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!

Then Comes the Blessings

Since the time, our son Matthew turned in his mission papers, we have been tried and tried. Here is a list of things that have happened since, along with the blessings.
Realizing that we still have 19 more days left and a lot can happen, I'm posting this anyway.

October 4, 2009: Hit a deer while driving home from Monte Cristo. We were driving through Eden when it happened.
Blessings: The air bags didn't deploy. Bryce wasn't driving. Tom was driving and didn't swerve to miss it, because there were ravines on both sides of the road that dropped 30-40 feet down. A policeman stopped and assessed the damages and wrote up a report. Finding later that the Insurance company would not have covered it without the report.

February 1, 2010: Bryce got in a car accident, in the van totaling 5 accidents for the van in 5 years.
Blessings: No one was hurt, and he had just taken Emma to school so there were no kids in the car. Tyler had stayed home also and was taking care of Gracie. It wasn’t Bryce’s fault.

February 1, 2010: Matt is breaking out in hives. Don’t know why.
Blessings: It only lasted 2 days and they were gone. He had them for 2 weeks last time.

March 16, 2010: Gracie cut all of her long hair off. It was choppy and short. Her hair was long to her bum and we were scheduled to have our pictures taken the next week.
Blessings: At least she didn’t shave her head or cut it to the scalp.

March 21,2010: Matt's car battery is dead. We keep charging it, but it won't hold the charge for long. He called from school to come jump his car.
Blessings: I got to teach Matt how to jump his car without help. Seeing that it is a Standard transmission, I taught him how to get it rolling and pop the clutch. He made it home.

March 22,2010: Matt got a parking ticket for facing his car the wrong direction on the road. He was trying to park his car facing down hill so he could pop the clutch if his battery was dead. 35.oo for the ticket.
Blessings: He was able to roll his car to start it with the dead battery. He learned to not park facing the wrong way.

March 26, 2010: Family pictures were scheduled and it was snowing, blowing and cold.
Blessings: It stopped snowing the moment we parked the car and entered the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and the sun came out.

March 31, 2010: Tyler hurt his foot playing soccer.
Blessings: It’s not broken,

April 2, 2010: Tyler’s foot still hurts, so we had an x-ray and still no knowledge of what’s going on.
Blessings: We had a boot and we had him wear it until his appointment with Dr. Goucher. I also learned that he is not a great Orthopedic Surgeon, so for future accidents, we won't go to him.

April 5, 2010: Gracie jumped off a chair and landed on Emma’s head with her nose. Broke her nose and she looks awful.
Blessings: She didn’t loose teeth or split Emma’s head. She is definitely still alive.

April 6, 2010: Matt was breaking out in hives. We got 5 inches of snow, and Matt got in a car accident after running a red light.
Blessings: Matt’s hives went away after just 1 day. He was driving the Buick instead of the Geo Metro. The Buick didn’t look very bad. The girl was driving by herself and no one was injured. The Buick had comprehensive insurance so all we had to pay out was 500 dollars.

April 7, 2010: Tyler got to see Dr Goucher for his foot. He got put in a cast.
Blessings: This didn’t happen before the play Annie Get Your Gun. He only has to wear it for 2 weeks instead of 6-8 weeks. He’s received a lot of attention from a lot of kids including his older brothers.

April 16, 2010: Monica called to say that Cameron was sick, so I picked him up and took him home from school. The garage door spring broke when I went to pick him up.
Blessings: We weren’t under the garage door when the spring broke. Tom knew someone that could fix it and it only cost us 75.00. It broke when no one was in the way. I was able to help Cameron.

April 16, 2010: Matt locked himself out of the car.
Blessings: I had been prompted to go and tape a spare key in the back of the Geo to save him from doing that again like he did this last winter. He claims I saved the day.

May 7, 2010: The lawn mower won't start and chain keeps coming off.
Blessings: Tom got to spend some time with the boys teaching them how to tighten a chain by taking out some of the links, and he also taught them how to hot wire the lawn mower. The seat safety mechanism isn't working, so we need to hot wire it every time. We still can mow our lawn with the ancient riding mower. We also got a new ignition for the mower because the other one was worn out.

May 21, 2010: The garage door gears stripped out and can’t open the door. We were getting ready for a date, and found that the door wouldn’t close. Oh Raspberries. So, Tom called and got it fixed on June 7, 2010.
Blessings: It didn’t cost us 200.00, It only cost 110.00 and the guy that fixed it was really nice and friendly.
Now, the belt is making an awful noise and needs to be fixed. (To be continued)

June 8, 2010: We lost 2 trees; One of our peach trees and a flowering pear tree.
Blessings: Our favorite neighbor Leon Fowers, helped us till our garden, pull out the dead trees and cut them up with the chain saw. We have connections with Lomond View Nursery and we were able to haul the dead wood over there to be burned. I also had a fresh loaf of banana bread to give him.

The ultimate blessing in all of this, is knowing that our Father in Heaven is aware of what we are going through and sees what we need to become better people. He loves us and won't let us suffer through this alone. I have been so grateful for Tom, who can see the bright side in things when it gets overwhelming for me. He completes me. I am grateful for the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the knowledge of Satan and his plan to tear us down. We are trying to keep things in perspective and hope and pray that we will become all that we need to while here on earth.

The Best Daddy's Ever

Seeing that it is June and Father's Day is on the 20th of the this month, I thought I would write about the best daddy's ever. I have a great dad, of whom I owe a lot of gratitude for. He taught me how to change a tire, start a truck with issues by sticking a screwdriver in the choke to open it up, and how to change the oil in a car. He was there when I learned how to ride a bike and skinned my knees. He was there when I fell down on our driveway with my broken foot and fixed my owies. He even took me driving in our little Toyota truck to teach me how to drive a stick. Bless his heart! I mean that literally. He has been there for us in the middle of the night when we were sick with some dreaded gomboo, and is now there for me when my kids have the gomboo. He just knows that a little bit of 'Jack Daniels' goes a long way. HaHa. (Inside joke.) He really knows his stuff when it comes to medicine, as a Pharmacist, he is the best 'Pillar of Society' I know. Every once in a while, I meet someone who swears my dad saved their life once by helping them choose the best remedy for their illness. He has always been a giant in my life, that I look up to and has a very tender heart. I really do love him forever and back.



I also need to express my gratitude for an awesome Hubby. He is the father of our children and they all look up to him with the utmost respect. When I first met him, it was his huge smile that caught my eye. Oh wow! He can still flash that smile any day and melt my heart. He offered us (Karen, Eric and I) a ride home from marching band practice one day. The rest is history. Really, he was everything I ever wanted and needed. He used to play the piano in the band room after practice and he could get quite the crowd standing around requesting songs. I love to sit on the piano bench by his side and watch him play.



On May 28, the last day of school, he promised Emma that he would take her to school on the motorcycle. Our motorcycle is not anything to brag about, it is ancient and was used by Tom and his brothers when they were kids. It is often having difficulties staying in running condition. Nevertheless, Tom had promised her, and take her, he did. We found a pink helmet on clearance and Emma was so excited to go riding. She could hardly stand herself. Tom kicked it off to a start and helped Emma climb aboard. There they were, the happiest faces on earth. Tom was happy because Emma was happy and Emma was happy, because she got to go with her daddy on the motorcycle.



Tom made the round to school successfully and waiting so patiently, was little Gracie, who was set on her daddy taking her to Preschool on the motorcycle. She didn't really understand that preschool was out for the summer and she won't be going back until next fall. So, daddy humored her and took her for a ride up and down our street. She was yelling to me "Look at me mommy, I'm riding on the front." Oh, little does their daddy know, just how much that means to them. They will probably remember that for the rest of their lives. Emma talked about it all day after school. She remembers how she smelled like the motorcycle all day. She just giggled and talked about how fun it was with Gracie.



Not only do the girls love Tom, the boys do too. He has often taken them to soccer games, coached their soccer team, taught them how to fix the mower, their car, spent countless hours with them on their math assignments, and has had the patience of Job while doing it. He has never yelled at the kids. He has spoken very sternly, but has never yelled. He has been a great example to them in all aspects. He has a love for the gospel, our country, his family, hard work, and the Savior. I would like to be like him when I grow up. I'm sure that he got his patience from his mom. She did a great job raising him and I still feel like I got the best of the bunch. I also think that he is the strongest of the bunch as well. That's an inside joke with me and his family. No one has dared challenge him yet. I have a love and respect for him that will carry through eternity. Thank heaven for Forever Families, because I really love mine.

Broken Noses

Day 1
The Monday after our family pictures, I was visiting the restroom, when I heard an awful scream and cry coming from the living room. The next thing I know, Tyler is running back to get me and I'm hurrying as fast as I can, but not fast enough. Then Tom comes running back with our little Gracie in his arms.
Gracie was telling her brothers that she had invisible bat wings. She was standing on a chair in the living room and was preparing to jump off and fly! Right? That doesn't happen in real life. Emma was in front of the chair on all fours preparing to jump up. You see where this is going right? Just as the one jumped off to fly, so did the other and down came Gracie on Emma's head as she was going up.
How does a nose get that big on a little girl? OUUCH! She did not look so good.

Day 2
On Wednesday, we were getting ready to run Tyler to the doctor because he had hurt his foot on Tuesday playing soccer, when Gracie says, "Mommy, you have two heads". What? OK. I'm thinking, signs of a concussion are double vision. This is where WebMD comes in handy. I knew she couldn't smell, and she sounded like she had a stuffy nose when she talked, but double vision is not something I wait around for to see if it gets better. We took her into Doctor Matt, and he says to keep an eye on her, but he didn't see any signs of a concussion. If she is still seeing double tomorrow, bring her in. It was probably due to all the swelling around her eye. Well, she stopped seeing double, but couldn't smell anything for 2 weeks. She couldn't even smell the skunks when we drove by a dead one. Lucky girl.

Day 3
Now we tell her that there is no such thing as invisible bat wings or invisible anythings, except the Holy Ghost. It took 3 weeks for the bruise to go away and I'd like to say that it has made her more cautious, but that would be a lie.

Don't Worry Mom, It Will Grow Back

One morning, Gracie plopped herself down on the tile floor and waited for me to finish fixing her breakfast. She looked so cute with her hands squishing her cheeks and the soft puppy dog look in her eyes just melted my heart. I made her promise that she would stay just like that so I could grab the camera. What a little angel. Really, she was just waiting so patiently. This was the last picture we got of her long beautiful hair. I really miss her long hair. It still had some of that natural curl she was born with. Sure enough, that cute curly hair was not going to stay forever. It grew out with the rest of her hair.

March 16, I went with my sister and mom and Matt to lunch and Tyler was left in charge of the girls. You see, it was Matt's and mom's birthday and we wanted to celebrate. Tyler was unaware of the little darling that had gone in her room and sat in front of her mirror and with a pair of preschool scissors had started chopping away. She had two small ponytails in the front on top of her head, and she chopped those off, then she began to chop at the sides. When I got home, I thought, wow, you need a hairdo girl. Your hair looks awful. So I put her up on the counter and she put her feet in the sink while I began to comb her hair. That's when I realized that she had done an awful thing. She had a 4inch wide strip of hair down the back and that was pretty much all that was left untouched. Then the tears began to well up in my eyes. How could this happen? Why didn't Tyler catch her before this happened? How did she get a hold of those scissors? Why did she do this? Didn't she know that we have family pictures planned for next week? Doesn't she understand that I don't have time to fix this right now? We are supposed to be at the school in 30 minutes and Tyler needed his makeup on for the dress rehearsal for the school play, Annie Get Your Gun.
So, I grabbed my scissors, meant for cutting hair and a squirt bottle and I wet her down and started chopping away the uneven, straight hair. "Don't worry mom, It will grow back". "I still have hair mommy, look." What do you say to that? I am used to her hair short now. I still have to curl it everyday to cover up some of the deep cuts she took with the scissors. The front was the worst. She wears one or two ponytails in her hair everyday to cover up the uneven cuts. Oh well, it will grow back, and she is still cute without the long curls down her back. Who knew that preschool scissors could do that?

The Call

On February 17, friends and family gathered around one person. Waiting to hear the big news. In my heart, I as a mother, kept praying, 'Please, Heavenly Father, help me to be ok with where ever he is called to serve.' I know that his call was sent for him and he is going to be the best missionary for the people he will serve and share the gospel with.
The anticipation was killing us. The mail came at 4:30pm and he was the first to get it. He hid in the office with it held tight to his chest. I had inquired as to whether it had arrived, but the smile and blush in his face revealed it had, long before he could admit to the fact that it indeed had come. He then hid his call, and left for his Physics lab at Weber State University. He wouldn't be home until 8:30.
I tried to calm myself and clean up the family room which would soon be filled with people who love him. We sat in the room, but couldn't hold still because of the excitement that was in the air. Some bets were made, he would go State-side, some other bet that he would go to Europe. Don't worry, no money was involved.
So, 8:30 arrived and we were all so excited. He was home and the anticipation was killing me. We were ready for anything. I had even taped a world map up on the family room wall, just so we could find the place if we didn't know where it was.
He slowly cut open the envelope revealing a letter signed by the Prophet of God. Dear Matthew Thomas Hales..... You are hereby called to serve in the Chihuahua, Mexico mission.....It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months.....You will report to the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center on June 30,2010.
To be honest, I was relieved that he went foreign and that he was still close enough that I could still drive there if I had too. So, land of the "little dog". I called a lot of people and shared the news. Who wouldn't be proud of a son that was worthy to serve the Lord. Chihuahua. Wow. Where do I begin. Well, first we start with the passport, then the visa, then all of the shots, the clothes that you buy for the mission and mission only, knowing that the clothes you buy will probably not even make it through the 2 years. I'm on a mission myself to find the best pair of shoes that will last at least a year. He will be walking up to 20 miles a day in the dessert, so they need to be good ones. I will definitely be getting him some cushioned inserts for his shoes as well.
There are a lot of good things happening down there in Mexico, and there are a lot of bad things. Matt's mission actually includes Juarez, where the drug lords have rampaged and thrived on the fear of others. I was sitting in Sunday School last Sunday and I heard a scripture that really stuck in my heart. Joshua 1:9 ....Be Strong and of a Good Courage,be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest. This is my new theme. I know that I need to be strong, and so will Matt. The Lord will bless him and protect him while he is there doing his work. This is an opportunity that will bless his life and the lives he touches while he is there.
Life is good. It really is a great blessing to have Matt so willing and excited about going. May the Lord Bless Him.

Wading through the Bog

Today was the day, I was determined to mow the lawn. Regardless of the fact that it rained all night. We have had problems with the mower for quite some time and we are still working out the kinks. After fertilizing the lawn 2 times this year, you can imagine just how fast and thick it has grown with all of the rain we have received this past month. We have been trying to help family with moving, Tom with his project at U of U, working, and squeezing in a trip to California before Matt leaves and during all of this time, the lawn has grown to over a foot. Well, I put the mower to the test and set the blade on the highest setting and started cutting away at the bog of grass. Really it's only a 1/2 acre, no biggy!

I started at 9:00 a.m. and finished at 1:30 p.m. This was not my idea of fun. I love to mow the lawn, but not when it takes this long. Where the trampoline had been, the grass was so long and wet (like I said, it's been raining)(a lot), it took me several passes over the area with the push mower to get it cut. The lawn mower had met it's match. It died several times while mowing the bog. Once, it was cut, it looked all yellow due to the bottom never getting any sun. Not to mention that the grass was still not cut evenly because some of it was still laying flat on the ground.

No big deal right? Well, while trying to move the trampoline, I had to take the ladder off of it and lost one of the springs in the very long grass. I waded through it with my feet and hands and looked almost everywhere for that spring. Darn it! Wouldn't you know, there it was on my last section of grass to mow and I tore it with the mower blade. I was actually using extra precautions, by holding the mower front up and going as slow as I could, just so I wouldn't hit it, but I did. Now, I need to replace that spring.

So, I started to think about how this relates to my life, because I had a lot of time to think. (4 1/2 hours) In my life, I let too many things pile up on me. You know, like someone said something that hurt my feelings and I held it in and refused to let it go. Someone else lied to me about something, and I didn't let it go. Things were getting broken and my heart was one of them. Dealing with a siblings divorce and the sorrow that comes when you know there is nothing you can do, except pray and love them. Yet you still hear rumors about it that only make it worse. Another sibling is stuck in a hard place and I wanted to help, but finding out that it is better to let them grow from this and I need to stay out. There have just been a lot of emotions that have built up inside and I wasn't sure how to work them out until today.

I started to carry a huge load on my shoulders of things I wouldn't let go and it started clouding out the sun. Or I should more appropriately say, the Son. Sometimes, when I try to talk things out with others, trying to lighten the load I carry, I say the wrong things and make it worse. This is not my intent, and I hate feeling like this. I told a good friend that I just needed to figure out what I'm supposed to learn from this, and move on. Grow from it and move on.

So, if I could have kept up with the lawn on a schedule and mowed it every week, the grass wouldn't have been so hard to mow. It would have taken less time and it would have looked healthier after it was cut. The spring would not have been lost and run over. Now, it is going to take time to help the lawn look healthy again.

In life, if I would have let the things go, and worked it out when it happened, it would have been a lot healthier for me and I wouldn't have lost my connection with the Son. Even though I was reading my scriptures and going to church and feeding me spiritually, I was still buried by the other things that were hiding me from the Son. Now, it is taking some time for me to heal and get back to a scheduled time to keep my relationship close, with a loving Savior.