New and improved

How cute and professional am I! Jenell and I did it together on the phone and were going to keep it all a secret. She blabbed so if you also want fun new blog theme's and other fun stuff go to her blog she just posted about it. Today we went to our stake pioneer day activity. Other then it being hotter then I expected it was fun. I'll post more later and put pics on about it but am being rushed out the door by my fam.

odds and ends

I can hardly believe that summer is more than half way over. We still need to take our kids camping we have been promising them for like a year. We have been battling a nasty virus so we have been taken it easy this week. Just in case you are wondering I got an A on Jason's
paper! I was so elated, which I could tell made my husband happy since he still has two papers left! Dee moved in a week ago for those who didn't know Dee is my sister-in-law's best friend from BYU who has been living in OR for the last year, she's from TN, anyway she needed a place to stay for a few months. Long story short she's helping us out and we're helping her out for a while. this last weekend all the girls on my mom's side of the fam went to the beach for the annual girls beach trip. It was a lot of fun and was only the second time I have ever left Jason and the kids, last year I went to Raleigh with friends to Time out for Women. The kids had a blast going to the Battle Ground parade and carnival and to the park. Daddy even camped out downstairs with them both nights , which his hips paid for, sorry babe you're getting old! I even came home to dinner and a clean house! Maybe I will write some more of his papers. Anyway if you click on my sis Michelle's blog you can see pics since I left my camera there:( Life is good right now but I am starting to get antsy about the trials yet to come. I am trying to get back on a good schedule to better prepare myself for this next year. Which might be the greatest test of my tolerance yet. Hopefully my past lessons learned will help me through, who am I kidding I am counting on that!

The baby turns 25!

Happy birthday Airbear!
Tomorrow is my baby brother , and the youngest of the eight of us, 25 birthday. Although we can get into it at times we both can talk on the same level and get each others sense of humor. I saved my favorite memory of him for his birthday. When he was little my mom would literally have to restrain me from smothering him in kisses. So when I was in 1st grade we were told to bring in something special or our favorite thing. I knew right away what I'd bring, my 3 year old brother Aaron. I remember having to get permission from both my teacher and my mom. I don't think I knew when I thought of it that it was that special but after all the adults looked like they were going to cry and how cute it was and that it had never been done I began to realize that this show would probably be my best one yet! You have never seen a 6 year old more excited to present a show and tell. I can hardly believe that that was 22yrs ago! Well, have a great weekend and know that your big sis will always have your back and I might have some ladies up here that I could show and tell you to LOL! Love ya lots and am looking forward to some new fun topics like converting you from your liberal ways!

Happy Birthday Unkie!
love Payten, Jackson, Brooklyn, Harrison and Addalyn

Footprints in the sand

Once again my path has crossed a story that has caused me to reflect on life's precious joys. My sister Jenell got the link from her niece in Utah and she warned me of the sadness that it would bring but I had no choice I was drawn to the story and now I will share the link with you www.babymckallister.blogspot.com. I must tell you before hand it is about the death of a baby two days before his due date. But please don't let the shear heartbreak of this story stop you because the words written on the blog are so perfect and done so much out of love that I truly believe that the spirit guided every word. There is no words to express the sorrow this young couple must feel but their testimony and faith of the plan of salvation is truly an example to everyone that reads their story. Having an eternal family and perspective has never brought me to my knees quicker out of pure thankfulness for the opportunity we all have to be with our loved ones again. The temple covenants will never be seen as just a temperal step again how blessed we are to know that through those blessed promises we can see our loved ones again. I hope that everyone that reads the story will gain a better perspective of how much our Heavenly Father loves us by giving us the opportunity to be together again. And that we can all learn to recognize all the blessings we have around us and that this life is not the final destination. I know that I have held my kids a little tighter since reading it. I know we've all heard this poem but in this case it again brought me comfort because I am sure that there is only one set of footprints behind them.

Footprints

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed He was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from His life. For each scene He noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One belonging to Him and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of His life flashed before Him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of His life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of His life.

This really bothered Him and He questioned the LORD about it. LORD you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.

The LORD replied, my precious, precious child, I Love you and I would never leave you! During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.

---

Carolyn Carty, 1963

Memory blog

Do you remember the time....

I saw this on a blog that I stumbled across and thought it looked fun.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. I think it will be pretty fun to see the responses.

I surrender

So the white flag is being flown on my blog. Wow, umm, where do I begin. well i stand by my earlier post but i think that people did not understand where it came from so everyone jumped to conclusions about why and who it was about. The fact is Everyone including myself is to blame, well no one is really at fault, I just was having a moment of frustration that stemmed from lots of places and it was about me transitioning from expectations and ideals about life that I am trying to make more realistic. I love and cherish my family if I didn't I would not care enough to feel hurt and frustrated sometimes. We are like many other families we don't always see eye to eye but we always make up quickly and rarely ever let things drag on. But unlike some we tend to be a little combative and shall we say bullheaded. we are not a quiet family and really I love that about us we have some of the best conversations but I think part of where I was coming from earlier was that we have all been quietly slipping into our own individual lives too much and I have seen from so many other families that once you go down that road you never really come back. I'm not exactly sure how the post got so far out of hand and when I mean out of hand I mean OUT OF HAND!!! I do want those that were most hurt to know that I truly am sorry it was not my intention, or have i ever intended, to make those i love feel as though they are not good enough or unappreciated in anyway. The fact of the matter is that sometimes i allow hurt feelings to build inside me and sometimes my cup runs over and now I have an outlet to release them a little. Ok so maybe they exploded out more then they should of but until recent events I thought only about four people were reading them anyway. I can't promise that everything I posts will always make people happy but i will never leave a vague post that my loved ones will have to wonder if it is about them. From now on I will name names and most likely I will name Aaron,LOL. I'm kidding about that but this has brought new clarity into my mind and with conflict can come change and in this case it has hopefully all been for the good. So I completely took that last line from the paper that I just wrote for Jason's sociology class let me tell you it was the hardest paper I have ever written and yes before you ask I write Jason's paper's when I'm ale but none have ever been this hard for me. I spent 7 hours on that paper and let me tell you I have never hated every minute of something more, ok it was barely second to morning sickness, but like morning sickness the outcome is so worth it.

Find the right spot

Has anyone else ever gone to www.findyourspot.com. It has you answer questions and tells you where you should move. Jason and I have always had fun on this website. Recently we have been pondering where we'd want to live. I really don't want to pack up again but with the way this economy is going it might be worth going somewhere cheaper. We have also been tossing around the idea of having Jason be a traveling nurse and going to some fun locations like Hawaii! With homeschooling we do have more leeway to do that. Who knows what we'll do next year mostly it is fun to explore different options because i have to always have to have at least plan A, B and C. Plus it takes the stress of worrying about the daily grind of getting through this year if we have fun things to look forward to. Of course I'm sure we can find fun things to look forward to right here. I do love many things about living in the NW I'm just not positive if this is where I'm suppose to be forever. I'm sure though that this is where we are suppose to be right now though. So who knows maybe we'll go to Alaska to make some good money or maybe Hawaii. To bad it cost so much to live there. Maybe I'll just send Jason ,LOL ,just kidding! How fair would that be. Well whatever we do I'm sure it will be the right spot for us.