Thanksgiving Comes Early..

Happy Thanksgiving! We got to have our Thanksgiving Feast a couple of weeks early this year. Our family will be out of town watching the Cougs play Cal State the day after Thanksgiving. We got together with our family that could be with us (everyone minus Jessica, Weston and McKenzie). It's been a reflective time, thinking about not being with your whole family. It's one of those stages that I've found myself in-I knew it would come at some point.

Chase brought home a friend, Cassidy. We really liked her:)

Sierra and Logan at their best

Poor Zoey was so sick:(

Chet & Sierra

 

 

Joe, Allie & Lucas

Veteran's Day...

I didn't grow up hearing these awesome "war stories." My dad NEVER talked about the war. As I got older and slowly some of his experiences came out, I realized how painful it was for him to talk about it. It was an experience that truly affected his life. Somehow, he managed and made it through it, although it has been extremely difficult. I'm grateful for my dad, who was able to raise us(my brother and sisters) to be the strong people that we are today. I'm very grateful for a mother who has endured the hardships as well and has become one of the strongest women I have known. I'm grateful to have a day set aside so we may think of our veterans and what sacrifice really means in their lives. They haven't just given lives for our country and at times for other countries, but they have sacrificed their souls and spirits. I've come to know and believe that war is hell and the remaining days that the men and women of our military have is hell as well. Love you Dad!

 

Random Thoughts.......
As always, life is like a school. There seems to be a "learning" experience for me at every corner. Especially when I'm thinking about something in particular. I've spent a lot of time lately with my thoughts focused on family, individual personalities, forgiveness and faith versus fear. I've been a stay at home mom for all of my married life- minus some random times where I've worked part time helping out when we were in school or trying to establish myself as a person who can work in the world if I needed to. I have loved staying at home raising my kids. It's hard work as any SAHM will tell you. But I tell you, I wouldn't trade it for anything. It has been very rewarding. I'm so proud of my kids, I love their individual personalities. I'm also grateful that they are so good to me.  Chet and I are truly blessed! 
I had the opportunity of attending another ward's sacrament meeting this week. I watched Zoey so her Mom and Dad could go to church, so I went to the 4th ward. I really like Bishop Waterbury! I got to see their Primary Program which was fantastic.  The theme this year in primary has been Families.  Bishop Waterbury's closing remarks hit the nail on the head for me: 1. Put Heavenly Father first 2. Don't control one another 3. Don't try to solve all of your problems at once 4. Don't judge one another.  What great advice for our families. 
We also took some personality tests over the last couple of weeks with members of our family. If you have a chance and want to do a fun activity with your family, take this personality test: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp  and then after you finish the test go to this website and it will tell you all about your personality type: http://www.16personalities.com/  You can also Google your four letter personality type and it will go to the 16 personalities website. Fun times! I'm an ISFJ. Read about it and all of sudden I might make some sense to you. So if you know anything about the 'J' personalities, you know that we think in a box.  We find safety there. But I had an epiphany this morning as I thought about it. We all have different sized boxes! My box is probably a little bigger than most, but I still operate within a box.It was also fun to see what my kids' personalities were.  Take the test! It's a lot of fun:)
I had a great experience in my Tuesday CES class. We've been studying the Four Gospels. We talked about some of the parable of Jesus and why they were included in the New Testament and what they were teaching us about Christ. Christ walking across the water was especially meaningful to me today. Peter seeing Christ walking across that water gave him for a time the faith he needed to be able to join Christ and walk across that water with him. Noticing the storm, Peter feared and started to fall. Asking Christ for help, he was able to focus back on Him and get back to the boat. Lessons learned: 1. Keep you faith, trust and focus in Christ 2. Keeping that focus on Him doesn't make the storm go away, but helps you manage your way through it 3. We MUST get rid of fear. Faith and Fear do not coexist together. I needed to read and discuss this today. I fear: fear for myself, fear for my family and fear for others. I must have faith in myself, faith in my family and faith in others.  Like I said: Lesson Learned! 
Hope you have a wonderful week and keep on keeping on!!