VERY behind RANDOM update

Its so hard to get blogging again when I'm so FAR behind.

So here's some random updates from BF (before France)

Family and friends Lyon mission get together
Justin with returned sisters from his mission

Taylor and Marissa going to Taylorsville Prom

Taylor had to get his wisdom teeth out over spring break

The kids went to the community egg hunt
I was very impressed with how organized it was

Brooke and Andre coloring Easter eggs

Jared got his Wolf badge awarded for cub scouts

a "selfie" with my 97 yr old grandma

Taylor and Sarah going to Brighton's prom

Justin and I watching  Jared's soccer game

Kamryn having fun at  Target

Our family was a bit obsessed with this game

Favorite FRANCE fotos

Our family trip to FRANCE was AMAZING! We were able to be in France for 18 days and saw a LOT of the southern part of the country. The main focus of our trip was touring Justin's mission and to visit our exchange students, Martin and Elsa.  We probably took a total of 4000+ photos, but here a just a few of my favorites.

our family at Martin's house in Paris

at the arc de triomphe 

The kids at the Eiffel Tower

Paul and I at the Eiffel Tower

One of  favorite places we visited -
the sand dunes (mountain really) of Arcachon

Our main focus on this trip was to tour Justin's mission.
This was the door to one of his apartments.
It was so great to see his areas and meet people from his mission

We tried to make sure the kids had fun on this trip too

There are so many cool parks in France

Insta-Update

I got this idea from my friend's blog and decided to copy :)
Some random photos from my phone:

these boys are all playing the same game, but not together
its called 2048 and its highly addictive

Taylor out running the high school track at 7:00 am
(I happened to be subbing at the school that day so I could spy on him)
He's going to miss a lot of GYM so he has to run to make up days

Justin with 3 sisters from his mission
We went to a fun family gathering the other night
for families of missionaries from the Lyon France mission

My life was recently turned upside down
when i was called to be the YW president
This is my awesome presidency
Amy, Ann, me, and Melody

And our awesome advisers
Sarah, Jenny and Alison

WOLF

Jared worked really hard to finish his WOLF requirements for cub scouts 2 months early (before turning 9 and moving on to BEARS)

He was very excited to get his badge and pin at pack meeting.  Kamryn got a photo of us - with Jared pinning on my mother's pin.  We missed getting a photo of just Jared - I will add it later when I get his badge sewn on.  I love that he was motivated and excited to do well in scouts.

Favorite Smells

Today's journal prompt in Jr Honors English:

"List 10 smells you LOVE"

•  Cookies baking
• Brownies baking
• Rain in spring time
• Pina colada (mostly sunscreen at the pool)
• Coffee
• Grilling chicken
• Bath & Body lotion (several kinds)
• Gardenias
• Bread baking
• chocolate

OBSTACLES

Journal prompt for Jr Honors English today:

"What are some obstacles that prevent people from pursuing their dreams? What obstacles stand in your way?"

This is another good prompt.  Its pretty easy but something that you can also really think about.

In general, obstacles that prevent "us" from doing things are physical, mental and fear.  I think fear is probably one of the biggest obstacles people face in pursuing their dreams.  We are afraid we can't do something or may be hurt, either physically or emotionally.

I would definitely say FEAR is my biggest obstacle - of doing anything I might be dreaming of doing.  I really don't like doing new things and especially learning new technology, even though I'd like to be able to do more when it comes to current technology.  I'd love to learn PhotoShop, but its just too hard to learn something new.  And I can always ask Justin to do it for me.

PHYSICAL obstacles are also huge for me.  I'd like to run more 1/2 marathons, but physically I'm not just not up to it these days.  Plus, I'm lazy and am not pushing myself too hard right now.

One of my dreams is to go SKYDIVING - biggest obstacle there is that I'm  AFRAID of heights.  Those 2 things don't really go together, do they?

Empathy

The journal prompt for Jr Honors English that I am subbing today:

"Define empathy.  Why is it important in your life and in our society? When and with whom do you feel empathy?  Is empathy difficult?  Why or Why not?"

The dictionary defintion of EMPATHY - the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions : the ability to share someone else's feelings.

I asked the students what the difference is between SYMPATHY and EMPATHY and one student said it perfectly - "SYMPATHY is feeling bad FOR someone and EMPATHY is feeling bad WITH someone."

I think EMPATHY is very important but a difficult thing to truly feel.  Its almost impossible to share another person's experience and emotions unless we've been through the very same experience.  If we have had a similar experience then we can have EMPATHY.  I frequently have said that I don't have EMPATHY for my kids when they have braces because I never had braces.  So I can have sympathy for them, but not EMPATHY.

If we truly had EMPATHY for more people around us and in society, we would be a much kinder society.  I've often wished to live my mom's life for just one day so I could have EMPATHY for her.

I have EMPATHY for those who experience infertility but not true EMPATHY since we had 3 children before we experienced the challenges of infertility.

It's funny because when I think of EMPATHY I tend to think of challenging or difficult experiences but we could certainly have EMPATHY for others in joyous, uplifting or positive experiences.

Sweethearts Dance

Taylor can be a sweetheart (most of the time he is)

so it's appropriate that he was asked to go to Sweethearts Dance.

Maddie was his date.
This is how they were dressed when they left
because of course they needed regular clothes for the rest of the date

Some of the group

Maddie and Taylor
ready for the dance

Taylor said it was the most fun he's ever had at a dance and that was because Maddie was really fun to dance with.  I'm glad he likes going to the dances and gets into the social scene of high school.

I love GREEN

I love the color GREEN!  Most of our family's favorite color is GREEN. So I had to change my blog design a little early.  I love St Patrick's Day and for me the month of March is all about GREEN.  It must be that spring is coming and GREEN is coming back :)

Brooke's Mission Call

So this week we have been anticipating Brooke's mission call coming.  Her bishop thought it would come Thur or Friday.  I thought back to when Justin's call came - very similar type week with a Monday holiday and it came on Wednesday.  So I really thought it would come Wednesday.

I had to work on Wednesday and Brooke usually has a late afternoon class on Wed and gets home around 4.  So when I got home I didn't think she was home and decided to check the mail.  There it was - that big white envelope!  I came in the house with it and Brooke was home - she'd taken a test in that class and got home early. I wish I would have known that and I would have had her get the mail - oh well.

She was so excited when I showed her the call and came skipping over to get it from me.  And then she went through the feeling of wanting to open but not wanting to at the same time.

At first she thought she wouldn't be able to open it until the next night and I asked why not tonight?  She explained that her BFF Annee had a night class and that her boyfriend, Andre, had to work until 9:00 in Ogden.  I said she could open it at 10 pm - why not? None of us wanted to try to sleep wondering what it said in the envelope.  So we called/texted and set it up for her to open it at my parents at 10 that night.

Then we had to get thru the evening and try and concentrate.

We went over to my parents with our family, Annee and Andre.  We got the envelope opened up and slid in a piece of paper to cover the letter so that she could read it a line at a time. Then we tried to get all the cameras and ipad ready to record.

this is what her brother does while waiting

 "Dear Sister Adams:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the France Paris Mission.  It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wed, July 9, 2014.  You will prepare to preach the gospel in the French Language."

WOW!  We couldn't believe it!  How exciting!!

And yet, it was not a surprise at all when she read Paris.  So cool!

happy girl :)

Annee, Brooke and Andre

We are all so excited for Brooke.  As her mom, I'm so relieved.  I just wanted her to go somewhere that she was excited and happy about it.  And somewhere I felt that she would be safe.  I'm thankful my prayers were answered.

Kamryn's a babysitter now

Kamryn is becoming a great little babysitter.  I have taken her with me twice to my cousin's house to help me watch their kids.  They have a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old and just had twin boys at the beginning of February.

Hannah loves Kamryn

 Kamryn will play with the kids and read to Hannah as long as we will let her.
This last time we went she also got to hold one of the babies for a long time.  She's getting in some good practice for when she can be the babysitter on her own.

Kamryn holding little baby Adam

Journal Prompt

I'm here at BHS subbing for one of my favorite teachers and she has a journal prompt for her English students every day.  Today's prompt is "List 10 nice things people have done for you."
I like to do the prompt myself, so here's my list:

1. Paul brought me a dozen beautiful roses on Valentine's day
2. Brooke sent me a text thanking me for chasing down the bus for her and Justin the other day
3. Taylor got rid of a pile of wood, just sitting in the middle of the patio, for me
4. My friends called and texted to share in my excitement about Brooke's recent mission call
5. My friend, Emmanuelle, who lives in Paris has been helping me with all of our questions about our trip to France
6. 2 of my subbing friends helped me out with subbing for 2 teachers who asked me to sub for a whole week and I couldn't do the whole week
7. Teachers who keep asking me to sub for them which helps me add to my France fund
8. Justin cleaned up the kitchen and washed the dishes all on his own, without being asked to do it
9. My sister always feeds me and the twins when we are at her house on Tuesdays for Kamryn's dance
10. My friends who provided names for us to do sealings at the temple

My Finished Office

Paul cleaned out his tools and gear from my new office tonight.  Its 99% done - just a few little things to finish up.  But I can start moving in.  I wanted to share how it looks all clean.

He did all of this beautiful woodwork on the window.