Halloween this year!!

 

Dalton decided he wanted to be an army guy. Caitlin is our little ice princess. Skylar and Brennan did not get their pictures taken, too much going on! Parties and such are a big deal to teenagers. Oh well, a lot of fun.

Caitlin loves her dress so much that she wants to wear it to church.  I haven't let her yet.  On the second dress that she wanted I am not putting the puffy stuff at the waist.  She loves it but I think it's a little frumpy. Her friends are all jealous and want me to make them dresses now.  It's cute.

LDS.org - Ensign Article - A Vision of Visiting Teaching

LDS.org - Ensign Article - A Vision of Visiting Teaching

What an incredible boost to our visiting teaching!! Our world may change, but does our mission?

Your Diet vs. what the world thinks!

I've got anemia for the first time in my life and I'm low in potassium. I listened to friends and popular television stars about what I needed to change in my diet to get my blood pressure under control and found to my amusement that the diet changes I made didn't improve or change my blood pressure at all. All I succeeded in doing was going anemic and getting lower potassium and mixed up my whole body.

I am currently on a blood pressure medication which is helping a lot and my doctor wants me to add a bunch of the things I took out of my diet back in and be patient as I am training for a 5k in September. Anyway, I've learned a very valuable lesson from this, things that works for one person may not work for another. My friends are always criticizing my food choices, I get 3-5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. I had one of my friends tell me an apple a day would solve everything, actually an orange a day for me makes me feel better and according to my blood test results exactly what my doctor ordered,(just that I needed to eat more fruits and vegetables high in potassium) go figure. I always try to eat legumes and other sources high in iron but I have a problem with my stomach bugging me with most of them. So red meat is one of the best ways for me to get my iron, and I'm going back to my baked potato's, moderately of course.

There are so many foods that bug my stomach that I just have to be careful of them. I've been able to pin point more of them now that I'm older, as a kid my parents just thought i had a flu bug or something, but now I know better.

I had to go off of the whole grains because they were really bugging my gut and I'm learning that some of the substitutes are a much better solution than white flour and wheat as a matter of fact I found out that my children enjoy some of the gluten free foods better than the food with gluten in them.

The old adage, all things in moderation comes to mind. Too much of a good thing can be bad for you, it's true.

Young Women's Camp

Wow!! It's been a roller coaster ride for the last 2 months. We made it through Young Women's camp. What a long road to get there though. It was a ton of work and thank goodness I go camping quit a bit and had a good idea of how much food to feed people. We ended up having a little more than necessary.

We had a variety of weather; rain, snow, hail and then sun. We even had the coldest day on June 17th recorded in 115 years isn't that funny. I told the girls to expect anything because I was going to camp with them. I forgot my camera so I didn't get pictures at camp.

Our first night it rained and actually rained one of our tents out only because the girl brought her tent but had no rain fly, thanks to the promptings I had before we left we had extra tents. We moved the girls into what was suppose to be the leaders tent for the night and the leaders slept in their cars. Not the greatest nights sleep I've ever had camping.

The second day we switched out tents and the second seemed to do better although I thought my dear husband had put the extra tarps in and found out after camp that he told me where they were and just assumed I had gotten them in. Anyway, thanks to one of the stake people we got another tarp to cover our cooking area. I suggested that next year the person in charge have 2 tarps per tent and two for cooking and sitting areas. Down pour was worse the second day. I didn't hear the girls complain that their stuff got wet, so I believe that it wasn't too bad. I still had one tent we could have put up if the need arose.

The third day was a great day we woke up to sunshine, snow on the ground, and ice on most of our stuff and clear skies, and it remained that way all day and all night it was wonderful. It remained clear after we left camp. I'm still recovering from all the late night and early mornings along with all the unexpected things going on at our house this weeks.

I'm home and dry and thankful for the roof over my head and the access we have to all the needs in life. Thankful for a Heavenly Father that loves us. Thankful to the Savior for giving his life that we might again live with Heavenly Father and our loved ones who have passed on before us. I'm grateful to my wonderful husband for all of his help, love, and understanding, I could not have done this without him. There are so many things to be grateful for, there is no way to express all my gratitude.

We did go on a 6 mile hike before camp and I have pictures to share. Now with all these responsibilities filled we hope to go on a few camp outs and trips as a family.

Our Thursday Soccer Game!

It was cool to watch my team play yesterday. They are actually learning. I've been working with them in stopping the ball and turning it around. I have one particular player that is trying really hard. He actually stopped the ball yesterday and turned it around. So what I am teaching them is sinking in. It's just taking time.

It was really cold so I'm surprised they did so well. They are learning how to pass the ball and work together as a team it's pretty awesome. I'm very happy that it is actually starting to look like they're learning to play the game. I have no idea what the score was only that they did their best and had as much fun as they could in the freezing cold weather.

WHERE'S THE GOAL?

I'm baffled. I think one of my players has decided that's it's more fun to kick the ball into the other teams goal, hence helping the other team win. I think the score was 6-4 in favor of the other team. Of the six goals scored only 4 were actually kicked by the other team. I kept telling this child to stop the ball and turn it around. He kicks the ball hard but can't control it. OH boy!

I asked the other coach if he ever wondered what they were thinking, he said that he thinks they're just thinking: follow the ball, follow the ball! It's funny, but sad for the rest of the team, it was a blow to lose because one of their own team mates can't control the ball and is very relaxed about coming to practice. It's not fair to the others that are working so hard.

This week is going to be a better week. It has to be. Bumble ball and all. They definitely look like a hive of bees fighting over the same flower. It's sad. I hope it does improve.

The frustrations of U6 soccer!

With coaching the U6 teams this year the coaches are refereeing the games, so any pictures I get I will post. Hopefully some great parent with take some pictures and send them to me. Things are going okay. Have you ever heard a child say, I don't need to come to practice, I'm already a good player? These kids don't realize that they gain so much more than just learning the game, like learning to play together as a team. I have so many frustrations with this age group. They play in a ball, which is driving me crazy and even when you tell them to spread out and get them to spread out, they end up back together in a ball. Oh ya, they fight their own teammates for the ball. Help! I've forgotten how to reach 5 and 6 year old kids in soccer.

Not to mention if they don't want to do something they lay down in the middle of the field. What's up with that. Yikes! Patience is a virtue right. I've just got to be patient. How much do they really learn their first year and remember? Should I worry that I'm not getting through to them? I'm working with them on gaining control of the ball. I found a new drill called keep away and the kids are teamed up and try to pass the ball to one another to keep it away from the other team. I didn't have a good turn out to practice tonight, but I plan on doing it again.

One of the dad's gave me a good idea to keep them apart, to tie a rope between the kids and there can't be any slack in the rope it has to be tight. I didn't get to try this today but will on Monday for practice. I'm hopeful that this will help them learn to leave space between each other. I don't remember having this big of a problem with the first team of U6 kids I taught. I do remember them doing cartwheels during the game and running after butterflies and watching airplanes flying over. I guess it's normal but frustrating.

One other thing at our game we even had kids talking smack to each other. We had a nice talk about sportsmanship. I was totally blown way that they would do that at this age. We have a game on Saturday hopefully things will be better.

Who ordered the snow anyway?

Okay so the weather wasn't that great on Thursday, most of the kids were going to be gone for Spring Break weekend, we ended up doing soccer practice in the snow. It was very wet and cold. Needless to say, they could all control the ball because the ball wouldn't roll very far. It was fun and at least the ones that came prepared for the cold weather still had fun.

Our second practice on Saturday was better it was actually warm enough that you just needed a jacket. Of course, that's when the kids think they don't need them anymore.

Dalton and Caitlin were both throwing up on Sunday so everyone stayed home Sunday and Monday, trying not to spread the germs. Now Jim is sick on his birthday. I'm glad we celebrated yesterday. It was definitely better to have him at least well enough he could keep down his birthday pie. Today is a different story. He is down right miserable.

Our first soccer game is tonight at 5:30 p.m. and it should be interesting.

Oh ya, it's raining, poor kids these games are some of the hardest games to play and their first one is going to be in the rain. I know they'll still have fun. Bring out the raincoats and warm clothes. At least they can wear warm clothes under their uniform.

Spring, Soccer and Snow

What do all of these things have in common? It is spring and time for soccer excepting the fact that there is snow on the ground. Somehow I think I'm cursed. I got talked into coaching Dalton's soccer team and you can probably guess what happened? It snowed on the first day I tried to practice. Since it's a U6 team and 6 out of the 7 kids have never played soccer I decided it would be better to wait and practice on a day it's not suppose to snow. Hopefully Friday? Not sure how that is going to go but we'll see. All of them are really excited to play, but it was snowing pretty heavily and I didn't want any of them to get hurt on the first day of practice. I'll post pictures as I go about soccer.

Normally we get rain and that's okay, but I don't want to deal with snow and soccer. Although, the kids will probably enjoy it because they can make snow angels when they're done playing just like some of the High School soccer teams did last night that played in SLC.

We even had a power outage this morning because a branch hit one of the transformers, it was out for about an hour. My older boys were excited because they thought they might get out of school early, but the city got the transformer fixed so they have a full day of school.

Important things!

Have you ever thought about what is really important. With so many people around me being affected by cancer and many other health issues, it drives home the importance of family. Although, we are here to make it through this earthly life, we have the support and love of family. Why does satan try to side track us from what is important? Yes we are to work hard provide for our families and be successful, but to who's standards is success measured. I think we have to turn to the Lord and he will help us know what our measure of success is.

An education is important without one it is very hard to provide for our family, it is also the only thing we take with us, besides the love of our family, when we die. We can't take the riches and possessions of this world so why not take the time for family. Then there are good things that can be used for bad as well and can take away from our families and from God.

I find that even with my own family that sometimes the things of the world interrupt our scripture study, prayer and meditation time. I find sometimes, well a lot of the time, that the stuff that I'm doing isn't necessarily bad, but it takes time away from my husband and kids.

What kind of message do I send my children if the only thing of importance to me in this world is based on working and surviving day to day. Do I teach them about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do I affect their lives in a positive way. What about the lives of the people around me do I touch them for good or do I run over them or neglect them. Do I pay attention to what Jesus would do if he were here.

I think satan works so hard to distract us so that the family will fall apart and he can steal those who are struggling away to his side.

I feel strongly about, The Family: A Proclamation to the World an excerpt I wish to share with you is:

"The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.

I continue to strive everyday to live the life I know I should. To live to become like Christ.

Gas Leak? It smells like bad garbage!

That's what one lunch lady at my friends kids elementary school said yesterday. My friend works at the charter school during lunch a couple of days a week. Yesterday they were fortunate she was there. One of the ladies cleaning tables off in the gym came in saying that it smelled like gas, but she thought it was the garbage that stunk. My friend went out and smelled it and screamed for everyone to evacuate the building. They did get the building evacuated,however it did take some time. She shewed the kids out of the gym only to find them a few minutes later in the hall. She yelled as loud as she could to get the teachers attention to get their students and get out of the building, there was a gas leak. They finally listened and got everyone out of the building.

I showed up to drop off a kindergartner at the same time this mass confusions was going on. I figured I would turn off our van and wait outside the main door where the kindergartener's enter, which is right by the gym. The little boy I drop off got out to wait by the door and a lady told him not to go into the gym and shewed him away. I had the little boy come back into the van to wait for his teacher. I watched dumb founded as another little boy ran through the open gym door and into the building. They aren't allowed to enter the school until their teacher opens the door. I just felt something wasn't right, but there wasn't anyone around to tell us what was going on.

Finally about 6 minutes later a lady came and told us we needed to evacuate the parking lot and to move our vehicles because they had a gas leak. I moved and watched as emergency vehicles poured in all around the school. You would think that a school would have a better procedure for taking care a this kind of emergency.

It brings up my key point. What procedure do my kids schools have in place in case this kind of emergency happens. I know that my kids schools have better procedures in place than what the charter school did, because I was the health and safety commissioner for my son's elementary school and many of their teachers are on the committee to help establish the safety procedures that they follow. They also meet with the school board and talk about what they are doing. MY KIDS schools have an evacuation plan so they can move the kids off of the school grounds to another location still within walking distance from the school.

As a matter of fact only a few years ago they had a fire at the middle school and evacuated the kids off premises and then called parents. They also worked closely with the radio station and other media sources to get the information out to the parents about what was going on.I told my friend they may want to discuss something like this in the future, so they could move the kids off the school grounds to a place that would be safer.

Looking at the place they had the kids go, in my own personal opinion, it wasn't far enough away from the building. I thought about the house that had the gas leak and exploded here a mere couple of months ago it affected the houses around it. The kids probably would have sustained a lot of injuries. It's a charter school so I don't know what procedures they follow. It just seemed like there was a lot of confusion. We were okay and things ended good, but what happens if it happens again? I hope they learn from the experience. It could have ended badly but it didn't and for that I'm very grateful.

Weird things in unusual places!

Skylar has a photography assignment that he has to take pictures of stationary things. We decided it would be fun to go up Logan canyon to take pictures. As we were driving up the canyon we came around a corner and out in the middle of this clearing someone built a giant snowman. It was really hard to miss. He took pictures and so did I. It's not every day you drive up through a canyon and see a giant snowman it was pretty cool. We had a lot of fun finding cool places to take pictures, of course, Logan Canyon has many. I love it up there. It was also a lot of fun just to spend time with Skylar.

Broken arm

Brennan and the gym floor got into a fight and floor won. Just kidding, he was actually playing Wall Ball with the Young Men of our ward. He ran into the wall with his right arm, turned to run parallel to the wall and tripped over his own feet and landed on his left arm. He hit floor hard enough he heard his arm break. Unfortunately, he decided he didn't need to tell anyone it was broken. He went along with assumptions that it was just sprained or he pulled a muscle. All week he tried to convince us that it was getting better, on Monday, 6 days later he came home from school complaining it still hurt and that his band teacher told him he needed to get it x-rayed if it hurt bad enough that he couldn't hold his trumpet. He finally conceded to having it looked at I called and made an appointment. Tuesday he went to the doctor and without taking a second glance he sent him to have it x-rayed. Upon returning to the doctors office the doctor stepped in the room and said he'd broke his arm in two places and he would be wearing a cast for 4 to 5 weeks. He also tried putting a pink cast on but Brennan wasn't going to let that happen. It's navy blue and matches the jacket he wears everywhere.

Thought's about Christ

Christmas was very enjoyable this year, it is the first year we've ever just stayed home for Christmas. It beats lugging everything around with us. It was also very relaxing, not rushing to go and do anything. It was wonderful. However, I felt a little selfish because we weren't spending it with others in need or who were lonely. I did want to go spend it with some one in the nursing home that's family wasn't coming, but my husband didn't want to sing and scare them to death, I told him I thought that just being there talking with them and getting to know them would be enough. Oh well, maybe next year if no one wants to do it with me, I'll go alone.

I sometimes wonder what the Savior would do with his special day. Would he spend it in service of his fellow man I think so. I don't think he would have been selfish with his time and his life. So what makes us feel like we have the right to our own time and place. If someone was in need he was there. I wish sometimes that I could have been there to watch and learn from him(I also wish I could remember if I was there). How much time did he spend with his family? How did he treat his mother and father? We have so little written about his life but from what we know and speculate, I figure he would always give his time and love to everyone and for everyone around him, not just his family. I'm sure his family was important, but it did not keep him from doing Heavenly Father's work.

I was thinking about the new year and what I wanted it to be like. I'm still thinking about it. Sometimes I can't help but wonder where we draw the line of helping people and when it becomes enabling people. I'm sure Jesus had to deal with this as well. Where did he draw the line? I'm still looking for answers and I won't give up until I figure out what he would do. He loves everyone and want's what's best for everyone. He never gives up on us. So what do we do? At some point we can't live the life of the other person but we can give them a leg up.

Just something I was thinking about.