When you want to cry – SMILE!

A smile goes a long way! I have a few examples of when a smile meant the world to me -

1. I was having a day that definitely could’ve and should’ve been a better one then it was. I went to the grocery store feeling the weigh of a lot on my shoulders. As I was walking through the aisles looking at all the stuff and deciding what I was there to get – all the while my mind was traveling at what seemed lightspeed (anyone else ever done this?) So I happen to look away from all of the groceries on the shelves and look down the aisle.  There was a lady – perhaps a little older then me walking toward, she looked troubled. But as we got closer, I kept looking at her and she was smiling. Her smile grew bigger and bigger and in passing she smiled and turned to me and said, I hope you have the best day – you deserve it! HUH? I didn’t know her – but I did have the best day EVER. Thanks mystery woman.

2. Stress, tiredness, messy house and a lot to do. I was feeling overwhelmed – ya I do feel that sometimes. Well this day I walked into my house after a walk to the curb with the trashcan, as I walked in the front door and saw that Kassidy was playing and using every inch of the front room to play with her toys – I was ready to SCREAM!!!! She looked up and smiled at me with her priceless smile, looked down to move some toys around, looked back up still grinning, then stood up and walked over and hugged me. “Mom, wanna play – I have tons of toys?”

3. I was talking to one of my friends and she said that she is so grateful to my little (big) Karly and her great huge smile. This particular friend has four boys and one girl, she has a lot going on in her life and I am grateful that I get to only deal my stuff, cuz WOW. Anyway, she was having a hard day and feeling down – she said that she saw Karly and she smiled at her, a really big smile and followed it with a really huge hug. She felt so touched and mentioned to me how much it meant to her.

These were just a few of my examples of how a simple act of a smile can make a huge difference in someones life. Remember a smile means love!

I am so EXCITED….. you ask why?

My website www.daisykaye.com is up and going. I am adding cards, digital scrapbook pages, various designs and other neat stuff almost daily. So you will want to check it out all the time.

We also have our BUSINESS WEBSITE up and going as well. www.jnkonline.com

Please check us out – We offer a variety of services (graphic design, photo, custom cards, business identification and so on) that are extremely reasonably priced! If you have questions, please feel free to fill out your information in the contact forms.

Our darling little girls have their own website as well – www.neveskidz.com it is a safe site where kids and adults can play some really fun games. There is also a q&a page on their site where you can ask the girls a question or leave them a comment.

Let us know what you think -

Have a great day!

My family and I have been discussing what exactly integrity is for the past couple of weeks. Then as the icing on the cake, at our church meetings yesterday this was the topic….. hmmmm – that made me stop and question. Do you think lack of integrity is a problem these days in every society? I suppose to really understand what the problem (if there is a problem) one should know and understand the definition of integrity. Here you go – Integrity~ (1) adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. (2) the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished.  (3) a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition.

One of the great examples from a speaker yesterday went something like this. You know with this bad economy many businesses didn’t give out Christmas bonuses this past year. A worker at one business made a comment that his family always goes to Disneyland every year and hadn’t missed a year. But with no bonus – that wasn’t going to happen this year. The next day he was thrilled and mentioned, that they would still go to California this year – his brothers family lived there and had season passes to Sea World that they were going to borrow (because the passes just have names and not photos). He said that he was going to tell his family to pretend they were the name on the pass. My question is – how do we expect our children to have integrity if they see us justifying not using integrity – when it is convenient for us?

Another point to ponder is the way we behave and how we treat others – perhaps you wrong someone, perhaps they wrong you – whether it is a lie or something else. What if you or that person moves to another area and you think you will never see them again. Why would you care that you were dishonest or unkind. This world is so small – the chance of you running into someone from your past is very real. How would you feel?

As we listen to stories in the media, watch the television programs we watch on a regular basis or go to a movie. Take a moment to evaluate the integrity of the over-all show and characters. I will start asking myself if that is something that will strengthen my integrity or will it weaken it….

Have a great week!

So I just wanted to let y’all know that I have been updating my website www.daisykaye.com Go check it out. It is not 100% yet – but hopefully soon it will be. Give me some time though – between being a wife and mother and working as well as trying to keep up with extended family obligations and church activities — I get a bit overwhelmed. Welcome to Thirty-something!!!!

I have also put new posts on several other blogs — scrapbookingwithdaisykaye.blogspot.com and cowboyanddaisy.blogspot.com

Enjoy and I will chat with you soon!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Try to take a moment and reflect on all of the amazing things in your life that you should be thankful for – it may surprise you how much we take for granted each day.

Kass is holding the heart -

While my hubby and I were cutting the elk into steaks, roasts, and stew meat on Sunday, we came across a large roast (actually the heart) – We decided to cut it half way open and check it out. How cool – who would ever think they would actually be able to use cutting an elk as a lesson in health or anatomy? Our two curious kiddos were in awe!! We told them to go ahead and hold it and check it out. They found the chambers, arteries, and everything – it was cool to watch these two little cuties investigate.

Karly showing off the inside of the heart~

At the bottom of the meat bag we found — the LIVER. It was HUGE!!! (Sorry – we didn’t get any pictures of the liver) It was about the size of my torso – kind of a large animal… Unlike anything I have ever seen before. Of course we cut the liver open — we actually cut it into 5 big pieces. This time the girls got to check out just how the Liver works. They saw all of the holes that clean the stuff that comes into your liver. It honestly blew my mind that they were so into it – these two little girls 6 and 10 years old.

Kass is really excited to hold the heart!

It was really funny tonite after bath time (the kids usually read right before bed) but they both wanted to play with the heart again. Sorry sisters, it is in the freezer – no fun anymore.

My thought is still WOW – here are some pictures, I wanted to share the WOW with you. ENJOY!!!

Chase, Jon & Me

Talk about amazing – My hubby and I were asked by our daughters boyfriend to join him at the Provo Temple just over a week ago. You see this young man is going to be leaving to serve and LDS Mission in just two short weeks. We are so excited for him to have this experience. (Kayla is excited – but two years is a long time) He will be serving in the Montreal Canada, French Speaking Mission. Totally not where he thought he would be going – He was thinking more in the lines of Asia (ie: China, Japan or something more similar to that)

We really think he is a great person and will do excellent in presenting God’s Plan to those looking for the gospel. The next two years will certainly drag on for Kayla, but it will be such a neat time of growth for them both.

Thanks for letting us share such a wonderful occassion with you, Chase. Good luck on your mission – we are proud of you!

One more quick note – The flower gardens at the Temple are out of this world. The smell is amazing and the colors are so brilliant.

Kassidy & Karly heading out the door

Holy cow – where has time gone? My oldest has graduated (yeah – old news, I know) but my little ones are both in all day school. Say what?? How can that be? If that is the case, then that would make me ….. OLD!

Chillin at the bus stop - week 2

On August 20, 2008 Karly began 5th grade and Kassidy began 1st grade – UNREAL. I remember when Kassidy was a baby and I thought school was far away.  Yeah right – time must have really sped up.

Hooray - the bus is finally here!

Karly was pretty chilled about the whole starting fifth grade thing. Kinda funny to think she use to be such a shy young gal. She still has her moments, but she has really grown up into a friendly out-going chick!

Karly

Kassidy on the other hand was not going to go to first grade past the first day. Atleast that is what she kept telling us in the days leading upto school starting.

Kassidy

Both the girls were pretty excited to get off to school the first day. They went busting out to catch the bus – of course they got out there early to hang with their friends. I stood out there with them and watched them board the bus. Jon and I cruised out to meet them as they got to school. (we try to do that every year) However, this year we were a bit late. We pulled up as the bus was leaving the school – crap! We didn’t get a picture of them exiting the bus…. (silly? ya it is and I know it) We hurried into the school, peeked into an empty lunchroom. (Uh-oh, we were going to sit with the girls while they ate breakfast) We started down the main hall, only to find Kassidy right by the office crying! Huge bummer!!! Looks like the reality of school finally set in.

Getting on the bus with their friends

It took us a minute to get her to her class – she wouldn’t sit at her desk. She just wanted her mommy and daddy.   I hugged her and tried to talk her into sitting in her chair at her desk. NOPE! Then she said that she was hungry. Their bus had arrived right when the bell rang, so they skipped breakfast. What do you do? You go to the closest Burger King and get your little one some food. When we came back, I sat out in the hallway with her while she at her food. Then she went back into class – without crying… HOORAY!!!

Breakfast-time .... DELICIOUS

Her teacher is a pretty nice lady. The good thing is Kass really likes her. So far, so go with school and we hope it stays that way. Kassidy has her first spelling test tomorrow (Friday September 5, 2008) I know she will kick butt – we have been practicing her words all week and she knows them! Way to go Kass. (The words are: the, and, my, to and a) Good Luck!!!

Sisters .... Best Friends

Just me & my Hubby!

My husband and I just returned last Saturday from probably the best experience of my life! We got to go on the LDS Handcart TREK with the youth of our ward – we were the Pa & Ma of a family of 8 kids (3 boys and 5 girls) We started the journey on our 20^th wedding anniversary – it was perfect. We walked/pushed a handcart up and downhill for 12 miles, had the coarse red sand blowing in our faces and used port a potties that day. Although it wasn’t quite what I had imagined our anniversary to be 20 years ago, I wouldn’t change a thing. Right before we started pushing the handcart, our Bishop of our ward called everyone together. He asked Jon and I to go upfront with him as our fellow Ma’s and Pa’s and youth of the ward chanted our last name. He said, “We are celebrating the 20^th anniversary of a special couple here today” they gave me a beautiful bouquet of fake Sunflowers. Gave us a packet of candy and even tied a bunch of soda cans to our Handcart so that they would drag as we went. All day they called us the Newlyweds – and for the remainder of the TREK we were known as the Honeymooners. It was AWESOME!

We are the Ma's!

They are the Pa's

I’ve got to tell you the three other couples from our ward that were Ma’s and Pa’s were the best – we all got along and had so much fun. The youth in our ward ROCK.. We live in such an amazing ward – everybody truly loves each other. Our kids in our Trek family are exceptional. The boys were always on the Handcart pushing, no matter what. The girls loved pushing the handcart as well – but the boys tried to make it super easy for the girls. Our boys would make sure that the 5 gallon water jug stayed full and the minute we rolled into camp, they had the tents put up and the sleeping bags to their appropriate tents. In the morning they were quick to get their tent down and then moved onto the girls’ tent.

Our family is almost ready to move 'em on out!

Father & Daughter

We pushed a total of 30 miles in 4 days (day one we pushed twelve miles and six miles each of the other three days). There were a lot of songs that we sung, stories told and memories to last a lifetime. I truly believe that the kids in our family built a bond that is indestructible. Some of the feelings I brought with me from this Journey are; this generation of youth is so strong (physically and mentally), they are so in tune with the spirit and I have been truly underestimating them. We are certainly blessed to have been a part of such a wonderful experience. I know with out a doubt in my mind that even though we experience tough times in life, we have a Father in Heaven that loves us so much, is always here for us (no matter what) and wants us to return to him.

Our Trek Family Photo

Mom & Daughter - exhausted after 1/2 mile uphill womans pull

It was a really great experience for me to catch a glimpse into how strenuous, challenging and a lot of times – horrible it was for the Mormon Pioneers to come across the plains to Utah. I am not from America, and I don’t personally have Pioneer ancestors that crossed the plains, my husband does. However, I never really gave it much thought past that. This opportunity gave me a lot of time to reflect on the Pioneers. They sacrificed so much to come to Zion. There were times on this Journey that my heart truly ached for the Pioneers – it would be awful to leave the comforts that we have, take a few items and go by faith to a place that was new to everyone. I am so impressed by their faith!! A lot of lives were lost, many sacrificed everything – happily. I truly will never be the same person again. I am so sincerely thankful to those diligent, amazing people that made that Journey across the rugged terrain to bring life to this great state of Utah.

]]> http://daisykaye.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/mormon-handcart-trek/feed/ 0 daisykaye Just me & my Hubby! We are the Ma's! They are the Pa's Our family is almost ready to move 'em on out! Father & Daughter Our Trek Family Photo Mom & Daughter - exhausted after 1/2 mile uphill womans pull http://daisykaye.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/graphic-design/ http://daisykaye.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/graphic-design/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:49:16 +0000 daisykaye http://daisykaye.wordpress.com/?p=109 ]]> First and foremost I need to say – MY HUSBAND IS THE MOST AMAZING MAN!! He is so kind, funny, caring, talented and is an absolute hottie!!! (the list actually goes on and on)

With that said – I am proud to say that I have been his wife for 20 (twenty) years. Boy does time fly – it really only feels like a short time has gone by.. Guess that’s what you get when you enjoy spending time together.

I love how he isn’t afraid to take chances – sure he is cautious, but nothing out there will stop him when he has his mind set on it. How awesome is that? Everyday of the 20+ years we have been together has been the best day of my life. Just when I think it can’t get better – it does. Sure we have gone through crap – who hasn’t? It is how you choose to take those punches, whether you let it stop you or if you just grow with it. That’s what makes you stronger!! With that said – Thanks babe, I love you!

My point to all of this is, over the past several years my hubby has been working his butt off – trying to build a freelance Graphic Design business. He has 21 years experience in the design industry with a lot of experience in the print side of it. I am excited to say that he has been moving upward consistently – it is starting to pay off – BIGTIME and I am so excited for his success – WAY TO GO!

Are you looking for a graphic designer?

Our daughter Kayla came down from Logan for the weekend – the kids all had a good time together. Kayla enjoyed some one on one time with her boyfriend (Poor girl she hasn’t seen him in a month). She will be back at the end of the month to go on the church trek with us. Good times ahead!

We have Pioneer Day coming up (It is on July 24^th) it is a holiday observed in Utah for the Mormon Pioneers that came to Utah.) It is celebrated with parades, BBQ’s and fireworks. So until then… Happy July!

This summer started off with a bang for us. First we celebrated Memorial Day with a big family gathering in Mt. Pleasant, Utah – so much fun to see all of my sisters in law and their cute little kiddos. Just two days after that holiday, Kayla graduated from High School and just three days after that we moved her up to Logan, Utah. Fun times for her – stress for us.

In early/mid June – my husbands awesome sister Andrea and her hubby James came for a visit from Texas.. They brought their five little children with them – hooray! It was such a fun visit – we got to meet our newest nephew (Isaac) he was born in January 2008. I must admit they have got the cutest little Texan kids. Thanks for visiting Andrea!

As if life would slow down any – Not! The week of June 30^th our church young women group had girls camp – I was the assistant camp director, so away to camp I went with 28 young women ages 12-18. It was a blast. The first day after we set up our tents and we got to take the girls to a lake just down the canyon from our camp. It was an afternoon of fun and games for the girls – in fact, I think everyone really had a great time. Our wards camp director even jumped in the lake to have fun with the girls. After about 45 minutes of swimming around with the kids it was time to go and when she got out she said that she must have hurt herself when she jumped in the water because both her ankles really hurt. We had the camp look at them and she wrapped them in ace wrap on the shore. We got our leader back to camp and then finally convinced her to go down the canyon to an Emergency room. Thankfully she did – I think it was her Fibula in her right leg that broke as well as her ankle on the same leg. She also messed up the tendons and ligaments on her left leg as well as sprained that ankle. She was scheduled to have surgery the following day. Needless to say she wasn’t returning to camp. Oh –NO… that means I become the camp leader.. Everything worked out fine, I was lucky to have some of the young women leaders up there with me and we regrouped, set a game plan and we had an awesome time at camp. I guess it helps that we had the best group of girls – so willing to do their share and have fun at the same time. I do not have any pictures from camp – No reason to have a bunch of pictures of dirty, stinky girls. It was a great time and I learned a lot from the kids.

My husband and I were asked to be youth leaders for a Pioneer Handcart Trek that is coming up at the end of July. (Neat side note – we leave for the Trek on our 20^th Wedding AnniversaryJ) So we just barely have some time to get everything read to take the eight kids we have been assigned by our ward to keep with us. I will let you know how that all went – just as soon as we get home.

Well – the day was finally here. Kayla was so excited to get out the door for Graduation. She arrived at the McKay Events Center on time – her boyfriend Chase was graduating as well so she hitched a ride with him. We left our home around 9am to make the dreaded 20 minute drive. Oh ya and all of Spanish Fork was making the drive for graduation too. The freeway was backed up!! What should have taken us 20 minutes, actually took us 50 minutes. I was grateful that my sister had left her home in Draper early and actually gotten to the Center at 9:15am. It was nice to know that we had seats waiting for us. (I told her to save 2 full rows)

The speakers delivered the basic speech given at every graduation “….. we are heading out into real life where the decisions that we make – will influence who we are and what we will become…..blah blah blah” The funny thing is that it is said year after year and really the choices that you have made up to that point in your life are just as critical to who you will become. (just my opinion) So after the speeches, they had a video presentation that was pretty hilarious. (Mostly a time waster – guess they had some extra time) Then it was time for the most exciting event — the one these kids had been waiting their whole lives for ….. it was time to MOVE THE TASSEL!!! Then they were announced graduated.. HOORAY!! So that was it -

Now it was picture time…. Pictures of Kayla with her Aunts and Uncle, Cousins, Grandparents, sisters and mommy and daddy! Thank heavens it was a gorgeous day outside. The weather had been a little iffy the days prior and I was hoping that the rain would stop. There were hundreds of pictures taken outside – trying to make sure that everyone got to be in the photos – you know trying to take the perfect pictures. After all of that fun and games, we went to dinner at one of the most fabulous mexican joints in the area – Los Hermanos. Everyone was hungry and the food was great. We all enjoyed a lot of visiting with one another. For some of us we hadn’t seen each other in ages.

When we finally got home, Jon and I were beat – and it was only 5.30pm! Kayla was getting all ready to head out for a night of stopping by several parties. We are such nice parents that we extended her curfew to 3.00am. She had a lot of packing to do before she left to move to Logan on Saturday.

It was a really great day and we are so proud of our daughter – GREAT JOB Kayla!! Just think one down and only two more to go. It sure is a good thing that we have 8 years until the next great graduation event.

The warm weather has been off and on here in Utah – back in May, we had some gorgeous summer-like days. We both had some time off of work and we thought we would get out and do something fun as a family. Great idea!! What should we do??? We tossed the idea around and decided to go spend a day at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake. We kept the kids home and off we went.

It was a fabulous day, not a cloud in the sky the entire day – the temperature was high 70′s to low 80′s with a lot of sunshine. PERFECT. This was especially exciting for Jon and I because we seriously haven’t taken the kids to the zoo in at least 12 years. Do you understand what that means? Karly is 10 years old and Kassidy is 6 1/2 years old — they have never gone to the zoo. UNBELIEVABLE — time really does fly by. The fact that we have lived in Utah County has aided us in not going, the zoo is no longer 15-20 minutes away. It’s an hour! With that said, I am not really sure who was having the better time, the kids or Jon and I.

We walked in the zoo with a game plan of how we would see the entire zoo – off we went. We saw the tiger, elephants, rhinos, monkeys, Gorilla, camels, birds, snakes, penguins, giraffes and so forth. However, we didn’t see the lions – the zoo doesn’t have lions. Who would have though? We did watch the elephants eat and shower. That was neat!! The zoo has a fun little playland that Karly and Kassidy enjoyed for a bit. Then we went on the train ride – hooray!!! Kassidy was so thrilled. Good thing we took the train though, we got to see eagles and buffalo. They also had a fun Indian and western village display that you can see via train only.

Before we left the zoo, the kids wanted to buy a prize at the gift shop.. So many things to buy – so many things they wanted. Kayla was a huge help steering the kids to the less expensive prizes, I guess she has caught on over the years that the kids destroy their prizes in no time. Jon and I took turns outside the main gate taking pictures of each other with the girls. Then this super nice lady said, “Here, I will take your picture, it’s awful when someone is always missing.” How thoughtful was that? Thanks again nice lady.

As we left the zoo we detoured to the This is the Place state park. It was fun to take a quick walk around the statue – I took a lot of fun pictures, too. After 45 minutes or so – we had all run out of gas, we were beat and thirsty now too. It was around 6pm and we started the journey down the hill.

This next part is kinda funny – as you go down the hill you pass EAST HIGH SCHOOL – well known for High School Musical.. Karly and Kassidy were on a serious look out for Vanessa and Zach. They were on site filming the third installment of the series. You could see all of the movie mayhem around the schools campus. Jon and I would say Zach Efron or Vanessa and the girls were like — WHERE!!! Hilarious..

I must admit that was one of the funnest days of my life just hanging with my family – what precious time. We had to do it because Kayla was graduating from High School just 12 days later and moving out just 3 days after that. – But I will save all that for another post…..

Well with the first of two graduations down this month – whew!!! Our baby girl Kassidy has graduated from Kindergarten. This wonderful event took place on Thursday May 22, 2008. It was the usual Kindergarten graduation with a lot of cute songs sung by these adorable little children. They sang many patriotic songs as well as the fun ones that show us all that they have learned this year. The caps were made out of disposable bowls with black construction paper as the top and a tassel made out of yarn. They were held on by a piece of elastic (that one would use in making a skirt.) How creative… Apparently Kassidy’s was on a little to snug — the poor girl was tugging and pulling on it through the entire program.. It was rather cute — and something to remember for many years.

Finally it was time to receive the well earned and eagerly awaited DIPLOMA!!! As you can imagine as it gets closer to one’s child the parents scoot in closer to get the precious picture of their child being handed the valuable piece of paper. So of course I moved in closer and there it was – Kassidy’s turn. Of course a sweet lady decided to step in front of me and I got the photo, of her big butt!!! Thank you very much – I have waited how long for this irreplaceable photo? So in the heat of my anger I stomped back to my seat next to Jon and in my frustration I was going to erase that picture. Which is what I did – along with every other picture I had taken of her program!!!! UNBELIEVABLE. Just as I confirmed on the camera to delete, Jon said NO! I was to quick and they are all gone… So at this point I had several emotions going through my head I was so angry with the fat butt lady and then myself for wanting to delete something when I was so angry.. We did take a few pictures after which is good – however, the cute photos of Kassidy singing and doing the actions to the songs and pulling on the elastic are gone.

So we have one more graduation – it happens tomorrow May 28th. Our oldest daughter Kayla is Graduating from High School! WOW!! So I have made a promise to not delete one picture until I am at home with a sane mind.

Well today was the day to say my final good-bye to my mare – Daisy. We decided to take her to the auction for a quick sale. I was the lucky one that got to ride her through… Talk about nerve wracking – everyone watching how you ride your horse and watching to see just how good she really is or isn’t. I was really proud of Daisy’s behavior on our last ride. She was AMAZING!!

As Jon and I walked to the front of the building Karly and Kassidy came out the main door. Karly helped Jon take the saddle to the truck and that’s when Kassidy lost it. “Mom”, she shouted. “Why did we sell Daisy? I love her.” She sobbed her little heart out and we walked over to the corral that Daisy was in so that we all could say our good-byes – that was the last time we saw her. I am so glad that she seemed okay – she was eating hay. I have to believe that whoever bought her; will love her as we did.

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Karly and Kassidy enjoy playing games on various websites and that has always concerned me. Jon sat down with the little ones a few weeks back and asked them what kinds of games they would want on a website if he would build one for them. So here you go – there are 18 games FOR ALL AGES – from Simon says to Sonic. Please tell your friend about the website – the address is www.neveskidz.com. I promise you will have a blast no matter how old you are. There is also a comments page for you to tell the girls how much you love their site. Thanks for checking it out.

P.S. I have a link in my blogroll – (on the front page (homepage) of my blog on the right side) named Neves Kids Website – if you want to click on that it will take you right to their homepage.

What a little tomboy.

The Main Event…

the kids would have a sort of parade with their cars through the halls of the school – while students from other grades along with the parents (of course) lined the hallway. After the parade the children were able to visit several sites across America –

The Liberty Bell,

Statue of Liberty

,

Betsy Ross,

Independence Hall (to visit Abe Lincoln),

and Mount Rushmore.

They were able to collect treasures along the way – such as a small bronze bell from the Liberty Bell, a Statue of Liberty crown from the Statue, candy from Betsy Ross and their very own penny from Abe Lincoln.

They also got to see the American bird – THE BALD EAGLE!!

It obviously wasn’t alive anymore, in fact the man that was talking to them about how this bird took a minute to explain to the kids how this Eagle died. It apparently landed on the power line and got shocked. Wow – who would have thought. How many birds do you see on power lines daily?

Their teachers put a lot of work into making this such a fun event for the kids and Jon (my amazing husband took a lot of pictures – so that I could enjoy the event too) I am not going to downplay the hard work of the parents getting the cars and trucks all ready for the event. Jon painted the car and even made a license plate for the front and back of the truck.

I am sure that Kassidy will remember how much fun she had with her Ford – really how many 6 year olds get to experience something like that!! I know when I was in Kindergarten (granted that was back in the stone age) when nobody new what computers were – the best adventure I had was going to the Neighborhood of Make Believe with Mr. Rogers. Dang!!!

Well we made it through a week with the new horses and all seems to be well.

Buddy (the scrawny little one) is doing a lot better. We gave him antibiotics for 5 days and it looks like it worked. Along with a lot of food and water. We have him and Willow up in the corral at our house and they are inseparable. Just what they both needed – Buddy is so mellow and gentle, he will probably turn into a great horse. We haltered him and took him out of the corral – that was the funniest thing. You see everything is starting to thaw (which means the corral is mucky – As Buddy was walking out of the corral to the yard (that is still snow packed) he did a funny hopping thing the first two times. We had him go back in and come back out about five times until he just walked casually out of the corral. He lets us lift his feet and halter him – he also loves to be brushed out. He was probably the best deal we ever got from the auction..

Colton got his hooves trimmed and spent some time in the round corral on Saturday. Jon worked with him on how to trust – basically Colton ran around the corral one way and then the other until Jon let him know that he could stop and walk to the center of the corral to Jon. This is an amazing thing – every time I watch Jon do this with a horse it blows me away. It doesn’t take that long for them to figure out that it is okay for them to run for a second. But then when Jon turns his back to the horse and calls him over to him with his arm stretched out, the horse drops his head and walks over to him. We also let Colton just hang out in the yard – we didn’t tie him up because we wanted to see what he would do. He just hung out and ate some hay. We moved Daisy over to another side of the pasture today because she isn’t being very nice to Colton. Both Zach and Butch had their moments – but they got over it and everyone knew their place. Daisy is a stinker and would run Colton ragged – so she gets to be in time out..

I hope you can see the huge difference in the weeks time with the two horses – we sure do.

So while we were at the auction Friday February 2, 2008 they brought out this little scrawny, bony, sad looking colt. His ribs were showing and he just looked so sad. The auctioneer started the bidding at $10 and quickly dropped down to $5 and then right down to $2. We were in awe. The auctioneer said alright then, $1. At that point our sweet little Kassidy who was sitting right next to me said, “Mommy, I got a dollar can I buy it?” What do you say to that? “Of course you can sweetie”, I told her. So her hand flew up and she said that she wanted to buy the little colt because she had a dollar. The auctioneer began talking to her – “Do you want that horse?” – Kassidy said yes and the auctioneer looked at Kaye for approval and then she said yes as well. Then the auctioneer asked Kassidy if she would take care of it and she said yes, then he asked her name and she said :Kassidy.”

What came next was a surprise… Well honey – you go down to the counter and you tell them that the auctioneer gave you that horse- be sure you take him home and take care of him. She said a fast okay, and then a big THANKS. As the attention turned away from her she said to me, “Mom, you mean that is my horse now and he just gave it to me free, I don’t have to pay, for reals?” I know little Kassidy saved his life – he would have gone for dog food. I can’t wait to see how wonderful of a horse he turns out to be… All because a little girls heart was full of love.

Kassidy decided that she would name her colt Buddy – because that is what he is. When we brought him home his hind leg was swollen and his head hung low – he was definitely starving and not well cared for. Kassidy and her daddy have been showering him with lots of love. They make sure he is eating – a lot and he has been drinking a lot too. They go out daily and give him antibiotic shots to help him heal. They spend a lot of time just loving him and talking to him. He is such a gentle little guy. In just the week he has been with us – he has made miraculous improvements. He holds his head high and is doing so good. We are keeping him up at our home with our little filly that will be turning one this June. It has done wonders for Willow too. These little ones are so cute together. It was fate!

Introducing…….. Karly’s new best friend!

Colton is Karly’s new horse. She got it from the auction in Spanish Fork on Saturday February 2, 2008. She saved him from going to the dog food people by bidding on him – He was only $45 – can you believe that? He is a 2 or 3 year old paint gelding. Karly is so thrilled to have her own horse, finally!! She put a lot of time and thought into choosing his name – finally she said that she would like to name him Colton (after her little friend that died last fall in a car crash with his mommy and siblings). He was one of her good friends and she thought it would be neat to name her horse after him – Isn’t that so precious?

She has been an amazing help in going out to feed him every evening with her daddy and just spending time with him. She has so much love in her heart for him and knows that he loves her too. Karly really wants to get him trained and she is looking forward to this horse being her life long friend – he is going to be an excellent companion and she is going to be an awesome rider! I will be sure to keep you all updated on the improvements of the horse and rider.

How cute! Little Kassidy (6yrs old) snuggling the new filly

Karly (9 yrs) is having a great time with the new filly too -

just look at how natural she is with her.

Kayla (18 yrs) is not interested in horses – just loves hanging with her boyfriend, obviously.

The girls are growing up so quickly – WOW!! It’s fun to watch the changes and growth that each one of the girls have. The best part is looking at the girls in various stages of their lives and it’s fun to see who they remind us of – whether it’s a sister or an Aunt – even if it’s Jon or I when we were younger. It is the greatest feeling in the world to be a parent!

We watch our children day to day as they grow, think for themselves and learn – like when they are looking in the garden hose and they get sprayed in the face. We see them daily so there are no huge changes – it’s only when we stop and take a look into the past that we realize they aren’t 3 years old anymore, they are 18!

     I think what happens is, I find so much information and I read and study the papers. Then, I lose interest in it. Perhaps it is because I am not one that really likes to read. I like variety and with three kids, sometimes it is hard to find time to even think. With that said, I think that paper four is going to be the most challenging one thus far, especially because I am sure I’ll want to change it again last minute.

     It’s fun to realize that this is our fourth paper we are writing. I am really interested in looking back over each one of my papers in years to come, just to see how much I have learned. Until then it is all about research, research and research on No Child Left Behind.  

So with that experience still fresh in my mind, I found our class very interesting on Wednesday October 18^th, because learning to use the proper punctuation is so important.  I find that I still run into trouble with commas quite often.  I rely a lot on Microsoft Word to save my bacon with spelling and punctuation. Oops! Apparently that is not a wise thing to do.  I knew that spell check wouldn’t find all the mistakes and that the grammar check would probably be about the same.  But when Ms. Smith mentioned that it really shouldn’t be trusted, I was a bit surprised because I am so guilty of just trusting these tools.

At work, part of my job is to write documents for employees and clients.  I depend on Microsoft Word to find most of the errors because I usually don’t have a lot of time to get them finished.   I find, as I am writing these papers, I need to proof read and use the various tools to make sure that everything is correct.  However, I usually just run the spelling and grammar check and leave it alone unless it marks the word or sentence.

I have high hopes that by the end of this semester, I will have improved my writing skills.  Sometimes it is so difficult to find a half hour to work on my assignments, but I really try to keep up on them because I can’t wait to see how my writing has changed since I started school.

In “A Silence That Kills” published in the American Journal of Public Health Lyndon Haviland shares her concerns regarding the tobacco epidemic facing the United States. She tells us that the production and sale of products containing nicotine (a highly addictive drug found in tobacco) are not regulated by the FDA. Haviland accuses the government of not educating the American people of the dangers of smoking through anti-tobacco campaigns. She wants the public health community as well as tobacco control activists to take a stand by putting a voice to the seriousness of tobacco use. Just like the AIDS activists put a voice to their cause. Haviland explains that an average of 1,200 tobacco related deaths occur daily, 178,000 of those deaths yearly are women suffering from tobacco related diseases.

Tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., not automobile accidents, suicide, murders or AIDS. Who would have thought? I think that Lyndon Haviland writes a great article here giving insight to this very serious problem facing our communities, even bigger, our country. Young people are very impressionable, for instance, if a character in a movie is smoking and she looks cool, that sends a message that if you smoke you will be cool too. If our youth are educated in the seriousness of tobacco use prior to being influenced by the media, they may not be so inclined to want to emulate what they see in movies.

Haviland is right when she states that we aren’t educated. I am 36 years old and thought that AIDS took more lives then smoking does. This especially struck home to me because when I was a great deal younger, I smoked a lot. While reading this article I tried to remember why I started smoking. I think I tried it because my friends were going to try it. It didn’t come natural to me; in fact, if I would have just walked away after I vomited, I probably wouldn’t have continued smoking. However, I wanted to be able to inhale that flavor like the veteran smokers could, and I eventually did. After that, thanks to the addictiveness of nicotine I couldn’t stop smoking for 4 years. Luckily, I did and I haven’t smoked in over 15 years. However, my older sister smokes, thanks to me. I tell her all the time that she needs to stop smoking and she really tries to, but she has been smoking for over 20 years. Fortunately I have no health problems from my short smoking career; however, I’m sure the day is near that I will learn that my sister isn’t so lucky.

I agree whole heartedly with Lyndon Haviland that we do need to act now and do something to educate and protect others from the dangers of smoking. We need to force our government to take the effects of smoking serious and help us make a difference. If we do, the day may soon come that we can stand proudly and know that we have silenced this saga of disease, suffering and death.

Works cited

Haviland, Lyndon. “A Silence That Kills .” The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean and June Johnson. 4^th ed. New York: Longman, 2006. 150-153.

That is not the easiest sentence to read is it? What if every time you tried to read something, your words looked similar to that? I am sure you will agree with me, those words are difficult to read and you definitely can’t understand what is being said. That sentence actually says “It is hard to learn when you have dyslexia!”  Many teachers in Elementary schools see quite a few students who struggle with this very common and serious learning disability. I have a personal connection with dyslexia; my sisters in law suffer from this learning disability. As with many of the other learning disabilities, dyslexia causes low self confidence; why would you try to read just to get mixed up? It also makes other subjects besides reading difficult, such as math. Everything is backwards and hard to understand.

I came across a lot of interesting articles dealing with various learning disabilities, however, “Issues facing the field of learning disabilities” published in ‘Learning disability quarterly’ on January 1^st, 2000 and written by H. Lee Swanson really caught my eye. One of the biggest surprises to me was the number of learning disabled children. The article reads; “The number of students classified as having learning disabilities (LD) has increased substantially over the last 20 years. There were 783,000 children identified with LD in 1976, but by 1992-1993 the LD population totaled approximately 2.3 million.” It doesn’t give further information on what the numbers are for each particular disability, but I don’t think it has to; those numbers are scary enough where they are.

It continues further along in the article to say; “This is a costly epidemic considering that public schools spend approximately $8,000 a year to educate an LD student compared with $5,500 for an ordinary student.” Finally, it says in the article that one could make the argument that the right questions have not been studied. For example; “Do the reading difficulties of the dyslexic stem from problems different from those characterized as poor readers without an IQ discrepancy? “Is not the question to ask? Rather the question is. “Which cognitive processes mediate the emergence of discrepancies and non-discrepancies in low achievers?”           

Knowing this information upfront is very helpful to me especially as I prepare to take the many classes that will be necessary to help these students have a fair shot at learning. I think it is important for me to approach this career with an open mind and the realization that everyone deserves the opportunity to learn, even if it will take a lot more effort from some of the more special needs students.

Listening to the way people, mostly children speak has always interested me. I like to watch the parents reaction or lack there of, to the mispronounced words. Do the parents notice or care if there is a problem? Do they know it can be easily fixed with a little bit of consistent work?

 I am the second to the oldest out of ten children. I wonder if my mom was so overwhelmed with all the kids that she didn’t really know quite how to handle it most of the time. However, I am glad that I was one of ‘the older ones.’ My youngest sister, Lisa, was born in February of 1983. She was only five years old when I married Jon. I remember that she could not pronounce her words properly. She had a slight lisp and she just couldn’t say her ‘k’ sounds or the words that began with ‘th’. The speech problem was evident with the majority of my younger siblings, but Lisa stood out to me. She was really trying hard to communicate with us. I remember countless times that Jon and I would sing the alphabet with her for hours while she was trying to say the letters properly. She wanted to do it the right way. That gave me more motivation to keep working with her. We would try various games to try to get her to make the correct sound for each letter or word. It slowly started to payoff. Jon and I set a goal that Lisa would be speaking properly before kindergarten started. Sure enough, just after a couple of months, she had finally got it. It was such an achievement for her; I remember how good it felt to see Lisa’s excitement. I was so proud of her hard work.

Over the years when Jon and I had our girls, we noticed that when they started talking, they had a hard time pronouncing a lot of the same words that Lisa had struggled with. So we immediately started working with them to say them correctly. It really helped them that we were there to help them out right away. I must admit that they all speak rather well.

Just this last year my family went to supper with Lisa’s family, (she is married with 2 little boys) As we were chatting, she told me that she remembered the countless hours that Jon and I were with her when she was five. She thanked me for helping her overcome her speech problems. I couldn’t believe that she remembered it! The greatest compliment was when she told me that she thought I could be a decent speech therapist.

A lot of our nieces and nephews couldn’t pronounce similar words properly, just by habit I found myself working with them as they spoke to me. If they couldn’t pronounce a word, I would say it with them over and over until they got it.  I love to see the little children conquer the words they had trouble with, they just radiate with pride.

My goal to be a speech therapist will be complete after I go through the education program. I need to get my bachelors degree in Education; I will basically earn a teaching degree. After that point, I need to continue with school to earn a Masters degree in Speech Therapy. Because I am going to specialize in this area, my degree will also allow me to work with people who have been hospitalized with disabilities or injuries that require them to learn how to talk again. I hope I will be able to give confidence to those who have struggled with it, due to their speech problems.

Sometimes I second guess my major due to some of the questions that lurk around it, such as; is there really anything to be concerned with and do I have what it takes to be successful; patience, kindness and skill?

This is my first year of college. I have been out of school a really long time, over 18 years. I was a stay at home mom for right around 15 years; I went back to work 3 years ago to let my husband start his own business. That worked out great for us, he was still able to keep the younger kids with him most of the time.

           We decided in January of 2006 that we should go back to school. There were a couple of reasons why; we didn’t want our oldest daughter to approach us in a couple of years, when she should be thinking about going to college, to tell us that she doesn’t think a college education is important. How can we argue the importance of a college education, if we don’t have one?

Also, we want to earn our various degrees’ to benefit our family in the near future. We went through each process together; from filling out the FAFSA all the way to getting our Student ID cards. Before the semester started we began really asking ourselves, “What the heck are we doing?” We knew that both of us working and going to school full time was going to be a bit difficult. Oh ya, and throw in the fact that there are three kids that depend on us. Each one of them is at completely different place in their lives.

Did I make the right decision to come back to school full time at this stage in my life? My dilemma lies here; while working my 40 hours a week (add in another five hours of driving each week) and coming to school for 12 hours of class a week, how can I find the time for homework? Obviously spending time with Jon and our children is my number one priority, but honestly, some days it is harder than others to give each one equal time. I find myself putting off the homework until the very last minute. What else do I do?

I think the hardest part for me, is when; my four year old Kassidy stands on the front porch crying out for me to stay home as I get in the car to drive to work, or when I haven’t heard my eight year old Karly read to me and when my 16 year old told me she had been asked to the Homecoming dance and I was on automatic pilot, not listening and said, “ya, that’s neat” as I was walking down the hall. Then it hit me and I went running back to the kitchen and said, “Wow! You did? That is so cool. What are you going to wear? ” But, I could see that I had already hurt her feelings. Ouch!

I hope that I can resolve this soon. It’s getting pretty difficult staying up until the wee hours of the morning, just to get up and start it all over again.

That is what keeps me up at night when I should be sleeping.

As these demonstrations were mainly focused on our soldiers and their function in Iraq, this got me pondering various questions such as: 

“Do our elected officials have an obligation to put aside their personal feelings and act in a way that represents all of their constituents, not only those who follow their political ideas?” 

“Is it necessary for us to still be in Iraq or should we pull our troops out?”   

“Does America, as a world power, have a moral obligation to help people in other countries who do not have a voice, or who cannot help themselves?”

I am so excited to be in school this fall! After all it’s only been 18 years since I have done school work, besides our oldest daughters homework.

I wish I would have taken notes when everyone was doing their introductions on Friday. It was interesting to hear what each others likes and dislikes are. I wish I could have remembered more information though. OH WELL!! That was a great activity Marcia! Thanks