How was your Christmas break?....

As a teacher the most typical writing assignment and that is what did you do over summer break or winter break... Well I will tell you how my winter break was.  On Dec. 23rd wrapping up the day and jetting out of school as soon as the bell rang. I came home and was looking forward to a nice relaxing 2weeks to not think or do anything.... needless to say that ended at 4:00pm when I got a call from Jay and he just heard some upsetting news from the cardiologist doctor. He was crying, I was crying to hear that he would have to have open heart surgery next Friday... it was such shocking news!

How this came about.... routine from a car accident.  A month ago he had a wellness exam and everything was looking good, no worries. Continue to work on getting the back stronger. On Dec. 5 he was in a car accident. After the accident he hasn't been able to go back to work. Disability kicks in for us to receive some money. He sees the doc for his back finding out above the surgery he has a bulging disc in L4 and L5 and on top of it the doc hears a heart murmur. From following up that is how we lead up for Jay to have the heart surgery.

Dec. 29, Jay goes in for testing, good news arteries are clear no heart disease however he has the heart valve disease. His mitral and aortic valve where replaced with mechanical ones on Dec. 30 in the West Valley hospital. Dr. Hessel knows his stuff as well as Dr. Moon and Dr. Seymor. With much fasting, many prayers, and a priesthood blessing Jay comes out of the surgery very well. The doc said it went PERFECT, which is music to my ears!

I will say between last Friday to this Friday this did not dampen our spirits. We had a wonderful Christmas, was able to have a Russell Reunion the next day, and on Wednesday evening we used one of Santa's gifts to go the Suns game.

I'm so greatful to have the gospel and to have great technology to help our loved ones be with us a bit longer! My poor husband is going through many trials at this time. I have no idea, I thought our faith was pretty strong... I always feel there is a reason for something and something to learn from it. Do I enjoy going through these? Heck no! These make me age, and I don't like crying all the time when no one is around or worrying about it... What I have learned about this experience is: This is possibly hereditary so now I need to make sure my kids are aware of the symptoms... I know that the power of prayer works. I felt the Lord right beside me the whole entire time. I was at peace and I know that he is fully aware of me and my family. I know he helped the surgeons out in the surgery room. The staff members at the hospital have been excellent. I can not deny that Christ is not real, for he is real! I am so blessed to have the Holy Ghost! Times like these, is when they carry me, I couldn't do it alone. Most important, for all my friends and family who have prayed for us. Wow, have we felt the support! I couldn't do it with you guys! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

How Winter is spent in AZ...

Every year the Russell's have an annual gathering to reunite with the siblings who live near and far, usually at Jay's parents home. With everyone busy schedule we decided to pick the 26th of December where everyone would have that day off. We were busy with horse back riding (have no pictures to display, dang it), playing games at the park, and ending with a program in the evening along with gift exchanges.

Here are some highlight pictures to enjoy with:

 Uncle Rich playing 21 with Brock and Drake...

 Our own personal Spider man... he is our hero from rescuing a Frisbee that got stuck on top of a gazebo and he literally climbed up the pole on top of the roof and got it. I was in awe that I didn't take a picture! However he has a war wound on his arm (look closely).

 Playing a musical instrument from the Nutcracker. Story behind this: Practiced with grandma one time around  and they all got it down... even my Madie who is the only one who doesn't take piano lessons!

 The grand girls singing Away in a Manger all on pitch!

 Half of the grand kids.. Never a dull moment around the house

 The GUYS (Scott, Rich, LeeRen, and Jay)

 Elizabeth and Erin

 Duane and Leah

Uncle Kyle with lil' Timber

The weather couldn't have been any better! We stayed outside all day long and I am paying for it for the next day of being so tired! I am lucky to be married into a great, fantastic family!

The countdown...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!  As I write this, we have only 2 days left! I can honestly say that I only need to get one more gift and that is for Jay. Everyone else is complete, baking done, cards complete, and my work is wrapped up to end the semester! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and will focus on our Savior's birth! What a wonderful gift and such humble circumstances he came into this world.

As I ponder Christ's birth and listen to other friends and the trials they are going through, I feel richly blessed. I pray that all of you will stop and ponder of the good things that life has brought to you and in the pass! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thank goodness this week is over!

As usual I finish my work and head home. I stop and pick up Madie at extended day around 5:00 pm. I come home and start the dinner. I get a phone call around 6:30. Normally Jay calls me around 5:00 to check in... I don't think much cuz I figure its a stressful day at work and he had to stay a little later. Well when he calls me I know right away that something is wrong. He is being ambulance to a hospital. As he was getting off the highway, he was a stand still and he got rear ended. Well, with his back surgery and the nice whiplash he is in A LOT of pain... So I drop everything and have Drake in charge. I drive to the hospital and meet my husband. Good news, after the CAT scan the pins are all in tack and the bone structure looks good, phew! Needless to say, after a few days later he continues to be in further pain so he goes back to his primary doctor; she looks at the x-ray and we find out that he has a bulging disc in L4-L5 (just above his surgery). GREAT, this explains why he is in so much pain in his back and pain shooting down his leg. Oh, and he has a mild concussion... Merry Christmas dear, ugh!

We still have not heard from the appraiser to know how much damage there is on our new car. We did see the car and the bumper is scratched, hopefully that is the only thing. So on top of that with Jay's health, my students at work decide to have more meltdowns than usual, refuse to do work, and be disrespectful.  Well, I play it cool by playing along and also give them expectations on what is expected. On Thursday as I'm teaching my aide comes in my room to progress monitor them in their reading. I leave the room cuz there is activity out of the class that  is not normal. I go into the girls bathroom and find a boy in there, hiding in the handicap stall leaning up against the wall and the door slightly closed. I learn that he is a high school student that is very far from our middle school!  I tell him to come with me and we head up to the office and meet the principal not to far from the bathroom, where I found him. So with my good deed of looking out and following my gut feeling I received a "Rocket" from my principal. This is an honor to receive a rocket for going the extra mile and doing a good deed. So I'm flattered to finally get my name on the wall and showing my rocket on there!

 Let's just say I think from the weather change or having a full moon my kids acted up more than normal this week. I'm so glad I survived this week! Not to mention that I had two meetings related to church that I attended at night. I really had three but decided to not make it to the third because I wanted to be with my family, oh and Brock had a regular basketball game and then a tournament that started on Wednesday. Needless to say I was not able to make it to all of his games, and I LOVE WATCHING HIS GAMES! I wish I only had one week left of school before Christmas break but instead I get to work clear up until December 23rd! The teachers and students are NOT happy about that. I told my students to take it up to the school board. There are times I wish there are 3 of me, or to snap my fingers and I can be transported from one event to another just like that! Now, that would be wonderful (:

During our fall break...

Knowing that we are in December and I have not posted since the first of October lets me know that my priorities are elsewhere than blogging.... We had a very nice fall break back in October! The kids and I cleaned our windows, did some deep cleaning of the cupboards, pantry, and yard work to get things all under way for winter. We also went through our clothes to donate or make some money on the yard sale that was coming up. After our hard work was paid for we celebrated by taking a trip to Sedona, AZ.  This is one of our favorite get aways. We decided to take our pup with us and she did an excellent job on being the BEST TRAVELER out of all of us.

Jay showing his "swag"

 The park where we had our picnic. Great view for Castle Rock scene.

 This is where my camera started to act up and have the lightening be dumb. The kids with Macy skipping rocks.

Jay still has his moves on skipping rocks...

Crazy stuff!

Just before fall break we had some crazy events taking place in our community. The Bishop came over after general conference to speak to ME! After the chit chat he said well I'm here for your mom because we already know that your dad has a calling (ward clerk)... so he extended the calling by first saying first counselor in the R.S. I gave a face like yuck, then he said wait, that sounds wrong it's first counselor in young womens. I said, "That sounds so much better, I accept." So I'm with the MiaMaids and yes it's a busy calling but I do enjoy working with the youth. I'm looking forward to it.

While we had our first presidency meeting on Wednesday night we were discussing names for advisors and called the bishop to submit the names... Before then Jay called me but didn't give me any news, he sounded really down. So our young women president found out the terrible news that one of our teenage youth boys had gotten into a car accident by falling out of the pick up truck. He was goofing off by jumping up and down and when the driver told him to stop jumping the driver slowed down to pull over and that is when the young man fell out of the truck and did a face plant. He was rushed at the West Valley hosiptal and Jay went with the Bishop to administer to him. They had to wait in the lobby until the doctor came in and they met the mother.  When the doctor came in and made them all sit down he said, "Your son is dead". Jay said that is the worst experience he has ever been through. The mourning was so thick in the air and so great. The community has pulled together by creating fund raisers to help bury the boy. People from the Verrado ward and Waddell ward have been very generous by giving money and bringing in meals to the family.

On top of that I survived my first parent teacher conferences. The next day after hearing the news I taught, and life went on. Oh, I shed a few tears that morning and tried not to tell anyone at work about the news. Last year was hit and miss with confernce, so this one was real.  We had parents clear up until 8:00pm. We hurried the conferences and headed home. The following day we had parents clear until 4:00pm. So us teachers are welcoming the fall break just like the kids. 

The young teenager was a football player on the Varsity team. In honor they played the game for him. It was very touching and they chanted his name. The boys knew him and are handling it all right. They weren't very close but would hang out with him when he came to mutual events. I feel for his mother and for the driver as well as his parents. I hope he doesn't blame himselft.

What's Up?

Big changes happened on the westside of the valley in Phoenix! On September 25th our stake held a meeting, rumor had it that the ward boundaries would be changed. Well the rumor was correct! The Goodyear Stake now has 9 wards instead of 7. The boundaries affected every ward accept for Canyon Trails (which was our old ward). They just extended the boundary further north to Camelback, no big deal because presently it is farmland. The current ward that we are in, which is Waddell, had been split. We now have a Verrado Ward (which is where we live at). Many people are heart broken with the change in the ward boundaries. This time around, we do not have any "PRESSING CALLING". Let's just keep it that way :)

Change is hard, especially when you create such close friends, kinship and so forth. It's never quite the same when you no longer are in the ward with your friends. We have moved around so much that it hasn't affected us all that much, just because we lack on socializing.  We are so busy by attending to our kids events, working, and our church callings that we never make time to "hang out" with others. I guess you could say we are the odd balls.

What else is up? Well other than being employed and that preoccupies the majority of our time... We did buy a new car. Brock has the old red car. So we now have three drivers. It has been wonderful with him driving. He has helped me out so much on picking Madie up from Extended Day Care when I needed to stay longer to pick Drake up from the YMCA after swim practice.

Yes, our family stays busy with sporting events. That is our passion, however, I'm working on a solution with my budget, and time to get Madie to start piano lessons. She is a natural and enjoys music. Drake took piano lessons for 4 months until he decided he was just too cool for it. He was a natural as well by having rhythm, a beat, and quick learner.

So that is the low down with us for this month...

Our new addition...

During our trip in Idaho we picked up a puppy at McKee's pet shop. She absolutely adores the kids...Brock is her favorite and sleeps with him and whimpers when he leaves the house.

These pictures where taken In July. Looking back at these, she has grown quite a bit. Those of you who are great dog trainers... I need some advice for her to be obedient. She is a spaze! However, the potty training we have down. YAHOO!

Lighting the fire to be a homemaker again...

Our ward had  their Super Saturday event of different crafts and classes. Normally I sign up to do a craft and paint and what not... But in this case I chose to take a class to actually learn. It has been so long since I've canned pears and peaches that I took a refresher course for canning fruit... my attempt to can fruit slowly got lit on wanting to can.... Then my next class was to be "girlie" by making hair clips to accent your outfit.  What they made are so SIMPLE I knew I could do this. So this weekend I sat down and made a few hair clips for Madie and I to wear. I showed Madie what I made and she is cool with the flowers that have a purple or blue jewel in the middle. So I feel like this was a success!

As I was going through my left over material that I have had for years when I use to make my curtains is that I ran across some cross stitch patterns and material. This is such a lost art that I plan to teach my daughter how to cross stitch and how to sew a button.

NORTHERN COUNTRY

Every year we make the annual trip to visit family in Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. Well this time around we got the itch really bad to come back to it desperatally. 2 out of the 3 kids would move in a heart beat. I would have to find a swim team up north for my one to say yes to the move. Any how we thoroughly enjoyed our trip!  Here are some of the highlights during our week stay.

 Breakfast on the 4th of July. This is our tradition in my parents backyard. On top are the cousins chilling out and waiting to go to the parade.  On the bottom is my parents and my siblings. The only one missing is my sister Jolene.

At the end of the parade the army tank stopped and sprayed a whole crowd of kids, adults and whoever wanted to get cooled off.  These were the brave souls who got soaked. From left to right are Madie, Kayden, Benjamin, Brendan, and Julia. All of Madie's cousins.

 Check out our jive... Just Dance on the Wii. We could not beat Taylor! Even Jay and I tried this fun game. Hmm Santa may just have to get this game for us.

 One of our favorite get aways... Jackson Hole, WY. This is the over pass to get to Jackson from Driggs. There has been so much snow from the winter that flooding is going on at Driggs and the rivers are high! We were surprised to see that people were still White Water Rafting on the Snake.

 Check out the grizzly bear.

 We rode the ski lift to see the scenic view of Jackson. Behind us are the Grand Tetons. This time around we didn't take the hike around Jenny Lake.

After church we got a family picture behind one of the old buildings in Rexburg that is located on Main Street. Do to lack of sleep Madie was NOT HAPPY!

Another fun event that took place on this trip is that we caved in and bought a Dachsund puppy at McKees in Pocatello. She was soo cute and reminded us of our last Dachsund that we just had to get her. She was a great traveler and the kids were entertained with her coming back that the ride home was very enjoyable! It was really hard to come back to the hell hole of Phoenix. We either need to invest in finding work up north or getting a summer home.  We will see what happens. 

The LAST Cottle Reunion

With much discussion, and realization the Cottle Reunion has come to a close. Our family has not been able to make it to these reunions for the past 5 years by various reasons and was able to make it to this one, this year. It was held in a gorgeous location and we felt very spoiled. The place is called Clear Creek Ranch, with 85 members out of 245 members of the family were able to attend. I highly recommend this place for a reunion. Lots to do, canoeing, fishing, swimming, slip and slide, ATV driving, basketball, and a playground. Oh and lots of areas to go and explore.

Here are a few shots that I got of our family and his cousins.

 Brock and Drake checking out there skills to jump over  Daniel.

 Madie cooling off on the slip and slide.

 Jared getting air to jump over 4 guys!

 The biggest frog I've ever seen! This kid caught it by the pond.

 Canoeing. Jay not liking it at all!

 Cottle choir, they sounded good.

The boys, Jay and his cousins... before we left

 The girl cousins looking good.

Jay's parents, aunts and uncles that have continued to run the Cottle reunion for 35 years.

Weighing heavy on my mind...

Some very upsetting news approached my sister's family on May 13, 2011. After a long day at work and chaperoning a middle school dance I get on facebook and my family is all sad in Idaho. I quickly called my sister and texted another sister to see if my nephew who is serving over in Iraq is all right. Found out that his fiance, her sister, and her two children had been murdered by the sister's ex-boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend went in the middle of the night and shot all four sleeping and then he turned on himself and committed suicide on top of trying to burn the house.  I didn't know my nephew's fiance very well. We had met but the story about the insanity of the ex-boyfriend applying his actions to hurt others was crazy!

So many thoughts keep running in my mind. One: Is my nephew going to be bitter towards god or will he lean on him and become active again in the church? Two: perfect time to start doing Malinda's (my nephew's fiance) temple work... hoping she will accept it. Three: I feel for her parents and for the loss of losing there only daughters and grand children. Four: Wishing the ex-boyfriend lived to be tormented.  Five: Why did this have to happen? Six: I'm so grateful to have the gospel in my life and know the plan of salvation, the atonement, and the gift of life. I'm saddened about the whole story and I didn't even know her or the family very well.

As I turn for comfort and answers I go towards the scriptures, prayer, and the Ensign. I feel at peace because I have a testimony of the plan of salvation, and most of all the atonement. My family has been a great strength, as I've read my niece's blogs about the events and their testimonies. I'm so grateful to have a strong family spiritually. Malinda, you will be missed and you have made a huge impact on my nephew's life and amongst the rest of the family members.

May events

What a fun full packed last month. With Mother's Day, birthdays, and graduation with end of school programs and events! Whew!  Madie's first grade invited the moms for a special Mother's Day breakfast. The kids were so excited and created these wonderful cards, drawing a picture of their mom. On the other side is what their mom loves and what they think of it. I loved Madie's answer about my age... 29 to be exact! I have fooled her :)

 The gift she gave me. She even colored the pot.

 The card she made

 The friends we like to hang out with at school and church.

A memorable moment for Drake. I'm not proud to say this but Drake has been to 8 different schools in the last 9 years of his schooling. He finished his last year at Verrado middle school. He got all decked out to receive his certificate. I rented a vest for him. He is one proud peacock and no wonder he is a chic magnet!

 Coming in to receive his certificate. Just received his certificate.

 Best pals. Oswin and Drake

 Wind did not help with long hair.

 Drake with more of his friends. Half of them already left by the time we found Drake to get more pictures.

Congratulations son! We are so proud of you to accomplish middle school life. One of the toughest times of your life. Now onto bigger and better memories, events, and schooling for you. Watch out Verrado High... Here comes Drake!