Happy 21st Anniversary

On February 1st, Tom and I will celebrate our 21st Anniversary. That is a lot of years together. This means that we have shared 21 years of sweat, blood, tears and pure bliss together.
Tom and I met in Weber High Marching Band. He played the trumpet and I played the clarinet. Although he was 2 years older than me, we did get to see each other quite a bit inside and outside of school. If I would have known that he was such a math wiz, I would have requested that he tutor me. Well, after a year of high school, and a year of dating him while he attended USU, he decided to go on a mission. I still had one more year of high school and one year for college. He left for New Jersey, sharing his testimony with the people there and I joined the Seminary Council and then the Institute Welcoming Committee.
When he returned from his mission, it took him a total of 10 days, to ask me to marry him. Knowing that he was the right one for me, I said "YES". I loved him, my parents loved him and I knew that the Lord loved him. So, as naive as we were, we set off on a new adventure together. We joined our love forever in the Salt Lake Temple in the middle of a Snow Storm. As we ran outside to the doors of the Temple for pictures, I exclaimed, "the angels are throwing rice."
Tom and I recently attended a wedding that was performed in the Salt Lake Temple. The officiator, had given some great counsel, to the new couple. Then as he performed the wedding, he said it slowly putting emphasis on the key words of the ceremony. It was a such great opportunity to be there and to be reminded of the covenants that We made with our Father in Heaven when we were sealed for Time and All Eternity. He did mention something that I had never thought of before, that has brought me to think about how I can make our marriage even better. The advice he gave was so simple, yet it made such a great impact on me and I will try to always abide by it. He was talking about the covenant we make with God, that we will receive our spouse unto us, just like our Father in Heaven would receive them. I need to look at Tom through Gods eyes, and receive him the way our Father in Heaven would do. What great counsel from a wise and inspired man. What would happen, if everyone would do this with their spouse? Would our perspective change? Would we be more willing to forgive, help, comfort, support, and love? Would the walls of hate, distrust and selfishness dissipate? I believe our hearts would change! Happy Anniversary Tom. I love You Forever!

Attitude of Gratitude

This last Sunday, our family was asked to speak on Gratitude. Can I just say, I'm grateful that it's over. In preparing for our talks, Gracie reminded us over and over that she was not going to give a talk. No amount of bribery was going to change her mind. However, she did say that she would sing with Emma. So, Emma gave a short talk about the Ten Lepers, and how we should recognize where our blessings come from. Then, Emma and Gracie sang a song called, "My Heavenly Father Loves Me". I couldn't believe that they did it so well. I asked them later, if they were scared and both said "no".

Then we were privileged to hear from Ty and he told an awesome story that goes like this.

A long time ago in a faraway village lived a man who everyone did their very best to avoid. He was the type of person who believed that there was only one competent person in the world, and that one person was himself. Consequently, he was never satisfied with anything. His shoes never fit right. His shirt never felt comfortable. When his food wasn’t too cold, it was too salty, and when it wasn’t too hot, it was too bland.

If a field wasn’t sowed by himself, it was not sowed well. If he didn’t close the door, the door was not closed properly.

In short, he made a career of frowning, lecturing, criticizing, and mumbling about the incompetencies of every other person in the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, the man was married, which made matters all the worse. No matter what his wife did, in his eyes it was wrong. No matter what the unfortunate woman cooked, sewed, or cleaned—or even when she milked the cow—it was never satisfactory, and he let her know it.

She tried very hard to be a good wife, but it seemed the harder she tried, the less she pleased him. Finally, one evening she could take no more.

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” she told him. “Tomorrow I will do your chores and you will do mine.”

“But you can’t do my chores,” the man replied. “You don’t know the first thing about sowing, hoeing, and irrigating.”

But the woman was adamant. And on top of that, she was filled with a righteous anger that frankly astonished and frightened the man to the point where he didn’t dare disagree.

So the next morning the wife went off to the fields and the man began the domestic chores. After thinking about it, he had actually convinced himself he was looking forward to it. Once and for all, he would demonstrate to his wife how things should be done.

Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan. In fact, nearly everything the man touched turned into disaster. He spilled the milk, let the pig get into the house, lost the cow, burned the dinner, and ultimately set the house on fire, narrowly escaping with his own life.

When his wife returned, she discovered her husband sitting on a pile of ashes, smoke still rising from his clothes. But the woman wasn’t the type to rub things in. She helped him up, wiped the soot from his beard, fixed him a little something to eat, and then prepared a bed of straw for them to sleep on.

From that day forward, the man never complained about anyone or anything else for as long as he lived.

Bryce shared some more insight on the story of the Ten Lepers taken from a talk given by President Thomas Monson.

Then Bryce and Tyler played a duet of "Each Life That Touches Ours For Good". I was really impressed that they pulled it together so well. It really sounded beautiful and they learned to work together to get something done.

I was the lucky one to go next and so I shared some stories about Matt and my dad, and how to look for ways to live with Gratitude in our Hearts by following these fives steps.
Pray Always
Make the Best of Each Day
Give Service to Others
Don't Be Distracted By Worldly Things
Be An Example

Then Tom up and shared a story from President Hinckley. Here is the link to it:
What I learned as a Boy

I believe that life is all about recognizing the hand of our Savior in ALL that we do. He has given us life, he has given us families to be sealed to for Eternity, He has given us a Chance to Repent through the Atonement, and the ultimate gift to be able to Live with Him again.

This Thanksgiving Season, May we all recognize our Bounteous Blessings!

What I got out of the Glenn Beck Rally

For more pictures check out the links to the right



Glenn Beck Rally

August 21-29, 2010
We were fortunate to go to Washington D.C. for the Glenn Beck Restoring Honor Rally on August 28th. We actually took a tour with LDS Travel and spent a wonderful time with our guides, We toured through New York and saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and an Awesome Toys R Us store at Times Square New York. We then spent a day at Gettysburg where we learned about the Civil War that raged, where lives were lost and brother was fighting against brother, and Father against Son.

Gettysburg

Then we toured through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where we learned about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Amendments to the Constitution. The kids favorite thing about Pennsylvania, was the Hershey Chocolate Factory! We also stayed in Lancaster and visited the Amish Country and were fortunate to try some homemade root beer and chips. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.



Thomas Jefferson's Home in Monticello

We then headed to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson and we were amazed at the wonderful gardens, and ingenuity of a great man. One who spent hours writing the Declaration of Independence. We gained a new respect and love for our country and the leaders that started our Country. Then we spent time learning about our Nations First President, George Washington. We toured through his amazing home in Mount Vernon. What a wise and humble man he was.



Mt Vernon, George Washington's Home

Arlington Cemetery was a humbling experience to take in. As we walked along the streets that surrounded the graves of those who have fought for our Country and Freedom, how does one keep the tears from coming? We visited the Tomb of the Unknown and watched the "Changing of the Guards". Then we headed to the north of there to see the Arlington House where General Lee was living when they took his property for burying the soldiers. What a sight from his front door. You can see Washington D.C., with the Capital Building, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and Jefferson Monument all neatly placed in a row. We even got to see the statue of the "Flag of our Fathers", at night. What an awesome sight.


View from Front of Arlington House, Arlington Cemetery

We spent 2 days in Washington D.C. which was not enough time to catch all that we wanted to. We saw the White House and then toured the Capitol Building. We spent some time in the 'Free' Smithsonian Museums and enjoyed the amazing sights and history that is kept there.



Glenn Beck Rally

Then on August 28th, we arose early to arrive at the Glenn Beck Restoring Honor Rally. I was in awe of the support he received from so many wonderful people. We were so amazed at how friendly everyone was and how many were there because their love for their Country. There was a lot said about restoring the Values to our Country.



Glenn Beck Rally

I learned that this is my time to be here on Earth and that it does matter what I do and say to others. It matters that I teach my children to be honest, caring, giving, God Loving, and Righteous. I have been saved for these latter days, because I was a Valiant Daughter of God, and I am called to teach my children to stand for Truth and Righteousness, no matter the cost. We need to have 'Faith' in Jesus Christ, our Savior, have 'Hope' that things will get better and that we can return to live in Heaven with our Father in Heaven, and then live like our example, Jesus Christ and have Charity, the Pure Love of Christ, be the center in all we do.

The Bear Lake

When I was a kid, we used to go to Bear Lake and swim for the day and go home totally burned to a crisp. We dug holes in the sand and then placed our towel over the hole that was big enough for our bottoms to sit down in and we would eat our lunch out on the sand. Yep, we are lucky to still have teeth after all of the grit that was in our meal. Then, at the end of our adventure, we would pile into the back of the truck and we would argue about who was going to get to sit on the wheel on the way home. It was the best seat in the back, because you could sit higher than anyone else, and you could feel the wind blow against your face. No seat belts, just 7 kids in the back of a truck with our towels and blow up toys we towed to the lake with us. Good Times!
Well, I still have fond memories of Bear Lake and this time we took the kids and slept overnight in a tent. We decided to follow Tyler's scout group up there and camp overnight. Then we could hook up with them after they 'Biked the Bear.' All 53 miles all the way around the lake. By the time we got out of here, it was almost 8:00 pm. We didn't want to leave that late, but due to schedules, we had no choice. We pulled in to the North Shore Hot Springs camping area, paid our $20 for the night, and pitched our tent in the field of grass. At least that's what we were told it was. It was more like, ragweed that was sparse on a sloped hill full of gopher, mice and rat holes. I wouldn't recommend this camp ground for campers like us. (It was the most expensive and crowded, and very bumpy ground for tents.)

Some good friends of ours went up with us, because her husband was biking the Bear with the scouts and she thought it would be fun to be up there too. So, we pitched our tents in the dirt and laid out the sleeping bags and mattress pads and started to doze, when the wind started to pick up. I had earplugs in and started to pray that the wind would stop. The next thing I know, Gracie, who is laying next to me is getting hit in the face with the tent pole. We couldn't even find Bryce because he was covered with the tent like it had just swallowed him up. Then I hear yelling and screaming outside, next to us. Our poor friends tent had totally collapsed and had eaten them up too. Then it tried to fill with air and take off like a hot air balloon. Their youngest was scared he was going to blow away, or really get eaten. Then, we hear the rest of the camp yelling, "Be Quiet" Except they didn't really say it that nice, the words they used have been banned from our home, but they start with an S and a U.
Well, their tent was toast, so they put the cooler from their car in the tent, so it wouldn't blow away, and they all piled in the car for the night. It's one of those fancy company cars that has an alarm and a sensor and every time they moved inside the car, the lights on the dash would turn on, and if you moved too much the alarm would go off. At this point what do you do, except laugh? Really. What do you do?

Bryce was still being swallowed by the tent, so I told him to use his bag to push up against the corner of the tent to keep the poles from hitting him and Gracie in the head. So he did, and then we could feel these cold gusts of wind that blew right through the sleeping bags and blankets. It was a night to remember. Emma and Tom slept like rocks and didn't really know what happened that night. Bryce and I kept pulling the blankets and sleeping bag over Gracie as she kept kicking them off all night long. At some point in the night, the wind stopped and we slept great.


After that long night, I was grateful that we were headed for a day of playing and relaxing. I did settle down on a blow up mattress on the beach for a while, after I had sprayed the girls and myself with sunscreen. It was nice to watch the clear blue water flow up on the shore and to see how beautiful that lake really is. It's really quite a sight. The water has always been known to be freezing cold, but it wasn't too bad this time of year. The kids played in the water for hours and built sand castles in the sand and burred the boys up to their necks. We ate lunch and roasted hot dogs for dinner on the beach and had a wonderful day. It was just a 'Bear' of a night!

We hooked up with the scouts and picked up Tyler from the group and showed him how to use our friends 'skim board'. That was fun, but harder than it appears. Bryce and I tried several times to figure it out. Tyler was a little bit tired from the bike trip and has been feeling rather sore when he tries to sit down. (The whole group is having a hard time sitting down.)
If we didn't have trials, we wouldn't grow, and we couldn't enjoy the good times in life. This was a very memorable trip, one that I will never forget anyway, and look forward to good times ahead.

We All Have Our Moments

Emma and Gracie in the clean living room

Friday morning, we all got up early and attacked the "To Do List". We needed to get our jobs done so that we could play on Saturday. We have divided the chore list into two, since Matt left, we needed to revise things, like dishes, lawn mowing, and cleaning the house. Gracie was Bryce's buddy and Emma was Tyler's buddy for the day. I helped both of the boys with their jobs. We first started with the Living Room. I needed to rearrange the furniture and clean out behind the sofa. I love to rearrange stuff, it makes it feel new again. We found some little doll shoes, hair clips, and a couple of books. The living room is my favorite room in the house. It gives me a sense of peace when the rest of the house is in chaos.
After finishing the living room, we started on the kitchen and dining room. At this point, Gracie went and laid down in the hallway and started to cry. "I wish Matt was here so he could play with me" she says. "I know, me too honey." I replied. "Can we just go and pick him up from the MTC so he can play with us?" She asked. "I wish we could, but he is helping Heavenly Father right now, and he needs to stay for two years." My heart was aching for him to be home, but I know he is where he needs to be. It was really endearing to see her want him home so much.
We worked hard and fast to finish the cleaning and then sat down for lunch. It was Gracie's turn to pray, and she always blesses Matt that he will learn his Spanish, and that he will hurry home. Tears welled up in my eyes and I started to cry, thinking that this is hard sometimes. I keep trying to stay busy, and when the tears come, I try to think of something else really quick. It wasn't working. "Oh shoot!" I think, "I can't stop those darn tears." After the prayer, Tyler looks up at me and says, "Are you alright mom?" "Yes. It's just a moment." "Oh," he replies, "I had one of those when I got my letter from Matt."
This made me laugh a little, and I quickly dried my eyes and started talking to the kids of the events for July 24th. Bryce and I left at 5:45 for the 5k and then Tom and his family met us at the finish line. It's been good to share running time with Bryce to keep us happy!
Here are some shots of the 24th of July parade in Salt Lake City. It's our favorite parade. The highlight every year is being able to see the Prophet or one of his counselors. What an awesome feeling to be there.

Bryce, Tyler, Krissy, Gracie, Emma, Grandma Hales, Bill, Diane and Leon, SLC, parade


Krissy and Bryce after running in the Deseret News 5k before the parade


The highlight of the Parade, President Dieter F Uchtdorf

The Night I Was Almost Eaten By a Wild Beast

Book Club Camp went as well as it does every year. Tom, of course, was put in charge of the movie for Sunday night. But, instead of bringing up the huge screen and the projector, he brought up my computer monitor and his lap top and hooked them up to the generator. This way, we were hauling stuff that was more compact. Anyway, we all sat down to watch "Samuel the Lamanite" with the gang and about half way through the movie, we see 2 deer prance through the camp. A few minutes later, the deer ran through the opposite direction. In my mind, I'm thinking, hmmm, they must have gotten spooked by something. Then my mind starts to wonder, again. You know it's sometimes a curse to have such a great imagination. So, then I think of all the possibilities that it might have been, a kid, or a mountain lion. You know, it's possible, we are in the mountains.

Well, it's getting dark about now, and the movie isn't quite over, and Emma and Gracie have fallen asleep on me and Tom. So, the movie ends and Tom and I put the head lamps on our head and start to clean up. I take Gracie up to the truck and put her in her car seat and buckle her up, because we are heading out for home tonight and it is almost 10:00 pm. Tyler had scout camp the following morning, so I needed to hurry and clean up our stuff, so we could leave. I head back to camp and start to fold up the table cloths that I bring every year, and I hear something in the bushes on the other side of the creek. I looked up and saw something walking toward me with big glowing eyes. My head lamp was not as bright as I wanted it to be, so I start to walk backward towards Tom who is about 15 feet behind me. The thing was still walking toward me and in the process of trying to brighten my head lamp, I turned it off, apparently it was on the highest setting. Then I start to get a little scared and I can't scream, my voice went all shaky and stuff, like when you're in a bad dream and you can't scream and you move in slow motion. In my mind I'm thinking that this is a mountain lion and it scared the deer away. In my shaky voice, I say, "Oh my gosh, Tom, Oh my gosh," He says "what?", At first he was thinking that I had caught the table cloth on fire, because I was folding them by the citronella candles grandma had burning on the tables to get rid of the mosquito's. So, I'm trying to keep moving back and then he see's the glowing eyes too and says, "get behind me." So, by now, I realize that this thing coming up on me is very big, at least to my waist. I backed up behind Tom and I see fur and lots of it. The thought that came to mind was, "it's a wolf, and I'm going to get eaten." Then as it got closer, I realized that it was a huge German Shepherd. In my anger, because it scared me so bad, I yelled at it to get out of there and go home. It turned around and headed back the way it came. It probably doesn't even know where home is.

My heart was pounding in my throat and my knees felt like I just ran 10 miles and were shaking and felt like jello. The dog walked away, but apparently went up to the parking area where Bryce was carrying sleeping Emma to the truck. He saw the dog start walking toward him so he tells Emma to "get in the truck" and he throws her in and her shoe fell off in all the commotion. She starts to cry about her shoe and Bryce is scared half to death because of this huge dog. He reaches down and grabs her shoe and throws it in the truck and then has to close the back door to the truck before he shuts the front door, just before the dog gets to the truck.

We carried the plastic baseball bats around with us for the rest of the night, and watched for the dog, hoping that it wouldn't come back, but it did. Tom didn't even realize he had told me to get behind him. His protective instincts must have kicked in.

Go ahead and laugh all you want. I know someday, I will laugh at this too. The dog actually turned out to be nice enough, at least he never growled at anyone, and never ate any of us. But in the dark, he looked pretty scary, especially when all I could see was his glowing eyes for a while as he advanced toward me.

Happy 40th Birthday To Me

This is a picture of my mountain. Ben Lomond Peak! This picture was taken from my front yard. It is a a whopping 9,712 feet high and 15.2 miles round trip, but you only gain 2300 feet while hiking. We started at the trail head at the top of North Ogden Divide and the hike took us 9 hours to complete. But, I need to back up just a bit and tell how we started.
Since I was going to join the rest of the older folks in the 'Over the Hill' category, I wanted to do something spectacular for my birthday. I wanted to accomplish something that has been on my 'To Do List' for years. I wanted to climb Ben Lomond Peak.
I had made arrangements for the girls to stay with my mom for the day so we wouldn't have to carry them all the way up and back. It's a good thing we did. That is a serious hike for just my own body, let alone, having to carry dead body weight up would have really been discouraging and would have given me second thoughts. So, we dropped the girls off with Grandma, who was more than happy to take them.
We were headed for the store next, we purchased granola bars, wint o green lifesavers, milk chugs (for when we got back), beef jerky,apples and bananas. Matt was in the middle of taking an oral typhoid immunization that has different side effects like nausea, fever, vomiting, headaches and so on. He had to stay on schedule and take 4 pills over a 7 day period. He forgot to take his pill this morning, so we ran home and he took it. Then we got up there to the trail head and realized that Matt and Bryce forgot their water bottles. I had packed two, but that was not enough for 2 boys and myself. Might I add, two very big boys. So, we ran home in the van and got the water bottles and headed up again. This time, it was for real. It was now 11:30 a.m. and we were just starting our hike. I was sure that we would be back by 5:00 at the latest. HAHA!

The trail starts heading up the hill with a lot of switch backs and about 2 hours into it, Matt was not feeling very well. He stopped to take a break and get hydrated. At this point, I'm still thinking that we will make it back to our car by 5:00. Little did I know. So, we started plugging away and listened to Tyler giggle and laugh and talk. Matt tried to convince him that it was a waste of energy to talk so much, but he just kept talking anyway. We stopped at a nice spot to eat some lunch so I snapped a picture of the cool trees that are growing crooked.

There were a lot of big black beetles crawling around the ground that made me kind of creep out a bit, but Tyler thought that they were cool and wanted to bring them home with him. He is seriously still in that kid phase. He loves stuff like that.
Well, 4:00 came and went and we were actually at the base of the peak, ready to finish the hike. We looked up and realized there was snow on the back side, and lot of it. Another group came down and told us to go around it, a little scary, but they had a younger girl with them about Tyler's age that made it just fine. We could totally handle that. Right!

At this point, my fingers are swollen and the apple I ate is not sitting well in my tummy. We began the hike, and as we got farther up, we realized that all of the switch backs are covered in snow. The higher we went the deeper it got. We started to go around, but realized it was getting a little too scary for me, so we started to make our own switch backs in the snow. Have you ever had swollen stiff fingers and then stuck them in the snow? OUCH! My fingers were burning. I mean really burning. They were just swollen from having them hang down all day and getting lots of blood to them, but not a lot out of them. At this point Matt says, "Hey Mom, do you really want to climb all the way up there? You can come back and do it another day if you want." There is no stinking way I'm turning around now, besides, I looked down and was afraid of how we were going to get off the mountain. We cut back and forth in the snow and reached some dry ground. We climbed over the snow bank and started climbing up to the top of the peak.


We made it!






We did it! I really had a lot of fun doing it. Matt, Bryce and Tyler were troopers for going with me. On our way back, I pulled out an emergency blanket from the back pack and we had talked about sitting on it and sliding down the snow. Once you sit and realize how fast you will be going and how steep the hill is, it makes you take a second thought of the insanity. The blanket began to rip, so we bagged that idea and just climbed down the rocky hill.
I had a great opportunity to talk with them about lessons in life and about family, and how much it means to me to have them be so good. I really feel blessed to have the family I have. I love having their support and I love supporting them. They are a great strength to me and will always be.
We finished our hike at 8:25 p.m. What a hike, what a day and what an awesome birthday. It is amazing what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it.
Tom met us at home with the girls and they had watched Alice in Wonderland with Grandma and then made me some very special lemon cake with yummy frosting and raspberries on top. What a treat!