should be a fun game to watch tomorrow though. i'll have to admit that living in a town with the highest concentration of BYU fans outside of Provo...i usually go red. it's about the most rebellious i get.
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth, and power as no other Nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us.
“It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our … sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” (John Wesley Hill, Abraham Lincoln, Man of God, 4th ed., New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, p. 391.)
WOW!!
random ingredients:
i ran a 1/2 marathon last week and did better than expected with my utter lack of training. i went all by myself but ended up seeing my awesome cousin christy there. she is a machine.
our back door neighbors the smithson's moved to california. as you can see...my kids have lost a huge chunk of neighborhood playmates in one fell swoop. (they have 7 kids - two sets of twins) we are not happy about it.
this was nora on our way to family pictures last week. nice.
the cutest little note left by our awesome babysitters.
this was how nora entertained herself at old navy while i waited in the check out line.
u2 concert baby!!! it rocked, and so do all these people we got to go with.
can you believe this truck we were behind on a quick trip to tuscon? ya...we passed it as soon as we could.
paul does it again...seriously...he's good.
the story of these pennies is too funny. i'll try to make it brief. so, if you know paul then you know that he's a bleeding heart. he would give away his services if he could. unfortunately some people have taken advantage of that. he gives way more discounts than he probably should. this brings us to a lady that he worked on. he gave her multiple discounts and lots of time to pay. she never did. so, after months and months of back and forth they finally decided to just cut the bill down to something she would be able to pay. she didn't. they had to take her to court where the judge upheld the agreement. she came to court with the money for her bill...in PENNIES. i guess she somehow thought she was getting a raw deal and felt like this would be payback. i'm thinking it was probably WAY more of a chore for her to count out each and every penny than it was for paul's office to take it to a coin counter. people with this entitlement attitude crack me up...okay they usually make me mad, but this one cracked me up.
max got to spend a morning with dad at work. i love how you can tell he has a huge smile under that mask!
nora only wants to wear flip-flops so i went to hobby lobby and got five for $1.47 each. then i went to the dollar store and got five bunches of flowers for $1 each. now we have these cute flip flops and a ton of extra flowers for hair bows, etc. total cost $17 or so.
nora is such a poser. i was working at my computer and turned around to see this scene. my sweetie, my favorite couch, and one of my favorite books. i had to take a picture asap. unfortunately only the phone was close enough to use. good enough.
you'd think i lived in utah! (click to enlarge)
so...paul and some of his buddies thought it would be a great idea to head down to mexico and go deep sea fishing. this photo shopped picture might give you a clue to how it went down (or really up) for almost half the group. paul was crackin' himself up with this short little video he took below.
day 1: grammie and papa's ward party - nora the princess (what else?), max, jack, and ella (pre-wig). nice look ella. she was really playing the part.
day two: nora to preschool as a flapper girl.
halloween night: ella don's the wig, and nora wants to be just like ella...what else is new! it was hilarious seeing her posing like she was all tough. this couldn't be further from nora's (and ella's for that matter) true character. i guess that means it was perfect for halloween.
Just trying to put this little quote into action...
"We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes."
Thomas S. Monson
Hendrick and Ella May Poelman are my grandparents...the parents of my father. They have six incredible children...five of them still living. 
Here are the four boys. My dad Stuart, Lloyd, Keith, and Ron. They are mid-song here. It was so great to have this impromptu concert of old beloved Scottish songs. 
And how fitting it was when this bag piper came by with those beautiful pipes humming.
My cousin and uncle lovingly tended to the grass around the headstones.
Here is the whole group that arrived. Amazing. Like I said, this was an impromptu gathering. My Aunt and Uncle from Arizona/Idaho were in town and had told my Aunts siblings that they were going to the cemetery at a certain time. They must have each called their kids to let them know also. I was at the hospital with Max and my Dad called. We knew nothing was going to happen very soon there, so Paul stayed with Max and I just ran down right then. I was shocked and thrilled to see all the people there. It is truly a testament to my grandparents.
As I was driving away, I spotted my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Lloyd still lingering at the graveside. Their son (my cousin) Stephen is buried right there beside his grandparents. He died tragically when he was 20 and I was in High School. I will never forget that time in my life. My Aunt and Uncle have been through a lot and have always emerged better than before. I admire their strength and humility.If you haven't heard of Reflections of Christ...click HERE. This is a video/slideshow of their most recent work...photographs depicting Christ visiting the Americas as told in 3 Nephi of the Book of Mormon.
Here's the crew on the morning of Monday August 10th 2009!
Ella is a big 4th grader and about the cutest ever if I do say so myself!!
Jack is in 2nd grade an was as ready as ever to start up again. 
It really was all about Max this year. He is a Kindergartner and couldn't be happier about it!
Nora even got to go to an open house for preschool on the same day! Her she is with adorable Miss Tiffany. 
Of course I took the kids to school on the first day and was snapping away with the camera. Max looked too cute sitting in his desk next to his buddy McCrae.
Here is a shot from the front of the classroom as I wanted to get that front row in the picture. Three of his other buddies are in his class Blaine, Drew, and Tate! I didn't even shed a tear because I knew how excited he was and how ready Max was for Kindergarten. I was sad knowing that I really was going to miss his *constant* questions like "how long could you doggy paddle in hot lava?" or "If I have enough money when I'm nine to buy a rocket can I have one?" But really, I was just so happy for him. Max is one of a kind and keeps all of us smiling all the time. He is such a great kid and always wants us to be happy. He's going to have a fabulous year...I know it.
After dropping off Max I went outside to see Jack in line with his class like an old pro. He is seriously the coolest kid. School is a breeze for Jack and I have yet to find something that he isn't really good at. Jack makes and keeps friends easily and is always up for having fun. I could go on and on...
It cracked me up how fast they were back to playing silly games with each other and settling quickly back into friendships. 
Ella...my dear Ella...she is a gem. Here she is in line with her class waiting to go to class. I just couldn't get enough of watching her for every last second. I was NOT ready to send her back to school. Summer is good for us...Ella and I...our relationship. There is less structure, nagging, and things that get in the way. I get to see her free spirit and the enormous heart she has. I mentioned in her birthday post how good she is with little kids. It's almost like my words magnified that in her a million times. I cannot even express what a help, angel, and dream big sister/cousin she was this summer. I had several mothers asking if they could just take Ella home with them. 
Here they are walking to class. I know it seems an insignificant picture, but this is where my tears began. After they went inside I lost it. All the other Kindergarten moms were teary too, but they didn't know that my tears were for my oldest...not the Kindergartner. Of course I miss Max and have been a little wary of not seeing him all day, but this was the year of Ella. 
I got to know her so much better this summer and we had a blast. Being nine years old, I am half way through raising her. It's not fair. I want to hold onto her as long as I can. She is a treasure, a blessing, and I am humbled to be her mother.
A couple of weeks ago before church Nora kept asking me if I had straight hair or curly hair. I told her that I had curly hair like Nora, but that a lot of times I made it straight like Ella's. That was it...she wanted her's straight like Ella's. So, we started the process of blowing her hair with the blow dryer and round brush. She liked it...for about 2 minutes. Then she kept asking me if I was done. Since I only had half her hair done, the next few minutes were not pleasant. We finally got her hair all nice and straight and only used the flat iron on the most stubborn parts.
It was so crazy for me to see her with straight hair!! The kids were all enamored. She loved it and kept saying, "now I have straight hair like Ella." It was fun for the day, but swimming the next morning finished that adventure. Funny thing is that I think she thought it meant her hair would be permanently straight. She kept telling people that she now had straight hair. It took a few days for her to realize that we would have to do the whole process over again if she wanted it straight again. We haven't done it again!!! I know how she feels!
