When my steps were put in, the two flower beds that I had on either side of my walkway were stomped into mud. I looked at them, but though "who cares I am getting new steps. I can plant new flowers later. I also thought that perhaps some of the flowers would come back. I was major surprised when all that grew back was weeds. Today I decided to go out and weed the beds a see if I could get Bill to let me buy new flowers to put in these beds, perhaps mums in burgandy and yellow. So I was pulling weeds and there it was. . . just the smallest rosette of leaves growing. There were my Missouri Primroses growing back. They will bloom once again in the spring. But they are there. It is amazing how Heavenly Father makes some plants so strong that they can be totally mashed into mud. Mashed so much that there was no sign that they ever were there. Then a few weeks later, there they are, pushing up from the ground, determined to show the world that you can't keep them down. I believe that I am like these Missouri Primroses. I can learn much from them.

Trying Again

When I started this blog I had it open to anybody like my sister, and got a lot of bad emails. So I restricted it. Well I have decided to open it back up and try again. It will make it easier for those I love to get in and see what is happening with my family. I will just have to see how it goes. Thanks to those who comment. I love you all.

Grandma Comes to Town--game night

This year at the begining of August my Mom came for a visit. We asked her what she would like to eat and she said to the children decide. Mom you were a great sport about eating the most outragiously named food they could find. For those that don't know--we eat pretty normal food, but my children have pretty much renamed most of the dishes--think Addams family for the type of names. On Sunday evenings we have found that we are pretty much all home for the only time most weeks. We usually play games together. This paticular Sunday we played Yatzee. We do better if everyone has their own dice. You had better be careful with your roll though as we have a family rule that if the dice go on the floor, you loose your turn and have to cross something off your score sheet. Daniel won.

After playing Yatzee, we thought we would play dominoes. We are new to dominoes having just learned to play this summer. Who knew dominoes was a game and not just to set up and knock down? Mom put lots of thought to each move--She didn't win. Mandy had to keep up a text conversation with a friend while playing--she didn't win. Bill kept track of the points on the table at all times--He didn't win.



Many in the family believe that if you line up your dominoes just right it will be good luck and you will win. I use a classic V-formation--I didn't win. Matt made a wall of his pieces--He didn't win. Jessica put hers into neat little rows--She didn't win.

Josh used the mystic powers of stone henge--He didn't win.

Daniel doesn't have any particular way to set his up. He constantly moves his pieces around using them as some sort of building block, building new things after each turn--Daniel Won again!!

Building Steps

The stairs of our home are pretty much toast. They are all crumbling. So with the help of our home teacher Chris Roberton, the Missionaries, Elder Jensen and Elder Calquin, and the ward Missionary leader Doug Southwick, Matt and the children worked on the problem. First the tore out the old steps. This proved much easier than we thought. The hard part was transporting the rubble to the back yard where we will recycle it into the landscaping.

Brother Southwick knew that Matt would be wearing his worker hat and so brought his hippy hat to help with the work. Note the grey pony tail. Brother Southwick is pretty much bald when not wearing the hippy hat.

The forms were built using wood that Brother Southwick saved when we helped to clean out an old hobby store when they went out of buisiness. Brother Southwick told Bill and I that you never knew when it would come in handy. Two years later we found this to be true.

After pouring the cement we put yellow caution tape around it to help keep the neighborhood kids form stepping on them. We also had to be on our guard to keep them from writing bad words in our steps. We live in a bad neighborhood. Most of the time we are left alone, but we feared that new cement would be a temptation. As it turned out, one of the neighbors told the others that he would take it as a personal insult if the messed up our stairs as we were good people and didn't judge on peoples looks. Who knew? We feel very blessed.

We feel very blessed have these new steps. We know that we have 2 more sets to do, however we can only eat this elephant one bit at a time.