WHETHER YOU

fly

jump

leap

or dash

I hope you'll come on over yonder to our new blog and leave a shout out!

This blog will remain up and running but I don't think I'll be adding anything to it... it will just be here for your entertainment. As always, you are welcome!

WE MADE IT!

AND WE'RE OFF...

gonna be seein' a lot of this in the next few days...

While we were visiting my Grandma in Teton, Idaho on Saturday my Aunt Ranae and Uncle Ryan stopped in to tell Grandma hi. They are the coolest, happiest people. Seriously, they've raised like the best, most well adjusted, smart, kind, funny 9 (NINE!) kids. They are always smiling. I want to be like Ranae and Ryan when I grow up. (Some of their kids blog, you can find them under the family links - there's Doug, Megan, Angelica, and Melissa.)

So, anyway, as they were leaving, Ryan said to Ranae, "Remember taking road trips with all the kids in the Suburban?" And Ranae said, "Yes, I sure do. It is sure is fun ... not to do that anymore."

I am still laughing about it!

WORDS OF WISDOM

This morning I was talking to my friend Jennifer Stauffenberg and she had deep thoughts for me. I was telling her how I was worried about our unsold house, paying astronomical rent and a mortgage and our impending financial doom.

haha

Jenn said something to the effect that it will all be okay because we are doing what we are supposed to do and so it will all work out the way it is supposed to. Then she said, You are forgetting that this isn't your plan so you have no control. Things will work out the way they are supposed to according to the plan. Your job is to be happy and channel positive energy.

That is so true. It was NOT our plan to move to Baton Rouge. My plan was to stay in Spokane and get fat(ter) and happy(er) and raise our children and grandchildren there. My plan is not the plan we are supposed to be doing right now so why am I worrying about THE plan?

Thanks so much, Jenn. You are a true friend.

JOY!

I am sure that you are all familiar with Joy Lawton's fabulous qualities. Just put her name in the search bar at the top of my blog and you'll see a small portion of her awesomeness.

She's in Young Women's now. Which is sad, because I enjoyed sitting in the back row of Relief Society and making aside comments with her. (Jan sits in the back row too with me, but she is much more reverent.) Anyway, being in YW, they made this for our family on Tuesday night.

Let's all pause for a moment. She took canvas shoe holders, cut it in half, sewed binding on, and then FILLED the pockets with goodies. Holy cow! She never ceases to amaze me!

She also made me a goodie box that will fit under my seat. Notice the bottle of Tylenol on top. Joy reminded me it was a long drive so to be sure to pace myself on that stuff. haha! And how did she know that I travel with earplugs? I totally do! She is genius! And THAT is a fact!

Here is one of Joy's offspring, Dustin. He was one of my Webelos and I swear when I look at him, I see the 10 year old kid he used to be. I adore Dustin.

Katie is Dustin's twin and the ONLY OTHER Laurel in our ward. Katie is quirky, eccentric, and funny. You just never know where a conversation with Katie will lead, but you do know it will be entertaining!

The night that the YW made the car organizers they also had a surprise going away party for my girls. All the girls in the ward wrote in little books for my girls and it was super sweet.

NOW THAT'S A DINNER!

My friend Laura Schurtz picked up her stuff from staging my house and fixing it after the stager tried. As she was leaving with her truck fill of beautiful stuff she said, "Let me bring you dinner tonight." I am learning to suck it up and receive service so I said, "Thanks, that would be really nice."

Fettuccine alfredo and chicken.

Spinach and strawberry salad.

Let's not forget the watermelon chunks.

And some chocolate chip cookies.

And how did I miss a picture of the crusty bread? Oh, we all ate until we rolled away from the table. Thanks so much Laura!

FRANK'S DINER GOODBYE BREAKFAST

Me and my girls- FayeLisa and Charmaine - went to Frank's Diner for breakfast. It was fabulous. Have I mentioned I'm gonna miss these girls?

FayeLisa calls me Chiquita Banana so I remember to eat a banana for my vertigo - which really seems to be helping, by the way.

PIE TO SAY GOODBYE - pictures to come

On Monday night the Stokers had us and the O'Donnals over for "pie to say goodbye" and/or banana splits. I personally had a little lot of both. We meant to play games but instead just outside in the fabulous Spokane summer night air and talked and laughed and laughed.

We laughed until my cheeks hurt.

I had to break to massage.

Julie also gave us the cutest going away travel treat bag. She packed it full of fun stuff for the little boys so they can be entertained. I really appreciate her generosity and good example. They seem to have more than their fair share of trials, but she is always thinking of others and doing service.

I have pictures, but they are on the camera that needs a stick thingy and the movers already packed it. So, the pictures will have to come later...

MORE LIKE A "STUPID-CAL" (Last SOS)

If you are new to our blog then you might not know about SOS - or Sant O'Donnal Sunday. It all started with the Christiansens moved and we got new hometeachers. Tracy O'Donnal sometimes had a companion who could come but usually didn't. So he started bringing his wife and kids. We all got along great. They are our dearest and bestest friends here in Spokane.

I love Charmaine. She is compassionate, sensitive, practical, tender-hearted, funny, easy to laugh, and she knows how to be a good friend. Tracy is hilarious. I mean, really really hilarious. You have got to meet him. They are the perfect compliment to Larry and I. Ben and Rachel adore Charmaine and Tracy. Bonus, their daughter Journey and Sari are the same age. Jack and Kylen are the same age as Joseph, and Meridian is Daniel's age, which is a bummer, but I hope they get married someday.

We even traveled with them for 8 days and didn't get sick of them once. (I hope they didn't get sick of us- haha!) And you've traveled with other people before you know how rare it is to find friends that you can do that with. You know how rare it is to find friends that both you and your spouse like. Add that the kids all like each other - and well, an acronym was destined.

At SOS we combine dinner. It is always delicious.

When the weather is nice, we make the kids eat outside.

And play outside.

Sari and Journey had to go outside.

We play games after dinner.

Usually not the computer but this time we made an exception.

This time Rachel's friend Ian played games too. Ian is the DuPape's grandson.

Tracy and Larry. I will always remember when they sang "Endless Love" at the ward party karaoke. I still laugh out loud at the memory.

Sari pondering the card game of Golf.

Charmaine with her fifth child, her husband.

Rachel kicked our heinys at Tripoly. It must exhausting keeping track of all those chips.

We love Ben and our Indiana Jones cards.

Heidyn, Rachel, and Ian laughing because we are just cool like that.

Did I mention that Tracy is Charmaine's fifth child?

Now that's a pretty picture. (That is a joke because when Charmaine's grandma plays Canasta she says, "That's a pretty card" when she sees a card she wants.)

The best one liner of the night came from Jack:

The girls were watching "Annie" and Jack complained, "There is too much singing in this movie" and we all laughed and said, "It's called a MUSICAL." Jack replied, "More like a STUPID-cal."

HIGH PRIEST SOCIAL (gonna miss this)

Our ward had a High Priest Social which was code for "Say Goodbye To The Sants". How sweet is that?

Our church building... how I will miss rushing our family in the doors to snatch our row out of the hands of someone who got booted out of their row.

Anyway, Terry DuPape is our High Priest group leader and I don't think you can find a nicer man. He is very compassionate and generous, as is his wife. He is a baker/chemist and has kept our family in pancake mix for a few years now.

Terry and Phyllis DuPape.

I adore Phyllis. She loves purple. So do I.

The Cordells live across the street from us. When I had my horrible surgery a few years ago, Leslie came over and read to the kids. They loved it. She has a real flair for performance. She frequently drops off little gifties and treats on our doorstep. Scott taught my kids the football signals for FHE one time. They LOVED it.

The Sorensens moved into our ward a few years ago. Evelyn always had the perfect comment in Relief Society and now she is Matthew's primary teacher. I love her cheerful countenance and peaceful disposition.I don't know her husband well, but I will say that he always has a smile on his face.

I remember when these love birds got married! The Pulliums were on the Activities Committee with me and I appreciated so much that they shared with me the need for supervised public bathrooms at ward activities.

Now I'm gonna get teary. I have visit taught Vicki for most of my eight years here. I am so lucky. She is the hardest working woman I know. She has great faith, courage, and grace. I will miss our conversations. I've gone to Ward Council with Bruce for a few years. He is consistent, faithful, and smart.

Start the water works. How I adore Minnie Wilkinson! Rachel had to interview someone who had lived in Spokane for more than 30 years. They had just redivided the ward and Minnie was now in our boundaries. So we introduced ourselves and interviewed her. Minnie says that she will always remember that I was the first person from Northpointe Ward to talk to her. Well, that was one of the best decisions I have made. I love Minnie. She is so sweet. Rachel chose her as her secret Grandma in Young Women once, too. She told me once, "I have been a widow for 20 years. I live alone but I am never alone."

If you want to talk about the backbone of a ward and the personification of charity and good works you need look no further than Phil and Karen Sokolowski. A book could be written on their service. I will say that they drive people to church and activities and when I visit taught Karen she always made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. She has a great laugh. I have learned a lot from her. Phil helps with the scouts, in addition to 1000 other things.

The first Sunday that we went to church in the Northpointe Ward Chris Grimes was the bishop. He walked up to us, warmly greeted us and said, "We have prayed you here." He was one of the reasons we felt so welcome when we moved in. Later he was Ben's Scout leader and Ben has a lot of respect for him (as do Larry and I). Besides being an excellent cook, seamstress, purse designer (check out her link on my sidebar) and homemaker, Marcie has raised wonderful children and she is down to earth and hilarious to talk to. I admire her.

Lorraine has been my visiting teacher the past few months and she is so nice. She has also been Joseph's primary teacher. The Brooks were also on the Activities Committee with me. They are good folk.

How we love the Derby family! Here they are with just two of their six children. You would be hard pressed to find more loyal, faithful, hardworking friends than these two. They are smart, fun to talk to, and have given us much service as we were preparing our house to sell. Jennifer is as stubborn as I am and that may be my favorite thing about her.

Ahhhh... Karen and Steve Hathaway. The Sunday she introduced herself I was like, "Where is she?" Because I have an Aunt Karen Hathaway (maiden name) and so I was kind of like, what the? But it wasn't my aunt. Karen is lovely, gracious, and understanding. She is a dedicated Grandma and she and Steve were our hometeachers. Steve always gave a sincere lesson that was spot-on for what we needed at the time.

Well now... what do you say about the man who was your beloved bishop and then Stake President? Thank you? Doesn't start to cover it. He will be greatly missed by our family and has been in the top three most influential people in Rachel and Ben's lives. Dawn and I talked a lot when I first moved in and I enjoyed her conversations. We both have husbands named Larry that are Civil Engineers that wish they had become dentists. (haha) We both have 4 sons and we were both certain that our last children were girls. They were not. Dawn hosts the most lovely lunches you would ever attend.

Lyn Cummins is the best garden grower I have EVER seen. She is amazing. If you look up Proverbs 31, you will see Lyn's picture. I don't think there is one thing on this earth that she can not do. She always has a willing hug that is a REAL hug not a faux hug. If you talk to her, you feel loved and important. Gary will be remembered by me for saying, "If I haven't given you the paper, it doesn't exist." He is a very thorough ward clerk. He has great stories. And he cooks a mean BBQ.

Let's just drown in Charlie's eyes, shall we? Lovely. I feel better.

So at the social we ate.

And swapped stories.

And said, "see ya later".

Because I don't do goodbye.

PS

Here is the Francis family. I adore Laura and she cuts a mean hair cut. I will not find someone who can stack as well as she can - ever. Sigh.

HEIDYN

Heidyn is my sister's daughter. She and Destry came up with my mom and dad for Ben's Eagle and Heidyn and Rachel worked furiously all night long to figure out a way to get cousin time in. When their plan to include Aubrae failed and we said the girls couldn't hitchhike to Utah, they resorted to spending their hard earned money on air fare to get Heidyn home.

While I was talking to Teilani about that, this is what Heidyn said:
"Tell my mom that I'll pay 3/4ths if she will pay the other 1/3rd."
We all busted out laughing.
Heidyn said, "What? She's not going to pay half!"
That resulted in more laughing. It still does.

Poor Heidyn. She got her auntie's (me) genes for math.

In any case, we LOVED having Heidyn here. She fit in perfectly and was so much fun. We will miss her!

DINNER WITH THE KRAUS FAMILY (gonna miss this)

Last year about this time a new family moved into our ward. In the last few months we have become good friends with Todd and FayeLisa Kraus. Derien is Daniel's age and Sloan is Joseph's age. One time FayeLisa stopped by for something and I was feeding spaghetti-os to Matthew. She got in my cupboard and got herself a bowl and I knew I had found a friend.

One of these things is not like the other ... haha

The Krauses had us over for a BBQ on Monday night and we had a great time. We chatted outside until the late hours, just laughing and talking. Plus, the food was fabulous!

One of my friends here told me, "I'm going to miss you so much, I'm going to distance myself from you now to protect myself" and she hasn't talked to me since. I am glad the Krauses didn't take that road. We have had a blast. They are funny, kind, sassy, and generous. We're gonna miss them.

IN PRAISE OF WHITWORTH AQUATICS

If you live in the Spokane area, suck it up and pay for the Whitworth lessons. You will be glad you did.

It's impossible to catch Joseph not moving in the water. He is part fish. I expect him to grow gills in Louisiana.

Joseph doesn't jump into the pool so much as FLY into the pool!

I love this picture of the boys walking across to the deep end. Joseph is the first one.

Last year Daniel could dive. This year he forgot.

I have better pictures. I just can't find them right now. But here is Quinton showing Daniel something. Quinton was the perfect teacher for Daniel!

Matthew hates water in his face (related to his dad) and he would barely touch the water.

Look at him now - jumping off into 15 feet of water, over his head, and back up, swimming, with the noodle the length of the pool and back. Amazing.

SARI IS 13!

I just can't believe that Sari is a teenager. We went to the Lake on her birthday and we went to the Orthodontist and she got her braces tied off for the transfer.

She asked for crepes for her birthday. Note that my darling niece Heidyn is staying with us! We are LOVING that!

Why the diagonal pictures? They NEVER work out! Notice that Sari has a CUBE of butter that she is melting on her crepe. Yummy.

What is more fun that filling your mouth with squirt on whipped creme?

My little point and shoot is dying, but here are the pictures of the gift giving. Rachel was at work.

Ahhhhh... sweet!

Ahhhhh.... not so sweet ... Just kidding! He didn't really smack her!

She wanted a My Little Pony cake but I couldn't find what I wanted so she got a Little Pet Shop cake. I am so glad my kids are not into that. They are expensive little suckers.

But they sure are cute. I love their little bobble heads.

Thirteen!

I love that Matthew is still at the age where he wants to sit next to the person with the birthday cake - like it brings him good luck, too! And yes, this is a cheesecake from Costco. That's how I roll.

Blowing out her candles and making a wish.

Our favorite things about Sari:

Larry: She is our CinderSari
Tifani: Her sense of style, creative mind, sassy and artistic-ness
Rachel: She is so sassy and cute and unique
Ben: She has good taste in movies
Daniel: She is "freakin' hilarious"
Joseph: There is so many choices in my mind! Uhmmmm... she reads to me at night.
Matthew: She's nice
Heidyn: She's nice to her siblings (well, since I've been here!)

LAKE DAY (Gonna miss this - A LOT)

I've mentioned the Pughs in my 4th of July post, so you may familiar with the Lake House. Well, also, every Friday, and pretty much any other time we ask, the Pughs generously let us use their lake house to entertain the kids. We have been going for many summers now and it has really been a favorite part of our life here in Spokane. Some pictures will illustrate my point:

Here we have Ben and Jake Grover just hanging out at the end of the dock.

Joseph is a picture of joy and happiness when at the lake. Actually, he's more a video of joy and happiness since a picture is a still life and there is nothing "still" about Joseph. He even twitches when he sleeps.

Matthew has practically grown up on this lake. The summer he was almost two I left him the car, asleep, totally forgot that I didn't get him out. Twenty or thirty hot minutes later I realized what I had done and ran to the car, praying the whole way (30 feet) that he was okay. He was screaming in the car, with the windows rolled up and the car locked. I am getting panicky just remembering it. I brought him down to the lake and soaked him up to his chest and then flipped him upside down and got his head wet too. Whew! After that, I always unroll the windows and NEVER lock the car.

This is the first summer Matthew has really been into the water at the lake. Usually he just runs around on the grass. I love that he is jumping off, already riding his shark. Check out the busy explorers behind him.

The blow up sharks you will see in the some of the pictures were the best $1 I've EVER spent at the dollar store! I can smell the lake breeze looking at this picture.

This picture makes me wish I was a kid again, something about getting in and out of the lake, with a tube and a friend just says, "perfect summer".

Sari, Ashley Grover, Daniel, and Sloan (?) Kraus in the milfoil. Yuck. I wonder if they have ever thought about how many fish hide around there?

More of the summer and tubes and the swimming and happiness.

With my mad photography skills I managed to catch Derien Kraus mid jump. The kids like to throw their tube in the water and then jump inside the tube.

Joseph LOVES to fish off the dock. He must have lost 20 hooks in there by now. Again, the mad photography skills caught the bird flying by. I impress even myself.

Sometimes Joseph has company, this particular day Sloan Kraus decided to stop in and help out by holding the fishing rod.

Ashley, Courtney, and Sari solve the world's problems floating in the tubes in the milfoil.

Then they climb on the turtle log and fall over. Good times.

Daniel, Courtney and Sari swimming ashore.

Rachel and Ben on the dock. Rachel doesn't like to get dirt in her swimming suit and you wouldn't believe how long it takes her to do her hair, so she doesn't usually swim, but she does like the sun and the quiet of the lake.

Joseph and Rachel checking out the little minnows swimming around. Check out the view across the lake. I just LOVE it. Don't you feel better already - looking at the sun drenched lake, the trees on the far shore? (It's farther than it looks.) I feel better. Except, I may never see it again, so really, I don't feel that much better. In fact, I feel kind of sad...

When (and if) you tire of the water and the dock, there is always the AWESOME swing in the yard. Every single one of my kids love this swing. One of their favorite games is to swing someone really high and then throw beach balls at them. We love each other like that.

You just can't go wrong taking a sun nap with your blow up shark. (Joseph, I think.)

Ben and Jacob catch some rays - they really aren't THAT white.

See they have good tans, for white boys.

Matthew likes to be "burritoed" after swimming, then he collapses on the grass to get warm in the sun.

Sari, Ashley, Emma, Natalie, and Courtney after swimming.

Showing their tears... Sari and Courtney.

I love this picture of Courtney and Sari.

The view from the dock and my favorite part of lake day - Jan Pugh, Laura Shumaker, and Julie Grover. I LOVE hanging out with my friends, while our children run amok (no breaching the parental perimeter - although one of Laura's girls are) and just talking, or not talking. We read or crochet or whatever. It is the best. I will miss my girlfriends. (more people usually come, just not pictured)

Again, with the sad pit in my stomach... even the drive to Long Lake, the way we go, is so beautiful. Hills, pine trees, fields ... just a few of my favorite things.

Anyway, thanks so much, Jan and Rick! We love you guys!