Oh, Say Did You See?

Taking a look back at the weekend:

Well, it was mega fun to have Blaine show up {a surprise to my Mom, but everyone else knew!} He's a bit crazy with his tats and tough guy 'tude but we sure love having him around. Plus, it brings a new perspective to the Celebration of our Freedom with his as a Marine!



Quite possibly the COOLEST part of this whole weekend was my Golf Skillz put to the test! For the last few years, when we have our party out at Mont's, he mows down some of his field in to a little golf area. We then put a dollar into the pot for each person playing. You get 4 balls to hit and the closest one to the hole wins the pot. This year, unlike the times before, I decided to play. You guessed it....WINNER!! WINNER!! CHICKEN DINNER!! It was me! 21 inches away from a hole in one! It was a bit controversial however. Earlier, when I had entered I didn't have cash on me.....so I wrote a check for a dollar, made out to "cash" and entered it. {'Course no one protested at that time...} Those who ended up in 2nd and 3rd place were a bit upset. But a bucks' a buck, and 21 inches is closer than 36 or whatever those measurements were. 22 family members and friends had entered...so I walked away with a 21 dollar profit. {Funny it worked out that I had a buck for every inch I missed.}

My Personal Cheerleader and Coach!


Taking my time. I should mention that the first two swings I had, I missed the ball completely. It's so embarrassing that I wasn't even making contact with the ball, instead of hitting it and sending it into a ditch or out to left field. Oh, no, I had to miss it entirely. How embarrassing!

But, it only takes one hit. One perfect, smooth, golden hit!

Still afraid of the fireworks, we relished that Jocelyn would snuggle us for that small amount of time.
So, yeah, our Fourth of July was filled with fun stuff. One of which was Rock Band. Even my Dad joined in. Pete and Dana spent the day with us too. Gotta love that!

We hit the parade, lunch at Mac and Kelly's and then the boys played with air guns.


On a side note about this picture....I can imagine if these boys were to read this they would get all over me for it. BUT! You are looking at some of the greatest guys I know. 10 men, 10 priesthood holders, 10 boys that at one time were all learning how to spit, fart, and pee straight. 10 boys who all have a mother that tenderly held them as babies. 10 men who as teens were reckless at some point in time, begged for money, andwanted a chance to drive their dad's car. All of them having been or goign to go a first date.

Our own little priesthood army. Of the ten, they range in age from 15 to 30 I believe. Kyle, Ryan, Chad, and Blake -4 in the crowd are Returned Missionaries, one a Marine-Blaine, one Dad- Tyler, and the rest are potential missionaries-Troy, Mitch, Jake, and Brandon. Mostly I look at them and wonder if my little Landon will following in one of their footsteps. And if so, which one will he be most like? Or will he lead a path all of his own?


Anyway!

Later we went out to Mont and Debbie's place for the big annual Pack Party!

Then we hit the fireworks and when we got all settled in, Kyle got a call. Bummer! But, we do what we gotta do! My mom and dad gave us a ride home.

We also were invited to Burt and Trenna's big party(July 2nd), which was a.maz.ing!

So, here are a few more fun pictures...more on the kid's blog!

Home made Root Beer calls for a lot of sugar too!
I made it for the first time every, and w.o.w. Sugar High!

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I have really been doing good at my scripture study/prayer commitment. I am disappointed in myself that I had be to be motivated to read my scriptures by putting a hold on the computer until I do. I feel like a little kid, having to "earn" computer time. But it's working. Maybe and hopefully, I will get to a point where it's a habit and something I want to do, not so I can do something fun, but just want to read and study. If that makes sense.
I guess for me I just want to "know how to dial 911 before there's an emergency."
Right now in life, I don't feel like I am worried about much.

Kyle told me I could be the poster child for the Meth campaign. Those ads wig me out! Seriously, I can't even look the bill boards, and the commercials I have heard on the radio make my skin crawl and my stomach turn. I worry about how to enable and strengthen my kids against that offer and possible trial that might arise in their future.
Drugs and alcohol never have interested me. I feel so much gratitude that Satan never had me and never will over such a thing. As an adult I really feel proud of myself that I can honestly say that I never did any of that stuff. I am completely naive, however about it too. I couldn't spot pot or meth, or anything like it if it were sitting in front of me. Alcohol usually has a good stench to it, so that helps.

But really, I need to know more about it so that I can educate my kids when the time comes. Pete was telling us about the D.A.R.E. program and that he even had a student whose parents opted him out of it. I wanted to scream! Why would you ever think that something like that might not help? We need every resource available to us. I need my friends to be teachers and examples to my kids about it. I need their kids to be good kids and trustworthy for my kids. I need my kids to be the kids that other parents can feel good about. I need to be a parent that my friends want to help teach and guide their kids. I need my family members to be able to listen to my kids when they won't talk to me. {God forbid that. I hope that I will always be able to drag a conversation out of them.} I need them to have good primary and youth teachers and leaders. I need them to know where to turn if they make their mistakes. I have thought about it a bit, I would prefer I think for my kids to have issues with theft than drugs, alcohol, or sex. To solve that, I would just give them a credit card. I would rather spend a lifetime paying off debt than deal with a meth addict, a teen pregnancy, or alcoholic, etc.

I think.

Writing about it is starting to make me worry about it. And I know that fear is the opposite of faith. I will not fear. But I might freak out.

However never in front of the kids.
They need to think that nothing scares me, worries me, and that I know everything for as long as possible.

I think.