Four years seems too long...

Me and mom on a Lake Powell boat tour.
Back when mom was hip I was her sidekick.

Thinking of you and how absolutely blessed I am to be your daughter.

Missing you still.
Loving you always.

Back when...

 

My two big brothers.
Bookends to their little sister.
I'm feeling nostalgic and grateful and very blessed.

Brotherly L O V E...

Dave, Jim, me and Craig
 

I have three really wonderful brothers.

I have been loved by them, teased by them and protected by them for as long as I can remember.  Even back in elementary school I can clearly recall the day that Jim threatened to hunt down the boy that made fun of my hair-do walking home from school one day.

My brothers are awesome like that.

Today is Jim's birthday.

H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y
big brother!
Thanks for taking on all that arises with Dad.
I know it's more than we will ever know and that your efforts might go unseen but I'm forever grateful for your strength and service.

I love you 17.
Love, Sis
 

The last best bite...

I buy a box of Utah tomatoes and a box of Utah peaches every year.
We make lots of yummy things.
Fresh salsa, BLT's, tuna and tomato sandwiches, tomatoes on toast, peach shakes, peach shakes and peach shakes but when the last peach and the last tomato are sitting on the counter I turn them into this...

The Best Breakfast bite

 

The Best Lunch bite

And when they are gone
I cry just a little.

Another grateful moment...

I had an experience that I need to record.  I want to remember it clearly and I want my kids to have reference to it.

Last month on a Sunday morning I had a scout meeting I needed to be to.  Driving home from that meeting I began to get that unfortunately familiar feeling of a possible kidney stone...the ache in my right lower back.  I've passed enough kidney stones to know the drill but I hadn't been bothered for a couple of years.  The thing with plenty of past experience, I knew this pain could get out of control in a hurry.  I took a percocet when I got home.  My usual experience is that I'm able to control the pain to a certain degree and get through it within a day or two.  Only once did it take more like 5 days and when it finally passed my doctor declared me a SUPERWOMAN (aw shucks) for having managed to pass something larger than the 6.0 mm passable range.  So yeah, I've done this.

By late afternoon and two percocets later I was really hurting and couldn't control the pain.  This was not the usual.  The pain started to wrap around my side and into my stomach.  At the suggestion of a nurse friend we went to the ER about 9 p.m.  Five hours later and some really good drugs we came home.  A cat scan revealed about 10 kidney stones scattered about my kidney. Oh yippee!  But for now the stone that was causing all the fuss was 5.5 mm and stuck.  And so...

I got through Monday okay but during the night it was becoming evident that the meds might not keep the pain at bay.  By the time Coop left for school on Tuesday morning I asked Brent for a blessing.  Our dear friend came over and helped Brent administer the ordinance.  I was in tears but as Brent spoke the words of comfort and healing I became well aware of the power of the Priesthood. Through his own tears, Brent told me that he was prompted to remind me of the Atonement of our Savior.  That it covered any mental, spiritual or physical pain that we might encounter here during this lifetime.  I was asked to remember that because the suffering had already taken place there was no need to endure this pain now.  That I should look to the Savior in full faith and He would take it from me.  As I did so I would feel the warmth of His love and the peace and truth of His sacrifice.  I have had many experiences with the Priesthood, some sweet and comforting, some powerful and definite but I had never experienced an immediate physical healing. . .until then.  The pain completely subsided. I went to bed and slept pain free for six hours.  When I woke up I was able to deal with and handle the situation.

I just feel so grateful that my husband was able to use his Priesthood immediately when called upon and that we have friends that can come and help at a moments notice.  I feel incredibly grateful for the worthy Priesthood holders that surround me.  I shared the experience with my kids later that night and expressed to my boys how important it is to always be worthy and ready to call down the powers of heaven, instantly and without hesitation.  I shared with Maddison how vital it was to have a man in her life that could do the same for her and her future family.  It was wonderful to be reminded of things I know to be true.

We watched this as a family for FHE not too long ago and it is beautiful and tender and powerful.  follow this link

A month and two kidney procedures later, my right kidney is clear and happy again.

My prayers are very sincere when I express gratitude for my good health and for the power of the Priesthood.

It's November. Let's start things off right...

I found this on another blog recently.  I've saved it for today.  The first day of our month of celebrating thanks and gratitude and remembering the source from whence my blessing flow.  Personally I love this so very much  I added the orange highlight myself.

On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving set the precedent for our country’s national day of Thanksgiving. It proclaims the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” Prior to that, different states had been celebrating Thanksgiving on different days.

Lincoln, born in Kentucky, grew up in a poor family and was mostly self-educated, having only attended school for a year. He became a country lawyer before getting involved in politics in the 1830′s. In 1860, he was elected the 16th President of the United States, entering office in 1861. Our country was still in the midst of the Civil War when the first Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday was celebrated.

Here is the text of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863…

By the President of the United States of America.
A PROCLAMATION.
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. 

~Abraham Lincoln