Best deal ever scored

I don't know if there is just one I scored that I can talk about, but freebies2deals is one of my favorite websites. I am consistently getting free samples for products, signing up for survey companies that pay me to do surveys and scoring outrageously on toys for kids. I have received a prize from a contest she blogged about but it was from another website that I won. I check it on an almost daily basis. If you haven't been there, check out my side bar and click on the logo. Happy Saving!!

Lake Powell let down

Karly, Chandra and JoJo hanging out on the raft in Moki canyon.
The weather at Bullfrog in Lake Powell.

All summer long I have been planning on our Powell trip. We had a crazy summer and really couldn't go on vacation because of the kids in their play. So I put all my desires for a nice vacation into preparing for Lake Powell. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with my plans and expectations. Overall it was a fun trip but I wish it had been better. We did go up to Goblin Valley and got to play there. The kids didn't mind the weather cause they only cared about playing. This year my sister Vicki came with us with her family and Grandpa came down on Friday with his boat. The water was really high and was totally warm. The outside temp wasn't as good, but it was bearable. Looking forward to next year.

Karly's eight!!

I was doing well, but then, I got busy with getting the kids ready for school and all craziness started up. It seems like August becomes a last ditch effort to get anything you missed in before school starts. Once school started, it wasn't just that. karly's birthday party was the Saturday before and it was a lot of fun. We had boating party out on Utah Lake with her friends JoJo Otteson, Alyssa Gregory, Savannah Washburn, Grace Draschil, Lilly Hall, Brock Pierce and Avery. Mady McDaniel as well as Gretchen our neighbor were not able to come. Mady had shown up but wasn't feeling well, so she went home. The kids had cupcakes and snacks on the boat and just swam and played. A few kids tried out knee boarding and they had a lot of fun. That night we went to Olive Garden with the Draschils for dinner. It was a good time.

I'm on a roll!

Twice in one month! I'm getting better. Last night we went to see the kids performance of Joseph and it was really good! The kids were not in it as much as I thought they were, but they did a great job where they were. The play over all was really well done. I was pleasantly surprised. We had a pretty good turn out for a mid week show as well. After the show Gary gave karly some flowers and I gave Kaleb a bunch of balloons. They were happy to receive them and then proceeded to run and dance all over the stage with all the rest of the kids that came to see them. Our group of friends was there-Draschils, McDaniels, and Clarks-as well as Lolly and Preston, Vicki and Oakley, Allison and Addie, Joseph Draschil, Grandpa Reid and Aunt Suzie and Michelle ellison and her kids. It was so much fun. Karly convinced one of the actresses to let her have make up on and the last half of the show she spent singing and mushing her lips together. Her expressions were priceless as she over accentuated her mouth and facial expressions. Kaleb had some pretty memorable and show stopping dance moves that had us all rolling in the aisles.

The kids have been driving me a bit crazy lately, and for once, I am actually excited for school to start. They have been ignoring me and doing whatever they feel like and I have HAD IT! Anyway, this morning they all got a bit of a strict mama and are actually starting to listen. Here it is before 11am and their rooms are actually SPOTLESS and beds made!!! I did have to take karly's earrings away and threaten throwing them in the trash because of her blatant disregard for anything that comes out of my mouth. She was pretty upset and actually has been listening to me since. We will see how long it lasts. I want to write more but my bread is needing to be kneaded. Shortest post ever for me, I think!

I'm Alive!!!!

I have not blogged forever but it's for a good reason. . . . .LIFE! I have been so busy, that even thinking about blogging has no room in my brain. we have been busily finishing our yard and I can now say I have a yard free of mud and clay pits. I actually have grass. Unfortunately, after all that hard work, we will have to tear some of it out. I know, it's only been like a month since we installed it. Due to recent down pours, our basement has flooded twice. Actually, our basement flooded three times but the first one was due to my children leaving the hose on for three hours. That was a lot of fun. I still need to make cookies for the dear neighbors that helped us. On the list for today! Anyway, the big problem is that the lot behind us is simply an empty lot that slopes like a water slide towards our home and our rock wall provides for a beautiful waterfall when the deluge of rain commences. Add to that, our concrete patio installed by the builder slopes towards our home and under the back porch there is a very low area that acts as a lake, and then a river drains into both window wells against our home and empties into our basement. Silver lining-basement is not completed yet, area flooded only contains wood furniture that is set up on casters so there is minimal contact with the water, and the builder did an excellent job with the drain in the basement. All the water from all three floods has had no problem emptying into this drain and has held all of it with no problem. If my house starts sinking, then I will retract the last of those three. So we thought we were done, but oh, were we wrong!

The good thing is that we know about it, we are going to fix it and it will no longer be a problem. Besides being so busy with my yard, I have also been busily installing my garden, which isn't doing as well as I would like it to. I know the problem though; I never fed my soil, so my poor plants are starving. The other problem is that I purchased my organic compost from the West Jordan Landfill and it was full of grubs-no fun. Don't you love purchasing something and then paying more money to fix the problem caused by what you purchased? Unfortunately, our sod was in the same category-full of grubs when we laid it. When I mentioned it to the sod company they explained that all grass has grubs and told me how to treat it. I'm sorry, but not all grass has grubs. The sod I purchased for our Provo home was grub free and we never had issues with it.

The kids have been busy this summer with the Lehi Arts summer production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. They begin performances next Friday, and then we can finally go camping again! I am so glad they were a part of this, but it has kind of put a damper on our summer vacation time. We hope to make up for it in August with a couple of trips to Jackson Hole and Flaming Gorge and then a trip to Lake Powell in September. We also want to go to Mesa Verde and White Rocks if we can find some time. Kaleb and Karly have also been busy with boys and girls club that I put together with a couple of neighborhood moms and their kids and Ashly and Amy. We meet every Wednesday for two hours and they learn about sewing, cooking, hiking and edible plants, animals, fire safety, gun and knife safety and so on. They seem to really like it. Kaleb sewed his very own pillow case. He even picked out the fabric!

We just added a new member to our family a few weeks back. Her name is Chloe and she is a Shitzu Pug-Which I have been told the proper name is a shit-pu but I just think that is too many potty words in one name, so we just call her Chloe! She is black with little white streaks and patches in different areas-mostly on her chest and toes. The kids love her- a little too much. We are trying to teach her not to bite the kids right now. It's a bit crazy and I don't know that I am completely ready for a dog, but we will manage and make it work. Surprisingly, Gary is the one who really wanted to get her and they have a special bond already. As soon as He gets home, she follows him everywhere.

Tanner is so excited to start Kindergarten next month-aaaahhhh, it's already next month! I don't know if I am ready for that!? I hate when the kids go back to school but I also secretly love it because my house stays a bit cleaner and it's quiet for a while. Tanner has his hair all long and curly and it is so blond right now. He is so tan and adorable-he looks like he belongs in San Diego. So if I don't get to visit home, I at least get a little reminder of what it would be like when I look at him.

Evan is finally starting to come out of the tantrum stage. He still throws them but they are getting less often and he is much more easy to talk to. He is so tan as well and his buzzed blond hair looks so precious! His vocabulary is improving a ton and he is always the one to remind us to pray over our food-especially at restaurants.

Ryan is growing and has become my official climber. He is always climbing on something. I often find him on the table, counters, stove-yikes!, and bookshelf. It's hard to keep him off things without nailing everything to the ceiling. Gary recently purchased a lock for the pantry door to keep the kids out of the food. We do feed them, but now I can come downstairs to carpet that isn't covered in cereal strewn from here to yon. Kaleb and Karly know how to break into the pantry but hopefully they also know better than to do that.

Gary and I have been trying to eat less and eat better. We have reduced our soda intake to almost 0; we did have root beer floats the other night for dessert, but before that, no soda for over a month. It's summer time so that means Gary is never home and is super busy with work. The Lord continues to bless us in so many ways and I feel like I am always falling short of where I need to be to show my gratitude and appreciation for my blessings. I have been really struggling with scripture study since summer began. It feels like as soon as I get up, there is something to do. I tell people I go to bed exhausted and wake up exhausted.

After my triathlon in May, I stopped working out because I needed to finish my yard and because my knee was giving me problems. I would like to start working out again, but I need to find the time.

We did go out on the boat for the fourth of July. This was the first year we didn't go to Provo for the Parade or freedom festival or the balloons! It was somewhat sad but nice at the same time. We went to Yuba lake with Grandpa and Allison and Myron. We had two boats out there and spent the whole day knee boarding, tubing and wake-boarding. Gary and Myron also slalomed. Tanner got out on the kneeboard after I bribed him with a pack of gum. He did really well until Gary stopped and the knee board tipped over and went on top of him. He didn't like that too much. Overall, it was a blast and we didn't get too burnt at all. That night we went out to dinner at winger's and then spent some time at Ashly and Drew's eating homemade ice cream and watching fireworks. We were so exhausted that we headed home early and crashed.

All in all, life has been really good and I am grateful for all my blessings that I have been given-especially my wonderful family. Sometimes I get a little down because of the turmoil that the world keeps spewing, and the stress of running your own business and finances, but then I try to re-focus my life back to the Savior and re-center my priorities. When I do this, I am able to still function in the same environment with the same pressures and stresses but with more calm and peace that the Holy Ghost gives me. There are days that I plead with my Heavenly Father to just send the Savior already and let s get onto the millennium with peace and happiness, but I know that it's not time for that-no matter how much I want it to be. I just want this life to be easier sometimes, or at least have people be nicer and more respectful and willing to really help one another instead of being stuck in their own selfish desires. I put myself in that category sometimes, but I try to be more willing to serve. OH Life! Anyway, getting off my soapbox now, I have to say that I am so grateful to have the opportunity to live where I live and have the comforts, privileges and freedoms that I know I take for granted. If only gas prices would come down, I think I would enjoy them so much more. That's enough for now!

Best Mother's Day ever!!

I woke up Saturday morning a bit cranky, for a number of reasons. First, I had been working hard all week in our yard, spreading dirt and grading. I was super sore and my back felt the most of it. I was also cranky because I hadn't gone to bed until 11pm the night before and my wonderful baby, Ryan, decided he wanted to get up at 5:45 am. So I was tired all over. I got up and started the laundry, folded some clothes and then headed down stairs to start the dishes and clean the kitchen. I like having the house cleaned on Saturday so that Sunday we can really rest from our cares. I was thinking to myself how I was probably going to get nothing for Mother's day, and that if my husband was more considerate, he would have gotten up this morning to get Ryan and let me sleep in. And, he would have gotten the kids up and started them on their chores. He very rarely gets up with the kids when they are babies, but when he does, it is always a big deal to me. I try not to let him get up because I figure he has to work and drive around, and I can handle it most of the time. BUT, since Sunday church starts at 9am, I don't get to sleep in on Mothers day. Why aren't men able to think about these things the way we can? To his credit, he does get up with the older kids often and gets them going in the morning, even making breakfast for them.

So, I was cranky and having a bit of a pity party for myself. I knew, or at least was 99% sure, that Gary had not done a single thing for me. I am not one of those people who needs lots of gifts to feel appreciated. I am one who feels love and appreciation when others provide service for me. A simple card, an effort made to plan a yummy meal, time out from the kids and the chores! Every mother would love a clean house on Mother's day, but usually that means I cleaned it. I was wanting to work in the yard all day with him to make a bigger dent on the dirt spreading, but Gary had informed me that he would be working most of the day on calls. This was adding to my sour attitude. One more factor, I was not aware of until the next day, was that I was about to "start", and that always puts me in a foul mood.

Gary came downstairs while I was cleaning and gave me a big hug and kiss as he greeted me. I smiled and responded appropriately. He could tell something was off, so he inquired if I was mad at him. Well, of course I wasn't mad at him, I was just preparing myself for a lame mothers day. Now, I have had many great mothers day's, but I was cranky and I was remembering last years mothers day specifically, when I had spent the entire weekend dealing with a nasty flu bug. Gary came down with it the morning of Mother's Day and it was awesome!

Gary hung out with us a while and then decided that we should come with him on his calls. While we were out, we stopped at the T-Mobile store and he bought me a new phone. This was my Mother's Day present. I just have to say, it is awesome! I absolutely love it. It's like having a miniature laptop and ipod plus phone all in one. I spent the day programming it and downloading different apps. This wasn't all I got though. When we came home, we worked in the yard and planted two of my trees in the front. My Autumn Ash had been waiting to be picked up at the nursery, so Gary and I picked it up and after we planted it in the ground, I thought I would cry. My beautiful tree makes my yard feel like it is actually starting to come together. We spent the rest of the day spreading dirt and planting the other tree and staking them in the ground. I had to run and get the kids and picked up the stakes for the trees as well as the peat moss and vermiculite. When I got back, Gary had finished my rock wall I had built to retain the garden and had leveled the dirt and set my grow boxes. It's such a beautiful sight! I know, I get excited over simple things. I made dinner and then went out for a run. I used my new phone and Pandora for my music and it was awesome!!

Saturday was awesome because of all we got accomplished and the time we spent together-plus the phone. Sunday morning, I was awakened by my daughter standing at my bedside breathing loudly at 6am. She was so anxious to give me her gift. She doesn't get the idea that moms actually don't like having their sleep interrupted. She gave me a cute little book she had made that told about all the things she knows about me. It was really sweet. Kaleb gave me a cute card with love coupons inside. I need to remember to use those love coupons. Gary got up shortly after and made me a really yummy smoothie and granola with yogurt and strawberries. Perfect breakfast! He got most of the kids ready and let me take my time. I actually straightened my hair! At church, they gave all the moms haagen daz ice cream miniatures. Best idea ever!! After church I got to relax and clip coupons and read my book. We then went to Yulia and Nate's for dinner and had pot roast. After dinner and visiting we came home and watched the season finale of the Amazing Race. Awesome Mother's Day weekend. I think we should make it into a whole week!!! I am grateful for my mother and all that she taught me. I am also grateful for all my friends and family who are mothers and have all been examples to me in so many ways.

Catchin' up

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. We've just been going, going, going all month long. There are so many things to do everyday and never enough time to do them in. I want to catch up on some of the things we have done this month. I have been trying to work out and prepare for my upcoming triathlon. Not doing so hot. It is in less than a month, and I am not ready. I have been swimming and running but not biking at all. I need to get a bike first! The swimming is going pretty well. Right now, I can swim a 300, which is the distance I need to complete for the tri, in about 5 minutes 15 seconds. This is a good time and all, but I know I can do better, but more importantly, I want to do it without to much effort. I want to feel good at the end. The Salem tri was an 800 meter swim and I did that in 13 minutes. I felt pretty good coming out of the water then, but I had been swimming at least 4 times a week and right now I am only swimming twice a week. I may have to increase my swim to 3 times and just run the same day. Hopefully I can get a hold of a bike soon and start that training as well. I have been planning out my garden and also my planters. I am super excited but also very nervous to see how it turns out. I am no professional, but I sure love planting. I have taken a bunch of classes to assist me in this process, so we'll see if they've paid off.

Spring break came and went so quickly! We were going to go to California but decided there was too much going on there and it would be too much for my mom to have her house full of visitors. So we canceled those plans and planned on going to Zion, but one look at the weather forecast changed those plans as well. Instead, we spent our spring break mostly at home. The kids had a blast playing with friends most of the week. Kaleb has become real good friends with a newer family in our ward. There is the Pierce family that has all boys and their 5 year old, Calvin, loves Kaleb and they are always playing together. I think Kaleb likes the younger boys because they are so much nicer and easier to get a long with. I keep trying to convince him to play with kids his age but he still won't. There are a couple of boys his age that he will play with, but they are always so busy and gone so much. There is another family, the Rohners and the Balzoti's, that have boys his age, but we're still developing those friendships. The Washburn's have a boy named Daniel, more often referred to as D-boy, who loves Kaleb. He is also 5, and they play really well together. Over spring break, he had a late night with Dawson and Karly had a late night with Savannah. Then we took the kids to the Legacy center on Saturday to swim. I tried to make it fun, but mostly I just let them all play with friends. It's fun, easy and free! We did go to Trafalga that Saturday, so that was fun as well. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for those passes!

So I thought I would bring you up to date on the current happenings and a funny story. Not so funny, Gary has another kidney stone, #13! Last Sunday he woke up with pain and thought it was just a deep muscle strain. He went home from church early and took the three youngest boys with him. I stayed since I was teaching and kept Kaleb and Karly with me. After my lesson, I was walking to sharing time and decided to check in the nursery to see if Evan was there. I was checking to see if Gary had decided to come back to church for Priesthood. The nursery teacher saw me look in and became worried so she came out to talk to me. She asked if I was looking for Evan because they didn't have him. I explained why I had looked in and she was no longer alarmed. I quickly walked into Sharing time and maybe 5 minutes later, one of the Primary people pulled me out and told me Evan was found in the parking lot by another member of the ward. Wonderful! So I quickly walked back to the nursery and saw him in there. I asked him to come talk to me and as he ran over, I noticed he was wearing Tanner's shoes. This made me suspicious so I asked him where Dad was. He said, "He at home." So I quickly borrowed a phone and called Gary. Tanner answered the phone and told me his mom wasn't home. Then I told him I wanted to talk to daddy. When Gary answered I could tell I had woken him up. So I asked calmly, "Do you know where Evan is?" Which he responded, "No, he may be upstairs." Then I explained that I was calling to let him know that Evan had walked down to our church by himself and that I had him so he wouldn't freak out when he realized he was missing. It was pretty funny. Scary, but funny. This kid is quick and definitely quiet when he escapes. Gary felt horrible, but I told him not to worry about it. It happens to most parents.

He is turning 3 in less than a week! I can't believe he is getting so big. I am excited though cause I think he will get over his huge fits over the next year. I am so done with him yelling at me and calling me names or hurting me on purpose cause he's mad. Gary asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday yesterday and he said very excitedly,"I want to have all my friends come over and have presents and have candy, even yilly-lilly, tarlet-scarlet, and poter-porter, preton-preston, and carline-caroline." It was so cute. I am throwing a small party for him this week and then Gary is taking the three older boys to a motocross competition this next weekend.

Kaleb and Karly just tried out for the Lehi Arts production of Joseph and the Amazing technicolor dream coat. They would only be in the chorus, but I think it will be a good opportunity for them to see if they like theater. Karly went first with her audition. She sang "fifty-nifty" somewhat quietly and shyly while twisting back and forth the whole time. She did a good job but I don't know if she will get in or not. Kaleb's audition was great. He got up right after her and stood straight and tall and belted it out. He is suffering from a cough right now so his voice was a bit hoarse and scratchy but you could still see he had good pitch and sang on tune. They gave him great compliments so I think he made it. We will see!!

For Easter, I made Karly a cute twirl skirt with a matching hair flower and made the boys neck ties and bow ties. The two oldest got the neck ties and the two youngest got bow ties. They look pretty stinkin cute if I say so myself! I just got some more material to make Karly another skirt and a dress. Hopefully those will get made in the next few weeks. Most of my concentration will be on our yard. We spent Friday getting top soil hauled to our yard. We had a lot of help from both Reid and Dan Washburn as well as Eduardo Gomez and Matt Poll. It was nice, since earlier that day I had to take Gary into the urgent care to get a shot of morphine. He suffered through out the week with the pain but didn't realize it was a kidney stone until Friday morning. This morning I took pictures of him drinking a concoction I found online for homemade remedies to aid in kidney stone expulsion. It was 4 oz of olive oil and 4 oz of fresh lemon juice. He did drink it! I have the hilarious photos to prove it. They claim he should pass it within 24 hours after drinking, so we will see! He said he almost threw it up.

The Easter bunny visited our house last night and left one big basket full of goodies for the whole family. There were organic cheddar bunnies, bunny grahams, baby goldfish, trail mix, dark chocolate covered pomegranate, juice boxes, Reese's peanut butter cups, mini plastic dinosaurs, and two bags of pepperidge farm cookies, the Brussels and mint milanos! There was also a large, single green egg in the center. When the kids woke up, they found the basket downstairs. At first, we could hear them walking around and talking about how the Easter bunny had not come. Then we could hear them after they found the basket. About 2 minutes after discovery, they began running around the house. In the green egg they found a clue that said:

Happy Easter kids! It wouldn't be right to leave out the "hunt". Follow these clues to your Easter Surprise. Your first clue is right in front of your eyes!

As they looked around, they saw a blue egg hidden inside a baseball mitt sitting on the hutch behind them. When they opened this egg, they found their next clue, which read:

Great job, you're on your way to finding your gift today. Look in a place you use to store, trucks and barbies and toys galore!

Well, the kids ran up to the toy room and began to frantically look together. They were having no success, so at this point they came in and asked us for help and told us what they had found and how they were looking for a big surprise. So I asked where we have toys? They replied, "the playroom but we looked and there isn't anything there." Then they got the idea of the garage cause they remembered that we have a few boxes from storage and bags for DI filled with toys in there. I quickly rerouted them, cause that was the place of the surprise and I didn't want them to miss all the fun of the hunt. So I told them to go check the toy box in the front room. They quickly did so and found the next clue in an orange egg. This one read:

You're halfway through your Easter egg hunt, your next clue can be found around a bunk.

They knew exactly where to look, so they ran upstairs and checked around the boys bunk beds where they found the purple egg with this following clue:

You kids are smart and awfully quick! Your next egg will be found without any tricks. Go to a place your baby likes to be, when he wants a quick snack or when he's really hungry.

Tanner was the one to find this clue in Ryan's high chair. At this point, I had gotten out of be and threw on some pj's so I could take pictures of them running around and trying to find their clues. I also wanted to get a picture of the basket before it was demolished and ransacked.

This was a yellow egg that read:

The next place to seek is not very hard, look in the place you stack all your jars.

When they found the last pink egg in the cupboard, they opened it and read out loud:

This is it, your very last clue! In just a moment you'll be shouting WOO HOO! Your surprise is hidden but right in your view, in a place where you park a bike and a car too!

The kids ran to the garage and it took a few seconds before they realized there were Razor Scooters on top of the Suburban. There were three red ones and one pink one. They were pretty excited. Ryan didn't get left out. He got a sing-a-majig and two Dr. Seuss board books. He loves his toy and so do the kids. Karly tried to convince me to let her have it instead of Ryan. I told her she would have to give him her scooter. She didn't like that idea too much. Easter has been great! We are heading over to some friends house for dinner in a few hours and I just have to make a salad and some rolls. That should be easy enough! Super long post! I will end this here before it gets too much out of hand. I will say that I am grateful for the Atonement and the opportunity it gives me to repent every day and try harder. I am so grateful for Christ's sacrifice for me that makes it possible for me to return to him some day and be together with my family forever. The gospel is true, and I am so thankful to have it in my life and the peace it brings me everyday, even when storms are raging all around. Till next time!

Blessed beyond belief

I have to start this post with a funny story about Evan. First let me say that he has been running down the tantrum road. Man can he scream and tell me what for! It's a good thing he is number 4 and I have learned some patience. It makes the older kids look like angels! Lately I have been threatening to drop him off on the side of the road to get him to stop screaming and kicking everything. In fact, we were in Provo yesterday during one of these fun moments and I pulled out the "I will drop you off and make you walk home" bits and Kaleb thought I was serious. He started crying and hiding his face in his hands because he was so worried about Evan. I quickly touched his hand to get his attention and let him know I was bluffing. It sounds terrible that I would do this to a 2 almost 3 year old, but it works sometimes. Of course, I would never follow through, but sometimes when I actually pull over, get out of the car and walk over to his door and open it, he gets worried enough to think he may want to stop screaming. Anyway, I totally digress because I wanted to tell an endearing story of this "terribly 2" year old. I think I already posted about how he ads an r into any word that has a double "o" sound in it, like "goord" or "courd". That was good and could by the way. And it sounds more like gerd and curd. Hilarious. Anyway, we were eating dinner at the table and Gary was joking and playing with the kids about them smelling stinky. This is a common thing in our home. If you are ever told that you smell like poo, then you must be considered cool enough to the Christensen family to be included in the family joke. Anyway, Gary is telling them they all smell and Evan gets off his stool and walks over to his dad and tells him, "Dad, you stinky. You smell like poo!" So Gary responds appropriately and tells him, "Nuh-uh Evan, you are stinky!" Evan gets this serious look on his face and says, "I not stinky, see, (as he turns around and pulls his pants down to show Gary his bum) my bum is not stinky. It's clean." It was so unexpected and funny. We all started laughing and so did Evan. He thought he was pretty cute. He can be at times. I just have to remind myself that he will get better. Tanner was a bit of a stinker as well, and now he is such a sweet boy and is so nice to his baby brother, Ryan. He is a total tease though, especially to Evan and Karly.

So I titled this entry "Blessed beyond belief" for a few reasons. Now, I am not blogging about how wonderful my life is and how nothing is ever wrong and life is sunshine and lollypops. In fact, there is a lot of turmoil going on within both of our families at this time. My personal family of Gary and our kids is going great. Without going into details about the stressful and sad details plaguing our families, let's just say that it's sufficient enough problems to ruin sleep and increase prayers for those involved as well as those affected. With all of this going on, I have a better awareness and appreciation for all the blessings I have been given by my Father in Heaven. We recently came into a wonderful circumstance of being able to pay off our business loan and will be paying off credit card debt in the next month. I wake up every morning and go through my day seeing the small blessings as well as the big ones. I am grateful that I have the gospel and can hear the Holy Ghost speak to me as well as others that in turn serve me in ways they may not view as service. I know I am where I am supposed to be and that being a mother is the most important role I will ever play. I worry all the time that my efforts will not be enough or I will fail to prepare my kids in something. Even with that worry, I know that every day I have the opportunity to be better. With that said, I am grateful for a healthy family that loves one another and knows they are loved by their parents. I am also grateful to be married to my best friend and for the relationship we share. I know he respects and loves me. It repeats through out the scriptures that if we follow the commandments of Christ we will be blessed. It's that simple, and I am happy to say that I know this to be true for myself. If you are struggling, try it out, it really works. Life still sucks at times and you will still have drama, chaos thrown at you and other trials, but it's that much easier when we are doing what we are supposed to. Hopefully I will stay vigilant! I want to.