David is married!

We are so excited! My little brother is now married to the cutest girl and she is now the newest member of our family. I just had a thought....My mom has always told us that when one of us gets married, she does not loose a child but gains another. Well, I now have all my sisters here. 10 girls! Cool! Welcome Kimberly! We love you and can't wait to get to know you better.

My brother David and his new bride Kimberly:

David and Kimberly were married Tuesday morning in the Rexburg, ID temple.

All of my siblings and their spouses and children were all able to attend except my little sister Kami who is currently in the Philippines serving a mission for our church. We missed you Kami! It was so awesome to be sitting in the sealing room surrounded by all our loved ones and then to realize that most of the people in that room were my own siblings and their spouses. I remember looking around the sealing room at my own wedding many years ago and, though the room was filled with loved ones, I remember experiencing a feeling of loneliness, or maybe empyiness is a better word. Nine of my most favorite people, whom I had spent my entire life with were missing. At that moment, I began dreaming of the day when all of my brothers and sisters, along with our amazing parents, would all be there together....NO EMPTY CHAIRS! What's ironic to me, was that when the doors closed and the ceremony started, there were still 2 empty chairs in the room. We are getting closer...only two more weddings to go. Kami and Chanae, we are still waiting for you!

After one of my siblings weddings, I was talking with my sister Kami. She told me that the hardest part of weddings for her has been that she is one of the youngest in the family and, each time there is a wedding, she has had to wait outside the temple and watch as everyone else gets to go inside. That has helped instill in her a strong desire to always live worthy so she would not have to be left outside of the temple for any other reason than age. I have thought about this conversation many times and the powerful lesson she showed me that day. Seriously, look at this crowd. They are 40+ of the most amazing people I know and I get to have the honor of calling them "My Family"! When I look at the eternal picture of this life and the things that really really matter in the end, I want to be with them. ALL of them. For Forever! But it's all up to me....There's no way I'm missing out on this party!


I love seeing a bride, dressed in her pure white dress, along side her handsome suited groom on immacutely landscaped grounds with the Temple of the Lord in the background. There is something so reverent and beautiful in the knowledge that the union, that was just created inside those walls, between those two beings, is bound by God, for Eternity, according to their faithfulness.


It's a small glimpse into the awesomeness of God's eternal plan and the happiness that can be ours if we remain faithful to the end.

A Busy Time of Year!

I just finished....

Have you read it? What did you think?

This week has been busy!

I have spent way too much time driving this....

while we drive, we have been listening to this.....what a great story!

My grandma is having a family reunion next weekend and my sister took over the family directory. Between the two of us we typed like crazy, made a ton of phone calls, and sent several email notes trying to be as acurate as possible. It's done, and off to the printers. I can't wait for my own published copy.

My baby brother is getting married in 12 days, and there is lots to do to get ready. I'm sewing some of the dresses. This is where I go when my mind needs to tune out the world!



Apricots are falling on the ground around here and how do you walk away, and just let them waste? We're making freezer jam! YUMMY!

I just canned my strawberries that thawed in my freezer a couple of weeks ago. They didn't really turn out as I had hoped.....but now I have lots of strawberry syrup. We had some over pancakes and it was delicious! I love strawberries!

I just got a phone call that beans are ready so my plans for the weekend have changed and I'm off to sit in a hot field picking beans the rest of the day. At least I now know exactly what I will be doing the rest of the week! There's nothing better than home canned beans though!

Between canning, weddings, family reunions, and more harvesting, the days are just not long enough anymore. Then it's Back-to-School, more harvesting and canning, and then winter is here!

Where did the summer just go?
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????

Speaking in Code

About 6 months ago, I threw a little fit about my need to have working machines so that doing laundry wouldn't make me crazy every day. So Ken spoiled me and bought me new machines. I love them. They are so quiet and pretty and they do a great job.

One of the cool things about them is they talk to me. I'm slowly understanding their language without looking in the little owners manual. For example, when the dryer flashes AF I've figured out that means Air Flow and I check the vent thingy or the hose and then turn off that code. Another code is UL. This means the load in the washer is unbalanced. A little manuvering of clothes and it's happy again and we're back in business. Pretty much we get along really well.

Well, yesterday the code F came on my washer and it locked me out and I couldn't get it to work and it wouldn't open the door so I could take the clothes out and it was really frustrating. I babied it and eventually it let me try to spin the water out of the clothes again and then it did it again. It flashed the F and locked me out again. I got up in the middle of the night with Henry and it was flashing agian. I worked with it again with the same results and finally went to bed baffled.

This morning I noticed water on the floor under the washer and I finally got the hint that this was serious. I got out the owners book and looked up the codes. I was so pleased when I realized how smart I am. I was right on for the other codes. YES!

But what in the world could the F stand for?

This is what the book says: F "F##" Call for service.

Excuse me, did my machine just cuss at me?


3 hours and $$$$ later, this was what the repair man handed me:

A mangled pair of shorts that had gotten over the top of the first tub and into the second tub (no clue how that happened, I didn't even know there was a second tub) and it had jammed everything up.

So, now it's business as usual and I'm feeling a little smarter(?) because now I understand the F code.

Busy Skies!

For a couple of days last week, the skies above our house were busy. We loved it! We stood outside and screamed and waved and dreamed and felt awe and inspired and so much gratitude for our country and the amazing men who choose to serve and protect our rights and freedoms.

On Friday afternoon we got to go out to the airport with Ken's work to watch one of the practices. It was hot! miserable! and AWESOME! The other 3 days we watched it from our backyard where it was much cooler! less stressful! and still AWESOME!

Some people watched it like this...

Very few were lucky enough to watch it like this....

Most of us were on the hard, rocky, very hot, no shade ground!

Shades and good friends were a must!

This is the corner of my house. I wanted proof of how close they really were flying and of what kind of show we really got to have all week long.

Wordless Wednesday

Simple Request

Holly posted this a while back and I'm a little slow but I have decided that she is onto something brilliant here so I'm borrowing her request. Thanks Holly!

Please go into your blogger profile and next to the words, "Show my email address" click the little box. If that email address is one that you don't want made public, then create a different address in yahoo or hotmail or whatever. Once you do this, people can respond to comments you make or easily answer your questions. It's really very easy. And, who knows, you may even make some new friends.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

If you'll do this, then when I read your comments in my mailbox and I really want to comment back to you, I can just hit reply and then we can chat without the blog. I'm not so great at commenting in my comments back to you but I can definitely hit the reply button and chat back to you that way. Let's try it!

Justyn's Arrow of Light

Tonight Justyn recieved his Arrow of Light. His leaders put together a really nice program to honor him and present him with his award. Ken had to work security at the temple tonight so I took the kids over. Since the mom's always end up right next to the boys when they recieve an advancement in Cub scouts, Zach was left to run the camera. Here's his version of what took place.

This old Indian Chief asked Justyn a lot of questions about what he did to earn his Arrow of Light. His leader, who was standing right next to me on stage, proudly announced that Justyn had earned every pin possible for the Webelos scout age. The Indian Chief then began to quiz Jusytn. What did he do for Readyman? Justyn just stood there. What did he do for Fitness? No answer. What did he do for Outdoorsman? Silence. Did he go on a campout? YES!! Did he have fun? YES!!! Did he play any tricks on other scouters? YES!!!! (Nervous laughter from his other leaders in the audience. They are the ones who camped with him and taught him how to play tricks on the other boys.)

Then we sat down to listen to some old Indian stories about climbing hard mountains and rising to the top. I think Justyn enjoyed the stories.

Then he was awarded his Arrow of Light, the highest achievement in Cub Scouts. He had to pin the Mother's Pin on me. He quietly asked if he could pin it on my sleeve. I love that Mom's are honored at these types of things but it is really awkward for the boys to stumble over trying to work those tiny pins and get them on their mom's shirt without much of a scene. My sleeve worked out well.

Then they had him cross the bridge from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

Here's his new and super fun Boy Scout leader waiting to welcome him.

He received a new book, a neckerchief and a slide. NICE!

While all this really cool stuff was going on, Zach decided the most important thing to photograph was me, smiling proudly in the background. Do you like my vampire eyes?

Then I had to walk across the bridge and promise to continue to help and support my son and his leaders. I thought my job was done once they finished the Cub program. I was happy with the thought of sitting back and watching his new leaders earn the rest of his awards.

Then they presented Justyn in his new uniform in front of the Tenderfoot emblem. Zach got the emblem but apparently forgot that Justyn was standing right there and missed this picture perfect moment.

This is a re stage after it was all over. Do you think the sandals are Boy Scout uniform approved? He's pretty cute!

And another re stage. This man's name is John Gordon and he did a great job on this presentation.

Congratulations Justyn!