San Diego Pictures

Okay, so I've been reading other people's blogs and I seem to be the only one not including pictures. It's been awhile and I don't want anyone to forget what a great looking family I have. It just seems to take forever to upload photos and I haven't been spending that much time on my computer lately (at least not for fun!).

Here are some of the pictures from our annual San Diego vacation that happened August 1-8th. We always have a great time. Some years with more pictures than others.



Cooper and Jackson Beach Buddies!


Jackson, Megan Hunsaker and Cooper were Boogie Boarding fiends!




Shelby got into a bit of a pickle after hiking the jedi.



Not a great family picture at the end of the jedi (but look at the view!)




Jeff and Cooper loved playing catch with a football in the waves









Cousins: Jackson, Cooper, Megan and Ellen Hunsaker



This is a girl who knows what a day at the beach is all about!


How did I allow a family picture when I didn't even do my hair or makeup?



The boyz!



The Girls




Mom and Cooper


We had to hit the Fish Market on the way home for a crab sandwich. Who cares that it was 10am? Cooper, Megan and Haley McClaws


Some Hunsakers, Danas and McLaws'

September WHAT??????

I don't know how many entries in my journal start with "It's been a long time since I've written." Unfortunately, a busy summer with a LOT of time spent at work and a few great trips and the fact that I waste time on Facebook lead me to know making a blog entry with the same salutation.

We had a great summer. My kids were troopers as Shelby's job this year was to hang out at home with Cooper while I worked. When we had to make a decision about whether or not she could get a job we decided that either she could work or I could work, so we compromised. She earned some spending money (her school wardrobe reflects that this year) and I was able to help things move along at the Mesa location of Vital Solutions.

We had a great trip to Snowflake for the Pioneer Day's celebration. The weekend before I turned 40 I participated in my first Keg Race (winning by the way - at the expense of Mindy breaking her neck and leg). It was probably the slowest Keg Race on record in Snowflake. The next morning I participated in my 1st 10k race. I actually won second in my age group of 30 - 39 year old women. I tried to claim 40 (my birthday was 2 days later) thinking it would be better for me, but I would have actually placed 3rd in that group. As the girl told me when I confessed, "honesty is always best."

Jeff arranged for a party at my parents house that night and invited my family and Lynae and Heidi and Keith. Shelby had the house all decorated when we got home from the rodeo. It was a really nice weekend.

Girl's camp was the next weekend with at wonderful theme of "I Still Believe". It was very Christ Centered and our stakes' first Sunday at camp provided an amazing spiritual atmosphere. We returned on a Monday and promptly packed our bags to head to San Diego.
We had another great week there with Jeff's family.

We came home from San Diego and had a couple of days to get the kids ready to begin school the next Wednesday. They are enjoying their year. Shelby started High School at Mountain View. She's amazingly busy with CP Chemistry, Symphony Orchestra, Algebra II, Block English and Social Studies and Seminary. Jeff and I were totally impressed with the quality of her classes when we went to the Parent night, but they are tough and keep her very busy with homework. Trying to fit in friends, boys, driving (ya, she's got her permit), texting, and facebook leave her just a little time for her Viola (she's named it Joyce). She's getting really good and has been going back and forth between 1st and 2nd chair.

Cooper is in 5th grade and is really enjoying his year. His teacher is Mrs. Peterson. She's new to the school, but seems to be doing well with her class. She enjoys Cooper. I think the fact that he doesn't have as many of his friends in his class as he did last year are going to be great for his grades. When I mentioned at PT conference that he seemed to have trouble with talking in the past his teacher was actually surprised. A great report card earned him a Sonic Blast on the way home that day.

Jeff and I were able to go on an amazing trip to Alaska with the majority of my siblings and their spouses (Doug and Jenn, Mindy and Chad weren't able to go). My goal is to make a cool DVD with our pictures, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm so grateful to my Mom for that great Christmas gift to celebrate my parent's 50th anniversary.

Speaking of my parents, I guess I should write about a dream I had when we were in San Diego. I was thinking about him because his birthday always falls during our San Diego week. I dreamed that I was in the kitchen in my Mom's house in Snowflake and I heard him walk into the front room. He was talking to those in the room, so I went in to see him. He gave me a big hug and I literally felt it in my sleep. It felt just like his hugs. I told Jeff about the experience later when I remembered it. Then a few weeks later Mindy wrote of a dream where he gave her a hug and that it felt so real. I feel like that was a great blessing and proof of a thin veil at times.

Anyway, the rest of my life seems to consist of trying to keep up with housework and dishes while spending a lot of time at work. Fortunately, the business seems to be moving along well. We've hired a great marketing person who is aleviating my load greatly and making it possible for me to be home when the kids get home from school. So, aside from having to get up at 5:45am to exercise so I can leave to work right after the kids go to school - things are looking up!

I've got tons of pictures to post, but I'll have to do some sort of collage to save time and space.

Six Minutes 52 Seconds

I went to the same gym for over 10 years. Fitness Works was just down the street and I loved how close it was. When the one down the street closed a few years ago I tried going to the one farther away, but didn't like it, so I moved to Mountainside Fitness and loved the classes there, but hated the extra 30 to 40 minutes the drive added to my morning. So, when I began working at Vital Solutions MD quite a bit and changed my workouts up, I cancelled my membership and have been working out at home. We have a nice treadmill, so I've been doing a lot of running lately for my cardio portion. I usually keep it at a nice steady pace, but have been working on "spiking" my heart rate to keep in the fat burning zone the majority of the time, but raising it every 4 or 5 minutes for just a minute.

A few weeks ago I had been walking for a few miles and was going to run a quick mile, and decided to see if I could run it really quickly. I was able to do it in about 7 and a half minutes and was kind of surprised. In Freshman PE in high school if we could run a mile in under 7:30 for 6 weeks of the term, we didn't have to run the last 3, so I was able to do that most of the time, but I was never able to get it under 7 minutes. I thought that might be a good goal for me before I turn 40 next month, so I've timed myself a couple of times since then. A couple of weeks ago I tried it and after 8/10 of a mile I had to stop because I had been pushing too hard, so I didn't quite meet my goal. So last Thursday I decided to time it again. Now granted, I was on a treadmill, so it's not quite the same as running outside, but I was able to run the first 1/2 mile at 9mph, and the last 1/2 mile at 8.8mph and finished at 6 minutes and 52 seconds. Not too bad for a 39 year and 10 1/2 month old girl.

It's funny how competitive I can get - even with myself. I was doing a consult with someone at our office the other day and I was telling her about our different weight loss plans. We have 3 different plans and our best seller is our expensive program - mostly because people want to have regular follow up and accountabilty to support them in their program. This woman I spoke with said that if she decided she was going to do it - she didn't need the follow up - she was pretty self motivated. I could relate to her. I'm not one who likes to have a regular workout partner, because I want to work out on my own time - and I'm usually disciplined about doing it.

My big motivation problem comes in deciding to challenge myself, not usually in carrying through once the challenge has been made.

I can see that with setting spiritual and family goals. I don't want to make a goal and not be able to carry it through, so I sometimes get complacent in not setting those goals for myself. What if I were to push myself as much for things that are important to my eternal progression as much as I like to push myself (sometimes) for my physical progression. Maybe it's because my goals for physical progress are quite easily measured and recognized. I can lose a certain number of pounds, or have a certain percentage of body fat, or run so many miles, or lift so much weight, but how do you measure your spirituality or your patience, or your kindness? How do you measure or count the number of times you follow or recognize a prompting?

I think I've learned that I have to DECIDE what is important for myself spiritually and push myself harder to accomplish that. I have so many things vying for my time and attention. I'm finding it very easy make time for the things I can see or where the need is apparent. I work out, I try to make sure I spend a certain amount of time keeping up with my house, I try to spend time with my children, I kind of have to spend time at work, and I even spend time each night reading my scriptures and saying my prayers, but the thing that I think is lacking is the decision to progress. I can either just keep running my steady pace spiritually, moving slowly ahead, or I can push myself harder by setting tough short term goals for myself that get me out of my comfort zone and help me find out that I can go further and faster than I thought I could go.

Trials and Blessings

We're friends with a wonderful family in our ward, the Mortensens. They moved in a couple of years after we did and never missed a beat. Parties were had at their house - everyone was invited over to play games or eat or visit. They became family immediately. Jeff got to work with Joey in the Young Men's program and learned to really love him as a great scouter and an amazing advocate of the boys in Teacher's quorum.

Joey home from the Mountain Man Rendezvous feeling sick. He went in only to find that he had Pancreatic Cancer. This was around the 20th of March. Well, Joey passed away on Friday morning. Less than 2 months after his diagnosis. Jeff and I were able to visit Joey and Vanessa a couple of times during the whirlwind sickness and both were gracious and strong in what they were facing, even though I can't imagine going through anything harder. I can relate a bit to Joey's kids as I lost my dad almost a year ago, but I have a hard time imagining Vanessa's pain right now.

We were talking in Relief Society today about gifts of the Spirit - healing, tongues, prophecy, and discernment. The focus was on discernment and the gift of tongues, but a scripture came to my mind that was a comfort to me about the gift of healing. My dad had shared this scripture with my cousin Ron when my Uncle Jed passed away a few years ago. It is in D&C section 42 (I don't have the verse right now) and talks about how if we have faith to be healed it will happen unless it is our appointed time to die. I don't remember it being super important to me when Uncle Jed died, and I didn't even think of it when my Dad died, but today in Relief Society I remembered it and looked it up and felt great comfort from that scripture.

We've been having a lot of health issues in our ward lately. I just sang at our back door neighbor's funeral last Saturday and now Joey's gone. My next door neighbor has been in the hospital for at least 6 weeks fighting leukemia and we have 2 other ward members fighting cancer right now, and that scripture helps me remember it's all in Heavenly Father's hands. As Elder Bednar reminded us when he came to our stake conference - sometimes we need to have the faith not to be healed.

I know I felt the comforting power of the Holy Ghost so much through good friends, neighbors and family members after my dad passed away, and I hope I can be an instrument in His hands to bring blessings of peace and comfort to those around me who are struggling.

This is what we get for trying to be Spontaneous

I'm not an X-men fan. In fact, I saw the first movie and didn't like it much, so I don't think I ever even saw the 2nd one. It was kind of exciting that the premier of Wolverine was going to be just down the street however. There was a lot of hoopla about it on all of the radio stations, so Monday afternoon, I decided "what the heck". It was showing on all 16 theatres at Tempe Marketplace, so I thought we might have a chance. Besides, Hugh Jackman was going to be there and he ain't bad to look at, so we packed up in the car and even found a good parking spot, only to find out that all of the tickets (3000 of them) had been given out days earlier. We thought we might just catch a glimpse of some of the stars, but were sorely disappointed there too. Anyway, we joined the throngs and here are the pictures we have to show for it. It was a new adventure for Family Home Evening though.

What a Wonderful Easter Sunday

We didn't do anything big this year. The Easter Bunny was told that Shelby and Cooper watched him hide the eggs last year, so it was unneccessary for this year. So this year the baskets were filled with eggs and a few fun prizes and there was no hunt involved in our Easter festivities. Sadly I didn't even make the Easter cake that I usually make (green cream cheese frosting with green grass (food colored coconut) with jelly bean eggs. With our lower sugar lifestyle, I just didn't do it. I did make a concession for Cooper's benefit and made his favorite dessert which is a cake mix cheese cake with blueberry pie filling - a little lower sugar, but still dangerous!

We started the day out nicely by Shelby and I going to the Easter Morningside held on the temple grounds. I don't know how our stake is lucky enough to be able to do this every year, but it's a long standing tradition in the Lehi Stake. Our youth gather on the south side of the visitor's center with chairs set up facing the temple just over the reflecting pool. Then we have an hour long testimony meeting. The first time I was told about this in our stake I resented them taking me away from getting my then 3 year old Shelby up and ready for Easter Sunday 8:30 am meetings. Now I'm so grateful to be able to go to a wonderful testimony meeting with my 15 year old Shelby and to hear testimonies of the youth of our stake who are strong in what they know and steadfast in what they do. Our stake presidency all bore their testimonies and it was a wonderful meeting. It's amazing how my perspective and priorities have changed. We always have a Big group of youth there even at 7am. And there is rarely any periods of silence during the meeting.

During the meeting I had a thought that I shared with my family at the dinner table this afternoon that relates to the beauty of the resurrection and this Easter season. I heard something said - I don't even remember what it was or who said it during the meeting - that got me thinking about my dad. This time my thoughts went to how he died. Every once in awhile I imagine how it was for him and for those who were there and I replay in my mind the details I heard about that morning. I was just starting to get teary eyed with these thoughts when I was able to replace that yucky scene with my imagination of where he is now and what he might be doing on the other side. In speaking with a friend of mine who lost a 2 year old child a few years ago - she expressed it well by saying that when she puts her daughter in situations on this earth - it's hard for her to bear - thinking of what she would look like now, how old she would be, etc., but when she thinks of her daughter in the spirit world she feels peace.

(I hope I'll be able to put this in writing clearly) I feel like this is part of the beauty of what we know about the atonement and the whole process of the crucifixtion and the resurrection. As a church we don't honor the symbol of the cross because that puts the focus on Christ's earthly, physical death. We put steeples on our church buildings that point to the heavens - the place where Christ still reigns. Whenever I start to feel despair about my dad's death or any other earthly trial - I just need to change my perspective to an eternal one and remember that Jesus Christ made it possible for us to return to immortality and Eternal Life.

I'm so grateful for that knowledge on this Easter Day! I'm going to put a link to the http://www.lds.org/ website so you can go and see the amazing video that's been put together with part of Elder Holland's general conference talk last week about our Savior. President Ahlstrom, our Stake President challenged all of the youth of our stake to watch this today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc

What did happen this week anyway?

Why is it that when I go to review my week to contemplate the great and exciting things that have happened, it seems like I didn't do anything, yet, I can guarantee you I didn't have any free time on my hands?

It's a busy time for us. We've added a couple of baseball games and at least one practice each week and there you go! Our Family Home Evening was spent at the ball field - unfortunately, Shelby stayed home so she could practice for her chair auditions for MYS and to do homework, so I don't know if it can really be counted as a Family Home Evening.

Tuesday I didn't go into work, but instead spent the day paying bills and taking care of some YW stuff. I then made lettuce wrap fixings for Enrichment night and for Amy and David (that's a tough thing to make for so many people - very time intensive), but instead of eating any for us we went to dinner at Manuels with Jeff's family to be able to see John and Kathy and their family before they went home and we completely missed them.

Wednesday the kids started the Aims testing - really a more important test for the teachers than for the students as far as I can tell (unless they're in high school).

Thursday Cooper had a game and we had YW softball. Friday Cooper had a friend come home form school with him, Shelby had a rehearsal for the Junior High Festival Orchestra (she's 1st chair violist by the way), and Jeff and I went to dinner/meeting with John and Jacqueline to nail down some ideas about Vital Solutions. After our meeting we picked Shelby up and went to visit with Joey and Vanessa Mortensen. Joey is having some serious health problems and we went so they could cheer us up:)

Now that I'm working so often I hate to go anywhere on Saturdays if I don't have to, so I took Shelby to her orchestra practice, fully enjoyed watching conference (you stay awake much better if you watch if from a treadmill!), took Cooper and his friend to practice, picked Shelby up, took her to get a salad at Subway, and dropped her off at Leslies to watch the 2nd session. Jeff was helping John and Jacqueline hang pictures at the new Mesa office of Vital Solutions, picked Cooper and Scotty up, took them to see Tim Hightower at the new Sports Authority (very exciting for Cooper - Time Hightower plays for the Arizona Cardinals).

Jeff then got ready and went to the Priesthood session. I had to take a big priveledge away from Cooper after he and his friend decided to walk to Chevron after I told them not to. The funny part was they both tried to deny it with BLUE MOUTHS from the candy they had been eating or icee they had been drinking. For awhile I was the meanest mom in the world, but felt better after Jeff and I came home from dinner and Cooper apologized. Sometimes concequences can be a good thing I guess. Besides, now the playroom is all picked up and the toys are organized in bins.

Today we had another great session of General conference. This time to stay awake I did a puzzle. I almost finished the whole thing, and have threatened my kids that they don't get to finish it for me after I've done the majority of the work!

We also fasted today for Joey Mortensen and for Kent Jones and Kristi Crum. All three of these are people who are very close to us who have serious cancer issues. They'll need some miracles in their lives!

I thouroughly enjoyed the conference talks this time around. I think the older I get the more I see their value and the how appropriate all of the talks are for me at this time. I was listeneing with the idea of our leadership meeting and was so happy to hear a talk that pushed me in the direction I think we should take our leadership meeting. I had some ideas during the YW general broadcase, but nothing that stuck out like the idea of letting the YW presidencies have real leadership experience in their classes rather than having the leaders do the majority of the planning and carrying out. I really feel like the girls will be able to feel how the Spirit can direct their classes if they rely on the Lord for direction - rather than relying on leaders to take care of everything.

I'm excited to talk about this with my counselors and see where we can take this.

Well, this has been more of a journal entry than a blog entry, but you can see that without really doing anything - my life has been full this week.