The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints-Helpful Hands & A Happy Heart

I was just reading some information on the fires here and was amazed at how quickly humanitarian efforts have reached San Diego. To the left is a picture of missionaries unloading supplies sent from Salt Lake, etc. to Qualcomm stadium. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has sent 6 semi truck loads that included 28,000 blankets, 26,000 hygiene kits, processed foods, cots, and other supplies and I have no doubt that there is more to come. Another 2 semi-trucks were scheduled to be delivered to the Del Mar Fairgrounds today. In addition we have 13 church buildings used as sites for evacuation in conjunction with the Red Cross. I feel blessed to belong to a church that is so service minded. All of us have heard about the numerous supplies sent during Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Peru, etc. and I know that I feel so warm and fuzzy when I think of the love and service shown for those members of our fair city by members of our church worldwide. I just thought I would share this picture that I found on the website real quickly since it warmed my heart. There have been many different organizations donating supplies, including the local BSA council here, but it warms my heart to be part of a an awesome church that provides service worldwide with a happy heart and helpful hands

BYU game postponed...tragedy yet again

Garin's birthday party this year was to take all of his friends to the BYU vs. SDSU game that has now been postponed from Saturday (27th) until December 1st. Even though we have told Garin that at least they didn't move it to LA or Arizona, he is still bummed! BYU football is Garin's great love! So, for those of you that understand the slight amount of sarcasm behind this post, have a little cry for Garin and the fact that he has to wait until November to see a BYU game! Poor kid! ;-) So, I guess now I have to decided if we should do a little something before then or not! We will see!

The fires...again the pictures are not exactly up to date

Well, we are hanging out in the house again today. How can things be so crazy and calm all at the same time? ;-) The air is better here than in a lot of the other parts of the county-but it still isn't great. Considering the kids I have with allergies (not to mention mine worsening the older I get) we are definitely sticking with the staying indoors thing. We were thinking we didn't have a whole lot to worry about, but the news just said we may have to evacuate anyway. It seems the Harris fire may come up through South Alpine, although it will be awhile off (if ever) since the winds have definitely died down (yeah!). I must say that what I am impressed with the most is the way that our law enforcement, county and city, as well as different fire departments, Cal Fire, etc. have handled this tragedy. I am impressed with how the news coverage is as well! This is definitely not a "repeat" of the some of the things that caught everyone off guard with the Cedar Fires and as a county and city San Diego seems to have really learned from that experience. I am personally thankful that the fire coming to the street next to us has not been repeated as the situation was for us during the Cedar Fires. I am thankful for a husband that was so great about handling his pre-determined items for evacuation. Everything that we had planned out really seemed to work just as we had planned. My brother is such a great guy and came up just in case we needed any help too! My sisters kept in contact and were ready if we needed them as we were if they needed us! My parents have been calling regularly just checking to make sure we are okay, which we are so thankful for the phone calls that just remind us that they love us! Garth's Mom called yesterday to check and see how we are! My brother-in-law, Jason, is working so hard to keep San Diego safe fighting the fire and my sister, Jocelyn, is incredibly brave all on her own while she lets the rest of us here in San Diego borrow her husband! :-) Situations like this really give you the opportunity to reflect on how blessed we all are to have our lives, to be safe, to have families that love us, and to have great friends that we adore too! So-we are here for now, hanging out, hoping we don't need to evacuate, and just being thankful for all of you!

Weekend Getaway Part 2...La Jolla

So, we loved the 2nd part of the weekend in La Jolla! It was so pretty! Our room was absolutely terrific! The inn was right on the beach-absolutely perfect! Garth and I got to take a great hike along the beach-a good workout! Hanging out with Garth and walking around La Jolla just couldn't have gotten any better! We had dinner at Hard Rock,ate outside in the beautiful weather,picked up some chocolate for the kids as gifts,went and bought my book for book club, and then headed back to the inn. The sound of the waves at night was absolutely perfect-it reminded me so much of our honeymoon! We took another stroll (nice & long) along the beach in the morning, grabbed some breakfast at a very yummy place, and then headed for home! It was a divine weekend that I can't wait to enjoy again! We have a wonderful babysitter who is so great with our kids! She is the oldest of 6 kids and really couldn't be any more responsible, not to mention the kids love her and she does the coolest things with them! If our weekend has taught me anything, it is that couples really do need to get away fairly regularly-it just makes everything even better than it already is! I LOVE dating Garth, hanging out with him, and having him for us! What a great opportunity!

Weekend Getaway Part 1...Green Valley Falls

Garth and I went away for the weekend! Shanae was amazing and babysat the kids! It was so much fun! We decided to break the weekend up into two parts! The first part we were supposed to go backpacking in the Cuyamaca's-well since the fire danger was high our plans were altered. We couldn't have a camp stove to hike in with, so last minute we grabbed a campsite and "roughed" it in style. We took a little hike on Friday just to get our hearts moving and thoroughly enjoyed the views of the falls. I can't wait to take the kids back there. Friday night Garth made dinner & dessert and then we headed to bed after enjoying the fire! Well-it started raining on Friday night while we were warm and snuggly in our new sleeping bags which are terrific! I am so glad that my parents taught us to buy quality! My sleeping bag & pad rock!! (Garth has the same kind with the opposite zipper-it works out great!) So, after the rain died down we took a hike on Saturday-a short one of about 4 miles. The views were terrific, even with all of the rain clouds! After we made a quick stop at Viejas to grab some close-toed shoes for me & work shoes for Garth we headed down to the cute little inn we were staying at the 2nd night...in La Jolla!

Our great friend Gus' Graduation

Our friend Gus graduated from the CVPD Academy! We were so excited to be able to be there for his graduation and are very excited for his new career! We love Gus & Darcy so much and are so grateful for their friendship!

(L-R) Kerity, Jeff, Gus, Darcy, Garth, me :-)

Ethan gets another award...

Here is my cute little guy after receiving his award, I sure do love him!

Here Dad, let me help you with that...

Garth needed a little help raking up the leaves that had fallen (can you tell?) so Ryden was so willing to help him out with the job at hand...

In the end the easement road looked so nice and clean! Good job Garth & Ry!!

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

We loved our trip to the pumpkin patch! Our ward families do tons of fun things like this and we are very grateful for where we live!! :-)

Fire anyone?

Here in San Diego there are a BUNCH of fires blowing around. It is crazy around here and the devastation is just so incredibly heart-wrenching. We have had a huge number of homes, commercial buildings, etc. that have burned. The winds are blowing so very strong and you can feel them hit the windows of the house, etc. Garth and I are packed up and ready to evacuate when we get the call. Trevor & Jocelyn have already gotten the voluntary evacuation call, so we were thinking it would be pretty soon. But, no call. Maybe since they have less inlets and outlets they phoned them sooner. Who knows, but we are ready for the if and when. Below I have a link for a slide show that shows some of the areas of the fires. It is a few hours ago, but you will definitely get the idea of how bad it is here and how many families have had tragedy hit!

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/slideshow/14396456/detail.html?taf=dgo

We are so incredibly thankful for our firefighters. My brother-in-law Jason is one of those brave men and I hope everyone else recognizes their heroism and keeps them in your prayers, please, since they are totally working their booties off for us! Have a great night everyone! I will try and update a bit more since I have some time since we can't go outside, it is late, and I have been meaning to do it for weeks! :-)

A visit from great friends...

Do you ever have those times where you knew you should have taken pictures, meant to take pictures, and then completely forgot to take pictures? That would be me last night. Garth grew up with a great guy named Mikko VanWagenen, Mikko married an awesome girl named Stacey in June '94, Garth and I followed soon after in October '94 at which Mikko was a groomsman. We were lucky to hang out with them every so often, were totally excited when they had their first son on our anniversary (I will never forget his birthday!), and were even more excited when we got to hang out with them and their cute boys last night! It has been ages since we have seen them and it was such a nice visit! We REALLY appreciated them taking time out of their vacation to hang out with us-and bring a pumpkin pie on top of it!! So, Mikko & Stacey-thanks for visiting!! (And next time I will take pictures!!!)

My sweet friend Martha

Haski took this picture of Martha and I outside of the Corvette Diner when we all went for Chas' birthday. Martha is such a sweetie and one of the great things about moving up here to Alpine. We have had such a great time getting to know them and their kids. She is a lifesaver and I love that my kids love going to her house and we love to have her kids here as well! Not to mention we have a lot of the same likes and dislikes-so it is fun to hang out, have lunch, or just talk on the phone. I feel very lucky to know such a wonderful person!

And soccer season is here...until November :-)

The kids are loving soccer season. All the kids have great coaches, the exception may be Trevon-but we will go with the fact that at least his coach thinks he is pretty adorable! ;-) It is amazing watching Shelby's games-things get much more competitive with age and they are working hard in U12. The best part is that the kids love it! They love the game and Garth and I are enjoying getting to know the game better while watching our kids have a great time! I didn't have a chance to take any pictures at Trevon's game since I was coaching, Ethan's game was at the same time as Shelby's-so I am hoping that maybe I will catch a few pictures of him in a couple of weeks. But, here is a quick shot of Shelby in between cheering and keeping Starlee occupied!

PS-Wish me luck on next Saturday! Garth has a campout so I am somehow going to pull off 3 soccer games at the SAME TIME while coaching one of them, snack for 2 of the teams, and team pictures an hours after game's end-one picture I have to be in! A totally hilarious situation, but one I had to share the few of you that read this can have a good laugh next Saturday as you know what I am going through! :-)

Trevon Rides the Bus...

This is actually from the 2nd day that Trevon rode the bus! I am loving the whole bus thing! He rides the bus from Kindergarten to the middle school where Garin gets on the bus, they are dropped off at the end of our easement, and then just walk up the easement home! It is great! And...he looks so cute getting off of the bus! I love his dimples! :-)

Library Cards, forever ago...but new to you today!

What seems like forever ago I took the kids to the library up here in Alpine and finally signed them up for their very own library cards instead of just using mine. Here are pictures of them signing away to get their very own cards! It would have been perfect to take a picture of them with their cards too-but lets be honest, we all know I am not that on top of things! ;-) Instead I am working on it-happily-and loving that at least I remembered the camera on such an important day! (If you know me well-I love to read! So, the kids reading is a big deal to me-thus any avenue for books is an important thing!)

Garin

Shelby

Ethan

Trevon

and last but not least...Starlee :-)

Our crazy life and the 1st day of school...

So, I have been pretty much LAME about updating our blog lately. I have had the craziest of weeks that are probably normal for most-but nuts for me! Things around here have been the same chaos that normally occurs-soccer practices every day of the week, guitar one day, activity days, scouts, oh-did I mention I am coaching Trevon's soccer team?-yep, I am coaching-that is probably the craziest thing of all! My calling is the Stake Primary 1st Counselor to the super amazing, completely talented, couldn't be any greater President, Crystal Erickson. Well, in the midst of splitting up responsibilities and finding our "groove" I am over the Stake Baptisms and the Cub Scout program for our stake among other things. I have been in the serious process of making sure I know the program in and out, signing up for the necessary training, attending meetings, new presidency orientations, etc. So, between my calling, my soccer team, my 6 cute kids, my totally HOT husband, and just the hum drum of running a business, being a chauffeur, and everything else I have not taken the time to blog. So, into the Franklin & Palm blogging is going (Garth's suggestion to help alleviate my blogging guilt). I am going to figure out a time that will fit into my schedule so that I can make sure my updates are a more "on time." Hopefully the grandparents can see things like the 1st day of school or their first soccer games sometime less than a month after they happen! ;-) At least that is my goal. For today, I have updated quite a bit. But, I am still behind because Trevon just rode the bus for the first time today with Garin. Maybe later. Just another obvious weakness! Oh well! Have a great day everyone-I hope you enjoy the pictures of the kids 1st day of school! I can't believe how fast they are growing. We love and adore them!

Trevon's orientation day

Trev had his orientation day for Kindergarten. He met his amazing teacher, Mrs. Dotts and was VERY excited to see a lot of friends in his class! He was super excited for kindergarten to start and is loving it! We are still adjusting to the early mornings again, but it is all good! ;-)
Here are some pictures from that day:

Misc Pitt nephews pix

Jocelyn & Joanna came over one day to hang out. It had been ages since I had seen Joanna & Brady (over a month) and although I see Jared more since Jocelyn lives so close it is amazing to me how fast they grow! So, I took some pictures of the cousins playing and here they are in order. Jared was a little more interested in what I was doing while Brady was having fun playing and would only look when I called him! :-) Aren't they cuties?

Some time at the beach

While Brandon and Zach were here we went to Torrey Pines for a day (my favorite beach right now). They both boogie-boarded to their rashed up chests content and hung out on the beach. It was beach day for our ward so there were a lot of kids there. We had a great time and hope that they did too! :-)

**As a side note-Zach was a huge help in the kitchen. I wish I had a picture of the cookies that he and Garin helped make, etc.

A Day in the Pool while Zach was here...

Our nephews Brandon & Zach came down to spend a week with us. It was fun for Garth & I as well as our kids to get to know them better! Brandon went to work with Garth during most of the week and Zach hung out with us! Here are a few pictures of the kids and Zach in the pool!