Monday

Our Sunday

Today had a few jewels that I'd love to share. Got up, went to church and found a beautiful old large building. At the end of the meeting, after the prayer, the congregation stood and sang a traditional song to a departing couple in the ward. It was very sweet and loving, and sad. Ee stopped at pearl harbor but didnt stay long. We went to see where Kim lived when she was here, then to the Temple. While in the visitor center, I really thought sitting down somewhere comfortable and cool would be nice. I saw someone open the door to a big room I figured was for a nice church film to be shown in. I called to the fam to see if they wanted to see a film. We went in among a bunch of Hawaiians. When they started I realized we has invited ourselves to their extended family home evening. They did show a movie- Remembering Kirtland- which we all enjoyed. There was a beautiful spirit there and we joked with them later about not realizing it was just their family thing. It was very good- a rare unexpected jewel of am experience. We drove around BYU-H then went by Temple Beach. Kim said they sometimes do baptisms there. The sand was soft and the water warm. It was a nice day.

A song glued in the back of the hymn book

Pearl Harbor

Kims old place on the point

The FHE we crashed

Temple beach

Saturday

Today was great! Sleeping in in Hawaii is such a pleasure. We went to the Dole pineapple plantation, Teds bakery and then to the Polynesian cultural center. We had lots of good times. Steve stole the Samoan drum show when they asked him to come up on stage. Several people commented on how well he did following the head drummer. I didn't pick out any mistakes but if steve made any, he covered well with enthusiasm--to be sure. He won the crowds approval and was known as "Utah" I'm sure they will have more on their blog about it.
We also tried poi and it wasn't too bad. We enjoyed the luau at the "PCC" and surprisingly I was ok with the raw fish. It was really perky and tasted a bit like sesame oil. (I am softening towards the sushi thought actually). We ended the night with the PCC show which was very enjoyable. I always want to fall asleep sooner than the clock says it is time, but THAT what makes sleeping in in the morning such a pleasure!

Hawaii. The first day

*timing* has not been our strongest suit this year- none the less the scheduled vacation time has arrived. We had a pretty good, yet long, flight. Everyone took care of themselves and helped with the little guy too. Jack did great! All day he was a little trooper. There were a few glitches getting the rental cars that made the actual settling in rough but we got here safe and everyone is happy. We'll stay in Oahu a few days. Were in a great place. Clarks in one room, Kim Aub in another. And Dave and I and the boys in another. First impressions- flowers IN trees!! Funky trees- Got to see rainbow in the rainbow state the first day

something I wrote 18 months before I met my future husband

Part of the fun of packing up includes finding long lost boxes. We found a few jewels yesterday and I was surprised with this one. What do you think? How close did I get?


Love and marriage
March 4,1981
Connie Haws

The man I marry will need to fulfill a lot of hopes I have for him. I, first expect him to be the same religion as me and have the same standards. He will need to have a lot of self confidence, but not any self conceit. He will have to have the ability to get along well with others, even if he really doesn't like them. He will need to be crazy in love with me and think a lot of me. I hope he has the power to be the leader of our home and the leader of me, but not so much hat he stunts my self esteem to be my own growing worthwhile thinking person. He must have the attitude that we will be together forever and that whatever comes along we together as a team to handle it. He must love families and children. I'd like him to have a good reputation as a strong leader, a great friend, and a totally honest trustworthy person. More important than the reputation, he has to really truly be those things. He must be attractive to me and must find me attractive also. I hope he is the romantic sentimental type who will always treat me as a lady. And hold me as a woman on a pedestal. He's got to make me feel protected and also help me feel like I want to be my best at everything I do. He must be fun loving and happy. He must be gentle, and very loving, and very very sensitive to my feelings. He must have the knowledge to help educate our children. He must have a strong ambition to make life work for us, and have a good stable job so we don't have any trouble with money. We don't have to be rich, but we should have enough so we can have a good life. He needs to be well balanced in his interests so we can try new things. He should like outdoors and participating and watching sports, but not over me. We should be each others main concern and feel as though we would do anything for each other. We have to be best friends.

My kids thought is was pretty close to what I got. Dave read it and said, "thats what I try to be everyday" riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, hes already there my friends. The kids think the gem of the day was Davids yearbooks and pictures in them. I'm wondering if its right to post those pictures here....He had great hair- lets just leave it at that

A sad day- Midnight, Big Kitty, Stinky, The Professor--

Today Joseph and I ran off to get his wisdom teeth stitches out first thing this morning. While we were out, I asked if he had seen any of the three kitties this morning- neither of us had. It's a little out of the ordinary but not unheard of. When we got home we started getting ready to meet the aunts and cousins at the park. Joseph called to me while I was putting DI stuff in the van. He said he had found Big Kitty and that he had died behind one of his favorite plants, in the front flower bed. Joseph was very sad. Jacob came out and saw what has happened, I went in to get a towel and a box to put him in We called The Dad and he helped Joseph a little bit. Jacob lifted Stinky out and put him in the box. I couldn't look at him too long, cause it was so sad. I hope he left peacefully. He was a good little pal for all of us for the 16 years we've lived here. I knew Stink wasn't healthy and wondered if he was in pain. He was blind in one eye, and he had that limp from a broken leg-- and he must have had teeth issues cause his breath was really bad. He had gotten really skinny recently. I knew the move would be a little hard on him, so at least he escaped that--- the boys talked of taking him to the canyon to bury him, but they opted to bury him in the back yard. I hope the new owners are cool about that. I remember seeing a cartoon of the family circus where there was a map of the home and yard and lots of pet burial spots were pointed out. It's the sign of a happy pet loving home. I reassured my kids it was ok to be sad about Stink leaving cause it shows their soft hearts. My Dad told me long ago that God gives us pets to help prepare us for when loved ones, who are people, die. A tough lesson that hit home on this sad day.

Connie

My good boys

More changes

We are getting new cabinets next week. Tomorrow the workers will come to take out the cabinets that came with the house. They have been great. It's true that there's not alot of cabinet space but with the pantry and the shelves out in the garage we have managed just fine. I'm fighting the sentimental thoughts that naturally come to me as we've packed this room up. Lots of good times and memories centered on cooking or baking or enjoying a meal- or even just graham crackers and milk at the counter. Its kind of a little work space, not really good for more than one or two cooks, but this scene will always bring me happy memories. I'll post a few more pictures as the progress unfolds.

What I've been up to

This is going to be an interesting summer. We are gearing up for the move. There is no place in the Highland home for my 2 king and queen chairs, so I sold them for $20 less than I bought them for. I'm trying to be organized and weed stuff out as we pack. I had no idea I had so many bottles of lotion!! Weird! And all the shampoo and lotion from hotels .... Where in tar-nation did we ge so many? I'm not a really up tight house cleaner, but I think I do ok. I started working on the bath a few weeks ago and it looks great, but the toilet is giving me fits. There's a bunch of black rust minerals or something way up high under the rim. It's stuff I never really noticed till I got down low to scrub that dirty dog. That black stuff gets me thinking really hard in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. Thankfully it only looks bad and doesn't have any smell- maybe if it did I would have gotten to it sooner. Then there's the food storage issues. Yikes! Alot of the food had already expired but I took it to the food drop off after the shelter lady said any food could be 1-3 yrs expired depending on the food. I have another box of food knocking on the soon to expire door that I will share with my sisters tomorrow. All this makes me thankful for my kids. They are helping me out alot. Next week both boys will be home so I'm sure we will get alot done. ;) Looks like we will be in the new place by the fourth of July. Dave will be out of town 3 times, maybe 4, between now and then. Here's a few pictures to give you a visual on my goings on.

Pricing a new stove

The one in this house has a crack in the ceramic top

Picking out a new counter for the master bath

Cleaning the lousy lou

Sharing soon to expire food

Many items to DI

Weeding out and packing

It's who ya know

Tonight David and I were in Orem signing silly papers for the upcoming
move and the kids called and asked what was planned for dinner. Well,
I'd been involved with activity day today, and then the quick trip to
Orem so I hadn't taken care of dinner for tonight. They said they
would figure something out, so David took me to a near by thai
restaurant. Laura and Steve have gone there often so I was happy to go
there. I wondered what laur and steve really liked there, so I texted
her for the information. She didn't answer right away. When the
server came I asked her if she knew Jack. She started to tell me that
she really didn't know her customers by name, so I said that Jack is a
baby. She said "Jack? Oh!! Jack! Ya! His picture is on our fridge". We
talked about how awesome he is and later the manager came out to talk
to us. She watched Laura and Steve go from newlyweds to expectant
parents to a family of three. They all love S. L. and Jack at that
place. They totally knew what Laura and Steve order, so we got the
same. We really really liked the massaman curry.

a change

Last November, David suggested we think about moving to a different place. This house really is awesome and we have loved living there. I was in no mental state to accept his idea at that time. I was actually really shocked he thought of it. He had started looking at homes for sale on the Internet.

I do admit that at Christmas, I felt a little crowded having everyone here. We just have bigger kids now and they, happily, are bringing others to the family. I remember shocking the boys proclaiming we should move to a different house by next Christmas.

Fast forward to this past late winter and early spring. Circumstances had come up that nudged the decision along. In late February and March and April and May we looked at houses. We looked mostly on the Internet, many drive bys, and eventually hooking up with a great real estate guy. We saw some freaky houses- its really odd how many weird things are out there.

Finally we agreed on a beautiful home in Highland. We wanted somewhere where the boys could still attend the same school here in Lehi. We really feel content with the decision. It will be very hard to leave the ward and the little community we have, though I know its the best thing for my family. We will still have ties here, with the boys going to LHS. And we will hopefully still be invited to weddings and showers and missionary farewells. I sometimes get really sad realizing what we are giving up here. We've lived here for 15 years. This is the only home Jacob has known, and Joseph and Aub remember.

I'm so thankful that I get to take my family with me. We will sell this house and I pray for a little family to come that will enjoy this place as much as we have. One thing I really need to adjust to is being more separated from the goings on in the home. In this house, I know pretty much what is going on. I know what is on the computer, on the TV and who is where. Those are some of the advantages of this split level. We will be in a two story with a basement. Ill be so far from my boys when I'm working in the kitchen and they are down in their bedrooms.... sounds dumb, I know.

So there ya go. The quiet plans of the summer are revealed. If all goes well, as we think it will, we will be allowed to move in near the end of June. July is a bad month to "move". Dave and Jacob to scout camp, Joseph to EFY and a long planned for paid for family trip too. I'm glad my kids are all old enough to help out. We need to fix up our Lehi house before we sell, so we are hoping to put it up for sale sometime in July, after we are out.

John Bytheway has a book I've read and one of his topics is not to complain about your blessings. I'm trying to remember that and will try not to complain during this transition, and I'll try not to cry.

I just don't like it

I'm so glad he is usually in Utah.

I'm so glad we are best friends.

I'm so glad he comes home almost every night and lightens my worries
and slays any dragon messing with me.

I'm so glad he likes me and wants to be with me.

I'm so glad I caught his heart.

I'm so glad he balances me out with his objective logical mind.

I'm so glad he is such a great father and role model for my sons.

I just don't like it when he has to go- at all

A little stress is no match for The Chocolate

After a few stressful events Laura Aubrey and I, along with Jack,
ended up at "the chocolate". It is a place in Orem that serves cake,
cupcakes, a little vanilla ice cream, or milk and also hot chocolate.
They also have lemon bars, a few cookies and a few other like items.
The three of us had spent the morning together and after a large-good-
iced-drink spilled in my car, Laura tripping (without dropping baby
boy) and ripping her Vanity jeans in the knee and lots of bleeding,
and the overall naggin' stress of a probable up coming event, we knew
the answer would be found at The Chocolate. Now I gotta get serious
about The Gym

I called his mom

I called his mom Another year passes and I of course remember the day my friend died on his mission. I am an old, very happily married lady, but each May 13, I remember that heartbroken 17 year old girl I was. I've had more than a few sad dreams about that time so its easy to recall the
sadness. I also think of this missionarys mom and wonder how she's
doing on this date.
I mentioned something about it on a facebook page "people who miss
elder Kent Williams" and was invited to call Kents mom and let her
know I was thinking about her. Wow. I hadn't thought of doing that.
The last time I saw her was at the graveside service in Vegas in 1981
So I did it! I called her and she did have a good day, well she had
foot surgery- but from a sentimental perspective it was good. I was so brave to look passed all the years that were between us. We
had a nice little visit. You all know I'm a wimp so I hope you are
as impressed with my courage as I am :)
Connie

May 18

May 18

Today for our sisters activity we played with food. We made chicken
cordon bleu, enough or us to each take some home. We also made a
double batch of some homemade Oreos. This all started with a gift
Laurie got die mothers day. Her daughters in law compiled and had
printed a cookbook of family recipes. (I'm hoping to at least get the
recipes by email or something). We have a great group of four
generations including cousins and adopted in proxy daughters. There
are a few tinys and more littles in the group too. Pickles have
somehow become the traditional snack--- don't know why. Anyway enjoy
the pictures. It was a great time.

Connie

a really fun day

Fun times with Jack.

As you may know, Little Man Jack comes over evey week. He is typically
very happy and easy to entertain. He eats just about anything, so when
Aub broke out the jello the other day we decided to let him try it. At
first I held him on my lap at the counter. He did really good
cinsidering how slippery jello is. We ended up using the high chair
for awhile and then the party ended in the traditional bath in
grandmas kitchen sink. What a little love he is.