The Watts Word

Now that I only have 1 job, things I'd like to do with my time!

2011-09-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

SPEND TIME WITH MY SWEET HUSBAND, THE KIDS AND, THE GRANDKIDS!

Scrapbooking. !

2011-07-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

So my sweet mother in law, offered me a bunch of scrapbooking stuff from a basket my brother in law won from simply scrapping and stamping up, when we looked through this stuff there must have been close to $500 or more worth of stuff, but my mother in law was clueless what to do with the stuff so I showed her my scrapbooking pages online, I had forgotten how much fun it was, so I have set a goal to get busy again, wish me luck!

My adventures with cultured foods!

2011-05-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been experiencing a lot of aches and pains that when searching for a cause came to the conclusion that I was either suffering from Fibermyalgia or Rheumatoid Arthritis, both of which are autoimmune disorders. I was at the store one day and saw an article in a magazine at the checkout stand talking about the the benefits of Cultured foods and the boast they give to the immune system, since I don't have health insurance I thought I'd give it a try, unfortunately finding the items in the store was very expensive, because they are not processed and therefore have a relatively short shelf life compare to things that have been homogenized or heat processed. So I went to work and got information and recipes online and started making my own, the good news is while I am eating both these items everyday preferably at each meal, I have felt great with few or no symptoms, but when I stop eating these items the symptoms return! It has been very educational for me and I have come to realize many benefits that Culturing raw vegatables have, one big one is the taste and how gentle the Cultured foods are on my stomach!

Cultured Milk, much like yogurt or butter milk in taste, but full of good bacteria and lactose free! I use it like milk on granola or in a smoothie with fruit and sweetened with Stevia. If purchased at the Store it is called Kefir and costs $3.76 and up per quart, with a start I make my own for about the same price as regular milk!

Homemade Kimchi and Cultured veggies, the live cultures are found naturally in cabbage and cucumbers, Kimchi bought in the store is about $5.46 a pint, made myself I can get about 2 quarts or more for that price.

An Incredible Weekend!

2011-02-28T11:34:00.000-08:00

We had such a wonderful weekend! It started out with us traveling down to the Timpanogos Temple and on Friday morning meeting family and friends to be Sealed for time and all Eternity, as you can see we woke up to a blizzard and all was white as we arrived!

Afterwards as we came out the skies had cleared somewhat and we were treated by my Mom and Dad to the Olive Garden for Lunch before we traveled down to Vegas.

The trip to Vegas was great, no real weather problems as was anticipated and we arrived at My Big Son's and The Wife's house at about 6:30 Vegas time, Luke and Logan were there to help us babysit while Big Son and his Wife when on a date! It was lots of fun and the boys stayed up pretty late.

We woke up the next morning and got ready for Cynthia's Baby shower, which was amazing Big Son's Wife did an incredible job,

after cleaning up and resting Big Son, Obpa and I went to see Timmy's Play "The Wizard of Oz", he was the Tin man and I think he found a real talent as he was great in his role!

Sunday was spent watching the boys, cuz they were still recovering from being sick while mom and dad went to Stake Conference, Obpa was sick too, so we had lots of fun spending time with them, then afterwards the rest of the day was spent visiting with family before leaving for home! I would like to thank My Big Son and his Wife for their hospitality, not only is Big Son a great dad, he is a wonderful husband and I am so proud of him, and his wife, well a mother could not ask for a more perfect wife for her son, she is amazing! Thanks everyone for making our special Weekend unforgettable!

So I look like a geek!

2011-02-01T06:46:00.000-08:00

I got my new Glasses/bifocals on Saturday, but was so sick with a head cold, I couldn't bring myself to take a picture to post, finally I felt okay enough yesterday to do so, however still not feeling as well as I hope to be and looking as good as I hope to look in these glasses, you can't really tell in the picture, but the frames are a purple color, I love them so far, didn't realize everything I was missing out on by not being able to see, especially with as bad of astigmatism that I have!

You know you're getting old when.......

2011-01-19T07:36:00.001-08:00

You walk out the door, slip on the ice and break your leg!

If you don't dye your hair everywhere you go they ask you if you want the senior discount!

or you go to the eye doctor and he says you need bifocals or even perhaps trifocals!

I haven't even worn my glasses for about 10 years and for the hair, well I guess I am vain, cuz I prefer the positive attention I get from dying it (even if I can't afford to have it highlighted, which is my favorite), opposed to the comments I get about being 60 or something! As for the fall on the ice, I guess I don't have Osteoporosis yet, because alls that got bruised was my ego and the palm of my hand as in the picture above, oh yeah my knee does hurt and swelled a bit, but after a good nights sleep, still no visible bruise and the swelling is gone!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T18:56:00.000-08:00

Something is Fishy at the Watt's House!

2010-11-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

Things started to become fishy around our house shortly after a camping trip with one of the homes I work for, we went to Pineview Reservoir and camped for a couple of nights with our boys, they like to fish so we decided to get our license and fish with them. That trip was not the most successful, I caught a 10 inch Bass and Darin caught the second picture shown here. After getting back from camp we went fishing on Labor day and I caught a couple of various types small fish and then we tried to fish at a pond nearby without any luck. then I started fishing about once a week with the boys at work and was pretty sucessful catching trout. We decided to go fishing and camping for our Anniversary and were not sucessful there either we were down in Utah county and didn't really know the area, but when we started fishing back in the Ogden area I was sucessful, Darin was at school most the time and felt left out and even at one point was ready to give it up, but after October Conference we tried fishing with a fly and guess what Darin out fished me and decided he liked fishing after all.....below are a few pics of our catches!

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know it, here in Utah the big Celebration part of the 4th was done on the 3rd this year because of it falling on a Sunday. Well we were in the computer room on the computer writing letters to family, when we were hearing all kinds of cheering and excitement outside, we finally decided that we had to go see what was going on, when we went out, on our small little street we were surprised to see probably at least 100 people lined up watching as our neighbors (mostly Spanish speaking) were putting on their firework Celebration. We live in a pretty poor part of town and I have to say I have never quite seen anything like this and it touched my heart to see the Celebration put on by sacrifice and gratitude that these fine people have for this country! In a time where there is so much negative attention given to the state of our country, I would like to express my gratitude that Our Heavenly Father prepared this promised land as a place where ALL his children could gather and his gospel could go forth and bless the Earth. I pray that we will all be grateful for the freedoms we enjoy here and that we will do our part to insure that those freedoms remain a blessing to this country!

Please note I put a disclaimer on this photo....do not try this on your own! So okay maybe my neighbor is a bit crazy too.....everyone liked it....not sure it was legal though!

Long past over due!

2010-06-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

I know we all enjoy a picture or something to catch our attention, but sorry to say I don't have one and waiting to take one would just delay this post even more! I wanted to thank my children for a lovely Mother's Day present, all chipping in so I could afford to get my hair dyed and highlighted again, it turned out great, I know you all know how much I like to brag, so you may be wondering why no picture this time, but I really don't much feel like taking pictures right now. Life around here has been very hectic here and not much has changed, I am still working 80 hours a week and Darin still is looking for work, we have been blessed though by many wonderful people who have been charitable to us and we have learned to put trust in the Lord. I hope all my sweet family is doing well and know that they are loved and missed soooooo very much!

The Hunt!

2010-03-31T11:39:00.001-07:00

This year I was able to have my annual Easter Egg Hunt in Vegas with two of the grandkids, I was sad that the other 3 are so far away and could not participate, but hopefully someday they will be around to enjoy one. Luke, Logan and Timmy all helped me prepare for it and we invited Bryan and his family and Karl's family was out of town. Timmy decided this year that he was too old to participate and Logan felt guilty for having helped hide the eggs so he got the least amount of eggs. Brent's 2 boys proved to be Nelson's and non competitive like their father at that age, but I am sure they will learn soon enough. I think all had a good time and everyone was happy with their takings, this year there wasn't a tear in the crowd!

For those of you who do not know the history of my Egg Hunt, it all started back in 1985 when we lived in a ward in California that had an annual Egg Hunt for the primary kids, I took Brent and Kerstin and much to their disappointment one of them found one egg and the other got none, of course this was a appointment to a 3 year old and a 2 year old, so I decided that year that I would have an Egg Hunt of my own and that the way to cure the problem was to have enough eggs that the aggressive kids would not be able to pick all the eggs up before the less aggressive kids at least could pick up a nice amount, I did this by hiding no less then 2 dozen eggs per participant. To keep the cost down from year to year and to keep the candy edible, I would put nothing in the plastic eggs and to get the prize (money, candy or toy) the eggs would be turned in, thus I would have the eggs for next year and the house would not be litter with plastic eggs.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

2010-03-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

Yes I am in Vegas and yes these mighty fine boys happened here too! Arrived this morning at 7am Vegas time and am having a blast hanging out with the boys (mostly Timmy right now, cuz Sean hasn't left for the beach yet and the other two are hanging out with him), got to go shopping with Shayla and the boys, (boy is Brighton just like his dad was at that age) and tomorrow we will have an update as we try and pull off one of my good old Easter Egg hunts?

What boredom can produce!

2010-03-08T19:08:00.000-08:00

1. Posterise
2. Posterise 3. Cartoon
4.Sepia

5. Sharpen

6. Posterise
7. Fog

Okay so with all the time I have a work with nothing really to do I get a bit bored at times, so my latest venture has been using the tools on my phone to change my pictures, I was going to do what my son and daughter do at times with their blog and have a survey to see which effect you like the best but I don't know how to do that. You may be wondering about the pictures, well I tried out some new makeup on Sunday and Darin took some pictures to see if you could tell the different and if it was well liked can you tell which pictures have the new makeup and which have the old?

Hair today gone tomorrow!

2010-02-25T19:08:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I decided that I really needed a haircut and so on my way home I stopped at Dollar Cuts, while I was there getting my hair cut for the first time in 8 months, my stylist Jennifer mentioned that my dying my own hair was really drying out the ends, so I asked her about how much it would cost to get it dyed there, she told me it would be $30 plus she had a $5 off coupon for me, this was awesome news since I can barely dye it myself for that much and last time I had it done in a salon it cost me $85. Well I made an appointment for today and took Darin with me, since it was so cheap for the dye job I decided I wanted highlights too, so I told Jennifer and she started the transformation, when she was done she blow dried it and straightened it and when it was all done all my sweet husband could say was it was beautiful, I don't think I have ever seen him this surprised or impressed with a hair color job(which he picked out by the way), and to think the whole thing only cost me $65. As many of you know when I first got married 3 1/2 years ago I quit dying my hair not only to prove a point (that I could be happy with myself no matter what), but also to try and get Darin to see that there is really a reason woman do these things for themselves and it is not just about being vain, so to hear him say that he loves my hair and to have him participate in the process means the world to me! I feel like I am on top of the world!

Valentine Treats!

2010-02-17T18:08:00.001-08:00

So for the last two or so months I have been suffering if you will from broken down cell phone syndrome. Okay so do you think the cell phone companies can really produce a phone that will last the full two years of a contract without either falling apart on the outside or breaking down on the inside? I did however this last contract manage to make it 17 months without breaking or dropping my phone into the toilet, but eventually the screen decided to stop working, so I had to go back to using my old phone (yuck) which lasted about 2 months before it started showing signs of dying. Well a couple of days before Valentines Day we got a text about adding a line, we had been talking about adding a couple of lines so Luke and Logan could have a phone separate from Timmy and getting one for Cynthia and Joey since they don't have a house phone, then of course we could upgrade and get new phones. Well when we got to the store the first thing we were drawn to was the Iphone, Darin had got an Ipod for his Birthday and we loved it, anyways they had this deal going on where if you bought an Iphone for $100 you could get up to 4 Smart phones for free, so we did some checking and they did some bending and we were able to get Darin an Iphone and renew 3 of our existing accounts along with my new account and get 4 Smart phones 1 Impression and 3 Flights. All the phones have internet coverage and by cancealing our Cricket internet access we don't have an increase in our monthly budget. So now all the family should be able to get in contact with each other at a push of a button.......do we love our phones? We will let you know when we get our first monthly bill lol!

Adventures in Food!

2010-01-24T04:17:00.000-08:00

Lately we have been eating a lot of Hearing and Sardines out of a can, I grew up on Kipper Snacks and Darin had a lot of Sardines on his mission so we have been trying to be healthy by getting our Omega 3's. Well yesterday when we were at Walmart buying our fish we noticed these little 3 ounce cans of Anchovies next to Hearing, neither of us had ever had Anchovies before so we decided that we would give them a try, without reading the label we opened both cans, I started by taking a tiny little bite of mine and about choked, I have been on my diet this last week and it has no added salt, so I just figured maybe I was very sensitive to the salt, then Darin decided to eat his, well he managed to down his in one bite and in the process about killed over. I grabbed the can and noticed it had 980 mg of sodium per ounce, I tried rinsing mine off, but the salt would not disapate, finally I tried a fillet on a cracker and it wasn't too bad, but I don't think we will buying Anchovies again anytime soon, needless to say both of our blood pressures went up yesterday.

Life and New Year's Resolutions!

2010-01-07T10:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I have posted online and to be honest I haven't even been on much these last few months and it wasn't until yesterday when I was checking out my kids blogs to see if they had posted Christmas pictures of the Grandkids that I realized that I couldn't really get frusterated with them for not posting when I myself had not posted since the beginning of October. So one of my first resolutions this year is to trying be better about posting, especially since so many of the ones I love, live away from me and keeping up on each others lives can be difficult. Months ago before my life got REALLY hectic I had told Darin that I wanted a Wii Fit for Christmas, but by the time Christmas came around I was figuring with my hectic schedule it would probablly not be very practical. Much to my surprise (thanks to the in-laws giving each of us money for Christmas) I found a Wii Fit Plus under the tree, unfortuneately after a week and a half of having absolutely no time to even open it I was beginning to think it was a waste. Well on Tuesday I decided to take my new treasure to work with me on my swing shift and my manager and I had a blast checking it out, I took it again last night and to my utter excitment I had not only already lost weight, my BMI had gone down. After being told my real age was 66 on Tuesday I was thrilled to see after one day I had improved enough to be as fit as my actual age which is MUCH younger by the way! I have found myself craving water instead of soda and the workouts on this game are actually quite fun. For any of you wonder about this product I give it an A+, we will see after my time is up to reach the goal I set whether I still feel the same way!

Our Trip to Paradise!

2009-10-04T15:05:00.001-07:00

This week we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary and since other obligations prevented us from really doing anything on the 29th, We took the weekend off so we could spend sometime together doing something that we both enjoy. Originally we thought we might travel up to Idaho to visit Cythia and Joey, but our wires got crossed and we had some misunderstanding and ended up making plans for here at home. We decided to take a trip to paradise instead. Below you will find some pictures of that trip.

New addition to our family!

2009-09-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

Some of you may already know and perhaps some have even already met our new addition to our family! For the past couple of weeks we have become the proud parents of a little kitten we have named Gizmo! He has truly been a joy in our lives and has brought us much comfort and happiness. He is such a funny cat and we have posted a few pictures to show you how funny he can be.

The Bernstien Bears

2009-09-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

I remember as early as my own childhood reading the original version of the Bernstien Bears Book thinking how cool it would be to have a tree like the one in the original where they went to find the honey, I can even remember wondering if there truly was a tree that looked like this or whether it was just someones creative imagination. Well yesterday as Darin and I took a walk by the river I saw this tree and realized that there probably really was a tree that inspired the tree in the Bernstien Bear book and perhaps this is the tree!

Special Visitors

2009-08-27T22:47:00.001-07:00

On August 15th we were blessed with a visit from Brent and his family, even though it was short, we had a nice time. After being showered with wonderful gifts (Mother's Day and Father's Day) we took the kids to McDonalds for lunch, Brighton was so cute because he kept calling it Oma's Donalds, he was a little more excited to eat his fries and play in the toys then eat his Chicken Nuggets. We were so greatful to Shayla's family for sharing them for a few hours during their family reunion vacation. Brent telling Brighton it is time to leave, Brighton learned to love the Hotels, so alls he had to say was it was time to go to the new hotel.
I love this picture because I can really see the Steed side of Brighton!
Seth was such a good baby, a little tired in this picture after eating lunch!

It was so fun to have Brighton at our house, Obpa took him into the entertainment/guest room to watch "Cars"while we visited with his mom and dad!
Seth is so good natured he can entertain himself with most anything, of course it always helps to have his big brother bring him things to play with!

The promised answer!

2009-07-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a couple of scares at our house, it all started a week ago Monday when Darin and I were busy doing home improvement type stuff when Darin got this bright idea to sweep the very dirty stairs down to the cellar/crawl space, this was a good idea just not so good without a mask, unfortuneately he sucked in a lot of dust/dirty/mold and by Wednesday morning had a fever and a nasty cough, when I got home later that afternoon his fever was higher, so I took him to instant care where we found out that he had a chest infection, they didn't even bother doing a chest x-ray, but instead put him on a heavy duty antibiotic and a narcotic for his cough, by this time he was coughing up some pretty nasty yellow phlem, by Friday morning the phlem was looking like the picture in the last post, the funny thing is I knew he had this cough and in fact just before he sent me the picture he had told me that he had been coughing up some darkish stuff, but for some odd reason the only thing I could see in that picture was a ghost or a demon. As a side note on Friday morning at work I was having a bit of a head ache and touched the left top side of my head and there was this goose egg size bump on my head and it hurt to touch, the weird thing was I had not hit my head on anything and the bump was not discolored in anyway, it scared me a bit since it had not been there the day before. We went to instant care that afternoon, but the doctor was clueless and said he had know clue what was going on, but that if it didn't go away in two weeks they would do a CT scan. Well I don't have the head ache so much anymore (or I have gotten use to it) and it doesn't seem so swollen to me, but it is still there and it still hurts to touch. Needless to say it has been an interesting week and we are looking forward to a little better health! Sorry about the picture hopefully you can see the bump as it makes my head a little more squared at the top.

Can you guess what this is?

2009-07-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

The other day I got this text from my sweet husband, when I first got it from him in the middle of the night while at work, I wondered if he had caught the image of some demon or a ghost on his phone camera. Would anyone care to guess what it might be? Watch for the real answer coming soon!

Jumping the Hurtles!

2009-07-15T02:05:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I have last wrote and like my daughter in law Shayla says sometimes I am just not in the mood to blog, I am not sure if it is because I don't feel like I have anything interesting to say or I am just to busy and tired to find the time to sit down and do it.
We have settled more into our house the past month, today we just purchased a washer and dryer, which will make our lives a whole lot easier, they will be delivered tomorrow and we will be set if I just knew the proper way to put in a dryer hood, we have the outlet, but no hole in the

wall for the exhaust, hopefully we will be able to find someone in the ward who could help us, in the meantime I guess we will be putting the exhaust hose out the window or the door.

Also today we went to court once again with Darin's Ex-wife Tracie, over the past 3 years that we have been together she has been claiming that we have been behind on our support payments, well for those of you who do not know Utah State law you are required not only to pay Child Support which is a set amount you are also required to pay 1/2 all medical and child care expenses, since these two items can be quite expensive and there is no guidelines or control over how much is spent on these items, there are months that we have been handed a bill for over $700 above and beyond the $333 that we pay in Child Support. Well to make a long story short, there were some disputes as to how much we owed her. After we inputed all the bills we had recieved from her in a spread sheet and compared it to all the monies that had been paid her it appeared we did not owe her but about 1/5 of what she was claiming. Well shortly after we put our house into escrow we recieved a summons to go to court in June, she was claiming we owed $7,450. Well part of the reason we bought our house was to take advantage of the tax credit for first time home buyers. We recieved that money in June and promptly paid her what she was asking knowing that it was above and beyond what we actually owed, we were hoping that that would make her happy and we would not have to go to court. Well she was greedy and insisted that we still go to court so she could ask for attorney fees and other stipulations, but since we were well prepared with our spread sheets the commisioner ruled in our favor and said there were no attorney fees to be paid and that she needed to be more organized and forthcoming with her bills, he also would not give her any of her other demands but in fact insisted that she must be willing to communicate with us if she wants to get paid. While this was a blessing it still felt hollow as alls we really want is to be able to get along and do what is best for the girls. We are grateful for all the prayers and felt the Lord with us, with all the disturbing experiences we have thus had with the courts, it was wonderful to deal with a man who clearly took his job seriously, you could tell that he did not take these things lightly and before he ruled he paused and put his head down for over a minute in what seemed to be perhaps a prayer for guidance, it was a wonderful experience for us.

Happy Father's Day!!!

2009-06-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

I've noticed while there is such a Holiday as Father's Day it seems to take the back burner to Mother's day, here are some of the things that I have noticed:

1. Most of the wards that I have lived in, while they always seem to have something nice for the Mothers almost always the Father's are forgotten. (unless you have a super ambitious RS President or other ambitious Sister in the ward)

2. I don't remember ever hearing a Sacrament Meeting with talks dedicated to Father's, but almost every Mother's Day there is at least one talk on Mothers.

3. While the media might have a few reminder commercials out there for Father's Day, it is nothing compared to Mother's Day and it is little and late in coming.

With these few things said I'd like to dedicate this post to the wonderful Father's in my life, there are many and they each have Blessed my life in so many ways I could never count! I Love each of you and hope for you a Wonderful Father's Day!!!!!!

Pros and Cons of Owning a House!

2009-06-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

We have had quite an awaking to ownership and even more of an awaking of the shotty job people do to get a house sold. Below I will share some of our experience thus far.

unfortuneately for your viewing pleasure I was not able to take a picture of the nasty bug filled florensent lighting that was in place previous to this track lighting that we installed in it's place, sorry the picture is not to clear, but I wanted you to get the effect of what it looks like turned on. The blubs used in these track lighting fixers unfortuneately cost between $5 to $12 each, luckily for me I found some on clearance at Shopko for $1.24 each!

We were given a surprise a couple of days after we started staying at our house as we had one of the toilets clogged, as we inspected it we found that the water had been shut off to the toilet, when we turned it on to our surprise we found that it would not stop running, with a little closer inspection we found that the hardware in the tank did not match each other and thus it would not turn off.....sooo we did our first fix by putting a new value system in the tank, now not only
does it shut off, but it uses much less water.

Our front bathroom had been an add on to the house and was designed with all new brushed nickel fixtures except the faucet which was the ugliest comercial grade faucet you would find in any public bathroom. I found on Clearance at Lowes a Peerless brushed nickel faucet for $16 and installed it! not my bathroom is finished!
Our Kitchen is quite large, but until we can afford to put in an island with a dishwasher, we have virtually no counter space, so we decided a hood microwave was a must, since we had a hood installed already, we figured installing a hood microwave would not be too hard. we did some price shopping and found we could get a decent one for about $199, but when we were ready to buy it we found the floor model at Lowe's on sell for $109, it was a stainless steel upgrade worth $349. When we got ready to install the hood, to our surprise the old hood had been jerryrigged, by just splicing the electrical cord out of the wall to the wires in the cord of the hood. So I got the pleasure of putting in a new socket in the cabinet above and then we drilled the holes for the hardware of the Microwave and installed it. It has been nice to finally have a microwave again and eventually we will upgrade our stove to Stainless steel too.

In Our House!!!!!!

2009-06-07T01:07:00.000-07:00

Many of you may have been wondering what was going on with the purchase of our home in Ogden, well here is the up date. We were suppose to close on May 28th, so that it would fund and record by the 29th and we would get in by the weekend, well unfortuneately for us the FHA computer system went down the week before we were suppose to close creating a back log in document preparation, needless to say our loan documents were not prepared till early afternoon May 29th, throwing our move off by a week. We were able to get our keys the afternoon of Monday June 1st, but because of our work schedules we were not able to really start the move till Friday June 5th. We picked up the truck at about 2pm and worked non-stop till about 9pm loading moving and unloading the truck, the first 3 1/2 hours we were on our own, but thankfully we had some of the Elders in the ward show up and help finish the move off. I am so thankful for the help we recieved, because without it I don't think we would have made it. I had to work that night and didn't get off till Saturday morning around 10am, due to my exhaustion and Darin's and the fact that we both had to work tonight, we did not get anything unpacked today as you can see by these pictures. We are so grateful to be in and excited to settle in and do a bit of decorating.

Where There is a Will

2009-05-26T23:13:00.000-07:00

As you all know the past 3 years I have let my hair grow out to it natural stress laiden grey hair. Many of you have had your opinions and comments on it and while I personally enjoyed not having to hassle with the dying of it, I must admitt the vain side of me missed how young I felt with it dyed. Many of you probably thought that I was forced into not dying it and that simply was not true, the fact was that my husband was one who claimed to not understand why women felt they needed to do that and he felt that he could and would love me just as much undyed as dyed, I believed him and trusted him and so I proceeded to grow it out, keep in mind everytime he would mention that he thought a woman looked nice I had to point out that there was a 99% chance that they dyed their hair. Well many times he has told me if I wanted to dye it that was fine, but he did not want to be the one to try and pick out a color. Well anyways this last week we got some movies in the mail from Feature Films for Families and there was this film called "Where there is a Will", well we watched it and the old lady in the film is the mother from "Happy Days" and she is looking rather old and haggerdly and is basically given up on life, until she is reunited with her grandson whom she has not seen since he was a child. Well she gets a new lease on life, has eye surgery, gets some hip clothes and dyes her hair and magically she becomes a new woman looking and acting 20 years younger. Well at the end of this touching movie my husband looks over at me, takes me in his arms and tells me he wants me to dye my hair and that he knows that it will make me feel better about myself! Not only that but he wants me to have it done at a Salon and he wants to come help pick out the color. So today we went to Mastercuts (where I get my haircut) and had my hair dyed professionally for the 2nd time in my life! It has been exciting to see how hard it is for my sweetie to keep his eyes off of me and I feel fantastic! So if I had Brent and Shayla's Monkey Meter right now I would have to give getting your hair dye a #5! Below is a picture taken a couple of weeks ago and one taken after the dye and cut! What do you all think?

Happy Birthday Logan!

2009-05-23T05:27:00.000-07:00

Can you believe my Logan is 13 today? Where has the time gone? Happy Birthday Logan, hopefully one of your brothers will let you see this post! Logan has grown in so many ways in the last year, his voice has turned deep and he sounds like a man, he has grown like a foot and has passed me up and most importantly he has matured spiritually and intellectually in he role as Deacon Quoram President and in he grades in school. He is thoughtful of others and has a wonderful sense of humor and has brought much joy to our family! I will say it once again.....Happy Birthday dear Logan!

What it means to me to be a Mother

2009-05-11T00:43:00.000-07:00

I was sitting there during Sacrament Meeting while they were giving talks about Motherhood thinking about what it means to me to be a Mom. I use to think that Mother's Day was kind of a depressing day, a day where all of the areas that you fell short in were pointed out and a reminder that you could never measure up, but recently in the past few years I have learned a greater lesson about Mother's Day and it has become more of a sacred day for me and for some odd reason I don't really feel like I don't measure up, but instead I just feel Extremely Blessed.

This is what I realized about Mother's Day (at least from a Mother's point of view), it is not a day to worship Mother's, but to find gratitude for not only having Mother's but for being Mother's, when I started thinking of all the reasons I am gratiful to be a mother (mostly my incredible kids), I started felling less sorry for myself and instead realized how incredibly Blessed I have been to be a Mother to the most wonderful children on earth. Over the years my children have taught me more about the Savior and my Heavenly Father then I could possibly learn on my own, and I don't just mean because I can relate more to him and how he loves me. I have had children who from a very young age taught me simple lessons of faith and trust in the Lord and while most children would use some of the things I have put them through as an excuse to turn away from God, they have been an example of true faith in God holding to the rod and setting an example of true believers. Now I realize that Heavenly Father had everything to do with placing these wonderful spirits in my home and because of that I would like to express my gratitude to him for Blessing me with the children that I have.

With that said, I will say I am not perfect and at times I find myself feeling sorry for myself for being so far away from them and not being able to spend as much time with them as I like and I ache for them in ways I never knew was possible, but I have been blessed with the time I do have with them and I know that they all love me and for this I am immensely grateful.

So for this Mother's Day I would like to pay a tribute to the reason I am a Mother, MY CHILDREN!!!!! I love you guys!

Humility!!

2009-05-05T00:48:00.000-07:00

Okay so I recall a few months ago Brent blogging about learning to accept being wrong even when he felt like he was right or something along those lines, well I have to write about my own version, It all started out tonight at work, well for those of you who do not know Darin and I both work at the same job in a duplex, we work the graveyard shift and he works on one side of the duplex and I work the other. Well for the last year since I have worked here his side has had cable and mine has not, well the boys over here have been wanting to get it and since we have a new PC they were told that it would be looked into. Well one of the boys on the other side decided to hook this side up to the cable they have on their side and in the process found out that the cable that they are getting is pirated from the neighbors next door, so for the past couple of days we have had cable. The thing is Darin has had cable and has watched it to help get through the night for the past year and there was always the underlying thought that the cable was not being paid for legally, when the boy hooked it up over here, we let the landlord, the PC and the Regional Manager all know about the pirated cable and they never told us to unhook it. Well tonight happens to be one of my double shifts and I only got a couple hours of sleep before going to my shift this afternoon at 2pm, so I was counting on that cable to help keep me awake, anyways I started to watch cable right after we got done with scripture study and a couple of minutes into it the cable went out, then Darin comes to my side and says he unhooked it, keep in mind his side is not unhooked even though he says he is not going to watch it, not only was I upset because I am tired and planned on watching it, I was hurt because of the lack of thought towards me and when I voiced my displeasure alls he could say was he was just trying to do the right thing. Well I know deep down inside I am wrong, but I was fighting the natural man inside of me and I was really mad. I know that this is a tempral thing and not even important at that, so why am I letting it bother me? As I try to humble myself I realize that it is Satan trying his best to put a wedge in between my sweet husband and I because he does not like it when we are doing good things and gratefully some very good things are happening in our lives that he does not like. So with that said I shall go apologize to my husband and have sweet heart prayers which by the way I have put off because of my wickedness, thanks for letting me voice my frusterations with myself.

The House!!!

2009-04-28T23:04:00.001-07:00

As most of you know for the past 21 months we have been living in Darin's parents house while they were on their mission to Brazil, well they returned the first week in March and since then we have been living in their basement. Before we moved into their house we were renting one of the apartments that are subsided by the government for low income families (we only qualified because when we moved in I had not yet got a job), it was a small two bedroom apartment and cost us in rent $685. Well both Darin and I work in Ogden and our old apartment was in Layton and his parents are in Kaysville which is about 20 miles away. We thought about living with Darin's parents for awhile and save some money, but with the situation with Darin's girls, our living there has made it hard for his parents to have a comfortable relationship with the girls, being as their mother won't let them come to their house as long as we are living there, this along with the distance traveling helped us make a decision that we needed to move out. Well we did some research and found that if we bought a house close to our work, not only could we save a ton of money on gas each month we could also get a much bigger house with a yard and pay less a month then we would pay for rent. So for the last couple of weeks we have been searching for a house. We found a lot of houses listed for between 75K to 100K that we liked, but we found out quickly after a couple of hours of appointments last week that most of the houses listed as low as 75K had a lot of work to do on them. For those of you who have not been to the older part of Ogden, there are a ton of goregeous homes built at the turn of the last century, unfortuneately if they have not been kept up there is a lot of work to do on them. The house we found and decided to buy is about 104 years old, it is rather on the plain looking side compared to some of the decorative ones in the area, but it has all new plumbing, wiring, water heater, central heat and air, new double paned windows, tile floors, an added bathroom and remodeled kitchen and other bath. With a little imagination we believe we can add some character to the outside of the house to make it look as nice as the inside. We put an offer on the house this morning for 96.500 and had the offer accepted this afternoon, this house was listed for 120,000 originally back at the end of February. If things go smoothly we will be by the end of May, also it is fairly close to Weber State and we both plan on returning to school in the fall!

Service Porch and Back Door

Back Bedroom with view into bathroom

Back Bathroom between middle and back bedrooms

Middle Bedroom with view to bathroom
Front Bedroom and Closet Front Door

Front Room Bathroom Door

Front Bathroom
Kitchen
Dining Area
Living Room

Happy Birthday Kerstin!!!

2009-04-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

I just want to wish my sweet Daughter Kerstin a Happy Birthday!!!! Hope you are having a wonderful day! Today I will do my best to find time to talk to you after a straight 36 hour shift at work, I love you!

An exciting week!

2009-04-19T23:06:00.000-07:00

I would like to aplogize in advance for these pictures, while they are pictures that I personally took of these two temples in the last year, I did not have my camera this week while visiting these temples so they are not pictures taken at the time of the actual experience.

My week started out fairly normal, but by the middle of the week it was pretty caotic, as some of you may remember just a month or so ago, I had some changes at my other job and got a new manager there, the change had it's challenges, but in the long run I think it will be a good change. Well at this job I am at right now (the one that both me and Darin work at) we had some changes of our own 2 or so weeks ago, out of nowhere we were told that our manager was no longer working, this made things a little crazy, but our regional manager has been great through it all, luckily we still had a couple of assistant managers around to hold things together. For the last couple of months one of these assistants has made life miserble for most of the employees, by undermining our postion with the boys we work with, making it very difficult to work, well on Wednesday some of this undermining came to a head while I was at work and I got very frusterated (almost to the point of putting my 2 weeks notice in), due to these frusterations and some of the behaviors of one of the boys that assistant got into an argument with the regional manager and ended up calling him a few choice things then quiting very unproffesional like, right in front of the boys, which in turn caused some problems. As difficult as the behaviors of the boys may be, the staff has been very relieved and we finally have a work place that is practically stress free. Hopefully by the end of the week we will have a new manager, we could use your prayers as Darin has applied for this position and will be interviewing on Tuesday. If he gets the job we hopefully will be purchasing a home close by here in Ogden in the next month or so. On Thursday I had the opportunity of meeting Matt, Skyler and Seth at the Salt Lake Temple and going through a live session for the first time, this was a very interesting and wonderful experience and I would encourage anyone who can to take that opportunity sometime in their life to do so. On Friday night CC and Joe flew in from Vegas and on Saturday morning I drove them and Matt back to Rexburg, on the way we stopped in Idaho Falls and went to the Temple there, it was an interesting experience too, because it was much like a live session in that you went through 4 different rooms, but they still used the movie, it was an awesome experience also, although it seemed a little smaller then what I expected. After the Temple we went to Red Robin to eat then headed back to Rexburg where we dropped Matt off, then ran to the store for CC and Joe to get some groceries, after I dropped them off I had to head home to make it to work by 10. I think we had a great time and I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with them.

Food can be Art

2009-04-11T04:07:00.001-07:00

This week we were blessed to have some extra visitors for a few days. On Tuesday Benji, Tim, and Logan came up for Easter break. unfortuneately we had to both work, so we were not able to spend as much time with them as we would have liked, but really did enjoy the time that we got. On Wednesday afternoon the boys caught the Frontrunner (the new train running between Ogden and Salt Lake) and went down to Salt Lake to Temple Square and the Joseph Smith movie, they had a good time, then on Thursday morning they drove up to Rexburg to pick up Matt, Cynthia and Joe, they drove back that night. Matt left for Alabama early the next morning to visit an old missionary companion and will return on Monday. Friday we spent most of the day with the kids visiting, eating and playing games. The picture is Luke"s representation of our dinner we had last night in Celebration of Easter. We sure hope the kids had as good a time as we did.

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-08T00:35:00.001-07:00

This year a long time tradition and favorite of mine is not going to happen for the first time in about 23 years. As much as I would like to have my grandkids and others around to share this fun activity for me, living states apart and having no one who lives close enough to come, has made this decision at least for this year a reality. I have had many questions though, from participants of the past and I would love to share my ratio, techinque or whatever you would call it along with the history of my egg hunt with you. About 24 years ago our ward in California had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids in our ward, I was excited along with my two children at the time (Brent and Kerstin), unfortuneately to their dismass neither of them found a single egg at the activity and they were both heart broken, so I went home and decided that I would put on my own Easter Egg Hunt where no child would go home without filling their basket with eggs. The first hunt was realitive small only 5 children involved, my 2 children, my friends 2 children and a boy I babysat, it was a success and thus the Egg Hunt was started. I had a ratio of approximately 2 and a half dozen eggs per child. Usually I would hide plastic and hard boiled eggs and since eggs can be expensive I would have the children exchange their eggs for the prizes. The prizes almost always were quarters, dollars, candy and prizes or small toys. Every year I would assign different eggs different prizes, some years the hard boiled eggs would be the prizes or small toys, other years it might be a certain color of plastic egg, this is entirely up to the person holding the hunt. Generallly for me most of the eggs would be money, with candy and prizes being around the same amount (no one wants an overload of candy before Easter). Sometimes I would get my prizes at Oriental Trading, but most of the time I would watch at the store or go to the dollar store and find small fun items costing anywhere from a dime to a dollar for the prizes. As hard and confusing at times it was to do the prizes or small toys, this was one of the favorites of the egg hunt. I hope this post was helpful to some who have been asking and hopefully not to late in coming....Enjoy and happy hunting!

Under the Weather

2009-03-30T22:33:00.001-07:00

The first day of spring started out beautiful and we had tempatures in the 70's for the first time this year, even our apricot tree had started to bloom, but it was short lived when two days later we were hit with a storm, we still had hope, cuz the snow was light and the tempatures did not go lower then the 30's. this weather hung around for a couple of days last week and then finally by the weekend we were starting to warm up again and have some clear skies, we were stoked. Then when I was on my way home from work on Sunday morning at around 7am I notice the weather was awesome it was 50* and I thought to myself .....yes....spring at last, I got home and laid down for a couple of hours and got up for church to find these weather conditions before me, aproximately a foot of snow and tempatures in the 20's. As the day went on after Fasting and attending a very spiritual Testimony meeting I got contemplating the weather cycles we have been experiencing lately and found myself comparing them to my own life and the recent events. I realized a couple of things about life, First I learned that when you think that things could not possibly get any worse, the Lord shows us that they can, but along with that he shows us that with our trials come great blessings and lessons learned, perhaps the biggest one being that if we allow him to, he will help us get through anything. Second I learned that how we view life is largely on what we focus on...the good or the bad, most truly happy people recognize their trials as blessings and an opportunity to grow, while a miserable person facing the same trails may view life as unfair or themselves as a victim.

I know it has been awhile since I have posted, partially because I did not know how to express what we are experiencing without sounding depressing. Well first off Grandma and Grandpa arrived home safely from Brazil and have been absolutely wonderful to us, not one negative word about the condition of the house or the yard, we have been truly blessed. Second we have been blessed to have Luke visit again during track break, it has been fun although we really haven't had the time together that I would like to spend with him, maybe this week! Third on the 24th of March we had our pre-trail in regards to our custody battle with the girls and while some might say they thought this was over and behind us, unfortunately we were forced to settle at a pre-trail, the good news is the legal part has come to and end (no more Guardian at litem , no more court or lawyer fees) the bad news is the stipulations remain the same (paid supervision and thus Darin's rights still limited) but since we will not be seeing the girls anyway for awhile this reallly does not matter. Fourth we will not be moving anytime soon, because we feel at this time it is important to keep in place health insurance for the boys (since they will be losing their primary insurance April 6th) and with the economy changing jobs seems a bit of a risky bussiness, although we do know that we do need to move on and find new jobs eventually. All and all even though our lives at times seem a bit boring, we have been extremely blessed and find great job in our family!

The Home Coming!!!!

2009-03-09T02:33:00.000-07:00

The day has arrived and Grandma and Grandpa Watts will return from their mission at approximately 2:30 this afternoon. As you can tell by the cartoon, it should be an adventure fitting their 6 pieces of luggage the two of them and Obpa into our fairly small SUV. I am happy to have every last minute staying at home trying to finish up on the 1,000,000th thing that we have not quite got put back into order before their return. We did manage to get the upstairs done, but the outside (yikes) and the downstairs (where we will be living for awhile) still have a lot of work to do on them. While it has been a tremendous blessing to have been able to stay in their home while they were gone, I would not recommend it to anyone, it is extremely stressful living in someone elses house, especially family, you have to live with them for a very long time. Stay in tune to see if we survive their return or whether we will be dis-owned and are living out on the streets.

Death of a Snowman!

2009-03-04T04:35:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to Luke and his Snowman who has finally died and left this world! We will always remember him and the joy he brought us this winter!

Talented Daughers!

2009-03-04T03:59:00.000-08:00

I have two Lovely Daughers that I gave birth to, and as I contimplate each of them and who they are I am amazed at how very blessed I am to have them for daughters they are truly amazing and here are a few reasons why.

Kerstin

1. She is the best Sister ever, she takes her time out of her busy life being a mother and wife to call and talk to her 7 other siblings, I don't know many other married people who take the time to stay in contact with their siblings as often as she does.

2. She is a wonderful daughter and probably my best friend (other then my husband) she calls me just to talk to see how things are going and makes me feel important

3. She is an awesome mom and makes sure that her kids get to do fun things like take swimming lessons or go to pre-school even if it means she has to do without

4. She has a talent for Style and makes sure that her family is always looking good (she has been like this since she was 2 years old)

5. She can scrapbook like no other and has blessed our house with many wonderful pictures masterfully designed.

6. She has a talent for trying new things and almost always is successful, when she sees something she likes, she is willing to learn or at least try to learn to do something.

7. She is a good friend and has kept in contact with many of them as far back as her early childhood.

8. She is a good wife and is an example of what it means to be your spouses best friend.

9. She loves the Lord and is always willing to serve when called to.

10. She is the smartest in the family, but is willing to let Brent pretend he is.

Cynthia

1. A peacemaker, she doesn't like it when someone is unhappy and will do what she can to make them happy.

2. An awesome babysitter and has been since she was about 2 and she would want to change Benji's Diapers.

3. She is one of the least judgemental people I know and tries to love and care for people for who they are.

4. Plays the piano by ear and has a natural talent for it.

5. A natural blonde (that truly is a talent these days)

6. A hard working student, when studying never came that easy to her, she always put out the effort and it has paid off for her in college.

7. She has awesome handwriting.

8. She has become a pretty good cook. (or so I hear)

9. She is a faithful Temple attender.

10. She Loves her husband with all her heart.

Talented Daughter-in-law

2009-03-04T03:22:00.000-08:00

As I have been reading blogs lately I have noticed a few about talents or should I say the lack of talents and I realized that often times we don't see our talents as well as others do. As mothers and wives I think at times we need a reminder from those who see our talents for us to recognize them (not to say father's and husband's don't need strokes, I just think they aren't as hard on themselves as women are). I have One Very Beautiful and Very Talented daughter-in-law and I would like to mention some of the many talents that I have noticed in her over the last couple of years.

Shayla

1. Although she will claim that she is not crafty, she has the most beautifully decorated home, this is an amazing talent, and as far as crafts go, I have never seen one she has tried that hasn't turned out.

2. She is a loving and patient mother, not once have I heard her raise her voice at one of her 3 children (that would include Brent)

3. She has a talent for humor, while I love my son Brent dearly, anyone who knows him knows he can be very silly at times, Shayla knows how to enjoy the humor and give it right back at him.

4. She is a loving and kind person, I have never heard a negative word come out of her mouth in regards to another person.

5. She plays the piano masterfully ( a talent I have always longed for)

6. She is perhaps the smartest person I know, but has a way of making everyone else feel just as smart as her.

7. She has a talent for blogging, there are always interesting and fun things to read on her blog.

8. She has a talent for shopping, one of my best shopping trips was last year after Christmas with Shayla and Cynthia, we had a blast (or at least I did)

9. She has a talent for throwing parties, just like her skills in decorating she can put together an awesome party, whether it is a bridle shower, Birthday party or whatever.

10. She has a talent of faith, I have watched over the past couple of years, both Shayla and Brent face some challenges, but they have remained optimistic, faithful and upbeat through them all, whether it was a child's health, a move, the economy or any other test they have came up against.

Look for my future posts on Kerstin and Cynthia and their many talents

Friday the 13th and Valentines Day!!!

2009-02-14T11:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Friday the 13th and while I am not a supersticious person it seemed that the day was starting off on a bad note. I had a VERY busy day and had a lot of things to get done in a limited amount of time. First at work the drivers that were suppose to pick up the guys at my job and take them to work, did not show up till late so I was running behind from the start, I had to get home pick up Darin, get the car serviced, pick up Valentines for the kids ( sorry they will be late), be to a meeting by 12 noon, then be to a training by 3pm and then to back to work by 8pm, the thing is I hadn't had a shower in almost a week ( I really needed one) and I hadn't eaten since lunch the day before. So this is how it went.. I finally was able to leave work by 9:20 and arrived home by a quarter to 10, where I quickly fell into tears (was overwhelmed and hormonal at the sametime) Darin consoled me and we hurried and did our couples prayer and headed out the door for Big O tires by 10:15, in which they told us it wouldn't be to long, so we went across the street to the store to mail some bills and buy Valentines, when we were done we went back across the street and it seemed everyones car was done but ours, so we waited and waited and finally at about 11:20 Darin asked when it would be done they said soon, they had to go out and get a filter, we got done at 11:35 and headed to Ogden for our meeting, we showed up there just in time, at about 2:10 I am getting nervous (our meetings never lasts longer then 2 hours), I have to be back in Layton for my training by 3, 10 minutes later we are done and on our way, I hadn't eaten so we stopped at A&W and then Darin dropped me off at my CPR training at 3:05. There was only 3 of us there so we figured it would go fast, finally at 6:35 we were done, Darin took me home I jumped in the bath and was done and ready to leave for work by 7:30. As you can tell Friday the 13th was a very BLESSED day for me. Today I woke up at work to Snow (YUCK) and it has been snowing all day, me and one of the guys from my work went home so I could make Sugar Cookies for Darin's home teaching families, Darin bowled with the guy from my work while I made the cookies, as we were getting ready to head back to work Darin surprised me with one of my Valentines presents, a Build a Bear tiger he named Yobo, I loved it, now I am back to work and when I get off to night at 6pm we are going to the Brazilian Grill, it should be wonderful! Life is great and I am so grateful for all of those who have shown me Love throughout my life

Finding the Silver Lining!

2009-02-13T05:27:00.000-08:00

This last month I have been blessed with experiencing some fairly interesting and stressful things at work and have been doing a lot of soul searching as to why? I think in one of my recent posts I mentioned that I had had my schedules changed the same week for both jobs, what this did was basically put me working 6 days a week and having virtually no time during those days with my sweet husband except enough time Monday - Friday to maybe have breakfast and say prayers. What I didn't mention was that with his parents coming home in about 3 1/2 weeks, we had been praying and trying to decide what we were going to do when they get home, we have fasted and prayed and both have came up with the feeling that we definately need to move out and move some distance away and the place we felt inspired to do so is the Provo/Orem area. The problem is, with the economy the way it is, finding new jobs (difficult being so far away and having virtually no waking hours to do so) and finding the time to move our stuff. I have felt rather overwhelmed and even have broken down in tears lately (almost daily) which had brought me to the point of asking myself what is it the Lord wants me to learn from this experience? In one of my jobs my manager has decided to step down and there has been a great deal of pressure for me to take on her job, well this last week while she was out of town I have been given the opportunity to fill in for her while she has been on vacation (what an experience). This is what I have come up with:
1. The Lord wants me to trust him and do as he asks
2. The Lord wants me to realize that I do not have to over-work myself to make others happy
3. No amount of money is worth taking me away from my family
4. When you get to the point where I am there is nothing to lose from standing up for myself and thus I refuse to be threatened or walked on at work anymore
5. A dollar more and hour ($9.25) is no where near enough to take on a Manager position.

The Surprise!!!

2009-01-31T07:56:00.001-08:00

Thanks to all of you Obpa had a wonderful Birthday! Not only was he surprised by all of your kind wishes, but he also was blessed with a surprise we were not expecting when he got a call from Macie and Carlee late Thursday night, this was nice because although it was very nice to be remembered, (I had to work all but 3 hours that day) and at least two times he broke down in tears because he missed his little girls, finally he said a prayer and a few hours later the call came. We still are celebrating here, yesterday we had a little celebration at work with cheesecake (Darin hates cake) and today I am taking the afternoon/evening off so we can go to the Temple then finish the celebration. I actually told him though that when you get that old (he is 41) the celebrationg lasts a week. The video's of the grandkids were priceless and the kind words were appreciated! We love you all!!!!!

Obpa's Birthday Surprise!

2009-01-23T05:50:00.000-08:00

Next week on the 29th of January is Darin's Birthday! I really wanted to throw him a surprise party, but almost everyone that he would want to be there lives out of town and couldn't come, so I thought maybe cards or emails would be a great surprise for him and make him happy! I don't need to tell you that he is feeling a great void in his life right now with not seeing Macie and Carlee and could use any thoughts and kindness given to him, he really wants to be part of the family and mentions a desire to build a relationship with each of you often. I know not many people read or respond to my blogs, but this would really mean a lot to me! His email address is richardwatts929@hotmail.com and our home address is 128 E. Mutton Hollow Rd, Kaysville, UT 84037 for anyone who prefers the mail system! Thanks!

Life is Busy!!!

2009-01-17T16:43:00.000-08:00

You might say how can life be so busy when you really don't have anything interesting worth saying or anything exciting happen worth telling, so thus the reason for the gap in posts. Well the fact of the matter is both of my jobs suddenly changed my schedules, which means I am working in the days and don't have the luxury of being on the computer ( only a short time really Friday night or Saturday afternoon). This means that I get to see my sweet husband in passing and the work around the house is not getting done...... due largely to the time issue and because of that most of our spare time in the week together is spent doing one of the two things below!

Mom and Dad Watts will be home in about 6 weeks and we have basically destroyed their house and could probably use the next 6 weeks 24/7 to fix it and still not be done, so we do what all 16 year old kids do when they get stressed out.........get out the Wii. So basically for all of you who have been wondering what we have been up to..... it is this....... working and working again and the rest of the time is spent at the Temple or playing the Wii, you might think ....what a waste of time, but you should see how good I am at bowling now, even with my left hand! Don't you think our Mii's look just like us? Boy have we become competitive......

Pay It Forward!!

2009-01-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

Read closely...this is how it works...
The Rules

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your Three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!
4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love!If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Please take the button and post it on your blog; start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

Merry Belated Christmas!!!

2008-12-28T22:41:00.000-08:00

Oma wrapping presents late into the night Christmas Eve!!!!!

Matt gets the essentials for Christmas!!!!!

Bangs not so healthy cereal, but ohhhhh so goood!!!!!

Bangs ....just what I wanted for my mission a Wii controller !!!!!!

Timmy a healthy guy his favorite cereal!!!!!

Oma with her new Scriptures!!!!!

What's this Obpa got new Scriptures too?????
Luke with NCAA Football game for the Wii!!!!!!

Logan with Symphonia......what's with all the video games???
What's this Obpa and Oma got Wii Play for the Wii?????
Bangs opening the family's main present!!!!

Finding the Rock Band Kit for the family

I am a little late with this Christmas post, but as the old saying goes better late then never! It has been a hectic week, with work and the family around, but what a wonderful time of year, to Celebrate the Birth of Christ with those you love the most!!!! We had a wonderful time having the 5 youngest boys with us for Christmas! We tried to surprise them with a change of attitude from the past as in the last two Christmas's we had a no video game rule. This year though when they came for Thanksgiving they brought their Wii and we got to see first hand how much fun it was and how much exercise you could get with some of the different games they have out there, so we decided to surprise them and have a Wii Christmas!!! First off I had wanted to get them the Rock Band kit after seeing the Brunners using Skyler's over the summer, it seemed like a really fun family activity that the whole family could get involved in. I had a little trouble though at first finding it and had accidently bought a kit for the Playstation 3 from Walmart online, since they would only give me store credit back and that particular day they had recieved a shipment of Wii's in we decided to get ourselves a Wii system with our credit, in the meantime online on Amazon I found an incredible deal on the Rock Band kit 1/2 of what I was going to pay so I purchased it. Luke and Logan each had a game they wanted, and with a little help from Best Buys reward points we were able to purchase both of their games! Luke's NCAA Football game seems to have been a hit and is actually fun to watch as he and Benji pick BYU as their team when they play out a game. The Rock Band was a hit for the whole family!!! (even I had fun playing the guitar and singing). Most of all though we enjoyed just spending time with the family playing card games and sharing old stories of times long past! Of course we missed Kerstin and her family and Brent and his along with Cynthia and Joe, but were happy to see that each of their families had a wonderful Christmas themselves!

On Saturday we all travelled down to visited with Grandma and Grandpa, we had a nice time, visited, watched a bit of football and had some excellent lunch, it was good times, always fun to listen to Uncle David's humor and wonderful attitude!

To all who happen to venture upon this post we at the Watt's would like to wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year!!!!!

Luke's awesome snow adventures!!!!

2008-12-16T13:08:00.000-08:00

We have had a lot of snow the last couple of days and Luke has been couped up inside the house. Yesterday afternoon right before dark he asked if we could get the sled out so he could go sledding, so this morning when we got home from work Obpa got the sled out for Luke. When I got up from my sleep Luke was excited to showing me his sledding skills, it was a lot of fun, he also decided to make a snowman, at first it was hard cuz the snow was so powdery that it wasn't sticking together, but eventually this is what we came up with. He said it was the greatest time he had had in the snow! Check out more pictures on his slideshow to the left at the top of this blog!

Tis the Season to be Jolly!!!

2008-12-15T22:25:00.001-08:00

It seems that Christmas is around the corner, just over a week away. I love this season, but this year it seems like it has really sneaked up on me and found me nowheres near being ready. It has been a lot of fun these past few weeks having Luke stay with us and being able to do a lot of the traditional things with him, like the twelve days of Christmas and other activities. I think I have found myself spread a little too thin though, this last week I have come down with either a cold or the flu which has made me just feel yucky all the way around. I don't know if it is the change in schedule from last year or just a combination of things, but I do know this.....I hate being sick at this time of year. I have still been working 7 graveyard shifts a week between my two jobs, but now instead of 7 ten hour plus shifts, I work 4 eight hour graves with one swing at one job and 3 eleven hour graves at the other, this would be okay, but with Christmas coming down upon us and having Luke around, I find that I am getting very little sleep. We got our first really big snow storm this last weekend. I was suppose to go pick CC, Joe and Matt up from BYU Idaho on Saturday, but after I read the weather report, which gave a 100% chance of snow on Saturday, I decided that they would need to be ready for me to pick them up on Friday, this was a bit tricky, cuz Joe still had a test to take that afternoon and Matt had to checkout at his apartment and I had to be back at work at 8pm. Things worked out well and we arrived back home in Utah at about 7:45 without any problems and no snow!!!! Then next morning however it began to snow and snowed off and on through Sunday. We really enjoyed having Matt here until he flew out Sunday morning for Vegas ( that trip was not fun, a blizzard), and CC and Joe flew out this morning with no snow. I could not resist taking these pictures on Sunday of the kids eating their babyback ribs, I don't think I have ever seen them make such a mess before, but they were good! This week we look forward to trying to get better from my cold, catch up on the Christmas Shopping and getting ready for when the boys come at the end of the week or beginning of next week......Goooooooo BYU!!!!! And a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and a Happy New Year!

Having a nice time with Luke!

2008-12-05T07:20:00.001-08:00

We have been blessed to have Luke stay with us over his Christmas track break! As you can see we have had a lot of fun doing things like changing the look of the tree this year, blue lights and white ribbons with snowmen on it and silver bulbs along with some of the kids traditional ornaments thay have collected over the years. We have had fun shopping and hanging out at the mall, so he can play the football game on the psp and as you can tell we have even taken him to the Asian buffet so that we could teach him how to use chopsticks! We hope you all are having as much fun this season as we have had having Luke stay with us!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T23:13:00.000-08:00

I feel a little embarrassed to so slow getting my Thanksgiving Post posted, but better late then never. I have had a very busy last week between finishing up on some presents that had to be sent off and preparing for Thanksgiving I have not had much time to write. The week started when after work last Monday we drove up to Rexburg and picked Cynthia and Joe up for the week, then the next two days were spent getting ready for the kids to arrive and working along with all the preparing of food that goes along with the Holiday.

I don't think I ever quite realized before how much work it was to prepare a complete Thanksgiving Dinner by yourself before, in the past we were always combining our plans with either the extended family or friends, thus sharing the work in preparing the meal. Luckily for me I was able to cook a lot at work and Cynthia was willing to help so she could learn for herself.

The boys from Vegas showed up on Wednesday at about 5pm, it was great seeing them and they were pretty tired so we had dinner and played a couple of games before we headed off for work. It was nice feeling like we had a family instead of being just an old single couple, I will say though you forget how much time is spent in dish clean up, food preparation, and just doing the basic family things like scripture study and prayers, I can honestly say there was never a dull moment.

For Thanksgiving we were blessed to not only have our children there, but also one of the boys from work and Darin's niece Leila and her husband Josh, we really had a nice time eating and playing games, we actually were able to start eating at about 1pm and then slowed down for the night after game playing, video watching and visiting at about 10pm, it was very nice and I was grateful not to have to go to work that night because I had not slept for the two days before.

On Friday I had totally planned on venturing out on Black Friday at 3:30 in the morning, but I didn't have the ads, so had to rely on the internet which was slow and tedious to go through, with small pictures and discriptions. I finallly got to bed at about 11pm and had set my alarm for the appointed time, well I woke to the alarming finding I had a horrible head ache, when I got up to use the rest room I found that it was raining also, I decided that nothing was worth venturing out in those conditions. Instead I got up at 8:30 woke the kids that had planned on going with me and we made it to Kohl's by about 9 or so, we were able to find everything that we had came for and I got into line, then lines were long, which is even worse at 3:30 in the morning so after about 30 minutes in line I call Benji to come pick CC and Timmy up so they could go get ready for the Temple. I was finally checked out by 11 and headed home with my treasures. Later that afternoon we got to Old Navy whose ad went all day.

Joe had family names to be baptized for so the family went down to the Bountiful Temple at noon on Friday to do those, it was a good opportunity for Benji, Timmy, CC, Joe and Darin to do Temple work together, we look forward to a year from now when all the boys will be able to go and so we all will be able to go inside. I stayed outside with Luke and Logan, we had a good time.

Saturday was spent visiting extended family in Utah County and then home to play more games, I had to go to work so it was sad to leave the family at 9:30 to do so. All in all it was an excellent day though.

Sunday all stayed for Church, Matt showed up at lunch and then after lunch he and Nate, CC and Joe headed home, shortly thereafter Benji, Timmy and Logan head home and we were blessed to keep Luke for track break. We were very blessed indeed this holiday! We missed the rest of our children, but were happy to see they had a Blessed Thanksgiving theirselves.

Fan or Foe?

2008-11-21T06:39:00.001-08:00

An interesting thing happened in September shortly after we got our new car, it was still hot and we had decided to take a drive up the canyon to do some 4-wheeling, well we forgot to take some hats and since we didn't want to sunburn our heads (espeically Darin he is bald on top) we decided we needed to buy some hats, well we were already close to the turnoff for the canyon and we did not want to back track, we needed gas anyway so we stopped at a Chevron and to our great surprise and pleasure they had some hats, unfortuneately though they only had these two styles and colors, off white Y and black Utes. I didn't mind the white, but since Darin uses his hats a lot for work and sweats a lot we decided to buy one of each.

We have had a great time going places each wearing their hat, you would not believe the comments, people can't believe that we could be married and be fans of competitive teams, well the thing is we are both BYU fans, but the fact of the matter is they are only hats. We had a lot of fun yesterday because Darin could not find the BYU hat (of course this week we would wear BYU) and we had to go out, so he put on the Ute hat and ventured to Dan's (grocery store) and DI, of course people asked about the hat and we admitted that we were BYU fans, but it is interesting to see how heated people can get over this rivalry especially here in Utah, even in Sunday School the day after the game, yes arguements have insued.

The thing is mine and Darin's families are all die hard BYU fans especially the one who graduated from the U, we also find it interesting to note that the Utes President graduated from the Y and the Y's President graduated from the U. Football is a lot of fun and while it would be beyond awesome if the Y could win this game and move way up in the poles it is still just a game! With that said I'd like to say GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COUGARS!!!!!!!

The Ending of a Perfect Day!

2008-11-16T22:52:00.000-08:00

Our Sabbath started out on a good note this morning, we even made it to church before the song or the prayer, which is a major accomplishment for us, since I get off work anywhere from 7 to 8 in the morning on Sundays and we have to be to church by 9. We had some wonderful talks on accepting the Lords will for us even amongst trials and one on virtue. Darin gave his priesthood lesson and was a little disappointed how it turned out but it must have went well since the Elders were the last ones to get out. We went home and had lunch then our Home Teachers came to visit and then while Darin went Home Teaching I made a pie recipe I wanted to try out before Thanksgiving it was a Sour Cream Blackberry pie.

Finally just after 4 we got down for our Sunday nap before work, generally we like this nap to be 5 to 6 hours because of our graveyard shifts that night, but today we only got about 3 1/2 hours sleep.

When we arrived at work and were getting out of our car we hear some screaming and yelling in the apartments behind our work where we park. At first we thought maybe it was a child being beaten because the man was so much bigger then the person he was beating, he was man handling her and would not let her go while she was screaming for help and for him to leave her alone and let her go. Darin immediately went to her defense and was ready to jump the fence as we could see what was going on because they were out on the patio of their apartment while this was taking place. I told him I was going to call the police and not to go over there, I had a sick feeling in my stomach. Meanwhile Darin and one of my co-workers were yelling at him to stop and that we had called the police, he started cussing at them and somehow the girl got away and started to leave, he started to go after her, but was distracted by those yelling at him to stop, he was yelling threating remarks towards them and at one time raised his shirt which revealed a gun tucked unto the waist of his pants. In the meantime I was out front waiting for the cops, which got there pretty quick by the way, I explained to them what was happening, the guy when he saw that the police were coming quickly turned off the lights of his apartment and slipped out the front to avoid being caught by the police, anyways to make a long story short he got away and here we sit tonight wondering if he is going to come back and retaliate in some why towards us. On a brighter note, we both are so tired and were concerned about how we were going to stay awake tonight, needless to say the problem is solved, I don't think we have to worry about falling off to sleep. Even amidst the fear in a world of guns and a lack of value of human life, I am grateful for a husband that didn't think twice about his own safty when someone else was at risk.

Looking forward to the Holidays!

2008-11-13T01:06:00.000-08:00

With Halloween and the true signs of fall setting in I am getting excited for the Holidays, of course there are somethings I wouldn't mind skipping this year like raking the leaves. On Saturday we decided that we needed to get the leaves raked because we were suppose to get snow Sunday and Monday. Well we spent 4 hours raking until it got dark and were only able to get the leaves raked into piles, we ended up with 57 piles of leaves by the time we were done and decided that we would have to finish moving the piles of leaves down to the garden area on Monday, fortuneately we never did get the snow, but unfortuneately it has rained everyday since and we have still not gotten around to moving the piles, rain or shine we will have to do that on Friday.

Back to my excitement over the Holidays, this last week I have been compiling a list of the menu for Thanksgiving, we will be blessed with Cynthia and Joe, Benji, Timmy, Logan and Luke. Of course the food will be great, but some of the other traditions I am looking forward to is shopping at 4 in the morning the day after with a couple of the kids, which usually awards us some priceless treasures and a good time (there is just something about standing out in the cold for hours waiting to get in to a store to save 50% on a toy or two that really bonds a family)! Also this week I have been working on a special homemade gift for my married children and Darin's sibblings, we have gotten so excited about this project we are even doing it for Darin's Home Teaching Families.

Of course we will miss not having Kerstin's and Brent's families or Matt with us, but know they will be busy making traditions of their own wherever they are and if there is one thing we are grateful for at this time of year is our children and their families whether they can be with us or not.

Some thoughts on Family, Religion and Country

2008-11-04T23:19:00.000-08:00

It seems that these last few weeks a lot of heated discussions have come about regarding these elections, some of the things that I have noticed with mixed emotions have been the division among not only family members but church members alike on topics that our Prophet has made a stand on and has made it clear that there is no debating the issue. I am aware that part of Heavenly Father's plan is that we are allowed our free agency and so difference of opinions is not only natural but necessary, but as members of the church does that agency include disagreeing with a Prophet of the Lord? I admit that sometimes I don't fully understand why the Lord gives certain counsel, but I can promise you this, when I have questioned prayerfully and with faith, the Lord has ALWAYS given me the answer. The fact that these events are happening does not surprise me, because the scriptures have prophesied our day, but it does sadden my heart to see so many of the ones I love be caught in the adversaries snares. I am grateful for the wonderful examples in family and friends who have stood tall and honored our Lord through sustaining our Living Prophet, and I testify in these latter days that is the ONLY way we will survive the storm. I don't know where our country is headed with so much political uncertainty, but I do know that if we stay true to the gospel and stay worthy of the covenants that we have made we have no need to fear. I would also like to thank those faithful saints in California who made an effort to follow the prophet and showed that we really can make a difference by supporting and voting to restore the definition of Marriage on the law books of California to be between a man and a women. With that said I am proud to be an american where the voice of the people can still be heard.

My weekend!

2008-11-04T03:06:00.000-08:00

You will have to excuse me for this post being so late, I have been a bit under the weather and have not felt well enough to do much. We started our weekend by going to the Library on Friday and voting early, we are guessing it saved us time, as voting during the Primary took us about 2 1/2 hours, compared to the 1 1/2 hours we waited for on Friday, we both felt very good about our vote and encourage everyone else to get out and vote today! That day was Halloween and I could not resist carving a pumpkin I haven't carved one since having the kids around and I really missed it, I found online this program that helped you design your own pattern for the face, I had to hurry to get it done though because I started at about 4:30 and I figured the trick or treaters would be starting soon. I finished just in time, I made pumpkin seeds of course, Darin had never done that before so that was a treat. As we waited for the trick or treaters to come we watched "The Ring", we only got about a total of 20 trick or treaters as it started to rain, I had to be to work by 8 so we had a pretty early night. Last week I had had a sore throat and sore glands on my neck most of the week, but by the time I got home from work on Saturday morning it had caught up to me and was a full blown head cold or whatever, so I rested most of the day and didn't accomplish much. I did have to go to work that night and was pretty miserable but still made it, when I got home Sunday morning I colapsed again and unfortuneately didn't wake up for church, I do not like the way I feel when I miss church, so when we got up in the afternoon we watched a DVD on president Willford Woodruf, we were able to fast though and fasted for baby Seth and Darin's Aunt Alice who just found out she had cancer. Again we had work last night and I felt the worst I had felt yet, I went, but slept most of the night I am afraid, when we got home I once again slept most of the day. This time when I went to work I took some Alkaseltzer Plus and have felt kinda okay most of the night. Pretty much that was our weekend, we did get to talk to Kerstin's kids on webcam on Saturday and that was a lot of fun to have Landon sing to us. It was also nice to talk to Matt and Cynthia too. We sure hope all is well with you and are looking forward to the up coming Holidays!

With the up coming Election in mind!

2008-10-30T14:58:00.001-07:00

I couldn't resist sharing this with Halloween tomorrow and the Election coming up next week!

My little boy a Daddy once again!

2008-10-28T23:53:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help think of a day long ago in a different place, a different baby, one baring the resemblence of a baby born today! EBN was born just over a week late in December of 1981, he weighed in ate 9lb 7oz and was 21 inches long. The nurses could not believe that he was not born by C-section because he had the most perfectly round big head and they insisted he looked like he was 2 months old. Brent was what he was called even though his full given name was Edward Brent Nelson, when he was about 1 year old he had a rag doll that I made him that he called Dada, he was always doing things a head of schedule in life, started walking at 9 1/2 months old, graduated a year early from high school etc. I always knew he would be an outstanding Dad because he was such a good brother and very responsible. Who would have ever known that this little boy would grow up to be the wonderful father that he is to two beautiful boys of his own, Brighton and Seth. Congradulations Brent and Shayla you have a wonderful family and a beautiful home!

Feasting upon the Spirit!

2008-10-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

Once again it seems our weekend was full, with trying to get to the Temple and then to the Ward Harvest Feastival, which we were paritially in charge of, being on the activities committee. We had planned to try and get to the temple right after I got home from work on Saturday morning, but due to a very long work schedule Friday, working all but a couple of hours, when I got home shortly after 6am, I crashed and did not wake up till almost noon. Darin and I were still determined to get to the temple and do inititories even though we had to be to the Stake Center by 3:30 to set up for our ward Halloween party.

We had decided that this week we were going to do 10 names no matter what, well when I got back to inititories they were very busy and only wanted to give me 5 names at a time, which meant that when I got done I would have to be put at the end of the line and wait for others to go before me. Well I got my first 5 names done and got put back in line for another 5 names, during the time I was waiting, I started reading from the Doctrine and Covenants in section 122, it seemed the spirit directed me to this chapter and I found myself caught up in a lesson from the Lord given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. It taught me much about what the Lord expects us to endure in life to be worthy of him, it also taught me that we should never complain when we have trails to go through or feel like that means that we have done something wrong or that we are not worth it, after all who descended below them all, but our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! After about 30 minutes waiting I started to worry that Darin would be done way before me, since generally he can do 10 names in a hour and it had already been an hour and a half and I hadn't even started my last 5 names, it was 2:30 and we had to drive back to Kaysville and be to the Stake Center by 3:30, so I decided not to do my last 5 names, well I came out to the waiting area and Darin was not there yet, I waited for a long time and started to feel bad realizing two things, first we had committed to do 10 names and I should have followed through and secondly since being my husband he had directed me to do 5 names and I should have had the faith to do it and not to worry about the time, this was a great lesson to me, because as it turned out he was finished about 2pm, had I stayed and done my other 5 names I would have been out only a few minutes later then him.

We did not make it to the Stake Center by 3:30 but closer to 4 and all was well there as we decorated and set up for the carnival part of the activity, we were in charge of a ring toss that involved throwing rubber rings over the top of 2 liter bottles of soda, if you ringed one you won it. We had a wonderful time running that booth throughout the night and visiting with the ward members, afterwards I had to get ready and head for work to do my graveyard shift.

I love Sundays, but getting off of work at 8am (generally the staff that relieves me comes in early so I can be gone at least by 7, but not today, I had to work till 8) and having our meetings start at 9am can be a challenge, mainly because I have a hard time staying awake through Sacrament meeting. Luckily because I teach Primary I don't have a problem that last 2 hours of meetings. It seems to me that every Sunday it seems that all the lessons fit so well together! Today we learned about praying through Christ and the sacrament, these two things fit very well together. I am always amazed at how smart my 9 year olds are in my class and I am sure I learn as much from them as they do from me.

After church as we were driving home we passed a couple in the wards house where the husband is bedridden and the wife pretty much is having to care for him by herself, my mother in law, kept a watchful eye on this sister and would check in on her and her husband almost daily, I am ashamed to say though that since mom and dad have been gone on their mission this last year we have only checked in on them maybe 3 or 4 times. Today as we were passing I said to Darin we needed to go visit them, he quickly pulled into their driveway and we got out and went in to see them. As we came in a couple of Priest were leaving from bringing the sacrament into them, we were happy to see that, but we noticed that Sis. Shoemaker had been crying, as we visited with her we found out that her husband had been just sleeping for the last couple of days and had not been really waking up, she was worried that he was going to pass on soon, mostly we could tell she was just lonely, I am grateful that we listened to the spirit which prompted us to stop and can't help but wonder how many times I have ignored that spirit for my own selfish needs, I pray that I will be more aware of the spirit and act on it's promptings, so that I am not the cause of lonliness in the future.

All in all this was a wonderful weekend and our lives were blessed!

A Tribute to Timmy's Big Sixteen!

2008-10-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

What can I say that these pictures don't already say, except Happy Birthday Timmy!!!! Look out girls cuz he's a heart breaker, sesitive, good looking, spiritual and funny, what more can you ask for in a date? Timmy if you get to read this (not sure he reads my blog) I just want to tell you how much I love you and am sorry that I can not be with you on this your Birthday, especially to share with you your ordination to become a Priest and to hear your first Sacrament prayer. I am so proud of how much you have grown in the gospel and what a good brother, son and friend you have become, thank you for texting or calling me whenever you need comfort or advice, I love you and wish you the best!

A Tribute to My Daughters!

2008-10-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Lately I have reallly come to appreciate my beautiful daughters (Kerstin, Cynthia and Shayla). As a mom when they were younger I know I didn't do them justice, not having any sisters of my own and having 5 older brothers I think I was just more comfortable around my boys, I had high hopes and dreams of what having girls would mean, but since my girls had their own personalities from the start, I was taught very quickly not only can you not live vicariously through your children, but that you shouldn't, because they each are unique. I think I also kinda had the false impression that my boys would always be there to talk to and share things with (when they were younger they did share more with me then the girls). I have found though that as my girls have grown they have become my best friends, they are the ones who call me to see how I am doing, they are the ones who recognize the reason I do blogging and take the time to comment and make me feel like it is worthwhile. I want all three of them to know that I love them and am very thankful to be a part of their lives! I have a new found love and respect for daughters and wish I had had more!

What I learned this weekend!

2008-10-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a very full one, which both Darin and I are greatful for, this time of year can be tough for both of us being so far away from our children. At any rate our weekends generally start after we get off work on Thursday morning since we work 4-10 hour graves a week, I actually work 7, but I don't really count my last 3 because I can get some rest during those graves, but this week on Friday I had to work an extra shift pulling in an 18 hour shift at that job, so I will start my weekend with Saturday morning. When I got home from work on Saturday morning we hurried and got ready for the Temple, we have been trying to get there every week and since we had been assigned to volunteer at the Grand Opening of the new Deseret Industeries from 12:30 to 4:30 we knew we would have to go in the morning. I had also realized that I had forgotten about a baby shower for Darin's cousin when we had signed up for the volunteer work, so we decided if we went to the Bountiful Temple then stopped on our way home at his cousin's to drop off a present we could still get back to Layton to do our shift at DI, so that was our plan.

We arrived at the Temple at about 10am, we had decided that we really enjoyed doing Initatories and renewing that experience so that is what we did this day, it was a very special experience doing the work for those who have gone on before us without the gospel, many times I have felt the spirit of the indiviual I am doing the work for there with us, especially when I take the time to fimiliarize myself with the person, their name and where they are from, before I do their work. We were done and to Darin's cousin's house by 11:00 and had a very nice time visiting with their family for about an hour before we had to rush off for home and then to the DI. Then new DI is great, big and very nice, we could not believe the amount of people that were there during the Grand Opening (Thurs, Fri, and Sat)it was seriously worse then Christmas. When we got there to help, I was assignned to pass out helium balloons and Darin was assigned to work the floor. It was great, I must have passed out about 300 or so balloons and later when we were grocery shopping a mother had to stop me and ask if wasn't I just at the DI passing out balloons, cuz her kids were like look mom there's the balloon lady! It truly was a great experience to help out.

Today after work we headed down to Lehi for Darin's cousin Karlin's sons talk after his mission. The thing about Rodney is his family were never really active and so when he was in High School even though he wasn't active at that time, his wrestling coach kept telling him that he was going to go on a mission and continued to encourage him, finally somewhere along the way of his re-activity he read the Book of Mormon and recieved a testimony of his own and decided that he was going on a mission. He gave a powerful talk and was and is a great example to his family and I believe someday will be the key to bringing them back to activity in the church. While at this ward though, I learned a few other things that touched my heart. First when the Sacrament was blessed and passed there was a Priest who had some speaking handicaps (not sure what, maybe autisim or some other disability) at any rate one of the other Priests slowly said the prayer and this young man followed after him saying the sacrament prayer, what a great loving service this Priest did to help give this other young man an opportunity to experience his role in the Priesthool, I also realized once again how very much our Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children. I realized during Rodney's talk what a great opportunity we have to bless the lives of our friends and families by our example if we but follow God's plan for us. Then finally the talk given after Rodney's, the sister talked about our trials and tribulations in our lives and how we decide whether to use them to make us better or worse, I think I always knew this, but something that both Darin and I have been feeling in our lives lately as we face our trails is that we are not alone and that there is someone who really does know exactly how we are feeling as we face these trails and that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to realize that he had a choice and chose to go through these experiences just so that we would not have to go through them alone is the most incredible gift that we could ever be given. So with that said I would like to share with you my gratitude for these things from this weekend:

1. Temples

2. Family

3. Service

4. Being a Child of God

5. Good Examples

6. Trials

7. A loving Savior who has shared all my trails with me

A Fire Rainbow

2008-10-16T05:11:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share with you this very rare occurance in nature it is called a Firerainbow and does not happen very often, this picture was taken this week on the Idaho/Washington border and lasted for about 1 hour. I hope you all enjoy, only God could create something so beautiful in nature.

Our first snow of the season!

2008-10-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

So this morning at work an hour or so before it was time for me to get off work, I looked out the window and saw that it had started snowing. Anyone that is fimiliar with Utah knows that this is not so unusual getting snow this early, but since we have had such a hot summer and really until

last week the tempature has not really been below 50*, it was kind of a surprise, especially since the weather reports have not been right very often. We were happy to see Brent, Ben and Ed yesterday before they went to the BYU football game and hope that they don't have any problems traveling today! The snow does kinda excite me for the season this is my favorite time of year! Happy Sunday everyone!

Listening to the spirit

2008-10-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight while at work the wind started to pick up, I had been dosing and when I realized that it was quite windy, the still small voice said get up and go move your car, well I really didn't think much of it but thought that I'd rather be safe then sorry, so I got up went outside and move my car out on to the street. Well about 30 minutes later I hear a noise and look out the window and the basketball hoop which was in the drive way had been blown down right where my car had been. I know this sounds like a small thing but it is just another testimony that the Lord loves us and wants to direct our lives if we but will listen, for those of you that don't know our car is the only one we have and we have only had it for a month, so to have it damaged or out of commison would not have been a good thing. I am grateful to know that the Lord knows and loves me and cares enough to tell me to move my car!

My Seven Elevens

2008-10-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Cynthia quoted her crazy 8's so I thought that I might do my 7/11's!

MY ELEVEN GREATEST BLESSINGS

1. Darin

2. Brent

3. Kerstin

4. Matt

5. Cynthia

6. Ben

7. Tim

8. Logan

9. Luke

10. Macie

11. Carlee

SEVEN MORE THINGS TO BE GRATEFUL FOR

1. Jared

2. Shayla

3. Joe

4. Landon

5. Brighton

6. Toriynn

7. Ellalyn

ELEVEN FAVORITE SHOWS (if I can think of that many)

1. Without a Trace

2. Cold Case
3. Law andOrder

4. The Office

5. House

6. Bones

7. Sienfield

8. Trauma the untold stories of the ER

9. Flip this house

10. What not to wear

11. Forensic Files

MY SEVEN FAVORITE ACTIVITIES

1. Talking to my kids on the phone

2. Seeing pictures or videos of my grandkids

3. Shopping with Darin (usually electronics)

4. Reading scriptures with Darin

5. Going to Temple with Darin

6. Playing games with the family

7. Going on an adventure in the Jeep with Darin

Last but not least is my true 7/11 where I go to buy my 64 ounce Ultimate Gulp to get me through the long nights on graveyard!

A Legend in the making -18 years coming!!

2008-10-07T03:24:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this moment on this special day of celebration to recognize 18 years of excellence in that of Benjamin David Nelson. As a mom I have a hard time expressing myself, but there is not a day that goes by that I don't thank my Heavenly Father for the greatest blessings in my life-that of my family and more especially my children. As I look back at the precious memories that I have of each one of them, I think this day of Benji, who from the start had a very special and compassionate spirit, as a very small boy he had a way of making you laugh and his smile was contagious. As he grew he recognized the underdog and almost always he would be cheering them on (that would not be the case with BYU football I am proud to say). I watched him go through very difficult times and saw how close he stayed to his family and more importantly to his Heavenly Father. I remember before his brothers went on their missions he would be found studying the scriptures and other materials with them as they prepared and was surprised when he started quoting scriptures and other quotes from prophets in attempts to teach others about life and the course that they were on. ( you are a huge example to me and have taught me tons!) I have seen him turn into a sensitive and loving Son, Brother, Uncle and Friend and am sure that all reading this would like to join in with me in wishing him a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! We love you Ben and are very proud of the man you have become. As a baby we knew there was something unique and special about this child

Over time he grew in stature and wisdom!
A Happy Boy!

A wonderful Brother!!!
A great Friend!
Popular with the Girls!!
An Avid Sportsman!!!!
Is there any wonder that this is a man to be reckoned with?

The gift of modern revalation

2008-10-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today is conference, something that I have watched and enjoyed for all my life, but I think just the past few years I have come to REALLY be grateful not only for having a living Prophet on the earth, but to have these special General Conferences where the Lord can speak through a living Prophet to our day. As most of you who know us, know that this past year has been especially hard for us and that we have had a lot of heart ache and pain in trying to decide what the right thing for us to do in regards to a difficult situation with visitation and custody of Darin's girls. Well for the last year we have fasted, prayed and attended the temple in seeking an answer as to how to handle this situation. We both recieved the same answer each time, but because of the influence of well meaning family and friends found it hard to follow through with the answer that the Lord had given us. Well this last month we had finally came to a point where our lawyer and we thought that perhaps we could come to some workable resolution. The interesting thing was we attended the temple again and fasted, then had Stake Conference, we recieved the same answer once again and so decided that if we did not get the results from the mediation that we felt was right we would have to follow through with the answer we had recieved which was to step back and not waste so much money on legal fees and have so much contention in the girls lives. Well if you have been following this blog you know how the meditation turned out and we had to follow through and step back, we do not know when we will see the girls again, but we have been given a wonderful gift and that is the comfort that we are doing what the Lord wants. As we listened to Conference yesterday and then again last night for Darin at Priesthood, it was if the Lord was reaffirming to us that we had made the right decision and that he loved us and would be there for us through this difficult time, our testimonies have grown so much as we have seen the blessings of the Lord in our lives in everything we do! And so I am VERY grateful for the opportunity to have Conference available to me not only to watch, but to read the messages over and over again!

7 weird things about me

2008-09-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

Okay so like everyone else is doing this so I might as well.
1. One weird thing about me is I am a terrible speller, but I usually get all the letters of the word, just not the right order, I do the same with numbers.

2. I have this habit lately of making sound effects when I talk, one of my favorites is shika boom.

3. Also probabaly 50% of the time I get that test wrong when you have to type the letters you see in the box, before your comment will be posted. Perhaps it is time I have my eyes tested.

4. I have a nervous habit and either pick at my face or my head, you can usually tell how nervous or stressed I am by how broken out my face is.

5. I am the worlds biggest procrastinater, and thus I have been told that I work best under stress, I don't know if it is because I have had to do to many things twice (when the kids were young if I did something too early it would either get destroyed or eaten) or whether I just plain always over estimate how much I can do in the time allowed, needless to say I am found staying up late anytime I have something important to do and it is usually the night before or the day of when I finally finish.

6. I love to get to know a lot of the newer songs, but I am famous for learning the words wrong and will go months singing them that way before I am corrected.

7. I have been told by my kids that I say random things, I think Cynthia said that was a Nelson thing, but I am not sure, maybe it is just a human thing

Our Anniversary Getaway!

2008-09-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

Our weekend away started off a bit slow because our meeting at work lasted a bit long, so we didn't get out of town until about 4pm, We started out by driving down to Salt Lake to Trolley Square (yes people do still go there, although it is under major re-model)to the Rodizio Grill, it is a very nice Brazilian resturant. Afterwards we decided to go to Temple Square since neither of us had been in awhile and I had never been by the new Conference Center either. We really enjoyed ourselves there, filled out a couple or referals and took pictures, as it was starting to get dark we decided it was time to head down south to South Jordan where we had reservations at a motel for the night. After checking in we decided to go out and take some night pictures of the Jordan River Temple and then we went to Cold Stone for ice cream, by the time the night was over it was late, so we slept in till about 8:30, got up, checked out and went down to visit my parents and David and Kurt, we had a nice time there for a couple of hours, but at about 2:00pm started for home as we were going to go through the mountains again to get some pictures of the fall colors, the contrast in color in just the two weeks it had been since being up at the mountains last was quite amazing as you will be able to tell in the pictures. We had a wonderful time, got home at about 7pm just enough time for us to have dinner before I went off to work. We also had our Primary Progarm this weekend and as I am a teacher in the Primary I had a part, I had made a deal with my kids that if they memorized their parts I would also, needless to say I was a bit nervous because my part was part of the Proclamation on the Family and it was not exactly a small part to memorize, it was nice though and as it turned out I was the only adult who memorized their part. There are some pictures of the fall colors up here in Utah in a slideshow to the side!

My upcoming weekend!

2008-09-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

So here I sit at work pulling an 18 hour shift so that I can have tomorrow night off! I am so excited because Darin and I are going to escape this town and get away for a day and a half for our second anniversary!!!! First off I want to say that this double shift is awesome because since my work has DirectTV I can watch along with the rest of my family acrossed the nation "The Office" what a way to get me through a long shift and since the guys I take care of generallly go into their own rooms to do their own thing at night I am free to watch whatever I like! I want to stop and take a moment in gratitude for these past two years, I never knew how happy I could be having a best friend, who enjoys spending time with me, having the same goals and basically could be named a saint for putting up with me! We have been through some very difficult times with all that is going on in our families lives, but on the other hand have been blessed with the MOST awesome children and famliy members who have been a great support to us. I also want to thank Ed and JoAnn for being so awesome and going out of their way to include us in the kids lives, having the opposite to compare it to, has made us really aware of how blessed we are and the kids are to have them. Well this blog is really rambling so I geuss I had better just end it, we'll update you on our weekend as we go up into the mountains again and take pictures of the fall changing of the cclors.

Sometimes miracles are not meant to be

2008-09-23T23:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you whose thoughts and prayers have been with us through our mediation today, we would like to thank you, although we knew it would take a miracle to change the heart of Tracie the girls mother, we also knew that the Lord's timing is not ours and this was not to be, unfortuneately for us we will have to go through a period of time not seeing the girls as we are not willing to lower our standards and do things against our conscience just to see them. We therefore will have to put our trust in the Lord and pray for a day when prehaps hearts will be changed or circumstances will be different, until then we LOVE YOU!!!!! MACIE and CARLEE and our prayers are always with you!

The first signs of Autumn!

2008-09-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

As it has been an unusually hot summer here in Utah, I am happy to announce some of the first signs of the oncoming Autumn. First sign we had was the weekend of the 13th when we went up into the canyon on an adventure, while there he started to see the very first signs of the weather changing here in Utah. Second this last week we have been noticing how much faster it is starting to get dark at night and with it the coolness of the night. Third can anyone deny the signs in the stores not to mention the front yards around the neighborhood? Yes the signs of Halloween seem to show up earlier and earlier every year, don't get me wrong, I love Halloween but it is a bit lonely with our kids and grandkids far away! We can't forget Thanksgiving especiallly since we have soooo very much to be thankful for this past year! Yes the Fall is a great time of year!

An eventful Saturday!

2008-09-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Darin and I decided that we really needed to get to the Temple with all that is going on in our lives. There has been a lot to get done around our house that we really have fallen behind on doing, particularly the fruit from the fruit trees (due to the winter and late frost) we didn't really have all the much compared to last year, but there were peaches and pears, just not much of anything else, luckily some of the neighbors have offered to use the fruit which we are very grateful for! Back to our experience, anyways we decided to clean up somewhat around the house and by the time we got off to the Temple it was about 6pm, we had a lovely time doing inititories then on our way home drove to Sam's Club to get our grocery shopping done, by the time we got home and had dinner it was close to when I had to leave for work about 9pm. Out of no where we heard all these sirens that sounded close to our house, so I stepped outside and saw all these emergency viechles and police cars at our neighbors house, I had to go to work so I left Darin to go find out what happened, as it turned out our neighbor while getting fimilair with his gun (it is hunting season here in Utah) accidentally shot his leg while trying to load it. What made this experience so special was that Darin was still in his Sunday clothes and was prepared to help go with this neighbor to the hospital and help give him a blessing. The neighbor is alright and this can be chalked up to one of those learning experiences, luckily for him the police were willing to confiscate the gun until he can learn proper gun safety.

My new hobby!

2008-09-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well first off this week since I have had so much empty time while trying to stay awake while I work my graveyard shifts, I have been trying to think of some productive things to do with my time. I have been watching a lot of movies, which really do nothing for me except turn my head to mush, I tried reading but my poor eyesight does not do well with the artificial light at night and they get really tired. So anyways I was looking at my daughter Kerstin's blog and saw all the wonderful scrapbook pages she had done on her computer. I am not a big fan of regular scrapbooking because of the time it takes to prepare then clean up, plus the cost can really get expensive, but the electronic scrapbooking looked like something I could really get into. Here is a sample of what I have done so far! I can see how this can become addicting. Unfortuneately until I can get all my pictures on to my laptop I am limited to the pictures I have on here for my experimenting and getting the program down, but it has been fun!

My Awesome Blog

2008-09-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to thank my daughter Kerstin for helping me construct this blog site, she reallly did a great job, she spent far more time and energy then I expected her too, but Darin and I are thrilled at the result. She has been told she should go into business and I really think she should she really has a talent! Thanks again Awesome daughter #1

Mediation

2008-09-18T03:16:00.000-07:00

Just a note for friends and family, we have to go to mediation this next week to try and come to some sort of agreement about visitation with Macie and Carlee. We hope and pray that we can express our concerns in such a way that we might come to an understanding and stop all the stress that has been put on the girls, we hope we can do this without having to make some hard decisions. We could use all your prayers on our behalf.

2008-09-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

In the recent weeks we have had the opportunity to experience some mile stones in some of our childrens lives, posted are some pictures and the the experience from our perspective.

Stake Conference

2008-09-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Last night and today we had Stake Conference, we always look forward to Stake Conference, because it is always like a little mini General Conference. We were praying for the message to be for us as we continue to face some trails and tribulations in our lives and are always open for guidance. As it turns out the meeting last night was on familys, more specifically marriage and how it strengthens the family. There were many suggestions and counsel given that was directed to some of the choices that we need to make in our family to bring us more in alaign with where the Lord wants us to be, mostly dealing with finances. They talked about communication and keeping it open, so that we can be equally yoked. Today we were taught about being prepared to share the gospel through our example and the promptings of the spirit. Both of these topics have been on our minds as we have had loved ones and friends whom we desire to partake of the fruits of the gospel. We are grateful to be blessed with the gospel in our lives.

Our weekend adventure

2008-09-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the 13th of September, we decided to take our Jeep out and give our 4 wheel drive a test. we went up into the canyon above Farmington and traveled around and came out close to the Temple in Bountiful. We spent about 5 hours taking pictures and hiking a bit, it was beautiful as you can see by the pictures, we are looking forward to doing it again soon, perhaps when one of the kids come to see us!

Cynthia and Joe settling into their apartment

2008-09-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

On that same trip that we took Matt to school we were able to help Cynthia and Joe get into their new apartment. We figured we had most of the day to help as long as we headed home by 6pm (I had to be to work at 10pm), we figured we had plenty of time, cuz we didn't really think there was that much to do, but it took awhile to get all the stuff from storage, then we needed to travel into Idaho Falls to go shopping at Target where they had a gift card, well I got us a bit lost on our trip into Idaho Falls, but not to badly, we found Target shopped there, then we were all hungery so we went to this yummy Pita place for lunch then to Albertson's food shopping, but the time we were done and back to their place it was 4:30, we still had to unload and there were still a couple of errands to run, like pick up Joe's bike and a run to the store to get a couple things that we forgot at the sto6:re, when we finally left it was 6:10, we arrived home in Kaysville at 9:15, just in time for me to drop Darin off and head to work. We really had a nice time and had fun spending some time with Cynthia and Joe. While on that trip we got some wonderful pictures of the two Temples there

Matt off to College

2008-09-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day we were blessed to have Matt travel up from Vegas on his way to Rexburg to stay with us for a couple of days. We had had a bad storm that morning and when we traveled down to Lehi to pick him up, we decided it would be better to bring all his belongs with us rather then leave them in the truck he rode up in for a week. Apparently the truck he rode in was quite small and he was cramped on the ride up, he said that even though we barely fit all his belonging in the car and he had to hold Cynthia's and Joe's Kitchen Aid mixer that it was still more comfortable then the ride up from Vegas. We enjoyed having him stay with us for the week, he was left to entertain himself most of the time due to our work schedule, but we enjoyed playing Rumicube with him every night and he won every game but one. It was also fun to go out shopping with him to get the last of the things he needed for his apartment at school. By the time we finished getting everything he needed for school, we were not sure how we were going to fit us and all his stuff into either of our cars for the trip up on Friday the 5th, but since we were seriously thinking about getting rid of both of our cars and trading them in for one newer more reliable car, we decided to do it before the trip, so on Thursday afternoon we went looking for a car, we found a 2007 Jeep Compass with low miles for a great price, it is a small 4x4 SUV and so we had plenty of room for all of Matt's stuff! During his stay at our place he stayed awake all night while we were at work and so as you can see in the picture, found himself sleeping much of the morning, even on his trip up to school. Matt was so excited to finally be to school and to see his old missionary companions, it was nice to see how happy and excited he was to be there! We are so proud of you Matt!

Brent and Shayla

2008-09-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

We could not forget the fun time spent with Brent, Shayla and little Brighton on this same trip to Las Vegas. I was blessed to stay with them most of the time visiting in Vegas and their home was truly a comfort. I had so much fun watching Brighton with Brent and Shayla, what a special relationship they all have with each other. It will be fun next month to have another addition to their little family and what change that will bring.

Kerstin and the Grandkids

2008-09-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

We were also blessed at the sametime as Cynthia's wedding to have Kerstin and her three beautiful children come out west to visit from Indiana. Landon and Torilynn have both grown up so much since we saw them a year ago, and to hold Ellalyn for the first time and see her sweet and indiviual personality from this young age was a special treat. As you can see in these pictures a grandparent could not have more beautiful grandchildren.

Cynthia's Wedding

2008-09-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

In the begining of August we were blessed with experiencing the marriage of our daughter Cynthia to Joseph Gebhardt in the Las Vegas Temple. What an incredible blessing to have a child enter the Temple worthily and make sacred covenants between spouse and their Heavenly Father. From the perspective of a parent it is humbling and comforting to see them start their eternal relationship on the right foot as best friends equally yoked having put good habits in place at the start. We love you both and are so proud of you!

2008-09-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Well I have finally given in to the blogging idea. Darin my husband has been after me for the last two years to keep a journal, but I have fought it, part because I don't really care to read my handwriting and figure neither would you, but also I think I have been a bit scared to put some of my most personal thoughts down on paper. Now that I think about it though, how is anyone suppose to know who I am or how I feel if I am not willing to do this.....so with that said my goal is to trying keep this blog up at least weekly (we don't have internet access so I have to do it at work on the weekend), here goes I hope you enjoy!