Saturday is a special day

The day is ending; there are slowly dying embers in the fire pit. The hot dogs have all been eaten, the marshmellows are put away and sticky faces have been washed. It has been a great day. I am reminded of the words to a primary song, "where love is, there God is also". I can believe that heaven is close right now.

Looking out the Window

I am sitting in front of this computer in my loft with the shades open. I rarely open any of our shades because the burnt retinas aren't worth it. Today though, it is barely over 80 degrees, the sun is shining and I am looking out over our neighborhood to the distant peaks of South Mountain. I had never realized that I could even see them. Everything looks nice and clean from the HUGE hail storm we had the other night. It seems to have even blown away all the dust that has been plauging my allergies with it's 50 mile an hour winds. Thanks monsoon! I have finished my homework for the week and have none to do over the weekend (thanks honey). It is quite relaxing to just sit here with the sounds of Halo Reach in the background and Sarah making some weird noises down below in the living room. Tomorrow brings an 8am call to have the Primary kids clean the church for service...fun. Then, I have decided to begin tackling the project that is this loft. Sanding, staining/painting and all sorts of craftyness will ensue. For now, I am going to enjoy my view and then go get ready for a date with my sweetie.

Sarah-ism #204

Tonight the girls performed with the Queen Creek High School Pom and Cheer squads at halftime. They were very cute, but it was hot and we were all tired by halftime. When we got home, we were saying family prayer and Cat said that she had a headache. Que Sarah:
"Cat needs to go to the hospital, her head hurts."

Me: "No, you don't want to go to the hospital"

Sarah:"Yeah, they will give you shocks!"

Brady: "No Sarah, they give you shots, not shocks."

Surviving

As some of you know, my sister-in-law has had cancer for several years, she is a survivor. My Mom also has cancer as well as my Mother-in-law, more survivors. Now, another one of my sisters-in-law has cancer, she is a survivor as well and hopes to be cancer-free by Christmas. So with all of these bright and shining examples of surviving in my life, why do I feel hopeless sometimes? I don't have cancer; the hardest thing I deal with is what to make for dinner, or which assignment is due. I truly believe that Heavenly Father tests us with what we are able. What does it say about me that those are my biggest trials? First, I am not having a pity party, just wondering. Second, I am so grateful that those are my trials because I KNOW that I couldn't handle being sick. It just makes me stop to think sometimes about perspective. It puts things into perspective for me to STOP for two minutes and think about the blessings that we are each given individually. We are known and loved on an individual level from our Father above. I like that. I hope that all of you beautiful Latter Day Saint women enjoyed the words of advice and comfort from the sweet sisters in the Relief Society General Presidency. I loved seeing our beloved Prophet relaxed and joking while still offering great words of advice. "Judge Not" is my new mantra and goal.

Pickles and the Best Dinner Ever!

So, for one of my personal progress 10-hour values projects I canned and canned and canned pickles. Cucumbers were on sale at the ranch market so I drove up and got two boxes that I cut into circles and spears. I then brined the cucumbers overnight to help them stay crisp. After that, I canned 33 pints and 11 quarts of dill pickles using my Mom's recipe. In two weeks I will let you know how they taste, but until then, this is what I see when I look in my pantry. Yum!



Speaking of yum, Brady decided to make dinner for me tonight since I had been gone all day and was exhausted. He slaved for about and hour and a half over ginger, cornstarch and other tricky kitchen ingredients. We had a pleasant discussion about the garlic mincer. It was fun for me to watch him try so hard(struggle a bit) to make such a delicious dinner.


My adorable Husband

The recipe he found in my Food Network magazine(when he started reading my magazine, I don't know!)

Some funny quips

My children say the funniest things sometimes. I try to remember to write them down, but most the time it doens't happen. Here are some of the things from today that I want to remember.

Catherine: "Can we turn the radio on, it's too quiet"
Me: "Let's leave it off, Heavenly Father has the Holy Ghost speak to us when it is quiet"
Catherine: "I don't hear him"
Me: "Listen with your heart"
Sarah: "My heart can't listen, it doesn't have ears, it just goes bump, bump, bump"

Catherine: "Are we going to the ranch market or the library first?"
Me: "Library, so that our veggies don't die in the car"
Catherine: "If we just bought grapes it would be okay, they would turn into raisins"

Love it!

Organizer...what a shock.

For one of my school assignments, we had to figure out what personality we were. We were asked a series of questions and then rated on the answer to find your type. Wonder of all wonders, I was an off the chart organizer. Wow! Eight simple questions was all it took for my deep, dark little secret to come to light. Amazing! I was laughing so hard because they truly think that somehow this will enable me to work more cohesively with a team. Have they read anything about organizers? Don't think so. We don't work well with others because we want to do it all ourselves!! Why, you ask? Because we are control freaks!! So yes, put me on a team with four other people and sit back to watch the fireworks...I take no prisoners.

Dance Matrix

So, we finally gave up on Jeanne's School of Dance and started at Dance Matrix. The girls have only gone one week and they are loving it! The first day the smiles on their faces were priceless! Catherine is taking a full-time tap class. She has graduated from the combo classes and is very excited to be a grown up dancer. Sarah is still taking a combo class, but it is different than the combo she was in. She now gets to take tap, ballet and jazz instead of just tap and ballet. It is really fun. We miss Ms. Angie, but are looking forward to getting to know our new teachers.

Back to School

This week Catherine went back to Eagleridge as a Monday student. We have enjoyed having her be with other homeschool kids, that are doing all the same things that she is doing. We loved her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Wallen, last year and are really enjoying Mrs. Evans this year so far. The program has moved to a new campus and it is a fabulous change. The kids have better classrooms, playgrounds and just over all facilities. I am loving it! Sarah was devestated again this year that she doesn't get to go. I feel bad to, but she misses that cut-off date to be able to test her in. I also started school this week! I know, I was a bit shocked myself. I am going back to get my Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. Big mouthful to say teaching degree. I figure while I have the resources to get it done, I should, so that I have a back-up if I should ever need it. Brady says that I am an over-achiever; I like to call it organization and participation. Hope that everyone is enjoying back to school!

Piano Lessons

Please tell everyone, I am going to be teaching piano lessons! I really need to get the word out so that I can get some students. I will charge $50 per month for weekly, half hour lessons. If your child is 4-5 years old, I will be charging $25 for 15 minute lessons. Interested parties can email me at robertathomason@yahoo.com or can call me(if you give them my number). Thanks for the help!