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.

The Ugly, The Bad and most of all The Good!

I have noticed over the years that when bad things are happening in my life, I tend to not write. It is as if somewhere in my mind there is the feeling that if I don't write about it that it didn't really happen. During the past few months we have been hit with one bad thing after another in our family. It all started when Bill was diagnosed with cancer. It was found during a routine check. How could my very active husband have the dreaded word "cancer?" (We have been working through his treatment, and things are going very well.) Shortly after that, Ethel was put in the hospital with multiple problems and well since March, I have had someone either in the hospital or in the ER every 2 weeks. It is really bad when the ER staff knows you by name, and well, you know them as well. It has just been a bit of an ugly stretch for our family. This all caused so much stress that it sort of made me sick with bleeding ulcers and sleep deprivation and that was bad.

However, through all of this there has been much good . . .

In preparation for recieving the priesthood, Daniel learned to how to tie his own tie.

Well lets try that again Daniel. . .

Jessica was once again on the YMCA Swimteam and she with her fellow Barracudas finished the season winning the North Suburan Confernce title. Jessica greatly improved her times this year and will continue to swim 1000 meters, 3 days a week in prep to be on her High School team in the fall. Jessica isn't built like many of the other girls, at first that was a great disavantage until her coaches put her to swiming the power strokes. Seems that she is built perfectly for those. That would be the Freestyle and the Butterfly. She won many personal ribbons this year. We are very pleased.

Between events we spend a lot of time at what is called the "crash site." Here the swimmers re-fuel, re-hydrate, and relax--it is extreemly noisy. The avarage meet lasts 4-5 hours. All of the events are under 1 minute of swimming. Jessica usually participated in 3-5 events. I spent my time knitting.

At the beginning of June I was released as Relief Society President. I was exteemly sad, however somewhat releaved as well. During my time as RS Pres. Our family developed a wonderful relationship with the missionaries. Now I think it is in the book they have, that the Helm famliy is weird, but always has extra seats at the table for dinner. We have them at least 2 times each month. It greatly enriches our lives meeting and getting to know these young men. As time moves while they are on thier missions, they miss things they did before they left. One of the things our Elders missed at the beginning of June was going to camp (Scout camp, and Girls camp was the first 2 weeks of June) So we built a fire in the fire pit and let them cook dinner for us over the camp fire. We also introduced them to a family favorite--Wookie Vomit.

Elder Jensen and Elder MacIntire couldn't wait. . .

Mandy turned 22 on July 3rd and we forgot to take pictures of most of her birthday stuff, except Jessica was so proud of making her fruit pizza that she took a picture of it early. Notice that the fruit spells the word "Happpy"

Each year, on the 4th of July we have a family tradition--we get up early and make doughnuts in the shape of stars. This year the missionaries wanted to be a part of this tradition. We then take the doughnuts to the ward picnic.

Daniel and Josh told the Elders that at the end, when we don't have much dough left we make doughut holes and then we get to eat the doughnut holes. That is when they quit making doughnuts and concentrated on the holes.

Daniel turned 12 on July 10th. We celebrated with a Pirates cake made out of cupcakes.

Matthew felt that the ultra green frosting that was way toooooo thick was good for only 1 thing. . . . .a new type of hair gel. I don't think it will fly, however it probably did attract flies.


All in all, so far it has been a pretty good summer. We have read some really good books, watched some movies, and played many games. Most of all we have enjoyed being a family.

Perspective

I was praying this evening when I had one of those "oh I get it" moments and I thought I should share it with you. Often over the course of my life when I have been praying for help in something or for an answer to a question I have gotten the answer "Be still and know that I am God". Being a rather impatient person, I really hate it when I get that answer, sort of equating it to the parent who tells the child "I'll be with you in a moment, just wait". But tonight when I got that answer I got something more, kind of like an understanding of that answer in a way that I had never thought of before. It isn't Heavenly Father telling me "just wait" it is more of a "Stand back and see the miracles I am working constantly in your life." I want you to know that there are many times in my life when things have been really overwhelming, sort of like now. But I know beyond any doubt that my Heavenly Father loves me and that he pours out blessings to me and my family every day. I have seen many miracles and continue to see them, not just once in a while, but each day of my life. I have huge testimony of the Plan of Salvation, Gods plan for me and my family and my place in that plan. If it takes going through these hardships to have that knowledge than it is a price that I will pay, because I can't imagine life without knowing that He loves me. I don't know a time when I didn't know that. Elder Neil A. Maxwell (I think) once said that part of having faith in God is having faith in His timetable. I forgot that for a bit today. I guess what I am saying, is that I will do whatever the Lord asks of me, because I know that He will make it possible for me to do whatever that is. I have seen in again and again in my life. I have been richly blessed. I understand the concept of blessings coming as from the windows of Heaven and know that my life has shown this to be a true promise from God. What a blessing it is to be able to talk things out with our Heavenly Father!

Jessica's First Parade

Jessica stressed about it. She worried that she wouldn't be able to march the 5K parade route. Finding out that her cousin Sophie had run 5K helped relieve her mind on that score. She practiced. She stressed some more--what if she forgot the music?! Finally the day has arrived. It is the day of her first parade and she is going into the day with mixed feelings.

The Band is gathered at the staging point 1 1/2 hours before the begining of the parade. Now they wait. . .

Meanwhile our family has found a good spot to see the parade. We live just 2 blocks from the traditional St Joseph parade route. Annette and 4 of her children are stranded here in St Joseph while work is being done on thier car. A parade is a good thing to pass the time. So we wait. . .

The Band continues to wait. . .

The wait can drive you crazy. . .crazy. . .finally you just have to blow off some steam as you wait. . . and wait. . . and wait. . .

Boredom has set in on the curb. Books, knitting, and crocheting fill the time. Will the parade ever start??? Aunt Cheryl are they coming yet?? As we wait. . . and wait. . .

Then we hear the drum line. It is the cadance of our school. Jessica marches by playing her Melephone, smiling all the while. We cheer. She is practacally dancing down the street. Jessica is the second from the right in the below picture.

We all know that there are spoils of parades. In our family we find it amusing that Josh, our diabetic seems to have tons of candy quite literally thrown into his lap. No matter where he moved to, he was still the favorite target. It is alright. The haul is for all, and Mom will give most of it away in the next couple of weeks.