Facing my fear

Today I did something that I have never done since moving here over five years ago. Drum roll please....... I ventured into Washington all by myself! I know that does not sound that exciting but believe me it is a big deal for me. I have a little anxiety when it comes to leaving the state. Even from my old home I never ventured north without an escort of some kind. I know that sounds silly but really I have always gone with someone and the thought of navigating those streets on my own was a little scary. But just so you don't worry - not that anyone is - I did it and did not get lost and found every store I was looking for and even managed not to get turned around heading home. I guess I really paid more attention to things than I thought. I did try to get a couple of girls to go with me and made some phone calls even but when it came right down to it I had to just put my "big girl panties" on and just do it. I am very glad I did. I now have overcome the last of my big fears and will probably make more little jaunts that way. Oh no, this is not good for David's wallet;)

Mondays

Fall is in the air! These last couple of months I have been canning like crazy. I've canned jams, peaches, pears, applesauce, apple butter, pickles and yesterday got to pick some grapes for grape juice. The only thing I did not get done that I really wanted to was salsa. But I know that next year will be a better year for the garden. At least I hope so! It has been especially fun because Toshia and I have been sharing the work load and working together. We have been spending Mondays together trying to get this all done. And in between we've been doing a little crafting! These Mondays have been the highlight of my week since school started. I have enjoyed the little babies being under foot - I guess because I am not stressed about being the "mom" of them. Being the grandma is much more relaxing! Then I am loving the chaos of things that start around 2:30 in the afternoon as everyone arrives home from school. They each come in a few minuets apart and then things don't settle down until everyone is snuggled tightly in bed. Mondays are an exhausting day but I would not trade them for any other day of the week right now. We've decided to keep this little tradition going during the school year. There are plenty of crafting things to keep us busy. I am so lucky to have her so close. I am going to enjoy these moments because you never know when things in her life might change and she might not live so close. But you can know that if I have anything to say about it all my children are going to stay close and we all are going to grow old together!

Grandkids!

I LOVE being a grandma!

10-10-10

I was on my way up to bed when the thought occurred to me that I had better write a little something on this historic never to happen again for another hundred years day! 10-10-10 just has a certain ring to it that calls out to me for some reason. Conference was last weekend and was so wonderful! What a blessing it has been to travel to Utah for the last 10 years to hear it in person. (We have traveled there many times before but with breaks in between.) There is something about hearing the music live in the conference center that just brings chills to my spirit. I LOVE it! So in honor of 10-10-10 I thought I would list my top 10 favorite conference treasures.

1. President Monson announcing 5 new temples!

2. Sis. Wixom taught us to take our children by the hand and lead them - lead them to scripture reading, prayer, and family home evening!

3. Elder Costa taught that a prophet tells us what we need to know not what we want to hear. Prophetic priorities are God's priorities!

4. The Tabernacle Choir singing "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus"!

5. Pres. Uchtdorf wisdom as he counseled to proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances! Do all things in wisdom and order!

6. Elder Hales teaching us that if we use our agency in righteousness we will become closer to God!

7. Elder Scott taught that faith is not obtained during times of great adversity, that's when it is utilized, needed strength is drawn from it at that time!

8. Boyd K Packer as he made a remarkable statement that "moral standards can't be changed by battle or by ballot", he went on to say that you can not vote to change moral values and standards set by God - changing marriage or moral constants by a vote of the people is as feeble as thinking you can change other laws of God such as gravity!

9. Pres. Monson reminded us that an attitude of gratitude helps us recognize our blessings. Pride brings selfishness, humbleness brings an attitude of gratitude!

10. Music and the Spoken Word - it was so beautiful Sunday morning and the message sung through the music just touched my heart!

It was hard to pick just 10 things because so many things touched my heart - I love that we have a living prophet on the earth today with 12 apostles by his side and his two councilors! How thankful I am to live in this time and at this place so I can hear their words! I have made a resolve to "ameliorate" (improve) over this next six months!

A little of this a little of that

So I think it is really weird to not have any pictures to upload when I blog - I really need a new camera for Christmas Santa! That said here goes another random update.

The children have been doing really wonderful in school. They seem to be settling into the routine of things very well. I think I have been getting the hang of my routine or at least trying to have a routine. I really have been so very busy with projects that yesterday when Toshia said lets make applesauce I thought to myself I just want to do nothing today. She came over (we have been having a great time getting together on Mondays canning and crafting) so we continued our "mother/daughter Mondays". She worked on her little guys Christmas present and I did a "trick or treat" banner. So for not wanting to do anything I still managed to get some creative thing done. We will get the applesauce and apple butter done when I get back from Utah next week.

Thursday Noah has to have a little surgery on his lip. He is a little nervous about it but looking forward to missing school on Friday.The little girls have started up again with piano. We took half of July and all of August off and it has been somewhat slow getting back into it since school started. Hayden in her most dramatic tone ever said, "I don't ever want to play the piano I only want to play the violin and if I can't do that then I just don't want to do anything!." I am not accomplished enough on the violin to teach her anything - I still need lots of teaching myself - so in my most dramatic tone I replied, "I would be the worst mom in the world if I let you quit - and quite frankly I don't think I could stand to hear you scratch the notes out on the violin!" She huffed off and said, "Oh well, it was worth a try." She then had another similar conversation in front of Toshia and I tried to get Toshia to let her know how unhappy she would be if she quit because when she grew up she would always wish she had stuck with it. Toshia did not quite catch on to what I was going for and said some totally random thing that did not help my cause at all. Even Chad is back at the piano and Noah is still working very hard at the guitar.

Reagan was blessed last Sunday and it was so sweet to have all the family here (except Chelsea who had a previously planned trip) for dinner afterwards. Paige was home for the first time in several months - it was nice. Lots has been going on with that little one. That is for another blog post in the future. I made Reagan's dress and bonnet and even though Ashleigh thought the bonnet was a little over the top -(it totally was not!) I think it turned out so beautiful. Toshia picked the pattern and I went from there. Lots of tucks - I love, love, love tucks on baby clothes!

I have been substituting in Seminary and teaching my sweet Sunbeam class. It has kept me in the scriptures a lot. It has been fun preparing for the two totally different kinds of teaching you have to do with the two different ages. I also have read three books in the last couple of weeks and loved all of them - "Rhett Butler's People". "The Mysterious Benedict Society", and finally I read " Goose Girl". I have also started making Christmas presents. I think we are going for more homemade again this year. It is so fun to search out projects and work on them with each person in mind. I also started a sampler quilt that I will work on with some other lady friends each month.

There has not been a slow day yet since school started. I look forward to the lazy days of summer but really have been enjoying the busy days of fall!

This and That

I have not had a chance to sit down and write for so long! The end of summer was such a whirlwind of activity and then school starting this really has been the first time I felt like I could spend time here. While on vacation my camera broke:( but fortunately Toshia was able to get lots of pictures. While I have those now on a CD I have not downloaded to the computer so I won't have any photos for this post.

Needless to say, our vacation was wonderful and fun and very relaxing. We enjoyed lots of time with family and really enjoyed "Disneyland". It was such a journey getting there (with the free ticket thing falling through) but I have to say it was worth every penny just watching the children's faces and hearing their laughter. It was also fun to be with Toshia and her sweet little family. We stayed from opening until closing. It was a long day! I am glad that we saved that for the very end of the vacation. We swam at my mom's pool. We spent time on the California beaches - the water was actually warm! We played at the park, spent time with cousins, aunts, uncles, second cousins, grandma and papa John, time at Aunt Kelly's house and her fabulous pool and backyard (a park in and of itself!), eating great food (thanks mom), going to the movies, surfing, and star gazing on the beach late at night. The kids were great and really got along well for such a long car ride. (David does not believe in stopping much - so we drove straight through in record time) I was glad to get home though because we had so much to do to get ready for school.

This school year will be a very different one for me. It will be 29 years since I have not had small children home during the day. Miss Autumn started first grade this year and that leaves me with as she tells me "six whole hours to myself". The first day I wanted to take everyone like I usually do but the little girls wanted to ride the bus. While I implored and pleaded with them to let me make sure they got to the right places on the first day Autumn informed me that "I am so over that mom". So with much apprehension I let them do it their way. I kind of worried all day until she came bouncing in the door at 2:38 all excited and happy about her first day of school. They all got where they were supposed to and things seem to be going pretty smoothly so far. As for my "six hours" of free time I have managed to fill up every minute until today. Without even trying there seemed to be some kind of project or activity I was needing to be involved with that the days have just flown by. I am hoping to get to some of the things on my "to do" list that I made during the summer next week. I kind of thought the quiet would drive me nuts but it has not taken me long to embrace the quiet. In between everything I have even managed to get a great book read!

Yeah for life right now! yeah for school! yeah for wonderful children! yeah for my hard working husband! and mostly yeah for all the joy this mother of eleven feels at this moment!

First two weeks of August

I finally got all the pictures downloaded of the first two weeks of our August. It has been a very busy and fun two weeks. We started with our annual family reunion we have every August. This year we went to the coast. We borrowed David"s brothers boat and spent three days at the lake.

I love this picture of Noah. He is such a cutie!

And for some reason I have lots of pictures of Jonathan drinking his capri suns!

Here the kids are on the boat ready for riding the inner tube.

David loved playing on the boat and driving on the lake whipping the kids around in the wake!

Chad taking a little rest from all the activity. (Can you see the boat in the background?)

Reagan getting a little sun. I can't believe she was only a week old here!

Our little guy snacking away again.

We headed for the beach to roast hot dogs in the sand. What would a cookout be without a little sand thrown in!

David cooking hot dogs on these stupid things we have had for years and never used. Now we know why we never use them and promptly threw them away after this night!

Hayden and Autumn enjoying roasted hot dogs. We had smores also - those were so good. You also might be wondering why we are all bundled up in August at the beach - well you know the Oregon coast:)

Reagan snuggling with Toshia.

Andrew and Adrien flying a kite. They had the coolest kite!

Saturday morning we had a surprise baby shower with all the sisters and Grandma Weitzel at a cute little restaurant. This picture is so darling - Grandma with youngest grandchild and new great granddaughter!

Chelsea brought Duke down to the lake for a little fun!

After everybody went home the girls and I stayed for the rest of the week so I invited some friends down for a couple of days to share the place with us. All the kids had a great time on the beach.

The girls had a mini makeover late at night. They were gorgeous!

This last weekend Ashleigh graduated from Pacific University. We are so proud of her and all her hard work!

She has been in school for so long - and it was so fun to celebrate with her! We love you!

I couldn't resist adding this picture - our future graduate!

So much going on so much still to do - August is definitely the busiest month for all of us here. We leave for California in a couple of days and when I post again I will have all the updates from that part of our vacation! The sad part is when all this fun is over we start right in with school. - Now that will be a new chapter of life for me!