So much beauty all around

While spring is not my favorite season, I do love the changes that comes with it. One day could be bright and sunny and hot-the next dark, stormy and thundering! Those are my favorite days. Where the house is dark and the air is cold...and I can curl up in a ball on the couch under my favorite blanket and either knit or read and drink hot chocolate. We've had a few of those days lately, and I think they are just as beautiful as the bright sunny day!

Last weekend, Kaitlyn and the Jobie's served dinner for the Mekanix unit at the Mason lodge in Meridian. It was a bbq dinner and it was good! These girls just amaze me. They are all from different areas. They were all raised differently, are different ages and of different faiths-yet they sit and talk and get along and truly enjoy each other. I love seeing that commraderie between them. You don't see it very often-and I can say my girls have never experienced that anywhere else...even within our own church youth group.
They did the service with a smile. They laughed and joked and had such a glow about them. Even afterwards with all the dishes and clean up-they were smiling and joking and having fun.





After the BBQ was cleaned up - we headed to winco with Tiffany to pick up a cheesecake for one of the girls birthday: Tiffany, the current honored queen, showed how to strut her stuff with the cheesecake tiara perched upon her head




We then had a sleepover at her church (Happy Birthday Emma!!)





and the girls did the Closing Cross for the congregation the next morning.



Kaitlyn's initiation is coming up the first of May and we are pretty excited!



In other news, Noah and Hannah had their name drawn for the charter school for next year. Now we just have to hope that Lexi gets in quickly.

We are busy busy around here. But that is good-we have a lot of fun together!
Conner's ultrasound came back clear for the hernia and gallstones. We have to go see another doctor to see if they can find out what is wrong with him. He is still having pain..but nothing as severe as the night that he was forced to run and then collapsed in pain at home-so that is good!

Hope your earth day is a great one! We have lots of wind right now and dark skies and I am loving it! I hope we get a few sprinkles of rain too!

Refreshed and renewed

I sat here the other day pondering the changes in my life, and I realized something important.

I am a lot happier now.

Its been a long year of changes-I have worked hard at bringing more peace into my life and getting rid of things that disturb that.

I recently made a huge decision concerning school and where I am going with my career path. It feels so good to finally know what I am doing-and to know how right it feels.

Shawn and I have been working, even more so lately, at changing things in our home to make it more welcoming to us all. A place where we actually enjoy being on a day to day basis.
I cannot tell you how many bags of "stuff" we have gotten rid of in the last month alone. It is amazing how much accumulates with this many people.

I've also expunged from my life people - both online and in real life- that bring me down. It is hard to stay positive and enjoy a peaceful day when you have a nasty presence weighing you down.

Last summer, I met with a good friend who passed on her philosophy in life-I am forever grateful to her for it and I will not name her, but I hope that she knows who she is and how much her guidance has meant to me. Before we talked I used to think that what everyone thought of me was important. I thought that I had to try to make everyone happy all the time-and found that I often felt myself feeling things that just were not me. One night while I cried on her shoulder, she gave me a big hug and just shared her experience and what had helped her-and in that moment I knew that I had to be that same type of person-and by doing so, be true to myself. She really helped me - and I grew a lot from her words. My genuine happiness level has grown a lot, and I have her to thank for that.

I am still working on purging stuff--physically and otherwise! LOL But I cannot tell you how good it feels to finally just be ME. And to be HAPPY with who I am.

I feel refreshed. I feel like a new person. And I am definitely ok with that!