Two day date with Geof.!

My dear friend Heidi offered to watch my kids overnight for my birthday. Such a perfect birthday gift-she knows me well. There's nothing in life I want more than to spend uninterrupted play time with Geof. We were going to backpack in and camp overnight a couple hours west of Richmond, but decided against the camping part. We opted instead to hike Old Rag. The same hike Cole and Geof. did a few months ago. It was so nice. I could not believe Cole had done this! I was exhausted. We hiked the last 5 miles in the dark-the moon and the stars were bright-it's not often that I look up to see them.

We ate in the quaint college town of Charlottesville and then headed back to our place-without kids!-and collapsed in bed. So tired.

Slept in 'til 10:30 (!!), ate breakfast, headed to the Virginia Holocaust Museum, and then went on a great run downtown. We did all the things we've been wanting to do for sometime, but can't with kids. Honest. The museum doesn't allow children and June and Dayne would not have been able to handle the hike.

Happy Tenth Anniversary, Geof. (in a few weeks)!

*Oh, and the pics of Dayne and June at the bottom? Just some old pics I found on Geof.'s computer. My cute girls..

In God I trust

It's late--so ignore spelling or grammatical errors.

Been so long since I've blogged. Bad luck with cameras. 3rd one gone in a year and a half...hm, what does that mean? Anyway, nice to have pics to go along with the story of my life.

Set some goals this year. Haven't done that for a while. Felt pretty complacent with how I was doing things. Being a mom and a wife is enough, right? That urge came this year and I've decided to push myself a little more..stretch, maybe change a bit, evolve?

While visiting my cousin and his family up north, I was sitting in their Sac. Mtg. reading the program and came across this quote:

• • 
    "I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life." -M. Russell Ballard

I'd like to at least try to reach my "potential". One of the goals I set this year was to complete my Young Women Personal Progress. I only made it halfway through when I was young, and thought it wonderful to do.. now that I care. ;)

Tonight I was reading the scripture heading under Divine Nature in 2nd Peter:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious^apromises: that by these ye might be ^bpartakers of the ^cdivine^dnature, having ^eescaped the ^fcorruption that is in the world through ^glust.

5 And beside this, giving all ^adiligence, add to your faith ^bvirtue; and to virtue ^cknowledge;

6 And to knowledge ^atemperance; and to temperance ^bpatience; and to patience ^cgodliness;

7 And to godliness ^abrotherly ^bkindness; and to brotherly kindness ^ccharity.

8 For if these things be in you, and ^aabound, they make you that ye shall neither be ^bbarren nor ^cunfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What stood out to me: The words "precious promises". I've always believed in God's promises. I've known that many times my unhappiness or discouragement was due to my idleness or poor choices. Never Him.

Reading on in verse four: "having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust". The use of the word ESCAPE! It's incredible! What a perfect way to describe what living righteously can protect you from! I thought of how cool using this word to teach my children the safety of living the commandments.

And verse 8 just needs a repeat since its promise is so beautiful and perfect: "For if these things be in you, and abound (!!), they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." ..these things being diligence, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity.

Godliness before brotherly kindness and charity? Why? I'll have to study this some more. But what wonderful, absolutely divine character traits! Oh, to have them!

I love the scriptures.

june

Me: "Okay June, now let's put the carrots in" (we're making carrot banana muffins)

June: "Carrots! I LOVE carrots!"

Me: "You do?" (slightly surprised)

June: (sigh) "No, I don't. Why are we putting carrots in, Mom?"

OUT

Took the kids down to the dried up part of James River last week when the school had parent/teacher conferences.

We love Richmond. Cole's good (and hilarious) friend Jeffrey joined us. He's always so great about us dragging him all over the place.

Cats make us sleepy

I love sleeping babies. And June loves our Lizzy cat (even though her eyes water and her nose gets itchy when she's been holding her too long). Lizzy ran away for 5 days and then showed up one night mewing at our back door and ever since we haven't had any problems with her running and hiding and being terrified of the kids. She's so friendly and loves cuddling up with each kid. It must have been her traumatic experience living on her own in the "wild" (aka: under the neighbor's shed).

Philly in October

We took a picture perfect trip up to Philadelphia this weekend to see our good friends the Blakes (friends from Richmond who are up there just for a year doing a fellowship), and to celebrate Halloween in one of Geof.'s favorite cities.

We wouldn't have been able to go had we not literally packed our life in Richmond up and brought it straight to the Blake's. I mean, I had to do some home school with Cole, and Geof. had to work, but it was worth the effort.

Our friends, Erin and Matt were great hosts and fed us yummy homemade (and gluten free!) food all weekend. What a treat! And their home was beautiful. Tall vaulted ceilings and big open windows that gave ample view to the fall colors outside...it was quite nice. Geof. had to work part of Friday and all of Monday while we were there but didn't complain much since he parked his "office" right in front of a pair of extra large windows and had that view to look out at all day. Now I'm thinking I'll have to find a way to replicate that in his dark office with a tiny side window. :/

The Blakes have 4 cute and energetic kids which nicely complimented our 3 crazies. The weather Sat. (the day we went in to the city to see the sights) was the worst it could have been; rain, sleet, wind, snow, and eventually hailfell on us all day. But the kids (and even us adults) dealt well and had fun! We saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall (a little history: Independence Hall is, by every estimate, the birthplace of the United States. It was within its walls that the Declaration of Independence was adopted. It was here that the Constitution of the United States was debated, drafted and signed. That document is the oldest federal constitution in existence and was framed by a convention of delegates from 12 of the original 13 colonies.), and Valley Forge.

We then headed over to Reading Market which was so cool! A little about the Market:

Reading Terminal Market

Mouth-watering aromas. Produce fresh from the field. Amish specialties. Fresh meats, seafood, and poultry. Unique, hand-made pottery, jewelry and crafts from around the world. The hustle and bustle of a multitude of diverse people. It’s all here in Philadelphia’s historic farmers market, Reading Terminal Market. An exhilarating selection of baked goods, meats, poultry, seafood, produce, flowers, ethnic foods, cookware and eclectic restaurants are peppered throughout the Market. We invite you to explore this unique and extraordinary historic farmers market in Center City Philadelphia.

We definitely want to return before Matt and Erin's time is up. What a fun city! The only thing that would have made it all better would've been to stay an extra week and for Geof. to not have to work...not that we're complaining. Thank goodness for his job! :)

On Halloween night we headed over to a posh neighborhood where in one home we were actually invited in for hot apple cider, pumpkin choc. chip cookies, soda or bottled water (for each kid!), and of course full size candy bars. No joke! I'd never experienced that many one-uppers in my life! ;) The kids were happy and of course we didn't mind snagging a few of their full size Snickers. Thank you!

I just realized I didn't get one pic of Matt and Erin. Lame. Well, they're pretty good looking people if you have to know...