Still scrapbooking

I have been able to relax and do a little bit of digital scrap booking here 

in the mountains. This is a drop and load templet I think I will get a lot 

of use out of! 

Home away from Home

I was prompted to post a picture of our cabin for all to see. I thought that was a great idea.

So here it is our home away from home! 

A Big fear

Okay, I know most of you will laugh at my fear, but I have to say It has been 

a fear of mine for as long as I can remember. I can not sleep if I know one is in 

the room and I will run from them too. For some reason I think the little creature

is going to attack me or fly towards me and ....YUCK! I just get the creepy jebies! 

So when I went out on our deck this morning and saw this large moth dead 

I had to post it. This has to be the largest moth I have ever seen and can not 

even imagine what I would of done if I knew it was alive! I made Jessica go out and take the picture!

 

Just so everyone understands how much I fear these creatures, I would rather

 Fly into a thunderstorm then have one in my home or close by me! Silly fears!

Now, it is your turn to post a fear you have! Can't wait to see them. 

 

At our cabin

We left the heat of St. George behind us and headed up to our cabin in wyoming. 

My brother James from Boise came over with his family for a two day visit. 

We stayed busy fishing, four wheeling and even flying!

 My family went back to Boise Saturday morning and we got ready for a fun

 evening at the park. 
 As most of you know, the place we built our cabin is where my husband, 

Joe, grew up. Ever year for as long as we have been married, 15 years, the 

little town of Freedom has a reunion and fireworks show the week around

 pioneer days. The kids look forward to the annual "candy drop" from an airplane.

They don't get a ton of candy, but it is fun chasing down the airplane 

and plus this year they provided hats for safety. 

At least one child gets hit hard with falling candy and gets hurt.  

Jacob was so worried about his hat falling off when he ran after the candy 

that he had only 3 pieces by the time it was over. Thanks to a sweet big sister 

who was nice enough to share a handful of her candy with him. She even went 

as far as to toss a few pieces on the ground and let Jacob hurry to pick them up. 

Joey and I have the worst allergies up here, so we ended up going back to the

 cabin early. Everyone was happy by the end of the evening.

Fun with moms Mac camera!

I made the mistake of showing the kids how my camera can take fun pictures of you!

 I came home from dinner date with Joe and found 83 new pictures on my mac!

 Here are a few of my favorites. ENJOY! I hope they make you smile like they did me.

4rth of July

We celebrated the holiday at the happiest place on earth, Disneyland! (Joe would beg to differ)

Here are a few of our favorite rides!

The Invisible Mother

The Invisable Mother... It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.' I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone! One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.' In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything. A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.' I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.' At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree. When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.' As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.