We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet

At 7:00 pm last night we lost our beloved prophet Gordon B. Hinkley. Kevin came upstairs and told me. I felt a rush of shock through my body, but I was surprisingly not sad. All I felt was gratitude. My thoughts went directly to the sweet reunion he must have had on the other side with his sweet Marjorie and with our Savior. I am sure the emotions of this even have not really begun to set in considering just a few weeks ago I pondered his nearing death and began to weep. However, it is also hard not to remember his amazing sense of humor and just smile at the very thought of him. He was my prophet. The prophet of our days. His energy, dedication, optimism and enthusiasm will never be forgotten. In fact, is should propel us into action ourselves. Let us take advantage of his work and attend our temples, teach our children, and prepare ourselves and our homes. I love this man, and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to experience his love.

Here is a sweet letter he wrote to his wife Marjorie after the publication of her latest book. Please take the time to read it!

"My Darling,All that is said in this book concerning your virtues is true. Your own words and those spoken by a host of friends bear tribute to your worth. More, much more, might have been included.It is now more than sixty years since we entered the Salt Lake Temple, there to be married for eternity. I had known you for a long time prior to that. I knew what I was getting into, and it has turned out as I had hoped it would. What a treasured companion you have been. Through all these years we have walked side by side as equals before the Lord. There have been good days and bad days, but the good days have far outnumbered the bad ones.Life for the most part has dealt gently with us. During the Depression, when we were newly married, we were poor and didn't know it because we were so rich in the things that really count. The laughter of happy children graced our kitchen table. The presence of a loving mother blessed our home. The Lord has opened the windows of heaven and showered down blessings too numerous to mention. He has smiled upon us in a wondrous way.We have found comfort and gladness in one another and in our children. Now they have families of their own and grandchildren. All of our posterity have brought joy to our hearts.When our children were young, you seldom traveled with me. I would be gone for as long as two months at a time. There were not even telephone calls permitted in those days. We wrote letters. You never complained. How wonderful it was to come home and be held warmly in your arms and those of our children.Now in more recent years we have traveled far and wide together. We have visited every continent. We have held meetings in the great cities of the world and in many smaller ones. We have met the distinguished of the earth. We have spoken to millions who have appreciated you greatly. With your familiar words you have won the love of all who have heard you. Your down-to-earth good sense, your sparkling and refreshing wit, your quiet and unfailing wisdom, and your tremendous and ever constant faith have won the hearts of all who have listened to you.You have been my critic and my judge. You have seen to it that my shoes were shined, my suit pressed, my tie straight. You have pushed aside the flattery that comes with public life, and winnowed the kind and sincere words of honest and loving friends. You have held at bay that old fraud of adulation and kept my feet planted on the solid earth. How I appreciate you.Your voracious appetite for reading and your relentless pursuit of knowledge have kept you alert and refreshing throughout a long and fruitful life.Now we have grown old together, and it has been a sweet experience. We have shrunk in stature and move a little more slowly. We are more forgetful. But as of this writing we still have one another--and that is so good. And when in some future day the hand of death gently touches one or the other of us there will be tears, yes, but there will also be a quiet and certain assurance of reunion and eternal companionship.'Trusty, dusky, vivid, true...'*The God of Heaven fashioned you.I love you, dear,Gordon"

ATTENTION!!!

Attention everyone, attention. Ryan is blogging again!!! Yes, it is true. He has been resurrected and is back in the blogging world. I think this deserves a round of applause! The only down side to all of this is that I had BIG intentions of discussing his current "single" situation with all of you, but I guess we will just have to let him participate.
Well, since we are now on that topic...lets discuss. Ryan, anything to say about that? Besides your current state of jaw clenching, of course! Ha!

House Arrest & Co-Pays

I am sure we are all dealing with our fair share of winter ailments. Mine is winter itself. I have officially been suffering from it since December 26th. I keep waiting for that "January thaw" that is supposed to happen, but I have lost faith. In search of a cure, I will be heading south to St. George. If 80 pound 80 year olds find reprieve there than so can I. At least for a couple of days. Unfortunately for my little guy, that is another story. He has been suffering from a good old cough and intermittent fevers.
He has been battling this since last Thursday, and in our house that is a long time. We are used to 24 hour flu's and relatively short stints of runny noses. This has been a particularly hard week because he has missed out on a show and tell, primary activity, birthday party, play dates, church, and school. He is was on house arrest.
Poor kid. Little did he know that I debated on borrowing a surgical mask from my father in law, so I could haul him around, but I feared people would think he had Saars disease. With that option out of the question, it meant that Olivia and I were his cell mates. The week actually fared well enough, but then he started asking, "Mom, can we do something fun today?" I actually almost gave in at times to let him go somewhere because he seemed well, but at the last minute I would reconsider, and it always seemed to be for the best. We had never dealt with such a virus. The fever decided to come and go every other day, and the cough even changed through out the week.
Finally, last night I caved and decided we better figure out if this was really something. After all, I didn't want to leave Kevin with an infected child if something could be done about it. At 8:15pm we drove to a doctors appointment only to find out that he was 42 lbs. with a perfect temperature, blood pressure, oxygen intake, and clear ears, nose, and throat. Twenty dollars well spent. Pssht. The only thing positive was that the doctor said he seemed well enough to go back to school. I had already decided to keep him home one more day, just to make sure, but was trilled to be able to tell him playgroup was a go for Thursday.
Well, the next morning, all was well (besides the plumbers fixing a leak from the ceiling of the downstairs guest bedroom from our upstairs master tub) for a few hours. Suddenly, he began shrieking in pain and demanded I clean the wax out of his ears. I was taken back and wondering what all his fuss was about. I began to fear that something had crawled in his ear last night and was making a nice home in there. Later, I blamed that on watching too many episodes of House. He begged for another doctors visit. I refused. I had just paid 20 bucks the night before to have his ears checked out. Instead, I changed the subject and offered lunch. Fish sticks and pears seemed to do the trick, or so I thought.
Two hours later he wanted to go again. The idea of naps was slowly beginning to slip through my fingers, but I realized I better be thankful I have a child that can communicate with me his pains in detail. We threw on our shoes and piled in the car. Remarkably there was no wait in the Quick Care (because there was no way I was driving all the way back to his doctors), and $20 later we were getting weighed, squeezed, gagged, and probed. After all the froo froo was over we saw the doc. He asked a few questions, checked the ear, and low and behold...an ear infection! How can it possibly be that not even 24 hours later he developed this? Well, now I know. If you have a cold that lasts about a week, an ear infection can very possibly follow in children.
I was happy I listened. He was happy I listened, and Olivia, well, she got two suckers. After all that was over, I rewarded them with a sprinkle doughnut and Spencer even got his own special bottles of Amoxycillen! Even better, they BOTH took a little nap when we got home.
Hopefully now everyone can have a fun happy weekend...especially ME! Thanks Kevin! You are the best!

Can I Tell You A Secret?

I HATE WINTER!!!

That's all.

Business In Front, Party In Back

This weekend, Kevin and I have a birthday party that we are going to that has an 80's theme. So, in preparation, I decided to pull out the ol' mullet wig, and give it a good brushing. Just for fun I threw it on Miss Olivia to see what she would do. Ahh, she LOVES it. We are going on day TWO of her wearing it. I am pretty sure she thinks she is Rapunzel, not Joe Dirt. When I see her run around it it I get flashes of E.T. dressed up for Halloween. Remember that waddling wig? She keeps me laughing all day!

I think I am a bigger fan of the cute little ponies!

For The Sake of Journaling

Ok, ok. I know that was some serious time that I let lapse. I can't even claim things to have been too crazy. I have a really dumb cord on my laptop that is broken and won't charge my computer. I have a new one, and I need to use it.

Anywho, Christmas was great this year. We had a great time at the Bailey Family Christmas Eve gathering. It was a super snowy night, but over all I think it just made it more festive and cozy. It was also so great to see Kevin's sister and her hubby that were here from Louisville, KY. Those visits are few and far between because of dental school, but we had a great time while they were here. The kiddies were crazy, of course, and had a blast. The highlight of the night was the pinata. The boys beat the tar out of this thing only to find pencils. The adults had a great laugh, but were soon quieted when we were told each pencil had a clue on it for a treasure hut to a gift. It was very creative on my mother in laws part, but it was so hysterical to see the faces on all the kids when they saw six pencils drop out! THE BEST! I think I still laugh about it.


Christmas day we woke up WAY to early to open gifts, but I think Spence and Oli thought it was worth it. Santa brought Spencer his coveted golden telescope (thank you Pottery Barn) and Olivia's favorite gift was a last minute $3.99 purchase of tacky princess shoes from Walgreens. Who knew, but I love it!
Later we went to my folks to eat some traditional quiche and some laid back time. The kids got entirely too much, but I am sure they didn't think so. The only thing that didn't go over well with Spencer was the solitary outfit that my parents got him. Which, by the way, he now loves to wear. Christmas was a hit. I think we just spent the rest of the night playing Guitar Hero.
A few days later we hit Vegas. It was so fun to see the family down there. The highlight was seeing AND holding little Miss Claire H. Nelson! Can I just tell you how sweet she was and how good she smelled! Ohhhh!

We had a great time...except for my four hour bout with some cruddy puking. Bleh. Let me reiterate how my body just does not accept drainage. I was perfectly fine later that night except for the sore back from retching.

I was sad to leave and excited to get home all at the same time. I always feel like I never have enough time with our family there. We just have such a great time.

Now, life is back to normal. What ever that is. I need to set some goals for myself for this year. I need to actually write them down so I am a little more accountable. Maybe a post for tomorrow to make up for slacking! I got a few floating around, but need to get going on them. Happy New Year everyone!