Another Anniversary

It's been thirty two years.
Best decision I ever made.
Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart...

It's Taking It's Toll

The Bishop has had a rough month.  

We have had many move ins this month, a few move outs, some families struggling and then several ward members just not feeling the need to fulfill their church callings.  All very frustrating and disappointing to the Bishop.

Point in hand - this month was the Young Men's High Adventure.  The planning of this activity started months ago with a few ideas thrown out by the Young Men leaders and then some of the boys but very little details were followed through on.  With a week before the trip starting, we end up with NO Young Men leaders able to go and some assignments not even started.  Bishop was determined to let this activity fail as there were several of the Young Men who NEEDED this trip and had gone to great lengths to earn money and do service projects to be able to pay for this trip.  Del didn't want them being disappointed.  

So, he took off a week of work, along with his first counselor leaving his family of four children, and they, along with the Scout Leader, took 15 boys on this High Adventure trip.

But the week before going, these three men also had to meet two or three times to plan all the last minute things that had been dropped by the Young Men leaders and never followed through on - ie..FOOD for 5 days, a menu and three days of activities!!!

A lot of stress...

Then the trip itself?  Bishop said there were a few times that he could tell the boys were really enjoying themselves, but it never could quite compensate for the continual whining and complaining the boys expressed about the food, the 'boring activities' and the lack of entertainment they felt they should have been having.  Bishop was BEYOND hurt and disappointed at the lack of appreciation the boys showed for all the work the three men had put into making sure this trip was a success and the sacrifices they had made to be away from their families to make sure these boys had a good experience.  He called me one day, and from the moment he said 'hello', I could tell he was feeling awful.  Aside from the terrible MS symptoms he was experiencing and the pure exhaustion from doing most everything there was to be done, he was emotionally and physically hurt from their lack of excitement.  I wanted to punch a few faces of those spoiled little brats.

That was last week.

This week, he is feeling the 'after shocks' of the trip - his body hurts, he's feeling terrible still - hurts when he sleeps, feels sick when he eats - and just can't seem to feel good.  He's still exhausted and the ward still has serious issues.  He feels he needs to go to an internist to see maybe what's going on with him...He thinks it could be he needs to change his diet, exercise more etc...Personally, I think his MS might be getting worse.

So, I am trying to find a doctor to get him to and see if we can get him some help.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep him positive and spend time with him.  He's so glad to be home but still feeling yucky.  Poor guy.

While Del was gone last week, we lost two chickens...hence, the gun at the back door.  Jordan is determined to shoot himself another coyote.  I was pretty upset to see the remains of one of the chickens strewn from one end of the backyard to the other...she really put up a fight that she eventually lost.  Made me so sad.  So now, we have only 9 chickens left and we're protecting them pretty closely each night.  But we're getting about 6 eggs each day so far.  Some of the girls are still holding out on us.  They better start laying pretty soon though!!

He's His Daddy's Boy

If you could see pictures of Jordan at this exact same age, you would understand how emotional I get when I see Emerson each day.
He is my son Jordan all over again...from head to toe.

5 Months Old and Mobile

Yup - like I said - he's 5 months old - and has just started to crawl.  How cute is he???
The bottom picture is how Lexi finds him each morning when he wakes up for the day - peeking over the top of his crib and just smiling from ear to ear.
He loves to lay on his tummy and army crawl to everything that is 'just out of his reach'.  He can also get up onto 'all fours' and then plop down on his tummy.
He'll be going on his first plane ride next month when Jordan and Lexi take him to Washington to see Lexi's family up there.  They are so looking forward to having Lexi's family get to enjoy all the new things Emerson is doing and learning.
He's adorable, that's for sure!

Fourth of July 2014

The holiday fell on a Friday this year so it made for a really fun, but exhausting weekend.
Last week, our Relief Society Presidents husband ended up in the hospital and had been there for almost a full week.  Being her first counselor, all her responsibilities fell on my shoulders.  Can I just say, she is a very busy lady.  I did food orders for families, called and visited the sick, took care of two Sunday/s, one of which, (today) I also had to teach the lesson - had meals taken in to some families, went and visited new families that have just moved in, and then did several visits with the Bishop.  On top of all of that, the Relief Society was in charge of the Ward Fourth of July breakfast/Activity of which, I was the presidency member in charge.  Alana, the second counselor was a HUGE help also and between the two of us, and others on the committee, we pulled off a pretty fantastic ward party.  High Five to us.
Then, we had family over in the afternoon for a family barbecue and we were supposed to have several of Mike and Kylie's friends over also, but April Austin had her baby the day before, so she and her family couldn't come - but Paxton and Abby, with their three little one's, were able to come and enjoy the evening with us.  By the end of the night of clean up and fire works, I was exhausted.
BUT...that was not to be the end.  Mike and Kylie stayed the night with their kids...All did well, except for Madi - stinker.  She didn't want to sleep...she wanted Papa...papa, papa, papa - in every tone of voice, it was PAPA!!!  No-one got much sleep during the night except for Mike and Preston - so after a nice breakfast Saturday morning, Mike and Kylie took their family home and we all tried to get some much needed sleep.
Today, Sunday, I gave the Relief Society lesson.  It was intense - about making and keeping our covenants - I asked them 'why they were at church today' and 'why are they member of this church?'  The concept was - we knew the plan, we chose the plan, we agreed to the plan and we accepted the plan.  Now, it's time to LIVE the plan and our covenant.  Some days are easier than other...most days are hard though - we have to give all we have to kingdom and try to survive our trials well.  Easiest to do when we are living the commandments and following the plan.  Hardest to do when we are deviating from the plan and the path we're supposed to be on.,  Don't find our personal desires, thoughts and beliefs differing from that of the Saviors - if we do, we know we need to re-align our thoughts and hearts to His will and not our won.  We've each made the decision as proven by the fact that we are all here.  Now, remain faithful to our covenants.
It was a good lesson and I am grateful to the Lord for the flowing of words and thoughts he allowed the Spirit to reveal to me that needed to be shared.

I prefaced the talk with the sharing of a dream I had last night.
Dreamed I was my age now, but was living back in the day when I was 16, working for my dad as his dental assistant. But I wasn't recognized as my daddy's daughter...I wasn't seen that way - I was some 54 yr old lady. While at the office, a younger version of my mother came to the office with two little children.  In looking closely at the children, I noticed they were two of my brothers - Garth, maybe age 2 1/2 and Paul, just over age one.  I started to cry seeing them as I recognized them as my siblings as babies.  Then I noticed my mother was pregnant, which would have meant the baby she was carrying was...me.  I excitedly told her and daddy that the baby was going to be a girl and that it was me - and they were going to name her Marlys.  My mom said ,'But I don't even like the name Marlys'.  and I said, 'Well, I don't like it either, but that's what you named me'.  I then told them both, they would be having six more children and what each of their names were.  They were fascinated that I knew all this information and it was thrilling for me to be able to tell them all these things I knew from over my 54 years.
Then, the dream forwarded to being with my siblings in each of their early stages of their married lives...like each of them had maybe one or two children, after which I would then say something about one of them already born (oh, you're Matt and you're going to marry a very sweet girl named Annie, and you're going to be a dentist'.)  And then I would tell each of them how many more children they were going to have and what their names would be...a profound part of the dream was when I had to tell my oldest sister Sheila, that she was going to lose her oldest daughter, AJ, from drowning in the bath tub.  Then I panicked, realizing it hadn't happened yet in my dream - I was asking what day and month it was and then had to tell them it was going to be in a few days...I tried to comfort Sheila and Steve and they understood this was the plan they had agreed to and were willing to have in order to come to earth.  I woke up shortly after this.
It was a a dream that I found both comforting, as I was able to give them so much information about their lives they didn't know and had to look forward to,, but also, there was information I held back from them, knowing how it would break their hearts, knowing some choices that would be made in their futures by both themselves and their children.
That's how our Heavenly Father feels.  He knows and remembers the plan.  We have forgotten all.  He's given us as much information as He possibly can to help guide us through our choices...but we just have to live by faith.  The lesson was profound and the spirit was strong.  I was grateful to be an instrument in the Lord's hands of helping to inspire the women to live their choices and covenants.