Our NEW Preschool and Dining Room!!!!

OK, so I have to say that this poor room has seen more use from our family with the least amount of TLC in return than any other room in our house! It's such an enduring room! When we moved into this house it was a hole, literally if it had been inspected, it might have been condemned. Well, I guess I don't KNOW that, seeing as I have no clue what the standards are for that sort of thing, but it was in the worst shape of any house I had ever seen or been in. BUT the price was right and the landlady was willing to pay for the supplies if we would supply the labor. Brandon was at work all day in a job that was very new and overwhelming to him, so I was the chief house fixer--- a job that I relished! I had in my mind's eye the vision of Mary re-doing the old Granvill place in It's a Wonderful Life with her little ones around her. I only had Bethany, who was amazing through all this, but I was pregnant with Lindsay. Well, I started to have complications with that pregnancy and was told to cease and desist immediately. Which of course I did, enter one brother extraordinaire, Kevin!! But the then family room had the least help and that was that. Well, when we re-did the house during the addition---walls ripped out, bathroom separated by a sheet, no kitchen wall, CHAOS---the only room that we could live in was again that family room, soon to be preschool room. BUT I was pregnant with Rebekah then and tiling at 8 months pregnant with my belly nearly touching the kitchen floor left no energy to do a thing with that room.

But WAIT!!!! Here I am, NOT pregnant, and able---FINALLY---to fix and tend to and make beautiful this room where so many important things in our lives have happened! Things like deciding on the names of three of our four children, reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and freaking out at the end, (that is such a strong memory); watching our kiddos take their first steps, making my first real Thanksgiving meal, creating wonderment in myriad ways for the delight of very fleetingly small children---it's amazing how these rough and hard walls become a home to us. Wow!

So here it is! Our newly refinished Preschool room! I love it!

THE Gila Valley Temple Dedication

OK, so Brandon went to the 12pm session, in Flagstaff we were able to go to which ever session we wanted, a blessing with Bethany's strep and all. He loved it and was so touched by the talks. He said Bethany and I should go as early as we could because they were showing a video of rooms from many different temples across the world accompanied by beautiful sacred hymns. He was so perceptive to give that counsel! It was amazing to Bethany to get to see all those sacred rooms and especially the baptismal fonts, she was so excited that she would get to go and do that in so few years. I can't wait for her to get to be in the temple serving like that. Just wow!

In our session, President Eyring gave the most powerful message, it sank right into my heart about how his grandfather had asked him fervently to go get Eddie---only for President Eyring to realize through time that there would be three generations of Eddie's that he would try to "get" and who knows how many more preceeded his grandfather. Temple work is amazing. He said that he had looked up stats to see which temples had the highest numbers of ordinances done and which had the lowest. The highest were in areas where patrons had to travel and sacrifice much to get there, whereas the lowest were some that were right in the backdoor of large populations of LDS people. Then he went on to promise that this would never happen in The Gila Valley Temple, that even though it was in the "back door", the mighty saints in that region would never let those numbers decline, they would always continue to rise. W O W!!!!

Then President Monson got up and announced that Sis. Eyring, Sis. Holland and his daughter, Sis. Dibb would share their feelings. It was perfect for Bethany to get to hear these great women and feel of their great and mighty spirits and their depth of conviction for something so vital and important, AMAZING! They each gave very personal accounts of how the temple, and family in particular, had totally shaped and formed their lives and cemented thier testimonies of this great work. Sis. Dibb spoke of the great love that her parents had for each other and the effect that had on her and it brought me to so many tears! It was so beautiful to hear about that tenderness between President Monson and Sis. Monson. WOW! What a much-needed example!

Then President Monson had his remarks and he promised that the saints working in The Gila Valley Temple would always be blessed with the health and strength to accomplish their work! W O W!!!! The whole thing was amazing and I was so thankful that Bethany could go with me and be a part of it. Wow!!!

I can't help but think that even though we don't have one here yet...I hope we can soon...that the creation and operation of 5 temples in our great and beautiful state will only serve to stregthen and shore it up. God knows, and we are in His hands.

Poor Bethany

What we didn't realize when we began birthday preparations for Jeremy was that Bethany was actually pretty sick! That morning she said her throat hurt so badly and I had read a note from the school nurse that said a feverless Strep was flying around. So Brandon took her in--bless him---and sure enough it was strep. She got her first dose of medication at 2:30. This was amazing as Bethany and I were wanting to go to The Gila Valley Temple Dedication the next day and the last session was at 3pm. MIRACLE!!!! I felt so bad for her though that I made her a "Cold and easy to swallow" China plate dinner. It was pretty cute to see freezies in a crystal goblet and applesauce on bone china and Chamomile with honey in an antique tea cup. It made her pretty miserable, party-less day a bit more special. AHHHHH those precious, little things that end up meaning so much! LOVE IT!!LOVE HER!