A little bit of this, a little bit of that!

Being a couple again!

2008-10-27T18:56:00.003-06:00

Jeff and I had such a wonderful time in St. George. We were able to hold hands all the time. Visit without being interrupted by the needs of someone else. We enjoyed our time alone. That is not to say that we did not talk about the children, we did. I also called them at my convenience. So we did miss them. We love them with all our hearts, we just love being a couple also. We left home early Friday morning after the hugs goodbye were through. We headed south to Cedar City, Utah to the Shakespeare Festival. We seen the play "Gaslight". We both enjoyed it tremendously. We then drove to St. George, checked into the hotel. We then went to the main street Art and Music Festival. We were slightly disappointed in the size of this festival. We thought it would be huge. We were done in about and hour and a half. Lucky for us, the L.D.S. Tabernacle was having some mini concerts going on so we went on in and enjoyed a concert by the Owen Family. It was great. We then went to the Hotel and played Yahtzee, one of our favorites games, till the wee hours. The next day we got up and went to breakfast then out for miniature golf. Yes! Jeff did win again this year, but I must say, I did do better then last year. Look out Jeff! Next year I wont make it so easy on you. We then went and shopped at the outlet mall. We got a few presents for each other. I got a green vest out of down feathers, a green shirt and a purple one. Jeff got a sweater and shirt. Then we went to the Hotel, where I fell into a deep sleep, for the hour before we needed to leave for the play. While Jeffrey read the paper. Wow! how romantic is that. I was actually glad for the nap. I was exhausted. Then we went off to the Tuacahn Theater. We enjoyed the wonderful dinner and then the exciting play Les Miserables. We both were thrilled with the play. We each got something from the gift shop and headed back to the hotel. We had stopped at Smith's to purchase our goodies for the next day, it being a Sunday, we did not want to shop on Sunday. In the morning we got up checked out of the hotel, and drove to Zions National Park. We went on several of the hikes and to the museum and other sites. Then we ate a romantic lunch in the park. We had apples, grapes, banana, and apple-pomegranate sparkling cider, along with carrots, celery, and tomatoes. We also had crackers and a cheese ball. Oh we had such a romantic time being in the mountains. God has made such beautiful places and sometimes life gets us and we don't look around to see the wonder that God created for us. It was breathtaking. Jeff loved the hanging gardens the best. I loved holding hands and being helped by my dear Husband as I hopped off the bus or got out of the door or just on the hikes. I also loved the beauty around us and between us. I loved every bit about it. The trip home was perfect, as my sweet husband sang to me all the love songs he could remember,. He remembered a lot. I think this mini vacation was such a hit with us because life was moving at such a fast pace all summer, we did not have time to connect much at all. This was such a great experience it is such a fun time to get away and remember being a couple again. I love my children very much they are such an amazing part of Jeff and I but us alone is such a wonderful treat! I am already thinking of new and better things for next year. I love you Honey! Love and Hugs Lisa p.s. I did not take a camera with us, besides the one on my phone so needless to say next year I will remember to take one. I am saddened, I missed taking some cute ones of my hubby. Hope he will still be cute next year! ;0)

Thanks for Tagging me Sondra!

2008-10-20T16:51:00.003-06:00

This is a picture of our trip to Goblin Valley. This is a picture of the south end of the valley from the pavilion. We had a wonderful time, even if it did rain while we were there. I really like going to Goblin Valley. Thanks for reminding me. Hugs to you all! Lisa

Anticipation!

2008-10-05T01:29:00.002-06:00

I am looking forward to a great mini vacation with Jeff. We started a tradition of going to St. George for our Birthdays and Anniversary celebrations. This year we will be going in October. We are going to attend a play in Cedar City then off to Tuacahn to see Les Miserables. We will also attend the St. George Temple, an outdoor concert, Art show and play miniature golf. I am so excited. Jeff is away on a fire right now so my anticipation is growing. It is good to have something to look forward to. Makes me feel young again. I am so glad that we can do this and spend some good time together just being the two of us. Well I hope to begin writing on my blog weekly again. So come back and visit again. Hugs Lisa

Time to clean, update and redecorate!

2008-03-17T10:27:00.003-06:00

We have been told our bodies are like a Temple. Well I have been pondering about my Temple(body) recently. I have not been happy with the way I am feeling and looking inside and out. I got to thinking of what happens with the physical Temples we have on earth. They go through periods of cleaning, redecorating, updating the way things are run, and sometimes after big changes they are then rededicated for the Lords work. Well I decided to go through a period of cleansing, redecorating, updating and rededicating of my own Temple (body). So I figure if I put it on my blog, you will all see it. Then you can ask me how my decorating, cleaning, and updating is going! So ask away1 I need the motivation and the inspiration from you. My goal is to clean out 60 lbs of dust(that would be weight). I want to get rid of furniture that is making my Temple look ratty(that would be clothing to big or to small). I want to update how I run things. I want to become more dedicated to the will of the Lord in my life and to follow his plan for me. I love making goals. I do not always follow through with them so help me out on this. I figure I will be cleaning out till around October/November. I am going to also work on each of my rooms in my house and my mind and clean it out. During this time I want to be able to go through my furniture and decorations and find what no longer suits me and send it to someone who needs it. I want to study my scriptures more, pray more and just begin to listen more to the spirit. I want to do more service for others, and the only way I can do this is to get everything in order. I need to be ahead of the game. Wow, I have a lot to do. See ya later. Happy Easter everyone!! Love ya.

Celebrating My children!

2008-03-12T11:51:00.005-06:00

All my children have done some very funny things when they were little and I have always wanted to write them down. So I thought I would put a few here: Nathan has always had a wee bit of a temper. After the midwife cleaned out his mouth and lungs he was mad at us so he sucked in some air and held his breath. The midwife just laughed, cuz she knew that it would not last. Then, while he was getting cleaned up, he did not like it so, he did it again. He did this every time Jeff and I did anything that he did not like. We never did play into it and it slowly went away. Then he would put his arms out like a big tuff guy and tell us he was strong. Like he was going to get us for not letting us do what he wanted. One time I had asked him to pick up his toys in his room. He was four years old and very capable of doing it right. Except he did not want to, he did it by putting things under the bed or pushed into the closet. I went in and found this out and proceeded to put everything "not in it's place" into a bag, that I would then place in my closet. He had to earn the items back. Well he was not about to let me do that this time. He started with the arms and the fists like he was going to take me down. He stated that he was going to call the police and have them put me in a police mans car and let him get the toys back out. He tried to get Jeff to help him pull the toys back out of the bag and Jeff to busy trying to contain his laughter. Poor Nathan, he would clean his room when told from then on. Though I think sometimes he was more creative in how he hid the stuff. He is so much fun and we love him. Kaileen was such a funny girl. She couldn't wait to play with our new baby when she was two. She asked me one day where the baby was. I told her, it was in my womb. She came to me a while later and with a little frustration in her voice said "Mommy where you hide our baby, I looked all over your room, under your bed, where is it?" She wanted a little sister to play with so much. We had planned on putting the baby in with her and letting Nathan have the smaller of the two rooms. Well, when she found out the baby was going to be a boy she was not happy at all. When he was a few months old we moved him into her room. She was not crazy about that. A few days later she began sitting in the door way yelling out "Rosie room (her rooms name) to tight". She did not want him in her space. We ended up putting her in the smaller room and putting Nathan and Aaron together. She has always accepted that Caleb and Ben were supposed to be boys but she contends that Aaron was supposed to be a girl. They love each other now but in the beginning oh my! Aaron was such a big block of a boy when he was born, till he got sick when he was two. He would go around like he was the strongest, baddest, handsomest dude in the wild west. He would push people that would be in his way and when they would look at this big baby he would grunt or growl. He loved to walk around with a pretend hammer. He also carried his toy grasshopper that he named "Bug". One day I was listening to the radio and they announced something about the His bola Militia's. He decided right then that he wanted to be a His bola. He would walk around saying it all the time. Then he wanted to be a "stomeTwoopa", that is his version of Storm Trooper from Star Wars. He wanted to go live in a big huge electric box that was green. He loved to ask many questions from anyone who would listen. Our neighbor would ask him "how many questions he had asked that day", then Aaron would just ask him ten more. He has always been our why, wonder how, boy. Ben has always had a cute button nose. He had bright red cheeks when he was little. He was just so cute. He would walk around in his own world just studying everything around him. We actually called him the "clueless wonder". Mean, I know, but we never said it to him just about him. He never seemed to understand or catch onto anything. He was catching on just in his own way. He loved horses. We would be riding in the car and Benjamin would say in his soft cute little voice, "Mom, orse". Which was his version of Horse. He wanted us to point out every horse we could find. Sometime it would take us awhile and he would sit back there and keep saying it over and over again. Ben is a saver. He loved to save all his candy wrappers especially the gold ones. He still saves lots of things, cuz he wants to build with it all. We love him and all the wonderful creations he comes up with. Caleb is our dramatic drama king. He is always making us crack up. He has not been afraid of most things. He does not like heights except when he is on a mountain and can look over the edge. I guess he is a thrill seeker. He would wake up every morning and want to be a dinosaur egg. We would have to carry his rolled up body to the living room and wait till the "egg" decided to crack open. Then we would have to be so surprised that we found a dinosaur egg. Then he would cry out like a little dino would. He was adorable. He also died every night at dinner. He would all of a sudden just fall off the bench and say "I died", he did this several times at each meal. When we moved to Nevada, he always wanted to see the city when we were on our way home from Salt Lake. One night he was asleep and we did not wake him to tell him we were getting close, so when we got home and told him he cried cuz he did not get to see the city. I carried him to a spot near our house so he could look over the city and see the light. He was satisfied enough to go into the house and go back to bed. We love him and all his funny antics. Currently he is studying to be a dragonologist. Well this is a long post but I think they are worth it. I love my children very much and I think they are the worlds best! Of course I have many seconds in my life, my nieces and nephews, my homeschool friends, my boys in my bear den, cute kids I meet. I also have my grand baby who I can't wait to see do funny things or say funny things. He is so cute and is already starting to show his funny side. He likes to put his hand up when his picture is taken. Life goes on and it is so fun to see what will happen next. If you are reading this you are one of my favorites. Love ya.

change is hard.

2008-02-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

I don't do well with change. I like my ways and I like that everything should go as I have planned. My Children have taught me to relax a little and go with the flow. You can't plan for your child throwing up in the middle of the night, or needing to use the bathroom the minute you get settled in to watch a play at the local high school. I thought I would get worse as I get older, and in many ways this is true. Whenever I am not in control then I have anxiety or I get in a stupor and then I am not progressing anywhere. I am realizing I can't have control all the time. I don't think I have to run everything all the time, in fact I like it when someone else is in charge. I just want to know what to expect and what is expected of me. Heavenly Father knows me so well. When I was pregnant with my children I could not stand the thought of knowing when they would come. I got a date in my head and that is the date they came. Except for Kaileen. I don't think I listened when it came to her. I was wanting her so much earlier then when she finally did arrive. Anyway, I am learning to listen and to just go with the flow and try not to get so worked up over things. I have a long ways to go. I just like my own little world and feel comfy in knowing I know what is going on. Life is crazy and my world doesn't seem so crazy when I know what is happening. I started this post back in September and am just finishing it in February and it still rings true for me today. Gosh life is amazing. Anyway, I don't enjoy change but realize that life is about change, so here I go, change away. I am ready for life, I am ready for change. Hope you are also.

Divorce, a very sad thing.

2008-02-21T17:48:00.008-07:00

Wow what a title! Our family had a wonderful reunion in August and then boom in October my parents separated, and by November they were divorced. I have been in a stupor. I came across a newspaper article by Dr. James Dobson. He explained how the natural tendency of every thing in the universe is to move from order to disorder. Everything falls apart and needs constant work to keep it nice, homes, cars, grass, gardens, furniture, etc. The only way to combat this tendency is to invest creative energy to that which is to be preserved. Humans are no different. Marriage is no different. Children are no different (but that is for another day) He uses an analogy I liked, I will summarize it for you. A husband and his wife are in two separate row boats on a choppy lake. If they don't paddle toward each other constantly then they will drift apart and one will end up at the north end the other the south end. That is exactly what happens when husbands and wives get too busy or distracted to maintain their marriage vows. If they don't take the time for romantic activities and experiences that draw them together, something precious begins to slip away. It doesn't have to be that way, of course but the currents of life will separate them unless efforts are made to remain together. But, what if the love was never there in the first place? Long ago marriages were arranged without love coming into play. Yet, for many love came later on. In my own marriage I know that the love has changed throughout our 20 years together. My great Grandmother said "We have had hard times, but we have used them as stepping stones to get us to a better place". I know that all the hard times in my marriage has given us a more true love. We work on it and are silly sometimes and I am grateful for that. I am grateful for a husband who can see the need to constantly renew our love and encourage and help each other. I am grateful that he looks past my flaws and loves me anyway. I am grateful that we did not give up on our relationship every time we had a down side. But, what if a spouse does not want to work on "fixing" what is wrong, maybe they don't want to change. Once the relationship has begun to sour and is in a downward spiral it is hard to get out. It takes lots of hard work and healing. Sometimes it can't be saved or maybe it is not worth saving. In pondering my parents divorce I came to a few conclusions. I know this is my opinion and I am looking in from the outside but I thought I would throw them out and see how others feel who have been in this situation also. I don't think my parents ever bonded with each other as husband and wife. I wonder what type of love they had in the beginning? Why did it not last? I think they were Mom and Dan, parents of Seven children and then when all of us left they never went beyond that. They had so many years spent just surviving. They began to see problems in life as failures in each other. They began to only focus on the flaws of the other and not look at the wonderful things. Were there any wonderful things left? I have looked in at them for years and wondered why are they married. They were mean to each other and never seemed to work together for the common good of the relationship and the best for both of them. They began to look out for themselves only. Is selfishness what brought them down? They didn't do the little fun things any more. I did not see them happy with each other for many years. They moved apart emotionally. Each did things to prove the other was wrong or at fault. I am not happy this has happened but it does not surprise me. I am struggling to hold onto a relationship with my Dad. I feel that he was paddling as fast as he could away from my mother and from us as a family. My Mother may have just not been paddling at all. I am saddened and hurt by this but I will go on. I will strengthen my own marriage so this may never be repeated with my own children and tear them apart. We can all learn from history and I will take this lesson and use it. We all need to creatively act to keep our marriages alive. It cannot only be one it has to be both. I will paddle till I can't paddle no more. May you all join me and paddle too. I am moving on to brighter things coming my way. Love ya all

Steps, steps, steps!

2007-10-09T21:09:00.000-06:00

We needed a shed to make room for more of our stuff. Actually, we have stored all our camping supplies and summer toys inside the storage room that I want to have full of our food storage. So we decided to put up another shed outside, to hold all the stuff we have inside, because we have no room in the other shed outside. First Dad and the boys began. They pulled everything out of the boxes and got ready to go. They began! But, they got one wall up and was going on to the next, when they found out they were missing a piece(a vital wall piece)and a piece was broken. So being that it was a weekend and the company was not open, we had to put it all away till I could call the company and request them to ship us the missing and broken part. So the day I wanted to have a shed put up and filled so that I could organize the food room was messed up. Then when the parts came a few days later. Nathan, Aaron and I were trying to put up the shed, along with our neighbor who loves to help. I soon left when the instruction booklet was found to be wrong on several occasions. I left it up to the Men to figure it out. Finally it is mostly done and Aaron comes up with a little piece from a bag and wants to figure out where it belonged. Belonged? Well it actually belonged up on the very top. About 12 steps from where they were. I think Nathan wanted to kill his younger brother. Nathan had to take the roof off again and rebuild the roof with the little top thing put in it's rightful place. I tell this story because, When I asked how it was going, Nathan said "Mom, we are taking two steps forward and one step back". Later when something else occurred I thought to myself the same thing. In life sometimes we tend to do that. Take two steps forward and one step back. If the boys had given up and stayed on one of the "backward" steps then I wouldn't have a shed. On our path through this life our decisions sometimes make us have to take a step backwards in order to move forward. After a decision I made turned out bad, my wonderful husband told me to look at it, as if I had just taken a college 101 course. I needed to learn from it and do better. So here I am embarking on new paths and trying to do better. I pray that all my endeavors lead me on the right path, or I will just take two steps back and find a new one. I am grateful to a Loving Heavenly Father for giving us the opportunity to do so. Through Christ's Atonement we can make mistakes and fall to the wayside and still get up and make it back to our Father in Heaven.

Circles continue!

2007-10-03T07:46:00.000-06:00

When I said I was thinking about all the different circles in our life, I was not kidding. I have been pondering the "Circle of a Mother's reach" or who gets the hugs from who, who needs me the most, for some time now. My son Nathan turned 18 and it really made me wonder about the relationship he and I have and what we will have for the rest of our time here on earth. I have noticed that I tend to pull away physically and emotionally from my children as they reach the teen times. In the past I figured that it was their life and I needed to let them learn to deal with it on their own. I thought that I had given them all I can and they either except it or face the consequences. I want to be available to them, to talk about their choices and their life's mission. If I pull away from them emotionally, they wont want to come to me in times of need, because they will feel no attachment. If I pull away physically then they get no "pats on the back saying, hey life is crazy but, I love you anyway." I always thought we were supposed to start our life on our own, sever the ties from our parents. How did these feelings come about? When I was growing up, I remember pulling away from my family because they drove me nuts. I wanted things just a certain way and it was not the way it was. It was not a bad life. I see that my growing up years were rather great. I just had different ideas and I remember thinking "oh! I cant wait to have my own life." As we get into early adulthood We may have, what we believe to be "new" ideas or a "better" way to go about them but it is the same. I now believe that our teens and young adults need us at this time in their life, just as much as they needed us before. My "big" kids need just as much hugs as the little ones do, sometimes even more. My "big" kids need to know that I care about them for the individuals that they are and in who they are trying to become. I just need to let them initiate the conversations more and the hugs need to be initiated by me. Which is just the opposite I was thinking. They get to be the talkers and I get to listen. I get to give a hug even if they don't have a boo boo. I wonder if other Moms think this way also or am I just a slow learner? My "circle of reach" needs to include my teens as well as my young ones. I am determined to hug them more and love them for who they are, even if they are not choosing the way I would or if they are not "just like me". I know that eventually the circle will come around and their children will think they are weird and will not want to be near them either. I love the "Circle of My Mother's reach". I still need her hugs. I still like it when she tells me I am doing great, or even if she tells me to work on something. I like to ask for her opinion on things. I wish we had talked more when I was younger, it is my pulling away from her that didn't allow us to. I realize now that things would have been different. We have made up for lost hugs and conversation in the past years. Many days I wish she could reach me from her house, a phone call has to do nowadays. I want my children to wish for the same. The circle of a Mother's reach never runs out of length.

Circles are wonderful!

2007-09-27T09:50:00.000-06:00

I didn't get a blog written for last week like I had intended to do. I was so busy with scouts, the summit, fruit, and trying to get our new schedules off the ground that even my children and my sweet husband didn't get much attention. I didn't have the time to sit and think. I was thinking while I was trying to go to sleep however and these are my thoughts of late... I was thinking of circles, weird, yes I know but all the great circles of our lives are such wonderful things to think on. First, the circle of life. I have been thinking lately of my Great Grandmother Bertha Wright. She passed away when I was 12. My memories of her are very clear in my mind. We were preparing plums for freezing when the smell got my attention. I remembered the bells on the back door, the wood she was drawing on, the papers and boxes everywhere, food cooking, and plums, oh I remember the plums. I told my children about how her home always smelled of fruit, wood, plums, paper, and if knowledge could have a smell she had it. She was a simple lady, yet she was amazing to me. A true pioneer. She had a hard life yet she lived it with passion. She was a happy soul. I have one of her slat bonnets that I love to sit and smell. It still smells like her. She was frugal in all things and loved all. Great qualities that have passed around the circle to my Grandmother June Dexter. Grandma Dexter was also a simple Lady, yet throughout my growing years I viewed her as the greatest woman on earth next to my Mother. I was lucky to have a grandmother like her. She taught of love, service,compassion, patience and being frugal. I miss her sweet smile and ready hugs and kisses. She was a person who would look you into the eye and say hello and mean it. She wanted to know how you had been since she last saw you. She was full of compassion for all Gods creatures. Grandma Wright was so full of life and wanted new adventures. She did some amazing things in her older years that women just didn't do then. That has passed on around the circle to my Mother Judy. My Mom is adventurous and full of life. She is always ready for all the chaos we can dish out. She needed this in order to have 7 children. She has had a very hard life and yet she has survived it with gusto and flair. She is my hero! She doesn't look on her life with negative eyes she accepts what She has and moves with it. She doesn't let things get her down for to long. She may have a rotten day or two just like the rest of us, but she comes out ready to deal with the world. This was passed around the circle to me. I watched my Mother deal with life and I learned from her to not let things weigh so heavily that I can't move forward. I like this stubborn streak in myself. I think my Mom was also a real pioneer. Not many women could do the things my Mother has had to do. She makes me smile inside when I think of some of the crazy things she has done for fun. "Lets make someones day" is her Motto. She has made many of mine and has made some awesome memories for my children as well. Through the circle I have received many attributes about myself that are wonderful and I want them to be passed on. Heavenly Father knows what traits go to whom and I hope that my children receive some of the great ones like me. I like that I am frugal,Thank you Grandma Wright, Grandma Dexter and Mom. I like that I love life and the trials that come my way,Thank you Grandma Wright, Grandma Dexter and Mom. The older I get the more I notice things in My Mother that I seen in My Great Grandmother and my Grandmother. I love this and I can't wait see in my children some of the traits going around the circle. Sometimes we see something in a child, or a spouse and wonder why or how did that get in them. We didn't teach them that. Well my friends, it is in the circle of life and it is going around and I think it is amazing! The funny things, like when my Mom and I were going through some of Grandma Dexter's things, we found little things like rubber bands, clips, baby diaper pins, and other little odds and ends in many a small box tucked in here and there. We even found some that belonged to Grandma Wright. Grandma Dexter had loved them just as they were and she saved them. I will smile, when in years to come I will find them in my own Mother's belongings and I will think of "Them", all my Grandmas before and know that, they are smiling. That circle of life has added another round and then It will be my turn to have my children laugh at me and see all my quirks and think of us all, and we will all be smiling knowing that the circle will catch up to them also. I love the circle of life. My other circles are going to have to wait this blog is long enough. Love to you all!

The dawn of a new life!

2007-09-12T23:27:00.000-06:00

I feel that I need to make changes in my life. So currently I am looking into all facets and trying to see where I am in need of a change. Something to make a difference in my life. One for the better that is, I don't want to make a change for the worse. One change I need to make now, is how I use my TIME. I want so many things; a better relationship with my Savior, I give Him so little of my TIME. I want to GIVE Him more. So I am getting my life organized. So that I can spend more TIME praying, reading my scriptures, pondering them. I really want to have them in my mind, so that I may use them more, in my daily life. I want more TIME with my husband. To really sit down and talk about life, what he thinks, feels, wants. We used to do that before we let TIME get away from us. So many times life calls us and we are off and running. There is so much I want to share with my children before they leave home and start their own journey. I need to find TIME to do the right choices for my life not just the good choices. There is so much good out there, but is it right. I look at the hours of the day sometimes and I wonder where it all goes. I have wasted TIME, and I can never get it back. I am making a commitment to not waste a minute more. I want to use up all my TIME in a great way. I want to help my children to use their TIME wisely and they wont have to wonder about where it all went. I am looking forward to a new day, a longer day. One, in which my greatest joys will be fulfilled. Hope your days are long and filled with all the TIME you need to fulfill what you desire.