4th Picture

I thought this was a fun tag and since I still can't put up new pics it's perfect. You find the 4th picture in your 4th folder and post. This is Trey at his 5th birthday party doing a trick on the Magic Tumble Bus.

I tag: Arin, Terressa, Karen, Lynita

Any ideas?

Since my computer is having issues and I can't download my pictures right now, I thought I'd take this time to blog about something that's been on my mind. I MISS MY FAMILY! We've never been so long without getting back to Michigan, but now that we have to pay for four tickets, we haven't been able to take another trip. The last time my family saw Treygan, Brooklyn and Justin was almost a year ago. They saw me and Taylee in March...still been too long. It doesn't help that every other day my kids are saying, "I want to go to Grandma Hardie's," or "I want to go bowling with Grandpa Hardie," and " I want to play with Sofia and Amandine." Try explaining to a five and three year old why the money in their piggy bank is not enough to go see them. So, I've been thinking that there has to be some way we can fly home for a really awesome deal...I just haven't found it yet. Any ideas?

Barrel aged bold taste

Yesterday, Justin was asked to set up a table at young men and young women at church showcasing things having to do with his mission in Detroit and things unique to Detroit. With the help of my mom we decided Boston Coolers would be the perfect Detroit treat to serve. For all of you non-Michiganders, Boston Coolers are ice cream floats made with Vernors. Then we got to wondering, why are they called Boston Coolers? After researching on the internet, I found that it is somewhat a mystery and that it has nothing to do with the city of Boston, and Vernors is virtually unknown in Massachusettes. One theory is that it was named after Boston Boulevard in Detroit. One thing is for sure though: The Boston Cooler was born at a soda parlor in Detroit, Michigan by a man named Fred Sanders. The Boston Coolers were a hit and Justin had a few cans left over. I could not resist the urge and let me tell you, after taking that first sip, it took me home. I used to drink a Vernors every morning (surely the reason I am 20 pounds lighter than in high school). A lot of first-time Vernors drinkers cough and snort and can't handle the strong ginger ale, but the barrel aged bold taste was yummy and comforting to me.

Linder Farms (& more posts below)

For family night, we took a trip to Linder Farms, a pumpkin patch with lots of fun for the kids. They had a petting zoo and Trey & Brooklyn were brave feeding them ( I sure never would). They had a zebra, horses, camel, ostriches and some kind of weird camelish, cow looking thing...a cowmel I guess. We also did a pumpkin slingshot, kids hay maze, bouncers and hayride. Taylee was so excited to sit on the bench...she would not allow us to hold her. The picture of Trey and Brooklyn holding hands is cute because we took a picture like that last year and they remembered and insisted on doing it again. I love the picture of them on the hay bale together, too. It really shows their personalities....Treygan with his fake smile...always ready to please. And, Brooklyn with her grumpy face...she'll please when she darn well feels like it!

Zebra

My friend Karen spotted this cute zebra dress at a yard sale and she bought it for Taylee. She thought I might like it since I was into zebra print back in the day. Taylee looked so adorable, we got comments from everyone at church about how cute it is. Sorry, though Karen, she won't keep the hat on!

Costume Party

We went to a costume party at the house of our friends, Brandon & Nikole (Thor & Snow White) last weekend. NO KIDS ALLOWED! That's right, a bunch of adults can still dress up and have a great time, especially when leaving sweet, dear kiddos with a babysitter. Nikole planned an awesome party with games involving Michael Jackson dance moves and a lot of confidence! She also prepared a yummy meal. It's hard to see my and Justin's costume due to the reflecting vests; we were construction workers who got run over by a car (we had tire treads drawn down our face and neck) We had a great time, I hope she does it again next year!

Handbag Giveaway

Just wanted to let you all know that the Handbag Planet is having a handbag giveaway in a few days....it's always fun to try to win stuff! Go to http://www.handbagplanet.com/ and enter for a really cute bag, it's really easy. Good luck!

Reba & Kelly!!!

We had a great time at the concert last night! We had really good seats on the floor, good enough so I could run up to the front a couple times for better pictures. It started off with Melissa Peterman (Barbara-Jean on Reba) doing a comedy routine and she was hilarious! Reba & Kelly are very entertaining and they're both very talented; we didn't even know several Reba songs but we still had a great time dancing to them. My voice was even a little scratchy from all the yelling. I even felt a bit star-struck, I just wanted to wave to them and hope they waved back! I know, silly right? Thanks to my awesome hubby who took all of the humiliation from people who laughed at him for going to this concert. We had an awesome time! I even made a new playlist with Reba & Kelly songs...enjoy!!!

happy birthday to me!

My birthday was yesterday and it was the best day! I did not want it to end! It started off pretty normal, nothing exciting (except a love note from my hubby on the fridge). Everything changed after lunch. Justin came home early and sent me off to get a mani/pedi. When I got home, he had cleaned the house!!! Next, he made lasagna for dinner. It was so yummy, I think he should do all the cooking from now on. He also bought me an ice cream cake because he knows they're my favorite. In between all of this, I got cards from my parents and grandma, cute jewelry from my sister, flowers from my best friend in Utah, Lori and phone calls galore! Then, my friend Nikole planned a girl's night to celebrate at The Cheesecake Factory. It was just a wonderful day. AND, if that wasn't enough already, tonight Justin bought us tickets to the Reba Mcintyre/Kelly Clarkson concert. He tried to have it be a surprise, but I got the tickets in the mail a couple months ago and couldn't play dumb and have him forever think I didn't know. I have just been so spoiled!!

Great kids

We took a little trip to the Zoo yesterday since Treygan was out of school. It was our first time at the Boise Zoo. It's not the most amazing zoo ever, but it is perfect for the kids. You can see everything in just a couple hours and they have plenty of fun things for the kids to do including carousel, prairie dog tunnels, slides, etc. What more do you need at that age? So yesterday was a great day. I love when I enjoy the days with my kids. I'm really starting to realize that they are growing up and I want to soak all of this in. This realization came, in part, because of the topic of conversation with Trey lately. for the past few weeks he has had his mind on marriage...that's right, my five year old is already thinking about getting married! It started innocently enough, like this:

Trey: When I get older, I"m gonna marry Jamie. (his friend in our ward)

Me: Oh, okay.

Then later it turned into this:

Trey: Mom, when I marry Jamie, I will kiss her.

me: Okay

Well, then I got a call from Jamie's mom telling me that Treygan pointed Jamie out to his friends at recess and told them all about marrying her. I then decided to talk to Trey and tell him that it's just fine that he wants to marry Jamie, but how about we not tell everyone about it, it embarasses her.

A couple days later:

Trey: Mom, when I marry Jamie, will we live together?

me: Yes.

Trey: At her house?

me: You'll probably have your own house.

Trey: Oh! Don't worry mom, we'll live close by in the house next to Abby. (a neighbor).

me: Okay, I'll remember you said that!

As cute and sweet as all of this is, I can see that he has a bit of my personality in him...I remember counting the years until I would be able to get married, even in elementary school! I've always had a hard time living in the present and I want my kids to enjoy every bit of their childhood. We're trying to tell him to just worry about Kindergarten right now. All of this made me want to enjoy their childhood too. Last night, Brooklyn and Taylee were already in bed and Justin was out. I sat with Trey and played a game and read a few books and really just enjoyed being with him. The conversation went like this:

me: I want you to just stay five.

Trey: Why? I really want to be six.

me: Why do you want to be six?

Trey: So I can go in first grade and eat lunch at school.

Okay, so it's good to look forward to the future too, I just hope they'll be happy now, as kids.

Relief effort

(this is an e-mail from Justin's oldest brother Chet who lives in Tennessee, about some volunteer relief efforts his church stake has been involved in. I found it very inspiring, especially the last couple of paragraphs).

The Stake just returned from Houma, Lousiana, southwest of New Orleans. We travelled up and down the the bayous, mostly on a road called Shrimpers' Row. Most homes for a few miles were under 5-6 feet of water, yards have about 6-12 inches of mud covering everything - no way to really clean it all up.

For this trip, the church received a call from Martin Luther King III and his 'Realizing the Dream' foundation. They had been asked for help in this area. He had recently met with Quentin L Cook and another General Authority, and thought to call the LDS church. Elder John Anderson (Area Presidency) asked for 1,000 volunteers for the weekend of 9/26-28. Our stake has only sent as many as maybe 40 in the past, but we showed up with about 100 and enough for 9 crews. Total in all was 1300! - furthest out volunteers were from some remote areas in our Memphis North Stake, some 540 miles away. There was not enough room to house them all, so we had 2 staging locations, the main location being out of a local pentecostal church that was under construction. The members in Houma were so grateful, not because we were helping them, but because we were helping their neighbors and community. The local contact went to the city council and told them 'the Mormons are coming.' They have already heard that FEMA was coming, the Red Cross was coming, 'but YOU actually came.'
Anyway, a wonderful experience. It's funny how many people have just left or returned home from church as we have rolled in and started to work on their homes. This last Sunday, we approached a work order that had everything on it, mud removal, roof tarping, debris, and mold growing inside. We tarped the roof, handed out some supplies to neighbors, cleaned some debris, and then got to work gutting out the walls - 3 layers of wood paneling! The owner was not there as we started, but came in to find 15 people and a lot of work complete. Still a heartbreaker, as her husband had been waiting on the insurance money to put the home on stilts (most homes are on 6-10 ft stilts in the area) for quite some time. We found out that he passed away about 2 weeks before the storm/flood, and she received the money to raise the house right after Hurricane Gustav. But she was in good spirits. When her daughter called to say that the yellow shirts were working on her home, she stayed in church a little longer to pray for us - very moving.

In sacrament meeting, a brother asked me how many times I've done this. I hadn't thought of it in a long while, but realized that we've had 11 trips over the past 2-3 years - and we enjoy it every time. We've been told that our stake will not need to come down for the rest of the planned trips in October. While I really need the breather, I'm a little disappointed. Hopefully we'll get another chance or two.

You know, I had an insight given at the opening of Sunday's sacrament meeting with 400 other volunteers, relating to these storms. It sounds like many have been tempted to think that the increasing frequency of the earth's natural disasters is a punishment, or the judgments of God upon the wicked. But Gordon B Hinckley said that Katrina was not a punishment to the wicked.
Dallin H Oaks said in the 2004 General Conference:"These signs of the Second Coming are all around us and seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity. ... the accelerating pattern of natural disasters in the last few decades is ominous. ...The Lord (said) to the early leaders of the Church:"And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people."For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes. … "And … the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds." D&C 88:88-92

It's of note to me that these natural disasters are stated to be one of the voices used by the Lord to call and to warn us. But that doesn't make the individual storms a method of judgment on a specific group of people. So, if it's not a pronounced judgment, we find ourselves in chapter 9 of John, where the Pharisees assume a judgment when asking about a man who was blind from birth. "Who hath sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" The Savior answered that neither had sinned, 'but that the works of God should be made manifest in him'.
That's how I see these couple of storms that we've had - an opportunity for communities to come to know the church, to see it's principles in action, and to enable the missionary work at a new level. And more personally for members of the church, a call to offer a small sacrifice and temporally serve our brothers and sisters in their time of need. The Lord's voice - calling to all of us in different ways.

(D&C stands for Doctrine and Covenants. It is a book of scripture found at the end of the Book of Mormon which contains revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was restored).