Enter_School

 

I can’t believe that summer is over! Friday was the last day of my fun job that I have loved for so long and where I have made some awesome friends. I have started at a new job now and it’s been quite the change in atmosphere- I gotta say there is a difference in professionalism when you’re in a place where there aren’t the highest of values leading the crew.

We are finally pretty settled into our new place. I like it a little bit better now that I have things on the way that say {my home} and it smells a little better now too- hopefully the smokey smell doesn’t come back any time soon.

It’s still hot and I’ll get out- sometimes I wonder if it’s really healthy to live in this heat…but then I think of the alternative and the cold that comes with it and I quickly become thankful for the sun that shines 99.7% of the time.

I have some thoughts and goals for this school year though that I think will help me have a better experience:

-Read my scriptures everyday, or at least listen to them in the car

-Eat a healthy dinner that I have made time to prepare

-Work out at least three times a week, running has to be one of those days if not two

-Do my visiting teaching EVERY  MONTH!

-Have FHE every week, even it has to be on Sundays.

I have to make Christ my top priority and I have to do it every single day. I really need his help to make it through this tough semester and I know that I can do these things and that it will make a difference in the outcome of my daily activities.

Good luck this upcoming week! God bless and keep smiling no matter how hard things get. If you can’t find anything to smile about think of this:

my baby sister was falling asleep in the car tonight on the way home from dinner, she couldn’t keep her eyes open but apparently her hands and mouth still worked because she was still eating her pretzels while she slept.—oh to be young again! 

Family Sunday

Once a month my mom’s family gets together to celebrate birthdays for the month and to have a family dinner.

This month was pretty strange because it’s the first time we have really been altogether since my grandparents have gone on their mission. We met at my aunt’s school because it was pretty in the middle of everyone and we have a yummy dinner and then we did an activity.

My aunt Becky was the one in charge so she came up with a Halloween idea to send to my grandparents in South Africa. She printed pictures of all of the grandkids and we cut out their faces and then put them on a poster. Then each of the kids drew their Halloween costume around the picture of their face. It was pretty fun to see what everyone came up with.

**we are pretty hard core BYU fans in this family**

It’s so great to get together with family. We miss so much the family that we don’t get to see very often and grab any chance we can to all be together.

Enjoy the pics!

{Hugs for Grandma and Grandpa Kimball

So I have a brilliant aunt- ok that's a lie, I have a lot of brilliant aunts. But this one that I am talking about came up with the idea to send my grandma and grandpa hugs while they are on their mission in Africa. 

Well I have kind of slacked on sending some to them-- but I will fix that! (tonight actually)--and I wanted to share them with you all cuz I think they are cute and uplifting and inspiring. If anything, this will be good for posterity sake. 

So here you go- hope you can enjoy these. (ps, these are totally not in the right order so forgive me)

Here are a few of the hugs that have been sent. Others have been as attachments:

A HUG FOR EVERY DAY YOU'RE AWAY!

Mom & Dad,

Just a few words about the hugs. Though I will be sending them here to this address they are directed to the both of you. Each family will be assigned a certain number of days, depending on the size of the family. You'll get hugs in the form of quotes we've heard, funny stories or jokes, musings or memories from one of us. Pictures the kids will draw for you, photos of parties you've missed, etc. Most times, as is such in this email, the hugs will come in one email but will be meant to read progressively over time. So don't read ahead! Just read that day's hug that day and the next the next, and so on. To minimize the temptation to read ahead I've put big spaces between each one. Refer to the subject line to see how many days are included in the one email. Originally I was going to put these all on a file in your computer and label them "TOP SECRET", but life turned so completely upside down in the months before you left that I never could get it coordinated with all the family in time to make it what I wanted it to be. So... through email is really the only way I could do it so that it wasn't a huge project for each of the families all at once. Don't worry about printing our hugs. I will be printing them as we go along so that they can be saved in a binder. Hugs are not meant to be replied to, unless you wish. They are merely for your enjoyment and a means of being connected to your kids and grandkids while you are away, just as if we could give you actual hugs.

love, Cari and all of us

Here is your first hug!

HUG-July 5, 2011

Some Quotes about hugs:

A hug delights and warms and charms,
that must be why God gave us arms.
~Author Unknown

I will not play tug o' war. I'd rather play hug o' war. Where everyone hugs instead of tugs, Where everyone giggles and rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses, and everyone grins, and everyone cuddles, and everyone wins.
Shel Silverstein

" A hug is a great gift - one size fits all, and it's easy to exchange."
Unknown
Love you Mom and Dad, miss you already! -Cari

HUG-July 6, 2011

“The greatest good we can do in helping others become what they can become will be to lead them to the Savior.”
D. Todd Christofferson
Law Allows Us to Reach Our Potential

HUG- July 7, 2011

Picture of Cari and Jared (Sorry... couldn't get it to copy and paste right...)
"LOVE YA KID!"

HUG - July 8, 2011



This reminded me of Becky and Aaron's, "grown another head" skit. "then I could be my own companion...."
HUG - July 9, 2011

I'm especially grateful for my parents for going on a mission--I got their house" Drr!
It's still clean by the way!! Love you both!
HUG - July 10, 2011

Corinthians 16
20And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people;

21He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he ^areproved kings for their sakes,
22Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
23^aSing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation.
24^aDeclare his glory among the people; his marvellous ^bworks among all nations.
HUG - July 11, 2011

"Group Hug"
Happy Sunday Mom and Dad!!
I wish we would've taken a goup hug picture when we were all together. Don't these leemers seem so happy, snugled and content?Maybe you'll get to see some leemers!!

HUG - July 15, 2011
Last night I met with the pianist to discuss our plans for ward choir.
We've adapted this song (We thank thee oh God for a prophet) to add a choir. I've been preparing it all week. She loved it! And that made me feel good. Wish I could share the details with you, and sing for you what it'll sound like but I can't do that. Here is a link to hear what the piano music sounds like. If you like his music you can download it to your computer and listen to it when you get ready in the mornings or any other time. Love ya. -Cari
http://hymnarrangements.blogspot.com/2007/09/we-thank-thee-o-god-for-prophet.html

HUG - July 16, 2011

BOTSWANA COAT OF ARMS

Safe journey to you as you travel to Botswana! - Cari

HUG July 17, 2011

This really is a sunday this time. Happy Sunday!!

I came across this video this week on the church website. LOVED IT! Hope you enjoy!

http://lds.org/pages/international-video-contest-winners?lang=eng#life

If you want to see more of these fun “hugs” see my “Family Newsletter” page.

We relocated…again!

Because of a lot of drama and gross mistakes we had to relocate to a new apartment.

I was joking with my friend one night that I had made it a goal to move every year that I am married. I told James this story and he VERY strongly disagreed. He hates moving! And after this time, we both really hate moving. It seemed like one wrong thing after another happened.

Yes our place is cute but not exactly in place that I would have liked. We had to sell one of our beds, one of our couches and give back the jetta to my parents. On moving day I sprained my ankle within 10 minutes of loading up the truck. Oh and the night we moved in, my parents were helping and just happened to be parked in the wrong lane outside our apartment and when we walked out- well what do you know, the cards were gone! Both of my parents cars were towed and 500 shiny green ones later, we finally got them back. And top the whole thing off! Our apartment smells like SMOKE!

**if anyone who reads this smokes or does anything like it, please stop. among lots of other things, it really makes my clothes stink and my husband’s head hurt**

Ok that’s the story with relocating. Don’t worry- I am completely {in}sane and totally coming to grips with everything that has taken place. Regardless of the hardships that seemed to be lined up at my door I feel so blessed to have clothes in my closet, food in my fridge, a car to drive me to work where I can earn and save, and I have cute pictures on my wall so I don’t have to stare at ugly white going to bed and waking up. Oh and I have a good sweet husband who lends me his shoulder every once in a teary moon.

I am happy and I am excited to start this upcoming school year and to be in a new place. I think it’s a great adventure and as long as I have my dear James, I will be totally fine

 

ps—I used the font “elephant” for this post because I felt like I had a huge hunk of stuff to get off my chest. (ya I know, pretty corny- but you liked it )

Monday Again

Hey all- Love this talk. Hope you enjoy it too :) Have a great Monday!
http://speeches-files.byu.edu/download.php/Wilcox_Brad_2011_07_12.mp3?type=2&fname=Wilcox_Brad_2011_07_12.mp3

Electronics overload!

So James is a techy sort of guy. That was one of the things that I love about him. But I have a confession to make- one of the major reasons we have a two bedroom apartment is to make room for ALL OF HIS COMPUTER STUFF!!!! One day I was organizing and I thought to myself- you know what I need to document how much “stuff” around this house is really James’ and how it really does make what I keep a little less daunting! We have two closets full! I thought I would share  

free SD’s from some company...

Thousands of cords!

8- seriously- EIGHT! computer towers!

Other computer parts

The current tower that he built

The T-shirt he obsesses over- for the company he works for.

These pictures do not include his dual screen desk set up, his two laptops, his TV, or his HTPC (home theater PC)…. And he says I spend too much money on clothes- ya whatever ;-P

And just a little plug of where my funny cat likes to sleep. Hehe

Massive Update Time…

It's the summer time and I am desperate need to catch up! So...here we go:

Meet Bu! 

She is our new car. 

She is a 2007 Chevy Malibu and we really like her. We still have Crayola- she and James have actually become well acquainted recently since he took her out on a dirt road and busted the oil pan. He and the young men took it apart and fixed her all up. Then the battery had to be replaced haha. Crazy adventures with Crayola- I guess it would be us to have a car that requires so much up keep. And every time we decide we are going to get rid of her, we keep her for some reason?! Oh well. Everything has a purpose right?

My crafty side of life that I don’t have a lot of time for

Yay for weddings!

Brett and Tia

Olivia and Taylor

It was a lot of fun to be at these two weddings of such good friends and to see friends and family we hadn’t seen for a while. And it is so awesome for the eternal families that they each have made- it makes me happy when I see how getting married in the temple brings so much joy into my friends’ lives.

Along with the trip to see Tay and Olivia married, we also go to go to California!

James and Coug at the beach

We got to meet up with our friend Johnny and Kisa and their baby Coug at the beach.

Kisa was turned into an Octopus!

(gross picture of me :{ ) Johnny was made into a MerMan  hehe

It’s always fun to play at the beach especially when you get to see good friends.

We also saw my Uncle Mitch, and my Gma and Gpa Whitaker while we were in California. It was a quick trip but a much needed trip! And we love to see Mitch and my grandparents at any chance that we get.

 

In June James’ Grandma Christiansen had a stroke so we sent James on a plane to get there in time to say goodbye because the doctors said it was probably the end for her. He got there a little too late but he was able to be there as a support for his family during the tough time. I got in the car and drove to Colorado after work and I took Mason with me. He was there for moral support as I drove the long journey all by myself.

It was a sad time but also a happy time for the family because everyone was able to be together. She had some great services and James was able to dedicate her grave- which was pretty cool. We had the graveside service in Castlerock near the place that James’ mom grew up so we got to go around and see all of the places that she lived. That was a really neat experience!

Old house

Old school

Creek behind the school

Apparently making sand used to be a fun thing to do ;-P

Having fun on the playground!

Random tub on the playground haha

Make a wish

 

It was a really fun trip to Colorado and I learned a lot about James’ mom’s family- I love educational trips! (I know, I’m weird) I got a pretty good record of some of his mom’s memories that I want to type up for her and put in a cool book…shhh! don’t tell!

 

We celebrated my grandparents wedding anniversary by throwing them a huge party and kind of recreating their wedding! It was a lot of fun and the family all dressed up in animal print since they are serving their mission in Africa haha.

Baby Hinzlee

Cute cousins

Funny Brother

Mom got to see a few old friends from college

James was Indiana Jones haha

We re-wrote a “I just can’t wait to be King” from The Lion King and changed the words to “I just can’t wait to serve my king”

Crazy family pictures! haha

The cake cutting!

Love you grandpa!