Back to Life...Thankful as Ever

Sorry about the break. Last week was a hard week and now I am even more appreciative of the moments I have with my beautiful family. My younger sister's husband was killed in a car accident on the 17th so a few days were spent with her planning and helping with the funeral and burial. It was very hard to see my sister become a widow at the age of 27. I had never been through an actual funeral planning that intimately before, it was very humbling. Amy asked me to sing at the funeral which I was honored to do, but frightened to death because I knew how hard it would be to sing while my sister was in tears. The funeral ended up being beautiful. Amy even spoke and so did Toby's mother and it was a great celebration of his life. I know she's going to have a hard road ahead, but she is being stronger than I thought she would be. I pray for her continued strength and peace, especially for her boys. The evening after the funeral, my stepmom's father passed away so my parents left first thing the next morning to fly back East to bury him. To finalize the week, this past Saturday, my father-in-law borrowed our 4-wheeler to go out riding with some friends and ran over his leg, breaking his ankle in a couple of places and having to have surgery Sunday morning. Thankfully, he is doing okay, but it is very hard for that man to sit still so we will see how the "resting" part of the plan goes!

Needless to say, I am thankful for this new week - school's out, new beginnings, and happier endings I hope! I have just finished checking in on some of your blogs and it's so wonderful to see some happy pictures and beautiful spring/summer weather.
We have been spoiled with not having to run the AC too much yet because the weather has been hot/cool back and forth lately. I believe it will start warming up for good now...

It is wonderful school is out and activities are wrapped up for now. I have this week and next week left for T-ball/machine pitch/softball games and then we will be done for good. We are going to leave on our family trip up through Bryce Canyon and to go fishing next week so I am busy this week preparing our trailer for takeoff. I need to sew new curtains and cushion covers and put new shelf liner in all of the drawers as long as organize all of the storage situations in there. I love camping in our trailer. It makes life a whole lot easier when you have a crew of children to pack/unpack/and go to the bathroom at night! It should be a great time and I will post pics when we get home.

I'm posting some pics of Trista's field trip to Zion and our family trip to the Grand Canyon. We went out with Jon and the other exchange students and it was beautiful! The kids really loved it and it was nice to get away for a day.

I also wanted to mention that I was hired down at the gym to teach a couple of aerobics classes along with substituting when they need me. The great thing about the classes - they are Silver Sneakers classes, which are classes specifically designed for senior citizens. When I went today, there were over 20 in the class and we had a blast. You would be surprised how well some of those seniors can move. Anyway, it's been a great time and sometimes more fun than the younger groups! Maybe they'll let me take some pictures of them and I'll post them. We'll see! Well, that's about all for now. It's good to have a break from school, from dancing, and from grief! So seize the day, my friends, because you never know when it's your last! (Seriously) Love you all!

Some Spring Pics

Here are some of the latest doings...EJ's T-ball (I haven't taken many pics of the other kids in ball because the weather has been bad every game), Kayle's field trip to Zion, the girls' dance recital, and ej's kindergarten program (it was so cute). I have to tell you a cute story. I told EJ to try to get in front at the program so I could see him to film and take pictures so he told his teacher 3 times that he had to be front and center because his mom said so. I'm sure she thought I was a stage mom or something, but I must say he sang and danced his little heart out! Everything has been great. The picture of Tball has EJ and Rich together (Rich is he coach this year). EJ is so proud to have his Dad out there with him. Rich didn't volunteer, they kind of roped him in, but he loves being with him. School is winding down and summer is approaching fast. I'm not looking forward to our exchange student's departure, but I am looking forward to summertime and swimming with the kids' - I am a summer girl!

In Need of Your Help...

This is a call to all my friends, fam, and such....I am bored with my current recipes/food situation and I know that there are a lot of you out there that are fabulous cooks! I would love to have some new recipes to try and enjoy and use, BUT here is the catch - they have to be fast, kid and husband friendly, and able to cook for LARGE FAMILIES because that is what I do here, folks. So, if you have anything cool like that, please share with me because I would love to have some new ideas! Thanks a bunch!!!

I will post some new pics soon. I went on another Zion Field trip with my other son, Kayle, yesterday and took some pics so I will put those up soon. We have just been doing the day to day around here and I haven't had much to say!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Sorry I haven't posted for a bit. Life gets a little crazy sometimes. I didn't have any pictures to post, but I wanted to catch up a bit. School has been winding up and winding down as the end approaches. I have been busy with room mom and library volunteer stuff and I have been doing fundraiser stuff with the drill team. We had a yard sale last weekend (in the wonderful Hurricane wind), but it went pretty well. We were able to raise quite a bit regardless of the weather. I swear, it has blown here every single day in April and now it is May...I wonder what that will bring! The kids are full into the baseball/softball/T-ball/machine pitch groove now along with Richard playing softball. We are at 5 games per week and a few practices so we have been staying busy. I will post pictures when I get some good ones. It has been so windy that I have been watching games from the car just to stay somewhat sane. I don't know how they play in that stuff! The wind was blowing so hard the other day and Richard was pitching. He only walked 2 guys in 2 games and I don't know how he was able to do that in the crazy wind!

Otherwise, things have been pretty normal. We are trying to plan for our family vacation which will be around the 2nd week of June. We are going to take the kids up to Lagoon and then up to Idaho to visit some family and friends and then to Yellowstone so it should be fun. We wanted to do something fun with our exchange student before he leaves the end of June. We sure are going to miss him. He has been such a blessing. I wish we could adopt him, although he is almost 18! Well, I'll post again when there is actually more exciting news to post!