Christmas

We had a great Christmas!!!  All of the kids were home and Santa actually paid our kids a visit despite their behavior.  Nichelle and Shaylin got I pod touches and the rest of the kids, Eddie included, got a ping pong table and an indoor basketball game.  Eddie and I got a few odds and ends including our favorite Toy Story Mania for the Wii.  I now own another video game I can actually play.  Mike got a year supply of medicine.  I had to think of something he would never buy himself since everything I got him this year he went out and bought himself. 

This has also been the week of breaking things….the dryer broke, Amanda knocked a picture off the wall and yelled “Don’t worry it did not break.” A few minutes later she came down and handed us the pieces that “came off” not “broke off.”  Mike than broke our couch, followed by our recliner….shall I go on or do you get the idea?

Enjoy some picture memories….

A Thanksgiving Visit with Ester

The first day we were in Utah for the holidays we went by to see my Aunt Ester.  She has Alzheimer's.  This is her cat.  If you ask her what his name is she says “oh I should give him a name shouldn’t I”  Of course we can repeat this conversation over and over just for fun.

This is her showing me an angel figurine that she has never noticed before (probably because she brought it home from one of her walks around the Nursing Home.)  She told us all about all of the details.  Later in our visit we went through the exact same conversation again.  The funny part is Amanda was sitting on the floor the second time through looking very confused.  She finally said, “Haven’t we had this conversation before?”  I think Amanda thought she was the one losing her mind.

Here she is studying the bottom to see where it was made.  She was really fascinated.

She also took us for a walk around the Home.  One old lady grabbed my arm and tried to grab me away to where ever she wanted me to go.  This made Ester very mad.  It made Eddie laugh all day.

My Talk

So today I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and I am posting it here to share.  It was on how General Conference can help us in our daily lives.  I picked out the talk by Elder Watson on Temperance in all things.  This is a copy of my talk without the little personal stories and touches I put in because those were too hard for me to put into words. 

A few years ago, He was driving home from work when a large semitruck, traveling in the opposite direction, lost one of its dual tires. The tire flew over the median separating his lanes. It came bouncing down his side of the freeway. Cars were swerving in both directions, drivers not knowing which direction the tire would bounce next. He dodged left when he should have dodged right, and the tire took its final bounce right on the corner of his windshield.

A friend called his wife to inform her of the accident. She told him later that her first thought was of lacerations from shattered glass. Indeed, he was covered with beads of broken glass but did not suffer a single scratch. It was definitely not because of his driving skills; rather, it was because the windshield of his little car was made of tempered glass.

Tempered glass, like tempered steel, undergoes a well-controlled heating process which increases strength. Thus, when tempered glass is under stress, it will not easily break into jagged shards that can injure..

Likewise, a temperate soul—one who is humble and full of love—is also a person of increased spiritual strength. With increased spiritual strength, we are able to develop self-mastery and to live with moderation. We learn to control, or temper, our anger, vanity, and pride. With increased spiritual strength, we can protect ourselves from the dangerous excesses and destructive addictions of today’s world.

Security for our families comes from learning self-control, avoiding the excesses of this world, and being temperate in all things. Peace of mind comes from strengthened faith in Jesus Christ. Happiness comes from being diligent in keeping covenants made at baptism and in the holy temples of the Lord.

When the Apostle Paul described certain fruits of the Spirit in his Epistle to the Galatians, he talked of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] temperance.”2

When Paul wrote Titus, describing the attributes necessary to assist in this work, he said we must “not [be] selfwilled, not soon angry, … [but] temperate.”3 Being temperate is to use moderation in all things or to exercise self-control.

When Alma the Younger taught in the land of Gideon, he said:

“I trust that ye are not lifted up in the pride of your hearts; yea, I trust that ye have not set your hearts upon riches and the vain things of the world. …

“I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things.”4

In a later message, Alma instructed his son Shiblon, and by extension instructs all of us, to “see that ye are not lifted up unto pride.”5 Rather, we should “be diligent and temperate in all things.”6

Being temperate means to carefully examine our expectations and desires, to be diligent and patient in seeking righteous goals The instruction on being temperate in all things applies to each of us.

After learning studying these things from Elder Watsons Conference address I started thinking about how I could become more temperate in my daily life. What is temperance, and why would the Lord want me to be temperate?

Learning to be temperate in all things is a spiritual gift available through the Holy Ghost

A narrow definition might be “exercising restraint when it comes to food and drink.” Indeed, this meaning of temperance could be a good prescription for keeping the Word of Wisdom. Sometimes temperance might be defined as “refraining from anger or not losing one’s temper.” These definitions, however, are a subset of the scriptural usage of the word. In a spiritual sense, temperance is a divine attribute of Jesus Christ. He desires for each of us to develop this attribute.

What better example do we have of temperance than our Savior, Jesus Christ?

When our hearts are stirred to anger by disputation and contention, the Savior taught that we should “repent, and become as a little child.”8 We should be reconciled with our brother and come to the Savior with full purpose of heart.9

When others are unkind, Jesus taught that “my kindness shall not depart from thee.”10

When we are confronted with affliction, He said: “Be patient in afflictions, revile not against those that revile. Govern your house in meekness, and be steadfast.”11

When we are oppressed, we can be comforted in knowing “he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.”12 “Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”13

When Jesus Christ, the greatest of all, suffered for us to the extent that He bled from every pore, He did not express anger or revile in suffering. With unsurpassed self-restraint, or temperance, His thoughts were not of Himself but of you and of me. And then, in humility and full of love, He said, “Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.”14

So in review I have learned that temperance is a gift available through the Holy Ghost and that jesus is our greatest example of being temperate. Being temperate is having moderation in action, thought and feeling. It is a moderation in the indulgence of appetites and passions. It is finding the middle ground, showing moderation,avoiding excess,and offsetting an extreme in ALL WE DO.

So now that I studied the definitions of being temperate what else could I find in the conference address to help me be more temperate in my daily life. These are a few of the things I came across…

Elder Bednar said “Our testimony of gospel truth should be reflected both in our words and in our deeds” So are my actions and reactions to situations showing temperance therby showing my true testimony of the Savior?

Am I temperate in the way I teach in my home or do I show excess by preaching in my home. Elder Osguthorpe said. “The goal of gospel teaching … is not to ‘pour information’ into the minds of class members. … The aim is to inspire the individual to think about, feel about, and then do something about living gospel principles” I find my self at times trying to pour information into my kids. I could learn to be more temperate in my teaching especially at home.

Elder Clayton said…. Our own mistakes and shortcomings produce many of our problems and can place heavy burdens on our own shoulders. The most onerous burden we impose upon ourselves is the burden of sin. We have all known the remorse and pain which inevitably follow our failure to keep the commandments. This made me think about some of the burdens in my life could they be caused by not being temperate in all things?

President Monson said

School thy feelings, O my brother;
Train thy warm, impulsive soul.
Do not its emotions smother,
But let wisdom’s voice control.
School thy feelings; there is power
In the cool, collected mind.
Passion shatters reason’s tower,
Makes the clearest vision blind

Am I not schooling my feelings thereby causing some of my own burdens and problems?

Elder Scott taught that in order to receive spiritual guidance we need to exercise self restraint. Am I living worthily to receive spiritual guidance? Am I exercising self restraint or in other words am I being temperate?

Sister Matsumora said… Because the Spirit is often described as a still, small voice, it is also important to have a time of quiet in our lives as well. The Lord has counseled us to “be still, and know that I am God.” If we provide a still and quiet time each day when we are not bombarded by television, computer, video games, or personal electronic devices, we allow that still, small voice an opportunity to provide personal revelation and to whisper sweet guidance, reassurance, and comfort to us. I am guilty of having noise just for the sake of noise at times. Eddie always says how he likes to drive with the radio off in his car and just think. I on the other hand I always have to have that noise. So this past week I have decided to be more temperate in the amount of noise and distractions around me. I could feel more promptings from the Holy Ghost as I did this.

President Ucttdorf talked about how to become a true disciple of Christ. He taught that there are so many should and should nots that merely keeping track of them can be a challenge. Sometimes, well-meaning amplifications of divine principles—many coming from uninspired sources—complicate matters further, diluting the purity of divine truth with man-made addenda. One person’s good idea—something that may work for him or her—takes root and becomes an expectation. And gradually, eternal principles can get lost within the labyrinth of “good ideas.”

This was one of the Savior’s criticisms of the religious “experts” of His day, whom He chastised for attending to the hundreds of minor details of the law while neglecting the weightier matters

He than asked how do we stay aligned with these weightier matters? I was thinking that if I was temperate in all things it would be easier to keep my priorities in line.

When I discovered one definition of being temperate is to avoid excess which is all around us in todays world it brought me to a thought given by Elder Cook he said “It is easy to confuse our priorities. We have a duty to secure the physical safety and well-being of our children. However, some parents place undue priority on temporal and material possessions. Some are far less diligent in their efforts to immerse their children in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember that having religious observance in the home is as important as providing food, clothing, and shelter.

President Monson talked to us about being temperate…He said “To be angry is to yield to the influence of Satan. No one can make us angry. It is our choice. If we desire to have a proper spirit with us at all times, we must choose to refrain from becoming angry. I testify that such is possible, “Anger doesn’t solve anything. It builds nothing, but it can destroy everything.”2

We’ve all felt anger. It can come when things don’t turn out the way we want. It might be a reaction to something which is said of us or to us. We may experience it when people don’t behave the way we want them to behave. Perhaps it comes when we have to wait for something longer than we expected. We might feel angry when others can’t see things from our perspective. There seem to be countless possible reasons for anger.

May we make a conscious decision, each time such a decision must be made, to refrain from anger and to leave unsaid the harsh and hurtful things we may be tempted to say.

I could go on and on with the things that I learned from Conference that can help me be a more temperate person.

Bishop Burton talked about Letting virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God. He said that Teaching virtuous traits begins in the home with parents who care and set the example. A good parental example encourages emulation; a poor example gives license to the children to disregard the parents’ teachings and even expand the poor example. A hypocritical example destroys credibility. I know that at times I am a hypocritical example

At times it seems a little overwhelming to me. Maybe being temperate in all things is just too hard for me. That is when I realized there are other things from General Conference that could help me in my daily life overcome these thoughts of inadequacy.

Elder Zeballos said.” The Lord does not expect that we do what we cannot achieve. The command to become perfect, as He is, encourages us to achieve the best of ourselves, to discover and develop the talents and attributes with which we are blessed by a loving Eternal Father, who invites us to realize our potential as children of God. He knows us; He knows of our capacities and our limitations. The invitation and challenge to become perfect, to achieve eternal life is for all mankind. God will not require more than the best we can give because that would not be just, but neither can He accept less than that because that would not be just either

Let us with faith, enthusiasm, dedication, responsibility, and love do all that is within our reach, and we will be doing all that is possible to achieve the impossible—that is, to achieve what for the human mind is impossible but with the divine intervention of our loving Father and the infinite sacrifice brought about by our Savior becomes the greatest gift, the most glorious of realities, to live forever with God and with our families.

As Elder Renlund stated in conference we must frequently assess the condition of our spiritually changed hearts. We can not simply assume that all was well. By figuratively examining our changed hearts, we can identify any early hardening or rejection and treat it.

As I have examined my heart these past weeks and tried to add the virtue of temperance more fully into my life I have learned that all of the answers I need to develop this Christ like quality can be found in our most recent general Conference. I hope that as you examine your changed hearts this week you maybe able to learn as I have what a blessing general conference can be to your daily lives.

New Bike

Eddie got me a new bike from a race he was in earlier this year.  It finally came!!!  I have been waiting all week to try it out, because I was afraid I would strip the gears or something.  Eddie took me out today and taught me how to use the gears.  We went for a nice 6 mile bike ride around the preserve.  It was a nice day out, but you can tell from the picture that it was a little windy.  Going up the hills was not fun, especially when we were going into the wind. I was pretty winded at times but I survived.  It was a lot of fun even though I definitely need to get into better shape.

Halloween

Here are some pictures from our Halloween activities.  Eddie helped the kids get creative with their pumpkins this year.

Ashley decided she was too old for going to doors this year so she walked Josh and Amanda around the block.  Ashley then went to a friends party and Josh and Amanda went to their friends to put on a Haunted House.  They had fun working during the month getting their parts down for the neighborhood Haunted House.  They did a great job and had a lot of fun.  Amanda’s job was to walk around scaring people and Josh was a dead student stuck with a mean teacher forever.  Every kids worst nightmare.

Sign Language

Today I practiced my sign language part for the primary program.  it is a lot harder than you think when someone is up there talking and you are signing what they say.  I need to practice on my speed.  It was fun today to watch the Bird’s interpret for the Jensen’s.  It is good practice for me to watch them.  i am slowly starting to learn a lot of words now it is just a matter of getting my old brain to think faster.  I now know why people go to school when they are young.  It is fun to learn a new skill.

I’m also working on a quilt.  I am learning how to sew straight lines at least.  If I keep up at this pace I will be able to do sooo many things I will be amazing!!!  HAHA

Bedroom Change

Today Amanda and I worked hard to change every one's bedrooms around. Josh and Eddie were at scout camp and Ashley was at a band competition so I figured it would be a perfect day for the move. Ashley is now in Shaylin's bedroom leaving the 3 amigos with rooms of their own. it has been a very quiet day. We moved a desk into Amanda's room and all she has done all day is sit at it and pretend to work. I hope this works out and they do not destroy everything. Hopefully it will bring a little peace to our house giving each of them their own space to play in. Shaylin will have the room on the main level when she gets home. She is excited because there is a TV in there. Now we have to get to work on painting.

Also good news...Wrigley is finally starting to be trained. I am no longer taking him out every 30 minutes in hopes that he will do something. Small victories!!!

And Now Another Loony Life Moment

What makes a 12 year old take a stick of deodorant and write all over his bedroom carpet????

My favorite National Parks

Death Valley has to be my all time favorite...not!!!! My favorite is Yellowstone. We always have good luck there and see a lot of animals. One time when we went we went down a back rode and watched two bear cubs (maybe 2 years old) play for a long time. We were the only ones there. We kept looking around for momma bear to attack us. That was our best animal adventure.
We have spent many great weekends in Dinosaurland. Once when the kids were really little Julie and I took the kids for part of her homeschooling. I took Nichelle and Shaylin to the Evergaldes where they got to put a baby alligator on their head. Gettysburg was fun to drive around. We bought the tape to listen to as you drive around. It was nice to hear about all of the battles. eddie and I rode bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge. Next summer we are going through Mammoth caves. I remember going there as a little kid. I even remember my souvenir it was a wooden box with a diary in it and a key. Niagra falls is beautiful. Our favorite restuarant is on the Canadian side overlooking the horseshoe falls. It is all glass and has a great view. You really need to look for it though because it is upstairs and not well advertised. Olympic Park was cool because it had the mountains, the beach and the rainforest. Some day I will have to go back to Petrified Forest. I remember driving through it and thinking it was cool but I really do not remember why so I'll have to go back and rediscover it. Sleeping Bear sand dunes is awsome. If you camp there bring a tent and do the walk in sites. They are pretty isolated and only a short walk to your car and bathrooms. You can then take the trail from there that leads to Lake Michigan and have your own private beach. My kids will never forget the Star Spangled Banner Museum. They got to change the flag there thanks to Jim. They change it every hour and you can ask to take part in the ceremony. Timponogas Cave is a hike. I remember going up it as a kid when one of the little kids had on non walking type sandles. Ouch!!! Of course all the southern Utah parks are great too. I guess I also need to count almost the whole city of DC since all the monuments are National Parks. So many to see and such little time!!!!

So far behind

Ok so I am using the same excuse I always use...there is no excuse I am just lazy and behind in my blog. I still need to finish up Disney but I will do that later. This week I painted my bathroom. It looks much better, however, the pink toilet still has to go. I do not know what the people were thinking of when they did the guest bathroom all in pink.
I cut the grass yesterday. It was a beautiful day!!! Perfect fall weather. Fall is my favorite season.
My parents closed on their condo in Daybreak, so they will be moving in soon. I am excited for them to be in a place where they can help serve in the ward.
I am still trying to train my little Wrigley. I guess that is the loony part of my life right now. Cleaning up dog messes. He is a cutie though!!!
So basically my life has been pretty boring.
My friend is starting a FAS group in her community in Mi. I admire her she is doing a great thing. I wish I had enough energy at the end of the day to do something like that. But most of my days seem to be spent in trying to make 11 and 12 year old acting like 11 and 12 year olds and not 1 and 2 year olds. Whenever I have some spare time it is spent in watching eyes role because I have to be the dumbest, meanest parent in the world.
The rest of my time is spent praying for the family and hoping they find as much happiness in life as I have. I have the most wonderful husband!! If everyone could find someone like him my life would be fulfilled!!!

Day 3 Disney World Hollywood Studios

The day started with Mike and Nichelle racing across the park to get fast passes for Toy Story.  (Well, actually Nichelle was running because she needed to go to the bathroom….as seen in my previous blogs she did not yet know she was pregnant but boy the bathroom sure was our first clue!)  We waited in line to ride Toy Story. It is a 3D ride that you play arcade games in.  It was a lot of fun.  Of course I always had the lowest point score.  The line was just as neat as the ride. It was all decorated with life size childhood games.

Grandpa Roy meet us for a day at the park at this point.  It worked out perfect because Eddie went to the front to get Roy and we waited while Amanda got to watch the High School Musical 3 pep rally.

 

I then spent the rest of the day walking everyone to death.  Somehow our day ended up going from one end of the park to the other end and back again.  Roy started to joke about how many times we had passed “the hat” every time we passed them he would joke that at least he knew where we were now.

  The lines again were in our favor.  We rode Toy story a couple of times, the Rockin Roller Coaster, the Stunt Show, the Tower of Terror…now that was our favorite.  It really scared Josh and Amanda.  We had fun torturing them about it.  We had a great day!  We called it an early night and went back to our room to play killer bunnies.  We were all after Mike and managed to keep his bunnies dead the whole night.

Disney Day 2 Epcot

Day two of unbelievable heat….destination Epcot.  This is the day when we REALLY felt the heat.  The day started out perfect we went on Soarin” two times at the start of the day.   Once again the lines were all pretty short.  That is until we got to the Mars ride.  We knew it was one of the longer lines that we would have to stand in but  decided to do it anyway.  Well about half way through the line the ride broke  down.  This is not fun on a ride with fast passes.  That means when they do get it working after 45 minutes you than have to wait for all of the fast pass people to go on the ride.  It was a VERY long wait.  The ride made Mike feel sick.  So of course this was a perfect time to really rub the curse into Josh.  Later that day we visited the countries and it was HOT!!!  We all got a little cranky because we were so hot it was making us feel sick.  Not the most enjoyable day of the trip.  But more chances to rub in that curse. The rest of the day went smoothly.  We even took some time out for an ice cream break.  That was a highlight!!!  At night we watched the fireworks.  It had been a long hot day and we were all tired so we finally just stopped at a place to watch.  Nichelle had done a great job before we left of compiling tips for all of the parks.  Well, we forgot about a very important tip until half way through the fireworks…Do not stand where the wind is blowing.  It actually wasn’t the smoke that was so bad.  It was the pieces of ash we were getting hit with.  About half way through something hit my stomach.  I said “ouch!”  I looked down and this is what I saw.

I’d call this a very big ash!!!!  We had a great time building our own pretend worlds, talking to turtles, and walking, walking, walking.  Needless to say we were all very happy to go back to the hotel to shower and go to sleep.  But oh no that curse was still with us.  We lost our electricity.  No cooling showers for us!!!!  Oh well, another opportunity to rub that curse in some more.  By this point the curse was starting to make Josh very  nervous!!!

Disney World Day 1 Magic Kingdom

We decided that we would not feel like we were at Disney unless we went to the Magic Kingdom.  So that is where we started.  We arrived a half hour early to see the official opening.  The kids were all really excited!!

Nichelle and Mike brought the kids real cool Disney glasses to where.  We watched the opening as the characters arrived on the Disney train.  Then it was off. We raced first to Buzz Light Year.  We went on it a couple of times in the first 10 minutes of our visit.  We knew this was going to be a great day!! We even saw Buzz Light Year.  Mike gave him rabbit ears because he said, “How often do you get to give Buzz rabbit ears?”

We continued to fly through lines.  By noon we had been on everything we wanted to be on during the whole day.  Recessions are nice for Disney lines.  It was also VERY hot and humid!!!!  I mean VERY!!!  We only waited 5 minutes to ride the cars.  This is where Mike found our first hidden Mickey on the gas pedal.

 

We had a day full of short lines!! We went on the Jungle Cruise and Josh got to drive the boat through the tunnel.  We were all in hysterics because he really thought he was driving it.  He kept getting mad that we were distracting him.  At on point we yelled at him to watch out for the wall and you should have seen him jump and start cranking that wheel.

We even had time for both parades.  Josh had a stare down with the wicked witch in Snow White.  She put an evil curse on him.  We told him thanks a lot because now we would have bad luck for 2 days.  (we actually had him believing it by the end…we found every little thing that went wrong the next 2 days and blamed it on the curse)

At the end of the night we watched the fireworks from Fantasyland.  They were amazing because they were going on all around us, even right on top of our heads.  It was hard to figure out where to watch in the sky there were so many.

Well our first day was a HUGE success!!!! We managed to ride a lot of the rides two or three times, we got to sweat a lot and we had a lot of chances to scare the kids.  Josh and Amanda hated the Haunted Mansion. We were really ready to hit the hay!!!

First Picture

Well here it is hot off the press...the first picture of my Grandbaby (or Grand Lima Bean) I think I will use that for a nick name. This picture was taken on 9-9-09 at 9 AM. Pretty cool huh???

So far behind

Ok, so I am soooo far behind in writing in this loony blog. I still have to blog about our trip to Disney World so stay tuned it is still coming...but for now I will just report all of the latest. I am sitting in a hotel in Rexburg, Id, right now. Tomorrow I go help Shaylin get checked into her dorm and get set up for school. I am really excited for her because I know she is going to have a blast!! It will be sad at home and I will really miss her but am excited to her about all of her daily activities!!! We stopped over in Utah on the way her and had some great visits in the short amount of time we were able to spend there. The biggest news of the trip was that Nichelle announced to the whole family that she is pregnant. Of course Eddie and I have known for a few weeks. We are really excited but I do not think reality has set in..I'm not ready to admit I am a Grandma but I can not wait to spoil, spoil, spoil!!! We got to visit with Grandma Stringham. She had a good weekend so we were able to have some nice conversations and just spend time sitting by each other enjoying. I also got to visit with Ester. While we were there we watched the BYU Oklahoma football game. BYU won. It was a big upset and fun to watch. Ester just couldn't believe that people would want to play a game were they are just knocking each other over and hurting one another. We also got to attend McKayla's baptism. It was fun to be a part of. That is one thing we miss living far from family. Well, that catches us up a little. More to come....

My Birthday

Yesterday was my 46th birthday.  Man time goes by fast. Eddie told Shaylin to take me out to lunch but I could not think of anything that sounded good to eat.  Then I thought “Popcorn, now that sounds good!” So we hurried over to the theater to see Julie and Julia.  I have to admit I was more excited about the popcorn than the movie, but I really ended up enjoying the movie.  i think it is one of my favorites.  It made me motivated to come up with some silly goal to fill my empty time because something may come from it in the end.  So now I have to think of something.  When we got home Shaylin went to take a nap but after about a half hour she came down saying all she could dream about was Julia Childs.  she had decided to make me a birthday cake after all.  She went to the store and spent $42 on ingredients.  (To be fair some we have left over in the cupboard for next time we want to bake. ) So Eddie and i went to dinner at Chili’s while she made a mess.

When we came home I opened presents.  I got a new Disney Globe.  They picked “Up” because now that I’m really over the hill it is time to start my next adventure.

Now for the true test…the cake was ready…how would it be???

YUM!!!!!  It was more than good.  I finally had a dessert that had me leave a bite or two on my plate at the end and had me laying on the couch afterwards not being able to move.  I finally had some chocolate that could fill me up until I was ready to explode!!!  SUCCESS!!!!!!!!

A Day on the Farm

We had the chance to stop by Grandpa Roy’s farm on the way to Disney World last week.  I felt like I had just stepped out of a movie.  One of those where the kid get to go stay on Grandpa’s farm all summer and help out with the chores.

We had a great lunch and then got to work.  We got to feed the horses….

We got to feed the fish…

We got to see the bugs….

And even try on new clothes….

The highlight of the day was driving the little green gator.  Barbara was very patient in teaching the new drivers, even when the brakes were screeching.  We even got a ride with the new drivers.  We were glad Barbara was in the front to serve us away from the tree we almost hit. 

The kids had sooo much fun they did not want to go to Disney they wanted to spend the week on the farm.  It was a great family day!!!!

Matty

Our dog Matty passed away yesterday. He has lived with us for nearly 15 years. We got him from the Parkins. He was one of Nena's dog's pups. We lived in Colorado at the time. When we picked him up they had him cut like a lion with a big mane and short hair every where else. He was really pretty silly looking!!!! Once we got rid of the mane he was a cutie. Eddie always called him Sweetie. He loved to lick. I hate being licked, but Eddie and Shaylin loved it. Especially Shaylin she would lay on the couch and just let him lick her all night long. When she was young she even used to dress him up. He was very patient with her. If you were every sick or feeling down Matty was a loyal companion. He would follow you everywhere and never leave your side. He went blind when he was about 7. His eyes swelled up HUGE!!! He looked like a monster. They finally exploded...Nichelle was in the line of fire and got sprayed with blood. I know it sounds sick but he was never in pain. His eyes then marbleized. He was a very smart dog and learned his way around even though we kept moving him. He loved to go for walks. He totally trusted us and would lead the way on the leash knowing we would pull him back if there was any danger. He loved to play with Derby. He would stand in the middle of the room and bark and bark. The louder he barked the faster Derby ran, the faster Derby ran the louder he barked. We could have never asked for a better dog!!!! He will always be with us!!!!

Kiel’s Wedding

Last weekend I went to California for Kiel and Emily’s wedding.  It was a perfect weekend.  The first night I got there we went to Mimi’s for dinner.  It was good to see the family again and to finally meet Emily.  She gets my approval.

The next morning we went through the LA Temple for Emily’s endowments.  It was a wonderful day being with family.  Carol and I got there a little early so we were able to do some initiatory for some family names.  We were then able to take a couple of those family names through the session.  They move rooms during the endowment sessions and the rooms were huge!  It is a very pretty temple.  It is cool how the city of LA just comes right up to the fence of the Temple grounds.  It reminded me of our lives..being in the world but not of the world.  We can not let the craziness and evils of the world cross over into our lives or fences.

 

That afternoon Mike and Nichelle arrived in town.  There was a wedding dinner that night at a BBQ place.  It was very yummy!!  I sat by the Page’s and can not believe how grown up the girls are getting. 

The next morning was the wedding.  Everything went perfect.  It was sooo nice being in the sealing room with them and the family.  The blessing of being sealed together as a family for eternity is the one of the greatest gifts.

Afterwards we took pictures and ate Tito’s Taco’s.  Way yummy is all I can say!!!! 

I then took Nichelle and Mike to the beach.  The surf was HUGE.  They only have waves that big about once every 5 years.  It was hard to capture in pictures the size of the waves.  The noise they made was amazing.  I wish I could put into words the shear beauty.

 

We attended the reception that night.  It was in a great backyard and once again had very yummy food!!

On Sunday I went to watch Kiel and Emily open their gifts and to see Jon and Jamie’s house.  It was good to be in their home.  I ended up driving Kiel and Emily to the airport which was a great treat.  I got to know Emily better.  They are a very cute couple.  I’m glad they are part of my family.