Snow much fun (??????)

So I tried Snowboarding for the first time. I was not great to say the least. I do have to say that Miranda and Harold were very patient teachers. I feel so old now and well I am fluffy(really that just means fat but ouch I just can't say it).Harold stuck with me the whole day and watched my many falls. Then he would ski down and help me up again & again & again & again ect...... How do you get up?
Finally when I went into muscle failure(which sadly didn't take long) and Logan, bless his heart, had had enough, Harold let me rest.


Then Harold taught Emma who caught on pretty quick. She is not even sore at all. Oh to be tiny again and be made with cute little rubber bones. I on the other hand wondered if I could drive to church the next day. I never want to go back ,but he made me promise I would try it at least twice before I quit for good. Poor Harold spent the whole day helping someone else and he never even complained. After his heroic behavior how can I back out of a promise.

Everyone in the family enjoys this so I feel like I need to like it. Ahhh the pressure. Still none of them have had four bone weakening babies right. I may have to play that angle.
I do like the idea of sitting in the lodge, getting massages and eating. Only drifting out to the slopes for the occasional picture.




The camera battery died before I could get any pictures of Caleb or Harold. I guess I will have to go back.

Winter break catch up

We had a great winter break. I feel like we really got into Christmas this year. Harold was supposed to be gone but one of the guys from his unit volunteer to go so he came home on the 18th and was here with us for Christmas and the new year. I think that is really put things in perspective. Christmas is not about stress. I feel like we just took it easy and it was nice. I was released from my primary calling 2 weeks before Christmas and put in as our branch activities leader. The first thing I did was cancel the Christmas party. I did have some guilt but to tell you the truth I think that it was a relief for most people. One less thing to do. Here are some pictures from the break.

This is at the Battalion Christmas party. I love how they set Santa up in this Chinook.


Here is Emma on Santa's lap. They are in the Chinook.
Here is how Santa arrived. This is the first time I've seen this.




I know it is cheesy but the kids(and grown men) thought it was pretty cool.

We had the first ever
STANLEY FAMILY CHRISTMAS EVE TALENT SHOW

Here's Harold singing with Emma And Logan. Logan and Harold also did a dance. WOW!Is all I can say about that.

Here is Miranda rocking for us on her Guitar.
Caleb and I played a Trumpet /Saxophone duet. We recorded it but there are no pictures. And You do not want to see the video.

Happy New Year!
We ring in 2010 with some great friends.




And when you walk in and find this you don't ask questions you just get the camera and take a picture.

And just when you have had enough "family time" and you are ready to send them all back to school and work. You wake up Monday morning and find this.
Two more long precious days of family bonding. Everything shut down for the worst snow storm in 40 years.





Happy Holidays!

Milk and Eggs

I was just thinking how this will be our third Christmas here. At first so many things struck me as odd when we first got here. Now I am noticing that things which once were odd have become normal. Like for instance. I buy Eggs in a group of 10, not by the dozen .



And how I can only buy milk by the half gallon.



And that is doesn't expire for over a month sometimes. Yummy! It is really convenient though.(the expiration date not the half gallon thing. That is just annoying.)

I just bought this milk 2 days ago, and I am good until after the new year.

Happy Turkey Day!

It all stared off with a neighbor of mine. We decided to rent the community center near our house and invite a few lonely people over for Thanksgiving. We put out an open invitation at church and had a few bites. No one want to be alone on Thanksgiving. So we end up with like 4 families that want to join us. Then a few more. Then we found out that among the families coming a few of them had also invited missionaries to come. No problem right. How about 14 sets of them. That's right we had 28 missionaries there. 28 missionaries that were soooooo excited to be eating American food.
So when it was all said and done there were over 8o people there. It was a little crowded but still worth it to see all of there happy faces and by some miracle full bellies. We had 4 turkeys 3 hams, about a hundred pound of potatoes(that was the one thing we had left over) and a lot of pies.
I am so glad that we had people to celebrate with. Harold had to fly some 3 star around that day(and he didn't even get a coin for it, cheap skate General) so we really would have been alone. It is never fun to be away from home for Holidays. I am so glad we had friends here to share this Thanksgiving with.


Harold Cooking the 25 pound turkey he didn't get to eat :(



Tonya And Karen serving it up.


Emma at the "what are you grateful for" tree.


The teen table.

Jody getting some food before it is all gone. She is my neighbor. She is moving next month :(

Look at all those happy faces. It was all worth it just for that.

Growing Pains and the Gift of Time

What a crazy fall this has been. A month after we got home from the USA our family got some bad news. I should have known when everything lined up so beautifully for that family picture. My oldest sister found out that her cancer was back. She has been clear for almost ten years. Cured we all believed.
She has been feeling fine but while we were home she was finding it a little hard to breath. We really thought nothing about it. We all said "It must be Utah allergies." "You know our family, we have bad lungs, remember Grandma Jackson?" "We are all heavy breathers."
Anyway when she got back to Texas she didn't feel better so she went in to have it checked out. The news is not good. The cancer is back and it is all over. She had lots of fluid in her lungs and some big masses in there, which is what was causing the breathing issues. It is in her liver. Her bones, and joints and just pretty much everywhere.
It was a blow and we were told they would probably give her 6 months. She is only 47. It was so sad. Further test showed that this cancer was from the same strain as her original breast cancer. They thought they had got it all but I guess not. Stupid cancer it doesn't play fair. The good news is even though they can't cure it, they think, since they have done it once maybe they can get her into remission again. So now we are all hoping for the gift of time.
I really felt the need to go home and see her. So that is where I have been.
On a happier note my little sister decided to get married. So I flew in to Salt Lake City for a few days for a wedding before heading to Texas.
It was a great trip full of much growing. Some of which I would rather not do. So at the age of 35 I feel like I am having some major growing pains. Ahhh Life! What more can I say.

Juliana & Jarek with mom and dad. I am so glad that I was there.

Here's a crazy coincidence. I was in Salt Lake City the same time that Tiffany(now in Maryland) and Nicki( now in Washington state) were there. We all got together and went to lunch and then they took me to the airport. I can not think of a better time to see two great friends. The really made me feel strong. What a blessing.


TEXAS

Here we are ready to go out.

Micheal, Joydell, and Christmas.

Billy and Micheal carving a pumpkin.

Micheal and Christmas taking a nap. They are best friends.

What do you get when your mom's name is Joyce ,
and your dad's name is Gardell and your the first girl born.
You get named Joydell.
It was so good to see her again.
We had a lot of Laughs, just as many tears and made some priceless memories.I also learned to never waste a minute. Time is truly a gift, use it wisely.

The beatles come to Korea!

Look what happens when you work together
$40 from Caleb
$40 from Logan
$40 from me
$20 from Miranda(cheap skate)
$ 20 from Emma
Home delivery from Harold

We have already had many hours of fun.
This is the family rocking out before bed time.

Here are the kids and some extras after school

Here is what mom does while the kids are at school. Thanks Jen and Jody(9 months prego here) for the jam session. Now I am almost good enough to play with the kids.

A day at the Aquarium.

Dr. Fish again. These little fish are always hungry for more flesh.

A two headed turtle. Just seeing him is supposed to be double the luck.

I can't even explain these next pictures.
It must be a Korean thing.

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Kind of interesting don't you think.