The Best Sister EVER!

Yes, I am.  I know it.  The lady at Red Robin told me.  So did the lady at Nordstrom.  According to the woman at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, I will win no parenting awards, but I do think I'm a pretty good sister.

We just returned from an epic road trip.  The voyage took me and my family from Columbus, Ohio to Aurora, Colorado.  Add seven kids, a husband, two little brothers and a sister-in-law and you have an adventure.

Now that Greg is finally a grown-up and has to get a real job, he and his wife and two daughters decided to move to Denver.  It's closer to home, but it has a Major League Baseball team.  Even if he doesn't like the logo, the colors or the players, it will be better, right?

I am putting this picture in for my friend Sara.  Now that she has eight kids (oh my heck) she drives one of these all the time.  After 24 hours of driving this behemoth, I have to say "props to Sara" because it's not as easy as it looks.  Maybe it's easier if your van is blue.

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These were our kids in the awesome van.  Mostly enjoying the fact that they got their own row.  My nieces were also along for the ride in this video.

Anyway, last weekend, we flew to Ohio to help pack up their life and move it to Colorado.  Now, it needs to be said that I refuse to let my light hide under a bushel.  Actually, it's Matt's light.  I refuse to let his light hide under a bushel.  He is really great at packing and loading things.  I actually attribute it to a family of eight in an Ford LTD station wagon and scout camp, but whatever the motivation, this man can make anything fit anywhere, and if he says it can't be done, it can't.  Trust me.  So, understandably, his skills create a bit of demand when folks move.  Yay Matt!

After a very, VERY long day, some pizza, some Pepsi and Panda Express, the truck was loaded and ready to go Tuesday morning.  Greg and Sarah had closed on the sale of their house and said their goodbyes.  We took pictures and had a moment, and then we were off.

On Tuesday, we needed to make it from Ohio to St. Louis, MO.  That meant we were traveling through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and part of Missouri.  So much fun.

Here's the thing that I believe about road trips.  It's all about the stops.  It's amazing the different things you can find on the road (Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum, anyone?)  So, besides the potty breaks that seem to get yelled for every 50 miles, we made a couple of cool stops along the way.  The first one, made on a whim (and a need to pee) was Boot City in Terra Haute, Indiana.  The hometown of Larry Bird.  It was pretty cool.

I have been in the market for a pair of boots, since, well forever, and I finally got them.  They're really cool and they are comfy and look pretty awesome.  I will be wearing them a lot, and feeling pretty dang cool while doing so.  You had better watch out!

Needless to say, our detour to Boot City delayed our arrival into St. Louis a bit, but don't dismay.  We arrived in time to visit one of our favorite dining establishments.... the St. Louis Hard Rock Cafe.

Such a nice area to stop at.  Would love to go back.

I love the fact that Greg is trying to explain the wonder of ZZ Top to Allie.  

Clearly, she is not getting it.

These kids are so much fun!

Wednesday morning, bright and early, Matt and I headed out for a walk.  It was beautiful weather and we walked nearly four miles.  When we got back to the hotel, we showered and packed up everything and everybody and headed to the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis.  

I had seen this before (when I was little) but it was so cool to be able to take my kids.  And for them to be able to learn about Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion.  Matt took the kids on a tour inside the arch (Will and I stayed behind and ate cheese curds and bought books.)

After the arch, we stopped at White Castle, a midwestern landmark for lunch.  It was awful!  According to my friend Travis, people will eat anything when they're drunk or stoned and White Castle proves it.

We left St. Louis and headed toward Kansas City.  Along the way, we stopped at Nostalgiaville, USA.

We also stopped for a tour of Liberty Jail.  Just outside of Independence, MO, this is the site where Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church was imprisoned and spent five months awaiting trial on trumped up charges.  While he was there, he received three sections of the Doctrine and Covenants.  We were able to see the cell where he was held and it was so cool.  I was so touched by the Spirit and the things I learned.  I was so impressed by the revelation of D&C 121 and the wisdom it gives us.

1 O God, ^awhere art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy ^bhiding place?

 2 ^aHow long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?

 3 Yea, O Lord, ^ahow long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful ^boppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with ^ccompassion toward them?

 4 O Lord God ^aAlmighty, maker of ^bheaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are, and who controllest and subjectest the devil, and the dark and benighted dominion of Sheol—stretch forth thy hand; let thine eye pierce; let thy ^cpavilion be taken up; let thy ^dhiding place no longer be covered; let thine ear be inclined; let thine ^eheart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us.

7 My son, ^apeace be unto thy soul; thine ^badversity and thine afflictions shall be but a ^csmall moment;

 8 And then, if thou ^aendure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy ^bfoes.

 9 Thy ^afriends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.

 34 Behold, there are many ^acalled, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?

 35 Because their ^ahearts are set so much upon the things of this^bworld, and ^caspire to the ^dhonors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson—

 36 That the ^arights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be ^bcontrolled nor handled only upon the ^cprinciples of righteousness.

And D&C Section 122:

6 If thou art ^aaccused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to ^bprison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like ^cwolves for the blood of the lamb;

 7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the ^apit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the ^bdeep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to ^chedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of ^dhell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee ^eexperience, and shall be for thy good.

 8 The ^aSon of Man hath ^bdescended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

Sorry to inundate you with scripture, but this was so moving to me.  These men were being held prisoner, away from their families, for their beliefs and they were in despair.  The Lord blessed them with knowledge and comfort and I am so grateful that he does the same for me today.

After we left Liberty Jail, it was on to a night at the ballgame.  Greg was able to check another stadium off his list and see the Kansas City Royals play the Minnesota Twins.  The game was good, the hot dogs were great and the company was the best.

Jack and the piggy.

Much to the dismay of every mother and grandmother nearby, 

Will LOVED crawling up and down the stairs at the stadium.

Back to the hotel for a good sleep before our last full day of driving.

The next morning, we were up bright and early to head to the Harry Truman Presidential Library and Museum.  The girls and I actually went on a tour and I was very impressed.  Anyone who is nearby should definitely check it out.

The girls thought they saw a resemblance between me and Bess Truman.  Whaddya think?

The girls had a great time posing with this statue of President Truman.

This was a great opportunity to teach our kids about some of the hard decisions that had to be made in the history of our nation.  Great museum!

Lunch at Noodles & Company with our kids.

You can see that Will really liked his lunch.

Finally, we were off on our final leg of the journey... through Kansas (the Eisenhower tour sucked, just FYI) and into Colorado.  It was a late night of driving.  We went through some horrible weather.... rain, hail and tornadoes, but we made it!

While life was being unpacked at Greg and Sarah's new apartment, I took the kids (all seven of them) to lunch at Red Robin and shopping at the mall.  We hit the American Girl Store for the girls and the Disney Store for the boys.  This is a picture with thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the souvenirs.

We finished the trip with a Rockies game (versus the Angels) and Madagascar 3.  Before we headed to the airport, the fam and I ate lunch at Red Lobster and the kids tried crab for the first time; and LOVED it.

I am so glad to have these opportunities to hang out with my husband and my kids and to see the awesome things in our great nation.  Road trips are awesome for teaching love and patience and although we are not perfect, we love each other and we had a blast.  Can't wait for the next one!

All Is Well

This last month has been a mixed bag when it comes to my diet/lifestyle change.  I wish I could say that I lost phenomenal amounts of weight and inches, but I didn't.  However, I can say that I have really upped my physical activity so this has got to be one of the times that I just have faith and know that it'll all be worth it in the end.

I found myself, mid-May, trying to decide what it was going to take to get myself motivated to take it to the next level.  My new motivation came in the form of an old classic:  the mix tape (or rather the digital equivalent of a playlist on iTunes.)

This is one of those things that seems like it will be easy, but making a soundtrack for the active life you want to have presents some challenges.  Does it have a good beat?  Is it uplifting? Is it inspiring?  Does it make you feel old? Yes, sometimes, sometimes and YES!

As I have been walking around the streets of Centerville, bobbing my head and timing my steps, I have come to the conclusion that I'm not as young as I once was, or still think I am for that matter.  My playlist is eclectic, to say the least, but as I march along, I find myself feeling like a first class poser!  I am listening to music my kids listen to and I'm not sure how I feel about that.  Are they old enough to listen to songs with the occasional swear and a kick-butt message?  Am I too old to be jamming out to "Call Me Maybe."  Sadly, they are getting older and so am I, which means that yes, Carly Rae Jeppsen should probably not be on my playlist.

A few thoughts about my playlist, aptly titled Walk This Way.

• I really like Kelly Clarkson.  There, I said it.  I'm not an American Idol fan, but I think her songs are pretty empowering. 
• Katy Perry is a skank; but she does put out a few awesome ditties.  The first time I heard California Gurls last year I was appalled, but since it has become one of my workout songs, I find myself singing along.  Oh, and I downloaded the Snoop Dog version; so double my street cred on that one.
• Dixie Chicks are awesome!  Always have been, always will be.
• Oldies but goodies.... I am listening to Depeche Mode more now that I ever did when I was younger.  The B-52's make me feel carefree and Smells Like Teen Spirit takes me back to my junior year of high school, sitting in the passenger side of a 1976 Dodge Dart.
• The Killers, Maroon 5, Train, Coldplay.... good tunes indeed.

I am always in the market, as it were, for new tunes to listen to.  What do you like?  What gets your heart pumping and makes you feel like you can conquer the world?  I would appreciate input.

One thing that I have really begun to enjoy about my morning walks is the opportunity for reflection.  I know that this is something that most folks enjoy, but it has just recently started to come to me.  Up until now, honest to goodness, my best moments of inspiration have come in the shower.  Well, that is changing.  I find myself with a clearer head, a sharper mind and a better attitude after my walk.  I've even had an epiphany or two.

As I'm trudging along, I often think about my pioneer ancestors.  My visit to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis last week and the discussion of westward expansion, coupled with summer has caused me to reflect.  I have always joked that I would be the one who was left to die on the side of the trail.  And I was okay with my fate, for the most part.  In walking yesterday, I think I discovered the root of this attitude.  I was taken back to being 13 years old, and even though I was not old enough to attend, my stake was preparing for their first ever Pioneer Trek.  For those of you unfamiliar with this experience, youth in our church between the ages of 12-18 (or 14-18 in this instance) assume the role of pioneers and have a fairly authentic experience.  You load all of your belongings into a handcart and dressed in period clothing trudge through sage brush with 12 or so other folks; your Ma and Pa and your brothers and sisters.  You hike all day, you sleep under the stars at night, and depending on your leaders, you may even have to kill your dinner.

Okay, enough background.  So here I am, at 13, on a Saturday morning with all of the other youth in my stake embarking on a qualifying walk.... you had to be able to walk four miles in an hour to go.  Now, if I couldn't go, why was I doing it, you ask?  Well, because my friends were.  So, off we went on our walk.  And it was hard!  I didn't think it would be that hard; but it was.  Needless to say, I didn't finish in an hour; I think it was more like an hour and ten minutes.  Close, but no cigar.  

Now, as an adult and a leader, I can understand why they would put the kids through this exercise.  As youth, we needed to understand the physical demands that would be made of us on the trail.  The stake wanted no liability when it came to injury.  But the more I think about it, the more I'm bugged by this and the underlying message I took from this experience.

The message I received was, "if I can't do it, I'm not good enough."  Which translates down the road to justification; "it can't be that important if I can't do it."

At 13, I was just starting to struggle with my weight.  I found my adult body early in life and had a hard time coming to grips with it.  Don't misunderstand me, I was not fat; but I wasn't in good physical shape. I was a smart girl who did well in most things I attempted and even enjoyed sports and PE at that point.  However, I think this experience marked a change for me.  If I couldn't be successful at running the mile, or doing the dance, or whatever else (you fill in the blank) then I wasn't going to make an attempt.  And that is pretty much how I've lived my life.

Like any handicap, I've learned to work around the things I do not do well, and have tried to draw others attention to the things I do well.  I have been pretty successful at it, too.  There have been times, more often since I have had kids, that I find myself exposed and vulnerable to all of my many shortcomings.  This whole experience of losing weight and becoming more active has actually clarified a lot of things for me.

Matt has been telling me this for years, but I need to learn to not be afraid to fail.  I think I am beginning to understand that I lose more by not trying than I gain by trying to keep up appearances.  I won't say that I'm to the point that I love exercising yet, but I will say that I notice my day goes better and my mood is brighter if I do it.

I have also come to the conclusion that unlike that qualifying race when I was 13, this journey I'm on is not a competition.  The only person I'm out to best is myself.  Every day when I go walking, I try to quicken my pace.  I try to get my heart rate in the zone and I try to go farther than I did the day before.  I need to stop comparing myself to others.  I am unique.  The good Lord broke the mold after I was born.  I have many great examples around me now; a fact I am so grateful for.  I have friends that are concerned about me and that inspire me to want to be better; even if it means taking a risk at looking less than competent.  They are cheering for me and their encouragement means more than they'll ever know.

Returning again to my pioneer analogy I have changed my opinion.  I don't know that I would have died on the trail.  There was no qualification that you be young and fit to come to Zion.  Quite the contrary.... pioneers were old and young, lame and weak, and most definitely, many were not up to the challenge.  They were motivated by the promise of something greater at the end of the trail.  Sacrifices made by my ancestors were many and included temporal, spiritual and physical.  I am so grateful for their examples and because of them, I now realize that I can do hard things.  I may not have been the first one to the Valley and it may have been November when I got here, but I believe I would have made it.  Just like I have friends who help me today, I would have had friends and family to help me on my way.

This trek that I'm on now does not require that I am the fastest, or the fittest, but just that I try my best, every single day.  For the first time, I am beginning to understand the importance of this and the impact it can have on my life.  I am grateful to know, that while on this journey, "all is well."

Keeping Me In Stitches

So this post is mostly going to be pictures.  I just wanted to take the opportunity to document the quilts that I have been making over the last few months.

Now, I do not pretend to be a great seamstress or a great quilter, but I find that it is something that when I have time for it, provides me with a great deal of satisfaction.

I am a blanket person... always have been.  There's something about the feel of certain fabrics on my face as I head to Sleepy Town that makes me happy.

Here you go.....

This is Jack's Superman quilt that I made him for Christmas.  

He got a new bunk bed from Santa and needed a new bedspread.  So much fun.

This is Matt's Railroad quilt that I made him for Christmas.  This boy spends a lot of late nights playing video games in our chilly basement and so I thought I'd help him stay warm.

This is the quilt I made for myself.  I loved the pattern and the colors and I figured that it would be nice to have a new blanket of my own while I recovered from my surgery.

This was a quilt I found on Pinterest.  It's made from bandanas.  Allie and I put this quilt together for a classmate of hers.  Her friend Brock's father passed away unexpectedly and we thought this would be a great way for her class to show their support.  We sewed it, they signed it, and then we gave it to Brock.

The latest quilt; the one I made for Erin for her 12th birthday.  She is also a blanket kid... she loves to hang out in her pajamas and snuggle on the couch.  This blanket, although simple in design, is something that I hope she reflects on throughout her life.... a tangible symbol of the lessons she learns and the values she possesses.  Each of these colored squares represents one of the Young Women values.... attributes that I hope will help guide her life.

White - Faith

Blue - Divine Nature

Red - Individual Worth

Green - Knowledge

Orange - Choice and Accountability

Yellow - Good Works

Purple - Integrity

Gold - Virtue

The black was there as a filler, because this was a pattern I designed myself and obviously, I didn't do it very well :) 

Well, I have fabric for three more quilts in my basement that is just calling to me.  I am hoping now that school is winding down for the year, that I will find myself with a little more time to sew.

Gone To The Dogs

This is Pax.  He's our new puppy.  We got him at the PetsMart Super Adoption for Erin's birthday.  He's a lab mix.... about five months old... who knows what he's mixed with and how big he'll actually get, but he's a great dog.

He came from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab.  It was so fun to pick him out and bring him home.

Erin named him Pax because he is very peaceful, and according to her, Pax is French for peaceful.

He fits in very well with our family; even Annie likes him, which is kind of amazing.   Pax is great with the baby and he's a smart dog.  Erin has been taking him to puppy training classes and is teaching him all sorts of great things.

So far, digging in the sandbox with Will is one of his favorite things to do.

I know what you're thinking.... isn't your life crazy enough already?  The kids, the chickens, the husband??? Well yes, but sometimes when you're on the crazy train, having more along for the ride doubles the fun.

There's Nothing Wrong With Ohio....

Except it's far away.  Which means that my little brother Greg, his awesome wife Sarah and his two little munchkins Lizzie and Abbey have been away for far too long.

Greg has been going to Law School; at THE Ohio State University.  Apparently the THE at the first part of the name is really important.  Anyway, over the last three years, we have all become honorary Buckeyes and have loved this little part of Ohio.  Amazingly, I had hardly been to Ohio three years ago, but have spent a part of each of the last three summers there.  It is beautiful and we've made some really fun memories there as a family.  We're getting ready to go one last time, to pack up Greg and his family and move them to Colorado.... still not home, but much, much closer.

Over the first weekend in May, I was lucky enough to travel with my parents, my Aunt Suzy and my other brother Ben to attend Greg's graduation.  Although I am not of fan of graduation ceremonies per se, I will wholeheartedly admit to being thrilled by the accomplishment of graduation.  How awesome is Greg?  More importantly, how awesome is Sarah?  These folks have been going to school their entire married life and they are FINALLY getting ready to start reaping the rewards.

Our weekend in Ohio was filled with good food and some great fun.  We got a tour of the Ohio Union complete with custom Buckeye carpet and upholstered chairs and got to pose with Brutus.

The guy who won this Heisman is an Ohio State alum and the guy who 

presented Greg with his class ring he is modeling in the photo.  

I watched my niece Lizzie graduate from preschool and listened to her and her cute friends sing songs.

I even met Superman... or at least saw his socks that my brother Greg had stolen.

At the end of the trip, Greg sold his house and we were on our way back to Utah for the next big event.... Cassie & Kyle's wedding.  Here as a closing shot, is a video of my niece Lizzie belting out Katy Perry in the Atlanta airport.  This was shortly after she finished LMFAO.