Because I Had Children

I don't care for chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream or most chocolate all by itself. I like it sometimes but I have to be in the mood. I don't like to be cold unless I'm camping, sitting on my chair cuddled up with a good book and blanket, or when it's drizzling and I'm bundled up going for a run but not cold enough to see my breath. I'm very picky about my cold. Right out of the oven. I'm also picky about my s'mores. I like them when my sister makes them into bars using chocolate chips, little marshmallows and graham cereal so all their goodness is contained. I love roasted marshmallows all by themselves. I like them burnt, I like them golden brown and frankly I could eat a bag of uncooked marshmallows if it was placed in front of me. I also love graham crackers. So, you can see how I might have a problem with S'mores the way they are traditionally made. Plus, I hate it when I roast my marshmallow perfectly then mash it between the graha...

Last night I had the opportunity to travel 80 miles to meet an amazing person. I'm so glad I brought my husband with me to record some of our visit. The video is the short version he gave us right as we arrived. We stayed much longer and I certainly wish we would have kept the camera rolling but here are more of the details. Cliff called 3TV on Saturday morning after seeing this clip while I was there with my cheer squad performing. He said he didn't have a computer but he wanted to donate and asked if I could possibly drive to Sun City West to pick it up. My first thought was "that is way too far" and then I thought if I contacted someone in Far West Pop Warner near his home, they could drive over to pick up the check and mail it to me. But, Cliff said he was going in for surgery on Monday and we needed to pick it up before then. Something about that phone call made me want to meet him. I'm so glad I did. Cliff joined the Marine Corp. when he was 18 years ol...

I saw your recent speech on the news and while I would like to be surprised at the things you say, I am simply numb from all the things that have come from your time in office. I have kept fairly quiet about it because I don't like to make waves with my friends who support you but I can remain quiet no longer on this topic. In regards to your statement that being a stay at home mother "is not a choice we want American's to make," I have to assume that you mean you don't want us to have to accept lesser wages because of our choice. I get you. I just wish you would have worded it better because that isn't how it was taken. As for me, there is no price that can be placed on my choice to stay home. I'll never get into the work place and make the kind of money you think I ought to but let me tell you something about my job that you will never understand. Like most mothers, I'm teaching my children to be good citizens, have good manners, learn to serve...

August 2014 Dear kids, I went out to lunch today with my dear friend. It's not the first time I've gone to lunch this summer while you've been stuck at home watching television for 10 hours in a row, but it was maybe my second. You gave me this look like, "what?" and I saw in your eyes that you wondered why on earth I thought it was a good idea to do something without you or not for you. I'm sure that over the last several weeks you have wondered why I keep pestering you to pick up your stuff off the floor in the playroom, or return your dirty dishes to the kitchen (when they aren't supposed to be out of the kitchen in the first place), or get your chores done for the day. I know for a fact that it has bugged you when I asked you to do something that wasn't "your job." I do appreciate you feeding lunch to your siblings or even making an easy dinner when I wasn't around. I don't think I've asked that much more of you than y...

Recently, the topic of sacrifice has been something crossing my mind nearly every single day. I see it in Facebook posts of those who want better jobs, want to make better life choices, or even those who want to lose weight. To get what we want, there is a cost. Sometimes we have to give up something we like in order to have or do something we like more? I'll give you an example. Ben is a great employee at his company. He works hard and has the potential to move up the ladder if he wants but he keeps taking new jobs at work that aren't promotions, they are more like lateral moves. Why? Because he loves to coach football. There have been many times when he was up for a promotion (including a significant raise in salary) but chose not to take it because it would conflict with his ability to work from home and have the time needed to coach. Some would call this a bad choice but for our family, but always the one we knew was right. We may never be rich and he may never have the...

My girls are back and we're off to a great season already! This year we have four returning girls and two new ones! We had to grow our coaching staff to provide some more one on one for our girls so we also have 5 varsity cheerleaders who coach with us. AND IT GETS BETTER! One of our girls last year turned 18 and is now my assistant coach! How lucky can we be? That makes 7 coaches and 6 girls, woot woot!! Our squad has been working hard since the beginning of August learning our cheers and chants for the football games. We have been perfecting our jumps and our tumbling as well. This year we are with the Flames football team and we couldn't be more excited about that because Coach Marc loves us as much as Coach Larry does. Photo Courtesy Kim Skinner www.kimskinnerphotography.com I've mentioned before that my heart grows every time I'm with my girls. At a Varsity football game recently, one of my cheerleaders was sitting in the stands and saw her coach (who is a ...

There seems to be a decline in the amount of volunteerism these days. I understand there are lots of double income families and by the time you both get home from work and take care of your house and family, the last thing you want to do is volunteer. I get it. I really do. I've come up with three reasons why you need to get out and serve more. 1 - IT IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO STEP OUTSIDE YOURSELF and think about others for a while. Serving someone else in need helps us find perspective regarding our own struggles. This last year I was the coach of a cheer squad made up completely of special needs girls. They were eager to learn and we always had so much fun. But after my hour of coaching was done, I thought about those parents who went home every day and worried and prayed and sometimes struggled with caring for their precious daughters the other 166 hours in the week. 2 - FRIENDSHIPS. I have made some of the best friends through my years of serving through children's sports. ...

With the school year fast approaching, I wanted to talk about excuse makers. Children are the best at this, aren't they?      "Did you hit your brother?"      "He made me!"     I usually come back with something like, "you mean he grabbed your arm and balled up your fist with his other hand and then hit himself?!?! That's incredible!" At this point I remind them that if they did hit, it is their responsibility to learn how to control the feelings that cause them to want to hit so they won't do it again. We are all excuse makers though by nature. I don't think most of the time it is a problem.      "What's the matter with this loaf of bread?" your husband asks.      "I think the yeast was old so it didn't rise," you respond. Then you buy new yeast and your bread turns out fine the next time. That is an excuse I can live with where as the first example I can't. But, how does this apply to the school...

I would have liked to have driven my Yukon to girls camp as it seated more girls and has 100K less miles than the truck but the air conditioning went out on Friday before camp (after I just had it fixed) and I wasn't about to drive two hours into the Arizona desert without AC. I begrudgingly drove my pickup truck. Towing the truck home Unfortunately, on the way home from girls camp the truck died on me as I was going up a hill. We got my trailer hitched up to another truck and got the girls into other vehicles to go home. I rode most of the way home where I met Ben who was driving our Yukon and a flat bed trailer to tow the truck home with. I turned around with him and we went back to get it. So I still got to drive a few hours without AC in our lovely desert. Lucky me. Yesterday I finally had a chance to drive the Yukon into the dealer to have it looked at since they had just fixed it a few days prior to it breaking again. As the mechanic opened the hood he realized the se...

A few years ago, I was the subject of some specific gossip. (I'm sure it has happened more often but I have pretty thick skin.) It made its way to my ears and my feelings were hurt; I mean really hurt. The person who was talking didn't know all the facts surrounding the circumstance and was assuming some things that were not true. It made me look awful. Gossip: Don't Pass It On I love this person but it has been difficult to be in their circle of friends. Maybe that means I haven't completely forgiven them but I sincerely am trying. I just want so badly to tell everyone the truth about what happened. I wanted this person to ask me for the details; I would have spilled it all but nobody ever did. I still walk around wondering who thinks I'm the terrible person I was portrayed to be. Was this information offered to one other person or to many? I try to avoid gossip. It isn't easy and sometimes it is really hard. I remember a friend who was going through ...

My Anny was born six years ago this month. We didn't know until she arrived that she would be our sweet princess, we like those kind of surprises in the delivery room. She has three older sisters who all originally were going to be named Anny but when they arrived, none of them seemed right for the name. Who knew we would end up having our seventh child actually arrive and fit the name perfectly! But that is another story. This one is about Anny's hand. Anny just over a year old At the halfway point of my pregnancy, I went for a routine ultrasound. As I drove down the freeway with the radio off, I did what I normally do when I'm alone and have a little conversation with my Heavenly Father. I thanked him for this new spirit that was coming to our family and asked him for the strength to do this again after a five year break. I was feeling overwhelmed and nervous. I wanted to know why I felt so much anxiety even though this was my seventh go around. I drove down the ...

I seriously don't know what happened to the month of May and how it went so quickly. But, I'm determined to have a fabulous summer with my kids! June keeps us pretty busy with football, basketball and cheer camps for the older kids almost every day but I need something to do with my younger kids so I went on a search. Here is a brief list of things local to me in the QC/San Tan Valley area that are free or cost very little. Are you ready to join me for some fun this summer?!?! Queen Creek Library (Ellsworth/Ocotillo in QC) Free Every Thursday from 1-2 there are things like magic shows, yo yo demos and more. There are other events as well for older kids as well as babies, check out their calendar Here. Plus they have a summer reading program! Click Here.   Apache Junction Library (Idaho/University (Superstition Blvd)) They have a darling castle for the little kids to climb in, play dress up and checkers along with maybe even do a little reading, ha ha. Miss Alana c...

...and I am way behind on my daily postings of poems. I was doing them mostly on Facebook but I have gotten a few days behind so I'll post them here for my mom and dad and the two other people who read my blog and/or care about my poetry, ha ha. If you haven't been following me on FB, I have been taking my daily cues on what types of poems to write from my friend Stephanie at www.stephaniesaysso.blogspot.com . She has taken all the work out of it for me when it comes to choosing what to write each day and I'm so grateful for this opportunity to stretch myself as a writer. So as a catchup, I'll start with Day 19 which was free verse. It turned out to be harder than I thought and while both of these are quite amateur, I think there is some potential in them and they will be revisited soon. My Closest Friend Procrastination is my closest friend We often spend time together Saying “tomorrow I’ll have more time” When the reality is that I know I won’t. S...

As we drove to the restaurant to meet our 19 year old daughter for lunch my husband says to me, "Remember the time when she was seizing and I just held her in my arms while we sobbed sitting on the living room floor and you kept saying it would end soon?" The tears wouldn't stop running down my cheeks as I looked back through the first few years of her life and remembered how it all started. I can pinpoint her first seizure at age two or three and I remember the phone call from my sister like it was yesterday. I rushed her to the Dr. office she had perked up by then and was walking and responsive. We sat in the waiting room for only a minute before they took her back to a room. After looking her over for a minute, she asked to use the potty. I walked with her to the restroom and helped her. Just as she climbed off the toilet and had her pants pulled up, she collapsed into my arms and had a full gran mal. I held my composure the best I could while I opened the bathroom...

My younger sister was married this last weekend to a wonderful man. In their guest registry, it asked for a simple message of advice or thoughts on marriage. I know I wrote something but I'm not good "off the cuff" and I've been wondering about what I wrote since then and wondered if it was "enough." Marriage between a man and a woman is the most sacred trust our Father in Heaven has given us. It is this union that brings children to the world and links together generations. I wanted to share what I really wish I would have written when I signed our names to the book 1. Always put God first. A marriage is like a perfect triangle with God at the top point and the couple at the bottom two points, neither one being more important than another but always equal. When I think about the choices I make in my life, I always ask first if it is something my Father in Heaven wants for me, if I think it is, then I consider how my spouse will feel about it before making...