Christmas 2010

This Christmas was especially fun because we had all the Stewart clan together. Even those from Washington and Texas came. As always, it was loud, crazy, chaotic, and SO MUCH FUN!!! Here are the highlights…

Christmas Eve, we had a wonderful dinner all together, followed by a Nativity acted out by all the kids under 12 years old. The girls got to be angels this year…

Chandler didn’t love the idea of being in the Nativity this year, and since he was almost 12, I told him he didn’t have to do it. So here he is, watching the show…

After the Nativity, there was a special visitor who arrived… The big man, himself, SANTA!!! The kids all got to have one last chance to make their Christmas wishes before the big day arrived.

Then, we headed home to open one gift, and head to bed. Christmas morning, Eric and I awoke to this…

Here they are with all their loot. Chandler got a Nintendo DS…

Shelby got rollerblades…

Harley got a “big bike”…

And Tatum got a “big girl scooter”… (I could get her to stand still long enough to take a picture of her. So, this is as good as it gets. She was just too excited!)

Lastly, Santa surprised the family with a blu-ray player and some videos. Even daddy was surprised about this one!

Lastly, the kids all had gifts that magically appeared under the tree all the way from Grammy and Papa in Africa (with a little help from mom and Deseret Book). When they opened them up, they were so excited that they all got “real” CTR rings holding some money. What a great gift! They LOVE wearing them, and telling everyone that they came from Grammy and Papa.

after playing with things for a little while, we were headed back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to play with the cousins again. It was a long, busy, crazy, WONDERFUL day!

What a day!

So, how's your day going? Want to hear about mine?...

Harley came inches from getting hit by a car this morning on the way to school. She was trying to be obedient and stay on the side of the road like she was told, when her handlebar hit a garbage can, and she went flying into the street. Luckily the car that was coming was watching for kids and going slow enough that he had time to stop, but she was MAYBE 2 feet from being hit. It was so scary, and had her shaking uncontrollably in fear for quite a while. She kept saying that she wanted to go home and sit on the couch all day. I pictured her in the fetal position, staring into the distance, and knew that wouldn’t help. So, I spent some time just hold her until she wasn’t shaking anymore, and told her that she’d probably feel better if she went to school and told her friends and teachers about what happened. She agreed, got back on the bike, and headed for school.

Needless to say, we're all a little frazzled today. What a way to start the day!

OUCH!!!

Last week, I finally had my knee surgery. It was NOT an enjoyable experience! Surgery was about 90 minutes long, and there was some pretty significant pain afterward. I was on pain meds for 5 days, and take them occasionally at night still to be able to rest. But, I can feel major improvement everyday, so I’m feeling much better. My physical therapist is very pleased with my progress, and has promised to push me as much as he can to get me back to “normal” as quickly as possible. I go 3 days a week, and it’s not fun. But I know it’s productive pain, so I’m ok with it… sort of!

Here’s a picture of my leg a day or 2 after surgery in the immobilized brace (good times)…

Here’s a picture of it today. No brace or bandages needed. And I try to do without the crutches around the house…

I know… it looks kind of nasty, but I just got the stitches out yesterday. It’s looking much better, and feeling better, too. I’ll keep you updated as I progress. I hope to be doing cheer moves again in no time!  (Ssshhh! Don’t tell Eric or the Young Women. They’ve both banned me from doing any cheer moves in the future. We’ll see about that…)

We miss them both

This week was the anniversary of 2 of my grandparent’s death. Grandma “J” in 1996, and Grandpa Bird in 2009. I miss them both so much for different reasons…

Grandma “J” was a strong woman. The older I get, the more I realize the hard things that she endured in her life. It’s a miracle that she could carry on after some of her trials; Two of which were losing a child, and losing her husband. Both happened within a very short time frame, and at a very young age. I’ve known people who have lost one or the other, but she lost both. I can’t imagine the pain she had to endure. As long as I can remember, she was very frail. She was a tiny little thing who would constantly be applying chapstick with her shaky little hands. I loved her house. It was a small one in Provo. As I think back on it now, I wish I’d have realized how significant it was that we were visiting the very house my dad grew up it. I wish I would have asked more questions about the things that went on there, and what life was like for them in that house. Someone else owns it now and has made some changes to it, but I still love to drive by there when we go to Utah, and remember the good times there.

Grandma lived in Utah, and we’d visit her as often as we could. One particular trip will stick with me forever… Grandma had been sick, as she often was when we would visit. This time, she was at my Aunt JoAnn’s house, resting on her living room couch. I went in to check on her and she asked me to sit on the floor next to her and talk with her. She held my hands as we visited. We only talked for a short time, but I will never forget that moment. My Grandma, the woman who had endured so much, told me that SHE was proud of ME for how I had endured my trials. I remember feeling so connected to her at that moment. My trials were of a medical nature, and though I thought they were significant, they were nothing compared to the trials she had seen in her life. She told me that she wished she could make them go away, and that someday they might, and that I would be a better person for that. I wish I’d have taken that time to ask her more about her life and her trials. But, I didn’t.

She was a beautiful woman who raised a great family. I hope she is proud of the legacy she has left us.

 

Grandpa Bird… Well… there just aren’t enough words to express what kid of man he was. The best ones to use to sum him up are… ALWAYS THERE! Grandpa had this way of knowing about everything in our lives. He’d threaten to beat up boys who gave us grief. He’d attend every event we ever had, including sports, concerts, plays, birthday parties, etc… He was at every Christmas I can remember. He was involved up to his elbows in every project that we did, including our science projects, eagle projects, home improvement projects, etc… He had a new joke every time we’d see him, and mom would always have to ask if it was clean before he told it. He made the GREATEST homemade bread and chocolate chip cookies. He’d entertain us for hours with various woodworking projects when we’d have sleepovers. He was so generous and charitable, but he didn’t want to be noticed for being such. He was a tough old bat! I swear he lived into the wee hours of his birthday, just so he could say he lived to be 90! He was feisty, but that’s what made him so amazing!

For a long time, I was convinced that Grandpa was never going to leave us even though he had a bad heart for almost my entire life. He got sick occasionally and would require a trip to the hospital. Every time he did, we  thought this would be his last fight. But NO! Grandpa would kick whatever it was and be back at the gym, working out, in a flash. He always amazed us!

The greatest thing about Grandpa was that he LOVED my Grandma! They had their fights, always referring to the quote, “Our marriage was made in heaven… But so were thunder and lightning!” However, we always knew that he LOVED her, and he proved that later in their lives. Grandma had Alzheimer's, and he was SURE that he could give her the best care she needed… and he was right! He did everything for her with such love. No matter how mad or upset she got, he would reassure her and love her back to feeling calm and peaceful. He cooked, cleaned, and cared for her in a way NO ONE else could have. When he couldn’t physically lift her or care for her, he found the best people he could to help him to continue to lovingly care for her. He was such a great example of how to love unconditionally!

 

A recent family reunion was referred to as a “genealogy trip”. I am so grateful for the genealogy trips and moments that we took often growing up. They gave us opportunities to connect with those who we’ll be connected to for the eternities.

We miss you Grandpa Bird and Grandma “J”,  and we can’t wait to see you again after this life!

Thanksgiving 2010

This year Tatum’s class did a “Harvest Celebration” and program on Wednesday. It was complete with handprint turkey shirts they made last week.

 

We met in her classroom to enjoy a “Harvest Snack” and do some fun activities.

After that, we went to the cafeteria to watch them perform the Thanksgiving songs they’d learned. It was ADORABLE!

She was a little nervous to be up in front of everyone. But when she was all finished, she was so proud of herself!

Later in the day, I went to Harley’s class where the class’s parents had prepared a Thanksgiving Feast. We made homemade cornbread muffin to contribute. She was very proud of them. (Love the silly turkey hat.)

She’d also decorated her placemat, and I LOVED what it said…

Thanksgiving day was spent hanging out as a family. Chandler helped me make waffles with our new waffle maker, which he was VERY excited about. When I say he “helped me”, I mean he read the owner’s manual cover to cover while I made waffles. (He does have a little bit of Papa’s blood in him.)

The boys played xbox, and dad had a little nap. (No pictures of either. ) Mom spent the entire day in the kitchen, which was exhausting. However, I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. I really enjoy the cooking and baking that accompanies Thanksgiving festivities. (Once again, no pictures.) The girls spent most of the morning coloring Thanksgiving pictures. It was pretty cute, so of course, I took a picture.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Klint and Corinne’s house. They hosted this year. Once again, we missed mom and dad! (We tried to Skype with them earlier in the day, but they were off having they’re own Thanksgiving—African style. So we never did catch up with them. Bummer!) We spent a few hours eating, hanging out, playing Rock Band, shopping through Black Friday adds, and even opened up a couple pre-Christmas gifts that had been arranged by Papa and Grammy.

It was another great Thanksgiving!

YW in Excellence 2010

Last night was the Lindsay 2nd Ward YW in Excellence. We based our evening on Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk, “Your Happily Ever After” from the YW General Board Mtg back in March 2010. It’s a GREAT talk!

It was such a great night! My presidency went to a lot of work over the past few months to make this night perfect. I would flounder without them. They’re FABULOUS! (Sorry the pictures aren’t that great. My camera died as I went to take the first pic, so I had to use my cell phone. Our colors were black and white with hot pink accents. SO CUTE!!!)

We gave the girls a picture frame that had a picture of the new Gilbert Temple that’s being built just a few miles away…

I was SO proud of all the Young Women. They displayed projects they’ve been working on all year. Their displays were so awesome! But I’m not surprised, because THEY are all so awesome!

Each YW, leader, and a couple moms who’ve been doing the program with their daughters presented projects. The YW told what they learned from doing that project. Next, one of the YW spoke about how her testimony is strengthened by personal progress, and did a GREAT job! Then, all the YW and leaders sang the song, “I Will” by Hillary Weeks, sounding BEAUTIFUL!

Next, I spoke, using Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk, with a little help from Grandpa Bird. Strange combination, right? As I prepared my talk, one of Grandpa’s famous phrases came back to me… Growing up, Grandpa would punch us in the arm or kick us in the rear end and say, “That's what you get for nothing! Think what you’d get if you did something!” As I continued to prepare my message, I realized that that phrase was applicable here, too. How? Our mere existence here and ability to return to His presence after this life is a gift from a loving Heavenly Father… “That’s what you get for nothing!” If we participate in the personal progress program, attend our meetings and mutual, read our scriptures, say our prayers, strive to be worthy to enter the temple and prepare to make temple covenants, the eternal rewards are endless… “Think what you’d get if you did something!” I also quoted Pres. Uchtdorf a lot; too many times to put them all here. But one of the best was, “Stand in holy places and BE NOT MOVED, regardless of temptation or trial!” Such a great talk!

Lastly, our Bishop spoke using Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk as well. He told them that their “Happily Ever After” starts today, but isn’t complete until they reach the presence of their Heavenly Father after this life. Then, he talked to the parents about how, in fairy tales, there’s always trials that the Princess must overcome. Often times, the antagonist in the story is the wicked parental figure. He urged the parents to be careful that they don’t create an environment where they become that antagonist. The YW will struggle, and the parents have a responsibility to create an environment where their daughters can spiritually progress, including encouraging them to attend all their meetings and mutual activities. 

We have GREAT YW, and they’re doing a GREAT job of remaining faithful. This night was a great opportunity for them to show just how faithful they are. I love them all and feel inadequate as their YW President. I learn more from them than they will ever learn from me. Hopefully, when I am a mother of teenage daughters, I will have a little insight into how I can help them to remain faithful, too.

The good… the bad… and the ugly

I’m told by Eric, that since this blog serves as our family history/journal, I have to blog about everything… the good, the bad, and the ugly. Well, if you look back through our posts over the years, we’ve had our share of the good. I guess it’s time to document a little bit of the bad and the ugly. :(

Back in June, I went to girl’s camp for a week. I admit that going is always a challenge… getting everything and everyone ready, arranging schedules, getting babysitters, grocery shopping, packing, etc. However, it’s always a great experience! This year was especially wonderful. We had a new camp director who also happened to be a good friend, Rachel Buchanan. She did an AMAZING job of making sure EVERYTHING was taken care of, which is not an easy task, considering that we do real camping; none of this Camp LoMia business like we did growing up. Camp is whatever we haul in, camp in, bring with, and pack out. So it’s a major chore to get it all organized and ready. I also had my 2 YW councilors there for the week, as well as 14 great girls.

The attitudes of the girls were great, and as leaders, we had a BLAST! We even won the spirit stick on the 1st day because we had the task of helping the kitchen staff to get ready for and serve dinner, as well as clean all the dishes for the entire camp once dinner was over. I was SO proud of our girls. They jumped right in, even singing girl’s camp songs while they did it. EVERY SINGLE GIRL HELPED!!! Every single girl had a great attitude, and it really made a difference. Here’s a picture of our group with the spirit stick (the pic is missing our older girls who were 4th yrs and YCL’s. They had to spend most of their time with other groups as part of their certification/assignments)…

One day we were given the job of cleaning the port-o-potties. Not cool! However, instead of complaining, our girls jumped in and even made a few laughs while taking care of business (no pun intended).

One of my favorite parts about camp is the “ward time”. This was just a little time here and there when we weren’t running off to certification classes, or taking care of chores. This was time when we just hung out and talked, washed our hair, played games, and did craft projects. One of the things I loved most about this time was that our older girls would gravitate away from the wards they were YCL’s for, and back to our ward. I was so thrilled to see this happen. Those older girls wanted to be with us, and get to know us better. We really bonded through that time, and I am so grateful for the unity that “ward time” afforded us.

I spent my week hanging out with the 3rd yrs. I only had 2, but they were AWESOME!!! And so much fun. We went to classes, made fires, and spent the week acting pretty silly. But it was great! On Thursday of that week, the 3rd yrs went to a fire station about a half hour away. The station had donated all the water for girl’s camp for the week. That’s alot of water. So, the 3rd yrs went to wash their fire trucks to tell them thank you. It was a great time, like all the rest.

After washing the trucks, there were lots of pictures taken… of girls, of leaders, of everyone on the trucks. As leaders, we joined in the fun and took this picture…

After taking that picture, one of the leaders did a cute little toe touch off the back of the fire truck, and I decided, after much coaxing, that I would do the same. So, I did. And I’m told that it was FABULOUS! However, (here comes the BAD part) the way I landed wasn’t so fabulous. My foot went out and my knee went in. It felt like my knee cap shifted to the right, while my thigh and shin bones slammed together. NOT GOOD! Here’s the picture taken of me directly after landing. (See the height of the fire truck behind me? Yeah… I see now how stupid the whole thing was. Hindsight is 20/20, right?)

I immediately felt some pain, but thought I could probably just walk it off. After walking around for a few minutes, pretending nothing was wrong, I started to go into shock. AWESOME!!! I immediately dropped to the ground to sit for a while. I felt sick to my stomach, dizzy, flushed, pale… all of those symptoms we had talked about at our 3rd yr first aide certification the day before. CRAP!!! I knew there was something wrong, but was too embarrassed to admit it. So I carried on with the activity as best I could. Then, I drove my car load of girls back to camp and dropped them off.

After dropping off the girls, I realized that my leg was starting to go numb. When I pulled up my pant leg to see if there was any visible damage, I realized that it had swollen to the point that the pants were cutting off circulation, and that’s why my leg was numb. I panicked! I couldn’t get out of the car because it hurt so bad, and I didn’t know what to do. I knew at that point, that I had done something pretty serious to my knee, but was stuck in a place where there was nobody who could do anything. I called Eric on my cell and told him what I’d done, and asked him to help me figure out what to do. Eventually, Rachel Buchanan walked by, so I stopped and asked her to drive with me down to the nurses’ station to find the nurse and get her opinion.

The nurse helped me ice the knee, but the pain was pretty overwhelming. One of the other ladies at camp had some pain pills for her back problems, so she gave me one which helped a ton. I also received a blessing from a member of the Stake Presidency. There is only one specific phrase I remember from the blessing (which I’ll tell you about later) because I was so blown away at what most of my blessing was. It wasn’t about me, it was about what my injury would do for the girls under my stewardship. It talked about how they’d have to step up and serve each other, as well as me. It talked about how their testimonies would grow through watching me deal with my injury. I was floored by that. In my time of need, the Lord wanted me to know that those I was worried about, would be ok… that they would probably be better off because of my injury.

Over the next 2 days, that blessing was played out as I watched the girls jump in and serve each other in capacities that I would have normally filled. I watched the 3rd yrs become leaders to the younger girls, and I watched the younger girls gain admiration and respect for the older girls. I watched as the girls that I have served for 2 year, stepped up to serve me when I needed them. Some brought me food and drinks, some gave up their chairs so I could put my leg up, some said prayers for me, some just sat with me while I was icing my knee and made me laugh to get my mind off all of it. It could have been very easy for those girls to think poorly of me; like I deserved what I got because I did something so stupid. Instead, they chose to serve me. Nothing unifies and bonds people together like service. I will have a bond with those girls forever, and that never would have been that way without my injury.

The one specific part I can remember from my blessing directly after my injury was that he blessed me that I “would have the faith and patience necessary to be able to heal.” I’ve remembered that often as I get frustrated with my limitations. After MANY Drs. appointments, x-rays, and an MRI, it was determined that I fractured my tibia, tore through my ACL, and tore part way through the MCL. AWESOME!!! I’m feeling pretty functional, but, I constantly have to watch my footing. Not good for a mom on the run.

The Dr. determined that the best course of action for me is to have surgery to replace my ACL, and repair my MCL. So, on January 10th, I’ll have surgery, and THAT’S the UGLY truth!