Building STRONG friendships...

 

Building good friendships with others is SUPER important to me!

When we moved to Queen Creek 3.5 years ago...

having my kids find GOOD friends was one of my top priorities!

While I was growing up,

I made SEVERAL great relationships that I still have today...

Those relationships helped me stay ACTIVE in the church,

develop characteristics that would help me be a good friend,

and helped me be the WOMAN I am today.

GIRLS especially need each other...

so imagine how GREAT it is that my cute girlie daughters..

have found those type of friends.

During FALL break we had a WARD campout

in the beautiful PINES of Arizona.

I took the opportunity to do a "brief" photoshoot...

with these amazing GIRLS!

Rachel's AGE group loves to be SILLY...

and are always UP for taking pictures!

Katie's AGE group had MORE fun hiking and playing...

than in taking PICTURES!

One things for sure...

THESE girls are the BEST!

Fall BREAK...beach style!

You can not go to CALIFORNIA...

without going to the BEACH!

It doesn't seem to matter that it is only 60 degrees outside!

or that the WATER is way too COLD!

It just matters...

that us ARIZONIANS...love the BEACH!

So on our 2nd day in California we had to spend time,

building sandcastles,

looking for sand dollars,

swirling seaweed above our heads,

or just plain "chillin" (literally).

And of COURSE...

you have to eat SEAFOOD at Joe's Crabshack...yum!

JACOB loved the seaweed...til he HIT himself with it!

And LASTLY...

our (free) ROOM with a VIEW!

 Goodbye...San Diego...until next time...

WE WILL MISS YOU!

Laughing all the WAY through Fall BREAK!

I can not believe that

FALL BREAK

is almost over.

We have had such an amazing week...

I'm so grateful to my family for helping me LAUGH

all the way through it!

The girls started the week...

at a CAKE decorating class at Joann's.

The rEsUlts were nothing short of aMAzing!

We didn't stick around LONG...

we were OFF to SEAWORLD and San Diego!

They REALLY do LOVE each other!

(This photo was there idea too...yippee for me!)

We FELL in love with this Walrus...

Jacob LOVES his mommy...and tells me that OFTEN!

Mommy LOVES all her kids!

and I loved it that my KIDS wanted to ride all the RIDES...

but you've got to LOVE Katie's face in this picture!

The FACT is that she RODE it all THREE times...the only one to do it EVERY time!

Jacob RODE it too...

but soon figured out it was more FUN getting WET running

away from the RIDE!

I love the FACT that at SEAWORLD so many things are 

HANDS on!

and that you ARE never too old to have some FUN!

Way to go kids...you are AMAZING and so much 

FUN to hang with! 
Postscript...this is only takes us through day 2 of our week long adventures.  Stay tune for more Fall Break fun.

JUMPING into TEN!

Cutie Kate...

as I like to call her...

TURNED the good ole' age of TEN!

She sat down with me and TOLD me exactly what she

wanted me to do for her birthday.

1.  Bring Donuts (not cake-she hates cake) into class

2.  Do not bake a CAKE at all!

3.  She wanted Panda Express brought into school for lunch.

4.  She wanted French Toast for breakfast.

5.  She wanted Chicken Enchiladas for dinner.

6.  She wanted a birthday party with friends at Jump Street.

7.  She wanted MONEY only for presents!

8.  Never mind....she will take perfume and lotion, too!

So because we ALL love her so much...

we made it ALL happen!

 

 

On your mark...

 

get set....

JUMP!

 To my beautiful 10-year old little KATIE...

Happy Birthday!

Start each DAY with a smile....

As my life returns back to NORMAL...

I'm learning that my

day begins with a SIMPLE expression...

A SMILE!

I'm smiling because things that I used to do...

like taking a bath,

walking down stairs,

going pee pee (without pain),

and of course...

spending time with my family...

doing all the FUN things we used to do...

are FINALLY happening again!

And I love to hear people saying,

"We've got Jana back!"

So when Ron and Cameron had last Friday off of work...

I couldn't wait to JUMP back on the boat!

They got to FISH...

I got to READ !

(Okay I didn't read...we were having so much fun talking!) 

Ron was having fun FISHING...

 

Cameron is always just FUN!

 

I sure LOVE these two boys!

 

I love the way they LOVE each other and 

LOVE being around each other! 

I find myself now thinking of FIRSTS!

(meaning... my firsts since my medical crap began)

This was my FIRST time to be back on the boat!

This was my FIRST time to wear my cute NEW (not so new now!) boating hat!

This was my FIRST time to get back into my swimsuit!

This was my FIRST time to see my weight loss in a picture!

This was my FIRST time to see a SMILE back on my face!

And it was the FIRST time that I began to FEEL

alive again!

I will always look at my life differently now..

and treasure each day,

by starting each day with a SMILE knowing that

I'm alive!

Travel Log - Day ONE

In the midst of my

CRAZY,

BUSY,

OVER-MEDICAL

summer...I can't believe I haven't BLOGGED any of it!

While I have to admit,

this summer didn't go as planned...

we still had some FUN times.

So this week...

I'm dedicating my BLOG

as a travel LOG...

(I'm rhyming again!)

to our FIRST trip of the summer...

UKRAINE!

Day 1-3:

Travel, Travel and MORE Travel.

Can I say...EXHAUSTION!

So we left for the airport at 10:30 P.M....

having both worked a FULL day so let's just say we've

already been up since 7 a.m..

We catch the plane at 12:40 a.m....

again...still haven't slept!

We land in Minneapolis, Minnesota...

which by the way isn't even on my itinerary...

where we spend 2 hours before loading a plane to

Detroit, Michigan.

We land again for another 1.5 hours before

getting on a plane to New York, NY. at noon the next day!

Other than a brief...a very brief snooze on the plane...

we still have not slept.

We did have a 4 hour lay over before we left for Kiev, Ukraine.

We tried to sleep...but not well.

After a 10 hour flight we land in Kiev.

 

Cameron asked me what my 3 smells of Ukraine are...

and I can honestly say I smelled 2 of them as soon as we landed!

1.  Smoke and lots of it! Almost 85% of Ukrainian's smoke!

2.  Body odor! Most Ukrainian's don't bathe daily or wear deodorant!

Unfortunately we had another 6 hour lay over in Kiev before boarding a very small Ukrainian airline to Dnepropetrovsk...

our final destination. 

At this point...I can't decide if I'm MORE hungry,

or more tired!  

So we luckily had a little pizza place directly across the street from our hotel...we ate quickly...

and went to bed at 7:30 p.m. Ukraine time!

Exactly 50 hours since our LAST bedtime!

No wonder I was able to sleep for 12 hours straight!

 

Postscript: I must mention that in the final pictures you will see Ron drinking the most AMAZING juice on the planet.  Cameron used to talk about it in his mission letters all the time.  We couldn't wait to try it...and we were NOT disappointed.  We just wish we could have brought some of this juice home!

A Different type of DAY...

was the kids' FIRST day of school.

Luckily for me...

my wonderful husband

did his best to do all the NORMAL beginning of the year activities.

He took the kids to 

MEET the TEACHER night,

(I was still in the hospital)

signed agendas, made lunches, made breakfast,

MADE ME 

breakfast in bed for many days,

did morning prayers

and still took time...for my sake

to take the DREADED first day of school pictures!

What a GUY!

Meanwhile, the kids were GREAT.

They didn't complain.

They asked me daily "how are you feeling?"

They found shoes, homework, food to eat and didn't have to

call me one TIME the first whole month of school.

NOW that is a MIRACLE!

 Christopher - 8th GRADE

Rachel - 6th GRADE

(with her Best Friends - Izzy and Summer)

Katie - 4th GRADE

Jacob - 1st GRADE

Postscript: It was REALLY hard for me to miss these moments with my kids.  The thing I realized and that is the blessing is that my kids' lives kept going on.  They still played with friends, went to activities and everything else kids do at their ages...

and while I know they were concerned about me,

they were able to KEEP moving forward!

One more BLESSING I'm able to find in all of this!

Good luck this year kiddos...I know you will do GREAT!