Another Confession

The whole time I was writing that last post I was thinking, "my Mom is going to read this and know that I'm not a good pray-er." And I was feeling kind of embarrassed and worried about that.

And then she wrote the kindest comment, as did Laura on the Segullah article comments, and Jenny and Mary commented, too. Mothers and daughters are the best! I sure love mine!

P.S. We took a little detour on the way home from Las Vegas to visit the Mountain Meadows Massacre Monument; you can read about it on My Dear Husband's blog.

Christmas Morning 2009

The Christmas morning lineup

Michael and his new wheels

I think Laura likes her Project Life gift!

It was great to have the Buchanan gkiddies with us on Christmas morning:

The Hammer family got a special delivery from Santa:
Boston, the golden retriever puppy

Rich totally spoiled me this year. I gave him some gift ideas and he got me ALL of them. Plus he took the girls shopping at Nordstrom for me and got me new clothes, too. I'm lucky to have such a generous and loving husband!

Christmas Day 2009

The Christmas morning lineup

It was fun to have the Buchanan gkiddies in our home Christmas morning:

I think Laura liked this gift:

And Michael seems quite pleased with his new wheels

The Hammers got this little guy for Christmas: Boston, the golden retriever puppy!

Rich totally spoiled me this year, I gave him some ideas to choose from and he got me ALL of them, plus he took the girls shopping at Nordstrom and had them help him pick out clothes for me. I'm so lucky to have such a generous and loving husband!

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday; it is the beginning of Lent, the forty days (minus Sundays) before Easter. Last year when I read Chelle's post on this topic I was impressed that I wanted to make Lent meaningful in my life as a time to prepare for and celebrate the Easter season. In fact, I posted about it.

So, I've been thinking the past week or so about what I could/should give up for Lent. And last night as I was going to bed I thought, perhaps I should ask God what He wants me to give up - since the purpose of Lent is to sacrifice something to get closer to Him. It was just a thought, not an actual prayer, though it should have been.

Then this morning I got up and since I'm on vacation the first thing I did was get on my computer and I read this article that showed up in my google reader. I could have written this article - confessions of a "bad pray-er."

One of my 2009 goals is to have kneeling, vocal prayer morning and night. By writing this I am confessing publicly that I'm not a very good pray-er. I often have a prayer of gratitude in my heart, especially when I'm skiing or any time I notice the beauty of the earth. I love God; I believe He answers prayers, but I'm not so good at the formal, consistent, kneeling, vocal prayers that I know should be my habit.

When I read the essay on Segullah (which by the way is an excellent site of thoughtful essays by Mormon women and be sure to read the comments, great insights and discussions are there) I realized that was God's answer to my prayer/thought.

The thing I need to give up for Lent is my will, my strange reluctance to formal, daily prayer. I need to keep my goal of kneeling, vocal, heartfelt, morning and evening prayers.

Wish me luck - or better yet, pray for me.

The Firstborns of My Brothers

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We took the opportunity while in Las Vegas to meet up with the "firstborns of my brothers." Keith's Karrissa (along with husband, Joe and darling daughters, McKinley and Kylie) and Lynn's Jake (along with lovely wife, Marissa) joined us for dinner and a wonderful visit. It was great to catch up and just enjoy one another's company. These are great kids, working hard at family and post-graduate schooling. I'm proud of them and happy that we could get together.

As soon as McKinley saw me she asked, "where's Sophie?" Whenever she's at my house Sohpie is there, so she thought we were a package deal - plus Sophie is more fun to play with than Aunt Janet. She did let me give her a hug and kiss from her Grandma Jill and enjoyed playing with my iphone.

Kylie was just so smiley and cuddly and I loved holding and snuggling with her. Great nieces are almost as fun as your own gkiddies!

Sweet Suite

I'm on a business trip with My Dear Husband and we are lucky to be in this Sweet Suite.

Yes, we both have our computers, his is a laptop, but I brought my big IMac - just can't live without my computer and I'm hoping to get the photos in iphoto organized and into folders while I'm here, plus I'm still getting info off my old phone and the RS newsletter is due this week.

Can I take this bathroom home with me?

Jenny's Birthday Dinner

One hour after we got back from the YM ski trip we had the family over for Jenny's Birthday Dinner. Her birthday was on Tuesday, but she was vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, so we didn't get to celebrate with her until Saturday. Thankfully, Jill and Ryan and Gram helped with the dinner and Mary made this fun birthday cake with Jenny's favorite candy: airheads.

We love our Jenny Joy!
Happy 20th Birthday!

YM X-Ski Trip

I got to go on the YM cross-country skiing trip, since the Bishop wanted me to come along. The Bishop, (my dear husband) whose self-proclaimed Indian name is: Sits in Lodge doesn't enjoy the out of doors much, but he gave an beautiful devotional Saturday morning teaching the boys about the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood, focusing on being converted to the gospel and treating women, especially their mothers with respect. He also shared a couple of amusing stories from his youth illustrating the "triumph" and "humiliation" of the teenage years.

We had a lovely time at the Bringhurst's cabin near Camp Shalom and I loved being able to ski there with Michael.

I was so excited when I looked around and recognized where I was: on the North Ridge trail of Camp Shalom! This is the view of the Seven Peaks of Utah County off in the distance.



This is the aspen grove at the top of Joe's Trail and you can see Lone Pine in the distance around the ridge.

The leaders planned a fun activity where the boys had to use a GPS and Avalanche Beacon to ski to a buried bag of candy bars. This is our group finding their buried treasure.


Michael and Brother Randy Heward taking a rest before heading down to the parking lot

All the YM sans shirts after a long ski down the mountain

Michael and me at the end of the trail

iphone

So Thursday I was just minding my own business walking through my house and my iphone slipped out of my hand and landed screen down on the wood floor. It didn't seem like to much of a fall so I was surprised when I picked it up and the screen just had vertical lines on it. I was trying not to over react, but I was really sad, upset, devastated.

I was supposed to be on my way to the Stake Enrichment meeting, but I couldn't focus with my phone inoperable, so I detoured to the AT&T store at the mall where they told me I would need to go to the Apple store at the Gateway and they would replace it for me.

So off I went Friday morning. I walked into the Apple store planning to use the "don't ask, don't tell" method. I just showed them the screen and they took my phone and gave me a new and functional one!

It took a little while to get the new one all synced up with my info, but now I'm back in business.

I was surprised at how lost I felt for 17 hours without a phone! Heather suggested I give my phone up for Lent - yeah, right!?!

Skiing

Today was a beautiful skiing day:

I thought this was a cool picture of my shadow

This is Kathy on her favorite stretch of trail, Dylan's Way.

Here is Kathy, my skiing buddy - the one who today convinced me to go down a "black" (most difficult, read: STEEP) hill which ended in my "faceplant"crash. (Seriously, my skis and poles going all directions and my face firmly in the snow!) She was quite amused and we were wishing for a video of the crash. Fortunately, no permanent damage. In fact, I have fallen down the last three times I skied - before which I hadn't fallen since the first time I skied in December 2006! Our motto is "remain vertical at all times!" But, strangely, I'm somehow pleased that this 51-year-old chubby gal can fall and still get up and keep skiing!

(I feel the need to justify my skiing by saying that Monday I cleaned the storage room - after taking down the Christmas decorations in the basement - too soon perhaps?! And Tuesday I went to the temple, visited elderly people in my ward and gave blood. And before skiing today I did two loads of laundry and worked on organizing iphoto on my computer - an ongoing task. I'm really not just a ski bum, I just like to blog about it)

Happy Birthday Michael!

Michael and his German Chocolate Cake with 17 candles!

Sophie helping Michael blow out his candles - look at all that smoke!

I can't believe that my baby is seventeen! Michael is a great young man. He's kind and obedient, not to mention, handsome:

I love you, Michael, hope your birthday is happy!

Me and My Skiis

1967

2009

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln . . . and Me

Happy 200th Birthday, Mr. Lincoln!

Because My Dear Husband loves and admires Mr. Lincoln so, we are celebrating his 200th birthday today. I have no doubt that he will be posting on his blog today.

Today also marks the 43rd anniversary of my baptism. I was baptized on this day in 1966 in Oslo, Norway (in the basement of the mission home) by my father, wearing a white dress made by my mother and topped with this lovely red velvet jacket:

(I blogged about my baptism last year on this date, but couldn't find this lovely picture until this morning)

A dear Korean friend of ours, Betty, who was baptized while we were serving in Daejeon after attending free English class for several years, said on her baptism day that she would from now on count that day as her birthday ~ the day she was "reborn."

And so, in that fine tradition I am grateful to share my "re-birthday" with Mr. Lincoln.

Gkiddie Pics

I requested and received new pictures of the gkiddies this week so I could update my frames:



During our Super Bowl Party last week Ayden and Sophie decided to try it out under the new corner sofa:

Additionally, some very silly people got ahold of my camera: