Thoughts on a Beautiful Thursday

Clint has now been deployed for about five or six weeks. We are doing well. The boys are on a routine and life is not too bad. It is interesting to me that most of the time we do just fine, but other times we just really do miss our Daddy and husband. The nights I think are the worst, when the boys are long gone to bed and I just want to talk to someone. Sometimes I write in my journal, other times I just sit and think, sometimes I find solace in my scriptures. Each day is different. Each is an adventure. I think I am doing well, but I think I miss Clint more during this deployment then other times. I do not know what the difference is, but I think it is just that I have been through it quite a few times and know how long twelve months really truly is. The boys are older in this one so they have been quite a big help although I know it is very hard for them too.
I made it to the bus stop today on time. The kids did not whine at all. They cleaned up their breakfast, brushed their teeth and got ready for the day. They were even smiling nd laughing. Makes me realize how strong my family has truly become through it all. Now if I could just get myself motivated on those not so lovely days we would be golden.
My brother had a baby girl on the 22nd in the wee hours of the morning. I am an aunt again. Not that that has anything to do with Clint's deployment but it does help me to recognize God's hand in our life. ..... A couple weeks ago on a Sunday we had Ward Conference. Talk about needing to be there. For those of us who have children and husbands gone we feel at times it may be easier to sleep in. That was the case that Sunday. Steven and Timothy however would not hear of it. They wanted to be at church so off we went. I think the Spirit works through my boys on me sometimes because my head is too hard to get through. Our Stake President and his councellor were speaking. I have never met President Mulchek before, but I was truly amazed. I have really watched people in my life. I look at auras and can just feel a strong spirit. Well I looked up at the podium and all I can tell you is this wonderful righteous man glowed. He glowed so bright I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes to make sure. No they were fine, it was him. I usually do not take notes at church, but felt inspired to do so. His message was just what I needed. It was that Forever really is not so far away. I needed that. I needed that experience. After sacrament President Mulchek went around and shook every person's hand. Amazing! He was so sincere and so loving and we all knew it. I know that I needed to be at church that Sunday. I needed to feel that spirit. I needed to know that I really did not have to wait so long to have forever with my family. I also had an interview with President Gilchrist his councellor after church. Just another wonderful amazing man that made me feel at ease as I renewed my recommend and once again felt my Heavenly Father's love. Anyhow I do not know why I decided to blog this, but I did. I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven who loves me and lets me be happy and inspired when I need to be, even when I do not feel like I need it.
Well so that is my thoughts for the day. I am going to go make cookies for my boys now. I would like to have a nice sweet afternoon when they return from school. We shall surely see.;)

Pics of Adirondack Camping Village in Lake George, Ny

So all of these pictures are part of Our R and R adventures. We went camping in the Adirondacks and had so much fun we did not want to come home.

Just Five More Minutes That's All!

So today was just one of those days at least the beginning of it was. Started out that way. Let me tell you about it. Okay so my alarm normally goes off at 6:40AM. I must have been tired from the previous day so it was hard to wake up. i decided I would sort of stretch and doze for just five more minutes. After all I do this all the time. I dozed off and then unfortunately I was really tired and fell into a deep slunmber. The phone rang at 7:10 Am. Thankfully Tim heard it and I got it. It was Clint calling before he went to get his mail. I am so grateful he called. We would not have woken up and since the boys' bus now comes at 8:05Am they needed to get up or they would not have had time to make it. Lovely isn't it. I got the boys to the bus just in time. Some mores were getting a good giggle and they have all decided to ask me each day what I have going on for the day so I do not forget and I get to the places I need to be on time. We shall sure see.
i am so grateful for Clint that he will call and check on me when he knows I have just had a hard day and may need help to get a move on. I am grateful Tim heard the phone ring and I am glad that after that incident the day has ran incredibly smoothly.

Forgotten Appointments

So I think I am forgetting my mind lately seriously. Having major issues with the memory. So today was quite a busy day and will only get busier, funny thing is that as of yesterday at 8 pm I thought it would be boring, easy going and all out dull. When did it becaome so lively? Last night at 9:30 pm the missionaries called. Funny thing really, occured right then i remembered that I signed up to feed the missionaries. Oopsie, but that is not the half of it. At that moment a few other memories came to my mind. I suddenly remembered I had a primary presidency meeting scheduled at my house as well as lunch at 11:30AM. Well that is not too bad too appointments I had forgotten about but there was more. I had forgotten that I also had an appointment for visiting teaching, this one I did not remember until I pulled my roster out at the presidency meeting. I had written the appointment on the roster. Gosh that was a smart one wasn't it. Then as I am putting the roster away I see my message light is on on the cell phone so i check it right quick. I forgot that Tim had an appointment at the dentist at 9 AM this morning and they called to tell me that they wee worried that I was going to miss it only I never checked it until my meeting. HaHa! Now do you think I have the worst memory ever. I bet you do? Here are the other two forgotten appointments. I forgot that I had told a friend i was going to walk our twelve mile trek this morning. Good thing it rained so I did not overlap that one. The last forgotten appointment is the visiting teaching and I hope that it does not overlap dinner with the missionaries. Life is crazy when you are having fun. Maybe that is it or maybe it is just that Clint is gone so I have no one to remind me that my head holds my brain and it really does sit on my shoulders. Anyhow lets hope I do not forget something else this week. Do not count on it though, we all know I am not a miracle worker.

R&R

So Clint has been on his Block Leave since he is leaving really quickly for his deployment. So we are doing a lot of fun things as a family and really just palying. Clints leave started at the beginning of this week. During that time we have went to The Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyria, New York. we have went to Alexandria Bay and also Sackett's Harbor both of which are of major importance to the War of 1812. We also went to Ft Stanwix and the Ariskany Battlefield, which is often called the " Battle of Bloody Creek'" and also the Ariskany Monument for the USS Ariskany. All were so fun. I think our family really enjoys history.

The Ariskany Battle was led by General John Herkimer and was the bloodiest battle of the Revolutionary War. Over 200 men of a very small town were killed. Each person placed a candle in their window to show they had had a member in their family die. Every window in the town was lit up. The battlefield was amazing and as we walked the Soldier's road we were caught by the sacredness of it all. Even the boys were mellow for a time.

Fort Stanwix was a different experience. Also used during the Revolutionary War the artifacts left brought us into a different time that has been preserved for all of us and we were able to has the park ranger said time travel in a way to another time and learn how different life really was.

As a family we were able to go to the last day of the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyria, New York. What a touching portrayal of how the gospel came about and how fortunate we are. My kids loved it too. We were able to talk to many of the cast and enjoyed their testimonies of our savior and of the Book of Mormon. How neat it was for Mormon and Moroni to express their love for our Savior. It was also such a testimony builder to us to hear the Anti-Mormon people screaming their disagreements outside the gate. Why would that make our testimonies grow? Because we all knew that there would be so many lives touched and they were afraid. According to some of the missionaries there, there was over 5000 referals this year because of the pageant, and the message of all of the young cast members. I was touched.

Clint's mother Susan also came to spend some time with Clint before he left. She had fun I think and Clint was able to reconnect with his mom a little. It was nice to see them together and to see their bond grow. We have always lived far away so being there before Clint left was very nice for his mother to do.

We also went to Sacket's Harbor. That would be about a 20 minute drive from here. We always like going there and looking at the wonderment of what was left behind at the War of 1812. The Star Spangled Banner was written there. We learned all about Military History and ate at our favorite spot, The Boat House. Talk about YUMMY!!

About 30 minutes the other way is Alexandria Bay. It is so gorgeous. We checked out Bolt castle across the Bay. we road the Freedom1 a fairy to get there. The bolt castle was so pretty. We absolutely loved it. What a neat thing to see and so close.

We took my mother in law to the airport Thursday morning. Because we were in Syracuse we decided to go to the Carousel Center, which is a huge mall. The boys mad new friends at the BUILD_ABEAR_WORKSHOP Tim has a dog named Button and Steven made a rabbit named Mr. Nibbles. Cute little guys. We are just having such a fun leave. Next week we are going camping and will have much more to talk about. we are trying to make as many memories as possible. We will sure miss Clint and his adventuresome spirit in the coming year.

The Fish and the Near Miss

Okay so for those of you Who have Children this will not surprise you in a bit. Three year olds are busy bodies. The other day I had a friend from our ward over. We were going to plan a project to do at a later date. Well Ann, my friend came with her Daughter, Avery. Avery is an explorer. Avery went around the house rearranging things and opening up everything that would open. This was all well and good except about 30 minutes before Ann was getting ready to hit the road. I was showing Ann some new curtains I am going to make. We walked right past Avery and looked at my room and also my laundry room. About this time we looked down to see what Avery was doing. Surprisingly we had missed certain things as we passed her twice before that. Avery had my boys fish in it's bowl between her two open legs. She had taken one of their bottles of fish pellets and fed the whole bottle to the fish. Upon seeing that this dirtied the water the very logical young lady decided she needed to clean the fish so she grabbed a tissue and tried to reach in to clean the fish. Of course this created yet another mess. Well we are talking about a very aware intelligent child and she decided that just would not do. Her next step was she grabbed the water conditioner and poored half the bottle into the bowl. The next half hour was spent trying to save my children's struggling family member. As we strained the water and conditioned more the logicallness of it all came to mind.

When the boys got home I told them what happened and told them the fish may struggle and die that day or by the next morning. I was trying to prepare them for their little pets death. Tim got tears in his eyes and told me Avery could not come over anymore. I told him she was just a little girl and he told me very simply well then let's just have her come over right now and rip my heart out. I understand how he feels this is his pet just like someones pet dog or cat. Well Flo is still living she did not kick the bucket and my son has not had any dramatic moments since then. Flo condinues to live and swim happily in her little bowl. She is a fighter fish!!