A brand new day

Yesterday I got the news that a good friend of mine was going through an extrememly difficult time. In just the past two months, he took a new job, relocated across the country, bought a new home, and his older brother (best friend, surrogate father, and mentor) killed himself. What a time eh? That's enough to put anyone into a depressed state. Well, to add insult to injury, his wife of 12 years decided that she wasn't really committed to the marriage and she left him. So now he sits alone in a house, surrounded by half packed - half unpacked boxes, in a town where he knows no one, miles and miles from friends and family... I'm sure you can imagine the pain this poor guy is going through.
I spent many hours on the phone yesterday talking (listening) to him, trying to help him find some reason to keep living. I was extrememely concerned that it might be the last time I'd talk to him in this life. I am happy to report that today he is still alive - and while not exactly "well" - I am a firm believer that "tomorrow is a brand new day" - and I can only hope and pray that he will take hold of this new day - and every day to come, and make of his life all that it can be.

Life is such a beautiful gift from God. It is hard. I can't count the times that I have questioned my own worth, and wondered if my presence wasn't more of a hinderance than help to others. I often question my abilites as wife, mother, friend, daughter, sister, neighbor, etc... But luckily for me, I have always been able to somehow get through to the "new" day that always seem to come. I love my life. I love my friends and family. I am grateful for all of the blessings and trials of my life, for they have made me the person that I am - and right now, at this moment in time, I feel confident that the person I am become is a good person. A person that I am pleased to be.

Way to go Eric!

Good Morning all -

This morning my "baby" brother went to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple to received his endowment. It was great to be able to be there with him. It brought back wonderful memories of the first time I went to the temple - way back when...

Eric is 19 and recently received a call to serve a mission in Sydney, Australia, teaching discussions in Korean. He goes into the MTC in April. I am so proud of him!

My sister in law Rachael was there, along with my parents and some family friends. I look forward to the day when all of my brothers and sister and I (and our spouses) can be in the temple together. I have 2 brothers who are working on getting back to temple recommend worthiness - okay, one is working on it and I don't think the other is working so much, but I still have the hope...

The temple is such a wonderful place of peace and serenity. I am grateful I was able to start my day on this bright note. I am very blessed to have good friends that were willing and able to help out by getting Aaron off to school and taking care of the other kids while I was gone. As much as I love the temple, I still have a hard time leaving my children to attend. That is something I need to work on - being more consistent in my temple worship.

The "joys" of motherhood

Oh boy - what a night!

To start off with, The kids got to bed and an hour and a half late. Our ward had a choir sponsored Easter Musical Fireside (casual - FHE style) last night. Aaron and I sang 'Christmas Bells' (maybe a bit out of "official" season, but Aaron loves it because I sing the main part and he gets to sing the optional descant. He does really quite well holding his own part...) and the family sang 'Easter Hosanna' - with me singing the main part and everyone else singing the "Ding Dong Ding" and Hosanna echos. I thought my little family did a great job and it was fun to see the other families present their numbers. My little primary children did a great job on their song (I am the primary chorister right now and all the children present sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus.") and the refreshments and visiting with friends were great. The result was that we got home 30 minutes past bedtime, and the kids were mad that we came home "SO EARLY." Their point of view was that they didn't get to play long enough with their friends after the fireside. Because they were mad, they really put up a fight going to bed. Tim had gone home teaching - to another family that was at the fireside, hence the late hour, so I was fighting the battle solo. After we (Tim was back home to assist) finally got everyone to bed - I was too tired to do any picking up - so the house looks like a war zone and I have 4 loads of laundry that are STILL waiting to be folded. (I've been procrastinating that particular job for several days now. I really don't like sorting and folding socks, so I put off folding that load, and then it was just too easy to put off the others that came along.)

So... Bryan finally went to sleep about 10:30, only to wake up crying at 11:20 (went back to sleep on his own, but still woke me up) and 11:40 (I had to get up this time.) I rocked him until he fell back asleep - but he didn't seem to be feeling well. Seemed to be hurting somewhere or something. Bry woke up again at 1:20 (I'm rounding my numbers). This time I couldn't get him to go back to sleep. He kept twisting and turning and crying. Couldn't see to get comfortable. I feel so bad when I know there's something wrong but I have no idea what it is. I want to help - but don't know what to do...I of course start worrying - burst appendix, some deadly disease, should I run to the ER??? Instead I gave him something to help with pain and then when it seemed to kick in I brought him into my bed to sleep with me. By then it was 2:30.

I was just starting to drift off again when Katrina started to cry. Bad Dream. I laid with her until she was calmed down and back asleep. 3:00 back in my bed. Got to sleep the rest of the night until I had to get up to get Aaron ready and off to school. Now I'm wishing for a nap but it's my volunteer day at school; so instead of napping I will get the other two up (Trina's up and sitting on my lap right now for her morning "snuggle time") and off to the sitter so I can go help in Aaron's class.

The joy of being a mother...

My three little treasures

These are my three little treasures. (Also my three biggest challenges, but that' s another story.) Aaron (6), Katrina (3), and Bryan (1). I just read a book called the "One Minute Mother" and I am currently reading "Parenting with Love and Logic." Both books focus on making sure your child knows first and foremost that they are loved - no matter what. Then you make sure they understand the expectations (or goals). Then you reinforce behavior, good and bad, with praising and consequences. I've been trying to implement the things I've learned and the past couple days have been much happier around around here. Now the trick will be to continue implementing. (I am the queen of "crash and burn.")

I'm not exactly sure why I am doing this. I had never even heard of blogging until my friend (and former college roommate) Charlotte announced that she was engaged and that she had a blog on which I (and the rest of the world) could view photos of her newly betrothed. I went to her site and loved feeling so 'involved' and informed on her life. Through her site, I was reconnected with another roommate (HI Melissa) who was also a 'blogger'. With some encouragement from them, plus a couple months of being addicted to checking for their new posts, I decided to give it a try. So - Here I am. I have NO IDEA what I am doing, but I will try to figure it out as I go.

Oh - the name??? My grandma gave me a nickname when I was little. She called me "her little Jeri Pickle" or "pickle heimer." (I'm thinking it's a made up word so I don't know that there is an accurate spelling, but Gram pronouced it pickle hi - mur.) I have no idea where the name came from. I don't think I had any special fondness for pickles... Maybe I should ask my mom...

That's all for now. My next mission will be to try to figure out how to put on a personal profile and maybe even a photo.

Until next time -