Looking Back - Part 1 The First Day

Wow! Yesterday David turned 40 and I sit and think where did the time go. So with this thought in mind I think I will go back in time to 1992. It is the year that David and I met. We met at a Young Single Adult Activity at my home stake (for those of you who are not members of the LDS church this is a graphical area of the church) Anyway, I was the YSA leader in my area and David had the same calling in his area so we were destined to meet. If we go back a little farther when I was set apart (blessed) to do this calling I was told that I would meet my future companion through my calling and I believed it with all my heart. So, I met David and I have to say that he was a skinny guy wearing maroon suspenders and me well I was wearing shorts with an open wound up and down my leg (the wound was caused by riding a horse with out the knowledge necessary to get the horse to do what I wanted, it decided to go up a hill and my leg was scraped up a metal fence post) if I covered the wound with anything it would stick and cause me great pain. One of his first thoughts about me was that he sure hoped that whoever married me would realize that the scar wouldn't be there in the here after LOL. I'm happy to say that you can barely see it now and I didn't even have to die to make it go away. Opps I'm rambling a little but this is part of our beginning. David found out that I was the YSA representative and introduced himself to me and then asked me to dance. We danced the whole night and had a really great time. David even sang me his raindrop song and I quoted one of my poems. It was great and I was really excited about meeting someone that was a member of the church that I belong to. When I left I had an hour drive home and I prayed as I was driving, it was a common practice of mine to pray in my car. I had to sit still and it kept my mind occupied while I was alone. As I was praying I decided to ask Heavenly Father for some Divine intervention and get David to ask me out. Hey I didn't date much because I choose not to date outside of my religion so this made a lot of sense. As I was praying I received a very special answer to my prayers and I knew that all would be okay. In fact I went home and woke my Daddy and told him that I had just met the man I was going to marry!! Poor Daddy, what a way to wake up. LoL To be continued

Wonderful Weekend!!

This past weekend we were able to spend some good quality time with Mom and Paul. They invited us to an Appleseed event. (For those of you who dont' know what this is here is a link to their website http://www.appleseedinfo.org/ )It was a wonderful time of learning about our nations history and learning how to shoot rifles. We all really had a great time. We learned about the first three strikes that started the Revolutionary War. One of the things that was said that really stuck in my mind was how the Battle of Lexington was fought in Concord by the men of Atkin(I think this was the name, it was a town close by who came to help when they saw that there was a problem.) I think that Paul really looked the part. Mom said that she had made him a poet shirt. I bet that would have really looked cute! Krystal really loves her Grandpa, isn't she precious. :)

I'm not sure how this was the only picture of Mom that was taken all weekend. However I just love it. It definitely shows of her sparkling personality. Hehehe


I don't think that the girls were impressed with the shower facilities. LOL However it was a way to get clean so that they could start all over on getting dirty.

Alecia had to strike a pose when she noticed me with the camera.

Grandma set up this shelter which turned out to be a wonderful thing as it sure did rain a lot. I however am not complaining since the rain is what made the temperature bearable.

David enjoyed shooting! However he told me that he felt muscles that he hadn't felt in a very long time. LOL
Alecia shot too, but I don't have pictures of her shooting because she was my photographer out on the shooting range. Dangit I bet that would have been cute and I didn't realize it until it was too late to rectify the situation.

Brandon shot all three days and really enjoyed himself. Doesn't he just look sooo cute.

Here is a picture of David and Brandon shootingKatie is our little Annie Oakley. She stayed the whole time and really learned a lot. She struggled the first day but thanks to Grandpa and an instructor name Luis she was able to hit the target on Days 2 and 3. She really learned to follow the instructions well. I think she is very adorable. Krystal decided not to shoot, but she had a lot of fun and she was my big helper. I had her taking the little ones to the restroom(that was nasty it was one of those portable things and they didn't empty it UGGG)Alecia's tent had Bethany and Jessica in it and they decided to be bugs for the weekend. Bethany chose to be a dragonfly and here she is with her antennae. :)She also decided that she wanted to shoot after Jared and Jessica did so here she is with Grandpa learning how to shoot.Jared was the first of the littlest ones to decide to shoot. He just wanted to go do it so Grandpa took him over and helped him. He had a blast!!Jessica had Grandpa help her to shoot also. I just love these pictures. Grandpa was soo patient and helped each one of them!I have no idea what she was thinking here but I just love my little warrior princess! This is a picture of the bullet that Jessica shot into the target!!!!

Finally at the end everyone climbed the hill and held up the flag. It's not the best picture but i just love it! Thank you so much Mom and Paul for inviting us. It was a great time to spend together learning and playing.

Jessica's Hair Disaster!

Those of you who have known our family for a while know that we have had our share of hair disasters. Bethany being the worst. We have now had (hopefully) our final one. I really had thought that Jessica was going to be the one that didn't do a masterful job cutting her hair. However, I guess she was feeling left out because Saturday she did a hatchet job on her own hair. I called David and told him what she had done and he asked if it was better than Nair I said Marginally of course I was being a little dramatic because it is waaay better but this is the little girl that almost cried when we got a trim. Weeellll let me show you what she did. Needless to say we had to make a quick trip to the Salon where the beautician did her best to salvage a little bit. Not much to work with.And here is the end results. It looks barely acceptable if she wears a head band, but alas what 5 year old is going to keep one of those on right. Sigh O well its times like these that ya just gotta laugh because if you don't you might want to cry.

Miracles and blessings!

Sometimes in every life there is a chance to look toward Heaven and thank our Father for the miracle of life, love and happiness. Yesterday was one of those days for me. My dear husband has a heart problem. One that can be taken care of with medications but we don't have insurance and he doesn't like the side effects so we haven't been buying it. He called me yesterday at 5pm. and asked me to come to the shop because he was having some heart problems. I drove over there immediately and then had to drop Katie off at the house before I could take him to the hospital. I drove through 5 o'clock traffic worried about him but not hysterical, this had happened before and he looked okay so in my mind I was telling myself he was just be hypochondriacal. I didn't want it to be anything major. I dropped him off and parked the car and then went in to see how things were going. The nurses had put him in a wheel chair and then they took him back. I still hadn't fully come to the understanding that this was serious. When I went back after getting the paperwork I found him in a room with about 6 doctors and nurses and they had him taped up to all sorts of machines. The scary one was the one that was monitoring his heart rate. It was up over 200!!!!!! They asked him to bare down like a bowl movement because this sometimes makes the heart rate go back to normal but it wasn't working it only made his heart rate go up I saw it at 250 and the nurse said that it had gone up to 270. I was panicking and not doing so great. What can I say I kept thinking he better not die in front of me I don't think I can handle that. I kept a small prayer of HELP!! running through my mind and the doctors gave him some kind of meds to bring his heart rate down, the first dose didn't help and then they gave him a second with two shot at the same time. Heavenly Father answered my prayers and finally David heart rate came back down and was normal. I don't think I have ever been so worried in my life. This is not the first time this has happened to him but it is the first time that I have seen it and been witness to just how scary this can get. He has super ventricular tacnacardia with a microvalve prolapse, lots of big words to mean that his heart has a short circuit and can start beating really fast and doesn't stop itself. I will have to make sure he goes to see a cardiologist which is hard since we do not have insurance but I am not willing to loose him to this when there is a pill that he can take daily to keep it from happening.

I soooo love my dear sweet husband and I am thankful that it was not his time to go. I don't even want to imagine life without his love and companionship with me everyday. So go home and kiss your sweetie and let them know that they are the world to you because you never know what can happen and say a prayer or two for them. May God bless you all as I have been blessed.

First real Band Concert!!

Brandon has been in band all year. He plays the clarinet. They had a concert at the zoo in December but you really couldn't hear it that much so this is kind of his first real concert. Here is Brandon with his clarinet before the concert began.

I recorded one of the songs that they played. The sound quality on my camera doesn't do them justice. They sounded wonderful. If you look between the 2nd and 3rd flute players to the boy in the white shirt you will find Brandon.

Stake Youth Luau, What Fun!!!

This past Saturday, Alecia and Brandon went to a church sponsored service project/dance. They started out with a service project. The 12 and 13 year old were asked to clean the boats. When the older kids were done with their project they came and helped. Here is a picture of Brandon and Riley working on a boat.Brandon working on the boats again (Yeah right, I had to remind him what we were there for several times but hey that's the fun of being around your kids LOL)Alecia had a slumber party the night before for her birthday. Here are some of the girls that spent the night. Tori stayed to but she hung out with another one of her friends so I didn't get a picture of her with Alecia.The 14 and 15 year olds were asked to pick up trash. Here is Alecia and her friend picking up trash. Yeah Alecia!!!!After they worked hard (Hehehe) they got to go swimming for most of the day. After swimming they got to eat Luau food. You know, lots of fruit, veggies, pig and Asian rice and pasta. I really like this picture of Alecia. Isn't she just beautimaful LOL!!!!!Russell was there to. He's such a cutie.After dinner there was some real Polynesian entertainment. There was a family from one of the wards that was Polynesian and new how to dance. What fun!! Here is there daughter, boy could she hula!!They taught the YW of their ward a little hula and they performed as a group.

The Young Men got into the action when they performed the Hakka(sp?)

The mom performed a beautiful dance.
After the performances were all over they had a dance for the youth. My camera batteries died so I did not get anymore pictures but it was fun and they had a great time.

Krystal's Fun Day

Friday, May 8th, I went as a chaperon to Krystal's fun day! She had a really good time! Here she is before she started playing. I had put her hair in a french braid in order to keep it off her neck and out of her face. Doesn't she look precious!She had fun playing on the slide,Hanging out with her friends,Drawing on the concrete, She made a box (she said it was 3-D what do you think :),

She also enjoyed jumping rope and lots of other things as well!

LIfe Is CRAZY!!!

I have a planner and I am using it so why in the world am I overbooking and double booking my activities. I somehow managed to sign up to both help with the field day activities and concession for two days in a row. Last Friday was Fun day for Krystal and Bethany and yep I managed to sign up for both of them. I really don't have a defense for this craziness that has entered my life. I am just not paying attention to what is going on. I have decided that it is going to take a lot more diligence in order to get some control over my schedule. I helped with field day concession today and will help again tomorrow. I have to go to Brandon's Band concert tomorrow night and then things may be getting back to my normal. (My normal being different from everyone else's because what in the heck in normal!!!!!! this is one of my pet debates and maybe a blog for later but I don't want to go there now)

Alecia's Solo.

Alecia had a solo at the end of the year choir concert tonight. She did a really good job. If you notice she forgot some of the words but she still did awesome. She didn't find out that she was doing the solo until yesterday and then the teacher switched the boys solo with the girls so they weren't even singing what they had been practicing. I'm not sure what her teacher was thinking but with all the changes I think she did wonderful:) Here is a video the boy sings first and then Alecia.

Great Quote

"Ultimately, I am what I choose to be; my self-esteem follows the same path." -Anonymous

The end is near!

The end of another school year is upon us. The next couple of weeks will be full of awards days, field days, fun days and more. Alecia and Brandon will be having end of the year concerts. Alecia's is tomorrow and she will be doing a small solo. I am hoping to record it so that will hopefully be a post for tom morrow. The younger kids had an art show last week and I will add pictures later.

Today I had to go to the store to get Alecia another black skirt as her last one was messed up. She needs it for tomorrows concert. While I was doing that David did some fun family home evening activities with the younger children. He played horseshoes with them and then he grilled some yummy pork roast that he cut into steaks. We had a late night but it was fun. I really can't wait until the last day of school and I can start sleeping in a little more. Yay