Where are you???

Well, it has now been almost 3 months since I have posted. I started a post a couple weeks ago and Stoney's computer crashed. His computer is the only one with a working USB port to download pictures. So, when it is up and running, I will give a quick update of the last 3 months hightlights. Then I will commit to stay more current with my blog in 2009.

All the Fall Festivities

October has a been a stressful one for our family. But amid the stresses, we have been doing some fun things and enjoying fall. We made our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch and took last Saturday afternoon to decorate Halloween sugar cookies with my siblings and the cousins. What a fun and tasty event that was! I love Fall!

Hailey's D.A.R.E Graduation

Today was Hailey's 5th grade D.A.R.E graduation. She has been learning about Drugs, Alcohol and Violence prevention for about two weeks now at school. During the process, she would come home every day with a new stat or thing she'd learned that day. She was also required to write a one page essay on what she learned. She took it very seriously and wrote a great one! I am grateful for all the information they were taught! What an amazing program.

For the graduation, the parents were invited to watch their child receive there grad certificate and T-shirt after listening to a few of the kid's essays. They also listened to encouragement from the captains of the Bingham Football team who told them why they should stay drug free! Then they all signed each others T-shirts and got signatures from the football players and Officer Campbell. I hope this will be a memorable experience that she will remember for years to come.

Hailey and Officer Campbell (the D.A.R.E instructor)Hailey with classmate and friend, MatisseHailey sporting her new signed T-shirt!

October Book Club at Zinn Bistro

This month for book club, we had lunch together at Zinn Bistro. Some of us had been there and some had not. It was soo yummy from the best pastries to the best pulled pork sandwich in town! I love these girls so much and always leave our discussions with a stronger determination to be better. I've known all these girls since high school! Our lives have all had their ups and downs, goods and bads, but we've always maintained close friends. Thanks for your friendship girls. We missed you Ash, Trish and Christina!

So you think you can dance!

This was my first season of SYTYCD and I loved it! Going to the concert was the icing on the cake. I haven't yelled that loud in forever. I totally loved every minute of it!! I went with Dan, Angela and Melissa and met Heidi, Jolynn, Brad and Suzanne there. Brad took all the good pictures with his incredible camera, but I managed to get a few before my camera battery died.

Aside from loving the season, I think Hailey was the biggest fan. She watched and re-watched each episode. To this day, when she hears any of the music to one of the dances, she can tell you who danced it, what costumes they wore and even some of the judges comments. He very fav was Bleeding Love with Chelsea and Mark. I think I agree with her!!!

The kind of person I want to be...

I was blog hopping this morning and came across this quote by Margorie Pay Hinckley on my friend Lora's blog. Lora, I have to say, is one of the most inspiring people I know so I wasn't surprised to find it there. I loved this quote and it really hit home for me so I'm stealing it to put on my blog. I want to remember it and try to apply it in my quest as a mother, wife, sister, friend, etc... I've read some of Sister Hinckley's books and just love the example she was to all of us. What a wonderful Christlike person she was. I will always remember her and President Hinckley and their dedication to the Lord's work.

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived. " — Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Primary Childen's...Take Two

McCall finally had her surgery to have her ear tubes removed last Thursday. She was scheduled to have it the same day as Tanner in August. But, overnight, she had got the stomach flu. Anyway, Tanner got her up to speed on what would happen (toys, games, slushies...pretty much an amusement park in their eyes.) I am so grateful to the doctors and nurses there that make the experience so positive and even fun. McCall did fabulous. She made a hospital buddy, played with the doctor tools, picked her sleeping smell, rode in a wheelchair and a wagon. I think we are done with Primary's for a while and are grateful to be in good health.