Jesse or Duke?

Yesterday morning I was roused from my early morning reading by the very loud clucking of hens. Or so I thought. It turned out to be the the clucking of a frantic rooster being chased by two dogs. I looked out the window and couldn't see anything and laid back down. I heard more frantic clucking and looked out a different window. A big black dog was circling the hen coop and then he ran up the hill and over the road. I couldn't see bigfoot the rooster and thought he had been killed.
I went to the front of the house and opened the door. I saw a mane of gold down in the ditch. The rooster had been trapped by a golden retriever under the culvert in front of our house. The dog ran to the open door and started wagging its tail. I guess he was proud of his work and wanted me to be too.
For two days we thought we might have finally found our family pet. We called the pound because we couldn't just keep him if he was really somebody else's dog. The kids fell in love with him and then.... His owner showed up at our house to claim him. We had been calling him Jesse-thanks to Porter, who named him after his friend from church.
His real name isDuke, he lives on 1200 acres of farm land. You know I think he fell in love with the kids and despite the acres of endless exploring he has on his farm, he wanted to stay with us. When his owner called for him to get in the truck he laid down and refused to move. His owner eventually had to pick him up and put him in the truck.
Maybe he will wander back, or maybe well have to get a golden retriever of our own.

Summer is on the way

I am so excited for Summer. All my kids running at my feet, reading and swimming and singing laughing, fighting , playing-- Going home to visit our family in Utah-Yeah! We are excited for a great summer this year.

Just a bit of news....

Last week Marshal was awarded top AR reader in his class. He was thrilled and is so excited to go miniature golfing with all the other top readers in the school. I think he re-told the story 10 times and I was happy to see him so happy. Apparently he has been working towards it all year but I had no idea about it. Way to go Marshal!

Porter Graduates from Pre-School this week-with graduation gowns and the whole bit. A little over the top for me, but he is excited and it is fun to see him looking forward to it. We will post pictures and maybe video-they have been working on songs for the last two months. We are proud of you Porter!

Hannah and Emily won't know what to do when everybody is home-but I'm sure they will love it. And Everybody will get to know each other better, I love that part.

I have been working like mad trying to get my house organized. I'm almost done. For those of you natural organizers out there, I wish you were here to help me. I really have to work at this stuff . But I am proud to say that after years of trying I am almost ready to claim victory on my time. I hope when it is all said and done I will only have to spend 10 minutes a day on pick up. Of course that doesn't include laundry and cooking but I think my time will open up. I will have time to-spend more one on one time with my kids, do more service with my kids, enter an essay contest I have been eyeing, read the library books I get before returning them, and start exercising. The list could go on, but I think that is a fair start.

Cheers to the happy days of Summer and a clean, organized house.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

I just wanted to say that I have the best family ever. Yesterday I was treated to a new camera from everybody. Marshal bought me a twix bar with his own money and chinese food with lots of veggies for dinner. Today I woke up to pancakes and huge hugs from my kids and a husband who didn't have any early morning meetings. Then this afternoon everybody surprised me with fresh picked flowers and a cake and I got to take a nap. I felt very appreciated,loved, and well taken care of.

One of my greatest joys is being a mother even with all the hard stuff. I am grateful to my own dear mother for all I have learned and continue to learn from her. Happy mothers day to all you wonderful mothers!

Emily's surgery-Hannah's patience and a whole lot of LOVE

Today is Friday-2 days after Emily's surgery and all is well. Probably most of you didn't even know she was going in for surgery. Apparently surgery is just going to be a part of Emily's and our lives. It is amazing how much better her little eye looks. I hadn't realized how high the pressure had gotten, even with medicine. I just thought that was how her eye would look-cloudy. Like smog in Utah.

Today we are grateful for lasers, a very skilled surgeon, and great pediatric anestisiologists. We are also grateful for friends who shared their home and family with the girls and I so we didn't have to stay in a hotel and can I tell you how wonderful Hannah was? She went through two days of doctors and hospitals with no complaint until the last hour on Wednesday at which time our friend Suzanne and her little girl Emily came to the rescue. I'm not sure they felt they were much help-but they were.

I also have to say thank you to a kind Heavenly Father for priesthood blessings. Could we live with out them? One of the great blessing of the restoration of the gospel is the comfort and guidance we recieve from these beautiful blessings. We could all feel the power in the promises given to Emily in her blessing prior to her surgery and in the many prayers offered for her from friends of all faiths.

So the prognosis? Continued surgery to control pressure from becoming painful and also to prevent one eye from outgrowing the other. What about vision? Em's doctor took pictures of the backside of her eye and I thought it was cool to finally see it in color and 3D. You know she really doesn't have optic nerves- they are just missing. She is also missing alot of vessels that you see in a normal eye. We didn't get pictures of both the eyes, because the pressure in one eye was great -so no surgery in that eye. According to the Doctor though, a picture of the other eye would show basically the same thing.

So you might ask how do we feel about all of this? You know I don't know that I have ever had a greater sense of peace about a challenge in my life. Emily has changed me forever.

I am chagrinned to admit that a few months ago my worries were so superficial. I can even remember thinking-How will our family pictures look from now on? Of course there were concerns of more substance, but most of them were grief over the common ground that would be lost between us because she would not see the world I see every day.

Over the last months though, I have felt great happiness and hope at the world I am only starting to see because of Emily. A world full of amazing people who I have the privilege of getting to know. A world of possibilities and amazing accomplishment-where vision is more than sight and where our little girl inspires good in all who see her sweet smile and feel of her incredible spirit.

Of course there are occassions where you see the pity in peoples eyes or hear the dismay in peoples words. A few months ago, I would have been one of them. I would have felt sorry for a little girl without vision and parents who would be burdened by this for the rest of their lives. In my heart I would have been so relieved that it was not my burden to carry.

Today, I consider this challenge a huge blessing. Even a wonderful blessing we have been given to learn that the Lord truly sees not as we see and that he is aware of all his precious children. I know all will be well. I am confident that there will be difficulties of one sort or the other, but I know the Lord will sustain us and we will be better because of them.

Oh sweet Emily we love you! We are so grateful for you and all you add to our lives:)