For The Beauty of the Earth

We sang my favorite Thanksgiving hymn in church today, “For the Beauty of the Earth.”  As we were singing it I thought of all those things named and how thankful I really am for them, so this post is a tribute to that song and to some of those things and people I am thankful for.  Click HERE for the song if you are unfamiliar with it.

For the beauty of the earth

For the beauty of the skies

For the love which from our birth over and around us lies

Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise

For the beauty of each hour of the day

and of the night

hill and vale

and tree and flower

sun and moon and stars of light

Lord of all to the we raise this our hymn of grateful praise

For the joy of human love

brother, sister, parent, child

friends on earth

and friends above

for all gentle thoughts and mild

Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise

Scott’s Gratitude List

Scott spent a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving posting something he was thankful for each day.  I loved reading them so much and wanted to save them (with his permission) to remember, so here are the things that Scott is grateful for:

Many friends on Facebook have been sharing 30 days of things they are thankful so I’ll share mine. No. 1 My wife I don’t know what I did to deserve her but I struck it rich. You know what I did nothing to be so lucky I just fooled her.

No 2 thing I’m thankful for is my oldest son Gabe he has got straight A’s through nearly 3 semesters of high school and wants to finish HS with all A’s. He also participated in Cross Country keep up the good work I’m proud of you.

Day 3 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful I went to a small college in a Rexberg, ID called Ricks college. It was a life changing experience that I had I not gone there my life would not be what it is today. They changed the name of the school a few years ago but to me it will always be Ricks.

Day 4 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful that I’ve had a healthy life I’ve never spent the night in a hospital as a patient.

Day 5 of what I’m thankful for:I’m thankful that I’ve had steady employment since I entered the work force full-time. I’ve never been laid-off or terminated I’ve been able to provide a home and food on the table for my family.

Day 6 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful for my hometown.  It was a beautiful area to grow up in a perfect climate,beaches and good people. I don’t live there anymore but when I visit I know I’m home.

Day 7 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful that I’m a USA citizen. I’ve traveled around the world.  We’ve got it good here. Millions of people around world would love to have what we have.  Many try to get in but not many try to leave. I consider it the golden citizenship.

Day 8 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful for my son Joshua and niece Ember for their part in saving my son Sammy life in a near drowning accident in 2002. I could not imagine life without Sammy.

Day 9 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful for my 4 year old son Noah you wish they can just stay this age sometimes. I really miss him.

Day 10 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful for Facebook.  It has helped me reconnect with old friends and extended family. It has brought together friends and family who I could not locate and helped repair broken friendships.

Day 11 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful my parents taught me what was right and was wrong because when I do something wrong I’m quick to repent about it.

Day 12 of what I’m thankful for: That my 3 sons who are in school are getting good grades in school unlike there old man did.

Day 13 of what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful that I have liberty and freedom to many things like travel, worship, criticize my government leaders without fear of punishment. Many people in this world of ours don’t have these freedoms.

Day 14 of what I’m thankful for:I’m thankful for my son Joshua.  He is more like me than any of the others. We both love sports and our favorite ice cream is mint and chip and we are the only ones in family that like salad with our dinner. The apple did not fall to far from the tree. He is a gutsy little athlete who I think is going to be a good baseball player. It’s been fun to have Josh in our home.

It’s been great to write what I’m thankful for and there are many but to end this Thanksgiving week I’m thankful for God. I don’t go around and quote scripture and when I speak I don’t often give him praises but he is there and a major influence in my life. He is my navigator and his influence shapes my opinions and issues. God bless all my family and friends and have a great Thanksgiving.

A Lot To Be Thankful For

Well, since we all got over our flu we passed around about a month ago, things had been going pretty smoothly around here.  Then it hit me how soon Thanksgiving was coming up.  I had to start thinking about how we were going to celebrate.  I knew it would be hard having Scott gone during the holidays, but knowing is different than feeling, and all of a sudden I really felt it and yep, it was hard.  My life has been filled with so many big Thanksgivings full of lots of food and people and chaos and fun.  Last year was quieter with just our family, but it was still fun to work with Scott in the kitchen all day and celebrate together.  Doing that all by myself just didn’t sound fun, not too mention knowing my kids wouldn’t eat much and I’d be left with most of it to myself.  I thought about inviting someone over, but the stress of worrying about the cooking and cleaning and not having Scott around to help me just made it seem too hard.  I unfortunately stress out too much about entertaining.  I had kind of settled on ordering a meal from a restaurant or something so we could have a reasonable portion that I would be able to eat.  At church, though, when some friends asked about my Thanksgiving plans and I mentioned my idea, I was promptly invited to dinner.  My friend Sarah invited me to celebrate with them on Friday because of her sister-in-law’s work schedule.  Then that night I got an e-mail from someone in the ward telling me about a bowling alley that was putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for military families, so all in one day I got my plans set and things started looking up.

Even with fun plans set, I still had my down moments over the week, but it seemed there was always someone reaching out to me and lifting me up.  There were the previously mentioned invitations, and even a sincere “How are you doing?” made me feel like someone cared and I wasn’t alone.  I also had my visiting teacher stop by with muffins, cookies, and a nice visit.  (Yep, yummy goodies are the way to my heart!)  A couple men in the ward had found out that my dishwasher wasn’t working and came by to fix it.  It was a fairly big job that came down to 6-7 pumpkin seeds stuck in the drain pipe.  It was so kind of them and really has lifted my work load as far as dishes are concerned.  It was so great during a hard week to be feel cared about and cared for.

So on Thursday we went to the bowling alley, where they had a big Thanksgiving buffet with pretty good food, not like home cooking, but still quite good.  They gave each of the kids a card with $5 credit on them for the arcade games and then we all got an hour of bowling.  It was very generous and turned out really fun!  On Friday we had a great time sharing Thanksgiving dinner with Sarah and Charles, his parents and sister, and their kids.  I’m kicking myself for not taking any pictures of the food or grown ups or Sarah’s cute baby, but I guess I was just enjoying the visiting with that great family.  The kids played so well together and everyone had a great time.

And now for the pictures!

We missed Daddy a lot and we know he missed us too, but we are glad we could spend our Thanksgiving in such a fun way.

Celebrating Gabe’s Birthday

It’s been a fun and busy week, starting off with some birthday celebration for my 15-year-old Gabe.  I can hardly believe he’s 15!  A couple of years ago we tried making a periodic table for his birthday cake, but actually used cookies.  It turned out pretty good, but was a lot of work and we actually didn’t finish all the elements.  You can see it HERE. Wow, hard to believe that’s the same kid only 2 years ago.  He has grown so much!  When I asked him what he wanted to do for his cake, he wanted to give the periodic table another try.  He thought it was more appropriate this year because he is actually taking chemistry now.  This time I did brownies on a big cookie sheet, frosted it, and then drew the lines and letters.  It was faster and easier than the other way, although I do think I like how those little sugar cookies turned out the first time around.  My lines are kind of sloppy here and yeah, my cake decorating skills are nothing to be very proud of, but at least this one is a little better than most of my disasters.  And he was happy with it, which is really what matters.

Of course first we had his special dinner.  He requested chicken and pasta, which is one of those few meals that all the kids are happy to eat.  One of these days I may post it as a recipe, but I make it differently almost every time, which makes it kind of hard to pin down.

Then there was the excitement of opening his present.  One present was actually the 7 x 7 Rubik’s cube, which has been ordered but hasn’t come yet.  That’s a serious Rubik’s cube, folks, with 49 pieces on each face!  His also got a chess computer software game that Noah helped him open.

The day after his birthday was especially exciting, because he got his present from Grandma and Grandpa D in the mail, a laptop computer!  Yep, the boy is seriously spoiled.

We also like to do a fun family activity for the boys on their birthday and Gabe chose to go to OMSI, which we did on Saturday.  Everyone had a great time.  I had to follow Noah around and the older boys were able to be pretty independent as far as going around and doing what they wanted to do.  That may explain why I took a million pictures of Noah and not many of anyone else.  Since I have a lot from OMSI I’m going to try out my gallery feature, which I haven’t used before.  Basically you can click on any picture you want to see better.  You can also comment on individual pictures and click the smaller pictures below to get to the previous and next pictures in the gallery.  But click back to the main post (by clicking on the title “Celebrating Gabe’s Birthday” at the top left) to leave a comment on the whole post rather than just a specific picture.  Anyway, try it out.  Is it confusing?  Cool?  What do you think?  (One little snafu I haven’t wrinkled out is how to get the pictures out of the gallery that I’ve already used in this post, so you just get to see those again.)

We also went to the IMAX version of The Polar Express, which was fun, but I forgot how scary it was in some places.  Luckily Noah didn’t seem too fazed by it.  OMSI is in a really pretty location right on the riverfront, so that last picture is from when we went out to the car.  I really like how the city lights and buildings looked over the water.

On the way home I talked to the kids about saying “thank you” to me for doing things like this and how they really forget to say it for most things.  They kind of caught on to the idea, and for the whole ride home they thanked me for everything in their lives they could think of, well mostly Sammy and Josh were the ones doing this.  It was kind of funny and sometimes really sweet.  They thought of things like buying them clothes, giving them a warm house, not giving them up for adoption, letting them do sports, buying them baby food when they were babies, changing their diapers, taking them on vacations, etc.  The one that warmed my heart the most, though, was when Sammy said, “Thank you for giving birth to our fun and joyful brother Noah.”  They were being a little silly and said a lot of weird things, but they also said a lot of sweet things and it made me happy.  Here’s hoping they remember to keep giving thanks!

Design Dilemma

Home decorating is definitely not one of my strengths.  I have lived in my house for 3 1/2 years, and for most of it have been trying to figure out what to do with my living room.  It has really high ceilings, so it feels too open and not cozy enough to me.  After lots of thinking and color swatches, I have finally decided on a shade of green that I love.  This week I had more open time with my new work schedule and actually managed to paint two walls, the wall by my stairs and behind my piano.  I also got back the family pictures we had taken by Rachel O’Neil, which I love and am really excited about.  I’ll post them when I get the digital copies, but I’ve already hung the boys pictures up the stairs and just that and the paint already makes the living room feel more homey.

So while sitting in the living room and thinking, I had an idea.  I could put crown molding around the room at the height of a normal ceiling and just paint the green below it.  That would make the room feel cozier and more grounded I think.  It also makes my painting job feel much more manageable when I’m not thinking about going all the way up to the ceiling yet, though I’d eventually want to paint that part too, in maybe a light tan or something.  But until I can manage to get crown molding put in, I’m thinking of just painting anyway and stopping on a straight line.  The trick is where to put the line (and eventually the crown molding).  I made a few videos showing how my walls are and why I’m a little stumped on what to do.  I repeat myself a little bit, but hopefully it makes sense.  Hopefully someone can help me figure this out so I can finally get something done in there after all this time.  (Some of you know how long this project has been in the works, ha ha.)  Or feel free to tell me that my whole idea won’t work or any potential problems you see!

done

done

done

Blame it on Facebook

So I’ve been pretty terrible about posting to my blog.  I think I can blame that on a few things.  I have definitely been busier with Scott gone, but part of it also I think I can blame on Facebook.  I tend to post my pictures or videos or short status updates on what is going on and then I don’t feel the urgency to get things posted here, which I really should do.  Because as hard as it has been to make this into an album, it will be much harder to try and make an album from my Facebook page and posts!  One exciting piece of news is that I have been able to adjust my work schedule to have more days off in a row, which I think will really help me have more time for other things, so hopefully this blog will be one of them.

I tried out a feature on my blog I’ve never used before, the password-protected post.  I posted a cherished recipe from my dear sister Heather for her famous chocolate chip cookies.  She wasn’t excited about sending this special recipe out into the big wide world of Google searchers and such, but she is willing to let me share it with my family and friends.  The password for that post is my first and last name, no space, lower case.  Yep, this recipe really is that amazing so guard it with care!  (The link is HERE.)

So for the few of my readers that are not on Facebook with me and for that hypothetical future album of mine, here is what I’ve been up to for the last month or so.  (And for the rest of you, go make some cookies!)

Nov 11, 2009

Just thinking about my amazing husband. As much as I miss him and wish he were here, I really am proud of his patriotism and desire to serve our country. I also appreciate how hard he always works to take care of our family. The first picture is from 1995, when he was graduating from basic training in San Antonio, Texas…. Kind of a funny picture overall, but he sure looks handsome! The second picture is from September on the day he left for his current deployment. He has almost reached the halfway point.

Nov 10, 2009

My little Joshy is such a smarty pants. I told him to put the whole cube of butter in a recipe and he said, “The whole cube? You mean the whole rectangular prism?”

Cleaned out under Noah’s queen size bed. Insane! Sammy called the space behind Noah’s bed the “book drop off center.” Apparently when Noah finishes looking at a book he deposits it behind the headboard. One of the last things we pulled out was my missing keys with a mail key. Yay! No more going to the post office for mail! We rediscovered a lot of toys that he’s excited about playing with today.

Nov 8, 2009

I’m looking forward to starting a new work schedule this week with my medical transcription. I’ll be extra busy Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday but then have Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday with no work at all. I think this is really going to help bring some more sanity into my life. Well, at least for 4/7 of the week!

Nov 7, 2009

The fall sports season is officially over now for all the kids. It’s been busy, but I think it’s been good for us to be busy and out and about and of course good exercise for the kids.

This is the weather Sammy played soccer in for about 20-25 minutes today. I guess they REALLY wanted to play since it was the last game of the season. Insane!! He was soaked to the skin and shivering all the way home. After a warm bath he’s feeling better though. (I stayed in the car. I’m not crazy!)

done

Nov 6, 2009

Watch out, kitchen, here I come! I’m going to crank the ipod and stick to it until it sparkles. (If I write it here I’m more accountable, right?)

Okay, so I didn’t get it to the level of sparkly perfection I envisioned, but I did make a significant impact and at one point (for about 2 minutes) all the dishes were caught up. Too many interruptions (oh the life of a mom!). I did stop to get the lawn mowed and edged, wanted to make sure I got that in before all the rain I see in the forecast.  I also got my garlic planted for next year. I grew garlic for the first time last year and it turned out so great! I also helped Josh make dinner and I got some laundry done, so all in all a very successful day! I need more days like this one.

Nov 4, 2009

I’m excited to be breaking out of the house tonight and going with Sue to see Lisa Hannigan in concert, one of my favorite singers! She’s opening for David Gray, who I don’t really know but will hopefully like. It’s a rare treat for me to do something like this. Should be fun!!

Oct 31, 2009

Today needs to be all about playing catch up on all the things I’m behind on: work, dishes, and laundry to top the list. Throw in the kids soccer and football games and, oh yeah, Halloween. I need a maid, chauffeur, personal assistant, etc. But what I’m really dreaming of is a massage!

Woo hoo! Sammy got his first goal ever in soccer today! He also had the assist for the winning goal. Wish I’d gotten some video to show Daddy. Exciting day!

I stumbled across this picture today. This was during the last time Scott was deployed back in 2003. I remember that morning. We drove to Grandma and Grandpa D’s house so Grandpa could give us a ride to the airport to fly to see the Missouri cousins for a visit. Grandpa thought the boys looked so cute he had to take a picture before we left. They were awfully cute, but definitely a handful!

Oct 29, 2009

Missing: Two sets of car keys, one library book, and one brain. Reward offered to anyone who can return all of these intact!

Oct 24, 2009

This is kind of yucky but pretty funny too. Noah is a little feverish (again!) so maybe Tony is trying to cool him down.

done

Oct 23, 2009

Sammy had a headache yesterday, but today convinced me he was fine and felt good. After choosing to go to bed at 7:30, though, and falling asleep right away I’m wondering if he’s our next victim of the flu, which will make all of us! That kid normally has to be dragged to bed and takes forever to fall asleep! I guess there are some advantages to sick kids.

Oct 21, 2009

I’m dealing with a sick little Noah again with a fever, just a little bit of coughing, and super sleepy. He keeps getting sick for a day, then better for a few days, then sick again, then better. I know lots of my Facebook friends have been dealing with illness. Anyone else getting this on again off again thing?

Oct 20, 2009

I’m getting ready to take the kiddos to the zoo. I wanted to go somewhere I could enjoy lots of fall leaves at their peak and they wanted to do something fun. Strangely they don’t think looking at trees is fun. Glad the weather is so gorgeous today!

Oops, guess I should have checked the schedule first! For some reason the zoo closed at 4. I would have figured they’d at least be open until sunset. Oh well. We had a great time in Washington Park walking some trails and playing on the awesome playground. It was beautiful and the kids had fun so it all worked out!

Oct 17, 2009

I’m making some banana bread. Noah was licking the spoon and said, “I’m good at tasting!” I’m glad we have a talented taster in the house!

My three older kids keep procrastinating bedtime with “One sec! Just a sec!” I can’t count the number of times as a mother I have almost blurted out, “No more secs!” Somehow I always manage to catch myself on that one though.

Oct 14, 2009

Gabe takes the PSAT today and has a cross country meet. I asked him if he had eaten breakfast and he said “I had three bowls of cereal and some leftover chicken and pasta.” Wow, yeah, I guess he’s covered!

Oct 13, 2009

One of those all too rare days where there is almost nothing I have to do. So even though there are tons of things I could or should do, it’s always hard to know what to do and I end up kind of wasting away the day. I need to come up with a plan so that doesn’t happen!

Oct 11, 2009

Today is Sammy’s birthday. Ten years of Sammy has been 10 years of laughter, fun, surprises, sweetness, enthusiasm, love, curiosity, and a fair share of drama, starting with his quick and dramatic entrance into the world 13 minutes after arriving at the hospital. I sure love that kid and can’t imagine our family without him!

Grandpa D came for a great visit this weekend. Hopefully we didn’t run him too ragged with our crazy schedule. He watched soccer, a cross country meet, football, and then we took a quick jaunt to the coast. And that was just Saturday! Sunday we had church, where he was able to ordain Josh as a deacon, and then… we celebrated Sammy’s birthday. Mike and Emily joined us. I didn’t take many pictures. Grandpa will have to send me his and then I can add more. We’re so happy he could come!

Noah wasn't appreciating the sun in his eyes, but he sure liked hanging out with Grandpa!

Grandpa D with Josh, newly ordained to the Priesthood. We're so happy Grandpa could come take part in this. It made the occasion really special for Josh.

Grandpa D with all my handsome boys!

Emily, Sammy, and Josh having fun on the trampoline.

Gabe teaching Uncle Mike a thing or two about solving a Rubik's Cube. Mike also brought us a webcam and set it up for us and we all had so much fun talking to family members on Skype. We had fun visits with Grandma D (who definitely needs to come next time!), Ivone and Jimi, and Grandma and Grandpa F. We're looking forward to Daddy getting set up to talk to us too. Thanks so much Uncle Mike!!!

Mmm, someone was enjoying the cake batter!

Grandpa and his buddies. Noah and Tony love hanging out with him!

Oct 9, 2009

Noah just told me “I need it to be dark.” I was confused and said, “You need it to be dark? Why? Do you want to go to bed?” And he said “No, I need it to be dark so Grandpa can come.” Such a cutie. We’re all looking forward to our visit from Grandpa D!

Oct 7, 2009

Okay, so I didn’t put this on Facebook, but I’ll throw it in here.  My sweet mom and a rewards card from my credit card helped me get in some professional cleaners before Grandpa came.  Here’s my shiny kitchen!

Oct 6, 2009

Dog at the groomer, kids at preschool, elementary school, middle school, and high school. I’m actually all alone with no other beings I’m responsible for! Time to kick it into high gear and get ready for the carpet cleaner to come. Looking forward to clean carpets! Happy day!

So that pretty much catches up with some of the goings on around here.  Getting sick along with everyone else in the house was a definite low point, but for the most part we’ve been managing pretty well while Daddy is gone.  We definitely look forward to his return in a couple of months though!  Things just aren’t the same without him around!

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Appreciating Autumn

Driving to and home from church a couple of weeks ago, I was struck by the beauty of autumn.  We really do have a beautiful drive to and from church.  Our church is being remodeled, so we have about a 20 minute drive to church, which I love.  It’s through mostly farmland and hills and it’s really lovely.  The vineyards are so pretty and in the fall all those leaves turn bright yellow and are just stunning, which I should try to get a picture of some time, but maybe I don’t need to because here is an excellent example from George Fox University’s Flickr page.

When Grandpa was here visiting and saw the location of the church, he thought it would be a perfect spot for a temple because it’s in such a nice setting, and I have to agree it would be perfect!  I sneaked out to the car during church to eat a little snack (3 hours is a long time to go without food!) and happened to have my camera in the car.  Here’s the view from my car window.  I think it’s such a peaceful place.

(That is also when I took the picture that is my current blog header.)  So anyway, driving home I decided the family needed to go on a fun outing to really enjoy the fall beauty while it lasted.  The following Tuesday seemed perfect.  We had no sports or piano or scouts or mutual or anything.  Gabe had a cross country meet on Wednesday, so he’d be getting out of his practice early on Tuesday and we could just leave right after school.  We decided on the zoo because the kids thought that would be fun and I figured it was surrounded by trees and would probably be really pretty too.  We also haven’t been to the zoo for awhile, so it seemed like a good idea.

It turned out the zoo closes early in the fall, boo hoo, so we missed out on that, but it is located in the beautiful Washington Park, so we decided instead to just go to the playground, which actually worked out better.  Gabe wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t have handled walking around the zoo.  In fact he just rested in the car the whole time.  It was relaxing just letting the kids play.  The leaves weren’t quite as spectacular as I had envisioned, but they were definitely pretty and it was just nice to be outdoors and doing something fun.  While Josh and Sammy were playing, Noah and I took a few short walks on the surrounding trails.  He is a fun hiking companion.  I need to take him on more outings like that.  Here he is standing next to what he decided was his favorite tree.  I liked that one too!

The playground was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed that, but mostly they wanted to play in the sand.

(More pictures were included in this post.)

And Josh had fun being a model.  Here are some of  the pictures I got of my cutie pie.

done

It was a really fun evening and I’m glad we got that break before whatever bug that was starting in on Gabe worked it’s way through the whole family!

Noah’s First Field Trip

Noah went on his first field trip on October 16, a trip to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class.  I worried he wouldn’t be able to go because it was on a Friday and Wednesday he was really sick, but Thursday morning he woke up all better, which gave us 24 hours of health so that I felt comfortable taking him.  I’m so glad we could go.  I had a great time with my cutie!

It wasn’t just Noah’s health that cooperated.  The weather cooperated too!  It was raining all the way there, but it cleared as we were arriving and the day continued to get more and more sunny and beautiful.

I had a whole narration going through this, but I just decided the pictures tell the story all by themselves and the words just seem to get in the way.  I may have gone a little overboard on the pictures, but it’s probably more interesting than when I go overboard on words!  So just scroll through slowly and you can make up your own narration as you go.

How Did This Happen?

How did my Noah get from this active, rambunctious, happy guy . . .

to this tired, feverish, sick little guy. . .

in less than 24 hours?

I guess that just happens, huh?  What’s weird is that he was just like this last week.

And then got all better and was running around at his preschool pumpkin patch field trip a couple of days later!  I’ll do a post all about that fun day soon (I hope), but for now I’d better take advantage of his sleepiness and get some work done.  Hopefully this bug will go away soon and stay away this time!

P.S.  The boy seriously needs a haircut and I keep meaning to take him in, but between being sick and busy it just hasn’t happened yet!