A season of Miracles

I feel like I am finally starting to emerge from the deep fog that has encompassed not only my head, but my whole soul. I do NOT like being in that place where depression creeps in, where despair, if given a chance, will smother out HOPE. I have seen in the past 7 weeks absolute MIRACLES in our behalf. Let me list a few. Those of you who have not felt it in a while, please know that Heavenly Father has his hand in your life. He knows of your every need. He requires only that you talk to him. I know that because of our faithfulness and our obedience, swift blessings have been put in our path. First. When Kris came home and told me he had lost his job, my friend Jana told me that we could live in her parents house for a very inexpensive price. The house we had been renting was beautiful but was proving to be VERY COLD in the oncoming winter weather. There was ice on the insides of the upstairs windows and no heat vents in the master bedroom or in the boys room. We literally had cold air from outside blowing through the window closest to our bed and on our heads at night. I was always so cold. So being in this house has been such a miracle and blessing of warmth and coziness. We are very blessed. Second, we have in the very moment of literally being down to our last 5$ had cash placed into our hands and always in just the amount we needed. That happened twice and those events were great miracles!! We have felt the peace and have known that we were being carried by prayers and cradled in the arms of our Heavenly Father as we had people put our family name on the prayer roles in the temple. We have felt the prayers of our friends and family buoy us up. And our sweet and amazing Bishop has been so caring in his counsel and wisdom. For that I have been extremely grateful as well. So as hard as this has been and such a kick in the gut type of thing, I am CANNOT over look the hand of my Heavenly Father in everything that has been put in our path. We have even had miracles in the form of being able to provide Christmas for our kids as well. What great blessings. I would like to share a thought from Elder Richard G Scott. This really helped me get through this growth experience.
"May I share some suggestions with you who face...the testing that a wise Heavenly Father determines is needed even when you are living a worthy, righteous life and are obedient to His commandments. Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more (see Proverbs 3:11-12). He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain" (in CR, Oct. 1995, 18;).
- Elder Richard G. Scott
May EACH of YOU recognize the miracles in your life and weather the storms with grace and faith most importantly HOPE!
We love you and wish you a joyous holiday season!
Kris, Cheryl, Nate, Nick and Caitlyn and Zeus and Zoe! (the dogs)

December

This past month and into December has been an absolute blur. I am so very tired. About 5 weeks ago, Kris went into work and was told they were going in a different direction due to finances with the company and that he was no longer needed. On top of that, was given about 15 minutes to leave the office. WOW, was that ever a shock and we didn't see if coming. We are both still a bit baffled but are emerging out of the fog and confusion, depression etc that has encompassed us the past 5 weeks. In my heart I think...lets go home. Lets get the heck out of here and go home. But alas, we need a job there, to go home too. :) If you know of anything, let us know. In the meantime, Kris is applying all over the country. He has had a phone interview in Prove, Utah, Louisville, KY and near Richmond, VA. We will see what happens. I am going to start subbing up here as soon as my fingerprinting gets done which is next saturday. Kris has an interview with a local company here on Wednesday.
So please forgive me for not posting for a while. I have had absolutely NO desire to do so. So often feelings of failing and inadequacy have plagued me. Just keep us in your prayers please!!
Love to all!

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Halloween 2009

I thought I would take a moment to post pics of our first Halloween in maine.
When the kids would come to our door, you could hear them exclaim "we get to go to the fog house" We bought another fog machine, so we had two going this year. With the haunted music and the strobe lights it gave quite the erie feeling to our old house!
Zombie Caitlyn shows off her cool eyelashes
And then she guts her pumpkin
We had bought pumpkins way early this year and thought they would last until halloween to carve, but no. They were pretty squishy so we just let them be. We did buy some cute "fake" pumpkins though
The front steps
oooh, fog
Our little graveyard out front. Kris carved out the skull head and put a strobe light up inside and it flashed amongst the tombstones.
We were told that we would have LOTS of trick or treaters living where we did, but we did not, so we ended up with like 300 pieces of candy left over. That is alot. Caitlyn and Nick went out and did a little trick or treating. Caitlyn and her friends ended up getting caught in a monstrous rainstorm that came out of nowhere...we went to pick them up and found them waiting by the funeral home in town..what a place to be waiting on Halloween night~

The First SNOWFALL

Can you believe it? I was upstairs cleaning and came out of my room and into Caitlyns when I notices white things floating around in the sky. It couldn't be, I thought to myself....NO...IT IS NOT SNOWING!!!!!! Not yet....ITS ONLY OCTOBER. We haven't even had Halloween yet. I don't have all the leaves raked up yet....I don't have sub zero antifreeze in the car yet....
But low and behold, there it was in all its glory and splendor, the first snow fall of the season. Now,I know this is NOT the last snowfall and we are just getting started, but wow. I am so not ready for this. But here it is..enjoy!

Choose This Day

Choose This Day

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Nate gets Whacked-- pictures, not for the faint of heart

About 2 weeks ago, I was up in Van Buren, Maine doing my little card business when I came out to the car and looked at my phone, there were 11 missed calls. This usually is a good sign that something significant has gone on, usually in the "emergency" nature. I finally got Nate back on the phone and heard the story behind the pictures.
The Young Men had gone to the YM Pres. Camp about 45 min from here to help build a shed and other things on the property. Nate was handling a big jack that is used to lift the building, when he lost his grip on the handle of the jack. It came up and smacked him in the jaw pretty hard. I guess he stumbled back and said "ow". When the two leaders saw him they told him to sit down as he was covered in blood. eek. The one leaders wife is an anesthesiologist and she looked at him and thought he might need a stitch or two. Hence, the 11 phone calls. Luckily, after getting him home and showered and cleaned up, we were able to put bactine on it and steri strips and close it up. It has now healed nicely, but it makes for a good story.
These first few pics are before he cleaned it up. They make it look far worse than it was


The after pictures are much nicer. You can see, the cut was relatively small.

He was puffy for a day or two after and got some yellowing around the sight. I thought he would have gone more black and blue. We were blessed to not have to go to the doctors for stitches or the dentist for any tooth problems. whew!!

FFF

So I thought I would actually get my fabulous 5 posted while it was still Friday.

1. This week we went to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park and Bangor on Monday and Tuesday. It was so nice to get away and relax and enjoy the ocean. We took more time to explore Acadia National park and ended up at Thunder Hole, which I already posted about. But I loved the beauty of the nature around me. Heavenly Father is amazing in his design and execution of the wonders of the world. I loved standing and watching the waves crash over the rocks and marveled at the ebb and flow of the tide. The kids had a good time shopping and exploring and the dogs were excited to go on another adventure
2. Speaking of dogs. I must say I am grateful for our furry beasts! They are silly and have very unique personalities. As we were driving to Bar Harbor, Zeus and Zoe were in the back seat with Nate. Now, there should have been enough room for the dogs and Nate back there, but Zeus did not think that was so. About an hour into the drive he began to "talk". He puts his head over the seat and starts to growl and moan and "talk". Pretty soon his paws make it over the seat. We push him back but he persists. Eventually he made his way up to me in the passenger seat and layed on my lap on a pillow for the rest of the ride (did I mention he weighs 80lbs) It was not to bad, but the best part was that Zoe was SO happy he left the back seat and she sprawled out and onto Nate. Zoe likes to go out in the morning and then come in, find a sock, and prance around the house. She gets very silly in the mornings.
3. We got a new mattress last night and it was sooo nice to sleep on a warm, puffy, very tall, mattress. Our mattress was 14 yrs old, way past its prime. Now the ironic thing was that I woke up all night long. It felt so good, but because it did, it was foreign to me and it caused me to wake and wonder why my bed felt so good. Kindof funny!
4. I finally bought my house on yoville. Now I know that this is a silly thing to post about. But I have saved diligently for over a month and ended up with 25,000 coins. I could have easily paid real money and bought a yoville house but opted to show my kids that even in games you can patiently save up by playing the game to purchase the big thing you have been wanting. It is that way in life as well. We are saving up to purchase some land here in Caribou and are close. More on that later. But it is 30 acres and is about 30,000$, not too shabby.
5. I think that should be my last post for fabs this week. We went to look at this property about 2 weeks ago. It is about 5 miles from where we are , so it is still close to town. The back of the property is woods, pines, aspens, maples, birch etc. The very back edge of the property is on the snowmobile and 4 wheeler trails as well. There are pines that line one side of the property and then one spot that is higher where we would build so we could see the town around us. The goal here is to put in a "you pick" berry farm with raspberries, lingonberries and these cool weather kiwi's Kris has found out about. Of course we would want a barn as well. I guess we are getting our "farm" on since being here but it just feels like the right course. Next thing you know I might be driving a tractor around chasing bears and moose away. Twilight zone?? maybe! Below are pics of the property

Bar Harbor- October 2009

A few days away is such a nice thing, isnt it? We had James, Nick and caitlyn's friend, fly in from Utah to spend a week with us. We originally were going to go down to Boston for the weekend, but Since it was conference, we felt compelled to stay put and listen to the prophet and the leaders and learn. I am glad we did as the conf talks were wonderful, as usual!
We left bright and early monday morning and headed down to Bangor, Bar harbor and Acadia National Park.
Below, as we drove into Bar harbor we noticed this huge cruise ship in the harbor. The Queen Mary II. There was also another cruise ship that was further out that had lots of tourists.

Kris and Nate with the dogs down on the sandy beach by the boat launch in Bar harbor. The dogs were not to keen on getting the salty water on their paws
James Gowers and Nick. James is like another son for us and it was fabulous having him here. Nick is sporting his 2012 sweatshirt for the year he graduates. He got that for ordering his class ring.
While we were walking the shops a HUGE downpour happened but the resulting rainbow was beautiful. We just caught a small glimpse of it over the Queen Mary
We then headed up to Acadia National Park near Thunder Hole.
Out of order,but a cool shot of Nick, James and caitlyn
Ok, More acadia
Thunder Hole is a natural phenomenon where the water comes in and creates a pocket and shoots back out creating the sound of thunder
Water rushing into thunder hole...big thunder boom after. It is so cool. When the tide is high, the water splashed really high up onto the railing and walkway you can see. Since the tide was coming in, they locked that part of the walkway. I think it is a safety precaution??

Nate, Sun in his eyes, posing on the rocks. great view behind him!
Nate, Caitlyn and Nick on the rocks
A cool black and white of Nate, Caitlyn, Mom and Nick
Kissin my sweetie
Cute family picture
All in all it was a great 2 days away. We were SO tired when we got back tonight. We ended up staying in Bangor and had to get up at 4 am to take james to the airport. He got in and up to where his flight was leaving from by 5:30 and made it home safe and sound, all before we made it back to Caribou. We got stuck in lots of construction traffic getting off of bar harbor. We didnt end up leaving the Island until 3:30 in the afternoon and got home at 7:30..YAWN.
Time for bed!!

Friday's fabulous five

I have failed to keep up on the friday's fabulous five and before this friday comes to an end I am determined to at least get my 5 done for this week.
1. we have had the pleasure this week of having Nick and Caitlyn's friend, James, come to stay with us this week It has been so fun to have him with us, to feel this link to our friends and family from Utah. I have been so blessed to have such comfort and peace about this move and it is so +nice to just have him here and relish in the memories of our friends.
2. I am so grateful to be in a ward that is so full of sisters who have arms open to everyone. There is no one excluded because of where they live, what they wear, or what car they drive. The gospel can thrive because it is not based on perceptions of the world. It is based on christ like love. I LOVE THAT! Is it a perfect ward? No, but I have so much more deisre to do my part since we have moved here. What a great blessing that is to me.
3. We have seen the amazing colors of fall erupt around us this week. They have been peeking through, beginning to blossom, but his week, things have really popped. There are the most amazing colors of burgandy, bright red, fire orange, pumpkin orange, yellow orange, yellow, yellow green, and purples. The leaves are huge, some spanning up to 8 or so inches across. The beauty is spectacular. I love New England Autumns.
4. It has been fabulous to have my kids out of school for harvest break. They are on a 3 week sebatical from school while the potato harvest is going on. I miss them when they are all gone during the day and love to have that time with them. We have talked, played, and just enjoyed each other. I don't like thinking about the day when they are no longer at home. I will miss them and will want them near me. I know the time will come when they will be off on missions or college or married. I just don't like thinking about that right now. So for now, I relish in each time we have to be together and enjoy those sweet relationships!
5. I am grateful for "flutteries" Do you ever have those moments when you find your self fluttering for your spouse? You heart races and you want to be close to them? I have had huge flutteries for my husband today and had the opportunity to hold his hand and cuddle next to him at the movies tonight. Kindof like dating! I love those feelings. Ahhh!
So, there you have it. A week of fabulous!!

A glimpse of Autumn

I wanted to share a few of the pictures of the autumn leaves turning up here in Northern Maine. The air is crisp and quite cool at night. The sun reflects the brilliant colors of reds, oranges, yellows and greens.
This tree is right out front of our house and has lost all but a few of its leaves. The color was a brilliant burgandy red.

These are a few of the trees changing on our street. They are spectacular
This is looking out across the valley, in the foreground is the freshly plowed earth from the broccoli harvest, looking out beyond, the beautiful autumn colors mixed in with the evergreens
More autumn colors, the bluish green field, I think is a broccoli field that has not been plowed yet. Apparently the moose LOVE to wander through the broccoli fields and eat.
This one was taken last night by the Aroostook river. I need to post some more, but thought you might enjoy the beauties we are enjoying here in the New England Autumn!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAITLYN!! The big 14!!!

It's hard to believe that Caitlyn is now 14. Crazy, if you ask me!. I thought I would share some pics from her birthday.
First, it was sunday, so we had church first and then our ward does a "linger longer" where we all bring a pot luck to share after church. We went to that and then the ward sang happy birthday to Caitlyn. Then we had a fireside and finally got home after 3.
Caitlyn wanted Tilapia (fish) and cous cous for her dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert, which is what she has every year for her birthday dessert. She was excited by her presents as well.

Here she is showing off some of the jewelry her brothers got her. Notice the straw in her mouth? She likes to chew on straws so we call her "straw chuck"...so we got her a pack of straws as well! :)
Below...the only thing Cailtyn really wanted for her birthday was a laptop. She had been asking for a year. We weren't going to do that, but in the end, got a killer deal on the laptop and knew she would be ecstatic! Now she doesnt have to try to share the main computer with the boys!

I think the look on her face, says it all! She was surprised and so happy~
MMM...candles on the pumpkin pie~ 14 big ones...getting closer to enough to burn the house down! lol
Getting ready to make the all important birthday wish...and no, like a wise daughter, she did not share the wish with us!
All in all, it was a great birthday for Caitlyn and a busy weekend for us with a Super Saturday for all the kids for our Stake, plus kids sleeping over and then birthday sunday. I think I am glad its monday!

Nick Makes a PIE

Nick and Nate went to Young Men's and learned how to make Apple Pie
After doing so, Nick came home and made one for our family, completely from scratch. It was probably the best apple pie I have ever had! He is hired!! YUM
The secret ingredient was pouring some cream over the pie filling before it bakes. Oh, my, was it ever good! DELICIOUS!

Such a beautiful color. Nick made the crust, and he and Caitlyn cut and peeled the apples. I helped with weaving the top crust. He wants to have the missionaries over for dinner so he can make some more pie!

Caribou 150th anniversary parade

This year, Caribou is celebrating its 150th anniversary. There have been great festivities going on the whole year. Sept 5th was the BIG parade, town bbq and fireworks show. I thought I would post a few pics of how they do parades up here.
One of the antique firetrucks here in caribou, to start off the parade. They don't do any sirens at the beginning of the parade because the horses follow so closely behind.

Kris, Caitlyn and Nick, smiling for me. Notice the blanket wrapped around Caitlyn and the hoodie on Nick? When the sun was out, it was really warm, and when it went behind a cloud it was REALLY cold! I've never been in a parade where we had blankets wrapped around us and got a sunburn at the same time, but we did that here. Crazy
This ALMOST reminded me of a utah parade, with covered wagons...for a moment, I thought I had been transported back. But Alas, it is from the historical society here in town.
This is how they pull floats in Northern Maine...by tractor. Gotta get your farm on! :)
All in all it was a great parade that lasted about 2.5 hours. IT WAS long.....but good. After we went to the High School for a town BBQ and fireworks that night. We were bundled under blankets for the fireworks as it dipped into the 40's. brrrrr. Great day, Great town!