Sweet Hour of Prayer-for Sandy Hook

When I heard of the tragic events at Sandy Hook on Friday my heart was broken.  Initially I did not tell my children about it.  Not because I thought they would be terrified but because I wanted to shield them from all the evil in the world.  Saturday I decided that there was no way I could keep it from them so I called them in and told them what happened.  I asked them to pray for the families and loved ones of those who had died.  They do not understand the scope of the tragedy and for that I am grateful, but they do remember them in all their prayers, and for that I am grateful too.

This morning as my heart was heavy with sorrow for Sandy Hook I recognized the song that had been stuck in my head all morning.  The hymn Sweet Hour of Prayer.  The line that kept repeating in my head was,

In seasons of distress and grief,

My soul has often found relief

. . .

By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

 

To all those who are in a season of distress and grief, I will do the only thing that I know will help.  

 

You will be in my prayers.

Wise Words

First day of 4th grade

A while ago Alan asked why some people stop going to church as adults.  I explained to him that since he is a kid mom and dad make sure that he goes to church, says his prayers, etc.  I told him that he needs to gain a testimony of the gospel now so that when he is an adult he will still go to church.  "When you are an adult you won't have your parents there to remind you all the time to do what's right, you will have to make that decision yourself." 

Alan thought for a moment and replied "I think I will get a wife to do that"

Family Vacatioins

  I recently joined a personal history group with some of the ladies at church.  Each months a few subjects are randomly chosen to write about.  I decided I to share what I've written here.  Family, feel free to chime in and clarify events or tell me just where this first picture was taken.

Family Vacations always started early.  When I was younger it was 5 am so we would miss traffic.  As a teenager it became 2 or 3 am because my Dad had trouble sleeping and he figured if he wasn’t sleeping he might as well be driving.  My Dad liked to travel but didn’t like to visit the same place twice so by the time I turned 18 I probably had visited just about every National Park and major destination in the west.  From Lassen to Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon to Banff Canada, Yellowstone to Yosemite I've visited them all.  Now that I have kids of my own I am trying to figure out how to take them to all the places I visited as a kid. 

Mono Lake 2012 Hyrum, John, Alan, Me                               Mono Lake 1993 Ron, Dad, Brent, Lawanna, Me    

Vacations always involved long road trips.  The only times I flew as a kid was when we went to visit my Mom’s parents in Texas.   Though I hated the long drives, a lot of my fond memories came from the drives.  My mom didn't simply have us all sitting in the car together watching TV, but she had us playing together.  

Our vacations were almost always camping.  I loved sitting around the campfire listening to my older siblings tell stories.  I also loved looking up at the stars at night, amazed by how many more stars could be seen than in the city.  One night in particular I remember lying with my family on a picnic blanket out in a meadow and there was a meteor shower.  

We had a large brown tent.  It had a tarp that hung from the middle dividing it into two rooms.  The boys slept on one side and the girls on the other. My parents would sleep in the van.  On one particular camping trip I woke up early in the morning to find that I had been sleeping in a puddle.   My pillow was dripping wet.   It had started raining in the middle of the night and as it turned out our old tent had gotten quite a few holes in it.  My two oldest sisters were already awake from the storm and were deciding whether or not to go wake my parents.  They finally decided that sleeping in puddles was overrated and decided to go wake them up.  When my sister went to go outside we discovered that not only did our tent have holes but the zipper broke too.  We were stuck inside, wet, while my parents slept peacefully in our van.  After about a half hour of fighting with the zipper we got it open maybe a foot.  Being the youngest and smallest I was voted to squeeze out the hole and wake my parents.   So I went out into the pouring rain to bang on the car window, wake my parents and inform them that their children were trapped in the tent sleeping in puddles of water.  We packed up a day early and headed home.  As you might imagine, the tent, went in the garbage.

Kid pitch baseball--Where kids learn how to get hit by the baseball

Alan and Hyrum are both doing baseball this fall.  Alan is taking a break from taekwondo and wanted in on the baseball fun.  We figured fall would be a good time to start since it is their noncompetitive season and we were lucky enough to get them on the same team.  We just finished our first week of baseball practice.  The first day the coach discovered that no one had ever pitched before.  Everyone was either brand new to baseball (like Alan) or had only played coach pitch (like Hyrum).  At practice on Friday the coach told the parents that they were going to do a little practice game.  "The kids need to learn what it's like to get hit by the ball." 

And get hit they did.  Neither of my boys got hit during practice (although Alan is sporting a nice bruise on his knee from practicing at home with his brother) but there were multiple kids who did.  I think this is pretty much just weeding out the kids who really want to play baseball.  What kids are willing to put up with getting hit by the ball and who is willing to endure a boring game where there are no hits, only walks.  Hyrum is going to be pitching his first in the first game on Wednesday.  We'll see who comes home with bruises.

Late Mother's Day

My Mom and I

 I didn't write a Mother's Day post this year.  I was home on Mother's Day with a sick child.  To be honest I can't think of a more appropriate way to spend Mother's Day.  John felt bad that I had to stay home because he needed to be there to teach primary, but if I were at Church I would be thinking about Alan at home anyway.

John was sweet and called me on his cell phone while Hyrum was singing with the Primary in Sacrament meeting so that I could hear him sing.  Feel free to tease John about making phone calls during Sacrament meeting. :)  I wasn't thinking about blogging that day but I have been meaning to do it ever since.  The following is part of a post I wrote for my food blog.  If you would like the recipe I am talking about go here.  Sorry I am late Mom.  I love you!

This summer my husband and I will celebrate our eleventh wedding anniversary.  We both wanted a simple small wedding that was low budget so instead of a reception we had a morning wedding followed by a luncheon for family and close friends.  My mother planned the food for the lunch.  To save her sanity she had a few of the items catered but most of it she did herself.  My mom is an amazing cook and I was the sixth child to get married so she was pretty much a pro at this point (Did I mention that I only gave my mom two months to prepare?  We went for the short engagement).

About a month before the wedding I came home after work to find my mom had two pasta salads in the fridge for me to taste.  I have no recollection of one, but the other I completely fell in love with.  This pasta salad will never get confused with one that originated from a box.  Fresh basil, olives, and roasted corn give this salad bold flavor.  She made this one for my wedding and I have been enjoying the recipe ever since.

My thoughtful Mother packed up some leftovers and put them into an ice chest and sent them with us as we left on a road trip for our honeymoon.  We had planned on eating out on our honeymoon (actually I am pretty sure we didn't "plan" anything for food), and we ate at some great restaurants that week.  But when driving through the middle of nowhere eating pasta salad and other wedding food was much preferred to the fast food joints that were our only other option.  Thanks Mom!

Home Again

John had to work in the Bay Area last week and since the kids were on spring break we decided to go with him.  I have made only a few short visits since I left home 14 years ago.  It was fun to go but it was not nearly enough time to visit old friends or to show my kids all the fun things that are out there.  During the day while John was at work the kids and I did day trips.

We got to ride BART into San Francisco, and that was a favorite part of the trip.  When it was crowded on our way back a sweet lady offered her seat to Hyrum.  Hyrum refused because he thought it was so cool that he could stand up.  We did the touristy stuff and went to pier 39 and saw the sea lions there, went on a boat ride around the bay, watched street performers and had a lot of fun.  What the kids really liked was being able to be little boys.

We also got to enjoy going to some of San Francisco's great museums and the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. I wish I had the camera with me when the boys tried the booger flavored one's.  Aparently they don't taste as good as the real thing. The kids were thrilled when we brought bags of Belly Flops home. I got to see some old friends but not nearly enough. I will have to take multiple trips back to be able to see everyone.

                                   

John was able to join us for a few outings.  We went to see the elephant seals in Ano Nuevo.  Most of the adults had left already but there were a lot of weaned pups still there.  We saw one of them make it's way out to the water and swim away.  It's so funny to watch them on land because they look like giant slugs moving around.

 

We also got to see the Oakland temple,

 

and of course we had to take a trip to Fentons

A Two Sport Family

Hyrum caught the first hit and immediately threw it to first base.

We told Hyrum that he had to wait until he was seven to start playing a sport.  He talked all the time about taking taekwondo lessons like Alan.  He would  even practice TKD while watching Alan take his classes.  However when it got close to his seventh birthday and we asked him what sport he wanted to play he didn't hesitate when he said he wanted to play baseball.

So Hyrum is signed up for little league and had his first practice this week.  Aside from being embarassed that he wasn't wearing baseball pants (he wasn't the only one) he loved it.  He hit every ball the coach threw at him and when throwing the ball he actually got the ball in the near vacinity of the person he was throwing to.  Most of all though he loved that it was his turn in the spotlight.

We experienced our first Saturday of being a two sport family yesterday.  Hyrum had his first "game" (a one inning scrimige) and opening day of little league.    I noticed a running theme with the pictures I took of Hyrum.

Then we had to rush to taekwondo where Alan had a tournament.  Alan has gotten a lot better in sparing and took second place, as well as a third place in his weapons competition.  It was a long day that had us going for eight hours but the kids really felt special.

Disney Land without the kids = A BLAST!!!!

Several weeks ago we found out that the Mother-In-Law was going to be out here watching a different set of grand kids for a week while their parents went to Hawaii.  She offered to watch our kids for the following weekend.  We jumped on it.

We quickly started to put together plans for 3.5 days and 3 nights away from the kids.  After a couple of days listing the pros and cons of each of our options we decided to go to .......  DISNEYLAND!  What a concept!

You may not remember but we did take the kids to Disneyland a couple of years ago.  We had a blast then but it's a different experience without the kids.  The best parts about being on vacation and going to Disneyland without the kids:

• You wake up and get out of bed when you want
• You don't have to go back to the Hotel for naps because the kids are cranky because they wake up at the crack of dawn even though you've pulled the blackout fabric.
• You can go back to the Hotel for a nap because you feel like it
• It's just you and your spouse
• You get to talk and joke without being interrupted and without worrying if it's something you should be saying in front of the kids
• No whining about long lines
• Waiting in line isn't really a chore because you don't have to "manage" the kids so they don't bump into the people in front or behind you or keep asking "how much longer"
• You get to ride what you want and how often you want
• You can watch the parade and the shows.  Did you know that on Friday nights they have bands play in Tomorrow Land?  It was an 80s cover band.  We haven't been to a concert in years.  It was a blast.
• You don't have to worry about a height limit
• You don't have to ride autopia 10 times.  Don't get me wrong.  This is a fine ride but the kids think it's the best and want to ride it over and over
• You can eat at the park without first looking to see if the place serves kid-friendly meals 
• It's just you and your spouse

There were one or two times that we found ourselves saying "the kids really liked that ride" but honestly it was only a couple of times.  Getting away for a few days and nights without your kids has really recharged us.  It's a great way to remember why we fell in love.  I think we'll have to do it every year.