A day at BYU!

One of the items on the kids' check list for the summer was to spend a day at BYU and walk around. They wanted to see what the real classrooms were like as well as go the the Hinckley building to see Sister Hinckley's chair. When President Hinckley died, there were some videos played about his life. One was at the dedication of the Hinckley building on BYU's campus. A few years before Sister Hinckley died, she was made an honorary chair of a department and a real chair was placed in the school for her. So, when the building was dedicated, President Hinckley made the comment that if her chair was placed in his building, then they would be together again. So, they moved her chair to his building and the kids wanted to see it.

We started our adventure at the Bookstore having lunch and looking around. We had lunch the real way I would have eaten it, grab a sandwich at the twilight zone and move on to the next thing! Then we went to the library. The power went out a few times, lots of fun! We went up to the social science floor to find Grandpa Chauncey's thesis. It was fun to look through it and tell the kids about grandpa's research on LDS women marrying outside the church. We all decided it would be very interesting to do the research again and see if there we got the same results.

We went through the Talmage building (math) and then onto the Hinckley building. We looked at all the cool pictures and things from President Hinckley's life and looked around outside at the beautiful gardens. After that we went into the museum and watched videos of BYU football, basketball, vocal performances, band performances and dance performances. It was awesome! We had a great time in there. After that we headed to the ASB (administration building) and then through where Corry and I met... the HFAC (music building). I showed them the room we met in and all the places we hung out in there. Lots of fun. On our way over we tried to see the funky chicken with Brigham Young's statue, but it wasn't dark and they put a big hedge up and all but Missy were too short to see it anyway. Before we left, we went to Helaman Halls where I lived my freshman year. We were able to go through the Cannon Center, where I ate, and then looked through a dorm. It has all been remodeled since I lived there, but it was still fun. They also had to try their hand at tunnel singing! It was a really fun day, but we only got through a very small part of campus. We will have to go back another day!

The pictures were all taken at the Hinckley building. I forgot to take any others!

Family Night at the Cloward's

For family night, we try to have some sort of activity to do. This particular night happened to be Simon Says. It was hilarious. Corry was Simon and he was getting the kids to do all sorts of crazy things. I love playing games with the family!

The Best Part of the AZ Trip - FAMILY

Truly the best part of the trip was visiting with friends and most importantly with family. We got to be there for Aubrey's 2nd birthday - so much fun!!! I never get to see my nieces and nephews on their birthdays. Then we had the event we planned the whole trip around. Spencer was baptized. I am so proud of him. I love that my kids get to see their cousins get baptized. They are all such great examples. how lucky they all are to have cousins their ages that can be great friends as well!

Alli with Grammy and Grandpa Chauncey at the ice cream parlor for Aubrey's birthday

Me, Scotty and Spencer's self portrait!

Hanging with Kenzie after the baptism. She LOVES Corry!

Courtney and Alli - aren't they so pretty?

All the cousins hanging out. It was so hard to get one with all of them. They didn't want to get a picture, they wanted to play!

I love spending time at my mom and dad's home and traveling with my family. We build the best memories. I truly love that time with them away from our everyday lives!

Summer

I am almost done with with all our Summer O Fun! I asked the kids at the beginning of the summer what they wanted to do and we got through almost all of our list. We never had a picnic up the canyon and we never had lunch with Grandma Seeley at her Independent Living Center. We had planned on doing both of those things the week Fuzzy had chicken pox. Over all it was a wonderful summer! More posts to come!

A better day!

I knew writing my feelings so I could find the good would help! Yesterday was a much better day. Here is what happened:

The F is no longer!!!!

I am more optimistic about the job front. My brother in law has a really good prospect too which makes me SOOOO happy!

I have amazing friends and family (my online blogger friends included)! I prayed to know what to do about this one family member. I really wanted the answer to be, "Stand up for yourself for a change! Let them know that their behavior has been hurtful and wrong for years. (at the least let my comebacks come to me when I am still on the phone instead of 10 minutes later!!! :))" That wasn't my answer. I am supposed to love others (this person included) the way I want to be loved. I can't change them, only me. Now I am just praying to see the good in this person and love without expectations of being loved in return. Sounds very difficult, but I am going to try. I will probably fall again, pray, get the same answer and try again, but at least I am trying to move in the right direction! Thanks for your love and comments. I may not have 20 comments on every post like some people, but the awesome friends I have and their thoughtful words are better! Love you all!

Today's ramblings

You know how some days you can see so much good and others you just see the bad? I have had way too long of a week seeing the bad. I think I am over it, then something else comes up. Then I feel guilty because I really can see so much good in my life, so I feel guilty that I am frustrated, angry, sad, lonely or however I am feeling. So once again I hope that writing instead of keeping it all inside will help me see things clearer again!

Job front - still no significant contracts that will keep the business open. A few new promising prospects but I have a hard time getting my hopes up anymore.

School - most of the kids are doing well, but one of them has an F in one subject!!!!! I am so frustrated. It is an F because of a major assignment not being turned in. I can't decide if I am furious at the child who swears it was turned in or at the teacher who told this child on Thursday that they had straight A's only to get a progress report today that says otherwise.

Friends and family - it has been really interesting to see who true friends are. It has been depressing to find out who is not. It STINKS just like it high school, only worse! I told a family member about our current situation, sick kids, no income, etc. No response at all. That was over 2 weeks ago. My phone calls haven't been answered or returned, silence. I can't even express how hurt I am. In times like these, you hear stories of families pulling together, praying for each other, strengthening each other. I get silence from this individual. On the flip side, there have been a few family members who have been a strength. I have a few amazing friends who check on my all the time. On a stressful day, they brought me lunch (from BAJIO, my favorite) and just talked. They have been there for years for me and we have helped each other through many things. I love them dearly. See, I knew I would start to see the good!

Corry - I have an amazing husband. He is not around nearly enough, but he is my anchor and strength! He has been so patient with my melancholy moods and constantly sees the good. He is overwhelmed, stressed and feeling the weight of the world on him, yet he still strengthens me. He gave me the most beautiful priesthood blessing last night. I have prayed all day to try to do what it said... be patient, the Lord knows me.

My thoughts lately: What is the difference between me and those people that others flock to and want to get to know. I have those friends. Those that you meet one time and go "I want to get to know that person better". Corry has two theories.

#1 Most of those people are confident - anyone who has been a reader of my blog knows I lack confidence!

#2 Many of those people are just fun - now wait a minute, when I am not in my melancholy state, I am A LOT of fun! He said that was true, but I always want to dig deeper. I am not very content to have a surface relationship. I want to have deep relationships and friendships. Sometimes that is unnerving in to people. (I make them uncomfortable :))

Why I watch TV and read books - Sometimes when I am down, I just want to escape into something else. So I turn on the TV or get lost in something mindless or in someone else's life to forget about mine for a few minutes. Sometimes it is mindless and then unhealthy, but sometimes it is helpful. One of my favorite shows is Extreme Makeover. I love finding out about other people and the amazing things they overcome. I love reading my friends blogs, sometimes to find out ideas on how to parent or fun activities to do, but mostly to see that I am not alone in some of my feelings. I came across one video that had significant meaning to me the other day. It was about Stephanie Nielson (click on her name to see the video). She is an amazing women. The part I loved best when when she said what she had before the accident was beautiful, but what she had now was beautiful too because all those people (her husband and kids) were a part of her life then and a part of her life now. Amazing story! Other people's stories are inspiring to me!

Dance - I love my dance class on Tuesday nights!!! I love to dance with my friends and I love that I am not going to have to give it up yet! I love teaching dance. It is beautiful to see these young girls gain grace and confidence as they learn ballet. I love them!

Singing - Once again it is time for "Christmas in the Grove"! Our Stake has a Christmas choir where we practice rather difficult inspiring Christmas songs and perform them the first part of December. I love being involved in this group! I love having the challenging music and most of all I love singing praises about the birth of my Savior! (This week someone told me what a beautiful voice I have - she must have been hearing things, but it made my day anyway!) It is a wonderful experience and the older girls get to be a part of it. Fuzz is in a children's choir and Missy is in the youth choir so we get to practice together a bit every week! I am also trying to make time to sing in our ward choir and those songs are beautiful and uplifting as well.

Well, that is about all for now! It is so good for me to write my feelings. It somehow always turns my blue moods around and makes them better. These are the feelings I wonder if they are better off in a private journal, but maybe they will help someone else down the road, but if not, it has helped me today.

Feeling much better :)

Arizona Grand

One of the water parks Corry designed. This was his first start to finish project and it is a blast! They really like Corry there because he always comes in and checks on it when we are in town, so we always get free tickets. I love free!

Science Center

The Arizona Science Center was a blast. There was an exhibit all about legos. That knight with the kids is entirely built out of legos. It was amazing!

Jousting

Building castles

More castles

more jousting... looks like Missy just got her good!

Man, Fuzzy is getting beat up on!

An exhibit all about airline travel

flying a plain

A Sunday evening with Grandpa...

My mom and I were upstairs talking Sunday evening when all we heard from the basement were giggles. Then they invited us down for the show.... The Amazing Toe Grabbers passing a piece of paper. They thought they were hilarious. Anything is fun with Grandpa!

Wicked!

For Christmas last year, we gave the kids tickets to see Wicked. Well, this summer we FINALLY got to go see it. I saw it a few years ago on a girls trip in Denver, then last year Corry and I saw it in LA, and this year we saw it in Phoenix. I LOVE IT!!! I would see it every year if I could. We convinced my mom and dad to go with us this time and my sister-in-law, Courtney, was awesome to get us fabulous seats before they became available to the public, and for less than the cheapest seats in SLC!!!! I love a good deal! We drove into town Saturday afternoon, had time to eat and shower and then went to the show. It was amazing! I love watching my children experience life. I kept looking at the older girls' faces and it was so fun to see the joy, wonderment and excitement in their eyes. (Scotty and Alli liked it too, but this trip was more for the older girls!) We didn't take a picture before, so this was after the show at about 10:30 PM. Alli was just a little bit tired! I love giving my children experiences instead of stuff. This Christmas might be a little bit interesting. I would love to think of a great experience we could get them this year. I want to take them to Florida to their Aunt Fa's house, but that will have to wait until business is better. Anyway, that was the first day of our AZ trip and it was amazing! Thanks for coming with us mom and dad. The kids loved being with you!

Man was I tan! Thank goodness I spent about everyday possible at the pool this summer! Bummer the tan is already gone! Gotta love the zebra print dress I found for a deal for the occasion - it is totally WICKED!

Girl's Camp

This year I sent my oldest daughter off to girls camp. I was so excited about her going until I dropped her off. It wasn't that I was going to miss her terribly, it was more about I was so worried the other girls would be nice to her. So many women I have talked to had awful experiences at camp and it all had to do with the other girls being mean. I just wanted her first year to be great so she would want to go back every year. When we got there, a few of the girls in her class were not very nice and I just hoped and prayed that she would have a good experience.

Lucky for me, I got to go and be there with all the girls for a day. You have to understand, I LOVE GIRLS CAMP!!!! My dream calling would be Assistant camp director (notice the assistant part at first)! But, I am still in the Relief Society presidency, but what better way to help the girls transition into Relief Society than to go to camp with them!!! I loved being there, not just with missy, but with all those great girls. When I got there, I found that all my fears were unfounded. The girls were nice, Missy was having a ball and this was turning out to be one of the best experiences she has had in her young life. I asked her if there was a girl that stood out as just a great friend. She said it was Sara and that when ever she was around, Missy just felt loved and accepted. Thank you Sara, a wonderful Laurel, for making my little girls first year of camp so amazing!

As the Relief Society Presidency, we got to bring up ice cream sandwiches for one of the girls birthdays and talk with them a little bit about the value of Virtue.

We ate lunch with them and learned all the fun things they had done so far.

Then we went to the lake. I think that is my splash jumping off the zip line. I love it!

We just hung out at the lake the rest of the day with the girls.

We did synchronized swimming (I got the "real" synchronized swimmer award after camp)

And then came the canoes...

there were a few mother/daughter groups up there, so the daughters challenged us to a canoe race. We won, but then the girls tipped and sunk our canoe. Oh, there is still payback to be done for that one. Any good ideas on how to get back at a 15 year old that tipped your canoe?

4th of July

I LOVE the 4th of July! I don't know if I love the 4th so much because my parents taught me to be patriotic. I don't know if it was because they took me to live back East when I was little and we saw so many of the site that it just stuck with me. It might be because I went to Betsy Ross' house and felt something when I saw the flag. It might be because at girl's camp we had a ceremonial retiring of one of those flags. I don't know if it because my choir teacher in high school taught me to love the Battle Hymn of the Republic. I don't know if it was due to making one of my dearest friends while trying to sing the harmony to The Star Spangled Banner (and failing miserably). What I do know is that I love my country. I am proud to be an American. I can't get through the songs without shedding a tear and feeling grateful to those who have fought and lived to make our country free.

I LOVE AMERICA!

I love the summer with all the swimming at the pool, playing volleyball, picnics and watching fireworks. This 4th of July I got to do all my favorite summer things the same day! It made for a wild day, but it was awesome!

We started at Papa Kurt and Grandma Barb's for a nice dip in the pool.

I won the dive over the stick contest!!! Look how high I cleared that!

We love spending the 4th at the Johnsons!

Then it was off to Julie's for a picnic and some volleyball. I wish I had good pictures, because it was a blast! I love playing with the kids and I LOVE volleyball!

The Peterson gang, hanging out.

Then it was up to Cassie's for fireworks and hanging out with the Seeleys!

And the next day (also wish it was a good picture), Alli snuggled up with Grandpa. I love that my kids love my dad as much as I do!