Tymber's talk

Tym was asked to talk in Sacrement tomorrow. She is less the thrilled. I,  we wrote her talk on Saturday. I think she will do great job.
I, we used a lot of quotes ant talks from the Ensign, but I think that is okay for her first talk. sorry it is long and the formating is weird, but whatever.

I was asked to talk about families. Each family is unique and different, just as each person in the family has his or her own personalities. Our families are a sanctuary for safety, love, and protection. Heavenly Father wants us to return to him and has provided us parents and leaders to help guide us as we grow and teach us the importance of the gospel.

It is easy to take family members for granted and forget we are here to learn love, obedience and patients. Fighting with siblings or rolling eyes at parents as they give advice is easier than putting the needs of our family member before our own.

The Strength of Youth quotes “Strong families require effort. Your family will be blessed as you do your part to strengthen it. Be cheerful, helpful, and considerate of family members. Many problems in the home come from family members speaking and acting selfishly or unkindly. Seek to be a peacemaker rather than to tease, fight, and quarrel. Show love for your family members each day. Share your testimony with your family through words and actions. Your righteous example can make a difference in strengthening your family. Honor your parents by showing love and respect for them. Obey them as they lead you in righteousness. Willingly help in your home. Participate in wholesome family activities and traditions. Join your family in family prayer, family scripture study, and family home evenings. Keeping these commandments strengthens and unifies families. Strengthen your relationships with your brothers and sisters. They can become your closest friends. Support them in their interests, and help them with challenges they may be facing” (end quote)

As we grow up and go through school years, friends come and go. Today’s society is especially hard for youth with all of the temptations Satan puts in our paths. Our friends will come and go throughout our lives, as we change but family will always stand by our side no matter what. When we make mistakes there will be no one better to pick us up and brush us off then our family.

We must all remember we are on this earth for a short time to learn,  grow, and do all we can to return to our Father in Heaven. We also must remember we will have to answer to Him when our life here ends.

How can we become more like our Savior in this life is we can’t get along with the people we were sent here to love and live with. How will we live with them eternally?

 There is a story I came across while preparing this talk it is called

“Lessons from the Geese”

written in 1972 by Dr. Robert McNeish

This fall, when you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in "V" formation, you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way.

FACT: As each bird flaps its wings, it creates”uplift" for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock has at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

LESSON: Families who share a common direction and sense a community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

FACT: When a goose flies out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of  flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front of it.

LESSON: If we have as much common sense as a goose, we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

FACT: When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation, and another goose flies to the point position.

LESSON: It makes sense to take turns doing the hard tasks and share leadership. As with geese, families depend on each other’s skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.

FACT: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

LESSON: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In families where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement is the quality of honking we seek.

FACT: When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two other geese will drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with the fallen goose until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation to catch up with their flock.

LESSON: If we have as much sense as the geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong!

I would like to bear my testimony….(bear Testimony) and hope that we can all remember to become more like the geese. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Hope's party

 Popping Balloons

 Playing freeze music

 Paige

 Jackson ( Hope has a HUGE crush on him, sshhh)

 Landon & Hope we were playing Chubby Bunny, it was a riot

 Kinnley & Paige

 Jackson & Madison

 Hope & Violet

 So funny, I think three marshmallows was the limit they could manage.

 Balloons

 Pinata time

 Madison

 Paige

 Violet

 Kinnley

 Landon

 Jackson

 each of the kids got a turn hitting the pinata. I was glad we got everyone through. I knew the boys would knock it so we made them go last. Landon almost broke it so we had him stop and Jackson whacked the lions head off.

 sharing the candy

 we let them decorate their own cupcakes

 present time

 What a smile

There were a few more but they didn't turn out. She also got a barbie, some hair stuff, a shirt and a few more odds and ends. What a fun time everyone had.

Hope's 8

I can't believe my baby turned 8. Time goes too fast. She is super excited to be 8 and has been looking forward to it from the day she turned 7. She is really looking forward to getting Baptized in a few weeks. She had school that day and I took treats in. Her class made her a "hug book", it was super cute, everyone in her class wrote a page on why they thought she is special and then her teacher put it all together.  I also let her have her first real sleep over that night with the neighbor girl. I wasn't sure how it would go and Jennifer's mom was worried also because Jennifer is pretty shy. We figured if worse came to worse she just was next door and I could walk her home. They had a blast. They played and laughed and were super silly. I put them to bed about 10:30 but they giggled and laughed for I don't know how long. I finally fell asleep but Rich said he could hear them until about midnight.

 We got her a CTR sign for her bedroom

 Bath stuff from Autumn and Tymber

 A necklace and bracelet we got her that has CTR on it.

 New roller-blades

 A helmet and knee-pads from Grandma and Grandpa

Saturday I let Hope have her first friends birthday party when I got off work. She was super excited. We invited about 9 people  think and all but 3 showed up. The weather was a little windy but i was nice outside. Tymber found all the games and ran the whole party. It was super nice just letting her take responsibility of everything, secretly I think she had more fun then the 8 year olds.

Heart

We also had tickets to see Heart in concert. There were a lot more people there then the night before. Rich and I are both huge Heart fans so we were thrilled to learn they would be at the fair. The concert was amazing. Ann Wilson has a crazy powerful voice. We were once again on the track standing and the whole ground was shaking. Her sister Nancy Wilson can play the guitar like mad. Excellent concert. They played for almost 1.5 hours rocking hard. Loved every minute of it

Three Dog Night

I bought tickets to see Three Dog Night and Heart at the fair in June. It was a special where you get both concerts for the price of one. Good thing I got them early or we wouldn't have gone. We chose general admission instead of assigned seating because the assigned seating is not that comfortable. It's pretty much on the race track so the seats are in the grandstands and I really didn't want someones knees in my back all night or to feel like a sardine. We were really close to the stage and I was surprised at how many songs I knew. The band is a little before my time. Most of the hit songs were 1969-1974. With the most popular of course Joy to the World, or Jeremiah was a Bullfrog.

The band has been together 43 years with 4 out of 6 original members still. They were pretty good for a bunch of old guys. One thing I quickly realized, there were a lot of older people there, that makes me old too I guess. Some people just come out of the wood work and are beyond entertaining to watch. Rich and I had a great time.

A lady came up to us before the show and had 2 backstage passes. She wasn't going and asked us if we wanted them so we jumped on it. Free backstage passes heck ya. I was really excited to meet them and sad I didn't bring a camera or anything to autograph. Figured I could get a few picts on my cell phone. The meet and greet was a total waste of time and ticked me off. There were only about 20-30 fans and basically they took us back and told us there was a professional photographer to do pictures. No autographs and they would post the pict on a website in a few days. We were to get the picture taken and leave. Stand by the band and the band would pose around us. There was a 12 year old boy who was first and his mom was saying how this was his favorite band of all time and how excited he was to meet them. He went up took a pict and they didn't even acknowledge him. We were second the lead singer said Hi to me, I told him we enjoyed the show and they acted like they didn't even hear me. They didn't even acknowledge Rich at all, took our pict and we were escorted out. We pretty much felt like pesky flies. It wasn't worth our time to walk back and see them. It is ridiculous they acted like we were bothering them. I felt like telling them without their fans they wouldn't have been around for 43 years. Oh well.

Senior year

Yesterday was the beginning of the end for Autumn's high school days. She started Senior year. Her classes are a little tough this year so she will have to keep up on it, but I think it's all good. She is only 10 credits short of graduating. First Trimester she is taking Elementary production, it is a choir class where they create and put on a show for all the elementary schools. She did this last year and loved it. Business Finances, Teacher Aid for the special education students, AP Government, and College Prep English. She also is doing early morning Seminary because she didn't have enough room in her schedule for regular seminary. After working so many hours this summer school may seem like a vacation. Plus she will work 2.5-3 hours each day after school for the Community Center. She will be home by 6:00 p.m. and no weekends. Second Tri we were able to get her off school for her 5Th hour so she can work an extra hour. She has been working a ton of hours at the fair this week and been there every day since Saturday,  late nights getting home. She was dragging today and it was only day 2 of school. Two more days at the fair and then schedules will return to normal and I can get her back on her gluten free eating. It's pretty tough following with fair food around her so we took a week off but can tell a huge difference in the eating gluten free vs not.

Fair

I ended up taking Hope to the fair the day before school started. The little girl in the picture with her was just some random girl they put on a ride together. Hope was super funny. She hates the kiddie rides. Its all or nothing for her.The child is fearless. My phone was about dead so I couldn't do pictures and didn't take a camera. She went on a kiddie ride after going on some big rides. It was these elephants that move up and down. She folded her arms and every time she went by me mouthed the words... boring, still boring. What a nut. She had a blast. I let Tymber go the next day with her friends. This is the first year I have let her go alone with friends. Autumn has been there every day working, except Wed. she had off so she went with her girlfriend Christy. All of the schools started except for Autumn. Because she is an upperclassman the high school only brings the freshman in the first day for orientation and everyone else gets one more day. They have Autumn scheduled about 43 hours at the fair, along with school and early morning seminary. She will be dead this weekend. Plus Saturday night she will probably help them tear down the booth working until 1 or 2 A.M. They LOVE her. It is the Prices's and a small world because some of them are in Sondra's ward. Anyways Autumn works at Snow-Floss. Snow-cones and Cotton Candy. This is her third year. She brought over this huge cotton candy for Hope, freshly spun. Fresh spun cotton candy is the bomb!

 I really don't like going to the fair, its such a money trap but I buy the tickets early and save a little. Luckily this year I got them in early July before the vehicles broke down so it was paid for already.

Hope, Second Grade

Hope started school today, it's hard to believe in a week she will be 8. Time goes faster than I like. I love her teacher, Mrs. Peterson. Autumn had her in second grade. She is in our ward and her daughter is Autumn's age so I have known her for quite a while. Hope will have a great year. Her class is very big, I think 31 or more students. I am not thrilled about it. She was super excited to go to school today. I cut her hair lat week. Rich was really not happy with me at all. I didn't talk to him before I cut it and he told me if he had made the decision to cut it without asking I would be ticked. It is true but I also told him he is not the one who washes, brushes, and deals with it each day. Not to mention it was in pretty bad shape from the summer sun and she really wanted it cut. She actually wanted it shorter but I knew he wouldn't  be happy as it was so told her no. Here is to a great year!