Thoughts on life

Life is but a quick moment in the expanse of eternity. This idea has been with me constantly these last few days. In the past few months two people who I have had the pleasure of knowing passed away. In July a guy I knew form a class passed away just a few short weeks after the birth of his first child. The most recent was a girl we know from a ward we were in a few months ago. She was five months pregnant with her first child and died in a car accident on the way home from school. Now, I did not know either of these people as close intimate friends but we talked and share a few memories. I grieve for their spouses and their families. I am sad for the child that was lost and for the child who lost her father. How grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father who has provided a way for families to be together forever.
One concept which has been brought to the fore front of my mind is that of finding joy in my day to day life. Much too often I take for granted the kiss I receive when I wake up in the morning next to my loving husband. All too much I don’t appreciate the sound of little feet running over to ask me to kiss me goodnight. Little chubby hands which cup my face, a smiling daughter who looks at me, and when our eyes meet hers shine with joy. Little moments of the day when we spend time together as a family making dinner or just talking, always seem so usual. I have been brought to a stark realization that these things are blessings that I could someday not have. These past few days though I have grieved Angela’s death I have also woken up to life all around me. When Stephen died it wasn’t sudden. We knew for weeks that it was coming. I had a chance to say goodbye. To say my last I love you and to give my last kiss. It was hard and terrible but I had some closure. That does not always happen. I keep asking myself what people will remember about me if I were to die suddenly. What will Ella remember of her mother? I have decided to take more time to enjoy life, the everyday things. When Ella want to read a book at an inconvenient time, I am a lot more likely to sit down and actually do it. I am still living life and getting things done but instead of feeling the hum drum I am more grateful to be here to do it.
My mom sent me this quote by Marjorie Pay Hinckley,
"One of the ablest women in this country, now the wife of a university president, was brought up in poverty. She recalls an occasion when, as a girl, she complained of her hardships to her mother. "see here," said the mother. " I have given you life. That is probably all I will ever be able to give you. Now you stop complaining and do something with it."

"Each of us has some things we could complain about, but what good would it do? Complaining seldom changes anything."
I am striving to live life with less complaints and more joy. I am working to make the most of what I have and stop worrying about what I don’t. I’m working to be more open and to smile at people I pass by. Who cares what strangers think about me? I am going to be happy and enjoy things, maybe it will catch on and they will to. Life is too short to sit and complain. I hope that I can keep this new perspective. I am grateful for my family, for my life and my health. I am grateful for the plan of happiness that God has created so that we may live in Heaven again. What a wonderful country we live in that we are able to enjoy such beautiful lives!

And so it begins.

Snow is in the forecast for Saturday.

Time to break out the hot chocolate!

So,

Isn't Fall so beautiful?

I have not been very good at blogging. I do have many excuses. One being that I did not have a camera for awhile. The camera now works so here goes...
Jacob came up to Idaho for awhile. Ella loved to wake him up every morning. I think that she would wait in bed planing how to get him. She was sad when he left and kept asking for him for a few mornings. He even tried to teach her to skateboard while he was here.

I have been trying to find good activities to do with Ella. Now that I am home all of the time I get bored. Our library caries backpacks and big file boxes on different subjects which we can check out. I checked out the one on ducks. We read lots of books about them and played duck games. Then we went to the duck pond and fed the ducks. It was a lot of fun!



Since my parents moved to Salt lake I have seen them at least twice a month. It is so nice! This last trip my mom and I canned apples. So fun! I am going to post about that on my food blog.

I had better take advantage of being so close to family, we may not be so close next semester. Since Charles hasn't blogged about it yet I thought I would spill the beans. He was contacted by a Pricewaterhouse Coopers for a phone interview. The recruiter never ended up calling, instead he e-mailed Charles telling him some more specifics about the job and asked if he was still interested. YES we are definitely still interested (does anyone ever turn down the big four????) So he is now going to be flown out to Stamford , CT for an interview in person in November! Wow, so exciting! Even though we don't know what will come of it, we are still VERY excited to get this far. Don't worry. We will keep y'all posted.

Daddy, Daughter

This is their time. It happens almost every day. Charles is doing his homework when Ella walks in, hands him a book and then climbs in his lap. So cute!

Housing Update

Well, The managers seem to be on my side and think that the people are overreacting. I made her some zucchini bread as a peace offering and went away for a week to give her a break. (actually I went away because my brother just got back from BRAZIL!! So exciting!) We now are very careful to step lightly and I tiptoe a lot. I refuse to stop Ella from playing loudly because hey, that's what childhood is all about and we live here as well. I don't know if it is making any difference but the managers pretty much said that they are not going to do anything else and the neighbors will just have to get over it. Hopefully the zucchini bread soothed their tired ears and they are happier. Who knows,maybe we can be friends not enemies.

Ahh, apartment life.

You have to love it.

What would you do?

We have had our neighbors come upstairs to complain about noise twice since they moved in seven days ago. They say that we walk like giants with heavy heel two movement. Actually it is just the wife who comes up to complain. I have tried to be quieter and to keep Ella quiet but there is only so much that we can do. Tonight they came while we were sitting down at dinner and said that it had just been really noisy. The only walking that we had done was when Charles went to get something out of the oven. I guess I feel that they may be overreacting a bit, but I also feel bad for being so annoying. Anyways, I am pretty sure that they have called the managers about it because I just checked my messages and they want to meet with me. The ironic thing is that we have always lived upstairs in our apartments and nobody has ever complained about us before. And if you know us you know that we have lived in A LOT of different places. So, do we all tiptoe or just carry on with life and tell them they need to get over it?

Imagination

This girl has it. She is always making up new games. Today she was "using" my blender (minus the blade of course) and pretending to pour in fruits and veggies while making a grinding noise! So cute! She also like to feed her babies and make sucking noises when they are taking a bottle. She has also been known to use sippy cups as guns and make shooting sounds as the milk sprays out. (Not really sure where she learned that one...)

Photo by Judy. Isn't she an amazing photographer! I love it when she takes pictures for us!