Missionaries

So in honor of him,who just came home from serving a two year mission in Chile.


And in honor of him,
who just got his return home date on January 13th from the Atlanta, Georgia Mission.


And in honor of him (4th son in the black tie sitting by his sisters),
who just received his mission call to serve in the Guatemala City North Mission on October 20th!

Here is a little video about Mormon Missionaries
in case you didn't know:

My friends have wonderful boys. So glad my son has so many strong examples around him. There are currently 10 missionaries serving the world from our little ward. It is a great thing. When you see the missionaries stop for a minute and remember they are someone's son. Plus if you are reading this, you already have a friend in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (that would be ME!), so give them a friendly wave!

Helping a friend throw a party...simply the best!

This is my amazing friend Laura and her son Tom. Laura is an amazing mom of 5 boys and a go-to-friend when it come to projects. She can do anything...but she has a fear of...

no, not bugs. Really people, she is the mom of 5 boys. No, she has anxiety about parties.

Her little Tommy has been asking for a birthday party and she knew who to call on for help with her social 7 year old! ME!

Now, I am not bragging about my mad skills in the birthday party department. This party wasn't over the top decorated or extremely themey. It was simply everything that the birthday boy wanted.

What I do want to talk about is the HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOY face.
No, not that face. Although that is a great face of the birthday boy DAD.
No, not his either.

Ah, I love how the dads are getting into the face things, but where is the birthday boy?
There is the oldest brother.

There he is in the middle.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOY!

This is him on a bug hunt. (Remember the cool plastic bugs above.) Doesn't he just look so happy! He LOVED having his friends over.

Some decided to search for snacks and not bugs...
but it all worked out.
The pinata was a big hit...
literally.
All in all, Tom had a great 7th birthday and Laura got over her fear of parties. Happy day.

I did a brave thing

I have that feeling in the pit of my stomach. You know the one. Right? That feeling after you search for your name on the Jr. High Drill Team list posted outside the school door on a Saturday morning, only to realize your name isn't there. Well, maybe YOU made the team, but I didn't.

And guess what? Life moved on. I became a better friend, a band geek, and very involved in sports. I didn't need the Jr. High Drill Team. I had other things to accomplish.

Well, last Thursday I had a meeting for the job of my dreams. I found out today that I didn't get the job.

That is that. End of story. Only...

I don't know what to do now. The job of my dreams is still a dream, so I really don't want to share it with the world until my dream come true (I will say that my dream movie is Mr. Holland's Opus and Travis' dream movie is The Rookie). So how do I make my dream come true?

Most of my dreams have come true. Really. I am lucky that way. I am a wife, mother, college graduate, and volunteer of the year. I could go into more detail, but you get the gist. I can set my mind to anything and accomplish a goal. Problem arise that we call life, but one way or another I can do just about anything.

Please don't get the impression that my life is easy or has been smooth sailing. I have been blessed and taught that I can do it. I can hear my daddy whisper in my ear, "You can do anything you set your mind to." It is my ability to see a problem and only see solutions that makes this can do attitude work. I don't like to fail and only say I will do it, if I can. If I see no hope or no solution, I will say nothing.

I see several solutions to making my dream job still come true. I see choices I can make and I see a future, if I choose it. I am not sure now is the time for my dream job. It might never be. And that brings back that feeling in the pit on my stomach looking at the Drill Team list for my name.

He's back and all is well.

I miss him

My honey has been gone on business since Monday early morning. No sweat, right? I mean I am an independent woman. I can handle holding down the fort while he is gone for a week. Well, wrong. I miss him. Terribly. It could be that he went to Hawaii, again, without me. But I beg to differ. It could be my fear of business trips - my Dad traveled loads in my youth and I associate that with my parents' divorce when I was 15 (sorry Dad, just my truth). Nope. It's NOT the business trip.

It's my bed. At night. I can't sleep without him. I need my feet to touch his. I just do. It all started last Friday night when he went on a campout with Agent J's scout troop. I had a horrible night's sleep and never really recovered. Two nights later, he left again. This time for business, for Hawaii and for the week.

I tried really hard to keep myself busy this week. Planned a few things with friends and stayed extra long at school drop off to talk with adults, but really I don't need to talk to adults. What I need is my husband. I want him to walk in the house, say hi to me while I am teaching a piano lesson and go straight to helping the kids with homework. I want him to ask the kids about their days at the dinner table. I want him to give Sweetie a bath. I want him to watch a TV show with me at the end of a busy day and just be. Be with me. I miss that. I can't wait to have him back. The count down is on...

Something really, really good!

There is a temple site down the street from my house. Plans were resubmitted this past Tuesday. AND a new Phoenix Temple Website was launched this week! This site answers many questions about this temple, the church and the history of the church in Phoenix. It is a beautiful thing. I love this website and can't wait for construction to start on this beautiful house of God.

Free Sucks

So I decided to take the kids to two FREE events this Saturday. I found the information on the Coupon Sense blog I follow. IT BOMBED! I learned that FREE is not all it is cracked up to be.
LESSON LEARNED:

1. NEVER go to a Wal-mart FREE event. It was lame. We got a free cupcake (which is the only thing we got all day, so YAY!) and 3 Dora rings that were on the cupcakes. RHM threw his away, dang it! The 5x7 photo card didn't even exist. I got a coupon to come back for it later. UGH!
   
2. GO EARLY to a Disney FREE craft event. I showed up 10 minutes before the second class (after calling the day before to see if I need to sign up or anything) and they had decided to start the 2nd class an hour early and they were ALL DONE. UGH!
   

The sucky thing is that I was in the mall WAITING for the 2nd class to start before I walked down to the Disney Store. If I would have gone there first, it would have worked out. When we walked into the mall we saw kids from the first class walking away with the Perry the Platypus Inaction Figure and it was the size of a shoe box and CUTE! DANG IT ALL TO HECK! Never again. It was a wasted day that just made me mad.

LESSON: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

Pictures taken with poster LETTERS to spell out your favorite words

Back in May of this year, our family posed for some pictures for a project...but the LETTERS were the most important part.
You see my in-laws celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in June and their children (and I) had a great gift idea. Travis is the oldest of 4 and they are scattered around the west. BUT we can all take a picture and put ourselves together in the gift.

We decided to spell out their last name, NUTTALL, in a framed wall hanging. We each were assigned a letter and a block font was picked out by Katie. After that we were on our own.

I have seen this idea on many a blog, but can't find the best one I learned this from. I will tell you what we learned:

• use a dark background and wear bright colors, so the white poster letter stands out
• change every photo to black and white, so they have a similar look (Katie in Utah took her pictures with a lush green background, but our family in Phoenix had desert landscape to deal with. We found the greenest bush we could find, but experimented with different backgrounds, too)
• send pictures at the highest quality to avoid blurry and poor resolution (it was better to upload the pictures to a photo sharing website like Shutterfly, Costco, etc. so Sarah, the photographer expert could make the final product.)
• agree upon a common font before cutting out the letters - and it doesn't hurt to have an engineer husband cut the letters out for you!
• take all of the pictures vertical. Some of our best shots were horizontal and that didn't work.
  

These are the two letters our family did, but not the pictures we used.

It was a windy day and we had an 11 yr old as our photographer, but it worked out. In the end my in-laws received a beautiful family gift! Happy Anniversary!


***Credit - Sarah took all of our photos and made this wonderful gift! THANKS SARAH! Sarah is not only a photographer, but a wonderful mom and has a new blog about home design. Check it out here.

Tears were flowing, but not mine

Our campus has beautiful green grass! (Don't worry, it won't last. We live in a desert.) I love our campus and that building is 1 year old today! HOORAY!
I love the newly painted playgrounds. And what you can't see is the nice new playground shades.
And the kindergarten area was brimming with nervous excitement.
Back on the homefront we posed for a family pic. Do you notice a few red eyes? I definitely have a pre-teen girl in the house. You see I twisted her hair last night and I was not sure if she liked the after effect, so I thought the morning tears were about the new hair-do, but mothers are never right. It was about the socks. Silly me!
You see, she wanted to wear ankle socks with her high top converse shoes. The school rule is that your socks must be seen. So I suggested she change socks. She went upstairs and came down all red faced. Poor 6th grade girl. Next time, I think I will not say anything and just let her get a dress code violation. Really, that would be easier on her sweet spirit.

This poor 2nd grader was going to cry over carrying this backpack, but thank goodness I helped him. His mom is nice like that.
This 7th grader told me he didn't need a new backpack. LOOK AT THAT RIP! Ugh. Off to the store I go. Have you noticed that he doesn't enjoy smiling with his braces, although he has yet to complain about them. He is such a good kid.
Our school is 15 years old and my kids won't admit it, but they like it there. The 2nd grader knows from watching his older brother that school is not cool, but deep down he still loves it.
This is our new principal! She taught Agent J and Princess in 2nd grade and has been the assistant principal for the past 3 years. She is going to rock this job!
Miss C. Our 2nd grade teacher is BACK! She taught RHM in kindergarten and is going to be AWE-some in 2nd grade. I haven't had anyone in 2nd grade, except the new principal but Miss C can fill those shoes!

Ah! There is my happy girl! She found her friends and now the world is at peace. All is well and that is a mama's cue to leave...maybe after a quick drink.

HAVE A GREAT FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL EVERYONE!

Humanitarian Project - adopt a school!

I suppose I should explain from the beginning. I am the humanitarian aid specialist in my ward (so if you know of someone IN NEED locally, please let our church family help!). Back in May of this year, I made a phone call to the school district and asked to adopt a school over the summer. I was assigned to Park Meadows and met with the Secretary, Principal and 2 teachers about the needs of this elementary school.

They were very grateful for the thought of being "adopted" and talked with me for about 30 minutes about their needs. This school doesn't have a whole lot of parent involvement. The conversation flowed into the area of funds. I asked them about their box top program (I simple way to raise money for the school). They really don't get a lot of support or involvement from their population. They depend on the district and other donations to function well.
At this point I knew we could donate anything and they would be happy. I decided to focus on hand sanitizer and individually wrapped food items for their classroom emergency buckets (I call it a lock-down kit.)
Our ward needed to gather food for 22 classrooms and hand sanitizer for 40 areas. The list had other items listed as well, but I knew I needed a focused goal.
The Sunday before I was to turn in the items to the school, I was in need of a miracle. I had lots of items, but not of the two areas of focus. I am sure you know the rest of the story. A miracle did happen. Prayers were answered. I was really nervous that "I" was going to let this school down. It was at this point that I prayed. A lot. I knew that this was not "my" project, but I project that I felt the Lord wanted our ward family to do. I knew that TOGETHER we could do anything. At church that Sunday, I passed around a sign up sheet. I went in a talked to the priesthood (another miracle happened here, but that is for another post). Money was collected, items were donated and all in 3 days! It was amazing to see the ward come together to support this local school.
In the end, I ask for some helpers to assist me in dropping off the items at the school. The picture doesn't make it look like a lot, but I know we made a difference.

(Behind the scenes, I met with the Principal about the needs of the school on Agent J's birthday and dropped the items off on RHM's birthday. Wasn't planned. Tried to do it earlier on both occasions, but it was just the way it worked out. Service with a smile, even on family birthdays. Never a dull moment around here!)

Ask and ye shall receive

This post isn't about prayer, although I could do that one too. I will save a prayer post for another time.

This post is about Cousin Kerry.
She is post surgery right now and in bed waiting for skin grafts to heal. She has had pre-cancerous skin removed from a very sensitive area and that is where I stop talking about the surgery (It is really gross. I mean REALLY, the poor thing.).

But the nice thing about her being bored in bed and on drugs that make her use Destin as toothpaste (I guess that isn't really nice, wrong choice of words) is that she will write about post about any question I have. She is sweet like that. I mean to have this brainy English professor that is younger than me answer all of my silly, menial concerns is AWE-some.

First question from me to Dr. Kerry: I would love a lesson from you on how to spell slang words. Is that a weird request? Probably. People spell words different all the time on blogs. Can you help the world?

For the answer click here. It became more of a history of the English Language answer that I found interesting. Go on. Go back and read it. I mean she even put my name in the title of the post. I feel famous (Famous for asking dumb questions, but famous.). She did answer my slang question, spell it the way it sounds.

After reading that post...
Second question to Dr. Kerry : You said in your last post, "That whole 'avoid the very appearance of evil' thing, for example? Does not mean what you think it means. " Explain more, please.

Her response is here. And another good follow up was a post here about Bible words that don't mean what you think they mean.

And finally a wonderful English lesson about choosing our words and the images they bring up is here. Isn't Cousin Kerry great? I love her and enjoy being her source of English questions. She never makes me feel like I asked a dumb question (did I mention she is younger than me, recently completed her dissertation - Dr. Kerry, and oh so smart?). I think it is cause I knew her when she asked people to sign our guest book at our wedding.

Today is Meet the Teacher day

It is starting...(special thanks to Princess and Cathy Reiker with this bulletin board)

School. Today we meet the teachers and Monday school starts. I am excited, but I will miss my 3 older kids. They are great kids and wonderful helpers around the house. They play with lil' Sweetie and make my days enjoyable! Here is to another school year that I am sure will FLY by. I miss them already (I kind of wish I could freeze this moment in time. I love being a mom of 4 kids.).

Reflecting on a birth story

7 years ago today I starting going into labor at 4 a.m. I labored as quietly as I could without waking up Travis. I am nice like that.

I took a few walks around the block. Princess went with me on one of the walks. She was confused as to why I had to keep stopping during the "walk". By 8 a.m. I called Karen Thomasson, my visiting teacher to watch the older 2 kids for the day. Travis and I went to the birth center to get "checked".

It was a typical labor visit for me. The midwife told me I might be in the earliest stages of labor and I should go home a come back if I hit the X,Y and Z marks of real labor. Silly professionals.

On the way home Travis asked if he should go back to work, I said, NO! We stopped at Subway in between breathing techniques. I ate in between watching "How to lose a guy in 10 days." I love that movie. It was relaxation movie. At one point I had to labor in the shower. I was in pain. Then my water broke in Princess' bedroom. (Nancy Page came by later a cleaned it up for me. WHAT A FRIEND!) I don't know what I was doing in Princess' bedroom. I was in labor - nothing really made sense.

It was close to 4 p.m. I called my doula. She was going to meet us at the birth center. At this point I have to tell you the WORST part of RHM's labor was the CAR RIDE! 20 minutes from our house to the center while in transition between stage 2 and 3 of labor was pure torture! I can not stress the pain enough! OH. The pain as Travis hit a bump on the road. Torture. Pure and simple (I can't believe I can still remember this pain).

So finally, we arrived at the birth center. BUT before I could go into the actual BIRTH center, I had to get the official "check" from a midwife in the office. I was 7 cm. YAY! Take me to the center. Apparently they (the midwife and Travis) wanted me to put my pants back on to walk across a small parking lot to get to the birth center. But we (my doula and myself) thought that wrapping a pink paper gown around my backside was good enough. I lost the battle and THEY helped me put my pants on (Keep in mind in the time it took me to walk across the parking lot I was 10 cm and ready to push).

After stripping my clothes off, I waddled to the tub and with help got in. 20 minutes of Josh Groban music later, RHM was in our world. He didn't have red hair, more of a strawberry blond. I thought he might turn out to be a blondie like Travis, but no. He is my Red Headed Monster, I mean Monkey. I love him and so glad he came to me this way.

Happy 7th Birthday RHM!

This is my cute red head. He is my joy. So loving and energetic. This year we are having a family party. Tonight will be simple; pizza, ice-cream, cake and presents.
But today we went to jumpstreet, indoor trampoline park! So fun. Check them out at http://www.gotjump.com/.

RHM LOVED DODGE BALL. He actually plays very aggressive in the front.
Sweetie loved the under 7 area. I am glad. We were there for 2 hours and I was worried she would get bored, but nope. She is a jumper.
Smiling after sliding.
RHM is such a good jump and flipper.
Princess just loves to jump!
There is one of the flips.
The foam pit was fun too!
Agent J was in the dodge ball room the WHOLE time and was tuckered out when it was time to go. Glad to find this place. It is next to Sprouts, so maybe I will be stopping by there for aerobics. FUN, FUN!