Temple trip

There's nothing like having friends good enough that you can make a temple trip happen overnight. Well, for us, at least. 3 1/2 hours isn't THAT far, but we have not been to the temple in over a year! Trav took leave on a Monday and Tuesday twice in a row and that gave us a couple of long weekends. Unfortunately those are awkward weekends broken up by soccer and baseball and Sunday and school. But it was oh so nice. We had hoped to make a temple trip during that sometime, but it wasn't working out, and they are closed Mondays. But here I was walking with my friend Rebecca on Monday morning, and I mentioned we had hoped to go but wouldn't and she just asked why we couldn't go on Tuesday. She let all of our kids sleep at her house so that Trav and I could leave at 6a.m. the next morning (we had to get back by 6pm because I had to be at the church helping), and she got Noah and Kaden off to school, and took care of everyone all day for us. And she acted like we were doing her a favor. That was her "temple service". I love wonderful friends--they make me want to be better. As Trav and I dropped the kids off Monday night and put them to bed, we left and suddenly realized we didn't HAVE to go right home, so we grabbed the moment and went to a movie. It would have been better if I wasn't still trying to get over what must have been a migraine from the day before, but you have to grab the moments when you can!

Anyway, we got up early, drove to the temple, did a session, had lunch and drove back, and that was our day. I am so glad we were able to go!

Angel

I love angelic sleeping children.....

The story of my life

Trav was tdy for a week and this is the emergency he came home to last week. My kids are sneaky....they know if they start comb my hair and play with it near the end of a book, there is a good chance I will read longer and delay their bedtime a little. It's true--hey and don't we all need a little pampering, especially when our husbands are not their to pamper us? Anyway, Kaden was combing my hair and Ammon decided to use a lion, and I let him. It was a while before I suspected he was having trouble and I offered to help get it out. But this thing was really stuck. Luckily Trav was pretty much on his way home from the airport, so I just waited for him to help me.

Beautiful Giant Moths

We went to the baseball diamonds last week to try to teach Noah how to slide. We get easily sidetracked, but this moth was the highlight of everyone's week.

It was the biggest moth/butterfly I think I have ever seen!

Just because

Micah is suddenly noticing all of the sweet babies around us and is in love with them all. I think it the cutest thing in the world.Here's Noah with his Egypt project that we ended up throwing together at the last minute. It was supposed to be Travis that helped him but we all forgot and he was out of town for a couple of days and suddenly we remembered it was due the next day! He got to stay up late that night and got 100%. Phew!

Remembering my Mission

Sunday night, there was a missionary fireside at our Bishop's house. Every month or two, he invites a returned missionary to his house to do a fireside and tell the youth in the ward about their mission. I was so nervous! This is a big deal--he is hoping you will inspire the youth to serve missions somehow communicate what a great thing it is. And I have such a hard time expressing myself and all of these strong feelings I have inside. They are there, and they are powerful but I stutter and my mind goes blank and my speech is so inadequate for it all. Anyway, in preparation for this night, this week I got out all of my mission journals and scrapbook and lived the journey all over again from the months before getting my call until coming home from my mission. Oh how glad I am to have kept a journal! All of the things I had forgotten! It has been like reading the best book ever. I made some blinchiki (Russian pancakes) and honeycake and Bishop Sitton and his wife Jennifer made some other refreshments. There were a ton of youth and leaders there, and it was really fun! I probably shared more than they ever wanted to know and it was just the tip of the iceberg. I had no problems filling the 45 + minutes that I was given.


A friend watched Micah and Ammon, while we brought Noah and Kaden with us. Noah played the opening and closing songs--and after the fireside, he came up to me and said "Mom, why in the world have you not told me all of those things you told everyone!? I never knew any of those things!" and Later "Mom, I never knew you could make such good Russian food!".....(I resisted the urge to add wheat flour and substite ingredients, but I didn't fry the pancakes the way my trainer taught me!).

So I got caught up reading more in my journal. I used to be so much better at writing things down! Now there is always so much I want to write but never seem to find the time. When I do write it, it's just summing things up and not really writing about them. But reading through those few years has given me such insight into who I am, and helped me to see the blessings and guidance I received when I didn't even realize it. It's been so amazing and baffling and I am so grateful I have those journals. I have felt all day these overwhelming feelings of gratitude for where I am today, and especially for a wonderful husband who is so perfectly matched to me. I don't like to even think it, but what if our paths hadn't crossed? I just can't imagine.

Well, I wanted to copy and paste some of my notes from my mission, the short summary that I wrote as I tried to think what parts to share with the youth. But it won't copy and paste, and I don't have time to type it out. Let's just say what a unique time of life and what a growing and amazing experience a mission is. Full of ups and downs, and constantly challenging you and showing you your weaknesses, and all the while experiencing such amazing joy and awesome experiences.

10K--take 2

Yesterday Trav and I ran our second 10K. After the first one, it was so great and fun and felt so good that I was pumped to do it more and better and faster, etc. Well, I have to say this one was not as fun for me! I woke up feeling yucky, got a side ache jogging with Trav to the start line, and it was not a run day for me. If I didn't have Trav with me I would have starting walking after 3 miles, but there he was a step in front of me and pushing me faster. He swears that he thought we were going a slower pace than we did on our first 10K, but it was killing me. I kept asking him if he knew how far we had gone, and where was the next marker. They were big and neon yellow but somehow I kept missing them! Maybe it was my vision was blurred and I was concentrating too hard on the ground in front of me. At one point, I told Trav dramatically "Please honey, just go ahead without me!" He said no thanks, he was fine, and we somehow made it through. The last quarter of a mile I even was able to kick it up and sprint past the group in front of us. And then promptly wanted to pass out on the grass. And as I saw the timer, it all felt a little more worth it, because it was more than 4 minutes faster than our time last time! 48:13. And I was second in my age group and 9th out of 166 women. So then it was fun again. Until we got home and I felt nauseated and like I still wanted to pass out for the next 6 hours. I really don't think it was the run that did it, though. Usually after running I feel tired but really awesome at the same time. Not so yesterday. I only felt awful. Surely I had some bug or started out way too dehydrated or something. Hmmm. --And now I am adding to this post and I have been nauseated and lightheaded for 3 days. Too bad to can't choose your race days. At least Trav had fun, he says he felt pretty good =).