Waiting For God

Sometimes it feels like we've been sitting a long time........................

Waiting,

for answers,

Waiting

for direction,

Waiting,

for things to turn out "our way"

and sometimes

we wonder

Is it time to move on?

How long must I wait??

the child in us says, "I'm sick of sitting here"

"I can't do this any longer"

and then,

God sends us a reminder that he knows,

HE KNOWS,

we're anxious,

HE KNOWS,

we're hurting,

HE KNOWS,

it's hard,

AND

HE KNOWS

US

he has promised us he will not forsake us

and it is during those moments that we find the

courage to go back to waiting.......

knowing and believing that he has a plan

in the midst of the pain and confusion there is a plan

FATHERS DAY 2010 in America

Happy Father's Day Bruce

Oh I know it's not really Father's Day yet but who knows what I'll be doing next week, and it's never too soon to tell someone you love and appreciate them.

I love you Bruce Robert

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

How do YOU keep the Sabbath Day Holy??

We had been home from church about an hour when I realized I didn't hear Bruce anymore. He had been on the computer but things had gotten really quiet in the house. This is where I found him. On the couch, with his arms crossed, resting, very peacefully, until he heard the click of the camera.

(I think teaching on Sunday's wears him out)

Today Bruce taught a lesson in the High Priest Group Meeting. He worked really hard on the lesson all week. He was a little nervous about teaching today because the lesson was about
The Life of Christ and there are many men in his class that are very knowledgeable about the Christ and his life and teachings. When he got in the car at the end of the lesson he said he felt like it went well. I was told by one of our friends that Bruce did very well today and that there was alot of class discussion. Bruce said, that was what made the lesson so interesting. Well I think that is one way to handle a classroom of knowledgeble men.

I'm so proud of him, he's a great teacher.

Monroe and Motherhood

What is it about little girls?

This little girl is so loving and nurturing.

She is five years old and already talking about being a mother.

The other day Bruce was telling her she is growing way too fast and she said,

"You know Papa, I'm gonna be a MOM!"

a few days later we were at the pool and I showed her this cute little floating device for babies

that had an umbrella type cover, she looked at me and said,

"Oh, Nana, when I'm a mom you HAVE to get me THAT "

We went to visit my friend Amanda and when we brought little Madi out Monroe couldn't keep

her eyes off of her. She was so sweet with Madi.

She is such a good big sister, she is always keeping her eye out for her siblings and helping

whenever she can. She's the first to undo her seatbelt and let the younger ones out of their

carseats.

She is such a little nurturer. She will sit and play with her babies for hours. It is so fun to listen

to her talk to her babies.

We love her so much.

When we were on our mission I came across the amazing story of NieNie.



Stephanie Neilson is a young mother of four who lives in Utah. She is a blogger with a HUGE following. I wrote about her amazing spirit when she and her husband were involved in a plane crash and she suffered burns over 80 percent of her body.


I remember the first time I read her blog even before she had her plane crash how her amazing spirit spoke to me.



I remember how moved I was as I read about how she felt about her role as a wife and mother. She wrote about the everyday things young mothers experience. One of the first post I read was about how she had celebrated the first day of school with her children. She wrote about spending time at the family ranch, her devotion to her husband that she calls Mr. Nielson.

But what I remember most is how POSITIVE she was not only about her family but about her life.

One thing that really stood out was how she posted so many candid self portraits. She wasn't always perfectly made up with stylish matching outfits. She didn't always capture a perfect pose but what she captured was the beauty of her life. NIE NIE likes to wear colorful clothing, bright red lipstick, and pretty shoes. see here.

There were post that she took close up shots of her cute face covered in freckles, or her wonderful red lips. I remember sitting in my small little apartment in Ukraine and wondering "how does someone develop such a strong sense of self?"

Maybe we all have it but loose it along the way

When I watch my 5 year old granddaughter Monroe I see she has that magical sense of self

She likes to see herself in the mirror.

She smiles, twist and turns her little body to see all the beautiful angles

She likes to see what she looks like when she has new clothes on

She likes herself

I want to be more like Nie Nie and my little granddaughter


I want to look in the mirror and see the god given beauty I have been given

I want to see the light within

that reminds me of who I truly am

a daughter of a loving Heavenly Father

I have been blessed to be a wife and mother

I am oh so grateful for this wonderful blessing

I have often thought about Stephanie Nielsen this past year as she has learned to endure life in a new body. Each day she struggles to do the everyday things she loved doing for her family. Each small task is a challenge. She has to endure physical pain every day. She has had to endure painful operations, time away from her sweet family. She has had to move out of the home she had come to love in Arizona to be near her family in Utah. She longs to have another baby but is unable to at this time.

I have thought about the things we all endure in our lives. Each of us will have our own personal struggles but we have a choice how we will respond. We can choose each day if we want to be happy or to be sad and discouraged. The beauty we reflect on the outside is really a result of our reaction to the challenges we face. NIE NIE is teaching ME that beauty truly is not what is on the outside. Her spirit shines today as brightly as it shined before the plane accident.She is teaching the WORLD that the beauty we possess comes from a place within each of us.

If you want to read more about this amazing woman go here or watch the video below to see how she has transformed her life since the plane crash that changed her world

DON'T FORGET TO PUT THE BLOG MUSIC ON PAUSE TO LISTEN TO THE VIDEO

My New Life

Cash, Wyatt, Monroe, and Maverick

Our daughter Karrissa has been blessed with so much creativity she has such a gift to see things outside the box

She came up with this cute idea to advertise her husband Brad's Window Washing

Business.

She found these old picture frames at a garage sale, painted them and distressed them and then had Brad hang them from the trees at a local park. I love how the pictures turned out. I am so impressed that they ended up with such cute photos.

She even managed to bring an old chair she picked up at a garage sale for some individual photos

(posted in my side bar) and this cute lounge chair to capture a fun look with hats and bathing suits.

MEMORIAL DAY 2010

TRADITIONS

Our family has been going to New Brighton Beach in Santa Cruz every Memorial Day week-end since 1986. We usually go for the week prior to Memorial Day. When the children were still living at home we camped at the campgrounds at New Brighton Beach. It was such a great memory builder. This vacation was always so fun for all of us because there were several other families we knew there as well. The children would play together at the beach all day (and I do mean all day). They would start asking us "when are we going to the beach?" the minute we woke up. We could hardly get the lunches packed fast enough. We would always pick a spot on the beach where about 15 families would meet and the kids would body surf or dig in the sand while we all just sat around and ate yummy snacks and caught up on what was going on in each others lives.

Our New Brighton vacation included many yearly traditions. We would always have a huge family campfire where someone would tell scary stories to the kids, we'd sing songs and roast marshmallows and eat s'mores. Once the kids went to bed all the adults would share hilarious memories about the times we'd all been together in the past. I liked to get up really early and walk on the beach so I could usually find one or two other mothers who would join me and take some of the children for an early morning treasure hunt at the beach.

There were traditions around the food as well. There was one family that always had a supply of suckers for the children. So in the mornings the children would go out exploring and visiting their friends at other campsites. They's end up with a little group of buddies just running from campsite to campsite and they'd always come back with a sucker from Brother Draper. We never knew who to expect at mealtime, it was hardly ever just our family. One of the children would always have someone with them when it was time to sit down for a meal. Bruce say's "you never really knew how much they'd eaten before they sat down at our table either". Brother Curry was famous for his Clam Chowder which he made for the whole group every year. There were tradional camp meals as well. Some families always had one night of Taco Salad, then there was the Hawaiian Haystacks. It was fun just to see what creative things people came up with to have for dinner. We had some traditional breakfast foods as well. I won't go into that now.

As I said our family was usually there for the whole week but others didn't make it to New Brighten until Wednesday or Thursday. Some of the ladies were so anxious to come we would even get to the campgrounds a few days before our husbands who usually had to work until later in the week. I was one of those ladies so I would set up our campsite myself with some help from Nate and Karrissa. Although this was trying because they were constantly wanting to know when we would be done so we could go to the beach. There were always a few men who had managed to come early as well and they would help me if I needed it. I got pretty good at setting up my tent and lighting campfires. Speaking of campfires. These same men, would make a run for firewood and would fill the back of a truck with firewood and we'd all buy bundles for our campfires from them. Thursday nights were the nights the men would go see some action packed Adventure movie. The first few years it was just a night for the guys to go alone then some women decided they wanted to go to the movies as well. So they'd pick a "chick flick" and go to the movies on Thursday night too. I preferred to stay back and sit by the campfire with the other moms and kids who had stayed behind. Then on Friday night we all went to the boardwalk. It was so fun all the adults would sit and eat funnel cakes, or corn dogs, while we waited for our kids on the rides. Friday night usually included a stop at Marianne's ice cream on the way home.

We have a collection of photographs capturing some of these memories of the fun times at New Brighton Beach but I don't think we or our children will ever forget the many wonderful years we spent there with great friends.

I know each year I return my mind floods with memories. I can't go by certain campsites without having flashes of the past. Campfires, walks on the beach, body surfing, the men having water fights with the huge water guns, wandering thru the campgrounds completely soaked looking like comandos with water guns resting on their shoulders. I don't think we will ever forget the year Karrissa hurt her foot at the beach and Jerry Harris carried her on his back all the way up the hill back to the campgrounds. There was the year Karrissa ended up with the flu and by the time we arrived at camp it was pouring and I had to set up the tent and quickly make a bed for my very sick daughter in the rain. I don't know if it was the same year but Bruce had to take Karrissa to Kaiser once she was so sick. Then there were the bad sun burns because little girls insisted on going home with a suntan. There was the year the rain wouldn't stop and we all ended up at Round Table for dinner with what looked like everyone else from the entire campground. I think that was the year we finally gave up on the promise of sunshine and we all packed up our soaking wet belongings and went home early. It seemed we could never leave without Nathan getting a bad case of poison oak.

I can't believe so much time has passed. Now our children are trying to carry on this tradition for their family. Karrissa and Brad went to New Brighton this year with their kids. It was fun for her to see that there were still some of the people she grew up with there with their children. Bruce and I stayed in a rental house in Capitola. Karrissa and Brad brought friends and family to share their campsite with and although I am sure it wasn't the same, it is time for them to begin building their own traditions.

I am still hoping to take the children for walks on the beach in the early morning hours, to eat ice cream from Marianne's and to sit by an open fire with a child on my lap every Memorial Day for a very long time.