Youth Conference Pictures

Youth Conference

Don't let the gravel road fool you. It was not gravel all the way up.

This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time. A TREK.

Yup, I did. Why? MMMmmmmm

Okay, I am getting a head of my self. What a great 3 days I have just had.

If the youth experienced half of what I got out of this youth conference, then

youth conference was successful.

1st day: We had created the city of Nauvoo with the help of my dear friend

Sherrie Cottom. If you know her, you know that she went all out and...she

did. That woman is amazing. We had the youth come and go around to

the different rooms. In each of the rooms we had people telling stories about

there shop and some experience they may have had as a pioneers. Then we had
Tiffany come and I don't know what instrument she played, but it sounded
like bag pipes "Praise to the man". Then Pres. Elegante came in and told us
the prophet had been shot and we were leaving our city first thing in the morning
to head to Zion.


2nd day: Trek
Easy? no. Worth it? YES
What an incredible experience I had.
Three of us had put everyone in families. It was fun. Like thinking things like....
Marcus comes from a family of all boys so let's put him in a family with all girls.
Did we stop to think of how hard it would be? Ummm no.
My heart went out to his family.
We had a family of orphans. (all youth)
A family with all daughters.
My heart hurt for each on of them. I had an amazing family. Strong youth. Had I
been fair in placing the families?
How did the pioneers do it. There were women with out husbands.
Family members that died along the way.
We only had one day.
Another part was when the women had to pull the hand carts up the hill. I was so
determined to do it. I was warn out!! I pushed as hard as I could. I didn't think
I was going to make it and then at the point that I couldn't go any farther, Pres
Elegante stepped in and pushed the rest of the way up the hill for me.
How blessed I had been once again. I had the strength of the brethren rescue
me again.
Oh yea, and lunch? It was the best bread and jam I have ever eaten in my life!

We were told time and time again that we were the best group they had ever had.
Yea, they tell everyone that (I thought in the back of my mind)
I was reassured again that we had the best group ever. I did not hear them complain.
I didn't hear anyone say " I am not doing this"
What I did hear was......
" I didn't want to come, but I did and I am so glad that I came".
I heard testimonies being born. I felt relationships beginning.
I felt the sweet spirit of the Lord in our presents.


3rd day: Service projects, Water fights, speaker, movie, testimonies. Amazing!


I will always remember these days we have just had. I want to tell you how
grateful I am for those pioneers that traveled across the plains. I am so
grateful to live in this land where I am surrounded by the gospel, by temples
and by youth that are so strong. I ditto what Kris said. "I am grateful to our youth
that are here in our Stake for they truly are great leaders for our future.
I know that our Heavenly Father is bringing his work here to an end. These
are the last days. We all need to be prepared for the conclusion of his work.
We are pioneers too and I am grateful for the gospel as a guide in my life and
for being surrounded by great leaders, friends and family.

If you ever wonder if you should go on a trek.....I would highly recommend it.

Am I to trusting?

So I just wanted to see what others think about having their blog

where other people can read it that they don't know.

I love going on and reading other peoples blogs even if I don't know them.

I especially like to hear about YW camp experiences and testimonies.

Lately I have read a few blog where people get freaked out because

someone they don't know has read their blog.

I have a tracker to see places that people live that sign on.

I think it's neat to see someone from UK or New York who has read something that

I have written especially when it is my testimony.

Am I to trusting?

Should blogs be private?

Has anyone ever heard of anything happening from other people reading

their blog?

I know there are weirdo's out there that like to ruin things

for everyone but.....Do I need to not trust people

just because of a few lost souls?

What do you think??

My Family is Everything

The past week or so I have been asked time and again

"What do you do when you and your husband fight"?

I have hesitated not wanting people to feel bad about

their marriage or relationship, but we don't fight.

I have wondered about that and have been given the answer.

Our relationship was founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We both came back to church with the same desires of our hearts.

We both know that this life on

earth is short. (even though some days it feels like eternity).

We both believe that we made promises before we came to earth

to help all who we know around us to Come unto Christ.

We both believe that we can have our Family with us forever

~ if we live the way we know we should. Our family is everything

to us, even being a mixed family

we love them 'all' very much. We want them 'all'

to be with us for eternity.

We both have a strong testimony of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I am so grateful that Jed is so willing to serve.

That he honors his priesthood.

Are we perfect? Absolutely not!! far from it!

But we really do not fight and I am so grateful for that.

I think we both did enough fighting in our previous marriages

to last a life time.

A quote from Sheri Dew "No One Can Take Your Place"

Our Father wants His children back, and He will go to

great lengths to help them-as evidenced, first and foremost,

by the fact that He gave His Only

Begotten Son, who in turn gave His life.

I am grateful to my Mom and Dad (whom never fought also)

for their great example to me.

Father's Day

What a great day this is. A day to honor the men in our lives.
We went to our ward and then to Tim and Desi's ward to hear Zoee sing.
It was so nice of Karen to invite her up to sing with our ward. It was so fun to
watch her sing.
We heard some great talks about fathers. They all brought such a sweet spirit
into our day and helped me focus on fathers.
Jed has been such a great father to our children. A great example and a man
that I love having as an example to my children and those who watch him.
In Rainbows talk she made the comment how she had married a man like her
father. I did too. My father was a man who loved the gospel. He served with all
his heart, mind and strength. Though I didn't appreciate it while I was growing
up, I sure do love, admire and appreciate him now. One of the talks in Desi's ward talked about how we change our thought of our
father as we grow older. Example: (cause I can't remember exact)
When your
1~they are everything
5~ want to be with them
8~ the smartest man in the world
10~May not know everything
15~He's to old to know what I am going through
18~He doesn't know anything
25~ will ask anyone but your dad
30~He may know a little about what is going on
40~I wouldn't do anything without asking my dad
50~ I would do anything if my dad were only here to ask!
How true is that!!!
What I wouldn't do to hug my dad and tell him just how much I love him
and how sorry I am that I didn't listen to him and do those things that
he wanted me to do and to tell him how grateful that he is my dad.
Fathers are great! Don't ever take them for granted. You never know when
they will be gone (for now)

I am so grateful for what a good father Tim is to my Zoee, Evva and Briggs. I

can tell how much he loves his children. I love to watch him hold Briggs. I am

grateful for how good he is to my Desi. She deserves the best and I feel she got him.

I am so glad that he let's me call his children mine cause

I so love them!

I love what a good dad Derrik is. I always wonder if Derrik really knows what a
blessing he is in my life. I am so grateful that he is here and that he has a family
and loves them the way that he should. I am so proud of him. He is my miracle!

Of course I have to say I have the best daughter ever. She came with her little

family early in the morning to fix Jed breakfast for Fathers day. She is so thoughtful

of Jed. I am not sure I would want to get 3 kids up and over to my house to fix

breakfast before our 9 AM meetings and then go to 2 sacrament meetings with

3 kids. Remind you.....I wouldn't do that when I had three kids. My mom would

come out and take my kids to church so that they would have some religion in there

lives. (but that's another story)

I am sure the best part of parenthood is Grand kids.
I love that they love each other.
I think Tysen had better watch out. The girls sure do like him.

Without children there would be no fathers. How blessed we are to have them all.

Justins Missionary Shower

I just found out that the slide show wasn't working so I thought I would
chose a few pictures to highlight his Shower.

We played pin the badge on the Missionary

His family all came too. This is Justins mom

The one holding the pepsi is his dad and his grandma is sitting on the other

side of his mom.

Can you tell how much fun they were having?

Pres. Elegante writing a note in Justins book.

Saturday we had Justin's Missionary Shower. I just wanted to say THANK YOU!!!!
to all of those who came and who supported Justin. I am sure it was a big relief for
both him and his family getting the things that he needs for his mission. I have never
sent out a missionary and never realized the expense of it. He was well taken care of!
Now that he has his temporal things taken care of, he can now concentrate on the spiritual
part of preparing.

He got lot's of nice clothes for his mission and money....He alway's tells me he wants peanut butter for dinner so.....Here's your Peanut Butter!

10 Year Anniversary

Can I just tell you one more time how blessed I am!
I am married to the most wonderful man ever!!
We just celebrated our 10 wedding anniversary and can
I say that it feels like we have been together forever and yet
it was just yesterday we were married.

We got up Thursday morning and got ready to go down to Manti.
Jed came in the house and said "you have got to come see this".
I knew it wasn't' the sun rise because the sun was already up. Nope
it was my cute daughter and granddaughter that had decorated our
garage door. You know, they could have gotten away without us knowing
who it was except for the cute calling card that they left.

When we got to Manti we drove right up to the temple for a session.
We were asked to be the witness couple. As we took our place up in
front, the pianist started to play 'I am a child of God'. It was almost like
my mom was sitting right there with me.

We then went over to our Bed and Breakfast. I absolutely love this place.
Jed and I decided that it was because of the couple that own it. I love
them and don't even really know them. I wanted to take her picture
before we left but she was gone when we went to check out. Next year..

That night we went to the pageant. It was fun to have some of the
youth, leaders and bishop from our ward down there.
The pageant was fantastic and
so was the company. I loved being able to drive a few blocks after the
pageant and go to bed after. The traffic is never fun leaving that place.

Next day we watched My Fair Lady and had breakfast before
heading back to Magna. We really didn't want to leave. It has been
so nice to have Jed to myself (okay so I am selfish) for a couple of
days. He spoils me. Here's to the next 10 years!!!!!

A Pure Leader

It's easy to spot pure leaders, because they help those who follow

them do more and see more and become more than they

could ever do or see or become on their own

So what is a pure leader?

1. A pure leader is humble

2. Is fiercely devoted to a righteous cause

3. Has faith in God

4. Is someone you can trust

5. Is willing to work

6. Is optimistic

7. Believes in and cares about people

8. Communicates

9. Has vision

10. Has the courage to stand alone.

Sheri Dew

"No One Can Take Your Place"

This Is The Place

We had such a good day. Penny and I decided to go check out This Is The Place and

prepare ourselves for our Trek. When we got there, it happened to be a FREE entrance day. Can't beat that!

We went on the wagon ride.

These kids were trying out the pull game like Brother Joseph use to do

We even got to see the cute handcarts that we are going to pull for our Trek.

We lifted it up to see how heavy it was. Not to bad but I think the kids are much

stronger than we are so they should have the opportunity to pull them, don't you think?

Here is a picture of the hill we will be climbing. We will end up at the top of that peak you see.

Not too bad.

I am getting really excited to go. I think this is going to be a memorable experience for me.

I love learning about the pioneers. It really makes me appreciate all that I have.

I know I have been so blessed!

Things to do this summer

I am always looking for things to do with the kids in the summer so

I thought I would write down some of these thing incase I forget.

1. Wednesdays...FREE Movies at the Real 11 AM and 1:30 PM

2. New splash pad at the Magna swimming pool. (Can't wait to try that)

3. This is the Place. I love taking the kids there. Just remember to take water to drink

4. Zoo of course.

5. The Aquarium

6. Free lunch (for the kids) in the park

7. Lagoon if you have some money to burn

8. Gateway mall to run through the water. Don't forget to bring towels

9. Liberty Park has a way fun play area for kids

10. Running through the sprinklers at home and having a tea party.

11. Tour Sweet's candy factory (By appointment) 801-886-1444

Thought For The Day

No one can have the influence you have been prepared to have on all who

come within your sphere of influence.

Without question, no one can fulfill your foreordained mission.

No one can do what you were sent here to do.

NO ONE

Sheri Dew

Lagoon

What a crazy day we have had.

Zoee had a performance up at Lagoon this morning and I had planned on

going with them and taking are all day pass to play the rest of the day.

Desi had some passes too and had left them in her car that Tim ended up

taking to work. Not a big deal cause I had the all day passes that we could

use and we didn't need her tickets.

When we got to Lagoon, I gave the guy the tickets and he had never seen

them before. MMmmmm maybe it was because I grabbed the lunch

ticket and not the entrance tickets.

I ended up going to guest services and the had some discount 'walk in'

tickets. So we went to Zoees performance

She did such a good job.

Then we went and just walked around the park.

The girls were a little disapointed becasue we couldn't go on the rides so we let

them run around in the water.

It was very cold today, and they got very cold, but I think they had fun.

Even the ducks were in the water, just resting.
We used our lunch passes and had some lunch and came home.

The good thing is that we still have those passes and now we can go
again on a little bit nicer (sunny) day.

Graduation

Yesterday was the last day of school for us. It was funny how we couldn't
get the kids to go to class when it was going but, when school is out.....
They wanted to hang around the school.

Doris and I went up to the graduation at the Huntsman center. It was fun to watch.
We had some from our Stake plus a couple we tracked graduate.

We even got to go sit on the floor with the graduates.
I will have to say that my throat was a little sore from yelling.

Here I am 30 years ago with my mom at my graduation.

Yes, I really did graduate!

Year Book Day

Have I told you (how many times) that my life has gone a full circle.

Today has been a crazy day just thinking back about my high school days.
I was the 'Social Relations Officer' my senior year at Timpview High School.
Does that sup rise anyone?
The first graduating class of that school. If it wasn't for a couple of my
teachers that cared about me, I don't think that I would have graduated.


All the kids got there year books and I even got to sign a couple of them.
I wasn't' sure what to write. It seemed pretty weird.....
Do you tell the girls "remember who you are" or "hey, have a great summer?
I even remembered the emotions of leaving High School. Not that I liked to go
to school....but, yes the social part of school which I loved. MMmmmmm no
wonder I was the social relations officer.

A little blurry but yes, that was me and yes BROWN hair. Can you tell which one?
I am getting ready to go to my 30 year class Reunion this summer.
See how my life has come a full circle. And a tracker at that!

Happy Birthday Desi

Today is Desis birthday
I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I have been having
her in my life. I know that my dad and her had a good relationship
up in Heaven before she came down to earth. I am sure that she
made some promises to him (which she has kept).

I remember the day she was born but maybe we shouldn't share all the
events on that day. Let's just say, when she was put into my arms, everything
was alright. I was so excited to have a girl. I was so excited that
the first place I went after leaving the hospital was to Albertson's
to show her off. We have joked about that for many years now. I was just
so proud of her I wanted everyone to see her.

She always had a very strong will, smart and knew what she wanted.
She started knee boarding when she was about 3 years old. It didn't take
her long to learn how to do it. If she has a desire to do something...
she does it.

I remember one day she was stung by a bee and I was at work. My mom ran
out to American Fork to check on her and as she walked into the office
she heard the nurse asked if she was allergic to anything. Desis
response was: My mom said I am allergic to work.



If any of you know Desi, she is anything but allergic to work.
She has always taken pride in everything that she does besides
being very neat and clean. (I really miss having her live here
when she would clean my house)



Not only has she always been a good daughter to me but she
has always been strong in the Gospel. Even when I was not active.

We would go out to eat every Sunday with our good friends Jed and
Chuckie "funny huh" and Desi would stay home and go to church.
Now that is standing for what you believe in.
She is truly a Daughter of Heavenly Father whom stands as a
witness.


I am very proud of her. She is a great daughter, wife, mom, employee and

my best friend.
I can hardly believe that she has grown up so fast.

I thank my Heavenly Father that he has blessed me so much by sending me

one of his noble, valiant leaders to raise and have the opportunity to have her

in my life as a daughter and example.

We had so much fun being with her today and going to church with her and

her cute family. Thanks for everything.

Desi, I love you!