Beginning of November

We missed Emmy for her birthday. I'm glad her roommates threw her a fondue party, chocolate and cheese, and that she enjoyed the electric blanket we sent her from California. She is coming to visit tomorrow and we will have an early Thanksgiving. Meanwhile we have been having fun at home. Celia is so fun. She runs around the backyard gather pieces of plants and reporting on her day. Sh talks of Zach, her little admirer, who makes her army tanks made out of paper and brings her gold nugget looking rocks. I'm so pleased that she has been doing her own homework assignments with out me glued to her hip and is sleeping a little better. I think Celia believes she slept better in the bunk bed sharing with her brother, but I think she just is being silly since her full size bed is so nice. Celia cleaned her room up nicely for me today and says "Wahooo" when she has a fun ride home from her carpool or a friend over. I can't believe how the children are growing. It is in leaps and bounds. Spencer has been doing so great. He rarely bites his hand or gets too upset anymore. He loves the routine car ride with their acquisition of Popsicle and bread.  wish that could be my diet, too. I'm getting excited to visit Hawaii next month. Life is good and I feel grateful for my freedom, health and strength.

I've been wanting the boys to be happy about their bathroom. It is usually disorganized and plain in there and not too clean. I decorated it and cleaned it up a bit an Spencer was pretty happy, Joseph too. Brian changed the toilet seat and bought led light bulbs. Now, I feel like I can send visitors to either bathroom when they come over. I had my visiting teachers over for lunch and for hours and was a little hesitant to send them to the boys bathroom. Sometimes I like to nest and feel confident that I can have my friends go throughout out home, and feel welcome.

There has been an upheaval among my friends over the Handbook change in the church. I feel calm about the change. I feel that the brethren are trying to do the Lord's will in protecting the traditional family that the Lord has instituted as an integral part of his plan. The family, the Plan of Salvation and its precepts that have been determined by our loving Heavenly Father and he has made the order in which it is best support for the individual to learn, grow, and return to him.Policy denying privileges is hard to handle, but so are disabilities, medical issues, and political injustices. It takes a lot of determination to follow the Lord's way when it is unfair or seems so now. I can't help, but think of all those who have to wait on the Lord for blessing. All those who it really will be okay in the end if they are obedient and follow the Lord through confusing situations. What happened to the rallying sounds of General Conference just a month ago?

 Let us sustain the prophet, stay in the old ship Zion, and defend the faith. I participated in the quest to defend marriage with Proposition 8 in California. I walked the streets and talked to families and heard stories and reasons became aware and sometimes understanding of what others felt. It is very hard to stick to something that can affect some in a seemingly negative way. His ways are not our ways and the boundaries and laws have been set. I have tried to follow the commandments, policies, and my covenants. It has brought me and my family peace and blessings. I want to continue to follow that now. I have had too many positive experiences to renounce my faith.

The Lord has seen me through several extremely difficult situations in my life. He helps me through illness, sadness, accidents, betrayal, and sin. The atonement is real and the peace I have felt from submitting to the Lord's will has given me confidence and power to accomplish feats, I could not otherwise do. Parenting is difficult. I feel extremely blessed to have help in rearing our children. From my husband and from my Heavenly Father, I think I have come to know Him a little better through the trials of my life.

There is much to learn, but I do know he cares for all of us. He wants us to be charitable, kind and patient. He wants us to give of ourselves, and not seek our own. He wants us to be stripped of pride, meek, and lowly of heart. He wants us to mourn with those that mourn, succor the weak, and comfort the feeble. He loves and cares for his children more that we know. He wants us to be brave, have more of an eternal perspective, and to follow His commandments so he can bless us with all that he has. I pray everyday to do his will and make a difference in His Kingdom. I want to be better and hope that his promises will be fulfilled and His Son's sacrifice will help all mankind to experience His love and Happiness.

Loving those Succulents

I love how my parents have beautified their backyard. I'm kind of obsessed with the great color and texture of the succulents. I brought my camera over today and took a few pictures in their back yard. Photography is very relaxing and helped me to forget about feeling under the weather.

Annual Trunk or Treat.

I wasn't feeling up for the Trunk or Treat last night, but I'm glad we went. Celia was so independent, looking for her friends, sitting with them and going to all the games. Good thing, since I didn't have Emmy there to be her escort.  Joseph hung out with the kids his age too! The grandparents decked out their trunk and I visited with friends Spencer and Brian enjoyed the time they were there and my folks and Brian and I finished off date night at Pete's restaurant. It was fun and we checked out Dunken Donuts hot chocolate afterwards. It is definitely feeling more like fall around here and like the holidays. I have to remember to scale back the activities to avoid being over busy and getting sick. It is dark when we leave for seminary and it gets dark early now too. I feel grateful for the comfort of home, great family, and things to look forward to. I appreciate all the efforts put forward to get together in the ward and with friends and family.  Serving and supporting one another feels good. Brian and I had a lovely time at the temple the other night and enjoyed seeing ward members there after for a tail gate snack. We do lift each other and enhance our lives as we care about and for our neighbor. We carpool to school and good thing. The new traffic pattern was horrendous for drop off today. When we share the load, we can be more patient, more understanding, and more appreciative. I'm glad to have the friends and support group I do. All is well.

Moving into Fall

 October has been full of activities and volunteering. I've have been at John Adams a lot prepping for the Dance a ton. It was a great success, although some organizational endeavors definitely need to be revisited there.  Spence had his first EEG and was able to be compliant and did so well. He has been doing to great lately. Last week in church he stayed all the way through sacrament meeting. Then came back for class too! Celia and Joseph get out of school early on Fridays and Celia has tutoring with Liz, so we meet Liz at McDonald's sometimes. The kids love it of course and Celia gets a chance to play on the play structure outside. Spencer has had a lot of days off this month so we go hang out with the grandparents. We go walking on nature trails and have meals at their house. Spencer is really get some great time with them and I am so pleased about the bettering of our family relationships.

Mom's Birthday

It was a great time going and visiting my mom for her birthday. It was even more fun to have Jan and Howard with us too. Rah Rah's guacamole was yummy and went great with my Dad's fajitas; chicken ,steak, & shrimp! We had a lovely meal, conversation and enjoyed the outdoors. We missed Joseph, he was at Dillon's beach for a camp-out. Joseph is having more to do and his last two Saturdays were busy to with temple day and shot gun shooting. He is growing up and I am so proud of him for acclimatizing so well to John Adams Academy. We are getting excited for Emmy to come home for a visit soon. She seems to be doing well in school making friends and is doing plenty of fun activities with her roommate, family home evening group and friend; Jackson and Brandon. She has been to Yellowstone, to corn mazes, pumpkin patches, to Salt Lake city for a concert and In N Out burger, and a Lindsey Sterling concert. Let's say I couldn't be happier for her and the wonderful time college is. There was a beautiful sunrise on my Mother's birthday. I was so happy to view and capture it. I know she feels so loved and is so happy to be retired with my Dad in this beautiful area where we live. I enjoy all the time we spend together these days and feel so blessed.

Spontaneous Pumpkin Patch Visit.

We had a play date set up for Celia and her new friend for Friday. It happened to fall on a Friday that there was no school for the elementary aged kids and Spencer too. Joseph got out of school at 12:30 and then we headed to the Pumpkin Patch nearby. We had a hay ride and I really enjoyed being near all the fall harvest ambiance. Celia has so much fun with this little friend and we found out she lives nearby. Liz the tutor got to come with us and she enjoyed it too. I love to be spontaneous and for all to have fun so this was a great experience. Celia had a little drama with her friend Olivia before this date and I'm so glad they resolved it and we moved on so that fun could  be had by all.

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!