Grateful

Today I am very grateful. Grateful for good friends & for family who show their love for me (& my family) continually. I can't even express how I am feeling, or how much they all mean to me. I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. I have learned so much from each of them, - like how to be loving, kind & charitable - just to name a few qualities. I am especially grateful because I am not always the best friend, daughter (in-law), sister (in-law). I tend to get caught up in my daily life & neglect to visit or call them to see how they are doing. I also lack in the being charitable department (I guess if I am judged on my good intentions I suppose I will be okay, but I doubt this will be the case). Of course I rationalize my lack by saying I am too busy, broke, etc to follow through - but I don't really think that is a good excuse either. I'm hoping to learn by example & that I have plenty!

To my friends & family - thank you for being in my life, thank you for thinking of me (especially when I need it most). Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you so much & so grateful that you are all in my life!!!

Hugs!

It's hard to believe

that 20 years ago today, I gave birth to my second son, Nate. In fact it was about this same time of night on that very night my water broke at home (sorry Kevin!). By the time we got to the hospital my contractions were coming along pretty well. In fact I'd have to say delivering Nate was probably the easiest & fastest of my four kids, but also the most painful. Why you ask? Well, just as I was settling into my delivery room the nurse informed me that the anesthesiologist would be in to give me my epidural as soon as he was done with an emergency C-Section.

Ha ha, that didn't happen... Nate had other plans. He was ready to enter this world and he was delivered without any pain medication. Ouch! To this day Nate is still the same. He has always been his own person & had his own plans. He is head strong & smart, besides being handsome & loving.

When he was a kid his smile could melt my heart & if you ever look at his baby pictures with me, I will always comment on his adorable (one tooth missing) smile. He has always been kind hearted even as a small child, which was surprising at times if you knew his older brother. (Luckily Zak grew up to be a wonderful young man - but that is a whole other post for a different day).

I am constantly amazed at the handsome young man he has grown (& grown) into. I love his sense of humor too - at his high school graduation instead of just calling out his name, he had them say Doctor Nate Prescott. Ha ha. He is always doing silly things to make us all laugh...

I am the luckiest mom in the world to have Nate as my son. Our family would not be the same without him. I love you Nate thanks for picking me to be your mom!

No matter what Nate, your brothers love you!! It makes me happy to see you smile when they try & hug you too. Because I know secretly you really love it!

Be Prepared in All Things

Saturday morning David went on a stake hike, and I decided it would be a good time to go use my Kohl's cash before it expired the next day.  I was feeling super energetic and got up, showered, went to Kohl's, and was home just before 9 am.  Just a few minutes after arriving home, the phone rang.  It was Bishop.  I knew that wasn't a good sign, because his daughter was to be baptized in just over an hour.  Why was he calling us???  He said he needed a favor - that he was at the church building and there was sewage backing up in the baptismal font, and wanted to know if they could use our pool for the baptism.  Being our stake primary baptism day, there were two more wards scheduled right behind theirs.  Then he asked if he could let the stake know that they could use our pool as well.  At first I thought he might be kidding, but he said he was serious.  Of course I said yes, and went into overdrive.  Good thing we had friends over the night before and the back yard was pretty much cleaned up.  It just had to be extra clean.  It was a baptism and all! 

He put notes on the church door to let people know (I'm sure there were a lot of phone calls as well).  He and his brother in law or some family member came over and got to work.  Eric woke up and looked out the window, comes out and asks, "Mom, why is the Bishop cleaning our pool in his church clothes?"  Yay, another volunteer!  Hired!!  Everything was done and David returned home just in time for the baptism to start. 

Before Hurdsmans were done, the next baptism was showing up here. We had the "staging area" in the house for the people for that baptism. After # 1 baptism finished, they went out the side gate and everyone came from the house went to the backyard. We did that for the next baptism as well. The mom and the daughter used the pool bath to change, the dad used the garage door opener and went around the side of the house and changed in my bathroom for all 3 baptisms. Baptism #2 had refreshments, and since Baptism #3 was going on in the backyard, refreshments were set up on the dining room table. They exited out the back, came in the front, grabbed refreshments, went back out front and visited out there. Baptism 1 had prob 50 people, #2 had 45, and #3 about 10-15. We opened the side window of the patio, moved the piano to have the sound go out there, and even used the pool speakers and played primary songs during the time they were all changing.  

It really was a cool experience.  It wasn't rushed after the initial clean up, and we really felt the spirit during the baptisms!  Everything went so smoothly.  Sometimes things just work out as they are meant to and when you heed the promptings you get those extra blessings.  I even made some new friends!!  haha 

I've been telling the Relief Society that we are to be prepared in all things (as they are wondering why our activity this week is on living trusts, burial plots, and house organization) :)  That is my newest mantra, because you never know when 100 people might show up your house at any given day.