Shield of Angels

To start, I need to tell my mom not to worry about me :). You taught me to follow my heart and follow the Savior. I'm trying to do both :)!

The Houston Chronicle reports....

MEXICO CITY — A record 111 U.S. citizens were killed in Mexico last year, nearly half of them on or near the Texas border, as the country's gang-fueled violence worsened, according to the U.S. State Department.

The recently released reports don't specify how or why the Americans were murdered, nor does it name victims. But 80 percent of them were killed in border states where narcotics violence is worst - 39 alone in Ciudad Juarez, which shares the Rio Grande with El Paso, and other nearby towns.
The number of U.S. victims last year was more than triple the toll in 2007. Over a four-year period, 283 Americans were reported murdered, according to State Department figures.

Less than 10 miles across the Mexican Border in the City of Jaurez lies the
Colonia Juárez Chihuahua México Temple. It is the smallest temple in the world at only 6,800 sq. ft. There is one ordinance room and one sealing room.


The first thing I noticed about this small temple was the larger than life statue of the Angel Moroni. He was only two stories up :). I was completely overwhelmed by the power of Him and the army of angels protecting those sacred grounds and the path to get there. I went with a handful of ward members I barely knew, but felt the strength in the promise we were given of protection. As I was waiting in the celestial room a sister asked me if I was scared.

I probably looked at her like she was crazy :), but I told her I didn't think that our ward would be assigned to that temple if it wasn't safe for us to be there and that I trust that the leaders of the church would not put us in harms way. What I didn't tell her was that I couldn't eat hardly anything all day and that I had left a few notes of instructions for my husband in case I didn't make it back :). I had to talk my husband into being ok with me going and I didn't call my mom because I knew she would not be happy. I kinda felt like I was in jr. high, sneaking out of the house. Not that I did that Mom ;)!

But it worked out great! I was able to put my friend's name on the prayer roll, do a little of the Lord's work, and spend a few minutes in one of the most peaceful places on earth!

Never mind the fact that I had to put my foot down when my ride wanted to stop at a pharmacy and then for a burrito! The promise the bishop gave us was contingent upon us going straight there and back without stopping anywhere, and I was holding to that promise! We had already passed men with machine guns and mean looking dogs... What is wrong with people!!!

Mom... I'll call ya before I go next month and I won't ride with that crazy lady again ;)! So no worries!!! I'm just trying to follow what you taught me (and I'm still your smart-alick daughter :).
Aren't you glad you had me get that passport a few yrs ago!!!

"Mornin Scorpion!" by ME

(photograph also by ME)

Just this morning I was inspired to write this cute little story...


One Monday morning a little boy runs into his parents bedroom and says "Hey mom! I'm pretty sure there's a scorpion in my bathroom"!

The dad says "no there's not, just get in the shower!"

The mom jumps out of be to go see it :). She is not afraid.

The dad comes down the hall sporting his church shoes, no socks, and g's. He's not showing off, but just wants to see what the fuss is.

He finds the mom has cornered the scorpion using her bare hands :). She tells him to get a jar. The dad says, "what for?!?". She says, "it's cool, I want to keep it". The dad shakes his head and heads downs stairs. He slowly comes back with a big jar, lid, and a huge thing of bug spray :).

The mom says, "I had it, but you were taking quite a while, and now I don't know where it is. She calmly turns around and asks him to look on her back and in her hair. He backs away from her and without even looking says, "nope".

She laughs, grabs the jar, and scoops up the evil scorpion trapping it inside! The children are in awe! The dad, not so much. He takes his big gallon of bug spray and squirts enough poison to kill an army of man eating scorpions into the jar.

Mom makes breakfast. Mom dresses and feeds the children. Mom makes lunches. Mom takes care of the dog and cleans the kitchen. Mom drives the children to school and returns home. Dad is there still. This time he has clothes on. He says, "I called a pest control service and they will come tomorrow". Mom says, "great job! way to take care of our family :)! what would I do without you!"

The dad smiles. He knows he has done a good thing. The mom kisses the dad and sends him on his way!

The End

What's that sign say mom?

Miss Ainsley has been talking about signs in her kindergarten class and of course she's totally into the signs everywhere. I'm feeling a little more like rain man lately reading the signs as we cruise through town. This would be a bad time to visit Vegas :). Anyways, after 3 days couped up in the house together for "snow days" (biggest joke) we spent most of the day out at a favorite park. It has a skate park, ball fields, trails to run, and a few playgrounds. We loaded up the bats, balls, gloves, scooters, and skateboards for the day. Obviously we parked in a different spot this time because the first sign we see says "Beware of Snakes". The kids are all looking at it asking me what it says. "Oh, it just says that sometimes snakes sleep here at night after the people leave". Not exactly a lie, but we had already gone in and out of the house a few times to get all the garb and I didn't see a snake anywhere. Still, that's a first! Next time I'll bring Diggidy with us just for fun :).

A few weeks ago we hit the local Academy and loaded up on baseball gear. I'd been craving some catch with my boys! It's so funny how I found myself saying all the same things my dad used to say to me.... "get under it!", "don't be afraid of the ball", and "keep your elbow up". It's so fun! Caleb has got a great arm and most of it comes pretty natural to the kid. It's going to take a little work for Jacks to get a good pitch down, but he rocks at nailing a catch!



Joe headed up the mountain bike trails today and a few of the super heroes in their matching neon shirts kept asking Joe if he was cold since he was only in shorts and a regular t-shirt that he did not have to paint on himself. Wimpy Texans!
Anyways, we learned the hard way that Saturday was not a day to run around town. It was such a great day! I love that the mountain trails are at the end of the street, and that there are so many great parks! Wildlife and all :)!

Appreciating Everything!

I apologize for the little break. In my defense, our computer was broken! Not my fault :)! After a couple hundred bucks and a few trips to best buy (don't ever go to the El Paso best buy to get your computer fixed btw), I'm back in business!

I keep thinking that I am learning to appreciate more of the little, every day things I have taken for granted, like the computer, yummy grandma sycamore white bread, and driving past a friend on my way to Ridleys :).

Today I am appreciating electricity! It's only noon and I am ready to go crazy! Just because we got less than an inch of snow last night, the schools are cancelled and the power source for the Wii, cartoons, and computer games keeps shutting off! Apparently, I am the only other source of entertainment! I finally had to go find some earplugs just to think straight for 5 min :)! Appreciating those little things right now!!!

For years I took that yummy, white, granny sycamore bread for granted! After hitting all the local grocery stores and searching for a non-mexican bakery, I decided it's time to learn to make the darn stuff myself! Sorta myself, I bought a bread machine and I dump all the stuff into it & hit start :)! It rocks! The best part is that you can cut the slices as fat as you want! I've only had 4 slices of bread today :)!

I really took my running partners (bff's :) for granted! After a few solo runs with a crappy play list, I finally decided to just leave it home. It's amazing how much mental clarity I get from hearing nothing but my own footsteps and breathing! I would still love to have those girls with me and be crazy and confused :), but I love that I can have my own quiet time! Actually, I ran with a couple of girls yesterday morning, and even though my shirt sleeve got caught on a cactus, and it was really early (5 AM!), it was the funnest thing I've done in weeks!

I miss having my little buddy Ainsley with me for most of the day! She is in all day kindergarten now and loves it! She even rides the bus home with the boys in the afternoon. She feels like big stuff, and it seems like she is learning tons more! She is always telling me Spanish words she has learned, and I love the little songs she sings even if NOBODY can understand them!

I took it for granted that almost everyone around me was Mormon. The great part about that is, I think that I am even more open with people here about my beliefs partly because it's just habit. I can really sense how much we are needed here! None of our neighbors are members of the church. Another Mormon family lived down the street, but they moved away a few weeks before we moved in. A little boy in the neighborhood has been calling me "the new Jamie". He is at our house a lot, and His mom apologized when she picked him up the other day. She said for some reason he loves being at our house and he thinks I am just like the other lady that used to live a few doors down. Then she asked if we were Mormons :).

I definitely took having all my family so close! We talk to them on skype and my mom sends awesome packages in the mail! I miss stopping at the UPS store to see my brothers, Sunday dinners at mom & dad's, and doing random stuff with my sisters! I miss seeing my nieces so often that I don't notice how much they are growing! I do love that as a family, we are closer! My kids pretty much just have each other to play with, and we have more time to together. It's already getting a little busier, but it's nice to have the slow down from the usual crazy busy routine!

I will say that I did not take the crappy winters there for granted! I am appreciating sunshine and this one day of a little snow is a reminder of how amazing it is to have 60 degree weather in January :)!!!

Love to you All!

We made it!

Yeah, we finally made it here to El Paso! I would have never in a million years thought that I would live here, but obviously I'm not in charge! Since last August Joe has been coming here by himself all week to work and it's just so great to be together! Caleb used to pray that we could be a "whole big family again" :)!

Christmas this year went by too quick with us being so focused on this move! We had movers coming the morning of the 27th so by 1:00 am our house was cleared out of any possible sign that Christmas had come! That's a first!

That whole next was such a blur! Movers were at our house packing up everything in their path. I had explained to the kids that if they didn't want certain things packed they had to keep them in our designated "safe zone"/ the hall bathroom. That stuff would either be packed last or we would take it with us on our trip. Jackson and Ainsley drug everything they owned to the bathroom thinking that if their stuff didn't get packed, maybe we wouldn't have to move. Caleb on the other hand, kept coming to me telling me that the movers kept taking all his stuff and he couldn't find anything. Like those guys would want a pillow pet! That kid never listens :)!

It was not a week I ever want to repeat! Jackson did nothing but sob all day and all night! By the time the movers were done, I just through the rest in the van and took off! It had already been the longest drug out goodbye ever!

We had a day to get the lay of the land, unpack our utensils, and get registered for school before the rush of a new week in a new place began. The kids' school is mainly Hispanic, 95%, so it was no surprise when Caleb introduced himself to his class as being new here from America! Nice! Great way to start it all off, offending everybody! Lucky for that kid he wins everyone over with his witty sense of humor and smile!He has already made several friends :). Jackson is still adjusting. He has a good friend in his school class that is also in his primary class. That just doesn't happen here in Texas, so I know he's being watched out for. Ainsley has loved switching to all day kindergarten to my surprise, but really misses her old primary teacher Sister Bancroft! She has also loved trying to decorate our new house...



As for me, I am looooving the beautiful sunshine!!! It is hard to be so far from our family and friends, but I am happy for this new adventure!!!

The Greatful Dead totally nailed it...

I can't remember the exact stages of grieving, but I am pretty sure is goes something like... DENIAL...ANGER...BARGAINING...SADNESS...ACCEPTANCE.

The trick is recognizing where you are on the whole scale of stages. I think I'm still somewhere in the middle.

We just got back from spending a week in El Paso looking for a house. I decided I better go into it with really low expectations. It works for movies! So I'm picturing tumbleweeds and cracked dirt and snakes and stuff. Then we get all these picts of houses from the realtor that's supposed to be helping us and my vision turns to swimming pools and palm trees and Mexican resorts with strawberry daiquiris.

After the first day of checking things out and getting the lay of the land, I spent the rest of the night huggin the bowl at the downtown Marriott! Straight up!!!

I just don't think it's a good sign when people have bars on all their windows and doors! And I'm not so sure how comfortable I am with letting my kids ride their bikes outside when I can see the freaking border!

Day two was spent primarily looking at the West side (where all the swimming pools are). My Mexican Riviera bubble burst when I walked IN the houses. I'm going to sound like the biggest brat, but when it looks like somebody couldn't make up their mind whether they wanted the stove or the dishwasher in a certain spot and they ripped them out and swapped them back and forth a few times it's really not a good sign! I can deal with bad carpet (really big rugs). I can force myself to do super dirty (strap on the rubber gloves and go to town)!But what do you do when floors slope down? And why on earth would someone put pink and baby blue marbled tile in their entire house? What exactly do termites look like? Lots of questions I haven't thought about since I worked for DCFS!

We did nothing for the next four days but SEARCH! PONDER! and PRAY! Joe lost 10 lbs and I lost 5! In four days!

We decided that out of the two of us, I would make a better coach! I am really good at pep talks and making up bull crap that is totally believable :)! We took turns lifting each other up and pointing out the bright side of the situation. It was a real bonding experience!

This morning I thought I would try to find out some more info on El Paso and I found some lyrics to a song by The Greatful Dead entitled "El Paso"...

Here goes...

Out in the west Texas town of El Paso....

Just for a moment I stood there in silence,
Shocked by the ....
Many thoughts that ran through my mind as I stood there;
I had but one chance and that was to run.

Out through the back door of roses I ran, out where the horses were tied...
I picked a good one; he looked like he could run,
Up on his back and away I did ride.

Just as fast as I could from the west texas town of el paso,
Out thru the badlands of new mexico.
Back in el paso my life would be worthless; ....

Maybe tomorrow a bullet may find me,
Tonight nothings worse than this pain in my heart.

And as last here I am on the hill overlooking el paso, ....

Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys,
Off to my left ride a dozen or more.
Shouting and shooting; I can't let them catch me,
I've got to make it to roses back door.

Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel a deep burning pain in my side
It's getting harder to stay in the saddle.
I'm getting weary, unable to ride.

Yeah, super dramatic! But it made me laugh! Maybe that's a good sign that I'm headed for the acceptance stage :)???

Truthfully, I still think that we are doing the right thing. It's a great job for Joe and he likes it! The schools have rockin programs for kids with dyslexia! The City of Commerce web page "says" that the sun shines there at least 300 days of the year! I didn't see any snakes. And I got rid of a whole ton of crap that's been taking up space in my house!

Something else I found this morning was the meaning of the city name. It means "the step". At first I was like... that's dumb! Then that cheesy quote about a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step came to mind. I know I have a lot to learn. Change is never easy, but the greatest blessings rarely start out looking that way!

RIGHT?????

Pretend this is Me! But for real!

It took me a minute to remember the correct address for this blogspot thing, but I did it :). I was thinking the other day that I am gonna have to get back to doing this since we are moving to Texas and all my family is here in Utah. Might as well start today since my morning has been totally blogworthy!

I went for a run up the canyon with my overly dedicated (but exactly what I need lately :) running partner, and you are seriously not going to believe me, but I was totally attacked by a huge Eagle!!! I know, your thinking...she has lost it and really needs to start sleeping at night! But it is TRUE!

It was a little cold and windy this morning, so I put a long sleeve top over my tank to start and part way up the trail I decided to take it off. So I stop and raise my arms to pull it off, when I hear this crazy loud screeching! Straight ahead there's this massive bird coming off the cliff right at me. It took me a sec to register that its flying fast right at my face. I tried to duck down and it slammed into me knocking me back a few feet! I got road rash up my leg and back and skinned up my hand and elbow to prove it!

The crew of super hero bikers guys in their matching tight blue shirts totally stopped and got off their bikes even. Usually they are completely annoyed by us runners and would just rather run us down, so I was surprised when the second crew of super heroes stopped too!

I'm still thinking "WHAT THE"... when one of the guys says "what was that?"! Out of my white trash mouth comes "some crazy ass hawk"! Not until one of the guys starts busting up do I snap out of my horror movie trance and start laughing myself! Weird thing was that the bird was still sitting on the trail a few feet away just screeching all crazy like at me :). Two of the super heroes must be like nature reserve guys or something because they confirmed that it "was indeed" a golden eagle.
Whatever that meant, I was out of there! I hopped up and took off up the trail while all 8 of those men, that didn't even offer me a band aid out of their secret bike packs, just stood there looking at the golden eagle!

Super weird! I'm still debating on if I should call my aunt Dana who knows all kinds of crazy witch craft kind of info what kind of a omen it is!

Enough blogging. I gotta get back to de-junking my house before the movers show up and don't know where to start!

Oh yeah, and we just found out last week that we are moving to El Paso,Texas!!!

What a week :)!