I am trying to update, I really am!

Yes, girls, I know I still need to do more updates. I was trying to go in chronological order and add pics and everything, but for some reason my pics will not upload. I keep getting the message that the site is not a good site when i try. Therefore, I need one of you to help me figure out what to do before I update more. What fun are updates without pics? Help me, help me!! I am dying to add photos to go with my updates!!

My Baby Girl Graduates from SUU

Mandi and Jordan got to graduate together!!

The celebratory crew!

My baby girl graduated the first weekend in May from SUU in Cedar City with a bachelors degree in Communications! I can hardly believe it-the past three years have sure flown by. Now that she is married, she and Jordan will be making their home in Salt Lake for a couple of years. He initially got offered an internship with the Utah State Tax Commision for 3-6 months, so they moved up here, but then he got offered a great job and they will live here for awhile.

The past 5 months have been a whirlwind!!

So, I've already blogged about my oldest daughter expecting twins, and my second oldest daughter getting engaged-well, to add to all that exciting news read on!! Things just keep getting better and better!

Sometime in Feb or March, I was called as the Girls Camp Director(actually-c0-director)!! Now normally, this is a calling that I would run from, but I just couldn't say no knowing that I needed extra blessings to get the twin babies here safely. So, against my inner anxiety about the calling, I accepted.

In March, my youngest daughter, Mandi, got engaged!! Yay! Now this one I was not expecting! She has been dating Jordan for over two years, but I thought she was going to wait at least one more year-SURPRISE!!

Now how in the world can I possibly have time to plan 2 weddings and plan girl's camp? I don't know, but we'll see how it all works out! Needless to say that I have been overworked, overstressed, and brain overloaded lately. Not to mention also having to work full-time(which I am not used to). So much to do, so little time---aaaggghh!

It surely must be wedding season this year. Alot of my kids' friends have gotten or are getting married and two nephews and two nieces and my best friend's daughter!! Man, what is in the air?? haha

Now all of this may seem like such good news, right? Well, it is(except the camp director call), however, I have even more news that fills my heart with JOY! My son has finally announced that he does plan to go on a mission! YIPPEE!

MY JOY IS FULL!!! I just don't know how my life can get any better(well, maybe if I also had a new dream house)!! I am blogging from work and can't download pics, but will soon from Stefanie's wedding. STAY TUNED!!

Fastest Answer to a Prayer - Ever!

So what do you do when your newly engaged daughter tells you that she just lost her ring at work-and she works in a hospital? I got down on my knees and said a good, long prayer. I knew her chances of finding it were real slim,but I knew her fiance could not afford another ring and I knew how depressed and upset she would be. I have lost 3 rings in the past couple of years(2 cost over a $l00, the other only $10-20), but I know how totally heartwrenched I was! She called me within an hour and found it on her way out the door after she had spent a couple hours looking in gross trash can after trash can, and had reluctantly realized there was no more she could do. This was honestly the fastest answer to one of my prayers ever!
PRAYER WORKS!!!!

Ocean Pics to Thrill Mandi

View of the tropical, lush, green landscape. There were lots of horses, chickens, and pigs.


The "people movers" we rode in for our tours, very bumpy and windy rides.



Our guide telling us about sugar cane and holding a stalk of cane that they cut open and gave us all a sample. They also make rum from the cane and gave everyone a sample of it.


























As we passed by the locals homes, the kids would run out shouting "hola" and wave.


































Posing by the sugar cane.

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

This is what you get for today! We have so many pics that I will just post a few every other day or so.


The view of the long walk to get to the beach!

View from the left of our room and view behind the bridge we stood on to take pic of the long walk to the beach.


Guess Who!! The most lame mini golf course ever! It was all concrete and lumpy.

Lovin' Life

Just a new update to relate what has been going on in my life recently. On Oct. 31st my mother-in-law(91) fell and broke her pelvis in three separate places. The first few days that we went to
visit she didn't look well. I thought that this might be the start of her decline. She almost ended up coming to my new work for rehab, but due to red tape, did not. She ended up having surgery to have a metal plate, held in with long metal screws, attached to her pelvis. The doctor was surprised that she opted for the surgery at her age, but she decided she didn't want to end up spending the rest of her days confined to a bed or wheelchair if she didn't have to be. She has been in a rehab facility ever since and is doing so well. She may get to be released the first or second week in Feb. My husband has been so attentive and devoted to her all this time. He visits her almost every single day!

Our Thanksgiving Feast was at my MIL's house, as usual, however, she was not in attendance. It turned out very yummy and all my children were able to be there except Jenny & her family. . It was just kind of a lackluster holiday, however, because no one really stayed to visit or play games. My family left to visit my MIL and when we came back, everyone was leaving. Jenny and her family were able to come visit the next day though.

Christmas was so exciting! All my children came to our house(plus a couple boyfriends), it was a packed house! My mom came up(she stayed at Lisa's). We had our big dinner on Christmas Eve, because Mandi had to leave to return to Cedar Christmas afternoon. Christmas is finally exciting again because of Hayley! It was so fun to see her open her gifts and her reactions! I received the best gift of all from Jenny. It was a little box and the last gift I opened. When I opened it I found small bottles of BABY shampoo, BABY lotion, BABY powder and BABY wash!!! I just looked at her and said "Are you kidding me"? I knew this meant she was announcing she was pregnant.!Of course no one else could see what was in the box and when Jenny affirmed that she was PREGNANT by saying she wasn't kidding, I jumped up and did a little dance and ran over and hugged her and everyone else didn't know what in the world I was so excited about. Obviously, when I realized what the gift meant, I couldn't control my excitement! We have been waiting and hoping for this news for such a long time. When everyone else finally figured it out, we were all jubilant!

A week or two later, I was surprised again by the news that we now were expecting TWINS!!!! We are so grateful and happy. Double Blessings!!

My good news and excitement doesn't end there!! On January 16th, my daughter, Stefanie, announced that she was engaged!!! Now we had been expecting this news for quite sometime, so
when she told me that Todd proposed(which she said in a very nonchalant way at the end of a long statement that had nothing to do with engagements), I wasn't really sure I heard what I thought I heard her say, so I exclaimed "No way!". She said "Yes he did", I replied "I don't believe you". She said, "Mom, he really did"! I guess due to the casual way that she threw it in at the end of the unrelated statement, I just really thought she was pulling my leg, so i said "You liar"! She finally had to put Todd on the phone to affirm that he did propose. Now i guess you have to know the long story of how long I have been expecting this news to understand part of my disbelief. Briefly, she moved back to Cedar in Sept. after having moved home from Cedar upon graduating from college in May. She moved back because her new boyfriend(since April of '09) was still going to school there and she felt that the realtionship was going well enough that she didn't want to have to continue it on a long distance basis. Ever since she moved back she had been talking about them talking about getting married. So, I got the impression it would happen not long after she moved back. All I can say is I am so glad and excited! yay-yay!

So, as you can tell, many things happening over the last few months. Most of it all good. I feel so blessed and have such a great life. I love my family and I love being a mom and I especially love being a grandma!!!

Missionary Surprises!

So two times in the past couple of months I have been
surprised that my husband has been entertaining the
missionaries.

The first time, I was out of town and came home to find
out that my husband had invited the young male missionaries
in to our home and sat and talked with them for a bit. This was
a shock because my husband hasn't been active since I have
known him and I would have never thought he would be
entertaining the missionaries without me around.

The second time was about a month ago, I was sitting on the
couch chillin' after just getting home from work, a little tuckered
out, thinking to myself that I hoped my husband would take me
out to dinner cuz I hadn't planned ahead for anything.

Bruce walks in and says "Hi, dear! I just met some new
missionaries and I hope you don't mind that I invited them
to dinner tonight-is that okay?" Well, first off I was a little
shocked and then embarrassed cuz I hadn't made any dinner,
so I told him I was hoping he would take me out. He then replied
that we would just take the missionaries out for a nice dinner!
He invited them in and introduced me to Bro. & Sis. Bingham
from Idaho, currently serving a mission at Temple Square, but
had recently been assinged to branch out to our stake.

Apparently, they had been driving down the street looking
as if they might be lost so Bruce flagged them down to help
and struck a conversation and invited them for dinner.

I am still not sure if they were actually looking for our house,
since Bruce is inactive he was probably their intended target!
Anyhow, we have been associating with them several times since
then. They spoke in our ward and invited Bruce and he actually
went. Then Bruce and Matt actually went bird hunting with Bro.
Bingham on his farm in Idaho.( What missionary gets to go hunting
on their mission?) We have also gone bowling and for ice cream.
They are a real down-to-earth couple and are very nice and easy
to talk to and get along with. I am so glad that Bruce is receptive
to at least befriending them at this point and who knows what it
will lead to.

Birdie Pic

Took this pic at Sundance. If you look really close you can see a bird on the edge of the wood plank. I love the message- the bird seems to have no clue that one swift move of the plank could send him into the tumbling water. He seems at peace!

A New Season

Well, it has been awhile since I have posted. There has been so much going on. This may not have any pics attached , but oh well, it's a post!!

Warning, this may be a long one!!!!

Our lives have seasons, I am not sure which season I am in, but I know I am in a new season.
I have quit my two part-time jobs(as preschool teacher and CNA) to work full-time 8-4, M-F.
I am working as the administrative assistant for a new Legacy facility that was just built and opened 5 minutes from my house!

I started on Sept. 21st. In a temporary office. The business was supposed to open the 1st of October, but three days before that there was a major flood in the basement(faulty sprinkler system it seems) that damaged all of the electrical control boxes. Therefore, it delayed the opening to October 26th.
We were told it would be a perfect time to take a vacation, but we could still come to work if we wanted to. I took a few days off and went to Cedar/St.Geo. None of my family could really take time off at this point, so I didn't really want to vacation alone!!! So the days that I did go into work, were somewhat boring. BAsically all I did was answer phones(that rarely rang), and write up an office supply order for when we opened up.

One day, they sent some of us to volunteer to serve at a luncheon at another LEgacy facility that was hosting Richard Paul Evans as a guest speaker(he wrote the Christmas Box, etc.). The luncheon was for over 100 people. I ended up setting all the tables, filling all glasses with ice and water, serving for a 3 course meal(in shifts, not all courses at once), refilling glasses when people ran out, and clearing the tables afterward, oh, also setting up all the chairs!! I was there from 10:30 til just after 2, smelling all the wonderful food, walking my legs off back and forth from the kitchen to the banquet room and working up quite a sweat. I really didn't mind doing this in the beginning-it was something to do besides sit behind a desk and be bored!! What really upset me was that the people at the facility we were helping didn't ever once say "thank you", or offer to let us eat some of this yummy food we had been smelling and serving. We worked right thru what should have been our lunch! Not one "thank-you" or token of appreciation. It has certainly made me look at waitress/servers with more appreciation. If someone does a good job when I am out to eat, I will let them know, either by generous tip or verbal acknowledgement!

Well, anyway, we moved over to our facility on October 23rd or 24th and officially opened for business on the 26th! Well, things are still very slow. It takes awhile to fill a 40-bed facility(that is just my side of the bldg., 37 more beds on the alzheimer's side!) Anyway, so most days while I sit and wait for the phone to ring, I am trying to find things to do to keep busy and not go BORED CRAZY!! Can't wait til things pick up!! But I am not liking the full-time thing! Wow! I never seem to get any quiet time or time to get errands done. This is gonna take awhile to get used to!!

That is what I mean by seasons-I am in a new season of life, one I haven't seen for over 20 years!! I am trying to adjust. It not only is hard to work full-time again, but it has been hard to come to the realization that I am no longer needed at home by my kids as I used to be. They are all graduated from HS, either attending college, or to their little family, They have moved out (most of them) and on with establishing their new lives-as it should be, but it is so hard to go from a busy life dedicated to being Carpool-mom, Cheer-mom, Dance-Mom, Sports-mom,
Getting everyone up, and where they need to be and then waking up one day to realize that I am not needed for those things anymore. I feel empty and useless-What am I if not a busy mom???

So, I must start out on a new season in my life and adjust to many new things at once and find out just who I am now!!

Mandi and Jordan's quality time together!

Enjoying a little quality computer time together!!! I thought this was so funny!

oops!

Oviously, I am not good at adding pictures and text in the right order!
Sorry!! And the pic of Jen, Hayley, and Daniel sleeping was not the same
night as Hayley's sleepover without her mom and dad!!haha

HAYLEY'S BIG SLEEPOVER

Jenny, Hayley and Daniel sleeping. Comfy?












Bathtime, Naptime-with "Uncle Bear"(matt)
and doing puzzles with him too!

Me and Hayley-TWINS

Me and Hayley wearing dresses. After we had
them on we realized they were near perfect matches!!
So FUN!!