Isn't life interesting?! Oh, man..sometimes it just throws you for such a loop doesn't it?! For a few weeks there I was feeling SOOOO depressed. I hate being depressed! There were just so many worries and stresses and so many different directions I was going with work, my church calling, baseball, helping in my 3 kids' classes, my job, and so much I needed to do at home and on and on and on it goes. I just got to feeling so overwhelmed. I felt like I was just being buried. Then when my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer things just kind of all came to a head. And that's when I decided I needed to get a priesthood blessing. It made me stronger and helped me to really be able to put everything in perspective.

~My mom's life was most important above everything else and pretty much everything else seemed so trite and unimportant. My kids are healthy and happy. We have the Gospel in our lives. We live in The United States of America. What more could you want out of life, really?

~-School's out!!! I'm SOOO glad!!! The last week of school my kids had lots of fun and they were given rewards and awards and so many people told me what great kids they are. I was kind of sad for the year to end. I even cried a bit. Zacky had such a wonderful year with Peak and Student Council. He's going to be in 7th grade now. My baby is going to junior high. AND he's a Deacon! Mind boggling! How the heck did he grow so fast?! Matthew had THE BEST TEACHER EVER!!! What an AMAZING woman!! I just love her so much if you couldn't tell! I really hated that to end. Some teachers are wonderful and some...not so much. She gave him the Citizenship Award. That's a really big deal! I'm so proud of him! Max did really well in kindergarten. He LOVED it! I soooo enjoyed not having a care in the world with Max and Matthew at school. Zack made us kind of crazy not always handing in his assignments on time and stuff but he's such a great kid that it all evened out.

~We knew for a month that our family would be speaking in church. The topic was family. We spoke on the same day I had to give my lesson in Y.W.. I fretted and worried and stressed over this so much, just like I always do, but I think we did ok and it was nice to just have it over with. We really needed to learn the things we learned from giving our talks and I always learn lots when I give the Y.W. lesson. Really it is all basically reminders but still, we need reminders sometimes. But, whew!!! was I ever relieved when that all was over with!

~I quit my job. It's for the best and even though I liked it a lot I just really need to be home with my kids. And if, by some chance, Brian gets another job, I didn't want to leave my friend/boss Tamra high and dry so, yeah, I quit my job.

~Only one more game day. Saturday. The boys all have a game and then there will be closing exercises and then we're DONE with baseball!!! I am literally doing the happy dance right now!!! This has been my favorite baseball season to date but I am always happy to see it end. Someone told me that these are the things I'll miss most when my kids are grown and gone. Right now I just can't see that being a possibility but whatev.

~Ok, I may have been a little hasty when I wrote the School's out part...I started writing this yesterday and was interrupted. Today is the first day of summer break that my kids have really about pushed me over the edge. Oy... We took all 4 of them with us to Fresh Market. Yes, we're insane. After we all survived that torture, we came home. We gave our only set of keys (the other one was in the stolen bag at Disneyland) to Zackary (remember, he's 12) to unlock the front door so we could bring in the groceries. Well, he thought it would be super fun to leave the keys in the door. Max (remember, he's 6), who never misses anything, discovered the keys in the door and took them out. Well, for the next 4 hours we searched everywhere you can imagine for those keys. Inside and outside of the house. In the car. EVERYWHERE! At one point Brian found Max sitting in the bathroom sink, in his swimming suit. Apparently, we need to invest in a new little swimming pool since ours broke last year. So, anyway, Brian told him to let the water out and get outside if he wanted to be wet and run through the sprinklers. Then Brian came outside to help me look out there. When we went back inside Gracie had a VERY distressed look on her face and led us to the bathroom. She had decided that her brother's idea of playing in the bathroom sink was really great so she plugged the sink and turned on the water and then it ran...and ran...and ran...until it had flooded the entire bathroom floor and had started a little 2 inch river that ran from the bathroom to her bedroom and into her closet...the good news is that we didn't yell or scream...or kill ANY of them...and the floors are linoleum and wood and the water didn't sit there long so we just mopped it all up with towels and life is "normal"-ish again. Not long after this I was standing in the house by the front door and glanced at the floor behind the TV stand and what to my wondering eyes should appear...but our missing set of keys just laying right there. Hallelujah, Max was saved!!!

Seriously though, you would not believe how much better I feel now that all of these weights have been lifted from my shoulders. Obviously life isn't perfect and it never will be, and that's ok, but I wish I could express in words how much better I feel now that these changes have taken place. There will be another thing lifted soon but I can't say what it is. I have very mixed emotions about it. Mostly, I want to cry just thinking about it, but it will be nice in it's own ways also. I'll be sure to talk about it on here after it happens. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the gifts he has given us and the joy that he has brought to our lives, even when there is so much that can bring us down. He truly wants us to be happy, we just have to humble ourselves and ask Him to help us feel the joy sometimes.