A WOW day

Today I spent the afternoon with Tamesha at the temple. It felt so great to share her day with her. She was all smiles from ear to ear, and I was in tears. Tears of Joy. Thanks for sharing your day with me Tamesha and letting me and my family be part of your life! I need to commit to spend more time in the temple. WOW!

For those of you who don't know Tamesha, she is a girl that Halley introduced to the gospel. She is one sweet girl and it is so awesome to watch her grow. She is preparing to go on a mission to Phoenix, AZ. She will be a power house. Go Tamesha!

Reclamation

It feels so weird to only have 3 people at the dinner table. It is really hard to adjust my cooking to fit the bill. I made a pot of Cream of potato-pea soup, and we've been eating it for days! I started out thinking "small, small" but the soup kept growing in size as I would add ingredients! I went shopping last week and I bought too many perishables!!! In my mind I've been wondering how we are going to get them all eaten before they go bad! It's a good problem to have vs. the opposite of not having enough to eat. Heavenly Father, I'm thankful for our bounty!

Over the years, we allowed the boys to have the "master" bedroom. For some reason, the household just worked better to relinquish it to them. My youngest child has had it to himself for a year now. The smallest child, the largest room, complete with his own bathroom!

We are reclaiming the master bedroom!!! Over the weekend we moved McKay out, and over this week we'll get us moved back into it. The master bedroom is actually smaller than what we are in now, but the room we are in now is like the "nerve" center of the house. You have to go through it to get to the laundry room. The computer is there. The exercise equipment is there. A TV is there. The thing I'm looking forward to most is a lock on the door! Yes! we have not had a lock in years!!! I've actually been taking a nap and had my boys come traipsing into the room with a friend or two to use the computer ARGHHH!

I'm hoping to take only the bed and clothes upstairs with us and leave the "nerve" center behind and establish a place of peace and tranquility . . . . . . Hope is the main word of the last sentence! I keep thinking that after McKay moves out, I'll knock down a wall and make a walk-in closet of his room . . . . more wishful thinking! (the challenge then will be figuring out how to cook and shop for two!)

Birds of a Feather

It is eminent . . . . . my nest is becoming smaller bright and early tomorrow morning. One of my birds is flying from the nest. We've pushed . . . . . we've prodded . . . . . and he's flying . . . . . . flying clear across the country in a Jet plane where he will do his best to fly on his own. Another of my birds (the oldest) is also flying the nest. He hasn't been in my particular nest this past year but he has been nearby. He is following his brother bird on November 2.

I hope my worry button will go on the fritz for a while. I need a break! I hope my birds will learn to soar. It will be easier to imagine them soaring when they aren't within my peripheral vision.

Soar birds. . . . . . Soar!!!!!

I'm glad I still have one more bird . . . . . the nest is not QUITE empty yet!

Stay on the Sunny Side of Life

Ever since we got back from our trip to Salt Lake I've had a hard time staying on the sunny side of life. We started the week out by kicking our 19-year old out of the house. We had just had enough of his rule breaking. Not just small rules, big rules! What a fun time! (sarcasm). It's been a week and he's spent time at several different friend's houses, and maybe he will even spend some nights in his car before he gets things figured out. He's sold all his stuff (big screen tv, Xbox, etc), and I bought him a one-way ticket to Utah. What he does with it is his choice. New friends, his choice. Job, his choice. Homelessness, his choice. For the first time ever I'm considering going to counseling . . . . . I've started a journal that I hope no one EVER finds. Second guessing myself has been the theme of almost every day.

A couple of months ago, I read a book that I enjoyed. In one of the sections it talks about all the things we (as women) do to give ourselves the blues. Here is one of these things I think I should receive a master's degree in:

~Take everything personally. Endeavor to make everything that goes wrong your fault. This takes some skill, but with practice you can do it. I know you can!

It is amazing what lengths I'll go to to make everything my fault . . . . if only I hadn't done "X, Y and Z" then "P, Q and L" wouldn't have happened . . . . . Do any of you do this awful thing to yourself?

Now the question is, shall I push the publish button????? or keep my blog perfectly beautiful . . . . hmmmmmmm . . . . . .

Would any of you who are local have use of a bunk bed??? It is metal (red) with a double bed on bottom, single on top? We are going to do some switching around and won't be needing it anymore . . . . it'll be available as soon as a certain plane takes off for Utah. It's in good shape . . . .

Sunday, Sunday

Yesterday I was so excited to give my Sunday School lesson to my group of 4, 15-16 year old boys. The lesson's title, was "The Desert shall Rejoice and Blossom as a Rose," speaking of a revelation about the Salt Lake Valley. After just having visited Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Temple grounds I felt extra excitement about telling the young men about the discovery of, the establishing of, the settling of, the sacrifices pertaining to, and etc. etc. I really enjoy teaching Sunday School. One of the boys is so smart (and has great recall of what he's learned before) that he can embellish what I teach, and more power to him . . . . . he is usually right on the money. Wish I had a brain like his!!! Salt Lake has truly blossomed since the days of '47. I couldn't believe how much it had changed in just the few years we've been away!

Salt Lake - Take Four

I have to feed you these posts in bits and pieces . . . . it's good for me, and hopefully good for you! McKay was enthralled with Salt Lake. One night while driving he excitedly stated "I can see three temples right now, all at once!" We told him he was seeing the Draper, Oquirhh, and Jordan River temples. Really, what a cool thing we all take for granted.

There are very few trees in the Salt Lake Valley and you can see the whole valley from certain vantage points. He asked how many cities could he see from that spot . . . . oh my! Salt Lake, West Valley City, Taylorsville, Bennion, Kearns, Sugarhouse, Sandy, Kearns, North SL, Riverton, West Jordan, and the list could go on. McKay was being very observative.

Another thing he stated all of the sudden was "We just passed like 3 churches in under a minute." I told him that the house we used to live in had 5 LDS chapels within a mile radius of the house. SL is definitely a different place!! So with all this interest about church stuff, we had to take him to temple square . . . . .

This is Lincoln's and my temple, the temple we were sealed in 25 years ago . . . . .


McKay also noted that "The prophet will be here tomorrow." (It was the day before conference that we visited the conference center.)


The East Doors.

Several years ago you couldn't just walk up to the temple and touch it. It was walled in. The only way you could get in to the temple grounds was to be there for a wedding or other event. The temple grounds have such a sacred feel to them. It is awesome to just be able to go up and touch it!!

Salt Lake - Take Three

One of the things I had on my agenda was to renew some old acquaintances. In the middle, in the above picture is my cyber-friend and real-life relative Stephanie. (she is married to my cousin) She is the person who got me started on my blogging journey almost 4 years ago. My mom sent me a link of her blog and I thought, "I can do that!" We really would have never known each other except for blogging. My blogging has had a ripple effect, and many of my family and friends do it now. It has been really GREAT!

I saw on Stephanie's blog, that she and my cousin Syrie, had gone out to eat sushi. I left a comment saying that I'd like to go to eat sushi with them when I was in town, and after quite a bit of facebook messaging, texting and schedule swapping we finally made it happen. Syrie and I used to see a lot of each other when I babysat her firstborn for her 15-16 years ago.

I LOVED going out to eat with you two and hopefully can do it again. THANKS STEPHANIE AND SYRIE!!!

Salt Lake - Take Two

In the picture . . . Ryan, Halley, Tina, Lincoln, Norman (Lincoln's brother), Claudette (Lincoln's mother), and McKay.

The first activity we conquered while in Salt Lake was to hike to Timpanogas caves. The hike is 1 1/2 miles which doesn't sound bad, but coupled with the fact that the trail raises 1,100 feet in elevation in that 1 1/2 miles . . . . . well, the hike is quite an accomplishment. Those of us (mostly me) who had come from an elevation of sea level had a tough time climbing this trail. Lincoln's mother, who is 71, finished the hike 30 minutes faster than I. My legs stayed stiff and sore the whole week.

One of the many resting spots along the trail . . . .

It's nice to give the camera to someone else for a while . . . . then you can be surprised by shots like this!!!

Ryan and Halley.

I was expecting to see more "color" in the canyon. I guess it hasn't been cool enough yet. While we were in Salt Lake the temperatures dropped from being in the 80's to being in the 40's. We picked a good day to hike, because later in the week there was snow in the mountains. I'm glad I brought my coat!!

Salt Lake Trip - Take One

The main (and only) reason we took a trip to Utah was to see Halley in her Opera "Ruddigore." I took these videos on my regular "point and shoot" camera and so the sound isn't as great as it could be. I picked three videos to share with you if you are interested. (the middle one is actually my favorite)

The opera starts out with everyone wanting Rose to get married. Rose likes someone and she thinks he likes her, but she doesn't want to be the first one to make a move. She is explaining this to her aunt . . . . .



In this video, Rose is singing with Robin, the guy she likes. She says she has a "friend" with a problem. He also has a "friend" with a problem and they are telling each other what their "friend" should do about their problem.



In this scene Robin's foster brother Dick is supposedly trying to get Rose to love Robin, but ends up falling for her himself. In this play, Rose has many suitors, and the plot twists and turns until she finally ends up with her first suitor, Robin.

Mommy bragging . . . .

Man! I wish I would have brought my camera cord along with me so I could upload some pictures of Halley's performances . . . . I'll do it later, but the waiting is hard sometimes. I have to say that if I could choose any activity, an opera would be the last thing on my want-to-do list. Believe me, when you have a daughter singing as the lead soprano in one, your priorities soon change! I've been to 3 performances this week alone! Halley (in my opinion) was fantastic! Her voice has improved so much these past four years. She makes me proud, or should I say "she makes me well pleased"? ;)

It has been fun to see all the people that came out to support her also. Her cousins, her extended cousins, relatives from her husbands side of the family, people from our old ward here in Utah, old friends, and even a returned missionary that served in Maryland . . . I'll get the spelling of his name wrong . . . any of you Marylanders remember a Elder Steinblik? He's a piano major at the U of U. Fun times!

As a side-note: If you ever DO see an opera, a Gilbert and Sullivan is the way to go. The one Halley's group did was Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore. It is lesser known, but was very light and hilarious. Quite fun to watch . . . . .