Thanksgiving 2010

I am going to write a quick blog on our wonderful thanksgiving. My niece Trace Flores brought my mom up to visit and we had such a great time with her. She looked beautiful and we enjoyed her company so much. My brother Larry and his wife Mary came as well. We also invited some friends from the ward. Gil and Debbie Chateuvert, Nyle, Melanie and Tanner Keller, their relatives John and Rose and children and we had Stephen and Heidi with us. Ken cooked the turkey with his signature dressing and gravy. We had lots of delicious food. Heidi made a pecan pie, I made a Berry/nectarine pie and Gil brought apple and pumpkin. We had many side dishes that I thought my mom would enjoy. I made her green jello salad, the broccoli salad, my sister's recipe for the fruit salad and the spinach gratin recipe we got from Wendy (after having enjoyed it at Amy's house last year and being inspired by Sarah's menu for this year). We enjoyed some beautiful music by Heidi and had fun visiting with everyone. It was a very nice day.
I want to mention that I have so many blessings to be thankful for. I love the Lord, my dear husband and my family. I am thankful for good health and a righteous posterity. I am thankful to be able to serve and help people. I am so thankful for good friends who influence my life for good and I am thankful for the talents the Lord has blessed me with. I have been very busy and involved with a production with the youth of our Rocklin CA Stake. We put on Act one of "The Savior of the World". It was a wonderful experience. We had started last spring with auditions for the main cast and started rehearsing the Angel Chorus in September. It took many hours of rehearsing and we had six performances done the week-end before Thanksgiving. I have to say it really helped me feel the Christmas spirit. The beautiful portrayal of the Savior's birth and the music was very tender. I felt the spirit every night and was grateful to be part of such a wonderful production.

I love my family!

I know that I need to add all the fun pictures of the last five months but I decided to just write some things down. I am headed down to visit my mom today for her 91st birthday! I am taking her out to lunch and hoping to cheer her up and have fun day together. She is a great mother and has taught me so many things. I feel she has always been there to nurture me, guide me and love me. It has made me reflect on the joy of family. I love my husband and feel so blessed to have him as my eternal companion. I love each one of my five children and am in awe of their talents, strong spirits and they make my life so happy and complete. I feel so blessed to have eight lively and fun grandchildren! They are a joy and I am grateful for the fun times when they come to visit.

I have been so happy with my decision to "retire" this past year from teaching part-time at the High School. As much as I love teenagers and teaching music I felt it was time to come home and be free to help out with the family. Even though none of our grandchildren live close by I have been able to help Wendy out twice and have visited Amy three times since last August. I have been to Utah three times and it has been fun to visit Sarah and Heidi there. Steve came home this past week after completeing his training with the Air Force. It was great to see him and spend some time with him.

As I am writing this blog entry I realize how I wish I was a great writer like my children. I love to read all their blogs and feel their strong spirits, learn about their good and crazy days, get tips on cooking and Heidi is so funny! I love them so much and am thankful that as we are far away we do have these modern conveniences that make us feel closer.

I am enjoying being an empty nester with Ken. (I thought I was going to have a terrible time :)Ken is such a great husband and we have fun together. He is a good sport and goes to Pilates with me sometimes. He is so thoughtful and kind to me and I feel thankful to have a husband who loves the Lord. He is always busy with work and church but still takes time to be a husband. We feel so thankful for the many blessings which we have in this life. I am grateful to the Lord for the beautiful earth that He has created for us. I am thankful for the atonement that allows us in our imperfections to have the chance to come back to Him. So in closing this blog I have to say I love my family!

Many trips and not enough blogging

Hi family I realized that I have not posted since Christmas! I have been on so many trips to see everyone I haven't had time to blog. I get discouraged because I am so far behind but I am determined to catch up soon. I thought I would set the goal and let everyone know there will be more postings to come.