The Best Date

Paul and i were able to sneak in a date on Saturday and headed out on the golf course - our favorite date.  We went to Mulligans on a gorgeous fall evening.  I love that we can be out there together but don't have to play against each other.  I probably had the best game of my life tho - we ended up tied on the 8th hole.  We didn't get to finish the scoring because we played the 9th  hole in the dark and lost our balls.

After golf we went over to Market Street for another favorite - a bowl of clam chowder and sourdough bread.  That's all we get and its so yummy (I'm sure the server doesn't love us but we still tip well).

the sunset was beautiful

Momentum

Last week I took Taylor and his friend to Momentum, an indoor climbing place.  I had a groupon that was expiring that day and they needed to finish the scout climbing merit badge.  They started it at scout camp but due to weather they didn't get to do the actual climbing.  So after some basic instruction from a staff member they went to work on doing all the climbing and belaying they needed to - and some more just for fun.

They seemed to have a good time and it was fun to watch them.  Taylor's friend is all set to head back there for his birthday.

Some Good Mail

What a joy it was to receive this postcard in the mail. Thank goodness for a teacher taking time to send us this good news.

Personal Progress

My calling is to be the Personal Progress advisor for our young women.  Most of the time I feel like I am failing miserably but occasionally I feel like I am getting something done with the yw.
Last Sunday we were so lucky to have a tri-stake fireside where Sister Elaine Dalton was the speaker.  She IS AMAZING!  Almost all of our yw were there and we got there early and were sitting right up front - right in front of her :)
She told several amazing stories and gave lots of advice to all of us.  Some of her thoughts:

• Personal Progress can strengthen mother/daughter relationships
• Her wish for all yw is to be worthy to go to the temple
• She asked several yw want they wanted to be when they grow up and only 1 yw said "to be a mother."  She told the girls we should ALL want that - to be a mother in Zion.
• The Lord sends her around the world for ONE girl.
• It is important to be a Latter Day Saint - you never know who is watching
• Fight the war with your testimonies
• Stand as a witness at all times, in all places and in all PROM DRESSES
• General Conf - make a list of things you are going to DO.  Make a change. Take action
• You won't fit in ... you can't fit in ... you can't lead fitting in.  A leader has to be different

Thanks to Jenny for sharing her notes.  I took notes but they were in a letter to Justin and I forgot to copy them before mailing his letter.

After the fireside Sister Dalton stayed for over 1 1/2 hours and shook hands with everyone who wanted to meet her.  And she didn't just shake hands - she talked to the girls and was so genuine.

One yw in our ward is a recent convert and just moved here from Russia with her mom.  She is a gem!  She came up to me after the fireside and said "can we meet on Tues about personal progress"  I felt so bad because all summer I was supposed to meet with her and tell her about PP.

So I met with her and her mom on Tues night and it was so great to meet with such a valiant young woman. She is already doing most of PP on her own and she didn't even know it.  Since she is 16 I told her she doesn't have to do it all - but she wants to do it all!  She's already doing 3 projects but didn't know they were projects :)

As long as I was out, I met with another young woman new to our ward that night too.  She is a new Beehive and after 6 months has several value experiences already done.  She is a perfect example of doing PP with her mother.  I'd taught a lesson on Sunday on Faith value exp #6 and the homework was to teach the plan of salvation to someone and she'd actually done it with her mom the night before.

Young women like this make my job easy.

Now if I can just reach out to the girls who really do need my help.

Family Field Trip

last week i took Jared and Kamryn on a little field trip.

That's what we told their school.

My dad was able to come with us too.

They were ok to drive up to Brigham City because they could watch Pooh Bear in the van.

We went on a Wednesday morning and I thought it wouldn't be very crowded

since it was early in the morning and a school day

It wasn't crowded but there were a lot more people there than I expected

We didn't have to wait very long at all to get in to see the movie

and then tour the temple

Jared and Kamryn were very impressed,

especially with all the beautiful chandeliers

A funny little story:

When we were finished touring the temple and we ended up in the area where they had the water bottles and cookies, Jared said "oh we've done this before, I remember having the cookies but we didn't go in the temple."  I told him he did go in the temple when we toured the Draper and Oquirrh temples but all he remembers are the cookies.  Good thing they have cookies at the open houses.

It was definitely worth driving up to Brigham City to tour the temple.  It was beautiful and there was such a strong spirit in the temple.  It was great to be there with my dad and 2 of my kids (Taylor had gone with the youth on our youth conf and Brooke went with her student ward).

Back in Time

Yesterday I went back in time - to my middle school, to be specific.  As a TEACHER this time.  How crazy is that.  I was a sub for the 8th grade honors english teacher.  It was a super easy day and I thank Mrs V for that - 4 of the 7 classes were taking an SRI test in the library.  The other 3 classes just had an assignment to work on.  She teaches 7 classes - no prep period - crazy!  And 4 of her classes have 39 students each.
It was interesting to be on the other side in the school this time - checking out the faculty lunch room where they have their own vending machines.  It also made me think of when I was in 8th grade and had the most awesome English teacher - Mrs Simper.  I wonder where she is now.

Fun FHE

tonight was a great FHE - we have a small family now with Justin gone on his mission and Brooke away at college.  so its just Taylor, Jared and Kamryn with me and dad.  We have had some good lessons the last couple of weeks starting to prepare Jared and Kamryn for getting baptized.  Tonight we had a short lesson given by Dad about prayer.  We told J & K about an experience Taylor had when he was about six while we were living in Phoenix.  We had a gas stove there and it frequently wouldn't light.  I was frustrated with it and trying to make dinner.  Taylor left the kitchen and was gone for just a few minutes.  He came back and said "you can turn it on now Mom" so I tried it and it lit.  He said he'd gone in his room and said a prayer that it would work and it did.  J & K were very impressed with that story.  Taylor said that is his personal keystone.  Jared went on to tell that he said he prayed this morning that he would have a good day and he did.  I LOVE the faith of children.  We need to be more like them.
After our lesson we all played UNO Attack.  It was very fun and Jared won.  He was so excited.  It was really fun to play a game together because J & K are finally old enough that we can really play games together.

Things I've learned

A couple of things I've learned in the last day:

• there is a much easier way to get photos from my phone to my computer.  I'm not great about learning new things on computers and tend to do things the hard way.  I've been emailing my phone pictures to myself so I can then download them and then post them on to my blog.  Someone recently mentioned syncing your phone to your computer and transferring your photos that way. Duh!  Why had I never thought of that.  So last night I easily transferred all my photos to my extra hard drive and now it will be so much easier to post photos on my blog.
• that I can make bread first thing in the morning and have it out of the oven by 9 am.  I've been meaning to make bread for over a week now and just wasn't getting to it.  I had to make it this morning because Brooke was going to be home this afternoon and I wanted her to be able to have some to take home.  So I started making it as soon as I got back from exercising and it was out of the oven by 9!  Definitely the way to do it - first thing in the morning.

Labor Day

One of my new goals is to post more often, whether i have pictures to go with the post or not.
Today was a great holiday - great because I love Monday holidays and the extra long weekend.  We stayed up late last night watching The Great Sugar Bowl of 2009 where Utah beat up on Alabama.  We were able to purchase it on iTunes after the game and now that we have an iPad we can hook that up to the stereo and watch the game on the TV!  Great memories of watching that game.
So we stayed up late and then had to get up early cuz it was our family's turn to do flags in the neighborhood.  That is how our ward works it out - families of the youth take turns doing parts of the neighborhood flags on a couple of holidays a year.  It works out great.  I drove the truck while Paul and Taylor put up the flags.  It was kind of nice to get an early start on the day off - so we could labor :)
I've made myself crazy lately with big home projects and we are finally getting to end of this latest phase of craziness.
With Justin being gone on his mission and now Brooke away to college, I've felt very strongly that I wanted the 3 kids upstairs, close to me :)  So that's meant some moving around.  We moved the twins to Brooke's old room because its bigger.  And then I somehow convinced Taylor to move upstairs to a smaller room, because I don't want him down in the corner of the basement all alone.  I want him close to me.  So, luckily he agreed.  And with all this room moving around I had to do some painting - Taylor's room, and got new carpet - hall and all 3 bedrooms on the main floor.  What a pain but so worth it!  I love the new carpet and how it makes the rooms so much more cozy and inviting.
So today I've been working on trying to get everyone all settled into their "new" rooms.  Taylor is all done moving.  His old room downstairs is now FULL of stuff - all the stuff that used to be in our storage room because Paul is finishing off half that area for an office for me (so that the area where my office stuff is now can go back to being a ping pong/pool room).
Jared and Kamryn are pretty settled into their NEW room - I really don't want to move back in most of the STUFF and TOYS they had in their room before.  All of that stuff was stored on our deck and this morning I told them they could pick 3 things to bring back in their room.  It was fun to see what they chose - Jared: his castle, a football, and box of squinkies; Kamryn: her telescope, a makeup box, and a felt bag of little STUFF (that stuff is probably going to disappear somehow).
In the late afternoon we went swimming at the rec center.  It was the last day for the outdoor pool to be open.  Taylor came with me and Jared and Kamryn.  Then Paul joined us for the last hour.  The kids had a great time with their dad - swimming TRIPLE DOLPHIN and having him throw them up high to splash back down.