Tag: janae

Summer happenings.

I have some ‘random’ pictures on my phone from this summer that I thought I would put in my blog.

These first ones are a double rainbow. We have had lots of rainbows this summer! Big beautiful full ones and at least two double ones that I can remember. Pictures don’t do it justice of course but it helps you remember.

 

 

double rainbow

Then we have Joaquin, Matthew, and Jake in that order. These buddies play on the same baseball team and they clicked immediately when they met. They have a lot of fun together and work hard at baseball together. Joaquin and Matthew play short stop and second and they are fun to watch. They are both little speed demons and are athletic and make some great plays. Joaquin’s family is going to be living in the Philippines for the next three years. They will come home for a 6-8 weeks in the summer and Joaquin will play with us when he is here but it is sad to see him go. They had one last sleep over together before he left. They stayed up late, played way to much video games, had pillow fights, talked baseball, and stayed fueled with pop tarts. An incredible night in Matthew’s words. 🙂

Three Amigos
Baseball buddies sleep over.

Emilee and dad were taking silly pictures on his phone together the other night and he ended up with this one of her and him among the silly ones. He told me he loves this picture and I need to do something with it. I think that means he wants a physical copy of it. He has a picture of Matthew about a week old that he keeps in his wallet, and a favorite of Alli and him making silly faces at work. Isn’t that so sweet!?! Ryan says he isn’t the sentimental type but he is. Pictures and t-shirts, he can’t get rid of either of them. 🙂

Dad and Emi, looking way to grown up for being our little peanut.

 

Emilee usually sleeps with the clothes she is wearing the next day under her pajamas-for time saving purposes obviously. When she wakes up in the morning she takes her pajamas off then usually comes and crawls in bed with me. I woke up the other morning and she wasn’t laying next to me so I went to see who was awake and who was still sleeping. Sometimes Alli likes to sleep in her bean bag instead of her bed and when Emilee woke up she decided to snuggle Alli in her bean bag and dozed off. I sat there and watched them like a creepy person and enjoyed their positive sister interaction. We are past the mid point of summer, happy sister moments are fewer and farther between the constant fighting and picking at each other. I will take it when I can get it, even if they are not conscious.

They do like each other!

We finally made it to the Penguin Park. We invited several people to go with us but it never worked out with schedules so we decided to just go ourselves one morning. It was a 40 minute drive. The kids thought it was cool but it just isn’t as fun to not have a bunch of people to play with at the park (heaven forbid you make friends with someone already there) so after 30 minutes the last kiddo (Emilee) came and said she was done playing. I think I have decided to not do park destinations for a while.

I tried to start some creative summer fun the other day to get the kids doing something different and stop begging me to play or watch electronics. I was hoping they would take off with it and do it on their own but instead they humored me and I kind of made them do it. Allison got mad before we started filming and wouldn’t participate anymore, but she was invited. Thanks for being good sports boys!

We tried to do some service related activities this summer. One of our favorites is the Harvesters Food Service facility. Most of the time the youngest you can be in 8 to help so Emilee wasn’t able to go with us yet but Matthew and Allison love it. We were able to go three times. The first time it was just the three of us. Then after that we tried to take friends with us. This last time we went we had a full car. Five boys, two girls and one me. I felt a little out numbered with that many kids. It was a little hard to keep some of them on task the whole time but it was still fun. It is good service, way better than video games and boredom. We grabbed some lunch afterwards and took everyone home. We also found a fun project that we can do at our house whenever we have time and that everyone can do together. We decorate book marks, place mats, and lunch sacks for the Meals on Wheels program. When we have a bunch decorated we drop them off at the office and they use them for the meals. Emilee can help us do that one too so it is perfect for Sundays, FHE, or times when they are bored.

This last picture is Allison and her friend Michael Dunn. These two are two peas in a pod. They get each other that is for sure. They have known each other since they were born and they tell their parents all the time that they are going to get married someday. Our families went swimming together for one of our last days of summer. We were there all afternoon, the first little bit was a little rough for these two. They had to work their grumpiness out and get along with people. Not each other, they were both having issues with other people. This is both of them in time out taking a break until they can be nice. About two minutes after this picture was taken they went back and played just fine for three more hours.

Allison and Michael working through their emotions together.

My turn for the short straw.

Last week my turn to speak in sacrament came around again. Considering the size of our ward and the fact that I spoke once already in the last three years we have been here I thought I would have another five years before it was my turn again, but I was not so lucky. My kids don’t believe I have to do anything I don’t like to do. They apparently think that, laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, cleaning up after all of them, and telling them not to fight a million times a day is my idea of a great time.

I don’t so much mind the writing of the talk. It is the giving I could do without.

I take that back. I don’t really like anything to do with it but if I had the option to write a talk for someone else to give I would take it over giving it myself. Oh well, it is done and over with now so hopefully I have a few good years to not do it again. I spoke with a friend of ours, Marc Dunn that is on the high council. He said he has spoken around 30 times in the last two years plus probably done 20 lessons on top of that so I could take my time, people hear enough from him. I told him I am really glad I will never be on the high council and my talk was 10 minutes top, maybe 11 if I spoke slowly but considering my nerves it most likely wouldn’t happen and would probably be closer to 9 minutes. He is an awesome speaker though and could easily fill the whole hour and keep people interested.

So here is my talk. My topic was- why we need covenants.

Introduction

A few years back when I was a junior in high school I had decided that I was interested in health care and wanted to go to college to work in some sort of health care profession, maybe a nurse. A short time after making that decision, I came across an opportunity to work part time as a dental assistant in a dental office after school. I was pretty excited and set a goal to do my best and learn as much as I could. About 30 minutes into my first day I was observing a very simple orthodontic procedure and the next thing I knew I woke up on the floor with the doctor, his assistant and the patient standing over me and asking me if I was ok because I had passed out. I was pretty embarrassed but everyone was very kind and made sure I was ok and assured me it was ok, no big deal, no harm done, etc. I worked passed my embarrassment and dared show up again the next day, and once again woke up laying on the floor after passing out. I was mortified and sure that I was going to go home and never show my face in that office again. The dentist must have been really shorthanded though because he pulled me aside and convinced me to give it another try and suggested I should start observing from a chair while I learned everything. With a lot of encouragement I made the goal to get over my embarrassment go to work again, the next day and give it another go. This time I remained fully conscious and successfully made it through the day, and the next and then for two more years until I graduated high school. I quickly realized that I really liked dentistry and decided I wanted to go to school to become a dental hygienist.

So I set my end goal to graduate with my degree as a dental hygienist then began the path to accomplish that goal.  Applying to colleges, getting good grades, completing the required courses-including much to my dismay a public speaking class, applying to the program itself, getting accepted, more courses, exams, clinicals, passing boards and licensing and finally graduating and being able to work as a Dental hygienist. It took a lot of time, hard work, effort, sacrifice, learning and preparing along the way to reach the goal. But the excitement and sense of accomplishment I felt when I reached my goal was strong and potent enough that I can recall those feelings easily over 15 years later.

Almost every day of our lives we have goals that we are trying to achieve. Some goals are reached after a short term-a day, a week a month. Some longer, a year, 5 years, a decade, some goals can take a lifetime to achieve. Whatever the goal is there are steps along the way, milestones that have to be reached to move you along. These milestones help you stay focused and continue to progress to the goal until you are finally ready and capable to achieve it. If we don’t make a plan and have those steps or milestones along the way, our goal stays a want, a hope or a dream instead of a reality. No matter how hard I wanted or hoped to be a hygienist, if I wasn’t willing to take the steps and accomplish each of them along the way, my end result would not be a dental hygienist.

Before we came to earth our Heavenly Father presented us with His ultimate goal. In Moses 1:39 God states his goal, “For Behold this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Our Father in Heavens goal is for each of us is to return to Him and live with Him again.

The fact that all of us are here on earth right now is evidence to us that before each of us came to earth we all choose to follow that plan and have the same goal as our Father in Heaven and return to him again. I am sure were all pretty excited and anxious for our chance to come here and prove ourselves and return to Him. When we come to earth we go through the veil and can no longer remember our lives before. We all start a new path that can lead us any number of directions. Some of us find the Saviors path and start down it quickly in our lives, others find it later, and others might even wait until after leaving this earth to find the path again. Coming to earth, rediscovering the truths we knew before and finding our way back to our Father in Heaven looks different for each and every one of us. But whatever the path we take, there are required check points along the way. Covenants and ordinances that we must make and keep to receive eternal life.

After our Father in Heaven told us his goal, He presented us with His plan to achieve that goal.  A perfect plan with steps and milestones along the way for us to follow that allows us to course correct and make adjustments when needed so we can follow his plan even though we are not perfect. He accounted for any possible mistake or trouble or heart ache including death we could possibly encounter through the Saviors sacrifice and atonement. Then made that atoning power available to us through the priesthood, which is the power of God. And through the priesthood we have been given ordinances and covenants that we can make with him. These covenants are the stepping stones along the path to return to him.

Last October in general conference Elder Renlund stated, a covenant is a promise and commitment between you and God. Covenants we make with God are serious and solemn. We should prepare for, learn about, and enter such covenants with the intent to honor them. A covenant becomes a pledge of self.

In 2011 at General Conference Elder Russell M Nelson said, the greatest compliment that can be earned here in this life is to be known as a covenant keeper. The rewards for a covenant keeper will be realized both here and hereafter

The first covenant we make on earth is baptism and we are able to renew that covenant each Sunday by partaking of the sacrament. Making this covenant is our first commitment to begin the journey back to our heavenly home. Other covenants we can enter with God are Receiving the priesthood for men and honoring the priesthood for women and magnifying our callings for men and women. Receiving our temple endowments and entering a celestial marriage covenant are also steps along the path to returning to our Heavenly Father. Many of the Lord’s commandments are in the form of covenants promising specific blessings—tithing, or the word of wisdom for example. As we increase our obedience in his commandments we fulfill our covenants with Him. In Alma 37:6 we are taught, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; Each commandment we obey and covenant we make and keep builds toward the next to help prepare us and enable us to be ready to make and keep more covenants with God. Fulfilling the covenants we make is a constant reminder to our minds and spirits to stay focused on our goal and stay close to our Father in Heaven and strengthens our testimony of all the gospel principles.

Making covenants is not a passive activity. It requires vigilance, effort, faith, humility, hope, self-evaluation and determination to do our best to live up to the covenants we make with our Heavenly Father.

We have been given the information we need. Heavenly Father has told us his goal and given us his plan. All the steps we need to complete that goal have been put into place. The Savior came to earth and fulfilled his mission. He overcame death and provided us with an everlasting atonement to use and take full advantage of to make up for where we fall short. We have been given the priesthood and all the keys we need to make covenants and obey and follow the commandments of god. We have been given Prophets to lead and guide us directly. We have the Book of Mormon and other scriptures, prayer, revelation, the Holy Ghost and many other tools to use on our path to immortality and eternal life. We made the choice to come to earth and prove our obedience.

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Pottery Making…try one.

I have always wanted to try pottery making with a wheel. I have thought about taking a class on the community college once the kids are in school. I decided to look into any businesses that offer it around here and found one! The lady that does it offers a weekly month long class, or she has a ‘try it’ night, once or twice a month. So I asked some friends to go with me and last night Lauren and Alysa Wada went to a class and had our first try at making pottery.  I loved it! I was okay at it, I think I could be pretty good at it with practice. The instructor taught us to make a vase, a bowl, and a plate. My vase was looking pretty good and then the top flew off because it got to thin and twisted. I would have preferred starting over but instead the instructor salvaged what was left…I think it ended up looking more like an ash tray than a vase. My bowl ended up looking very similar to my ash tray vase but a better version. My plate was pretty good but when next to the others looked like a squashed ash tray. So I was a little frustrated with my end products but I loved doing it and would want to do it again. Her weekly classes are not at a very convenient time for me right now, but hopefully someday I will be able to take one of her month long classes.  We weren’t able to trim them last night either because of time constraints, so the instructor will do the trimming, put it in the kiln, and then stain it for us with the color we picked. Then we go pick them back up in a few weeks. She said once they are trimmed they will look a lot less like an ash tray. It was a fun night. I have always wanted to try it, and now I want to try it again!

Goodbye February! Part two.

Since I’m talking about being sick I will give a little summary of sickness tolerance of our family. I don’t like my kids to be sick obviously but I do have a little extra nurturing mom side that comes out when they are sick. I love that I can take care of them and I know all of the little things to make them feel better. When Ryan reads the last few sentences he is going to…react…so I will start with the reason for that and get it cleared up.

Ryan and I didn’t really have to many big adjustments to each other when we got married but being sick and the expectations of the other person was one of them that we bumped through a few times. So here are our pre-marriage expectations.

Me 2002- Life needs to continue whether you are sick or not so suck it up and keep going. Colds don’t even count as being sick, they are just a nuisance. If you are sick you are a wimp. Take care of yourself if you are sick.

Ryan 2002- When you are sick, you get in bed and rest and get over it. You don’t go to work, or church or anything because no one wants to be around you anyways and get sick.  Your wife takes care of you and sympathizes with your sickness.

With those expectations in mind…

Many, many, many years ago Ryan was sick. At the time I think I was working every Monday at an office. We had someone that watched Matthew for us.  I came down the stairs to go to work and Ryan was on the couch and said he didn’t feel good so he was going to stay home from work. Unbeknownst to me,  not only was he sick but he had been throwing up or coughing all night or something so he was extremely tired on top of his illness. I asked him if he was going to keep Matthew home with him or if he still wanted me to take him to the sitter. He said, “No, I’m sick” I said, “Ok” and for the next ten plus years I have been labeled as the ‘cold, unsympathetic, heartless wife’ that was  ‘disgusted that her poor sick husband  wouldn’t watch their son when he was sick’ basically almost dying.  That is Ryan’s version. My version is,the first time I had to work when Ryan had a man cold  I asked if he was still taking Matthew or not so I could let our sitter know. He said he was still taking him and I went to work.

Ryan, right about now I sense your desire to come tell me your version of the story AGAIN. Keep reading.

Fast forward a few years of practice and you now have our adjusted expectations. These are of course ideal situations and sometimes adjustments have to be made but this is the general idea.

Ryan 2018- When Ryan is sick he wants to be left alone to sleep or play a video game, but he likes to be checked in on occasionally so see if he needs company or a refill or medicine. The longer he is sick the more he likes to be checked on because he gets lonely. He likes to be in his room with the door closed so it is quiet and the blinds closed so it is dark. He likes ice water with a little ice, and lemon lime Gatorade. If he has an appetite he prefers some kind of chicken soup. He will not be doing any other tasks until he is feeling better.  After years of proving my nursing abilities I have almost redeemed myself from my original blunder.

Me 2018- When I am sick, I get to be sick.  Many times Ryan has stayed home from work to take care of the kids so I can rest. I get to have the door closed and be in my bed and sleep. He will check on me and see if I need anything. It is almost like a little vacation-except I feel like crap. I will still probably go to work if I am scheduled but I do realize that people don’t want to be exposed to whatever I have when I am sick so I am getting better at staying home. Colds still don’t count as being sick (for adults), however, they are a reasonable excuse to go to bed early if you’re a wimp. 🙂

Where our kids are concerned we also made a lifetime arrangement due to each others stronger than usual aversion to vomit or poop. When possible and reasonable Ryan is in charge of clean up and assisting in areas of vomiting. I have the same agreement when poop is involved.  I think I got a pretty good deal because vomit has the potential to appear for years to come, hopefully poop doesn’t.

Ok, I veered a little off topic. I may sound like I am joking describing some of our sick traits, and it can be overwhelming sometimes, especially when there are multiple people sick but I love my family and I love nursing them back to health when they are sick. As long as they don’t throw up on me.

Emilee-  She stays true to her typical snuggly, mommy loving self but kicks it up a notch. When Emilee is sick she feels best when I am physically touching her and devoting all my attention to watching her be sick. Sitting by her reading a book, or watching a show, or doing anything else is not good enough. She wants me to make her a sick bed on the couch with her fridge cold water in a sippy cup so I can help her drink it without her having to lift her head. Then lay next to her and look at her and say that I am sorry she is sick while stroking her hair. She will take medicine if it is bubble gum flavored.

Matthew- He is changing to more of the sit in front of the tv/play video games until he is better but he has some things he likes too. Matthew likes to be waited on hand and foot when he is sick. He likes to be checked on regularly and have the option of having a sick bed on the couch or staying in his room. He wants a sprite and water to drink. He also loves orange jello that is stirred just before it is all the way set so it is like a soup not a solid jello.  He is the best at taking medicines (even if they are disgusting) and will ask for medicines for specific things-like a throat spray or cough or headache. He used to have night terrors at random times when he was little. Now they are just when he is sick, and his asthma always gets worse towards the end of his sickness, which means he usually takes the longest to get better.

Allison- Alli is our lock it down don’t mess with me sick person. She is by far sick the least amount of anyone. She has only had to take antibiotics twice in her life. The first time was Penicillin and we discovered she was allergic to it.  She has never even had an ear infection. She is usually sick the shortest amount of time too.  When she is sick she wants a sick bed on the couch with her blanket. She wants a throw up bowl and ice water within arms reach. Then she pretty much lays there and sleeps until she is better. She will get up and go to the bathroom when she needs and she likes to be carried up to her bed at night and then carried back down in the morning but otherwise she wants to be left alone. She will not take any medicine. She is just now starting to occasionally take Tylenol but most of the time she will have nothing to do with it-not even a cough drop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Spring Break Break.

Today was the third day in a row I have received a call before six in the morning saying school is canceled due to inclement weather.  This is a picture of the ‘inclement weather.’ When did we get so wimpy Kansas! It is cold, and we have had some ice, but the roads are dandy. My kids have been out of school for a week now (parent teacher conferences…President Day…three snow days).  My kids have been loving the bonus spring break. Ryan and I have both worked this week so it has been a little tricky figuring out who can watch our kids last minute. Luckily we have awesome Aunt Lauren to help us out in a pinch. It is looking like there should be no reason to cancel tomorrow but I thought that the last two days. Fingers crossed!

Last weekend was the final basketball tournament games for Matthew’s season. We wanted to keep him busy through the off season for baseball so we just signed him up through the city of Olathe sports. His friend Finn ended up on the same team. The first practice looked a little rough but they had a great coach and they did really good. Their end of season record was 7-1. They were the winners for their division, and were bumped up to the next division for the tournament.  The trophies they are holding are for winning their division. They won the first game but lost the second game of the tournament. Matthew played pretty good. He is great at the steal and break away for a layup because he is so fast. He made a few threes too. He needs to work on his dribbling so he is more comfortable with his left dribble but he had a good, fun season.

Emilee is finished with her three basketball practices and has had her first two games. The first game she would run down and shoot the ball if she got it on offense, but when it was time for defense her and Reese went and SAT against the wall until it was time to run down the court again. Game two was better. She stayed on the court and held her hands up wherever she was whether she was standing by someone or not. We have been working on dribbling this week for her last game.  I love watching little kids play sports. It is so ridiculous if you sit back and take in the whole scene but it is a lot of fun for them. She is so proud of herself when she is done.

Alli's famous

A few years ago Ryan had Allison come to his work and take some pictures for some brochures they were making and other advertising stuff. They just redid some of it and added a video on their Facebook page. The last part ends with this picture. We showed Alli the video and I said, “Look Alli, you’re famous!” to which she replied in her best ‘mom you just don’t get it voice’, “Ya, I’ve been famous for years.” I hope she holds on to that confidence.

Ryan and I went on a group date with some of our friends to an Escape Room this last weekend.  We have done it once before a while ago. It is a fun time. The room had a 34% pass pass rate and we were able to figure it out before our time ran out. That made us all feel smart. Then we all went to KC Joe’s BBQ and had some delicious BBQ. I am becoming a BBQ snob, which is easy to do in  a city known for its BBQ. It is probably my favorite type of food too now.