Nothing

I guess I just wanted to put a little note in here about how consuming my new calling seems to be. It is always on my mind...I mean ALWAYS. I think about visiting teaching, activities, meeting the sisters I don't know, why people aren't going to the temple, why they aren't coming to church, how I can help them know and understand the love Christ and Heavenly Father have for them, how I can better show them the love I have for them...and the list goes on and on. I have had way less sleep over the past month because my mind will not shut off. Life is good, but sometimes it is just so busy. I really do love all of it and feel very bless to have the opportunity to serve. I am just trying to find the balance again and make sure things get done.
I watched the training for the RS Presidency last week and loved it and hated it at the same time. I felt loved and supported and thought of and completely overwhelmed. Heavenly Father sure knows how to show us our weaknesses and then He steps in to give us the strength required to do His work. The first lesson I taught for RS I told the sisters that I was well aware of my weaknesses and I didn't need their help in pointing them out. I have to remind myself that we all feel that way and to not judge others and the job they are doing. No one asked for their calling, but they are trying to be obedient and do what is asked of them and just might feel as inadequate as I do. In the training Sister Beck said there is a flood of information out there, yet a drought of the things that will save us. What does being a missionary mean? How do we bring sheep into his fold? What am I doing for others?

Smashy

Michael and Phil enjoying the sunset at the beach.

The sports court at our resort.

Ashlee is getting ready to have her baby this next week so she finally got all the pictures from our trip to California off her camera. We had a wonderful time and we so love hanging out with them. We loved the sunshine and time at the beach and they spent the night at our condo we stayed in while we were there. Ashlee is always so great at coming down and spending the days with me while Phil works. We took the kids swimming, enjoyed dinner out and time together. Now Nicki will be down in San Diego this next December when Phil and I go down for the company party so we can all get together. I am so excited!

High Hut Trip

On Monday when we arrived the sky was clear so we could see Mt. Rainier.

Using the buckets to get snow for our water supply.

Enjoying a view near the top of the ridge.

Half way up. The guys carried the food on sleds attached to their backpacks.

Getting ready to head up the mountain. Me, Heather, Rachel, Jenny

Phil and I were able to go on a three day snowshoe trip to High Hut with friends this last week. Rachel and John Westhoff have been going up there and had invited us to go along. They planned all the meals which made the trip fantastic. The Marchants let us borrow all their really cool backpacking gear and light weight sleeping bags and snowshoes because we are totally novice at this sort of thing. We had a wonderful time and the kids had a great time hanging out with the Hendrix family while we were gone. I swear Janae is an angel and they were sad when we got home a little earlier than we expected. The hut was awesome and we got to experience life with an outhouse, buckets of snow to melt for our water, but had heat and a gas stove for cooking. We played games, ate really great food and played in the snow. I laughed so hard the last night we were there my sides were sore the next day. I wish we would have been able to go that last two year now that the Westhoff are moving and wont be hear to organize the whole event. I am excited to take the kids up there now and glad to have found such a fun and beautiful place to go and hang out.

Kids chores

So Cannon has to take the garbage and recycling out to the cans and then every garbage day he has to walk the cans up the long driveway to the road. Cannon is SUPER afraid of spiders (all things really) so he has talked Lyla into helping him with his chore so she can knock spiders off the garbage can and can be outside with him so he doesn't have to be out there alone. He has also decided to run his chore business a little like city government. He does a lot of supervising while Lyla does most of the work. Good thing she loves her big brother so much she doesn't mind doing everything for him. They are pretty cute when they do it and I love watching them carry everything out and get it in the big cans and then work together to get it up the drive. They are really great kids!

What's Up

Things around here have been busy, but not too exciting. We had a big ward split/shake-up and so things became super busy when I got my new calling. I really like the new ward and am super excited about the row of older sisters that laugh and tease each other during the lesson. Miya was not excited about the ward change and leaving all her friends. I tried to talk it up that we would have grandmas in the ward, but it didn't help the situation. We are down to one class per age group in primary (which is really fantastic) and dropped the jr. jr. primary with a million little kids ages 3 and 4. We moved to a different building that is smaller and pretty cozy for sacrament. We have only been to one week and this next week is Stake Conference, but I already know I am going to LOVE it. I felt like I had moved back to Seattle and my old ward (plus about 150 people) but it was so great to have variety in the ward. Missed seeing a lot of people at church and I totally missed my calling in primary. Who would have guessed I would miss it when I was totally freaked out about teaching primary kids. I love singing time and wish we could pull something like that out in RS.