Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Trying Something New

     A friend of mine mentioned to me about a year ago that I should start a blog.  At that time in my life I was feeling pretty busy and wrote to our oldest son serving in Alaska weekly about our family and friends.  In six months he will be coming home and I thought I would try writing down my experiences and observations about life on a blog starting the new year.
     My husband and I have four children.  Two of which are almost at adulthood, one teenager and the youngest who just turned eleven.  All their names start with a J so I will refer to them as Jake, Jen, Jes and Jewels.  We really didn't plan it that way it just happened.  Come to find out, one of my favorite Jimmy Stewart movies,"Shenandoah"has children with J names and also my favorite T.V. show,"Nineteen and Counting" has nineteen with J names.(wow)
     Writing hasn't always been easy for me and that's another reason for blogging.  Maybe I can improve in my writing skills and keep a history journal at the same time.  Some of my hobbies are crocheting, music and reading.  During the good weather I like to walk and garden.
     Last August I started working as a lunch cook at an Elementary School by my home.  I wanted to quit the first two months but now I think I'm getting the hang of it.  The women I work with are funny and hard workers.  Two of them have been working as a school cook for a long time, the other cook about seven years.  I now have a great respect for lunch ladies across America.  I had no idea how physical and hard the work can be.  Did I mention it is very stressful when serving the food.  If the school district would let the third cook work earlier with the other two full time cooks the kitchen work would probably run smoother.  But it seems everyone is cutting back these days to save money.
     Christmas was another memorable holiday this year.  Two weeks before the twenty-fifth of December an Apostle came to our stake conference.  Our family felt very blessed to be apart of three of the meetings where Elder Ballard attended.  The last meeting he asked us to read the story of Jesus' birth in Luke this Christmas time together as a family.  I know a lot of families already do it on Christmas Eve but our family in the past usually watches, "A Christmas Carol" or other popular old Christmas movies.  So this time we read scriptures form the Book of Mormon and from Luke.  Then Jess brought in the lap top computer and we watched the new movie about the Savior's birth.  She had watched it in her seminary class and I'm so glad she shared it with us.
     I finally finished my friend's scarf around midnight and wrapped my last Christmas present for the season.  I felt a great relief after all the activities that go on during December.  This year I was planning on only doing some of the traditions from the past.  It's funny how my family reminds me of what they remember and encourage me to do the same things we started long ago.
     Christmas morning started off with a call from Alaska!  We were able to talk to our missionary for about an hour.  Then off to church we went.  The choir did well and our bishop gave a nice talk.  There were a lot of visitor's and extended family which felt really neat.  I couldn't see in the back of the chapel, everyone was blurry.  Someday I need to get glasses.
     After church our first stop was Salt Lake City to visit my father-in-law and brother-in-law.  I made a yummy stew and Jen showed her grandpa the new genealogy fan on her computer.  Then we got in the car and went to Riverdale just south of Ogden to my Uncle and Aunt's house.  There we had a feast of salad's, turkey and ham with relatives form my mom's side.  I tried not to eat the dessert because I was driving and sugar tends to make me a little tired.  After that our last stop was at my brother's house in Layton.  He has a beautiful eighteen year old twin daughter who is autistic.  Most of his older kid's are  now married, some with children.  I don't see him very often so I really enjoyed being with him and talking about our families.
     So in all we had a pretty good Christmas and made it home safely.  In years past we stayed home if it was snowing because I don't like being on the freeway during a snow storm.
     Today I still felt a little tired so I took a nice nap which really helped.  Tomorrow I'm going to try and eat better since there have been a lot of goodies around the house.
     I'm going to write the note that was left on top of the large gift my father-in-law gave us, "Do not open until you are home and all the doors and windows are closed.  If this gets out in your home you will be able to get it back.  If it get's out side it will be gone.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year".
     When we finally got home and opened the present we discovered he was able to find a lot of cool free stuff through the mail.  Jewels was hoping it was a small animal of some kind.  I thought it might have been a butterfly kit or some rare plant.  Instead we will have beautiful classic music in our home for future years to come.
Have a great week!