Sunday July 27

Do any of you remember the song "Through the Years", Through the years when everything went wrong, together we were strong, I've never had a doubt we'd work things out, through the years? Well, as I listened to that song I realized how true those words are with family and good friends. There have been times, years in fact, when knowing if we would be together was a scary time for me. Fear can make life so difficult to see the good, and fear can make it tough to look forward to a future. Funny how simple songs or thoughts can bring up some of the strong emotions of life.
I Believe is a song that I sang when I was probably 12 years old in North Logan Choir. Now it has been years since that thought has even come to mind, but hearing that song today reminded me how much I do believe. I believe in family, GOD, and that all men have a good human side, it sometimes is masked by "here again is that word FEAR. I believe that there is a reason for us being here at this time of the earth. That point was brought to mind when I think of the pioneers and what they went through. How hard would that have been for me to have as a challenge. There is no way that my body with the tests of endurance it has had to date would have ever been able to make the first camp on the trek west. The cold, the hardships, the physical work of taking care of the family and home, there is no way. So my test I think was to make it though loneliness, fear of losing my children for all eternity as well as here on earth, being self sufficient, finding a testimony from a family that was not active, and enduring the physical challenges given me and to want to continue on and fight for a new day sometimes, to allowing others to help me.
It has been hard this summer to be able to say, I can't mow the lawn, I need help. I have the time, but the body will not do the work. Now that seems like a small thing to do, but it has been a real struggle to allow Rob and Kelly to help me. Allowing people to serve us in tough times is harder than it seems. It also gives you a insite why others struggle to allow you to see that they need help or that times arehard and why others are uncomfortable when we offer to help and makes me aware of how important it is to listen to the spirit. The spirit will tell us about those who need our call, a lunch, a load of laundry done, a garbage can taken in or just a note in the mail. It is so often that I will think of someone out of the blue, and think I am too busy right that minute, I will do it later, and later never comes. Hope I get my act together to make sure I follow up when the prompting moves me.
SO, moral of this week, is remember those around us and those who bless our lives. That Through the Years, they are the hands of our Father in Heaven helping us get through life, giving us the touch" of heaven in a hard worldly life.

Sunday July 27

I've had several friends post this tag on their blogs so I thought... I want IN!Here are the rules:

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave a 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.It should be funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. I've done this on a couple of my friends blogs and it is fun to see every one's memories! Please, take the time to comment and write a memory of us!

July 15 through 20th Week in review

My first impression to write here is how much I love my family. Got the pics back from Ryan Thompson the photographer and looked at the physical proof of my blessings and was overwhelmed. What a family. We are quite a group. I love the structured family pose, but there is one with the kids sitting in a tree, hanging out on the branches and we look complete. It was hard to choose the ones I wanted, but I took Marci's advise and printed up all the pics at Sam's club and looked at them one at a time. I marked which ones that needed to be adjusted or moved up or down and I will have Ryan touch up a couple that the water sprays were in the background.
I am taking advantage of a few free hours each day now to work on cleaning up stuff that has accumulated for 13 years. Drawers like my tool drawer that you could hardly open or shut, the toy room with legos in the blocks and play dishes in the legos and upstairs and down stairs and everywhere. I bought a couple of bins to put the items in to organize it a little.
It was my teaching week so that takes most of my time to study and review. Previous note lets you knkow how awesome this experience is.
On Friday afternoon, I met Maxine McDoungh and we went to the movie Mama Mia. The stage play was much better, but I love the music of Abba and so there were parts that I was wanting to get up and dance with it and the views of the Greek Island was unbeliveable. I keep busy moving water trying to keep the grass at the house and at ValJays rental home green. I started the garage cleaning. Man, I threw away so many cans of partial paint and some that were never used that I tried and didn't like the color and was thinking they would be good to use later. GONE. hat will be my goal this week to finsih cleaning that area and getting rid of stuff and sending the rest to the DI.
I miss having Jacob or one of the kids around. Having no one to talk to and spending the day and night home alone makes days long. However, I am thinking that is is what life is and I better get used to it.
Amanda and I visited on Friday about her camp experience and she had a marvelous time. The Lord stepped in several times and witnessed to her that he listens to prayers and knew of her hard work to make this camp a real success. At one point the rain was falling when they were to go down to the lake. The leaders prayed for help in this matter. Low and behold, the rain was falling on the camp, but cleared and was beautiful for the group to go down and have some watter fun. As they were loading the canoes and clearing up the area, the clouds came back over the lake and it began to rain again. She had a marvelous time and we talked about how awesome her leaders were for her as she was growing up and the example that Luann Pierson had been in her life and the lessons she had learned from her and her example.
Marci is busy keeping up with swimming lessons, heat, rain, and the kids going in every direction possible.
Raelyn is so busy with the girls going to camp, Youth camp, swimming lessons, dentist appointments, and going to a conference with ValJay in Park City for a couple of days, that I get a head ache thinking of how fast she had to run. We should be able to meet for lunch this week.
Shane and the kids and I went hit some golf balls at the range on Saturday. Christin sure is good. Shane was really patient with him and concentrated on his swing and follow through. I think next time we go, I am going to try seeing if my shoulder will let me hit a few.
Rob is starting to feel better. boy am I glad. He has been so sick and weak from his mono and strep infection. He is doing better Sharla says and his heart still is not working as well as it should, but he is moving and able to do a little more.
Jims business is doing good and he loves it he says.
Aaron and Jill have been busy sending kids to camp and on the trek. I got some shirts for the boys to wear. Can't wait to hear how they did and what they thought of the experience. They are leaving for California for 10 days in a week or so I think. That is wonderful that they can spend time with his family and enjoy the area that he was born in.
Well, that is all the family news I have for this week. Life is good and goes on.

Weeks end!

I am the luckiest person in the world to have been called to serve a mission and still be able to live in my home and the best of all, to teach something that I have a background in and can offer some advise or encouragement. Teaching the participants in the workshop at the Deseret Industries has been such a blessing. Don't get me wrong, it is hard and a challenge. This week was really hard and the spirit really had to work to be there. I had two active members, one was quite withdrawn and hiding from people, and the other was top notch. I had one gentleman from India who is 66 years old I think, a native American that was angry at the whole world and knew that everyone was out to get her and make life misserable, a wild and free woman who was rebellous all her life and due to bad choices had lost both legs when she was jumping onto a moving train to hitch a ride and is still rebelling against some structure, another lady who resists any help and knows how things work and what is best and how everything should be done and is smart but not so smart, and then another lady who I had worked with from my job who has made some really really stupid choices in her life but has now served her time for mistakes in California and is currenty completing drug court and all the issues that come from that choice. Now, asking for someone to offer prayer left myself, the youngest sister, and the problem lady who is working on drug charges but trying to learn about God. The others said no. I am tired tonight both mental, physically as well as spiritually drained. That being said, my heart is running over from having felt the power of our Father in Heaven in that class as the message was delivered and the attitudes softened. Janea the placement advisor, said that she was amazed at the change in some of the participants. Vivian, my native American, actually spoke, and participated the last two days, and even let me "hug" her when I gave her a completion certificate. JaNea said that she has been very out spoken when some touches her when they brush against her in the hall, or touch her arm to speak to her. AND she let me hug her and she returned the hug. Rattan attended all the classes and was awesome during his interview, and Kathy stayed after and expressed her story of poor choices and how she was trying to change her life. No, I don't teach the gospel or share the Joseph Smith story, but I only pray that the spirit of the Lords work will be there to touch the lives of the members so that they know he cares.
Well, that's all for tonight. More on the life of this lucky lady another evening.

Weeks end!

It's Sunday evening and the shadows are just starting to fall on the valley. I was turning my water off and looking at this marvelous place I call home and wondering how in the world I have been so blessed as to live here in Cache Valley. What a beautiful place this is. The sky is blue in the center with red hues around the edges and the air actually has a crispness that makes me think that summer is at it's peak right now. In driving to Newton the other night, I noticed that the grain is tall and the heads are getting developed and ripening. Oh how fast time is going. It will be time for second crop hay in a couple of weeks and then school will start before we know it.
Actually, being able to raise my awesome family in such a great place as this was a blessing too. I had the privilege of going to Providence Canyon with Rob and Kelley and their family as well as Jacob. We were able to make it up to the falls and actually Rob was adventureous and we hiked to two of them and tried for the third but couldn't get to it. It was a beautiful ride, the trees were green and the grass was thick and green as well. The heat from the summer sun hadn't made it into the canyon yet so it had the appearance of late spring. The kids played in the water, hiked and threw a ton of rocks into the bottom of the falls. Rob had his guns with him and we set up targets and practiced some shooting. It was so fun to hold a gun again and I actually hit the target. New shoulder and all was no problem. I will have to practice more to get the vision right and figure which eye to look at the target with, but I was really pleased to see I still can shoot.
If I ever figure out how to attach my pics to this blog, you will see some of this little adventure.
That last statement just made me think; little adventure! Actually, the total time was 3 hours, the cost was some gas maybe $20 (that's talking $4 a gallon and Robs killer big truck), some brownies made by Jacob and myself and a half a box of shells. So total cost was maybe $30 but the memory is priceless. As Marci and Ken were visiting, it was a learning experience of what is a memory. Marci and I talked about the fact that Ken and the kids mowed my lawn with the old mower that we have had for over 20 years. It was the original mower that Marci and the kids used when we lived in Providence. Oh, it's had a different motor put on it, but other than that, the old hummer is the same. I laughed to see Jacob and Spencer pushing in the heat of the day and having to move the bags of grass to the garbage can to be dispensed of later. They had sweat on their foreheads and the look of contentment of doing a hard job that helped grandma! A memory. In Arizona, there is no grass at their home right now, so mowing the lawn is nothing they get to experience, and definately not with the "oldie goldie" like Grandma has. Another memory is Spencer going with Uncle Val Jay to move sprinkler pipe and having to wear McKenna's old jeans that barely fit, walk in the mud and actually lift the pipe onto the truck and into another field. Memory! Jacob riding his bike to the postoffice to get the mail. Won't happen in Arizona. Another memory.
So, the meaning of this long thought is that it isn't the amount of money we spend, or the places we go, or the length of time we take on an adventure, it is finding the joy, or logging the memory of the event and realizing that we had the opportunity to "taste" the adventure in life.

That last statement just made me think; little adventure! Actually, the total time was 3 hours, the cost was some gas maybe $20 (that's talking $4 a gallon and Robs killer big truck), some brownies made by Jacob and myself and a half a box of shells. So total cost was maybe $30 but the memory is priceless. As Marci and Ken were visiting, it was a learning experience of what is a memory. Marci and I talked about the fact that Ken and the kids mowed my lawn with the old mower that we have had for over 20 years. It was the original mower that Marci and the kids used when we lived in Providence. Oh, it's had a different motor put on it, but other than that, the old hummer is the same. I laughed to see Jacob and Spencer pushing in the heat of the day and having to move the bags of grass to the garbage can to be dispensed of later. They had sweat on their foreheads and the look of contentment of doing a hard job that helped grandma! A memory. In Arizona, there is no grass at their home right now, so mowing the lawn is nothing they get to experience, and definately not with the "oldie goldie" like Grandma has. Another memory is Spencer going with Uncle Val Jay to move sprinkler pipe and having to wear McKenna's old jeans that barely fit, walk in the mud and actually lift the pipe onto the truck and into another field. Memory! Jacob riding his bike to the postoffice to get the mail. Won't happen in Arizona. Another memory.

So, the meaning of this long thought is that it isn't the amount of money we spend, or the places we go, or the length of time we take on an adventure, it is finding the joy, or logging the memory of the event and realizing that we had the opportunity to "taste" the adventure in life.

There you have it for a Sunday evening and hitting buttons that I am not sure what to do with, but hey, two pics with my blog so it must be a great day and now I hope my "memory" will remember how I did it for later this week.

Family weekend

Well, it is Saturday evening and the families are off doing their things with others, and I was just so dang hot I decided to check out Jake's first blog posting and try to cool off before I mop the floor. It is awesome to see what is able to be done on a blog site and Amanda and Jake are awesome computer nuts and do a great job.
This spring I asked the kids to set aside this weekend that we could do family activities and be together. I have looked at life from various points and have come to realize that the only real thing we have in this life that is earthly material is our families. Oh friends are awesome and I believe that we will be friends for all eternity, but when life gets hard, and means/money/things are hard to come by, family will always come first. However, we need to know our family. Who are our brothers and sisters, how have they changed, how have their lives and the situations that life has blessed them with changed them and made a difference. The only way we learn about what is happening in the lives of others is by spending time and talking.
Having Jacob and Kennedy with me for the last couple of months and spending time with Marci and Ken, has opened my eyes to the need of others and of knowings each other better. I want my grandchildren to know their cousins, to have memories that they talk about when they are 62 and 60. Dick and I met with three of my cousins from the Folkman side a couple of weeks ago and although we had spend limited time together, we still recalled the events with laughter, and joy. We shared good times, memories of each others parents and their accomplishments and memories of my mom and dad that Dick and I had no idea about.
Marci received some pictures from Uncle Steven and downloaded them for me to see. There were memories that brought tears, the sight of my mom and dad in an embrace had never been viewed by me before, dad in his uniform, mom in hers, pics of the old barn that in memory was a stately barn showed that is was old and tattered and many more to numerous to name. However, it caused me to realize even more that my mission in life is to make sure that my family knows each other, children and adults as well, and that memories are built that will sustain us in good and bad times. I believe that bad times are coming, and that knowing we are loved but someone my be the only thing we will have to cling to.
Well, I better scrub the floor today. But if Jake and Amanda will teach me, I am going to figure out this blogging thing and use it to talk to myself as well as to you all and to get to know you and yours. Signing off for today with a hope for a great tomorrow!