Only 5 days....

I am grateful there are only five days in a school week. I am humbled my the amount of energy it takes to teach every day. Thank goodness tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!!

Blogstalking.

Yep, I admit it. I am a very devoted blogstalker. I think it ties in to my great love of reading and my fascination with people and their stories. It is almost like a book that just never ends! So I am grateful for all the amazing people whose blogs I read faithfully. There are so many brave, wonderful people in the world. And so willing to share their lives so that maybe somebody else can learn something.

Thank goodness kids grow up!

 Oh my goodness. Am I glad my kids are growing up. This whole week I get to sub in a sixth grade class. They are wonderful! But I am tired, and really didn't have to do much, but it can be a long day on your legs. Plus I am taking some medicine that can cause a bit of tiredness and achiness at first. Today I am grateful my kids are growing up....how in the world did I ever have the energy to have seven kids. Those first five came in 7 years. Wow!

Day 17

 I gotta say, some days are easier than others to be grateful. Not because I am ungrateful, more because I am tired. Today I am thankful for my calling teaching the Laurels. They are smart, beautiful, fearless girls. I love them!

Sew what!!

 When I was in 7th grade I took what must have been a home-ec class. I remember learning to cook and to sew. I don't think I sewed again til high school but I am grateful that I had the chance to learn to sew. One summer I made it a goal to only wear what I had sewn, I even made myself one of those shirts with ruffles down the front that were so popular in the 80's. It was red with a gold metallic thread in it. And a bright blue terry cloth shorts and jacket set. I only wish I had them, or at least pictures! I learned I could make a cute skirt out of a yard of fabric and made a ton of those for me, my sister and friends. When my first two boys were little I made them matching shorts several summers in a row. I even made pants out of old sheets! While sewing is quite painful on my back now I am so grateful for my long ago home-ec teacher and my mom who patiently taught me how to sew. 

Good stuff!

  Hannah told me about this awesome story about a little boy who had his a wish come true. He is five years old and has battled leukemia since he was 18 months old. I believe he has beat it. That wonderful "Make-a-wish-Foundation" granted him his wish to be Batkid. And San Fransico was turned into Gotham City. I tried to link an article here, but I don't have any idea how. PLEASE GO LOOK IT UP!! It will be worth it. I am grateful for people who care. 

There are those days.

    I am president of our high school Booster Club. Not because I am particularly qualified, but because I was available. And after three years, well this is the last one. Last night was the Fall Sports Award Night. We are in charge of that. Before the dinner I had a meeting trying to recruit more people and discuss business. It was a long evening and I came home EXHAUSTED. Just as I walked in the door my children........ages 12, 17 and 20......started some crazy LOUD argument about cleaning and computer using and a bunch of other nonsense. It was ridiculous and discouraging. I couldn't believe the dumbness of it all. And I felt like I must have failed in some major way, that they would be arguing like little toddlers. So, I was not feeling very grateful about anything at all.

    Today is a new day, although it is nearly over. Tonight was Parent/Teacher conferences, I figured out in my parenting career so far, I have had 155 conferences with teachers. Every year I am tempted to just skip them. Generally speaking I know what my kids are doing and what their grades are. But then I worry that the teachers will think I am a bad mom or my kids will think I don't care, so I end up going. And the whole point of this was to express my gratitude for our schools. The great majority of my children's teachers have been dedicated and amazing people. And I am so grateful. I am grateful we live in a small enough town that I know their teachers. I know they are people who live good lives. They work so hard to ensure that my kids learn and achieve all that they can. They give them knowledge and skills that as much I wish I could give them, I can't. And it is always a bonus for my kids to have a variety of really awesome adults in their lives. But I am also grateful that P/T conferences are over for the semester!!!!!

11-12-13!!!!

  I wish I was getting married or having a baby today! It is one of those really cool numerical dates. It was a very long day. Not bad, just long. So I am grateful that even though it is only 8:38 pm here, well, it's 10:38 pm somewhere and I am going to bed!

Veterans Day

  Our gratitude can never be enough, but will have to do. Thank you.

Relief

  There is a boy from my ward, Joseph, who is serving the Phillipines. In the city that was hardest hit by the typhoon on Thursday. I have known him since the day he was born, he is the same age as my son Nathan, who is serving in Paraguay. His family had no idea if he was safe. There are still about 80 of the 200 missionaries in that area unaccounted for. But last night his parents heard he was safe. I am so deeply grateful for that. And now I will continue to pray for the other missionaries and their families. It is an act of faith to send your child out on a mission. Sometimes we forget how much courage it takes to do that.

Bazinga!

  Well, it's been a long Saturday. Trying to clean and get my family to clean. And now no one likes me!! Luckily for me TBS has been showing The Big Bang Theory all evening. I am grateful for humor and the chance to hide away in my room for a couple episodes! And I am grateful that for at least a couple of hours it looks like normal people live in our house.

My health.

    I had uterine and ovarian cancer three years ago. I was so lucky...and blessed that it was all able to be removed through surgery. Since then I have had to see the doctor every three months, then every six months. In the beginning there were a few scares, but finally last week I was cleared to return to a normal, yearly exam!! And I had an EKG, chest X-ray, Pap smear and mammogram done. ALL CLEAR. I need to work on my weight. And there are a couple issues relating to my weight. Blah, but I knew that was coming. I am so deeply grateful for my health. That the cancer is gone and I am clear. And now I am going to work on getting more physically healthy. Doing things that are in my control. I kinda figure I owe it to myself. 

The happiest place on earth!

I am grateful for Walt Disney and his creative genius! Not only his movies and the legacy he left behind but ESPECIALLY Disneyland. I haven't learned how to put pictures on here very good so I am pretty sure only half my family is showing, but we took this two years ago right after World of Color. It was so amazing and so fun to be all together. We are going again this year, but will have to attempt to have fun without Nathan. I am grateful for a fun and happy place to visit with my family.

My son.

    From the time I was a little girl I wanted to be a mom. And I wanted to have eight kids. My Barbie dolls were divided into families and I created a home/neighborhood for them in my closet. I would often draw pictures of families and the floor plans of their homes. And then one day I found out I was going to be a mom!! I remember thinking that I would never be alone, that I would always have my baby. Even when that baby grew up, he/she would still belong to me! Today is that baby's birthday. Twenty-five years old. Or as his little brother Brigham said, a third of the way to dead. Oh those funny little brothers! I am ETERNALLY grateful for Bear. He made my fondest dream come true. He is funny and bright and so kind to me. He is a hard worker. This is a picture of him with his girlfriend Talisa. She is wonderful and just so good for him. I am grateful for her too.

It's our right!

  Today I am grateful I have the right to vote. It was a small election here in my hometown. It was an unopposed election for the mayor and 3 council seats. I was able to be a poll worker and heard a lot of "it doesn't really matter" and "it's just a waste of time." And so on. BUT IT ISN'T! People died to give us the right to vote. And today people are dying in the effort to gain the right to vote. Several years ago one of our hometown boys died in the war in Iraq. His family lives in my precinct and every election when they come in to vote I have to fight the urge to hug them and thank them for their son's sacrifice. Ok, I do thank them, but I resist the hug! Today when his dad came in it became clear again why we should vote EVERY election we are able to. If we ever become so complacent that we will only vote in a "big" election or an "important" enough election we may find we will lose our right to vote. 

Ummmm.

  Feeling a bit tired tonight. I subbed in the bands today. High school and junior high. WOW. This morning I vaguely remember having a very profound gratitudal object. That's a real word, right? Anyway, after a fairly loud afternoon with preteen and newly turned teenagers, well, I can't remember what it was. Can you believe we actually give them instruments that make such a racket? And some of them have actual sticks!! Tonight I am grateful for my ability to read music. I am grateful that I do get to sub in the bands and be a witness to the AMAZING and MIRACULOUS progress these kids make. I am grateful for our phenomenol band teacher, Matt Bennett. But MOST of all I am grateful I am NOT a band teacher.

This is an obvious one.....

I am grateful for these eight people. I love them more than anything else. It had been said that the only job that never ends is being a mom. Or a dad. I am so glad. They are funny, smart, sometimes obnoxious people and I feel honored to be their mom. And Gary's wife.

Day 2

   I am grateful for this boy, um, man. He has been a joy and a balm to my soul. He listens, he counsels and he loves me. I have missed him since he left for Paraguay. He is doing great work, learning the language and learning to serve. He expects so much of himself. The first week in the field he had five baptisms and has had others, but worries when he doesn't have some every week. I am grateful for his desire to improve and hold himself to a high standard. He loves the people he is serving. I would never want him to be anywhere else, doing anything else. But I miss him, so much sometimes. And I am grateful for him.

A month of gratitude.....

So I am going to attempt a month of posts full of gratitude. I am thinking I might have two readers...Robin and Connie....but they are important people!!! And here goes post number one

I am grateful for the beauty of nature. That is not to say I love camping, I admit to loving nature from a comfortable place. Or to spend a day outside and be able to return to a clean place with soft seats, electricity and running water! 

  When I am surrounded by the wonder of the world I have no doubt that there is a God. I can feel Him in the air and the quiet and the amazing colors. The top picture is a view of one of my favorite places in the whole world. Estes Park, Colorado. Oh man do I love it there! The middle picture is the view out of one of the bedrooms in my parents cabin in the mountains above Estes Park. And the bottom is a picture taken from a boat on Ashton Reservoir this summer. We were in a little cove and when the sun began to set I felt surrounded and painted all of those colors. I love that when you are on that reservoir you can see the Tetons in the distance, beautiful fields all around, some come almost down to the water! We even see deer sometimes. If more people could leave the cities where all around are man-made objects and go out and feel God's creations maybe society would reflect more of His care and concern.

Catching up!

  My friend Robin taught me how to use my iPad better in blogging. Now we will see if I can implement it. In April Emily was in our local Distinguished Young Woman program. It was fun to watch those beautiful girls up on stage. L-R is Mirm Hollist, McKenna Grant, Emily and Tazie Hobbs. Fun girls and just so nice.                                                     

  The next day we had family pictures done because Porter was going to Jerusalem for the summer to study at the BYU center and Nathan was leaving in May for his mission to Paraguay.                                                            

  

 A week later we went to Salt Lake City to watch Hannah graduate from the LDS Business College.    

  In May Nathan left for the Argentina MTC. In July he arrived in Paraguay.

 

   As part of going to state Distiguished Young Woman the girls have to do a service project. This year someone on the state board decided that they would gather shoes for the Shoes for Love project. The goal was 40,000 pairs of shoes....1,000 pairs per girl. That is a LOT of shoes. Emily did a fabulous job of harassing, I mean contacting people and our community was so supportive and generous that she reached the 1,000 pairs goal a bit early and decided to shoot for 2,000. She got that!! We had shoes EVERYWHERE. In the end she got 2,040. As a state the girls got 75,000. What an amazing thing they accomplished!

 

   That is just a few things that have happened. I have NO idea how this is going to look when or if I am able to put this entry up. But I gave it a shot! And if it is successful it will be so much nicer to blog from my iPad. Especially because our home computer is dead and all I have is my iPad! Life is good and busy and full.

Spring.

  I am feeling more spring-ish today. Part of that might be because Gary finally, FINALLY got the kitchen done enough to put in our stove and refrigerator. This causes me great joy. We can buy fresh fruit and vegetables again! In fact, yesterday I ordered from Bountiful Baskets for the first time in months. I can cook Easter dinner Sunday!!! We can have people over for dinner. I owe brownies to a kid in our ward, I can pay that debt. I can make bread and rolls again. I am excited to get in and clean it and add some splashes of color. Because right now it is various shades of beige, which is Gary`s favorite color. And that is okay but it needs some oomph.

 It is also warm-ish today. For us here in SE Idaho that means the tempertures are in the low 40`s, that is swimsuit season right there! My go-to spring/summer wardrobe is a t-shirt and capris. Unfortunately last summer my capris wore out. Which is ok because they were 6 years old. Think I got my money`s worth there! Thanks WalMart. So far I have not been able to find any replacements. So I am on the hunt for them. It is too early to plant flowers or gardens but I can certainly dream about what Gary will do with our yard this summer. And watch for the tulips to come up. And open all the windows, not just the one by my bed. I am grateful that spring is beginning to appear....in my life and in my town!!

Just another winter day.

  Somewhere in my neighborhood I think there might be a terrible crime happening. Why do I think that you ask? Because I hear dogs madly barking and screams. As I listen more I think the screams are simply children at play and the dogs are just......dogs at play? They are good sounds! The sounds of warmer weather. Which is funny because we woke up to gray skies and snow flying. And now the skies are blue and the sun is shining. I think our weather is as emotionally scattered as I feel somedays. I feel sometimes like I am in the middle of winter. When it is cold and overcast day after day. Then there are times when I feel like there is a hint of spring in the air, the breeze doesn't cut and whip, it lifts my hair and gently whispers. Just like our weather, I can feel all of this in one day, one afternoon. And I want to feel the spring all of the time.
 

 

Good is all around...

 There are so many good people in the world. Here are just a few in my life:

• Steve Huber, we have known the Hubers for about twenty years. He is one of Gary's counselors in the bishopric. And he has spent the past two evenings at our house helping Gary find the way out of our remodeling nightmare. Not only is he helping Gary remodel, he is helping Gary not stress about the remodeling.
• Chris Erickson, she is our Young Women's president. I am her advisor. She is a BUSY woman and went to Utah this afternoon to be with her family in Utah. They left AFTER she brought my family a pot of homemade delicious soup. 
• Cathy Hathaway, she is my friend of many years. We have enjoyed girls camps, band and choir chaperoning trips, musicals and much more together. Today I subbed for the teacher she is an aide for. She is funny and kind and honest and smart. Oh yeah, and a skilled emergency medical person.
• Our neighbor's daughters. Tonight they came and invited Natalie over to their house. That NEVER happens. I am so glad they moved into the neighborhood.
• Matt Bennett, our awesome band teacher. He teaches JUNIOR HIGH people to play instruments. Seriously folks, that takes a real love of music to do. And he helps them sound great!
• The very patient woman at Sherwin Williams in Rexburg. I don't know her name, but she has answered all of Gary's bazillion and three questions. And never made him feel stupid or showed any annoyance. Better than what I do, that's for dang sure.
• Travis Angell, he teaches sixth grade science. My Brigham absolutely loves him. As I have mentioned that to people they have said their boys feel the same way. How awesome is that? To be able to not only teach sixth grade boys, but have them admire and look up to him too?
• Connie Thorkelson and Bergen Cook, they left me comments. 

          There are so many good people all around. I am going to work harder at being one of those people.

Band!

 I am going to admit something kind of embarrassing. When my oldest five children were growing up I wanted them to be popular. To have lots of friends, be involved in everything, basically be popular. And that probably isn't a terrible thing really. But I spent a lot of time worrying about it. Now, with my last two I am different. If they have only one friend, fine! They don't want to be in student council, fine! They don't get invited everywhere, fine! And so on.


  And that is where band has come in. Both Natalie and Brigham LOVE band. Natalie especially. She actually seems to have a group of friends in band and is happy. Today I chaperoned the high school band and her junior high honors band. Brigham was with the rest of the junior high bands. It was just awesome. There were NO behavior or discipline problems. Everyone got along. At dinner I got to eat with a big group of 7-8th grade boys. What delightful company, and so willing to eat my leftovers. And the music was outstanding. I am so grateful for music and specifically our band program. I sub regularly in the bands and I have to say, I could never do it. That Mr. Bennett can take those young students from nothing to what I heard tonight is nothing short of miraculous! There were times today that I stopped reading because the music was too beautiful not give my full attention. I LOVE BAND!! And the place it gives my kids.  

Randomness

   So there is a new Pope. As of yet his name has not been announced. It has been fascinating to watch the process---the conclave---of electing a new pope. It is different in my church, the LDS church, we know who will be the prophet. We believe Heavenly Father revealed how the leadership is passed along. There is no speculation. But I do believe the Heavenly Father is concerned about who will be pope. The cardinals who elect the pope pray to be influenced by the Holy Ghost, and you know what? I believe they are. This morning I was watching a talk show with 5 panelists. Two of the women claimed the churches in America are empty, that religion just isn't important. One of the women hopes this new pope will be more in touch with modern life and make the changes that she feels are a long time in coming. And I wondered....when did we, the general population, decide that WE told God what needs to be done? Or changed? That we dictate the commandments according to what society believes is right or acceptable? I am grateful for the guidance my prophet gives, that my church gives. That being said I also hope I can be loving and tolerant and respectful of those who don't share my beliefs.

   On a different note, we are remodeling our kitchen. It has been one disaster and stumbling block after another. I am finding it hard to live in a state of chaos. Our family is short tempered with each other. And I know this is a total ridiculous petty challenge. But at the same time, I look forward to it being done.


  My baby is twelve. We celebrated another last together. The last of our children in primary. Now on Tuesdays we all go to mutual. Except Gary, he tries to put together our kitchen. After 23 years of primary, we are graduated!

  And finally, Emily is participating in Junior Miss, or Distinguished Young Woman as it is now called. I just love this program. I don't in any way think or expect her to win. We have been involved enough to know that you just can't go into it thinking you will win. But I do believe that if she works hard, puts her whole effort into it, well, she already is a winner! I truly believe that. It is fun to see your daughter prepare her talent, get a beautiful dress, work on interview skills and draw close to the girls in her grade. The only sad thing is I don't get to help this year. And I am afraid I will not get to help again. And that will be hard because it is one of my favorite things to do!

  Well, just felt like I should drop in and leave some random thoughts!

Another missionary son!

  Nathan got his call a few weeks ago. He is going to the Asuncion, Paraguay misssion. He reports to the Argentina MTC on Thursday, May 23. It is a bit strange to know he is going to travel there by himself and just be dropped into a foreign country and language. Not that he parachutes in or anything ; ) I am not entirely sure how the logistics will all happen. And I must admit this call is taking a wee bit more faith on my part. New Zealand and Alabama seemed a bit easier to send my child to. Or maybe I am just older and more......something, not exactly sure what I am. But it will be good to have another missionary out. To look forward to the weekly letters, I think we are more united as a family when we read those weekly letters. And it is always good to step out of my comfort zone. And have more faith. Right? Nathan will make an awesome missionary, just as the thousands who leave each year are awesome missionaries.


   Yesterday was our ward conference. It was good. Our stake president gave a great talk about being anchored and doing good things. But I am afraid all I hear is how much I fall short. For about three years I have struggled and carried some burdens, just stuff, but yesterday brought it up. I really feel like I have failed in my most important job. Being a mother. That somewhere I just didn`t teach or do enough. That feeling is always with me, every waking minute. Yesterday was rough, but I am grateful for being taught and reminded to try harder, reach farther. It hasn`t been very long since I stopped crying through sacrament meeting every Sunday, I am thinking those days may be back. And don`t think anyone is unkind, I just struggle.



  On a happier note, kinda. We are remodeling our kitchen. Gary is so amazing and we can do improvements to our house because he does it mostly himself. He is already super busy, but he takes on this huge project and makes our home a better place to be. Well, better when it is finished! In the meantime we live in a construction zone, all of our food and pans and utensils are in the living room. In a state of disorganization. We have eaten a LOT of hot pockets. My goal is to locate the crockpot and utilize it. Should be awesome when it is finished!!!

 

 Ok, I don`t know how to put pictures on my blog. And my blog guru Hannah is living in Utah. So, anyone who can explain the process in simple, VERY SIMPLE terms I would appreciate it. And at the same time remind me how to change the background and stuff? Oh, and I cannot figure out what blogger wants me to do with a new or old account?? So that info would also help. I would offer brownies to anyone who helped, but my kitchen has been demo-ed!! So I will just say thank you in a very heart felt manner.