still alive...and kicking

Where does a person begin when they have missed a whole summer on their blog? I have been unable to post anything because I have missed so much.

I have precious pictures from a visit Lauren made all by herself to stay with her grandparents on "the mission", Father's Day with Tod, the sheep came back to Cobblestone, I have male turkeys all feathered up trying to impress the ladies, Sadie and James got engaged, the 4th of July, LeAnn Hewitt's visit, a trip to Crescent City, last weekend with Tod, Hailey's first day of her Junior year of high school, and this past weekend. Let us start and end there.

Saturday Jon and I were able to attend the sealing of one of our wonderful missionaries, Josh Ogle. He is a BYU cheerleader, with the most contagious smile, the kindest heart, the greatest love and the funnest personality. (His mother told me his partner for next year is Jimmer's girlfriend. Josh is expecting to be in a lot of photographs since she is pretty famous in Provo.) Anyway, it was such a joy to get to be in the temple with them. He is the first one to be married in the Oakland temple, that is why we were able to attend! It was so great to HUG him and meet his wife! (can I just be honest and say how much we miss the Las Vegas temple? it will be one of the first places I visit in July 2012.)

Hailey had also gone to the temple Saturday morning to do baptisms for the dead with the YM/YW. We met up with her and rode home together. The flowers on the temple grounds are pretty gorgeous right now and it was sweet to be able to take a few pictures before trying to rush home and get on with mission business. The 101 is under construction, the traffic seems to get a little worse every weekend. We figure the construction will be completed shortly after we leave in July of 2012. Wouldn't you know. :)

This morning we drove north to Ukiah to attend Stake Conference. Hailey has a friend up there, so she came with us. As we drove I realized how much I love the area of our mission. It has always been beautiful to me, but I love it more and more all the time. I see beauty in everything around me. Then we got inside the Stake Center and I realized how much I love the people that live in the area of our mission. All of them! I feel like year 3 is going to be the best one yet for me. I'm healthy, I'm adjusted, and I'm ready to make the most of every day, in every experience I can be involved with! Our missionaries are the BEST! They really make all of this work worthwhile.

I had planned to return to my picture a day Project 365 X 3 blog on Mother's Day. I have decided to make it private. When I really get back to that, I will invite you all to see it. Until then, I hope to write on here at least weekly.  Have a great day! xo