We would like to share these thoughts from G B H from 1992, loved him and the message.
Christmas mean giving. The Father gave his Son, and the Son gave his life. Without giving there is no true Christmas, and without sacrifice there is no true worship. There is more to Christmas than neckties, earrings, toys and all the tinseled stuff of which we make so much.
Christmas means the Christ child, the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger while angels sang and wise men traveled far to bring gifts. It is a beautiful and timeless story, and I hope each of us will read it again this season.
Christmas means eternity. As certainly as Christ came into the world, lived among men, laid down his life, and became the first fruits of the resurrection, so through that atonement, all become partakers of immortality. Death will come, but death has been robbed of its sting, and the grave of its victory.
Christmas means compassion and love and, most of all, forgiveness. The lessons of the turning of the other cheek, going the second mile, the return of the prodigal, and scores of other incomparable teachings have filtered down the ages to become the catalyst to bring kindness and mercy out of much of man's inhumanity to man.
Christmas means peace. He whose birth we commemorate this season is more than the symbol of a holiday.He is the Son of God, the creator of the earth, the Jehovah of the Old Testament,the fulfillment of the law of moses, the Redeemer of mankind, the King of kings, the Prince of Peace. Learn of him. Search the scriptures, for they are they which testify of him. Ponder the miracle of his life and mission. Try a little more diligently to follow his example and observe his teachings. Bring the Christ back into Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

the Sign says it all Lisa, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

We were all together this summer!! YAY

I know its been awhile. Since school has been out I have traveled to California and then to Oregon. Tomorrow I will post pics of each little trip. Now its back to the real world. I've got lots of painting projects to do and I am excited to do them! Check back soon

May 29th 2004 !! Happy Anniversary

Congratulations Jackson and Lisa

Five Years Ago Today!

Memorial Day

Aaron and I both want to let all veterans past and present know we appreciate thier service. We honor those who have sacraficed all and will never forget. We are especially mindful of the men and women who are serving at this time especially our son Jackson in Afghanistan. There was never really much doubt that he would not serve his country somehow, he has had the heart of a patriot ever since he was a little guy in an army outfit on Halloween. Congrats Lt. very soon to be Captain Irish!! We are so proud of you. Also a shout out to these family veterans- Aaron, John, Jack, Ron, Don, and Joe SUPPORT OUR TROOPS !!!!! God Bless the USA

Mothers Day

Well It has been a beautiful day. My sacrament talk is over (WOOT) the weather is warm, I've got a momma who loves me, thanks Mom I think I was probably a bit of a hand full :) I have been blessed with three of the most beautiful children a mom could ask for. Each different, each unique, each with their own part to our little family puzzle. Thanks for making a Mom be such a joy. I love you.

Dance Festival

Last Friday night was the multi-stake dance festival. It was a lot of fun to go watch. Everyone had been putting in weeks of practice and it was nice to finally get down to performing. Our ward did a swing dance this year. They looked awesome. I think we looked the cleanest, but I could be parcial. :) Paramount Stake did a country swing/line dance and they looked like they were having the most fun. There were two different couples that did solos and at the end all 5 stakes did a really fun finale. The music on my new playlist is some of the songs from the festival. I wanted to post pictures from Jackson and Caitlins dance festivals but pictures just exhaust me. I'm not sure how Natalie got out of it but somehow she did. We got to see some people we haven't seen in awhile and ate dippin dots!! All in all a fun evening.

Red Cross

This is a little late...On the 30th of March Aaron and I attended the annual Red Cross Apheresis appreciation dinner at the Double Tree. This year Aaron received a plack for donating 18 different times in the past year! Thats every three weeks!! And at his last draw he was given his 15 gallon pin, or 120 donations! WOW now thats a lotta given. The dinner was great and its always inspiring to hear some stories about how your donations are touching peoples lives. YAY Aaron!!

WOW

OK I know that posting pictures does not have to be that time consuming!! But hey they are up!! Tomorrow after I recover, I will post pics from Las Vegas. Also coming soon. My musings on the book "The Shack" and Adam Lambert on American Idol!! Talk again tomorrow :)

Finally Torch Run Pictures!!

Aaron and this athlete share the same name!

A group shot some of the support team during a bit of down time.

Waiting to light the cauldron. Dimitris Kokkalakis from Greece in the front. We would love to go there when they host!

James Neesom, all the way from Ireland

Chinese Taipei

Austria

USA

To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometime against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Almost five years ago!!! WOW

Yay Spring

Spring has sprung OH YEAH!!! Today is beautiful. Not only is it Friday, its payday and the last day of work before spring break . It's so warm I cleaned out the flowerbed with only short sleeves....... :) March Madness is in full swing there are even some teams in Boise this weekend!
GO WHOEVER AARON PICKED TO WIN!!!!!!!!!!! YAY TEAM Oh, I've meant to post this before just F Y I Coryn has changed his name to Diego! Kayla our "roomie" has informed us she will be moving out on the 27th. She is excited to become a "real grown up" I have enjoyed having her around, although I really never see her!!! Caitlin I don't know if you ever look at this blog but if you do check out song #6 on the playlist..... remember that song?? AH memories

Playlist Correction

Just thought I would clarify that the song Bellas Lullaby really isn't! This is the song they were going to use in the movie Twilight, but didn't. It's called A River Flows Through You and its by Yiruma. A lot of the mutual kids have been playing it on the piano lately and it really is beautiful. I am going to try and find an "easy piano" version. Just F Y I

The past week

Last Friday, the 20th, Aaron and I were watching a movie when someone rang our doorbell, it was about 9:30 at night. We thought "what the?" when Aaron answered the door I couldn't hear him talking to anyone so I though it was a ring and run but when I turned around he was looking at something. there was a bird in a cage on our doorstep! It took him a minute to realize it was "Priddy" then I hear him say where are you guys? Jared and Natalie were hiding beside the porch and they pop up "surprise" they were in town for the weekend! Jared was working the store so Sharlene the work horse could have a day off. They were also looking for possible houses to rent and places for Natalie to open a Pilate's studio!! Now for those of you who have been waitin for them to move back to town don't go gettin to excited ( I channeled my inner cowboy for that sentence !) They are still in the "we can't decide what to do phase" but it looks like they are thinking seriously about coming back home. YAY it was a fun weekend of running around and running around and running around. I bought a book shelf on that weekend and its still at the store as of this weekend!! Aaron and I went to pick it up Sat. but it wouldn't fit in the van boo hopefully I will have it home on Tuesday. Nita and I went thrift storing after work on Friday (the 27th) and I found some bargains. One was a train that I want to put up under my Christmas tree this year (its never to early to think Christmas, HAHA ) We set it up and today I turned it on while the cats were in the area! That was funny!! Poor kitties, they are so skittish. On Sat. Cindy Pond stopped by for a visit. We haven't talked in what seems like forever! Thanks for stopping Cindy, it was great to see you. Aaron starts a knew schedule at work tomorrow 5 days a week 8 hours a day. We'll see how it goes. I think he's looking forward to getting off at a decent hour. It should work great especially after next week when we start daylight savings. Have a great week!

Sundays are a funny thing

Sunday March 1st. I love the talk by F. Enzio Busche titled Unleashing the Dormant Spirit. I read it a lot during sacrament. The two things that stood out to me today were. "In your life there have to be challenges. They will either bring you closer to God and therefore make you stronger, or they can destroy you. But YOU make the decision of which road you take." and "First and foremost you are a spirit child of God. If you neglect to feed your spirit, you will reap unhappiness. Don't permit anything to detract you from this awareness." I have had some real struggles in the past few years. I was pretty lost and made quite a few mistakes. But what I never stopped doing was going to church. I don't know why except that that is what we have done on Sundays for years... I cried, I questioned, I rebelled, I prayed because sometimes it was the only thing I knew to do. One Sunday I was asked to talk in sacrament. I prepared my talk wondering if I really should be the person to give it given my current bad attitude but I prepared and gave a talk on faith. Now usually after you give a talk people are nice and they tell you they like it (but I always kinda thought it was because they were secretly happy it wasn't them that had to talk :)) but I got lots of feed back this Sunday. A few days later I received a note in the mail from a mother in our ward. She shared with me how my talk had affected her son who just happened to visit our ward that day. She shared her testimony and thanked me for sharing what her son needed to hear that day. I realized that I too could be a tool in the Lords hands and it began to change my perspective. I now see that the Lord was aware of me and my struggles and provided a way for me to learn what I needed to lean. Since then I have begun to find the peace and happiness that I know living the gospel can bring into our lives. Our testimonies truly are a roller coaster, sometimes up and sometimes down. I still make mistakes, some have been BIG I am not perfect nor will I be in this life, but I can try again and again to get it right. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know I am a child of God , that He loves me and I know what I need to do to find happiness in this life. It's my choice, I can't blame it on anyone or anything else. I believed that when I joined this church I was giving my family a great gift that would benefit them for a life time and beyond. I still believe that. We are a forever family and that's means more to me than they might ever know.

The goings on

Well Hello,

It's been a little while hasn't it. First and foremost Aaron was gone for two weeks on the final leg of the torch run for special olympics. From what I can tell this was a fantastic experience for him. He loved the "job", he loved the people he met, he loved the athletes! WOW thats a lota love. Someone told him they hadn't seen him stop smiling the whole time!! Who out there knows my husband? You know that this is something special. I believe only his family could make him smile that much. He is even going and try to get on the "board." This might become a new passion. Well now thats an empty nest moment for ya :) For my part of this -two weeks is as long as I have ever been on my own in my whole life!! Just between you and me I LOVED IT but its nice to have my hubby back home, yes really. One weekend our son in law Jared was in town. We had a great time. We went and saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire. We both liked it. I like how it showed that you don't have to be a product of your envirnment. It's all about the choices we make. The next night it was dinner and shopping! Almost more fun than going out with my girls, almost :) Anyhoo where was Natalie you ask? (See the " just the facts " post from below) now you know..... Tomorrow its back to work after a four day weekend and I just had two of the four of us in the kitchen call in sick.........YAY thats gonna be a good day

My Monday Creed

Embrace this day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks. The covenant with God to which you are true enables you to become enlightened by him, and nothing is impossible for you. I like the last part. I wonder how long it takes before we have progressed enough to realize that??? I have a car and garage door again!! Yay !! Not that I don't appreciate the van, I do. I am so glad it is still running. Elaine and I went and saw the movie New in Town on Friday night. It was cute. I enjoyed the chemistry between Rene Zellewiger(sp?) and Harry Connick Jr. Finally recovered my chairs! Woot The fabric is awesome. If I knew how to take a picture and post it I would. I guess that should be my next blog lesson. Ok gotta run. PS I WILL GO TO THE GYM TODAY :) I wonder if any of my many followers will hold me to that? TEHE And last but not least. Why Arizona Cardinals why?? :(

What is that bright orange ball in the sky?

Finally it has made an apperance! And today it comes with a little warmth added in. It has been so long and we have missed you so much.... Welcome back Mr. Sunshine, please we beg of you, hang around for awhile. I have been driving the Van for couple of days because after I pulled into the garage and shut the door the other day the spring blew into a million pieces ( at least!) Great. At least the door was down, thank heaven for little miracles. Tonight the girls are "nerd bowling" down at the SUB. Yes thats right they are dressing as "nerdy" as possible and going bowling. I wonder if it will improve their games??? I'm not sure if leaders have to join in. I'm not sure if THIS leader can........We'll see :)

Just the Facts

The only thing more stubborn than the Irish men in the Irish party of five family are the Irish women! :)

God is in the Hard Stuff

How many days have you cried for me?
How many tears have you dried for me?
How many days have you worried long?
How many years have you filled with song?
How many times have I hurt your heart?
How many times have we had to part?
How many prayers have you said for me?
How many miles have you walked for me?
Nobody knows but you, Mother.
Anonymous

Defiance

We thought this might be a good movie to see on "Human Rights Day". It was. It is so true what G B H said, You've got to stand for something or you will fall for anything.