Aidan loves to sing

I am having a great time with Aidan as his language skills develop. My most favorite part by far is that he loves to sing. He wanders around all day singing songs from Disney movies and Cars. He has very different names for some of the songs but somehow I know what song he wants me to sing. Today the kid started singing "Life is a Highway" during sacrament meeting. I am thankful his speech is not perfectly clear yet. I know the people who sit around us at church get a kick out of him since they do catch some of the things he says during church. Anyway, he does sing church songs. He comes home from nursery with new songs all the time. Just a nod to the music leader and the nursery leader here for teaching him these songs. Today he wanted to do the "here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors, and see all the people". I didn't know he knew that.



He sings for my mom on the phone. Last night he started singing and reflexivly said "look at me gaga". So since she can't see him singing for her I recorded this little bit for her. Not his best performance. Usually he does the motions from the beginning, but after the fourth try to get him to do it the batteries in the camera died. Technology!! Anyway, I know he loves to watch all of your kids sing and dance so here he is.

HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY

Photo memories

So in getting settled and looking for pictures of Savannah for a previous post, I have found pictures I haven't looked at in years. The first are a set of photos from Girls' Camps of yesteryear. This time of year I always think about camp. Plus I am very lucky to have my dad be the ranger at the camp where I have so many fond memories. I mean in the down time he lets me go to the places I really cherish if I want to. Anyway, I warn you that I have no release from the subjects of these pictures to use them. So if you happen to be one of them and you just can't stand it let me know and I will take them off.

This is the beautiful "Land of Destiny" Not exactly sure what it is really called but we went there for devotional every morning and testimony meetings or other special events as well.

Here we are at one of those evening meetings. I believe the guy down front attempting to build a fire is my dad. In fact, I think this was him building a fire with ashes from fires past. You guys who live in MI have to ask him to tell you about that.

This is a very little Caity Tracy. I think this was her first year. Isn't she cute. Oh yeah, I am on the left and Beth is on the right, just in case you didn't recognize us in our gorgeousness.

This is a young Megan Tracy wearing a fish hat. I love this picture because it reminds me of one of my favorite things about Megan, her self-confidence. I mean I would not have worn a fish hat at that age for fear of what people thought. Now I think "how cool".

Okay, here is my opinion, the coolest 5th and 6th year prank. Beth and Megan were part of this prank and possibly the masterminds. They drag this canoe up a long hill, hoisted it over the fence surrounding pool, filled it with candy(which was usually thrown at the younger girls in the morning to wake them up), and set it afloat in the pool.

Oh wait I forgot about this prank. But it only affected a few very dedicated kitchen staff. Poor Sister Carey. She opened the fridge one day and found this. Yes, I put it there and I was the camp director that year. It was terrible. It actually made me gag to make it. It is just yellow jello and a baby ruth but it was realistic enough to make me ill.

Now for our next set of pictures. These are a young Beth. I couldn't help myself. She is just a doll. Plus I think you will understand why she keeps her hair the length it is now from the first few photos.

In my family this was a classic photo. My mom and aunts often posed for pictures in front of my grandma's flowers. So I guess Beth and I were just trying to imitate the grown ups.

Yes this was MY idea of a vacation photo. Not cool scenery but a hotel room. Tell me you can't see craftiness in those eyes. Maybe a bit of mischief. Oh the hair.

This is little Beth getting ready for her first dance. I don't remember her as a super girly girl. So our friend Jennifer helped her with hair and make-up. Jen often helped us with hair because she had always had long hair and her mom knew how to braid and curl and stuff so she showed us how. I mean what can you do with a boy hair cut that is fun?

Ah young and in love. The happy couple at a dance at the stake center. A point of interest in this photo is to the right of Dan. If you look close you can see a young Joel. Yes, that is Joel. Wait here I have cropped it.

Can you see him now? This is not a trick of photography. Joel really was that small. Unlike Dan his growth spurt took awhile.

May I please encourage you to visit Caity, Beth and Megans blogs for grown up photos. Links can be found to the left in the margin. I want to make sure you know they are still cool and have great fashion sense.

Okay, you are right it isn't fair to put up bad pictures of others without putting up a few of my own.

Here I am in my very immodest clothing at,of all places, Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Yes, I did the perm for a time. I was probably in middle school. I think by high school I had returned to the hairstyle I had as a toddler and still have now.

This is me in 8th grade. We were on the boat over to Mackinac Island. This was my last perm. As you can see it is very frizzy. Pam gave me this perm. She failed to mention that I shouldn't go to bed with it wet the night she did it. So it frizzed out and stayed that way. After months of ugly I decided to play it straight. Another interesting thing in this picture is I am wearing perscription sunglasses. I didn't have contacts yet and my dad had gotten me these. Well, now they are at the bottom of Twin Lake. I jumped off a boat and forgot I had them on.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip down memory lane as much as I have.

My Testimony

I started this on July 2, so I thought I should get to work on it. I was reading the Ensign (LDS magazine). Not that I don't usually read a few articles in it but I don't usually start the day we get it. The cover piqued my curriosty. It said "Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet". I thought that was interesting because the internet is one of those good and bad things like fire. It can keep you warm or burn down your house. I was suprised to find that one of the suggestions was to bear your testimony on your blog. It never occurred to me. Plus sometimes I wonder if I spend too much time blogging anyway. Maybe I do spend too much time blogging about things that don't matter. So in an effort to share the gospel, let people get to know me a little better, strengthen my testimony and perhaps justify my blogging a little, I would like to share my testimony.

I know I have a Heavenly Father who loves me. I know He supports me from day to day. I know he hears and answer my prayers. I am grateful he has given me a wonderful family and friends who are such good examples to me. I am thankful for the scriptures. I know they are the words of God to his people. I know they are His words to me. I know that when I truely read and study the scriptures my heart and mind is opened to understand the things of God, even it if just a small portion.

I am grateful for the temple. I know that by being married in the temple and keeping the promises I made there I can have my family with me forever. I know that my life did not begin at my physical birth nor does it end at my physical body's death. I am grateful that I have been blessed with Aidan and hope to be blessed with more precious children. Aidan is one of my best examples of living the gospel. He is so pure and sweet (most of the time). He likes to say prayers, he always points out pictures of Jesus and temples when he sees them. He helps me to remember that those things are important.

I know that prayers are heard and answered. I know faith is required to have those prayers answered. Faith is believing God will keep the promises He has made to us. He wants the best for us even when we don't understand what is best for us. Heavenly Father has provided us the gift of prayer to bring us closer to Him. He wants us to pray and ask for blessing. He then wants us to do all that we can to assist Him in granting those blessings. Which is not always easy, but is always worth it.

I know that a young man named Joseph Smith prayed in the woods one morning to find out what church join and saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that began the restoration of the gospel to the earth in our day. I know we have a prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson. He receives revelation for the world today. I am so thankful for a prophet to lead and guide us. If a people ever needed a prophet it would be us.

I was born to LDS parents. I have long history of faithful family members. I can't say that one day I woke up and had an epiphany that the church was true. I can say that after living the gospel day to day and studying it's teachings I know it is true. I know from the very depths of my soul that the gospel is true. I have a living Savior who sacrificed his life for me. He has made it possible for me to not suffer the full weight of justice for the sins I have commited. He has brought mercy to me as I have asked for forgiveness and repented of my sins. I am thankful that my disobedience and foolishness does not have to keep me from returning to live with my Father in Heaven. Which is my belief and ultimate goal, is to return to live with my Heavenly Father.

Thank you for letting me share my testimony with all of you. I am glad I had this opportunity and I don't know why I put it off for so long.

Miracle

Just wanted to let you all know that Savannah has come home. Yes, one month to the day that she was last seen she came home. She was missing her flea collar and had a new family of fleas on her. She was a bag of bones and a patch of fur was missing off the top of her head. No wounds or scares or anything. Can you all believe it? I can't either. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. What a blessing they have been.

Aidan and I were laying in his bed very late last night and she just popped up in the window meowing. I ran out of the bedroom to go open the door and I was screaming "Savannah is home!!" Matt couldn't believe it. He had to come look for himself. At first he said "I don't know if that is Savannah." But then he looked in her sweet little eyes and he knew. So I guess it is time to get her a new name tag and collar.

Just goes to show you that you never know what is going to happen. Oh and that cats have at least nine lives

Goodbye Savannah

Well, I don't want to write this post but for some reason it seems like I need to. The week we left for Michigan our cat left too and hasn't come back. Tomorrow it will be 4 weeks. She did this to me once before. She ran away and came back three weeks later smelling like a garage and about three pounds lighter. But for some reason I just don't think she will be back. We have been to the Humane Society and made a report, I put on Craig's list a missing add and there is nothing at the leasing office about a missing cat. I can't imagine that she could make it locked up in a garage or something in this heat. One time she even went into my neighbor's house when it was vacant and the owners dropped by and a lady came over to get a box and shovel. She said there was a dead animal in her house. She said it was weird because she found poop in her tub. When she said that I knew it was Savannah. She is semi-potty trained. There she sat frozen in fear in a closet. She was fine obviously but the neighbors I think thought I was crazy. Ever since the first time she went missing she has made a point to stroll by the house when we get home to let us know she is around. This time nothing. So I thought I would do a little eulogy.

Savannah was born August 26, 1999. She was the third cat I had gotten since moving into my own house. She was sort of an accident. I had two cats, one of whom wasn't even six months yet. I had this friend, Georgia, who rescued cats. She and my sister were at an ice cream place in Whitehall and their they found Smokey. I don't know how they knew she was lost and needed rescuing but they did. Georgia was a responsible owner and would take the pets to spayed or neutered. When she got to the vet for the procedure they told her the cat was pregnant. She couldn't abort the kittens, but she knew her husband would not want the kittens as well as the cat. The vet told her their would only be two kittens. So she went home and told her husband I would take one and it would be easy to find someplace for the other one. She then told me that I was getting a new kitten.

I waited and waited for what seemed like forever, but one morning I got a call at work that the kittens had been born. Three total and there were two gray and one black cat. I went over right after work. Oh they were so sweet. Even with their eyes closed and their claws sticking out. I picked Savannah out right away. She was very outgoing. She was the first to escape the pillow barricade we had made by their mother and the first to leave the box they were living in. I decided to name her Savannah because I was reading The Work and The Glory series at the time and thought it was a nice name. It was also cool because I got her from Georgia. Here are some pics from when she was a few weeks old at Georgia's

Isn't she just a doll. Like I said she came as an adventurous kitty. She quickly made friends with my boy kitty Gid. Who was also an adventurous lad.

She was so pretty with green eyes and tiger stripes. Her tummy was a warm cream color and the fur there was perfect for rubbing. Which may be why Matt liked her so much. He is allergic to cats and naturally more of a dog person, but when we decided to decrease the number of cats for his health he chose Savannah to stay. He won't admit this now but when all three lived outside and we had to feed Savannah her special food, he would let her come in the house and hang out and pet her while she ate.

At first I thought she would not adjust to Matt because she peed all over our couches, then she pooped in his air intake on his car so his car smelled like a litter box and it took us a long time to figure out why. Then when we got a dog she was so good to him. She let him drag her around and play with her and lick her fur. She really came into her own being the only kitty.

She didn't even mind when Aidan came along and took "her" room. She did sleep in his crib a couple of times but who could resist such a nice empty bed. She loved Aidan to pieces. The older Aidan got the closer they got. Aidan started to follow her around and she never seemed to mind when he used her as a pillow. She would just lay there and let him pet her.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention her wild side. For all of the taming and potty training, and sleeping in comfortable beds that she did, she was still wild. She loved to be outside. She used to kill many an animal. She took over the neighborhood cat mafia when her older sister Saskia left. She would sit up on top of the car and hold court. Then neighborhood cats would come over and sit on the slightly lower trash can and talk to her I think. She didn't have front claws but somehow she managed to keep order in the neighborhood. You always knew when she had been on the roof of the car because you could see these tracks where her little paw prints were smeared as she slide down the front windshield.

What a character. There are so many more stories to tell. She was afraid of strangers. She hid every time I took her to the nursing home with me. Usually in an impossibly small space. She spent a good part of the move to Kansas sitting next to me on the passenger side window ledge (if you can call it that) with her mouth open panting. Matt and Aidan couldn't stop laughing at her.

I had so many nicknames for her. Most of which Aidan had picked up. I called her Vannah and mee, mee usually. She didn't start out with a middle name. But one day when she was being naughty Savannah Marie just came out of my mouth. I say it is because I had to think of a naughty person's middle name. My Aunt Christina's middle name is Marie. Take it for what it is worth.

Well, I guess I will end with this sweet picture I found of her last night. She is sitting in her favorite place. It just seems like it could have been taken any day or time, even yesterday. We will miss her so much.