Talk on Time

It seems like there has been so many different things going on that I have not been able to post about this yet. On February 23, my dad spoke at a BYU-I Devotional. The talk was titled, "The Precious Commodity we call Time".

Before the devotional, we had lunch with the President of the college, President Clark and his wife. We sat around a huge table and ate an amazing lunch. It was nice to be able to sit and visit with President Clark, and all those that were there. The table in the room was really cool. It was kind of diamond shaped so that everyone could see each other at the table. I think there was a total of 22 of us sitting around it. (I wanted to take lots of pictures, but my arm was hurting so bad that I was lucky to get the few that I did.)

I stole these next two pictures from my brother Jared. Thanks Jared! This table is way bigger then it looks in the picture.
Notice how they made a Y under that FABULOUS piece of pie.


After lunch we walked over to the Hart gym and they had reserved seats for us. As I sat there and waited for it to start, I had butterflies in my stomach. I was nervous for my dad and wondered how nervous he was. When he got up to speak he was NOT nervous at all. Or at least he didn't appear to be. I think he has given a million talks, so what is another one, right?

Waiting for the devotional to start.

My dad and his brother Heber.
My parents had lots of young men and women come up and talk to them afterwards. I think a lot of them were missionaries that served with my parents when they were serving as Mission President. It was fun to see how excited they were to see each other.

The end of the Altima

On Saturday, John went to his office with Riley and Brynn. On their way home, they were in a car accident. The other driver, a 16 year old boy, failed to yield while turning at a green light. John was going straight and had the right of way.

John was cut some how on his eye and he also hit his leg rather hard. John ended up needing a couple of stitches. Riley was hit pretty hard in the face with the air bag, and she also has lots of bumps and bruises on her legs. Brynn was in the back seat and was not hurt too bad, although she is sore. It is a little comical that Riley and Brynn were fighting over who got to sit in the front seat. I don't think they will fight over that one again for a while.

Both air bags deployed and I'm quite certain that the car is totalled. HUGE bummer. It was a great little car that did not give us any problems. Now we have to face the daunting task of finding a new car. The problem is WHO do you trust to sell you a good reliable car? On the bright side...no one was seriously injured. No one broke anything and were all able to walk away from the accident. I am SO grateful to my Heavenly Father for watching over them.

It took a while for that poor eye to quit bleeding.

This is how his eye looks now.

John had a huge bump under his knee. It looked like a knee under a knee.


Riley looked at this picture after I took it and say, "Oh man, I look like a meth addict".

Week of torture, starring ME

*Sigh*, What a week I've had. It will go down in my book, ranking up there, with some agonizing weeks of old. It would give child birth a run for it's money. Not to mention, mastitis, shingles, and broken bones. What alarming, ghastly, horrific, can-of-worms, situation was I in, you ask? I pinched a blasted nerve in my shoulder/upper arm. Sometime Saturday night while I was sweetly slumbering in a comatose state, I woke up with a lightning pain in my arm. I rolled over thinking, "Holy crap, that hurt!" The next morning my arm was a little sore, but I thought nothing of it as I got ready, and went to church. As the day wore on, my arm hurt worse and worse.

Monday morning I was in a lot of pain and concluded that I had popped something out and needed to go and get adjusted. Oh, and did I mention that it is my right arm? The arm that puts on my make-up. The arm that does my hair. The arm that wipes my uhhhhh......off my counter. So, I went to my cousin who is a Naturopath. He proceeded to adjust, pop, twist, and...you get the picture. The funny thing about getting adjusted...I just laugh the entire time. It is kind of a love/hate thing. When I say laugh, I mean like hit-your-funny-bone kinda laugh.

Later that afternoon, I was still feeling like a "pile-o-dookey" and called my cousin's office again. They told me to come back. So, I went back for round two, WWF smack down.

Tuesday morning, woke up sore and felt like crap. My back was sore from sleeping in the same position all night. My arm was completely incapacitated. I was able to move my hand, but the minute I would move my arm, pains would shoot down from my shoulder and around my elbow. Many tears were shed this day. I tried to get in to see several different doctors and could not get an appointment. I would have gone to an emergency care facility, but I was limited on time due to my dad speaking at a BYU-I Devotional. I ended up making a doctor appointment for the next day. So, off to Rexburg I went to eat lunch with the President of BYU-I, his wife, and several family members. (I will blog about this later). After the Devotional, I went over to Dan and Pauline's house. Dan is my brother-in-law, and a Dermatologist. He gave me four shots in the arm to just try and numb/ease the pain. The shots were a temporary fix to a bigger problem. I went home sad, hurting, and frustrated. Another night of @#$%.

Wednesday was the day to go see my Doc. I couldn't even update the dang form they needed me to fill out at the office. Holy Frustration Batman! When the blessed doc came in and checked me out, he decided that a steroid shot would be in order. He said, "The shot hurts and burns a lot, so we only do this when we know people need it", to which I replied, "Bring it!" Later that day....Could it be that the pain was lessening?

Thursday/Friday--The dark clouds are parting. I am starting to feel pain-free. My arm is VERY stiff and sore due to the lack of use, and probably will be for a little while longer. I am still unable to show full range of motion, but am working on it. The dull ache is gone and the shooting pains are gone. I asked John if it would be inappropriate to go to my Doc, wrap my arms around him, give him a big kiss right on the mouth, then reach around and grab him on the bum. What do you think? Too much?

A little bit of heaven on earth

I had a neat experience a couple of days ago. I want to write about it for journal purposes.

Friday afternoon, February 19, 2010, was my dad's first time to work in the temple as a sealer. My awesome brother-in-law Clay, made a plan for all of my siblings that live in town (and their spouses and one nephew), to go and be his first group. My parents were not aware that we were all coming to the temple that day. My Dad was choked up to see us all, and so was my mom. There were 13 of us in the room, including my parents. (Dad, Mom, Clay, Lori, Cole, Kory, Lynette, John, Heidi, Dan, Pauline, Chris, Charise). I have one sister (Monica) that lives in town that was not able to make it, because she just had a baby a couple of weeks ago. She is still in recovery mode. Her husband Dave was out of town and was not able to make it either.

It was neat to see the looks on my parents faces through out the session. I can only imagine what it would be like as a parent to sit with a large majority of my children and spouses in the temple. It was almost like they were realizing all of their hard work raising kids was paying off.

I hope that my dad's health will allow him to be around to marry & seal several of my nieces and nephews as they get old enough.

I can't wait to go and do it again.

One in a Ba-Zillion

Can I just take a moment and brag about my great dad? He just got called, by President Monson, to be a temple sealer. I just think that is the perfect job for him!

My dad was also asked to speak at an upcoming BYU-I Devotional. Which, by the way, they don't just ask any Joe-Shmoe off the street to do. He will be speaking February 23rd.

I am proud of my dad...can you tell?

Mama said there'll be days like this....

Here is a little picture of me with my children. wink, wink.

(In a valley girl tone)...Oh my gosh, yesterday was just like totally crazy. Do you ever have those days? It seemed like we hit the ground running! The alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. John and Riley went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with the youth in the ward. (Side note---the youth will be going to do this once a month for the year. I'm excited about that.) When the alarm went off I had a harrrrrrd time getting back to sleep. John reset the alarm for me and turned off the fan (fog horn prevention machine). We sleep with the fan going in the room so it will curtail that beautiful snoring sound coming out of my wonderful husbands, beak...fly trap...kisser...mouth. (Love ya hon) Only problem with turning the fan off...the alarm is still turned WAY up to he heard over the fan. Needless to say, when that alarm went off I LITERALLY hit the ground running. Nothing like a little adrenaline to get the morning going.

Got the kids off to school and started my normal morning routine. The phone rang and it was my friend reminding me of Pack Meeting tonight. I was like, "Tonight? I have that on my calendar for tomorrow." I was reminded that I needed to bring a cake and that they were going to be doing scout uniform inspections. Um, okay not really up to snuff there. After we hung up, I put a cake in the oven and went and got ready for the busy day ahead. When I took the cake out to cool it just kind of crumbled apart in several places. WHAT THE HECK? I greased the flippen pan! Why are you doing this to me, stupid cake? So, me with my OCD, decided to make another cake. Next cake in the oven...check. Cake out and off to the scout office to get a needed badge. Stopped off at John's office, thought it would be brief, ended up going to lunch. (Not complaining about that) Then straight to "The happiest place on earth", WalMart, so I could get icing and few other necessities. Busted home in time to fling the groceries upstairs...back to the car...off to the races. Went to the school picked up Jace...check. Next school, picked up Riley, Brynn...check. Drop off Brynn, Jace, Haley...take Riley to piano lessons...check. Dash home attempt to start sewing several badges on uniform, oh crap it's time to pick up Riley...check. Home just in time to take Brynn to basketball practice and Riley to the Junior High to watch a basketball game. Running out of time! By this time I was really under the gun and knew that I would not be able to accomplish all the remainder tasks and get to Pack Meeting prepared and on time. (Somewhere in the midst of all this crazy we managed to get homework done...go figure.)

I WANT MY MOMMY! WAAAA! You are right, I called my mommy. Superwoman to the rescue! That wonderful mom of mine offered to sew all the badges on. That gave me enough time to icing the cake and get to Pack Meeting slightly late, but there!

Am I glad that I am a mom? You bet. Am I glad that I get to stay home with my kids instead of working outside the home? You bet. Does it get a little stressful sometimes? You bet...Abso-freakin-lutely. But, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Our cake to take to Pack Meeting.

Basketball, basketball, and more basketball....

Riley and Brynn are both playing on basketball teams this season. Riley has two games every Saturday and Brynn has one. This is Brynn's first year to play. She is just learning how it all "goes down". She is also learning the basketball lingo. She thought that it was called a "junk ball" (jump ball). Pretty cute.

Get it Brynny!!


Riley is becoming a better ball player every game. She is a lot of fun to watch.

Back-that-booty-up-and-box-out-baby!!

Shake your booty baby!

Haley and her cousin McCall just recently went to a mini cheer camp. They learned some cheers and a dance. They performed all the things that they learned at a varsity boys half time game. It was so cute to watch them perform.




"When we say Grizz, you say grrrrrr...." Haley is really getting into it!


Haley really enjoyed the camp. She asked me today if she had cheer practice tonight. When I told her that she was all done, she said, "Awwwwww, I liked that". She is a cute little stinker.

Award

My dad received an award the other night from BYU Management Society. There was a banquet held in his honor. We went to the Hilton where we were served dinner and watched my dad receive the award. It was nice hearing stories about my dad. He has always been such a great example to so many people. He is so well known and loved in the community. I'm sure lucky to be his daughter!

My sister Lori was asked to introduce my dad. She did a great job. I know that I wouldn't have been able to keep it together. I am such a bawl baby the older I get. It drives me a little crazy.




The award is made out of granite. The granite just so happens to be granite left over from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. On the side of the award it says, For Moral and Ethical Leadership.

Some of my sisters and I were asked to sing. We sang three songs. (Two sisters live out of town and were not able to come).

Christmas, Birthdays, and New Years OH MY....

We had such a great time this year with all the different celebrations. Even though it seemed like we were going from one party to the next, it was a great time.

One night, we met at a Retirement Center and sang Christmas songs to several of the residents there. It was fun to see the looks on their faces. You could tell that they enjoyed watching all the grand kids sing. My sisters and I also sang a couple of different songs. When we were finished, the kids went around and handed out candy canes. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Another night we went on a hayride and Christmas caroled in a couple of different neighborhoods. This is always a big hit with the kids. Before caroling, we met early at my sisters house, ate soup, bread, and dessert. Then, we got on the trailer with all the kids and caroled. It was a lot of fun!

This is only part of the people on the trailer.

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On Christmas Eve, we all went to my parents house. We enjoyed watching the kids reenact the Nativity, Dad read some wonderful Christmas stories, and Santa came to visit. When Santa came in the door, Haley ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug. It was just so cute! She was SO happy to see him.









We(all my siblings) took the opportunity to give my parents some presents that night from us. When my dad was a young boy, he had a Lone Ranger ring that was so special to him. He had to save many box tops to get the ring. It was the "big thing" to have back then. Dad finally saved up enough box tops and got the ring. He said that when he got the ring he would spend HOURS playing with it. The ring is shaped like a horses saddle on top. The saddle slides, so that you can put a little film strip of pictures into it, and look at pictures of Lone Ranger. Dad had lost that ring during the years. Awhile back he went to my Grandparents house to see if he could find it there. He didn't have any luck in the search.

My sister Heather found the ring for sale online and we purchased it for dad.

This is what the film strip looks like that goes in the ring.

This is a picture of what the ring looks like.


When my dad opened the ring box and saw it, he just started to cry. He told us all about how much he loved that ring as a kid. He was a very special evening to say the least.
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Christmas day was full of happy sounds. My kids were excited and happy to get what they got...whew! We woke up to the smell of a turkey cooking, YUM! We had a great lunch and spent the day lounging around playing with all the new things.
Santa's sleigh was a little crowded.

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The day after Christmas, John turned the big 4-0! Holy smokes!! That night, we went out to dinner. John thought that it was just going to be he and I for dinner. Little did he know...I had dinner reservations for 21 people. My sister brought a wheel chair for John. When we got to the resterant, John was surprised with a wheel chair ride to our table.

Here is a picture of John taking a ride in the wheel chair. There are "over the hill" balloons floating above his head. What a good sport!


Everyone wore a name badge. They all said, Old Fart's Friend, with their name underneath. Here is mine.

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We spent New Years Eve at my sister Monica's house. We stayed busy all night, eating, playing games, dancing, and we had a piñata for the kids. This is an annual tradition for us. It is a lot of fun to include the kids in the festivities. They talk about it long before the day arrives. I'm glad that one day they will grow up and reminisce with their cousins about our New Years Eve bashes!

New Years Eve also just so happens to be Brynn's Birthday! She is a lucky girl that gets to party all day that day.....and LONG into the night. She turned 11 this year. I cannot believe that she will be going into Young Womens in one more year! YIKES! Brynn is such a sweet girl, and she is quite a little peacemaker. She is ALWAYS willing to help around the house. She loves to cook! Anytime I need help with meals, she is there and happy to help. We are so grateful to have our Brynny!!