A Funny Thing Happened...

This picture does not do justice to the good laugh I had at what occurred just moments before I took this picture!

By the slip of a hand, Kelsey turned the mixer on while the beater was out of the bowl. Cake batter flew everywhere and Kelsey made a valiant effort to keep it contained while the shock wore off and we could get the mixer turned off. She was even beaten by the beaters!

I laughed till my stomach hurt and tears filled my eyes. And I couldn't stop the giggles when I would let my mind re-live those moments and recall the look on her face for some time after.

But, let me say for the record, Kelsey did not think it was a funny as I did.

Young Women Values

I finished my project--actually my assignment that should have been a project. A young womanhood recognition project, but I didn't plan ahead. It has been six months in progress, mostly due to just life, but some due to trying to get it just right.

I like it. I am grateful for the things I learned while doing it. I developed a new skill, a new talent and I pondered about what the values really mean to me. I believe they are inspired, tender mercies from a Father who wants all of His daughters to return to Him. A Father who finds numerous ways to teach us what is important and gives guides for us to follow and find our way back to Him.

Makeovers

I did a make over on a picture that I have had for while. I wanted to re-do the look on top of my kitchen cupboards and needed something to complete the look I was going for. I took everything down and did a nice, thorough cleaning job up above the cupboards and everything that was up there--including the greenery. The look I wanted was something that fit more with my taste and a cleaner look, so I put fewer items back up along with the made over picture. The change feels good, it looks good too. It is a good start.

Mother's Happiness

CJane wrote something on her blog today and made me cry, just for a second, because I needed to hear it. I needed to know why when I can count so many blessings, so many good things in my life, when just 1 thing, my dear, sweet husband, should keep me feeling on cloud nine all the time, why I feel sad. This is what she said, speaking of Elder Robert D Hales: "Before he left, he told us our mother was the barometer of the family. If the family is well, our mother will be happy. Conversely, if someone in the family isn't well, our mother cannot be either. It's the nature of mothers.
"If you want to help your mother, be good," he advised."

If you want to read her whole post go here:http://blog.cjanerun.com/2010/06/sweet-and-sour-with-cabbage-dumplings.html

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Kelsey is working on a top secret gift for me and needed some pictures of the three of us girls. So we put on our "Maui" shirts and went out back for a mini photo shoot. It was fun to just goof around and have a good laugh. That has been missing around here for a little while. I can't wait till that is the norm again. Have to say, that Hawaiian tan looks pretty good! Oh and my guess for the top secret gift?  A mini-book! Can't wait to see, she is getting really good at those.

Alma 5:46

Alma teaches a lesson about the importance of fasting and prayer. I guess because I was preparing a lesson for the YW about fasting this stood out to me in my reading. After he testifies he asks the question about how he knows these things to be true. He answers that the Holy Spirit of God made them known to him, after he fasted and prayed many days that he might know. I know that the process to know for ourselves is the same for all of us, but not all of us has had a visit from an angel either. What is interesting to me is that Alma doesn't say it is because the angel told him, he talks of his own efforts to fast and pray, for many days, to know. The spirit of revelation is available to me too

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

How does your garden grow? I am not a little bit baffled by that questions myself...how does my garden keep growing when we forget to water it, when it is scorching hot and when we keep finding evidence of critters getting into it?

We found a stash of tomatoes under our grill, which answers a whole other questions. We couldn't figure out why there were so many tomatoes that were always "almost" ripe. We finally saw that it wasn't taking them so long to ripen, it was that someone, or something, was just getting to them before we did.

But look at these beauties we found when we got home from Hawaii. Can you smell the zucchini bread?

USS Arizona

Day Date

When we thought Kelly was leaving again, we planned a day date on Wednesday--a movie marathon. We haven't done that in a v-e-r-y long time and there were too many movies we wanted to see to choose only one. When we found out on Tuesday that Kelly would not be going we decided to go ahead with our date anyway! We got up early and took Kelsey to her first day of driving school. She is on her way to a drivers' license--yeah! Then stopped at Home Depot to get some tools for a few hours of yard work. It was a beautiful morning, not too hot and with being gone for almost a month, the yard is need of some sprucing up. When we got home, we discovered that we were locked out of our house. We didn't have any keys or a garage door opener because we didn't take the Envoy. It had a flat tire and there was no time to fix it, so we hopped in the truck. Kelly didn't take his work keys and the truck does not have the garage opener it right now because my parents have that. So after checking every door, we knew the only thing we could do was to go get the garage door opener or get the keys from Maryn. After we finally got home it was too hot for any outside work, so we looked up movie times and went to Discount Tire, where we planned on fixing the tire on the Envoy and leaving the truck to get new tires. That plan almost worked! Well, it mostly worked, just a minor adjustment of additional tires for the Envoy! The reason the tire was flat was because it was coming apart. Luckily, they weren't too busy so we waited while they did the Envoy, turned the keys to the truck over to them and then went to Tower Theatres. We saw Prince of Persia and loved it! After we walked out of that one, we then turned back around and bought tickets for Iron Man 2 and this time we bought some popcorn too! We really liked that too, but we both had to pick the Persian prince as our favorite of the day. I have to wonder if that was Kelly's pick because he was distracted by the emails he kept reading and responding too! :) After our movie marathon we were homeward bound so that Kelly could do some work, eat some dinner and then get to the church for some appointments. That plan almost worked too... due to poor planning dinner was late and he had to eat when he got home. It was fun to spend the day together. I know no one feels sorry for us because of just being in Hawaii, but it had been almost a week since he was home and after having so much time to ourselves in Hawaii, we were going through withdrawals!

A Few Days of Normal

Kellly got home from Hawaii on Saturday! Maryn and I picked him up in Phoenix around 10:30 and then we had to do the drive home. So we are all home at the same time--for a few days. Kelly has to go back to Hawaii on Thursday of next week. The weekend was busy, mostly with Kelly catching up on everything he missed at church. He was gone early Sunday and then came home in time for a youth fireside.

We did get to have some fun on Saturday! It was Noah's baptism! The Green's are in West Stake now, so we went to the West Stake to perform the ordinance and then to their house for a small celebration. Noah was very ready and so excited. There was only two for the whole stake and only Noah from his ward, so it was small and intimate.

 

Hey, Marlin...

This one is for you!
This was New Zealand at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

What a thrill to be able to go. I have had the PCC on my "bucket list" for a long time.

We only spent two days in Oahu, but hit the ground running and saw some great sights. PCC, Temple, USS Arizona, historical palaces, churches and missions. And we took lot's more pictures. Next post.

Paia

Saturday night we drove to Paia. It was a good excuse to do some more exploring and eat at a place that was recommended to us. We both loved being able to see as much of the island as possible. We passed through Paia on the way to Hana and commented on what a cute little town it was, so it was fun to make it back there. It is also at the base of Haleakala on the north side of the island. You can see Haleakala here in this picture. As usual, Haleakala is covered in clouds at the top. We only saw the top of the volcano one day while we there--kind of reminded me of Mt. McKinley.

We stopped at the beach on our way back home so we could watch the sunset. We enjoyed watching some families have fun at the beach, kids playing and doing a little fishing. They had the  barbecue set up ready for whatever they caught. We found some locals to chat with for a little bit and a family on their way home to Missouri.  Paia is not too far from Kahului where the airport is so they were enjoying their last time at the beach before their flight. We just had to take some pictures...I mean you can never have to many beach and sunset pictures, right?

 

 

Oahu

This was as close as we could get to the temple...it is having major renovations done. Just our luck!

And we visited the USS Arizona Memorial

Paia

Saturday night we drove to Paia. It was a good excuse to do some more exploring and eat at a place that was recommended to us. We both loved being able to see as much of the island as possible. We passed through Paia on the way to Hana and commented on what a cute little town it was, so it was fun to make it back there. It is also at the base of Haleakala on the north side of the island. You can see Haleakala here in this picture. As usual, Haleakala is covered in clouds at the top. We only saw the top of the volcano one day while we there--kind of reminded me of Mt. McKinley.

We stopped at the beach on our way back home so we could watch the sunset. We enjoyed watching some families have fun at the beach, kids playing and doing a little fishing. They had the  barbecue set up ready for whatever they caught. We found some locals to chat with for a little bit and a family on their way home to Missouri.  Paia is not too far from Kahului where the airport is so they were enjoying their last time at the beach before their flight. We just had to take some pictures...I mean you can never have to many beach and sunset pictures, right?

 

 

Best Wishes, Tyler

Just got this picture in an email from the Gardner's. Big day for them! We will be thinking of Tyler and praying for his success and hopefully we can even get a letter or two out to him!

Luau

When we first started looking at all the fun things  to do while we were in Maui, we had a luau on the short list. Then we crossed it off, thinking we would do that at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We changed our minds again after we met JoAnne's daughter, Lara,  at church. She was so warm and generous, taking time to visit with us after church, when everyone is just ready to get home. She was quick to offer the suggestion of a luau, explaining that her husband Wilmont was an mc for one in La Haina and that it was a really good one. We decided it sounded like fun to see him in action! I hate to admit it, but this luau was better than the one at PCC--mostly because it was more intimate. The entertainment was outstanding. And our mc? He was great, a "triple threat"! He could sing, tell a good joke, we didn't see him dance, but he did teach with passion about the rich heritage of the Polynesians. He confirmed what was already happening in our hearts, we fell in love with it all--the culture, the history, the beauty and the lifestyle.

And if we ever get the chance, you know if we ever get to move to Maui,we want to get to know Wilmont and Lara better. We would love to call them friends.