2011 Desert trip

Wind, drizzle, cold aside; I still loved every minute of the desert trip and would pay all the  money and go that far to do it again.
Favs:  Jarek, Malik, Bret & I in the cave making up secret words,  Hazel & I hiking in the park as she sang along and stopped at every rock, Speed playing cars in the dirt, the Easter egg hunt and Jarek helping me hide the eggs, the campfire discussions, Jimmy being so careful  with Kathy and their little one, and of course, being all in once place and seeing everyone.
Jake: you did a great job with the food!  Yum!
Webb, I loved seeing you and Millie and the girls again!
We ended up liking the vehicle we rented, an Endeavor.
I was glad to see the top of Gemini Bridges, cause we usually go to the bottom.
Tev & Bret, thank your friends again for the comfortable air mattress.
 Jacob, I hope you can take that other one back.
And Jake, you should name your tent.
Jimmy, too bad you didn't get to hike Eye of the Whale. I missed going this year also, but I love it there.
Strange that we saw no bunnies, jackrabbits, or hardly any other animals when it was such a green year.
Maybe they were hiding from Jimmy.
I missed grandpa somehow.
Next year I will slip dad a chill pill. Are they legal yet? Just kidding,  I just wish he would slow down and enjoy the view.
I feel guilty about leaving those 'things' in the creek.  If questioned, I will talk. Glad Jimmy got out of the quicksand alive.
Personally, I slept well, ate well, my back held out good, and each memory was precious to me.
Love Love Love being with you all!

Army Tent in Front Yard

So, here it is. Not really big enough for 16. I think we can do 10-12 more comfortably. Bret and Tevia will save us and bring their tent.

Hazel Sings

The third song is by far the best.

temple = JOY!

Yesterday I went to the temple with some sisters in our ward. I did a family name, so as I was in the office getting the paperwork, our new temple President, President Garff, came in.  He was glad to see me and asked why I had been released as an ordinance worker.  When I told him it was because Don was in the Stake presidency, he said, "well, we want you back".  He asked me right there on the spot if I can come during the day, because they need people, and asked if every 1st & 3rd Friday would work.  I was so excited!
I said, "don't you have to ask someone, like my bishop or Don?"  He just smiled at me and said if I worked it out right, I could work later in the day every other Friday, and Don could come straight from work and go to a session and then we could still have our once a month Friday night temple date.  Perfect!
I am happy.  I love working in the temple!

Ups & Downs

My life is a perfect example of opposition and how life is full of ups and downs.
On one hand, I am loving my new calling as Institute teacher!  My learning level is on this huge curve, and the more I learn, the more I learn there is so much more to learn!  I can't get enough!   My brain is happy that it is being challenged and used more and filled up with such cool, interesting stuff.  My testimony is being strengthened, and I feel a new sense of nervousness and excitement each week I teach.  I also can feel a new sense of accomplishment.
On the other hand, my heart is heavy and sad as I try to get patchwork pieces of how my dad is doing in Cleveland and hear stories of what he is going through.  10 days of tests, drugs, being poked and prodded, shocked and paddled, not walking so he is getting so weak, worrying, and every breath hurts.  I feel so sorry for him, and for Carol, having to watch him go through that.  I can hear the stress in Michael's voice when I talk to him. He is never crabby, and he was last night.  They are all over-tired and just so stressed out.  I wish I could do more.  They insist there is no need for me to come down. I am grateful I got to spend that 4 hours with him a few weeks ago.
Each day I try not to think about the jump between, is this his last day, or will he get better?  It pulls me in and I find myself crying for no particular reason during the day.
I am allowing it all to be in the Lord's hands. I feel selfish to pray that he doesn't die right before our desert trip so that I can't go on a vacation.  The Lord knows what He is doing.  I only pray that the doctors are smart and doing the right things, and that the Lord is merciful to dad in any way He can be.
It has put a damper on my getting all excited about next week's trip, as I worry that I won't be able to go.
I hope it all works out.  We shall see.
I don't know what I would do without the Gospel and love of the Savior in my life. It is my rock, and tethers me to the eternal scheme of things.

February and March Pics

1988 Desert trip

This was 1988, so Kathy had to be only 5 months old. The bottom pic is Jacob and cousin Cami Woodland.  Great memories!

Carolyn Knutti and Jacob Wall the Story

We were talking about Tom and his current fun and thinking about our own. So we decided to release from the vault one of our best memory slideshows made by Cari during our engagment. It is very silly and low quality since it was old, and probably only interesting to us. A few of you I think have already seen it years ago. However, if you want a laugh feel free to watch it.

Tom, I wish you good luck in your hunt for a girl that will help you make memories as special as we had.



The video starts with pics from freshman year and moves through the mission life and then Cari's during the mission. The video ends with some pictures from my proposal. After there is 2 minutes of black with nothing.

Speed Short #2

This is a tribute to Speed's annihilation of daily fruit. This timelapse shows him consuming an entire pear(movie cuts out about 2 minutes early from a low battery) in about 15 minutes. His record is somewhere near 7 minutes.



Edit: Fixed a swear word in Britney's song... oops!

Question of the Week

Let's start some questions each week. I am looking for fun and witty answers. First question:

Is Phoenix really the most miserable city in America?

Bret's comments:
Well, if misery comes from housing prices, gas prices and unemployment, then the least miserable place must be... the Middle East? Yeah, things are going quite well over there, I guess that makes sense. Any article that says it is better to live in Cleveland than in Phoenix is hard to trust. I mean, have you been to Cleveland? Or Boston?

It had to happen sometime...

Hazel got lost. Only for about five minutes but it was rather worrisome for me.

We were shopping tonight at Cabela's for various items for the desert trip. We were finally done (the store had officially closed about 10 minutes before - we were getting a LOT of stuff so they were REALLY nice) and letting the kids look at the big fish tanks. Jacob started toward the register with the cart and I stopped to show Kathy a hat I had been looking at. When we started to follow Jacob a minute later, Kathy asked if I had seen Hazel follow Jacob. I hadn't, so I called ahead to see if Jacob had her. He said no, I went back by the fish tanks - no Hazel.

Kathy and I started check the nearby aisles because we'd only had our eyes off her for a minute and still no Hazel. At this point, we'd attracted the attention of several employees who got on their headsets and radioed around to see if anyone had seen a little blonde girl in a pink shirt.

It was at this point that I had my 5 - 10 seconds of heart-stopping, crazy woman-brain worry. I am VERY glad it wasn't any longer than 5 - 10 seconds. One of the employees said she'd been spotted by the sleeping bags, so I headed back there. Still no Hazel. Then I ran into the very helpful employee who works in that area who said he was the one who found her and he'd taken her up to the front. He walked me up there and said that he'd recognized her from when we were in his section looking at the sleeping bags and figured she'd wandered off (as she had many times tonight - we'd just usually realized it before she got far) and so he'd taken her up to the front.

And there she was, just chilling at customer service with the lady who helped us pick out some new binoculars (yes they are cool but that's not what this post is about). She hadn't even cried apparently, the silly girl. So we hugged and I had them page the rest of the family members who were looking so we could regroup to go buy our stuff and go home. We sat down to wait and Hazel asked to get off my lap and the first thing she does is try to run off again, the little stinker!!

Anyway, all's well that ends well and we purchased our overflowing cart of items and headed home. It was a very successful trip if successful means spending lots of money and lots of it on stuff that wasn't on the list. But we love camping and we are VERY excited for the desert trip!

Happy

Today as we were watching conference, I kept looking around and just feeling so happy. Life really can't get much better than this. It really makes me ask myself, why am I so blessed? I am sitting in a beautiful home, with my two brothers and their families, I'm next to my best friend/best husband in the world, and we have a little baby girl on the way. Everyone is smiling, the weather is incredible, and the spirit is so strong listening to the prophet. My life is amazing. Sure money isn't flowing in by the truck loads and we have some important questions unanswered about our future but I can't find myself needing to ask for anything more. Especially, after this conference where I feel there were several talks specifically on helping the poor and the needy. I am in a position to give and it makes me feel so lucky. I am like I said, so blessed. I know that marrying Jimmy was the right thing, I know that moving to Arizona was the right thing, and I know that starting our family is the right thing. I am so thankful for my life and my family. You guys are the best and I love you.

Dad' big surprise

We're off to the Bahamas!  Dad surprised me with tickets to someplace warm and sunny for the weekend!
Awesome!