Life...a precious gift!

So this morning I had a few reminders that there is someone always watching over us!


I awoke to my alarm this morning (5:00 a.m.) and hit the snooze button like normal. The thought of, "this is not NATURAL to be awake at this hour" kept running through my head! I could hear the rain really coming down outside..then a thought came into my mind, Renda you need to leave early this morning for work. First let me just say, Um its too early to be thinking, let alone comprehending what was being said. So I just said, "OK" and began reading the back of my eyelids. Again that thought came back: "Renda, you need to leave the house at 6:00 this morning, you need to allow extra time to get to work in this weather!" This thought kept coming back every time I hit the snooze button. So I decided I needed to get up and get ready for work!



I was off to work at 6:00 a.m. and the traffic wasn't heavy like normal. I was feeling better good! Every day I take the same route to and from work. On my daily route I have to go through a little mountain pass. Nothing too big, but there is a hillside and a little cliff on the sides of you. So I have gotten pretty comfortable with driving this road and its doesn't really bother me.



So as I came up the hill, the fog was really, really bad. The fog was so bad that I had to slow way down and could barely see anything in the front of my hood. I was thinking how grateful I was for listening to the spirit this morning. Well at the top of the hill traffic all of a sudden came to a dead stop. I was the last vehicle in the line of cars and had time to get into the other lane. We were on our way down the hill, keep in mind, this highway has two lanes with a cement center divider. There was no extra room!! Since traffic had stopped, everyone used caution.


Well about halfway down the hill there was a accident. A SUV had flipped over and was in the ditch next to the hill. There were about three cars behind the SUV that were facing at the hill , several cars on the side of the road. Keep in mind, there is about 30 cars on a two lane highway in foggy, rainy weather with no ROOM to do anything.

My heart sank! I had just come so close to causing an accident myself with the way traffic had stopped, now, right in front of me was one! WOW, I didn't stop, several people had pulled over to assist these poor individuals and there was no where for me to pull over. I was coming to the bottom of the hill and a police car was racing to the scene. Then about five minutes later, there were another police car and ambulance racing to the scene.

I felt like I was in a dream, I couldn't believe what had just taken place. I was grateful for listening to the spirit, for my life, and being kept safe!! I called Joe right after I got to work to tell him that I Loved him and Joey! Wow, I kept thinking how blessed I truly was!

So in the news, the accident happened at 06:15 a.m. (5 minutes before I got there), no one was hurt. The news also advised that the road was closed for 90 minutes while waiting for a tow truck to come! Not only had I missed the accident, but I missed the traffic. If I had left the house at my normal time, I would have been caught in the middle of the traffic jam and extremely late for work.

I will say that I kissed and hugged my family a little harder yesterday!! It has made me think how truly blessed I am to be alive and how precious life really is! We do not know when it is our time to go, but I will remember always....Life is a precious gift and is not meant to be taken for granted! Make sure you give your loved ones a BIG hug and KISS!! Life is truly too short!!

Thanksgiving Dinner!!

Joey enjoying the fine feast...if you look carefully on Joey's plate there is something missing.... any ideas? It is TURKEY!! the kid only ate potatoes, corn, rolls, and CHIPS!!




























The boys kept talking in a "fancy" accent. They had fun putting their glasses up and toasting to each other. They kept saying, "fancy"...the boys had a great time!!

This is the feast!! We went to some friends house for Thanksgiving dinner after Joe's parents festivities. We had a great time!! We ate and ate some more...the boys watched a movie and the girls went shopping!! We had a wonderful dessert bar, I didn't get a picture because we left the boys home a lone with the goodies! At least we did get to try some of the yummy desserts!!

A little B Ball - on Turkey day!!

We enjoyed a little bball before the grand feast!! We met with Joe's family at the church building for dinner. It was fun to play ball with the boys!!

Friends Come to visit!!

So we had some friends over to play. The girls were scrap booking, minding their own business, when we went under attack!! So then it was WAR!! The boys against the girls..if you ask the girls we won, if you ask the boys they won... All in all it was a great time by all!!

Joey was so done with me taking pictures, they kept shooting me cause they were ready to play!!

Pack Meeting!!

I just had to put these pictures in..the boys decided that they needed to pull their scout leader. Noticed how many scouts it took to pull one leader. It took a total of 6 to pull him. The boys enjoyed pulling the leader as much as each other!!

I have a BEAR in my house!!!

Joey has advanced to a BEAR!! He started Cub Scouts last year on his 8Th birthday and has enjoyed it!! He started as a Wolf and has moved up to a BEAR!!

I don't know who was more excited, Joe or Joey? Joe was super excited for Joey!! Joe could barely sit still, the awards part took forever to get too...I thought that Joe was going to jump up and take over to give Joey his awards.

When you advance the boys get their face painted. Joe got to paint Joey, Joey was super excited!

The ending game was that each kid would pair up and one would pull the other down the court on a towel. At the other end of the court, they would switch. The boys used a rope to pull each other. This was a blast!! I think that the parents enjoyed watching this event as much as the boys enjoyed doing the activity.

Joey got the smallest towel possible, (him and the other kid were one of the tallest there) the other boy did a great job pulling Joey, Joey could barely stay on the towel.

Joey was a Solider for Halloween!!

Joey decides that he wants to be a solider for Halloween. So we bought a new gun and visited the dollar store for pretend grenades and his helmet. Our dear friend Stephanie helped supply the vest and then it was official.

This was an action shot for Joey!

This face reminds me of someone I grew up with... does Mick ring a bell?









Joey had a good time!!

What do you do on Friday Evenings?

At our home we have a War on the brink...

Do you see these faces...they MEAN business!!

The boys are preparing for the big event! The boys have set up the boundaries and its time for WAR!

This is what its like in a house full of boys...I didn't play but that didn't not mean I was out of the line of fire!! The boys had a great time...we have found darts everywhere!! Oh the joys of boys!!

Joey is one year older!!

Its official, Joey has turned 9. He was super excited for his big day this year!! He really wanted this new Bumble Bee toy!! Oh to be a kid again!! It feels like yesterday when we were bring him home!!

Posts will come Soon......

Well I have been trying to get a new post up, however, we had an unwelcome visit from tons of Trojans and viruses. So we had to basically wipe the computer clean and erase everything. The computer is doing well now, but I can't get the Internet to work. Apparently when you wipe the computer it takes everything out, including the Internet information. I thought I was OK with computers but I just haven't had any free time to fix it. This is where the computer fairy would be very nice, to fix it all while I was busy dealing with LIFE!! Oh well, we can still dream!! Hopefully posts will be up this weekend!! We will have tons to post, Joey's BIG day is tomorrow!!

I can't believe that I will have a 9 year old tomorrow!! Where did the time go? Joey has informed me that he is a BIG kid!! He can't wait to be 9 already!! OH to be a KID again!

Thank you DAD for your Service!!

Thank you for your service! We love and appreciate it!! We are thinking about you on this veteran's day!!

The Great Pumpkin has arrived!!

The great pumpkin visited our house on Thursday evening. He left Joey two great gifts! They are a package of Nerf darts in camouflage! Just what any little boy would want!!

Joey is showing his goodies off! He barely ate any candy in waiting for the great pumpkin to come!!

The candy has been placed outside of his door and is ready to be trade for a gift!! Joey could barely wait to see what he would get!!

Crystal Has her baby!!

So Crystal had her baby 4 weeks early. As Crystal put it, was it a trick or treak?

Baby Girl named: Elise Noelle
Date of Birth: 10/31/10
Weigh: 4 lb. 8 oz
Height: 18 1/2 inches





She is healthy and doing well! We are so happy for Crystal and Jacob!! We can't wait to me her!!

Joey's Primary Program

Joey is in senior Primary this year! He lets me know every Sunday, he is in the big primary!! He is no longer in the little kids primary!! (I have tried to explain they are the same primary, but I have lost this battle!!)










Joey worked hard memorizing his part for his big day! Joe and I were very proud, he almost did it without looking down at the paper. He looked at everyone in the crowd and looked at the paper, we never saw his eyes again! I think he was little frighten with everyone watching him!! There was so many people the back was opened, this was the first time that has happened! Well I don't know who was more happy for this program to be over, me or Joey. We escaped with no nose picking, funny faces being made, no frighting with anyone else. We did manage to get a half smile, half don't look at me mom your embarrassing me! But we both survived! (barely)

I was very proud of my little man with is BIG year in the BIG primary!! Now until next year we are all safe!!

FHE - Ghosting Friends!

We decided that we would deliver some goodies and run, or ghost a few people. Well that was the intention for Joey, but he did not tell me this when I made the cards out with our names on it. So we dropped a few goodies by some good friends house for FHE. We were trying to teach Joey a little about service!

This is the first time we dropped the goodies and ran that we got caught! We did our Bishop's house (we have double couple of different times) and we have never gotten caught. So we set the stage and review all th moves...well we dropped and ran, before we made it to the end of the dark street their kids caught us! They only are the 3 house from the end of the street but hey we ran so fast!! Their kids were very proud of themselves for finally catching us!! Dang it we were so close...it was all in good fun!! :0) We were all laughing about it in the end!!

So these picures don't really make sense with the ghost theme, however our rewards after delivering the goods was In -n-Out Burger! Joey had to get a hat and made us all put them on!! He enjoyed the hat just as much as dropping the goodies and running!

Getting Ready for Halloween!

This is the front of our house. Joey and my friend put up the cob webs, I don't do webs or spiders!!

The little pumpkin lights are a tradition! We had these at our house in AZ!

Joey decorated this pumpkin last year. The ghost a good friend gave to us! We had fun decorating for Halloween, even if it was the week before!!

Our House is ready for Halloween!

Freight Fest

This was one of the decorations at the Freight Fest at Marine world!!

Joey is ready to ride his favorite roller coaster: Cobra!!

Joey and Brandon wanting to go into the FUN FACTORY...We were all so tired this evening, it was not the BEST time..but we are lived to tell about it!

Joey enjoying the FINER things in life!! BLUE Cotton Candy while at the park. This was a bride if the children didn't bother each other on the ride to Marine World..if we would of known how crazy it was going to be, we would of just turned the car around and GONE home!!

Happy Birthday MOM!! We Love ya!

We love ya, MOM!! We miss ya but we are thinking about you today!! Hope you have a great day!!

Happy Birthday Cheri!!! We love ya!!

Happy Birthday to Cheri who is one year older and wiser!! Love ya Cheri!!