Counting My Blessings

I was thinking today of how long it has been since I really wrote down all the blessings in my life. I know I cannot possibly write ALL of them, but I wanted to share a list of ones I have really noticed lately.

My Family

My parents have helped me soooo much that last 9 months, and my in-laws let me know we are missed and keep me filled in on what I am missing. They help me when my car gives me issues, they help me with the children, and they ar amazing at telling me to buck up and deal with it when I complain. I love my family

My Husband

He has been gone for over 4 months, we are barely at the half way point, and I know what he has gone through is harder then my life has been. But I love how he still makes me smile when I need him, or just because he can be such a dork. He is my best friend, and I truly do not feel complete unless I am around him.

My Children

They can drive me up the wall, but... I would not trade them for the world. They are amazing, and loving, and are so helpful (when they want to be). I am the luckiest mom in the world! My favorite thing Kimber has done lately - She spells her name KMi and now that she has learned more letters she write it: KMiwzf (the other letters are "just in case")

My house sold when it did

I was looking at the real estate today, just out of curiosity, and I realized that if I tried to sale my house now, I would have been out almost $15,000 dollars. There is no way we could have afforded that. I KNOW the Lord had his hand in the timing of all of this.

Heavenly Father

All of this is his doing, I just know it. Moving, and changing everything. We prayed about it, and I have see his hands in so many places. There are days I want to stop, and go back to the way life was, but I move forward in Faith. I do things I am not sure seems to be the best, but they turn out because I know Heavenly Father cares and is helping me with every step. I don't know where life is taking us, I don't know why we had to make such a big change. I do know that this is where we are supposed to be, without a doubt.

Bug spray

Technology (web cams)

Pools

Fly swatters

Air Conditioning

Craft night

Playgrounds

My GPS

Crock Pots

Cuddles

Anna's Bucket List (a nice small one)

Anna’s Bucket List

So I decided to do this on a challenge of a friend. Let me tell you, this is not easy for me. I am a very practical person. I tend to push things from my mind if I don’t think it is possible. So it took a lot of work to come up with the few that I have.

1. Teach Seminary
2. Be a youth speaker (like Jon Bytheway)
3. Be a Girls Camp Director
4. Perform one night on Broadway
5. Write a musical for the church
6. Do a session in all USA LDS temples (No Complaints about visiting foreign ones)
a. Only 4 done so far, but I have visited grounds of 7 others and done baptisms and gone to a wedding in 3 others
7. Serve a Mission with my husband
8. Go on a 25th Anniversary cruise in the Mediterranean, and then spend another 2 weeks traveling Europe
9. Be that old couple that younger couples dream of being 50 years down the road
10. Teach College
11. Teach high school
12. TEACH!
13. Get my masters in something
14. Visit all seven continents
a. Have 5 to go
15. Hike to the top of Pioneer Peak (this has evaded me a couple of times)
16. Teach my children to love: The church, Music, the outdoors as much as I do
17. Teach my children to love and respect others for similarities and differences
Things I have done that were goals:
1. Marry my best friend
2. Get married in the Anchorage Temple (I made this a goal 2 years before the announced the building of it)
3. Have children
4. Go to college near my Grandparents
5. Spend a summer camping
6. Be in a musical (I was in 2)
7. Not kiss until I was 18 (made it to 19, and my husband is the only man I have ever kissed)


So here you have it, I am not very original, and I can’t seem to think of many impossible ones, but these are my goals. Maybe as I get older I can get more creative and add to it!

What fun...

This week nothing too exciting happened. We had lots of friends over and kept busy, but I wanted to share some fun highlights.

The girls decided it was time to bury each other. Since I would not let them go play in the sand (cleaned enough of that up this week), they used creativity and ALL the shoes they could find.

Also, the weather cooled down this week (we got into the low 60's). I wanted to open my window and let some fresh air in, but I never got that far. I found this sand toad sitting inside my window... yes, I screamed when it jumped at me... I also washed all my bed linens and moved all furniture around to vacuum. I don't mind frogs and toads, but not when they are loose inside my bedroom.

Nikki loves, loves, LOVES horses. Today she decided she wanted to go for a ride, so she used a toy horse. look carefully, you can see it, I promise!

It is Raining!

I woke up this morning to gray skies, and was so happy about it. Besides 2 storms (on in Mississippi and one on Friday) I have only seen sunny skies for quite a while. I love the sun, but it was getting discouraging keep the grass and flowers watered, cause i would water them in the morning, and by evening they already looked like they were dried up again. Rain is so rejuvenating (sorry Alaska, 28 days of rain in a row can be depressing).

Well, Randy is on his last week at Keesler. He leaves on Thursday to go to Sheppard AFB in Texas for an unknown length of time. We do know he has 19.5 weeks of classes (20 weeks means the military will let us live together while he goes). But in that 19.5 weeks we have Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years... We also deal with the possibility of AFI (awaiting further instructions), this means his classes may be put on hold and he does details on base until they decide to start his classes. We have 3 chances of this happening, so that can delay us for an unknown amount of time. So... Anytime between January and March (if we are lucky) we should PCS. I am hoping to know where we are going by Thanksgiving... but... we are standing by to stand by.

I did learn that they are closing the base in New Mexico that we could have been assigned to. So now there are only 4 bases that we can go to. I really don't care were we would go. All 4 of the bases have pros and cons, I just want to have my family together again. I really don't know how my Army friends and Marine Friends can handle 12 to 18 months apart. We are at the 4 month mark, and I am ready to go crazy.

I am so grateful for my Family, and friends that are so supportive and help where they can. I am grateful for Randy who puts up with my nuttiness, and sends as much support as he can. I am truly blessed.

Babies on the mind

No, I am not pregnant, so no worries. But I wanted to share some of Kimber's thought about expanding the family.

She has placed an order of 2 more sisters (Lindsey and Kandy) and 2 brothers (Alec and Dylan). She came up with the names her self, and is already plotting all kinds of things. Today she was telling me what each one should be for Halloween this year (I don't think an order that big will be completed in time for that Holiday this year). Each girl will be a different princess, including myself and Grandma, and then Daddy, Grandpa and the 2 boys will be matching prince.

Friday I was at a play group and there was a 1.5 week old baby girl. Kimber saw me hold her and asked if that was her new sister. We explained that she already had a mommy, but that wasn't good enough. "Why cant she be my sister?" After I helped load her into her car seat (baby's mom was chasing to older boys) Kimber offered to take her to our car so we could take her home.

I really wonder where she gets these ideas. I know we are not done with our family, but I have not been talking about our plotting and planning with her, so this is all on her own accord. She makes me smile though.

My weekend with Randy!

I flew to Biloxi, and I got to spend 4 days with Randy and NO kids this August! It was amazing! We missed the girls, but it was so nice to spend some quality time together.

We didn't do too much exciting, we were just together! We had lots of possibilities but just played everything by ear. Friday morning I went to a drill meet he was required to go too. It was super hot, but fun. I got to meet some of the guys he spends a lot of his free time with. That afternoon we drove around base and he showed me where he lived, and where he was taking classes. We also enjoyed the sand in our toes at the beach.

Saturday we did drive to Pensacola and go see the Naval Aviation Museum, and spend the afternoon on the beach. It was a lot of fun! A storm came in and so we headed back to the hotel.

Sunday I got to meet his branch (7 people) and the senior missionaries that have taken such good care of him.

All in all, we just spend as much time together as possible. I loved just being cuddled next time him and talking, we talked about everything and nothing. It was so hard to say good bye again. But hopefully now I can see him once a month! I know this is what the lord wants us to do, and I just have to keep having faith it will all work out. But I can't wait for the day when I get to live with my Husband again!

He is SOOO HOT!

the Gals!

Here is a picture of each of the girls that came and played dress up!

Alice


Me


Meilee

Mary

Katherine