well in the car, an hour is about her max. She has a set of lungs and can scream a high pitched, bloody-murder scream. We are thinking about having the pilot make an announcement at the beginning of the flight apolgizing in advance. I'm hoping that since we will be holding her she will be happier than when she is strapped in a car seat.

Last weekend my brother Spencer moved to Moscow Idaho to go to Law School and my sister Debbie moved to Columbia Missouri two weeks ago to go to nursing school there. We are all catching the school bug and moving all over.

We are at my brother in laws house, the kids are watching tv while I use his internet to pay bills
and catch up on the internet for a very short time.

Our little adventure

2009-07-23T20:57:00.003-06:00

Jeremy had an interview in Florida at a nurse anesthesia school. I went with him and we left all the children in the care of aunt Deb, G&G Taysom and cousin Jacy - they took turns. Florida was beautiful and sunny, a little humid and hot, but the beach really captured my heart. Naples is the city we went to and it is a beautiful city - many rich people live there and the city is well maintained and beautified. We met many wonderful people while we were there. The people's house we stayed at are students there and we had never met them before, but they let us sleep there for two nights and even let us borrow their car. Florida is beautiful and who wouldn't be mesmorized and want to live there - but we weren't convinced that is where we should go to school.

Since our kids were already until the watchful care of many wonderful family members and since Jeremy didn't have to be back to work for five more days we decided to extend our trip and head to Pennsylvania to check out the area and the school where he has an interview next month. Erie Pennsylvania is on lake Erie in the north west corner of Pennsylvania, not the side of Pennsylvania I had always invisioned myself living, but still it was Pennsylvania, of which I have always been enamored with. We are fortunate that Jeremy has so many wonderful friends that offered to have us come stay with them.

We arrived in Pennsylvania Friday night and it was raining - it seemed dreary and cold in comparison to sunny Florida that we had just left that morning. We were so confused at the many emotions and questions and stress we had in trying to compare the two schools and the areas. We felt we needed some distance from it all and a break from thinking about what school to attend. Our friends told us that Washington DC was only 6 hours away and we decided to take advantage of it and go for Saturday and Sunday and not worry about school stuff until Monday when we could go to the school there and meet people.
With the help of our newly purchased GPS we fondly call "Garmina" (it's the garmin nuvi brand, but since it talks with a female voice it needed a female name. I never had any interest in a GPS before, but after this trip I am sold - Gps is the best thing ever invented. We also used an atlas along with the GPS, but without the GPS there would have been much unesscessary confussion in trying to navigate the crazy streets in the big cities.) we safely navigated our way to Washington DC. We walked the loop at "the Mall" which is the area that walks past the Smithsonians, Lincoln monument, the White House, the Capital building, the Vietnam memorial, the WWII memorial and other things. This walk took us four hours to complete. Next time we want to rent bicycles and ride around - maybe do a riding tour with a tour guide who can give us information about the different things there. After staying the night at a Hampton Inn, which I highly recomend - the room rate was reasonable and everything there was so nice, we decided to head to Connecticut - it was only 6 hours out of our way and then we could check out the other school that Jeremy is interested in applying to. We should have gotten to Connecticut early afternoon, but after a late start, a stop in Philadelphia and the bumper to bumper traffic through basically the whole state of New Jersey, we didn't arrive at our destination until 8 pm.
We were just going to drive through Philadelphia, since it was only a little out of our way. Once there it was lunch time and we wanted an authentic Philly Steak sandwich. We asked some locals where to go and they said "Geno's" on 9th and Washington. Jeremy made the mistake of putting the hot sauce on his sandwich. The fact that there was a large "caution, hot" sign posted all over the container disuaded me from trying any, but Jeremy saw others putting it on and wanted to do as the locals and have the real deal. Now that he has experienced the hot sauce he will never use it again - "it burned on the way in and on the way out".
After getting to Connecticut we found the hospital where the students do their clinicals and we were able to talk to a student who is currently in the nurse anesthesia program and ask her all our question. Unfortunately it was already dark so we couldn't really drive around and see much. Despite the late hour we headed half way back to Erie to cut down on the amount of driving we would have to do the next morning on Monday.
We did a lot of driving and saw a lot of trees - the trees grow so dense that most of the time you can't see past the trees that line the freeway and therefore can't see the towns and cities on the other side of the trees. Despite the trees, and because of the trees, we saw much beauty. The lengthly side trip did little to ease our confussion of which school to go to and what area to live in, but I was glad we took the trip - it was a nice diversion, and it was awesome to see some cities and sites I have been longing to visit - even if it was at breakneck tourist speed (I mean doing DC in 4 hours is only a drop in the bucket, and stopping at the Liberty Bell in Philadelpia and not even getting to see Independence hall and driving past New York City and taking a picture of the skyline and thinking that you can spot the Statue of Liberty from the freeway isn't really how I had envisioned my visit back east).
This is a picture of the house that our friends in Erie rent. The vehicle is our wonderful rental, which thankfully came with unlimited miles - we put at least 2000 miles on it in five days.
We picniced at the beach in Erie the night before we flew home. Yes, in case you noticed, that is the same shirt I wore for three days in a row. I only packed clothes for three days, so when we stayed and extra four days I had to make do with what I had.

Despite the 5000 miles we logged between flying and auto travel, despite the late nights and early mornings (the day we flew home, Tuesday, we woke at 2:30am Utah time and didn't get home to Saint George until 8:00 pm) we had a fabulous time. We saw many things, we met many wonderful people and we had a lot of fun. This was our first trip with no kids in four years, so it was a much deserved break.

Now that we are back life is crazy as ever. Next week we close on our house and will be homeless for the first time in 8 years. In the past 8 years we have owned 3 homes, but we have always gone from one house to the next. There is no next house and there will be no next house for many years. It is uncertain how much longer we will be in Saint George so we needed a place to live that does month to month rentals. Today we found a fabulous apartment complex that has that arrangement. It has many wonderful amenities that comes with renting there - 2 swimming pools, one with a splash pad for the kids, a playground area, and an exercise room. I'm going tomorrow to sign a lease. Once we figure out what our next step is that will determine how long we stay there. School doesn't start until January and life is wide open between now and then.