A Few Things

Here are a few things that have been going on around here or will be going on soon:


1.) Camp McClellan starts on Wednesday!!


I can't wait. I have had more phone calls from my siblings giddy with excitement calling to give me the countdown of how many more days until our week at the lake begins. We are more excited than our kids!! 7 glorious days of living in my swimsuit, no make-up, bonfires, boating, biking, hiking, games and fun. (I guess I will have to wear make-up one day. My mom's wedding is smack dab in the middle of the week.)

Maybe my sisters and I could get some haircuts and outfits like this too!! :) Oh wait Kelley has already had this haircut!! ;) But this pictures sums up the good old fashioned fun that is the lake in the summer time.

2.) Kameron barely has a tooth left in his head.

He lost one front tooth while we were in Utah at Brett and Marissa's house.


Then he lost his other front tooth after we got home.


He already was missing most of his teeth on the bottom. He has one snaggle tooth on the bottom that he keeps wiggling and if he loses that they he will have 4 missing teeth on the top and 4 on the bottom. The kid looks like a little hillbilly, has a pronounced lisp and reduced us all to hysterics the other night watching him try to eat a taco...but he managed it!!

Here's a little video of Kameron doing his best "hillbilly" talk. No offense to hillbillies is intended as my Nana hails from West Virginia and is a true descendant of actual hillbillies. I have a very diverse family...that could be a whole post on it's own.




3.) I love how small the blogging world is.

Last week I got a fun email from an old Canyon View Jr. High classmate named Katherine. I actually think we were also in 6th grade together with Mr. Barlow at Orchard Elementary weren't we? I haven't been able to locate my 6th grade class picture. (No loss there...not a good year for me as I had a mullet) Anyway, Katherine had linked to my friend Andrea's blog from Jason's cousin's blog and then linked to mine. Crazy!! It was so fun to hear from you Katherine!! You need to start a blog and join this crazy world of connections. Katherine ALSO happens to be a good friend of Vanessa J. from book club!! How fun is that?!? Any other blog readers want to identify themselves?? I would love to know who all is reading my blog!! :)

4.) Reilly is PLEASANT!!

Tyler and I decided that the rest of the summer needed to be "unplugged"for our children. We have locked or "disabled" all 3 T.V's in our house...locked the computer...and took away the Ipod. The result happy, nice, loving children!! The past 5 days have been WONDERFUL!! The kids have been reading, playing games, playing outside, using their imaginations, and being helpful. We have let them watch a tiny bit of the Olympics...but they've probably only watched an hour of TV in the last 5 days. It has been wonderful!!

Well I am off to try to squeeze in a work-out at the gym before Kameron needs to go to swimming. Jordi and family arrive tonight...Kirk and family arrive on Wednesday. This week should be fun!! Talk to you next week!! I'm outta here.

The Daffodil Principle


Last Sunday in Relief Society our lesson was on the "Daffodil Principle"...the story of a lady who plants a huge hill of daffodils...acres and acres of them...for years. Anyway what I got out of it was that this beautiful, glorious and vast hill isn't created over night. The lady in the story said that she planted it one bulb at a time and one day at a time and ended up creating this landscape masterpiece.

The ladies in RS were talking how about how this principle related to them etc. and another friend of mine stood up and bore this beautiful testimony of how she wished her soul was like the gorgeous hill of daffodils but that she often felt like she was a weedy and rocky hill with a few flowers here and there. That's how I feel too.

I have this image in my mind of the kind of person/mother/wife/friend I'd like to be. I can see her so clearly. I can almost touch her but then she fades away what's left is just plain old me who feels like I am falling so far short of the mark.

This last year and particularly this summer has been a time of STRETCHING for me. I feel the growth I'm making but it's coming in painful lessons and glaring errors. I wish growth more often came from "Ah-Ha" moments rather than hard knocks. I feel like I am falling so far short of being the kind of mother/wife/sister/friend I want to be. The last few months have been full of so many things requiring stretching...relationships mainly...with my own family, extended family etc. This summer hasn't turned out to be quite the carefree sunshiney fun I was hoping it was going to be.

In particular it has been a really rough summer with Reilly. SO HARD. She is in a really unpleasant (to me) stage. I know that prepubescence is never easy. It's an emotional roller coaster. Mad and angry one minute...without knowing why...and emotional the next....bored and apathetic the rest of the time. This has been a summer of butting heads, fighting, tears and hurt feelings...on both of our parts. My dreams of this idyllic summer of all the things I wanted to do with Reilly and all the things I wanted to teach her have been shot to heck. This is the summer...probably one of many...that she LOATHES me. Seriously. What really sucks it that this loathing isn't shared between both her parents. She ADORES Tyler which makes her loathing of me even worse.

I majored in Psychology. I know this is natural. I know that she is trying to develop some independence and I am raining on her parade. I know that it "really" isn't personal. But yet I am left every night feeling like "What am I doing wrong?" and that I am some how failing her. I have no patience. I have no tolerance for crappy behavior. I also have the shortest temper known to man and every day ends in a screaming match. So I over analyze, I worry, I stress, and I fret.

It has also been a summer of where I have really had to step back from my original family and their problems and baffling decisions and focus on MY family. That's hard to do. I am used to being in everyone else's business and taking a much needed step back has been difficult. As the oldest child...letting people live their own lives doesn't come easy to me. Sitting by doesn't come easy for me. Tyler has NO PROBLEM doing this in his family. But his family dynamics are very different than mine and not ones I would want to have. So you can't really compare the two. Yet we do.

It has also been a summer of "letting go"...of anger, annoyances, dashed hopes, unfulfilled wishes and having to reconfigure what I "thought" things were going to be like. It's been a slow process. Growth...it isn't easy for any of us at any age.

Lessons learned from the Daffodil Principle:

• learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time,
  (often just one baby-step at a time)...more often in my case one step forward and two steps back.
  
• learning to love the doing,
  
• learning to use the accumulation of time

When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world. We can change ourselves. We can become who we want to be.

Tyler is addicted to music...he collects it...he lives it...he breathes it. He has the most extensive and unique collection of music of anyone I know. I turn my Ipod over to him and give him some basic suggestions and he makes me a play list extraordinaire. Every once in a while though he likes to surprise me with something unexpected. I have been working out at the gym for several weeks now listening to a song I "thought" was by Duran Duran only to find out last night as I was telling him how much I liked the "new stuff" by Duran Duran...and saw him chuckling away...that it wasn't Duran Duran at all but Christian Rock!! WHAT?!?! He knew that if he told me that he found a great Christian rock group that I wouldn't listen to it so he sneaked it onto my play list.

Today at the gym this song really seemed to be my anthem and I must have listened to it about 20 times with tears rolling down my face while huffing and puffing on the treadmill undoubtedly looking like a complete fool. But I left that gym stronger physically, emotionally and spiritually. So download this song. Put it on your Ipod. It's great...AND...you can work out to it too!! It's called Stay Strong by Newsboys.


*********************
On a completely different note:

Happy 26th Birthday Kirk!! I am very lucky to have such an amazing brother. I know my sisters know that they are 3 of my best friends but I don't think I tell you very often that so are you!! Life would be so dull without you and your craziness.

I love you!!

Go Indians!!


This weekend was Tyler's company picnic and party. We look forward to it every year. His company holds it at the stadium in town where our minor league baseball team plays. We try to go to as many games as we can in the summer. In fact Ailey attended her first Indians game when she was 1 week old. That particular time we had great seats right up next to the dugout and Kelley flashed me to the players as I was breast feeding and she was supposedly helping me adjust the blanket. But needless to say... We are HUGE Indians fans. So it is always extra fun to combine the picnic with a baseball game.

There were lots of fun activities before the game started:

Face Painting

Pony Rides

The Big Slide

NASCAR Simulator

Plus a lot more fun things to do and lots of good food too!!

Then it was on to a FANTASTIC Baseball game!! One of my very favorite things to do on summer's evening it attend a baseball game. I absolutely love it!! This night did not disappoint.


Our kids love going as much as we do. Ailey gets a little restless before the night is over but Reilly and Kameron are die-hard fans. They are cheering and screaming the whole night!!



The night ended with a spectacular fireworks show. It was a great night for the whole family!!

Does it get any better? Fun family, a beautiful night, a great baseball game, the Indians winning, junk food, and fireworks? Nope.

Dinner Alert: Taco Salad with Cafe Rio Tomatillo Ranch dressing. (Between Stacey and I we have cracked the recipe!!) and Banana/Nilla Wafer pudding for dessert!! Yum.

Oh and...

Happy 23rd Birthday Jordin!!!! I LOVE YOU!!

Sisters Creed Sale July 2008


Last weekend I traveled to my sister Stacey's house for our Sisters Creed Summer Sale. Stacey's town has a yearly Blue Grass Festival with lots of vendors including antiques vendors, craft vendors etc. It is hosted by a local antiques dealer and we have been invited to be vendors there for three years now. We also do a Christmas sale in December. We have a very loyal clientele who keep coming back for more of our items.

This year the festival was even bigger...more vendors...but the economic situation has really taken a toll on this area. Due to the high price of gas the entrance fee was more to pay for the entertainers and people seemed less willing to part with their hard earned dollars. Even with all the great vendors this year it wasn't the best money making year that we have had. I still think we did well...especially compared to the high end antiques dealers. All in all I made a respectable amount of money that will go to good use!! :)

We really want to start our own show and we have had several antiques dealers approach us to say that they would love to be in our show when we do. Hopefully it will all come together in the next year or so. Ideally we would like to do four "shows" a year. One in each season. We will have to see.

Here are some pictures from our booth...they are a little dark. What is nice about this sale is that it is held at a beautiful shady park and we are able to SPREAD out. For our Christmas Sale we are inside a cute grange and things are much more cramped.

It is always fun to be together and enjoy each other's company and the live music. I had a great time last weekend. It was a nice little "get-away". Stacey as usual was a wonderful hostess. My mom's fiance, Ken, came down as well. So it was nice to get to know him a little better as their nuptials are in about 2 1/2 weeks. Crazy.

It was also nice to spend a little time with my niece and nephew:

River

Dane

Dinner Alert: Creamy pasta salad...chicken optional...with rolls and peaches and cream.

Still Journaling

Utah Day 4 and 5

This is the end. The final installment of the trip to Utah. So many other things are going on that need to be blogged about so I will wrap this trip up.


On Day 4 we mainly just relaxed...cooked a big breakfast...did some shopping and then met Kirk, Jayme and Kaiden at one of my new favorite Utah eateries: Pei Wei. I have read about it for quite some time now from some of you bloggers so I couldn't wait to give it a try. It did not disappoint. Delicious.


Then it was off to let the kids run wild at the park...did I say kids? I think the adults had just as much fun playing...if not more...than the kids. We hit two parks and the gully and had a great time.

Park #1

This park had lots of new fun climbing toys for the kids, good swings, and a big field for playing a rousing game of T.V. Tag, and a few games of our own making.

Everyone had to try out the "spider web":




Reilly enjoyed her Pei Wei so much she wore it for part of the day. I couldn't resist this picture.

Then we went to "The Gully":



This fun place is near where Jayme grew up so she showed us all the fun parts of playing in the gully: hiking down, wading in the creek, racing sticks and going to the park at the bottom. The gully rocked!!

Park #2

This park was even more fun because it had all the "old school" toys. Great swings, old tire jungle gym, teeter totters and more!!


Here's a little movie:






Then Tyler and Kirk got on the swings and were swinging like crazy and wanted Jayme to "Run the Gauntlet" while I filmed. Unfortunately this never occurred because Kirk and Tyler had a mid-air collision that injured Kirk and Tyler in his vigorous swinging split his pants.

We also played a crazy game of adult leap frog. Luckily no injuries ensued. But a good time was had by all.

Then all of us (Kirk, Jayme and Kaiden included) went to Brett (Tyler's brother) and Marissa's house for dinner. It was fun to visit with everyone. Tyler's sister, Lori, flew in that night as well so we got to hang out for a while. Thanks for a great dinner you guys!!


The Last Day

This was a sad day as we bid Kirk, Jayme and Kaiden adieu and went to Tyler's Grandma's funeral which was being held in Eagle Mountain. Since we weren't planning on attending a funeral or church for that matter while we were in Utah we were sadly lacking in church attire. So we were just a "bit" casual at the funeral but I don't think Grandma Kofford would have minded.

Lori and Reilly

As far as funerals go this was a really fun/special one...if that's possible. Tyler's grandma was an amazing lady who I loved very much. She lived a great life and left behind a wonderful posterity. It was so much fun to see all Tyler's cousins and aunts and uncles. They are such a fun group and I love spending time with all of them. The day was full of laughter and stories. It was truly a celebration of Grandma Kofford's life. One of the most touching moments was when all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren went up on the stage and sang "I am a child of God". The spirit was so strong and it was so neat to see the legacy that she and Grandpa Kofford have left behind. We love you Grandma Kofford!!

Tyler and Lori

The Original Three...Lori, Brett and Tyler

Tyler's stepbrother Forrest with his wife Hanna and their daughter Ella

The "J" Girls: Marissa, Lori, and me. (No, I did not wear this to the funeral. I had a more appropriate shirt and skirt for the occasion but I had just changed for the drive home.)

The ride home was torturous hell. We left at around 3:30 pm. The kids were hopped up on sugar from the luncheon after the funeral. There were some tasty desserts and I think our kids had them all and seconds, and thirds, and fourths. Even one of the fruit "salads" had Snicker bars in it. It was DELICIOUS!! On our way out of town we stopped at the Maverick for our final drinks from Utah. I got my usual Utah thirst quencher...Mountain Dew with Fruit Punch. Oh the selection of fountain drinks in Utah!! It's wonderful. Fruit Punch on tap!! I love it!! Then we headed right out into rush hour traffic. Ugh. The trip home was boring and LONG.

Final shot of the trip a sunset somewhere in Montana

Dinner Alert: Antipasto Pasta Salad with dinner rolls and fruit.