Who Loves Ya Baby?

After spending a fun afternoon playing in the canyon sans Gabby.  The entire family was on a mission.  Mission nearly impossible was to find a cute shirt for Gabby to wear to the mission farewell of a friend.  She had the skirt, the shoes, even the jewlery, but no shirt.  Since Gabby wasn't with us on this particular trip it made it that much harder.  After trying to describe over the phone the various shirts we were looking at I came upon the brilliant idea to send her pictures of the shirts for her to view at home. 

We actually had a fun time picking out these tops for her to reject.  We even found some cute dresses that she rejected without hesitation!

Scroll down cause I love these pictures!  Check out my family in the back ground, they will make you laugh! Some of my favorite ones are the ones with Larry holding the shirts up.  I have to brag a little bit about him because he didn't get disgruntled once!  Even though this little shopping trip dragged on a lot longer than I think he would have liked and Braden was pretty much fried by the end of it.

These two dresses were a "heck no" .  Personally I thought they were pretty cute!

 

And this one on the right was my favorite.  I think Gabby would have looked simply smashing in this little number, but she didn't agree.  Neither did Courtney she had to squeeze the one in on the left.

   

I LOVE these people

 

 What a Dad!

  

She finally settled on the white tank top.  She had a cute black shrug at home that would look cute with it!

You take a group of five sunburned, wind burned, exhausted people, who don't really like to shop in the first place.  Have them spend an hour and a half looking for the "perfect" piece of an ensemble and you find out how far we are willing to go for our oldest daughter.

That.  To me.  Is Love!

Perfectly Adorable!

This is what I found when I went to check on Braden this morning.

He's decided that sleeping with Mom is the only way to go these days.


Mom doesn't agree!

Most mornings (usually around 3am)  Mom would just like to have her bed back to herself and the man that sleeps all the way on the other side (he doesn't usually interfere with my sleep except when he snores)

But how could I not love my little monkey in the middle when I came in this morning and found his sweet rumpled little head laying on my spare pillow.  His mouth forming a little "O".  He held the pose long enough for me to get a picture and then a soft little 'snort' almost woke him up.

Perfectly Adorable!

It's A Big Deal....Alright?

{Ally in Michaels trying on the Easter hats}

According to Ally, this year was a big year for her in the birthday department.  

Not only is her birthday on the magical date of April 1st, giving her license to play jokes on people ALL week long.  But she also graduated from the single digit birthdays and is now officially Ten years old.  A number with TWO digits!  It's a big deal!  Just ask her she'll tell you.

Happy Birthday my little Rose!

Sixteen and Still Sweet!

 

Last  year at this time I was wishing I could stop time and hold it in my hand.

It's funny what a year can do.

This year, I'm excited for her!

For the experiences that await her.  For the life ahead.  

Two more years of high school.  Then off to life!

I can't wait to see how her story begins!

Happy Birthday Gabrielle!  I love you!!

The Process of Refining

Many of you have probably read the story below but just for the sake of this blog.....humor me.

There was a group of women in a Bible study on the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." (Malachi 3:3) This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a silver smith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silver smith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot--then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.




She asked the silver smith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silver smith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"




He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy--when I see my image in it."

 
I love this story.  Since the first telling of it that I heard it has come to my mind many times during trials or adversity.  When I first heard the story, I cried.  Tears of joy that the Lord knows me, sits and watches over me during my afflictions.  Other times I have thought of this story I have been a little fearful that the fires might one day be more than I could bear.
 
It is this second part that I want to address.
 
Do you ever have dreams that should be scary but aren't?  I do.  Alot!  Last night I had such a dream.  I was driving along in my car going to get groceries, I believe.  The road was stretched out before me, beautiful blue skies ahead.  When, not too long into my dream storm clouds started to gather in the distance.  The wind picked up with a fury, tree branches blowing by, debree circling my car.  But, I was intent on my purpose!  I was going to make it to town to get those groceries!!  Driving down the road there were many obstacles that I had to swerve around. Many times I  cried out in my heart to my Heavenly Father for safe passage.  Further down the road I had to cross a broken bridge.  The bridge wasn't just any bridge, it was a floating bridge like the one outside of Seattle.  So here in front of me was a broken, floating bridge.  I didn't want to pass over this bridge but my car wouldn't let me stay put, and propelled me forward.  As I'm driving over the bridge the section of the bridge in front of me started to heave skyward.  Now my prayers weren't silent, they were uttered aloud and with great conviction.  I thought to myself how strange it was that I was praying so vocally in  such a public sitiation, (there seemed to be other people who could hear) since most of my prayers happen in my heart except those done in private.  As soon as the prayer was uttered aloud the road ceased to shift, and move, and allowed me to travel safely over. 
 
I don't know why I share this dream, except that I take many of my dreams seriously.  So many have come to pass.  Most of the time I don't have the understanding of my dream until after the fact and I can look back and say "ooooohhhhh!"
 
In my dream I was faced with great upheaval but called upon the Lord and was delivered.
 
About a week ago, Braden and I were looking through the Gospel Art Kit and discussing the pictures we were looking at.  We came across the picture of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace. Braden wanted me to tell him about it.  As we talked about this picture, the story of the refiners fire came back to me.  The fire that a small part of me feared having to endure was given a new perspective.  Because in the picture there were not three men in the fiery furnace but four !  In Daniel chapter 3 versus 24 and 25  King Nebachadnezzar points out Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire.....Lo I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
 
The Savior was with them. 
 
I had never tied the two together before.
 
We each much pass through the fires of affliction, the refiners fire, but as the Lord shows with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, He will be in the fire next to us if we let Him.
 
The Master whom we serve can bring us out of our own personal fires unsinged, better for the experience but unharmed.
 
May we invite Him into our lives to do so.

Walking Weather

If the "best things happen while you're dancing" (White Christmas) then the best thoughts happen while you walk.  That's how it always works for me anyway.  The weather is finally warming up enough for me to take my long springtime/summertime strolls.  I don't know if it clears my head of the cobwebs that grow inside my brain all winter, or if the smell of the earth and the growing grass add to my feelings of nostalgia and gratitude. Whatever it is these walks trigger for me deep thought and many new topics for blogging about.  Some I will share, some I won't.  But I know I am eagerly waiting to see which new thoughts jump out of my head and make it to the blog.

I hope you are too!

Dinner Was Green That Night

My family cringed  a little bit when I mentioned the green meatloaf that would be on the dinner menu for Wednesday.  But since I've got 1/52nd Irish blood flowing through my viens I felt the need to honor my Irish roots this March 17th! 

The best way to honor them in my opinion,  was to have everything on the menu some shade of green.  And the things that weren't naturally green, well, that's what the food coloring was for.

Truthfully I couldn't stomach the thought of green meatloaf.......it just didn't sound  right.  My head started taking me to fuzzy, green hamburger left too long in the fridge and I had to abandon the thought before it had time to fully materialize.  But we were able to enjoy a meal of naturally green (only two fabricated) dishes.

I myself found that the foods that are green according to nature were the ones that I could stomach best.  Our menu included:

Peas

Green Beans

Lime Kool-Aid

Pistachio Pudding

Green colored Mashed potatoes

Spinach and Cheese Rigatoni

My kids weren't overly impressed, Gabby thought that my creative talents might be better used elsewhere and Larry ate in silence like a good husband.

Oh well, there's always next year!  Happy St Patrick's Day

Here's an adorable little aside.  Braden was wiped out one night when Sam came to stay.  He crashed right on the hardwood and thankfully Sam got this pic for me.  Cute huh?

28 Days

Does it ever amaze you how much stuff you can cram into one day?  Some days I'll look back on my busy day and wonder that it was only twelve hours when it felt more like seventy two.

February was a busy, busy month for our family.  Lots of running with the kids, meetings for the mom, and traveling for dad.  During the frantic hurried moments I could feel the pressure of the current assignment and the impending arrival of the next.  I don't like to be super busy all the time.  I actually enjoy quiet time, reading stories with Braden, playing hide and seek with the kids and going for my walks.  

Our month started out with Larry leaving for his annual farm show in Tillarie.  The men decided that a side trip to Vegas should be on the itinerary, turning this usually three day trip into five.   So for five days at the beginning of this month I got to taste life as a single mom.  Props to all the single moms out there, it's not an easy job.  No one to share the driving, the cooking, the cleaning, the garbage run, the breaking up of fights, the calling the family together for prayers and scriptures and all the little things that you realize your husband helps with, after he leaves. 

Since Larry felt justifiably guilty for leaving his wife alone with four kids for five days he promised me a short vacation of my choosing when ever I wanted to go.  Turns out I didn't have to wait long.  Just before Larry left I discovered that my favorite country singer would be coming to Boise as part of a Songwriters Show.  I told Larry that I really wanted to go to this show.  He agreed, so I asked Mona to go with me.  We had an amazing time listening to three songwriters tell how they penned some of their music.  The next  day Mom, Jess and I had a blast shopping for some new clothes for Jess.  I had a fun twenty four hours with the girls but discovered quickly that I missed my hubby and kids. 

The same day that I drove up to Boise, Courtney and Ally had the rare opportunity to meet with the Governor of the State of Idaho.  It was a community forum set up to address some of the issues that small towns in Idaho face.  The fourth graders (Ally's class) were invited to sit in and listen.  Courtney was invited along with the other student body officers.  I was excited with this opportunity for them but overall they said our Governor is a pretty boring guy......sad.  They also said he needed to comb his hair.....even sadder.

Things were relatively normal until this last week of the month.  This last week put the icing on the busy cake.  Two to three appointments a day, along with coaching Courtney's volleyball practices and tournaments, a talk in church, as well as the already full day of being a mom, throw in a birthday and all I can say is......

Let's not do that again anytime soon, shall we?

Tender Mercies on Top of Everything Else

It's been one of those month's I tell ya. 


One long crazy month...........


and it's only January eleventh.


Below is a copy of my facebook status tonight:

"just got home from the Dr with Ally this time. She has pneumonia and a partially collapsed lung. Her lower lobe on the left side looks to be either collapsed or "congealed" because of the pneumonia. Thank goodness for tender mercies."

Now below is a reply from Gabby:

"i don't get it, how is that a tender mercy?"

Ahhh, the question for the ages.  To the naked eye the above statement does look to be a little lacking in the department of tender mercies but that's because you only have half the story.

Let me fill you in.

I don't know why, but for whatever reason, we have spent many winters inside the sterile walls of a doctor's office.  From the time she was two years old Gabby had chronic sinusitis and everytime she caught a cold, she got a sinus infection.  Round after round of anti-biotic's were administered, and they worked, but with a new cold came a new infection.  That started our frequent trips to the Doctor in the winter.  Gabby was also highly suseptible to strep throat and her sister illnesses, scarlet fever and scarletina.  Since then, with only one exception that I can think of, we have spent wintertime batteling strep throat, viral pneumonia, and the many ills that come with winter.

This winter has been no exception.  Gabby has missed ten days of school, Courtney fifteen.  But Ally was doing pretty well.  No cough or cold or anything else.  Until two days before Christmas she complained of a sore throat.  Knowing our family history I took her to the doctor right away.  Turns out of course that she had the first strep throat of the season.

Ten days of amoxicillian and she was all better, well, mostly.  A few days after she finished her medicine Ally developed cold like symptoms.  Coughing, runny nose,  and this was the weird part, she started taking a nap every day after school.  I wasn't worried, I knew she was coming down with a cold and she could use the extra rest.  In the meantime, Gabby had been having the same cold like symptoms, I even teased her about spreading it to the rest of us.  On Sunday Gabby started complaining about a horrible sore throat and pain in her ears.  Larry took her in to the clinic and turns out she has strep throat and a double ear infection......ahhh, the joys of being a mother. 

Along with Gabby and Ally, Courtney has been having those same cold like symptoms.  But with Courtney's symptoms have come the sore throat.  So Sunday night I determined that I would take the girls to the Dr on the morrow.  I told everyone they were staying home from school on Monday, surprisingly I didn't get any complaints.

If you haven't noticed yet we go to the Doctor ALOT.  Even with insurance the co-pays really add up.  We can spend up to two or three hundred dollars a month in the winter on DR visits and prescriptions.  So with this in mind I thought I would only schedule one dr visit and let the dr check ears and throat of the other patient out of the kindness of his heart.  For some reason I really felt like I needed to make that appointment for Ally, even though Courtney had the more extreme symptoms.  Technically there was no reason for me to take Ally to the Dr today.  She felt fine, she looked fine, she acted fine.  When I called in to schedule the appt, the receptionist asked me what her symptoms were, I told her "sore throat, fever, vomitting", true, she had had a low grade fever the night before and her excessive coughing caused her to "spit up" a little bit but these alone would not have prompted a visit for her under normal circumstances.  But for strange and unknown reasons to me at the time, I felt like she needed to be seen. 

Ally even argued with me on the way to the Dr.,  "Mom, I don't know why I have to go to the doctor, I feel fine."

When we got to the office and the nurse was interviewing Ally about her symptoms, imagine how silly I felt when the nurse said to Ally "so you have a sore throat.?" and Ally says "ummm, no"  and when the nurse asked me why she was being seen I told her, "I just wanted to make sure her strep throat didn't come back......?"  It was true in a way.  I was there at the doctor with Ally and I didn't know why.  The feeling that she needed to be there wasn't overpowering, it was just there.

The doctor came in and did his doctor thing.  He looked at her throat, it was fine.  He checked her ears, they were fine.  He listened to her cough, listened to her lungs, listened and listened some more, and said "something's not right".   He ordered a chest x-ray and found what he was looking for.  The picture of Ally's chest show a beautifully shaped lung on the right hand side.  Clear as day.  On the left there appears to be only half a lung.  He pointed out that the cloudy white portion on the bottom of the left lung was infection or a possible collapse.  He was a little puzzled however because Ally wasn't showing any signs of pneumonia, other than a cough. 

I don't know when we would have discovered this pneumonia if it hadn't been today.  Would I have sent Ally to school tomorrow, feeling fine as she did, only to have this develop into something far worse than it is?  The feeling that she needed to be seen today was definitley a tender mercy.  It reminded me again that Someone bigger than me knows all and is leading me carefully by the hand.

Keep Your Eye On the Prize

Little gems of wisdom are inside each of us waiting to be spoken.


My mother in law Cindy spoke such words for me today.  A story from her own life that I hope she won't mind my sharing.

First however, let me give you a little background and some insight from my own life.

I knew the Roemers that lived down the road for as long as I can remember.  They farmed next to my grandparents and subsequently my parents.  I remember the great big man that was Lawrence Roemer.  He always waved a great big wave and had a great big smile for the Morrison girls who were outside playing.  I didn't know him as well as I would come to know him one day after marrying his grandson, but I always knew he was a kind man.  Since coming to know him I have discovered a great man who loved his family, worked hard to provide for them and gently taught at times.  It is one of these teaching moments that I want to share with you.

At the beginning of each farming year in January Lawrence would sit down with his family, Audene (his wife), Cindy(his daughter) and Rick (his son in law) and begin to plan the coming year.  The first question he would always ask would be, "what is the prize for this year?"  The answers usually consisted of something that had to do with the farm, 34 ton sugar beets, 400 sacks per acre of potatoes and so on.  Each year started the same.  Lawrence went to the bank with his request for a loan with his goals firmly in place.  Periodically during the year the phrase "keep your eye on the prize" was repeated.  And every year with little exception the prize was attained, the harvest brought in and another year began.

January of 1978 started out much the same with a family meeting.  But by mid  January, unexpected and heartbreaking news.  Larry, then five years old, was diagnosed with a rare disease about which little was known at the time.  Aplastic anemia.  As a mother I wonder sometimes how you hear the news that your  little boy has a limited number of days left on the earth.  The despair that fills your heart at those first uttered words of the doctor "he will only live for a few months" would be all consuming.  This is the position that the parents of my husband found themselves in.  Stepping out of the Doctors office with no where else to go to be alone, they found a nearby phonebooth, went inside, shut the door, held each other and cried.

Thankfully, for me, the story doesn't end there. 

As Rick and Cindy were coming out of their private chapel, Lawrence found Cindy and pulled her aside.  He hugged her tightly and whispered close to her ear "what is the prize?"

Cindy, still distraught over the news, mourned to her father that there would be no prize this time.  Her little boy was going to die.

Lawrence, the son of immigrants, said "No!  There is a prize, he WILL live!  He will be home before the year is over.  That is our prize this year"

Larry came home from Seattle on Dec 21st of that same year.  Years of illness, heartbreak, doctor appointments and airplane rides while he fought with this disease will never erase the fact that the prize was attained that year and every year after.  Larry is now whole and well. 

What a legacy of faith and courage that I have to pass on to my children.

Everyone of us has something that we want to accomplish.  Define it, plan for it, then.....

"keep your eye on the prize"! as you set out to attain it.