Better Late than NEVER!

I think I've been busy...or just haven't been blogging about all that is happening around me.  I could blame it on school, but that is only half the problem.  The other half is ME.  I just can't get motivated.

Ok...I'll just go back journal wise....enjoy!

Our Girls Weekend

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Scott took the boys to Nashville the other weekend (March 24) to the USA Olympic trials soccer games.  So Kelsey and I stayed home and just hung out.  I had thought about some fun things we could do or even go to fun places.  But I found out that Kelsey is much like her mom...the apple sure doesn't fall far from the tree!

As soon as the boys left the driveway "Can we shoot hoops, mom?"  So we did.  I told her we'd go out to dinner and she just couldn't decide.  We finally hit the nearest Mexican restaurant and sat in the exact same booth we sat in the time I picked her up and took her to lunch.  Fun memories.  We ate and watched Mexican TV and laughed.  We were there early to beat the Friday rush, plus...we were hungry and wanted to spend a lot of MOVIE time.  I had rented Princess Diaries 1 & 2....so the rest of our evening was spent on the couch....ice cream with whipped cream came as soon as we weren't full anymore.  

Originally, the planned was formed when Scott asked who would want to go to TN with him.  She whispered to me over the phone, "If I stay home can I sleep with you?"  There was no turning back.  I don't quite know what the enticement is to sleep with me...I am constantly moving them over to have enough room for myself.  But it is MOM time and I DO get that.  What fun....we finally went to bed after 2 movies and looking at pictures.

Saturday I thought we might go somewhere shopping and out for lunch and all that.  However, such was not the case.  We lounged in bed for a long time, I went for a run while she played on the computer and watched some Sat morning TV.  After my shower I painted her fingernails and then fixed a breakfast of crepes....at 11 am!  What fun!!!

 

 

Then it was out to shoot hoops again.  Oh I love this little girl of mine...not that I wouldn't love her if we would have spent the ENTIRE day shopping.  However, after a couple hours of shopping she said, "I have a headache, can we go home now?"  Yes, the apple surely doesn't fall far from the tree.

While we were shooting hoops I got on the trailer and started shooting...funny, but I made 12 in a row.  It became the shot of the day and we just kept on trying and trying and trying.  I didn't make near that many ever again, but it was a fun day!

  

 

We didn't do much else....though we spent a lot of time playing basketball and watching movies, we had a good time.  We watched a couple more on Sat night too.  It is fun to spend quality time with just one....though I love them all!

The Band-O-Rama!

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This year both Spencer and Jordan played in the Band-O-Rama.  It is a band concert where each school (grade) plays one song (5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and the entire High School band) and then they play one song together.  They have all practiced the song...separately, so this is the first time it has been played all together.  It was HOT...but a lot of fun.  I loved watching my perfectionist Spencer happy as a lark as he played his song.  He loved it all.  And Jordan, he's different.  He doesn't want to do band next year and I haven't decided yet if that is ok with me.  This may be his LAST band concert????

Here are a couple of the many pics I took...

Just couldn't get a clear pic of Jordan from as far away as I was and in the dimly lit gymnasium

 

the ENTIRE 5 bands!

 

 

It was a fun night!  Fun to watch my two boys play....and take some fun pics.

Happy Birthday, Kelsey

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I'm just going to say it right now....I stink at birthdays!  My mom was great...at least for our 18th, and I remember totally decorated cakes for us when we were young.  I can't even blog about my wonderful daughter's birthday ON her birthday.  It WAS a great weekend.  She couldn't decide where she wanted to go eat, so we didn't...until Monday!  Cody ended up sick in bed that day so Scott stayed home with him and I just took Jordan, Spencer, and Kelsey.  I hope it wasn't TOO big of a let down.  I did have brownies for her birthday like she wanted, and brought them to school for her too.  But it was General Conference so we spent the day watching it.

I love Kelsey.  She is literally the sunshine of my life at most times.  She is the one who always tells me I am her favorite mom!  I love that.  I love that she is just exactly who she is no matter what anyone says.  I love that she loves to play sports and be pretty.  I love that she is smart in school and has the tenderest heart - she is such a help to others.  She loves children and always tells me how I need to be around them.  I didn't think I was THAT bad with kids, hahahahaha!  But she is great!  I love her smile and her eyes and her laugh.  I love that she loves to spend time with me.

I LOVE KELSEY!  Happy 9th Birthday!

Lake Sara Dam Run

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I have been training for quite some time for a 5K.  I did the Couch to 5K program yet again....and my goal was to run in the Lake Sara Dam Run.  I made it!  I ran the ENTIRE time.  I am nowhere near the 10 minute mile is outlines (and that I used to EASILY run) but I kept on running.  Sometimes I thought that if I just walked for a LITTLE bit I would have been able to run it faster.  But my goal wasn't fast, it was to keep running and FINISH!  Which I DID!  It was fun.

I couldn't have done it without my son

before the race

or my friend, Catherine Starwalt.  

Yeah, we used to run together way back when.  Now life is different and we both don't run near as much. But we kept each other going.  I knew I had run it recently in about 38-39 minutes and her goal was under 40....so we kept up about a 12 minute mile and just kept going regardless of the huffing and puffing and desire to STOP!  My time ... 37:37!  I think it was actually a TINY bit faster....there were about 900 runners so I walked to the starting line and started my own time then when the crowd had thinned out a bit.  But no worries...it was GREAT for me.  

Spencer did GREAT too.  He broke his 25:01 time....barely.  But anything under 25 minutes was GREAT for him.  Never mind that his time was 24:59:65!  hehehehehe.  There's a teacher at the Jr High that wants to start a Jr High Cross Country team.  Spencer is psyched....he'll do great!

Happy Easter

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Our Easter festivities stuck close to home.  Saturday after our Lake Sara Dam Run and Spencer's baseball practice (I'm excited about his coach this year - a story for a later day) we colored 7 dozen eggs.  I love coloring eggs!  We had fun.

We went to the park and played baseball a bit and then tag in the park area.  Boy, I think this was a day of exercise for me.  After dinner Scott and I hid all 7 dozen eggs (plus about 2 dozen plastic eggs full of candy) in our backyard.  We hid them in pretty obvious places, there's only so many places to hide an egg!  But we got creative (which proved all the difference in the world)!  We decided that they could only find ONE egg at a time (not that most were in plain sight anyway).  When they got that one egg they had to bring it back to the porch....colored eggs in the cartons, plastic in the containers.  It was a BLAST to watch each of my children running all over the backyard.  They got kinda funny and had fun with each other too.  How fun is this.  Scott and I both were taking pics.  He still isn't the best with our new camera, but it was fun!  When it started to sprinkle I thought a downpour might be close at hand...the rules changed, get as many as you can!  Fun times!!!

You can find all the pics (from coloring to hunting) if you click this picture below

 

And that brings us to today!  I absolutely love watching my children play happily together (watching and listening to them fight is an entirely different story).  So here are some pics of today.....a lazy day!  After church we ate our Easter dinner while chatting about Christ and what we learned at church....it's not always as I would like it to be, but they are young and hopefully I am at least starting something that they will eventually grown into and enjoy.  After dinner.....play outside time.

Brother Jones gave Jordan this egg - said it was too big for him.  Jordan was egg-static (couldn't resist).  He came right home and cut it open while I got dinner ready....

Which is why this next picture is the case.....ouch!

 

 And now on to the outside play time.....

 They were making a Zoo with the plastic eggs....

 love these Lions...

 Jordan doesn't like me to take his pic...so he was going to throw the basketball at me, but I caught the pic!!!

The weather is beautiful!  The green covers all the barren trees of winter with fullness and life!  The air is perfect and life is good!  No school last Friday.  No school tomorrow.  Life really is good!  And we have time to contemplate the goodness of God, the miracle of the resurrection, the infinite Atonement of the Savior of the World - and feel joy!

Random Denise Thoughts

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I've had a lot of thoughts about compassion lately.  I read (or listened to) The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and it really got me thinking.  Compassion is such a huge characteristic of life.  Not many are possessed with such a quality....not down deep anyhow.  But it drives so much of the human race.  It is interesting to me that some can discount others on account of the color of their skin, their choice in religion, or whatever.  I remember a set of Winnie the Pooh books we had for Jordan when he was little.  They were called "JUST BE NICE ..."and...get along, or whatever.  So much would be solved in life if we could be compassionate, or just be nice.  I attended the dissertation defense of someone that brought this full force.  So when I left for home that day and finished this book set during WWII....a boy whose dad is commandant over Auschwitz.  He is 9 and knows no "fences" and becomes friends with a Jewish boy on the other side of the fence.  He is obliviously to the harsh reality of unkindness displayed at that time.  Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to have any of that type in this world?  However, this world is a world of opposition, right!  Sadly, it is often those that deserve the harsh treatment the least that are exposed to it, and become its recipients the most.

The missionaries were over the other day.  One asked me a question I don't think another missionary has ever asked before.  He asked what I had learned in my personal study.  At the moment I was reading Ethics articles for school....but he meant my scriptural personal study.  They were nearly one and the same this time around.  I am still reading from a book by Neal A. Maxwell about discipleship.  It is a bunch of very short chapters on certain aspects of the gospel.  This specific chapter was about the Atonement and the part that caught my attention ... the kind of attention that I continue thinking about it long after I have put the book down...was that we begin with admiration for the Savior.  It leads to adoration and then on to emulation.  I thought a lot about it and how it really is true.  We admire something and then it leads us to a deeper sense of admiration, to adoration.  When we emulate the Savior it is an even deeper sense, we have become something different, we have changed our natures.  The end of the specific article I was reading talked about integrity and honesty.  Ethical situations wouldn't be a problem if integrity and honesty reigned throughout academics, research, etc.  It was fun to chat about the Savior, and what life is like when we are acting like Him, when we eventually BECOME like Him.  Such is my goal!

I think quite a bit about life after school. What will it be like?  Where will we be?  I wonder at times if I should have just gotten a job and worked an hourly job.  But would I feel passionate about it?  But do I want the stress of school and research for the rest of my life?  I believe I have decided to teach at a small teaching university...I don't mind the research, but I don't want to be tied down to it forever.  I don't want to get out into the world of academia just to drown in the race for tenure....just to find that when I finally succeed I have missed the entire time my kids were at home.  I miss them so much as it is.  I can barely handle it at times.  Only 2 more years....but by that time Jordan will be 16!  I just think about it a lot.  And when I am feeling low I wonder if it would have just been better to stay at home and work some whatever job.  But I really know this school thing is what I was SUPPOSED to do....but still it is hard at times to understand the meaning of it all....the big picture.  I am learning and growing so much.  I just miss my family, that's all.

Relief Society today was great!  I can't remember everything we talked about, but I really felt the Spirit.  Mostly we talked about immortality and the great blessing, miracle of the Savior's Atonement, His resurrection.  The teacher mentioned something our Branch President once said, about being good for just 3 minutes (the equivalent of this earth time).  I thought about children and how it is hard for them to be good for just 3 minutes at times.  But as we mature we are better able to be good, to sit still, to be as we are supposed to be.  Maybe that's how it is with spiritual things too.  When we spiritually mature we are better able to be good for longer than such a short time.

Lots of thoughts....can't get them all out right now.  But I am glad for another day off.  Much to do....getting the house ready (new wood floor in the front room, insulation in the attic, more walls finished downstairs, landscaping, etc).  Much work for me....but I'm going to hire some of it done too.  It is fun work to think about.  

And I will keep on thinking.....