Relief Society An Enduring Legacy

anyone know how to save this to my computer so i can use it in a slideshow???

letter-boxing

Last year we went to Stone Mountain to hike.  Before we left I looked up the locations of some letter-boxes.  I believe Stone Mountain has the most hidden boxes in the US.  There were tons...the hard part was looking for some that would be 'easy'...and mainly ones we knew the location of the first clue.  This one started at the Plantation House(i think that was the name.

Although I don't remember the exact order of the clues...these pictures give an idea of what we did( and picasa only allows you to upload 4 pictures per post so i couldn't add all of them).  One said to look for the 3 green chimneys.  This house has 2 chimney in the front and one in the back.  Then it said something about a rock across the street.  Then we were to follow the log running parallel to the street.

Then locate the 'goal-post' tree....this was a little hard...but so exciting when we found it!  It does look like a goal post! Then we looked for a moss-covered rock that was in-between 2 logs.  One log had the box located in a groove where it split into 2 trunks...or something like that:)  It is so so so exciting to find it!

Inside the little box is a log book and a stamp.  We pulled out our log books, applied this stamp and stamped their log book with our stamp( we just have the letters "M, R, S, N" for each of our name), added the date and LaGrange, Ga.  Everyone who finds this box does the same. It is fun to flip through the book and see who has been here, when and where they were from.

You can see what letter-boxes are located in your town.  We need to do this more often!

Binders....

I dont' remember getting excited about binders or notebooks.

Nate does.  He gets excited about school supplies in general.  

maybe i did get excited about the infamous "TRAPPER KEEPER"!!

He loves to go to Staples and look at all the notebooks and pencils and boxes and folders and erasers, and pencil grips, oh...and backpacks!  he loves backpacks! When it was time to buy our school supplies for 3rd grade I almost got roped into buying a new binder like the one above at Staples.  They had this sale where if you bought 3 you got one free and they were already on sale so it sounded like a good deal until you got home and realized they still were $8/piece!  Nate had already caressed his new notebook,  dreamed of all the paper it would hold, how it would fit in his backpack when I gave him the sad

 news "that folder is going back!".  

He would ask about getting a folder like that one many times but i kept crushing his little heart....but always with the suggestion of "you can use your own money"...but we all know how well that works!  Well the cheap $3 binder he ended up with has lasted until now.  We have other binders he could replace his with but he refused.  

We were in Wal-Mart last night and he saw a binder like this: 

and i said "wait...I have 2 of those".  I was cleaning out my closet this week and saw them.   When we got home he asked about the binders and quickly fell in love.  What does "falling in love with a binder" look like?.  Well...he very carefully looked at each binder.  Weighed each option. Asked my opinion about each one 10 times.  Which one should I use.  What would I put in this pocket.  What about this one.  Hmmmm.....which one would Fia want....and i think I will definitely want that one. 

Then after he decided which one he wanted he transferred all his stuff.  Ok...so that sounds all normal, right?  Well...tonight he had it in his lap when we sat down for dinner.  I think it would have stayed there if I didn't say "put your binder away".  Sophia switched out her binder for the other zip-up one.  He was watching this process eager to give his always-plentiful- priceless advice on how she was arranging her things.  

ahhhh...the joys of childhood!

the runaway

Cricket, Cricket, Cricket.  In her younger years she was a looker.  A real head turner.  Lately though the years have taken her beauty and some of her personality, her hearing and all her sight.  Some days she is "here" and other days she is just a shell of a dog.  We can't leave her outside alone because she can't find her way back to the house.  She can't find her way to the food and water either.  But she isn't in pain.  She still eats.  She is comfortable.

So this week we put Cricket outside to use the bathroom and she was forgotten.  About 30 minutes later I asked "where is Cricket?".  We quickly looked outside to the cul-de-sac where she usually would end up just wandering around in circles....but she wasn't there.  We looked in the neighbor's yard.  Nothing.  We looked up and down our street 4 times, knocked on all our neighbor's doors and looked behind their houses.  We looked in the woods behind our house and in the cul-de-sac.  Nothing.  Nothing.  It was getting dark and cold and starting to sprinkle.  I was holding it together but when I had walked the street for the 3rd time I started to cry.  I didn't know where else to look.  Richard felt the same way.

I told my good friend Joanne about our dilemma and she brought her whole family over to help us look.  They came right as I was about to *realistically* give up.  Just when I was about to let my mind go to the place where I would start to feel the emotions of this situation I heard the words "I found her!".  What?

Joanne's boyfriend had walked the woods starting at our neighbor's house and followed the fence to our yard and crossed over 2 barbed wire fences into the pasture.  He heard some rustling and a little whimper.  There was our baby girl!  She had fallen into a gulley and was badly tangled in thorns and briers.  She was covered in mud and all wet.  He had to cut away some of the thorns and she had a pretty long thorn still tangled that we had to cut out.

Even though Cricket exhibits no sign of "knowing" most of the time....she knew where she was this time.  She usually doesn't enjoy cuddling or snuggling but she showed how much she enjoyed this by licking our faces.  Once you get past the rotten-fish breath it is a sweet thing!

I don't know how we would have made it through the night knowing she was lost out in the cold.  That evening I would have moments of panic and then remember she was not lost anymore.  We can't thank our friends enough for helping us find her.  True friends.

After she was warmed up we put her in the bathtub, washed away all the dirt and told her many times how happy we were she was home!  I even warmed up her blanket in the dryer.  I think she liked that!

Family Exercise....

Back in November Sophia and I participated in a 1mile/5K run in a nearby town.  Nate and Richard said they would participate in the next race with us.  Well folks...that time had arrived!  Yesterday we woke up at 6am on a Saturday and drove to Newnan to pariticpate in the "Run for Angles" 1mile and 5K.  We didn't do much training outside.

Sophia is now in a different age bracket (11-14) and this race was a little bigger so her chances of placing were smaller....but she did great coming in 1 mile at 8:53.  Nate was near 9:30 and Richard brought up the rear with a grand time of  11:22!  I was so proud of all of them...but especially Richard!  He gets NO exercise and had 1 practice run.  He was pretty tired when he crossed the finish line but he did great!  He wasn't proud of himself...he was expecting a faster time...but i told him it was a wonderful time!  My first 5K was completed in 37 minutes...12min miles!

The 1 mile started at 8:15am.  I ran the 1 mile to keep track of the kids....well all i kept track of was the back of their heads.  Then I ran the 5K at 8:30am.  My goal was to finish in 30 minutes.  That was my goal of the last one but the hills killed me and I came in right around 31:00.  When I woke up yesterday morning I thought "it is OK if I don't make my time today" and "what am i thinking.  it is Saturday!" and "man it is cold...".  But all that was gone once I got there.  I pushed myself and at mile one I was at 9:15 then mile 2 was a little faster and I just pushed myself on that last mile and crossed the finish right at 29:00!  wahoo!

I am hoping we can do more of these in the future and that maybe someone will do the 5K with me!  I am so proud of my family!