Okay, I am way off here, I know it was 2 months ago, but I want to get this for me.

Spring Break was a load of fun. I forgot my camera for a lot of activities, but we were busy every day!!! The kids and I had a blast -- it made us anxious for summer! We were sad that Rick couldn't join us for most of it, but he did get in on the last 2 days. We camped in our backyard (right up my alley with a close bathroom and running water) and went for a "hike" in San Gabriel Park in Georgetown. Okay, not much of a hike, but the trail was pretty and my wheelchair did well there. Caleb and Emma in San Gabriel Park.

Caleb being silly! At least he let me take his picture!

Emma and Caleb both did a lot with friends this week. But this is the only picture with a friend that I got.

Caleb spent time "manning the fort".

Forever our tomboy -- climbing trees, playing outside. This is also in San Gabriel park with friends.

Impromptu science project: bowl of water with pepper in it. Dab in soap -- watch the pepper jump away! Pretty cool.

Caleb's last basketball game. We won't mention the score.

All in all a very successful Spring Break for us. Lots of good memories. Less than a month until school is out. I can't wait to have my kids home all day and have NO homework that has to get done. The homeschooler in me hates those deadlines, the educator in me demands structure. Summer will be a great blend of both for me. I just fear it won't be long enough.

I Walk By Faith

About 2 months ago I watched a special on byutv online about Janice Kapp Perry called, "A Life of Service and Song". I hadn't thought about her for so many years. I quit buying very much "Church" music after Rick and I got married and haven't spent much time with her music in particular since my high school days. Yet watching this special brought back many tender feelings.

As a teenager from the 80's, and loving to sing, I sang a lot of songs by Janice Kapp Perry and Michael McLean. Both of these songwriters did a lot to help my testimony grow and to teach me how to feel and recognize the Holy Ghost in my life. What I hadn't known before I watched this special on byutv.org was that Sister Perry didn't write her first song until she was 39! The fact that she broke her ankle playing basketball and had a broken tv they couldn't afford to fix was a blessing to more people than me, but what a blessing it was to me!

A week later, I found out that she was coming to Austin to speak to the BYU Managment Society - on my birthday, no less. So, we bought tickets to go see her. It was amazing! Absolutely amazing. She is FUNNY and tender and absolutely delightful; her husband is also. For example, she was teasing him at one point and he turned off her mic. Then, he turned it back on and she said, "He just likes to turn me on." Singing her songs with her and the rest of the people there brought back so many many memories:

1. Singing at the piano with my sisters singing for hours.
2. Singing with friends - at church, girls camp, etc.
3. Leading the stake YW in the song, "I Walk by Faith" when it was brand-new (yes, I am THAT old), when we released balloons with our testimonies in 1986.
4. Singing at our seminary graduation
5. Learning to play the piano well enough that I could sing her songs without having to rely on sisters and friends.
6. Having words from her music come to my mind in moments of trial, moments of happiness, moments of peace.
7. Singing to my children from babyhood on -- simple songs carrying the doctrines of the gospel and love of the Savior and our Heavenly Father.
8. Singing with my children (and occasionally my husband, too) songs Sister Perry wrote.
9. Hearing Primary children sing her music and ask to sing it in Primary.

There is a song Sister Perry wrote that has been a favorite for many years, "Thanks for the Music." Here is some of it:

Thanks for the music that's in me...
Is it a memory that birth could not erase?
Rising within me from another time and place?
Do I hear something that others do not hear?
Things that I sense I have heard before, but where?
Are these the sounds of heaven that bring me to my knees
saying, "thanks for the music in me."

Sister Perry spoke tonight about not being too old to develop new talents and to take risks. "Talents are to be used to serve," she said. She spoke of Camilla Kimball learning to paint in the months before her death. She spoke of family songs. She spoke of serving a mission with her husband and teaching the people in Argentina how to use music in their meetings (how incredible would THAT be?).

Since I just turned 39 today, I felt her speaking was a wake-up call. So much life to live -- where to start?

Right now, things are so uncertain in our little family's world. Yet, in the last year, I have felt so cradled and loved in the Lord's Hand. I know He is still mindful of us and will help us through. So...."just for here and now I walk by faith." At 17 I hardly knew what that really meant. At 39, I think I am beginning to -- how am I going to feel at 80?

We are alive

Okay, I have been asked by a few people if I have abandoned my blog. Yes, actually, I have. :) No, really, I just haven't taken the time to do much. I will post again soon. I have some cute pictures from Spring Break, I know, a month ago, but they are cute. Well, the ones of Emma are cute. Caleb will hardly let me take pictures. As soon as the camera comes out, he hides or makes completely gross faces. Does anyone know the secret to getting 10 1/2-year-old boys to cooperate for the camera?

REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

So, today, the history-lover in me screams out, "Remember the Alamo!" Although not a native Texan, I get passionate about this subject. These men (and the women behind them)stood for something. They stood up and fought to be free from tyranny. They did not leave it in others' hands, thinking, "What could one little person like me do?" On days like this, I resolve to do better to be brave and courageous. What an example we have if we would only look in our history books. Our children must be taught - but who will teach them if we don't know history ourselves!


These men who fought were just people like you and me. They loved, they lived. They were not crazy-eyed fanatics with nothing better to do. They fought for a principle. Even though they knew there was NO CHANCE of them winning, they followed the call: "Victory or death". We are not called upon today to die for these principles. We are called upon to live for them. To stand up and be counted in fighting for freedom.

A reporter named Chuck Baldwin summed it up so nicely for me:

"Liberty is an easy word to say, but it is a hard word to live up to. Freedom has little to do with financial gain or personal pleasure. Accompanying Freedom is her constant and unattractive companion, Responsibility. Neither is she an only child. Patriotism and Morality are her sisters. They are inseparable; destroy one and all will die...

"Try to recall the time in this country when ordinary men and women had the courage of their convictions and were willing to sacrifice their lives for freedom and independence.
One thing is certain: those courageous champions did not die for a political party or for some "lesser of two evils" mantra! They fought and died for a principle. So did the men at Lexington and Concord. That is our heritage."

I believe there are still men and women who have courage to stand for their convictions. In a more modern time (okay, kind of -- 1989), Ronald Reagan said this:

"If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual. And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do."

So, my call to myself and anyone who dares to make it to the end of this long blog is this:

Dare to do right, Dare to be true,
You have a work that no other can do.
Do it so bravely, so kindly, so well.
Angels will hasten the story to tell.

Dare to do right, Dare to be true,
Other men's failures can never save you.
Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith.
Stand like a hero and battle till death!

Dare, Dare, Dare to do Right!
Dare, Dare, Dare to be True!
(LDS Childrens Songbook, page 158)

You don't have to push a handcart,
Leave your family dear,
Or walk a thousand miles or more
To be a pioneer.
(LDS Children's Songbook, page 218)

Remember March 6, 1836. Remember April 19, 1775. Remember July 4, 1776. Remember November 19, 1863. Remember that this land was ordained to be free so that a spring day in 1830 could happen. Remember that the Lord has said that as long as He is the God of this land, we shall be free. Let's keep choosing to be free.

Let's "Remember the Alamo."

VALIDATION

This was a video a friend posted on Facebook and it is just WAY too good to not share with everyone out there. It is over 16 minutes, but worth EVERY SINGLE SECOND. I wish more people created movies like this. The world would be happier and we would all treat each other better.

A BIG thank you to Carol for posting this. I have watched it 3 times already tonight. Rick got teary-eyed with me. And I giggled through the first 5 minutes. This video is going on here as a tribute to all the people in my life, especially in the last year, who have validated me, made me smile and just plain loved me, even when I was so unloveable, unsure of my future or just plain needing to be told I was okay just as I am.

"Validation" is a fable about the magic of free parking. Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne. Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Winner - Crystal Heart Award, Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival, Winner - Christopher & Dana Reeve Audience Award, Williamstown Film Festival, Winner - Best Comedy, Dam Short Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Film, Sedona Int'l Film Festival.

Hey! HE IS CUTTING IN LINE!

I turned into a 1st grader today. There needs to be a police department for "cutting" in traffic. Most of the time I am a pretty patient driver. Most of the time. This morning -- not so much. Since it was raining, I left early to take Rick to work. I got in the correct line to enter the freeway and immediately traffic came to a dead stop! Then, as we are crawling forward one inch per minute, people are zooming by us on the right then slamming on their brakes at the "front of the line" to get onto the freeway. I felt like screaming, "Your schedule is not any more important than the rest of ours -- get in line and wait your turn!" But, I held it in and just enjoyed a few minutes to be with Rick on a Monday morning. And, since morning is his absolutely favorite time of day, anyone who knows him knows how communicative he is at 7:15 in the morning (side note for those who don't know him: this is the man who is kind all day, BUT in the morning. The first week we were married he said, "I love you, but PLEASE don't be so cheerful in the morning and PLEASE don't sing until after I have had a shower. Cute songs in the morning are NOT funny to me." I can laugh about it now because I am still a morning person -- I just don't talk to him).

Anyway, so I am put-putting on the freeway now, going 3 mph, thinking of my friend Kriste's blog about how marching band should be a requisite to driving so people learn how to merge, when I realize that people are zooming by me on the right in an exit-only lane and then stopping traffic to try to get back "in line" before they have to exit. ARGH!

The funny thing about all of this is that I woke up in a good mood and when I got home, I was in a good mood, but seeing that really ticked me off this morning. I wasn't allowed to "cut" in school -- didn't anyone else learn that?

This is How We Do it in Texas!

Okay, I don't eat it, but I can MAKE it..... My husband said this was the best burger ever - Big Smoky Burgers! They were fabulous smelling and I don't even like beef. So, I was a little proud. Homemade buns, homemade burgers (well, kind of homemade - Caleb said they weren't homemade since we didn't raise the beef and butcher it) -- my husband was happy! I usually just buy a pack of burgers at Costco. I was feeling adventurous, especially considering how much I hate touching raw meat. Caleb and Emma loved them, too.

Here is a secret to good burgers I have learned recently -- mix all your burger stuff together and let it sit overnight to let the flavors meld. This burger has chipotle peppers and a little liquid smoke in them -- so it smelled a little like beef jerky when I pulled it out of the fridge to form the patties.

Just a tidbit of fun.