Where in the World????

My parents received their much anticipated mission call this Saturday, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And imagine, if you will, what it was like for them to have received that envelope in the mailbox at approximately 10:00 A.M., and leave it sitting there for 8 HOURS, just staring at them, and begging them to open it. Why would they do such a silly thing?...because their very lives depended on it! Their eight children, and many of their grandchildren threatened them that they better not open it until we could all be present to witness it (4 of them were on speaker phone, 4 of us were standing with cameras and video cameras running). It was much better than Christmas morning!
Before the envelope was opened, we all guessed where in the world we thought they would be serving the Lord for 18 months. Guess who hit the nail on the head??? That would be yours truley! I said that they would be serving in the...(wait, I've skipped some parts of the story - I can't tell you yet where their going).
So back to the events. After everyone was ready, and the phones were all connected, they tore open the envelope (not carefully like they do Christmas paper). While my mom pulled out the papers, my dad sat with his hands over his face - not believing the step they are about to take. When they pulled out the paper and started to read, they both got looks of shock as they read the words from our Prophet of God, for them to serve in the Marshall Islands. I think most of us, in unison, said: "Where?" "Where is that?" (of course, I knew...because as I mentioned before...I had guessed it.) They will be living in and serving the people of the South Pacific Islands - where it's hot and humid. Where (according to the internet), there is LITTLE internet access, FEW phones, and even FEWER cell phones. For a family who call our parents at least once a week (some of us about once a day), this will be a HUGE adjustment. But I guess we've had them our whole lives, and we need to share them with the people of the Marshall Islands. Whom, I am sure, will love them as much as we do.
My parents, especially my dad, has waited for this day their whole adult lives. However, change is never easy when it comes right down to it. I saw lots of emotions in their expressions yesterday - a little bit of excitement, a lot of nervousness, TONS of questions, and even a little sadness for what they will be leaving behind. I will miss them so much, but I am SO EXCITED for them to get to have this new adventure together. They will be doing more service for their family back home, by serving the Lord, then they could ever do for us by sticking around home. I would love for them to stay home with us, BUT...the Lord will pour out His blessings to them, the people they serve, and to their family while they are away. I know this is true!
My only fear is that they will love it there, and the people there SO MUCH that they WON'T come home when their 18 months is done!

Their expression as they read the words: Marshall Islands They each have two phones up to their ears, talking to my siblings who couldn't be there.
It's just that 18 months never seemed so long! Ira and I always said that wherever they go, it better be a cool place to visit. So somehow, we are still determined to visit - it just could be a little trickier than if they went somewhere state-side. BUT Marshall Islands...here we come (maybe)! Any volunteers for babysitters???? haha

Bitter Sweet

My Uncle Dennis Moser passed away this last week from Thyroid cancer. It was a bitter-sweet thing to say goodbye. Cancer is such an ugly disease, and causes so much pain. In that sense, death is a welcome friend. To watch his wife, and kids, grandkids, and his brothers (my dad), experience so much sadness is where the bitter comes in. My dad had such a wonderful relationship with his brother, and I'm sure they parted with no regrets. Their last time together had words of affection expressed. My dad is becoming a professional funeral speaker. I think that is a wonderful tribute to him of how much he loves and is loved by all of us. Dennis left this life, surrounded by his family, knowing that he was loved, and knowing he had fought a good fight, and could finally rest in the presence of his Father in Heaven. What more could anyone ask for than to have that knowledge?!

If you've never had the experience of being present for a military funeral - it is really a wonderful thing. It brings a lot of feelings of pride for our country, and for those who have and currently are serving to protect our freedoms.

Side note: This is the craziest thing ever, so I'll share it with you. Uncle Dennis' Thyroid cancer was caught about a year ago, and it had progressed too far at that point. However, his kids (four of them), one by one decided to get tested as well. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAS THE SAME CANCER! And his wife also has it. They have been through surgeries and treatments, hopefully with full positive results since theirs was caught earlier. But wait...theres more. Now two of his grandchildren have also been diagnosed with it. How crazy and sad is that? What in the world would cause an entire family to have the same cancer? The mystery continues...

Hiking: Part IIII (and the final chapter) of our Memorial Day Weekend

Not always is the journey as enjoyable as the destination. But in this case, it was equally as fabulous. I had Brayden and Emilie as my "dates", and I had a great time talking with them as we trudged up the mountain side (talking between huffs and puffs that is). I have never been much for hiking, it's just too much work. I'd rather sit on my 4-wheeler and let the machine do the work. However, there are places that you just can't get to unless you use your own two legs, and this was one of them. Who knew that I lived in a hikers paradise? And have NEVER taken advantage of it. I think after today, that may have changed. I was feeling so dang proud of myself, that I could take on such a challenge...until on the way down, we passed many people who were much older or much, much younger than me, and they were making it to the top. So maybe I wasn't AS "cool" as I thought I was, but to me, it was still an accomplishment. So yeah for me and my kidlets. We hiked the Wind Caves trail in Logan Canyon. It's 1.8 miles EACH WAY - I'm sure that's not a big deal, but not bad for a beginner, right?

Ira had so much paper work to catch up on, that he had to miss our little adventure. So I left Jarin and Kamden with him for the few hours. Do you think he got any paperwork done, or should he have just come with us? Hmmm...I wonder.

Camping (sort of): Memorial Day Weekend Part II & III

Part II of Memorial Day weekend was Sunday morning, we went to the cemeteries where some of our loved ones have been laid to rest. In the years past, I have loved going to the cemeteries with my parents, and my Grandma Wright, and they would point out who my relatives were that had passed on before me. I enjoyed taking my children with me this year, and showing them where these relatives were, and answering their questions the best I could. My Grandma had lots of plastic flowers that she would make sure every relative had a flower on their headstone on Memorial Day, and that they hadn't been forgotten. She has since passed away, and one of my aunts (I think) has taken over the tradition. They still all had plastic flowers next to their headstones. I have been tempted to drop this tradition, and do "funner" things with our family, and some years we chose the funner things. However, there is an experience about just how important this tradition is that I want to write about. It involves these four headstones pictured below.

My Grandma always went with her mother to place flowers on the headstones on Memorial Day to the various cemeteries throughout the valley. They would place these flowers in the Franklin, ID cemetery, where there had been four small children/babies buried in the 1800's. Over time, their little stone markers were buried by dirt and grass and forgotten and lost by everyone except my Grandma. She knew they were there, and she continued to place flowers where she had remembered these markings to be. A few years ago, a family wanted to bury a relative there, and she told them that there were these four already buried there. They tried to settle the dispute by looking on the cemetery records. They had no record of these gravesites. She wouldn't let it rest. She knew they were there, she knew their names, and exactly where they were, because she had been placing flowers there since she was a child. Finally, the cemetery worker prodded into the soil to see if he could find anything that gave any indication of people being buried there. Sure enough, his prodder hit a stone that had the name of Goaslind scratched into it. Then he found another, until he located them all - right where she said they would be. After that experience, my Grandma raised money to have proper headstones placed there, so that they wouldn't be forgotten again. I think that is such a neat story to demonstrate just how important that tradition of going to the cemeteries is to me. I love the opportunity to share with my children how much these ancestors mean to me.

My baby nephew, Cameron, who died at 9 months old.

Going back to these places helps bring back so many memories, some of them sad of course - but so many of them are wonderful.

PART III
We really wanted to go camping for the big kick-off to summer. But with schedule conflicts, it just wasn't happening. So we did what we could. We went to a close -by camping area on Sunday evening and ate our tinfoil dinners and roasted marshmallows. We even explored a cave. The best part of our "camping" trip was that we could go home, shower, and sleep in our comfy-cozy beds!

Ira and Kamden


Me and Kamden with his headlamp on - he didn't like it for too long...can't say I blame him!

The cave of wondersOur fire was going a bit better then that at one time. We didn't just smoke our marshmallows (that sounded bad, didn't it? - but you know what I mean)

Stay tuned for part IIII of our Memorial Day weekend. I know, the anticipation is just too much for you to bear, so make sure to come back and see the final activity!

Mirage (Memorial Day Weekend: Part 1)

This weekend we decided to take the kiddos 4-wheeling. Have you looked at the peaks of the mountains?...still snow. So we decided to take them near the Great Salt Lake, by Golden Spike, where we had heard there are fun trails and salt flats that the kids could get more practice on their motorcycles without too much damage if they tip over. So we are riding out on the salt flats trying to find the shoreline. Guess what, there's NOT a shoreline. There is flat, dried up earth where a lake used to be, and we kept thinking we could see the lake, so we would drive...no lake. We would look on the GPS, sure enough, we were heading right to it...we thought we could see it...but no lake. It was one mirage after another. Thank heavens for the GPS, or we wouldn't have found our way back over all that empty lake bottom and mirages. Anyways, as we kept pushing forward, we began to realize that our bikes were starting to sink just a little bit. Our dry lake bottom was becoming wet, without us even realizing it. So Ira commented that we were in "quick sand", (just a phrase he chose to use to describe how the wet sand snuck up on us without us knowing), and that we needed to turn around and get out of it. Next thing we know, we are wondering where Emilie was. She had heard the words "quicksand", and "get out of here", and she was gone! She was going faster on her little bike then I have ever dared drive the 4-wheeler, and she kept going and going. She was a little speck in the middle of the mirages all around. At the time, we didn't know what possessed her to just take off without the rest of us, and we were getting mad at this child who wasn't obeying the rules to stay together. After the little speck of Emi became full-sized, and we could stop her, we gave her a piece of our minds and told her all the horrible things that could have happened to her if we couldn't find her. Then we take a step back and ask her "WHY"? Her answer made a lot of sense...IF your an EIGHT YEAR OLD! She was scared. She thought we were in quicksand and needed to get out of there fast. After our anger cooled down a bit, and we knew she was safe, then the laughter began...and hasn't stopped. I still laugh when I think about that little girl high-tailing it out of there as fast as she did.
Ira and I have come up with our "deep thought" surrounding that experience, ready for this? (it's really deep)... Driving into that "quicksand" is the way the adversary works. He catches us so slowly before we even realize we are in trouble. Then we have a choice to keep going on the path we're on, or high-tail it out of there. Had we kept going, we all would have been stuck. Turning around, and getting as far away from there without looking back was the right thing. (However in Emi's case, I do wish she had looked back to notice she was alone, and not tried to get out SO DANG FAST!)
It was a fun day, which left us with a memory that we will chuckle at forever!
I took lots of pictures, (what's new?), so happy viewing.

This isn't the time Emi was cruisin', but another time she got ahead of me. Can't you see the lake ahead? It looks like we're almost there...but NO LAKE!

We found this quaint little place for lunch, equipped with palm trees and all. Oh wait, that was a mirage too. It was sagebrush, not palm trees. But we were happy for at least that much in the middle of nowhere. Yes, we had salty sand in EVERYTHING!

Cruizin' along

Ira and Jarin over one of the original bridges of the original train that went from the East Coast to the West Coast.

Me and my baby.

Kamden didn't like our adventure so much. We may be in trouble if we have a child who doesn't like riding as much as the rest of us.

Brayden

Ira and Jarin

I'm Hooked

At this very moment I have someone here cleaning my blinds and washing my windows. And guess what I'm doing? Well Duh!...I'm blogging! What a happy day for me! I have never hired out my chores before, and I am in heaven. Instead of cleaning windows myself, I took Ira to lunch, went on a drive with the kids, and now I'm doing this. Oh, I feel spoiled, and I'M LOVIN' IT! What should I hire out next?...Hmmmmmm. The list could go on and on, but I better stop with the windows and blinds...(for now ;) ). Thank you window cleaner person, you made my day! With the check I just wrote, I probably made their day too. Happy, Happy Day...Happy, Happy Me!

p.s. anyone know of a house cleaner in Cache Valley who will come like twice a month? That would be so totally awsomely cool! I'm being serious, I'm really liking this, and it may be worth my sanity to have a little help once in awhile. Any suggestions?

Happy Birthday...

...To ME! Who wishes THEMSELVES a happy birthday? How lame is that??? BUT, I do have a purpose for it today. I am turning 36 years old today, and I have learned lots of wisdom in my "old age" that I would like to share with my friends and family, so here goes:

10. Life is too short to be miserable all the time. Sure, I allow myself to have a "pity party" once in awhile, but then GET OVER IT - I'm missing the good stuff in life if I hang out at that party for too long.

9. When I thought I knew it all and had experienced life to its fullest (at the tender age of 20), I got married. I quickly learned that I didn't know a thing!

8. My parents really aren't all that mean, old, naive, and boring, as I once thought they were. I really adore them, and guess what? I think they are probably two of the wisest people on the planet!

7. My siblings aren't the worlds biggest pain in the neck, as I once thought they were. They are actually pretty cool people that I really, really like to spend time with.

6. Raising children ISN'T the same as what I thought it would be when I would rock my baby dolls to sleep, and tell them to stay in bed and they did it without complaining (unless you were lucky enough to have one of those dolls that made real crying noises).

5. Staying up past midnight isn't fun...it's just exhausting!

4. Married life isn't complete bliss like I thought it would be after watching too many chic flicks. But it is definently worth the effort it takes!!!!! To love and to be loved is the best gift God gave.

3. Making the effort to go to church every Sunday has more eternal rewards than just seeing friends. Chosing the right has more eternal rewards than just making parents happy. Having an "eternal family" has WAY more meaning than I ever thought it could.

2. Bread won't rise if you don't use yeast (Poor Ira had to endure a lot of interesting meals while I was trying to find my way through a recipe).

1. Thirty six is NOT as old as I thought it was when my parents were that age!


I'm pretty wise now that I am about half way through this lifes experience, doncha think? OK, maybe not...there's still lots to be learned. There are many wonderful adventures waiting to be discovered, and I don't want to waste any time. Thank Heaven we have eternity to keep on learning and loving.

Me at one month and 3 years old

My Senior pictures at 18 years old.

LUV the HAIR!!

Things to ponder: What ever happened to that cute, skinny body?

Why I LUV...

BEING A MOMMY!

*wet, sticky kisses
*wide open arms being wrapped tightly around me
*little people climbing into bed with me when they want me to wake up in the morning
*little voices (I love how sweet childrens voices are - when their NOT yelling)
*watching them wave to me when they are supposed to be singing in the primary choir for Mothers Day
*When the baby learns to say, "Mamamamama"
*When my kids come home from school, and the first thing I hear is, "Mom".
*A Smile from a dirty face (preferrably clean face, but dirty works too)
*When I can have a "real" conversation with my older kids
*Small handprints on clean surfaces (I'm not making this up, I really do like this - it is the best thing ever to see a full, small handprint on a window or mirror - luv it!)
*Holding a new baby that I know just left the arms of God
*Singing nursery rhymes and primary songs together
*Having help with picking things up and mowing the lawn
*Being the recipient of homemade gifts and cards
*Having "helpers" to cook and pull weeds (even if it is usually a flower or desired plant that gets pulled instead) :)
*Bright eyes when something new has been learned
*Having someone say over and over again, "Look at me, mom. Look...Look at me"
*Get to read childrens stories
*Having an excuse to get to color with crayons
*Having an excuse to get to play in the little blow-up swimming pool in the yard (can you imagine what the neighbors would think if I didn't have kids, and they saw me playing in it?)
*Buying and playing with baby toys and dolls.
*I have someone to make "Mickey Mouse" pancakes for.
*Hearing from others, or seeing for myself, when my older children are making good choices, and remembering what they have been taught.
*I get to attend dance & piano recitals, and cheer for them in sporting or other events.
*I have someone to hang out at the park, or the lake, or in the mountains with.
*I get to be re-taught the things I learned in school, plus more!
*I have 4 little reasons that I HAVE to get up every day, and stay healthy for, even when I would rather wallow in self pity!
*Those little people who call me "Mom" HAVE A REALLY CUTE DADDY!

This list could go on forever, but I think I covered the important stuff. I am so grateful to have these four children who call me mom. Whenever I get discouraged, and have just had enough of being a mom, I remember the days of tears and prayers and fasting that I would get to have the privilege of having someone call ME "Mommy". That really puts it all into perspective for me. My heart aches for those women who so badly want to be moms, and haven't had that priviledge. I can look back on my experiences now and know that Heavenly Father knows what's best for each of us, and He knows the desires of our hearts. I feel deep gratitude for my family. I Love you guys!

In the Eye of the Beholder

Who says that dandelions are an obnoxious weed? I suppose that is in the eye of the beholder. Look at those beauties! Jarin ventured outside, then came in with his eyes all a-glow and his arm outstretched holding these lovely flowers, "For you, Mom". I love getting "flowers" from my chicklets. My older two have outgrown giving me these lovely, yellow flowers, and it won't be long until Jarin stops giving them to me too. So I will enjoy every flower I can...for as long as I can.

ADDITION: I had to add this after I had already posted the earlier part, Emilie came home from school with a whole huge bouquet of "flowers". Except they were NOT for me! Her Uncle Derrick has had pneumonia, and she brought them home from school for him. Problem is, he lives too far away to give them to him, So reluctantly, she gave them to me instead. And I thought she had outgrown the whole dandelion thing. I'm glad to know that underneath all that growing up she's been doing, that she's still my little girl!

Gardens in Cache Valley are kinda tricky. Can't plant too early, or they'll still freeze, don't wanna plant too late or the seasons not long enough to enjoy the produce. So...these nifty "walls of water" solve the dilemma. I can plant now, and they protect them from the freeze. Each plants own little green house. So this is what I've been up to this week. Not a very big garden, and we keep expanding it a little every year. Before long, it will cover my whole back yard - which isn't too big either! It's a work in progress, but it's enough work for me right now!

Happy...???

It's not anywhere near Halloween, right? Or maybe I'm just way off, it wouldn't be the first time! I make sugar cookies twice a year - Halloween and Valentines - they are too much of a pain! Valentines we were at Disneyland, so no sugar cookies (yah for me!). Jarin wouldn't let me let it go. Ever since Halloween he has been asking me to make "Halloween cookies". Today he asked at just the right time when I was feeling guilt for neglecting my child. Boy they learn young how to pull their parents heart strings. I was busy "working" on the computer (very important stuff you know). He is laying on the floor all alone, just staring at nothing. My guilt starts to set in, then he drops the bombshell. With those big, bright blue eyes, and his "I-love- you -even -if- your -ignoring- me" voice, he asked, "Mom, lets make Halloween cookies". So he finally did it, he broke through and got his Halloween (pumpkin)/Valentines(heart)/Christmas(gingerbread men and stars) /Wedding (SLC temple) cookies. He even made them "Spring" by decorating them in Spring Green frosting...BEAUTIFUL! They didn't taste too bad either if you could get past the green and the billion sprinkles he added. (Don't worry my Big Loser Family...I only had ONE!) So HAPPY... Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, Wedding...SPRING to everyone! And HAPPY day for me to be guilt-free of ignoring my child. But today is a new day...and I'm on the computer...here comes the guilt!...WAIT, it's Saturday...Ira's home to play with them...let my "important" computer work begin!!!

I forgot to mention that Jarin wanted to bring these cookies to his friends house. So we packed up these beauties and delivered them to his friend who accepted them with excitement, while we moms got a chuckle out of them.

It was a proud moment!

An explanation is necessary here I think. Jarin loves "trees" (aka Broccoli). I added this picture to show that I do feed my kiddos a healthy thing once in awhile...even if cookies are the main food group!