February 21st Monday

It is Monday and I have decided that I need to concentrate on what I started this Blog for and that is to count my blessings. Realize the tender mercies that happen in my life every day. It has been a great day. I have accomplished so much. But during the day I got a call from my sweet daughter, their little dog Shadow, a blue heeler was run over this morning and died. It was so sad to hear, I know how attached her dear children were to that dog. They have had the dog for 9 months. It makes me so sad for them. She said the dog was chasing a car and barking at the wheels. I've watched her do that before and it always scared me. Apparently there was another car behind and she got hit with one tire then got ran over with the other car. The problem was the whole family was watching, TW started to scream and jumped up and down crying. It was hard on all the children, they all burst into tears. A sad day for the whole family. NW picked up the dog full of blood and lifeless. Such a sad story. But I know they will make it through this. It may take awhile but life will get easier for them. My daughter is pregnant and will be happy to not have to worry about a dog when this child is born, so for that reason it is probably a good thing. But I am sure that doesn't seem to be a real happy thing right now. I just feel super bad for the family.

February 20th Sunday

Sharing Time went wonderful today. The children loved the Jeopardy Game. I am happy about the fact that they loved it because we can use it again. I will save it for another sharing time. It was a lot of work, and the work is well worth it when it is successful. Our sacrament meeting was wonderful, a new member family spoke. They also sang, "Oh That I Were An Angel." I haven't heard that song for years, it was fun to hear again. Another great thing happened today. I actually did sharing time without shaking so bad. I still shock in the junior sharing time. At least I shock only part of the time. We had a lot of fun. The teachers helped to answer the questions. But at the senior sharing time I was confident ad we had a great time. The children were so energetic and sang so loud, answered the questions with so much enthusiasm. It was a lot of fun to be part of it all. It made my Sunday.

Tonight was a night when only part of the family are with us. We of course invite KLC because she is not married yet. We invite PC and KHC because they don't have other family around. But it was a super meal. D&J brought us rolls to cook for our meal because they had so many, and we loved them. As a matter of fact we ate everyone of them. We had broccoli chicken casserole, rolls, and salad. We also ate cookies which were brought by our home teachers. They were delicious chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. I actually really enjoyed them. I loved their recipe.

February 19th Saturday

I feel so good. My girls cleaned the whole house while my husband and I were at the temple. They even cleaned my bedroom and bathroom. It was a fun day yesterday. Today I have spent the day doing the necessities and have been running around with my husband to pick up some stuff for the basement that he is working on. I guess it is the kind of a day to feel a little free from the pressures in my life. My sharing time is done and my house is pretty clean, I know I need to do some scrubbing and some mopping but I just feel lazy. And I feel confident about tomorrow, so I just have a few pressures gone. I am so happy about being prepared.

February 18th Friday

We went to the temple this morning. I did work for one of my ancestry's that was in the 1500's. I can't believe that my mother is going back on her line to the 1500's. I was so excited to do that work and her name was Elisabeth. My favorite name of course. But it is fun to do work for my ancestor's. A super experience. I think it is one of those tender little mercies in my life, to be part of such a wonderful opportunity to go to the temple and do work for my kindred dead. Those people that I knew before this life and will have the opportunity to meet them after this life. I am happy to do work for them.

I spent the rest of the day after the temple on my sharing time lesson. Thanks to daughters that know how to use the Internet well, I was able to complete the game that I wanted. KC helped me a lot. She printed up everything and even colored the items. I printed up the questions and glued everything together. It was a lot of fun. It was for the game of family Jeopardy. I put a lot of work into it and I hope the children love it. I am certainly happy about it.

February 17th Thursday

K & T are at work again today. I've been working on my sharing time again today. But I just don't seem to know the computer that well. I need some help, so I am going to have to wait until some one else is around. I took my husband some lunch. He has been working hard. He has the whole ceiling sheetrocked in the long room then another room done. He will get some help tomorrow because PC has decided to help him. I am grateful for that. PC has been studying for some mid-terms and working on some projects for school so he has been really busy. But tomorrow things will slow down.

K&T have been writing reports tonight plus they have been studying for a test. My husband came home from work and read over their reports. Everything is ready for tomorrow and they are happy about that.

I made a great supper for everyone tonight. My brother is back he ate as well, and now the family is full until tomorrow. The kitchen is clean. I've tried to keep it clean this last week and sometimes that is difficult, when people think they need to eat late. But it has been good lately and it has actually been clean as I've gone to bed. Happy Day!

February 16th Wednesday

Today is K&T first day at work. I am grateful that they have a job and that they love it. Not many people are coming to there little store yet, but we are hoping and praying for the best for the family that owns it. Because it is a perfect job for K&T. It is a little pottery and art store. I hope that things go well and it will stay open.

I went to K&T's work today. It looks like it will be a lot of fun for them. I had to get back quickly because I have a Primary Presidency Meeting tonight. The Meeting went great, then I came home and started to prepare my sharing time lesson. I know exactly what I will do. I need to talk about different families in the scriptures. I think I will take the idea to do a Jeopardy Game. I hope it turns out well. But I know that me getting started early will certainly help.

February 15th Tuesday

Today is the day that our mortgage payment has to be paid. We have set up a payment plan and that plan is well over anything that we have made in our lives. I know without the Lords help we will not be able to make it. But we have some great people in our lives and they were able to help us. I am so grateful for them. Now we just need a miracle for this next month, so that we can pay anyone back that we owe. I am just grateful for wonderful family. I couldn't ask for better. We got the payment paid and we are on our way to another month with more miracles to follow.

It has been a great day. We have commited ourselves to do certain things. Because the Lord says, I am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say ye have no promise. I hope that we can become who we should be. We have many faults but we are trying.

February 14th Monday

It is Valentines day today. I know it is a special day for all sweethearts. We are lacking in funds right now so I and my sweetheart didn't buy each other anything. But I do love him and he loves me and that is the greatest gift I have. I couldn't imagine going through life without that special gift. I know that we all have our struggles. But my husband has never treated me with anything but the utmost respect and I am thankful every day for that gift.

We had a beautiful Family Home Evening lesson tonight. It was given by KC. She gave us the same lesson that was given to her at institute. It was Nothing is Impossible with the Lord. I firmly believe that. And I know that our lives our in his hands. I greatly enjoyed the lesson.

February 13th Sunday

It has been an incredible day. Primary went wonderful with all the cute children. Because it was ward conference the stake leaders were in our meeting. President Watts was given a little bit of time to speak to both sharing times. I didn't shake quit as bad this Sunday as I did last Sunday and I even conducted. It was fun to be with the children.

I went to ward council and then to ward choir. We just receive a new choir director. He is great. The song we are singing is taught but we will get it yet.

But the best part of this whole day was this evening. The family ate together and we enjoyed Cafe Rio type food. The we had a delicious dessert that D&J brought. Then my husband and I headed off tot he church to a music program put on by the High Priest. I have to say it was incredible. I can't even express how good it was. But the musical number that I enjoyed the most was put on by Brother Ott. He lost his wife a few months ago. I was very unexpected. She was only 61 years old. He got up and said that the first year his wife and him were married he forgot valentines day. As they were sitting down to supper. She announced, did you forget something sweetheart. He said he has never forgotten Valentines Day since. And he wasn't going to this year either. He hoped that she was listening then he dedicated these 3 songs to her. He sang and played on the piano 3 songs. "Sweethearts" "The Sweetheart tree" and "Moon River. So touching. Everyone was in tears and Bro. Ott made it through all the songs. I went up after the meeting and told him how touching it was. That I couldn't believe he made it through all the songs. He said he knew that he had received help. Such a special Valentine's gift. One I will always cherish. They talk about being a man's man, well I just witnessed one.

February 12th Saturday

It has been a day full of accomplishment, but a hard working day. I catered a valentines dinner for a single adult word. Over 100 people. I spent form 9-11 at a leadership training meeting, which was a privilege to attend. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot from it. Then the rest of the day I worked on the dinner. I made 105 totilla's. I made 3 large trays of rice. 2 of my large pressure cooker full. About 10 cups of rice per pressure cooker full. KLC and I made pico degio, a large tray of it. I warmed all the meat and the big tray of black beans. KLC cut 4 large trays of salad. 1 large tray of cheese. The dinner looked beautiful. Very professional looking. We cooked all the tortilla's and put them in metal trays so they would be hot. It took me most of the night to clean up the kitchen. But it was a rewarding day and night, because I accomplished so much. A day full of fun times, except of course my cut finger and my finger that was burned pretty bad. I tried to save my daughters grill when I accidently knocked it on the florr. Fun Day!!!

February 11th Friday

We had a surprise visitor this morning, and I was in the middle of making tortilla's for the big dinner. I was shocked when I heard who it was. Linda Lytle our foster daughter, I haven't seen her for 15 years. She caused so much heartache in our family. But that is what you do when you can't ever tell the truth. I am sure that she said a lot of things to a lot of people that were lies, and I feel bad because these people knew us and they believed her. It was a very sad time in our lives because we were caring for her and tried to do everything for her. But I guess sometimes even your best isn't appreciated. She stayed with us for 6 months until we asked her to leave because she was causing such heart ache for us. Some of those who professed to be out friends still treat us bad. It is sad to think someone can do that to innocent peoples live. Even though Linda did a lot to destroy our family I have wanted nothing but the best for her. She seemed to be happy. She has been married about 10 years now and she has 4 children. 3 boys and a baby girl. She brought her along to meet us. We had an interesting conversation, but she never asked about LM, who was suppose to be her best friend and the one who convinced us to let her into our home. The conversation was mostly her talking, but it was good to hear she is doing good, I hope it continues and that she has changed for her husbands and childrens sake.

We went to the temple today, our favorite place to be. It is so good for us to be able to do the Lords work and feel the wonderful spirit in the temple.

I've been cooking a lot today. I made 90 totilla shells, and that is hard to do when my press doesn't work very well. I think it is just worn out. That makes me sad. I also made the big pot of beans today. They looked great.

February 10th Thursday

I got up this morning and of course FC had headed to work doing sheetrock. I know how difficult it is to lift 12 foot sheets even if you have a sheetrock lifter. Because you have to lift the sheetrock on the the lifter and then lift it to the ceiling. I spent the morning shreddding the meat that we put on to slow cook. It was done perfect so I shredded it all. Then I put all the spices and other things into the meat. I put the meat on simmer to cook slowly, and absorb all the wonderful flavors. FC can home for lunch and then we went shopping for the rest of the food for the dinner. We had to buy everything, so we ran to a lot of different store. I will use my own spices, flour, rice, and oil. I am trying not to use to much money, so that I will have more for the necessities that we need. LM already paid for the meat and I will need to pay her back. TC paid for the rest of the food. Then I will pay her back for the amount I spent of hers. Between the 2 there was probably $200.00 spent. So I will need to pay back quite a bit.

February 9th Wednesday

LM left this morning with her little family. It was so sad to see them leave. We will miss them greatly. I will get up in the morning and not hear the TV on PBS.org, or hear the 2 little girls say they are hungry or see LM talking to them as they eat. They will certainly be missed.

My husband took care of the car and hopefully now it will be in great working order. Frank left it better than he found it and he certainly feels better about letting his daughter and grand children leave to go home. They left 2 days later than expected, but they are leaving safe.

FC and I put the meat on for the singles ward dinner that we are catering. It ended out being a lot of meat. We filled to huge pans that we usually cook our turkey's in, and then we filled a crockpot full. We are cooking the meat all night long, then shredding it tomorrow. I am excited to be working on the meat, because with this dinner I will need a lot of time to do other things.

February 8th Tuesday

My husband has not only replaced the radiator but he is at the family car lot replacing a few things to help the oil leak. I feel bad that he is working so hard, but I appreciate him because he cares that his daughter drives in a safe vehicle. I am sure that he will be working on that car until late tonight. So my daughter won't be able to leave until tomorrow. I am OK with that. She has been able to be here a few more days than she planned and that is great by me.

We are having a lot of fun with the grand children and LM. It is fun to watch them play so fun. We have been putting puzzles together and we have been playing with toys. We have watched movies together, especially Dora. Because my grand children seem to love that movie.

DNH came down today and we went to visit cousins and tell them about protandim. We visited Debbie H. and Becky C. We also visited Janet H. and we tried to visit Joan W. but she was not there. We also went out to Jeremy H shop and there I ran into two High School class mates. Doug Hair and his wife Cathy. It was so good to talk to them. It has been years since I have seen them. They asked about my parents and about BH. I talked to them about trauma in his life and they told me they had the same trauma only worse. Sometimes life can be so interesting. I am glad I got to visit today it was fun. When we got home after a long day I walked in my house and my daughter was gone and so was her car. It scared me because I thought she had gone home without me saying good bye. But as I walked in the house farther I saw my grandchildren. I was greatly relieved and so glad they were still here. I found out the reason the car was gone is because my husband needed a warm place to work on it.

February 7th Monday

LM wasn't able to go home today. My husband found out her radiator was shoot. It has all kinds of little pin holes in it and a lot of water is squirting out. So a new radiator has been ordered and it will be here tomorrow. I am sure that NM is wondering what seems to happen when his wife comes to see us. Because her car broke down the last time that she was here. My husband said that she should have never made it here. He said you were certainly blessed. The weather was very cold and that helped keep the engine cold. I am sure that the Lord has his hand in it all because I prayed that she would make it safely here and I was so grateful that she did. We love to have her and her family come to visit. It is great to see our grand children.

It was plenty cold this morning but my grand children love the out doors and they wanted to go play in the snow. So it was a lot of fun to go outside but they were back in quickly. At least they had there fun.

Because little MJ feels better today D&J had to take her and her sister out and spoil them. It was great fun for them. I am glad that they could enjoy themselves.

February 6th Sunday

LM has decided to go back home first thing in the morning. I am happy that she is not leaving today. Our meeting at church went wonderful today. Our primary meetings went wonderfully and we were able to attend Relief Society without any worry or concern. My husband ended out teaching one of the classes and I was very inspired by what he did. He taught some of the lesson it was on how the early prophets testified of Christ, they were possed the question who in our day testify of Christ. The class mentioned the prophet, his apostles. My husband told the children that they were going to walk around the church halls and ask people if they testified of Christ. The first person they came across was Sister Avery. They asked do you testify of Christ. She said, Absolutely I do. Then they asked how. She commented on a few things. In the way she raises her family. How her family tries to be obedient, reads the scriptures, say their prayers, trying to keep a good spirit in their home. Then they all said Thank-you and continued to walk on. They ran into a young man who was 22 from the Singles Ward and asked, "Do you testify of Christ?" He said, Yes I do. They asked how? He said, in the way I dress, in the way I act, in the way I conduct myself and in my speech. (I loved his comments they were probably the best words heard, meant with sincerity that a young man could say.)Then they headed down the hall towards the Stake offices. President Young was standing outside his office, he was busy going in his office with someone for an appointment so they talked to Bro. Bandley. They asked him the same question. He responded with of course I do. The children asked how and he said I am here in this office, I do what is required of me. I come to church and do my responsibility faithfully. I am here because I chose to be and I love my Savior. They left and headed down the hall towards the missionary plaques. Standing in front of the show case was Bro. Devonno. They asked him the same question. He answered with a strong, Yes I do. Then went on to ask each child their names and acted genuinely interested in each child, then explained how he testified of Christ. That brought the class in front of the missionaries and the class talked about each one of the missionaries testifying of Christ. Afterwards they headed back to the room. What a wonderful experience. Some of the children suspected that my husband had planned this all and set people at certain points, but it was all impromptu. What a great lesson and certainly a testimony to me. We all need to testify of Christ in everything we do. I guarantee we would live a life of extremely goodness if we did. I know this little lesson will certainly help me.

The lesson in Relief Society was wonderful, the presidency gave it and they all did a wonderful job. They are certainly all inspired wonderful women.

February 5th Saturday

My daughter KC came and got the two grand children and took them out with my 2 daughters to eat. She also bought them each a stuffed animal. It was a lot of fun for them and their stuffed animals can never be out of their sights they love them so much. It was fun for all of them and they got to get out of the house and do something different.

It is pretty cold outside but LM wanted some pictures for her photography blog. The picutres she wanted was Bridal pictures. So she dress KC and TC up in her wedding dress and a dress they designed out of some stuff around the house. I don't know how they stood out side in that cold and continued to take different shots. It was especially bad because they were in their dresses without coats. But they seemed to enjoy themselves in all that they did. They even took some amazing pictures in the orchard. I can't believe how good LM has become at photography. I am happy for her, she is certainly talented.

My daughter KC is a fantastic artist. She drew a picture of SM and the Savior. It is absolutely beautiful. She certainly has a lot of talent. She took about a month to draw the picture. It is large about 19 by 24. So today LM, KC and I went out shopping for a frame while TC tended the children. I am sure that she thought we would never come home, because everything we picked out was out of stock. It was rather depressing. But we finally found the perfect frame, border and glass. The picture ended out costing my daughter 85 dollars but it couldn't have looked more perfect. I am plenty proud of a job well done. It took all of our cooperation to finally get it all done. KC did a great job, if you would like to see it you can go to her blogspot, it is called Inspired by a memory. She is amazing. (The actual blogspot is inspiredbyamemory.blogspot.com)

February 4th Friday

Little MJ is doing better today. I told my daughter that it will be one of those quick sicknesses and I certainly believe that. D&J came and picked up SM tonight and they took her out to eat. She came home with a piece of cake, a chocolate drink, and apples with a apple dip. She seemed to love it all and couldn't stop eating. It was fun for her to be with her Aunt and Uncle. They love to be at my house because there are a couple of Aunts and Uncles that can spoil them.

We are going to all attend Relief Society on Sunday because the our Relief Society President wants to give each of the sisters a special lesson on visiting teaching. We decided to have opening exercises with all the primary children the first hour and then ask the men of the ward to take care of the primary classes. It has been a chore trying to get everything organized. JL has done most of it with a little help from the rest of us. I am so grateful for her help and dedication. It has certainly been a lot of phone calls on her part. But I think the way we decided to bring it all together will be the best way for all involved. JL is in charge of sharing time and she will do a great job.

February 3rd Thursday

I am so grateful that my daughter LM is here. We are having so much fun with our grand children. Unfortunately little MJ came down with a fever tonight. We are trying to figure out how she got it so quickly. Then JL reminder her that she took her children to lunch at Wendy's and they played in the children's play ground. They had so much fun but not without consequence. They didn't clean their hands while eating, so that means that little MJ could have come down with anything.

It makes me kind of sad though because it seems that everytime LM comes to visit us her children get sick. I am sure it won't make her dear husband happy to send her to Utah any more. But we love them and are enjoying them her with us. It makes life seem a little bit better because we have fun little grand children to keep things going and not concentrate on other things.

February 2nd Wednesday

I am so happy my daughter finally arrrived with little MJ and SM. I love them and was so happy to see my precious daughter and her dear children. They go off on the wrong road and ended out going about 45 minutes out of their way. So it took them 6 hours to get here. I am just so glad that they were protected and are safely here. It is so good to see them again.

I had a presidency meeting for Primary tonight. My husband was working in J&D's basement so the noise during the presidency meeting was quite loud. Especially stappling the insulation to the ceiling. Once again a miserable husband for the evening. I admire that he will do that because it certainly isn't an easy job at all. But he does keep on going at it anyway. We have ward conference in 1 week from Sunday. I will be conducting and LW will be doing sharing time. It won't be easy for either one of us. I know we can count on the Lord to be with us and help us.

We had so much fun tonight when I got home from my presidency meeting. My dear husband decided to make some fun for his grand children. He put two matteress down the stairs and MJ and SM had so much fun that you would have thought they were at Disney World. The ran up one set of stairs and slide down the other set. We were laughing so hard and had so much fun. I always knew that building both sets of stairs would come in handy one day and it appears to me that we have found that day. I hated to see it all end.

February 1st Tueday

It is the beginning of a new month. I know how important this month is going to be for us. I pray that miracles will happen. My daughter is suppose to be coming tomorrow with my sweet little grand children. I am so excited. We will have a lot of fun I am sure.


Once again my husband has been doing insulation. He came home with such red eyes and a red looking face. I feel so bad for him. Insulation isn't easy for anyone. Especially doing a whole lot of insulation. A whole basement. He should be done in a couple of days, but he comes home and changes his clothes quickly just to get away from the insulation. It is itchy and mean to the face and especially the eyes. I keep telling my husband to go and buy some goggles. But he doesn't think that is the most important thing to spend his money on. Right now it seems important to me because it will protect his eyes. Jennifer says she goes down into the basement to sweep the floor and it is miserable. I can imagine what she is going through. My husband just needs to protect himself a little more in this construction business.

January 31st Monday

My husband is still in pain but knows that he has to get back to his job of finishing a basement and get the ceiling filled with insulation. It is a hard for him to do it because he is still experiencing a lot of back pain. Climbing up and down, cutting insulation in half and working with it. I don't envy him at all. It is made out of fiber glass and cause real irritation to everything it touches. He borrowed my Dad's truck and picked up the insulation. He will then get started on a tough job. My daughter has been working hard on getting the basement cleaned out so it will be easy to work around in. My husband had his 4 way inspection a few weeks ago. The guy that inspected the place was plenty impressed and didn't even give him any more to do. He walked away with a perfect inspection. I wish he could have started on the insulation right then but his back has been in pain ever since. I hate to see him in pain especially when he has so much to do. It hurts my heart. We had family night tonight. The girls went to Jennifer's. We had family night. It was great because we studied a few of the articles in the Ensign. I know it is important to do everthing we can so that our future will be bright. And this is a great start.