He Saw, She Saw

Because it was near 50 degrees warm today, we set on on the "last ride of 2011"on Dave's new street bike - a motorcycle he bought this year for some good reason that only he knows.

We rode to the beginning of Fins and Things and then did a quick hike up the rocks to watch the sun set. See, there is our motorcycle, way down by the bathroom there with all that pretty scenery all around it. As we came up over the crest of the big slick rock hill we hiked up, the sight was breathtaking! The sun had just set, the sky was aglow, the red rocks with white snow was so pretty, and Dave and I both said, "AHHH!" at the same time. Only my Ah! was for this - which, incidentally Dave's camera on his phone did not come close to doing justice. Me: "Look at that beautiful scenery and that pretty sunset!" Dave's Ah! was for this - bird poop! Him: "Hey, a raptor sat here!" Men.

The Queen of Missed Opportunity

This morning, because I am so far behind in everything, I went to work early to get some things done at the seminary. I am usually up this early, but normally I am walking. Without my camera. So today I took my camera so I could show the world what you all are missing by not being up this early in the morning.

This is the morning sky at 6:30 a.m. The sun is just starting to think about coming up. Everything is lit up with a pink glow. I love the world in the morning when it's all pink. It seems like the possibilities are endless, hope abounds, and you just have no idea at this point that when you come out of seminary two hours later your car battery will be dead and when you try to call someone for help, you'll discover your phone battery is dead also. And that starts a ball rolling that culminates in you being late for work. Nope, you just don't know those things first thing in the morning when the world is pink.

Things still look pretty rosy at 8:50. The sun has risen, but the clouds have rolled in. If you stopped to think about it, you could probably see the positive energy leaving and reality closing in. But you're in a hurry to get to your other job. Because it's inventory day - wretched inventory day :(

So, dead battery in everything, I'm late for work . . .and when I finally get there and I open the supply closet, this is what I find. Talk about heart stopping!! She was intended to scare Danny, who was so mean yesterday he needed a payback. The missed opportunity came when we told Danny he had to inventory the closet - just to get him in there - and he went in backwards, was bent over counting and NEVER SAW THE SCARY CHUCKY DOLL JUST ABOUT TO STAB HIM IN THE BACK WITH A PLASTIC BUTTER KNIFE!! And I took the picture just as he stepped out of it. DARN!

But that's O.K., because little Chuckyette followed him around all day. Everywhere he went. Today's message is: Don't mess with the girls at Packards. We take getting even to the extreme! Oh, and get up early enough to see the world when it's pink. That may be the only time in your day when hope abounds.

A New Year, A New Resolution

This is something I've always wanted to try, but was always afraid that in posting a picture every day for 365 days (that's a year, you know!) would just prove what I'm already afraid of, that my life has become just sssoooo bbbooorrrrinnngg! And a year of blogging is such a commitment!! But then, last year I had a goal to attend the temple 53 times - that's once a week plus one - and I did it, so today I convinced myself that maybe I could do this. If nothing else, hopefully it will MAKE me do something memorable each day and make a RECORD of it. Because I'm SO bummed that I worked so hard on our ward Christmas party and program and didn't take a single picture.
And so, here's today's picture. A clean closet. I found a blog on pintrest called 52 weeks to an organized life, and the first week's assignment was to clean out all the closets in your house. REALLY??? This took me ALL afternoon. O.K., I also cleaned out the coat closet, but the coat closet really wasn't that bad. This one was BAD!! And there are more in my house just like it. I might be doing 52 weeks to a house full of clean closets, but I thought my kids would appreciate this one.
Until tomorrow . . . .

A Weekend Visit From the Heart Stealers

This weekend the Cozzens boys, Porter, Bridger and Kyle came to visit, and they brought their Cozzens Mom, Michelle. These guys have had such a busy year finishing college degrees, moving, finding new jobs, they haven't had much spare time in which to visit. We were SO happy they got to come this weekend. Hi Porter :)

Hi Bridger :) Isn't that the cutest smile you ever saw?

Porter played with us in the leaves. He liked getting buried in the big pile we made with our feet.
But he didn't care so much for the leaves falling on his face and the possibility of them poking him in they eye. I tried to get a picture of him with his eyes open. I kept saying, "Open your eyes, Porter!!" But he wasn't taking any chances.

I tried to get a cute picture with them, but Bridger wasn't thrilled. His Dad drug him off the bridge to take a picture. And Bridger LOVES the bridge. He was named after it, you see :) Bridge -er. Get it :) And Porter was still a little leary of those poky leaves and what they might do to his eyes.

Here's the evidence. Bridger on the bridge - er :) And his Dad chasing him off : 0

Hi Porter. You are such a handsome four year old. I knew you would be. From the minute I saw that cute head of red hair I thought, "He's going to steal hearts, that kid." And he has stolen mine. He and Bridger. But Bridger couldn't stop for another picture. So you can check out handsome Cozzens boy number two above. Heart stealers, both.

What I Did On My Grandma Vacation

Between running around after Capri, playing Donkey Kong, making waffles and walking Toby, I did take some pictures last week while I was playing full time Gram (which is Aiden's new nickname for me - and sometimes Chase's, too :) Here are some of the favorite.

Capri texting on Grandpa's phone. She knew just what she was doing, too. What an 18 month old teenager!Aiden putting on his Jedi moves.

Here Aiden is helping me make noodles AND watching 17 Miracles, both at the same time. Talent, I say.I fell head over heels in love with this face. It's a sweetness that just melts your heart. And Jill thought I'd get tired of her little girl drama . . .

Aiden had to dress like an alien for school on Friday. So here I was, back to thinking up and making costumes. He makes a pretty cute alien, although he wouldn't smile because he said he was a mean alien :)

These two have a lot of fun together. Aiden teases Capri unmercifully and Capri loves Aiden's attention in any form, teasing or not. So it works out well for everyone!

A bad picture of a cute moment. Sorry, my white balance was set for outside, but here's another shot of Aiden and Capri playing together. I so loved watching them together!

Here Capri was trying to wear Aiden's shirt. So cute!

What a special little pair who came together in a most unlikely way. I'm so glad God chose to place them in OUR family.

Oh, What A Happy Time That Was . . .

I remember a few years ago . . . well, at least five because it was before Aiden . . . we were on the mountain at a family reunion and Jill and Kenny came up a day late. They had been to Martin's Cove with the youth of their stake for a youth conference. I remember noticing something different about them, they had a distinct spirit kind of floating around them and they talked about that youth conference with such love and reverence. And I remember wishing our stake would do a youth conference at Martin's Cove and that I could go on it. And I remember thinking, "That's like wishing the atoms would all line up perfectly so that if you threw a rock threw a window it wouldn't break." Because my geometry teacher told me once that was possible :) Anyway, the atoms DID line up and this summer we got to go. And the experience was more than I ever dreamed it could be.

Our camp at night.

I was nervous about a few things, one of them being that we were asked not to bring cameras. Now, I love my camera. I love that it preserves images that evokes memories long after the event has passed. And believe it or not, it was a great test of my faith that I obeyed and left my camera behind. But my faith was answered last Wednesday when we had a stake Martin's Cove reunion and the photographers showed us their pictures. They were beyond what I hoped they would be and the best part was that I was IN most of them, something that doesn't happen when I'm taking the pictures :)

So here, without a lot of wordy explanation, are some of the pictures from our trek that I loved the most. Where we camped the first two days. (And an excellent, NOT! picture of my back side)

Dave trying to make sure I didn't forget to eat. Like THAT would ever happen :)

Me walking with my skirt up around my waist - Yikes!! I don't remember walking around with this much of my bloomers showing. So now I'm worried that I walked around like this all the time - what was I thinking? Was it hot? Was I stepping on the front of my skirt going up that hill? Was I trying to be rebellious and pretend I was in pants, not a pioneer skirt? Wow, I don't know . . .

Me applying duct tape to Rebecca's foot. If you read my prior trek post you know my issues with our medical people. So I got really good at this :)

This picture makes me laugh because this is how our boys pulled our handcart for four days. Jake never stopped talking, Dex rapped pioneer songs, Koi was always turned around talking to whomever we passed and they never stopped running :)

Our handcart and flag.

I LOVE this picture so much! It looks like we are all alone trekking through life. On the trek we were NEVER alone, so I don't know how the photographer pulled this off, but I love it.

And this one. This was taken by a different photographer on a different day. Notice we have different clothes on. I wish we were in the same clothes, that it was a close up of our hands at that same moment, but I love it anyway.

Our family crossing the Sweetwater. Dave and I are bringing up the rear :)

Dave and I crossing the Sweetwater. I can't believe people kept asking how I got my hair to stay so perfect all week. True the wind was blowing, but it's a MESS in this picture.

The woman's pull. I was also nervous about the woman's pull because of our lack of girlage - but we did great.
It was a little tough. We pulled uphill for most of a mile. I turned around at one point and saw Colleen, the lady at the back of our handcart, pushing. She smiled at me and mouthed, "I'm your angel." Brings tears to my eyes even now . .

It was so awesome to see the respect the young men showed during the woman's pull. I had never seen such visual respect shown by the priesthood for womanhood. It was very touching and the spirit was very strong.

They told us as Ma's and Pa's to be prepared for the woman's pull, that it would be hard on the young men, that it would be hard for them to have to stand by and watch the girls pull the handcarts without them. And I thought, "No it won't. Maybe those who are married will have a hard time watching their wives, but even Dave won't have a hard time with this. I've worked hard along side him all my life. This isn't going to phase any of them." Boy was I wrong!

They were touched . . .

After the woman's pull. That's me hugging Jake, one of our boys and thanking him for pulling our handcart. Which was code for "thanks for being good and righteous and honoring your priesthood." Then I started looking around for Dave. He had had some problems and wasn't sure he was even going to be able to walk this day. Everyone else had already come up the hill and still no Dave, so I started down the hill to find him. . . and I finally did. There we are hugging, me with my big ol' cold sore :)

And that's it - one of the best experiences of my life. Somehow everyone should have this experience. If it ever comes up, take it!

A Funny Story From My Past and a Parrallel. . .

My friend Marie, who I have walked with for the past 24 years, and I were talking this morning about memory and how she is loosing hers :) She is in the Relief Society presidency in our ward, and she told me a story that reaffirmed the fact that her memory is shot, which in turn reminded me of a story of my own. So I thought I would share it with the world, or really just the family members who read my blog :)

I had not quite been married a year and was expecting Kyle when I was called to serve in the relief society presidency of a brand new 5th Ward in Moab. Since we were coming together as a new ward made up of members from various different wards, our Bishop wanted every member of the ward to be visited by the relief society presidency sometime within the first month. That was a HUGE undertaking, but we were determined to carry it our to the best of our ability. The president and 1st councilor were older ladies, more like your stereotypical relief society presidency, but the secretary and I were both pretty young, so we went two by two, the two older members together, and we two younger members, Cindy Thompson and I, off to visit for the morning with an appointed time for all of us to come back together for lunch at a restaurant in town to regroup.

Now, before you judge, remember that Cindy and I had been knocking on doors and visiting all morning long! I was a new mom, Cindy had three little kids, so we were in that perpetually tired stage of our lives. It was finally time to meet for lunch, so we went at the appointed time, walked up to the door of the a fore chosen restaurant, and Cindy knocked on the door. We stood there chatting for a few minutes, and when no one CAME to the door (because . . . it was a restaurant!!!) she knocked again. And I thought nothing of it. I just stood there and talked to her like it was perfectly normal to walk up to a restaurant door and knock. A few minutes after our second knock, the door of the restaurant opened slightly and a women tentatively stuck her face out and asked, "Yes?" THAT was when we realized we had done a stupid thing. And we couldn't just walk away, never to go to that restaurant again, we had to go IN and wait for the older ladies to show up. Yes, that was me. I did that. And, as I pointed out to Marie this morning, we were young with full memory capacity.

Here we are, me and Kyle. He was an Indian for Halloween. Notice how we didn't plan ahead for months and buy the perfect costume back then, lol. But, back to my story. As I said, we were young and may have done some stupid things now and again, but the one thing we weren't was uncertain. We knew just what we needed to accomplish, and we worked hard at doing it. This is a great article about the REAL villain in the economy. Read it. It will strengthen your certainty in what you believe.

http://ldsmag.com/component/zine/article/8570?ac=1