Hang with ME!!

My blog is soooo pitiful!! Hang with me my faithful bloggers and I promise after finals week I will do a big catch up!!

Stationery card

Celebrate The Season Christmas Card

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Highlights from women's conference fall 2011

Sister Julie B. Beck- "I am grateful that one of the Lord’s primary purposes in organizing Relief Society was to give the women the responsibility to help prepare “for the greater blessings of the priesthood found in the ordinances and covenants of the temple.”

Sister Silvia H. Allred- "The scriptural declaration “Charity never faileth” became the motto of Relief Society because it embraces these teachings and the charge that the Prophet Joseph Smith had given the Relief Society sisters to “relieve the poor” and to “save souls.”

Sister Barbara Thompson- "Once again, “Lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made.” Keeping covenants is true joy and happiness. This is comfort and peace. This is protection from the evils of the world. Keeping our covenants will help us in times of trial."

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf- "Sisters, wherever you are, whatever the circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you, with an infinite love."

To watch the conference, go here.
Oh, and check this very handsome photo of my hero Dieter Uchtdorf...oh yeah.

To read about the awesome photo, go here.

Little things

Started my day off at 5:30am! And did I mention that today is SUNDAY!! Oh how I miss having a day of rest! Life just seems so crazy at the moment. I start every day at 5:00am. Then I either go to school or go to work. On the days I am home I am usually canning and drying food to preserve it for winter, because I can't seem to bring myself not to after so many years of building up my food storage this time of year. I hope I live through the next few months! Breaks usually helps me to refocus and get going again.

I am grateful for the little moments that are getting me through. I really like my job and the people I am getting to know and serve. I can't imagine what it must be like to have to rely on someone else to do everyday things for you. My job has given me a new perspective of how much people need someone to care. Caring and serving others really helps to fill my cup. Sunday dinner with my family also rejuvenates me. I love to cook yummy food for my family, I love dinner time conversations and I love to have laughter in our home.

These are the little things that keep me going.

I

25 year Anniniversary

I wrote the following post in June and was waiting to figure out John's new bloggie to post some pictures from our Salt Lake get-a-way celebration. But we recently got back from a trip to San Fransisco to finish our 25th year celebration so I didn't want to wait any longer to post.
Twenty Five Years of Wed-id BLISS! NOT!! Okay well maybe!!


Well........ if I painted that kind of picture grandchildren that will be reading this one day, will have high expectations of marriage and not be able to live up to it!! ( my children know better because they live with us) So lets just say after twenty five years of married life, I have learned, laughed, loved and lived!! I am grateful everyday for the opportunity of being married to my best friend. A best friend is someone who sees your imperfections and loves you anyway, someone who forgives easily and loves unconditionally. I love having someone to share my dreams with and someone to share my fears with. Marriage is hard it takes work and dedication, it take a forgiving heart and a sense of humor, it is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. I have learned many Christ like attributes that only marriage can teach and I am grateful everyday for opportunity to learn and grow with my sweet hubby John. :)

As I have been reminiscing over the past twenty five years of my life as a married women I came up with some great and wonderful memories.............

• Our first date!
• The first time he held my hand!
• Our first kiss!!
• How he looked at me as we knelt across an alter and committed to each other for Eternity.
• Our honeymoon
• Chasing me around or first apartment!
• How he held me when we learned of our unborn baby's stillbirth.
• His gentle and loving words as a new father at our babies funeral.
• How he held my hand,wiped my brow and kissed my lips at the birth of each our four children.
• Seeing him hold a tiny baby in his arms as if it might break
  
• Getting up nights with our children.
• Being so proud of each and every advancement our little ones would make
  
• Family vacations
• Teaching our children to ride their bikes together
  
• Dancing in the rain
• Making love under the stars!
• Caring for me when sick
• Sending me off to Hawaii for an American Mother convention while he stayed behind with the children
• Date nights
• Building me a home
• Rubbing my tired feet at the end of a long day!
• Going to the movies
• Concerts in the park
• Waiting up with me past a teen's curfew
• Holding me when I cry
• Setting goals and dreaming dreams with me
• Watching him coach a child
• Watching him lead and teach a child, a young women, a young man
  
• Working hard to provide for me
• Washing dishes along side me
• Snuggling in bed on a cold winter night
• Laughing
• Loosing our dad's with in five days of each other.
• The wedding day of our first son
• Supporting me and loving me as I go back to school.
• Learning to cook, so you can have a meal on the table when I get home after a long day
• Praying with me
• Holding my hand in Church
• Encouraging me to keep going even when I don't think I can get back up
  
• That look in your eye
• The way you kiss my neck
• Dreaming Dreams with me

And the list goes on..............and on as we begin creating the next 25 years together!!

The following are some picture from our California trip. We had a hard time deciding what we could do to celebrate with me in Summer semester. The weekend of our Anniversary John planned a fun over night get-away to Salt Lake. He reserved us a room at the Marriott downtown, they brought us complementary desert for our celebration! We had a romantic dinner at an Indian restaurant followed by a concert in the park. It was a fun and relaxing retreat! Then between summer semester and fall we took off to northern California not really having a plan just to drive and have a chance to talk see a new part of the country. We spent our first in at Lake Tahoe, it was our first time there and I don't think it will be our last! We fell in love with the beautiful lake and surrounding area. The rest of our trip we stayed in Oakland California across the bay from San Fransisco. We took our bikes and spent time on them touring San Fransisco. Fisherman's wharf, where we ate crab and yummy sour dough. WE rode our bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge and through China town. We ate a romantic dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant. And rode through Golden State Park. We certainly did our share of riding but it was a great way to get around. We really do love to travel and see fun places. It is also great to have alone time with my sweetie!!
Lake Tahoe

San Fransisco
Peri 39



Golden Gate Bridge





Oakland BridgeGolden Gate Park
Oakland LDS Temple

Biking

I have a new love/hate relationship with my bike. I started riding my bike a couple of years ago when I had to give up walking with my friends, do to my leg and back injury. My bike helped me feel like I could exercise again which gave me a good feeling. I don't ever want to be sedentary, I enjoy exercising. For the past couple years I have not push myself in my riding, riding is hard and it takes a lot of muscle strength. I was happy that I could ride around Mantua Lake twice at one time ( 8 miles). I rode my bike all the way through November last year and was sad when the weather turned and I could no longer ride. I then decided to take a spinning class to keep riding through the winter months, I had no idea what I was in for! I soon learned that spinning was for the high end cycler, which I was not. The first class I took,I could only stand on my spinning bike for 30 seconds at a time because of the leg strength you need to endure. I did however last the entire 1 hour class, and made a commitment to myself that I was going to conquer this challenging class. I have stuck with the class now for nine months and I have seen a great improvement in my road bike endurance because of the strength I have gained. I have now worked up to 20 miles on my bike!! Yahoo!! And I can keep up with the best of them in spin class!! I feel empowered and it is a great feeling be active and healthy. To be totally honest I still hate the first 5 miles, or first 20 min of spin class, but the last 15 miles and the rest of spin class the adrenalin kicks in and I love the feeling of working hard!! It also has helped me realize that I can accomplish the goals I place before myself, when I am going up tough hills on my bike it helps me realize that the tough hills I am going through in life can also be conquered. So last year my goal was to make it around Mantua Lake twice a total of 8 miles and I did it. This year my goal is to make it around Bear Lake a total of 50 miles!! Results yet to come!!

catch up

I so need to catch up on my much neglected blog and I am not sure where to begin. I forgot all about posting Brady's graduation from Utah State University in May. I am so proud of him and this accomplishment. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in broad cast journalism. I know he worked hard and hat a ton of fun with college life. Now that he is married and no longer a "Bachelor" he would like to go on and get a law degree!! He is planning on taking the LSTAT this fall.

Summer has gone by really fast! And in some ways I feel I missed it all together, I have been taking classes and it has really been hard on me, I am set on my goal and I know that part of that is sacrifice so I sacrificed my summer for school!! I did have a few moments of peace and quiet and some relaxation at Tony's grove, some summer concerts and a romantic get away with John for our 25th wedding anniversary. We had a fourth of July picnic and fireworks in the park. So all in all it was a fun summer............and I have two weeks left of it and I have PLANS!! The following are some pictures from summer.