THE CLIMB

After every storm in our lives, there is always a rainbow...

As I've been able to look back and ponder over the past years, I'm amazed at how the Lord works in our lives.  He has helped me climb many mountains and see the beauty in my life at each step of the way.  Sometimes it's been harder to see, but He's been there and I know that He will always be!  He's helped us through so much heartache and struggles, but it's in those moments when it hurts the most that's when we also grow the most.  I've had to learn to trust in Him and in His timing and know that things will be okay.  

 I've found that every time I read my scriptures, I learn something knew even though I've read them countless times before. He is constantly teaching me and truly reaching down as I'm reaching up to Him.  I've seen those tender mercies the Lord promises us as He's been able to work through others.  How blessed we are and how grateful I am for all those who've listened to those promptings and come to our aide even though they might not realize how much of an answer to prayer they were.  I know the Lord has something great in store for us and my little family and hope that I can hear and respond to the times when He needs me as His hands to help someone else.  I know "where much is given, much is required." and I have much to give.  

So today, I am grateful for the climb that I've been able to make and am now looking out and see what beautiful blessings and view I have right now, but the climb is far from over.  I'm reminded of a song that I've heard the last few years and it helps me keep perspective on my progress and my attitude.  May we all keep moving up and enjoying the climb through each day no matter the struggle because in the end, what a view we will have!  Here are the words:

"The Climb"
(by Miley Cyrus)

I can almost see it.
That dream I'm dreaming, but
There's a voice inside my head saying
You'll never reach it
Every step I'm takin'
Every move I make
Feels lost with no direction,
My faith is shakin'
But I gotta keep tryin'
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down, but
No I'm not breaking
I may not know it, but
These are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most
I've just gotta keep goin', and
I gotta be strong
Just keep pushing on, cause

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb

Keep on movin'
Keep climbin'
Keep the faith baby
It's all about, it's all about
The climb
Keep the faith, keep your faith...

We're BACK!

Well, I'm back!  Surprised?  Me too!!

The divorce was finally over as of Dec. 2nd and it's amazing the weight that was lifted off my shoulders and the forgiveness that has come since then!  The hard times of parenting with Brett are not over yet, but I hope it will get better as time wears on!  I have been able to see some of the Lord's time table reasoning behind the time it took for the divorce to be over.  I've been dating a wonderful and amazing man and I'm excited about what the future will bring!  My kids and my family love him and it's fun to see him interact with them!     
 I am now a graduate of Utah State University and it feels great to be done!  The kids are excited for me not to have school or homework to do too, even though I tried to keep everything at a minimum when they were awake!  My sis.-in-law asked Tepaynga if she was excited for me to be able to play with her now, and she looked at her like, what are you talking about she plays with us everyday!  That was good to hear that they haven't felt neglected throughout this process!  I recently interviewed for a job at Blanding Elementary School, not thinking beforehand that I would have a chance, but nailed it and I now have a job too!  Now it's on to figuring out what I am doing for the summer...

The kids are growing up fast and keep me on my toes!  This school year is nearly over and I've seen my girls grow so much this year.  They have really excelled in their classes and have become my little bookworms, especially Mekayla!  They both qualified for the school AR field trip for this year shortly after Christmas break, which is amazing!  Their report cards show straight A's and out-standings and I couldn't be more proud of them!  Dallin and Kaydan have had a great time going to a variety of friends houses to play while I did my student teaching this last semester.  They are now missing their friends from their social life, even though they are really glad to have mom home!  I am in the potty training stage with Kaydan and Dallin is learning to read.  Kaydan is talking like you wouldn't believe and carries on grown up conversations with you.  He picks up all too well on things that you say or things he hears, we have to be really careful with what we say and do and the kids know if they've slipped because he reminds them what they said! 

The Lord has blessed us so much this year and we have really felt his hand in our lives everyday!  It's such a great feeling to be on this side of all of our huge trials we've faced in the last few years!  I know that we've grown closer as a family and have really learned to rely on each other...I hope we are always close and can communicate well in the years to come!  Our counselor has been impressed by the improvements she's seen as well and we are getting better everyday-the kids still have some setbacks occasionally, but have found new ways to deal with things.  We've had a lot of great help from people willing to babysit to finding our utility bills have been paid and more.  The community has been amazing!  My kids have been able to get to know my grandparents by being here.  I'm so grateful too because 2 of them have passed since we've moved here 3 years ago.  They are so good for my grandma who is tied down at home because of her levels of oxygen that she has to have now.  It's so fun to see them together and know the woman that I have grown up loving!  I hope they've found some great heroes in these great people and in my own parents who I could not have done without!

The following is just a few ideas of what we've been up to the last few months we've been away...enjoy! :)

I'll try to keep better updated, but once again, I make no promises because things are always changing at our house!  Thanks for being patient with me getting back on! :)

Great New Family Pics and Update!

 This is one of the many family pictures that turned out great!  It was hard to choose one!

 I loved this picture!  They just did that on their own-so precious!

 My little Kaydan @ 21 mo. old!  He's growing up so fast!  He is a busy boy who has new vocabulary everyday!  He is not a baby anymore!  When did that happen?!

 It was rare to get Tepaynga to smile a normal, 

not posed smile, but she had many this time! 

She is 7 almost 8 now! She is excited to be in 2nd grade and be getting baptized in October!

 I loved how this picture showed off Dallin's blue eyes!  

He is three and will be four in about 10 days-yes he is excited!  He loves to play good guys and bad guys right now!  He was honored to be the "Little Mr. Wrangler" this year for the fair and got to ride in the rodeo!  He's such a fun kid (most of the time!)

 

Mekayla is really growing up on me!  She will be 10 in December and it blows my mind!  

She is in 4th grade this year and is excited to be in the "Upper Grades"!!

I am in my last official classes semester of school and then I will do my student teaching for the Spring semester!  It is going to be a tough semester, but I look forward to being done and be able to do instead of sit and listen to what I am supposed to do!  The divorce still isn't over, although we are hoping it will be before long!  It's crazy how long the law system takes, especially when you have complications with the other side of things!  The kids had to go stay with their dad for an extended stay this summer and it was really weird and hard to have them gone so long!  The girls were gone a month and Dallin for 2 weeks and Kaydan for 1 week.  It's nice to have everyone back together again and hope to be this way for awhile!  

The Lord blesses us everyday as we see little rainbows in all we do!  Thanks to all of you for your prayers and concern on our behalf! 

Educational Song for Water Cycle for My College Class

The Beautiful Country We Live In!

What a gorgeous place we live in!  I am so grateful for our country and the freedoms we have!  I am especially grateful for the freedom to worship as we desire and for the gospel that we have in our lives!  A big thanks to those that have made it possible for us to have what we enjoy everyday!

A School Assignment!

For my INST 4015 class, we were asked to post to our blogs about the different educational blogs that we would enjoy following and something we liked about each one.  So if you will bear with me, I will do just that! 
One of the blogs that I liked was http://www.2mgems.blogspot.com/ as it gave quite a few details on the classroom projects and they gave me some springboard ideas for my future classroom.  The next on that I enjoyed was http://room9nelsoncentral.blogspot.com/.  This blog gave me ideas for integrating technology into the classroom for students to participate with it.  The third one that I found interesting was http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337 for it's ideas of how to share the information learned in the classroom with others.  I learned a lot in this assignment and hope to be able to keep following these and others as I make the education journey, now through retirement!  Thanks for humoring me!

Our Little Family

Just an Update on Us!

I finished spring semester with flying colors (4.0) much to my surprise and relief!  The Lord surely blesses us everyday!  I got a whopping 4 days break and am in the first half of the summer semester of classes.  This summer I am signed up for 16 credit hours broken into the two summer halves.  I will have to spend a week in Price for a class that was not offered down here.  I can see a glow at the end of the tunnel with school!  I will be student teaching come January and will graduate if all goes right in the spring with my ELED degree and an ESL endorsement.  My family have all been a great support to me and I thank them for that!  I am the primary chorister for our ward and love teaching the kids about music and how it draws us closer to the Lord. 

Mekayla is finishing third grade next week and is 9 years old.  She is a blessing to have in our family and is the "2nd mommy" around here.  She is such a great help and for the most part likes helping out!  She is developing her artistic talents and is doing great!

Tepaynga is finishing 1st grade and has excelled all year that the top of her class.  She is 7 years old and is looking forward to being baptized in October.  She and her sister are the either the best of friends or worst of enemies, but they both love to be creative and make our home a fun place to be! 

 Dallin is such a sweet boy most days at 3 years old and loves to help me around the house.  He is the man of the house afterall!  We do preschool together here at home and he loves it and reminds me if we get busy that we need to do it!

Kaydan is such a joy to have around, but a handful at the same time at nearly 19 months.  He is such a busy little boy, but he can melt your heart in a second!  He keeps us on our toes and is learning to talk and do all the things big kids do as he catches on to things in record time!

 
 There are always challenges in our lives, but we know that we couldn't do anything without the Lord right by our side the whole time!  We have been truly blessed and see it in our lives everyday!  Thanks to all you who are some of those blessings!  What a joy you are to us!