Mom Needs Some Ear Plugs

Mike decided to surprise Kenneth with a drum set.

He is so very, very excited!!

I am happy for him.

I think I am going to have to invest in some good earplugs :)

First Football Game of the Season

Kenneth's team had their first game tonight. It was interesting.

Here they are coming onto the field. He is number 41.

They got some good warm up time in. I thought it was so funny that every time I snapped a picture he was facing the opposite direction of everyone else on his line.

During the 4th qtr. they needed a kicker since the normal kicker was hurt. The coach looked at Kenneth and said .... he plays soccer...he can kick!

Umm....Yeah......drop kicking a soccer ball is very different!!

Kenneth jumped on the chance to do it, even though he really didn't know what he was doing. Let's just say, he needs a lot more practice if he wants to be a kicker in the future :)

This was right after the kick.

Going into the 4th qtr. the score was 32 to 0. We were zero...that's right a big ole goose egg.

The coaches finally started putting some different boys in that hadn't had a chance to play the entire game (including Kenneth). They scored 4 touchdowns in the 4th qtr!!!

I hope the coaches realize that they have some talented boys and they deserve more time on the field.

Here he is on the sidelines, cheering his team on.

I realized that sitting on a hard bleacher for 3 hours was not my idea of fun.

I also found out that since he is playing high school ball now, parents get to pay to watch their kids play!

However, watching Kenneth play for a total of 90 seconds during the entire game was worth the whole wait!

First Day of School

I told Kenneth that I wanted a few pictures of him on his first day of school. Most of the pictures are of him standing by the door just staring....no real expression....not even a hint of a smile.

So then I told him to pose....and this is what I get...

Man, I sure love this kid! Life is much more entertaining with him around.

I can't believe that he started 9th grade. He is a freshman!!! Where has the time gone???

I am super excited that he gets to start Seminary this year.

He seems to like most of his teachers so far.

He was sad that he doesn't have any classes with his friends, but they do have the same lunch hour.

This trimester he has Band, Math, Science, Seminary, and English.

Annual Back To School Dinner

We have a fun tradition of a back to school dinner.

I let Kenneth pick the menu. This year he picked steak, spinach salad, mashed potatoes, and cooked carrots.

We get out the fancy China and decorate in school colors.

The purpose is to get together as a family and set some goals for the upcoming school year.

We each picked out goals in four different areas: education, physical, family, and spiritual.

We also decide on a personal theme for the year.

Mike decided his theme would be: Engage

I picked: Simplify

and Kenneth picked: Be Positive

I think this is a sign that they like the food.....

Family Reunion Part 1

Last Thursday we headed out to the middle of nowhere Wyoming for Mike's family reunion.

We were able to meet up with Pam and Delbert and have lunch with them in Jackson Hole.

We went through about 25 miles of road construction near Togwotee Pass. Since we were driving so slow we were able to check out lots of cool looking construction vehicles.

Notice the legs hanging out from underneath the tilted cab?? Not where I would want to be. These trucks were HUGE!!

We have never driven through Togwotee pass - it was beautiful!

The elevation is around 9500 feet at the top - so we were able to see snow in July. I am still a little baffled why there was still snow when it was about 70 degrees outside.....hmmm...

It was a long drive, but we pulled into camp around 6pm.

It was 97 degrees outside (which is really HOT for us Idahoans!)

This is what our campground looked like.....

Yep...it was flooded!

Luckily, there were enough campsites that we were able to just shift to a spot on higher ground.

Overwhelmed

What a crazy week!

I have been thinking about how I feel all day today......

.....the only word that I can come up with is OVERWHELMED.

I was called to serve the Young Women in our ward about 2 years ago. Our ward was realigned a few months ago and I was blessed once again to serve the Young Women in our new ward (in the same calling). I have loved this calling. It has been my favorite and most time demanding calling I have ever had.

I am sad to say that it took me a long while to adjust to the new ward - I was being very selfish. I missed my other girls so badly that it hurt! I had become very attached to the girls and the leaders of our previous ward.

However, as I have served, I have learned to love each and every one of our young women. They are certainly different than my last group! But, I am learning to love the differences.

A few weeks ago our YW president, Erin, told us that she would be moving at the end of July. My heart sank. She has been such a fantastic leader to work with. I knew that with her moving, this would be yet another change for our young women. I thought that I might be released.....

nope.....

instead I was called to serve as the new Young Women's President.

Holy Cow!!

Really???

I asked the Bishop a couple of times if he was absolutely sure and he insisted that he was.

Deep down I knew that this was meant to be - I just didn't want to admit it.

As Mike and I drove home Wednesday night from visiting with the bishop, we talked about several things.

We talked about how hard the transition into the new ward was for me (it was pretty rough).

It was then that I realized that serving as one of Erin's counselors was one of the Lord's tender mercies in my life. He knew that I needed time to adjust and to embrace this new group of girls. He new that I needed to spend time at girls camp with this amazing group of girls and leaders. He knows me so much better than I know myself.

This new calling will certainly force me out of my comfort zone.

It already has.

I know that things will all work out how they are suppose to.....but for now ............I am just overwhelmed.

I will have faith!

I Agree.....

The more I read this, the more I LOVE it! I am going to frame it and put it in our home.

Girls Camp

We had an amazing time at Girls Camp this past week!!!

Our theme was

A.R.M.Y

B.O.O.T Camp

That stands for A Royal Mormon Youth, Building On Our Testimonies.

We took 14 girls and spent 3 1/2 days in the wilderness with them.

They learned so much about each other.

New friendships were formed.

Testimonies were strengthened.

They learned that their leaders liked to pull pranks.

As leaders, we learned to love each girl even more.

We had so much fun together and didn't sleep very much.

Some of the things the girls got to do:

Set up an enormous Army tent for all 14 to sleep in.

Complete camp certifications.

Attend a local dinner theater that was hysterical.

Play games.

Hike.

Skits.

Hike into a cave.

Be scared half to death by Sasquatch and a gorilla (hehehe)

Compete in an obstacle course.

Solo time.

More games.

Participate in a great testimony meeting.

Weapons training.

Our camp directors did an amazing job!

They had such unique and fun ideas.

We had several girls tell us this was the best camp they had ever been to.

As a new ward, this was a valuable time for our girls to bond together.

Mission Accomplished!!!

So Powerful......Love It!

Random....

I plugged my camera card into my computer to transfer pictures, and this is what I found.....

I can tell from the feet that it is Kenneth.......with his laundry hamper on top of him.....

However, I am missing the details of how this happened and who was behind the camera.....

Man, I love this kid!

Book of Mormon Challenge

On Sunday we challenged the youth of our ward to read The Book of Mormon in the next 75 days. That is not very much time! BUT, I know they can do it.

Before our ward split, we did a 75 day challenge earlier this year and it was amazing. We took all of the young women that completed the challenge to Salt Lake for Young Women's Conference. So I know it is possible to do.

The reward for this challenge is a weekend trip to a super nice cabin about an hour from our home. We did a similar challenge last year and it was fantastic!

Since both Mike and I are youth leaders, we all get to participate. It is a great family experience! Last time we were all so into it that we ended up speaking "scripture speak".

Instead of saying....

"hey, will you bring that to me?"

we would say

"O my son, wilt thou go and get that for thine mother?"

It was pretty funny to catch ourselves doing it....but I think you had to be there to really experience the humor :)

This also qualifies as the virtue project for Personal Progress.

I am so close to earning my medallion........I only have a few things left, and one of them is the virture project of reading the Book of Mormon.

I have read the Book of Mormon twice in the last year...which is great....BUT.....I have to keep a journal while I read.....which is where I have faltered both times.

I am determined to complete the project this time!

I have my new Book Of Mormon that Mike and Kenneth gave me, my study guide, and a cute stripped notebook for my journal.

One thing I have decided to do different this time is to write in page headers as I go. I got the idea from Shannon (she inspires me to be a better person every day). I love being able to flip through and find a particular story or topic just by glancing at the top of the pages.

Monday night our little family gathered in the master bedroom and began to read together.

It made my heart smile.

Yahoo!!

I received an email from Dale today telling us that everything had been turned in and our profile had been reviewed and "published". This means that birthparents can now look at our profile online!!

Here is the link directly to our profile....

https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/25996283/ourMessage.jsf

Please share it with anyone you know that may be interested!

One More Hurdle

I knew that there would be a few bumps in the adoption journey. This "bump" is just frustrating.

We were fingerprinted back at the beginning of April. I just got an email today that informed us:

"The first fingerprinting was rejected by the FBI as unclassifiable."

What does that even mean?

Mike thinks that they must not have been readable. So I will wait until written notice comes with further explanation. I will have to be fingerprinted again, we just hope they won't charge us the $55 to do it again.

I just keep telling myself....this is just one more hurdle...

On a happy note, Mike's background came back clear within the week of being sent in.

UPDATE:

I received an envelope today (6/27) with a new finger printing card. I can take it to my local sheriff's office to complete. I think I know someone who can hook me up :)

That means I don't have to make an appt. and wait weeks for it to be completed. Even better, they won't charge me the $55 fee to process them again.

14 Years

In honor of Kenneth turning 14 I thought I would share:

14 Random Things About Kenneth

.....he loves animals and knows lots of random facts about them.....

.....he wears a size 11 shoe.....

.....he can prepare a talk in 10 minutes when he forgets he is suppose to speak in sacrament meeting...

.....he loves playing sports - football, soccer, snowboarding.....

.....he hates to wash the dishes without rubber gloves.....

.....he is almost as tall as his mom now....

.....he leaves me random sticky notes that brighten my day and make me smile.....

.....he is amazing on a variety of percussion instruments.....

.....he hates taking piano lessons.....

.....he tries really hard to make good choices.....

.....he has a fantastic sense of humor.....

.....he likes to read Calvin and Hobbes books.....

.....he knows how to do his own laundry, but prefers mom to do it for him.....

.....he is the best teenager we could ask for.....

Love you tons!!!

The Birthday Boy!

WOW - How can he be 14 already?

Kenneth had a great day.

He was able to sleep in.

He had lunch with Mom, Dad, Grandma Susan, and Janey.

Grandma and Grandpa J took him to see The Green Lantern and out to dinner at Winger's.

We had scrumptious cheesecake.

Daniel came over to spend the night and they stayed up waaayyyyy toooo late.

One Step Closer

The following is the email that I received from our case worker, Dale, today.

Hi Mindy,

Your home study will be completed soon and then you’ll get “published”, meaning your profile will go live on the “itsaboutlove” website. So I don’t think you have any more to do except wait. We will let you know when you’re published.

Dale

Paperwork Completed

We have finally completed all of the adoption paperwork (I think). I emailed our case worker, Dale, and let him know everything from our end is done.

Now we wait....

Piano Recital

Kenneth did great at his piano recital.

He played the theme from Jurassic Park and Prelude in C Minor by Chopin.

Kenneth with his piano teacher, Erin (who lives just across the street).

All of the kids that played in the recital.

All of them are from our neighborhood and come from amazing families.

Trinitie, Makayla, Mikayla, Kenneth, Lexi, Mayli

Erin, Autumn, Katie, Miranda

New Ward = New Callings

We met for the first time as a new ward today. It was weird being in the same building and seeing some of the same faces.... but there are so many people that I don't recognize - including the bishopric. We had never met any of them before. This is going to take some time to get use to!!

Since we are part of a new ward, that meant we were automatically released from our callings. I was so incredibly sad!!! (I don't think that phrase adequately described how I felt)

I have loved serving in the young womens for the past almost 2 years. I have made so many unexpected friends. My testimony has been strengthened. I have had amazing opportunities to participate in youth activities, girls camp, cabin retreats, fundraisers and the list goes on. I have worked with some of the most amazing young women. They know so much about the gospel and they know who they really are and what their goals are. The entire experience was incredible.....I did not want it to end. But that is what life is all about....change.

I was also sad to realize that Mike would no longer be Kenneth's young mens/scout leader. The young men have had an equally amazing program! I know that Kenneth has been blessed because of the different leaders he has worked with for the last couple of years. I am so very thankful for each one of them and their dedication to these young men.

Kenneth was also released from his calling as Deacon's Quorum president.

So onto our new callings today:

Mike was called to be the 1st counselor in the Young Mens. Instead of working with the Deacons - he will now work with the Teachers Quorum. (Kenneth will join them in June when he turns 14).

I was called to be the 1st counselor in the Young Womens - so I get to work with the same age group - the Mia Maids! I am working with an entirely different group of leaders and the girls are mostly new to me. I am nervous, yet excited at the same time.

Kenneth said there are only 3 deacons total and the other 2 are a year younger than him in school. He is looking forward to his birthday in June when he will join his friend Josh in the Teacher's Quorum.

We have been praying that this transition will be smooth and that we will love our new ward as much as our last.

Spring Cleaning

Kenneth likes to spring clean ........ as long as he can climb on things! He is striking a pose on top of the fridge.

We have a vaulted ceiling over our living room and kitchen and we love it! However, the ledges only get cleaned about once or twice a year. I know, that is totally disgusting!!

Don't believe me?

Check out the layers of dust that we found up there...

He is such good help. Now, how can I get him to be this excited about cleaning his bathroom?

Dinner with Mike's Family

While Mike's brother, Danny, was home from Iraq on a 2 week leave he wanted the whole family to get together for dinner. Mike's mom and dad and 5 of the 7 siblings and their families were able to get together. It is hard to get a picture of 20+ people - especially when they are all more interested in their food! Most of the little kids were sitting at the other end of the table - so you can't really see them.

We had a good night just visiting and spending time with the family.

Court of Honor

We had our last court of honor tonight as our current troop. Since our ward was realigned last week, these boys won't be in the same troop anymore. I am really sad that most of the boys Kenenth's age will be in a different troop now. We are hoping that our new ward has lots of boys his age and that he will continue to have an amazing scout/youth program!

Kenneth earned several merit badges - Citizenship in the World, Music, and Vet Medicine. He only has 3 more merit badges and a project to complete to earn his Eagle!

Mike has been working with the scouts since before Kenneth turned 12. He has had a great time with the boys! This will be his last duty as Scoutmaster. (I think he is kind of relieved.)

Kenneth and his friend, Jordan, messing around on the piano after the program.

Fingerprinting

I was fingerprinted today for the first time - at least that I remember - that's a good thing right? They don't use the ink pads anymore - instead they have these high tech scanners. It was pretty interesting to see how it was done (shows how much I get out :). Mike was not so impressed - guess he has seen it enough at work. The state worker said that both of our backgrounds were clear. Now we just wait for the FBI to review them.

One more step done!

Now we are just waiting for a date for our home visit.

Adoption Process Update

We have most of the paperwork completed now.

We still have the prospective birth parent letter to complete - we have the basic ideas down - just need to put it all together.

We have an appointment tomorrow to get our fingerprints done for the background check.

We continually pray that we will be guided to the right people at the right time.

Conference Sunday

I love general conference - I get to stay home with my family and lounge around in my jammies! (Plus we get to hear amazing messages from our church leaders). The talk about the importance of women was spectacular!

We listened to the first session of conference and then headed to my mom's for lunch.

Melissa (my sister) and her daughter were there too.

We were able to Skype my other sister Michelle to wish her a happy birthday (man she is getting old :)

Then we came home and this is what we did the rest of the afternoon/evening. Yep, it took that long!!!

While we listened to the last bit of conference we started the game. After about 4 hours we had hotels on every property on the board.

I don't think I have ever had such bad luck playing a board game in my entire life. I spent more time in jail than moving around the board during the first 2 hours. I only passed go and collected $200 3 times during that 2 hours.

I finally conceded and gave my 3 remaining properties to Kenneth. We tried to gang up on Mike, but he had much better luck than us. We even tried cheating (which he didn't even notice...hehehe) and that didn't work. We finally gave up and he declared himself the winner.

Man, I sure love these boys!!!!!!

Soccer

Another season of soccer has begun. Well actually practices began in early February. At least there is no snow on the ground now :)

This was Kenneth's second game this year. I missed the first game while in Salt Lake with the young women.

He played goalie for the second half of the game - that is why he is wearing the neon green jersey. He seems to enjoy that position and does really good at it!

This last week, his coach was able to have an experienced player come and work with the three boys that play goalie. Kenneth was excited and said he learned tons.

Danny Comes Home

eMike's brother, Danny, has been deployed to Iraq since October. He was able to get a couple of weeks of leave and come home. We were expecting him to be at the airport just before 6pm. His plane was late getting into Salt Lake, so he missed his connecting flight. Since we had a few hours to kill, all of the family went out to grab a bite to eat while we waited. Kenneth was really intent on his ribs :)

Boys are so funny.....they won't hug each other. All the women gave Danny hugs - but the men...nope (except Dad). Kenneth was happy with a handshake.

He looks good and we hope he has a relaxing time while at home.

Young Women Conference

We had the amazing opportunity to take our young women to the young women conference in Salt Lake yesterday. In January we challenged the young women to read the entire Book of Mormon in 75 days. That is not much time! Those that completed the challenge were able to go on the trip.

We met at 6:30 Saturday morning and began the day. We were able to spend a couple of hours at Gateway Mall and let the girls do some shopping.

After lots of shopping and lunch we rode the TRAX over to temple square - the girls thought this was pretty cool since only a couple have ever been on it. We toured the visitor centers and took them to the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. The view over temple square is amazing from the top of the building.

We changed into our dress clothes and headed over to the conference center. Our seats were .....AMAZING!!!!! We were 21 rows from the podium and just slightly right of center. All 21,000 seats were filled with young women, moms, and leaders. When President Monson and his counselors walked in the complete center became silent and everyone rose from their seats.

The theme of the evening was the 13th article of faith - which is our mutual theme for this year.

When Sister Dalton (the YW general president) was speaking, I had the most overwhelming experience. I have never felt the Spirit so strong in my entire life. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind of what I felt. The Holy Ghost bore witness to me that I am a daughter of God and that he has a specific plan for me. The message was crystal clear - in this life the most important thing for me to do is to be a mom.

The entire experience of taking these girls to this conference was incredible! I love every single one of the young women and leaders that I have been able to work with. I have had so much fun and learned so much from them!!!!

We knew that our ward boundaries would be realigned today, so this was one last final group experience for us. What a phenomenal way to spend our last activity together!!!!

Megamind

We watched this last night.....it was FUNNY!!!! The best movie I have seen in a while.

There were so many great lines throughout the whole show.

My favorite line:

Chicks don't like bouncy houses - they like clowns!!!

Kenneth's favorite line:

Get the spray - oh, we're all out.

Just use the forget me stick!!

HA HA HA HA HA

Prospective Birthparent Letter

We have completed almost all of the required paperwork in our adoption journey so far. This is serious business. They want to know LOTS of information - but that is good. We understand why they request so much detail.

There is one last requirement that we haven't completed yet......we haven't even started it yet. Not because we don't want to......not because we haven't tried.....but because we simply don't know what to say or how to say it.

We need to write a letter to prospective birthparents.

How do we express the deepest desires of our hearts to be parents?

How do we acknowledge the un-imaginable emotions and decisions that birthparents are facing?

How do we convey that we would be amazing parents?

How do we offer comfort to those making such crucial life altering decisions?

How do we stand out compared to so many other great couples?

And how do we do it with only a few short paragraphs?

Hmmmm.....lots of questions, but not very many answers. We will just keep a prayer in our hearts that whatever we come up with will be just right for our situation.

Chrome in the Dome

We took a quick drive to see a car show today called Chrome in the Dome.

Mike really likes old cars - especially Corvettes - like the one in the picture.

Mike's parents went with us. We had a nice afternoon just wandering around the show and then we went out for lunch.

The Beginning of Our Adoption Journey

It is official! We turned in our adoption application today. We are nervous and excited at the same time. We now wait for Family Services to let us know what to do next.

I am finding that this is going to be a very long lesson in patience :)