What fun little girl

Lily finally made it, she wouldn’t accept that she was 8 years old until 3:24PM today.  We were talking with Bishop Hymas and he asked her if she was 8 now, an she replied nope not until 3:24 PM.  I thought to myself she is pretty set on being 100% honest, and good for her.  She is set for her baptism date of Dec 5 and she so excited, I wish I could capture her spirit and share it here.  She can be heard often playing "When Jesus Christ was Baptized" on the piano, and adding little twists to it to jazz it up a bit.  I love it you can hear her excitement as she plays and smiles.

Jodi held a great birthday party for her with a long list of her closest friends.  She even invited one boy :-).  They each made their own little dish of Lasagna, baked it and ate it.  The house was like having 10 blenders and vacuums on at once, 10 little girls and one little boy can get pretty giggly and loud.  I would call it Chaos when I was trying to lead them in a game.  They had fun and that is the important part,

This morning Lily woke up happy and excited again, she opened the gifts from her siblings and Mom and Dad, she was a real treat to watch.  She was so excited when she opened each gift, but I think the Scriptures from Mom and Dad took the cake.  To top it all off Grandma and Grandpa Parker came to church with us today to see Lex give her first talk in sacrament meeting and to help babysit as Jodi and I sang in the ward choir.  Lex did a great job, but we will have to hear more from her on that.

Lily was able to Skype Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin this evening and she gave them about a 30 minute concert on the piano of all the songs she is learning.  She received a piano book from her birthday from Grandma Baldwin (via Jodi from the BYUI bookstore ask Jodi how the CTR ring fit Lily sometime) and within minutes she had learned a new song out of it.  She really loves to play the piano and to play on it.

We are all excited for her to be baptized in couple weeks, to make her a baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She will be a great addition to the fold.

Amid the Conflicts

Today I walked past our family piano and noticed the cute square of words, "Count Your Blessings". I noticed this as I was feeling a bit sad, not only a little sad and self-absorbed with my own insignificant life inconveniences, but sad for other people who are experiencing REALLY BIG life challenges. Sometimes life will get you down (and it doesn’t help when the sun is hiding behind the clouds either) BUT nonetheless, all of us are truly blessed. When I get in this kind of mood I am realizing that it doesn’t help to sabotage myself with feelings of guilt for thinking negatively, rather I just need to stop and count my blessings – name them one by one…of course I will never be able to name them all, but my heart is inclined today as follows:

  • BREATH: I recently had the opportunity to feel a lack of oxygen. When things were back to normal, I was humbled as I realized that we really are nothing more than the dust of the earth. We are entirely dependant on a loving Heavenly Father who grants us our daily breath.
  • TRUE DOCTRINE & SCRIPTURES – Ancient & Modern: Last Friday, I attended a "scripture read-in" with Alexis for YW. We read the entire book of Mosiah. As I immersed myself in the words of the scriptures I felt as if I were having a spiritual feast. The words I heard and saw were a great comfort to me and I thought of the iron rod Nephi tells us about – the rod that leads us to the love of God. Why do I take this huge blessing for granted? How can I afford to sacrifice feeling the Love of God for the "other stuff"? I also have come to recognize what an anchor the Prophets and Apostles are for me. The counsel offered at General Conference is truly the word of God for our day. What a giant blessing to know the purpose of life and the way back to our Heavenly Father’s presence.   
  • COMFORTS: A warm house, a soft bed, good food to eat, a car to drive me where I want to go, stability, nice people all around me, loving family, a free country, getting to stay home with my children each day, opportunities to learn at my own leisure, etc…
  • MUSIC: It is the source of much joy in my life. It is a quick fix to a sad day, and the cherry on top of a good one. My soul craves it! Funny thing that I am only mediocre at it, but find it so healing. I am participating in the Turkey Choir this year. It is a choir made up of 140+ community members and is directed my a master musician. Each time I leave I feel like I am floating home on a cloud. The challenge of learning the music, the sound that is created by common people, the instruction received by a naturally gifted conductor is like going home to a place I want to be. I hope I make the choir in heaven.
  • HEALTH: Lily noticed a stitchery that I have on my bathroom counter, it says, "Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams. -Helen Keller" Lily recognized Helen Keller’s name and we both thought for a minute about how amazing a sunbeam would feel to a person who couldn’t see or hear. Imagine that! Good health is definitely something easily taken for granted, and  greatly appreciated on my part.
  • HOLY GHOST: I feel like the Holy Ghost is one of the best gift I will ever receive in this life. As I have thought about it over the years, I have come to cherish it more and more. I am a person who needs consistency and dependability, I know that if I do my part I will never be let down by this special gift given to me from my Heavenly Father. It always fits, it never wears out, and I will always be the right age to feel its power.
  • HOME: A place I always want to be because of the people tucked in behind its doors. It is a refuge from the world of cares and a place I feel safe and loved.

Today, now that I have counted a few of my blessings amid the insignificant conflicts of my own life, my heart is left to smile.

"So amid the conflict, whether great or small, Do not be discouraged; God is over all."(Count Your Blessings, Hymn # 241)

Comments:

michelle said…

Thanks Jodi, we are so blessed and it’s way too easy to see the other side. Tanks for the reminder of the good.
Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:55:19 PM

Bruce and Sharon said…

Nice thoughts. Thanks for reminding us all to notice the simple everyday things that make our lives so meaningful. It’s a great life we live here in Rexburg.
Thursday, November 12, 2009 6:30:21 PM

Stephen said…

When I count my blessings I have to count you several times because of the several ways you bless my life. I am always touched by your words of comfort and love.
Sunday, November 15, 2009 5:36:33 PM

A trip down memory lane


I was born 50 years too late

We have been talking about going to see the old house that my mom grew up in for quite sometime now, well today we just buckled up and did it.  I couldn’t belive how excited the kids were to see the old antiques and run down buildings.  They reminded myself of me when I would go visit this house when I was a child.  I couldn’t help but smile when I noticed old pieces of machinery that was there over 30 years ago when I made my first voyage out there.  There was still the old horizontal shaft gas engine left in the same place I last played with it.  The house has caved in now but there are still several side buildings that are standing and have an amazing story to tell if the walls could just talk.

I am grateful for my rich heritage that I can reflect upon and draw strength from, to see what they went through makes me fell I can survive in my nice warm bed with my fully heated home and bathroom just feet away.  They just don’t make them like they used to.


treasures, an old rusted bearing and a sprinkler head
old style of power outlets, very modern for 3rd world countries

Grandpa Sperry used to take me out to feed the cows in these old trucks
It leans but won’t give up
Gas Engine I worked on when I was a kid

Lex loved the Honey Wagon
It made it feel more real as we were freezing cold out there

Big Surprise!

Last night Stephen offered to go out to my Uncle Morgan’s house to help him with a computer problem. As we were talking earlier in the day, I remembered my mom once mentioning that Morgan has an ear piercing gun and earrings. Since Lily is only 2 weeks away from turning 8 (and the rule at our house for girl’s getting their ears pierced is 8), Stephen and I decided to call and ask Morgan if it was a possibility to have him do this while we were out there. He said yes and we decided to wait to tell Lily until we were in the moment at his house – for a surprise.

We ate dinner before going out to Burton, and during dinner Lily began talking about how excited she was for her 8th birthday. Number one she would be getting baptized and number 2 she would finally be able to get her ears pierced. Inside I was sooo excited because I knew what was about to happen.

We went out to my Uncle’s house and talked with Linda and Mandell (my cousin) while Stephen worked on computers. Mandell was a big hit because he taught Lex and Mason how to make a ring out of a dollar bill. He also had a minpin dog (mini Doberman pincher) that was making life exciting for me and Olivia and JT. Then the time came and to break the exciting news, I said, "Lily today is your lucky day". She looked puzzled and then I said, "You get to get your ears pierced right now!" To say she was excited is an understatement.

Mandell did the honors and unfortunately we had a couple of malfunctions – the gun wouldn’t come away from her ear after shooting the earring through. So he had to pull the earring out and then reinsert it by hand (on both ears). For those of you who know Lily, you will be as impressed as we were. She did NOT even shed one tear NOR did she scream or wince. She was very brave – the EXCITEMENT won out over the technicalities! I am so grateful Lexi was there to keep her focused and excited with me. She offered to hold her hand and was almost as excited as Lily. Uncle Morgan pulled out one of his giant boxes of full size candy bars and told Lily she deserved one – her eyes were wide and full of thrills. Mandell felt bad about the malfunctions and said he was going to have to give her something special too. He pulled out a very fancy heart necklace. WOW – Lily definitely felt special. Stephen and I are still in shock that she handled it all so well. It goes to show that if Lily has her mind made up about something she is committed.

The evening was a memory we will always remember!

Comments:

michelle said…

Wow Lily-I have a jealous little girl at my house. I would not have been as tough as you. Good job, you look so cute!
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 12:13:05 PM

Amy said…

Cute girl. Congratulations on all the exciting things happening in your life right now. Eight is a great age to experience.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 11:09:45 AM

Patricia said…

Way cute, Lily. You’re a brave girl getiing your ears peirced. I can’t wait to see you in person. Have a “Happy Birthday” on Sunday. We’ll see you soon.
Grandma Baldwin
Saturday, November 14, 2009 11:33:10 PM

Make it do or do without

It has always been my motto that if I can’t build it myself then I don’t need it, or at least it means a lot more to me.  After hearing that the family dehydrator that we have been using for years had finally bit the dust, I thought to myself I wonder if I could build one.  The concept seems pretty straight forward a lot of air and a lot of heat.  So I went to work with the help of JT, we built a 2′ x 2′ x 4′ box from some of dad’s scrap OSB (Plywood to Jodi).  The next challenge was to design some type of a tray system, I planned on using 1/2" square holed chicken wire but found it to be pretty spendy.  So I purchased a couple cheap sheets of 1/8" Masonite board, same stuff they use for white boards.  It was cheep and also somewhat water resistant.

The first round of 10 trays took about 36 hours because of the wimpy little fan and heater I had.  We took a late night trip to the local DI and found a powerful window fan.  With it installed drying time was cut in half, now we have 24 trays being dried a night.  I gleaned a bunch of tiny little apples from the Sugar High School apple trees, all from the ground. No apples were picked in the making of this fruit leather.  We cranked out over 15 gallons of apple sauce from what most would call the waste apples.  It just makes me smile to think about that when I munch on a piece of the final product.  I took a roll over to Mom to give and told the kids that mom used to give it to me as a kid, now i can make it and give it back to her.  Lily said, "And when we get old we will make it for you and bring it to you."  I can hardly wait.

Comments:

John said…

Great work. I was impressed with the creativity and make it work attitude. You have an amazing mind and drive. Keep up the great work.

Monday, November 02, 2009 8:46:05 PM

Anne said…

Very cool! The leather looks yummy:).
Monday, November 02, 2009 8:57:30 PM

Mom and dad Parker said…

You better get a patent on that, everyone will want one.

Monday, November 02, 2009 9:23:12 PM

Trick or Treat Campaign – the Final Chapter

The day of the Trick or Treat Fitness Campaign brought with it a misty sky and a temperature of 54 degrees.  The perfect setting for a Halloween day run. We set out down the driveway and ran "the course" passing two cemeteries by the time we were finished. We also had to shake a black lab from following us, thank heaven’s for the white angel on a bike who rescued us from any possible threats. Sadly, I will have to report that on the moody highway I fell (for the first time in my running career) and skinned my knee – not too badly. Later I found out that a guy in my ward saw it all happen – how lucky am I that that happened?  My friend Diana told me the skinned knee would be my trophy – interestingly enough it made me happy! By the end of the run the sun broke through the clouds and presented us with a lovely afternoon for the rest of the days events. I am so grateful for being able to share the run with some of my favorite people. I am sure when I came up with this idea Diana was thinking "what a freak she is, but I’ll go ahead and support her crazy idea." That is called a true friend. As for Stephen, he is such a great supporter of all of my random ideas…he definitely went the extra mile (literally and figuratively). I really don’t know where he get’s all of his energy? The guy ran 13.1 miles, then did the graveyard run (1 mile) with the kids, and then hopped on his bike and rode around the block (4 miles) with the other fitness gurus. We borrowed the finish line from the Teton Trac Club which made things look more official.

Most all of the Parkers and my adopted running sister Diana and her family came to support the campaign. Scott, Jeana, and their children also laced up their shoes and Tricked and Treated themselves all of the way in Texas. My friend in CA ran a 5K the weekend before, and I haven’t heard back yet on a few others that I knew were going to participate. What a fun way to celebrate the benefits of fitness. Two of my favorite parts of the day was: 1. When I found my little 5 year old nephew doing pushups (his own idea) warming up for the graveyard run – he was really taking things seriously! 2. Paul’s and Karma’s outfits – don’t you just love them? It was a great day and a nice way to balance out all of that candy we got from the trunk or treat. Stephen’s parents were so great to sponsor the Parker Clan and bought us all shirts. They are great examples of a healthy life style – Bruce even crossed the finish line first on the bike ride. I think I just answered the question of where Stephen finds all of his energy, it is in his genes!

Thanks to everyone who participated and motivated me for the past couple of months! It was a great way for me to have a goal to work toward.


Lex had been sick all week but wanted in on the action so she ran it too
Stephen was the pace car

The camera man

Zach getting warmed up for the run
The pit crew making some last minute tune ups

Little red and the big bad wolf

Great memories for our family

That is a lot of people…

We can thank Jodi for putting this all together, it was a blast

Go Jana

Riley was the first kids back she is a mover.

It is Bike race time

The little girls stopped to find rocks on the driveway

Boo Hoo – Achoo Achoo, A 2009 Halloween Tale

We had a lot of boo hooing going on around here, coupled with lots of sneezing. Unfortunately, our family was hit with the flu as I mentioned in the previous post. Lex had it the worst of all, it had her home from school the entire week! We hope that she doesn’t ever get that sick again…it wasn’t fun for any of us! Lily, Olivia, and JT also took a turn and I was found quarantining them to their bedroom to get a handle on the germs. It was quite a challenge for me to take care of that many sick kids and keep up with the rest of a busy week that didn’t want to stop.  The day of the quarantine I took the meals on trays downstairs to the girls and had them eat on the beds. By dinner time Olivia was fever free and fine to be up with the rest of us, but she informed me she would take her dinner downstairs :). I think she was enjoying the pampering – who wouldn’t?

Luckily, from Lexi’s perspective, she mustered up enough energy (thanks to Kenzie and Haley) to make an appearance at her highly anticipated first Junior High Halloween Dance. She has been helping plan it for over a month and would have been very disappointed to have missed it. There might have even been a little boo hooing about it. How fun it was for her to take her cousin Haley and booogie down!I will leave the rest of this dance commentary for her to blog about…

We were excited to have John and Michelle’s cute family at our home for a visit this weekend. Hopefully they escaped our home unscathed and germ free??? We are glad they braved it out and came for Quinn’s baptism. It was fun to be able to get the whole Parker Family together for a quick mini reunion. At his baptism the bishop talked about "cousin power" – it really made me reflect on what a blessing cousins are to my little family (Baldwin’s and Parker’s). There is definitely some "cousin power" happening.

This year for Halloween I was in a sewing mood and made skirts for the girls. Olivia was very set on being a witch, and I talked to other girls into being 50s girls…I think they(the girls) looked so cute if I do say so myself. Mason was super excited to wear his Uncle John’s Air Pilot outfit and JT made a cute frog. Stephen and I ended up going to our ward Trunk or Treat as runners, because we didn’t get a chance to shower after our Trick or Treat Half Marathon from 10:30 am. I’m sure it wasn’t a treat for any of our fellow ward members to smell our stench, but what do you do? I hope this will let you know how darn important that candy was for me to eat out of their bags (he he).

Also pictured in this blog is Stephen’s latest invention…you know his motto "GO BIG or GO HOME". He made a gigantic food dehydrator! Out of a sheet of plywood…I would love for him to blog about all of the things he has made from a sheet of plywood since we have been married! It has been A LOT trust me. Anyway, it is making us some tasty apple (fruit) leather right this instant.

By the time we came home from the trunk or treat we were pooped! We decided to turn off all of the lights and hide downstairs to watch a scary movie…Stephen and I chose Alfred Hitchcock’s, "The Birds". So, I knew it was kinda freaky, but NOT that freaky! We ended up turning it off before it was too scarring for the children…what was I thinking? Stephen and I turned on a different "fun" show to clear their minds of any worry and then put them to bed at 9 pm. We forgot about the time change until after they were in bed and counted it as a bonus to be hopping in bed at 8:30 pm on Halloween night. We finished watching "the Birds" and I’m happy to report that Stephen didn’t even try to cover his head in his sleep.

Comments:

Anne said…

Way to make lemonade out of lemons. Not to fun to be sick when so much is going on. (I am with Lily, Maybe next time I am sick I will have to be at your house and be quarantined, hee hee) The costumes were all great. Loved the cute poodle skirts you made. Way to go on your trick or treating challenge. Happy Halloween!
Monday, November 02, 2009 8:58:38 PM

Magan said…

Love the skirts for the girls, I need to put my name on the halloween costume list.. By the way I love my apron
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 4:54:42 PM

15 Years…


Jodi and I at the Great Kaplan show

Well here we are 15 years of marriage.  I told Jodi I never thought I would be married for 15 years, I didn’t think before I spoke.  What I meant is I never imagined myself this far down the road of life, it is nice to know there is life after 30 🙂  Life has been good to me, I can honestly say I would not be near the person I am today without Jodi helping to round off the rough edges.  Thanks Jodi for the good times…and a couple bad.

Alexis and the girls made us a cute little card, it is fun to see the kids now make us cards intead of us making them for each other, we have arrived.

For mutual tonight we took the boys to the Haunted Mill, it was a lot of fun.  I was more fascinated with the old machinery than I was worried about getting spooked.  It was a cool place with underground tunnels and old hand made pulley’s and belts.  We were standing around the fire trying to get warmed up again when I mentioned to the boys that today was my 15th anniversary.  I told them I was married in 1994 and almost all of them laughed and said they were born in 1994.  I guess I should feel old now but I am sticking with Dad’s philosophy, "you are as old as you feel and act."  I act about 12 and feel about 30 so it balances out pretty well.

Random Acts of the Stephen Parker Family

Here is a photo update of the random things we’ve been up to these past few days…

  • Applesauce Manufacturing
  • Pack Night where Mason received so many awards I lost track of how many he actually received.
  • Mason had a quick surgery in Idaho Falls on his non descending tooth (Not pictured)
  • Feeding the Spanish Speaking Missionaries – We found out that the one from Guatemala was on the Olympic Soccer Team!
  • Annual Primary Program (Lily was disappointed and unable to go because she had the flu, Olivia was scared to give her part in front of the whole ward so Jodi got to do it, Mason felt the pressure from trying to learn his part as well as both his sisters)
  • Piano Recital at the Nursing Home (Sickly Lex asked if she could "Dress Up" as a nurse and wear a mask so that she could go and perform the songs she has been practicing for that past 2 months – Jodi said "No". We will have to have a recital later for all to hear "Bella’s Lullaby" and the "Chicken Dance")
  • Current Mild Flu Infestation (Not photographed but hit Lily, Olivia, JT, and Lex) – low grade fever and a cough remedied by ibuporfen and cough meds, but doesn’t allow them to leave the house yet. Lily’s lasted 3 days, and we suspect to be done with all of this by Tomorrow. Just in time for Halloween festivies and House Guests…don’t worry we are stocked up on Lysol here!

Lily and Sam played two duets, “Indians at the Fair” and “Ghosts”.
Lily played “What should I Be for Halloween”, and “Halloween Witches” – she did great!
Mason played his solo – “Chopsticks”.

Mason and Ashlyn played a duet, “Magical March” – they did great! BTW – this is a staged photo because I was video taping the original performance…I’m pretty sure Mason wouldn’t have been smiling in the real performance :).

The Darla Syndrome


Halloween Spread

Eight years ago I moved into a place whose streets were named after words found in the game of tennis. Except my street was named after a United States President. Anyhow, while living there I had my third baby and found myself with a lot of baby weight to loose.

I don’t even know how it happened, but I was invited to go walking with a group of ladies. While I walked I noticed a couple of wonderful women from my ward running while we were walking. I decided that maybe if I ran I could loose the weight twice as fast? I timidly approached these nice women (whom I had come to know only slightly) and asked if I could try it out. They were of course very gracious and we decided I would come on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 5:30 am to give it a try…I must have been really desperate right? I went and it was humbling…I couldn’t run for very long before I really needed to walk and they slow down and walk with me, I’m sure it was a sacrifice to do that as I was trying to regain my breath.  I don’t know how long it took me to be able to run 4 miles without getting winded, but I’m sure it was at least 2 or 3 months!

It was great running with someone/Darla because she could talk through all 4 miles and before I knew it – it was over! I loved the distraction and the one-way conversation – especially because I literally wouldn’t have been able to say much more than "ya" or "that is crazy".  I began loosing the weight that I desired which was a huge relief and blessing, but what I gained was far better than the weight loss. I gained two amazing friends and mentors – Holly and Darla. I also gained an understanding that running is more for my emotional well being than my physical one. Holly and Darla were key players in helping me re-realize my personal worth and be able to cope with the hard life challenges I was facing. I would eagerly wake up ready to get through one more day with 3 young children and find ways to love it and enjoy it! We continued running together even though Darla and I both moved to a different sub division 5 miles away from the tennis one. I ran with these ladies up until the day I moved back to the ‘burg and let me tell you… I was very, very sad! – I mean really sad….and then I found a new running partner :).

Yesterday as I was running with my new partners – Stephen pointed out, because Diana is far too refined, that I was dominating the running conversation. Apparently I was making it hard for him to get a word in edgewise – I am sorry, but I had a really good teacher. It is hard for me to stop when I get excited. Once I took a personality quiz and I was told that I was a flippant chatterbox. I’m sure you can’t tell that from reading this blog? I think Darla and I are kindred spirits.

So that is how I met Darla and began to be trained from her. She is a woman who believed that being a stay at home mom and house wife could be very fulfilling. This lady did the most fun things with her family ever! Oh and how Darla loves Christmas! It makes me love it all the more because I think I how much she loves it. The traditions she established for her family are great and worthy to be repeated by someone like myself. Considering that she was NOT raised in a loving and caring home, and still finds the energy and time to do this, really impressed me. Did I mention that half of her kids are college and/or married and she only has 2 teenagers at home now – but still the traditions go on.

Darla has fancy Sunday dinners where she hosts her family and treats them like royalty. It is the only day that all of her busy children can eat together and she started a tradition of nice meals to be expected more than 8 years ago. This tradition I have NOT yet incorporated, because frankly it requires a lot of effort and I am just too tired for that fancy of treatment. I decided I should be treated like royalty and Stephen and my kids clean up every Sunday meal, while I go and take a nap…NOT so much Darla-like…

BUT I do love her holiday traditions which I DO try to incorporate if at all possible. This month it was our Halloween dinner. I will admit that I am a very mild version of my friend Darla who is not afraid of going the extra mile. We had so much fun last night eating bones & blood, Monster Brains with moldy cheese, Wicked Witches Parts and Pieces with mucus dressing, Ghoul Aide with Mummy Cubes, Jack ‘O Lantern Tongues, and Baby Ghosts. My children had lots of fun trying to figure out which Wicked Witch Pieces they were eating…they came up with eyes (circle cut carrots), tongues (red pepper), fingernails (purple onion), and wilted skin (lettuce). The creativity juices were really flowing. We ended the night by dancing to the monster mash as we cleared the table.

My children can thank Darla for any of the extra curricular family fun we get to have, because she taught me on many early morning runs that being a mom should be fun for me as well as my kids. I find that doing something really small (re-naming food) can really make my life (as well as my children’s lives) fun for one day!

I am calling all of this the Darla Syndrome.


Jodi’s Diner Halloween Menu
Bones & Blood
Jack ‘O Lantern Tongues and Baby Ghosts for dessert.

Wicked Witches Parts and Pieces with Mucus Dressing.
Monster Brains with Moldy Cheese

Comments:

Stephen said…

I love every minute of it, I love to hear you talk and share your thoughts as we run. These meals are a real treat to look forward to as well.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:23:11 AM

Paul said…

Thanks for the Jack o Lantern tongues they were tasty!!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 3:29:35 PM

michelle said…

Fun dinner-I think you are doing a great job as Darla (from what you said about her) Way to be a fun Mom.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:37:42 PM