Happy Birthday, Dear Brian

We celebrated at My folk's house for Brian's Birthday. It was decorated beautifully for fall and we enjoyed a wonderful spread of Mexican food. I'm glad I have such great  hosts for parents. The cake wake great too. It was funny, Brian just closed the candle with the lid rather than blowing it out. We tell Brian all the time about his brilliance and myriad of great ideas and I hope he knows he is admired and loved. He helped my parents find a GFI outlet that had blown, and he had assembled organization shelves in their garage much to their enjoyment. What a blessing it is to me to be able to visit with my parents and my family. It was getting to be difficult to go to L.A. and leave half the family here for the visiting time. Spence does well at my folks house, all the children do. Celia and Joseph love the Aloha room with cable T.V. in there as we don't have it at home.

The boys made faces in the pictures of course and we all had a great time. My uploading of pictures on here has an error. I have to figure that out and get the pictures on here soon. I'm hoping for a lovely birthday for Brian.

Changes and Gratefulness

Emmy is doing great at her second week of college life. I'm so glad for the friends that have reached out to her over there and the general friendly demeanor at BYUI. She has met many new people and enjoys her classes. Sounds fun to me. We are acclimating well to the family dynamic shift. Celia loves her own room and we are getting into routines with school and tutoring. She has been blooming so much with her new school, teachers and what is required of her. Pollyanna is an Awesome book according to her and She is getting quite the vocabulary going so far.She is pretty happy earning shopkins and earning an Animal Jam(video game) membership once again.

Joseph will most likely change school this week. Who doesn't love a chance to restart High School freshman year over with new friends and teachers. I have high hopes that he will do great and be happy at the same school as his sister. We have enjoyed time with the grandparents. We went over there for chili, brownies and a movie last night. With so much change going on, I'm glad they are in town and it is wonderful to visit with them.  Recent changes include schools, tutors, Emmy moving out, changing banks, responsibilities in the home and much more. I feel blessed and happy to have such a great husband and family. I'm grateful for the gospel and the order and routine worship in the church requires. I'm grateful for my home as some have lost their in a forest fire this month. I'm grateful for opportunities to serve even if it is just to my family.

We had a plumber come last week, the shower wouldn't turn off and we had a little bit of water damage, but it was resolved quickly. There always seems to be hiccups in life an unexpected events, but an eternal perspective keeps things more interesting and bearable. I'm excited for general conference coming up and for all the activities that come with a child in high school. Also, Brian's birthday and the holidays are around the corner. Emmy wants to come home and visit and we can have an early Thanksgiving with her. It will be good. We sure love her and like having her around. I cannot believe it, but I love BYUI's three track system.  We can have a break from Emmy being away from college to be at home with us. I'm excited to be able to go to Hawaii later this year , for the first time. I hope to feel the Ohana there and to visit with my sister, her family and see the beautiful sites around where she lives.  I danced Hawaiian and Tahitian for 9 years and we attended many luaus in Hawaiian garb, but now I can be official an learn about the culture while being there! It will be weird being warm in the winter while there, but it is the last day of summer today and it was way into the high 90's. Fall will come and we will be enjoying the season soon. I'm lookin forward to that change!