MaeLyn's Musings

Yesterday was Peter's fifth birthday. It's hard to believe that my baby is already five years old. Last night we celebrated his birthday, he opened his presents and we had cake and ice cream. (The yellow hat was a gift from Grandma Hiatt.) Yeah, it looks like a lot of presents, but most of them are clothes, school clothes for this fall when he starts kindergarten. Here he is blowing out the candles on the cake that Steven made all by himself. Happy Birthday Peter!!!

I attended my first LDS civil wedding on Saturday. The missionaries in our ward have been teaching a family for a while and they wanted to be baptized, but the parents needed to be married first. Our bishop officiated at the wedding, and there were several people in attendance - both their family and friends as well as many members of the ward. I think what struck me the most was the similarity between the words in the civil wedding ceremony and the temple wedding ceremony. It was like someone had taken the temple ceremony and crossed out all the good parts and just left bare bones.  "Kief, will you take Bridgette by the right hand?" "...before God and these witnesses... " "...enter into this state of matrimony..." As I listened, I felt the Spirit testifying to me that while the covenant of marriage between a man and woman is important, the temple ordinance really is a lot more wonderful. I am so grateful that I was able to receive those wonderful blessi...

Finally   A day     To Celebrate         His            Elusive and               Random                   Sense of Humor. Dad will     Always be         Young at heart.

We're back from our four day vacation to South Dakota. We did so much and had so much fun that it is going to be hard to limit what I write here to something that someone is going to want to read. But here goes: Wednesday June 2nd. --6:00AM -The house was locked up. The cats had food, water and litter boxes to last a few days, and the fish had a weekend feeder in his tank. We pulled away and began our adventure. --Noon or so, and the rest of the day - Arrived at Beaver Lake Campground just outside beautiful Custer, SD . This was a wonderfully fun campground. We slept in a tepee, played at the playground, went swimming and played on a water slide. Here was enough fun to last us the rest of the afternoon!   Here is our campsite. Our van was parked just to the left of the tepee, and the playground was a hop, skip and jump behind me when I took the picture. Here is Steven inside the tepee, lying on our queen size air mattress. There was plenty of space for the six of us... There ...

She did it! Yesterday was Hannah's last day of Elementary School. Next year she starts 6th grade at the intermediate school. Hannah's first day of school Aug 2005 She has done really well through out these early school years. Five years ago she started school. She was almost six years old because they hadn't let her start school the year before because her birthday was one day after the cut off. I taught her at home, and so when she started kindergarten, she was only there for a week before school authorities were so impressed by stories she had written that they decided to promote her to first grade. Since then she has excelled in every grade. This year she was on the honor roll every trimester, earning all A's except for one B in the entire year. She is still impressing teachers with her writing, and even received a medal for her writing this year. Great job Hannah!!! Hannah's last day of elementary school May 2010

I have bright blue eyes and brown hair that is usually past my shoulders. I have a long vertical scar on the right side of my face from where I had a basal cell removed when I was 23 years old. I'm about 5 feet, 3 inches tall. I hovered between 95 and 105 pounds through all of high school, college, and my mission, and only started gaining weight when I got pregnant with Hannah. Right now I weigh about 135 pounds.  I have a weak chin. I've never shaped my eyebrows or dyed my hair. I only recently began wearing makeup on Sundays and special occasions. I'm starting to get wiry grey hairs mixed in with the brown ones. I got my ears pierced at a mall in Brazil while I was a missionary. I tend to have weak joints and have had troubles with my ankles, knees, wrists, and back. I have a large mole on the side of my big toe, that I have always called my "eleventh toe". I don't like having my picture taken, and I don't like most pictures that have been taken of me. ...

Abish checking out the fish tank The cats have always enjoyed our fish tank. They watch the few remaining fish (we're down to two) swim around. They watch intently when I clean out the aquarium and sometimes attempt to help. They love to lie on top of the aquarium and look down from that perch. This morning I noticed that the water level was low, and so I removed the top in order to add some more water. I left the room to fill my bucket with water, and when I returned, the water in the tank was sloshing around rather rapidly. Peter was quick to inform me that Abish  had jumped into the tank! I assume she didn't realize that the top was off, and instead received a wet surprise. Sure enough, I discovered the poor cat, probably wetter than she's ever been in her life, trying to dry herself with her tongue. She wasn't all that was wet either. Besides the stack of school papers and books that happened to be lying on the dresser next to the aquarium that were enti...