Through A Mother's Eyes

Hair and Wreath and a Little Rambling

2012-01-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

I have my computer back! I am so excited - I did not realize how much I have come to depend upon this thing. My calling, bill paying, communicating with people, every thing seems to be connected to this machine. I wanted to catch up on a couple of things that I had done clear back in December. My intentions were to get it all blogged and posted before the new year. I have been working very hard putting my new word into "action". The word is "purpose" and with that I have been cleaning something out almost everyday! Good for me - lots of stuff has been discarded and things I LOVE are now in their proper place. Well, lets say things are beginning to be where I want them. But I wanted to share this hairdo I did on Taylor. Knotting hair has become one of my favorite things to do with the girls long hair. It reminds me of making "pin curls". My mom used to do that to my hair all the time when I was little to make it curly. Taylor has such beautiful hair and it is so fun to play with. I remember in the movie "letters to Juliet" a line - "One of the greatest pleasures in life is to have ones hair combed". I hope the girls remember all the hours of getting their hair combed. There is something therapeutic for me in doing it. I love the connection I get with my girls as I do their hair. Now I do have to say my older girls have reminded me how I would say all the time - "use the muscles in your neck" - and how I "pulled" on their hair. Their memories are probably not as fond as mine - "You have to suffer to be beautiful" a line I quoted from my mother to them. Anyway, I always wanted to do hair when I was little - but then I found out how much you have to know besides just cutting and styling and I was not willing to put the time in to learn. So I just play around with their hair and most of the time it turns out pretty cute!

Now on to an entirely different topic - my Christmas wreath. I had a lot of vintage ornaments that I did not use on my tree anymore. I saw on pinterest how "easy" it was to make this wreath. So I gave it a try. Really it was not too hard but I had to be careful as I was using glass ornaments not plastic like I think they used on the tutorial I watched. It took me a while to finish (I was short about five ornaments and had to go "thrifting" to find some) But in the end I love it! It looked so pretty hanging from my mirror.

I did not really take very many pictures of our house this year. It seemed to take me forever to decorate and even then I did not do things the way I usually do. I don't know why it just seemed a little overwhelming at the time.

It has been a wonderful month so far as I have been decluttering and cleaning out. It is one of the most rewarding things I have done in a long time. David just finished up a closet that I have wanted to turn into a pantry. He did a fabulous job and now that is full with food storage that needed to come in from the garage. Of course, that spurred on more organizing and cleaning out of videos and movies. Wow, that was a big job. Thirty years of movie collecting sure adds up. It surprised me how much we still had on VHS. I think to date I have taken five boxes to the goodwill and about five garbage bags full of stuff. It is amazing how much stuff you can stuff into closets and nooks and crannies of your house. My mind set is - What purpose does this serve me, the family, or my callings?. With that in mind it has been so easy to finally let go of things that really should have been gone long ago.

This is kind of a rambling blog post but it feels so good to be writing again. I am off now to take Autumn to meet up with Ashleigh and have a little girl time with my oldest and youngest!

12x12x12

2012-01-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

So, my computer has a virus. I tried to blog yesterday and I couldn't sign into anything. It was so frustrating. I had some great things to blog about and some pictures to share. I will get to it when it gets fixed but for now I want to share a project my sister and I are doing. It is not a new idea but we wanted to do it in 2012. We are calling the 12x12x12 project. On the 12th day of the month we are going to take 12 pictures and the the following week scrapbook them. The thing that we have added to this is that there will be a challenge for each month. Plus we assigned each month a color. The two- page layout has to incorporate the color and the challenge. The challenge could have to do with what we take pictures of or how we scrapbook it. Then we are emailing picture of our layouts to each other. We do not live in the same state so this way we have accountability. She is such a fabulous scrapbooker and has won many contests and been published. I have never entered anything but feel like I can keep up with her ;) Thursday is picture taking day. I am going to blog what I take pictures of and about the challenge each month. I will wait to do that this time until my computer is fixed. So hopefully by Friday I will have things up here for other family to follow along. I have to say that it is great having a sister! She constantly keeps me motivated. So do my other sisters and brothers for that matter. I have an awesome family! I love you all.

Purpose

2012-01-05T12:36:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it is the 5th day of January already. I have been working everyday since New Year's putting things away from the holidays. It has been a slow process because I am cleaning out as I go. I decided that this year is going to be my year for organization and de-cluttering. I began this process while putting away the Christmas decorations. I have accumulated so many holiday things over that past 32 years and so much of it I don't use anymore. I was tired of repacking everything just to set aside. I know some of you would not let this go on but it really has only just been a couple of years that things seem to be overflowing. I organized the decorations by theme and even had a box for all the homemade things the children have made over the years. I don't think I can ever let those things go. It feels so good to know that what is up in the rafters for next year is what I absolutely love! It will be fun unpacking it to decorate next year. Along with this goal of organization I thought long and hard about my word for the year. Last year I worked all year long on my word and was able to apply it in lots of areas of my life. I wanted this word to mean more than "unclutter". I do a twelve month journal with my word and also wanted it to be a word that I could continue to work on after I got "organized". So this year I came up with "purpose". It really fits. I have so much filling my life right now. I want everything I do and everything I surround myself with to have purpose. That does not necessarily mean functional. I want to love the things around me. Some of the things I collect don't function per say but they make me smile. Memories of an event or time in my life will fill my mind and that gives that object purpose for me. As far as organizing goes not only have I accumulated tons of Christmas decorations but all over the house things are tucked away because I might "someday" need to use it. I am realizing that if I have not looked at it for the past seven years (as long as I have been in our new house) I just don't need it taking up space. I am going to focus on an area of the house each month. The ultimate big goal is to get my garage cleaned out and organized. It is some what of a daunting task if I think too much about it. That is why I am being realistic about things and also biting off chucks at a time and not the whole thing in one weekend. With what little I have already done I feel lighter, more focused, and a bit more organized. Clearing the clutter will allow me to use my time to better myself and those whom I love. I will be a better mother, wife, sister, aunt, and grandmother. Yes, this is going to be a great year - a year with "purpose"!

Twelve Days of Christmas 2012

2011-12-25T19:46:00.001-08:00

So I have been waiting for a long time to share our twelve days. It was a lot of fun this year coming up with ideas to make and give to the children. Please forgive the pictures I am a terrible photographer and it was hard to get good angles on some of the things we did.

This is the letter that we wrote to start the whole season off. It was so fun delivering the tubs together and talking about what each of our favorite gift was to make or give this year.

Day One:
To start off we gave them an advent calendar with things to read each day and put together a picture of a nativity. I did not get a picture of that as David was really efficient in getting it wrapped early. He helped a lot more this year with the wrapping and has decided that that job can now officially be mine from now on:)

Day Two:
I made snicker doodles and peanut butter snicker cookies. These are some of Seth's favorite cookies and so I had him in mind when I made them. All the children called that day and loved them! They said they were some of the best cookies ever. I do have to say my children grew up on chocolate chip cookies - I never ventured out very much in the cookie making - so I think they were surprised that I actually made something other than chocolate chip!

Day Three:
I had Chelsea in mind when I made these perpetual birthday calendars. She is always calling me and asking dates for birthdays. It turns out that all the kids loved this one as well. Since I have already made this for myself last year David and I bought the whole series of Harry Potter movies. We only had a couple - so when the children opened these at our house they were so happy. We spent last Thursday having a Harry Potter movie marathon. We started at 8:00 in the morning and finished to halfway through no. 7 at 12:45 that night. We finished no.7 and no.8 the following morning. I know it might sound like a waist of a whole day - but it was truly one of the funnest times we've had in a long time. No on got dressed - pj day - we ate popcorn, made cupcakes and ate our food all without missing any parts of the movies. The only thing that would have made it perfect was if David could have had the whole day off to be with us. As it was he didn't get home that night until 10:00 - its hard this time of year being a UPS man!

Day Four:
Socks!!!!!! That is a lot of pairs of socks when you are counting 17 pairs of feet!

Day Five:
Popcorn and a game boxes. I filled a pencil box with a deck of cards, dice, scorecards, pencils and directions to about ten card and dice games. At our house at least, we can never find the dice or a full deck of cards. The plan is to have it stay in this box and it also is easy to travel with when we go on family trips. The popcorn is just plain fun to have for any kind of fun - games, movies, etc.

Day Six:
These ornaments turned out so cute. I saw them on pinterest and had Toshia make me up the names and initials (of course I could not tell her why I wanted them and I am sure she was curious). I found the ribbon at Costco and the ornaments at Michael's. I used a whole punch for the circles from the scraps of vinyl.

Day Seven:
We usually do a puzzle over Christmas break. So we thought why not get everyone a puzzle and who doesn't love to do a puzzle?(Noah - he had me work on most of his and then when there were about 10 pieces left he stepped in and finished and took all the credit - gotta love the kid!)

Day Eight:
Aprons. Not just any kind of apron but Christmas aprons. The boys got "Santa" one and I made the cutest ruffle ones for all the girls. The picture does not do the girl one justice - it really is cute. For Jonathan I did his foot and hand prints and made a reindeer on the front of his and Reagan got the cutest little ruffly thing I could come up with. Along with the apron you have to have something to cook so I put together a cupcake kit. I know we had fun at our house making the cupcakes!

Day Seven:
Again, David wrapped this gift before I could get a picture. It was a childhood story from David and I made journals for the kids. David is always sharing his adventurous childhood with the kids and so he put together a story of the time his brother and him went to see the total eclipse of the sun. I guess this does not happen that often and it was great adventure for them. The kids got colored pens to doodle and write in their weekly journals.

Day Ten:
David worked for a few months on this one. He put together a history of how the Weitzel's came to America. He starts his story clear back to Catherine the Great of Russia. His ancestors came from Prussia. He did a lot of research and put together quite an amazing little book with pictures and maps and the Weitzel genealogy. He had a lot of fun putting this together and even the little kids thought it was so cool!

Day Eleven:
PJ's - Funny side story. I really messed up on this one. When you are buying for 17 you are bound to make a few errors. I mixed up a couple of the sizes and even ended up buying too many pairs---can I just say that black Friday was crazy this year and I am lucky to have gotten it as together as I did! I just gave away that I did not make the PJ's this year - honestly I got such a good deal at black Friday that it was worth it to me this time.

Day twelve:
Again, I do not have a picture but I could not really take a picture of this one. Every year we have a family reunion with our children. We started this about a year after Ashleigh moved out. I wanted to have a tradition of reunions in the summer. So we set aside a weekend every summer for our reunions. This year we wanted to do something extra special. So we gifted the children (all of us boyfriends included) a paid trip on Jerry's Jet Boats to cruise up the Rogue River for the day. We will also try to go to the Wild Animal Park in Winston. Everyone is so excited for this trip. David and I did it last summer for our anniversary and really all we could think about where we were on the river is how much fun this would be if the kids were with us. So I guess you could say that day twelve is the gift that we will have to wait for but in the end it will so be worth the wait!!!!

Today when we got together for Christmas Day we had waiting for the kids one last gift. Santa apparently made a visit to our house and left goodies for everyone. This truly was one of the best years for us. We have been so blessed with all we have and for the children that are in our lives. Everything went to smoothly and David made it through another year of deliveries. {by the way, he had 18 hours of overtime last week - Santa really needed his help in getting all those packages delivered}. We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and that 2012 is a year of great joy and love!!!!

Picking a tree in record time!

2011-12-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

When we went to get our tree this year we were surprised at how wonderful the weather was. It was cold. But no snow or rain and that made for a very pleasant experience. Last year we had to wait until some football game was over before David would budge to get the tree. It was dark, rainy and very cold - our usual place was closed and so we drove around looking for a place to cut one down. We finally found it but the kids were cranky and not happy about the whole adventure. This year we got out the car at our favorite spot walked about 20 feet in front of the car and there was our tree. We did not want a big one this year and it had to be kind of skinny. I have never found a tree that fast before. The kids headed over to the hot chocolate wagon and David loaded the tree onto the car. I think it was the best experience we have had ever! The kids were perfect angels and we got home in record time. Of course, there was some silly football game on again and I think that is why the boys were so happy to be done so quickly. I on the other hand had lots of things still to do and checking "Christmas Tree" off my list made me very happy!

Catching up again

2011-12-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

So I figured out how to post from my iPad. To begin, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving week . We had so much fun with my mom and Papa John.
It was a very busy week with Thanksgiving dinner, Autumn's birthday and baptism,
and Ashleigh's engagement party.
It was so fun to spend so much time together as a family. And it didn't hurt there was so much good food!

The last couple of weeks have been very busy with getting the twelve days of Christmas done for the kids, decorating, parties with friends and families, and baking. I still managed to teach seminary and piano lessons. But alas, I am not invincible - I got real sick for a couple of days last week. I did try to push through it though wand did manage to get one day of rest. Now a few of the kids are sick-I think we got it from Jonathan but who knows maybe he got sick from us.

This next week I have planned to spend every day having fun with the kids. Our calendar has a few items on it but for the most part we are having good old fashioned family time! I have a Harry Potter movie marathon planned - game and puzzle days - baking with the girls - and celebrating Noah's birthday! I can hardly wait-now if we can just get all healthy that would be a bonus!

I hope you all have a wonderful week of Christmas!

A couple of craft projects I can share

2011-11-18T15:45:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I finished our family calendar. I saw this on pinterest but it was smaller and turned the other direction. I wanted my bigger - more kids - more activities to write down - so got my frames (8x10) from IKEA ($1.99) put vinyl on the cute paper and then hung on the wall. Super easy and cheap to make. Put down my hallway so as the kids leave the house they will always know where we are supposed to be.

Today I finished my "give thanks" banner. I was on got the idea for the banner from "little birdie secrets". I printed the letters off and sewed them to burlap and then sewed that to bias tape. I made my wreath Monday. It is my version of all the burlap wreaths I have been looking at. It has elements from several different ones. Burlap, flowers and raffia.I know the picture is not that good. Someday I will work on my picture taking skills.

Still working on Christmas projects and cleaned my house today because my mom is coming Monday and we are leaving for the coast tonight for the weekend. We might get a little snow - Next week is going to be one busy one with all the happenings going on. I am sure it will fly by though and when we are through I will be able to look back and smile at all the memories we have created.

What's keeping me busy....

2011-11-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

I have been very busy working on our "twelve days of Christmas" project. I have spent way too much time looking at pinterest for ideas (by the way I love pinterest!) I have finally come up with my final twelve ideas and I am sticking to it! For the last week I have changed my mind several times and each time I discuss it with David he keeps telling me "Well, I know what I'm doing - and it's been done now for a month". I think he likes to rub in that he is obsessively organized. I like to think that I am organized in the very loose use of the word. My chaos is how I get things done around here - plus I am OK if plans have to change - I roll with it and sometimes to much organization can get in the way of living. Just my opinion and I am sure a whole other topic for a blog post. But really I am excited this year for what is cooking around here - I can hardly wait to share with all of my family but you will have to wait until the week after Christmas - I don't want to give away any surprises.

In preparation for all the upcoming events in the next couple of weeks I have also been getting my house ready for company, the holidays, birthdays, and Ashleigh's engagement party. I have been canning like crazy and this month made my month of cooking stuff with Toshia to make things easier for all the other things coming up. Yesterday I had the carpets cleaned. It has been a while and they really needed it. I am so pleased with the results. Mr. Jimmy worked late into the evening to finish - he also started later in the day which of course through off my schedule but again you just have to roll with it. I have lots to do but I am loving how busy I am right now. I know it is weird but when things are hopping around here I have less time to dwell on the hard things in life. I find joy in all the activity. Sounds weird I know but again I operate better when there are lots of deadlines and things in the works. Of course, I am always glad when the big events are over and I can rest a while - then I do things for just me - so I have fun things to look forward to and that's how I get through it all.

It is not easy being the mom of eleven children and wife to one very hard working husband but I find joy in the journey of it all!

Thankful for...

2011-10-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

I am thankful for trials whenever, however they come, big or small. I love this quote from Elder Paul V. Johnson's April 2011 General Conference talk, "[Trials] are vitally important to the process of putting on the divine nature. If we handle these afflictions properly, they will be consecrated for our gain.

Elder Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. … All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire."

I have been thinking a lot about the trials in my life - as I have been teaching seminary I have been revisiting the teachings of some great men and women in the Old Testament. I have felt again the hand of the Lord in my life as I take on the tasks and hard things of this life. I also see the joy and love from my Heavenly Father as He is there beside me through everything. I hope that how I choose to experience the trials in my life will do as Elder Whitney teaches - build me, purify my heart, expand my soul and make me more charitable and tender.

Hilary Weeks has a new music video called "Beautiful Heartbreak." I love it! There are two women featured throughout the video. Stephanie Nielsen, who survived a plane crash with her husband and was burned over 80% of her body. And Mariama Kallon, who lost all of her family and everything she owned in a civil war raging in West Africa. I have heard Mariama speak twice now. I love her story and her courage and her spirit. One thing that stood out to me was how she uses her scriptures as her personal therapist. I have done that many times in my life. But I am sure there are many more times when I have not turned to Him first - a lesson that she taught me and I have been trying to do over the last two years.

My trials have become "beautiful heartbreaks" in my life. I am who I am because of the hard things I have had to face. Facing the hard things with God on my side has made me stronger and for that I am very grateful!

Some lovin from my little ones

2011-10-22T18:34:00.001-07:00

The other day I decided to stop by Toshia's house after I dropped off the high school kids. It was kind of early but I knew she'd be up because she had to get Adrian out the door to school. It had been a couple of days since I had seen the little ones and I was missing them. When I knocked and then went in I was greeted by two of the happiest little faces you could imagine. They loved on me and were fighting over who got to be held. I just loved it! I was having a not so good morning and I knew if I could just get a hug from these little ones my day would go a lot smoother. I ended up having a fabulous day and I know it is because I got some sugar from these little smiling faces!!!!

This weeks little craft project

2011-10-14T06:35:00.001-07:00

These are not the best pictures but I think you can tell what I did. I have lots of music - I am talking more music than ever gets played. But being a piano teacher I have to have access to it for my students. I have half of it stored in a dresser and that keeps it out of sight. This music was always just piled on the shelf and kind of cluttered looking. I have been trying to clean up the little piles of clutter around the house. I saw magazine holders like these done on a blog. The difference is the way I put the tags on. They used metal tag holder thingys that you can get at a scrapbook store. I didn't have enough and wanted this project to be cheap. So I thought about it for a while and came up with putting music paper on a clothes pin and then a burlap and lace flower on that. I used my typewriter to type up the tags and there you go. It looks so nice on the shelf and cost about $6.00 for ten of them.

Basically I got magazine holders from IKEA (5 for $1.99) and covered them in burlap. I used spray glue. I have not used this product before but Toshia uses it all the time and it worked pretty good - just a little messy on my hands. Next time I would wear gloves. Then made the clothes pin clips and hot glued them on the spine. Super easy!

Now I am working on the cutest apron for Halloween. We dress up for bunco night and I don't usually dress up but this witches apron was to cute to pass up. Maybe I'll get a picture.....

A Mormon for Christ

2011-10-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday there seemed to be a lot of chatter out on the news and radio about the fact that Mormons were part of a cult and therefore not Christian. This is not new to me. I have heard it over and over again. While listening to the radio yesterday for about 5 minutes Noah heard what was being said and he said to me, "Mom, you know the doctrine, you should call and and set them straight!". His comment has stuck with me all evening and into today. Knowing how long you have to wait to get through on the radio (I've had called in before about other issues) I really did not have the time right then to do that. But I bore my testimony to him about my love for the Savior and that He is the center of everything for me. The comment that was made was that Mormons do not believe that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. That is a very funny statement because "we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins". {2Nephi 25:26} It is these truths that I teach my children. The pages of the Book of Mormon are full of the teachings and love of Christ. It is "another witness". The bible tells that "by two or three witnesses they shall know me". I know that there are many aspects of the church that people outside of the church do not fully understand. But if you want to know the truth - go to the source. Do not believe something you hear from someone outside of the faith. We believe that the church is now restored as it was when Christ was on the earth. That all the saving ordinances have been restored through the priesthood. That Joseph Smith was the one chosen to restore these things. He paid for it with his life. The Lord has living prophets on the earth today to guide us and be on the "watchtower". I did not come to this knowledge by just relying on what I have been taught or what people have told me. I did the work. I read, studied, prayed and received an answer that "I know that my Redeemer Lives" and loves me. I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and I have promised to "stand as a witness at all times, and in all places, and in all things". I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I do not belong to the church of Joseph Smith. He was a modern-day mouth piece for the Lord. I appreciate all that he did but I know that it is only through my Savior Jesus Christ that I can find salvation. I know these things to be true. I hopefully live them so that when you see me you will see the light of Christ in me. I do slip up. I do need to "remember always" and because of my Savior I can repent and keep myself turned towards my covenants.

I don't know if I would have been allowed to say all of that on the radio - but I can say it here - this is who we are - "Mormons" are people of Christ!

October birthdays

2011-10-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

"This month is such a special one it's birthday time again". Nearly half my children are born this month and one of my grandchildren. It always blows me away when I tell the ages of my children at this time of year because almost everyone is "one year older"! Chelsea will be 27 tomorrow - Chloe will be 20 on Thursday - Seth is turning 24 next week and Chad will be 18 the day after Seth - Jonathan will be turning 3 just before Halloween - but the one that is really getting to me is Ashleigh - she is going to turn 30 this year! It did not bother me really until I realized how old that really made me! I have always felt pretty young around all these kids - but reality is that you can not be that young and have a 30 year old.

The good news to go along with her birthday is that she got engaged last weekend! We are very happy for her - she has not set a date yet but I hope it is sooner than later. We are all so excited. We kind of new that Nick was going to ask her - he had the "talk" with David last Friday. So we were all trying hard to keep that secret. So good thing he couldn't wait any longer and asked her the next day instead of waiting for her birthday. She seems so happy and he is a very nice young man. Autumn had something to say about all this - "Finally, my oldest sister is getting married!" She really emphasized the word finally.

A big happy birthday to all my children and grandson - I hope you have an awesome day on "your" day and all your "wishes" come true!

Ten Things I Am Loving Right Now

2011-09-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

I love, love, love my new little bird. In fact, I bought one for my sister for her birthday so now we have matching birds - I think of her every time I look at my little friend!

This scripture is part of my theme for the year in Seminary. "Choose ye this day whom you will serve" - I choose to serve the Lord!

It is beginning to look a little like Fall around here (or as Autumn likes us to say "Autumn") I just love dressing my table!

I have been doing some rearranging of pictures and put together this little grouping just recently. I not only love the pictures but the mason jar I painted to hold my beautiful flowers!

Loving that the kids are all having a great time at school so far! I miss them while they are gone but I am having a lot of fun "playing" while they are away learning all that their little minds can hold!

This little bird flew in one day and landed on my light and I have loved it ever since. Noah has a hard time because it is really a wind chime and I have three different wind chime things hanging around the inside of my house and according to him there is no "wind" in our house - I love him all the more for reminding me of the obvious!

This little gal made an appearance around my birthday this last August. There is a story that goes with her that someday I will write about. But I have to say that Melissa and I now have back in our possessions a part of our past that holds very dear memories to both of us! I love you Missy for knowing the perfect gift to give your "old" sister!

I am so in LOVE with this little butter dish. I have used it for little luncheons I have had with dear friends!

This little antique rocking horse came to me from my mother. I have had a hard time keeping my little grandchildren out of it. It is kind of fragile and I want it out so I turned it into a little bookshelf with some of my favorite books that I have loved reading!

This little find just made my day last week when I found it. I was at the right place at the right time and got it for the right amount of money. In fact, I just could not pass it up. I have another typewriter that I spent a little {lot} more money on (I justify it because that one has a case) and now I consider myself a collector of vintage typewriters!

What are you loving right now?

Forget Me Not

2011-09-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

I was really touched last evening by Pres. Uchtdorf's talk at our General Women's Broadcast. I saw something similar to this on another blog and just had to make my own. I am going to print it up and hang it where I can see it everyday. I am sure that there will be lots of things come from his talk.

I am truly grateful for the words from our apostles and leaders. They lift and inspire and motivate me to want to "rise" a little higher. This year in seminary we are going to talk about having the "Courage To Rise" {CTR} and after last nights meeting I know I can do it!

I was especially touched by comments made by Sister Thompson. The question that she posed to us - When people sift through our possessions after we die - will we be seen as a covenant person? She taught us to "cleave" unto our covenants that we have made with our Heavenly Father and that there is joy and protection that come to us when we keep our covenants. I like that she said "our covenants sustain us in good times and bad times. Joy is tied very closely to our covenant keeping - even when we face tremendous challenges our covenants can fill us with joy. I know that to be true! I have felt the joy that comes when I "cleave" to my covenants.

I can hardly wait until next weekend when we get to be taught more from our prophet and apostles and the other leaders!

Seminary

2011-09-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

This will be the first I am sure of many blog posts about Seminary. I am now teaching the Juniors and Seniors in our area. I have done this calling in the past and taught for nearly nine years. I have missed teaching the youth but I have had some amazing callings in between time. I have grown a lot and I know that everywhere I have served the Lord has blessed me. All that said I want to tell about an experience we had this morning.

Getting youth to do devotionals is about impossible. I have tried many things to help motivate them and inspire them to do more than just stand up and read a scripture mastery. I have to say I have an amazing group of youth to teach at this time. They are so ready to learn and model all that they see. We talked about what I wanted from devotionals this year and then did the devotionals last week to show them. My gal this morning did one of the best devotionals I have ever witness in all my years working with the youth! I truly felt that we had been taught and I could not add any more to what she taught us. The spirit was amazing and I had tears in my eyes as I listen to a very heartfelt experience that she shared with us. First off, she had been in her scriptures the night before. Second, she had prayed for the right thought to come to her to share with us. Nothing was coming to her she explained but she did have a thought that she needed to invite a friend of hers to church. So while she was reading she decided to text him and invite him to church. She said it was weird but that she felt that she needed to explain to him that she had a prompting to share this with him and wanted to know if he would come to church with her on Sunday. After she was done with that she opened her scriptures and the verse that stood out to her had to to with sharing the gospel and when the spirit prompts you act on it! She told us it was not one that was already marked and she knows that she was led to it and was supposed to share with us her experience. Then she went one step further and reminded us that it was fast and testimony meeting this Sunday and could we as a group - especially the ones in our ward - fast for the spirit to be there so the young man she invited would feel it and then as if that was not enough she added I should say pleaded with the youth to please bear their testimonies! WOW! Can I just say I had a hard time starting my lesson - This sweet young lady like the other youth in my class have had experiences with the spirit and are recognizing it! Not only recognizing it but acting on it! I was really the one taught today and have thought about this all morning long.

The feeling we started with stayed with us through our lesson and when we were at the end of time and they still had questions - and I might add very good questions - they did not realize that our time was already over with. I know that not every morning will go like this but I hope that tomorrow as I start class and remind them of what they felt today they will want to "Choose To Rise" as they start their day under the protection that the gospel can bring.

Halloween wreath

2011-09-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

So I came across a tutorial for this cute Halloween wreath the other day and I just had to make it! But I also did not want to make it by myself. The first person I thought of was Heidi to come make it with me. I did call a couple other people but they did not answer their phones. Heidi called me back and so I set a up a date last Friday for her to come over and craft with me. It totally goes with my "trick or treat" banner I made last year. We had such a fun afternoon. Her kids played with my grandkids and we had lunch (thanks Heidi:)). I think it turned out totally cute! Even though Halloween is my least favorite holiday - I think I could learn to like it a little more with cute decorations like these hanging around my house!

Next I think I am going to make one out of vintage Christmas papers. That also would require me to make a new Christmas banner to go along with it as well. I don't always take pictures of the things I make around here but I think I am going to start recording my crafting a little better. I just finished a couple of other projects and have a few more ready to start. I have to start getting ready for Christmas and our twelve days projects. I hope I can find some friends to craft with me - it sure made the project a lot more fun to do!

All things vintage

2011-09-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

I was looking through some old photos today and came across this school class picture of mine. Can you guess who I am? {hint: Do you wonder where my girls get there love for boots? Those "go go" boots were my most prized possession} I have been reading about vintage photographs recently and was surprised that a photo similar to this was considered vintage. That was really shocking to me. I love vintage - kitchen stuff, sewing stuff, furniture stuff - so does this photo show proof that I am vintage? Just wondering.........

Girls camp crafts 2011

2011-09-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

I promised a while back to post the crafts from girls camp. I have been so busy with other things that I finally have time this morning to get it done. The only picture I don't have is of our "BELIEVE" banner. They turned out cute but I was so busy helping the girls that before I knew it they were done and my camera was still in my box. A lot of girls loved their banners and had fun using their own imaginations with the creating of it. They had the basic kit -lunch paper sacks cut for the background, a 4x6 scrapbook paper for each letter and the letters all cut already (I love my cricket!) Then they just went to town embellishing each letter with buttons, flowers, ribbon, stickers, brads, etc. Then we stapled a ribbon across the top of the letters for them to hang it up.

These are the tiles we did using words from the 13th article of faith. These girls must be really loved by me because there were 104 of those vinyl sheets for me to "weed" (pull off all the negative-just leaving the words they rubbed on the tile) Then we used binder clips to hang the tile with a ribbon.

You can't see very well but here are all of our bottle cap necklaces as they were drying. The next day I glued the bales on then they were ready to hand out. The girls were so cute with the glitter. It was fun to see some of them just go to town with the glitter and make it very girly and sparkly. We used animals for the picture to go along with our safari theme.

Here the girls are braiding their fabric for the headbands we made. Those turned out cute and it was fun to watch the girls teach each other how to braid. I was a little amazed at how many girls did not know how to braid. It was good for the girls to help each other and work together.

We made these journals the first day. Each year had their animal for the covers and I thought they turned out really cute. I have to always be careful though with what I think is easy. I thought this craft was super simple and that everyone would be finished really fast. I forgot that working with 85 girls at the same time there will be those that do not listen as closely as they should.

All in all it was great experience and I had an amazing time with the girls and loved watching the creativity that each one of them had.

I know this picture is not that flattering of me but the other ladies are adorable! It was fun working with the women in our stake - they are awesome and they have such sweet spirits. I hope I get to be involved again with girls camp - I always learn so much while I am serving the youth!

What a great week - what a great day!

2011-09-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

Today was such a great day! The first week of school is past now and the kids are settling in with the routine of things. I had a great run with Toshia this morning. (I have been waiting for a long time to run again and it felt wonderful!) I had a great morning at bead class and great conversation and creating with lovely ladies, I made a fabulous pink lemonade pie and turkey pesto sandwiches for the ladies, I remembered to pick the high school kids up and they did not have to wait today (yeah for me!), we had pizza for dinner (the kids favorite), I had game night with the ladies and we had such a great time. All day I kept thinking I should be taking pictures of all of this and all day I did not have my camera with me. I hope the kids had as great a week and day as I had. They seemed pretty happy.

Just a funny side story - Autumn has had a hard time lately with the "no spending the night" rule. She is just not understanding why. So here is a conversation that we had yesterday after school.

Autumn: "Mom, I just don't get it. Why don't we spend the night anywhere again?"

Mom: "Well, remember we talked about how it is better to wake up here with us and have scriptures and prayers in the morning. And that sometimes the kids don't make good choices when they are with other people. And sometimes you could be in a dangerous situation. And we learned at conference that we shouldn't do that?"

Autumn: (thinking for a few minutes) " Mom, no offense but Aundrea and Kelly (our neighbors and who she desperately wants to spend the night at) are way stronger than you and dad. We would be way safer at their house than here if anything dangerous was going to happen. Have you seen Kelly's man boobs? They are so much stronger than our dads! So, I really don't see the problem."

Mom: (laughing silently to myself - if that is even possible) I'll be sure and put Kelly on speed dial if anything happens over here - you're still not spending the night -"

You just gotta love that little one. She is always one step ahead of me. I hope I have the energy to keep up with her as time goes on.

I am happy that I get to have these conversations with her and that the others get to share with me about their days and adventures. I love the times the most when we just talk about stuff like this and their personalities come shining through. I am one happy mother of eleven as I go off to bed tonight!

Beach Vacation

2011-09-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

Look at these guys! What a beautiful day at the beach - in fact, the whole week was so nice. The morning fog would burn off by noon and then it was all afternoon down playing in the sand and water. We had a great baseball game on the sand - we split up into two teams and hit a tennis ball - the kids were quite surprised I could get a hit. I was even more amazed at how far David can still hit a ball into the wind! He made me run a lot - my legs sure felt it the next day. That said Noah, Autumn and I still beat David, Taylor and Hayden.

We found a new place to search for agates. I thought we knew all the little places but we had never gone this way before and boy was it agate heaven. David went back two more times at low tide and came back with just a huge find. These will all get polished up over the winter and into some new projects I have in mind and also added to the already large collection we have. If you look really closely in the background of this picture are sealions. That was the added bonus to this rock finding expedition. We found out the seals hang out here all the time. We are sure going to make our way back to this little hideout!

One of our favorite places to hang out is at the park. I can't believe as I look at this picture that the kids were just babies when we started coming to this place.

The tire swing is always a favorite with these guys. This time they had to wait a little because there were some other littler kids taking a really long time on it. Finally when it was left alone they ran and grabbed it and played for quite a while there.

This is such a cool picture of Adrian just before the sun set. We had a fire going this night on the beach and roasted hot dogs and smores. We stayed until dark - the kids played while the bigger people stayed by the fire. What a great time we had!

Look at these two cuties - not much more needs to be said -

Jonathan was so cute sitting by Chad and waiting for the fire to get to the point where we could roast things. He loved playing with the kids and then back again to wait.

This "staycation" for us was so relaxing and great time spent with the kids. I love that we get to see the coast during all the seasons and enjoy the many faces of the beach and ocean. I love exploring and finding new "hideouts" and visiting old ones. We are so blessed to have each other as we share these experiences. We did travel like usual this summer and it was kind of nice not having the stress of the long car ride somewhere. Now that we are back and getting ready for school to start and all that goes with that I am glad we choose this last week to hang out by the ocean!

Catching up

2011-08-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! Where has the summer gone! I have been so busy the last couple of weeks and had so much I have wanted to blog about but the time was not available for me do to so. I have a few minutes this after noon and want to get all caught up - so here goes!

First off, can I just say I have the most amazing family in the world! (All of us except Chloe who was not there yet) Our family reunion this year was so fun and for the first time for me I was not stressed out at all about any of it. David did the planning of the activities so that left me with the food assignment. That was easy for me since I feed everyone anyway. The only thing that was not quite as I had planned was the foil dinners. But in the end they turned out fabulous - well, at least mine was done and very tasty!

We played on the beach, we took a ferry, we drove on the beach for about 15 miles, we hiked, we explored, we climbed trees, and we ate lots of fun stuff!

This was after our foil dinners and dutch oven dessert Toshia made. Everyone enjoyed just sitting around the fire and hanging out.

I was so happy to see Chloe drive up. She came after work Saturday and I was worried because she had to get herself there all by herself. She was so happy to see all of us!

One of the activities we did was a 5 mile hike. Taylor had to do that as a requirement for girls camp and since she was with us she missed the one the girls in the ward were doing. The boys were not to happy about the idea as they had just got back from their 50 mile hike the week before. They got home and cleaned up and came with Toshia to the reunion. But in the end because it was flat and there were no "cliffs" they agreed to come along. So all of us including the babies hiked the trail down to the beach. We have a special something planned for next year but it's a secret right now - that is if David can keep it!

Girls camp starts tomorrow and I think I am finally ready! I have been working on these craft projects now for a while and I feel good that everything has come together. I am kind of glad that it is late this year because things seem better then they would have been in early June. That said next week when I get home I will post pictures of the projects and the girls having fun making them. The theme this year is the 13th article of faith and "jungle safari" so I had lots of fun coming up with things for them to do. The funnest part of camp this year will be hanging out with Taylor.
I cannot believe how grown up she has become. We have had a special summer this year and it will be fun just spending time with her (and of course, 84 other young girls). We have been reading the Book of Mormon together for her personal progress and it has been an amazing journey for me this time through the book. It has been great to watch her grow her own testimony of the book and of the prophets. We have had some great discussions. Also, I have been teaching her to sew and do some other crafting things. It is so fun to watch her as she enjoys learning these things. So - stay tuned for great pictures after next week!

There are some changes coming in my life - some started a few months ago and it has been hard because they are not changes I was wanting to make and some are fabulous and I am so looking forward to them! I had a conversation yesterday with my good friend Carol and from her words of advice and Bro Garrison's talk today I can see "It will all be fine". The Lord once again answered my prayers through the sound words of good people in my life. I am going to post more about some of these changes later but just wanted to put it out there that I know that the Lord is constantly watching out for me.

One last thing about summer - our garden has been so good this year. We have enjoyed watching everything grow and eating from it. We have had fun canning the fruits and making jam as well. As much as I do not like to cook, I do love to can and bottle my fruits and vegetables and making jam. The season is winding down and in a few weeks school will start and fall is just around the corner. I have big plans for the fall - hope I have the energy to get it all done!

Our tomatoes are still green - I probably won't have as many as I had hoped to make lots of salsa but at least they lived this year! (Last year was so bad for our garden, it was so sad.)

I cannot believe the size of these carrots. When Autumn brought one in to me today for dinner I thought she was joking and got it from somewhere else. These were hidden among our lettuce and I thought that it was something else - shows how much I paid attention when David and the kids planted this year;)

Happy summer,

Definitely not a work day

2011-08-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

This was definitely not what I did today! It was so nice out and the kids are all gone except the two little ones. We read books, went to free lunch, played some games, worked on girls crafts and now we are off to the pool for a fun late afternoon evening swim. I love these lazy days of summer - but tomorrow I might have to get to some work around here - but then again maybe it can wait another day and we can play some more!

Zoo trip

2011-07-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Last week went to the zoo. It was so fun to go with the bigger kids and the little ones. Some of the bigger kids had not been in quite a while - I was surprised - I think Noah had said that he had never seen the new lion exhibit. I guess I tend to forget who does what around here. But can you believe this adorable little face - she is such a cutie! I can't believe this little one will be one this week!

These were by far the scariest animals there! Just kidding - They really had fun and it was great to see everyone getting along so well and actually enjoying each other - it has been hard this summer - I have figured out what has been so hard for me - the no sun factor! So I guess that the children have had just as hard a time with the weather not actually being a full out summery kind of season.

It was fun to have Luke around for a couple of weeks - the kids had lots of fun having all their nephews and niece around! We spent time playing chess and playing at the pool and in the backyard. These guys are so lucky to have their nephews and niece be so close to their own ages - they act like brothers and sisters most of time - I love it!

Here's most of the gang - I guess my camera skills are not so good I cut Jonathan and Noah out a little bit - oh well, Also, who knows where Autumn ran off to! Even though it was not that sunny of a day and we even got a few sprinkles on us it was a great day and memories were made. And really that is all that matters!

A special sharing time today

2011-07-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

Today was an amazing day in primary. I had such fun doing sharing time. We were learning about the temple and being a forever family. As I searched this week for what to do with the topic I had several ideas and had a hard time narrowing it down to the 15 minutes. I really prayed hard last night that what the children needed to know would be taught. I woke up this morning around 4:00 with a song in my head. It is one of our families favorite songs "A never ending chain" - I prayed for a while on how I could incorporate that song into the sharing time. Then it all came together for me in my head. I talked about how I have a large family and they could not all be here with me at church today so I was going to use some of the children for my "pretend" family. Then we talked about some of the ordinances we need to do before we can go to the temple. "Bobbie" was getting baptized so he had to find the picture of a young boy getting baptized - "Sam" was going to be a deacon so he had to find the picture of the boy passing the sacrament - and so forth. I had the children, a mom and dad, and grandma and grandpa. Then I had them link arms as I talked about how the ordinances in the temple linked us together as forever family. Hayden sang the song for me and joined our "pretend" family. Then I taught the primary the song - the most amazing feeling was in junior sharing time. After they learned the first verse (it is short) then I had the whole primary link arms and stand together in a circle and sing to each other. I really felt the spirit testify to me of the truth of this gospel principle! Afterwards as the children were leaving a little girl about baptism age came up to me and said "Sis. Weitzel your daughter has such a pretty voice. You are so lucky to have her in your real forever family. I loved sharing time today it made me feel really good!" I almost started to cry! I told her it was the spirit testifying to her that the things she learned were true and that I was so glad she was there today. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. As I have thought about this all afternoon I know that he wanted that little girl to hear and feel the spirit of the temple. I know that there were others there today that needed to hear the words to that song and the one they learned in singing time "I love to see the temple". I am so lucky to have Hayden in our forever family! I am so lucky to have all my children in our forever family - I am so lucky to have the temple here on earth to bless my life!

Perfect summer day

2011-07-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

What a perfect summer day - swimming at the pool with friends!

Oregon's wild and scenic Rogue River

2011-06-22T20:12:00.001-07:00

David and I just got back from an amazing trip to Gold Beach. David planned it last fall as a surprise for our anniversary. We took the jet boat on the Rogue River. We spent seven hours on the river had so much fun as we toured one of the prettiest rivers in Oregon. We saw all kinds of birds and other wildlife. The only thing we didn't see was a bear - I was kind of grateful but David of course would have been thrilled to see a bear. The weather was perfect! It could not have been a nicer day on the river.

David looks good here - I on the other hand had been splashed and with wet windblown hair decided that I did not care if I took our picture. This is definitely one of my favorite trips we have taken. We ate dinner at a cute restaurant that had the most amazing clam chowder I have ever eaten. I have eaten clam chowder all over along the coast but this was by far the best! We had a fabulous couple of days and a great time together. It is nice to be home though and we did miss the kids - but it definitely was a quiet few days for us!

"Don't worry mom"

2011-06-09T07:51:00.001-07:00

This little girl just keeps me in stitches. I mean I don't know what our family would be like without her. She is always coming up with the most interesting things. Yesterday she came bouncing in the house after school all excited. "Mom, mom I know what I want to do when I get bigger!" "What Autumn do you want to do?" "I want to be one of those people who drive people around - what's that called?" "You mean a taxi cab driver?" "Yeah, one those guys. They make a lot of money! I figure if I take someone on four or five really long trips I will get lots of money. Then I'm going to buy my very own car." "Oh, really" I said. "Then I'm going to college to be a teacher. A teacher would be so fun to be. But don't worry mom, if that doesn't work out I'll still be a veterinarian." {Something she has always said she would do when she got older} "Wow, Autumn you really have thought about this." "Oh, and by the way, you probably will be getting a call from my teacher." {Mom's do not like to hear that statement.} "Why, what did you do?" "Oh mom, I asked Mrs. Lake to be my god mother. Don't worry mom, it's OK if I have two mothers." "Autumn, do you even know what a god mother is?" "No, but I'm sure that Mrs. Lake knows and she"ll know how to do it. She is a teacher after all!" Then this happy little seven year skipped out of the room as happy as can be. She had it all figured out - I wish I was as confident as her and could have that "don't worry" attitude. I love being her mother!

A Day in the Sun-Magic Pockets

2011-06-06T17:32:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was beautiful! The sun was shinning and we had a day of baseball and softball. David was so excited because he finally got to see the everyone play. There were a total of five games that were played. Everyone did really good - well, Hayden struggled a bit but after a talk from dad she came back swinging (literally).

She keeps the back pockets pulled out of her pants. For some reason she thinks this gives her good luck. Having lived the last 31 years around baseball superstition it did not surprise me that she has her own little superstition. She was hit a couple of weeks ago with a pitch and since then has been a little scared up at the plate. She jumps out of the box if the pitch is even close and was not swinging at all. Needless to say she struck out her first three times up to bat. She is a good little player so this was frustrating to her dad. He told her that if she did not start swinging the bat she had to tuck her pockets in. Well, I don't know why that worked but she had a hit every time after that. She got her confidence back until she did not catch a fly ball that was over her head and behind her. She hung her dead down her "dramatic" way and I could tell was wiping away tears. Now this would have been a big deal except these girls were ahead by ten runs and really it was OK. David yelled out to her that if she did not knock it off (the drama) she had to tuck in her pockets. Well, instantly she was all smiles and back down and ready for the next play. I don't know what it is about those pockets but somehow there must be some kind of magic in pockets being turned out!

We ended the day with a barbecue and a movie. It really was a sunny fun day!

What a hard week

2011-05-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

So many things have happened the last 10 days. So many emotions. But out of tragedy - for me has come many blessings. I have seen the hand of the Lord in all that has taken place this last week. So many tender mercies on all of us. Missy and I talked a lot about that on Friday - and only as she can do she whipped out her journal and started recording all the tender mercies we could think of - and there were many. I also noticed that she had written a lot in that journal of hers. She will be so glad that she has as she looks back and has recorded all her day to day dealings with her children and especially those she had with Joey. Again my little sister teaches me.

One of the special moments of the week was on Tuesday when my family and I attended the temple. What peace and comfort we found there. I kept thinking - this is the place we need to be before we have to face the hard day of Joey's funeral. I was reminded of so many things there and learned some new things that brought peace and comfort to my heart. I can only imagine what it did for Missy and Randy. I could feel the arm of the Lord extended out to comfort and love us as we sat. The beautiful prayer that was offered seemed to be directed to our family. He know us - He knew we needed to hear those words that day to carry us through the next. I am so grateful for the peace of the House of the Lord.

As I came home to my family late Friday night I felt so tired and exhausted. I knew I had to try to get back to normal routines and the job of taking care of things here. Saturday I got the billing done and grocery shopping caught up and then spent time just holding and talking to the different children one at a time. I was not always patient as sometimes they were having their little quarrels with one another but inside I wanted them to see that all I wanted was for them to just get along and have some happy time with me. Today as I worshiped and prayed I felt the spirit as I reflected back on all the blessings that have come to my family this last few days. How wonderful the Relief Society is as they not only blessed my sisters family but mine here at home as well. They took over for me and cared and loved my family. What a wonderful organization we belong to!

My heart aches for my sister as she has the job of moving forward with her life. She has been a strength and pillar to everyone around her. I know it is going to take all of us to help her and Randy but they both bless all of us as we watch them live the gospel and hold onto what we hold most dear. Families are forever.

This week I am going to look for ways to show more love and kindness to those around me. I want to speak with a softer voice. I want to smile more. I want to give more hugs. I want to show my children how wonderful and beautiful this world is. I want to live my life so that they see the joy the gospel brings me. This experience has helped me to reflect on how I choose to live. I choose to live being a little better each day!

Joey

2011-05-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to post a lot of different things for the last couple of weeks. My internet was down, I lost for a short while the cord to my camera, I was busy with the hundreds of things I have to do during the day - they were good posts - Autumn sayings, the children's latest accomplishments with school, baseball, softball and track, my feelings about a book I am reading right now, the crafts I've been making - none of this matters right at the moment. It seems so trivial and unimportant as I am now sitting here in California very early in the morning trying to make some sense of what has happened over the last few days.

Tuesday afternoon my mom called just as the kids were getting off the bus from school. I did not get to my cell phone fast enough and then the house phone rang. I answered - my mom crying - "something terrible has happened". Knots start to form in my stomach - "Missy's Joey has killed himself" - the room started spinning - "we are on our way over there right now" - "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh" is all I could get out of my mouth. "I'll call you when I know more." I am trying to hold back the tears as they flow from my eyes and my girls come bouncing in the door. They knew something was up - "girls go upstairs I have to call your dad". Dave answers his phone - I tell him - silence - "you need to get down there". "I know - but how? I'll call you when I know more." I am numb. I call Aundrea -"can't teach piano today could you call Tyler",
she offers to take the girls. "Girls go play across the street for a while." Piano student shows up -
the only one I could not cancel quickly. I numbly teach just gong through the motions not hearing the notes - my head just spinning with thoughts of my sister and her family. Finally that is done and I call Toshia - "whatever it takes mom, you just get down there". I call my mom back because I have heard nothing and mom tells me a little more. I talk with Missy - "I need you, I need you here with me". "I am coming, I'll be there as fast as I can." I walked over to Noah - "what's wrong mom?" "Noah I love you" as I grab him and hold him and fall apart in his arms. "Mom- what's wrong?" I tell him - then he hugs me tight trying not to cry but be strong for me. "We have to find Chad" - Oh, Chad how do I tell him? He is the closest to all of those cousins. We go to the high school Chad has already left to go shopping for prom. He thinks he's in trouble as I catch up to him and get him to come home with me. I tell him - his tears come fast and hard - I can't hold him I am driving. Silence in the car except the sound of our crying. We get home and let Dave know what all we have found out, make the arrangements to fly down here. I talk with the older children. But how do I tell Paige? I don't want this to set her back at all. She has come so far and this is such a hard thing for all of us - how will she cope? "Be strong Paige, this is the time that we live what we believe! Hold on to the knowledge we have been blessed with and know that God knows everything and He is there for us now - cling on to the Hope and Faith that we say we have!" Dave gets home and pulls the whole family together for prayer - what a beautiful and powerful prayer he gives. Some peace in my heart as I hold the little ones - cling to the bigger ones - my children holding me up and filling me with the strength I need for my sister's family.

The next morning very early we get down here. As I walk into the house I just fall into Randy's arms - I feel the strength gone from that big strong man - I know I was to be here. I am amazed at how everyone seems to be coping - I think they are running on auto pilot. We cry, we laugh, we cry some more, then there are moments of silence. How can all this be happening to our family and yet the out pouring of love and hugs and as we all rally around Missy's family. Each one of us bringing what they need for comfort and support. My brothers and sisters gathering everyday loving together as we try to make some sense of a tragic situation. I knew I was loved by my family but this outpouring from one another has shown me how little it matters the distance between us - family is truly where the heart is! We will get through the next few days as hard things are coming and love will pull us together as that will give us the strength we need. As my world comes back into balance in a few weeks the everyday things that I blog about will have a deeper meaning for me - life is so precious and can be gone in an instant and that instant changes forever the lives of those who are left behind.

TOFW

2011-05-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a fabulous Time Out For Women this weekend. The theme for this year was "Choose to Become". The scripture from Mark 9:23 "All things are possible to Him that believeth" goes right along with my word this year - BELIEVE. I listened very carefully to all the presenters and music. I was filled with a sense of joy as I brought the two words - become and believe together in my mind. I have gone through so many hard things the last couple of years. I am facing a new challenge right now that is very discouraging but because I "believe" I know I will "become" to be able to deal with it and move through it.

One thing that I have thought about myself is that I am not that great at anything - I do things and try to do them well but I am not fantastic in fact mostly just average. This weekend I realized that my "average" has brought me a tremendous amount of blessings. My "average" has helped many people and family. It's OK that I am not just fabulously the best at any one thing. I don't mean not to keep trying to improve or be better - that is part of the process of becoming but along the way before I get there I have been blessed by my average every day accomplishments.

I found this little story from the Nov. 1985 conference report today as I was studying. It sums up for me all that I took away from the speakers this weekend.

"Many years ago I heard a story that impressed me. A beautiful little blind girl was sitting on the lap of her father in a crowded compartment in a train. A friend seated nearby said to the father, "Let me give you a little rest," and he reached over and took the little girl on his lap.
A few moments later the father said to her, "Do you know who is holding you?"
"No," the little girl replied, "but you do."
Some might say, "What a perfect trust this child had in her father." Others may say, "What a wonderful example of love." And still others might say, "What an example of faith." To me it indicates a beautiful blending of all of these principles. Affection, respect, and care over the years had placed in this little girl’s heart a peace that surpasseth all understanding. She was at peace because she knew and trusted her father.
Our trust and our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be similar to that of the little blind girl with her earthly father. When sorrow, tragedy, and heartbreaks occur in our lives, wouldn’t it be comforting if when the whisperings of God say, "Do you know why this has happened to you?" we could have the peace of mind to answer, "No, but You do."

As I "become" who He wants me to be I want to keep this story in my mind and know that He knows all and I can have peace with that. I have a peace this day of all that I am to face - even if it is hard. I know He lives and that He will hear and answer my prayers as I strive to keep the faith, love and trust in Him. I am so thankful for a couple of days that the Lord could teach me and lift me in ways that I did not imagine possible. I am thankful for a sweet daughter who could go with me and her (and my) wonderful young friends to share this moment of time with. All of us will be better because we took a moment to be more than "average" and let Him tutor us!

Ten things I am loving right now...

2011-04-28T07:56:00.001-07:00

My family........

My new antique sewing find......

That I get towatch these adorable grandchildren all the time....

That the flowers are blooming....

That I believe......

This plant that I have had since Autumn was born.......

Did I say the flowers blooming?.......

Birds........

Tea parties.........

My new typewriter...........

What are you loving right now?.........

The last couple of weeks

2011-04-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy the last couple of weeks and finally feel like I have some time to sit down and catch up on my blog. First off a couple of weeks ago now my sister came to visit for a week. We had such a wonderful time. We were busy creating and exploring from the time we got up until we went off to bed at night. We hunted through all the junk shops in town and found some treasures. We sewed and worked on our "scrappy journals". We cooked and watched the little ones (grandkids). We made jewelry together and talked and talked and talked. I so enjoyed my visit with her. We had been waiting for so long for her to come and the week just flew by! Things have worked out that she might get to come again in the fall (her flight got canceled so they compensated her with a free ticket! - yeah for me) This was a Monday night and I baked a fabulous Lasagna. Everyone was there except for Paige who could not come. Andrew and Adrian had already left when we took the picture. What a wonderful Family Home Evening it was! I had been some time since that many children had been home for FHE. Missy really enjoyed seeing everyone.

Last week was busy watching the little ones and getting caught up on cleaning that I let slide while Missy was here. David was at the beach with the two little girls so it was a very funny week for me with only big ones at home in the evenings. With our silly weather we still managed to get in all the ball practices and track meet. Friday I took off for the beach with some girlfriends and had a great time. It was so nice to get together with them as it had been a while since I had seen most of them and it was fun to just relax and not be in charge of anything. I got home Saturday night and found that I had been missed very much by my Autumn. She had not seen me only for a few minutes on Thursday - since that is when she got back with her dad and then I left Friday morning. It was nice to be missed!

Today in church I did my first sharing time in my new calling. I had lots of fun playing the game I had made -"I will follow Jesus Christ's Example". What smart and fun kiddos! I am going to love this new calling working with all of the little ones. I also enjoyed the talks today in Sacrament meeting - I thought the sisters did a wonderful job and I loved their messages. I can hardly wait to get the Ensign and study the conference talks and highlight those things that really stuck out for me.

I am full of joy this evening as I think back on what a blessed and wonderful last couple of weeks I have gotten to live!

Piles

2011-03-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

I have always loved how in our church we are asked to serve and work and do so without any monetary compensation. I have had many callings and loved all but a couple (I do have to say den mother was the hardest one I had and ended up doing that one three different times - guess I needed to learn something:)) Now I get serve in the Primary Presidency again and work with such wonderful ladies as we teach and serve the young children.

But with the acceptance of this calling I find I am forming a new "pile" of stuff. There are little "piles" all over my house. Most are organized in such a way you would never know it wasn't supposed to be where it is sitting. I have creative piles, sewing piles, seminary piles, girls camp piles, piano teaching piles, jewelery making piles, studying piles, books to read piles, and of course children's things piles, laundry piles, toy piles, shoe piles....it just goes on and on. I know the purpose of each "pile" and when it needs to be cleaned up and cleaned out. I am happy to add to all this a primary pile. Some of these piles will have to sit a while longer as I dig in and learn my new responsibilities. I am OK with that. I will learn how to balance this new pile in amongst all the others I have. I will still create, learn and do housework as I also learn to love with all my heart about 80 children who will touch me and teach me in a way the Lord knows I need right now. I just love how He works in my life. He blesses me and is there beside me every day. Like he promises in the scriptures "I will be in your midst" I feel His love as I take on yet another "pile" in my life!

Grumpy morning

2011-03-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

So I thought that yesterday with daylight savings time would be a rough day. Actually this morning proved to be an unusually grumpy morning from everyone! Last night I was trying to get the little girls to bed and they were giving me all kinds of excuses like usual but finally we got them all tucked in and prayers said. We were headed to bed when Autumn told us that she thought she would just go back to "old time" and just stay up a while. David went in and had a talk with her and got her to finally admit she really was tired and soon she was asleep. But getting everyone up this morning was a bear! Autumn especially was very tired and cried over every little thing. Taylor and Hayden were fighting like cats and dogs - Noah was running more than a little behind - I had a head ache by the time they were all out the door and off for school. I hope they are kinder to their teachers today than they were to each other. The only bright side to all of this is that spring and summer are just around the corner - I can hardly wait!!!! Happy Daylight Savings to everyone!

Hope

2011-03-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune-without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.
~Emily Dickinson

On this snowy day I wanted to share one of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems. I am going to make some sort of craft with these words - still thinking about - The picture also reminds me that Spring is just around the corner........

Snow Day

2011-02-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

We have been anticipating a "major" snowstorm for a couple of days now. Yesterday it snowed off and on all day but never stuck. This morning we woke up to a snow covered yard. Initally the schools were just two hour late opening but then an hour later we got the call for an official snow day. So with that a very lazy morning and then soon everyone wanted out in the snow to play. It has mostly melted now but they had fun for about an hour before they were too cold and wet. Now after such a weird morning trying to get them to do their jobs has been next to impossible. I guess all the "conflict" going on right now is worth it for the beautiful snowy morning!

California trip

2011-02-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

I just got back from visiting family in California this week. I had a great time and got to see all my brothers and sisters who live down there.

While there my mom and John and sister Kelly went to San Diego to see the visitor center for the Mormon Battalion. Here they are panning for gold. I think they have done such a fabulous job at telling the story and keeping you interested in it. It is very interactive.

We got together one of the days for a barbecue at my mom's house. Everyone is doing so good right now and it was just fun to sit around and talk and visit with each other. I just had a great time relaxing and going to antique stores and hanging out with my sister Melissa quite a bit. I am so excited for her visit up here next month. I am glad to be back home because I do miss my kiddos when I leave but I do treasure the times I get to take off for a long visit down south!

Valentines Day

2011-02-14T13:09:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentines to all my family and friends! I wish you a day filled with love and joy!

Missing spoons

2011-01-30T15:05:00.000-08:00

Do you have the same problem I have? Does your silverware just magically disappear? In my quest to organize this month I cleaned out a couple of drawers in my kitchen. My silverware drawers (I have two) and my utensils drawer. Just empty and wipe out - easy - but what I discovered is that I am missing once again lots of spoons and a couple of forks! When we moved here a little over five years ago I bought new silverware and got rid of all the mismatched spoons, forks and knives I had accumulated over all my married years up until that time. I have one drawer of antique silverware that my mom gave me and I use - it is very eclectic but still matching (I just feel so special when I eat off one these utensils) but they are not for every day use. The other funny thing that I found was I have three spoons that don't even belong to me! Is anyone missing their spoons? I just might have them. I got to thinking about it and I am missing a cookie sheet, a bowl and all of my square Rubbermaid containers (I still have the lids - how does that work out?), and my soup ladle (a nice pampered chef one). There is probably other things missing but I just don't remember what all I have until I go to use it. My kids swear they have not used any of it! But how does this happen - is there a midnight thief around here? I told my kids when they grow up and have their own homes I am going to sneak into their houses and "borrow" their stuff. They all just looked at me like I was crazy and gave me another "is mom talking to us?" look. It never ceases to amaze me that my stuff can just get up and walk right out the door I mean what else could possibly be the reason for the disappearance of my kitchen tools - I mean if the kids say the didn't do it than they didn't right? ;)

Zoo trip

2011-01-23T22:20:00.000-08:00

Thursday I got to go with Toshia and the little ones to the zoo. Jonathan had earned this trip by having lots of dry nights. I don't know how many but he had a cute little chart and got to put toy story stickers on it and was so excited to go see all the animals. Thank goodness it did not rain but it was cold and I always forget that it is a little colder there - I don't know why but it is always colder there than I think it will be. There was hardly anyone there and that made it really nice as well.

Miss Reagan at the zoo. It was cold out but she did very well being all bundled up in her stroller.

Jonathan and Toshia looking at the elephants. I watched something here that I had never seen before. The elephant inside was dumping carrots out of a barrel above his head. Then when he got a few on the ground picked them up with his trunk and ate them - but what was amazing was the ones that were out of reach - he blew his trunk like leaf blower to get the carrots closer to him. Wow - I think that is the coolest thing I had ever seen at the zoo before. I think I sat there watched him for at least 10 minutes. Toshia took Jonathan outside to other side to find the baby elephant.

Here Jonathan is so excited because the polar bears are so close to us. The really funny thing is when you ask him what was his favorite thing he says "the fishes". Yes we saw fish but I think he says it because is was the last thing we saw on the way out. He really laughed at the monkeys and wanted nothing to do with looking at the birds.

This was so fun to get to go with the grandkids on this little outing - where are we going next Jonathan?

Simple goal setting

2011-01-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

"Do All The Good You Can,
By All The Means You Can,
In All The Ways You Can,
In All The Places You Can,
At All The Times You Can,
To All The People You Can,
As Long As You Can."
John Wesley

I have not set new goals or new resolutions - I do want to do accomplish one thing this year and that is to be more organized. I am cleaning one thing a day - even if it is something as small as a drawer or big as a whole room . Hopefully it will spill into my menu planning and grocery shopping and all the aspects of my life that I tend to just do but not put lots of thought into. So as I work at being organized I hope this quote from John Wesley becomes how I live my life this year! I also have finally picked my word for the year. "BELIEVE" As I work on this word and study and apply things into my life I will write about it. There is something drawing me to this word of faith for me so there must be something I need to incorporate more into my daily living.

1-11-11

2011-01-11T23:11:00.000-08:00

I couldn't sleep so I decided to write a little - then I noticed that it is 11:11pm on 1-11-11 and I have 11 children. How weird is that. Sometimes I can't really believe that I have been blessed to give birth to 11 children. It seems like a big blur of time sometimes and then I am with them all and I know they are mine but it just is so serial. They are amazing and funny and very frustrating sometimes, but I love them and appreciate all that they teach me.

I am really struggling to find my word for this year. I want it to be something that will motivate me and move to action. I thought I had it a couple of times but so far it just does not feel right yet - so I will keep searching.

I made cookies with Jonathan Monday. He was so cute. His favorite part was licking the beaters. I just love those grandkids of mine. We are going to the beach for the weekend and I am so excited to be out there with him as he throw rocks in the ocean. That is his favorite thing to do now when he is there.

I had lunch today with some friends and really had a nice time. It was the first time I have met with these ladies outside of the gym. It was nice to get to know them better. I really needed the adult conversation today for some reason.

Sunday night I had the opportunity to attend a baptism of a man who is from China. He doesn't speak English very well so there was a lady who was interpreting things for him. The spirit there was so strong and I just had such happy thoughts as I listened to what was being taught. There is so much sadness and tragedy going on in our world right now and it really helped me see that Heavenly Father is watching out for all of us. I was so glad that Toshia was asked to sing and that I could play for her so that I could be there.

I have been cleaning and organizing all over the house. Everyday I clean a drawer, cupboard or even room. I am feeling very organized but have come to the conclusion I am a pack rat! But I am getting things sorted out and it feels so good!

This has been quite a rambling post - but what do you expect from a mother of 11 that is typing at 11 o'clock at night on 1-11-11;)

Taking down the tree and santa mouse

2010-12-29T15:31:00.000-08:00

We are going out of town for the weekend so today I wanted to get some cleaning done and a head start on the "undecorating" that needs to happen around here. First I spent a while helping the girls really clean their room. Their idea of clean and mine are totally different and I have not been there helping for a while so there was a lot of cleaning to be done. Then I started taking the ornaments off the tree. This year I did not decorate that tree - our family tree. I was behind I felt with the decorating because of working on my other projects so I let the kids decorate it totally on their own while I finished decorating other parts of the house. That was big for me. They did a great job - again not done the way it would have been done if I was there - but for them it looked beautiful. When I hang the ornaments I am always taken back to the people or places I got them from. I love the memories every year. I did not realize how much I had missed out of that part of my Christmas until this afternoon when I was putting them away. I have always loved decorating the tree - I remember back to when my mom would hand each of us an ornament and we would get to place it on the tree. It was magic for me. I do not have a themed tree for our family tree. I have other trees I decorate around themes but this one is filled with handmade ornaments, ornaments from family and friends and mixtures of fancy, vintage, and plain. I laid them all out on the floor as I put them carefully away and thought about where each one had come from and what it meant to me. It was wonderful! I again felt the magic I had felt as a child. That magic I felt also a couple of days before Christmas with Autumn. Because we did Christmas different this year we did not do "Santa"gifts under the tree. I know that is weird but we were trying to have a simple Christmas and things centered around family so that is what we focused on on Christmas day. But a couple of days before Christmas as we opened our "twelve days" present Autumn said "We could make that for Santa - he is going to love it!" I said, "Autumn you know that Santa probably is not coming to our house this year, there are so many houses and other kids who need him more than us." Autumn replied, "I know, you say that but I have been praying for Santa to bring me something and I just know he will". Well, I got to thinking about this. This child has great faith - how do I handle this and the one thing I did not realize was that she still "believed". So I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring and she told me she could not tell me and if he brought her a "homemade" gift then she would know it was me and there was no Santa. I asked the kids to help me find out, finally Chloe got it out of her what she really wanted - a dog that walks on a leash. (Not a real dog - thank goodness- but a toy one). Chloe and I had a long talk and she said I had to get it for her. Christmas would be ruined if we let Autumn down. So I took all the bottle money I had and some other cash I had for something else and went and bought her that silly dog. That evening I read her a cute book about a Santa mouse who falls out of the sleigh and finds his way to a lighted Christmas tree with his gift waiting for Santa to find him. The gift was wrapped in a yellow ribbon. And the story says if you find a present wrapped with a yellow ribbon then you know that the Santa mouse came with Santa. I had bought a cute mouse to go with the story because I had intended to use it for something else. I showed her our Santa mouse and she hid it in our Santa tree. I told her he would be watching her all of Christmas Eve so she had to be good in order to get a present from Santa. She promised she would and also asked if we could keep it a secret - she did not want Hayden to know for some reason. I had a talk with Hayden and Taylor about it and they agreed it would be great fun to do this little surprise for Autumn. Sure enough she tried really hard to be good all day. She was the first one up Christmas morning and found the gift under the Santa tree wrapped with a yellow ribbon. "Mom, mom guess what - the Santa mouse came just like the story said - but I know if the present is "homemade" then you did it!" I acted like I had no idea that it was even there. It killed her to wait until everyone got up (another advantage to our "twelve days" was that everyone slept in!) Sure enough Santa had brought her the exact dog that she wanted. She was in so happy and sure now that Santa was real! What magic this time of year brings to all of us. We had as much fun watching her be excited than if we had each had a gift under that tree. It started our day out just perfect. I will remember this story and how I felt today as I put the tree away for a long time! Santa at our house has always been the spirit of giving and I feel we did that this year! Santa was still a part of our Christmas!

Day 12 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-24T13:53:00.001-08:00

So for our final day of the Twelve Days of Christmas David and I wanted to give something that would really let our children know how much each and everyone of them mean to us. Hopefully we succeeded. David and I have kept a family journal since we got married in 1980. David has been the keeper of the "plates" for the most part. Over the the past 30 years he has recorded all of our family happenings. This was a big project for me because David does not type and so I had to type up the three volumes of journals he has kept. There is a fourth one and when I was getting close to the time of needing to be done with this project we made a decision to do just the first 25 years - a volume one of our family life. He summed up pretty much all that we wanted them to know in the introduction -

"Life is an interesting pathway through time. It's like walking gingerly on stepping stones, some are rock solid and some are loose and unstable.

I find that decisions I've made have shaped me into the man I am and that the choices all of you have made have helped shape you and placed you on the spot in the world where you now stand.

In our family journal I've tried to capture moments in our lives that were defining for that time and place. It's about who we are and how we got there!

Ashleigh, Toshia, (Andrew, Adrian, Luke, Jonathan, and Reagan), Chelsea, Seth, Paige, Chloe, Chad, Noah, Taylor, Hayden and Autumn, we dedicate this work to you. Enjoy. Read it and learn more about yourselves, each other, mom and dad and what it means to be family."

I guess this gift has been in the making for the last 30 years and continues on. We will someday complete volume two and add to what they have gotten this year. I hope as they read they really can feel and know the love that we have for them. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this year I hope that we have been able to capture the pure love of Christ through our gifts to our children. They were only small tokens of love to help remind them that to us our family is the most important gift we have.

This has been very fun for me this year. I don't think I can remember a Christmas that I have enjoyed so much and not felt the pressure of the season. This Christmas is definately on my top ten list! Merry Christmas to all!

Day 11 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

What would Christmas be without new pajamas! I do have to confess I only made the little girls pj's this year - but I did add to my list my four sweet grandkids so that was a lot of pajamas to come up with and when I was sewing lots of other stuff I treated myself to "black friday" specials:) Maybe next year I will treat David and myself to some new pajamas - boy would he be surprised! Happy eve of Christmas Eve!!!!

Day 10 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-22T13:21:00.000-08:00

Day ten brings this cute tree with lyrics from one of my favorite Christmas songs. David and I put these together one Saturday afternoon. He is so handy with a saw. Now this might seem a little boring of a gift for the littlest ones - so I was prepared that under the Christmas tree was another gift for those with small ones. At Toshia's house they got some games and books; at our home there was a gingerbread house kit. Now we do gingerbread houses almost every year - you know graham crackers with frosting and candy - this year I thought it would be fun to do a large one from a kit. I will post pictures of the completed project later. As we wanted this year to be about family time I also thought this one was great because we could do it as a family. This one was also hard to keep from Toshia - I had to have her help with the vinyl but did not tell her what I was using it for - I am sure she is smart enough to have figured it out. Two more days left.....

Day 9 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

I have waited all week for this one because I love to make cookies. I especially love cut out cookies. It brings back such great memories for me. So I know I cheated by buying mixes but I could not figure out how do do this one using our favorite recipe without it getting spoiled - so I figure with the mixes at least the little ones can do this one on their own. So my plan at this house of children is to make cookies this afternoon and hopefully save some for David for his dessert tonight! David almost called in sick today just so he could help make them - at least that is what he wished he could do - no time off for the UPS man he's got Santa's work to do! Happy 9th day of Christmas to you and I can't believe this fun is almost over!

Day 8 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

"And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

Today the children opened their gift to find new socks for each and every one of them. That is a lot of feet to cover;) Taylor was so happy she commented.."This is all I wanted for Christmas, I am so happy!!!" Had I know that would be all it would take to put a smile on her cute face I would have bought socks months ago! Also, it does not really take much to make that sweet girl happy. I can hardly wait for tomorrow - more family time!

Day 7 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

Tonight as we cozy up by the fire with hot chocolate and popcorn we will be reading our new Christmas book. I made a snowman ornament to go with each book.

I love childrens books and have quite a collection of them. The last few years I have been adding to my Christmas collection of books and next year will have enough to do a new tradition. For the countdown for Christmas I will wrap each book and we will unwrap each night and read together before bed. My wonderful friend who shared this idea with me also enlightened me by reminding me of the local library. I have waited to do this until I had 24 books - she just checks out what number of books she needs from the local library to fill in with what she doesn't have. Smart girl!

Happy 7th day of Christmas:)

Day 6 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful, and the fire is so delightful. And since we've no place to go; Let it snow, Let it snow, Let is snow..."

How did I know that last night was going to be so cold and that this morning we would wake up to the traces of "snow" on the cars? What a great morning to have hot chocolate and marshmallows! I could not have planned the timing of this gift any better if I had tried! Half way through the Twelve Days of Christmas and we are having so much fun!

Day 5 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

Grab your pillows and blankets tonight is:

Movie night! What better fun than family time together eating popcorn and watching old favorites! The kids are so excited about this one - they can hardly wait for David to get home so we can have a movie marathon (I think this house got five movies!) What a great way to start the Christmas break:)

Day 4 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-16T12:10:00.001-08:00

Day four and "super soft" blankets were under the tree! At my house there is always a fight over the two blankets that are on the back of the couch during scripture time. We thought it was high time that everyone had there own "super soft" cuddly throw to make scripture time more meaningful. (Do you think it will work?) If not, at least they will be warm while sleeping through scripture time:)

Day 3 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-15T12:26:00.001-08:00

"The children were nestled all snug in their beds, with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads".

Today's gift a Christmas pillowcase. Each one made differently and each made with love.

Day 2 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-14T14:54:00.001-08:00

Is there anything better than homemade fudge? It has been a few years since I have made my Christmas fudge. David and I thought the kids would love this little treat. Personally I think David wanted fudge this year and this was his way of insuring that he got some! Funny little story though about the fudge. I use this family secret recipe for my fudge - you know the one found on the marshmallow cream jar - anyway, they have changed the recipe. That really through me for a loop. I was trying so hard to remember how it went together, changing the couple of things that looked different to me. Then talking to Toshia she informs me, "Oh yeah, I went on line and found the original recipe." "You can do that?" I said. The last thing I think of when I need help with something is "google" and my kids that's the first thing they do - I think there's a generation gap there and I swore I would never be "old" to my kids:) With that this 2nd day of Christmas I think the fudge turned out pretty darn good!

Day 1 - Twelve Days of Christmas

2010-12-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

We are doing a very different Christmas this year. For a couple of years now we have wanted to scale back - make things simpler. David and I wanted to focus more on giving - the giving of time and service. So we are starting a new tradition. We are doing the "Twelve Days of Christmas". How this works is that for the grown children not living at home they received a tote last night full of their twelve gifts. For the ones at home we are bringing them out one at a time during scripture time every morning. On Christmas morning we will gather for our name exchange - the kids draw names every year - and have a brunch and probably go caroling or something together as a family. I made quite a few of the gifts so I have been working fast and furious the last six weeks to get this all done by yesterday. I was totally finished on Saturday with all of our Christmas stuff so now I can sit back and relax and enjoy the holiday! David and I are so excited about this. I know the older kids not living at home will enjoy it - I do worry about Chloe, Chad and Noah as they are at that in between age and just don't see the point in some of it. But they will get over it as they move on and start their families. This morning Autumn was so excited - as everyone was still very sleepy she said "This is going to be so fun - I can hardly wait for each morning!" In addition to the gift - at my house I also have a small gift wrapped with a scripture attached. We read the scripture then feel the gift and try to guess what's inside by the clues read in the scripture. Now that woke up a few of them as they got to feel the gift. They liked opening up chocolate coins-treats in the morning always make you happy!

Today's gift:

The "Service" pillow. Every year we try do some sort of secret service to each other. I usually have some little thing that gets left behind then when you find it you do for some else and leave it for someone else to find. This year I made these cute pillows. I learned to do some quilting this year so applied those new skills to this Christmas pillow. David wrote the following poem that I attached to the pillow - (he's so clever with things like that)

The Christmas Service Pillow

Like the branches of the lovely willow
Spreading their influence through the air
Lives will be touched by the Christmas Service Pillow
Service shared is sometimes rare
Leave behind the pillow to show you care
Then with your pillow serve another and pass it along
This opportunity will fill your heart with song!

Happy First Day of Christmas!

10K Run

2010-12-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

Saturday I ran in the the first annual "Reindeer Run". I placed 7th overall in the the 10K run. Even though there were not that many runners I was very happy with my time. I came in second in my age category. I wanted to do the 1/2 marathon but I had been sick the couple of weeks before so played it safe with the 10K. I don't know how many more years I will be able to do these fun runs so I want to take advantage of it every time there is one. My son-in -law Andrew did very well also - He came in first for the men and third overall. I hope next year more of the kids will run this one with me - now that would be a race with lots of Weitzels running in it!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-26T20:10:00.000-08:00

Weitzel family Thanksgiving! (minus - Ashleigh, Chelsea, Seth and a couple of other cousins Rachel and Meagan) I am so grateful for family gatherings like this. We had a great time and everyone had fun playing in the snow and playing games inside while we waited for the food to be ready. Last Sunday we had our own family dinner with all the kids and celebrated miss Autumn's 7th birthday. What an event that was! I have to say this has been the easiest Thanksgiving dinner preparations ever for me. Everyone helped bring food and so I just made the turkey and a couple of side things. It was so wonderful to gather and have David record what we were all thankful for this year. I am loving the holidays this year!

Lessons learned during a sleepless night

2010-11-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

I really do have about a hundred and one things I want to blog about - but that would give away all my holiday secrets:) I have been really working very hard at a very special Christmas surprise this year. I will share all of it with all of you when the time is right. For now I don't want to spoil it for any of the children that might just happen to be reading in on my blog. That said I just wanted to take a few minutes tonight and write about some things that have been on my mind lately.

There was something that I was listening to late one night a couple of weeks ago. I was having a hard time sleeping and was worried about some things going on with some of the children. I always seem to worry about them because I want them to be happy and "choose the right" so they can feel all that Heavenly Father wants them to feel! Each child has their own kind of trials and struggles - some personal - some work related - some relationship related. As I was listening to this guy speak about how God helps us with our trials I stopped flipping through the channels and listened for a few minutes. Most of what he said made a lot of sense. I got what he was teaching about and then shut the program off and started searching the scriptures for examples of what he was teaching. I had an "ah ha" moment. I love it when that happens. So funny though because I was the one learning for myself when I originally thought I would be using this to teach to my children. I will eventually but for now I needed the lesson for some of my own struggles I am having at this time. What is it - well Heavenly Father uses what is close by us to help us through our own situations. When David had to fight Goliath he used stones that were on the ground. Heavenly Father did not give him something to use that he was not familiar with. He fought a great battle with some simple stones. Moses is another example. There are several in the Book of Mormon - Nephi, The Brother of Jared, Mosiah to name a few. I am sure if you think about other stories in the scriptures you can see that the prayers were answered using ordinary objects that were familiar to the person receiving the answer. Maybe you all realized this before but I had never seen the simplicity in what we can use to overcome the challenges that we face. As I read further into some of these stories I realized that in all cases faith proceeded their actions. I am sure if I was facing Goliath and looked and saw a few small stones lying on the ground my first thought would not have been to pick them up and use them - those would kill the giant - no I dare say I would not have thought that. I would have been looking around for something larger, or even someone else to fight off the man. As I read again the story of the Brother of Jared I realized that whatever uncertainty he had about himself he never doubted the Lord's abilities. When these scripture heroes of mine succeeded it was by "small and simple things" The scripture in Alma 37:6 states "that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass - (and I love this line of the scripture) and small means in many instances confound the wise." Now I will be honest I have never thought of this scripture as an answer to how to solve any trials I might be going through. I seem to always look for some big answer from the Lord. And yet when I look back on how my prayers have been answered - really it was by "a small means" - a word or song from a child - a note in the mail - a friendly phone call from a friend - a verse from the scriptures that I had never seen before (don't you do that sometimes, wonder where that little gem had been hiding all this time?) - a thought in my mind as to the right words to say at the right time. As I have been reading my scriptures this past week I have been looking for these "small things", these things that are right there - close at hand. I think that is what I noticed also is that the things were close at hand. I know that even if I doubt myself I can rely completely on the the Lord's abilities and recognize those things as He places them before me. As I have been studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year again to teach in seminary I am reminded that He is "in our midst". No matter how alone or dark we feel He is there waiting to help us all we have to do is "knock". Think about it - how close are our hands to us - we just have to "knock". I know that we don't literally knock on a door but the thought of folding my arms and down on bended knee seeking for the door of my heart to be opened to His will I can see how my hands play a role in that process. Another phrase that jumps out at me a lot this time is the one to "pray always" He reminds us to do that a lot.

So I guess in short as I look for an answers to my problems I will notice how the Lord uses what is familiar to me, what is close to me , and that His abilities go beyond anything I could do on my own. A nice little lesson learned for one sleepless night:)

Facing my fear

2010-11-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

Today I did something that I have never done since moving here over five years ago. Drum roll please....... I ventured into Washington all by myself! I know that does not sound that exciting but believe me it is a big deal for me. I have a little anxiety when it comes to leaving the state. Even from my old home I never ventured north without an escort of some kind. I know that sounds silly but really I have always gone with someone and the thought of navigating those streets on my own was a little scary. But just so you don't worry - not that anyone is - I did it and did not get lost and found every store I was looking for and even managed not to get turned around heading home. I guess I really paid more attention to things than I thought. I did try to get a couple of girls to go with me and made some phone calls even but when it came right down to it I had to just put my "big girl panties" on and just do it. I am very glad I did. I now have overcome the last of my big fears and will probably make more little jaunts that way. Oh no, this is not good for David's wallet;)

Mondays

2010-10-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

Fall is in the air! These last couple of months I have been canning like crazy. I've canned jams, peaches, pears, applesauce, apple butter, pickles and yesterday got to pick some grapes for grape juice. The only thing I did not get done that I really wanted to was salsa. But I know that next year will be a better year for the garden. At least I hope so! It has been especially fun because Toshia and I have been sharing the work load and working together. We have been spending Mondays together trying to get this all done. And in between we've been doing a little crafting! These Mondays have been the highlight of my week since school started. I have enjoyed the little babies being under foot - I guess because I am not stressed about being the "mom" of them. Being the grandma is much more relaxing! Then I am loving the chaos of things that start around 2:30 in the afternoon as everyone arrives home from school. They each come in a few minuets apart and then things don't settle down until everyone is snuggled tightly in bed. Mondays are an exhausting day but I would not trade them for any other day of the week right now. We've decided to keep this little tradition going during the school year. There are plenty of crafting things to keep us busy. I am so lucky to have her so close. I am going to enjoy these moments because you never know when things in her life might change and she might not live so close. But you can know that if I have anything to say about it all my children are going to stay close and we all are going to grow old together!

Grandkids!

2010-10-19T15:21:00.001-07:00

I LOVE being a grandma!

10-10-10

2010-10-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

I was on my way up to bed when the thought occurred to me that I had better write a little something on this historic never to happen again for another hundred years day! 10-10-10 just has a certain ring to it that calls out to me for some reason. Conference was last weekend and was so wonderful! What a blessing it has been to travel to Utah for the last 10 years to hear it in person. (We have traveled there many times before but with breaks in between.) There is something about hearing the music live in the conference center that just brings chills to my spirit. I LOVE it! So in honor of 10-10-10 I thought I would list my top 10 favorite conference treasures.

1. President Monson announcing 5 new temples!

2. Sis. Wixom taught us to take our children by the hand and lead them - lead them to scripture reading, prayer, and family home evening!

3. Elder Costa taught that a prophet tells us what we need to know not what we want to hear. Prophetic priorities are God's priorities!

4. The Tabernacle Choir singing "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus"!

5. Pres. Uchtdorf wisdom as he counseled to proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances! Do all things in wisdom and order!

6. Elder Hales teaching us that if we use our agency in righteousness we will become closer to God!

7. Elder Scott taught that faith is not obtained during times of great adversity, that's when it is utilized, needed strength is drawn from it at that time!

8. Boyd K Packer as he made a remarkable statement that "moral standards can't be changed by battle or by ballot", he went on to say that you can not vote to change moral values and standards set by God - changing marriage or moral constants by a vote of the people is as feeble as thinking you can change other laws of God such as gravity!

9. Pres. Monson reminded us that an attitude of gratitude helps us recognize our blessings. Pride brings selfishness, humbleness brings an attitude of gratitude!

10. Music and the Spoken Word - it was so beautiful Sunday morning and the message sung through the music just touched my heart!

It was hard to pick just 10 things because so many things touched my heart - I love that we have a living prophet on the earth today with 12 apostles by his side and his two councilors! How thankful I am to live in this time and at this place so I can hear their words! I have made a resolve to "ameliorate" (improve) over this next six months!

A little of this a little of that

2010-09-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

So I think it is really weird to not have any pictures to upload when I blog - I really need a new camera for Christmas Santa! That said here goes another random update.

The children have been doing really wonderful in school. They seem to be settling into the routine of things very well. I think I have been getting the hang of my routine or at least trying to have a routine. I really have been so very busy with projects that yesterday when Toshia said lets make applesauce I thought to myself I just want to do nothing today. She came over (we have been having a great time getting together on Mondays canning and crafting) so we continued our "mother/daughter Mondays". She worked on her little guys Christmas present and I did a "trick or treat" banner. So for not wanting to do anything I still managed to get some creative thing done. We will get the applesauce and apple butter done when I get back from Utah next week.

Thursday Noah has to have a little surgery on his lip. He is a little nervous about it but looking forward to missing school on Friday.The little girls have started up again with piano. We took half of July and all of August off and it has been somewhat slow getting back into it since school started. Hayden in her most dramatic tone ever said, "I don't ever want to play the piano I only want to play the violin and if I can't do that then I just don't want to do anything!." I am not accomplished enough on the violin to teach her anything - I still need lots of teaching myself - so in my most dramatic tone I replied, "I would be the worst mom in the world if I let you quit - and quite frankly I don't think I could stand to hear you scratch the notes out on the violin!" She huffed off and said, "Oh well, it was worth a try." She then had another similar conversation in front of Toshia and I tried to get Toshia to let her know how unhappy she would be if she quit because when she grew up she would always wish she had stuck with it. Toshia did not quite catch on to what I was going for and said some totally random thing that did not help my cause at all. Even Chad is back at the piano and Noah is still working very hard at the guitar.

Reagan was blessed last Sunday and it was so sweet to have all the family here (except Chelsea who had a previously planned trip) for dinner afterwards. Paige was home for the first time in several months - it was nice. Lots has been going on with that little one. That is for another blog post in the future. I made Reagan's dress and bonnet and even though Ashleigh thought the bonnet was a little over the top -(it totally was not!) I think it turned out so beautiful. Toshia picked the pattern and I went from there. Lots of tucks - I love, love, love tucks on baby clothes!

I have been substituting in Seminary and teaching my sweet Sunbeam class. It has kept me in the scriptures a lot. It has been fun preparing for the two totally different kinds of teaching you have to do with the two different ages. I also have read three books in the last couple of weeks and loved all of them - "Rhett Butler's People". "The Mysterious Benedict Society", and finally I read " Goose Girl". I have also started making Christmas presents. I think we are going for more homemade again this year. It is so fun to search out projects and work on them with each person in mind. I also started a sampler quilt that I will work on with some other lady friends each month.

There has not been a slow day yet since school started. I look forward to the lazy days of summer but really have been enjoying the busy days of fall!

This and That

2010-09-16T11:37:00.001-07:00

I have not had a chance to sit down and write for so long! The end of summer was such a whirlwind of activity and then school starting this really has been the first time I felt like I could spend time here. While on vacation my camera broke:( but fortunately Toshia was able to get lots of pictures. While I have those now on a CD I have not downloaded to the computer so I won't have any photos for this post.

Needless to say, our vacation was wonderful and fun and very relaxing. We enjoyed lots of time with family and really enjoyed "Disneyland". It was such a journey getting there (with the free ticket thing falling through) but I have to say it was worth every penny just watching the children's faces and hearing their laughter. It was also fun to be with Toshia and her sweet little family. We stayed from opening until closing. It was a long day! I am glad that we saved that for the very end of the vacation. We swam at my mom's pool. We spent time on the California beaches - the water was actually warm! We played at the park, spent time with cousins, aunts, uncles, second cousins, grandma and papa John, time at Aunt Kelly's house and her fabulous pool and backyard (a park in and of itself!), eating great food (thanks mom), going to the movies, surfing, and star gazing on the beach late at night. The kids were great and really got along well for such a long car ride. (David does not believe in stopping much - so we drove straight through in record time) I was glad to get home though because we had so much to do to get ready for school.

This school year will be a very different one for me. It will be 29 years since I have not had small children home during the day. Miss Autumn started first grade this year and that leaves me with as she tells me "six whole hours to myself". The first day I wanted to take everyone like I usually do but the little girls wanted to ride the bus. While I implored and pleaded with them to let me make sure they got to the right places on the first day Autumn informed me that "I am so over that mom". So with much apprehension I let them do it their way. I kind of worried all day until she came bouncing in the door at 2:38 all excited and happy about her first day of school. They all got where they were supposed to and things seem to be going pretty smoothly so far. As for my "six hours" of free time I have managed to fill up every minute until today. Without even trying there seemed to be some kind of project or activity I was needing to be involved with that the days have just flown by. I am hoping to get to some of the things on my "to do" list that I made during the summer next week. I kind of thought the quiet would drive me nuts but it has not taken me long to embrace the quiet. In between everything I have even managed to get a great book read!

Yeah for life right now! yeah for school! yeah for wonderful children! yeah for my hard working husband! and mostly yeah for all the joy this mother of eleven feels at this moment!

First two weeks of August

2010-08-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

I finally got all the pictures downloaded of the first two weeks of our August. It has been a very busy and fun two weeks. We started with our annual family reunion we have every August. This year we went to the coast. We borrowed David"s brothers boat and spent three days at the lake.

I love this picture of Noah. He is such a cutie!

And for some reason I have lots of pictures of Jonathan drinking his capri suns!

Here the kids are on the boat ready for riding the inner tube.

David loved playing on the boat and driving on the lake whipping the kids around in the wake!

Chad taking a little rest from all the activity. (Can you see the boat in the background?)

Reagan getting a little sun. I can't believe she was only a week old here!

Our little guy snacking away again.

We headed for the beach to roast hot dogs in the sand. What would a cookout be without a little sand thrown in!

David cooking hot dogs on these stupid things we have had for years and never used. Now we know why we never use them and promptly threw them away after this night!

Hayden and Autumn enjoying roasted hot dogs. We had smores also - those were so good. You also might be wondering why we are all bundled up in August at the beach - well you know the Oregon coast:)

Reagan snuggling with Toshia.

Andrew and Adrien flying a kite. They had the coolest kite!

Saturday morning we had a surprise baby shower with all the sisters and Grandma Weitzel at a cute little restaurant. This picture is so darling - Grandma with youngest grandchild and new great granddaughter!

Chelsea brought Duke down to the lake for a little fun!

After everybody went home the girls and I stayed for the rest of the week so I invited some friends down for a couple of days to share the place with us. All the kids had a great time on the beach.

The girls had a mini makeover late at night. They were gorgeous!

This last weekend Ashleigh graduated from Pacific University. We are so proud of her and all her hard work!

She has been in school for so long - and it was so fun to celebrate with her! We love you!

I couldn't resist adding this picture - our future graduate!

So much going on so much still to do - August is definitely the busiest month for all of us here. We leave for California in a couple of days and when I post again I will have all the updates from that part of our vacation! The sad part is when all this fun is over we start right in with school. - Now that will be a new chapter of life for me!

Meet Reagan

2010-07-29T17:04:00.001-07:00

Meet Reagan McCall Stott! Our newest grandchild and our first granddaughter. She was born yesterday July 28th and came in weighing 8lbs. 3 ozs. and 20 inches long. She is just beautiful. Toshia is doing wonderful and so glad that she is here as you can imagine. I will let her blog about her more but for now I wanted to show her off. I so excited to get to know this little one!

Answered Prayers

2010-07-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today at church I had the most amazing experience. I have a beautiful life. I have amazing children and the most awesome husband. Occasionally my children have been known to make poor choices. This does not do a mother's heart any good. So on occasion I let myself wallow in a little pity party. I know this is not good and I do try to limit these little parties and try to keep them to myself, of course. As always I pray for more strength to be a better mother. A better example and to find the positive and good in all my children.

My experience of today is built from something that happened earlier this year. I had been called to be the craft person for girls camp. With this call came a special experience for me. While I was set apart Heavenly Father answered some of my concerns in that prayer. I felt the power of the priesthood in all its force while the brother laid his hands on my head to give me support for this calling. He did not know me or the struggles I had been facing with my children. His prayer was powerful and gave me strength in more ways than just dealing with "crafts" for girls camp. I was so honored that Heavenly Father felt my pains and heartaches and saw fit to lift me at that time. Little did I know what I was going to need that strength for. I felt as if I have given that trial of my life all that I could - Paige is struggling so much again but still doing better than in the past. A couple of weeks ago I had a situation hit me right in the face. I knew what I was needing but the person that thought she was helping me was actually making things worse. She did not know all of the situation and was not seeming to me to be listening to me. I fell apart. I don't do that very often. Thank goodness I have a great friend that helped me through this little situation. So then I went to girls camp and had some great experiences. I saw how awesome the youth of this stake are and how for the most part they are trying so hard to do what is right. My spirits were lifted. I see Taylor getting to rub shoulders with these youth and being influenced for the better because of their examples. She will be in YW in a few months. I felt as if girls camp was more for me than for me to be there for the girls. I came away lifted and able to move forward. No more pity party. Again the Lord knew how to let me know He was watching out for me.

Then today two things happened. I received a note from one of my daughters from trek. Trek was two years ago and David and I were a ma and pa to a small group of youth for a week. I had been praying with great hope this morning for help to have more patience and love in my heart for some of my kids that are trying me right now. I love them all so much but feel like sometimes I am just pointing out all the negative they are doing instead of the positive. I try to live what I teach them but it is so hard when they bicker and fight and seem to not get along with each other. The hot weather seems to bring out the "grouchies" in everyone. The words she shared with me in her letter once again were words that Heavenly Father knew that I needed to hear today! I had told her something during the trek that has stayed with her all this time and has often brought her a good deal of comfort. I had no idea that one simple little statement would do her so much good! Then those sweet sunbeams were just adorable today and I felt a peace and calm in class as they were so busy learning about prayer. I sang a primary song all during the lesson today and I kept singing more for myself than for them. It's just a sweet song teaching them the proper way to pray. Jenn (my sweet helper) pointed out a really neat thing that I knew but had not thought about for a while. The way we talk to Heavenly Father is through our Savior Jesus Christ. Again I was reminded because of my elder brother I can communicate and ask Heavenly Father for anything I need as I thank Him for the many blessings He has given me. This was heavy on my mind the last few minutes of class. After primary was finished I went to get set apart for this new calling as sunbeam teacher. The bishop set me apart. I had not shared any of my last few months of struggles with him before hand - so when he got to the end of his blessing and again spoke words that I knew were from Heavenly Father and how mindful He is of me and my families situation I was taken back.

My heart is so full from the experiences of today and a few months ago. The Lord does answer our prayers. Many times we have to be listening and watching because He answers through other people. I know He loves me and is watching out for me. I have strength because even though the struggles and trials are not going to go away I have peace. As I pondered tonight the experiences of today and few months ago, I know that if I will see my children and the children I have stewardship over through my callings through Heavenly Father's eyes then this mother's eyes will only see beautiful spirits that fought so valiantly before coming here to earth! How can I help but be a "happy" mother!

Ten things I am loving right now...

2010-07-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

Random pictures found on my camera...I guess these guys were invited to dinner one night...

Noah in one of his creative cooking moods...and leaving the mess for me to clean up...

Noah laughing...

Swimming time with the girls...

Jonathan playing dress up...and posing for the camera...

Grandpa time with Jonathan...

Chad and Hayden getting along...

fire pit time...smore's...hotdogs...

Silly skits at girls camp...fun girls from my ward...and fun friends (aka leaders)...

Jonathan eating his smore...well uncooked marshmallow...

What are you loving right now?...

Jordin Sparks

2010-07-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun Tuesday night! Aundrea and I took the little girls to the American Idol Jordin Sparks concert. They were so cute. I think they had lots of fun and it was small enough that I could watch them from a short distance as they got to be right up in front. At one point she touched Hayden's hand. Hayden came back over to me just as excited as a nine year old could get! There were a couple of other groups that opened for her. They were good but I think it confused Autumn. She finally came over and gave me the sign that she had made for Jordin and said, "I guess she's not coming." I finally convinced her that she was coming out in a little bit and she went back over and watched. For all of that she lasted about a half hour into Jordin's set and came over and sat on my lap.
Before I knew it she was sound asleep. I don't know how she did it because it was loud there. At the last song she woke back up. It was a late night for all of us but it was so very fun and I hope created some fun memories for the girls!

Moments

2010-06-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

I feel as if I have been absent of late from my blog. I have been busy with many many things and yet I have always been able to find the time to post things in the past no matter how busy I have been. I don't know why I have not felt much like recording the happenings going on in my life right now. Maybe because they are the repeat of things of the past. I tend to do a lot of the same traditions. Maybe I am stuck in a rut of sorts. I don't quite know what it is and yet I long to write. I long to put my thoughts down so I will remember the moments of my life. I longed for the time when I could be creative and uninterrupted at the same time. Yet, there have been opportunities as of late for that to happen and it was too quiet and that in itself was just as distracting.

I was thinking a lot today about moments in my life. As I watched how tired my sweet baby girl Toshia is in her 9th month of pregnancy I remembered the many times I was just as tired. I wanted Jonathan to spend the night to give her a break. A couple of nights ago he did just that. He was so fun. I remember those moments when my children were in the potty training stage. The learning to talk stage. The day to day happy moments they live. All wonderful moments that seemed to have happened only yesterday.

Summer has come on finally with the warmer weather and with it the traditions of swim lessons, concerts in the park, free lunch, reading logs to place stickers on, berries to pick, fruit and jam to bottle, gardens to weed, late movie nights and lazy snuggling mornings. Vacations are planned. Books on my reading list have been purchased. The crafting projects planned and some even already finished. All of these things create moments that become memories. The familiarity of it all is what connects me from the past to the present. But what about the unexpected moments. I love it when Toshia calls and says "Can I bring Jonathan over to play for awhile?". I never am so set in a schedule that I have to say no to these requests. I often plan things in my head never setting it to paper just so that when opportunities for spontaneity come along I can grab at them.

As hard as it was being a mother of young children those moments hang in my heart and I now connect them to the moments I experience now with my daughter and her young children. My heart is full of wonderful moments to hold on to and cherish when some of my young adult children give me trying moments to work through. I am so thankful for the joy motherhood has brought to me and the moments that will connect me to an eternal mother. I hope I am learning my lessons well. What I really hope is that the children see that I am happy in these moments. I want them to see the joy being a mother is along with all the hard work. I have a saying on my wall upstairs, "We do not remember days, We remember moments". These summer moments are not going by unnoticed, even if they are familiar, they are being cherished in our hearts and minds to carry us through the bleak winter days ahead!

What a weekend!

2010-06-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

To start off there was Chloe's graduation! Yeah for Chloe. It was a nice evening and probably the shortest graduation we have been to yet. That was Friday night.
Then Saturday was full of fun and surprises! It was Paige's birthday. We had six ball games to go to and lots of yard work and things to do around the house to get ready for the birthday/graduation party on Sunday. Unknown to David and I the children planned a surprise anniversary party for us!

Many of our friends and family gathered at the park to celebrate with us. We were completely surprised. We spent the lunch hour taking Adrian out for his birthday lunch with us (his birthday was last week) and then we thought we were exchanging kids at the park so we could get Taylor to her game. When we drove up there were a lot of people around Toshia and I couldn't quite figure it out. Then I saw Marilyn, David's mom and I began to think something was up. We had a great time and it was so fun to see so many of our friends that we have not seen in a long time. The kids got us a new bar-b-que which we used to make lunch for everyone. Even though the day was already planned it was fun to throw all plans out the window and celebrate. We still made it to some of the games and I still managed to go out with my friends in the evening for dinner and a movie. Next time though I would like a warning so I at least could have not had such a bad hair day!

Sunday the whole family gathered again for our June birthday celebration and Chloe's graduation party. We had good food and lots of fun and laughter. It was so wonderful to spend almost the whole weekend with the kids. Especially the older ones who we don't see that often. I was exhausted Sunday evening. I think David and I fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. Thirty years of all this family fun can really wear a couple out!

Friends

2010-06-02T09:48:00.001-07:00

This says it all for me!

I have been thinking a lot about all my wonderful friends lately.

Each friend of mine has a special gift that they share with me.

Each gift at some time in my life has lifted me when I have needed support.

I love you all and hope that I can be as good a friend as you all are to me!

Chloe - moving on

2010-05-24T08:00:00.001-07:00

This baby girl of mine is about to graduate and move on to a new phase of her life. I have been thinking so much about this as we have been doing all the last quarter activities that happen with seniors in high school. I have been trying to grab any minutes where we can spend some one on one time together. We have had lots of opportunities lately because of her dependency on me to get her places. Those precious moments in the car have been a blessing to me. We recently saw a movie together and there was a line in the movie that really struck me. The young lady in the movie had not grown up with her mother, her mother had left her when she was nine. She was helping an older women find a lost love of fifty years and there was this moving scene where the older women came in the girls room to see if she was OK and she was sitting there combing her hair. The older women asked if she could comb her hair for her and then she said this one line - "One of the great pleasures of life is to have one's hair brushed". For me it was a moving scene as I thought about how the girl probably did not have that "pleasure" from her mother.

I have thought about that all weekend for some reason. I thought back to my young life when my mother cared for and brushed my long hair and even when I was a teenager how I loved for her to braid my hair and brush it for me. I love to brush my girls hair. I always have. When I was little I dreamed of the girls I would have and the hours of brushing and combing their hair. I know that sounds silly but I love the connection I have while their hair is tangled in my fingers. Maybe when they were little it was not always a "pleasure" but for me that connection for a mother and daughter brings an untold amount of pleasure. Both as the daughter and as the mother. I especially have been thinking of the times I have combed and brushed through Chloe's hair. Her soft blonde fine hair. How this little one now "grown-up" and going on to new adventures will hopefully remember those times when her hair was brushed. That there were many hours of connection between us and that I hold it in a special place in my heart as I do the time spent with my other daughters now grown and gone from home. Time really does go by fast when you look back at all that has transpired. Now my middle child is transitioning into adulthood and I don't have to many more years before the last child will transition through that same door. I am grateful that we have these small "pleasures" to connect us for always!

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was just beautiful! Not only was the sun shining but all the children came to church with us today. It was my only request for Mother's Day. It meant a lot to me for many reasons. It was quite amazing to look down at the full pew with my children and husband filling it up. (I was playing the organ so was up on the stand). A lot of thoughts went through my head as I gazed down at them. Mostly I was just in awe of how this all came to be. Eleven children is considered a large family. I have know others with larger. It does not seem that big to me yet. I say yet because as the grandchildren are coming along that is where I will see just how vast this all is. The talks in church were very inspiring and helped remind of things that I needed to hear. My little sunbeams were just adorable. Very busy and I was tired after class but they just make me smile! I came home to dinner made and everyone laughing and everyone getting along. I got to eat outside (my favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon!) and then we had a few presents for David's birthday (not till Tuesday - but it is fun to celebrate with everyone there) The day started with breakfast in bed made by Taylor, Hayden and Chad. I could hear a commotion going on downstairs but it all seemed to come together in the end. Noah bought me a card that could be a photo album of sorts - he was really proud of himself using his babysitting money on me. He usually buys taco bell or something to eat with his extra $$$. He also gave a talk in church and did a great job writing it all himself and wondering afterwards if he should have talked on mothers but then realized it fit nicely with the other talks given. The only thing I forgot to do is take a picture of all of us together. It has been some time since we have all been together at the same time. But that is usually the case I never have my camera out. All in all, I am so thankful for the blessing of being a mother. As a small child I played "mommy" all the time. With all the challenges and frustrating moments I wouldn't change a thing! I am a mother "who knows" and loves all that motherhood brings! I hope all of my friends and family had a wonderful day as well!

A Paige update....

2010-05-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

Paige came home a week ago last Monday. She was only to stay the day and then figure out where to go from there. Well, things being what they were it was arranged that she would stay the week with us until her transitional housing came available. I have to say I was very nervous about the whole situation. I did not want to have any more contention in our home. Things were very different. From the moment she came in until she moved out today she was different. By day three I was seeing a glimmer of hope that things could turn around for this young lady. Her outlook and perspective had changed. There was a shimmer in her eyes that has been gone for a very long time. I am cautiously optimistic about the outcome and realize she has many, many more steps ahead of her. But she is showing a maturity that has previously been lacking. Her judgement does not seem clouded. Today was a hard day for her as she moved into her new housing situation. She is very nervous and yet sees that this will help her to grow up and be responsible. She also realizes that this is a second chance for her and wants to succeed. Prayers are answered in the most curious ways. I know that each person who loves Paige and has prayed for her will see the answers to their prayers from different perspectives. Paige has most certainly talked about how she has felt her Heavenly Fathers arms around her as He has picked her up from such a low place. David and I have felt our prayers answered in ways that we did not expect. I have felt the love and support from the prayers offered in her behalf. She takes each day hour by hour right now and sometimes minute by minute. But she is getting stronger. She has structure she has not had for several years now and that seems to be making a huge difference for her. She will always have to fight this battle. It is a war that will rage inside her most of her life. But if she will internalize what she has been taught and follow the words she studies in the scriptures it will be a battle she can win! She fought a battle much bigger than this in the pre-existence. She stood firm with her conviction to follow Christ. (as did all of us born in these last days!) She not only fought for her agency but to the right to use her agency to follow Christ! If she will keep this perspective she will be able to overcome the battle going on inside her now. Today she said, "I am scared and very nervous, but I know I have my family to help me and be a support to me. I know I can do this!" These words would not have come from her even a few weeks ago. Today I am hopeful about her situation. Through these mother's eyes I see a very familiar Paige - one I knew as a little girl - and my love for her is just as strong as it has ever been!

Chloe's car accident

2010-04-25T19:49:00.001-07:00

Remember when Chloe got her new car? And these pictures were taken and she was so excited for all the freedom and responsibility she would have with her new car? Well, her car does not look like that anymore. She was in an accident last Wednesday and well, that car is not drivable at the moment. Actually, it probably will never be driven again by anyone. Thank goodness, she is safe and the only thing smashed was her ego and the front end of her car.

When I told David it was not drivable he did not believe me. Seeing these photos has convinced him that it could not be saved. She was at fault because she rear ended the other car. The sad part about the whole thing was how mean the lady was that she hit. She had more swear words flying out her mouth than I think Chloe had ever heard. That upset her even more. When she called me I was at Noah's game (he by the way was pitching a no-hitter - yeah for that guy!) and I could not understand her she was crying so hard. It was not too far from where I was at so I was there in minutes. I was a little worried there were two police cars, a fire truck, and ambulance. But out here I guess that is pretty common for them to all show up on a call like hers.

Lesson learned by Chloe. Although it truly was an accident she still learned a lot of things that she did not intended to that evening. Today she is doing great but it took her a couple of days to calm down and realize that her independence is gone for a while and I realized that I now am back to taxing everyone around. Could I possibly get any busier in my life right now?

Sunday Fireside

2010-04-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Last night I did a fireside for the single adults at church. This is the second time I have done this fireside about the hymns of the church. I really did a lot of preparation for the first one so when I was asked to do it again last night I was really excited about it. I talked about a few of my favorite hymns and why music in the church is so important. I played the piano for three of the songs and had Hayden sing "I Am a Child of God" and Chad sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". Hayden did really good this time and was not as nervous so sang out beautifully. Chad - well, that is where my story begins.

I was so impressed with him last night. For a sixteen year old he has some pipes! (American Idol talk, I know) I shared why this particular hymn has so much meaning to me. When I was baptized it was sung at the Sacrament meeting held the following day. I was only eight years old and felt something I had never felt before. I now know it was the spirit, but then all I knew was that this baptism thing felt right! I knew the church was true. I have been blessed my whole life to just know that. I believe it is a spiritual gift given to me at such a young age that has helped me throughout my entire life. I have never questioned my testimony of this since that young age. While the hymn was being sung my eight year old mind thought deeply about the words and knew as is repeated so often in the song that "He Lives!" After I had shared this story with the group I had Chad sing an arrangement of this song that I really love. It has such a beautiful piano part and I get to play such a beautiful music line under his singing of the melody. We have worked on this for a while now and it just seemed to really come together last night. He sang from his heart. He sang with such power and emotion that my heart swelled as once again the spirit testified to me of the message of this song. What was so wonderful is how I felt we connected as I played and he sang. I have felt that a couple of times before when playing for Toshia and Chelsea as they sang but this was something different. I can't really describe it with words. Afterwards I asked him about it. He told me that my story had such an impact on him that he had to do well to give meaning to song that had meant so much to me. He said he felt the spirit. Yeah! I thought for this moment he is getting it.

On the way home we had a great discussion in the car about things going on in the world right now and how it is affecting him. He shared some really cool things with us. Then later after we were home he brought me a book "Tuesdays With Morrie". I have seen part of the movie before but not read the book yet. He said he really wanted David and I both to read it. It really made an impression with him. I am almost done with it (it is a short read) and I am glad he shared it with me. I am so grateful for having these moments with the kids. Chad sharing with us like he did is a rare occurrence. There are always other kids around and he is busy with school and sports. What a wonderful way to end a Sabbath day - sharing music with people and sharing life with my children!

Sunny day outside!

2010-04-16T20:36:00.001-07:00

Today was so beautiful outside. I just hate that my allergies get the best of me this time of year. It makes it hard to enjoy it. But enjoy it I did! I went for a run this morning not so long almost 5 miles and then when I got home Taylor said she wanted to go on a run so I took her out for another mile run. She was so cute. We talked and she told me how she wanted to get into shape and maybe run track next year. She also said her teacher at school inspired her to do this running thing. I thought that was funny because I have been running for quite a while now and I thought she would have noticed that from me. She just giggled when I told her that. Then on to conferences at the school. Autumn's teacher just raved about her. If she could just have a classroom of Autumn's. I was taken back. I asked if she was a little "chatty" at times and she said no. But that she was very dependable and very helpful in class. I guess she really does know when it is time to behave! The other kids did just as well! Then off to town to do the garbage bills. Then a trip to craft warehouse to gather things for upcoming craft projects. (wait until you see what I am up to!) Then finally grocery shopping at Winco and home to make taco salad for dinner. What a busy day and yet very beautiful! I am so lucky to have days like this in between the rainy, rainy days that we have here. I hope everyone had fun in the sun today!

Dirty laundry

2010-04-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

Note:This may be long and contain thoughts that are from the heart. I have to write now and get it out or my head is going to explode. (not really)

Yesterday I did the hardest thing. I can't say the hardest thing ever but still it ranks right up there with hard things. Paige has been in jail again for a while. She has been living in a completely and utterly disgusting house for the last year and half. I have never entered the place. I have dropped her off there but that is as far as I have been onto the the property. For a lot of various reasons I needed to get her things out the house. I needed David to go with me so we had to wait until Saturday to do it. I have never entered such a dirty place in all my life. I know they exist and have driven by homes that I only imagined were that dirty but never in my dreams could I have pictured what I walked into. The smell was disgusting, and filth and dirt everywhere. My heart sank. This is what she had chosen? Addiction does not care about clean or dirty. Addiction does not see that as a mother you spend hours trying to clean your home and have beds for children to sleep in and chairs to sit in and a clean floor to walk on and food in the refrigerator. I was taught from a young age by my wise mother - "you don't need money to be clean". Addicition does not allow you to remember what wise words your mother might have taught you. I had told this quote to Paige many times when she was a little girl.

With David's help I bagged up her stuff in about four large garbage bags. There was not one article of clean clothing to be found. I made a pile of things and told the dad living there that he could just throw it away. It was not even worth my time to clean. We got it home. I had David bring everything upstairs for me to start doing the laundry. As I started to sort through things I was so overwhelmed with sadness for this little girl. I started with a dark load. I put the the setting on "sanitize" which is a two hour long cycle. I thought the longer I could wash it the cleaner it would get the better I would start to feel. It didn't help much. This process went on for six more loads. Each load getting lighter in color as I went. I stayed up until about 1:30 this morning working on it. I had four clean tubs to fold and put things away in. The last couple of loads I only did on "kid" cycle - that being only one hour and fifteen minutes. My last load I put in this morning before church (I know it is the sabbath, but I had to get the rest of the smell gone) - it was a small white load. I did not realize how little she had that was white. Pure, clean - those words kept going through my head. It did not come out that clean - a dingy grey whiteish color. There I had done it. All she had was now as clean as I could get it and stored in four tubs and one laundry basket. This morning I went with David and visited her. She looked so skinny and scared. Her face and eyes swollen from tears. I was taken back by what she had on - a striped uniform. My mind immediately went to some bad movie scene where they all wear striped uniforms and are telling everyone "they didn't do it". Her dad did most of the talking. I was afraid to talk that I would not be able to hold back the tears. I wanted to be strong. Not for her but for David. He has had the opportunity as bishop to visit several people in jail before. This was different. I listened to her as she tried to explain how she had gotten to this place and how much she finally realized what everyone had been warning her about. That if she kept making the choices she was making she would end up like this. I thought of the dirty clothes, the dirty house, the lies, the secrets, it kept swirling around in my head as I listened to conversation mostly one sided from her dad. She wanted to be held, loved, forgiven, and told everything was going to be alright. But between us was glass and wire. No touching, no loving - just listening and talking. I did not say much at all. I think David was worried about me, he offered to leave if I wanted to talk to her alone. I told him no. Then the sound over the PA: Weitzel back to your cell, time to go. She lost it. I can't do this she said - you have to her dad said. I got up, Paige, I love you, I believe in you, you will figure this out! were the words that came out of my mouth. Tears flowed freely now, David cried, Paige touched the glass - mom she said. "I know" is all that I could get out of my mouth. We left. No words all the way home. That dingy white load in my dryer is all I could think of. How could or maybe the better question - would Paige get clean again? I know how it works, but will she figure it out? will she ever see herself as the Savior does and know that there will be hours ahead of her on the "sanitize" cycle. She has lots of steps to take but does not need to take them alone. He will take that dirty, dingy white and make it whole again if she will do what she needs to. I cannot do that cleaning for her, she has to do it herself. But I know now I can stand beside her and guide her if she wants me to be there. I have forgiven her for what she as done to me. But now she needs to start forgiving herself and move forward. David told her that. I loved what he said, " You can't change what has been, but look toward the future to what has not happened yet and how will you make that better? It isn't written yet. You can make it better than the previous day. Do it, do it Paige". She has time now. Lots of time to read and pray and work some things out spiritually. My mind was racing with all of this as I went to teach the sunbeam class. My new calling now at church -the sunbeam class. How I loved them today as I looked in their eyes and saw Paige when she was three.

I washed my hands a lot last night and this morning as I was doing the dirty laundry. Each time I could smell the soap so fresh and clean on my hands. Paige can be fresh and clean again like when she was three but she will need more than soap - the Savior - He will help her and all I can do now is pray along with everyone else who loves her and wants her healthy and happy again. I feel His spirit as I pray, the comfort he gives me I know He is giving to her. That gives my JOY!

Sunshine

2010-03-31T19:46:00.001-07:00

Far away, there in the sunshine

are my highest aspirations. I

may not reach them, but I

can look up and see their

beauty, believe in them, and

try to follow where they lead.

(Louise May Alcott)

Being a mother is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. Trying to please everyone, love everyone and be there for everyone is not an easy task. That said, for me being a mother is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I have had my share of heartache and disappointment but for the most part joy has filled my life. As I try to achieve all that I want to be as a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, wife, grandmother, and friend, I know I will not reach my highest aspirations on my own. Thank goodness Heavenly Father did not leave us to do this job alone. I have been studying a lot this year the women in the scriptures. I am amazed at their stories and sometimes at the lack of story that we have for them. I learn from them and they have become my heroes. I am so blessed to be born in this time and in this place to have the fullness of the gospel to teach me how to achieve all my potential. When I think I can't do it anymore, I just have to look around me at the beauty that Heavenly Father has surrounded me with. I need to notice the beauty and take it in and let it lead me where I can find the strength to do it all. I am not perfect. I have made a lot of mistakes but He knew I would. He knew what would bring me joy and peace. Children teach us as much as we teach them. I hope that I can take the lessons learned and 'ameliorate' myself as I walk this journey here on earth. I am grateful that I am a woman and very grateful I have been blessed to be a mother. He is counting on me to do the best job I can despite my weaknesses. He will make me strong. My heart is full as of late with all these thoughts and questions. I have found the answers for me as I have looked towards Him. I can do this task that is given me with love in my heart and joy in my actions. It may be the hardest thing I have ever done but for now I will "look up and see the beauty and believe".

Guatemala Trip

2010-03-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

Finally, I have a few minutes to post about our wonderful trip. It has been a hectic two weeks since we have been back. I haven't had time to sit for even a minute. But I finally got all the pictures downloaded and somewhat organized. So here goes the picture tour of our trip!

We arrived in Guatemala City late Saturday night. Sunday we went to church in a small ward building that was right next door to the temple. That was really special. The meeting was all in Spanish so our guide (David) kept some notes and let us know a summary of what the talks were. I was pretty close to the general meaning of things with the little Spanish I know. David (my David) was quite surprised that what I had told him matched closely to what David told us. (I can tell this is going to be completely confusing with both of the David's.)

That night we flew to Flores. We visited Mayan ruins there and saw some very beautiful sights. You can see the volcanoes that we flew over at sunset. David was going crazy in the plane when he saw this. He just loves this kind of stuff! The picture with the Guatemalan lady in it was at a place we bought some souvenirs. She was doing a lot of the making of things there.

Here are pictures of some of the ruins and Mayan temples that we visited. The history of these people fascinated me. David (our guide) did a very good job of tying in their culture with some of the Book of Mormon things we study. That for me was the best part of the trip, all of the classes and learning we got to do along with all the hiking and exploring.

The top row of pictures shows an underground hole that was found near the living structures. Even though the hole was only big enough for Mark (one of the guys with us) could crawl down into what was underneath was amazing. A large enough room to store food and things that needed to be refrigerated. It was their natural refrigerator. I thought how did animals stay out of their stuff but then decided not to worry about it and be grateful for my refrigerator at home!

This set of pictures shows the view from the tops of the temples we climbed. Two of the temples had wooden stairs along side them for us to climb. I think one of them had two hundred stairs. The temple in Lamanoi we could climb the face of still. That was scary coming down from. They say going up is all physical and coming down is all mental. They were not lying about that. Dave kept saying how glad he was not to be worrying about Noah running up and down the steps! I definitely do not think Chad would have even tried it. But I have to say the view from the top was some of the prettiest scenes of the whole trip so very worth the hike up and frightening climb down!

Here are some pictures of the local wildlife. I was overwhelmed at the beauty of the animals. All of these pictures except the Jaguar, parrot, and crocodile were out in the jungles that we hiked in. I have many more pictures of birds, and lizards and other creepy crawling things. We were always on the lookout for a crocodile. We traveled on several rivers and there was always a chance we would see one but no such luck. We went to the Belize Zoo and saw many more animals native to the area and a lot of them were very similar to the ones here in North America.

The sunsets were amazing! I loved watching the sun going down. It did seem to go down a lot earlier than we are used to. The one picture is the front of the very steep climb up the front of the temple in Lamanoi. Thank goodness for the rope to hold on to for the climb down. Not everyone used it, but I felt much better holding on to it.

We went to a Howler monkey reserve. The guide there had worked for over ten years with this little family of howler monkeys and called them down out of the trees for us. The one climbing on Dave's head ate a banana out of my hand. Dave has that on video. The two mamas had little babies on their backs. It is hard to see in the pictures. The one monkey with his back to us is the daddy of the group. They are very territorial so the howling is used to let predators know they are in their space. It sounds very scary - like huge. big lion roaring - but the biggest they get is about 22 lbs. So there bark is definitely bigger than their bite!

The last day we went snorkeling in the Kayes. We took a 23 mile boat ride from Belize City out to the Islands. The water was so beautiful and clear. We snorkeled with the sharks, stingrays, and a variety of beautiful fish! I loved it. I did get a sunburn on my shoulders, I did put lots of sunblock on but I guess not enough. Other than that everything was perfect.

We also went cave tubing and ziplinning. We enjoyed many good eating experiences. Local restaurants as well as the hotel cuisine. We shopped at a local grocery store and I have to say the most shocking thing was the price of ice cream. American the cheapest was $18.00 for a half gallon. The most expensive was around $35.00. At that price it would cure me of all my ice cream cravings! One of the first reats we bought ourselves back in the states was an ice cream at the airport. In the evenings we swam in the hotel pool, played ball in the pool, played card games, dice games and just enjoyed each others company. Every day was filled to the fullest with activities and fun. I am so grateful for the wonderful surprise that David and I got. One night for dessert a large chocolate cake came to our table with the words "Happy Anniversary David and Candice". Then we received the most beautiful bouquet of red roses and white daisy's. I hope all our friends know how much we appreciated that gesture and how special it made our trip. This was a once in a life time experience and I am so glad we decided to go!

Going on a trip!!!

2010-02-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow David and I leave on our anniversary trip! (Yes, 30 years in June) I am so excited! Can you tell! I have been packed now for over a week. I have never packed early before. I usually pack as I am getting ready to go out the door. I know, not very organized and I usually forget something. But not this time. We are headed for Guatemala and Belize. We get to go with some pretty awesome people. Friends from church who are going to help make this trip incredible!

So today I doing all the last minute getting things in order and all the information to all the people helping out with the kiddos and I come home to find a cute little something from my secret sister! How fun was that! We have been doing this for Relief Society this month and I am so excited about the things I am doing for my secret sister and so excited about getting things from a secret sister. I love, love what she made. I will share after I get back from my trip! Did I mention yet I am going on a trip?

Tonight Autumn crawled into my bed very dirty from playing outside all afternoon in the warm winter/spring sun. I, of course, made her get out and take a bath. She almost fell asleep in the bath tub. It was cute. When she came in my room I was listening to the news getting ready to watch the Olympics and she said "I don't really like the news much, they talk a lot. I like it better when they just show pictures and don't do so much talking." She cracks me up. Then she said she did not want us to leave and that she planned on staying in my bed for the whole time I was gone and maybe even two more days after we got back. She said, "Your bed is just so cuddly and who would ever want to get out of it? So I think I will just stay here until you and dad get back." Again, I am cracking up!

So for the next little while I will be signed off the computer and enjoying the sights and sounds of a far off place. I am so excited! I will share pictures and stories of this incredible adventure we get to go on upon our return. So for tonight, I have to celebrate by having a bowl of Dreyer's chocolate brownie 1/2 the fat ice cream with the girls as a special treat! Who knows if there is ice cream where we are going? I'm going on a trip........can you tell I 'm excited?

The kitchen drawer

2010-02-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

The front of one of my kitchen drawers came off this morning. Actually it was pulled off by Chad. It has been trying to break for quite some time and I knew it was not long when I opened the drawer this morning. I had specifically told Chad, "Be careful, this thing is going to break and I want dad to fix it". Well, I guess he didn't know his own strength because when the drawer would not open easily he pulled harder and the whole front came off. I was so mad! I had just told this kid to be careful and I felt he was not. So out the door he went to school with a lecture from me on the value of money and how much things cost and how he could at least have tried to be careful. He just rolled his sixteen year old eyes and acted not the least bit sorry and said that it was not his fault and I should not yell at him about it. (I always feel I am not yelling just talking loud:) This was not the way I wanted him to go out the door this morning. We have been trying for the month of February to be kind and say loving things to each other. It has been hard. The children seem to be not working as hard at it as I had hoped. I have been trying. This morning I just let it go. He was going to hear what I had to say and yet the more I talked the more he tuned me out. All morning I have been thinking of how I could have handled the situation differently. I know how I could have said what I wanted to say in a kinder way. I love this kid. He does try to be good and he does so much for me. The drawer is not worth me having ruined my morning over. I know Chad is not thinking of it anymore. That is the wonderful thing about being 16. Life is not about a kitchen drawer right now. His worries are much greater in his mind as he figures out life and school. I sometimes wish they could skip this part and just head right into their grownup life. So many mistakes could be avoided if they skipped this part. But that is not how it works. Mistakes are going to be made and lessons learned that can not be learned any other way. The broken drawer is not necessarily one of the lessons he has to learn. It is one for me this morning. One of patience and love that could have been said rather than the way I acted. I realize that all ages in our life are learning ages. I should have learned this one many years ago. Yet, I have to learn it again today. I love this little boy who really is not a little boy anymore. He really did not wake up this morning thinking, "I am going to break something today - I bet it would really be fun to break the kitchen drawer!" I know he woke up worrying about his classes and homework that needs to be finished and all the rest that goes with a day in high school. I know he loves me - despite my temporary loss of self control to not get angry over a silly drawer. This is going to be a better day for the lesson I learned this morning. I hope his day goes well with what he has to learn today. Sorry Chad, Love you!

Saturday ramblings

2010-02-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I have not posted in so long. I have been busy, but really nothing more than the normal busy. I have lots I could have been writing about. Trips to the coast, trips with friends, shopping with friends, funny things the kids have said and done, great FHE lessons that have been happening, things the kids have been doing in school, projects I have been working on, dates with David, some of the fun reading I have been doing, lessons I have been teaching at church (seminary and relief society), all my running and exercising. So it is not that there has not been things to write about. I have been in a little funk since November. It was not the holidays. They were great! It turned out to be a very happy holiday season. I traveled and saw extended family and the children were all together with us for Christmas. So I just don't know what it is.

I was sitting here reading "crafting" blogs and finishing off a small (very small) container of Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice cream when I thought I needed to write something today. But I don't know what is worth writing about. So while my life has been very full and busy these last few months my heart has been heavy with worry for Paige. That must be what I am supposed to be writing about right now.

She is in a bad way again and things just don't seem to be getting better for her. I know it is her choices. Maybe that is what the funk is all about. As a "mother who knows" when one of your little ones strays so far from all that they were taught it is hard not to have a heavy heart for them. I do all that I am supposed to and even a little more to make up for what I am lacking in some areas and yet I feel like I am spinning in circles when it comes to this one little baby girl of mine. My head knows all the right things to do and my heart even allows me to follow through with the consequences that have to be dished out and even though for this time how the situation is with her needs to be what it is; I still long for peace for her so I can have peace. I watch other families and moms as they cope with life with children and I think I am doing pretty good most of the time. But until things are at a good place with Paige I think I will have a small cloud over me. I can tell you though that I allow the sun to shine through that cloud or should I say "son". My faith is stronger than ever. My hope is greater than ever and my love for her is just as full as when she was first laid in my arms. I am able to do this because of that Son who went through all of this for me so I could lay it at his feet. I am not unique with the situation that I deal with but sometimes I do feel alone. So as I write this I know what the funk I am in is all about. I know how to fix it. I need to write about all the "busy" in my life more regularly so I can see all that is good. I need to not let so much time go by before I write or journal things. A good reason for keeping up on my blog. Even though I write in this format so that my family can be caught up on everything going on here at our home, I write so I can see what is good and joyous going on at our home. I can use these writings now whereas my children might use them later when they have their families. What a wise Heavenly Father for having the prophets teach about keeping journals. I have been studying about the women in the scriptures and realize that their struggles and heartaches parallel mine. What I am learning is so wonderful yet I am sure if another women read the same thing she would learn for herself a different lesson. I am glad we have their writings to learn from.

I have a relief society project to work on this afternoon so I should be getting to it. I feel the darkness of the cloud lifting even though the cloud will still hang over. Life is good! I am so glad I have eleven wonderful children to teach me how to be an eternal mother. Even though the lessons are hard some times, they are so worth every moment I have to learn from them! That is how I see today "through a mother's eyes".

Taylor and Hayden celebrate their birthdays

2010-01-28T13:46:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to my two January girls! Hayden turned 9 on the 16th and Taylor turned 11 on the 26th. For Hayden we were at the coast so we celebrated there with a birthday breakfast. They came and sang happy birthday to her and gave her a balloon. She was so surprised. We went shopping and she picked out a complete outfit and then also bought some things from bath and body works. She claims that is her favorite store! It was a great day shopping with her. For Taylor we went to the movies and she waited until evening to open her gifts. We had our family party on Sunday and everyone came for dinner. It was fantastic! The children were all so happy and it was fun to get to talk to all of them and have cake and ice cream. My little girls are getting so grown-up. I am so excited for the year ahead and all the fun things they get to experience as a 9 and 11 year old! Love you girls, Happy Birthday!

Breakfast conversation with Autumn

2010-01-25T09:03:00.001-08:00

David had an interesting conversation yesterday morning at breakfast with this little one.

Autumn: "Dad, why aren't you a millionaire? Dad, how can you become a millionaire?"

David: "Well, Autumn, I would have to be smarter, work harder and be gone all the time. In fact, you kids would never see me."

Without missing a beat -

Autumn: "That's OK dad, we have pictures of you!"

David did all he could do to keep from choking on his cereal. After a few minutes he asked her,

David: "If I was never home how would I get the money to all of you?"

Again, without missing a beat -

Autumn: "We have mail!

I just started laughing when I heard this conversation. How does a six year old be so witty and make everything seem so simple?

I learned a new word...

2010-01-05T18:15:00.000-08:00

I learned a new word today.

ameliorate: verb, to make or become better, more bearable, or more satisfactory;improve.

I have been thinking a lot about my word for the year. I have had it on my mind for a couple of months and thought I knew what I wanted it to be this year. I have also been thinking about goals and setting some new ones. But today as I was cleaning and putting Christmas away I really did not want to make new goals or resolutions.

President Brigham Young said that the Lord “gives a little to his humble followers today, and if they improve upon it, tomorrow he will give them a little more, and the next day a little more. He does not add to that which they do not improve upon” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe [1941], 90)

I just love that quote! My thoughts of the past couple of months of my new word have gone right out the window. I will save that one for another time. What I want to do this year is IMPROVE or AMELIORATE! I want the Lord to add to what I have. How can I ask for more when I have not done what I have been asked to do in the first place? Interesting how my prayer of late has been "to please show me how to follow Him better" and this word comes into my life today- ameliorate. I find this quote today. I understand more today. I think in my study today I IMPROVED a little more by keeping His thoughts in my thoughts.

So this year no list of new goals, no New Year's resolutions that go by the wayside in a few weeks anyway, no new added things to my list that is already so long that there is no way I could ever get anything new done. I am going to IMPROVE on what I already have, IMPROVE on what I already know, IMPROVE on my studies, prayers, church worship, temple attendance, and being a good friend, wife and mother!
If you have not guessed by now my word for the year -IMPROVE (ameliorate)

First winter's snow

2009-12-29T19:23:00.001-08:00

We did not get a white Christmas but that was OK. It made things easier for all that needed to be done for the holidays. So just imagine how surprised we were to see snow this afternoon.

This first thing Autumn wanted to do was go out and play in it. I made her wait to make sure it was going to stick. Of course it is going to stick around she said. She said she had been praying for snow all week! The weather reports just said it was going to rain. When David called from work he said it was snowing there and had traffic all tied up in town.

They played outside for a couple of hours and came in freezing cold. It is still snowing outside a little and looks like at least four to five inches are out there in the backyard. I just love it when it does this and there is no where or anything important I have go do. Chad was so funny. He did not want anyone to "mess" it up with footprints or play in it. He says he just loves how fresh snow looks when it is so clean and white. I don't blame him. The first snow of the season is always magical!

A Very Different Christmas Eve

2009-12-29T18:57:00.001-08:00

Christmas eve was very different this year. Don't get me wrong it was wonderful but different. When you are used to lots of kids and lots of chaos and lots of noise, only having 5 of those kids home on Christmas eve is just different. We had a wonderful time. When David got home we went out looking at lights as usual and doing some secret service projects we had planned. (Santa's elves were working over time this year;)) Then home and the making of hot chocolate and snowman donuts. We left one for Santa this year instead of the usual cookies and milk. It was so quiet. The children went right to bed and with no fuss they were asleep in no time. David and I did not know what to do with ourselves as everything had been ready to go for a week now. We watched a movie and then around 12:30 we set the gifts out. At 6:30 I got up to put the ham in but everyone stayed asleep until Ashleigh and Nick got out here. Typically everyone comes home and spends the night together all in one room. That did not happen this year so we had to wait for everyone to come over. The plan was to be here by 7:00 but by 8:00 everyone was finally here.

We opened presents, had a wonderful breakfast and then played and sat around and enjoyed each other's company.

Andrew left to get Luke and by the time he got back all the older children had left. We opened gifts with Luke and then they went home to finish their Christmas and David and I then did something we have never done before. We left to go to a movie! Just the two of us. That was a gift to ourselves. It was fun to go on a date on Christmas but kind of weird at the same time. The children loved it because they could play their new Wii to their hearts content. I don't even think they noticed much that we left for a few hours. It was nice to spend time with David. He has worked so hard this season - harder than past years - so he really enjoyed some alone time with me. But I do have to say it was a very different Christmas. I guess I never knew how it would be when kids were grown. I guess it is a sign of Christmas's to come. I will have to get used to it - but I am sure as more grandchildren come along a new tradition of things will settle in here at our home. I look forward to the change of things - but still no noise and no constant begging of the children to stay in bed on Christmas eve is just weird!

Happy Birthday Noah!

2009-12-24T09:51:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Noah turned 14! All he has wanted for two years now is an electric guitar. He has been learning on an acoustic one that is Chad's. I wanted to be sure he was serious about this music thing and he has been. It is amazing how much he has learned from the books I got him and the Internet. This year he has been feeling a little left out as far as birthdays go. He talked to me a lot how he felt that it just got blended into Christmas. I don't blame him and we have tried over the years to make it special for him but he seemed so sad about it this year. I told David we had to do something really special and completely unexpected. I had told him a guitar was out of the question and to quit bothering me about it. He never did quit asking though. We got a great deal on this one so went for it. David did a treasure hunt with clues for him early in the morning during scripture time. He was getting frustrated until he saw what he had gotten! He was so surprised and David said he had never seen such a big smile on his face before. He literally played that thing all day. We had planned to go to zoo lights after dinner with Toshia and her family as part of his birthday. Well, when we got there only thousands of other people had decided to do the same thing. There was no parking and when we went to where the shuttle was there was over an hour wait for the the shuttle. We decided to go to Krispy Kreme and have hot chocolate and donuts. When I told him how sorry I was for not getting to see the lights he said, "What, this is so much better. I am warm, not having to walk all over and I get one of my favorite treats!" I guess sometimes what we think we are doing for them we are doing for ourselves. I guess I wanted the lights - oh well, he had the best birthday ever!!!!

A few catch up thoughts

2009-12-15T14:13:00.000-08:00

Catching up on the last few weeks is something I have been meaning to do for a few days now. I have been very busy since the end of November. I flew to California for my niece's wedding on Thanksgiving. I went with Toshia and Jonathan and at the last minute Autumn got to go with us. We had a great time. The wedding was wonderful - the only exception I guess would be that it rained the day of the wedding. She had planned an out door reception but that got cancelled and moved to the stake center. For all the hurrying around getting things moved I felt it all turned out beautiful. We got to spend some time with family and catch up a little with nieces and their families. I had a great run with Kelly the morning of the wedding. I miss being closer physically to all of them but I am grateful for the time of technology and that I can keep up with everyone that way as well. Still nothing is quite the same as a face to face visit. After getting home I have been working on lots of projects and things for Christmas. I had aprons to make for a friends granddaughters. Five in all. Then the Relief Society progressive dinner to get ready for. A cookie exchange party to bake for and shopping to get done before the Weitzel family Christmas dinner. That will be held here this year. So on top of all of the trying to decorate the house (and clean) so it will be ready for all of the events of the season.

Two Saturdays ago we went to get our tree. We got a twelve foot one and put it upstairs this year. We have vaulted ceilings so I have to say it looks marvelous. The children did a fantastic job of getting it decorated. I seem to always let them do it - they have so much fun. I have stopped trying to go back when they are done and "fix it". It is their tree so I let it be. I get a couple of other trees to decorate the way I want so I am happy to let them have those memories.

David and I got most of the shopping done last Saturday. We made a day of it. We ended up getting just about all of it done and so now I have just a few presents left to get the the older kids. I have a couple nightgowns left to make and few presents for friends left to get or finish up. Hopefully all will be done this week. I have a few lunches planned with friends so some of it might have to happen next week when the kids are out of school. Last night for FHE we talked about our "service" for Jesus. The kids really took to it with very cheerful attitudes. Lots of secret service was going on last night before bed. Next week we will be giving out our "Christmas Jar". David, myself and all the children have been putting all of our loose change and bottle money in a jar to give away this year. The kids can hardly wait to see how much they have collected and who we will give it away to. It has been a fun project that we have worked on all year long.

This weekend is the ward Christmas party and our family has a big role in that. I think it is big - the kids are excited to dress up and be the nativity. Or should I say "activity" as Autumn calls it. Then Sunday night is the Weitzel family party. December has turned into quite the "activity" month for us. I love that the weather has been cold but not icy and snowy. I feels so much like Christmastime when it is cold. Although there have been some really hard things going on within our little family I am excited for this time of year and have a peaceful and hopeful attitude as I remember the birth of Jesus Christ and the great gift of love he gave to all of us. I am so excited for the next couple of weeks and the fun we are going to have!!!

Happy Birthday Autumn

2009-11-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday was Autumn's 6th birthday! I have a hard time believing that my baby is 6 years old! But 6 she is and boy was it fun to share not only her birthday but our Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family. On Sunday all the kids (with the exception of Paige) came to the house for the celebration. Saturday was my "Super Saturday" so we decided to have her party on Sunday. We had a wonderful time together as we celebrated her birthday and Thanksgiving. It was the least amount of stress I have had ever doing Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know what made it different other than I let the older children help with some of the dishes. It was nice also to have Ashleigh and Nick come to church with us while Chad was ordained a Priest. The day seemed to go by way to quickly as soon it seemed everyone was leaving and returning back to their busy lives. Autumn loved all the attention and especially loved that Jonathan helped her open her presents. She loves that little boy and was thrilled he payed a lot of attention to her. Happy birthday little girl and I hope you have a wonderful year being 6!

The Lord does answer prayers!

2009-11-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

I have been working on Super Saturday projects for a while now. It is time now as I have gathered all the $$$ to start collecting the materials for the ladies to make their cute crafty things. Yesterday I went to buy the pizza pans from the dollar tree for the advent calendars. Well, there were none to be found. The nice lady at the store said it is an item they usually carry so I could probably buy them online. Well, there were no pizza pans online. So I called stores around our area. No pizza pans. I called Toshia in a panic. This project was the most popular - a lot of ladies wanted their advent calendars. She and I looked up other places online to purchase pizza pans. No luck. I went to bed with lots on my mind - Paige, church stuff, and pizza pans. I woke up at 2:30 in the morning worried. I hate it when I do that. It usually is an indication I am doing to much. I prayed. I mean really prayed hard. I prayed for the family that just lost their sweet baby girl (that was one of the church things) I prayed for Paige - and then at the end of my prayer I just asked that the sweet ladies in our ward be blessed with the pizza pans they needed for Super Saturday. Don't laugh - I know with the other more personal requests I was making I should not bother Him with pizza pans. I went back to bed about 3:00. Just as I was drifting off to sleep "Rite-Aid" popped into my head. That is funny I thought and then fell asleep. This morning I needed to go purchase the wood for the other project we are doing. While driving to the lumber yard I called Toshia and asked her if she thought Rite-Aid would have pizza pans. She looked up online and did not see any and said she did not think so. As I was on my way to presidency meeting I drove past the Rite-Aid store and thought I should stop. What could it hurt. I walked up and down the isles - where would they keep pizza pans in a store like this? I found them - not only the pizza pans but the exact ones that the dollar tree was selling. (I know because I even tried to order direct - I am not a business so could not order) I found out I could order the amount I needed even though they are a little more (not a dollar of course) I ordered them. I am trying to work a deal with the manager. As I was driving to my meeting I just kept thinking - with all I was worrying about and all that the Lord has to do - the one thing he could give me was the pizza pans. I know I have to work on the other things - I have lessons to learn and He is guiding me there as well, but what a tender mercy for me to know that pizza pans are worth an answer from the Lord!

Jonathan turns one and other ramblings

2009-11-01T19:36:00.001-08:00

Jonathan turned one last Friday. We had his party yesterday. What a cutie pie! I cannot believe he is already one! He sure has brought a lot of joy and love to our family. Toshia and Andrew are such cute parents and I love how hard they try to do what is right for their children. We are blessed to have Andrew and the boys be part of our family. I have been thinking a lot lately of all that I am thankful for. Mostly because I knew what we were going to be talking about today in Relief Society and partly because of the time of year it is.

This is the time I usually reflect on all my blessings. Family is on the top of my list. I am also thankful to live in this great country of ours. The freedoms we have that seem to under attack are a great blessing to all of us. I have been studying a lot of things lately and a recent talk by Dallin H Oaks really reminded me of this. I did not realize that as recent as in the 1990's there are still countries that people are fighting for the freedoms that we take for granted every day. We are so blessed to have leaders that remind us of the wonderful blessings we have! I am very thankful that this little man will get to grow up and learn and become whatever he wants to! Little people like Jonathan being raised by righteous parents will do great things for our country!

I know yesterday was halloween and that being my least favorite holiday I did not remember to take pictures of the kids. They did go trick or treating with Toshia and Andrew and Chad and I handed out candy. Hayden was sick so she was very sad she did not get to go out but Jonathan being the charming young man he is gave her his bag of candy (or was it that Toshia did not want all that candy around her house to tempt her????) Speaking of sickness - I hope the older kids do not get what the little girls have had - as a matter of fact I hope I do not get what they had. Well, hope next week will be a better one and that I will get all the things done on my list that is already too long!

A creative weekend

2009-10-27T13:29:00.001-07:00

What do you get when you put a small white vase and a cool looking pink plate together?

You get a cool looking cake plate!

This last Friday I hit some thrift stores and for about $5 I got some really cool things to do some projects with.

I found these hurricane lamp parts for 25 cents each. I make these cute pumpkin candles with them. I also purchased a couple more vases and plates to do other projects with. I have been wanting to make some things for a long time and finally decided this weekend would be my "get some projects done" weekend. I did just that and finished some letters for banners I have been working on. Finished my fall sign -

I am making a sign for all the seasons to hang by my front door. I started with my patriotic one and have my Christmas one done. I have a snowman one to do for January and I think I will do one of hearts for February and then a spring one and maybe a summer one. I have finished all my pay it forward projects and just have to finish delivering those. I am so excited to be creating! Fall does that to me - I just like to stay home and be by the warm fire and make things. I guess it helps that around here the rains come and it gets too cold to be outside so staying inside is bearable when I can make things!

Happy Birthday Chad

2009-10-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Chad my dear. I cannot believe you are sixteen years old! I know I keep saying how I cannot believe how old my children are but when you are living in the moment with them the time just slips by. This young man has such a sweet heart. He is not perfect by any means and has made his share of mistakes but along with that he also has learned many lessons that have helped him grow and become a better person. I love his love of learning. He loves school or at least the learning part of school. He is a fantastic writer and I only wish I could someday write with the same use of language as he does. Chad is good at sports and he really loves and cares for his brothers and sisters. I love you Chad - Happy, Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Seth

2009-10-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Seth turned 22 today. I just love this boy of mine. He works hard - well when he has to - and is such a funny guy. He loves to tease his sisters and he also protects and watches over them. He got his first paid vacation and decided to take his birthday week off. Wish I could take my birthday week off - oh wait, I don't work so I guess I'm off all the time. I really am blessed by this young man and he always surprises me with his wit and sense of humor. Happy Birthday little man - I love you tons!

Happy Birthday Ashleigh

2009-10-18T18:29:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Ashleigh! It was so fun to have our family birthday party today on your birthday! How special was that. I am so proud of how hard you are working and all the time and effort you are putting into your school. You are going to be awesome at your job when you graduate. I can't believe that it is just around the corner. You are an awesome big sister and I love that you help me out so much with the children. You are beautiful and I love you baby girl! Happy Birthday!