Ok my blog is going to have to be boring I guess. I am not going to re add every time i want to change my blog background. So until they come up with a way to transfer everything, my blog is just going to stay the same template but I will change the colors... So sorry for the blahness but its that or my sanity.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Help...
I changed my template and thought i saved my last one but obviously not... I lost the addressed of all my fam and friends' blogs I follow. So please, leave me your blog address so I can add you back on! Thanks...
Monday, October 20, 2008
Ems Halloween party
We loved going down to Rexburg to spend time with the Park girls. Its like just being with family and we love them! The kids had a ball at the party. More pics to come!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
My month old hair cut...
Well, i finally chopped my hair off again. It has been 4 1/2 yrs since it has been short, and some friends wanted to see it, so here it is. It only took 3 tries to get the back cut right! Thanks to Audrey for getting it right!
Cory is the man of the house mowing the lawn
Cory begged me to let him mow the lawn. It is bigger then him but he did a great job on it. I of course have to watch him since he's 6 and all... but he really did a good job! Super Cute...
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Some Rambling Thoughts that I needed to write down...
Wow, just taking time to reflect for a minute... I am feeling overwhelmed with gratitude for the many blessings our family has received. Even though Dave's gone, and we are missing him so badly, we know this is where we are supposed to be in life right now. Dave and I have questioned many things in the last year because we have had a lot of hard things come our way, but looking back, it sure feels good to see a glimpse of reason of why things went the way they have. Isn't it interesting how life becomes more special and filled with meaning and purpose when we have really difficult trials in our path? Trials ground us. Puts life back into perspective...
We have a dear neighbor who is one of the best people we have ever met, and he is struggling with brain cancer for the second time. His wife is a rock and they both inspire me every day that i look outside and see Chris walking with his physical therapist trying to reteach his legs how to walk from the effects of chemo. A few times i have been outside this summer and he came outside to get the paper or turn off the sprinkler, and the joy I felt that i could go lend him my arm to help him back into the house. It so can happen to just go from one day being fine, to the next and your whole world flips upside down. Dave served in the Elders Quorum Presidency with Chris just two years ago and he was the sweetest most generous person Dave has come to know. It makes you really think, why these trials for someone who is already so good? We are ecstatic they are expecting a baby from the miracles of science and technology and no matter what happens, Jen will always have a piece of Chris with her. Amongst all the difficulties that we are faced with, there always ends up being a piece of beauty amongst the ugly.
But why... we still ask the question, why? Don't confuse the fact that i have acquired an intensly strong testimony of faith and hope and that there is reasons for what happens. I am okay not always knowing exactly why, but because Heavenly Father knows what comes to us in this life is for our learning to make us the best people we can be. One specific question I have contemplated a lot about with my husband is why his father was taken from his wife and 5 kids at such a young age? Those kids needed his guidance so much... He could have given them so much in life that they needed... So why? Why take him so early?
Dave has always been so strong about it. He became the man of the house and took on many responsibilities that most 14 year old boys never have to hold. But he has always had such strong faith that his dad was needed even more somewhere else. Dave has never doubted this. And for him, the good things that have come from his father leaving so early is David is the strongest person i know. He tries to make his dad proud of him in everything that he does. He learned to fix cars very young and now helps so many people save money in the ward, neighborhood, and in our family when they have a car problem. He was forced to work hard at a young age and somewhere along the way, a confidence grew in him that he isn't afraid to try anything. He has done things in his life that people have asked him many times, how did you learn that? He says, I just wanted to do it, so I studied about it and then did it. For instance, plumbing our whole house, most of the flip house, putting new electrical in our house and the flip house. The list goes on of the talents Dave has, including his love for languages. He is considering going into the Air National Guard to be a Linguist so he can learn more languages and use them to help our country. I don't know if we will go that route, but I know Dave can do anything he sets his mind to do. He spends every second he has to be with his kids. I think there is a fear he might be taken early also, so he started teaching Cory as soon as he could walk to help him work on cars, fix things, build things. Cory and Alaina know their dad can fix anything. Dave is an incredible father. He takes the kids with him wherever he goes. Cory knows where almost everything is in Home Depot and Checkers. He knows what most tools are and is a great "Go For" for his dad. (Yeah i don't have to do it anymore!) Not many dads that i know take their 4 year old boy hunting with them. Dave knew he wouldn't get anything with Cory tromping around in his big rain boots, but he didn't care, he just wanted the time and memories with his son. So, I guess my point is, he doesn't dwell on why his father was taken so early. He has taken it on as a challenge in his life to be as good of a person his dad was and for him to get to do the things that his father didn't get the chance to do and make him proud.
Hard experiences humble our pride and sets us back to where we really should be and to what is most important. And those things for me is my husband and kids, my testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the dear people around us whom the Lord inspires to do something for someone else that ends up being so needed and they didn't even know it. Life really flies by so fast and we don't want to miss the beauty of it and learning and growing from everything that comes our way, difficult or not. I hate seeing people around me that i know, or don't know, go through tragedies or hard times. However, those hard things seem to bring people together. It makes our heart bigger and gives us the ability to love stronger and appreciate every good thing we have. I am learning I don't have to know why something is happening, just that it is and how am I going to be strong through it. Then you come out of it when you think you would never see the end, and amazingly enough, you feel empowered with strength you didn't know was in you.
I realize I am being a bit vague in my own personal trials, but the point i am trying to convey is that I have realized it is what you take from those hard times that matter. I am learning we CAN face what comes our way no matter how scarey if.... We realize the Lord is there, He wants to help us... Why do we so often wait to ask for help at the very last point before falling apart? The Savior is there the whole time holding us up. Have you stopped to consider how much worse it could have been if he hadn't been carrying some of our weight?
Anyway, for anyone who actually read this whole post, thank you for enduring my ramblings. Sometimes I think we teach ourselves what we need to learn when we sit down and think or write things down. If someone else benefits from it, that is just a bonus. I am obviously not a writer like my dear friend Clancy, but once in a while i like to sit down and take some time to really put my thoughts in a written place where I can go back and read them and say, Hey, I really believe that! I can get through this crazy life. Thanks to all of my great family and friends who loves us and has been a huge strength to us. (you know who you are) Thank you Thank you.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Corys Soccer Team last year
Dave coached Cory's team last year and it was so fun to watch! Dave was quite the soccer player back in his day at Bonneville. He played growing up in Germany and then came here his Sophomore year and kicked butt on the team. This is a great pic of him that was in my Hillcrest yearbook side tackling one of Hillcrests' best players. Dave looked super hot! Cory is a little minnie Dave. Cory is like him in soooooooo many ways...
Alaina's first day of soccer with her team...
Alaina is playing for AYSO soccer and she had her first practice last saturday. She is with the 4 year olds turning 5 and so they do a practice the first half of the game, and then play an actual game the second half against a team. She is on the team with our good friends, the Wolfs, little guy Xander. Laina has the side ponytail and Xan has the great spikey hair. It will be a blast watching them play. I will post some on Cory's soccer playin next post. Don't have video on it yet.
Alaina's first day of Soccer!
Daddy was supposed to be her and Cory's coach this year, but his job took him away from us, so he couldn't do it this season. However, he was able to be here to see Alaina's first practice/game. It was so cute. She is the youngest on the team barely making it by a month. She's had some good practice though, helping Dad coach Cory's team last year and practicing with them. she is so adorable! I love that her uniform is so big, you can't even see her legs.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Dave's gone again...
We are trying to be strong. Dave came home for a few days and it happened to be the same weekend that my nephew Dallin was getting baptized so my family was here and it was so great! He left today to fly back to North Carolina and we probably won't see him until Thanksgiving if i can find decent priced flights for us to go there because he doesn't get any time off when the outage starts. In case you are wondering what he is doing, he is working at a nuclear power plant and the outage is when they shut down the nuclear reactor and do maintenance on it, David is like the nuclear police and makes sure everything goes correctly. In mid October he will be moving on to South Carolina to do the same job there and then he will be done mid December. So yeah, at least we will get him for Christmas! It was so great to have him for a few days! We love him so much...he is the greatest dad and hubby ever!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Our Disneyworld Vacation!
We went to Disneyworld in July and had a magical time. That place is truly amazing. I served my mission in Orlando, but to see the Disney side of Florida just makes me love Orlando even more. I so could live there with the tropical plants, palm trees, hot weather, and beautiful beaches... Ahhhhh.. We didn't want to come back to Idaho. Anyway, here are some pictures and video to give you a piece of the magic there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
