Losing stuff is not fun!

After work today, I ran over to the dry cleaners to pick up my winter coats. When I went to pay, I couldn't find my wallet in my purse... anywhere. After no luck looking in my car, I ran home and searched the place. No where. UGH!

Last night for mutual, I went with the Beehives up by Kelly Canyon to pick huckleberries. Could it have fallen out of my purse in the car we were driving? I called the lady and she searched but didn't find anything. Could it have fallen out of her car when we got out? I shuddered at that thought. What if it was lying on the ground up there and someone found it? Not all people are honest, so what if someone did find it up there and is using all my credit cards.

Now I was starting to worry.

I said a quick prayer because, let's be honest, God hears our prayers and... He knew where my wallet was. Praying always works when you loose stuff... at least it does for me (I have a lot of experience).

I quickly drove to the church parking lot, where I also thought it could have fallen out. Nope.

My best guess was to drive all the way to Kelly's again and at least look. BIG UGH! Before hitting Highway 26, I called Briant. No matter how humiliated I am, I always tell Briant. For one thing, I don't believe in hiding things in a marriage. For two, I would be lost without him; he loves me despite my weaknesses/stupidity. And thirdly, he helped me think about that last place I had used it, and try a few more places to look. Thanks B!

After talking with Briant, I realized that I had used it Saturday at the temple. Now I had some new places to look. I rushed back home. Bag I took to the temple... nothing.

Called Mom. Thought I had given it to her. She wasn't home and neither was dad so they couldn't look to see if it was in her bag. UGH! Got a little mad because it didn't seem like they were taking this panicked moment seriously enough for me. Don't they know that they should rush right home to see if it is there? (I know, I got really irrational. Sorry Mom.)

Man I'm losing it!

Called the temple, to see if I had lost it there. They told me I would have to come identify it... oh heavens!

Called dad to see if he was home yet. NO? Hurry faster!!!

Briant had told me to look under the bed. Why would it be under the bed? It wouldn't be in my other purses, I know I was using this one! Fine, just to say I looked, I'll go look there. No. Just other purses, no wallet!

Hmmm, there is my church bag... why not? What would it hurt? I'm looking in other silly places... YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

How did my purse get in there? I must have taken it out of my bag after the temple on Saturday and put it in my church bag on Sunday. SHESH! I should just have one bag for everything! Sure glad I didn't drive all the way up to Kelly's!

Thank heavens!!!

Now that I found it I'm never letting it out of my sight again!

Yellowstone National Park

Since Briant has been working some pretty long hours the past few months for the Melaleuca convention, his boss gave him a couple days off this last week.
So what do you do if you both have the day off work? Go on a mini vacation of course. Briant has never been to Yellowstone so we decided that would be a fun place to go on a day vacation.

We decided to go to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone first to see the Lower Falls (my personal favorite). On the way we stopped at Yellowstone Lake for a little break and guess who we saw?

None other than my Aunt Pam and her friend Barbara. Guess they thought YNP was the place to be as well!

As we drove through Hayden Valley, we saw a lot of buffalo! This one came really close to us. How cool!

We found this sign somewhere in our travels and Briant really liked it.
Please remember that Bison are dangerous. We found out, the French pronounce it "Bizohn". We thought that was kinda funny and we couldn't understand what they were saying at first.

The Lower Falls was spectacular as always.
No matter how many times I've seen it, it still takes my breath away.
I forgot how blueish green the water is.
I'm so glad me and my man could go together.
The Yellowstone Grand Canyon is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen... and Briant is the most handsome.

If I had a computer at work, this would definitely be the screen saver.

I would suggest to anyone who goes to see this waterfall to go to the lookout right next to where the water goes over the edge. That's the coolest sight!
Our next stop was Old Faithful and all the geysers. Briant kept asking me if there was any chance that it wouldn't go off. I think he didn't want his hopes to be let down. I said, "That's why it's called Old Faithful, because it always goes off... faithfully." And sure enough it did.

This buffalo was just sitting there next to it. When it went off, he still just sat there, and watched like it was his form of TV.

We went to a few of the geysers around the area.
We saw a Mommy bison and her baby next to one of the geysers.

I think this one, the "Emerald Geyser", was my favorites because it was so colorful.

But this cliff geyser was pretty cool too! It started to spit up water while we were there and it lasted for probably 5-10 minutes. Then it just stopped and the water actually started to drain. What a sight!
We also saw the Grand Prismatic Geyser. The colors were pretty amazing.
I wish they had something that would somehow let you get over the geyser so you could actually see inside of them and see how deep they are.

On our way out we saw a bunch of cars pulled over on the road (a sign that there is wildlife around and everyone is watching them). As we came closer Briant saw and exclaimed, "A MOOSE!" I delicately said in response, "Uh, Briant, that's an elk."

We stayed for probably 10 minutes watching these two female elk.
Then all of a sudden we hear these elk bugles. It was so cool. I switched the camera over to video and got it on film. Then these two little babies came out. They were so cute and one of them still had a few spots!
I think I got some great shots.
Before we left the Park we also saw a Golden Eagle. I didn't realize these birds are so big!
We had a great time on our mini vacation. Upon seeing all the campsites Briant asked why we didn't go camping ourselves. I stood with my jaw open.
So maybe next year we will go camping in Yellowstone, and see some more sights.

Looking back one year...

Congratulations Mahon and Cindy
on your 1st Anniversary!

Yummy goods to chew & a GREAT view

Do you remember the other day when I said I was going to go pick beans? Well, I got quite a few and some other stuff too. YUM!

Thanks to the huckleberry picking with Gina last week and some raspberries from some friends in our ward... I HAD A GREAT BREAKFAST THIS MORNING!thanks Baileys!


This is a plant I have in my kitchen window... his name is Potter.He is blooming... I didn't know that he could. Very pretty... uh handsome? maybe I should stop naming my plants boy names...


My aunt gave me a bouquet a couple weeks ago of these day lilies. I've enjoyed at least one bloom a day, but this is the last one.

She also gave me some star gazer lilies. I'm pretty sure they are one of my favorite flowers. I want to plant some next spring. Too bad I didn't get a picture of those...

While the husband is away...

... it gets really boring around the house!

Briant left for the Melaleuca convention in Orlando on Tuesday. He had to be there at 4:30am, and I was quick to point out while giving him a ride there, that on the mornings I am at work I have been at work for an hour by that time.

Yes, I have started baking again. I work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (and some Saturdays) baking sweets. I usually go in at 3:30-4... but I get off around 12pm. But since I have 2-3 days off each week that gives me plenty of time to catch up on my sleep. I think that it has been pretty good since I came back to it a few weeks ago, and I feel more useful and productive lately.

I didn't really do a whole lot this week. In fact most nights I just sat there thinking, "what should I do now? Gosh it's really quiet." And my personal favorite, "Ooo, Briant isn't home... I guess those dishes can wait a little longer." Don't get me wrong, I think I'm changing. It only took 1 1/2 days for me to WANT to do the dishes because they were actually bugging me.

I did actually have some good times this week.

Last Sunday after church, Briant and I took our first annual family portraits. I decided that I'm a fan of updated pictures on the wall, so I want to take a new portrait of our family (regardless if there are kids yet or not) every year. These are our favorites:

If you are wondering who took them... well your looking at her.


The garden is producing some yummy stuff now:
The peas don't even make it out of the garden...
This is what happens to them:

I have picked the green beans once so far, and they are due for another.


This is the first Sweet 100 of the season.
I can see many more that will be coming soon!
The onions and carrots are looking great!
I actually used one of my onions the other day. It was a little small but tasted great!

On Thursday, my good friend Gina took me with her up to Kelly Canyon to pick some huckleberries!
I was so much fun and very quiet and peaceful. Thanks Gina-kins!
Mmmm! Yummy huckleberries. They tasted great in my ice cream!

On Friday after work, Gina came over and we watched a movie, then we went out to Cafe Rio. I'm so glad they decided that Idaho Falls needed one of these, because it has needed one for a long time! We had a great time. I just love spending time with her, and every time we get together, I find out about something else we have in common.

Briant gets home tomorrow. I can't wait to see him. I realize each time we are apart how much I love that guy! In fact I love him more and more every day.
And don't worry, I cleaned the house spotless last night for when he gets home! Can't have him thinking I'm a slob!

I think I'll go each my Cafe Rio left overs now... then I should probably go pick the beans.

Girls Camp

Growing up I loved Girls Camp. I was able to attend every year and it was the highlight of my summer. I had an abundance of experiences there that changed my life. It was there that my own testimony began to take root. I received a witness that my Heavenly Father loved me and he indeed created this beautiful earth for us where we could learn and grow. It was a special place where the Spirit could be felt daily and you could ponder what was really important in life. I made new friends there in an atmosphere that was not available anywhere else, and grew to love all the other girls attending no matter what their personality or circumstances were. I truly believe that this is why we have girls camp. There has never been I time that I have gone and not felt enriched with the Spirit.
I was called to serve as the Young Woman's Girl's Camp Director this year back around May. I accepted of course because of my own positive background. As a leader, I had the very same experience as in years past. Girls Camp never disappoints me.
Our theme was " Lay Up Your Treasures In Heaven" from Helaman 5:8. So it kinda went on the lines of a pirate theme. Our value was Integrity so our color was purple. Every ward got a "Ship" so ours was Sportsmanship.
Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of work and at sometimes stressful. There is a lot of planning involved and there were plenty of times that I felt inadequacy for this calling. After all it was only 6 or 7 years ago that I myself was "one of the girls". I kinda felt like I had a handicap because I had never done anything like this before. This stake does their camp totally different than the way mine did growing up and I felt like everyone knew what to expect except me.
But I knew one thing: I wanted them to experience the same Spirit and good times that I had. I really had to have faith that the Lord would help me provide the atmosphere for that to happen. The Stake YW Camp Director said it perfect the first day when she said, "Nothing here has been perfect but we can still have the spirit here." That's what is important, and that is what changes life's is the Spirit.
Girls Camp actually turned out pretty good. There were a few things that hit me unexpectedly and times where I felt like I wanted to tear myself in half so I could be in two places at once, but I was lucky to have some great leaders that came up who helped me tremendously. And especially the Priesthood... I have so much more respect for them and their good attitudes.
The first night we were there the 1st Counselor in the General YW Presidency, Sister Cook, came up to our camp. She brought her granddaughter with her and a camera crew! One of the ladies in our ward is really good friends with her so she had dinner in our camp. She brought her ukulele with her and taught some of the girls how to play.
We had a little program that night that turned out really cool. There was a big field area where there was a station for each YW value. At each station there was a speaker who spoke for about 5 minutes about that particular value then gave us a bead of that value color, then each ward (we were broken up in wards at each station) would move onto the next value. When we finished with all the values we headed up the stairs to the lodge were Sis. Cook was and gave a nice talk about the new value virtue. She brought the flag they waved on Ensign Peak, and talked about three things we should do daily that will make us stronger. #1 Pray Daily. #2 Read your scriptures daily for at least 5 minutes. #3 Smile daily. I felt the Spirit there and I know that it was the message that our Heavenly Father wanted us to hear.
Wednesday, was hike day. I was able to hike with three of our girls (and our Bishop who was leading the hike) up the Tetons to Spaulding Falls. It was hard but so worth it.

There were many beautiful views
We saw quite a few waterfalls! This is one of my favorites.We had to go through a huge boulder field!
We even saw a little snow. See that big straight line on the mountain? They call it a dike and our final destination was right below it!
It took us about 4 or 5 hours but we made it to Spaulding Falls.
We were right next to the grand but it was so foggy you couldn't see it.
All the girls in our group made it!

Here are all the stats. Thanks Bishop!One of our girls got a sprained ankle on the way down. But she was a trouper and had a great attitude.

Camp was great! Bishop's night was Thursday night. The Spirit was there as usual. Like I said before, camp never disappoints me. I am so glad I was able to learn and grow from this experience. The girls are awesome and we had so much fun!

When I got home, I unloaded my car. Can you believe all of this, plus 4 girls, fit in my car?