A long, long time ago
Today he turned 44!!
Happy Birthday to Jim!
He is an amazing husband, dad, friend, money manager, fixer of all things, gardner, pool guy, etc., etc. I am so grateful that I made the best choice of my life in marrying this great guy many years ago. I'd make that choice again and again :)
Jim, Jacquie, Riley and I just got back home after a fun filled, hard, and awesome TREK! Jim had many jobs during the experience. One of them was toting the potties. All were grateful for these :)
Here we are! These pictures are not necessarily in order-- but oh well. I'm pretty tired as I'm posting these! Can you tell we had fun? We all had very different roles on the trek, but we got see each other once in awhile! Jacquie was the YW chairman on the Trek Youth Committee. She was quite the worker. She did an awesome job.
Here are the trekkers that 'died' on the trek. Yes, you can see Riley right in the front. He was an angel for the rest of the trek. My job during the trek was to instruct those who had died. These trekkers couldn't help during most the trek. They couldn't talk either. They could smile and sing. At certain times they were able to help. It was hard for most of them to not help their families. Especially when the tasks were hard. Each trekker represented a real person from the Martin or Willie Handcart companies.
This is random... but on my first trip up to the trek site we named this rock "butt crack" rock. Sorry, but I laugh every time I see it.
Poor, poor Sister Sirman. Somehow some lovely fresh cowpie happened upon her leg. If only I had a picture of the fresh cowpie that ended up all over Sister Okerland!! Good thing I brought baby wipes :)
I love this hand off. Sister Okerland, a great "Ma", handing a delicious treat to Jacquie! :)
I caught this picture during the women's pull. All the boys left for the mormon battalion. The girls were all alone and they had quite the trail to climb. Jacquie was amazing. Since I have a broken foot, I was very limited during the trek. It did however, give me the opportunity to watch my amazing daughter push not just her cart up the hill, but to run back and help every other cart make it up the hill. She then did the same on the next hard part. She was truly a pioneer woman with a heart of gold. Her actions were awesome.
This was at the start of another very, very difficult part. Even with the men, a single family could not do it alone. It was inspiring to watch the youth who would get one cart up the steep hill and then run down to push the next cart up. Things go from impossible to possible when we help each other.
And here we are. Tired, stinky, and ready to get home. Every moment was great. It was a wonderful experience. We learned many lessons. We are most importantly grateful for the sacrifices our ancestors made to follow the prophet and come out west where they could serve the Lord how they knew they should. They sacrificed so much for us. We owe it to them to remember them and continue to do the same for those who will come after us.
About 3 weeks ago I tripped over some shoes (not mine, I'll add!) and twisted my foot/ankle pretty good. I seriously thought I had broken it. It hurt like no other. I went to urgent care. They x-rayed it, said it was just a sprain. I stayed off of it completely for 2 days and then babied it for another few days. It completely cramped my style. I have way, way too much going on to be slowed down by a silly sprained ankle.
This little wagdoggy just talked her daddy into taking her to the Cingular store. Yes, she bought a new cell phone. (With her own money-- her daddy isn't THAT soft!!) With this purchase comes one of 'life's lessons' as her daddy so lovingly calls them. So, she had to fill out the form, and address the envelope. She EVEN had to put it in the mail this morning!!
Jim recently went 'mountaineering' with his brother, Mike. Those two are crazy about maps, mountains, and backpacks. Upon his return to our car-- which was parked up in the mountains for 4 days-- he found some interesting prints. Cute, little Bear prints!! If you know me, you know that I LOVE bears. They are pretty much the cutest animal on the planet. I find it wonderful that some cute little (ok, maybe it wasn't little) bear came up to our family-loved and well-used suburban. I can only imagine the scents that drifted out from our family car. Interesting that this bear only peeked in the windows. It was very nice that he/she didn't rip off a door. Of course, the suburban had been driven by only Jim. If you know Jim, then you know that the car probably didn't smell very good once the bear got up close.... :)
There was a brand new case of water in the back. I guess this particular bear doesn't go for bottled water....
Jacquie was fortunate to go on the year-end choir trip! Our high school district has a rule that no team/group can travel more than 150 miles for competition. Lucky for them, Disneyland is only 149 miles away.
Needless to say... these kids had an awesome time!
In addition to Disneyland, they got to go to an Angels game.
Rest a teeny, tiny bit.
Enjoy the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the fun dinner at The Medieval Times. They also sang a little. They placed 4th in the competition-- receiving a 'Gold' Honor. This rating will enable the choir the opportunity to sing next year (sad for Jacquie, but a great honor for the school's choir) at Carnegie Hall!!