An Amazing Day

There are days that occur,that when you are at the end of your life and you are thinking back to some of the most memorable moments or experiences, days that seemed to impact and forever change the direction of your life and even change who you are as a person. Days that you remember and think back to when the storms of life blow through.

Today was one of those days for me. It was an absolutely amazing day. One that I will look back on for years to come and be so grateful for. Too special to discuss, but one that needed to be on the blog, to remind my children what day this great event happened on. (How grateful I am that I was able to share it with Gale.)

Edmond 3rd Ward Primary Program wins a Tony

The Primary program was today and Gale and her counselors did an amazing job. The children were phenomenal! All throughout church everyone kept on saying it was the best primary program they had ever been to. Why? I decided it was because all of the children's talks seemed to come from their heart. They spoke of the Savior in a way you usually don't hear young children talk about him. It was really a moving service. I would say my highlight was when a little 5 year old boy (Cardon is his last name and I can't think of his first name right now!) sang a solo by himself called "I'm trying to be like Jesus" I don't think there was a dry eye in the congregation.

Elle almost made it through her sentence, but then she broke down. She just hates to talk in front of crowd. Chloe talked and Olivia sang with two other girls. (Savannah Rudd and Zoey ?) It was a great day.

Miraculous Moments

I am often amazed at how things work in my life, and the life of my family. The little miracles that come and if not watched for can pass by unnoticed. Tonight one came flying by and how grateful I am for it. We have been missing something very important for our show and we found it tonight--actually it knocked on our door. As Gale and I talked tonight we couldnt' help but see how the Lord's hand is always there for us.

One of the church talks I listened to this week was by Elder Eyring--Woops--President Eyring and during the talk he said that he tries to never let a day go by that he doesn't stop and think about how the Lord's hand was in some way involved in his life for that day. Think I might try to do the same thing. It seems like I have had such joy in my life recently and it is interesting that it has come during such a difficult time in my life. But I can now truly say that I am so grateful for those hardships.

Big Money

I was driving to the gym this morning when I saw the car in front of me (on a very busy street) drive through what looked like a pile of money. I immediately thought it was Monopoly money, but then thought what if it wasn't? So I quickly turned around and went back and started to collect it. It wasn't fake money. In fact it was twenty dollar bills. So in the middle of a very busy street I was frantically grabbing money thinking to myself-

1. I don't care if I get hit as there is money all over this street.

2. I am being filmed for some 20/20 or game show and I need to make it look good so I must work hard before anyone else stops and grabs the money.

So after working out I came home and pulled the girls together and told them the story and asked them what we should do. After the immediate "Go to the mall!" the girls said we should find who lost it. So we called up the Edmond police to give them our name and number just in case someone called who had lost a significant amount of money. The first reaction of the officer was "Where are you I am going to send an officer right out to pick up the money!" Yea right I thought to myself, I watched the O.J. Simpson trial and I darn well know what you do with evidence! So we decided that I am going to call the Edmond Police department tomorrow and give them an email address that I set up and if anyone calls having lost any money they can email us and let me know how much they lost and where they lost it. (Now for those friends in Edmond, I take a very wierd route to the gym so don't go emailing me about your lost money!) Yes--Bushman's I'm talking to you!

Halloween Parties & Big Ole Hair

Halloween is in full swing at our house and for the first time Chloe is old enough to start going to Halloween parties. I was a bit jealous tonight as I dropped off Chloe at her Halloween party. It looked so fun that I wanted to stay. They had a DJ and everything. (Chloe, Olivia and I have perfected the "soldier boy" dance now.) Gale is so far behind...she doesn't even know how to do it yet!

Chloe is having 35 7th graders over to our house for a party on Halloween. Because she is having a party she can't possibly wear the same costume to two different parties within the same week. So there was a frantic search to find her a costume before the 7 o'clock start time of the party. She ended up going as Miss America. The shocking thing about it is that when she came out in full costume she looked better than Miss America. So your probably thinking..a Miss America coming out of Oklahoma? Let's see....who is the current Miss America. None other than Lauren Nelson from our home town of Edmond, Oklahoma and one of the students at UCO where I teach. (Gale has assurred me that hair that high and wide deserves a crown on it!)
This just gets better. I had to go find a picture of our hometown girl from the Miss America website and I just found out she has a blog site. Just in case you want to catch up on Lauren her blog is http://www.blog.missamerica.org/. Now, I have always been a bit against the whole pageant thing, but with as many girls as I have and the college scholarships they offer the girls may have to start entering them! (That is a pure joke!)

Here is how great Chloe looked. What happened to my little girl? and yes she is much cuter and more talented than Miss Nelson from Edmond Oklahoma. She may have to work on the big hair if she is really going to make it.

The great thing was the talk we had on the way home after the party. She still shares everything with me, even if when she is telling me I cringe and can barely stand it. I have learned to smile and just listen (most of the time--but I was lucky I was in the dark car and she couldn't tell).

Talking about big hair--today was crazy hair day at Centennial Elementary school for Olivia and Elle. Pictures speak much louder than words, but let's just say we were all laughing our heads off all morning long. I could barely fit them in the car. Does Cindy Lou Who come to mind?

If you love me you will Iron my clothes

To understand this post you have to understand that I have had a pile of clothes to be ironed for close to a month and a half now in a corner in the bedroom. This is not Gale's responsibility as I am a somewhat picky about all my clothes being ironed. I was saving it for conference weekend, but it didn't happen as I was in France that weekend. So today I came home and Olivia had ironed almost all of my clothes. The pile was huge--she spent hours on it. See what a gigantic bear can do for a 10 year old sweet little girl. If I had known I would have got her one years ago. It was so thoughtful of her, she is an angel who is always caring about others around her. It may sound cheesy, but I was really touched by her taking the time to do it for me.

So now how do I get Chloe to finish the pile?

Fall Break

What a great long weekend I had. I have decided that little compares to spending a fun weekend away with my family. In a last minute decision we decided with our friends the Orgills to take off to San Antonio, Texas (7 hours away) and hit Sea World for two days. We left around 6 am when the girls were exhausted so at least some of the time we would have a bit of peace and quiet which worked for all of about an hour before "are we there yet?" hit my ears. But the ride down was actually enjoyable. We sang, we talked, the girls watched a new children's television show (which we all liked so much that I called the creator on sunday night and told him that I wanted our production company to distribute his show!) In fact we ended up reciting certain lines for the rest of the trip.

As we drove into Dallas Gale and the girls dropped on me that they had one "short" stop that they had to make. (Little did I know that this was all planned out) That short stop ended up being about an hour and a half and 5 ladies bought: 2 purses, 4 necklaces, 3 sets of earrings and some miscellaneous other items. And to think I was worried about how much food was going to cost at Sea World!~ What the girls didn't realize is that I found a favorite long lost drink. When I was visiting my brother in Utah a few months back he took me to an Asian lunch place that had tapioca drinks. They were great. Well, as I was waiting for the girls I explored and found a little place that made tapioca drinks! I immediately ordered a mango peach and I was a happy camper. The black round balls at the bottom are tapioca---.

So we arrived in San Antonio with no other major stops (don't ask me how I managed to avoid the outlet mall in Austin, but I did.) After swimming at the hotel pool and lounging in the sun we were starving so we went to search out some dinner. Of course what do the girls see first? LUBY'S. Now I hate buffet, food--can't stand buffet food, in fact I almost caused an in-law family melt down when Gale and I ran the St. George Marathon and I wouldn't (okay-absolutely refused) to eat at a buffet restaurant the night before. But I lost out and to Luby's we went. The Bray family and everyone in San Antonio over the age of 60. We had to take a picture for remembrance.

A couple of tips if you decide to eat at Luby's. #1-Know what you are going to order before you get in line. The mature patrons do not like to wait while you sightsee all the choices. #2-Get their rolls, they are great. #3-If you go on Saturday then you get one free children's entree for every adult meal, but it only includes one side not two. #4-You had better know CPR and the heimlich manuever if you work at Luby's because I guess things can happen---and have happened.

We had a really good meal. But people kept on staring at us, like we didn't belong. Youth haters. We tried not to flaunt our youth, but every once in a while you have to do a cartwheel or a backhand spring and run your fingers through your full head of hear and eat corn on the cob and not worry about your teeth coming out of your mouth. LOL!

So we spent the next two days at Sea World and had an absolutely great time. I love watching my children discover new things and have new experiences. Ava and Elle were just spellbound the whole time. Pure joy was coming at each different show. What brought Chloe and Olivia pure joy was the opportunity to leave the parents and go off with friends "on their own" to ride rides. (Fully equipped with a cell phone (so they could be tracked at all times) and no money (so they would have to return for drinks and food). Chloe and Olivia loved their free time. I think that Olivia especially appreciates it because she is getting it earlier due to Chloe being two years older. We all just enjoyed each other and laughed the whole time. There was no drama either. (or I have already blocked it out of my mind).

We liked it so much we got season passes. So I am sure we will be going back at least twice in the next year and a half to make it worth while. We will go back for sure in the summer time to enjoy their water park.
So a few things to remember from Sea World:

#1 - Fish, sea lions and other marine life smell. Especially when you touch them. (Except dolphins)

#2 - Frozen lemonade is manna and is actually what Moses and the children of Israel were fed while in the wilderness, especially during hot days.

#3 - Go when school is in session so you never have to wait in line. It made the trip so nice. Rachel Orgill put it best when after getting off a ride on Saturday when it was much busier said, "The rides aren't as much fun when you have to wait in line so long!"

#4 - Make sure you have enough hand sanitizer. Scary people make for scary germs to infiltrate your body. So let me submit the perfect picture of just one of our many sanitizing parties.

#5 - If you are in the first few rows of any show (shamu, dolphins, sea lions, etc) you are going to get wet. And no, to the three or four people sitting in front of us in each show the animals can't tell when your camera is out and when it isn't. Yes, grown men do get upset and cry when their camera's are ruined. Or at least feign a particle of dust in the eye.

The girls had a great time sitting front and center with their friends. Gale and I hung back to keep all the stuffed animals and camera gear dry.

#6 - Don't ride to many spinning rides. It can make you sick. Just ask Karen after a few rides--oh wait just one ride. (picture coming soon!)

So one of the highlights of my trip happened with Olivia. She wasn't tall enough to ride the great white so her and I hung back to wait for the others. We decided to play one of those games that no one ever wins and to my suprise I won a gigantic 6 foot bear. Olivia could have passed out she was so excited. I was so happy to win it for her because she was a bit down about not being able to ride the great white with everyone else. I told Gale on the way home. "No man will ever compare now!" She can't stop thanking me for winning her the bear! It was such a great moment for her--and for me.

The weekend went by to fast and it was time to get home. We decided to leave Saturday evening so we could go to church on Sunday and also the girls would knock out in the back and make the drive home a bit easier. On the way out we decided to eat dinner with Richard's cousin at the coolest steak house in Texas. It is complete with menu on the walls, great steak and some sights I will never forget. It was a fantastic dinner. The only drawback was the gentlemen at the table right in front of me. But the steak and beef rib was so good I didn't care. Pictures speak so much louder than words. You don't even want to know how we got this picture.

It was a great spot to eat dinner and it was nice to eat dinner with Richard's Uncle. We headed back to Oklahoma as soon as dinner was over and within minutes everyone was out. So I put on the Ipod and listened to general conference again. I almost made it through the whole conference again. We made it home around 2:30 a.m. It was so fun. I know we made some great memories and really enjoyed spending time with the Orgills. We will do it again!