A fantastic trip

This past weekend I was able to travel to Utah with my friends and two of my kids to support my lovely and talented friend Elizabeth. Elizabeth arranged "The Lord is my light" in a new way last year for our Young Women's in Excellence. She submitted it to the Church's music contest and it won special recognition. This was so COMPLETELY AWESOME and it has been so fun to see her light up as she was recognized for her amazing talents. This is the same person that wrote the music for Daughter Divine last year and we just completed writing a new song "Born to be a Queen" for this years Young Women's in Excellence. You can read and see more about these songs here elizabethgiuliaccimusic.com I encourage you to take a look at her site, check out her music, download some and enjoy!!
Here are a few pix of our trip

Top: Caitlyn, Cheryl, Dean Wendel, Elizabeth Giulliaci, Sadie Bergstrom, Meghan Goodfellow and Shannon Nightengale

Middle and Bottom: Dinner at the Blue Lemon at City Creek. Super Good!!

A few lovely pix of the Assembly Hall and the Salt Lake Temple

Inside the Assembly Hall

Our last night in town we met up with our dear friends, the Szymanski's...we went to the Syracuse City Pumpkin Walk. Of course Caitlyn found Sherlock Holmes. It was so great to see our friends and to reconnect! We love them and had a blast listening to their kids talk about all the pumpkins.

It was a wonderful trip with chilly weather, a bit of snow and lots of friends, shopping and great memories!

Halloween Party

Every year Caitlyn has a Halloween/birthday party. She LOVES it. It is the highlight of her year.
This year was no exception. Her party was lovingly hosted by Meghan Goodfellow. Meghan is amazing at planning a party and not only super gracious to do so, but she is just super sweet and talented!

This years theme was ZOMBIES

It was a fantastic night of friends and fright. Watching movies in the dark and killing each other with a game of Murder in the dark :D

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

General Conference October 2012

It is always amazing to me what we glean from conference if we choose to LISTEN. How many times have we had conference on and gone about our routines without REALLY listening? I think the same could be said of going to CHURCH or reading...really READING our Scriptures. I was just listening to Elder Holland and the inflections in his voice as he talked about the Savior talking to Peter... "Peter, do you LOVE ME?"  And how do we take this to our life? We cannot merely listen with mortal ears, we cannot casually partake of the gospel. I want to participate in the gospel the way Elder Holland does. He is a giant, a spiritual giant and WHY? Because he sees the picture. He has a deep relationship with the Savior and with his Heavenly Father. He loves them with all his heart and his convictions and actions show that in all that he does. Elder Holland does not debate whether to do something else over serving the Savior.
I love his words and his testimony.
After President Eyrings talk I know that I can petition the Lord in a different way to have blessing and answers come into my life. Sometimes we need to be reminded that if we ask differently, if we submit to the Lord's will for us, great blessings than we can ever imagine will be bestowed upon us.
We have to step it up. The Call is to Come unto Christ, to stay true, to love God. Be loyal to Heavenly Father in every stage of your life.

Some ways to do this are to have daily meditation, daily quiet time to ponder the things in our lives, and to write them down. Next take time from that meditation to be prayerful. THINK before we PRAY....We know that the Lord holds blessings for us that are conditional to being given on our asking. THINK about what you are going through and what you need help with. And then practice LISTENING and FEELING the HOLY GHOST. If you don't identify it in your life then how do you know when you are feeling it? Figure out how that feels for you. I feel the Spirit in different ways. Sometimes I am washed over in a peaceful blanket. Sometimes I hear a still small voice in my mind and I feel peace in my heart. Sometimes the spirit speaks in a voice of warning. UNDERSTAND how it feels and works for you.

Read from the scriptures, read and STUDY them. Ask yourself, "what does this mean?" "If this were being taught to me today, how would I receive it, how would it impact me" And know that the scriptures are also found in the words of the prophets today. Study the Ensign, the New Era, the Friend magazine. Listen to BYU devotionals and read the Church News. Go to the Church website www.lds.org and to mormon.org. Ponder and read and pray.
The ONLY way to know if this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is the ONLY true church on the earth, is to get down on your knees and ASK God for your self. and then LISTEN.... Listen ... It may take days, weeks or months to get an answer. But do not stop trying until you have an answer, one way or another.

God lives and he loves each of us. He knows of our needs, He is waiting for us to talk to him. As President Monson said (Prophet of the Church) " God is in the details of our lives". Yes he is.

I am grateful for my membership in the True Church. I am grateful to see miracles daily and to see prayers answered. I am grateful for opportunities to share this with my friends. Please ask, please ask members of our church and please STOP those awesome Young Men out on their bikes serving missions. They will answer you and so will we. :D

Summer...Oh where did you go?

Can school really be starting next week? Can my youngest really be entering her LAST year of High School?? This will be a crazy year, that I think may fly by quicker than we are ready for. With Caitlyn in her Senior year, Nick preparing for a mission and Nate finally ready to start school....boy..its going to go by fast. But...I am getting ahead of myself. Summer consisted of some fun staycations and a trip to Utah. We went to Utah in June and only had a week to spend there.

We ended up bringing up my friend Meghan's trailer with us. We stayed with Diane and hardly saw any of our favorite peeps, but we thought about you all while we were there. We loaded the trailer with ALL the things we were bringing back from my mom's house. It was bittersweet. But not a day goes by with out sweet tender reminders of the things I now have in my home everyday that remind me of my parents. Driving home from Utah took a VERY long time, pulling the trailer....but we made it. After arriving home, we "had" to buy some furniture to house all the things from moms house (bummer, right?) I found two wonderful pieces from a local furniture store here in Tracy. A tall bookshelf that is beautiful

and a beautiful China Hutch

Which ALSO meant painting the dining room (which really needed it)...it was a lovely fry sauce color.
We also bought six flag passes and have gone 3 times...more to come...
Some of our favorite things to do is go to the animal shows up there, Giraffes, Elephants, dolphins, whales..oh my

And then Caitlyn and I had Young Women's camp. We go to Clarks Fork in Dardanelle, CA at Camp Liahona. It is beautiful and well organized. It is run by the Stake and we love it. I was able to serve in the Humanitarian Hut and Caitlyn was a YCL2 (they plan and run most of the camp)
Below are a few of the great pix from camp

So all in all it has been a wonderful summer full of lazy days, swimming, ocean, beach, boating, And oh yeah....the 1200.00 dog....
Zoe has had quite the summer too, a blood test, x ray, ultra sound, shaved belly, urine tests and more blood test and eye tests later...we have an old girl dog with a gall stone, bladder infection, and cushings disease...who now has more medication than anyone else in the family. Good thing we love her...
Now... LET THE SCHOOL YEAR begin...

another reason I love them ....

Yesterday was Memorial Day. It is a beautiful day with the opportunity to remember all of those who have and continue to fight for our freedoms. We are so blessed to be able to worship how we wish, study what we wish, say what we want to say and do what we want to do. I am so grateful to my own father who was a navigator in the Air Force. I remember at his funeral, having the military there. Watching the precision and detail with which they folded the american flag in his honor was breathtaking. If you have never witnessed this, it is quite sacred and special. You definitely have a more somber and reverent attitude for our country

We, Kris, Nick, Caitlyn and I decided to take a day and enjoy each other and go to Six Flags Discovery

We bought season passes and figured this would be a good kick off to summer before the kids had finals this week. It was really fun. We just had an easy day, went to lots of the show, dolphins, Shooka the whale, the tigers etc. This park started as Marine World and then later became Discovery Kingdom with more animals and then it became Six Flags with the theme park rides. It is a fun park though. We went to the dolphin show and I got picked as a volunteer. I got to go sing to a dolphin and then it proceeded to splash me and I was SOAKED!! Front and back!! (mind you, it wasn't super warm yesterday) But it was awesome. I even got to pet the dolphins tail. Awesome!! After we went and watched Shooka the whale. Amazing! I do like that this park has adequate space for their marine and wild life.  You can even ride an elephant here. Pretty cool. So we had a nice day, got a little bit of sunshine and then came home. On the way home Caitlyn was singing some of her choral pieces and then we started singing hymns. For the rest of the ride home, we sang hymns and it was amazing...for good 40 minutes. 

It just was wonderful to sing hymns and feel the spirit and enjoy each others company on the way home. 

Just another reason I love them ......

Happiness is..............

It is interesting how we rate happiness. To some happiness is what they buy next, to others happiness is taking time to stop and notice life around them. For me, this week, happiness has shown its self in many forms. Happiness was last night as I watched my beautiful daughter sing in the last concert of this High School year. She had a small solo part and it was really beautiful. She held her composure, she didn't show her nerves ( I commend her for this because I so often do) And as I watched, I saw this mature, beautiful young woman. I shed a few tears because I knew that my constant day to day time with her was going to be much less frequent in the next years. Then I looked at Nick, sitting next to his dad, being so proud of his sister. And I felt happiness in my heart for this amazing young man...man child...grown man person...He is remarkable and so cool. Happiness is seeing your children support one another, seeing them get along. Its really the reason we are parents. We ultimately want them to grow up to be respectable citizens who contribute in a positive way and who can get along with each other and support each other.
Happiness is also getting a text from your 20 year old saying "we made it to our destination" or "I'm on my way home mom"....He won't understand how important that is until he is a parent, but it is happiness in my book.
Happiness is also bringing home 3 new squeaky toys for your dogs and seeing them get so excited as they chase the Beaver, the Duck and the Opposum around the living room in a blaze of happy puppy fury!!
Happiness is having your husband call you at 1 pm on a Friday saying he is off work...FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK! And to start off that time off, he agrees to go to Costco with you so you didn't have to lift all the heavy bulk stuff by yourself.
Happiness comes in many forms, it is just a matter of taking the time to recognize it. In an attitude of gratitude we find happiness all around us.

A little heart break

So where did the past 18 years go? I was watching the final episode of Glee today and cried (yes, I know, I'm a baby) I was watching the kids graduate and thinking about my own sweet Nick. Nicholas Andrew Polson, soon to be High School Graduate, soon to be made an Elder in the Melchizedek priesthood, soon to enter the temple, soon to go on a mission, soon to have his whole life in front of him....
I find my self a bit weepy, sad in my heart, but joyful as well, as I realized that I am not holding his hand guiding him so much any more. One day it will be him, who holds my hand and guides me. Life has a funny way of slipping by quickly and changing. In the next several months we will be buying suits and white shirts and ties and socks and shoes and luggage. We will be going to doctor appts and dental appts and submitting paperwork and then he will go.
I am so very excited for him but as I said...its a bit of a little heart break. I love you Nick!