Summer's End

The kids go back to school next week. It was a full and busy summer, but I cannot help but wonder where it went! Jacob is having an end of summer party this evening at our house with a few friends. They watched a movie and are now playing video games. Adrienne is off at the mall with her friends doing some last minute hanging out! The little kids are in bed and I finally have a chance to update my blog a bit, something I have truly missed this past week or so!

I started our back to school shopping on Thursday-better late than never? I got what I could from Annalina's list, but found a lot of things were sold out, come on Target, how can you be out of glue sticks!! Richard and I found the extra things at Albertson's today. Imagine that! I suppose most people don't think to look for school supplies at the grocery store. Adrienne and Jake will not have complete lists until classes start, but I did get them paper, pens, pencils etc, so we are off to a good start there. We also took the kids to Kohl's today for Jeans and yesterday Tektronix was invited to the Nike employee store, so we got shoes for the older kids and Richard. Afterwards we did the grocery shopping and that was it for the budget! Anyone else feeling the pinch of higher prices these days?

We got a call earlier in the week from California. Richard's mother is in the hospital and had to have emergency surgery! In the process she was taken off some meds she really needed to stay on and has had a difficult recovery. We are keeping her in our thoughts and prayers. We all LOVE YOU Grandma! Get well soon!

My business is not doing well at all. I think the economy is to blame. I know personally its hard to think about buying clothes for myself when my kids need so many things for school. I imagine many of my customers are feeling the same these days. Big change is coming my way and I admit I am feeling a bit nervous. Stability is something I embrace, but with change comes growth and I trust that whatever path I take, I will be strengthened and guided to where I am supposed to be.

My favorite hymn right now is "Be Still My Soul". I am trying to memorize the words so I can sing it to myself when I have trouble dealing with life. What a beautiful sentiment in the first verse. We are all faced with challenges, but if we persevere, the Lord will create order and provide for us. I truly believe this and have seen it in my own life so many times.

1. Be still, my soul:
the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently
the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God
to order and provide;
In every change,
He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul:
thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways
leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul:
thy God doth undertake
To guide the future,
as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence
let nothing shake;
All now mysterious
shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul:
the waves and winds
still know His voice
Who ruled them
while He dwelt below.

This song is on my "Eclipse" CD, done absolutely beautifully! http://www.eclipsesingers.com/gratefulpraise.html

August Ramblings...

Well, it was hot last week, very very hot for Portland's normal highs. I think it was 104 on Saturday. It is cool, cloudy and rainy now! I suppose that is why I love Oregon, it does not feel the need to conform to anyone's expectations! The cooler weather has been a nice break from the heat and reminds me that Autumn is on its way. My favorite time of year!! I'm feeling the urge to make a crock pot stew that everyone loves! It is hard to believe that the kids will be back in school in just a couple short weeks. Where has the summer gone??

Both of the older kids have their High School class schedules and seem to be very happy with them. Jake started cross country practice on Monday and is really enjoying it. He is a great long distance runner and has lots of stamina, I think he will do very well. Adrienne and some friends put in a day at the library today getting summer homework finished for an AP English class they are taking together. Annalina is a bit nervous about going full time this year. She only went 2 or 3 days a week last year and is feeling a bit overwhelmed by having to go everyday! I know she will do just fine though. Earlier bedtimes will be a must for her though, she needs her sleep! Joseph will be starting preschool at the end of September and then I can say that ALL my kids are in school!! Wow, I am feeling every grey hair today! I don't know if its the weather, or if I really am just getting old but I am having trouble getting inspired to do much of anything. Good thing I finished up the laundry yesterday!! Perhaps I will just take it easy and get ready for a day of accomplishments tomorrow!

Vacation Odds and Ends

We were very blessed to get to spend time with family on this trip. We were fed very well and often by them and did not use most of the meals I had planned to fix on this vacation. This is good since we are eating those meals now that we are home!
I did not include many of our photos of extended family visits during our trip, so I am blogging about it now. Here we are with Grandma and Grandpa Loomis and Aunt Lesa. It is a bird that has Annalina's attention. Grandma is birdsitting for a friend this summer and Annalina enjoyed watching that bird, as you can tell!!!! Grandma helped Annalina plant her first cactus garden. We picked up another cactus to add to it in Arizona. Annalina LOVES her cactus and was holding it an hour into our journey on to Utah. I asked her if she wanted me to put it someplace safe and she reluctantly gave it to me for safe keeping!

So the next photo is not family, but I have always loved the fact that Palm Springs disguises its cell phone towers as palm trees. I noticed this years ago, but did not have the chance to take a photo until now. Richard was kind enough to turn around and take me back so I could snap this picture! Can you spot the imposter?

The Family with Great Grandma Kay.
She was so sweet. I really enjoyed my long conversations with her! And she absolutely adored watching the kids play.

Richard, Grandma, and Grandma Great

Grandma Great gave Joseph a stuffed Thomas the Tank Engine toy and he loves it so much! He fell asleep with it on the way to Utah and slept with it every night for the rest of the trip. Isn't that cute?? Grandma had a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine play sets for Joseph that kept him busy for hours, building tracks and running the trains around on them. He also enjoyed playing with the Mr and Mrs Potato heads. Grandpa Blaine took Annalina and Joseph outside to play from time to time. They saw lots of critters and got to help feed the "chickens", more commonly known as quail! The kids really enjoyed Grandpa and I could tell the appreciated the time he took to play with them. Grandpa let Joseph borrow a hat when they went outside and when it was time to leave he told him he could have it. Well, Joseph did not want that hat, he wanted an older bleached out hat that Grandpa had for years(it was once black, but is now a tie dyed brown and pretty cool looking). I think Joseph was drawn to the history of the hat and knowing it had been worn by Grandpa made it that much more special!! Annalina spent hours playing with Grandma Great's doll house full of dolls and furniture and played with a suitcase full of Barbies that belong to Grandma.
Jake was excited to get to see the Energy Solutions Arena, home of the Utah Jazz. We love to watch the Jazz play! I used to go with my father to watch them when I was a girl. Back then they played in the Salt Palace.

In The Meantime

While on vacation we stopped at a Deseret Book Store outside of Salt Lake. We got Lagoon discount coupons for making a purchase, so we picked up a couple of new CD's. The first is by Eclipse, an incredible group of young men singing hymns acappella. We heard the CD playing in the store and inquired about it, and yes, ended up buying it. The clerk told us it was fabulous and also recommended another CD by Jenny Jordan Frogley and since we knew she had great taste, we got it as well. I am so glad we did! One of my favorite songs on the CD is called In The Meantime. I was driving back from the office store when I first heard it and I admit, my eyes teared up. I love music that helps me see life from new perspectives and helps remind me of who I am and who I want to be. Perhaps I can figure out a way to add the actual song to my page, it is truly beautiful!


In her heart she holds the dreams,
That she's carried since the day she turned 13.
Of all that she would be when she was grown
Of all that she would do when she was finally on her own.
She dreamed, she'd fly and she's still waiting for the chance to try.
But in the meantime she's a mother and a daughter and a wife
Doing all she can to stay above the daily grind.
She wonders when when she'll ever have more meaning in her life.
She doesn't know she's being molded and refined...in the meantime.

Someday she'll go back to school,
When the carpools and the soccer games are through.
Cause deep inside she's still the girl,
Who's always felt the fight to make a difference in the world.
She dreams she'll soar when she finally has the time to do more.
But in the meantime she's a sister and a teacher and a friend.
Hours turn into days that turn to years that never end.
And she wonders when she'll ever really find herself again.
She's becoming a woman who God can depend...in the meantime.

Heaven feels the joy of every victory in her life
And heaven hears her heart before she cries.
Somewhere in the middle of the triumphs and the trials
She's becoming sanctified.

But in the meantime she's a mentor and a blessing and a gift
To every empty aching heart that only she can lift.
Still she wonders if she'll ever get to see where Heaven is
If she could only see her mansion waiting there.
If she could only feel how much her Father cares.
She would know she's being perfectly prepared.
In the meantime.

Home Sweet Home

I thought I was going to get the chance to blog every day of our vacation. Hmmmm, I sure had a high opinion of my abilities!! As it ended up, we stayed very busy our entire vacation and I did not get much time on my computer!

We loved Indio, but all too soon it was time to move on. We drove to Rancho Vistoso near Tucson the day after Jake's birthday at the water park. It wasn't too long of a drive and it is very pretty there. Ton's of huge cactus everywhere! It is a bit like an alien planet compared to what we are used to. Anyway most of the trip was a painful time for me. My ear did not get better with the use of the drops. In fact it got much worse. On Sunday Richard again took me in to Urgent Care so I could get a prescription for antibiotics and something for the pain to help me sleep at night. For two nights I had awoken crying and had very strange dreams. I am glad to say within a few hours of taking the first antibiotic, the pain started to subside and just got better and better from there! I have a better appreciation of what Annalina went through this past winter!

We visited the Pima Air Museum one day in the early part of the day. We saw TONS of planes and lots of neat exhibits. Richard and Joseph were in airplane heaven!! We ventured outside a bit late and didn't make it all around to see all of the planes, but we saw quite a few before we started to melt. We even got to go in the first Air Force One. I took tons of photos, I'll include a few below!

On another day we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is really more of an outdoor zoo. We saw lots of desert critters and the kids got to search for treasure in the rocks, dig for dinosaur bones, crawl through caves, etc. It was great fun until Joseph had a melt down. It was so hot by this time I really felt for the little guy. He cried and didn't want to go anywhere, was tired at looking at things and had big red cheeks. Richard took him in the bathroom and put a wet paper towel under his hat going down his neck. This seemed to help for a while, but before long he was unhappy again. So we did not see the entire place, but maybe someday we will find ourselves that far south again, perhaps during a cooler time of year, you just never know!
Several evenings in Arizona we got to see the famous lightning storms that Richard has always told us about. For about two hours the sky would light up every 10 seconds or so. Sometimes we would see the actual lightning strikes, sometimes the whole sky lit up. It was an incredible site to behold. Jake and Annalina were a bit tentative about it, but Adrienne and I really enjoyed watching Mother Nature's show! We had a deck above our back porch and felt very safe watching from below! One night we were driving and it started raining, Richard tells me it is monsoon season. It poured down rain on us. Richard had to drive around to find alternate ways back to the resort when certain roads were not passable due to flash flooding! I really enjoyed our time in Arizona!

This past Monday we left AZ for Utah. What a LONG drive that day turned out to be! We left about 5am, and did not arrive in Wolf Creek Utah until about 8pm. Again, we loved the accommodations. The resort is in the Ogden valley near the town of Eden and we drove through a narrow canyon to get there. Perfectly named since it was so beautiful It was a two story which helped spread us all out a bit.

The first day we drove into Salt Lake City and spent a good part of the day at Temple Square. The visitors centers are fantastic and we enjoyed our visit. We also go to see the movie called Testaments which is about Christ's visit to the America's. It was a very moving film and I was grateful we got to see it together. I am always struck by the beauty of the grounds around the temple. As you can see from the photos below, the flower beds are bursting with beautiful flowers and plants and it is truly breathtaking.

The next day we went to Lagoon, which is a fun amusement park just 30 minutes from where we were staying. We went on some rides together then let the older kids loose for a few hours on their own to enjoy the really terrifying rides. The little kids had a great time riding the kid rides. Annalina was a bit fearful of the fast bigger rides, but Joseph adored them and went with Daddy on many of the larger rides. On the HUGE ferris wheel, I was feeling a bit nervous about being so high, but Annalina really enjoyed that ride. It was a fun day!


On Thursday Richard and I got up at 4am and went back into Salt Lake City to go through a session at the Temple. What a wonderful experience that was! It is such a beautiful temple inside and out and the spirit can be felt very strongly! Afterwards we went on a tour of the Conference Center. We got to go on the roof garden that has beautiful fountains, flowers and trees. It is a garden with a spectacular view of the entire valley.

We left Utah on Friday and stopped in Twin Falls Idaho to tour the new temple there. Since it has not yet been dedicated, they were having an open house for the public. The kids were especially excited to get to go through the temple. It was beautiful inside and out. Afterwards we drove on to Boise and stayed the night there. Richard got to shop at the Caballas right near our hotel and we had a nice dinner at IHOP. Joseph was wiped out and went to bed when we got back and Annalina, Jake and Adrienne played at the indoor pool for a couple hours. It was a nice break from all that driving. Today we made it home and it is so good to be here! The weather here was nice and cool and the sky was cloudy, it was a stark contrast to the past couple weeks of heat, sun and more heat! We had a wonderful vacation and everyone did so well during those long days of driving! My family is so cool!

Ouch

We are now in Oro Valley, Arizona. It is beautiful here in a very different way! Big cactus are everywhere and it is quite green due to the rains they have been getting. It has been very hot here as well. Again, the resort is lovely and we have a nice spacious place to stay. Its good, since some of the kids are losing patience with each other.

The night we got here I had a light pain in my ear. I was sure I had water in there from Soak City. I took Advil yesterday but by evening I was having severe pain. It never really went away and then I could not open my mouth to eat and I had swollen glands. So this morning my sweet husband found me an urgent care and took me in. We got in quick and I was told I have swimmers ear which has caused inflammation of my ear canal. Very very painful. I was given drops and have taken more Advil and am feeling much better this afternoon. Its been nice to have a quiet day at the resort!

So Jacob's birthday was Tuesday and we went to Knot's Soak City in Palm Springs. It was hot and very sunny. We applied sunscreen every couple of hours, but Richard, Adrienne and I still ended up with pretty bad sunburns on our shoulders and backs. Aunt Lesa and Cousin Daydin came along and it was a very fun day. We got a Cabana that had misters, and it was nice to get a break out of the sun. Annalina braved some very big slides and Joseph had fun on the water playground that is several stories high. I enjoyed the wave pool the most. Check out the photos below!

I know there is much more to say, but its about naptime for me. I will write more later! We are having a great time and the time is flying! We have enjoyed a lot of time with extended family and feel very blessed to be able to take this trip together!!

Joseph and Cousin Daydin in the Cabana!
Aunt Lesa, Adrienne and Jake
Jake in the wave pool

Adrienne, Jake and Lesa on the Pacific Spin. I knew it was them from the screaming as they came down the chute. Gave me time to click this fun shot! What a ride!