Family Christmas Card Bloopers

Just for fun, here are the pictures that are not going on the Christmas Card this year!

Head Shot of Michex

Ummm. Yep.

November Kaleidescope Message

Every month a member of my RS presidency writes a message for our little newsletter that goes to every sister in the ward. This month was my turn. I thought I would post what I wrote...



As the harvest season winds down and I look at the rows of bottled tomatoes waiting to be made into delicious stew this winter and the peaches and black berries in the freezer waiting for the cobbler, I am truly grateful to all those who contributed some of their precious harvest to me. It brings to mind the powerful and inspiring words of my favorite hymn...

"Come, thou Fount of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing Thy grace".

There is a canyon in the back country of Zion National Park that my family and I love to hike through. Just over the halfway mark there is a spring of fresh, cold water where we always stop and refill our water bottles. I have always counted on having the water from this spring so that I don't have to be weighed down by trying to carry a full day's supply. However, this spring is easy to miss if one does not know it's there. Many times I have stopped my hiking group and led them to the spring. Surprisingly, some have refused to drink or refill their containers, I assume because they question the source or they have carried enough water for the entire day. Since this canyon has many obstacles that drain me physically, knowing this source of water is there in abundance is of great comfort to me, just like having the knowledge of my Savior's tender mercy is a sweet and everlasting comfort to my sometimes parched soul that is too often "prone to wander".

The Lord truly is the Fount, the source of the Living Water, not only of every single temporal blessing we enjoy, like water for our gardens, but also of every spiritual blessing that we enjoy; even the blessing of eternal life.

As a new season of Thanksgiving approaches, I hope we all remember the "streams of mercy never ceasing" that come from the spring of Living Water, and all we have to do is go and drink!

Well, there you have it.
I stopped my car on the side of the road near the Mountain Road Nature Center on my way home from work a week or so ago. I had my camera with me, the light was pretty good and the leaves were turning. The above photo was taken of the little spring that seeps out of the ground near the trail. I finally got the right angle to capture the reflection of the gold leaves in the water. Here are some more of my favorite fall photos...

Halloween

Here is a picture of Mayflower and her friend Lauren on Halloween.
Michex was in a fun mystery dinner theater a couple weeks ago. She played the part of Pippa, the snobby heiress and did a great job! I would post more pictures, but....

I am officially asking Santa for a new computer for Christmas. It just took me 15 freaking minutes to do this post with 3 pictures on it! I packed my lunch and cleaned the family room while I was waiting for the "uploading". BTW, I still love my camera:)

Be careful what you wish for...

Sunday in family council Shematite talked about wanting to make more money. She would like to return to her schooling and possibly go to China in the spring as a chaperone/companion with Scout and her singing group. Lo and behold, yesterday, she went to work. The new manager, who started on Saturday and had never met her before, terminated her employment on grounds of her compliance (or I suppose lack thereof) with the attendance policy. She was sick all last week (fever, chills, cough, sore throat) and still went to work simply because she couldn't find anyone to cover for her. Apparently that is the policy: if you can't come to work, you have to find someone to cover for you. Friday, she felt much worse, but still couldn't find anyone. She let her supervisor know and asked if she would need a Dr's note or something. She was told, no, it was OK. In the 6 months of working there, she was late 2 other times so maybe this was her 3rd strike or something?
Anyway, now she has the wonderful opportunity of seeking better paying employment! ( I'm trying really hard not to be a helicopter mom and march right down to that manager and give him a piece of my mind).
So, if anyone knows where a bright, bubbly, detail-oriented, meticulous, loyal, and soon to be 21 (yes! she can serve alcohol) young lady can be of benefit to someone and get paid almost what she's worth (who actually gets paid what they're worth?) ...let us know! And pray for her and the right opportunity to match up soon:)

Just a little stemming problem.

Nope - not apples.
Joe posted this little video on Youtube of the footage I gave him of our Spry Canyon hike.
Stemming has always scared me and I hate doing it. It's a good thing the water was only a few inches deep( we stemmed this just for fun and to improve our skills). I don't have the confidence in my upper body strength that I would like to have. The stemming problem in this canyon gave me a little bit more confidence, if not in my upper body strength, then at least in some problem solving skills. Yet as I get older, my attitude of "Well, if they can do it, I can do it" just might get me into trouble someday... ;) Oh! And enjoy Scout's "leaping from high places"! She makes it look so easy.
I hope Joe posts more stuff on Youtube. He does a great job! Here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWyp7iYSmkY

Fall is flying by...

Fall is flying by. My Rock is working 12-14 hour days. I usually work 9-10 hours a day and so it seems we must cram all of our REAL life (work is not real life even though we enjoy it) into our weekends.
Last Saturday we enjoyed going to the Salt Lake Tabernacle and seeing Michex perform with the ALL STATE choir. WOW! 700 elite high school choir kids sure did raise that roof! It was incredible! She is also very busy every night with play practice.
And...it was really fun taking pictures of JT & Fam last Sunday.

My new calling in the RS presidency keeps me hopping. I am the 2nd counselor (over the activities) and am really enjoying getting to know all the ladies in my ward:)
At church volleyball this morning, my sweet neighbor Debbie offered to let us come over and pick apples and press them into juice. Couldn't pass that one up, so we, Michex, Dallin, Kyle, Mayflower, Rock and I, spent a couple hours picking and a couple hours pressing this afternoon. Scout and Karli are here for the weekend and they gave the crank a turn or two also. Joel & Debbie even grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for us:) Thanks so much! What a perfect, fall day!


But this, of course, led to securing a way to store the apples & juice....Enter my new (well, not really new - but at least it was free from Rock's sister!) upright freezer! Yea! And dehydrator! Double yea! Now I just need Wildbound's apple pie filling recipe...:)
Well, I would love to post more pictures and write more stuff, but it's 10:30 pm, my brain is mush, I have lost my momentum sitting here at the computer and the Utes are up by 13 with just the 4th quarter to go, so I think I am going to bed. Sigh....