Still Miss Him Like Crazy...

This day will never get easier.

Grateful for- the 29 years I had this wonderful man in my life!

- friends willing to go to the temple with me at 5:15am.

-friends to help with the kids so I could roll back under the covers this afternoon.

- a husband who knew that I needed time with just him tonight.

-family who understands and knows I love them, even when I am not up for talking.

Thankful for Mom Moments

I have pictures I need to upload, but left my camera at the house of our wonderful Thanksgiving feast!! We spent Thanksgiving with 2 wonderful families! The kids got along well, with only a few minor scuffles and we enjoyed fantastic food (too much!) and games. I will write more, but today I wanted to attempt to capture a moment.

Last night, we gained 2 extra kids, so we had to shuffle rooms a little. Emily was bummed to find out she was kicked out of her room and would be sleeping with Natalie (the 2 year old girl.) I put Natalie down first and Emily stayed up with me reading books. It was just me and her and I read her a couple of books. Then she picked one that she could try reading. I watched her face as she concentrated on each letter of each word. I watched her as her eyes glanced around the page, searching for clues as to what the word might be. She was able to read almost the whole big and I could see the pride in her eyes. Reading has not come as easy to her as it did to Dallin, and I have worked really hard to not compare them and to work with her in her time and interest. It has been amazing to watch her blossom in kindergarten, with the help of an incredible teacher. I was so glad that Emily missed the cutoff last year and I feel I gained an extra year with my sweet girl. I also am glad that Oregon doesn't pay for all-day kindergarten so that I get her before Dallin comes home so we can do homework together. I am treasuring these moments with her. I hope she knows how much I love her and how grateful I am to be her mother. She is a bright, funny, silly, beautiful little girl and I love watching her learn and grow.

Random

Well, as you can tell, I am not sticking to NaBloPoMo, but I still want to update my posts more regularly. I am having a great time living in the country. We have a lot to learn, and mostly I am still working on getting my house in order. I have have loved having a clean slate to work with. I still wish that organization came easier to me, but I am doing the best I can! :-) Luckily I have good friends who give me ideas. (And if I am really lucky, they shop for me!)

Sarah and I have begun running together again. We meet outside our sidewalk and head out. It usually ends up being a great chat session. One run we were discussing my issues with losing things. I need to have a place where I always put the essentials- phone, keys, wallet, camera. I tend to switch bags around and then end up forgetting which one is where. The only time I have been successful at not losing something was when we were on our cruise. (Yep, my kids weren't there, so that probably helped!) I had a tiny purse that I wore across my body and always had it with me. Sarah and I decided I needed a purse that I could do that with, but it had to fit those 4 items mentioned above. My other issue is that I do not like shopping!! So, Sarah agreed to find me a purse!! It had to be small enough that I could easily carry it with me always. Here is what she found:

It is brown(which I wear a lot of) and very cute, yet practical!! I know it won't solve all my problems, but it seems to be helping!

Here is one of our visitors to the new homestead! She felt right at home with the chickens! We love having people come visit.

Here is my first sewing project! Emily had asked me to sew her a skirt for Veterans' Day. I told her I didn't think I would be able to get it together in time, so I didn't really think about it again. I sent out an email asking for scrap fabric so we could do some projects. One of my friends happened to have this flag fabric. Emily loved it, so I decided to go for it! I only had a little bit of time to work on it, but Emily helped me and we through it together in a night. She looked very pioneerish, but she loved it!! I am just proud that I did it!! I hope to find some more projects to do.

I have been helping with Math groups in Dallin's class on Tuesdays. This week I was able to work with these 3 boys: Tyler, Zach and Dallin. They have been buddies since they were babies. Zach has been on the waiting list for the Charter school for 4 years. We are excited to have him there now!! They are such good friends and nice boys!

We have still been working on potty training with Bryce. I think we are almost there. We decided after the kids and Jeff did some hard work inside and outside of the house it was time for some fun. We tried to go bowling, but it was full, so we went to the arcade. It is amazing how fast they go through those tokens! We had a good time!

(Love that Bryce's shorts are on backwards and wearing boots with them!! Just glad he is trying to dress himself)

So, that is it for now. Just plugging along! Finding the new normal, whatever that may be...

Happy Birthday Emily

Emily's birthday fell on a Monday- the day we signed with our renters and the beginning of craziness! I hope she felt loved and adored! On her birthday, we went to our traditional birthday restaurant, Red Robin. She wanted to invite our adopted grandma, Sister Delong. I love seeing Emily with her. She is so sweet.

My mom came into town on Thursday, so I scheduled Emily's birthday on Friday so she could share it with us! Since we were packing and all that fun stuff, I opted for a no-stress birthday parted. She invited 14 friends and we went to Pump it Up!

It was a blast and even Jeff had a great time.

I am truly enjoying Emily and the sweet, sassy young lady that she is. I am glad that she missed the school cutoff so I can have this extra year with her. She is a bright girl who is very inquisitive. She asks a lot of questions and actually wants to know the answers. :-) She is learning to control her excitement and wait her turn in class. My favorite story this year was when she was dropped off at a friend's house a few minutes before I got there. She already had her homework out. I praised my friend for getting Emily to start her homework. I was informed that it was Emily's idea to do homework before watching T.V. I was so impressed and proud of my little girl!! I am trying to show her a lot of affection and appreciation. The hardest part is when I see some of my own weaknesses in her. I try to be patient and just love her!

She loves music, dancing, and anything a teenager would love! Happy 6th Birthday Emily!!

So thankful...

for a weekend of inspiring words and a reminder of what's most important. I was able to attend Time Out for Women and hear wonderful speakers. They talked about overcoming adversity and having strength in your trials. They talked about the joy that can be found if you are looking in the right places. Being grateful for what you have and the blessings all around you. They also talked about focusing on the good that you do instead of the coulds and shoulds. I loved all of this! I have a renewed commitment to my family and giving them the best "me". I am excited to apply some of the things that I learned and/or was reminded of.

"No one can go back and make a new start

Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending"

Filled with Hope

I had a busy day on Friday making 100 freezer meals with 4 other awesome women and then I headed for a night out! We went to Time out For Women and had a great opportunity to remember that life can be filled with hope and love instead of despair and disappointment. I will share more thoughts when I have time to process all of it. It was very inspiring and I am excited to apply what I learned!

Time to catch up on Book of Mormon and get some studying done! More catch up posts with pics tomorrow!

Finding Me...

So, part of this big experiment of moving to the "country" is trying to figure out what really makes me happy. I am pretty hard on myself sometimes when I don't think I am who I am "supposed" to be. One thing that has always bothered me is that I love being around people and getting to know them, yet I hardly invite people over. So, I am a socialite who doesn't entertain! Part of it is my lack of confidence in my cooking skills, so I don't want to have people for dinner because I am afraid it won't turn out. As I have become a little more proficient in the kitchen, I still hesitated to invite people over. I am not a natural decorator or party planner and I don't think about the details like some of the people I admire. I also didn't feel my house was well set up for entertaining. I had hoped that once I had a bigger yard that I would have people over. I am glad to say that I was right! I had book club at my house last night and today I had a luncheon for the neighbors that I used to live next to and of course my newest neighbor also came! I really enjoyed spending time with these awesome women and I felt comfortable in my own setting. I was very lucky that the weather turned out beautiful so we were able to eat outside and enjoy the sunshine. It was a very simple lunch, but I am okay with that! It is who I am- simple. :-) I hope they had a good time and felt comfortable at my house. That is what I want-for people to come and feel loved and welcome!

Book Club

This is where I was tonight- at my house! It was great spending time with amazing women! (And this is why my blog is short and backdated!)

Day 2- My goals for the month

Hi all, I love NaBloPoMo because many of my friends take part also and I get to read their posts every day! I am excited for this month because I feel like we are pretty settled in the new place and now I can use my preschool quiet time for other things than packing, unpacking or cleaning! Okay, so maybe I will have to use it for cleaning every once in a while. :-) For now, my focus is going to be studying. I will be taking the ACE Personal Trainer Certification Test on December 29th. So, I will be staying off Facebook and TV for the most part and using extra time to study. Wish me luck! Luckily, I really love the material. This is an important step for me.

My other goal during November is to read the Book of Mormon every day to keep my spiritual perspective. I have a couple of friends reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days. I wanted to continue where I was, so I began on Day 14 today. I loved reading more than one chapter and they happen to be come of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon! Here is the schedule I will be following:

14 2 Nephi 31-33
15 Jacob 1-4
16 Jacob 5-7
17 Enos, Jarom, Omni & Words of Mormon
18 Mosiah 1-3
19 Mosiah 4-8
20 Mosiah 9-12
21 Mosiah 13-17
22 Mosiah 18-21
23 Mosiah 22-26
24 Mosiah 27-29
25 Alma 1-4
26 Alma 5-7
27 Alma 8-10
28 Alma 11-13
29 Alma 14-17
30 Alma 18-21
31 Alma 22-25
32 Alma 26-29
33 Alma 30-32
34 Alma 33-36
35 Alma 37-40
36 Alma 41-44
37 Alma 45-48
38 Alma 49-51
39 Alma 52-56
40 Alma 57-59
41 Alma 60-63
42 Helaman 1-4
43 Helaman 5-7
44 Helaman 8-12
45 Helaman 13-16
46 3 Nephi 1-4
47 3 Nephi 5-8
48 3 Nephi 9-12
49 3 Nephi 13-17
50 3 Nephi 18-20
51 3 Nephi 21-26
52 3 Nephi 27-30
53 4 Nephi, Mormon 1-2
54 Mormon 3-7
55 Mormon 8-9
56 Ether 1-5
57 Ether 6-10
58 Ether 11-15
59 Moroni 1-7
60 Moroni 8-10

So, I will finish right before Christmas- I love it!! Thanks to Suziepetunia and Ranell for the inspiration!

Okay, time to study!

Perspective

This is a perfect topic for the first day of November. It is easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget what is most important. I have a friend who has helped me to remember that life should not be taken for granted. Her husband was diagnosed as an 18 year old with brain cancer. (He was not her husband at the time!) He miraculously beat it and was able to live another 22, service filled years before brain cancer eventually came back and took his life. He was an integral part of our little community and was involved in helping in so many ways. His wife is an equally strong amazing woman who I have truly enjoyed getting to know. One of the things she said really struck me. About 9 months ago she said, "I see all these marriages falling apart over petty differences and selfishness and I am doing everything in my power to hold onto mine." I keep this in my heart when I get upset about small things. Her husband used those "extra" 22 years to bring smiles to everyone around him. The stories that were told at his funeral sounded a lot like those used to describe my father. Somehow I can see that they might be joking around in heaven together, even though they didn't know each other here. :-)

We were able to take their family out boating about a week after the funeral. It was great to see all of them smiling and having a good time.

This month I also want to think about the things I am grateful for. Today it is:

1. Our health

2. A new day, a new start

3. A wonderful community to live in