Come What May and Love It

We Had a great Christmas this year. It was kind of hard knowing that Leif will probably not be with us next year. The children and I tried to give him gifts that will be useful for him while he is gone. As for the children's gifts, they get 4 things and what ever comes from Santa. The 4 things have to fall in these categories. Something you want, something you need, something to play with and something to read. L's want was slippers Need was a dress to perform in for Junior Miss. However, it had to be specially ordered and is on back order. It will not be here till middle of Feb. Thus she got to open a box with a picture of it. Play with was a puzzle game. Read was 2 books. Chicken soup for the teenage soul and The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. D's want was a cookie press. She loves anything to cook with Need was new shoes. You can't live in Idaho with only open toe shoes. Play with was scrap booking supplies. read was a historical book on the Salem witch trials. (she l

On Thursday October 23 we got notified that Leif will be going to Iraq or Afghanistan. He will be leaving in February or March. He will be with a medical unit. We are not sure if he will be with a medical brigade that will go set up a hospital (2/3 chance) and stay in that one spot or if he will be in a combat brigade (1/3 chance) that will be moving around. Right now he is at a training for a month in Texas. He will be home 2 days before Thanksgiving. We should know by the time he gets back where he is going. He will be deployed for 365 days. However Obama may change that. I am missing him like crazy and he has only been gone for a week and a 1/2. I hope I can make it a year. The Children and I are planning monthly adventures they range from little day trips to weekend trips to Utah and 1 10 day trip to the Oregon coast. With the last trip to the airport to pick up dad! I figure I will need things to look forward to, to make the time go faster. I guess as GBH said in the quote to the

This is their school pictures. I just think they are beautiful. But then again I am their mother. Naw they are Just Simply beautiful. H was sick on picture day. Then we were not informed of picture retakes so, I guess no 2008 pictures for him.

We get some great sunrises out our front porch! D and H took this on Halloween morning 2008.

We went to Natalie MacMaster's concert last night. It was fun, e xciting, and most of all impressive. She is 6 months pregnant and she is still doing the clogging and dancing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HuwuZG_HFo&feature=related I added some youtube links with her music and dancing. She really is a great entertainer! D. said over a year ago that if she could meet anyone famous she would want to meet President Hinkley or Natalie McMaster. She met Natalie last night. I am glad one of her wishes came true. It was fun to watch D. watch the concert. She got excited when she played her favorite song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdHR12lPcgI and when she did a really impressive back leg kick. I had told D that because Natalie was 6 mo. pregnant she probably would not do the kick BUT SHE DID! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv7xSTHmWUo&feature=related Watch this till about 3:40 she will do the kick! Thank you to Benjamin for helping us get some of the tickets and Thank You

We are officially in potatoe harvest now. It use to be that I would say, I am not a potatoe farmer. My father is not a potatoe farmer. I have never been involved in potatoe farming. In fact spud harvest is a nice time for people from Idaho to go to disney land cuz nobody else is there. However the last 2 years, a member of my family has worked in the cellers separating the dirt and twigs from the potatoes. It really is good money for a high school student. She makes as much money in 2 weeks as she could in 3 months. So I can no longer say I am not involved in spud harvest. I drive her both ways, and I make sure she gets a lunch. I am more involved than I ever thought I would be. lol

For My birthday I ran away from home. Four of my friends and I left and went to Utah for a scrapbooking convention. I had pics to post on here but one friend threatened to call the police to have me remove her pic if I posted it. Another friend was giving me a dirty look in the pic and a 3rd friend was blinking so I guess I will spare them all. We were their from 9:00am - 6:00pm. It was long and fun. You would not beleive the deals they have there. When I went 6 months ago, I spent all my time shopping and finding great deals. This time I decided I had a project I HAD to work on. I only bought things pertaning to that project. I did not spend as much money their but we did spend more on the hotel. I guess I did not spend less over all. O well it was my birthday and that is about all I got for my birthday.

I am hooked I find myself coming and changing something every day. I know I come here for the novelty of it. After a couple of weeks I will forget all about it and obsess about something new. Watching my children this week I have been thinking a lot. I do not remember my childhood being this difficult. I do not think that their childhood is abnormally difficult, and maybe they do not think it is difficult. I think what makes it hard for me is that I am the mom on the outside and have very little control over what is happening to them when they are not with me. I like to hear from my children what happened in their day at school. I ask them to tell me something happy about their day. Then I ask them to tell me something sad about their day. I find that by doing this they tend to open a little more. However when they tell me something sad that then makes me mad I really have a hard time not going and kicking some kids hind end! I guess that is the nature of mothers instinct! If anyone ha

Our house is all a buz with homecoming week. They had decade day at the jr high. I realized I am really old when I took D to school and noticed the most popular decade was the 80"s. What happened to the 50's or 60's or even the 70's? Some of the other days were clash day and spirit day. Here are a few pictures of L marching in the parade and at half time. At the time of homecoming, L did not have her uniform. She got it this week.

Okay, so I am new to this. I went to enrichment night and learned how to do this. I did it once and lost everything so I guess I will try again. Just so you know, ldldh are the first initials of our names. I will update you on our children. L is in 11th grade. she is in marching band and loves it, dispite the 7:00 am practices in 40 degree weather. I guess it rained on her this morning. She is also hoping to be in the pit for an upcoming musical. D is in the 8th grade. She loves her violin. Her favorite fiddler, Natalie McMasters, http://www.nataliemacmaster.com is coming to BYUI next month and we have tickets to go see her. She is planning to run a marathon in a relay with 6 people next summer. If you want to be one of the 6 in the relay let her know. H is in the 5th grade. He is a busy guy still. He is in Choir this year and loves it. He comes home with new warm ups like mee maw mee maw... It is fun to see him enjoying it. He has a male teacher this year. He seems to be doing well w