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"So Frequently we mistakenly believe that our children need more things, when in reality their silent pleadings are simply for more of our time."
***President Thomas S. Monson (Ensign May 1994)
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| Flynn and Opa |
We had a great time on the 4th. It was all family time, laid back and easy going. Love those kind of days! We spent most of our time at Myshel's house . . . swam for about 5 hours, ate yummy hamburgers and hotdogs . . . chilled with some popsicles and roasted a few mellows and made s'mores.
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| Noah |
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| McKaylie using her noodle |
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| Just hanging . . . |
Later that night we headed back over the bridge to Virginia Beach and went to the Dam Neck Navy Base to watch fireworks. It was nice and relaxing with a cool breeze coming off the water and really no crowds to speak of.
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| Sitting at the beach waiting for the fireworks to start |
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| Saw a whole lot of these little guys . . . |
Noah was especially excited to see that the sand crabs had come out and spent most of his night chasing them around. He actually got brave enough to catch one. They were fun to watch, but when it started getting dark, the bigger ones came out and ventured pretty close to us . . . I was a little worried they'd come pinch at my toes. :) Just a great day, appreciating the freedoms and rights we have here in the country and feeling very blessed!
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| McKaylie and Noah . . . Crab Hunters! |
This is our most recent family photo. It was taken the beginning of December last year, which doesn't seem that long ago. But, it reminds me that things are constantly changing. Flynn is 8 months old now and just a bundle of energy--how did that time go so fast. Vance has graduated from high school and McKaylie will be starting her last year or middle school and Noah will be starting his last year of elementary school. Life is constantly changing--that's not always bad--but sometimes I look bad and think, Did I miss this? How did that happen? Was I not paying attention? I guess we get too busy living our life and forget to notice some of the "little things".
I get to brag a little today. McKaylie made the principle's list for this last grading period! Whoo Hoo! That means that she got straight A's with no A-'s. I think that's pretty impressive. She's been working hard to make this list.
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| McKaylie with her Award |
I'm super proud of her especially after I heard the stats for this. There are 1500 kids in her middle school and only 41 kids made the principle's list. That means that McKaylie's grades put her in the top 2.7% of the entire middle school! That's something to brag about!! Way to go McKaylie!
Time gets away from me so easily. I haven't been on here since they changed this whole format to post. I'm not even sure when they did it. Some things are easier, but the pictures were more of a hassle, I think.
So many changes going on in my life. It's been an interesting few months. My oldest daughter, Myshel, is married now and expecting a child of her own. That's a pretty huge adjustment for us. I can't say that being a grandmother already is something I'm ready for. Just the idea of being called grandma seems foreign to me.
It's interesting the different challenges we're given to help us grow. Some that you wouldn't think to be too difficult, are. While others that would seem to be insurmountable, really aren't. I'm grateful I haven't had to face them on my own. I don't know where I'd be without prayer and answers to those prayers.
It's also been interesting to me how I've handled the changes/challenges of the last several months. My reactions are not what I would have expected them to be . . . even a year ago. I have no doubts that they came with the Lord's help as well.
So, in October/November our lives will all change again in a huge way. Now I just need to figure out what I'll be called instead of grandma.
Here's my latest pics of my kids. Don't worry, I'm working on getting copies out.
McKaylie
Noah
Vance
Vance's isn't the best. It was a little picture. For some odd reason, I never get the notice that they're taking school pictures . . . teenage boys!
I don't have one of Myshel yet, either.
About a month ago - just in time for my birthday - I was given a new calling at church. I'm the new primary president for the Salem ward. For those who might not know, the primary includes all the children ages 18 months - 12 years old. It's a large primary and we just had 3 new families move in this last week. They each have 3 children, so my primary just increased by 9 kids in less that a week. We have around 120 children on our rolls, I think.
Our primary and youth are also combined with a Spanish speaking branch in our stake. I think this (so far) is my biggest challenge. We don't have any records for some of those children. We don't know who some of the parents are and several speak very little English. It gets a little complicated some days. On the flip side of that, I love the song Nephi's Courage and I Am A Child of God in Spanish. The sweetest talk I've heard so far was by a little girl in our Sunbeams class. She gave her entire talk in Spanish. I understood very little of what she was saying but it still touched my heart and made me cry.
This calling keeps me really busy, but I'm enjoying it so far. Maybe someday I'll get to a point where I feel like I have a handle on things . . . I'm not sure if that point will come any time soon though. I have days I feel like I can handle everything and days when I feel like I'm in way over my head. I'm very grateful that I know the Lord doesn't give us anything to do that we can't handle and also that I feel his spirit helping me. I love serving in the primary and working with the children. I'm also really happy to get to be with McKaylie in her last few months of primary.
We went to the Raleigh temple over the weekend. It was really nice to get away from things, even if just for a day and half. The temple was beautiful, even in the rain! I wish I could have weekends like this more often.
Vance, Noah and McKaylie braving the rain for a picture.
