Chewy Snarff Hamlin

So we got a dog. I know. I am crazy. Greg really wanted one and some how I agreed. He came home right after vacation too, so it was crazy.

This is Enoch telling him his votes for the dog's name.








And the winner is..... Chewy Snarff Hamlin!!!

Glen Lake 2011

So I have been dreading uploading all of these pictures. That is why I haven't blogged in a while, but I finally got it done!!!
It took me a week to pack and I did it "Duggar Style" and it was awesome. I will always pack like that until my kids are older. I think I really got the vacation thing down now. It is a lot of work, but at least I don't freak out about it anymore. It took my about another week to recover mentally and physically from it. I think the kids had fun, so it was all worth it. I think we are making lasting memories.
We went up a day early and stopped about an hour away in an hotel. That went awesome. It made the trip up great! The saddest part though was Dr. Polomski ( he was the man who owned the cabin we rented) died while we were up there. He died Thursday morning. He told me Wednesday night that he was waking up really early to fish with his kids so we wouldn't see him that day. Later we found out he died on the dock right before he got on the boat. He was older at least 85, but it was still sad.
We had a great tip back, but came home to 3 week heat wave in the 90s!!! It was awful. We stopped at Chuck E. Cheese on the way home and when we got out of the car Enoch starting crying and screaming "ouch!" because the air was so HOT out compared to Michigan.

First Day of School 2011

I did pretty well the first day of school. I was excited about taking them. Greg stayed home so he got to take them too. My kids get to walk to school. I LOVE that. I think it is so fun. I love taking them, but when it gets cold I let them walk by themselves. :)


Shad got this shirt for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa. It changes colors in the sun.

My two old babies. My heart hurts a little as I write this.

I love you Ali!

The whole day was nice. The house was soooo clean and sooo quiet.

Darkness

I have always been afraid of the dark. I don't remember a time when I wasn't afraid of the dark. However, it used to petrify me. Now this is ok when you are 5 or 6 maybe but when you are 16, it is a bit weird. I always slept with the lights on and the door open ( the door would have to be open so I could make a quick get away if needed - weird huh?). I would never allow myself to stay up late because I could not be the last one up. I needed to fall asleep with people still moving around my house. That paper route I had for one year was AWFUL. I would be hot and sweaty and my heart would be pounding as I ran from a house to the car with the paper. I would sing primary songs in my head to try to distract me. Seminary was bad too because it was still dark when I left my house.
Girl scout camp was horrible. I think there was 1 week when I was around 11 that I didn't sleep the whole week. And I never slept well at camp. I always sang "A Child's Prayer" over and over and over and over and over in my head. I always prayed for peace and calm to get me through those nights. I think that is where my first testimony came from-- those prayers late at night when i felt all alone and by myself. I would pray with all of my heart for peace and comfort so I could fall asleep. Some times when I think about some of those times, I think I was crazy -- Really crazy-- Like maybe I needed to be in a looney bin. I felt like the darkness was trying to get me. But one thing i know for sure is I can think of 5 or so times when I was so scared that I could feel the darkness encasing me and I would pray and a shield would form around me. I could feel the shield. I remember not wanting to move because I was afraid the shield would break.
I often wondered why I was afraid of the dark. I went to therapy several times about. At one point in time, I thought it had something to do with some thing bad that happened to me in the dark when I was little. But I don't think that any more. I simply think I was afraid of the dark. And I am in a weird way thankful for that fear because I think it taught me at an early age to pray and to believe.

Now to go on to one of the most spiritual things that has ever happened to me. I won't write it all. It doesn't seem right to.... too personal... too sacred. However, I do wish for my children to know about this, so maybe I will write it down some where else. When I first went to the temple, something very special happened. The temple worker was just saying what they always say I am sure but something happened. When she was talking to me, it burned in her heart as she told me the words, and it burned in my heart. I felt like she could feel all of my fear that I had had, and she was telling me that I didn't need to be scared any more. There was no greater power than Heavenly Father's and this protection that he was giving me would make the darkness go away. I haven't been afraid since. Now when I walk out side and it is dark I still take a deep breath.BUT on a scale of 1 to 100, it is a 5 now and it used to be 95. It isn't even comparable.

And if you are wondering, I slept with the lights off that night, and every night since. And the "darkness" has never come again.

Swim Lessons

I love this picture because I was trying to get a picture of Shad and just happened to get Enoch walking by in the background!
Ali going of the Diving Board.

Shad

Enoch sitting with his class.

We did swim lessons every single day for two weeks straight! WOW! It was fun, and we had perfect weather. Enoch often didn't want to do it but then would eventually decided he would. He did much better than I thought he would. A few times he stripped naked and ran around being in one of his moods. i think wearing the bathing suit ( the feel of it) really bothered him.

I really like this because I think kids should go swimming during the summer, but it really is too dangerous for me to take my kids. 6, 4, 3, and 0 and one adult just doesn't cut it. I am too afraid someone will drown, so we don't go. but I liked swim lessons because I feel like the kids got there pool "fix" in a safe way while learning a little bit too.

Good, Better, Best

So.... I know that sometimes I am Crazy Mom. I really want the best for my kids, and I know that sometimes i go over board. My kids have to read a book to me every day, do 20 min of math homework, work on Spanish, dance, listen to a scripture story, practice a primary song, recite the scripture of the week, and do chores ever single day. That is a lot of stuff to do!! Sometimes I wear myself out trying to get it all done PLUS still have fun like swimming lessons and going to the park to play. i know that Greg thinks I am crazy. Sometimes he calls me up on the phone and says "Please don't do anything today so you are not exhausted by the time I get home.

So I am aware enough to know too that there are more important things in life to learn than than school work...... like Charity and Christ like Love. BUT that is SO hard to teach! How am I supposed to teach to be Christ like? I know it is by example. However, I have this small problem that I am so busy teaching my kids Spanish and math problems that I don't have time to love others. That is where that good, better, best comes in. Sure what I am doing is good, but I could be doing better.

So an email came to me about someone who needed dinner because they had been in the hospital. I thought this might be the perfect time to teach some service to my children. It ended up only being Shadrach, but I thought it might be more meaningful if it was just one-on-one too. He helped me make bread and cookies. Then he helped me deliver it. We had a long discussion about how he felt inside and what the Holy Ghost feels like. He is a very spiritual child. I know that making a casserole for someone is very Mormony cliche way of showing charity but it is a start.... Maybe a "better". Soon I will try a "best"

Family Home Evening

So we are going to do some interesting family home evenings the next three weeks. We are doing so many fun things this summer. It is hard to do FHE too, so we are combining it with something else. Greg is taking Ali and Shad to see the Lord of the Rings in Fishers. They love it. I know. I know. Lord of the Rings? The Lord of the Rings is very important part of our family. I think Greg one time told me the top three important books were the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and then the Hobbit. It is very important to him for our children to learn Tolkien. And I think it is funny, so I go along with it.

So when Greg leaves with the older two I take Enoch to get a "treat." It was going to be ice cream, but when we got to McDonald's to get our 49 cent cones ( what a deal!), he was so disappointed not to be getting french fries. So the next week I asked him if he wanted french fries or ice cream. He picked french fries. :0 Funny boy.

Zoe is going to be with us for 2 weeks of the summer. Here she was with us for Family Home Evening. One week our lesson was on Fathers and our Heavenly Father. The Next week it was on