Tribute to my Sisters

Let me start off by saying I LOVE MY SISTERS! (I'll be writing about my amazing brother in a future post!) Here we are at the Salt Lake Temple for Holli's wedding last July. We are from left to right:
Vicki, me, Aimee, Wendy and Darcy.

We are all a lot alike but oh so very different. Our relationships with each other have evolved over the years. I remember (being the oldest of 6) my sisters being pesky to me. I hated sharing a room with Vicki and her nightly teeth grinding, but today we are the best of friends sharing our woes at raising teenager daughters and sharing similar testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I always envied Darcy and her musical talents. Wendy was my babysitter for many years after I had kids. Then there is Aimee...the baby of the family. Oh, how spoiled she was by all of us!

Here is my tribute to each of my sisters (by order of birth):

Vicki: She is the most organized person I have ever known and her life is so much easier than mine because of it. Each time I leave her home, I want to return to mine and organize! I make mental notes of how her spices and food storage are organized. I want to be like her when I grow up :) Vicki is a planner. And talk about a multi tasker! She's got us all beat. She loves her husband (even if he annoys her sometimes), her daughters, her home and California weather.

Darcy: There is a special place in Heaven for Darcy. She has four boys. Need I say more? She is so creative and loves to have fun with her kids. Darcy is always ready for fun. I am amazed at her ability to raise four boys as a single mom, keep up her house, work and even occasionally has time for a date or two. It's a huge balancing act and she pulls it off. Kali and Kaiden love to go to Aunt Darcy's house. They have all the fun toys!

Wendy: There was never a kinder, more loving person than Wendy. She doesn't have an unkind bone in her body. I admire her courage to leave a bad marriage and to start all over. It's wonderful to see her so happy as a wife and mother. She puts everything into her home and family. Wendy knows how to have fun with her friends though too with frequent girls nights out. She is an incredible decorator and has fun repainting and redecorating her house constantly. It's a beautiful, warm home.

Aimee: What do I say about Aimee? We all love her. She was born when I was 16 and she was my baby. (not literally). I admire Aimee so much as I'm sure we all do. She has made some poor choices but is working hard to make them right and the growth I see in her brings tears to my eyes. She is finally becoming the woman we all knew she could be. She loves her children and so enjoys weekends with them. Aimee is the fun mom. There will be so much more wonderful things to write about Aimee as time goes on and we see her develop and grow.

So, those are my sisters one by one. I love each of them so much and never tell them. So, I'm telling you all now that I love you dearly and I'm so grateful for each one of you for being the women you are and setting the examples you do for me. May we all have more great times together in the future!

More O-Town Pics

I decided I needed to post most of the fabulous pictures of houses Chelsie took the other day (see previous post) so here they are! Love them all, and love Ogden!

O-Town, It's pretty much amazing!

So last Saturday, Chelsie and I went driving around Ogden for a couple of hours. She is taking an Interior Design class at Snow College and needed to take some pics of houses with specific architectural designs. I will never drive around town without thinking of Pilasters and Ballastrades!
I learned so many new things from Chels. But the one thing I came away with from our little outing that day was how diverse and beautiful Ogden is. Ogden rocks. We get a bad rap a lot of the time, but seriously, every town has some kind of a ghetto don't they? I love how the homes are all so different, not your typical cookie cutter houses here! No offense to those who like the cookie cutter look in a neighborhood, but for me, I love how the homes are all sooo different and unique. Just as unique and different as the people who live in them.
So, I've included a few of my favorite pictures from that day. Enjoy the beauty that is O-Town!

Life is Short

I've taken the time to reflect this weekend on how life is soo short and you never know when one of your loved ones may be taken from you. Downer topic, I know. On Friday, February 13th two of Kenzie and Chelsie's friends from college were killed in a car accident while on their way home from school for the weekend. It's tragic, but even more so when you know that they were sisters and one of them was to be engaged to be married this weekend. My heart breaks for this family. Micah and Shiloh were next door neighbors of Kenzie's and in the girls ward.

This is hard on my girls. How do you comfort them? How do I make it easier for them to understand how this could happen and why? My heart is fearful for my own girls as they travel back today. So, do I live in fear for them? NO! I cannot. It does no good and make things more difficult. Instead, I try to remember that it is in the Lord's hands. He is mindful of each of us, especially the family of these beautiful girls. He is our comforter. He knows the pain everyone involved is feeling and it is by turning our lives over to Him that we will find peace and understanding. It is in situations like this that we must turn to the Lord, sometimes it's the only way we can feel comfort because no human words can possibly express how truly sorry we are for the loss. And it is a loss. These girls leave behind a huge hole in a lot of hearts and lives. Kenzie and Chelsie are worried about how strange it will be to go back to school today and not see Micah and Shiloh next door and at the clubhouse where they both worked. I'm worried that they will arrive there at school safe and sound and that they will be able to deal with the grief.
And so this is life...sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's happy, sometimes it's joyful, sometimes it's worrysome, sometimes it's depressing, sometimes it's fun...but it's never the same all of the time. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, so let's be the best and do the very best we can to be good, honorable, loving people in this life. Let's be kinder to one another, mindful of each others feelings. Let's stop judging people and just love them. Most of all, hug your family, because sometimes, life IS short!

My Day Off!

Well, I finally have a day off work and it's so hard to decide what to do first. I made a huge list of things that I've gotten behind on and I'm working on it slowly but surely. There aren't enough hours in the day to finish it all, but at least it's a start. Unfortunately, this morning as I went out in the freezing cold air to pick Dave up from work, the ignition switch broke and I couldn't get the car to start. So...once again, we have car issues. Well, at least it gives me an excuse to stay home all day today!
I found an amazing job search site called Jobster. It's so great, I've been on it job searching for at least an hour now. However, the best Administrative Assistant jobs are in Salt Lake...

I'm considering becoming a Close to my Heart consultant. They are a company that sells acrylic rubber stamps and scrapbooking supplies through home parties etc...I want their stamps, but can't afford them right now so it would be a way to do that. We'll see how it goes. I'm having a party on the 19th.

Hmmm, what else can I tell you? We've been invited to our first ever Mardi Gras party by Shannon whom I work with at the store. I'm excited about it. Sad huh? We just don't get out much do we?! LOL

Oh, Kali started playing church basketball and their first game was Tuesday. She made 4 baskets!! She looked nervous at the beginning of the game but it was amazing how quickly she gained confidence in her abilities once she made that first basket. It was fun to watch and I'm looking forward to the next game on Tues. Kaiden is still playing hockey and actually made his first goal at his game two weeks ago in Park City. He was sooo excited! They are doing well, these kids of ours. Life has become much easier in the past few months with Kaiden and his issues. Happy am I!

Well, I can't think of anything else exciting (not that the above was exciting), so I guess I'll get back to my cleaning which is very far past due! Love you all!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Well, here we are, another Ground Hog Day and another year older for our oldest, Josh. This is a tribute to him.

Josh has been the best son a mother could ever want. He is kind, considerate (except when he was younger and would poke his sisters in church when I wasn't looking!), generous, funny and talented. He gave us absolutely no problem as a teenager and he has to be given credit for putting up with his four sisters through the years! He once (or maybe more than once) commented that there is a lot of estrogen in our house. He's right. The poor guy. I loved it when he went on his mission to Switzerland because at least he would have other guys as roomies, kind of like brothers.
Josh is always willing to help out whenever we need him. Whether it is helping with wiring a house, cleaning the yard, giving one of us a ride somewhere, or just about anything else you can think of.

He loves video games, cooking yummy food, his coworkers, Rock Band, computers, ipods, his car, xbox, trips with the family and many more... I'm sure when the grandkids start coming along, Josh will be the favorite uncle! :) I'm not sure if his sisters will let him babysit, however, since he's infamous for letting his little twin sisters eat a whole carton of strawberry cream cheese when they were little and he was "watching" them.

So, HAPPY 29th BIRTHDAY Josh!! You deserve the best! We all love our Joshy Poo!!!

P.S. I think he's grateful to Erin and Holli for getting married thereby providing him with brothers finally!!!