Best Foot Forward

Today, we were the victims or the blessed souls, don't know which you want to say it was. . .of a ward boundary realignment. We have been in our house and been involved in now four different re-alignments in the soon to be nine years we have lived there.

We have truly loved our Bishop and all of our ward members and it is a bitter taste to anticipate the change that we will certainly experience. I am glad that I have had to change wards, six times in the course of my married life. NO, the change isn't totally easy, but I have loved every ward that I have been in . . .I guess I can say I am excited about the new people that we are going to LOVE. . .

This realignment, they didn't announce beforehand that there would be change, it just became apparent when there were no extra people there and two members of the stake were on the stand and our new Bishop. I have a cold, so I didn't feel good, so fortunately I got some Kleenex prior to church. I was through that and pretty much composed UNTIL when the member of the Stake Presidency, (all of my old and new Bishops were on the stand two are in the Stake) said they would like to invite Deana DeGraffenried to bear HER testimony!!!! Say WHAT?!!!! My kids kept me up to date on how red my face was turning while I was antiicpating that. . .I made it through. . .but I was now a label for the rest of the day.

My feet are ready to move onward to our NEXT ward and I am grateful that I can relax and just EXPECT that my new ward is going to be FANTASTIC because I will learn to love as I serve in that ward!!! Durango will always have a place in my heart, but so will Fort Collins 2nd ward, Greenfield ward, Bridlegate Ward, 6th Ward. . .I am grateful that I can maintain the relationships I have and am eager to meet and rub shoulders as I serve with others. Here is to my best foot being put forward!

Change yoou can believe in. . .

This summer we looked at houses. We are bursting at the seams. Jake felt like we shouldn't move. Something had to change. So, we spent hours at different home improvement stores and talking to various people. We determined that our kitchen had some unused space that we could address. A remodel on the kitchen would have been nice, but we had granite put in. . . not an option. Refacing and some drastic changes on a couple of cabinets became the only conclusion we could come up with. We knocked out a corner capbinet that the builders didn't finish and had blind cabinets put in on the top and bottom, and new drawers and cabinets. We still have more that we are working on but the proof is in the pudding! I am pleased with the improvements, I just wish we had more space. . .

 

Some before and after and during the process. It took three days to do!

 

While our kitchen was torn up, we took a staycation and went to a hotel five minutes away -- La Quinta. It was amazingly fun, maybe I don't need to travel as much as I do. . .a hotel does make life a little sweeter for us all. We swam and watched tv and went out to dinner. It was kind of crazy how many people we saw that were staying at the hotel that we actually knew! What are the odds? Fun times, La Quinta has a suite that we stayed in, so that was fun, two tv's and two rooms and nice and cool rooms. What more can a family ask for? Thanks Ty for hooking us up!

And we're back

The first day of school was on MONDAY this year for my kids. Baah, humbug!! My early morning of working our at 5 am, was interrupted with me going to FOUR different stores in search of non perforated spiral notebooks (they no longer make them) with no luck -- Followed by another trip to Safeway to grab a different color notebook they have to be different and I only had the same color and I was up early and thoroughly frustrated. . .

I hit the old McDonalds to get my boys absolute favorite -- at least I didn't give them doughnuts for the first day. . .and the rat race began.

Ryan is in second grade this year. His teacher is Mrs. Baker and he is not a very confident person and was so worried about school this year. . .I was sure relieved that he came home with a good day and a happy expression!

 

Jacob is in fifth grade this year and he seemed to like his teacher, Mrs. Allison just fine. I must say, I am so grateful they are giving us a reprieve on spelling this week -- next week that grind will start. . .

 

I grabbed a picture of them on their way to class -- love the Roman statue look!

 

Ahh, I already am looking forward to summer vacation next year -- the structure is good, but the rest. . .well, we are back!

One a Day

So, when we came home from Utah, we brought Eddie my 9 year old nephew with us. It was super hot here so we had to be creative on our activities while he was here. I promised them one fun thing every day. So, that made me be a little creative on my one fun thing EVERY DAY. I had a lot of extra things going on, so it sometimes was a stratch to find the ONE fun thing. . .But, I learned a lot of fun things that the valley has to offer.

The day after we got home, we spent the day waiting for the garage door to get fixed, a bike messed it up, so we hung out at home most of the day. This day was two fold on the one fun thing. . .a trip to the dollar store in the morning so there wouldn't be mass anarchy and then in the afternoon, we went to Mesquite Aquatic Center on Riggs and Val Vista. This was a super fun area! They have a lazy river, a play structure and whirlpool area! It is only 50 cents for kids and a dollar fifty I think for adults. School is in session in Chandler, so we couldn't use the swimming pool or diving pool, but the other part is running unti mid August! Fun times, but take a lunch, it is a hike out there!

Day two of fun: the Phoenix ZOO! Now, I don't ahve all my memory cards, but it was fun -- HOT but fun. We went rather early in the morning, and spent about three hours there! There was hardly anyone there -- remember it is HOT -- but the best part was the kids got in FREE! Loved that part!

Day three of fun: remember I had a lot going on? My wonderful dad took all of them to G-Force at Harkins, and with popcorn t-shirts and two dollar soda cups, they had a blast! They liked the movie, can't report on more than that!

Day four of fun: Makutu's Island -- This was really a fun place to go! The kids really liked riding all of the slides and climbing. I signed my three up for the Kids Club, so they got free socks and t-shirts and in for FREE! That was nice, but it is $8.50 a kid and $3.50 an adult. There are other things that you can throw money at -- video games like Chuck E Cheese, and a snack bar. . .but I liked taking my book and letting the kids play!

 

 

Day five of fun: Church -- well maybe not fun, but that is what we did. . .
Day six of fun: The Arizona Science Center -- we loved that place! They have a legos exhibit there right now, right up my kids alley, so they played there for a long time. They also enjoyed stopping the water on the sand table. . .forces of nature too. I thought the digital room was so cool! They have some pretty amazing technology in that room. We also rode the light rail down to the museum and back -- we all enjoyed that ride too -- if you go in the later morning (9:45) and leave earlier afternoon like 2ish, there really aren't a lot of people on the train. . .fun times.

 

 

Anyway, we are glad Eddie came to visit and I really am glad that I got forced to go and explore Phoenix and find "another fun thing to do"! Thanks Eddie for coming!