Wedding in Vegas

I just got this picture in the mail the other day, from my awesome friend and college freshman roommate, Heather!! She got married in June and I was so lucky to be able to have a little weekend getaway to Vegas to be there for it! It's the first time I've traveled by myself (I've flown by myself with kids plenty of times, but never just me). It was kind of weird finding the hotel by myself, staying in a huge hotel room in a king-size bed all by myself, and the worst part was, I only brought one book to read, and I had it finished before I even left the airport Friday night! So I was kind of bored in my hotel room by myself. Oh well. I hooked up with Heather's family at the hotel, and pretty much just tagged along with them the whole weekend. It was kind of funny at first, being Heather's random friend that flew in for the wedding, tagging along at the temple. But it was so fun to be there! Heather's totally the coolest, it seems like her husband was a really great guy too.

So about the picture...it was around 10 am at the end of June, in Las Vegas, and this picture was taken after an hour of standing outside in the 100+ degree weather. I was impressed that you can't tell from the picture that we're soaked in sweat. I was laughing that when planning for a summer wedding in Vegas, you can't forget lots of cold water for everyone who has to be outside during pictures. Oh, and there was a hankerchief used specifically to keep the bride and groom sweat-free! :)

This was at Heather's reception...where I ran into Courtney, my other freshman roommate from BYU!!

If you want it, I want to

Mitch is playing Y-ball (basketball) for the first time this year...holy cow, it is the cutest thing ever! It seems like there are so many rules and skills to know to play basketball, not like soccer where the only rules they have are no hands and kick the ball in the goal. But they're actually better than I expected them to be. There's traveling and double-dribbling all over the place, but they have the basic concepts down of passing, shooting, rebounding, and defense. Last Saturday was the third game and the refs actually started calling double dribbling (at least the very obvious kind of dribbling the ball after you've picked it up to shoot or pass...the kids who dribble with two hands still get cut a lot of slack!). Anyway, Mitch is a solid player, but unfortunately isn't quite aggressive enough or tall enough to out-rebound his teammates, and of course kids who dribble up the court hardly ever pass and so Mitch ends up hardly ever touching the ball. It's kind of up to the coach to let the less dominant players get the ball when it's brought back in bounds, but if he's not paying enough attention...well, you know how it goes. Last game we noticed Mitch starting to tear up a couple of times because he never got the ball, could never quite get the rebounds, or could never quite convince his teammates to pass to him. Poor kid! I teared up just seeing him get sad! And then I started weighing the pros and cons of being the parent who tells the coach my kid needs more playing time out there! I mean, I know the coach is doing his best...but really, they're six, and right now it's all about making this a good experience for the kids, right? I'm afraid that if every game ends up like that, Mitch won't want to play basketball anymore. Which actually is fine with me I guess...I'd much rather him stick to soccer. Oh, the challenges of parenthood!!

And I just threw this picture in because they love shampoo hairdos...especially when they are way overdue for haircuts and they can make some pretty sweet mohawk action. Yes...they all still take baths together. Is that wrong? I can't seem to convince Mitch to take showers, and I'm not sure my temperament could handle them taking baths one at a time...it would take too long (they all still require me to do most of the work--at least Mitch and Luke insist on doing their own faces and privates)!! I'm all about expediting the bedtime process!

Preview of my talk

"The Lord knows our bearing capacity, both as to coping and to comprehending, and He will not give us more to bear than we can manage at the moment, though to us it may seem otherwise. Just as no temptations will come to us from which we cannot escape or which we cannot bear, we will not be given more trials than we can sustain." --Neal A. Maxwell

And I stole this from the Sheltonites blog (good quote Emily!) from Elder Holland...I think it is perfect!

"If we constantly focus only on the stones in our mortal path, we will almost surely miss the beautiful flower or cool stream provided by the loving Father who outlined our journey. Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God's goodness. Joy in the gospel is not something that begins only in the next life. It is our privilege now, this very day. We must never allow our burdens to obscure our blessings. There will always be more blessings than burdens--even if some days it doesn't seem so. Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Enjoy those blessings right now. They are yours and always will be." — Jeffrey R. Holland

So if you're in my ward and you are reading this, you just might hear these quotes being used in my talk this Sunday (it's on adversity). But I was touched so much by these that I had to share them now!

I'm on Google Maps!!!!

Check this out! It's so cool! I was messing around on Google maps just now, checking running route distances, etc., and discovered that the picture of our house has a picture of me in it! It was from last summer when we were starting the pergola project, and I was staining all the wood in our driveway. Okay, so if you click on the link below and then double click on the "C" destination (our house) and then in the top right hand corner, click on street view. You kind of have to click and drag the frame around so you can see our house full-on, and you can click the full-screen option, you get a sweet ol' view of yours truly hard at work in the garage! Isn't that awesome? But the street-view tool that Google offers is pretty sweet too, if you click on the arrows, you can virtually drive down the street and check out your neighborhood online! Maybe you all knew this already and I'm a little slow when it comes to techno savvy stuff (I know, I know, not quite worthy to be in the GGF club...).

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=W+Harmonica+Way&daddr=W+Banjo+Dr+to:6037+S+Moonridge+Ave,+Boise,+ID+83709&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=43.548334,-116.291174&sspn=0.005482,0.009613&ie=UTF8&ll=43.550251,-116.290884&spn=0.005482,0.01369&t=h&z=17

Lifeline

This song found me the other night...seriously, I was supposed to find it. :) Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but check this out...so I never watch tv, and one night I randomly flip it on to the WB and caught all of five minutes of this show (One Tree Hill or something like that for any that might watch the show) but they featured this song during the few minutes I was watching, and I totally loved it! Lifeline by Angels and Airwaves...just wanted to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWds_R5wcBQ

And I'm proud to be an American...

Tonight I took Mitch and Luke to a flag retirement ceremony put on by the scouts in our ward, and it was such a cool experience!! I got choked up so many times: seeing the flag, putting my hand over my heart, saying the pledge of allegiance, singing the national anthem, seeing pictures of men and women in uniform, and hearing the stories of those that have served. At the end of some talks and presentations, we went to the field behind the church and watched as scouts laid the flags on top of a fire, one by one, respectful in thier demeanor, and listening to a trumpet playing taps.

I'm so grateful to live in this country and to feel such love and respect and patriotism for the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy. I had the same choked up feeling as I was voting, which I was laughing at myself because I didn't necessarily feel like my individual vote would make much of a difference (especially living in Idaho), but I think it was just the fact that I could vote, and feeling so blessed to be a participant in a functioning democracy.

I feel so blessed to be where I am, when I am, and I'm so excited to be a part of the work of the Gospel in the latter days!

Happy Veteran's Day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9_fDEsv-Q

Sunday Dress up Day

A couple of weeks ago, we pulled out the costume box for the kids to pick out their costumes. As you can see, they had a blast trying everything on and posing for the camera!

Scripture of the day

I read this scripture last night and want to share it with the world because it is so true (well, all the scriptures are true, but you know what I mean!)

2 Tim. 1:7

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

ps, Happy election day...Go vote!!

The Big 5-year old

Luke's birthday was on Thursday, the big man turned 5! I also happened to have the Halloween party at my house for the coop preschool I'm apart of. So it kind of functioned as a birthday party for Luke, all of his friends got to come over for a party...at least that's how I let him see it. Never mind that there weren't presents to open. (Actually, two of his friends brought presents for him anyway).

So yeah, preschool was crazy! My first time teaching ever, and it felt like a complete disaster! I put so much time into it, and on paper it looks like it would have been a pretty sweet 2 1/2 hours. But I underestimated the four/five-year olds' excitement level and attention span. Oh well, a learning experience for me as well. The hardest part was watching several hours worth of time put into the cutest and most creative snacks get thrown in the garbage with only a bite or two taken out of them. Oh, the funniest thing though: so I made this witch's brew and for the ice I put in these frozen hand molds. But as I was trying to extricate one of the frozen hands from the rubber glove, I accidentally broke off all the fingers except the middle one...so the frozen hand in my witch's brew was flipping us all off! It was hilarious!

For this party, Luke was a ninja, Elise was a cheerleader, and I was a wizard. The next day for real Halloween, we were all something different! Luke was Nephi, Elise was a fairy princess (same thing she was last year, but hey, you've got to choose your battles, right?), and I was an airline stewardess. Mitch wore the ninja costume and Loren was the wizard.

This picture is of Lizzy right after she gave "the perfect present for Luke!" She knew he loves transformers and also has a thing for tarantulas, so when she saw this spider Transformer toy at the store, she knew Luke would absolutely love it! (The unfortunate ending to the story is that in trying to transform the toy for him...I accidentally broke the arm off! Oops...Luke was so mad at me!! I'm still holding out some hope that super glue will come through for me!)

A few more pics

I wanted a before and after shot with my friend Melinda, but what can I say, I was lucky to even remember the camera...even then, the "after" shot was taken at home, right before jumping in the shower!

The Race Results

I'm a little slow in getting my results up from the half marathon last week...it has been a super crazy week! I was in charge of three parties in two days! Anyway, here's the website if you want to fact-check me:

http://www.prisonbreakhalf.com/results.htm

But here's the quick rundown:

13.1 miles, 1 hr. 48 min. 56 sec., 8 min 18 sec. avg. per mile, 45th place overall, 20th woman, 7th in my age group of 20-29.

I was really happy with the results, I did way better than I thought I was capable of!! I felt good the whole time too, except for a really steep hill the last mile (brutal!), and about mile 11, I just really wanted to be done! I kept telling myself, I don't think I want to do this again. I think maybe I'll do a 10K next, and just train hard to run like 7 1/2 minute miles (yeah, in my dreams!)...but 6 miles sounds so much nicer than 13! Anyway, it took a few days before I could walk like a normal person again, but I'm all back to normal!