Sunday, March 23, 2014

My oldest son, David, went on his first date last night. He went to the Military Ball, put on by the JROTC which he belongs to. He invited a good friend of his, Suriah Schott. They know each other from school and church. They had a good time. About the same time as their date, my brother, Brandon, his wife, Nikki, and their kids, Matt, Braden, Grace and Ellie, were here visiting. We all went out to dinner, with my parents too, we all had a great time. They are here on a stop over on a trip to California. They will be here for next weekend too but will be spending more time here then.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Well 2014 has begun and is moving quickly. We are beginning to plan our summer activities and are looking forward to them. We will be attending our annual family camping trip in June. The older girls have Young Womens camp in June also. James and the two older boys will be going to Boy Scout camp in July, as Kaleb will be an 11 year old scout, he will be able to go this year. Hayley gets a wonderful opportnity this July as well, she is going to be attending EFY in Utah, she is super excited. The school district here has changed the dates of the school year for next year so the kids will be heading back 2 weeks earlier than they have in years past, so our summer is a little shorter than before. We have decided that we will be having a "stay-cation" for spring break this year. I want to take the kids to see some of the local sites that we have not been to. I am pretty sure there is a ghost town around here and there is a date farm near by that is fun to visit. Maybe go to the hot springs and have a soak, lol. We will have a good time whatever we do. Hoping to get all our fun times planned out and carried out for more family fun this year.

Friday, November 15, 2013

My Heath

I have always battled with my weight, for most of my teenage years and all of my adult life. Always thinking and planning to eat right and exercise to lose weight and get healthy, but never doing anything abolut it. Well now all these years of not doing anything about it has caught up with me. One week ago I was diagnosed with hypertention. My blood pressure was 209/109, I went the ER and after lots of tests was given meds and told to follow up with my regular doctor for treatment. I am dragging my feet at going to a regular doctor and have him push pills at me and not help me to live better so i can get this under control. This has really made me do some thinking about myself and why I have not taken care of myself up to this point. I am a mother and a wife and I put the needs of my children and my husband before my own. I worry about everything, even the things that I can not control or change. I am not sure how to even take care of me and how to do someting just for me. With 7 children someone is always in need of clothes or shoes or lab fees or feild trip money, I am always the last one who gets the things I need, and I am ok with that, I am a mom, that is part of my job. I have gone to school so that I can work to help support my family but can not get a job right now because I dont want to use daycare, I try everyday to think of something I could do from home to help out with the bills, but I have no success. This adds to the stress I put upon myself, which is not good. There are many days that I feel like such a failure that I just give up and just mope about. I think that I am failing my children, I want them to be better than me but I cant teach them more than I know. I am commiting to try everyday to be better at my shortcomings. I don't know where to start but I will find a way to do this.

Friday, October 11, 2013

I have been trying to turn a hobby into more. I can crochet, I am still a beginner, even though I have been crocheting since I was eight. I have recently found a simple pattern that was originally a scarf and I carried it over to make an afghan. So far I have made one for my brother and sister-in-law and a cousin for her wedding. I have another done for a gift this Christmas. I have made a bunch of scarves over the past few weeks that I am now attempting to sell to have some extra Christmas money. I very much enjoy crocheting and it brings me peace, I love that it is something that I have do to sitting down and it helps me relax. I would love to expand my talent and get better so I can do more projects. I don't have all the time I want to be able to do all the hobbies and fun things that I would like to do. My daughter Sandi also has the talent for crocheting, she is going to be better than me soon. I am so glad that she has taken an interest in this particular hobby of mine.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Sweet Sixteen

Well it is official, we have a 16 year old son!!! David James Hall turned 16 on September 10, 2013. I am not sure how to feel about having a 16 year old son. He will be gone in just 2 short years. David is becoming quite the young man, I am having to learn that I have less and less influence and control in his life and will soon be a bystander instead of the driver. On Sunday September 22, 2013 David was ordained to the office of a priest in our church's young men's organization. It is quite a big deal for our ward because we have been without any boys older than David for over a year. The 16 year olds play an important role in our Sunday service and next Sunday it will be a wonderful moment to see David up in front doing his new responsibility. David is starting a new chapter in his life, he will be driving soon, he can date now, he is less than 2 years from graduating and about 2 years from serving a mission. I am happy for him to move on into the next stage but I am not ready to let him go off into the world. We want David to know that we love him very much and are very pleased with the choices he has made and is making now. I do have to give credit to others for the success of my son, he has had several outstanding church and Boy Scout leaders that have helped make David who he is today. It really does take a village, I can not say that I have raised my son to be the man he is without the help of so many others.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

OK this is a little late, but the cord to my camera likes to hide from me, lol. I have experienced several first day of kindergarten before this year, 4 to be exact, but this year I was having a hard time at letting my Jacob go off to school. This was for many reasons, and I am sure people could tell I was not ready, we did not get him registered until 3 days before school started. First, Jacob his a older kindergartener, he will be 6 next month, so I have had him home with me longer than some of the other kids. Second, our district changed to full-day kindergarten here, so I was worried that he would not handle all day there very well. Third, in public settings, he is quite shy and quiet, takes after his mother. Fourth, he had not attended any kind of pre-school, not sure how he would measure up to the kids that had. And fifth, he is my one and only left-handed child. I did not know how he would be received at school by his peers because he writes differently than they do. All in all, I did not cry when he waved good-bye and marched off with his class and never looked back, lol. I have not been worried about him since he got into the car the end of that first day and said that he loved school and couldn't wait to go back the next day. I guess I always over worry about my kids, but that is my job as their mother. :)
Jacob's First Day of Kindergarten.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Our Busy Summer

Well now that summer is over and school has started, it is time to add to the blog. Our summer was packed with fun and excitement. Our first adventure was our annual family campout, not all of the families could be there this year but we had tons of fun with those that were there.
My brother James and is family was there, the cousins had tons of fun hanging out together. My cousin Al and his wife Shannon also came for the weekend. We did a lot of fishing and eating, lol. Later in June my older two girls had the opportunity to go to Girls Camp. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. Our camp director this year was a wonderful young woman, Megan Meads who is now serving a mission in North Carolina. Our ward girls went up to camp with awesome attitudes and had very great time at camp.
In July, James and our oldest son went to Boy Scout Camp in Utah at a camp called ThunderRidge. This was the first scout camp experience for my husband and he really enjoyed going and bonding with the young men from our ward and our sister ward. My son, David returned with 6 merit badges, the most from our two wards. He is working really hard at getting to his Eagle rank.
And finally in August we were able to go to Idaho for a family reunion. We had the best time, we hit several museums and outdoor art events. The kids enjoyed being able to play outside and being at the parks we went to without the high temps we have at home. The family reunion was lots of fun, my aunt Lisa and my cousin Heather were the only ones that knew we were coming, everyone else was so surprised when we got there. It was so nice to see everyone again, most of the side of the family I have not seen since I got married.