The Goodwins - An Inspirational Story

Christine & Gary

Myah, Chloe, Mitchell, Ryan

January 1994:

One uneventful day, two missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints tracked a particular street in Watford, England. They didn't have any success that day, in fact, only 1 person was home on the entire street. Christine was a stay at home mother with 2 young children. When she answered the door, she saw who it was and promptly dismissed the 2 missionaries. They left.

The following week, the two missionaries found themselves in the very same neighborhood, even the very same street. For some reason, they felt a strong impression that they needed to tract this street again even though they had been unsuccessful just one week before. Again, it seemed nobody was home until they came to Christine's house. This time when she answered the door, she said, "I know who you are". They asked her how she knew and she explained that she was actually a member of the church who in her words was "beyond less-active". The prompting the missionaries felt to tract that street again was an answer to Christine's prayer. After they had left her house the prior week, Christine felt bad for the way she had treated them and prayed that she would have an opportunity to see them again. Jason was one of those missionaries. This was the beginning of a relationship that made my husband's entire mission worth it. With permission from Christine's husband Gary, they began teaching Christine and her little daughter, Victoria about the Gospel. Even though Gary wasn't interested in participating in any discussions or learning about the church, Christine faithfully started attending church again. She would walk an hour and a half to church every Sunday with her 2 children. Eventually, something changed within Gary and he was baptized as well. Their family has been blessed because of the choices they made to accept the Gospel in their lives. They have had 5 children, Victoria, Connor, Ryan, Mitchell and Joshua.

Sometimes, Heavenly Father gives you special experiences in your life that let you know that He is there, that He is mindful of you, that He knows you personally, and that if you are willing, He will use you to bless the lives of others. In our church, we have what is called a Patriarchal Blessing. This is the definition found on the Church's website:

Patriarchal blessings are given to worthy members of the Church by ordained patriarchs. Patriarchal blessings include a declaration of a person's lineage in the house of Israel and contain personal counsel from the Lord. As a person studies his or her patriarchal blessing and follows the counsel it contains, it will provide guidance, comfort, and protection.

Jason received his Patriarchal Blessing a couple months before he left to serve his mission in England. Amazingly, it speaks of this great family that he would meet and the impact that he would have on their lives. The Goodwins have been vacationing in Utah and last week we had the opportunity to spend some time with them. When Christine answered the door, she gave us all big hugs and knelt down by my daughters and said, "Your father changed my life".

The Goodwins are truly an inspirational family. You see, their youngest son, Joshua was born with Edward's Syndrome and died an hour after birth. As tragic as that is, to hear them speak about him, their testimonies of the Savior and the Atonement are very evident. They know that they were chosen to be Joshua's parents and that they will be reunited with their son and that he is still with them. They are able to cope with their great loss and recognize the many blessings and miracles in their lives because of the choices they made to accept the Gospel back in 1994 when my husband had the privilege to teach them.

Note: The feeling you are feeling right now is the Holy Ghost telling you that it is true.

How wonderful it was to see them! It was my first time to meet Gary and Mitchell. I had met Ryan when he was a baby and Christine flew all the way to Utah with him to come to our wedding. Sadly, I didn't get to meet Victoria and Connor this time because they were attending EFY down at BYU. Someday...

Mitchell, Christine, a moose, Gary. What's a trip to Park City without kissing a moose?

Doorbell Ditching = Career

Chloe: "Mom, when I grow up I want to be one of those people who delivers packages."

Me: "You mean like a Fedex person?"

Chloe: "Yeah, it looks REALLY fun. They have to ring your doorbell and then run away before anyone sees them."

Happy Birthday Chloe!

Caring

Huggable

Lovable

Outgoing

Energetic

Happy 10th, Chloe! We love you very much.

Where has the time gone? Seems like yesterday that she came into our lives. (sniff, sniff)

This Is Myah

She is bored.

Poor, poor Myah. Poor, poor Chloe.

Cowabunga Bay & A Car Accident

Wednesday, I took the girls and some of their friends to Cowabunga Bay for Chloe's birthday (which is next week and I'll do a proper b-day post then). They had so much fun!

Myah, Shaylie, Brielle, Chloe, Hannah

Seriously, I think they spent a good hour trying to get everyone onto the inner tube at the same time. You can tell by their faces how proud they are of their accomplishment.

Here is my review of Cowabunga Bay. Typically, I like a good water slide. This place however, may have done it in for me. First, let me say that I HATE being splashed unexpectedly even if I'm already wet, (I know I'm weird) so that's kind of where my problems started. But, just getting from point A to point B is a feat in itself. Unbeknownst to me, kids can dump buckets of water on you and squirt you with hoses while you're walking up the stairs (which is SUPER funny). There is also water shooting out of the structure from every which way. Goggles would have come in handy. Then I finally get up to the tallest slide (the purple tube slide) and was not prepared for what would happen next. Take my advice and don't attempt this slide unless you are wearing a one piece swim suit. After being shot out of that thing at bullet speed, my swim suit top was wrapped around my head. No one wants to see that. And if you're going to be getting an enema, I think it would be nice if they would inform you of that with some sort of warning sign. I should have stopped there. But no. I thought it would be a good idea to try the red tube slide which was not quite as high as the purple one. Needless to say, I had pretty much the same experience but for that slide you get to scale a mesh/net ladder thingy which forced me to stare death in the face wondering if they had tested the ladder for use by chubby people! Also, if you are walking along and you start hearing bells, that means that 2 tons of water is about to be dumped on you which is also quite enjoyable. Not.

I will say, after I tested out all the slides and was violated by water in every possible way, I noticed that the girls were still having loads of fun so, I felt pretty confident that I could let them go at it themselves if they stayed together. I was able to relax in a lawn chair, work on my tan, and catch up with my long lost friend Sudoku. I knew it was a good idea to bring that book.

Now, if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we were involved in a car accident on the way home! I was rear-ended and pushed into the car in front of me. And it happened to be at that intersection that's about a mile from our house. You know the one...the one EVERYONE drives by 10 times a day. I probably don't even need to post this since most of you drove by and saw it all. I do appreciate all the concern that was expressed towards us, it's just that it's kind of embarrassing. Especially when you're in your swimming suit. Anyhoo, I'm happy to say, it wasn't my fault and we all seem to be okay.

The hole in my back bumper.

The dangling license plate on my front bumper.

Good times. Good, GOOD times.

Stadium of Fire

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I love everything about it. Leer and I often discuss how blessed and lucky we feel that we were born in America. I don't even want to imagine how different my life might be if I had been born anywhere else.

For about the past 11 years, we've made it a tradition to go to the Stadium of Fire. (I think we've only missed 3 of those years.) It is absolutely the best celebration around and on the 4th of July, there is nowhere else I'd rather be. This year was particularly special because Chloe had the opportunity to be one of the dancers in the show.

I was so proud of her. I got the chance to be one of the mom helpers for our dance studio which I was so grateful for. Driving down Friday morning, we got to see the hot air balloon festival going on. That pink one is a giant piggy bank. The girls in my car thought the balloons were pretty cool.

You cannot imagine the work they put into organizing this event. And the dancers worked their butts off! I was in shock when I saw the rehearsal schedule:

Thursday 4 pm until 7 pm

Friday 7:45 am until 11 pm

Saturday 6:45 am until 12 noon

Needless to say, the girls were sore and exhausted. It was totally worth it though and they should be proud of themselves. Look how cute they are!

Now let's talk about the JONAS BROTHERS. Is it wrong for ME to be a fan? I guess I was too busy enjoying the concert to take any pictures of them. But, they were great! And it was pretty funny to hear thousands and thousands of teen aged girls screaming their heads off for them. This was definitely the most rowdy Stadium of Fire that we've been too.

One word...FIREWORKS. I L.O.V.E. fireworks. And this year's display didn't disappoint (although Leer thought they were shorter than usual). I don't know if the Stadium of Fire has the biggest fireworks show in the nation, but I'm sure it's the best.

'Til next year...sigh.

Let's See...Where Was I?

Oh yay! Leer figured out what was wrong with my blog and now it's fixed. So, I'm back! Be sure to check out my previous post.

Talent Show

Chloe participated in the Ward Talent Show back in March. She did a fantastic job even though her accompanist (me) made a few mistakes. We are so proud of you, Chloe!

Stay Tuned

First I couldn't upload any videos...now I can't seem to upload any pictures onto my blog. Not sure what the problem is, but stay tuned.

Way Too Excessive and What A Load Of Crap!

No, this isn't a post about the stimulus package...

This is about our playroom and the problem with excessive amounts of toys.

Neat Freaks, look away.

I don't know if your kids are anything like mine, but I have the kind of kids that had tons of toys that were never played with. And I'm the kind of mom who thinks that all the Littlest Pet Shop toys should all live in their very own bin. And the Barbies should all be together in their own bin. And Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head should all be in one bin and so on and so forth. And I'm also the kind of mom who prefers to have the kids' friends play at our house. And my kids' friends are the kind of kids who like to dump all the toys out, but don't play with them and then I'm left to clean up everything and put all the toys back into their proper bins. I'm not the kind of mom who enjoys this. I started thinking about what toys my kids do actually play with. They like their Littlest Pet Shops, their Nintendo DS's, their American Girl Dolls and Webkinz. I was fairly certain that I could get rid of all other toys and they wouldn't really care as long as they kept what they really love. So since I'm the kind of mom who isn't against bribery, I enlisted the help of two new Webkinz that would live on top of the fridge until my kids got rid of almost all their other toys. Brilliant, I know. Meet Pansy the Hummingbird and Bubbles the Seahorse. I couldn't have done it without them.

With their help we were able to get rid of bags and bags of toys. Gone are the Legos. Gone are the Polly Pockets. Gone is the Princess castle. Gone are stacks and stacks of books, games and puzzles. Gone are all the Dora The Explorer toys. Gone are 2 garbage bags full of stuffed animals. Gone are the doll strollers. Gone are 2 toy cash registers. Gone is the train set. And guess what?!? It's been about 2 weeks since I did all this and the kids don't even miss any of those toys.

Here is the load of crap headed for DI.

You can tell from the debris that was swept up that this is a girls playroom. Beads, barrettes, Barbie shoes, oh, and a fake chicken drumstick...all sure signs.

And here are the results. Looks pretty good.

Now, don't feel sorry for my kids, I have vowed to get rid of half of all my stuff, too. All in all, I feel like my kids have learned a valuable lesson about excess. And how anything in excess can be too hard to manage. Hopefully they will remember this. Ha, who am I kidding?

Don't Try This At Home...Unless You're An Astronaut

Neopolitan Astronaut Ice Cream = YUCKY!

Leer had to go to Seattle for work and he brought us home some Astronaut Ice Cream from a museum he went to. It is gross. Well, unless you like your ice cream warm, chunky, chalky and freeze dried. Needless to say, this is one item that will not be a part of our food storage. In case of disaster, we just won't be eating ice cream. Thanks for thinking of us Leer! Glad I'm not an Astronaut.

Wick & Dilma

Leer has a great uncle and aunt named Dick and Wilma. We rarely see them and the kids don't really know who they are, but Leer and I affectionately refer to them as "Wick & Dilma". A couple weeks ago we went to a family function and when we pulled into the parking lot, I noticed their car and said, "Hey, there's Wick and Dilma!". Chloe, in her pre-teen, cynically-toned, voice asked, "Who's WICKED Dilma?" She didn't understand why we were laughing so hard.

You Be Thelma, I'll Be Louise & Moqui Caves...A Roadtrip

Last Saturday, my dear friend Cindy and I, drove the long 12 hours back to Utah. We talked, we sang, we reminisced, we laughed. There is no one else that can make me laugh as hard as Cindy does. It brought back a lot of memories of all the road trips we'd taken in the past. At a gas station along the way, we even found some of the chocolate toffee covered almonds that were the standard snack we used to eat whenever we would travel, back in the day. They were $6.95 for a little bag, but we didn't care...it's tradition. Just out of Kanab, we stopped for a little culture (and to stretch our legs) at Moqui Caves. The girls had a great time checking out the collection of fluorescent minerals on display there.

All of us

Aubrey, Chloe, Myah

Myah in front of an international money display.

Since it was too dark to photograph any of the fluorescent minerals, I made a video. Probably not the greatest quality.

I Shall Call Her Squishy

The girls and I left Leer alone to study, and took a road trip to Arizona. We finally got to meet Heidi's baby Audrey. Heidi & Jason have waited over 10 years for this baby. I kept asking Audrey, what took her so long to get here and where has she been all this time...but she didn't answer me. What a special baby, though! Totally squishable. I guess it's true what they say, "good things come to those who wait". Myah kept telling Audrey that they were best friends. We miss them already.

Myah & Audrey

Me & Audrey

Heidi, Cindy & Me. These girls have been my best friends for a long time. Heidi since 5th grade & Cindy since 7th. Anyone who can put up with me for that long deserves a medal.

While we were there, we decorated Heidi's plant shelves. This is Cindy, way up there.

Chloe got to spend some time with her friend, Karly, who is Heidi's niece.

Myah Says...

"Mom, did you know my birtday is before Jesus' birtday? 'Cause mine is in Nobember and His is on Christmas....Jesus' birtday should be on Fanksgibing 'cause we're so fankful for Him."

'Twas The Month After Christmas & I Ate Too Much!

'Twas the month after Christmas, and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).
I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."
As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt.
I said to myself, as I only can"You can't spend a winter disguised as a man!"
So--away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won't have a cookie--not even a lick.
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore,
But isn't that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

Christmas

Ice Skating on Crescent Lake

The kids had so much fun trying to ice skate on Grandma & Grandpa's lake. They did a pretty good job!

Myah

Chloe

Chloe and Myah falling on their butts simultaneously. This happened quite a bit.

My cute nephew Jack

My adorable niece Kate and my BIG brother Josh

I was kind of worried at the thought of letting my kids skate on a frozen lake because I thought maybe they could fall through the ice. Then I found out that the ice is about 16 inches thick. This is a picture of some ice fishing shanties and trucks out on the middle of the lake. I guess it's safe.

My Dream House

After much finger-licking, stickiness and teamwork, we were able to build our dream house over the holidays. Quaint and tasty...what more could you ask for in a house?