You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be

The above is something Aslan said to the children in The Chronicles of Narnia. If you are familiar with these books at all Aslan is the Christ figure in them. If you have not read them I would HIGHLY suggest it. I read them a few years ago and fell absolutely in love with them. Anyway, I was listening to a talk tonight on BYU TV and this idea really struck a chord with me. I believe that must be how Christ feels. Christ wants all the happiness and joy we can and can't imagine for ourselves. I have been struggling a bit lately as I think most people must at times with roller coaster emotions. I don't think it's so much actual depression as just feeling overwhelmed, a bit inadequate, tired. Anyway, what a statement of hope. I often let my life get very crowded with things that don't matter. It's like I'm carrying a load of rocks in a backpack on a journey to nowhere. But if we can clear that away, let Christ change us, what happiness there must be in store.

Well, I know this is a pretty personal post...but I won't apologize for it as I normally would. I wanted to share this as I think it's a message we need to be reminded of more often, especially in the world of uncertainty, evil and trial we live in.  With that, I will say good night, and unfortunately go back to cleaning...

So we left Cedar at 3 AM on Thursday morning and drove all night, taking turns sleeping and driving. We arrived just in time to take Universal Studios by storm. Joey did survive to tell this tale :). We had a lot of fun. I'd been there once as a teenager and really liked it, but I'm glad we went without the kids because most of it is geared to the teenagers or older. We got quickly from ride to ride and were done by 5 PM. 3 hours in traffic and we made it to our hotel in San Diego.
Friday morning we did an endowment session in the San Diego Temple...it is beautiful! We spent the rest of the day at La Jolla Cove and Seaport Village. San Diego is a really nice town. I wish we had more time to just relax and explore, but more *magical* adventures were in store...


This is my "Disneyland, Disneyland!" smile. Now before you all go judging us (we left our kids with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson...) let me tell you we didn't want to go without our kids. But we went with Joe's brother Dave and Jenna and they really wanted to go. Of course we couldn't let them go alone. Well we could have, but why? We had a great day. It was fun riding all the big kid rides and made us really excited to bring our kids back...hopefully next summer.


Above you can see my "I've had enough fun" smile. You see I'm the type of vacationer that loves to have fun, but once I'm cold, tired, worn out, sore...It's not fun to me anymore. I drive myself into the ground every day...I don't need to do it on vacation too. But then there's the type that can't get enough...we survived well enough together I suppose ;) I was really glad to fall into our soft bed that night.

And the trip home... I think the picture of Dave and Jenna speaks for itself. 


Kelley and Tyler had a GREAT time at "Grandpa Pete's". Of course they got lots of sugar, time in the hot tub and loves. My grandma Kelley was there as well while they were there. She spent Monday with them doing the cutest penguins out of food...Pics will have to come later, blogger's being slow and it's past my bedtime.  Anyway, it's nice to be home again and this week is less busy than any have been in a while...just in time for me to work my fingers to the bone on Halloween costumes...wahoo!

We're back

We are back from San Deigo/LA.  We had a lot of fun.  My kids aren't coming home until tomorrow though :(  I miss them!  I'll post pictures later...

Isn't it funny?

I always find it amusing that I long for times when I can have peace and quiet (AKA...no kids) and actually get something done, but then when I get to that point I start to miss my kids almost right away.  Joey and I are headed to LA/San Diego with his brother Dave and wife Jenna tomorrow morning at 3 AM (yes, I said 3 AM) and he left at 5 PM to take Kelley and Tyler to my parents for the weekend.  I'm here all alone and feel paralyzed because I have SO much to do to get ready, and I just want some cuddle time with my kiddos.  Can't have your cake and eat it to I suppose.  Don't get me wrong, I'm way excited about our trip!  I just kind of want to pack them in my suitcase and pull them out for kisses when I start to miss them ;)

Now that's Customer Service...

So I bought some paper reinforcers...you know the things you stick on your hole punches to keep them from ripping when they are in a three ring binder?  Anyway I bought a package of these at Walmart for a dollar or something.  Well they were absolutely worthless and I thought hey...that's a dollar in the trash if I don't return them.  I had a bunch of other things to return anyway, so I took them back.  The guy that was helping me out told me that he returns these things all the time, but they keep them on the shelf because they sell.  At first I laughed at it and thought...yeah that makes sense, but I've been thinking about it...and that really bothers me.  Here they have a product on the shelves that is absolutely worthless and they know it.  But it makes them money...so who cares about the customer anyway.  Most people probably just through them in the trash.  I hate Walmart...but you just can't find diapers and socks cheaper anywhere else.  So I keep going there...arrgg...

And another thing...has anyone ever wondered how the Brady Bunch girls ended up with the last name of Brady?  I guess they could have been adopted...

Motorcycles

I had to post this photo.  It's from this summer.  We'd gone down to Zions to pick up the scouts and were walking around the visitor's center.  Tyler saw this bike and was like "cool motorcycle!" with all the passion he could muster.  He walked right up to it and was ready to climb on.  He loves motorcycles and anything else that runs on wheels really, but especially these.  I added a close up of his face, because the larger picture doesn't capture it real well in this format.  He has this look of almost adoration, fascination.  I thought it was really funny.

Ta Da

So we sent the kids up with my sister to my parents house for the weekend. My mom couldn't stand it any longer...here's my very sweet cute kiddo with a haircut. As much as I did want his hair chopped, I have to admit i miss it a little already, but still think he's super cute.

As a follow up I was able to attend the funeral for my uncle.  As heartbreaking as the whole situation is, the funeral was really nice and I felt inspired to try and do a little better.  Hearing about someone's life, especially someone you know who really was a GOOD person, is uplifting.  

We spent the WHOLE weekend canning peaches, making jams and jellies and drying apples and still only got half of it done! I have a whole box of peaches left and 3 bags of apples. I am grateful for abundance, I am grateful for work. I somehow just with I could fit the tasks in without having to be exhausted all the time and stay up till midnight more often than not. Oh well!