An Update and Good Books

Not much new going on around here. Jaren has about two and a half months left! Wahoo! He is very busy at the moment. I usually get to hear from him every other day if not everyday but in the last week I have only heard from him once. Things should slow down for a couple of weeks then he will be busy the remainder of the time in preparation for coming home!!

A question many of you out there are probably thinking is, "What are Jaren and Emily going to do when Jaren comes home?" What a very good question to which the answer is...we just don't know. We have a few ideas and are researching our options but feel like we haven't stumbled across all of our options yet. When we figure it out, we'll let you know. I do know a few things we plan on when Jaren comes home. We have signed up to be a "Ma" and "Pa" for the Stake Youth Trek at the end of June. Neither of us has ever done a Pioneer Trek before so we are pretty excited. I think Jaren will be a great "Pa" for the youth. We will be walking a portion of the Oregon Trail dressed up in all of the pioneer clothing. It should be a great experience! We will be visiting family and friends in Idaho and Utah. We will hopefully get to go white water rafting. It's just so unfair that since Jaren and I got married, I have gotten to do his favorite outdoor activity more than he has. He always seems to be gone during the summer. Sorry honey! I had a great time though! :) I am still the Young Women's Camp director and will be getting ready for Girl's Camp and our outdoor Mother/Daughter overnight activity we will be doing in July. Lots going on and I love it! Hope you all are doing well!

Recently, I have read some really awesome books that I would suggest to anyone who is looking for something to read. The first book is one I think EVERYONE should read. It's called Faith in the Service by Chad S. Hawkins. This book has real life stories from members in the Military who are deployed or have been deployed and even some stories from loved ones left behind. It gives you a good idea of how the Lord's hand is present among our soldiers and in this "War". My own personal feelings about Jaren being in Iraq and the United States in general in the Middle East are that we need to be there. We have done so much good and are giving the people there a better impression and understnading of us. I feel that the U.S. being there to stop Terrorism will one day allow the Gospel to be taught in that land where the first Patriarchs dwelt.



The second recommendation is a book series. It is called The Great and Terrible by Chris Stewart. If any of you ladies out there went to Time Out For Women last year, he was one of the key speakers. The series gives you a different perspective of the last days and how the devil works on us to stray. There are six books in the series. The first book called The Brothers, starts out in the pre-mortal life. It is an interesting picture the author paints because, of course, he had to use Author's License as to what he thought it might have been like. Some people have a bit of a difficult time with the first book but I thought it was great. However, I loved books 2-6 even better!



The last book in the series is called Clear as the Moon. These books make you stop and think. They gave me the motivation to be even better about getting prepared. I would hate to end up in a difficult situation that is made worse because I was not prepared to the best of my ability. Hope you all enjoy them!

Long Beach, WA

Over President's day weekend, my family and I went out to Long Beach for a little weekend get-away. Beverly and Neldon, my mom's aunt and uncle, reserved the weekend through their timeshare. The "adults" (Beverly, Neldon, my mom & dad) went out Friday while us "kids" (me, my cousin Zac, and my sister Ashley) came out Saturday. Us "kids" got to Long Beach at about 12:30 pm and had some lunch at one of the very few little restaurants in the tiny town. It was a very small restaurant that was a little pricey but the food was great! The "adults" were on their way back from the lighthouse at Cape Disappointment so they grabbed lunch on their own then headed back to the resort to wait for us to finish. Before we made it to the resort we decided to try a delicious looking ice cream shop. I had a sugar cone with a softball sized scoop of chocolate mousse ice cream. It was HUGE and very yummy!





Once we got to the resort I went and took a walk on the boardwalk with my mom and Beverly. I took some pictures of the ocean (as shown above). It was beautiful and decently warm for February!





While out on our walk I saw a bunch of seagulls and I was trying to get close enough to take a few pictures of them. As soon as I would get 15 feet away, all of them would unanimously start walking in the same direction away from me. I had just given up and was walking away when some guy randomly pulled up next to the seagulls, got out of his van, dumped a big bag of popcorn for them, then got back in his van and left. Now the seagulls were too distracted to notice me creeping up. I got some good shots but none topped this one of the guy leaving with a couple of seagulls trying to rip the bag out of his hand!


Sunday morning we went to attend the Sacrament meeting of the Long Beach Branch. It just so happened to be Branch Conference. I thought it was very peculiar that the chapel didn't have pews but just folding chairs. I there were only seven rows with another row lining the back wall. The total number of people (including those on the stand) were about 85. It was a very good meeting though! I found out afterward that the reason they don't have pews is because there is no gym and they use the chapel to have dinners and such. I'm very grateful for my WARD building!





Since it was Zac and Neldon's birthday the following week, we celebrated by eating steak and crab for dinner Sunday night. I did try some crab and just as I suspected, it was fishy and gross. I am definitely NOT a seafood person. Above is Ashley holding a nasty looking crab leg. We also had a very rich German Chocolate cake with Heath bar pieces on top. It was so good I wanted to eat the whole cake myself but one piece was enough to overfill me.





Monday was the most beautiful weather of the whole weekend. However, this was when all of us "kids" were leaving to get Zac to the train station in Longview and me and Ashley were heading home. Ashley had school the next morning and I had another babysitting job. I did my best to get Zac to the train station on time and we did make it with only a couple of minutes to spare. Unfortunately, right as he was about to walk on the train, the doors started closing. The attendant on the other side just shook his head as the doors closed completely and the train left without him. Are you kidding me?!! Come on!!! Zac needed to catch this train to get back to Ft Lewis where he is stationed and take care of some things before the end of the day. Since it was because I wanted to get the picture shown above that made us late, I drove him up to Ft Lewis. It was an extra hour up north then another two hours to get down to Vancouver instead of just one from Longview. It was a lot more driving than I planned but we all made it where we needed to go. The "adults" enjoyed the beautiful weather by renting mopeds and going to the delicious bakery in town. They came home on Tuesday and the little vacation was over. Back to normal life. I had a great time at the coast and can't wait to go back again!

Kid-sitting

For the last week and a half I have been gone watching other people's kids while they have been out of town. A couple that used to be in our ward (who moved when they built their beautiful palace home) went to Ecuador on a humanitarian service trip because he is a doctor and was providing care to the people there. They have 4 boys (twins age 10 and younger boys 7 and 5). The parents were gone for a little over a week and I stayed for most of the time. I was there from Saturday afternoon to the following Friday morning when another sitter came to relieve me for the rest of the time (until Sunday night). The mom planned it this way because the boys didn't have school on Friday and felt it was too much to have one person spend the whole week with them (even with them in school during the day) then spend another 3 days with them home ALL day. I was very grateful for her thoughtfulness.

I have done things like this before but never 4 boys at one time. It was quite the learning experience. I cleaned up the 7 yr old's puke my first night and everything involved with that, had all the boys stay home from church because of it (wasn't sure how sick he was), dealt with the office and his teacher on Monday because they thought he might have the flu (he didn't, he just made himself sick because his parents were gone), cleaned up the huge mess the boys made from decorating Valentine sugar cookies for FHE, took the youngest and 2 friends to an afternoon of "fun" (the jungle gym and ice cream), played chauffeur driving the boys to all of their extra-curricular activities or picking up the youngest and his friend from preschool, cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, did 9 loads of laundry, lots of dishes, and endless cleaning up. Wow! That wasn't everything! I had to remind the boys to practice the piano, take showers or give baths, help with homework, remind them to do homework, stop them from fighting too much, keep a close eye on the sneaky 5 yr old and deal with his serious tantrums, get them to bed on time and clean up their messes. How do you mom's do it? It's a good thing kids generally come one at a time. I used to think boys would be so much easier than girls but now I'm not so convinced of that. I did have fun and definitely learned some things about parenting.

Once I got back from kid-sitting the 4 boys, I spent a few days out at the Washington coast with my family (will post that soon). I drove straight back to kid-sit for another family with 3 boys. The oldest is 15 and then 11 year old twins. I was there Monday evening until this morning. Three was easier especially because they were older and didn't need as much attention. I guess I'm just not used to so many boys...especially because boys are just so rowdy and have selective hearing (very irritating at times). Selective hearing applies to husbands too :) I love you Jaren! I sure am glad there will be two of us when we have kids (the Lord willing).

I'm glad these couple got some time away where they didn't have to worry about their kids back at home. The kids were taken care of and hopefully one day we will be able to have someone we trust come and stay with our kids so we can have some get-away time!

The Countdown...

WAHOO!!! We are now at less than 4 months until Jaren comes home! (Hopefully) If all goes well. Counting down just seems to make the days go by slower so I will try not to keep track too much. Jaren is the sweetest husband and I'm so proud of him! I know I'm getting a little too excited but I'm already making plans for both his actual homecoming and everything after. :) What can I say...I just LOVE my soldier! Here are a couple of pictures of Jaren the day he graduated Basic Combat Training at the end of 2002. He was just 22 years old. He looks so young but what a handsome guy!

Jaren with his Drill Sergeant after receiving the "Soldier of the Cycle" award.