Blogging again.

Homemade pizza tonight for dinner. I comment to the kids, "oh man, I forgot to take pictures so I could blog it."
Carter says, "you're blogging again?"
I say, "ya, didn't you see the blog I did about you?"
Brodric says, "you should blog about the first time I took a pill."
I thought that was funny! Ya, I should blog about his first swallowed pill. :) That'd be pretty interesting. What a cute kid! Oh ya, and he was sick with a fever last night and guess what? He took his first real pill!! Swallowed it right down with a big gulp of water! :)

Today was a beautiful day! Perfect sunshine! Tomorrow the cold is supposed to come back, I'll love that too.

We spent time fixing quads today, to get ready to go to the dunes in a few weeks. I was cleaning up the garage, going through old clothes getting ready to donate them. That feels good! I want to throw everything away!! I wish I was strong enough to do it! My little girly is so good at that! I told her she'll have to help me.

Glad I'm blogging again. It reminds me of things I am thankful for and how good life is.

words will never hurt me...

I learned a big lesson today. After hearing some really hard news mid-day, I spent time just pondering, thinking, trying to understand this whole mortality gig. My little hurt feelings from yesterday seemed soooo insignificant. So I have my little problems, so what. I can handle problems, but could I handle it if something really hard came into my life?

Which begs the question... Well, it begs a lot of questions. There's a lot to think about.

My heart and prayers are with families who are dealing with really difficult things tonight.

Sticks and Stones

People say hurtful things. They don't mean to. One minute they are talking about cats, the next they have said something that is painful to hear. Too close for comfort, too real to ignore.
I'm not sure what to do with the pain.

Procrastination

Time: 11:40pm. Science Fair project due tomorrow. Young man still working on it. Mom sits up waiting for young man to finish. Story of my life.





But dang, he's a cute young man, isn't he??? The asleep picture was staged, but after finishing the calculations, he collapsed like that. He's tired. But he's still working. He says he'll be done in a minute or two. We can hope!

Really it's not the story of my life. Usually I'm the one I'm waiting on!! I'm a huge procrastinator. That's probably where he gets it from.

I stopped waiting up for Kendahl. Two weeks ago, the night before Kendahl went back to school after a THREE WEEK BREAK, Kendahl pulled an all nighter to finish a project that was due! I didn't wait up for her! I'm learning my lessons. But I figured I better give this kid the benefit of a patient mom for a while. If this continues, which is likely to be the case, I'll stop waiting up. I hope he appreciates it. I hope he is glad for the company, at least so that the house isn't so quiet while he works. Yes it's just the clicking of the keys on a computer he'll hear right now, but it's the comfort of mother on the couch that will be the lasting impression... At least that's what I like to think.

Dog Days

These are our beautiful, naughty dogs. They got a bath tonight by some lovely girls... and they were good to stay in the house with us. I do like them, but I really don't like the way the rip up the back yard.

Puppy washers!

Aren't they silly and cute!?


This little guy didn't play with the dogs, only played with Donkey Kong! Crazy!!

Good News!!

Kendahl got an acceptance from BYUI!!!!!!! Now we wait for BYU to see what happens. I'll hope for the best.

A Big Day

January 16th is a big day around our house. It's the day Scott and i were married, and the day Carter was born!

Carter turned 15 this year! It's surreal to me that my son could be over 6 feet tall and 15 years old. I don't know when the time passed. Just a while agod he was a little boy. Now? Now he is quickly becoming a man. And quite the man he is becoming. He is smart, he is responsible, he is reliable. Even in his struggles he is an example to me.

So here's a bit of his humor, hamming it up. Sooo excited, can't you tell by the look on his face? :)

But the then real surprised face! We got him a really cool pocket watch and the geunine surprise was wonderful! He loves it. I was so glad. You never know when you'll actually get a gift that is a success. This one was.

Scott and Carter looking at the details.


19 years Scott and I have been married. As I ponder those 19 years once again I am baffled at how the time goes by so quickly. I wish I didn't always say that, but it always seems that way. Scott and I have had a great 19 years! I truely think it hasn't been that long. If we had been married 19 years wouldn't it feel like forever? It doesn't feel like very long at all! That's a good thing, right?

We've been so blessed in these years. We have four beautiful, amazing children. We have a friendship that has been consistant and sustaining, a love that lasts all the years. What more could we ask for?

Scott's present. A flash for our camera.

The handsome man I married.

Beauty and the Beast

Ok, so he's not a beast, but it sounded so cute with beauties! :) This is Brick in his first basket ball game ever. Once he did it when he was 3, but only if I held him. Last week was first team game, he wouldn't get out on the court. Anyway, look at that smile!! He was so happy, energetic, bouncy! He had a great time. They didn't win, but it didn't matter. He has potential too! I think he'll do great!! this is a shot during practice. He made tons of them.



And these, my dear friends, are the beauties!! Aren't they?
This is Ba and Nat. And the one in white is their teacher, Miss Evans. Now known as Mrs. King. The girls were sooo excited to get all spiffed up and go to the reception. They had a blast prancing around that place too. And I loved taking pictures of them because they were so beautiful. One day my own little daughter is going to be in the white dress. I can't even believe it!

When opportunity knocks...

After my big driving trip to ID and UT you'd think I wouldn't want to go anywhere for a while, but Monday my husband said he had to go to Tempe, AZ to get some chemicals we had to have at work. And you know what I did? I said, "Let me go!!!" Of course, right? Because you know who is there? Yes! My baby, and my grandma!! I'd jump at the chance to be with them for a while! And I did!! So the last 24 hours or so I was in AZ. It was only an additional 12 hours of driving. :) And I loved it. I'm so blessed with great friends and family.

The End.

I'm home, I'm happy about it, I'm cranky and tired and so are others around here.

Driving all these hours is pretty hard. Driving and listening to music make me nostalgic. It makes me all weird. Today Pandora played eighty's rock. Journey, Styx, Kansas, Boston, John Melencamp, REO Speedwagon, Def Lepard... Lots of good stuff. I enjoyed it. I was wanting some of those big hair power ballads after a while. So ya, I was like 15 all day. :) Scary. Saturday night dances with Reed... Bahaha! :D





The sunset was amazing tonight. It stretched across half the sky! I tried to take pictures but it didn't work so well. What my eye was seeing was tons better than what the camera was taking as I drove down the road. Doing stuff like taking pictures while I drive helps me to stay awake. The girls thought I was crazy.

So, I've blogged 5 times already this year. It will soon stop, I'm sure of it. Just wanted to get it going again. Blogging stories makes me happy.

BYU and Nauvoo!

Well, first the BYU part.
WONDERFUL day again! Again we took a little (kinda big) golf cart all around BYU Provo today. A nice young man told us everything we needed to know. What I learned was that the two BYU's are really similar! There are a couple of differences, one is that BYUI is smaller but is pretty much patterned after BYU Provo.

Kendahl was thrilled to see this campus. She really hopes to get accepted here.



So none of that is earth shattering news, but the good news is that I grew as a mother today. I have been so worried about Kendahl getting motivated and being able to focus on doing everything it takes to get to college. I feel like I have to push her and get her to do something, anything. But today I realized that I don't have to do that. Sounds really simple, and it kinda is. I just got this vision about her actually being able to do it, and it calmed me down. If she does it all in time for a fall semester at college then GREAT! If she doesn't, I guess she'll work out what her next move will be. But mainly, I don't have to do it for her. I'll hope for her, I'll dream for her. But she has to do it, I can not do it for her.

This may seem silly to some people, this simple yet obvious lesson, but I needed to feel it! (My mind knew it, but now my heart has grasped it.)

The other wonderful thing that happened tonight was that we went to visit my mom's cousin. She has always been Aunt Barbara to me. I haven't seen her for many, many years. But I always remember her as a smiling, spunky, fun woman. And her husband as a sweet heart! We started the visit immediately with genealogy she has gathered. I love talking about family history. I love the stories and the connection with family from the past.

I learned from Barbara that we had family who lived in Nauvoo, and that they were "intimate" friends with the Prophet Joseph Smith! I saw records of this and even had Barbara copy me one death announcement that had what the connection looked like. I wish I could put on here the information, but frankly, I don't know it well enough and I wouldn't know what to write anyway. You can find a lot of it on my aunt's blog. It is:
Barbara's Blog

I was so energized after leaving my aunt's house. I was excited to know my ancestors were part of the wonderful sacrifices of the early saints! I have that kind of blood in me! I have some amazing and wonderful people in in my family who came before me! Both living and dead! I wish I could be just a tiny bit of what they are!!


In this picture: (nephew)Bradly Stock, Me, Aunt Barbara, Uncle Dick, Kendahl

Day Two

Success today on the college front. We had a great tour of BYU Idaho. We got carried around by a little golf cart and a nice young man who gave us a nice tour. The campus at BYUI is really nice. It seems newer, and yet established. They have everything anyone would need close enough that walking to everything is doable! I liked it and I think the girls liked it. A wonderful plus is the Temple up on the hill. You can see it from nearly anywhere on campus and it is a beautiful picture.

After just that short visit we quickly left Rexburg. I guess there was no reason to dilly dally. We headed down to Salt Lake. In SLC we met up with my handsome nephew Bradley. I'm sure Marci (his mother) never reads my blog, but if she ever does I must say that the kid I used to be so bothered by has turned out to be quite a impressive young man! He is kind, funny, friendly, a gentleman and even more!

Bradley did his homework and did a great job of taking us on a tour of LDS Business College where he is currently enrolled. It is a small school but I really like the idea of LDS schools, so it definitely has it's place! I give it kudos! I guess it has about 1800 students and has a great feeling to it.

After that tour we kidnapped Bradley and brought him down to Provo. By the time we found our hotel (which is a Marriott and cute, but not nearly as nice as the one last night) we were off to, in the words of Bradley, "PARTY". This party consisted of a really bad Chinese buffet and the kids going to the dollar movie while I came back to the hotel. The hotel was really close so the kids walked "home" from there and we sat and chatted and listened to music for a while till it got late.

I don't have any pictures, except the ones in my mind, but it was a really nice day. I don't know why I didn't take pictures... It's not my norm, I have to make it my norm! We need pictures!

Tomorrow is a big day. BYU, the big blue, the real deal! I'm excited, but more than me, Kendahl is excited.

I'm glad we did this. I'm glad we're here. I miss my family at home. I miss my other kids.

College Tour Road Trip

We're here! This is Rexburg day one. Kendahl and her friend are taking a trip to tour the LDS colleges. Stop #1 is Rexburg, ID to see BYU Idaho. Tomorrow we have an appt at 9am with administration. But tonight we drove around the temple and the school. In the dark and snow it looked new and really nice.

The hotel we are staying at is brand new and it is really cool! Kendahl said if she can live in the hotel she'll definately go to college here! Ya right!! I don't think so! There are sliding doors to the bathroom/s. There are two half baths, one with sink and toilet, the other with sink and bathtub. It's really cool. And the best part is it was free with points!! :) The next hotel is old, so probably not so cool.

The drive today was 13.5 hours with breif food and potty stops. It was long but not too bad. It actually got better as the day went on. I'm tired, so off to bed for now.

Welcome 2011

Jan 3rd and we had snow! Yay! The kids played in it most the morning till there wasn't any left. I love my kids. They are growing up, so they aren't as cute as little tiny kids, but I see them just like that still. Even the kid who's 6' 2". He's just as cute to me as he was when he was little! I love that about love, it just keeps getting better and better.