My Thanksgiving...

A few things I am grateful for at this Thanksgiving time of year.


I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me, loves me, and knows exactly what I need when I need it. I am grateful that I can feel his love and strength everyday.

I am grateful for a husband who fits me perfectly. Who understands and cares about me and Chase, and sacrifices for us when he doesn't have to.

I am grateful for my little Chase and all the joy and happiness that he has brought into our lives. I am grateful that he is so happy and healthy and for his funny little personality.

I am grateful for parents and in-laws who have helped us every step of the way through the past three years (and beyond!) I am grateful that my parents taught us the things that were important to them, and for in-laws who raised my perfect match.

I am grateful for brothers, a sister, and brothers and sisters in law to look up to and learn from, and I am grateful for the time I get to spend with them.

I am grateful for the ward we live in and our fun neighbors. I am grateful to be able to serve in the Relief Society with some of the best sisters I know. I am grateful for the chance to step out of my comfort zone.

I am grateful that I can finish my dream of going to school even though we have started our family. I am grateful for the classes I have taken and all they taught me beyond just the traditional information in class.

A visit from our favorite red headed nephew...

This is my darling little nephew. He came to visit Chase and I while his dad, Chase's dad and their grandpa went to the Gun Show.

Porter is only 4 months older than Chase... I think I could have handled twins! The only time I felt a little overwhelmed was when we got back to the house at about 2:30 and neither of the kids had had a nap, but they both fell asleep in the car....



No fear! I carried two sleeping boys into the house at one time and kept them both asleep.....

...until I opened the door. Then they both woke up!

Don't forget about your Ward Organist....

Organists are hard to come by in our little student ward.

That's why when we had been living in this ward for about a year my Bishop came to me and asked if I would start to learn to play and play once a month along with Maren so that when Spring needed a backup we would be ready to play. I have heard this ward referred to a "training" ward and that is what it feels like. I wasn't really excited about this new idea, I didn't even feel comfortable playing many of the hymns on the piano, and I had never even touched an organ.

Well I got busy, the bishop got busy and we all just kinda forgot about the whole organ training until one day several months later the Bishop called Maren and I to be the Organists.

That was probably physically, the hardest calling I have ever had. It took way more practice than I could have imagined, and a lot of sweat and tears up on the stand. Pretty soon Spring moved, then Maren moved, and Dave Johnson moved in and started playing along with me, I just kept playing the organ. I started to feel really comfortable with the calling. It would only take half a week to be prepared to play on Sunday as compared to the 2 1/2 weeks it had previously taken.

I played the organ for about 2 years in this ward. I was starting to feel a little burned out with school and having Chase, and practicing the organ every week. The Lord must have known that as well because the very day that I started to wonder if I was stuck in my calling forever I got the new call.

They called me to be the Relief Society Secretary, and much to my surprise I was released from the organ. (It wasn't unheard of to play organ and do something else.)

Well today was Ward Conference and I was warned that I MIGHT have to play the prelude music on the organ before church. The Stake Presidency was very strict and told the bishopric that they expected the organ to be playing 15 min. early no exception. No problem. Then I was told that maybe I should call and find out what the first song will be because just in case the organist is late, I MIGHT (but most certainly probably not,) have to play the first song. Then the organist should definitely be there by the Sacrament. "Yea, I doubt you will even have to do anything at all, but could you just be prepared with prelude...." is what I was told.

Well I started to play prelude today and when church started I was getting ready to get down from the organ bench when I noticed the organist still wasn't there.... OH NO! I only practiced the first song and barely at that.....

So, I played the first song, and then the Sacrament song, and then the Closing (a little bit rusty I might add.)

I forgot how hard that calling is, and I sat up in front of everyone sweating, scared to death once again...

I think I will tell Brother Stock how grateful I am that he plays the organ next week. You probably don't notice who your organist is, and their "huge" mess ups may not even faze you, but don't take your organist for granted!

Slacker!

I have a confession- I have been cheating with the whole blogging thing. This semester has suddenly turned beyond crazy this past month and a half that I have had no extra time. So.... I would sit down on a Sunday afternoon and write two weeks worth of blogs to catch up - then I would pre-date them so they would pop up on a future day. So what you have been reading may have been up to 2 weeks behind real life....

I admit this because my two weeks are up- no more scheduled blogs, and no time to set up another two weeks worth (although I have the pictures to do at least that much).

I'll be back Sunday after a crazy micronutrient test that will cover all vitamins/minerals, their major functions, alternative names, coenzyme forms, toxicity disease, deficiency disease... etc. Feel my pain? That happens all Saturday morning and for the rest of the day??

Daniel, Chase and I have big plans for a party watching the BYU-U game either at our house by ourselves or with the rest of the village at their party. (ya know.... since we only ended up with one ticket...)

See you Sunday night!

Garbage can vase

You know you have hit a landmark in your marriage when your husband finally tells you something that he has probably been thinking the whole past 3 years of marriage.

Daniel comes home the other day and says: "Honey, do you think that people are scared when they come to our house?"
Me, " Why would they be scared to come to our house?"
Daniel, "Well... I just think it might be kinda weird for someone to come to our house and see all the dead flowers."

Now, I like flowers. I grow an attachment to the flowers Daniel gives me and I don't throw them away. He's right, we have three years worth of dried flowers all over the house. I never really noticed how many there were, I just dried them and put them in a vase when they started dyeing, but when he said that I realized that our house was overwhelmingly full of dead flowers.

Although if someone is scared of my dead flowers, they might need some help.

Then came the ultimatum. "I can't buy you any more flowers until we get rid of some of the old ones because we are running out of room."

So when he came home with a bouquet of real flowers, I knew that was my cue.
I threw them away........... all but two of the bouquets that I really couldn't part with.
I think that is the prettiest my garbage can has ever looked though.

Daniel's death ride

This has been a long time coming- finally Daniels motorcycle ride. I was waiting on more pictures and they finally came and I havn't had time to go through them so you will just have to deal with these few pictures for now.


Chase and I had a lot of fun in Moab, but Daniel claims that they had even more fun.

Daniel went with my dad and about 15 other guys on a 3 day motorcycle ride. I heard from Daniel on Thursday night after they rode from Green River to Ferron. He had a lot of fun and was excited to keep going but was really tired and thought he would go back to their motel and get to bed (around 9:00?).

These are now Daniel's words :

The next day I was really sore from the previous day, but was glad to be back in the saddle. We rode until about 11:00 A.M. from Ferron to I-80 just under the freeway and were at Swasey's Cabin. Me along with about 1/3 of the group chose to take the "easy" trail while the remaining riders went on the "hard" trail. About a mile into the ride I was feeling good and getting in my groove thinking " this ride isn't so bad" When all of the sudden I found myself unable to see for the large dust cloud in front of me. This wasn't unusual as I had been eating other people's dust the whole trip thus far. Amidst the dust I saw the red rear fender of Chris' honda sticking out of a little hole off to my left. As I glanced at the fender and rode by through the dust I thought "wow- I'm glad I didn't fall in that hole". As I swung my head around to view the trail in front of me I realized there was no trail, just a large dropoff. Aparently I wasn't past the hole and the next thing I knew I was clanking down and down. I hit the bottom of the 12 ft. deep washout on my back with my feet up in the air and the bike tumbling down and landing at the edge of my feet. As I gave a sigh of relief that the motorcycle wasn't falling on my head, I started to slowly wiggle my toes in fear that I had broken my neck/back. I checked each body part and found nothing to be amiss. Chris asked if I was ok and affirmed that he was also ok. As we stood up and were dusting ourselves off, we heard the roar of another motorcycle coming closer and we braced ourselved for another rider to joins us down in the hole. Luckily Dave stopped in time and came down to help us. He rode the bike 1/2 mile up the wash and got it out (thanks Dave).
(This is Daniel and my dad down in the whole trying to get the bike out)

Although I had learned I wasn't He-Man, it sure did loosen up my muscles. Later that day I wondered if I had hit my head a little too hard when we came to the curious "Mars" station, but everyone else seemed to see it there as well.

(Click here to see a picture of the mars space station and scroll all the way down)

AFter the mars space station, Peter and I were following the guidance of our fearless leader, Dale Parriott, who taught me that it is always better to give you bike the gas when going through the sand. I came upon a bush and was deciding if I should go over it or around it. In my indecision I found myself acheiving the perfect slow motion "endo". Again with me on my back and the bike at my feet I thought "I call this fun?!?!?!?" ---- YEP! I can't wait to do it again. Thanks Dave for taking me along- I can't wait to get a bike of my own.


Back to me (Kimbrey) -

When Daniel called me that night he and my dad where both ready to be done with the ride and hoped that we would come pick them up. With a little coersion from my mom they stayed and had an uneventful ride the rest of the way home.

I've heard at least once a day since he got back "When can I get a motorcylce?" It doesn't help that Preston has one - it makes Daniel want one worse.

Boring school life.

I didn't really want to use this blog for school updates because that is so boring, but is is pretty much my life these days... besides Chase. So just a heads up this is for myself and will be boring for all else.

This semester is going ok so far. It is getting harder and harder to stick with school. I will be applying to the nutrition program next February (if I can ever get the GRE over with :( I want to get in so bad so I can finish school and be a dietitian. I really hope that I don't get in so that I have a good escuse to be a mom and maybe have another baby sometime in the next three years. What a predicament right?

Sunday night I was getting ready for bed at 11:00 after doing homework all night (yes I know, I don't normally do homework on Sunday). It suddenly dawned on me as I crawled into bed that I had a test at 8:30 the next morning. Oh boy! I won't say the test went as well as I would have liked, but I'm glad it's over.

Then Tuesday I turned in a paper I spent a lot of time working on. It was a 3 page single space paper, so like 6 pages normally. I had to call and interview people at WIC, and Baby Your Baby, and Michelle was so kind to answer my pregnancy questions as well. (For the paper that is!) I submited the paper online and 1 hour later I got back on the internet for more homework and the paper was graded.... now do you think that my teacher even read my paper?

Tuesday was my presentation - it went well, with a red face. Good thing everyone was mostly looking at the screen.

Today I am writing my pages for our big group research proposal and will give that presentation next week.

Friday is yet another presentation.

Then comes my hardest nutrition test yet... next Thursday. I feel like I am about to lose it and I think I am taking Daniel with me.

School has taught me a lot more than just the textbook stuff. Right now, it is teaching how to work in a group that doesn't agree on much, and how to compromise and keep everyone happy. I've learned that I can do things and take classes I didn't know if I could pass- and maybe even get the high score on tests every once in a while. It has made me search in myself and determine my thoughts and beliefs. It has taught me that my beliefs are just as important as the outspoken liberals, and just because I don't talk, think, eat and drink politics all day, doesn't mean I don't care. It has taught me that teachers don't know everything even though they pretend to, and has taught me confidence in giving presentations. If nothing else, I guess it has been worth it.


I just wanted to remember some of the stuff I had to deal with as a mother in school- one of these days I will laugh at it all!

8 tag

I was tagged for this one twice so I chose the easier of the two and went with the "8" tag. This is from a couple months ago.
8 T.V. Shows I watch:
1-Lost
2-Big Bang Theory
3-How I Met Your Mother
4-Friends
5-Everyone Loves Raymond
6-The Office
7-24
8-


8 Favorite Restaurants:
1-Tocanos- one of my new favorites. So Good!
2-Cafe Rio
3-Subway
4-Cancun Cafe
5-Tucci's
6-Chinese Buffet
7-Schlotskis
8-Pie Pizza
9-In-n-Out

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1-Did a health report based on body composition tests for nutrition.
2-Went to my evening class, and didn't pay any attention.
3-Somewhat cleaned my apartment
4-Played with Chase
5-Tried to teach Chase to say D-A-D. Mom just isn't even in the works yet.
6-Ate a candy bar for the first time in a week- (my attempt at becoming healthier).
7-Stayed up til 12:30 talking with Daniel
8-Then stayed up til 2:30 working on my first ever Relief Society lesson- can you tell I'm nervous?


8 things that I am looking forward too:
1-Being pregnant again
2-Graduating school in nutrition
3-Going to Florida to visit Camille and family- hopefully.
4-This semester being over with
5-Christmas
6-Having a house.
7-Paying off student loans.
8-Being rich! :)

8 things on my wish list:
1-House
2-Photoshop CS4 (when it comes out)
3-Trip to Hawaii
4-More kids
5-Getting into the nutrition program
6-Not getting into the nutrition program so I can be done with school and feel good about it.
7-New hair straightener - one I trick myself into believe will do wonders for my hair, but know deep down nothing will.
8-New camera lenses

Fat lotta good that did....

I stole that title from Jill because: 1. I thought it was funny, and 2. it fit my story.

I have never been much of a football fan, well any sports fan for that matter. I like playing most, but I don't really care to watch, until now. I am suddenly a huge U fan and I am so excited that they are doing so good.

I found out that they were going to start selling the student tickets to the U/BYU game last Sat. This is the big game of the season and so I got really excited and decided to try for tickets.

I woke Daniel up at 5:00 to go stand in line and they started selling tickets at 8:00. Chase and I joined Daniel in line at 8:30 and we stood in line until 10:15. Just over 5 hours for Daniel. When Daniel got in line, it wrapped clear around the stadium, across the street and further up the side walk. When we finally made it to the ticket booth they were only allowing each U card to get one ticket and Daniel is no longer a student. (In the beginning each card could get 2 tickets).

We stood in line for 5 hours and came out with one free standing ticket. What are we going to do with one ticket? I'm not too disappointed because as Daniel started talking to people in line he learned that they had been camping there since the TCU game on Thursday night. They camped two nights and one full day. I'm not disappointed because there is no way that we could have ever done that. These people need to get a life.

Anyone want one single free standing ticket? You have to have a U student I.D. to use it- you are more than welcome to it!

2 lessons learned

If Chase could talk he would tell you about 2 lessons he learned today. Don't fight with the lasagna because it hits back-



And don't bite the rocking horse outside because it bites back.

Check out that fat lip on the top.

Oh- the hard lessons these kids have to learn everyday!


On a more exciting note, I am back to my pre-preggo weight, and fit back into my old pants finally! It only took 11 1/2 months and way more work than I thought it would. Next baby doesn't get extra pounds of warmth and comfort!

We are all enlisted 'til the conflict is o'er...

This makes me feel so frustrated. Please if you get a chance read this article. I didn't really think that I would ever see mormons actually being persecuted in my day in age. You know, in a society where we are so advanced right?

I am so sick of politics. I am tired of having my beliefs attacked in many classes. Maybe it would have been a good idea to go to BYU. A couple semesters ago I took a class called Human Sexuality taught by someone who was about as liberal as they come. Everything I have ever known and believe about Human Sexuality was attacked and taught to be as childish, old traditions, and wrong. Everything I know to be wrong about human sexuality was taught as good.

I took another class a year ago called Diversity and Health. Everyday the lecture turned to homosexuality. I had to write a paper on homosexuality and my beliefs, so I did. I said it was wrong. I said why it was wrong and backed up every single point I made, and when I got my paper back it was ripped apart. How dare I say that Homosexuals shouldn't be married? Who am I that I think homosexuals should have to live by my beliefs?

The only thing I am grateful about this whole thing, is that my beliefs are stronger than ever about the issue. If they were trying to make a point and change my mind, it didn't work. I was forced to search the issue and truly discover for myself why I was against it. It wasn't enought to just say I didn't agree, I had to find out why. I am grateful for that.

Daniel pointed out to me, and I remember my mom saying to me that if you have people fighting against you, you know you are doing something right. I believe that is true in this case. How easy it would be to stand with the world and just go with the flow, but I could never feel good about that. I know that it would be wrong.

I hope that through all the attacks, protests, angry letters that President Monson will be getting, I hope through it all that we as latter day saints will remain respectful. I hope we can show that we are the bigger person and that we will stand up for what we know is right while respectfully allowing others to stand up for what they believe is right. I pray for our brothers and sisters in California who are the targets of angry people. This isn't the end, they have made that very clear. Our fight isn't over yet.... gear up.

Good bye Fall...

These first pictures were taken about 2-3 weeks ago.

Our last day of enjoying the fall. The colors were beautiful!


And Chase was a character as usual. He didn't really want his hood on so he tried and tried to pull it off. After not being able to get it off, he just sat there the rest of the hike with his hands holding on to the hood. Not sure what that was about...


Today I took an hour during Chase's nap, sat back, relaxed and enjoyed this:


...for the first time since moving to Salt Lake. Guess it's time to get back to Chase and homework...

History was made...

I anxiously watched, with the rest of the country, the results as they came pouring in from state to state and felt a little disappointment as it became quite apparent from the beginning that McCain didn't stand a chance. I think I would have felt really disappointed if I would have really liked McCain, but that just didn't happen.



I woke up this morning feeling a little excited. Although I had no part in Obama winning, we as a nation overcame racism and voted the first black president. That is exciting to me. I think it is really neat to have our first black president- I just wish he was republican :). One of the things that I can really respect about Obama is his role as a family man. He looks like a great dad, and knows how important family is. I was touched watching his family on stage after they won.




Now- The proposition 8 is what I have had my eye on all morning and last night. Daniel and I each woke up twice in the middle of the night to check to status, and as far as I can tell right now it is 52% yes with 95% of the precincts reporting. I'm keeping my prayers focused in that direction!
Update: They now have 97% of the precincts reporting and it is still at 52% yes. I just read this news title from San Fransisco online news

AP Projects Prop 8 Passes; SF To File Lawsuit

I knew this wouldn't be the end of it.... unfortunately this is probably something we will have to battle for a long time.

and he's off....

This vidoe is a couple weeks old, but this is still the preferred activity for the day. He walks back and forth like this all day long until he gets hungry or tired.

Sorry- Once again a sideways video- when will I learn???

Halloween

Chase was a duck for halloween this year. I couldn't help it when the costume was only $2.99. I think he made a very cute duck, but he wasn't sure about the costume. We got lucky to get a couple pictures with the hat on, because he didn't like it one bit.




Here he is trying to get it off.

Finally he just took off playing and forgot about the hat.


Once again, I went over board on the pictures, but I eliminated it as much as I can.