ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?

The church has put out a new self reliance program.  It's AMAZING!  Scott is part of our stake committee to implement the classes.  And since he was sorta out of commission for the past 2 months, we decided to start a "rogue" self reliance class of our own.  We are in our 8th week of the classes and it's AWESOME!!!!  Our group is unusual.  We invited a few teenagers to join us.  And we switch up the facilitators every week and let everyone get a chance to lead.  It's been truly a blessing.  And we LOVE it!  When Scott told the stake committee about our rogue class, they asked him to make us "official"... so we are "officially rogue!"

Kiara is loving BYUI.  One of her favorite things is the weekly devotional.  Two weeks ago was the inauguration of President Eyring as the new BYUI president.  Four general authorities were in attendance.  She and her cousin, Mariah, were so excited!  This week they got to hear from Elder Renlund.  This picture is from the inauguration.

Key Lime Pie dyed her hair dark brown.  Her sweet roommate, Mary, helped her!

And guess what?!  I got an award at work!  I got a "BOB" (which means: Best of the Best)!  That is a pretty cool honor.

Today was a wonderful day listening to our leaders and sharing traditions with our friends for General Conference.  I'll blog more about that tomorrow....  I LOVE General Conference!

LDS CONFERENCE AND TRADITIONS - LOVE IT!

Amy - Me - Marmalade - Kotten Kandy

I love the General Women's Meeting for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It is a wonderful opportunity to learn, grow and "start" the conference "holiday!"  Every year, we like to take advantage of these conference sessions and get together with our friends and family.  It makes the occasion even BETTER!  Ever since my daughters were old enough to attend (and when Amy's sweet daughter also joined up) we have tried to make the evening one of celebration, love, fun and spiritual feasting!  This year we changed it up a bit.  We went to Red Robin and discussed what we needed to hear from our church leaders while eating bottomless french fries in campfire sauce.  After dinner, we headed to Walmart for Ben and Jerry's Tonight Dough ice-cream to eat while watching/listening to the talks.  And then... we listened, took notes, and shared our favorite moments.  One of the best things, besides sitting beside my daughter, Amy and Marmalade was knowing that my other daughter, my sister and my mother were also partaking of the spiritual feast at the same time!  I'm sooooo grateful for the opportunity that we have twice a year to hear from prophets of the Lord!

At Red Robin, we always think this giant painting looks like President Eyring.

Being conference, the girls decided to pose with him.....

The overall message I heard was to remember my self worth.  We are all daughters of our Heavenly Father.  We have divine worth.  And sometimes, it is easy to forget that.  At least for me.  I needed the reminder!  I'm grateful for the reminder.  And I hope I can continually remember that I am a beloved daughter of God.
I can not wait for the rest of general conference next weekend!  So many traditions!  So many lessons and learning and opportunities for growth!  So much joy!  So much happiness!
I've been reading a lot.  I haven't been very faithful about posting about the books I've read.  So here's a list and a short thought about each:

Dave Ramsey is brilliant.  And this book goes hand in hand with the rogue Self-Reliance class we are doing through church.  Scott and I are really focusing on becoming better stewards over our resources.  I'm grateful for the gospel perspective as well as Dave Ramsey's no-nonsense approach to managing our lives.

The Happiness Advantage is a great reminder of ways to bring joy into our lives.  Of course, the gospel and being "right with the Lord" brings the truest form of joy.  But the reminders in this book, coupled with research was good to review.

I can't believe I hadn't read Stephen R. Covey's famous book before.  I loved the seven principles... especially the first 3:  1.  Be proactive.  2.  Begin with the end in mind.  (I need to re-write my personal mission statement.) and 3.  Put first things first.  This is a great book with great principles.

Creativity, Inc. wasn't what I expected, but I enjoyed it.  I learned a lot about Pixar and was able use some of the guidelines in my own life.  Although most of this book focused on Creativity in the workplace.

Brain Rules was frustrating to me at first.  There is a lot of scientific stuff that I didn't really "get" or "understand."  But after talking with Amy about the book, I learned how to learn better, and I'm actually really glad I read it.  I learned some great tools that I can use while teaching at home or at church.  I also was able to use some of the observations from this book for my own personal growth.  I'm really glad I read this.

Scott and I decided to re-read A Wrinkle in Time, since the movie is coming out this fall.  I had forgotten how good it is.  There are spiritual principles throughout.  I'm curious to see how they handle all the reference to Christ and freedom in the movie.  It's a fun story with deep truths portrayed.

I just finished reading Grit yesterday.  I hope I have grit.  I hope I can reach my maximum potential.  And I hope I can help others to do the same.

LIFE'S A PICNIC ... AT WORK

Soooooo... Container and Packaging got a new logo!  Scott celebrated with his crew at work with a cake - created by himself!  He's truly amazing!

The new logo - on a cake!

Lucky Kentucky Warehouse!

Then, today, we had a company picnic.  It was delicious and fun!  The hamburgers and brats really put me over my calorie intake limit... but it was worth it!  Yummmm!  And watching everyone play football, spike ball and volleyball was great!  Some of Scott's coworkers are pretty competitive!  I think I enjoyed watching spike ball the most.

D'Argy at the grill...

Ryan loves anything competitive!

Mason too...

And little D'Argy looks on!

Teaching the younger generation to throw a football....

She is my favorite picker - of course, she's my daughter!

Good food!

Good friends!

Good times!

Spike Ball - who knew?!

Ryan - Mason - Chris - Joel

Paige tried it out too!

Isn't Paige gorgeous?!

Dominique and Jon

Wishing he could play....

Nancy serves a mean volleyball.

Kotten Kandy chases said volleyball.

D'Argy "sported" too!

Dominique was great!

Volleyball is for everyone!

I got to hold this cute little one!!!!

And I even took another selfie with my beautiful daughter!

Thanks, CPS, for the BBQ

EMOTIONAL FOR MAMA

Key Lime Pie

Well... one of my best friends is off on a new, grand adventure... and I'm not invited.  Kiara Lea is officially a BYUI student!  She is so ready!  And she is so excited!  And she is going to do great things!  I couldn't be more proud of her!  I'm excited for her!  I'm happy for her!  And, yet, I'm a bit sad.  I'm sad because I'll be so far away in Kentucky.  I'm sad because my first, precious daughter is growing up.  I'm sad because she won't "need" me in all the same ways anymore.  I keep singing the song "Happy/Sad" from the Addam's Family Musical:

I'm feeling happy.  I'm feeling sad. ...

I'm sad and happy, why should I choose?

Life is full of contradictions, every inch a mile.

And the moment we start weeping,

that's when we should smile.

In every Heaven, you'll find some Hell.

And there's a welcome in each farewell. ...

So let's be happy

Forever happy

Completely happy

And a tiny bit

Sad.

We left from Colorado and drove ALL night and got to Rexburg at 3:30 AM.  We slept for 2 1/2 hours in the Walmart parking lot.

Road Trip - Me - Kiara - Shanae - GJ

We've been shopping multiple times to set her up for the semester.

GJ - Gary - Shanae - Mariah

GJ and I make "very pretty people!"

We've enjoyed meeting her roommates and touring.

This girl was waiting for us this morning and opened her apartment to us before we cold even knock...  She's so funny!

Love her photo ID

And G.J. took us all out to Applebees for dinner!  YUM!  Thanks, sis!

Great food!  Great times!  Great company!

Even though she's an "adult", she's still my little girl.  So my awesome sister and I took her around campus this morning for a back-to-school photo shoot!  It was fun!  And she was so sweet about posing for us!

Ready for school!

Such a beautiful campus (and girl!)

Kiara and I LOVED this part of the Snow building.

(Which, by the way, was "MY" building when I attended Ricks College.

I actually remembered it!)

She's going to love learning here!

GJ and I are Ricks College alums!

Dramatic and happy!

Look out world!  Kiara Lea is going to make a difference!

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Clan McCallister

Nice looking genes, if I say so myself

It was a WONDERFUL weekend!  And EVERYONE made it!  I am sooooo grateful!  And I LOVED every minute of it!  I wish we all lived so much closer to each other... because I really enjoy my eternal family!  I'm so grateful my mom and dad fell in love over 50 years ago!

Mil and Grandpa started it!

But the week didn't start until Kiara Lea came home - finally - on Tuesday night.  They had major car trouble and had to turn around and go back to Grand Junction TWICE.  We're glad she and my parents made it safely to Kentucky....  And Thursday, our walking/running gang was back together again!  It was wonderful to walk with my best friends: Amy, Key Lime Pie and Kotten Kandy.

Amy - Me 

Raisin

Kotten Kandy - Key Lime Pie

And my beautiful daughters posed for me too:

Best Friends for Eternity!

Friday was RAINY!  But we still enjoyed being together at Claudia Sanders for a true Kentucky dinner.  Thanks, dad!  And it was DELICIOUS!

The Adults

Ain't he as cute as his dad?!

After dinner, all but the 4 youngest, got to go to the temple.  We wanted pictures... but were unable to get them due to the fact it was POURING rain.
Saturday started off rainy, but it let up once we got to the Mammoth Caves.  We hiked, walked and enjoyed hanging out together - complete with a picnic in the parking lot.  Then we quickly got to see Lincoln's birth place.  Kentucky is amazing!

I loved listening to these 3 girls giggle, visit and talk together!

Strengthening relationships is what it's all about!

Cousins by the dozens!

Most of my Mammoth Caves are too dark...  

Only two turned out:

My Sister!

My niece, Mariah!

Just "beCOUSIN"

Sunday was church and LOTS of pictures....

The DeGooyer Family

The Honda Family

The Zane McCallister Family

The Ben McCallister Family

And we celebrated EVERYBODY'S birthday.

Scott made the cake!

And we all devoured it!  Yum!

And walked to Indiana from Kentucky....

Cousins being silly on the walking bridge.

All of 'em!

Monday we went to Beckley Park.  We hiked and played, etc.

These 5 girls braved the 3 mile walk in the middle of the hottest part of the day with high humidity!

Of course, the beauty was worth it!

A Sister is a Special Friend

She's my best friend!

They loved the beautiful train bridge....

And then we BBQed.

Building a 9 Square

Playing 9 Square was soooooo much fun!

The cutest jouster of them all!

This kid climbed so high - we could barely see him.

Begging Kiara to play.

Bubble Blowing Contest 

These two won!

Their own container of bubble gum!

And did anybody sleep, you ask?  We tried...

I love my daughters!

And some succeeded:

I already miss everyone!  I really love my crazy, unparalleled family!  They are mine!  And I am grateful!