LiFe

Life has so many ups and downs its crazy! Lately Ive been thinking alot about everyone that has been there for me when weather Im doing great or having a hard time. My life has recently been a whirlwind and some days are wonderful and some days are hard! Marcus is a strong man for joining the Army and I admire him and his willingness to serve but to be honest sometimes I just wish he was home. I have complete faith in the lord that this is where he needs to be right now but sometimes it is hard just being alone. I guess I better get used to it as a new Army wife!

Today as I was borrowing my moms car and I driving and just thinking how grateful I am to have parents that will take my 3 kids all morning, pick us up in Alpine and let me use their car so I can go to an appt. Most parents would do all that especially when they are hosting a dinner party at their house on the same day. With all me and my parents have gone through in life good and bad I wouldn't wish for any different parents. Their example and endless support to me and my family is unreal. No matter what they are always there for us. Every Sunday they sit with me and help with my kids and seriously I wasn't planning on going to Sacrament once Marcus left but with their help I haven't missed a week and I know I'm getting blessed for it!

Not only are my parents always there but my sister has always been there! Weather its taking my kids in the middle of the night so we can go help my sister in law who's husband just passed or listening when I'm sad, mad or distraught, she's always been there. I don't think me and Sarah have really had a real fight, We've been annoyed with each other but never have fought. Its great to have an older sister to look up to and know I can rely on whenever I need her!

My brother Chris has emailed me and constantly showed his support for me and my kids through this and it means so much! Its so nice that him and my sister Morgan would do anything for us! Im grateful that he always sticks up for me and always has my best interest at heart! I cant wait till they start having kids and hoping they start soon, so are kids can be BFF's:) Also Morgan thank you for this idea! Im totally copying you but I want to express how grateful I am to everyone! Also Morgan and Chris are so good with my kids! Kaitlyn always loves to see them and its so nice having good examples for them! Thanks guys I dont think you understand what a simple text or email means to me!

My brother dave is so calm and quiet but seriously hes a great uncle! Seth LOVES him and looks up to him so much! He love to rock like dave! One great thing about my siblings is we are drama free with each other and if we get annoyed were fine the next day!

I love my family all of them and I look up to them all for different reasons! I am grateful we are an eternal family and I cant imagine my life without their support and love! Well I also have some other amazing people in my life.

I have a a great group of friends but there are about 4 that would drop anything for me. 2 of them have 4 kids and offer to take my kids all the time! Its funny how selfless friends can be! I'm grateful to have friends I can call no matter what, that dint gossip about me or lie to me. Ive had tons of friends throughout my life and there are a few select that you know are really there for you with the best intentions. My friends help with everything from driving anywhere for me, meeting me for lunch, always calling and texting to check on me and just loving my kids. I am grateful I have non judgemental friends that love me and I dont think I could really survive without them! Thank you Jessica, Monica, Inga and Krystal! they probably dont read this but I want to thank them for our friendship! Moving will be so hard not only because Ill be leaving everything I know but Ill be leaving friends that I will miss dearly!

Typing this made me think of someone else thats always there for me! Even if I dont always call or text her back I know she loves me! My cousin Hilary seriously hasnt given up hope on me since my life with marcus started. She has showed so much love and concern for us its unreal! I love you Hilary and know were not super close like we used to be but everytime we are together its like normal and things just always seems so happy and fun! I wont be leaving for a while but you will defiantly be missed when we move!

Ok This turned out way longer than I thought but Morgan is so right blogging is fun and it feels so good to get thing out there! I love you Morgan! Thanks! This has been great for me! Well Life is crazy and with all the drama and conflict going on in the world its not worth it to me! Its more important to love my kids and hubby and so love for those that love me! Who cares what teacher Kaitlyn gets, If my pants are getting tight:), or what kind of car I drive all that matters is I surround myself around these wonderful people in my life!

By the way Marcus is doing wonder and is loving it. He appreciates all the prayers and love! I get to see him in 34 days and I cant wait! He loves what hes doing and has faith this is where is he needs to be right now! This is my favorite quote right now!

"There is no obstacle to great, no challenge too difficult, if we have faith."
Gordon B. Hinckley -

Marcus in training

Marcus is the one on the far left in the glasses:)

Marcus is the one in the far right:)
Obstacle courses
Marcus went the fastest on this part of the course:)

Well Its real now, He's gone and won't be back till January:( I am so grateful for family and friends that have helped me in so many ways!! Marcus joined the army as a special forces recuit. He has OSUT(which is like basic) till November 4, then he goes straight into airborne school for 3 weeks, then he leaves Georiga and goes straight to fort bragg NC for special forces training for 24 days then he has Special forces selection which is 3 weeks. Hopefully it will go by fast! Keep Marcus in your prayers. Im going to add some bits and pieces from letters Marcus has sent me:)

July 22

We have been in processing all week, which is super boring, but we are not even allowed to exercise or anything until we ship to the red phase next week. Tomorrow since its Saturday we get to sleep in until 5am. I think I'm getting some new, super cool, military issue eye glasses. haha Time is going by really slow for me right now. I hope things are going good for you.

July 26th

How everything going? It was really good to talk to you guys on Saturday. I had no idea how much I would miss you all. Being here is like being on a job site 24/7. Reception is really boring.The drill sergeants are actually pretty cool for the most part, unless you cross them. Oh yeah, I got my sweet new army eyeglasses today. They look pretty hot ha ha. We are up for about 17 hours a day and right now we do alot of standing around. I cant wait till you can write me back its really lonely here. I'm so glad you put the pictures together for me. It takes the edge off a little bit.

July 31st

Im missing you and the kids more and more everyday. Sorry this is sloppy, Im writing by flashlight.The days are flying by now that im at real training. we're getting our machine guns tomorrow, and after that they go everywhere with us,even to bed haha, im gonna name mine Melinda. I look at those pictures every chance I get. I get sad when I see the Halloween one cause I know im going to miss it this year.It was really good to talk to you even if it was short. We only got 2 mins, I guess that's more than you normally get from me haha. our drill Sergeant's are actually pretty cool. They smoked us a couple times, but our platoon is getting pretty squared away. Its funny, right as i was writing they were cool, one came in and yelled "shut the F up Privates unless you want to do the line and start doing push ups" haha. Ill write more once im out of the red phase. right now we are the lowest life form here, and people are dropping like flies. At 30th which is processing, six guys quit before we shipped to training, but they will still stay there for several months because the army intentionally makes their out process take a long time. Keep praying for me, I know they are working. Even though Im pretty out of shape, Im stronger than most of the guys here, or maybe more determined, I don't know. When we get into trouble they destroy us, which basically means they work us out till our muscles fail. Ive been getting about 4-5 hours of sleep a night so I gotta go.

August 2nd-

Its the middle of night right now and I;m on fire guard duty.we have 1 hour to to do laundry and write letters a week, but we will soon be getting 2 hours which will be pretty cool. Anyways, today we did the obstacle course, and there were 4 heat causalities, meaning there bodies core temperature rose above 98.6. I did pretty good on it. Out of our group of 10 guys I climbed the rope the fastest. the course was a 50 yard low crawl, (on your elbows, and the inside of your knees) jog in place until everyone finished, run to some monkey bars, go across those, run across a log over a pit,run a while more, jumping down a couple of 5 ft retaining walls, hang upside down on a horizontal rope, and pull your body across it, do another 25 yard really low crawl under barb wire.and you had to push your forehead through the dirt all the way across, jump over some more obstacles,a 50 yard bear crawl,a 50 yard crab walk, and that was about it. It was fun but about 101 degrees outside today, and the humidity is always high. Oh yesterday I ran a 6:40 mile. That's 20 seconds better than last weeks. Im constantly hungry here. At chow time we get maybe 3 minutes to eat. It Sucks! Standing outside, waiting to go in , is like standing outside of a haunted house at Halloween. All you hear is drill Sergeant's wigging out on people to "hurry the F up!" the other day a drill Sergeant scared a kid and he started choking. haha He had to give im the Heimlich maneuver. 18x guys are dropping like flies here. I think they are starting to psyche themselves out. I have not had one doubt, I don't know if its false bravado, or faith in the lord but I know Im going to make it.

Aug. 3

HOLY FREAKING GAS CHAMBER!! It was a nightmare. We went in about 40 guys at a time with gas masks on. it was a 15X40 feet cinder block wall with a door on each end. so, as you walk in , all your exposed skin immediately starts to burn, and then the drill Sergeant's rip your mask off and have them say their last name and last 4 of their social. After that, about 10 guys line up, and take their mask completely off, and start saying the soldiers creed until all 10 guys are coughing and gaging. some guys puked, several panicked and tried to make a break for the door but the instructors would grab them and drag them back inside/ I was trying to stay composed but I actually started to panic too. I took a deep breath while I had my mask on and was going to try and hold my breath but they caught onto that and starting shouting for me to say the solders creed. as soon as I started i just about lost it. It goes in your eyes, your nose,your throat, all the way down to your lungs, like battery acid or something. I almost threw up but I stayed pretty calm, but as soon as they opened the door to let us out, I was pushing guys out of my way to run out. after I got outside I almost puked about 3 more times. It was honestly the most pain Ive ever been in, but it only last for 3 mins.

8/7/11
i went to church today for the 2nd time being here. Its a pretty cool set up, they do the missionary lessons 1-5 in order. 2 guys were baptized last week, and theres another baptism this week. Over half the congrenation are non memebers. Ive made a pretty good group of friend here, but none will come to church with me yet. Oh next week M Russell Ballard is coming to speak to just our little branch next week. Robert ay is coming with him and then next week Bishop Edglry of the general bishopric is coming. That's really exciting. Im going to try and get there early and introduce myself.

Daddy and his little princess

This is such a sweet picture of Kassidy and Marcus!

Last day as daisy's

Our last Daisy meeting was a couple weeks ago! Its sad to be done with daisys but these girls are ready to be Brownies!

girls night out!

A couple weekends ago me and some of my friends went out to go dancing! It was so much fun! Hopefully well do it again soon!

Kinderfun Circus

Seth's Preschool did a circus and it was so cute! Seth was an elephant in it. the little boy with seth came and shared a chair with seth till seth was done eating so they could play:) He told said Seth is my best friend and thats why I wait for him to eat. The little girl is Seth's little girlfriend. They are really cute together. The other day Kaitlyn and her friend were teasing seth saying Kassidy was his girlfriend and he said No abby is my girlfriend, have you met her? She is awesome:) Kids are so funny!

Grand Opening for Vita Luna

Our grand opening for Vita Luna boutique was Saturday the 7th! With little sleep from our trip to Utah I was exhausted! It was such a busy and successful day. We are lucky to have such great loyal customers!

Chris's Graduation

In May my brother graduated from college! Yay! Me and Marcus were able to go up for a very quick visit to help him celebrate! We flew up on wednesday morning and flew by friday night! We are happy that we could be there for him! It was really fun just being me and Marcus! Janice babysat our kids and we are so grateful that she did! Its always wonderful to get alone time with your hubby:)

Miss Match day!

I still havent found this boot that she wore to school for mismatch day lol

FuN tImEs!!!

I dont even know where I left off in the blog! I know we had sme fun times with great friends though! Ice cream, Chuck e cheese, swimming and more! Life is so easy and good when your a kid:)

Happy Easter 2011

Happy Easter everyone! We had a great Easter filled with lots of family, friends, food and love! We are grateful for our savior and his sacrifice for all of us! We are grateful for our families and all that they have taught us and continue to teach us! Easter is a wonderful time of year and reminds me of what sacrifices our savior made for us!

Future soldier challenge

Marcus joined the Army as a special forces medic! He ships out in July and will be gone for a long time! He is very excited to started and has been doing everything he can think of to get prepared for it! I'm really proud of him and his choice to serve and hopefully we can benefit from the army life somehow! Last weekend we went to Huntington beach for a future solider challenge and met lots of celebrities and people who like to honor the armed forces it was a great experience and I met alot of great people who helped me learn about how everything works! There were over 800 new soldiers there and it was amazing to feel the strength of the us military and to be able to be a part of it. I am so scared but I feel such a calming feeling about our decision and I know its what is right for Marcus at this point in his life!

Friends Easter party!

Happy Easter! We love our friends and are so happy to have them in our lives!

school easter party!

Yay!!! Its Spring break! We were so excited to have our last class activity and then its time to relax and play!!

Troop 6401!!!

Encampment this year was awesome! We had so much fun and Im so glad we spent the night! The girls were so excited to wake up to snow!! I love our troop and all of these sweet sweet girls in it!