A Real Friend

Someone has said, 


“A friend is a person who is willing to take me the way I am.”


 Accepting this as one definition of the word, may I quickly suggest that we are something less than a real friend if we leave a person the same way we find him. There seems to be a misunderstanding on the part of some men today as to what it means to be a friend. Acts of a friend should result in self-improvement, better attitudes, self-reliance, comfort, consolation, self-respect, and better welfare. Certainly the word friend is misused if it is identified with a person who contributes to our delinquency, misery, and heartaches. When we make a man feel he is wanted, his whole attitude changes. Our friendship will be recognizable if our actions and attitudes result in improvement and independence. It takes courage to be a real friend. Some of us endanger the valued classification of friend because of our unwillingness to be one under all circumstances. Fear can deprive us of friendship. Some of us identify our closest friends as those with the courage to remain and share themselves with us under all circumstances. A friend is a person who will suggest and render the best for us regardless of the immediate consequences.


by Marvin J. Ashton

Stole this from a friend's blog because I love it so much!  Thanks Ashlie:)

Can you believe...

Can you believe Stephen is running away from me in order to escape the picture I tried to take of him leaving for his first day of school yesterday?  WELL!  How Rude! :)
Anyway, he already has a posse of friends picking him up and giving him rides to football practice and school.  You could never mistake this child of mine for being shy...yet, when he was little he would never leave my side and was the SHYEST child we ever had.  I loved it! 
While Middle School age scares me, High School age I love!  I guess that is because both my older boys had a difficult time (growing pains) while in Middle School and by the time they made it to High School (age 14 - 15) they had pretty much decided who they wanted to be and were willing to make the sacrafices necessary in order to get there.  The big battles were over and it was just fun from then on out!  Let's hope that Bryce follows that same course.  I love teenagers!

Middle School...again

There he goes!  Bryce started Middle School yesterday.  They had a 7th grade day just to orient the 7th graders coming in this year.  Today he gets to stay home and tomorrow he starts school for real!  All the 8th and 9th graders will be there too.  Not looking forward to the next 2-3 years.  I think the Middle School years are the toughest and most crucial years by far.  On the bright side, this is the last time I will have to endure Middle School....yay! Maybe it will surprise me and be a piece of cake....nah, I doubt it.... Well, wish me luck!  Middle School here we come...

Now we are real residents!

My mother in law is one tough chick!  She decided we needed a mailbox since we've been here for over a month now.  So, Bryce dug a deep hole and she set the post.

Mike decided that he better finish it on Saturday.  

And I got to put the mailbox on top! 

(just like a cherry on top of a sundae) 

  

I guess now we are real residents!

Virtue: For Such a Time as This (Esther 4:14)

Playing with my little sister again!

Theresa has been dieing for me to move to Utah ever since she moved here about 5 years ago!  I really never had any desire to move to Utah and Mike certainly didn't either.  But after Michael left on his mission and everyone (it seemed) was moving there, I suddenly had a great desire to join them.  

Theresa and I are especially close and when our kids were little we spent a lot of time together playing and having fun.  Not to mention all the years growing up together as little girls, then we became teenagers and we fought like cats and dogs!  We were so different from eachother that we just couldn't stand eachother.  Then we became Mother's and we've been the best of friends ever since!  Now we get to play again!  And I love it!  She lives in Herriman so it's about a 50 minute drive north to go and see her but it is awesome!  

Yesterday we spent some time here at this new little man-made lake they have created in Herriman about 5 minutes from her house.  The kids didnt want to go so she and I got to spend time together, just us being girls!  Reminded us of the good ol' summer days while we were in high school, we spent many many days at Folsom lake...tanning, burnning, hanging out with friends (separately of course).  I love it when we get together because we share stories of those days, and I always learn something new about her.

Fun times!

 Here's to many sister play dates to come Theresa! 

A Temple assignment

Yesterday while Stephen was at football practice,Mike, Bryce and I had the great opportunity to go up to Heber Valley Girls camp to work.

(this picture taken as we approached the camp...yes, those are the yw value colors)

We spent most of our time picking up and loading logs that had been cut from trees that had either fallen down or had been cut down.

We had an assembly line going most of the time loading these logs into the truck...Mike just stood by and watched me work...mostly...jk;)

Some of the logs were way too heavy for one person to carry and so they had this contraption to help.  This is where the other girl (who was pregnant-what a trooper;) and I got to sit in the shade and watch. 

Many of the senior couples who are called there have their own ATV's and their own very large trailers that they take up there and some stay in cabins the entire time they are there.  It is so peaceful up there.

I wish I had gotten more pictures of the camp because it is very large and quite beautiful up there.  There are some 8,000 acres of land that the church owns and it has some ropes courses and several cabins and pavillions where they hold many sessions of girls camps in the summer, boys winter camps and you can also schedule your family reunion there.

There are senior couples who are called to this mission...yes, it is a mission.  Some of them are local and work a couple of days a week there to relieve the couples who have been called for 18 month missions and take their p-days.  This is Elder Anderson and Sister Bunnell who supervised us yesterday.  They told us so much about the camp.  They said that the camp was actually dedicated as a temple so that all the girls who come there and those who work and visit would grow closer to their Saviour.  They said they had seen many miracles happen there.  They promised us that as we went home to tell people that we were on a temple cleaning assignment... and they promised us that we would be blessed and would feel peaceful as we went home that  day.

Here was the group of us from our stake. 

 It was a great experience and we were all so glad we got to go on that temple assignment.

p.s.when we got home bryce went to football practice and said he did better than he ever had and

Mike recieved a random call from california and found out that we a refund check being sent our way...Brother Anderson was right....

correction:  8,000 acres....oops!