Oh Canada

Liza came home one day from school asking how to play O'Canada on the Flute. We down loaded free music, and then informed me that she would be playing it at the "International Festival" at school. "OKAY!!!" I was sure proud to be Canadian, and her mom. What a great moment.

Happy Easter!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

So, the rest of the week played out something like this...  Thursday morning, I was back at the gym teaching again... man was I pooped.  It was fun tho, like it always is, I do SO love my job.  The kids seemed to have had a good time at the gym again, and we came home, me with many ideas in my mind of things that we could do, we did none of them.  I came down with a wicked cold.  I thought we were past cold and flu season, but nay...  That night I rushed out the door right before bed time to take library books back and run to buy some plants for "curb appeal".  Blew another nice wad of cash on a house that we don't intend to keep.  Rushed to Target and stayed under $100 yet again!!!   (I am getting good at resisting all the Target deals)  It's not nearly as fun tho. I had to get some nyquil so that I could sleep.  GRRR.  Then I hurried home to meet up with Terry to discuss what we are going to do to sell our home.  Now we have dropped the price $10,000.00 from our original asking price.  And he is suggesting we put in new floors. I would really like to know where people are getting the $$ to do this crap?!?!?  seriously.  I just lost 10 grand on my house, how's about I buy you all new flooring too!?!?!?  Man alive!  So that was a new stress to add to the pot.   

Friday Morning I felt like I'd been hit by a train!  Oh it sucked.  The kids came in asking all the normal mommy questions, and I told them each to "go away, I don't feel good."  Liza, being the sweet hearted girl that she is, made me a lovely breakfast in bed.  Scrambled eggs, and toasted bagel with Orange Juice.  I was tickled, and boy did that OJ taste good.  not long after I was left to enjoy my Breakfast I heard a large crash.  I waited, no one cried, so I ate on.  Come to find out that my sweet hearted girl also showed her skills at balancing, and balanced the huge family sized OJ, in such a way that when Tori opened the fridge it "jumped" out at her.  There was OJ everywhere!!!  Seriously... by the time i got up and took over the clean up... my my my.. under the fridge, in the fridge..  everywhere, and the floor was SO sticky.   After the fiasco was over I went out and planted all the flowers that i purchased the night before, and made the front look beautiful.  And then we waited for the carpet cleaners who were coming at 12.... then called and said 1:00, and they didn't show till 2.  Yeah, have you a ever waited 2 hours with 4 kids trying to not allow them to make a mess on the carpet while you wait for someone, then to wait another 2 hours for him to clean the carpets?  i was just grateful that it was a beautiful day and we were able to play outside.  When he got to our house..  I took the kids up to the court.. with the dog to ride bikes.  Yeah, not such a good idea.  Alex ended up getting super mad about something... and threw Toris bike.  Yes, threw it!  And ripped up the seat.  You have to understand, that Tori has had this bike for almost a year, and she has babied this thing beyond belief.  It hardly has any rust on it, and we don't have a shed or garage.  She keeps it under a tarp, and if for some reason it gets wet, she takes a towel out and dries it off so it doesn't rust.  (Seriously folks! )  He was in some serious doo doo.  So that was the end of that fun.  Everyone was crying, Tori cuz of her bike, Alex cuz of his punishment, and Katie because she can't peddle her bike and it makes her mad.  UH, can't you just see us walking home from up the road.  OH BROTHER!  So we played in the yard and waited... then when he was done, it was time to wait for the carpets to dry... but we could do that somewhere else, so we packed up and took off.  The carpets do look better by the way.  :-)  It was worth it.  I took the kids to Michael's to buy stamps so that we could go  Letter Boxing  Liza picked a Mommy horse and baby, Alex picked a bunny bum that  says "the end",  Tori picked a baby Tiger, and Katie found a Tinkerbell.  Everyone was happy.  They each got a book to put stamps in and then we headed home where Brent was meeting with John to talk about getting flooring in, and renovating a bathroom.  I took the kids out on a letter box hunt.  The hunt started us out right in front of Aimee's house, so we took Alissa with us.  We were gone for over 90 mins, the dogs pad on his back right foot was worn down to flesh, Katie fell asleep on my shoulders on the way back, and everyone was pooped.  But it was a cool adventure!  We found the box, it was a fun hunt, and great scenery.  We even found a  "hitch hiker" which is a traveling letter box of sorts.  Anyway, it was fun!  And the kids were pooped, so I achieved my goal for the day.  Mean while... I'll remind you folks that I am still feeling like death.  Saturday we had a flooring guy coming at 9 am, a showing at 11 and Taxes in DC at 1.  Yes once again, a full day... no sleeping in.   We had a good day tho.  Taxes proved to be in the black, rather then the red.  We had a deal with the kids that if they did their part and earned their points that when Tax day came, we would take them to the mall and let them choose something.  So seeing as how every morning, these kids get up and "stage" their rooms, and when there is a showing, they pitch in and wash windows and carry out baskets of stuff, shoes and the dog crate, they got their prize.  Liza got some cute little black shoes, and a big stuffed bunny that was 40% off.  Alex is saving his bounty, for he wants to combine it with his birthday $ to get a DSi.  Tori has looked forward to this the most.  Early on this year, she spotted a puppy at Build A Bear.  It was a mommy dog with a baby dog in it's mouth.  (done with magnets) The mommy was dressed up with roller skates on.  Tori didn't have enough money in her "account" for the mommy, but she did have enough for the baby.  ($5.00)  So she bought the baby and has kept it around as her motivation to do good so that she could get the mommy one on the mall trip.  And that she did.  She was very pleased!  Katie when she heard that she would get to pick a prize immediately shouted "My sleeping Dora!!"  We saw this Dora in Wal mart weeks ago, but she kept talking about it... so we took her to get it.  Then she was upset the rest of the day cuz she wanted Tori's cool dog.  :-(  oh well.  Poor girl!  We took the kids out for dinner (like real sit down, waiter dinner) this is usually only for birthdays... they were excited!  It was a nice night, with only one pit stop at Target where I bought a box of the softest Kleenex available since I'd been using napkins all day.  (are you getting sick of me and my cold.  hehe... just think of poor Brent.. what a whiner!)   Anyway... if you can believe it.. at 9pm I ran to Childrens Place and bought the girls dresses for Easter.  Yes, i waited.... waited and waited for my favorite dresses to go on sale. :-(  I won't do it again.  They were gone.  The girls looked cute anyway, and I scored the perfect color shirt for Alex, so it was still good.

This picture makes me laugh cuz this is how Tori perceives the world.  :-)  See how she is the center, and all in focus and the others are just her backdrop.. LOL, she seriously kept moving closer and closer to the camera until the other kids were not even in the picture.  She thought this was the best picture when we looked at them on the computer after wards.  LOL!!  She is so funny.  Taking pictures of the 4 of them is really something else.  One day, I am going to get a really good shot, and I am going to hang it proudly!!   

Easter was great this year.  Liza's Achievement days leaders did the easter egg/ scripture thing... anyway... it was nice to spend the 12 days before easter preparing for it and hearing the story of the savior.  The kids got a little taste of it every night as we headed off to bed.  Even with that in mind however, Alex was still more then excited about the Easter Bunny!  The Easter Bunny not only leaves us baskets, but also leaves us a hunt for foil wrapped eggs.  All over the house.  It is quite fun.  
If you look closely you can see about 6 eggs hidden there around him.  SO much fun.  I used to  love doing this when I was a girl.  I remember once, waking up in the middle of the night and finding my dad with a bag of eggs in his hand and placing them around the living room.  I said "dad!  What are you doing?"  Quick on his toes, he said "The easter bunny was in a hurry and asked me to finish up for him."  I took that answer and went to bed.  :-)  Funny.
Here is the excitement of the baskets.  The kids checked out their baskets, did their hunt, and then headed down stairs to watch their new movie Bolt.  While eating disgusting amounts of Chocolate.  By 9 am, they were packing it in, and I was back in bed... finally a sleep in.  Followed by church preps,  wonderful meetings today, that made me so grateful for the Savior and his sacrifice.  Dinner, made by Brent (thanks babe) and a nice evening of reading books on my bed with the little girls.  Tori is trying to read now.  And does pretty well.  She gets frustrated quickly.. but I am trying to keep it light.  She took 2 different reading sessions to do it, but she worked her way through GO DOG GO.  I am sure that this was just the first of many times through this book.  :-)  Brent brought me flowers on friday, and they are stunning.  Maybe tomorrow I will take some photos.  We have a showing scheduled for tomorrow, I  better get to bed, so that I can get up early enough to stage the house before we leave for the gym.  :-)  YIPEE!!   The new house Settlement is supposed to take place on Friday...  I am excited and apprehensive.  

Spring Break

So, since Brent is working thru Spring Break, and we're trying not to spend $$, I've been trying to keep the kids busy in less expensive ways.  And considering that I am entertaining 4 kids whilst trying to keep my house clean and ready to show at any time.  I think I am doing a bang up job.  Monday,  I taught at the gym, so the kids got to have a gym and swim.

No, this little guy wasn't at the gym, but I thought it was a good place to stick his picture... (:he is from the National Zoo in DC.  Anyway, back to monday.  The kids had a blast at the pool with their pals.  Then we came home and had lunch and hung out here at home waiting for dad to get off work.  Well, then we had a showing, and frantically evacuated the house.  Then dinner and Bed.  On Tuesday we took an easy morning, then met up with the Tidwells @ Chuck E Cheese, where Jeri had an AWESOME Coupon and the kids had a blast eating and playing for hours all for $23!  Then Today was the Zoo in DC.  Now the Zoo admission is free, but we did have to park at the Metro, and pay to take the kids on the Metro, but what fun!
Here is Alex in some animal skull.  He really thought this was Cool.  On Tuesday night, Alex said in his prayer, "We thank thee that we get to go on the Metro tomorrow."  That's right, not that we get to go to the zoo, but that we get to take the cool train there.  That is why I don't drive, the ride on the train is 1/2 the fun!
This Lovely Tiger was VERY HUNGRY!  It kept going down to the door and scratching at it, and looking through the windows!  And Growling.  :-)  Too Cool.  The animals were quite active today, since the temperatures were lower, they were pretty spry, even the panda was moving around a lot.  (Which I've never seen)
My sweet Katie... Oh poor baby.. you know, Liza was at the zoo, 2-3 times a month when she was katies age.  Katie was absolutely enthralled with this day!  She loved seeing EVERY animal with the Monkeys and the Elephants seeming to be favorites.  She was so happy all day.. well except near the end.  I was sure glad I brought a stroller though.
Tori and her pal Natalia.  Oh the horror when these two are separated in July.  They LOVE LOVE LOVE to be together.  Two peas in a pod!  Look they even have the same cheesy pose, and they work it together...  I'm tellin' you, these girls......  Oh it makes me want to cry just thinking about it.  They had a fabulous time running about the zoo, but only made it to the train station by way of Jelly Bean Bribes.... they were pretty tuckered out.
They fed the Elephants while we were watching, it was amazing to see them take a big huge stalk of Bamboo, and break it up with their trunks and feet.  And the way they just shove it in there, you would think it would cut their mouths!  It was fun to watch, as feeding times always are.
Here is Liza and her cute friend Lindsay.  I was glad that we took a pal for Liza this time.  Lindsay has been a great friend to liza, and I am sure that they will miss each other too.  I love how the Elephant posed for this one.   What a treat.
And Alex and Wyatt.  Oh these boys.  They have a Love/ Hate relationship.  Really they were just fine till all the moving business started... now I think they are making sure that they don't miss each other too much, but fighting a little more often.  That's okay.  I think that is how boys work anyway... see when a girl fights with her friend, it is big and takes quite some time to get over.... but boys, they can punch each other in the face one minute and be playing robots the next... figure that!  They too are peas in a pod.  They are both crazy for Star wars, and X Box.  They both love to pretend crazy fighting adventures, and they are both emotional and sensitive.  Funny guys I tell ya.  Alex will miss Wyatt SOOO much.  :-(
Tori and Katie on a Sloth Bear.  This is what my girls look like for reals... no primping this time.  A little ragamuffin ish....But I think they are cute as a button anyway.  
The otters are some of my favorites, and this pair have a FANTASTIC exhibit at the National Zoo.  Lucky critters.  They were so playful today.  What fun to watch.  I think that they are SO cute!
Katie and Tori Hugging the only Otters they are going to hug.  :-)  A good time was had by all.  Alex told me on the train that if I sat down and shook my feet that it helps them from hurting.  :-)  I think we wore him out.  We came home at 5:50 and there was a message telling me that I had a showing scheduled for 6:30- 8:00.  Brent wasn't home from work yet and I was supposed to be at the gym to teach by 7:15!  Now I not only have 4 kids, I also have a dog, who shouldn't be left in the car for 2 hours while i am at the gym..... What to do?  So I have to feed them right?  So we go through Taco Bell drive thru...  Park after I get food, and start dealing it out.  Poor Chinook is back in his crate after a whole day in there.  He is whining, Tori is insisting that he is thirsty, which I am sure he was.  I open the crate to fill his drink, and he BOLTS over my arm and out of the Van.  Oh GEEZE!  Anyone who knows us very well, knows that Chinook will NOT come if he feels the wind in his hair.  Oh brother!  After 10 minutes and threatening to drive away w/0 him, he finally came to me after being lured with a piece of taco!  Little BRAT!   Then it was off to the gym again.  Met Brent, he took the dog, I took the kids (they wanted to got to the kids place)  and taught my class.  PHEWF  What a day.  I think I am going to go and lay on the sofa. :-)

The Big Weekend

This past Wednesday my mom came into town in wednesday night and by Thursday at 5:30 am Brent and I were headed to the airport to fly out to TN for the weekend.  Oh how I wished that we were flying off to a tropical destination, where we would bask in the Sun and sand, and drink Margaritas by the water, but we were off on another mission.  One that was fun, but not so relaxing.  We had our funding already lined up and had researched homes and schools on line for weeks in advance.  On day one being Thursday, we arrived in TN at 9:30 am, we were with the realtor by 11:30 and looking at homes before 1.  We looked at 12 homes that day!!! Yes!  12!  Some were a quick look, others I stood there and drew detailed floor plans of them.  We found that in new builds you have to be careful, as some builders really cut corners, we are pretty sharp now on identifying a good/bad builder.  We found that one of our favorites on line, was a smoker, so we didn't even look.  :0(  After a long day of looking, we went to the hotel and looked them over, and looked at what we needed to see on Friday.  Met Peggy (realtor) at 10 and were back out looking at houses in no time.  We saw about 9 more homes, narrowed the search to 2 favorites and took them home to look over and pray about.  On Sat. Morning we put a bid in on this home.

Ain't she a beauty?  Too bad it was a crumby day, and not sunny.  That is Peggy's van in the drive way, and yes, I was born in a barn.  (I ran out to take the picture and left the door open. )  LOL!
Here is Brent waving from the deck.  The part of the house that is Vinyl is the Fireplace.  We're told they didn't do brick there because it is easier to get in behind the fireplace if something goes wrong if there is Vinyl back there.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am Kitchen picky.  I really had a hard time with the kitchens, there are not a lot of eat in kitchens now a days, so we found this that has a spot for the kids on the other side of the sink, or even a little table in the kitchen, but the Dining room will be used for when all 6 of us sit down.  
This is the Great room.  This will serve the purpose that our basement play room serves right now.  The kids are going to love this space.  It is so fun!  All 4 of the 5 bedrooms in the house feed off of this great room.  Liza will have a bathroom all to her self and Alex and Tori/Katie will share a Jack and Jill style bathroom.  Ah, it will be wonderful.  We have enough room to split Tori and Katie, but they are looking forward to sharing a room, so we'll see how  long I get to keep my craft room  :o)
Just had to throw in a picture of my beautiful light fixture (this is in the Mast bathroom.  Nice eh?)

This is looking down the stairs at the front door.  Hard wood floors in the entry, hall and dining room.  Carpet  everywhere else.  
This fabulous little park I can see from my back windows, so i can keep and eye on the kids as they play.  It is in such a quiet subdivision that is mandated by law to have sidewalks, so when all the homes are done being built the kids will be able to ride around the block  without getting off the sidewalk.  For now, the center area where the park is located has the sidewalk done all the way around, so the kids can ride over there.  (YIPEE FOR SIDEWALKS)

Just hours before we left on Sunday evening, papers were signed, the bid was accepted, pictures were taken, windows measured for window coverings, the sold sign was up, and lock box was taken off the door.  YIPEE!!  What a weekend.  We are pooped, but feel like we accomplished a ton!  May post more later.  SO there you have it. :-)  I would post a floor plan, but the blog isn't locked and I don't want some creep to know his way around my house!  Notice that I didn't say where in TN, nor did I say a subdivision, and I Photo shopped the front of the house so you can't tell the address.  (tricky eh.?)  Email me if you want any of that info.  :-)  TTFN

Cuteness and craziness

Today katie was climbing around on my lap and I said to her "what do I look like to you?" with out missing a beat she said "pretty."  AWWWW.  What a doll.

The house hit the market last Saturday.   Phewf what a job!  It doesn't look good tho.  The market isn't moving very quickly and there are some nice homes out there to compete with.  :-(  I love our house, I just hope someone else out there will love it too.   So here is a list of things that are TA DONE!

-painted all cupboards in bathrooms

-replaced lighting and vanities in 2 bathrooms

-painted:  2 bathrooms, living room, hall, 2 stairwells,  and family room.

-took 3 truck loads of stuff to storage (thanks again Cari)

-endless bags of trash to the curb

-one trip to the dump (still needed)

-mulch in flower beds

-disassembled and got rid of 1 crib and 1 toddler bed

-patch painted kitchen

-cleaned out pantry and all cabinets

-painted front door, then found out that HOA is not going to like that.... oops.

-coaxed Brent into cleaning up his stuff.... LOL

 There are so many more things we could do...  I'm still avoiding a few of them, but eventually right?  It has been a trip and a half.  I told Brent the other night, that this was BY FAR the hardest thing I have ever done.  We have moved like 14 times, and all but one of those moves, I have single handedly packed up and unpacked the whole house.  The only part anyone helped me with was the putting of boxes into a truck and out of a truck.  But the whole taking what you have, assessing it as to weather you keep it, or throw it, and if you keep it, then do you store it or stage it.  And if you are going to store it, then do you REALLY need it.  UHG!  Then the fact that we have moved at least every 2 years in the past and here, we settled in for 4 years.  WOW double the crap accumulated!  Add to that the frosting of the stress of weather or not you are going to get out of your home w/0 paying a fortune.  Oh dear.  But the house looks amazing, and I wish that I could live like this forever.  I think that the experience of  living in a house w/o all that stuff has really been a lesson to me on what we can do with out.  :-)  I have some perfectionistic qualities and I usually harbor them for the sake of my children, so it has been "fun" to let them out, and see my house the way that I LOVE it to be.  :-)  We'll keep everyone posted on what is going on as far as assignments, and showings.  As of today, the house has been on the market 1 week.  We have had 4 showings.  I think that is not too bad in this market.  Hopefully we have one today or tomorrow too.  If not, we're ready when they call.  :-)  The army is supposed to be in touch with us... nothing still.  We'll see.

That's what he said:

This is Alex complaining about homework tonight

"nine words mom?  I wish I only had 6 wrong.  How hard could this possibly ever take!  This is taking me so long because I don't know how to spell!"

Throws book and pencil on the floor. 

Offer from mom, you don't have to do this, you can just be grounded for another week.

"I'd rather spell for 15 hundred years, then that!  Now I have to write all nine words.  Why can't I just fail on the test and not get grounded, how can I get grounded for a stupid test, I don't think school even matters, I think learning how to walk and say things matters, but I don't think school matters, I don't think spelling words is good enough!  (Cries)  Do you want to know what the truth is?  The real truth is... I don't know how to do this!  Now how do I do this.  How can I memorize 15 words."  (Stomps on the words, then cries again.)

"Mommy, I can't do this,  no matter how you make me try 50 thousand times, I can't do it! You don't even care about me don't you?   I don't know how to write, all I can do is sound it out.. not do it the right way.   Now I can't do it, my pencil is broken!  Tell me what to do, it's anything other then the test!  Like a different kind of spelling thing.  What do I do mommy.  Okay. Here is the actual truth, Liza made me cry, that made me forget all of the spelling words except for the "eye/I" ones.  Thats why!"

(goes and gets a new pencil, comes and argues his point some more. breaks the tip off another pencil.  Goes and gets another pencil)

"I have to write 45 words! (at least the boy is good at math) you're making me write 45 words, I thought it would be 20.  Katie!  You don't want to go to school.  I'm telling you, you don't want to go to school... So when anyone tells you about school, you just say "Shhh, I don't like school".

(starts to study words by writing each troubled word 5 times, begins complaining again... I tell him that he needs to zip his mouth and think about the words as he writes them, so that he remembers them...  Ahh, peace at last, the first time in 25 minutes that he hasn't been yelling and whining about how hard this is.)

Alex is my complainer.  He will just go on and on and on!  I love him to bits, I try not to get frustrated with him,  so today I did this to ease my frustrations.  When I read it back to him, he laughed.  What a goof.

So Incredibly Far behind... where do I start?

I've had so many moments that I've thought "I need to blog about that."  But I've been so busy...  'course I had time to write my complainy post :-)  I'll start with my "missionary moments" post.  I have had the pleasure of speaking with others about my church lately, and this makes me SO happy.  A few years ago I got very involved in "fly lady" a home cleaning/organization program.  It brought so much peace and organization to my life that I wanted to share it with everyone I knew.  I found myself telling everyone and their dog about fly lady.  One day it donned on me that I share fly lady with others because of the peace that it brings, and I wanted others to share in that, so why was I so afraid to share with others the main thing that brings peace into my life which is my beliefs.  I decided then and there to open my mouth and share what I have, some people listen out of consideration, and others are genuinely interested.  This past couple of weeks I've had the pleasure of sharing a few words with a few people.  Tori was invited to a birthday party that was scheduled to take place on a Sunday, I emailed the mom and explained that we were sad to miss the party, but we don't allow our children to go to birthday parties on Sundays as this is our day of worship and family time.  She emailed me back a note of understanding, and told me that she too was a religious person.   Come to find out that she is a member of "Church of Christ", this organization also believes in the Book Of Mormon, they are a branch off of the original church that was established by Joseph Smith.  We have had some interesting discussions which I am sure will lead to more, but what in interesting discovery, just for opening my mouth and saying why Tori couldn't make it to the party.  

After a water aerobics class a few weeks ago, a woman who has always been so friendly to me came up and started asking about out assignment and what we planned to do in our future.  I had prayed the night before for a missionary opportunity.   The spirt whispered to me that this was my chance... (we were no where near that topic) but somehow it worked into the conversation that we are Latter Day Saints.  This woman has had so many brushes with the church that I was astounded.  She had an LDS contractor years ago, who she thought was a wonderfully honest man, she thinks that Mitt Romney is wonderful and should have been president.  She has been to a temple open house, and seen a movie at the visitor center.  She wondered if there was something she could do at the temple with her grandchildren.  She has had the missionaries in her home!  WHAT?  So we chatted, we talked about the Book Of Mormon, I brought her a DVD of "The Testaments."  and a copy of the Book Of Mormon.   I know that the Lord has been preparing her all a long, small and simple things.  I don't know if my placement of the DVD and Book are the final steps in her conversion, or not, but I am so grateful to have been a stepping stone on this woman's journey.  What a blessing!

  2 Saturdays ago I felt very inspired to attend the baptism of a woman and her 3 children (2 of which are in Young Women's)  So inspired that I dressed up all 4 kids and took them even tho Brent was working.  I am so glad that we got to go.  The young women sang after the baptisms and then there were welcomes etc... and then the best part, those who had been baptized bore their testimonies.  Oh how sweet and fresh their hearts were.  The mother, so grateful for a church family who showed so much love to her children, and so grateful for the knowledge that what she was doing was the right thing.  The young girls testimonies were strong and full of faith.  It was so wonderful, there were tears in my eyes the whole time, and my heart was so full!  Then the youngest boy got up there... he is probably 9 yrs old.  He stood in front of a room full of people, like a little man.  He thanked everyone for being there for his family.  He testified that he knew he had done the right thing and then he said with tears in his eyes, (as he hit his chest)  "God is in my heart!" and then he pointed over to where the young women had stood to sing their song and he said, "And them girls,  (swallowed his tears)  they's tellin' it!  In the name of Jesus, AMEN!"  It was one of the sweetest testimonies I have ever heard.  Oh, my friends the gospel is so true.  I truly believe that we have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  There is so much more then just the bible teaches, oh the bible is wonderful, and I believe in it with all my heart too, but there is more..... so so much more.  I am so incredibly grateful for this knowledge that I have!

My testimony has grown so much in the past few years.  I have learned about the atonement in ways that I never imagined.  I always kind of knew, and accepted it, but WOW!  What an amazing gift God has given us!  The Savior really can bare our burdens, and He wants to.  We can turn to the Lord in all things and he will bless and watch over us.  Our prayers are heard and God knows us and the desires of our hearts.  I am grateful to know that my family is sealed together, that if tragedy strikes that we are going to be together in heaven, and all is well.  Today marks 4 years since we lost Brents mom, we miss her terribly but we know that she is busy going about God's work and that she watches over us.  We feel her around sometimes, not as much now as we did years ago, but she is here and she keeps tabs on those grand babies.  We speak of her often and try to keep her memory alive for our kids.  She is missed often, and we are thankful for the knowledge of eternal life.  I wish that we could order dreams, cuz I would order one up for Brent tonight, one where he gets to talk to her and hug her.  He had a hard time in church today....it is so hard to watch tears fall down his strong face, and know that there is a place in him that will be empty until they meet again.  I pray for a tender mercy for him tonight, the dreams help sometimes. 

update on the house.... well it didn't go on the market today... but I told our realtor that I want people in here looking on Saturday.. we'll see.   That's all for now.  I have more stuff, but I am sure that I lost 1/2 the readers about 40 lines ago.  :-)