A good reminder

It's nice to find noodle art like this when you are cleaning up lunch!

Say What?

I will keep this brief because the subject has completely exhausted me this week. We are NOT moving! Cory now has the opportunity (as of Wednesday morning) to be Sales Manager in the N. Salt Lake office. For us we get the best of both worlds he gets the promotion and we don't have to move.

We are very excited to stay. We love our neighborhood, friends, schools, and ward. We love the idea of resuming our normal lives and not uprooting our kids from the only house they've ever known. There are a lot of boxes packed, but that's an easy thing to undo. I have been busy all week with the help of my mother-in-law cleaning and packing and getting our kitchen, dining room, and hallway ready to paint.

As I type this I remember last week I was working on getting Mataya's room "ready" in the sense that it's decluttered and presentable for an interested buyer. I put everything in place, it was clean and cute and girly. I then took a bunch of pictures at every possible angle so I could remember it all after we moved! Sad...I'm very sentimental. How could I leave this house without a picture to remember what her closet looked like?...LOL! Tonight Mataya opened her closest and said, "all gone!"

I'm not cleaning or packing or doing anything that resembles hard labor tomorrow. I'm going shopping with Mataya. Not grocery shopping....real shopping!

Leap of Faith

Changes are happening at the Jones house. We are moving to the Phoenix area June 1st. Our lives have been in a complete uproar for the last several months and we've been waiting for things to settle down. The day after Cory was called in the bishopric, things at work started changing. The owner of the company that Cory works for kept asking him to apply for the Sales Manager job in their Phoenix office. Cory kept saying no because of his new calling, but eventually he decided to apply. I knew they would offer him the job, because he's pretty darn good at what he does.

I was sitting in a Young Women presidency meeting when I got a text from Cory saying, "Mark just called and offered me the job and I accepted." It is very difficult amidst talk of girls camp and trek later in the summer. It breaks my heart to know we will be leaving our ward. Honestly, it is a privilege to serve in the church, but this one will be hard to leave behind. Cory was working in AZ last week and I got to fly down on Friday and spend the day and Saturday house hunting while Cory's sweet mom was at our house watching the kids. We looked at a lot of places and got a feel for the area, and we may just rent an apartment for a few months then we can find the perfect house for our family. Me and the kids plan on living at the pool all summer! We went to the Mesa temple on Saturday in between realtor appointments. As you can see I'm wearing a jacket and Cory told me I was going to get kicked out of Arizona for wearing a jacket...Lol!
These little babies are next to the parking lot by Cory's office.



Friday night we drove up to Scottsdale for sightseeing and dinner. It is very beautiful there the trees and flowers are so pretty. We decided to go to a movie so after much searching we decided to go to The King's Speech at a cheap old school theater. They re-released it PG-13 and it was so good! We went to the 10 o'clock show, I guess we thought we were back in college because that got a little late after a long day, but it was fun. I got a picture in the theater by Batman and Superman for my boy's enjoyment.

Now our number one priority is selling our house. My days are full of packing, cleaning, painting, and Diet Coke! And my kids have been watching way too much t.v., but I'll save the guilt of all that for another time.

Parker is excited to move and looks forward to making new friends and swimming a whole lot. Spencer took a little while to come around. He was very concerned with scorpions. But now every time he prays he asks Heavenly Father to bless us to travel safely when we move to Arizona. That's good enough for me!

So it looks at though this little blog of mine has been a little neglected. What can I say? We've had a few things going on at our house. Some of which I will post about later on in the week. I saw this "keep calm and carry on" poster in a blog post that was hanging in a kitchen. I liked it so I thought I would share.

Maybe I spoke too soon.

Today was an interesting day. It started earlier than I was hoping with a cute little girl snuggling in bed with me (good:) and Spencer throwing up (bad). Cory had to be at his first meeting by 8 a.m. So I was on my own. And I knew I wouldn't be going to church and I was disappointed because it was the first day of our new ward and Cory was speaking in church with all the bishopric.

So my morning was full of yucky mom stuff like cleaning up throw up and poop. Good times! Then I find out I have a meeting with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. I'm getting a calling. I'm thinking "please let it be a primary teacher or visiting teaching supervisor".

I was extended a call to be 2nd counselor in the Young Women's. When I heard those words I wanted to cry. I love young women's, but this was uncharted territory for me/us with Cory's calling.

Earlier in the week I was reading in Mosiah when Alma and his people were persecuted for doing what was right and for praying. If they were caught praying they would be put to death. To protect their lives they prayed to God in their hearts and he knew the thoughts of their hearts. They experienced much suffering and affliction. And the Lord knew of their pain.

The verse that I thought of today and one that I love is Mosiah 24:15:

"And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

After receiving this call today I felt a heavy burden placed upon me and my family. All I could think about was the time away from my kids and the meetings and mutual night and girls camp and we are still going on trek.

Even though I couldn't go to church I had the opportunity of going to the church afterwards to be set apart with the rest of the young women's presidency. Cory set me apart which was very neat. I know this call comes from the Lord and he won't give me more than I can handle.

I know our burdens can be made light when we have faith in the Lord's plan. It does take patience and trusting in the Lord's timing. I'm so excited to get to know the other leaders and young women. It really is the best calling and I feel privileged to serve with these ladies. My feeling obviously changed throughout the day, which I hoped they would!

What did I say the other day? Out of the frying pan into the fire? Well, lets try "Out of the fire and into the burning inferno"!

Spencer's 5th birthday party.

Here is Mataya demonstrating a game we played at the party called "Hook the Treasure". The kids had to use the hook to pick up the necklaces and see who could pick up the most in 30 seconds.

Spencer got some super cool gifts. I'm not sure he is looking at his new toy, but it looks like it:)

Cute cousin Marley.

The wee little pirates.

On the hunt for treasure with Spencer leading the pack. I took pictures of things for the clues so it would be easier. We had them running all over outside and they we all breathing heavy by the time they got to the treasure.The treasure was in our outside storage bin we use for toys. It was full of goodie bags and pirate swords.
The boys running around with their treasure.

We played a game where I put uncooked rice and pennies in a big bowl and the kids had to wear a blindfold and had one minute to get as much money out as they could. This game was a time filler and I thought they would think it was lame, but I think they really loved it.

Little Mataya. She napped for most of the party, but she was out there at first running around with the kids.

We played "Pop the Cannonball". I told Parker to go easy on the little kids.....well you can see how well that pep talk went....lol!The goodie bags and treasure bottle. I got small soda bottles and had the kids put rice and small treasures in them.

Spencer and his buds.

Blowing out the candles on the treasure map cake.

It was a fun party and fun day.

out of the frying pan...into the fire!

So two weeks ago I was really stressed with life and my calling. We had a super busy weekend with Melissa's baby shower and the next day I had 3 meetings for young women's and trek. I just felt like I was running around like a crazy person barely getting by. The next day I get a phone call saying that the stake president wants to meet with me and Cory the following Wednesday. Those phone calls are scary! Cory tried to convince me it was for me, but I thought it was him.

We go on Wednesday (Feb 23rd) and meet with the entire stake presidency. And he extends a call to Cory to be the first counselor in the bishopric of a new ward. At first I'm thinking a singles ward or something, but then he tells us they are rearranging the boundaries of 5 wards and creating a new ward. It was an incredible experience and I'm grateful for these men and their words of counsel and their strong testimonies.

They didn't even tell us who the bishop was we had to walk into the high council room to find out. It is Jared Jones and we love him and his sweet wife so we cried and hugged (okay I cried:). Then we went in a room and talked and got to see the new ward boundaries and it was very shocking for our ward. And the worst part was we had to keep it a secret for almost 2 weeks. That was very difficult.

It was very hard to carry on at young women's and mutual night knowing that I would no longer be the 1st counselor in y.w. and that I would no longer be in the same ward as almost all the girls and leaders. There has been lots of crying on my part. However, I am very excited for this opportunity for Cory to serve and to have new people in our ward to meet. There are still lots of people in our ward that we know so it will all be okay.

So 2 weeks ago I was the busy one in my calling and now Cory is the busy one times a thousand! They have to fill all the callings for a ward in a short amount of time. But at least they can meet at the church and not a secret location like they had to last week....lol!

So that means no girls camp and no trek. My summer just suddenly opened up. Okay, I guess there is a chance Cory and I will still go on trek, but right now thinking about that is not a priority.

There are bigger fish to fry and they seem to cook better in an open fire:)