Lessons from a wise Man!

The body and mind are an amazing thing. I know that for me what has happened is not reality. Yes I have spent many hours by my dad's bedside, but it truly hasn't sunk in yet. I think that is how you are able to keep going in a time of concern. This morning, when I woke up, I felt like I had finally got an OK night sleep, however I also felt a heavy weight all over my body. I think that it's becoming more of a reality now.
I remember as a child when Craftsman caved in with weight of the winter snow. (Craftsman was the lumber yard that Dad and Mom had worked to build for 10 years at that point) I went over early in the morning to find my dad and mom standing in the snow. My father was crying and as a child this is the one of the first time's that I remember see him crying. I remember that he held me and told me something that he would tell me time and time again in my life and that was that"it's going to be alright". I remember him saying that and trying to feel that way.

Now my father raised 4 girls and as you know with 5 women in the house our home was always filled with emotion. ....and oh how many emotions there were..... One thing that he has always been great at, his coping mechanism, was that he has always been very grounded in reality. He could always help us see the light of day with any situation that we were facing.

So as I sit here and think of these two very valuable childhood lessons that he tought me...it's my turn to truly apply them.....

1-Its going to be alright
2- Stay grounded...don't go to worst-case senario

Thank you for you thought and prayer. I have turly never felt the Lord's Love and Strength more.

A Loving ward Family!

This is a email that We sent to Mom and Dad's ward....

I just wanted to take a moment and Thank all of you for you thoughts, prayers, tears and love at this time. I know that your Bishop has kept you updated with my dad's condition. I wanted to Thank you personally. I have never felt the Lord's love more in my life than now. I know that the qoute that my sister gave us for Christmas is true - "Today's Test is Tomorrow's Testiomy". For those of you the know my father, you know he is a fighter and he hasn't stopped fighting. He shows great signs of hope and improvement. My Mother is doing well and she is a very strong women. She has amazed me with her strength and her abilty to comfort others in her time a great concern. She appreciates all that you have done for her. Now is one of those rare yet precious times when you are forced to realize just how delicate and sacred life is. I know in my heart and mind that through this difficult time, with your thoughts and prayers, my father will recover. This is what ward families are really all about. As a closing thought, if you would like to send a note or message to my mother or father, please feel free to e-mail your thoughts to me at Matthewkourtnie5@msn.com and I will be sure to pass them on to my mother. I know your thoughts and well wishes will be more than appreciated. Thankyou again for everything that you have done for my father and family. Sincerely, Jed and Kourtnie Powell

Another day on the Trail....

OK so another day on the insp trail as Lindsie would say. You would think from all the driving that I do I am on the trail of something great, but no just people who don't pay there bills. They are quiet a few of them now-a-days.

Anyway, two funny things that the kids said today.

1-We had stopped at a store for a break and we were getting back in the van. I was working with Lillie and Tobey was in the cart behind me. When I heard he say MAMA--TOBEY--MAMA--TOBEY--MAMA--TOBEY, so I turned to see that he was getting carried away from me with the slat of the parking lot. He was about 25-30 feet away from the Van and about 15 feet from hitting a parked car. He thought that it was so funny. I ran a caught him before we wreaked which I sure he would have thought was AWESOME!

2- I needed to pee really bad so I found a new subdivision that has asphalt road and no house. So I went far away for the road and sat on Lillie side of the van door and peed. We have been working on patty training and when I stud up Lillie said "YA Mama go to Dairy Keen and wear my Princesses. " I Couldn't stop laughing! Freak I am still laughing about it.

Jackson Hole

Well we went on the last vacation of the summer. It was real short and the only redeeming fact about the vacation outside of the great company...was this AWESOME photo that we got of the Kids. We were going to take a family photo but after waiting as long as we had to we thought that this would be best. We also went and say Old Faithful. Over all it was a great short trip.

"Good Job Mama"

If I could only see the world though my kids eye's for a day....would it change the way that I live my life? The other day I was dumping a 25 lbs bag a sugar into a 5 gallon bucket and Lillie was watching me. When I was done she said to me "Good job Mama." I have thought that was so cute I was simply trying to find the floor in the food storage room and she saw something that I did and said Good job. Kids marvel and love the simple thing in life. I know that we all know that, but when I saw these photos from Disneyland it remind me that the simple things of life are what mean the most to our kids. Also how much they pay attention to what is going on around them.

We had a great time at Disneyland we went with The Prince's, The Turner's and Nana and Papa. We were at Disneyland for 2 days but saw so many awesome things that 3 months later we are still talking about how much fun we had. Lillie fell in love with Princesses even more. Tobey was so sad when we got off of the first ride he just cried. Then he realized that there was more ride to come he was OK. We had a great time. Thanks for taking us Nana and Papa, We Love You.

Holly Crap, Jed knew the pass word...

we are back in business...maybe I should have asked him....ah say.... the day after Easter...any way we are back in action. All of you that have been givin' me crap will have to come up with some thing else to give me a hard time about.

Where do you start with the past 3 months....

>Tobey went to summer school and got to ride the bus. He got to ride the bus and loved it more than school I am sure. He would wait on the rock in the front yard and then scream 'BUS' when he would see it. Pre-school was on T,W, TH and was 1 hour and 15 min. Really short in my opinion but it kept the kids in the groove of things. Someone asked me the other day why he didnt talk alot...my answer opened my eye's to learn more about Tob's and this is that I think he is a quiet kid and is really easy going. But I really feel that he is to the point that he can express his needs.

>Lillie, well, she has discovered that she can sing and dance. She loves to sing songs. We will be riding in the car and if you pay attention to what she is saying she will be singing some of the words that are in the song on the radio. One that she is really good at is "Shift work" by Kenny Chesney. She has also come up with a dance where she rolles her arm as fast as she can and then will knock her knuckles together. Don't worry, Lil has had another black eye and always has a wound of some sort. Lillie has also discovered that Sami is the big Sister that she will always want to have.

>We have been working on our yard. Every other year that we have lived here we have struggled to keep the back yard alive and this year we have a graden. We have come a long ways. We also got a large wooden play set like at Costco. We got a heck of a deal on it at KSL.com and couldn't pass it up.

>Jed works here in town at Ackerson eyecare. It is so nice to have him close. He started part time but after a month they took him on full time. We loved having him around more when he was part time. However we now love that he can be home by 5:05 and most days he comes home for lunch.

>Well and as for me.....not much to say....wait....what, I can no longer eat wheat, barley, rye. oats, malt. . . No big deal right? Well it has been a life style change for sure. What really sucks is that I was lossing weight and now that my intestines are healing I am gaining.

>Oh yeah, one more bit of info for the update that I will share for now. The kids got to go and spend a week at Nana and Papa's house while Jed and I ran away to New York. We had a great time and we would love to go back again. We also got to see Jed's parents and sister for a short while on a lay over and that was nice. Oh yeah and we went to Disneyland. I will write more about that later.

So there you have it..... 3 month in a nut shell.....