Same oh, same oh!

This past couple of weeks I have been struggling with what to post on my blog. Not too much is going on here at the Turner household but I will just hit on a few highlights:

1. We went to the temple last weekend and after ate at a French Restaurant and had Pumpkin Ravioli. We thought we would experiment. It was actually really good and better than both Justin and I thought it would be.

2. Justin went mountain biking with his brother in Gorman, CA.

3. I started doing some Genealogy work and am really liking it, but have no clue what I am doing yet. Guess I will learn as I go.

4. I have done an awesome job in exercising everyday but Sunday for the past month, applause...applause...

5. My mom had her 67th birthday so I called and wished her a happy one!

6. Mackay has been taking and Intervention class after school Tuesdays through Thursday but he calls it Interference. It probably is interfering with his life right now.

7. Mackay got a letter from his friends in Utah and said "Sweet" when he got it, he had only been asking if he got a letter every day for forever. (Thanks Kathryn!!!)

8. We bought some new kitchen cabinets with some Christmas money that we got and I did my first attempt at staining furniture. It wasn't too bad, but time consuming. We also took down the cabinets above our kitchen counter top. Boy did it open up the room!

9. Tyler has been making up his own crafts lately. I feel bad because I do put him off at times. He wants to do a craft every day, and some times I just don't feel like going through the trouble of making one.

10. Justin and the boys went out to check out some more geo cache sites while I stayed home and got some work around the home done.

Well that is our life for the last little while!

HOPE

I read my friend Kathryn's blog and she talked about a one word movement. I really liked the idea of that and having been thinking since Sunday what would be my word. Well, I just finished my reading of the New Testament and in my supplemental studies came across the word HOPE. Now before this word came into mind I was thinking of words like strength and optimism, but hope sums up about everything. Also along with hope comes faith and charity so how could I go wrong with this word.
Now why is it important for me to have hope? Hope, as I said earlier, goes along with faith. "Faith is the hope in all things which are not seen but true" Alma 32:21. Also in Hebrews 11:1, "...faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. So everything that I know to be true is done so through faith and hope.
Hope is also a great incentive to repentance. If there were no hope in God, or in returning to him then why would anyone want to repent. I really want it all so I will hang on to hope and the knowledge that if I repent then I am in good standing with my Heavenly Father.
Without hope we become strangers to God and live lives of despair (Moroni 10:22, Hebrew 11:13).
So my word for the year is hope. I know that with the hope that I carry that I need not fear in this scary world that Satan has control over. I know that if I choose the Lord's side that I will be able to carry peace in my hear and in my home and in my life. I know that with hope I will have strength to accomplish anything and everything, (I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me. Phil 4:13). I know that I can be optimistic in all things that I do and say. President Bensen said: "Yet, of all people, we as Latter day Saints should be the most optimistic and least pessimistic. For while we know peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil shall have power over his own dominion, we are also assured that the Lord shall have power over the saints, and shall reign in their midst. (D&C 1:35-36).
So I choose to have hope in my life and may all the good blessing follow from having it. There you have it! I hope that didn't sound too preachy -- it did come straight from my heart.

Geo Cashin'

J got a nice GPS system for Christmas so we set out last Saturday to test the thing-a-ma-bob out. We were out in the middle of no where and it was cool to see that some of those streets out in the middle of no where actually have names and some where just called a dirt road (Interesting). We were able to find 2 out of the 5 Geo Cash boxes. The kids really have good eyes because people really hid those things well. I would have just walked right by them. The kids thought it was the most exciting thing in the world. They call it treasure, but we call it junk. On our first find the black cylinder container had a diaper (unused of course), some toys, a couple of dollar bills, and other things. This is the way my boys think. T took the dollar bill because to him money is the best treasure ever. M took some weird toy or contraption (I really don't know what it was). They also put in some old toys that they picked out themselves, hopefully some kid thinks it is treasure.

Anyway the second box took us a little while to find we walked up a hill and then down a little ways. We then went north and then south. Finally, M yells, "I found it!) It was in a crevice with a few big rocks on it. Once again I would have never have found it but the boys did a great job. This one just had a few trinkets in it, but to the boys it was treasure.

So anyway I guess now we are treasure hunters. Justin took the boys out again this weekend. I wanted to go but needed to get my church talk written. So that is what I did.

T is at the age that he says some pretty cute things. I mentioned this in my talk today, but for those of you who didn't near it this is for you. Yesterday morning while I was making breakfast T asked, "Mom, Why didn't you make me an appointment?".

I was confused so I said, "What do you need an appointment for?"

T stated, matter of factly, "You know for my eyes because I don't see so well when I am sleeping."

Pretty funny eh! I laughed for awhile about that one.

Anyway, this week was just back to the grind. The kids went back to school, and I actually got a few things done around the house and yes that did include moving furniture around again. I also indulged in a little reading, which always makes me feel guilty, but I was still able to get all the important things done that I needed to.

Justin and I also tried out a new Greek Restaurant in town called the Grape Leaf. I am not that big into Mediterranean Food so didn't care for it took much and Justin just thought it was okay. Most of their menu was just the regular burgers and sandwiches that you could get anywhere else. So anyway, that is our review.

Christmas/New YearsI

I am a little slacking on getting to the blog thing for the last couple of weeks. It hasn't been so much busy, I have just been putting it off and a little under the weather for the last couple of week. Luckily, I wasn't super sick though, just a little cold.

The past couple of weeks have been so much fun. I had a great time spending time with the kids and their friends. One day before Christmas me and the kids were feeling not so good, coughing, sneezing, etc. So we had a lazy day where we watched movies, listened to music, read books and played a game on the computer. It was kind of fun. We also just snuggled on the couch.

Christmas Eve we were invited over to some friends house for a 7 course meal (Polish style) and a nativity play. It was so much fun the kids had a lot of fun playing the many different characters of the nativity and did so well being patient with the food and eatting pretty well. We also let the kids open up their Christmas PJ's and then headed home for bed. They were so excited for Santa to come that it was hard to get them to go to bed.

The kids woke at midnight and said that they were ready for opening presents. We sent them back to bed and said that they had to wait until morning. Luckily they stayed in bed the rest of the night. When they woke in the morning we made them wait in the hall until we could put on Christmas music and turn on the tree lights and build a fire. Then they rushed in to see what Santa brough. We found out then they had already snuck in at midnight and so they already knew what Santa brought. We then took turns opening presents. It was a lot of fun! After opening presents we talked about one special present that we were given on Christmas and had the kids open a box with baby Jesus in it. We told them that Jesus was the real reason we have Christmas and is a special present that our Heavingly Father has given us. We then placed him in the manger.

After getting ready for the day we had some friends over for breakfast with our traditional waffles with ice cream (Thanks to the Carricks). It was so much fun. The rest of the day we talked to family on the phone, and played with our toys (spent a lot of time building lego sets) and played our new Wii gaming system. It was so nice to just relax and have fun.

The day after Christmas we decided to head to the hills and do a little sledding. It was cold, but so much fun. We did it for a couple of hours and then came home and had some hot chocolate.

For new years we had some other friends over and played video games. Well we mainly had a golf playoff while the kids watched a movie. We did make it to midnight, which doesn't happen very often for us.

New Years day we slept in, did some cleaning around the house, and then headed to the park to play a little baseball. Poor T got hit in the face with the ball and got a bloody nose so we had to take care of that. He decided he was finished with baseball so J and M played while me and T played at the playgroung. It was a fun afternoon and good to get out and about.

Anyway, Happy New Years to everyone. Wish you all the best in 2009!