Uplifted

I had a great night on Saturday. I got tickets to go to the General Relief Society broadcast. I am so glad that I was able to go. Our stake got tickets and you just signed up if you wanted one. How easy was that? I went with my friend Kate, that I visit teach. It was exciting to be there. There were so many people! I was surprised that they had to search your bag and that you had to go through a metal detector when you went into the conference center. What? I asked the old lady searching my bag, what they are looking for. She said that they have had knives, weapons etc. brought in. That was funny to me, looking around at throngs of conference- going ladies. I guess you can never be too careful.

We sat in the nose-bleed seats. That didn't matter, it was still really great. I enjoyed the talks, and the spirit I felt. I love Relief Society. I always have, even when I was just out of high school. I love the sisterhood I feel there. I really appreciated all of the talks, as you can always apply most things to your life. I really liked Elder Uchdorfs talk. I love how he said that it is important to create. I totally agree. I feel so much better when I am creating something. Not always a "thing" either. We are creating something all of the time- a home, our children, our marriage, a friendship, and the list goes on. I have had a huge desire to create lately. It is fun to have something to think and dream about.

As I was sitting there, I thought of all of my "sisters" attending in different places around the world. Looking around, I marveled at how many women were there. When you realize that this is just a tiny portion of women in the Salt Lake Valley, and try to imagine how many were watching worldwide, it makes you realize the greatness of what can be done by relief society women throughout the world.

I think one of the best parts of the whole night for me, was singing the intermediate hymn. Singing in a "choir" of 20-something thousand (or something like that- I can't remember exactly how many people it holds) women was amazing, and I just had chills. It was beautiful, and I felt the spirit so strongly. It was also neat when president Monson came in. Imagine a huge auditorium of women chatting. Then all of the sudden, Presdent Monson came in, everyone stood, and it was silent. Wow.

What a fun, uplifiting, and amazing experience I had. I hope I can always take advantage of opportunities like this. The effort of going was so worth it to me. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did, from wherever you were able to attend.

Sunday Memories

Last week after church, I was taking a few pictures. Camille got a cute new dress. We had a ward party and they had someone painting the little girls nails. She wanted to show them off in a picture. I Love this little dress I got her. I got it at "The Store." Remember that Lindsay and Joy? The Store is a Salvation Army thrift shop, that sells new clothes from Target that never sold in the store. They take them to this thrift shop. So I got this for $2 something and I was so excited. It looked so cute on her.

I was trying to get a picture with the girls. The dress that Morgan had on used to be Camille's. I was having one of those day's when you can't believe how big your kids are getting. Morgan was not cooperating and letting me get an easy picture. Maybe someday Morgie will wear Camille's new dress. It is sad to think about our kids growing up. Especially when you think you are done having kids.  

 This morning before church, we could not find Reeds church shoes. After looking for awhile, I got desperate, and went and checked in the too big shoe box to see if there was anything that would work for Reed to wear. There was this pair of shoes that McCray used to wear that I thought would work out ok. So I put the shoes on Reed, and we went to church. They drove him crazy all day because they were too big. They are slip- on so you can't really tighten them very well. As he was complaining, I realized that those too-big shoes used to be McCrays when he was in nursery! Reed is in Sunbeams- and will be out in January. I kindof forgot how huge McCray was. Reed and Morgan are tall kids, but they are both cut from the smaller mold of our kids. Camille and McCray have always just been exceptionally tall. I had to take a picture of the shoes because it made me smile. Memories..... ( I wish I could find a picture of McCray wearing his!)

 

This is the best shot I could get of Morgan. She is one determined little girl. This was the best she was going to give me.

Life

As you have well noticed, I have been very neglectful with my blog. Life has just been busy, and I have not made it a huge priority. I wish I would because I think this is an amazing way to keep track of your family "goings on." I love that we will have a family photo journal someday from this.

I decided that I would record the day to day of what I have been up to lately. Sit down and hold on tight, this could get really exciting..... :) This list is not in any particular order.

1) Canning! I have wanted to do this for a long time. When we moved up here, I decided that this was the year. I bought two steam canners at DI and hoped there would be something to can. Well, I have done a few different things. When we got home from Labor day in Albuquerque, I watched Erin and Kelly's house for a couple of days, until they got home. They told me to check their tomatoes, and that I could pick what was ready. I had NO idea that there could ever be as many as there were. I only picked what was really ripe. If I tought it could last a couple of days until they got home, I didn't pick it. I felt bad. I think this was THE time for their tomatoes, and there were so many ripe ones at one time. So I picked them. And picked them. And picked them. I would estimate there was probably 50 lbs. So, I went home and decided to learn how to can tomatoes. I actually really enjoyed canning them. There was a learning curve trying to get everything timed right, but I did it. And the feeling when you are done, and looking at bottled food on the table, I was really excited. I ended up bottling 7 quarts and 9 pints. Thanks Erin and Kelly! A friend also gave me some apricots. I froze them when I got them, because I didn't have the time to do them then. So I did them the other day. Canning jam is EASY! I really had fun with it. I ended up making 20 pints of it. AND, Kelly's mom gave me some peaches the other day, so making jam is on the list for today or tomorrow. It makes me want to have fruit tree's some day. Think of what you could do! (PS- I bought a pressure cooker/canner the other day at a garage sale. It is not a big one, but it will be fine until I have hundreds of dollars to spend on one. I saw it and the lady was asking $25. I didn't know if that was a good deal or not. It had been used once, and most of the canning parts to it were still in plastic. So I went home and looked it up online. I am glad that I did. They sell new with the parts for about $130. I scored for $25. Now I want to try canning chicken in it. We'll see if that happens anytime soon.)

These are the bottled tomatoes and apricot jam. I wish I was a good photographer and could make this picture neat. The jam is the one on the right.

Here's our hall closet with my bottles. The Kerr box is full of jam. (By the way, as you can tell, cleaning out and organizing the closet has not been on the list. )

The next step in my canning adventures, is having enough confidence to give some away. I keep worrying about whether I did it right, if it is pretty, too thick, too runny.......

#2- Cleaning up after canning. Here in this rental, we have a stove/oven that is very...unique. Old. Frustrating. You name it. Unfortunately, our landlord thinks it is great. She kept telling us that "it's a Jen-Aire you know. A great stove!" Does it being a Jen-Aire make up for the fact that it can only fit one 9x13 pan in it? Or that it burns my food? Or that it is from the 60's or 70's? Hmm. It took me two days to clean it up after canning. That was a project. It has a steel top, but unfortunately it does not seem to be stainless.

#3- Babysitting- I have decided that having two kids who are basically the same age/stage is HARD. I usually only watch Jossue 1 or 2 days a week. He is about 5 months older than Morgan. Last week I had him for 4. I am not a full-time babysitter. I won't bore you with all of the antics. I will just say two words- terrible two's. And I am not kidding. Thankfully I made it through. But it is definitely worthy of this list, because it took the majority of my week trying to make sure we all survived. Thankfully we are back to one or 2 days a week.

#4- Laundry- The story of my life. I gathered up and sorted all of the hampers and after working on laundry all week, I still had five loads that needed to be done. I have gone through all of the kids clothes and have seriously weeded them out, trying to cut down on the laundry and the mess. Is it working? I wonder, because there is still an awful lot to do. I guess my job as a homemaker is secure. I will never run out of things to do around the house.

   

 #5- Cleaning up after messes. I love it when the kids are playing and being creative. They love to build forts downstairs in our family room, but they don't always love to clean it up. I am grateful we have this family room, because it is downstairs, and no one has to see it. They can play and it can be a mess, and usually it is ok. But then, I reach my limit, and we have to do a major clean-up.  

 So, this is a slice of my life for the past couple of weeks. Can you handle the excitement? That is why I titled this life. This is it. Real life. And most days, I love it.

First Day of School

I can't believe that summer has come to an end, and school has started again. We had a really fun summer, but it is nice to have a routine again. Well, kind of a routine. I am still trying to work on that one.

Camille is in second grade this year. She was so happy to go back to school. She loves her teacher, and loves being with her friends. She had to fill out a paper saying what her favorite things about school were. She said- recess, teacher, friends, and lunch. I bet that impressed the teacher! :) At least I know that she is normal. Except for one thing.... she asked me if she could wear a skirt on the first day of school. THAT, is not normal. I remember Mom having us wear a dress on the first day of school? We hated that. Maybe she doesn't mind, because no one makes them do that now.

McCray is our big Kindergarten boy this year. He started a week after Camille. He missed his first day of school because we were still gone for labor day. We kept him home last year because we didn't feel he was quite ready. Well, he is READY! I am so glad. He was so excited on his first day of school. He walked in an didn't look back. I had wondered if I would get teary like I did with Camille. I couldn't do anything but be excited for him because he was so ready. He loves his teacher and says that everyone in his class are his friends. I have realized that having a child in kindergarten ruins your schedule. I feel like I am going to the school all day long. I better get used to it, I have another one next year too. I guess it will just be a fact of life for awhile.

Going Home- the LONG way

We just got back from a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We went to a Payne family reunion. We had been planning to go to this for about a year. We were all getting together to celebrate what would be my Grandpa Payne's 100th birthday.

We left on Friday morning. It should be about a 10 hour drive. Well, we took it nice and slow. It took us about 14. I have been on this route from New Mexico to Utah (or vice versa) so many times in my life. I have always enjoyed the drive because there are many beautiful places along the way. And some places that are not beautiful at all. I have not been this way for so many years that it was really fun to get to reminisce the whole way down.

As we traveled along, I told Kent and the kids stories about memories I had in the places that we passed through. I told them about playing basketball games in Price when I played for Ricks in college. I told them that Green River is famous for it's watermelons. When we got to Moab, I explained what people come to Moab for and showed them all of the rafts and rock crawlers. I also told them about how I remember being young and having my Dad stop in Moab for a treat or a hamburger. He would take us to the Tastee- Freeze and get us an ice cream. I showed them where the Tastee-Freeze used to be. It is some kind of restaurant now. I loved getting a treat in Moab. We stopped for gas, so I went in and bought a bag of gummy worms so our kids could get a Moab treat. They thought that was great. Not as good as that ice cream was though! As we traveled down the road from Moab, I told the kids about Hole in the Rock. I have driven past this place for at least 25 years, and have never stopped. I have always wondered how they could have made a house in a rock. The kids were really intrigued about Hole in the Rock after I was telling them about it. As we came up on it, I told Kent to pull over so we could check it out. I am an adult now, and we were already taking all day to get there, so we stopped, because why not? I went in and asked what it cost for a tour. I decided that we were going to do it. That is so not like us. But fun! So we took the 12 minute tour of Hole in the Rock. I guess in the 50's a couple moved there and decided to blast out this rock and live in it. They made it a restaurant as well. It was pretty interesting and cool to see once in your lifetime. I told the kids to look really well, because they were never going in again. What would ever make a couple want to do that? I have no clue. To each their own. They also had a little petting zoo that is free. It was actually a very worthwhile stop. The tour, well, if you have an inquiring mind that has to know, do it once. That will last you a lifetime.

They have a little place that you can walk around. They have all sorts of little displays, and fun places to take pictures. My camera ran out of memory before I was done taking pictures, or there would have been more.

They had a decent little petting zoo. I don't know why they call it a petting zoo though. There were sign everywhere saying don't touch the animals unless you want to donate your fingers. Some of the animals looked a little rough, but the kids loved it.

Who would want to try and pet this ostrich? NOT ME!!! It was staring me down, and I wasn't even that close to it!

They had this neat license plate wall, that is a great place for a photo. Too bad we had been traveling all day and looked a little rough.

After we had explored Hole in the Rock, it was back in the car until we got to Farmington. That was where I grew up. I gave them a tour of the town. I showed them our house on Rosa, the first house we lived in on Yale, the "wilderness", my high school where I spent a great portion of my life doing basketball, the airport, and anything else I could think of to tell them. I love kids. They love to hear stories about when you were a kid. I am glad that I could show them and tell them this now, before they are a little older and don't really care to go down memory lane with you. I loved Farmington. It was a great place to grow up. It is not the prettiest or cleanest of places, but I loved it and was happy there. I had great friends.

I have told the kids about when the boys went to Fathers and Sons how our Mom always took the girls to Long John Silvers for dinner. That was a BIG deal to us, because we never ate out. I have joked about it with my siblings for years. So we were cruising around town, and finally decided to eat at Long John Silvers. Just sitting there pouring the malt vinegar on my fish and fries made me smile to remember back to the good old days. I lived for the fathers and sons outings. Camille loves them already too.

We got back on the road and headed to Albuquerque. When we got to Cuba we filled up at

7 /2/ 11. I bet I have stopped there a hundred times on road trips in high school. We always got out and got a snack there, whether we were hungry or not. I didn't go in this time. I was too tired, and I already know what they have in there! :)

We got to Albuquerque after midnight. Boy, was that ever a long day. But I was so happy and felt like I had been able to enjoy the trip. Kent was such a good sport. He just let me go and do whatever I wanted. And the kids were awesome. They were such good travelers. It is nice to be able to slow down sometimes and enjoy the ride. And that I did.