24th of July!!!!

St. Anthony has one of the best parades I have ever seen.  Lots of horses, candy, servicemen, candy, AWESOME floats, and did I mention candy!?!  Malana loved everything but the boys squirting water guns from the fire engine.

After the parade we went to Travis' parents house for a BBQ.  They bought a big swimming pool this year and the kids love playing in it.  Malana LOVES the water and isn't scared of it at all.  She probably spent a good five hours in the pool.

Poor Travis had to spend the day at the Farmer's Market, so he missed out on most of the festivities, and spent his afternoon doing this:

Parades, candy, family, friends, swimming, sunshine, sleeping and game playing - there is no better way to spend a summer day.

new calling and stinky breath

         Last Sunday Travis came home from his young mens meeting with a huge smile on his face and laughing 

"what is the one calling you said you never wanted?" 

 "Young women, Why?" 

 "oh no reason"

 "Travis I am going to beat you up if you don't tell me why?!?"

 then he told me that the bishop pulled him aside and asked him if we could work it out (with Malana) if they gave me a calling in young women and kept Travis in YM.   

        Today i got called as the Miamaid advisor.  I am sure that I will enjoy it, I am just nervous about relating to the girls and knowing how to teach them. This is my fourth calling in three years, and I do look forward to having the stability of being in this calling for a while. I am not sure how we will work out the situation with Malana, but I am sure that we will find a way!  I thought I was safe with Travis in YM's, I guess not!  It could be worse, the girl who got called as the new primary pres. is my age!  She will do great, I am just glad it's not me!

P.S.  Travis told me when we got home from church that my breath smelled putrid, so if you had to sit by me in any of the classes I am sorry for directing my breath your way, especially after talking to so many people, because of the above mentioned calling - embarrassing! ( I promise I brushed my teeth!)

stability - or lack thereof.

         Last Sunday Travis came home from his young mens meeting with a huge smile on his face and laughing 

"what is the one calling you said you never wanted?" 

 "Young women, Why?" 

 "oh no reason"

 "Travis I am going to beat you up if you don't tell me why?!?"

 then he told me that the bishop pulled him aside and asked him if we could work it out (with Malana) if they gave me a calling in young women and kept Travis in YM.   

        Today i got called as the Miamaid advisor.  I am sure that I will enjoy it, I am just nervous about relating to the girls and knowing how to teach them. This is my fourth calling in three years, and I do look forward to having the stability of being in this calling for a while. I am not sure how we will work out the situation with Malana, but I am sure that we will find a way!  I thought I was safe with Travis in YM's, I guess not!  It could be worse, the girl who got called as the new primary pres. is my age!  She will do great, I am just glad it's not me!

       I have been distressed about the fertility situation lately.  I don't know what is up with my body but it definitely has some issues.  The testing that we have been doing is all over the charts, ovulating one month not the next etc..., taking clomid makes me feel like a menopausal women, i get hot flashes like crazy, cold, then hot, cold then hot rotating about every half an hour, SO not fun. along with some other not so fun things that I will spare you the details of. let's just say the process is horrible!  The emotional factor has been contributing to things too, in my mind I have had this silent count down, I really wanted to have another one before Malana turned five, so that they would only be four years apart in school rather than five years apart, which means I only have about four months to get pregnant if I want to give birth before she turns five.  Five years!!!!!  I never wanted to have my kids this far apart!!!!!!  Ughh... 

           Travis' job has also been hit and miss, he will go to pick up a client and the mom will say "oh, I sent them to their dad's for two weeks" - translation - Travis is going to be ten hours short for the next week which also means that he will not get paid for said ten hours!  So frustrating. We also thought that he was going to be moving more into the counseling aspect, which means almost doubling his wage, but the counselor who was leaving for a different job got cold feet and decided to stay.  So if you know of any well paying master level social work jobs, let us know, at this point we are willing to move but we would like to stay within a days drive of Idaho.

          As I wrote all of these things, I realized that there is one common theme, a lack of stability and predictability.  Four callings in three years, not knowing when, or if we will ever have another child as well as the things that we are doing coming up with inconclusive results, and Travis' job not being what we expected it to be, and his hours being all over the place which means no financial stability either.  My stomach ties in knots just thinking about it. If you have any ideas for making things seem more stable, and less stressful, I would totally welcome them.

P.S. I am sorry that my blog is so depressing lately, I am normally pretty happy, this is just my venting method, life really is good- for the most part ;)

P.P.S. Travis told me when we got home from church that my breath smelled putrid, so if you had to sit by me in any of the classes I am sorry for directing my breath your way, especially after talking to so many people, because of the above mentioned calling - embarrassing! ( I promise I brushed my teeth!)

The Nield Reunion!

The Nield Reunion (a.k.a. my brothers and sisters and fams) reunion was this week.  We had a really great time!  The Reunion started on Wed. night but we weren't able to make it until Friday.  We started out the reunion at Jordanelle reservoir in between Park City and Heber.

Malana's poor near toothless grin.  She chipped it about a year and a half ago, and now it is starting to rot, a dentist visit is in the near future!

Malana and Hannah

Addie, Maren, Aubrie, and Malana

While at the reservoir we played survivor, the girls didn't do so well.

I wonder where Lana has picked up this habit of not smiling for the camera? 

I seriously LOVE these pictures of Malana and Andrew, it totally sums up their relationship with each other. Andrew being a Ninja Turtle with his sword in his life jacket and Malana thinking that everything he does is funny.

That night we went to the cabin in Heber and enjoyed each others company.  The kids are getting big enough that they just play with each other and the only time you really see them is when they are hungry.  The adults stayed up until about 2 in the morning just talking, and enjoying the break of everyday life.

On Saturday the adults did a GPS hunt, which has become a tradition at our reunions for the last five years.  We always have a blast!  Then the kids had the traditional treasure hunt, which Lana thought was great!

That night we watched home movies and wished that mom and dad could have been there with there awesome skits and father Abraham.

That night we played a few games, and most of the adults stayed up until about 3 a.m. chatting and some may or may not have even stayed up until 6:15 a.m.

We didn't think about getting a group picture until some were already gone, but here we are!

All and all we had a really fantastic time with each other! Thanks for planning it Bryan and Tonya, can't wait for next year Benj and Tracy!

The mark of a successful reunion, she was pooped, she fell asleep at about 5:00 and slept until the next morning!

parades, pictures, and pride, oh my!

we started out the fourth, well really the third, cause that's the way we work it here in Idaho Falls, anywho, we started out the fourth with the parade in Ashton.  Travis had to be at the Farmers market so he didn't attend.  I really like the Ashton parade, small town, lot's of candy, horses, free chocolate milk, what more could you ask for?

It was FREEZING!!!! Travis' mom's van said a whopping 40 degrees!  but we still had fun.  Although Malana looked really cute she refused to let me take her picture all day long the little stinker!

This was the one and only picture that she would actually smile at me!

My brother-in-law manages a hotel in IF so we always go there to view the fireworks, we decided to go walk around the greenbelt, because we never have before, let's just say we won't be doing that again. The crowd was less than desirable.

Hey, it looks like I actually did get a second picture of her smiling! ( I think I bribed her with candy for that one!)  Malana liked the fireworks for about two minutes, and then she wanted to go play some more.  Personally I think she was just trying to keep herself awake.  We had a good time, but I must say I do like the Poky fireworks better you can just get so much closer than the IF ones.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!!!