Fight in Pink

Last Sunday, the family and I did the Race for the Cure! (walked the 5K) This last year, I've become friends with this girl, Becky in our ward. Her mother in law, Juli (also in our ward), has been diagnosed with breast cancer 3 x in the last 10 years. This year, the young women wanted to be involved and the bishop said it was the gospel in action..serving others. In total, they ended up having over 150 people on Team Juli! It was absolutely incredible to see the support and love from so many for one person. I've been thinking about this for a while...about why it's a race and why we walk to show our support. I think, in a way, it's symbolic of their fight bc these women find a way to put one foot in front of the other every day--they keep getting up and facing the journey ahead of them and just like this race, they are not alone. It was overwhelming to see the many names and faces pinned to people's backs in memory of this person and their fight. some win and some ...lose. Juli, has just found out that it's spread to her brain now. Yet, the moto on our shirts said, Doubt Not, Fear Not, Only Believing! And I think against all odds, she can beat it! We don't understand the kind of trials we are asked to go through sometimes, but Juli is a great example that we can have faith, courage and joy through it. The event had 53,000 people in attendance and oh, go to this link to see the symbol formed from our walk from the sky.

http://www.9news.com/genthumb/genthumb.ashx?e=3&h=204&w=320&i=/assetpool/images/091004011825_race-for-the-cure.jpg

Old Mcdonald had a ....

One of our last weeks in Thousand Oaks, we took Jace to this big farm where you can pick your own vegetables, fruit, and flowers. We picked strawberries and rasberries and they were amazing! They had pony rides, petting zoo, adventure zone, train rides, tractor bumper cars, mining for gold and a lot more. We fed the goats that walked across beams above our heads. Jace got to ride Tinkerbell, the pony. No other kids were riding the train, so they let him DRIVE the train. Picking strawberries was a very messy job! There were bees everywhere and squished strawberries up to your ankles. But they were worth it!! Here are some more pictures from that awesome day. We had a blast! Now we are searching for something like it here in Colorado.

JOY

Day 25 on 28

I know. I know. I've skipped a couple days. This experience has taught me a couple things. First, I really have gotten in a better habit of writing and have really enjoyed that. Second, there are a lot of things I can do with my time that give me "my time" besides blogging....which I seem to enjoy like sewing, exercising, reading, digital scrapbooking, baking. Third, people don't blog as much as I thought they did. Fourth, the best things about my life are my husband and two kids. Fifth and last, I like blogging a lot more when I don't have the pressure to think of something to write about. So, in light of this, I've decided to just make a goal to do something for myself everyday, it could be blogging but it doesn't have to be.

Enjoy the next posts so that will be solely dedicated to my boys who make me smile everyday.

Day 24 - Memories

I never did this when everyone did last year, but I've always wanted to. If you read this, even if we haven't talked or seen eachother in forever, can you leave a comment of a memory you and I had together! Thanks! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Day 23 - One More Day

This morning, I woke up pretty discouraged that I had to face the day with no husband around again. In fact, most mornings are hard because I know I won't see Heath until 11 that night. But, my boys turned my day around. I can't whine or pout about my life when my kids around, so I couldn't help smiling and laughing and playing with them, which domino into a good mood. Sure, we had our moments of frustration and wrestle fits with a couple bumps and bruises, but it was a good day. It poured rain all day. Hmm.. random thought, for those of you statisticians out there I guarantee you can run a test that finds a statistical significance between rainy days and me being in a good mood. Of course, Heath helped too because he is so loving and understanding and he knowing me so well knew that I wanted to be mad, but texted me to help me let go of my childish attitude. At the end of the day, I realized that I find pride in what I do at home, even if it is the laundry, dishes, dirty diapers etc. How this translates into motivation to clean the whole kitchen before Heath got home, I'm not sure. But, I knew that the only way to show that I was okay and supportive was to get the house in order.

Day 22 - Yipee

Yeah! Today we found out that the school accepted our appeal and we got in-state tuition! What a huge blessing! Our prayers were answered.