Reading Tree Challenge

I have a wonderful and fun challenge awaiting anyone who wishes to participate. It's a great way to get some free stuff and help some families right here in Utah. Just visit my blog Love 2 Read to find out more.

Tender Mercies

Matt. 25: 35-40

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

This was my little reminder...that anything I do to the people around me both good things and bad things. I do it to the Savior too...I had a humbling experience this week when James and I were talking about this. I don't really want to share the experience but it made me realize that everything I do to someone else can either cause joy or pain to the person, to myself as well as to my Savior. I am thankful for my these experience and even the bad experience...I might not think so at the time but I am grateful for them.

Love to read? Love kids? Wanna help stamp out illiteracy?

The title of this post pretty much explains it. Please check out my other blog Love 2 Read to find out more about how you can help.

Tender Mercies

"Some truths regarding how prayers are answered may help you. He will always hear your prayers and will invariably answer them." - Elder Richard G. Scott- Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer May Ensign 2007

"The Lord will hear your prayers in time of need. At times the Lord will give you an answer before you ask." -Elder Richard G. Scott- The Power of a Strong Testimony January Liahona 2002

Galatians 6: 2, 9-10

2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Have you ever had a prayer answered that you didn't even remember saying? I know this may sound crazy but this is the way I felt this past week...well more so Sunday. James and I have been in our ward for close to 3 years now and due to our "absence" in the adult Sunday school class cause we have been teaching the 12-13 year old's. We still have people coming up to us asking us if we are new in the ward. So we decided we want to get more involved in the ward and make some new friends. This has proven a little difficult for me cause I have been so shy. there are quite a few people that I wouldn't mind being friends with but feel like I don't quite fit in cause I am not a mother. Well This past week James and I attended our wards end of summer picnic so we could mingle with the people in our ward...well we did mingle but we still felt uneasy when we left and felt like the activity wasn't as productive as we had wished. As we walked home there was one family we talked about and how we thought so much of them and thought it would be fun to get to know them more. Well on Sunday after sacrament meeting the mother of this family came up to me and introduced herself and we had the chance to talk for a little bit. I know that a lot of people would say it's just coincidence but I didn't feel it was. I felt that was answer to a unknown prayer. I think once James and I put ourselves out there a little more and get more involved with the ward friends will start appearing. :)

Happy Birthday!

Today is my niece Shay lee's birthday and I wanted to wish her a happy birthday. Shay lee is the youngest of 3 sisters She loves doing outdoorsy things like swimming, camping, and hiking. She likes sports and teasing her older sisters...especially Lindsay. She likes it when she gets to see her cousins too so that she can play games with them. She is the aunt or 2 soon to be 3 and loves playing with her niece and nephew. She is wild and crazy (in a good way) and loves life and takes in as much of it as she can. Here's to you Shay lee on your big day...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Last weekend

I hope this late posting doesn't become a trend. :p Last weekend was Gavin's birthday party as well as Peach Days in Brigham City. :D So Saturday we went over to Nikki's to have cake and ice cream for Gavin's birthday and then after, James and I joined Nikki and the kids at the Dinosaur park. Gavin LOVES dinosaurs and the dinosaur park, he would run up and roar at the different Dino's. Abby and Nate had a lot of fun too. They have lots of fun activities, there is a place where you can go dig up bones and eggs...Nikki found a ring. :p The kids had a lot of fun... After awhile Gavin was ready to move on....to the playground. :) The kids REALLY loved this place. After we got them all together one would run off to go down the slide one more time.

thumbs up for the cool playground and all the fun stuff to do. :) The rest of the park was filled with dinosaurs hiding in trees or fighting with one another (complete with sound) or swimming in the nice cool river. Gavin and the kids enjoyed them all. With more fun activities along the way this place was fun for all the kids, even little Ethan had fun looking at all the big Dino's. One thing we found that was fun is the Halloween decorations that they were already starting to set up. James wants to come back and see them in full swing. :) Here are some more pictures from our trip...

this place was a lot of fun Thanks Nikki for letting us tag long. :) After the Dino park James and I went up to Brigham City for Peach Days. After a quick stop at mom and dad's in Perry we were off with Dad in tow. :p it was a lot of fun. there was live music and dance lots of air and blow up rides, games, more rides, food and booths selling all kinds of neat things. We had a lot of fun looking at all the things people were selling. One of the vendors had these really neat posters of different hero's from the Bible and Book of Mormon. It's called Real Hero Posters they are really neat. You should check 'em out. After looks at all the things for sell James wanted some peach cobbler...the line for it though was REALLY long so we wandered down to where the rides and games were cause we remembered a place that didn't have as bad a line...sure enough the line at this place was cute almost in half and the cobbler was SO good. I didn't take any pictures..sorry. But we had a lot of fun. the Army National Guard was there with a tank, hummer, guns and uniforms kids could put on and try and more it was neat. there was a pretty big crowd to try and see inside the tank so we didn't peak inside...I probably would have taken pictures of that if we did. :) We only stayed for about 2 hours before we got tired...and things started to close down. It was fun though. With belly's full of sweet corn and peach cobbler and still munching on green apple and caramel popcorn we headed home. it was a lot of fun, If you've never been it's a lot of fun and has the BEST peaches around..were talking some as big as softballs and TONS of juice just drips down your chin. YUM!

Tender mercies

Little Things in Life
by Regina Riggs

Too often we don't realize what we have until it is gone;

Too often we wait too late to say"I'm sorry - I was wrong"

Sometimes it seems we hurt the ones we hold dearest to our hearts;And we allow foolish things to tear our lives apart


Far too many times we let unimportant things into our minds;And then it's usually too late to see what made us blind


So be sure that you let people know how much they mean to you;Take that time to say the words before your time is through


Be sure that you appreciate everything you've got
And be thankful for the little things in life that mean a lot

Picture by Kristene Armstrong

Poem by Regina Riggs

Happy Birthday!

Today is Gavin's birthday and he turns the big 3. :) Gavin is such a cute little boy full of mischief and a curiosity for EVERYTHING! He loves his brothers and sister and playing with them. He also loves Dinosaurs, Pirates and Handy Manny. This little boy will keep you on your toes and usually only has you doing two things laughing at his antics or frustrated...more laughing then anything. he also loves dogs him and Rosko together can concoct a plan to take over the world...or the backyard at least. :) He loves playing with Rosko and throwing things for Rosko to fetch....including (James' favorite) the BBQ grill...right off the deck. :p Gavin is a fun sweet little boy and we love him. Happy to you Gavin on your special day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Labor Day

For labor day this week we thought it would be fun to go up to Bear Lake..not so much for the boating and water skiing but the scenery of the lake, the cute little town with the friendly people, and the nice relaxing scenic ride up there. :) Okay, Okay we wanted to go get raspberry shakes. :) happy now.:p All those things are true though, the drive is very scenic and beautiful, the lake Gorgeous and the cute town does have a lot of friendly locals. So we headed up to Perry (Brigham City) to pick up mom and dad for an adventure. Going up Sardine canyon was nice,peaceful and relaxing but the canyon after Logan going up to Bear lake was a little chaotic with all the weekend travelers trying to get home, but it was still a very pretty drive. mom said she wanted to pass on a tradition to us from grandma Kay (I think) and that was that every time she went up to bear lake she had to stop by Ricks spring. Dad and Mom told us stories about how grandma would always drink from the spring and how they would wade through it. Well when we got there they said that was the highest they had ever seen it. It was very pretty and it was the clearest water I have ever seen. So pretty I wanted to wade through it myself it looks like so much fun. It sure was cold though. :) But again...the people. :p it became very crowded so we decided to move on. Another part of the tradition is a place called (I am probably going to get this wrong) Limber pines. It's home to one of the oldest trees in the western United States. So we headed down the road to check that out. This time James joined in in the stories, telling me about the last time he had been on the hike we were going to go on, etc. When we got there I expected a lot more cars. So it was nice to see that there wasn't that many. It was SO beautiful the trees and plants were very green and the clean mountain smell made me want to go camping. the trail was nice and shady almost the entire way. It was a beautiful walk and all along the path there were plaques with interesting facts about the different trees,plants and wildlife. It was a lot of fun...Oh and the unique way the trees grow that I talked about earlier...that's the reason why the forest is called limber pines....Almost all the trees grow in a squiggly manner. This one (according to the plaque) started to grow and then died but instead of dying completely one of the branches grew strong and became the trunk giving it this backwards L shape...cool huh. James had funny showing us his limber side as well. :p The trail had a short detour to look at the oldest tree..but we missed it but we did see the 2nd oldest tree...here it is...
According to the plaque this tree (or cluster of trees grown together) is about 560 years old WOW! This was really neat to see, it's amazing to think about tree's being this old. It was pretty amazing. This whole trail was so much fun. After we were once again off to Bear Lake. The lake was a beautiful blue (as always I'm assuming) and looks like so much fun. The town was very busy every diner and shake place had a good sized line out the door. So we decided to go to a park and have a little picnic before we got the coveted raspberry shakes. It was such a nice day and it felt so good just to relax ans sit and talk and not have to worry about appointments or needing to get something done. Ahhhh! But after awhile it was time to go. We headed back into town to stand in a not to long line for shakes as we waited James grabbed some fudge YUM! the drive home was not as busy...but we did go another way. :p We went up into Idaho and then back down. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end a fun weekend. Thanks mom and dad for joining us on this adventure it was a lot of fun spending time with you. :) Here are some more pictures of our trip.


Aw my knight in shining armor. :)

Explanation

Okay...sorry it has taken me so long to post about this past weekend. Well to explain the video on my last post. Saturday we were going to go to the air balloon show on Antelope Island (I don't know the real wordage for it is) with Nikki and the kids. Usually this show is in Park City but they changed it this year so we were really excited to have it closer. Well after a lot of obstacles...(like not knowing the time they started and the whole money issue) we decided to go to Nikki's and make a new plan..a FREE one. :p Well lately Abby and Nate have been into this show called The Othersiders on cartoon network (basically it's about these teens who are interested in the paranormal and go to different locations to try and see if they are haunted. It's kinda interesting.) and they REALLY love it. So Nikki googled haunted locations in Ogden and they have been watching some video's on you tube. Well so when they got there they were showing us all these video's and after we watched the one posted the kids wanted to go to the Union Station train museum to do their own ghost hunting. Out of all the plans we could think of to do (which wasn't much) we decided to go to the train museum. When we got there the kids ran straight to the train in the video to catch the ghost...first things first though we have to make sure we have all the right equpitment...location..Check...proper shoes and other clothing for enviroment...Check...mom close by in case they get scared...CHECK and most important..a way to document the experience to record all the data later (camera)...Check. Okay we are ready...lets go do some ghost hunting. :) Have to check out the train where the ghost was seen first.found anything?How about over by the caboose?Did we get one? Time to try the other trains After awhile the kids forgot all about the ghosts and just had fun climbing onto the trains with their cousins who joined us later

But wait..what's in the window of that train? We'll let you decided. :p

Little Ethan was such a trooper. I think he liked the trains...but lounging in the sun can make a baby very tired. The kids then went on a train ride around the block with their cousins and Uncle Shawn and Aunt Mandy while Nikki, James and I just waited.....and horsed around a bit. :p (Sorry James I had to post this :D)

After the kids got back they were ready for some food. So we thought it would be fun to continue the festivities by getting some drinks, a movie and a pizza. After a little planning time we all piled into different cars and set out to get the goods and meet back at Nikki's. the boys all wanted to play video games in Nate's room and the girls got the Hannah Montana movie to watch in their room. We watched a movie called The Knowing...it was very disappointing...it had the potential to be a really great movie but then....the ending..BLAH! I'm sorry I just don't know how much better to describe it. It was horrible. despite all that though we had a GREAT time. Thanks Nikki and Kids. :)

P.S. James wanted me to say that because of the picture of him with the horse he wants to assure everyone that he is not a freak but just a guy who likes to have a good time. (If I got this wrong he can correct it later. :D)

Ghost on 25th Street in Ogden, Ut----More to come

Update

Well before I got into what we did this weekend I wanted to give you all an update as to why I haven't been posting a lot. :p To start...Work... Fall Semester started at the college on Sept 2 and we were BUSY! I was averaging anywhere from 20-40 calls, emails and people walking into my office trying to find a place to live. It got so crazy that my boss had my hours changed temporarily. So for the past couple weeks instead of my usual 8-3 I have been working 10-5. Sleeping in was great but I think I would rather take the early mornings and get to go home early. We also had our annual Presidents Fall Workshop at the college on Aug 21, It was SO good. We had it on the 26th floor of the Church Office Building we talked about our new Presidents vision for the future as well as the importance of each department and all the happenings since January. There was also lots of food. :) and we had a number of clicker surveys which were neat. (clicker survey is where you can anonymously take the same survey that the rest of the room is taking.) We also of course talked about our students and what we can do to help them. It was a wonderful and powerful workshop. The spirit there was amazing. After the workshop my friend Dawn was having a get together at her house. So James met us over there. It was a lot of fun, pizza, games and LOTS of laughs. We had Ksenia, holly and Whitney from work and then Whitney brought her friend Amy over. Once again James was the only boy. :P He didn't seem to mind to much though. After the semester started things seemed to calm down quite a bit, I still had the different hours but things were definitely settling in. So much in fact I was able to get trained on making ID cards for the students and spent most of my days in that office either taking pictures of students or making the cards. It was a lot of fun. Because it had slowed down so much for me that week James and I decided to "celebrate" by having a nice quiet relaxing Friday :) On Sat we decided to go to the bird refuge in Brigham City. We only had an hour to look at the information center by the time we got there...but it was fun and we learned some interesting things about birds. After we drove around the refuge...well not the whole thing cause it's HUGE. I think James said 12 miles out there and then 12 miles around the refuge...plus most of it was really rough dirt roads and James was really worried about the car. But it was fun taking pictures of all the different birds and just spending time together. Later that night we had made plans with Melissa and Jason to have dinner at their house and then a movie. It was a lot of fun. We were all laughing so hard our sides hurt...and that was just at dinner. :) We had a really great time with them. Thanks again everyone for making these weekends so much fun for us. :)

P.S. Just a little blurb that I thought was neat...Our enrollment for new students this semester was up 26% :) YAY! We now have over 1600 students...we usually only have about 12 to 1400. Oh and one of our almost all of our properties to house students are FULL. Including the well loved Plaza Hotel. :) It has NEVER been full. It's so exciting.

Tender Mercies

"For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies, Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise. For the beauty of each hour, of the day and of the night, hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light, Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love, brother, sister,

parent, child, friends on earth and friends a-bove, for all gentle thoughts and mild, Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise."

-For the Beauty of the Earth- Hymn #92 in the hymn book of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Happy Birthday!!!!

To begin our Sept birthdays is none other than my brother in law Loren. Being the youngest of 8 I have had a great opportunity to have had many years to get to know a lot of my brother and sister in laws... and the same applies here. :) Loren is a very kind and caring person who loves his wife and family very much. Loren is always ready to offer a smile or quick joke to anyone. He loves being around people and getting to know them. After James and I were married his favorite memory of Loren is right before they left our open house in Monticello. James went to shake Loren's hand and Loren just looked at his hand then back up at James and said "we're family now" and gave James a huge bear hug as he exclaimed "Brothers gotta hug" :) Loren has always made me feel unique and special and in a family our size that has been very important in my life. So here's to you Loren on your big day. I hope you have a great one filled with fun, adventure and of course laughter. After all you deserve it. :D