Our Latest....

New Family Pictures:

We adopted a stray, then found its owner, and thought we would lose her, but all ended well. Here is Tina:

What do you do with a Broken Arm?

Why, show it off of course! A couple of weeks ago Timothy broke his arm in the most boring way: he fell while playing. It wasn't a major fall, it was quite routine, so it took us about an hour to really discover that it was broken. We took full advantage of our new hospital and were in and out in less than an hour. Now he loves to play the sympathy card and prominently display his splint while saying in his most pitiful voice, "I broke my arm"

Too cute picture of Joaquin and Timothy from this summer

The kids had fun playing in the mass of leaves at the church on Main Street

Our new addition (what do you do when your husbands INCREDIBLE boss asks you to take a kitten off his hands? You say yes of course!!) His name is Shez -sound familiar Glovers?

Clay has some serious roofing skills (so do Dad and Worthy) re-roofing Mom and Dad's roof

Priceless Memories

A couple weeks ago Eva and I took a wonderful trip to Cedar City to attend "The Secret Garden" at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Where are the pictures, you ask? Of course I forgot to take a camera, my children's lives are woefully represented in pictures. We left early Wednesday morning August 12. We had to slow almost to a stop as a deer decided to slowly walk across the road in front of us. Then a little later in the trip we had a crow fly really close to our windshield. I told Eva that if we had hit the crow, our trip would be over. After I answered her question about why it would be over she calmly said,"Yeah, but that wouldn't happen because I said a prayer." Oh the faith she has! Then about halfway there the prettiest little bird flew under us and with a whirl of feathers disintegrated. How sad.
We got to Cedar City with plenty of time to spare before our 2 pm matinee, so we did a little shopping and ate lunch. Eva didn't know what to think when I kept letting her make the choices, she kept saying, "What do you want to do?", or "What do you want to eat?"
The musical was marvelous, we had great seats thanks to our friend Kami (the Marketing Director of the Festival). They even gave Eva a pillow to sit on so she could see over the people in front of us. (What a nice touch)!
After the musical, we went and checked into our motel (The Crystal Inn) and Eva got to take a quick swim before we headed to our friends (Ryan and Kami's) house for dinner Yummy! We really enjoyed our visit with them and then headed back to the motel pool for a few more hours of fun.
The trip home was fairly uneventful except for the freak rain/hailstorm through the part of the interstate with numerous signs that read: "Slippery when wet".
We had such a great time we might need to make it an annual summer tradition!

Baptisms

Mark your calendars for Saturday September 19th at 5. We are plannng to baptize Thomas and little Worthy then! Can you believe they are almost 8?

We Did It!!!

Today was the 10th Annual 5k Fun Run. Nancy & I (and her Sisters) woke up bright and early to participate. I am so appreciative of Nancy for running it with me. It was a goal I set 3 months ago, and it was nice to reach it with her. I also appreciate her humoring me the last 50 meters as we sprinted to the finish line.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!!!

Broccoli Anyone?

I have been trying to eat better, more vegetables, less sweets, you know that kind of thing. In turn, I am trying to help my kids be healthier too which isn't too hard because they usually like to eat whatever I eat. But holy cow! Do you know how expensive fresh produce is? For one head of broccoli it was over $5 dollars! No wonder America is so obese! Let's see for five bucks I can get a burger, fries, and soda, or one head of broccoli...hmmm......So many great things about living in Blanding, buying fresh inexpensive produce -- not one of them. Oh well!

I Miss My Sweetie!

Clay is on the mountain camping with the Young Men (his new calling is 2nd Counselor in the Young Men) he is also still one of the Gospel Doctrine Teachers.
I am glad that he accepts and fulfills all his callings without complaint. I really need to learn from his example.
I just hate having an empty bed! I know it is only for a few nights, but I really miss his presence in our home.
I am grateful for the blessings of an eternal marriage, I am so thankful to know that we will be together forever. This is especially comforting in light of recent events in our community (see Nan's blog for more info).

Babies Heal Fast!

One week later, and he looks so good! Chrislynn hang in there, yours will heal fast too!

Not our Best Day

Yesterday was a LOOOOOOONG day. We spent part of the morning at a viewing (Clay's Grandma Perkins passed away) the afternoon at a funeral and graveside dedication, and the afternoon and evening at the clinic and hospital.

It was cold at the cemetery so after all the official stuff was done, I took Thomas and Timothy to the truck so they could be out of the cold and watch movies. For some dumb reason the sprinklers were on, so Eva and I were racing to avoid the water, and as Eva opened the back door, Timothy fell out onto the pavement. I initially thought that Eva was the hurt one because she was crazy screaming, but as I listened to her shouting that she had given Timothy brain damage, I realized Timothy was the one in trouble. Brad was quick-thinking enough to grab a diaper for me to hold on Tim's head as we rushed to the clinic. Eva kept crying about it being her fault, and chastised Thomas for not holding on to Timothy. We kept reassuring them that it was all right, but when we got to the clinic and they saw how much blood there was they were both freaking out. Thank goodness at that moment Hollie came back to where we were and offered to take Eva and Thomas to the Family dinner. So Timothy ended up needing 3 stitches to close 2 wounds, and we had to take him to Monticello Hospital for a CT Scan to make sure he didn't have a cracked skull, or swelling of the brain. The fact that we haven't heard back on the scan tells us that it must have been okay, and Tim had been acting fine. I am thankful for my Dad and my Husband. They gave Timothy a Priesthood Blessing, and I know it made all the difference. I am so grateful for extended family. I did not have the ability to take care of Eva and Thomas emotionally yesterday. They needed the love and support of all of our Family so they could deal with the trauma. I am grateful this happened when Clay was with me. I don't think I could have handled it on my own. In fact, Timothy loves his Dad so much, he didn't want me during the clinic/hospital ordeal, he wanted his Daddy. Thanks to all the family who helped us through our first emergency ordeal.

A Few of My Favorite Things

In celebration of another great year of life, I wanted to share some things that make me happy!

CRUISE:

-Finally dancing with my husband

-No kids to worry about for over a week!

-Great friends and family that willing watched above mentioned kids

-Having something big to motivate me to lose 20 lbs (and over 24 inches)

-Celebrating 11 wonderful years of marriage in a tropical paradise

-Seeing my brother Drew the most relaxed I have EVER seen him!

-Doing karaoke for the first time

-Someone else being in charge of the cooking and cleaning for over a week

-Spending quality time with my extended family

HOME:

-A great home to live in with awesome neighbors

-Working out-it makes me feel and look younger

-Serving in the Primary -- I love those kids!

-A testimony of the Gospel

-Living close to so much family

-Great books to read

-My family

There is so much more, but this is enough for now. What are you grateful for?

Clay

Recently my Mother and Sister Nan shared on their blogs how great their lives are because of their husbands and it really made me think of how blessed I am.
The other day I detailed how my life has improved because of my wonderful husband. As I shared with my friend how he has calmed me and made me a better person, my friend's eyes filled with tears. Clay is a great Husband and Father and an asset to our community. He has shown dedication to his boss by being an honest, courteous, helpful, knowledgeable employee. He has worked for Stan for 12 years! People tell me all the time that they don't like to shop at San Juan Building Supply if Clay isn't there. Clay honors his priesthood and accepts and fulfills his church callings. Clay doesn't criticise me or belittle me he treats me with love and respect, even when I don't do the same. We are going on a cruise in a week, not because it was something my husband wanted to do, but because he knew it would make me happy to take a vacation with my best friend/family. I could go on and on but I won't. Happy Anniversary early my love, here's to another wonderful 11 years!

I've Got Skills

The other day Thomas and Eva and I had an interesting conversation. Thomas said to Eva "I'm a better climber than you even though you're older than me". "Well Thomas" I said, "we all have different things that we are good at. You are good at climbing and Eva is a good reader". Thomas thoughtfully replied, "So I have climbing skills and Eva has reading skills, you have exercise skills and Dad has work skills." Yeah Thomas (Napolean) we've got skills.

Meet our New Additions

Our neighbor came by to congratulate us and said, "I didn't know you were expecting!" after seeing this parked in our driveway:

I don't really know all the details about the truck, but I think it is great! We all fit in it! Clay brought it home last week and tried to convince me that he had made a deal to buy it, and I could not stop him. I knew he was lying because he won't even spend $5 dollars without asking me if it is okay. I told him I was sorry, but his truck would have to wait until next year because we were spending our money on a cruise this year not a truck. Then he confessed that it is a company truck, but his boss told him to use it like he uses his own truck. I jumped up and down and kept yelling: "You're lying to me!" But he wasn't.

Below is a picture of my new addition -- not as exciting as Clay's but a happy thing at least. I wanted something to work my abs better, and needed something to do pull-ups. Since Clay started working out too, he needed something for pull-ups too so we decided to get this. It was actually pretty inexpensive and had free shipping from Amazon. We really like it.

Check it out!

Inspired by Nancy and Richie, I have started my own fitness blog. You can view it by clicking the link to the right titled Kd's Fitness Blog, or click this link: http://kd-did-it.blogspot.com Enjoy!

The Whole Enchilada

(what does that really mean anyway?) In large part because of Nancy's fine example, I started working out again in November. I really tried, but sometimes I would put off my entire week's worth of workouts until Friday and Saturday, and as for diet -- what diet? I just didn't have the motivation I needed to really GO-FOR-IT. After a month I felt really good about my workouts, I had been more consistent and felt like I had made some positive changes. I took my measurements and.........nothing had changed!! I was so discouraged, that I basically took the entire month of December off. I was really bad, I ate way too much junk, and avoided working out. Then I took 2 weeks off work to be with the kids over Christmas break. I had the time to workout, so I researched some good workouts on bodybuilding.com and started working out. Then I sat down and really hashed out what goals I wanted to accomplish, how I was going to achieve those goals, and what "Transforming Patterns of Action" I needed to change to be successful. I typed these up and placed them in highly visible locations throughout my house. A huge motivating factor for sure is our upcoming cruise -- I have got to be "swimsuit ready"! Focusing on my end goals has made it easier for me to stick to the Body-for-Life eating plan, and not "cheat" (except 1 day a week as outlined). After 2 weeks of consistent workouts, and clean eating I took my measurements and...........Lost 5 pounds and almost 9 total inches!! This versus my experience in November reminds me that I have to go for the "whole enchilada" I can't just do things half-way and expect results. I am at the end of another successful week-(week 3) of my 12 week transformation and I feel great! I have muscles where I have never had muscles before, and my energy is through the roof!