For Christmas this year, my mom typed up some letters from when my dad was serving his mission. They were not just letters from him, but letters from my grandparents and aunt and uncles as well.

We've been reading through this book; me to my kids, and my kids to me. Whenever we sit down, one of us picks it up and starts reading out loud where we left off.

As everyone knows, we sure have a lot of seemingly dramatic things happen to us on a regular basis. This week, having Trevor's tire shred on the way to work and having to buy new tires ($800+ dollars later), the next morning the cows escaping the corrals and shattering the bedroom window, and truly the list goes on and on.

I'm feeling tired of the question "I wonder what Heavenly Father is trying to teach you?" every time a trial hits. Maybe it's just that Heavenly Father needs us to be strong to prepare for what is coming, or that he is using us to be an example to others. Maybe it's not that we need to learn a lesson because we have been bad. I don't feel bad. I feel like I'm doing everything I can to keep my head above water, and to teach my family about Heavenly Father's plan; to teach them to love and serve and live righteously.

Things may not come easily for us the way they seem to for other people, but that doesn't mean we are bad, or deserve trials.

So anyway, back to the book we've been reading. We were reading a story my grandma wrote to my dad about my uncle and his friend driving a truck in the mountains and it caught fire and they tried to put it out, but couldn't. So they grabbed their guns out of the cab (because back then, you never left home without a gun?) and ran away from the pickup because they were afraid it was going to explode. But they forgot to grab the ammo for the guns, and pretty soon the bullets started going off all around them.

Okay, so why is this so awesome? Because this is SO something that would happen to me. Trials happen to everyone, and maybe trials like these crazy things run in my family. Maybe it's because we signed up for these trials in Heaven before we came to earth. I think that happened. I used to love MacGyver and want to be like him. I love to think of myself as someone who is creative enough to get out of any predicament. With the Lord's help, we can be brave enough to face anything. My uncle was a good example of facing a trial. My grandma wasn't mad about the truck being on fire. Wait, maybe she was, but she didn't seem mad in the letter. I mean, they shoveled SAND in the cab and on the engine to put out the fire. SAND!!!! That would have ruined the engine!! I'm not sure on the details of how they ended up fixing this truck, but I'm sure it was a huge trial to come up with the money to have it fixed.... and they did! Wow!

I come from this amazing heritage of fighters! I'm a fighter too! Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for trials or bragging that I'm so good at them, but facing these things headlong and with a fighting spirit, they can be conquered. Pray for help and guidance! Angels will be sent to you to help you through whatever it is you are facing!

Wow!

I am really rambling here! This was supposed to be a house update...

Heh. Heh.

Bye for now.

This has been an installment of Deep and Rambling Thoughts with Alyson

20 Second Update

This is going to be fast, because I'm behind and if I don't get this up, I may never do it.

It's been a messy, busy, crazy holiday for me.

1. Managed to pull off Christmas. The kids and I sang in church for the program on Christmas Eve. All the pj's came in time for Christmas. Thank you Zulily for being so cheap!

2. Went to Spokane to photograph my nephew's wedding between Christmas and New Years.

3. Made a rice crispies house the night before I left for Spokane with my kids. We meant to do it before Christmas, but I'm just grateful we got it done at all.

3. Pulled the new bathroom vanity apart and built a pull out stool into it.

4. The cows got out in the middle of the night and a long-horn steer broke the girls' window. Still working on fixing this one.

I got my Christmas pulled together. Despite everything hectic and crazy going on, I'm almost ready to ship out my gifts. 

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Of course, there's the last minute preparation, and you know me, I think of something to make and I'm determined to make it happen. 

So here I am, scrambling to finish this one last gift, and this one has to travel pretty far. I'm not sure if I'll make it on time, but I'm not giving up. 

Sigh. 

Sickness, Surgery and Setbacks

This week has been nothing but sick kids. Carter has been sick all week. He had a fever of 103.5 on Wednesday night. He has a fever of 101.5 right now. Will too has been sick. He has been lucky to not have the sickness as bad as Carter.

Will fell off the couch and landed on his hand very hard. We found out he has a slight buckle hairline fracture in his wrist. He doesn't have a splint or cast on it though. The doctor felt he was okay without it? Yeah. Weird.

Logan has been fine until Friday when he started complaining of his head hurting and stomach feeling gross. Then he threw up and went to bed.

Samantha was the one who brought this home and has been sick for just over a week.

Phoebe is not sick, knock on wood, because I need her to stay healthy. We are trying to schedule a surgery for her to get her tonsils out over Christmas break. Hopefully we will have it scheduled tomorrow.

And because we are awesome and strong, despite all of this week's obstacles,  we finally put our tree up and decorated it on Friday. Also, we put up a lot of drywall and Trevor hooked up a few more electrical circuits and put in some salvaged light bulbs. We pulled back some of the mesh covering on the "insulation" and found out that the insulation guys cut a few corners and didn't foam between the cracks around the windows where there is a mess of 2x4s. We foamed it in and when Trevor got out of church today, he ran over there to check on things and took a few photos for me. We still don't have heat over there, because the hvac guy has not come back. We hung blankets on the doorways into the boys bedroom, and turned on two heaters in there. It gets it warm enough that the kids can hang out in there all day with their coats and snow pants on and stay pretty warm. It's better than sitting in the car all day.

Long Time, No Talk

Hey all,

It's been crazy, crazy, crazy lately. I have barely had time for sleep. Last weekend was not spent at the house working. On Thursday I went to Boise to take photographs for my niece on the day before her wedding. Then I left and drove home to get ready for the craft fair that I participated in last year and somehow decided would be good this year too. It actually was good. The craft fair was on Saturday from 9 to 5. I saw a lot of customers from last year and a lot of new ones for this year.

Alysa was my right hand lady and Sami came and helped for the day too. We served 18 families total. That's pretty good I'd say. That's an average of 1 photo shoot shot and edited every half hour.

That was last week.

Yesterday we started in on the pile of drywall. We have most of the living room done and one bedroom. Drywall is not very fun, but at the same time, it's exciting to see the rooms taking shape.

And I also entered a contest for "best holiday cat" photo. Something like that. It's for Trevor's work.