I'm alive STILL!

I know, I know. I've not been good at the updates. Where do we start? My kids are growing, but you can't stop that.

Sammie's now in 9th grade and on the yearbook staff. She has lots of friends and the only time I see her on weekends, is when we're in the car and I'm taking her someplace new. She's pretty proud of the fact that she's now as tall or taller (depending who you ask) than her mom. She loves school, her favorite class is a peer tutoring class where they spend a class helping fellow students needing help special needs. Sammie is now the President of her Mia maids class at church. Top notch kid.

Sierra loves school too (6th grade) but not on quite the same level as her sister. This one still loves to talk, on the phone or at you in person. It's only right that one of the first people she sees everyday is her Aunt Teri who she inherited her ability to talk nonstop from. Poor Sterling probably wants to jump out of the car window to get away from the yapping. She's not very happy right now with her latest "trauma", she's not yet up to date with her immunizations for her move to Junior High next year. She moves into Beehives in May. Like Sammie, we are seeing less and less of her all the time. I knew it was only time before my girls found spending time with friends was more fun than boring old people like her dad. She is a sweet heart.

Best Buds

Stacie and I have had our ups and downs, good times and bad in the last year. Last March I left my job as supervisor at Noni for a promise of bigger and better things. I'll add right now, if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, it's because the manure they use over there is thick, and in this case very thick. As a result, we've been without the medical insurance we were promised since. The owners of the new company found themselves thinking could run the company better without the partner that actually knew the industry and asked him to leave. As a result, the spiralled down hill until late September when they closed their doors, or actually had them closed for them. Imagine that, you have to pay bills, and payroll. I kept my nose clean and shoulder to the wheel so I was still getting paid up until the end. Some down there had to fight for their last paychecks. Lesson learned there. About the same time that place was imploding, Stacie lost her dear sweet Grandma J. I had been wanting to get a series of family pictures done lately and including some 4 generation photos of my girls and their grandmas. Four days after the outing, grandma suffered a massive stroke and never really pulled through. She lived 89 good, long years with the last 23 years with out Grandpa J. We've all had heavy hearts since. Sierra has really taken it hard. Grandma J and her were buddies and talked everyday which was her vocal vent for excessive build up of words that need to be used up. Grandma would listen for hours and always enjoyed their "time". After two months of unemployment and church assistance, my old bosses, boss from Noni came calling. Although I'm not where I was and do have to start over, I'm back to the workforce. It's very humbling going back to work with the guys who at one time worked for me. I've learned a lot about how and why treating employees as people is important to all parties involved. It does pay to be the type of person, employee or supervisor you would want to deal with yourself. The same Golden Rule we USED to learn in school.

So we are starting over so to speak. We've been humbled and it has brought us together as a family going the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays living with the kindness of others. Thank you to ALL secret Santa's out there. From one who now has been on the receiving end of this kind of kindness, you do make a difference.

I find myself living my own little sad Book of Mormon story. At points in my life, when I'm doing so good or living well, I'm seeing a pattern that takes me away from my faith and knowledge of what is really good or well. And like in the Book of Mormon, the Lord always humbled those in need of the humbling, and brings them back. I'm so grateful for the fact that poor choices are not always permanent and thanks to a great Bishop, we ARE on our way back again.