I thought I could!

Tonight I repeated "I know I can...I know I can" for the last 1/4 mile of the longest run I've ever run continuously!!  I'm so proud of me.  Granted it's only 2.13 miles but that's double my usual run.  Yeah me!!!!  I can!!!

she's growing up too fast

This is my nice, my little miss 'Cedes.

Isn't she beautiful?!!

She's turning 8!  I  can't believe she's growing up this fast.  

I remember the day she was born.  

Time has flown and now we're celebrating her 8th birthday.

She's grown up into such a FUN, Creative, exuberant young lady.  Part of me can't wait to see who she grows into, the other part wants to freeze her and keep her at this sweet, adorable age FOREVER!

Life sized LIFE

I love creating games.  I've been teaching for......well.... a long, long time and I find that nothing teaches like games, so I whenever I can I play a game or create a game to play with whoever I happen to be teaching.    Activity Day Girls has been a continuous cycle of game playing.  Almost anything can be turned into a game.  So, this week's activity I really wanted to talk about President Monsons' talk on "The 3 'R's of Choice" .  The right to have choice, the responsibility and the Results of choice.  However, for an 8 year old this is not the most scintillating of topics.  So, I (with the help of my co-leaders) created a game.  I call it Life sized LIFE.  We created a giant playing board that was made with tape on the gym floor (I forgot to get a picture of the whole thing).  The first square is the starting square.  At the start we chose Heavenly Father's Plan to come to earth and get a body and follow Jesus Christ.  So, they all got a card with 5 points on it.  Then, they roll the dice (each in turn *it was CRAZY since there were 15 of them but they were well behaved and co-operative and did suuuper well)  some of the spaces were LIFE spaces.  they would get a card that said something like "You chose to be a good friend BLESSING 5 points" or "You chose to gossip, consequence you are not trust worthy -5 points".  They were instructed to hold onto all of their cards and tally them at the end.  Periodically as they went along they would come across a spot with a picture of a church and they would get a bonus card for going to church.  At other points there was a stop sign with various different symbols.  They had to stop and draw a card that would tell them what choice they made for example: to get baptised or not get baptised.  Then, they could move on.  The different stopping points were: baptism/ not baptised, graduate from Primary with your Faith in God award/ not complete FIG, graduate from YW with your YW medallion/ not complete, graduate seminary/ not graduate, get your patriarichal blessing/ not get it, temple marriage/ non temple marriage/ or go on mission with option to re-draw to get married or go on another mission.  They also could (but didn't have to stop on motherhood- stay @ home mom or working mom *not penalized for either*.  Most of these major life choices are in the first 1/2 of the game while most of the LIFE squares are in the later half of the game (the better to demonstrate that we have to make these choices early and then live with the consequences the rest of our life).  All in all I'm rather delighted with the game.  I feel I should add some repentance cards so that they may have their mistakes wiped away periodically, and I think I'm going to add more motherhood opportunities as only 3 of the 15 girls had the opportunity to become moms but on the whole I thought it was fun and the girls loved it!  I love it when  plan comes together!!  He He He!

emma counts her cards

They are so precious!

There's a blog for that!~

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time contemplating the validity of blogging.  When first introduced to 'blogs' I thought they were a vanity thing. ... that perhaps a person created a blog so that they could 'show off' aspects of their life or knowledge they had.  Several friends encouraged me to create a blog, they'd say something like "you like to write"...but, I didn't quite buy what they were selling.  then, my sister T created a blog and I began to see it's potential.  You see, I'd tried for years to create a more intimate link between my sister's and I.  At that point T lived in Canada, Memms lived in Virginia and I live here in Oregon.  I had at one point instigated a 'sister's letter' that we wrote and added onto.  One sister would write an e-mail letter and forward it to the next sister, who would add to it and then send to the third sister who would add to it and forward it back to the first sister.  It was a fun way to talk about what was going on in our lives, our worries, our successes...share photos, but it was also limited.  Invariably, one sister would forget to respond for a while leaving all of us hanging, additionally we liked to share photos but the more photos we attached to the e-mails the more 'cumbersome' they became.  T's blog introduced to me the concept of immediate feedback, unlimited photos and more satisfying contact.  I became hooked and started my own blog.  Granted, no one really reads me blog.  It's just me and my ruminations on various things, pictures of family events and silly little tidbits of life.  The lure I have found for blogging have extended beyond just family connections.  I have discovered  myself to be slightly addicted to following the links on other people's blogs to find more and more information.  I have found that I am a lot like the character Johnny 5 from the old 'Short Circuit' movies, I am always searching for 'more input'.  I like learning new things.  I like learning new skills, new crafts.  I like learning new things about friends or even people I barely know.  I like finding that there is a blog for "THAT".  Do you want to be inspired to read your scriptures?  check out my friend Dawn's blog Prayers and Thoughts, do you want to change your life and be more inspired to run or loose weight?  My friend Brenda has a blog that's actually provoking me enough to keep running check out Soled Out, are you interested in everything crafty...my FAV site is Ucreate, do you like scrapbooking and are always looking for layouts check out Pencillines, do you need Family Home Evening Ideas...family-home-evenings.com,  do you love the look of designer based furniture but hate the price?  check out knock off wood, what about housekeeping tips.... TidyMom has some fabulous ideas, desire to add a little creativity to your love life?  the dating diva's are addictive.  I could go on and on.  I've honestly had to set an 'allowance' for myself.  I allow 30 minutes a day of browsing my favorite blogs and then 'time's up!' otherwise I could spend all day here.

Do you have cool blogs to share with me?  More input please!!!!

another one!

OK, OK, I know I like to show off my stuff...BUT.... I finished another book.  This is my annual Activity Day Girl's book for my own personal memories.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  Couldn't wait to share!!!

my book is done!!!!!

As y'all know, I love making my family books.  I work on them slowly over the course of a year and then publish at the begining of the next year.  I'm excited to say that my book for 2010 is D-O-N-E!!!!!!!!!  I'll order it next week!!!!  I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!