Confessions

Its been a little while since I posted anything, and I always hate it when I leave a rant up for too long, so its time I confessed to what I've been doing the last few days. I have been reading, that sounds great right? I read a mindless book that I like called "A Year of Living Famously". It took me a day to read. I thought that was so much fun, what other mindless stuff could I read. So, I decided to give the "Twilight" books a try. We had to go to Target on Pioneer Day, so I bought the first book. I read a little on Friday, and then after Darren and I got home from seeing Batman on Saturday I read half of the book, until I decided I really needed to get some sleep. I finished it on Sunday(yes, nice Sabbath day reading, but those of you who have read these books will understand). The funny thing about this book, (aside from the story-seriously, try to explain the story without sounding ridiculous) is that it was recommended to me about two years ago. I went to Barnes and Noble to try to find it. The people working there had no idea who Stephanie Meyer was, can you imagine such a thing today? When I found out it was about vampires I decided against it, because I really don't like vampires. I've seen enough vampire movies that just gross me out. However, I have been so intrigued by the popularity of these books, and the age range of people (ok female people) that like them that I was curious. This was the perfect mindless read, totally romantic, what can I say, I am hooked, and must finish the series. Well Monday morning I called my friend that I knew had the books, but she wasn't home. I had to read the next book-no question. I went to the Library with Tiff, and looked for it there, no luck. I had to have the next one to read that night, so I went to Target and bought the next two, I played it safe. So I started "New Moon" Monday evening, and finished it Tuesday afternoon. I am now half way through the third book "Eclipse". I'm taking a break to blog because I just keep laughing at myself. Darren keeps laughing at me too, because when I tell him(a serious sci-fi, fantasy reader) about these vampires he just chuckles. I mean vampires that aren't hurt by the sun, they glitter, what's not funny about that? So, I have them all now, and fully intend to buy the new one on Saturday, let me know if you want to borrow them, they are a great summer read!
This post is titled confessions which hints at more than one, so here is my second confession. I bought the new George Micheal CD. I saw him on Good Morning America on Thursday (I must have been extremely open to suggestion on Pioneer Day), and hearing his music made me confess that I like it. So, I looked at it when I was at Target, but they wanted too much so I bought it at Wal*mart. The funniest part of the interview on GMA was when he said that women love him for his mind. I've never thought about what could be on George Micheal's mind, unless "Wake me up, before you go go" is something deep that I'm missing? Anyway the CD is fun and I like it. I guess you could say my summer really is about being mindless, but I am having a great time!

Homemaking vs. Housekeeping

Darren and I had an interesting conversation yesterday that has kept rolling around in my head. I have been reading the Worldwide Leadership training pamphlet, and I was looking back through the notes that I took the day that it was broadcast. I had written "A lack of homemaking leads to emotional Homelessness." Darren and I then started talking about homemaking and that too often we equate homemaking to a clean house. I believe that there are principles to homemaking and certainly keeping our homes neat is one principle, but I think there is more to homemaking than a clean house. As I thought back to my home growing up I remember comparing our home to my friends houses. It seemed that our house was never quite as clean as everyone else's house, I am sure now that my point of view was somewhat off. We had awesome neighbors, the family across the street was like a second home to me. JoAnne was my Young Women's leader and a second Mom, I could talk to her about anything, and the awesome thing as I look back now was that she always backed up my parents. It seemed like her house was always clean and one day when I was saying something about our house not being as clean she said "You guys have 6 kids, I only have 3". JoAnne taught me something great that day. It wasn't just about having a clean house. It seems like she went on to list all the things my mom did that she didn't. My mom is a great seamstress and sewed a lot of our clothes. She kept 6 kids organized and got us where we needed to be, when we needed to be there, and we participated in a lot of lessons and sports and stuff. She didn't (doesn't) like to cook, but she still taught me how to read and follow a recipe. So as I think about homemaking I think its looking at your family, seeing what your family needs and meeting those needs. Its about having an idea of what will and won't happen in your home and building life around those values. It does involve cooking and cleaning, but if that was all, then everyone that hires a cook and a housekeeper would be a good homemaker as well. That is why I think Sis. Beck says that women in the Church should be the best homemakers. We know what should go on in our homes and what shouldn't, because of that knowledge our homes reflect that.

Another Em rant to start your Monday.

Saturday Sentiments- I Love My Dogs!

I really do love my dogs. They are great because they are always happy to see me. I can yell at them and they still love me. All they want is to be fed and loved, and told what to do (it really does make them happy to make me happy). Yes they get obnoxious, and I'm sure my neighbors have all heard me yelling for Molly to come home a lot, but I still love them. So let me tell you a little about each of them
1. Molly
Molly is a symbol to me. We got her on September 10, 2001. To me she symbolizes what an average American family would be doing before September 11 when the world changed. Part of what made that day so stressful for me was dealing with her. I had never had a dog before (my dad believes the best kind of dog is a dead one-love ya Dad!). So as I was watching TV, pregnant and wondering what kind of world I was bringing a baby into, I was also freaking out over this puppy that was peeing and pooping all over my house. I called Darren to find out what to do, and he told me I could put her in the garage. I didn't know you could do that! If you get sick of a dog just stick them somewhere else. Whoever invented "Time Out" must have had a dog. Not long after 9/11 Darren got lost his job. We were both so worried, I wasn't always the comfort that Darren needed because here we were getting ready to have a baby, which we had waited so long to do, and now there was no job, and how were we going to keep our house. Molly didn't care that there was no job, she loved him anyway. Did I mention Molly really is Darren's Dog. She is a German Shorthair, a bird dog. She goes pheasant hunting with Darren, from what I hear she's really good. I would love to see here in action sometime. Molly is also my running/walking buddy. The moment I wake up in the morning she starts whining and won't leave my side (she's worried I will leave her). When I pull out my gray sweatshirt she starts to pull on it, that is the signal we are really going for a walk. She can tell by what I put on first thing in the morning if we are going or not, on weekends she's always a little disappointed when I don't put on the right clothes. I love Molly.

2. Keno
Next is Keno. We got him just over a year ago. Keno has issues. He thinks he is a big dog, and not the Miniature Schnauzer that he really is. So, he gets totally mad if you try to pick him up. When we first got him, we were never sure if he was playing or really mad until he bit us. We got Keno from Darren's brother, when they thought they were going to be moving into an apartment, and couldn't bring the dog. When I first saw Keno I fell in love with him, he is just so cute. Once we got him home and we learned of his anger issues I wasn't so sure I liked him. Now after lots of work with the "Dog Whisperer" (Darren) he has gotten much better. He still rushes the door when people come over and he cries like a baby because he wants to bark, but knows he shouldn't. He also screams like a girl when we take him to the vet or the groomer. The minute we walk in the door of Petsmart he won't move, so we have to carry him (did I mention he hates to be carried?). I now see what a sweet dog he really is, and he tries so hard to be good.So even if there is a lot of this (insert growling here). They really are a part of our family. If I believed in putting vinyl sticker pictures of my family on my car I would have to include my dogs.

Relief Society

I've been thinking about Relief Society lately. When I moved into this ward 8 years ago I was called to be a Primary teacher with Darren, which we really liked, but that meant I couldn't go to Relief Society From there I was called into Young Women's as the secretary, still couldn't attend the Sunday meeting. Then I moved to the Primary presidency, and served there until three years ago. While I still get to serve in the Primary (which I love) I'm not working with the children on Sunday anymore, so I go to Relief Society. This was a hard switch for me. First, I had a hard time sitting still for that long (its crazy that we thinks kids should be able to do it). Then I thought this is group therapy for some women, and time to "toot my own horn" for other women, and I struggled. I realized I had a bad attitude that I needed to fix. My good friend, Carma, told me that when she first joined the church she realized that it helped women to have somewhere to talk about their struggles. So, I started to change my complaint about "Relief Society being group therapy" attitude. Later during Sunday School Bro. Stock had asked the class to share how they had been successful at doing something, he added that it wasn't bragging because he had asked for examples. That helped me change my women "tooting their own horn" attitude. Later on I was at a fireside where the speaker said that if an "Enrichment" activity didn't sound like something that would enrich your life you didn't need to feel guilty about not going. I've used that excuse A LOT for not going to enrichment. Through all of this I have felt that I really needed to get over these bad feelings about Relief Society. So I started looking at lds.org and studying Relief Society, I would really feel the spirit of what this program is supposed to be. Plus, Sis. Beck's (the General R.S. Pres.) talks are awesome I love that she says things straight and doesn't beat around the bush or sugar coat what she is prompted to say.
Last Sunday during the R.S. lesson we discussed how we all have problems. We were studying Elder Wirthlin's talk from last Conference. We all need love and no one is perfect. This isn't a church of perfect people, we all show up on Sunday with our trials that we are trying to overcome. I think I need R.S. for that reason. I need the strength that I get by being around righteous strong women, that struggle just like I do. Last night I went to Enrichment, even though I was tired, and Darren had just gotten home from scout camp late the night before and we hadn't spent anytime together except for sleeping. I thought I would put this new idea that maybe I do need R.S. to the test. I had a good time, it was nice to enjoy the company of my friends and neighbors. I am going to work harder at reaching out to my neighbors, because I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that struggles with Relief Society. Its not easy for me to talk to someone I don't know, and I frequently feel like a freak. I also tend to have thoughts that people don't really want to be bothered by me, or that someone that has only met me once won't remember me the next time they see me, so this goal of reaching out is not easy or just the nice Sunday School answer it really means something to me.
I hope this wasn't too long and boring, but its all part of what "Keep Moving Forward" means to me.

4th of July

I'm not one to post twice in one day, but I really wanted to post about swimming lessons and 4th of July. Then, I can move on to other things.
I LOVE the 4th of July! I love that its hot. I don't know why other than Darren keeps telling me I can't regulate my own body temperature so its nice not to be cold. I love eating! I mean I love it in general, but on the 4th we have our family's special marinated turkey. This year I made "Frog Eye" salad which I think is so yummy (and for all you out there who had some of my salad I just want you to know I am still eating it, had it for lunch today). Tiff made dutch oven potatoes in the regular oven that were so good we had them again on Sunday. We topped it off with my Aunt Saundra's recipe for Cherry Pecan Ice Cream oh my I could have drank the stuff that melted it was so good. So wow that's a lot about the food we won't mention my good porn, (which was really corn some people just can't hear).
Before we ate we went to the movies and saw Wall*E. I loved it! This might be my favorite Pixar movie! I highly recommend it.
Here are Carter, Sarah, and Shelby sitting on the display. Aren't they cute all dressed a like? My mom made their shirts, notice that the pocket of Carter's shirt matches the girl's shirts. I told you it was in my genetic make-up. You can check out Madeline's shirt on Jared and Liz's blog.

After the movie the kids played on the the slip and slide.

Go Sarah!
Notice Carter's excellent form!

Shelby showed everyone how its done. Note: she was so sore the next day she needed medication!



And finally, no Ward family get together would be complete without Rockband, Singstar, and/or Guitar Hero! We really had a party and played all three.

I also love fireworks! McKay went all out on the fireworks and they were awesome, and West Jordan's fireworks show was really good. Good times.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons have run our lives for the last two weeks. I chose to have the girls take lessons at Riverton Pool, since its fairly close and it was affordable. So we drove into town Monday through Thursday for lessons. I chose a lesson time of 11:45, so that we could have lunch at the park and then go back to the pool to swim if we wanted to.
I have lived in Eagle Mountain for almost 8 years, so I am conditioned now that if you go into town you must make it worth the trip so I packed as much as I could into my daily drives. Basically I'm exhausted. The 4th of July on Friday and a trip to Price for Taylor's Baptism made last week totally fun, but also exhausting. We were late for church on Sunday because we just couldn't move fast enough.
So this week is all about catching up on things I have let slide; housework, practicing piano, and blogging. Here are some swimming lesson highlights.
Aren't my girls fabulous in their matching swim suits? I love dressing them the same, its in my genetic make-up.
Here is Sarah leading her class in a game of "red light, green light". The color of the "light" determines how fast you kick your legs.
And now the most climatic moment of all. Its the last day of lessons, will Shelby jump off the high dive? She has jumped off the regular diving board, which took a lot of courage because the water was 12 feet deep. She climbed the high dive once only to turn around and climb back down. Are you on the edge of your seat with anticipation? Well I will leave you in suspense no longer.

She did it!