2011 State 3A Football Champions and our little mascot!

Maybe I don't get bragging right about the state game since I didn't weather the storm to actually watch it, but I did sit up there in those cold stands for the last three attempts our boys made for the state title, and so I feel I can count that!!!  This year I sat in the comfy warm recliner of my living room, perched and poised without an annoying thing around.  I was warm, dry and really loving my surroundings as I watched the feild turn white!! Knowing my family was freezing in the stands made me proud and sad.  The hurricane fans were awesome and brave, and they looked great filling up our side of the stadium!

 The other fun thing is our Errin was a second half mascot, she kept more warm with that suit on, than she would have in the stands, but said her hands and feet were FREEZING!!  They really came home drenched with the wet snow.  See her in the picture with the zebra gloves :)

Oh the joys of teamwork and accomplishment despite some pretty harsh odds!!

PUMPKIN CARVING- OUR FAVORITE CRAFTING TRADITION!

Recently Steve found a great farmers market in Cedar City which has supplied us with wonderful vegetables and honey!!  One day while stopping for some tomatoes for salsa, he found this monster pumpkin and was charged $10.00 for it.  Steve knew it was a good deal, but it wasn't until we visited Vernal to see Britt and Stew that we realized how good the deal was.  A store we visited had a large (but smaller) pumpkin with a sign on it for $89.99!!  We now refer to it as "the treasure".

So got our our widdling knives and spoons and spooky patterns and carved til we couldn't hold the knives any longer!!  WE put 6 cool carvings into the space and it looks amazing!!  Then we ate some cake balls that Brooke whipped up and had a wonderful time.

Now that my kids are older I have less say in the dangers they engage in.  Here is a fun game we call sword piercing:  mix in the dark starlit night, a wobbly sword-made for wall hanging, and a fast pitched pumpkin piece- and anything can happen!!  I envisioned someone getting empaled with the separation of hilt and blade, but we ran out of chuncks so soon, that danger was averted.  Although I can usually hit a moving target with a bat, I never got a solid hit-I did however see some nice shavings fly off to the right on a slice or two!  All safe and sound, and eager to set it ablaze on Halloween night :)

7th Grade Border League Volleyball

 

Here are the eleven girls on our 7th grade team, all nice fun girls. They get along great and are working to learn the game.  Most of them started playing this year! I got a call on Sunday from a team in Enterprise that we play against, they have invited our girls to dinner following the tournament there this coming Saturday.  That's a credit to the girls on the Enterprise team and to our girls for crossing the lines of competition and making new friends that they could just as easily have snubbed off.  If we can teach these girls to play hard, be tough but friendly and play together, I'll feel it was a success!!-  Cute though aren't they?

                      Favorite cheer:  "TIGERS!!! (clap clap/stomp-) BAM!!!" As loud as possible~

 People from other teams come to tell us these girls play well together and look the most poised of the     teams their age, now if we could get that winning fight to matter when they are tired.........

Letting Go.....

So I have this wonderful memory of sporting long beautiful hair as a child.   Truth is it was on the straggly side and it never had the silken luster most young girls enjoy.  My hair was straw.  It wasn't my crown by any means, but I did flip it and draw my fingers through as a statement and most of the time I enjoyed having it.  One day in an attempt to get some praise, I had it cut short.  I was a little dismayed at the feel- weightless and limp and still not silky.  But to my utter disgust, I wasn't ever able to grow it much below my shoulders from then on.

Fast forward many years and see my four beautiful girls.....see the long silky hair......see the obsessive mom try to brainwash the girls to keep their long hair!!  "It'll never grow back, you will damage it and not have silky hair anymore!!!.. don't have fun, it's your duty to preserve it it a near natural state!!! .Don't you dare ruin that hair that I never had!!!"  Well call me tired, call me numb.... I have worn out on the reasons to be safe.  It's hair right?  I have a friend who shaved her head because the patches she had left were thinning.  Chemo did that styling.  She loves her wigs, and even going bare-it's liberating she says.  When faced with that I have to agree, it's just hair.

Amanda has had a plan to grow her hair out and give it to locks of love. She hoped to grow it to her butt and then snip it off, but she grew impatient and asked repeatedly to get it done- now.  So we just cut it and I have to say it was kind of an honor to just grab that wad of hair and saw it off!!  She was brave, even when I gasped at the first hacking!!  Her hair remains silky and bobby and fun!  And she was grinning ear to ear, though I may have seen a tear or two welling up in her eyes.

She looks marvelous!  And she is sharing something she loved to play with with someone in need.

Kids August 2011

Realizing the important things amid the darkness......

It seems I've flown through the year without the luxury of holding the momentous occasions long enough to feel the lessons they could have taught.  I feel so rushed, but know I have to keep running or risk being trampled. This is typical of our era, but I'm old enough to remember having time to savor the nuances of life- the big events we dreamt of and the major events we were drawn into.  Now I hope to be able to ponder what is going on around me without getting distracted from what I need to accomplish; the age of multitasking is overcoming my sense of wonder.

Life hanging in the balance puts things into perspective.  This year has been very interesting with miraculous events, where I was amazed that a life had ended or amazed that a life was spared.  I have no doubts that God's will prevailed, it always does- our reaction to that power is a great teacher. The daily mundane tasks devour what seems to be precious time, but I suppose it is in that space where we best absorb the lessons in the big events.  If we can still our mind and focus.  In that place where our heart is honest and compassionate and unprotected we reach out to those who need us and we connect to them and to God and we experience a piece of Heaven- and in that moment we are elevated from the darkness surrounding us and no matter the outcome, we have peace.

Time to keep track......

Thank you to Brittany who is teaching me how to set this up... via skype!!!  

For one who has so much to say, this will be a nice place to rave and expound on what's happening in my life, and the family's, yet give the "listeners" the chance to pick up on the things that interest them, and skip those that don't.  I'm excited to have a digital voice, assuming my voice won't rake on me the way audio  recordings do!! This might be a great thing for me!!  Enjoy