Autumn 2009 {September}

 Late over with Heiner Girls

 Time Out for Women in Boise

 Cousins at the Boise Discovery Center

 The Nordfelt Girls in Boise

 First Day of Preschool

Love your Body 5K Race at Sugarhouse Park

I'm alive!

It's true.  You wouldn't know if from my blogging frequency, but I am alive, and I haven't forgotten about this little place.  Just in a "non-blogging" conducive Season of my life right now....

Summer (not as late...)

FOR THE BIRDS...We had baby birds! Seriously! Two birds build their nest right in our front porch. We thought the birds were hanging around a lot and making a lot of racket, and then we found the nest. It was exciting to have nature happening outside our own front door (literally), until the eggs were laid. For a full month while the eggs, then the baby birds, inhabited the nest we didn’t dare go out our front door. The mother and father bird would SWOOP at us in protection of their babies. We did grow to love them though, and then one day they learned to fly and they were gone, just like that. I imagine that’s how we’ll feel about our little kiddies one day. We love them, get used to haveing them around, then they learn to fly and they're gone…just like that.

GOODBYE to our forever favorite friends and neighbors the Stewarts. Fran is missing her Punz friend and just doesn’t understand why she can’t go see her next door. We are seriously missing the Stewarts! Marty had a great session of soccer with Herb coaching. He even kicked the ball a few times this season. We love going to the WEST FEST. We always go to the rides on family night and enjoy the parade and fireworks on Saturday. There was a huge storm on Friday, we felt bad for our poor friends/family who had booths. The kids had fun riding rides and getting candy at the parade. And I ran my 3rd 5K race. All of that accomplished with Herb on a business trip. AND Marty won a Goldfish!

The Ward Campout (or cookout in our case) was great fun. We hiked Donut Falls and then had a Potato Car Derby race. We sure do love our ward family.

POOL PARTIES…We enjoyed our Independence Day celebration with the Nelsons and company. The kids played and swam and there was lots of good food, fun, friends, and especially FIREWORKS! Lizzy had a BACK TO SCHOOL party with her friends that won’t be in her class this year. She was missing them before they even went back to school. You’ve got to love the Slip’n Slide and especially Marty’s “Troy” dancing.

Young Women’s camp was LOVELY. Our ward was the Humble Bumbles, and we were BEE-lievers. Good times, good girls, good Spirit. A little bear scare, lots of yummy food, a fabulous hike, and some SWEET testimonies were the highlights.

Our Jackson Hole/Snake River trip with the Nordfelt’s was full of good times. The river was high, so the kids spent most of their time at the lake and at camp trying to catch pot guts. Lizzy was sick the last day, and Marty had some SERIOUS mosquito bite reaction going on. We happened to start our trip on opening day of HARRY POTTER 6, so I went to the midnight showing before we left. LOVED it!

We spent PIONEER DAY weekend at Gammy and Grandpa’s house. Uncle Chris took us out for lake day on his boat. We really enjoyed spending time with Chris and Emily and little Brycen. The kids especially liked Brycen’s disco dance, and we’ll not soon forget the wind storm that came through! We adventured around the ranch on the quads and at the pond. We caught some fish…but not on the line, just in a bucket…small ones… When we got home, Wormy the Goldfish was a goner, poor wormy, I didn’t think he’d make it past the weekend of the westfest let alone a whole month! Then we got Swimmer the Beta.



A lovely summer indeed. We did get the sad news however, that Herb will be loosing his job this fall due to a 75% workforce reduction at his office. So we're on the hunt for a new job. Major bummer in this economy. But the Lord will bless us, I'm sure of it!

Spring (a tad late)

What did we do in the spring?
We went to the Draper Temple open house.
Marty played Itty-bitty Basket Ball.
Fran got her first hair cut.
Lizzy got a short hair cut.
Lizzy went snow skiing for the first time.
We did the MS Walk.
We had a happy Easter.
We planted a garden.
The girls did a mommy-daughter dance in the ward talent show.
Fran & Lizzy had birthdays.
We got a new nephew/cousin.
I became an official domestic diva with my Mother’s day WHEAT GRINDER!
Lizzy did a Cheeta Love dance in her dance concert.
We hiked Doughnut Falls.
Lizzy sold Lemonade.
Marty had a preschool program where he was the STAR of the show.
We had fun with friends.
Spring was good.

It was my birthday.

It was my birthday a week ago. I am 32. I admit it, I felt this one, I am a GROWN UP. There, I said it, I'm accepting it...Thanks to all who made my special day(month/week) fabulous!

Walk...So grateful I CAN!! :) MS Walk 2009

We’ve taken a couple of years off of the MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Walk, but we are back in action again! We are walking and raising money in behalf of our brother-in-law Chris. (photos below from our 2006 MS walk). We thank the many of you who have supported us in the past. If you feel inspired to and are in a situation to do so, we hope you will join our cause this year in one of the following ways:

1) Make a monetary donation through my Team’s MS Walk website (below), Team MS: Mystery Solved. Our Team goal is to raise $5000!!!

2) Join our team to help raise funds or participate in the MS Walk (SLC April 11, 2009) through our Team MS webpage.
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=10742&team_id=143542

3) Donate to or shop at our MS Yard/Bake/Craft sale on March 28, 2009 (please comment or email me if you need the address or want to donate anything).

Thank you in advance for your support in a VERY worthy cause!


A little History on Chris’ MS:
It has been 7 years since Chris was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. We have witnessed with Chris, during the past 2 years, how very real and debilitating Multiple Sclerosis can be. In 2006, Chris brought his cane to the MS Walk, but didn’t end up needing it to finish the walk. This year, in 2009, Chris will most likely be bringing his wheel chair so that he can finish. Chris was in a wheel chair for a couple years but has been able to get out only because of a new medication that is on trial. All of his previous medications eventually stopped working for him. We are grateful for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and for the money that has already gone into research so that Chris can have this medication that is helping him. The cause and cure of MS are not known. However, there is hope through research that the MYSTERY of MS will be SOLVED.

Uplifting Experiences

The true measure of a conference/lecture/class/etc. to me is how I feel when it is complete. Do I feel overwhelmed and discouraged or do I feel uplifted and refreshed? It seems like I seek out the latter in most venues: movies, books, friends. There are few things as refreshing as having an uplifting experience. Today I had one. My stake had a Home Family and Personal Enrichment Day where Julie DeAzevedo Hanks gave a workshop presentation about Preventing Emotional Burnout. So many points rang true to me that I thought I would just share some highlights.

1-Feel & express full range of emotions: express your emotions in an appropriate healthy way.

2-Give yourself permission to say NO: "Stress is when your gut says NO but your lips say certainly". YOU are the BROKER of your time and energy. When you say NO to something, you are saying YES to something more important.

3-Do your emotional family history

4-Take responsibility for your own happiness: create a NO GUILT zone. There should be no guilt for having "me" time. It is not selfish it is selfCARE. Find your line between Righteous Joy and Selfish indulgence. Incorporate something in your life that brought you pure joy as a child. (I STILL want to be a dancer!!)

5-Practice being kind to yourself: Save guilt for SIN. Look at your body as an instrument not an ornament. The changes in your body as you grow and age are beautiful gifts and marks of what you have done and created, they are part of "God's Signature" collection. (Julie has a song that talks about this, LOVED IT). The definition of Perfect is NOT to be flawless, it is to be "ripe, mature, complete". Be as kind to yourself as you are to your garden as you watch it "ripen, mature" and reach it's potential. Nurture yourself. Christ will make OUR way perfect--we don't have to be perfect, we have to just be ourselves and He will make our way perfect, He brings us to our potential.

6-Learn to ask for and accept help: PRIDE keeps us from asking for and receiving help. We are instructed to bare ONE ANOTHER's burdens, not bare EVERYBODY ELSE'S burdens. We need others in order to fulfill that commandment.

Good stuff! I want to practice loving myself and being kind to myself so my daughters will model that behavior and love themselves. Be kind to yourselves my friends!