Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!

Today is my man's birthday.  We won't mention how old he is turning because that just depresses him.  I know things haven't gone exactly as he may have envisioned since we got married, but I know things have gone the way they are supposed to have.  The trials we have gone through have brought us together in ways that we never would have otherwise.  I have to admit there has been more than one occasion this past year when I wondered if he would make it to this birthday.  But, here we are and looking forward to celebrating many more to come.  I love you honey and I appreciate all you do to take care of me.  Even if it isn't in the way you would prefer.  You are an amazing man and I am so grateful to our Heavenly Father for bringing you into my life.  Have a happy birthday.  I love you honey!!!

Looking for the Blessings

I was reading on another blog today that was saying hard things either make you cling or crumble. Trials make you bitter or beautiful.  I've been trying really hard this past couple of years not to crumble or be bitter about things.  And it is HARD.  When my mind starts the "why us" train of thought I have to consciously change the direction my thoughts are headed.  The truth is that for a long time for every trial we have gone through I could come up with a reason why it was a blessing.  I wish I had written more things down because looking back the past 18 months or so are pretty much a blur and I probably can't tell you what those blessing were.  I realized today though that somewhere in the past few months I just quit looking for the good in situations and began to count them as one more thing to endure.  It's time to pull it together and get back on track.  Yes things have been hard for me and Kyle, but we have faced the trials together and we are still together and in this day and age that fact is the biggest blessing of all. 

*On another note.  After more than  10 weeks of antibiotics Kyle's foot is still infected and very swollen.  The option we have now is to put him on a strong antibiotic that is not in any way good for his already damaged kidneys.  There really isn't another option so please pray with us that this antibiotic clears up the infection quickly without doing any more kidney damage.  Thanks everyone for your love and prayers!

Zions National Park

All the times we have been to St. George we haven't really ever explored the parks and things down there.  So this time we ventured forth and went to Zions on Thursday.  We took the bus on the scenic route and it was beautiful.  This time of year there were several waterfalls due to the spring run off.  Dad, Marlee, Marijka, and I went on a short hike and saw this huge squirrel.  We then drove over to the east entrance so we could drive through the mile long tunnel.  On our way back we saw a herd of bighorn sheep.  When we entered the park the ranger told us not to expect to see any because people rarely see them.  So we thought we were pretty lucky to see a whole herd of them.  There was a cute baby with them too.  Here are some videos and a bunch of pictures of our day.

Soul Surfer

After work today we went and saw the movie Soul Surfer.  If any of you haven't seen this film I highly recommend you go and see it.  It's a true story of a girl who shows remarkable bravery, courage, and faith in the face of a horrifying experience.  It was very refreshing to watch a good clean movie that wasn't afraid to talk about God.  You should go see this movie if for no other reason than to show support for those people who were willing to take a chance and release a christian film. 

Vandalized!

Last week was spring break for the school district so I had the week off of work.  We went to St. George with my family and had a great time.  Things didn't start off too great, but they got better after the first morning.  On Saturday we woke up to discover that sometime during the night someone had vandalized the cars in the condo parking lot.  They painted the van license plate, Susan's wheels, and all the indentions on our car.  Our car was the worst and we ended up having our car in the shop for 2 1/2 days of the trip while they got the paint off.  We were lucky it didn't end up having to be repainted.  I don't understand people who damage things just because they can.