Come What May and Love It

Well Leif was told he would be gone 400 days. We are 1/2 done with the 400 days. He keeps telling me it might be shorter but I am a child of a military man. I know that I cannot count on anything you are told through the military. So as a defensive move I will not believe Leif till I can wrap my arms around him! L is in full swing of her senior year. Can it be true? We have taken her out for a few of her senior pictures. I have been very greatful for her and all she has done for me this year. When ever I need a shoulder to lean on she is there for me. Thank you L!! D is a ninth grader and thinks she is older. She is my rock. she does not let the little things get to her. I wish I were more like her and were able to let the little things roll off my back like she does. She is a generaly happy girl. She was so excited to get back to school because she is my social butterfly. H is in sixth grade. I love my (not so) little man. He is growing more and more each day. I wish I could just ...

Things are going right along. We have had a busy month. we left in the middle of June and took the girls to EFY. They love it. It is a good time for them to make new friends. They also have a fun time learning more about who they are. This is the first year that both girls were there together. I think that they had fun doing it. The following picture was taken at EFY I may be a little prejudice but, aren't they beautiful! While they were at EFY, H and I had a week long date. We went to the Holgo Zoo, miniature golfing (he is now hooked), Bridal Veil Falls, and to Delta UT. trilobite hunting. This picture is of H and his aunt pounding rocks trying to find trilobites in the middle. The second week we were gone, we went to the Oregon coast. We had a ton of fun. We saw tide pools, went to one of the nations best aquariums, saw sea lion caves, roasted marshmallows on the beach (despite 40 mile/hour winds) and much more. We ended our trip at the Redwoods. Our last night on coast was at C...

May has been a busy month. All the year end school events have kept us very busy, Concerts and field trips and add to that projects around the home. L was told that the Orchestra teacher wanted to put together some band insruments to accompany them at their year end concert. They were going to preform PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. He asked the Band teacher to announce tryouts for it. L walked into the room and Mr Hansen (the orcestra teacher) said I know how well you play you do not need to tryout. The part is yours. After that the choir teacher found out about the ensamble that had been put together and wanted the group to accompany the choir at their year end concert. Therefore L had band, orchestra, and choir concerts within 1 1/2 weeks. Not to mention the orchestra and choir concerts for H and D. The orchestra teacher then opened up some spots for the ensamble to join the orchestra to go to Las Vegas to see a broadway performance of phantom. L was thrilled to go. Mothers Day was a sweet su...

Happy Birthday to my Baby. Okay he is not a baby. He is 11 years old. For the last 11 years Hayden has only been healthy for maybe 3 of his birthday's. His health problems range from Asthma for the first 3 or 4 years to having his finger ran over by a training wheel on a bike and it broke his finger and ripped off the finger nail or he broke his arm the day before his 8th birthday. This year he has stuck with his tradition. The day before his birthday he got a gusher of a bloody nose. We tried for 20 minutes to get it to stop. Finnaly we took him into the comunity care and got a pack put into it. It was packed real tight. At one point he said, "Mom my nose feels like it is going to POP!" Poor boy! he stayed home from church on his birthday and did not go to school the next day after the packing was taken out for fear he would get bumped and start it all over again. I wish he would find a new yearly tradition. Maybe when he is 12 it will change!

Well Leif is in Kuwait city right now. He will be there for the next two weeks. He then will head out to Iraq. I got to go to North Carolina and spend 6 days with him. The best part is when we thought he had to check in on Monday morning and they just had them check in their bags and they could go till Tuesday morning at 6:00am Leif and I called this our BONUS DAY! I really enjoyed having this time with him but now this week I miss him even more than before the visit. I am counting down the days to April 2010! This is Leif in Kuwate waiting for breakfast. HAND OVER THE DONUTS AND NO ONE GETS HURT! Don't you just love the beautiful landscape!

Well Leif has been gone for about 1 1/2 months. Things are going along well. I don't miss him too much if I can talk to him every day. Hmm I wonder if I will talk to him every day when he is out of the country? I don't think so! I told Leif that it is a good thing that I am slowly going off him because if I did I would have major withdrawl. I get to go to North Carolina to see him on the 6th of April. I am kind of excited and kinda not. I can't wait to see him again and spend some time with him but at the same time I am sad because I know I have to just say goodbye all over again. L is doing well She had a great time doing Jr Miss. Now she is trying to get ehr drivers license. She is a nervous driver, so she is not looking forward to getting her license. D is in the middle of track...running yuck! She is of a different breed. It is good for her. H is doing better in school We made some changes for this tri and he seems to be keeping up a little better.

I honor of my dear friend and grandma figure to my children, Wenonah Vee Norton, I want to wish you all a HAPPY ARK DAY. She celebrated it every year with my family and a few others in the neighborhood. She said that in the scriptures Noah collected the animals and then comanded them to MARCH 4TH. Every year we would get different Noah's ark memorabilia ie, games, statues, ect. We always got floats (because Noah Floated on the water) of some kind. Last year she gave us floats and a little note saying how this was her last Ark day and was entrusting it to our family. She wanted us and our children to always remember and celebrate Ark Day with happy thoughts. Along with her note she said that once Noah was done floating, he stood on dry ground and planted seeds of many kinds. She gave each child a package of seed that would continue to come up every year. Nona (as we called her) Passed away in June. NONA YOU ARE MISSED

So Leif is currently in Mississippi. While he is there they are getting mostly class room training. One of the things he is learning is some basic phrases in the Iraqi language. They will be leaving there and heading to the mohavi desert in California. Leif will be leaving the unit for a week and go to Fort Sam Houston in Texas for some mental health provider training. He called me and asked me if I could come there and spend that week with him. Then we realized it would be at the same time as L's Jr Miss. I wish I could split myself in 2! any of you know any wizardry and can help with the potion let me know asap! When he is done in Texas, he will meet back up with his unit in California. Then the unit will be transfered to North Carolina. I know, he is zig zagging all over the nation! His expected departure from the states is about April 15. I will keep you all updated as we find things out.

Well we are off and running through our year. For the sake of reuniting with Leif I hope it goes by real fast. On the other Hand L will be graduating and our life will never be the same so I guess I do not want it to go to fast. AHHH can I have it both ways? L is getting ready for Jr miss. It has been good to have a distraction this week. They did a trial run through with the talents. The mock judges really like her talent and kept raving about how wonderful it was. They said the only problem is she now needs to beleive how talented and beautiful she is. D is getting excited to start track this year. The girl is from a different breed. She loves to run distance. When she has ran 5K in the past I expected her to fall to the ground and be exahsted. Instead she says wow that was fun I want to do that again! Crazy girl! It is fun to watch. H is H! what more can I say! He keeps us laughing and is always full of love. He is busy and always pestering his sisters. (out of love of course.) He i...

Leif leaves on Wednesday. He will be going to Afghanistan. He leaves out of the IF airport and goes to Boise for 2 days. From there he will be flying to Mississippi. We do not know how long he will be there. I am going to miss him like crazy!