Keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times . . .

“I come from a long line of weepers.”

That was my opening line as I bore my testimony in Sacrament Meeting this morning after sustaining DH as our new bishop. We’ve known that this day was coming for 28 days, which by the way, is far too long for me to know something like this before the fact. The agony and the anticipation are both too acute. But, as DH’s name was read and he stood, the emotions coursing through me were a mixture of the electricity of knowing that this is an inspired call and the absolute gut-bottoming-out-dread of “what have we gotten ourselves into.” Not exactly your easiest feeling to digest in a Sunday morning Sabbath service. Let the roller coaster begin.

I keep being amazed at the tender mercies that are coming my way. I know this entire experience will not be easy, but we have the opportunity to learn a lot and grow individually and as a family in our testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ and in our devotion to Him. People have offered their help and support in such warm and loving ways that I know we will be okay and I will learn, if nothing else, to knock a bit more off that bothersome pride with which I’m always struggling. I gladly accept any words of wisdom from those of you who have been there!

Here’s a picture of our family after church. I will call it “before.” I wonder what we’ll all look like when this particular ride has come to a close.



Enjoy the ride!

To explain a bit for dear friends who may visit my blog and who are not members of my faith, first I offer my apologies for being so slow to do this and so inept at it. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we don't have a paid clergy. The nitty gritty of this means that regular unspectacular members like myself and like DH share in the work of ministering and adminstrating to the needs of the congregation on all levels. In our church we believe a great deal in inspiration. We believe that God hears and answers prayers and advises us on any of the myriad things we may need to do from day to day, if we ask in faith. We receive jobs to do from time to time; we call them "callings" based on this idea of inspiration in all things. For us at this time this whole business of a lay ministry means that DH will be filling much of the role that a pastor of another church would fill (ministering to the needs and concerns of our congregation, administrating to the regular needs of keeping a church going with teaching, activities etc), except that he still keeps his day job. A day job that was more than full time already. So, we will have full days ahead of us, to say the least. He could have said no. I could have asked him to say no. This isn't forever, DH will serve until it's deemed time for someone else to take up the position. I believe with all my heart that the Lord is mindful of my little family, that service brings us closer to the Savior and that sacrifice brings blessings. Thus the tears on my part.

A Whole New World

This is CE. She is 9. We have been shoe shopping for a little bit because her feet are growing and it's the beginning of school. Yesterday was a somewhat fruitful day, I found clothes for her and shoes for her 3 younger brothers, but no single pair of shoes on which she and I could compromise. So this morning, I thought I'd do some net research to see where these elusive wonder shoes might be.

Meet CE's dream shoes:

a sassy black suede number with a 1 3/4 inch heel. Did I mention that these shoes are for school? I should back up by expressing my exasperation with the entire concept of fashion with her. She knows what she wants, but can't always express it. I suppose she's watched a few too many episodes of What Not to Wear. With her brothers all I have to do is display that shoes will jump well or make the wearer run fast and they are sold (there is some color play and opinions about the layout of laces v. velcro/elastic but it's minimal). CE has always needed more negotiation, more searching, more finesse and ultimately more tears when she can't have the exceedingly impractical choice of the moment. DH can no longer shoe shop with us, because his only sister is 9 years younger than he is and he has no experience with the whims of tween girl fashion and no patience either.

Fast forward to today. We searched every shoe website I could think of to no avail. I would prefer she wear actual sneakers to school, in order to facilitate running, jumping, playing and not getting in trouble with the PE teacher. But I am willing to compromise in favor of some cuteness, so I suggested skimmers. Basically, the shoe needs to be flat and have a rubber, sneaker-like sole. The only shoes CE would even look at had a minimum of 1 inch wedge heel or they were super slick leather ballet flats, and then she saw these shoes, the shoes she knew in the pre mortal existence and all of a sudden I become even more ogreish than usual in my refusal of her fashion wishes.

So I ask you. Am I woefully out of touch with the fashion NEEDS of the average fourth grade girl? Am I unreasonable in thinking that nearly two inch wedge skimmers in suede might not be the best shoes for her to wear as she plays tether ball or kick ball or runs from the boy crush of the moment? But the big question on my mind is, how have we gotten to this place in life (fighting over the desire to grow up entirely too soon) so much sooner than I anticipated? I am not ready. But is anyone ever really ready for this?

Help Nie Nie

I don't know the Nielsons. But I have been touched by their
story. In the spirit of "see what good this blogging world can do", a friend of mine and her sister have started some silent auctions to contribute to the fund which will help in paying the medical bills of the Nielsons as they climb the awful road to recovery. Check out the auctions here. So sure, the internet can be a hairy scary place, but there is good here and it has the power to tie us together and allow us to lend helping hands in the process. So, hold out your hand and help.

The Perfect Vacation

This weekend we dashed off for a somewhat impromptu trip to Southern California. We had great plans to see friends and play at the beach, most of my children having never seen a beach (even the ones who have seen it have no memory of it).

We were staying with beloved friends and enjoying their company. M was not sleeping and the playing with friends on the part of the kids, of course, meant less than usual amounts of sleeping for them as well. But we had promised a beach.

Imagine my surprise Saturday morning when CE came to me, begging, "Mom, do we have to go to the beach? Can't we just stay here and play?" If ever there was a no brainer, this was it! So, the kids were in and out of the pool all day, having a blast with their friends.


Bam wouldn't "get in" the pool. But water balloons were so much fun that he went through 3 outfits of clothes. He was perfectly happy playing on his own inside and outside.

Even DH got much needed respite, since the big case settled.

Z enjoys an inner tube contraption--ever the inventor!

CW follows suit.

CE takes a page out of her Dad's book and soaks up the Southern Cal sun.

The trick was convincing the kids to apply sunscreen appropriately, since it wasn't nearly as hot as "hot and sunny" always is at home. They don't believe that you can get sunburned unless you are also being roasted alive Nevada desert style.


The day ended in the best possible way, with the baptism of our friend, pictured here with his grandfathers. The Spirit was so very strong during the baptismal service and I feel so blessed that we were able to participate in that sweet experience.

Now, to appease certain members of my family who will complain if there are no pix of M. Here's one:

She still hasn't figured out crawling all the way, but will get up on all fours like this and try very very hard until she falls angrily back to her commando crawling, thus dusting all the tile floors in my house with her belly!

Now, I have had some requests for a progress report on the subject of my previous post: becoming a morning person. So I wanted to give one. I was doing pretty okay. I had gotten up between 5 and 5:45 nearly each day since that post. I was feeling invigorated (despite less sleep), going to bed earlier to facilitate it and it was working. And the true test was that in the midst of this lovely weekend in Cali, (the one where no one slept) I got up--on my own--at 6 am and ran six miles in the most beautiful California morning weather, feeling renewed and able, despite the no sleep, to have a lovely day with family and friends. Then, Monday night I was futzing with a problem and didn't get to bed until midnight-ish and my alarm went AWOL, so I awoke with a start at 7:20 and could do none of the exercising, reading, writing and rejuvenating that I had become accustomed to over the previous week or so and needless to say, yesterday was a bad, sluggish day. I have learned my lesson. Not to say I have magically become a morning person. But I am learning which things I can't start after the kids go to bed, when to definitely be in bed for there to be any hope of getting up at five (and it's not "midnightish"), but most importantly, that I need that morning time. The day really does go better and I am a better woman, mother, wife, human when I have that time to myself. I'm thinking this knowledge will ultimately be the thing that turns me to true morning personhood. I'll let you know.