On the upside…

 

Did I tell you that my first daughter has now graduated high school?!

Isn’t she beautiful?  We actually had to fake her picture because she was too sick to go to actually walk.  Wanna know what the funny thing is?  I couldn’t walk either!!  I had the chicken pox thanks to my little sister!!  I was hoping I would be able to because I only had one chicken pox the day before, but on graduation day I had OVER 100 of them on my face alone!!  I had to get my friend to sell my grad night tickets to Disneyland and not show my face at the graduation.  I remember crying and saying that my face was going to be ugly forever!! (Too funny to remember it now!  I really thought I would have pox marks forever! LOL!)

I love this picture of her.  My sister took some pics of Beth and her daughter Meghann one day in CA.  Here’s a couple more.  I love these pictures, they look SO beautiful…

Here’s one with my Mom and the girls…

I’m so happy for her!  Actually, I’m really proud of her.  She had some trials and she overcame them and graduated.  She worked really hard for it and she is really excited.  I think she wants to become a cosmetologist.  Did I tell you that I started school for Cosmetology before I had the twins.  Probably not.  I got pregnant during the first 8 weeks or so and I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish because I was always REALLY sick during my pregnancies.  So I quit, and then at week 14 was put on bed rest anyway.  I would love to go to back to school for it, but I don’t want to go to work and do this as a profession.  I just want to have the knowledge for my family and friends.  I enjoy doing it.  I think I’ll make Beth teach me everything she knows.  LOL!!

Oh, I’m also going to be going back to school this fall.  I know, don’t fall out of your chair or anything…

I’m going to be a nurse someday.  With a minor in Spanish.  I love Spanish.  The nursing career won’t be so bad.  I only want to work for about 10 years.  I want to work and put all the money in a bank account for our retirement.  I’m going to go to school part time while Brynleigh  is still home and full time while she’s in school with the rest of the kids.  It should take only about 6 years.  Not much…just a trifle…Hee, Hee!!

So what do you think?  I’m actually terrified to go back to school.  I haven’t been in 20 years.  But I really feel like I should follow what my Patriarchal Blessing said and get my education. Especially since it says it MORE than once.

It’s been a long couple of weeks….

 

This past couple of weeks have been kind of hard for our family.  A dear friends daughter was killed in an automobile accident on June 9th.  She and a couple of other girls were on their way to girls camp.  The Young Women’s President was driving when  tire blew and in the process of pulling over they were hit by another car which prompted the car to roll.  Two of the girls died and the other one I believe was in critical condition along with the  Young Women’s President. (Who has 8 children at home).

This tragedy was compounded by the knowledge that they had already lost their father.  While they lived in our ward boundaries their father passed away and shortly thereafter they moved.  My son was close to their son and we’ve kind of kept in touch through them.  Not really doing anything with them, but knowing how things were going etc…

I have felt so guilty since the funeral.  I didn’t go to it.  I should have.  I feel like the most horrible person in the world.  I just cry every time I think about it.  I should’ve supported her and been there for her and I failed.  Kelvin took Wade and Beth to it and she asked where I was.  Wade said I was sick.  Which I wasn’t and I didn’t ask him to say that, so I feel even guiltier.  I’m not quite sure why I didn’t go.  I feel so bad that she’s had so much tragedy in her family.  And my family has been so blessed.  I still have my husband and my daughters.  I know I would’ve lost it right there.  I didn’t know what to say.  Does saying  I’m sorry really cover it?  No.  I failed there.  I should’ve been there…  I wish I could have it to do over again, but at least I know I’ll never do it again.

Here’s the second thing that was rather horrible too. 

My nephew died on the 14th.  Benjamin was a beautiful young man.  He was born with Cystic Fibrosis.  He struggled to breathe EVERY day of his life.  But he was SO GOOD.  They never thought he would be able to serve a mission or go through the Temple or that he’d even make it to the age that he did.  He had several surgeries to help him.  He had a port that I believe connected to his belly, probably to help with the enzymes for his digestion.  I don’t know for sure. 

He was serving a mission here in Las Vegas when he passed.  The funeral was amazing and SO full of the spirit.  All the missionaries that were serving here came and sang “Called To Serve”  Oh my goodness, if you have never heard a group of missionaries sing that song than you need to attend a missionary conference.  Just watching ALL those missionaries walk to the front  was amazing on its own.  I cried watching them walk to the front.  The Mission President spoke about him and it was beautiful.  He released him from his mission and said that he feel like he probably shouldn’t do that since he knows that Benjamin was finally able to serve a Full-time mission in the spirit world.  Doing it the way he always wanted instead of in the mission office. 

In  a blessing, he was told that he would be able to choose when he would die.  And when his mother would tell him “Come on Benjamin, you need to get up and exercise (when he was in the hospital) . He would say, “I’m too tired”  She would always say, “Well, are you ready to see Heavenly Father and Jesus?”  And usually he would rally and get up to walk around.  This last time he told his Mom, “I’m not like Jesus…But I AM trying to be like him.

Julie, Benjamin’s Mom, said that the day or the day after Ben passed away her two year old niece kept saying that Ben was in jail.  She kept telling her that no, he was in heaven.  But the little girl was insistent that he was in jail.  Well, then Julie figured it out.  She was probably seeing Ben teach in the spirit prison.  He WAS doing what he has ALWAYS wanted to do.  He was  a Missionary teaching the gospel.  (I just bawled over that one)

They allowed them to show a video of Ben’s life in the chapel.  They usually don’t, but due to certain things they let them do it.  It was the most beautiful thing I have EVER seen.  I can’t remember all of one of the quotes that was on it, but it said “Don’t try to get the storm to end, just dance in the rain.  And then it showed a clip of Benjamin in the rain with his umbrella up and he started to sing the song “I’m singing in the rain”.  It was amazing because he didn’t talk a lot around family functions.  He would have to be coaxed to talk.  He had a beautiful voice!!  And at the end of his singing part of that song, he said “That’s all folks”  I bawled all over.

I don’t like funerals.  I don’t like to go to hospitals.  I don’t like to accept that people die and sometimes it’s their time to go.  But THIS funeral….was a beautiful, tender tribute to a young man who’s life was tragically short, but who lived it like a hero.  I love Benjamin and I will miss him.

Graduation Day and Teacher Boxes!

Today was Graduation Day for my 5th grader.  Chase is such a good boy and he was really excited to be graduating the 5th grade and going to Middle School next year.  He looked so handsome in the program.  He was one of the few that dressed up. The principal told him he looked like a “Little Mormon Missionary” (I take that as a HUGE compliment.  I love when my boys wear suits and ties because they DO look like missionariesHe won’t smile because he doesn’t like his teeth, but I love to see him smile!  He’ll get his braces soon enough!!

I made some really cute boxes to hold cookies in last night too!  I have to say that I absolutely LOVE them!  Here’s the Tutorial for them.   They were really easy to do and I had fun doing them.  I actually found it first at a blog called Paper Pleasing and she had the tutorial on her blog.  I like the tab she used better, but I don’t have that one.  So… I made do!! 

I have some more pictures of the pinewood derby and some other grad pictures but I’m in a hurry today to get the house in order before I go to CA for my soon to be DIL’s bridal Shower!  Should be super fun!

Oops forgot to give you the link to it

You can download Windows Live Writer Here.  You can thank me later…

Windows Live Writer Rocks!!

That’s right folks!  I love this thing!  I think everything is SO much easier!!  I’m going to have to play with this a little bit more, but so far I absolutely love it!  Thanks Erin!!

New Gadgets

So I’m trying out something new and I’ll let you know how I like it.  It’s called Window Live Writer and my new blogging friend introduced it to me ( Inkysmiles ) and I thought I’d check it out since she says it is to die for.  I have to admit, it sure was easy to add that link to her blog.  I didn’t have to do any html crud.  I hate that stuff.  And I guess you can just drag a photo to your post instead of having to go through all the stuff through blogger.  Let’s see if it’s as easy as she says it is. I’m going to go get a picture right now and see if  it will drag.  Hold on…….

 

Hmmm…it worked!  AND I was able to make it bigger by dragging it on the corner!  That’s a bonus!  You can also change your font really easy too.  I had yet to figure that one out on blogger.  If you’re going on vacation and needed to set a post for  a certain date, you can do that too.  So far I’m not seeing a downside to this new thing.   I’m going to try and post and see if it worked…