Time flies when you're havin' fun!

Wow! Summer time is coming to an end fast. We have had some great adventures. Besides the hikes, the trips to the pool, the road trips to Moab and Bryce, the swimming meets, the softball and baseball games, I really enjoyed the great conversation and lessons learned. REALLY!

I saw how much my kids had grown up since last summer. Shelby is taller than I am now. Taylor has grown so much I call her Shelby because in my head Shelby is still that size. Ricky went from my little man, to a big boy. He is almost to heavy to sit in my lap in the mornings for our morning hugs.

"Jane! Stop this crazy thing...called life". (Love that quote)

Raising these beauties I have learned so much about myself. One of my great revelations in life came from teaching my kids. Is what you THINK you believe and hold dear REALLY what you hold dear? I could talk the talk before and be very convincing. But not till I was teaching my kids and reinforcing our values to them and helping them cope in the real world did I realize how important it is for us to be strong and vigilant. I began to realize how important my values where to me. How strongly I really felt about outside forces teaching wrong values to MY family.

Suddenly I understood the drive that the Prophets in the scriptures had in standing up for what is right. Even if it meant not being popular, being portrayed as the bad guy, or even cast out. It is so hard to be true to your beliefs and who you are when everyone (and I do mean everyone) is against you. Leaders, "friends", neighbors, schools, you name it. Standing up and saying "this is wrong and not acceptable" is a hard thing to do. It is a lonely thing to do.

You are doing a great job! Keep it up! I look up to a lot of you and the example you are. Call someone today and tell them you think they are doing a great job and you care.

Our German experience.

This Summer we hosted a 15 year old German student. On our cruise in March the German family asked us if we would be willing to host their son. I went into this with really high hopes. I thought he would be so excited to do the things we had planned for him. I had explained before hand that we aren't that exciting. The dad assured us that he didn't expect us to "entertain" his son. He would be here to get better at English.

I should have gotten an idea of what was to come when in an email before his arrival he told us he would like to visit Bryce Canyon, The Grand Canyon, and other National Parks that are more than a day trip away.

He got here the week before 4th of July. Rick took him and his dad, along with two of our kids, to Arches National Park. They seemed to really enjoy that. That night we took them to a local steak house for dinner. The next day was Sunday. Sundays at our house are very quiet. We read, watch NASCAR, nap, etc. The dad seemed a little put out, even though I had explained our routine to him beforehand.

That next week was terrible. Niklas didn't understand English as well as his parents thought. We thought we were communicating with him, but found out later we weren't. I would get frustrated when I asked him questions and he nodded that he understood, only to have him seem to ignore me. He also made rude comments about our food. He wouldn't eat at the family picnic. He said hamburgers make you fat. I took that as him suggesting that our family was fat.

4th of July weekend came and we had a lot of activities planned. Saturday we went to the Freedom Festival in Provo. It was very exciting. The kids had earned some money helping me get ready for Niklas' visit and found some great souvenirs. Ricky got a steel sword. Niklas was very concerned. He asked Rick if he was getting it, and Rick explained no, that Ricky was. Niklas told us that in Germany you aren't allowed to purchase blades. Then we went on through out the Festival. He didn't seem interested. We went to Colonial Days and participated in some pioneer activities and he refused to participate. It was very uncomfortable. We felt like we needed to move on. When it was time to have lunch we all found our favorite vendor and got what we wanted. He didn't like any of the choices. Nothing we seemed to do was up to what he expected or wanted. It didn't get better.

We had tickets for the Stadium of Fire and went early as usual to participate in the Pre concert activities. Shelby won the limbo contest and won 4 tickets to Seven Peaks water park. Ricky won a lunch box. And Rick won tickets to next years Stadium of Fire. Niklas just stood on the side with his arms folded and refused again to participate. We got into the stadium about 45 minutes before it started. We found our seats and Niklas seemed a little bugged. He pointed to the seats below us and asked "why are we sitting down there. Those are much better seats". I told him that those seats cost more money and these are the ones we purchased. He didn't want to get anything from the concessions with the kids either. During the show he asked a number of times "when is this over". I think his lack of English was starting to make things really difficult.

At home he doesn't like to do anything with the girls. When I am not around he teases them. They don't like it at all. If I don't have an activity planned he goes to his room and closes the door and plays video games or goes online to "check email".

We have gone to the pool a number of times, and he enjoys that. We also took him to Timp Cave. I wasn't sure if he enjoyed that or not. But we did. He took some pictures, but he seemed irritated that we weren't walking up the mountain as fast as him and we kept asking him to wait for us. He told us his 80 year old grandma was in great shape and hiked all the time.

This week was a little better. He finally (out of starvation) had a cheeseburger. He said "Hamburgers here are better than in Germany". That was the first time he had anything nice to say about things here. He seems to always want to tell us that things in Germany are better.

He has taught Ricky some German. Ricky likes to ask you your name in German now.

We have 2 more weeks left. We are going to Park City today to take him shopping. The Mall here isn't good enough. I took him there this week and he didn't want to go into any of the shops because he wants "Abercrombie and Fitch" and other name brand stores.

We are planning a trip to Bryce Canyon this weekend.

Calgon!!!!!!!

As the World Turns

No, I am not going to post about a soap opera. But my life right now would make some great writing material.

Our family has had a rough summer. We have been left feeling very alone. I won't go into details. If you want give me a call I'd love to go on and on about everything. It might help knowing someone cared.

What I did want to write about was what we are learning from it all. When you are going through hard times it is not so easy to see any good. When I was younger I quickly would ask God why he was doing this to me. But I know now he isn't doing anything to me. He is there helping me get through. Other people in our lives have their free agency to choose. They get to choose how they act, how they treat others, how they deal with hard times in their lives, etc. Sometimes their choices have negative effects on our lives. Sometimes they don't mean their choices to effect anyone else. Other times they are hurt, lonely themselves, looking for attention, etc and are lashing out at whomever is there.

“If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be".

I have a quote plaque in my room. It reads "Enjoy the journey". Sometimes the journey is rocky with steep mountains to climb. I pray Heavenly Father continues to push me up the mountain, and shows me paths around the rocks and thorns.

A long talk with my daughter last night probably helped me more than it helped her. As I was giving her advice on concentrating on the positive things in her life and not letting the negative things weigh her down, a light bulb went on. "Good advice Teresa". "Now follow it".

Onward and upward. Those who are worth having in our lives will seek us out and uplift us, not tear us down.

Our family relies a lot on the story of Job in the scriptures. We tell ourselves, we can "bare all things". "This to shall pass".

Thine adversity shall be but a small moment, D&C 121: 7-8. All these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good, D&C 122: 5-8. They taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good, Moses 6: 55.

xxxxooooo