Johnathan is broken!

This past weekend Johnathan went to help his parents get moved out of the house so they can be ready for their mission. He took Tyson with him and even thought there was quite a bit of snow they made it home safe and sound last night around 7:30. After getting the kids settled a bit I went out to help him unload the truck and we got everything out but the Marble Slab and a dresser. Johnathan picked the slab up and jumped out of the back of the truck.


Now this was a bad idea for several reasons and I will name just a few. The slab is about 3 1/2 feet long, 1 1/2 feet wide and only weighs about 150 lbs! Next Johnathan was tired from loading, unloading, loading, unloading, loading and unloading about 5 times yesterday. Next driving 12 hours over two days will take a toll. And lastly, He is NOT 18 anymore, as a matter of fact in 11 days he will be 33 years old!

Ok, on with the story. Johnathan jumps out of the truck with this "little rock" and CRACK! Yep his ankle. Luckily he didn't drop the slab and break it into pieces, but he couldn't move so I had to move the slab (remember how heavy I said it was?) By the time we got him in the house and his shoe off the ankle was swollen to twice its size. Thankfully it is NOT broken, but it is a nasty sprain and he will be off his feet for a while.



The thing I get a kick out of is that they traveled over yucky roads, no problems. The loaded and unloaded his truck over and over again, no problems. We got almost everything unloaded and THEN he decided to be Super Man, BIG PROBLEMS!!! I am just really grateful that it wasn't worse than it is.


This is just 18 hours after the accident.

UPDATE!

This is 24 hours after the accident.

What I am Thankful for

Well sense tomorrow is Thanksgiving I thought I would post some of the things I am thankful for. I know that it would take me all day and about seven pages to say everything so I will just name a few.

1. Johnathan, over the past nine years I have had the privilege of having him in my life. There have been some really hard times, but with him we can get though. One thing I learned early on was that he will always take care of me and the children, no matter what it takes. He loves me even thought I can be a bit dramatic, emotional, crazy, eccentric, scatterbrained and so on. He loves me even thought I have not always been at the top of my game. There is so much of him that I know I could never live without and I look forward to the next years of our life and I am so thankful that he will be my Eternal Companion!

2. The children, Andie, Tyson, Casey, and Jenna. They all have a very dear place in my heart, and I love them all unconditionally. As a teen growing up you can never fathom that you could love anyone more than yourself. Then you get married and that love is so much more than you could ever think possible. Then the babies come and your heart swells with so much love that you feel like you may burst. I get this feeling every time one of them loves me, kisses me, wants me to hold them, looks at me and most especially, needs me. Sometimes I feel like I may loose my mind, but then I realized that Crazy in Love is a great way to be. I thank my Heavenly Father for my babies!

3. The Gospel. I know that without it my life would be meaningless. Through it I have an Eternal Marriage, that means I get to be with my Sweetheart forever! Also that my children will be mine forever, and all those that I love and hold dear to my heart will be with me forever. What is a greater gift than that. Also the knowledge that I am a Daughter of God. I can be cleaning the toilet, not showered for days and at my wits end, but I am a chosen Daughter of God and that makes it ok.

4. Service. I have had the opportunity to serve a Lady in our ward. What a blessing, I have learned so much about endurance, pain, happiness and being grateful. I have truly been blessed for helping her and in turn she has helped me.

5. Struggles and Hardships. This may seem strange, but through these I have truly learned how to trust in my Heavenly Father and turn to him when I need strength. Also these have brought Johnathan and I together in a bond that I believe will never break. We have become stronger people, seeking to make it in this hard world, and learning new tricks and talents to live a happy life. I am glad (most of the time) that we have learned to struggle.

There are so many other things, Family, the Temple, Friends, Everyday amenities, Food, Clothes, Happiness, Gifts, Talents, and Love. If I could spend half the time I do thinking about all the things we need or want and instead focus on all that we have that is good I should be far better off. I hope that this next year I can learn to be even more thankful for all that I have, because I am truly blessed.

Happy Birthday Casey!

Yesterday was Casey's third birthday! He was excited about opening his presents and he enjoyed the frosting off of his birthday cupcake. It is hard to believe that three years ago he was starting his life with us, I am so happy that he choose to come to our family! He was super excited about the shoes that Grandma and Grandpa Coyne got him, and he took the dozens of stickers he got from Grandma and Grandpa Duncan to bed with him. Andie and Tyson gave him a Thomas the Train Helicopter and he fell in love with it instantly. All night he kept saying heladoter, heladoter, over and over and over again. He woke up around 3:40 this morning and would not go back to sleep, just laid in his bed and played with his Heladoter. I think I may bribe him to take a nap today!

Over all we had a fun little party with him and enjoyed the whip cream off of his waffles about as much as the frosting on the cupcakes. Casey we love you to death and our family would be so different without your winning personality. Happy, Happy Birthday!

Locks of Love

Several weeks ago Johnathan and I were having a conversation when the foundation Locks of Love was mentioned. Andie overheard us and asked what that was. I did my best to explain that they use children's hair to make wigs for other children who have a need for them. Andie was obsessed with this concept and she had me trim her hair immediately and started taking really good care of her hair. About every other day she had me measure it to see if it was long enough. I thought it needed to be 12 inches, but I decided to check on Saturday so I could give Andie the correct information. The web site said it only needed to be 10 inches, and when we measured her hair it was long enough!!!









Johnathan was out for the morning so I told Andie that we could go with he got home. She danced around the house and kept asking when it would be time to go. We measured it over and over to make sure there was enough, and I kept telling her it would be pretty short. She didn't care all she wanted was to get it cut. When Johnathan got home we headed out and she anxiously got up in the chair at the hair dresser. I thought she would be sad when it was all done, but instead she was beaming with pride. She told everyone at the beauty shop what she was doing and the girl that cut her hair made a big deal out of it. I will take her with me today to mail it off, she is excited that she got to help a little girl just like herself. Andie, I am so proud of you for helping others!

Check out the Foundation here: http://www.locksoflove.org/

Congratulations Ben!!!

For those of you who don't know, by youngest brother graduated from Basic Training today and I just wanted to put a huge shout out to the world that I am one super proud big sister! Ben has really had some struggles in life, and he has made some poor choices, but about a year ago he told me that he wanted to go into the arm. I didn't try to talk him out of it, but I wasn't to happy with him either. I hoped he would serve a mission and then marry in the temple. Towards the end of his Junior year he chose a different path and ran into some trouble, both physically, and spiritually. I think our love kept him going, and he came back and was able to attend Hillcrest his senior year. Then at the end of the year he ran into some more trouble and didn't graduate with his class. We were disappointed, but we encouraged him to get his diploma. A week later he took a test and passed the class he needed.

The day before he left for Basic I talked to him briefly about the church and what he believed. He told me that the Gospel wasn't that important to him right now. I didn't want to push him, but before he got on the plane I gave him his Book of Mormon and asked him to read the note in the back that I had written, and two marked scriptures. He said he didn't want it and I told him to read the things I asked him to, then he could throw it in the garbage. I also gave him a letter, letting him know how I felt about a lot of things.

The letters started coming, most encouraging. He was attending church, and reading the scriptures, later he told me of his conversation and some of the things that he had experienced. He could truly see the Lords hand in his life, and I couldn't have been happier. Now he is looking to become an Elder and he has spoken with the Bishop and worked through the repentance process. I was thrilled to hear from him the other day when he gushed about how much he has changed, and how I will be so surprised because he is a different person. I can't wait to see him tomorrow, because I truly believe he has changed.

Tomorrow we are having a surprise welcome home party and I made a cake. The family will be there and we are going to have dinner and then spend time with Ben before he leaves for Colorado. This has been a time of change for all of us, but I am still so proud that Ben has started making correct choices and has found direction in his life. I love him with all of my heart! Congratulations Ben for finishing Basic and good luck with your next venture, may God be with you always.

Oranization

I don't know why this continually eludes me. I will come up with some kind of schedule and work on it for about a week and then everything goes to pot. I get overwhelmed by the task at hand and then I just stop trying all together. Now in my short life time I have found out a few things about myself. One, I want to be organized. Two, I can see how to be organized. Three, I can't get organized enough to figure out how to stay organized. What a dilemma!

So this morning I want to clean my house. This would be a much less daunting task if...over the weekend we had done ANYTHING by way of keeping the house clean. Just like every other weekend we worked in the yard, played with the kids, ate, slept, watched TV and trashed the house. Monday morning, like usually, I wake up to piles of clothed, toys, shoes, Sunday papers, scriptures and the lot strewn around my living room like little evil piles of crap, and as usual the Back Hoe doesn't fit in the house so I have to clean it up all on my own.

How can I avoid this next week, or the week after? How can I get my children and husband to realize that the living room floor is not the laundry basket? How can I keep from doing Saturday night dishes on Monday? The answer is...Organization. So now that I have an answer to my questions, I just need to figure out how to get organized so that I can be organized and...THAT I can't seem to figure out!

Tooth!

Jenna got her first tooth yesterday, you can feel its little sharp crown just above her gums. I can't believe she is growing so fast. Her second tooth is also right ready to come out! The other day I put her down for a nap and I heard a loud thump, hurrying to her room I found her on the floor, she had somehow managed to get up and over the railing. It scared me more than it did her I think, so needless to say we have put the mattress down as low as it can go and now we raise the bar. It is hard to think about her getting big SOOO fast, before we know it she will be asking for the car keys! :)

Voting

So later today I plan on casting my vote for the next President of the United States. Months of arguments and plans, decisions, and banter have graced my TV screen and yelled from the car radio, all trying to sway my choice one way or another. Most of them I ignored, some I laughed at, and others bothered me to the core. I could never figure out why we have to fight against each other, and put people down, just to claim the top of the governmental hill. How has slander and lies become the American people so? If someone truly wanted to run an honest, respectful cam pain, would they survive in the mayhem that is politics? I truly doubt it.

But not this morning thousands rush to the polls to make the name they see most fit to run this country. It is our right as citizens to pick the leader of the free country, but do we do it with all the seriousness that we should. Do we look at every idea, every vow, every so said truth and scrutinized it? Do we push aside all prejudice and examine the ideas at hand, giving them every minute the attention that we did the football game last night? And if not, why?

There will be those empowered women who march to the booths to mark the name for a Female VP; proudly stating, "Yes we are FINALLY moving up in the eyes of government!" Or the African American that makes that dot simply because the color of someones skin? Or the skin head who would rather see Binladin taking the throne than anyone of color! How many of us are voting Republican, because we are a republican? How many of us are voting Democrat because Bush is a Republican? How many of us vote for change, when we truly know there will be none, government is government, is government.

To those who studied, vote with confidence, and pleasure. To those of us, like me, who turned the channel, content to watch the Food Network, maybe next time when the time comes around to choose our Master and Commander, we will not lean to the side of Prejudice.

Perception

We went trick or treating with my brother and his family on Halloween and we had so much fun. The kids were wild with anticipation and it took all we had to get them eat dinner. Finally it was time to go and we headed off. Most of the houses had their lights on and the kids loved to knock on the door and wait for the candy. It did get a bit frustrating when they had to wait for Casey, so finally Johnathan or I took Casey up to the door after the other kids had left, that way they wouldn't have to wait, and Casey didn't care. Well street over there was a house with the light on, but no one answered when the kids knocked, then we saw the bowl on the step. It was the first time we had seen this so I told the kids. "One candy!" Tyson carefully sat down next to the bowl and pulled out one piece of candy from his bag and deposited in the bowl.

I had to laugh at his innocents. He just figured that he needed to do what I said, one piece! After we explained it to him, the next time we came upon this situation he was happier to take one out of the bowl instead of putting one in the bowl.

November, Novermber

Oh I love this time of year. I love the trees and the sky, everything getting ready for the coming winter. Autumn is such a beautiful time, and I think it is because of all the contrast in colors and changes in the weather. I think this is the only time of year that you see Orange, Red and Yellow displayed so vibrantly. In the spring we have rebirth, bright greens and pinks, purples and blues, but there is something comforting about fall. Everything to its season, and in my opinion fall is the beginning of a new season.

Often times this is when we start turning inward. Summer we spend so much time out and way from our homes, and our families. We spend so much time rushing around trying to accomplish every thing that we want, or need to get done in the warm weather. But then the chilly breeze sweeps in, and the sky's darken. The trees become bare and we come back home. We come back to the warmth that we need sometimes.

Also the smells of fall, spiced pumpkin, peppermint, Cinnamon rolls. Yummy, comforting, safe. It is easy to sit and watch the dark clouds swirl and twist in the sky's. Watch the orange and red whirlwinds as leaves are picked up and thrown in the air. Some nights the moon rises red and haunting, so large you could reach out and touch it. Then soon it turns pale and yellow and you know that winter has arrived. This is the time of year that you can truly think back and be thankful for all you have. I challenge you to sit some time this beautiful first week of November, with a cup of hot chocolate and watch the sky. Then think about how change has affected you this year, and how grateful you are for your life. It is so easy to think about all the hard things, but let those blow away with the leaves, the settle in for the winter and know that next year things will be different, and how much you have to look forward to with your family.

Oh November November!