A bit here and there

Some insights I gained lately:

1. How kids get along actually reflects how I deal with them. I usually don't like summer for a reason . . . My children always were bickering over every little thing and needed me to referee every discussions/agreements. Sometimes, I just get tired of it, I just say, "Go away and solve it yourselves".

Insight: I realized that kids keep on bickering because of my bad attitude. Children aren't born automatically knowing how resolve things. I caught myself at it one time and said, "Suzy, you bring Ian here and we will discuss it calmly." After having two kids in room, I asked them, "What is our problem here? We only have one water gun. It won't be fair to other if you keep water gun all of the time." We then discussed the options: 1. Buy other one (which is not possible), 2. take turns with it, 3. put it away for another time ... My children are astonishingly reasonable and offered me some other options which they could agree. You know what? I didn't even hear their complaints for two hours in row! What a nice peaceful hours I had! It was really when it hits me- I need inspiration from God to help my children many times. I believe that I just am harried and busy that I don't listen to the spirit like I should. I need HELP with my children and I NEED to be a bit more positive in disciplining my children.

2. I learned that it is a daily task to remind myself that patience should be in my vocabulary. I always run short of it when I think about my dreams. I think that selfishness usually takes patience away. I should become a bit more selfless and loving. When I do that, it becomes easier to be patient too.

3. There are so many lovely things that I failed to appreciate like shining kitchen floor after cleaning, a delicious ice cream out of Coldstone Creamery, a fun date with my Clint and all. I always am so quick to move onto other things and forget.


I had a perfectly lovely weekend with Clint. I loved being able to try new things like four stars hotel suite, ride on ski lift, hike down a mountain in Park City, and all. Clint and I went out to four star restaurant at night and it was dreadfully expensive! But I told Clint that the dishes we had really are well worth it. The taste is amazing! Clint had filet miginon and I could not believe that a such thing could exist! As a hippie will say, "FAR OUT!"

We had a breakfast in suite. I brought in different fun food to eat and Clint cooked them for me. After that, I am glad we got together. I never got away from my children that long. I am too fond of them that I never wanted to spend my time away from them. We then rode on ski lift for twenty minutes to the end and hiked back for 1 and half hour. It is fun. Clint and I came home being happily dusty, sweaty and dirty. It really is so fun getaway. We liked it the best of all that we celebrated for our anniversaries.

We are back to our routine. Park, library, and gymnastics. I am glad that we managed to have some time in between- for dentist visits, vet for Shadow, and others. I will have to call the doctor office about getting Tetanus shot. I DEFINITELY am not looking forward to that. It always smarts so badly after having one.

I am glad I had time last Sunday to write a long good letter to my grandparents and uncle. They are so old that they don't totally understand what emails and thus can do for them. Ha. I haven't written them ANYTHING and I felt awfully guilty about that!

OH well, my household chores are riding on me now. I have to go now. Hugs to all.

1,000 reasons to be happy

Reason no. 1- My friend and I are able to resolve our misunderstandings. I am so happy she is willing to believe me and trust me when I explained myself to her. I treasure our friendship so dearly!
Reason no. 2-Ian got baptized two weekends ago.
Reason no. 3-May and June are the best months there are: birthdays, wedding anniversary, mother's day and father's day!!
Reason no. 4-I had visits from Clint's family and got to celebrate occasions with them. How I love them!!
Reason no. 5-June is the coolest month ever and we are able to save bucks on electricity bill.
Reason no. 6-Clint finally is done with framing and is doing electricity part upstairs.
Reason no. 7-Our basement is dry this year . . . Even though that we are having the wettest year there is. It looks like drainpipe that our city installed is working.
Reason no. 8-I am able to find different ways to keep things fun and exciting for kids. We are able to go to the park and hang out with friends, have library, fitness center and all.
Reason no. 9-I am nearly done with the pioneer dress project I set out to do. I hoped it wasn't difficult and it wasn't!
Reason no. 10-Being able to go to the temple two Fridays ago.

I can go on forever and list many good things I have. I just am counting my blessings. God truly always have been there for me and picked me up when I needed Him to. I love it how silent and still voice always come when I listen to guide me.

I loved watching Ian participating in his gynmatics class. That kid never ceases to amaze me! He did a lot of fun stuff that he never did before in the past. If he didn't succeed first, second and third time, he is not afraid to try fourth time. And he did succeed! I am so proud of him. I can't wait to take my kids to the classes this Thursday and watch them having fun all over again! Ian said he prefers that sport over soccer any time. I said that he has to do it one more time this fall before we make the decision for real. Suzy and Annalise are so excited about using the equipments in gynmatics class and I was able to observe for real how significant development milestones can be in children's physical ability.

I am sewing the pioneer dresses for myself and my girls. After that women's project, I will move onto boys'. I will cut out used church shirts collars out and resew. Then I will see if I can make them simple vests. I will be done with my pioneer dress very soon. I just have hemming at the bottom to do plus tucking some parts there and there in. I will be able to take a snapshot of myself in the pioneer dress as soon as I am able to get bloomer and bonnet done. In the case, I am sure you are wondering why I am doing this. There's pioneer trek which my ward is planning for this year. It will be three day long thing between July 31 and Aug 2. After the pioneer trek, Clint and I will be going up to South Dakota to visit my parents.

I'm putting my scrapbooking project on hold due to dresses. Then I will be back to it happily! I really had so much fun playing with photo program and matching them up to theme, pages, etc.

I got Ensign for May's and I am spending nights reading the talks from General Conference. I love them all! One night in particular which I never will forget. Ian heard about Bloody Mary story on playground at the school. One of the boys told Ian that if he said the name three times, Mary will come and kill him. Ian got very scared about it one night. He could not sleep. I got him to lay down in my bed and read with him the topic from General Conference on Personal Witness of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong and its peace was all pervading. Ian calmed down very quickly and was asleep by the end of talk. What a wonderful thing we have. It really calms the storms of soul and brings happiness to our hearts in the troubled times!

Two weeks' worth of news

Wow! Two weeks have passed ever since I last posted the blog. When something like that happens, it has strong tendency of falling down to nothing. I won't let it to happen hopefully!!

Lacey Mae Gibbs finally is here! My sister in law had her on April 28 11 p.m. She is no. four and Gibbs now has four little princesses in their family. She has so much hair and is so adorable. Ian looked at me and asked me when I am having more babies after having held her.

I stopped my exercising routine. My hay fever is ongoing and it is very hard to breathe when mucus keeps on getting into the way. I am enduring it out like many things. The fundraising 5K thing will be next week and I hope I can run 3 miles without running out of breath.

Last weekend, there was a close to my heart warehouse sale. I had to wait 1 1/2 hour to 2 hours in line. It required so much patience! But it is well worth the wait. Every paper packet is one dollar each and many other things are just at price of two dollars, four dollars. I got so many things for low price. Many ladies are so happy with the deal and sent me an email to make comments about it. Close to my Heart does it every two years. So it really is fun doing it once in a while.

My house is so chilly. Outside, it rained a little. I will have to check the basement and make sure that there's no water down there. It has been a wet year in the mountains and water will be certain to flow down and flood in the marshes. Our home is in marshes (formerly).

I can't wait to get started on garden but weeding isn't my favorite thing to do. I sometimes really miss Washington just thinking about that dark peat dirt and easiness of growing things in there. I just can think how hard it was for Adam and Eve having to recall their former days in Eden while they are digging and sweating over the crusty dry dirt like what we are doing right now. I can't wait to plant some beautiful colorful flowers and see if I can add some ground plants. I love ivy and it is growing very well in one of my flower bed.

Last Saturday, we got to get together at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. Nancy Macedone is kind enough to come and use her pass so that we can get in for half price. It really is wonderful! I owe you, Nancy, big time! Any time you need a favor . . . Just give me a call!! Here are some awesome snapshots I took of Thanksgiving gardens.
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Timmy's curls RETURNED!! Especially with a bath. I am so thrilled!!

I got to have the fun of visiting my old mission companion (Jordans). They are fantastic family and it really is amazing when we all are calling our family as is. Once did we know each other, we just had ourselves to worry about. We discussed from the change of relationship in marriages to the life in deaf community. It really is amazing to see how much we have grown in understanding. I think we didn't totally understand things when we were age of 21, 18, etc equally as we do right now at age of 32. I just can see how we will understand better twenty years from now. Just imagine this ... as grandma, I can chuckle when I reflect how I struggled and felt baffled as a mother to four children and trying to analyze why things aren't happening perfectly as I wished them to. And be able to smile understandingly when I observe another young mother trying to figure how she can convince her young child how to go to potty.

Christina came down here on Monday while Clint took our kids to Brittany's. Clint was helping Brittany and John to fix their car. Christina needed my help with cleaning the car's interior before she can sell the car to other person. I enjoyed catching up with Christina's life and such.

I'm going to make something for teachers, assistants and principals for teacher's appreciation week. I saw something really cute on Close to My heart magazine so I am going to make dozens of them. It will be so FUN!

Oh well, my kids has reached their awake quota and I will have to put them down for their naps.

Hugs to all! And have a fantastic week.