my calling

I have to admit that when we first moved into this ward it wasn't an easy transition. We moved in on a Wednesday and Don left Friday to Iraq. So I was pretty much left by myself to unpack and figure out the schools and church alone. So that first Sunday I went to RS and felt pretty lonely. I also did not take the initiative to branch out and talk with anyone. I found myself just getting all five kids to church and to their classes and then packed up in the car to get them home afterwards. Well the very next Sunday I was called into the nursery. I wasn't too happy about it but I accepted. I have never turned down a calling and don't believe I should. It was hard. Being home all day with the kids and not having any breaks with Don gone and then teaching in the nursery each week kind of wore on me a little. But I was alteast thankful that the lessons were easy to prepare. I mean how hard can it be to teach the kids about being thankful for animals. Or how about being thankful for families. The kids were so cute and Mayah loved it that I was her teacher.

I was released a few months ago and put in the primary to teach the 8-11 year old girls. They separate the boys and girls in this when they turn 8. I am also in charge of Activity Days two times a month. I have to say that I LOVE being in the primary and being able to see all 5 kids in there each week. I love the songs they sing. I love the program all together. It is awesome. Today Ethans teacher told me that he had a surprise for me. The primary works on one Article of Faith each month. This month they are working on number 3. Well Ethans teacher raised her hand and said that one of the kids in her class has memorized Article of Faith number three and wanted to share it. It was Ethan. He got up in front of the primary and shared it. He needed a little bit of help but there are some BIG words in it. Here it is for those that are not familiar with it.

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

That made my day.

Quite often when I am putting Rachel to bed she wants me to sing, "I Love To See the Temple". But she wants to sing the second verse by herself. Sometimes I try to sing it with her but she hushes me and continues on her own.

Today at church they were singing that for the closing song. It is her favorite. So I looked over at her while she was singing and she literally looked like an angel to me. I couldn't take my eyes off of her...especially as she sang the second verse. It was priceless and I find it so wonderful being in there with them each week being able to take part as they learn the gospel. I know what they are learning and singing and doing. It is great. I am so thankful to be in the primary at this time.

updating

Glad my mom's cornea transplant went well. The surgery was supposed to be a 1 1/2 to 2 hr. but it ended up lasting 3 hrs. I think it made my dad a bit nervous. When you are waiting for something like this the time sure seems to go by even slower. But all went well and the Anethesiolgist told my parents that this particular Dr. was the best in the world for this procedure. Can't get better than that!!!! She has another appt. today to check her eye again and will be able to travel the 6 hrs. home to recuperate with a few more trips down to the Dr. Here's to hoping to recovers quickly.

Now the bad news. Our car is still in the shop. My kids have already missed two days of school this week because we are out of town. I can't even remember the last time they were in school because we have had so many snows days. The mechanic is having a very hard time trying to figure out what is wrong with the Expedition. They are thinking maybe the transmission is messed up and a couple of other things. Doesn't sound good. Oh boy....not a good day. A bit depressing if you ask me.

LOVE FEBRUARY

I love this month. February is the month Don and I got married. It was the 10th of this month to be exact. I have been late in posting anything. We are out of town. We left in the middle of the week. We decided to leave the storm at our house and join the storm at my sisters house. We got snowed in together and it was much more fun. Our Expedition was stuck in 4 wheel so we took it to a mechanic here. He took it out of four wheel and said it would be fine until we could get a certain part that Don was going to install. Well the very next day it popped back into 4wheel. SO now we cannot go home until we can get this part and I am not sure when we can get it. My kids are so happy. Now they can have even more time to play with their cousins. My kids will miss school tomorrow and I am hoping we can get the car fixed soon and get back home so they don't miss anymore than that.

My parents were married on the 11th of this month but 47 years ago. WOW. Amazing.

It is Valentines Day. I love all holidays. I love to have a reason to celebrate. I love hearts. I love red and pink. And I love the thought of love. We took Melissa's idea and made heart crystals. The boys thought they were too tough for hearts so they made different shapes. Caleb made the initials CP. Zach actually made a heart. Sami made a banana shape. I made a snowman. And I think everyone else made a heart. THANKS MELISSA for the great idea. I don't have my camera with me. Last night the kids made homemade heart pizza's. Well.....some didn't want to do hearts. LOL. We also had red punch. Rachel, Mayah, Sara, and Ethan made some hearts out of construction paper. They were very creative.

This is also the month that my Great Grandma Lulu had her birthday. Her birthday was on Valentines Day. Now that woman was SWEET. No wonder she shared her birthday with the day of love. She died at age 99 when I was about 11. I remember visiting her in the nursing home. I hated the smell of that place but I loved seeing her. On the day she died I remember where we lived and I remember being in my room for a good bit of the day. I was so sad. I didn't want to do anything that day. I think that was my first experience with someone close dying.

This month is also my Grandma Emily's birthday. Her day is on the 26th. I hope that is right. Now this lady is amazing too. I am pretty sure she will be 99. Man the women in our family live long. Both of these grand ladies are on my dad's side. My grandma Emily has never taken medications and her mind is still very sharp. Her body is wearing down but she is still as strong as ever. I am very impressed. I really admire her for her strength. She raised 4 boys and one of them was my dad. Now that alone takes a strong woman. LOL.

I love this month.

Don and I have been married 14 years. It hardly seems possible. I love him more than the day we got married. Here are 14 things that I love about Don.

1. He is very sentimental. He stayed up until 4:30 in the morning the night before our Anniversary writing me a letter in my email so I would have it when I woke up.

2. He has a deep love for his country and is very patriotic. He joined the Army a few years ago. After basic training we were stationed in Monterey, CA. After two years he was honorably discharged and that really broke his heart. He wanted to serve his country. He was ready and willing to go to Iraq to serve his country.

3. He knows just what to say to me. When he was in highschool his friends that were girls always came to him for advice. He was known for his counselling sessions. At a previous job his employees tried to come to him TOO MUCH to get advice....not advice about the job either. It was advice for their personal life. He had to make sure to limit that.

4. He is very well versed in the gospel. I love that I can ask him anything church related and he has a good answer for it. He can find it in the scriptures and his testimony of these things is also strong.

5. Don has this amazing sense of direction. And it drives me nuts. He can go anywhere. OK ALMOST anywhere and not have problems finding it again. ME? Well lets just say I rely on him alot in this department.

6. He is very easy to talk to. I remember our first date and how easy and down to earth he was.

7. I love that he helps out around the house. He is pretty handy. When I need him he is there. He will do dishes and laundry. He is the one that makes homemade bread. He makes our bed in the mornings if he is the one out after me....which is usually never. If I do not make it he will. He also does a lot of the handy work. I rely on him in this area alot too. He can fix alot of things. I love him for it.

8. Don loves to be outside. He is not lazy. He comes home from work and will go outside when he gets home to do either yard work or some type of outside work. I love working beside him doing this. It doesn't really matter what he is doing...but I love to be by his side.

9. He used to be very serious and he still is but every once in awhile he will really make me laugh.

10. Don doesn't think so but he has many talents.

11. Don is musical. He doesn't have alot of extra time but has been practicing his guitar 20 minutes a day. He can plunk around on the piano. He has a great voice but will NEVER sing in front of people. I wish he would. He had a nice drum set in highschool and I have been told that he was VERY good. The friends he played around with went on to form a band. But Don sold his drum set to serve a mission. I know it was a big sacrifice on his part. He totally could have been in that band.

12. Don is smart. He doesn't think so but HE IS. He received the Student of the Year award at the University he attended. It wasn't just for his good grades. It was also because he was going to school and trying to raise a large family at the same time. COMMENDABLE.

13. Don is very lovable. Because Don is so tall of because of his size people are intimidated by him. But he is a big lovable bear.

14. I am so thankful that Don holds the Priesthood. I am so thankful he can give me a blessing when I need it. I am so lucky to have him in my life. He is wonderful and I am blessed. I have to say that we do not have alot of things in common but that is OK. We have the most important and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it makes all the difference. We don't fight often and we forgive each other for many things.

Happy late anniversary Don.....I love you with all my heart.

I would love to say 47 things I love about my parents and I could probably come up with it but that is not what I am going to do. I just want to say how lucky and blessed I am to have such wonderful and amazing parents. These two people are the most unselfish and caring and loving people I know. Both would totally give the shirt off their back and more. They are VERY family oriented and to them family is everything and without family there is nothing.

Mom and Dad....thanks so much for giving.....always giving. You guys never want anything in return. You are the best. Truly the best. I could never ask for better parents for us. Thanks for your example of marriage. There are so many people that are not able to say that they have parents that have been married for so long. And I am so glad.

Happy LATE anniversary to the best parents ever.

It's all about the memories

YES...is the answer when I think about how nice it would be to have a snowblower or a backhoe or a nice plow. BUT.....the memories we are creating would never be as memorable. Don was driving home from work on Friday trying to think of a way we could plow our driveway. He came up with a great idea and we spent a bit of time putting this together and going up and down the driveway plowing out the snow on Friday. The kids took turns taking a ride in the trailer (for added weight). We drilled the wood onto the trailer and then drilled the homemade plow onto the wood. Then we hooked the trailer up to the Expedition. Don and I took turns driving while the other was in the back holding down the wood to make sure it stayed firm. It really worked better than I thought it would. I was happy with the results. Yet we knew Friday night was going to bring much much more snow and it did. SO much more that this little rigged up piece would never be able to perform. BUMMER. Zach was such an awesome help. He had such great ideas when we told the kids what we needed to do. His little brain went to work thinking of all sorts of ways to plow the driveway.

This is what our garage door looked like when we opened it on Saturday morning. SO FUNNY.

You can barely see the trampoline. It is really sagging too.

Kids are playing out the front of our door. Can't even see our steps. We haven't even touched this area with our shovels yet. We are too burned out from doing the driveway. The plow has still not come by so I am not sure how Don will get to work tomorrow. Hoping they come.

Here the kids are having a blast getting up on the railing of the front porch so they can jump. Rachel was so brave. She just crawled up there and jumped. The other kids were a bit nervous and would just climb over the railing and jump.

Here Caleb is getting braver.

Ethan is working his way over the edge so he can jump.

He is so proud that he got to the other side. Now he can jump.

Here is Rachel so bravely just jumping. She loved it and kept doing it. She even crawled over the edge and did a belly flop. Crazy kids.

OK so this is our Expedition. You can see parts of it. LOL. We parked both of the vehicles down at the bottom of the driveway to make it easier to get them out.

There is Don's car. OH look. You can see the outside mirror.

WOW....that is what I say to all this snow. This area is not used to all this snow and we should have been prepared and had more than one shovel. I know that most of the stores in the area ran out. We ended up using our snow shovel and our regular garden shovel. Now that our boys are older we have more man power but without the tools it didn't matter. Zach and Caleb are getting sick anyway so they have been inside not doing much of anything. Don and I take turns trading shovels and popping Ibuprofin. :)

But I know this is a time when our family will never forget. Our power has gone out a couple of times and thankfully we have been super blessed. We received an email from a neighbor and he said that the power wasn't supposed to come back on until Feb. 12. I am so thankful that it is on. I think it is cool that we have this much snow. It is hard work trying to shovel it but it is so fun to have Don out with me. We have done a lot of talking and we go out TOGETHER every time after we come back in to get warm and rest. The kids have had fun playing and watching us sweat. Don asked me if I was still glad there we got so much snow and I said YES.

There's snow doubt about it

Mayah is taking a rest from all the hard work.The kids had gotten ready before me and were out playing for a bit while I was getting my boots and coat on. I came out and Mayah was trying to fill this up with snow. It was so cute.Our attempt at our snow fort. It is sort of hard to see but man that thing took alot of work. I am thinking it is going to get burried in our new snow storm that will be coming shortly.Rachel taking a rest. These kids work hard.We decided to take a break from the snow fort and bury Ethan. He loved it. Rachel and Ethan rolling snow in order to fit it into the bucket. It worked really good.Well a couple of days ago Don took the older boys shopping so I decided to take the younger three out and attempt a snow fort. We filled and pounded snow in five gallon buckets to build the fort. Man....that takes longer than I ever imagined. After dumping out each bucket of snow we had to patch the holes in between each. WE were trying to build an 8x8 area but we didn't get too far and it took us nearly an hour and a half. WE got a bit cold and had to come inside for some hot chocolate.

We are supposed to be getting a snow storm this weekend. Funny how this area rarely gets any snow and this year we get it all at once. Our new neighbors moved in a few months ago and I told her that is hardly ever snows here. She was so glad. I wonder what she thinks now? LOL.

I have heard so many different things on the amount we are supposed to get. Kind of funny that I have heard anywhere between 12 inches and 40 inches. MAN...I wonder which end is closer. I went to pick up some milk today and Walmart was so busy. I find it crazy that whenever there is a snow storm here people rush out and buy a TON of things. I was so glad that all I purchased was milk and butter. I had butter but I am just stalking up on more. Oh and I got some more black spray paint just in case. You know....just in case I can't leave my house for 3 or 4 days I will have my paint to redo some things. I am in love with black spray paint. I have been repainting my oak looking picture frames. AND they look sooooo nice. I love it. Don keeps asking me why I want everything black. Pretty soon he is going to come home to black hardwood floors. HEHEHEHE. Just kidding.