2 years

Wow, I can't believe it has been 2 years today. I have to admit that this year I have been more of a scrooge, a Grinch than a jolly soul. When I started to see signs of Christmas my heart ached because the memories of 2007 came flooding back to me. I felt angry and bitter again and didn't even want to put up the tree or decorate my house. When I would be out shopping I hated seeing mothers and daughters together. I hated seeing sisters giggling with each other as they shopped together. I have felt very alone.
But as the season progressed I was ashamed and knew Mom would not want me to be like that. I needed to be happy and as a mother and domestic engineer, it is up to me to make sure our Christmas is magical, just like my Mom taught me.

I wondered, why did mom had to die at Christmas? Out of all the days of the year...why Christmas? Then I realized what I learned that year and all I was taught because she died at Christmas. We made Christmas more simple, we created more memories together by spending more time together. We focused more on the savior and we served more.

I am a basket case at times and I remember at Thanksgiving time when we were all together talking. I wanted to make sure Mom could do all the things she always wanted to do in her life. I wanted to take her on a trip etc. etc. She looked at me and said "Be still, and just enjoy life. Be Calm."

I remember a few months earlier having a conversation with her and she told me about a lesson she had listened to at church. It was about our bodies and she told me how grateful she was for her body and the amazing journey she has had with her body. She told me how she has born 9 babies, she has walked in many amazing places, she had seen some spectacular sights and heard her grandchildren giggle. She explained to me how she had been so angry with her body and how it could be diseased and dying, but had gained a great appreciation for it that day. She had no regrets.

She taught me so much. I want to be better and try harder. I may not live near family and I may be alone a lot, but I can choose to be happy and serve others as my mom would want me to.

I so appreciated Grandma Robertson's Christmas letter this year. As I search for a more simpler life, it made me think and reflect.
"Learn to like the sunrise and sunset, the beating of rain on the roof and windows, and the gentle fall of snow on a winter's day. Learn to keep your wants simple and like what doesn't cost much. Learn to like fields, trees, brooks, hiking,rowing and climbing hills" That is exactly what Mom would say, and what she meant when she said, "Be still, enjoy life and be calm."

So, I think that my Mom died at Christmas because she wanted to give me a gift. A gift that she couldn't give me Christmas day, and I am thankful every day for that gift.

Mom, I miss you everyday. I long for your voice to be on the phone, I long for another road trip together. I miss your smile, brown eyes and lipstick. I miss your laughter and your many talents, and especially shopping. I miss your advice and ideas. I hope I am doing it right, at times I'm just not sure. I know you are near and helping us along. I feel that and am so thankful that you are not far away. Please tell Lori that I miss her so, and I am so thankful that you have each other. I wish for her example here, but know that she is needed elsewhere.
I think about you both every day. Thank you for all you taught me. I am trying.
Merry Christmas. I love you.

The Perfect Get-Away

In case you can't tell, I am a terrible speller. I often forget to push the spell check button, but when I do remember it doesn't work. My daughter, Hailey takes after her mother, poor girl.

So, Joel has been working SO MUCH lately. His client is very demanding and they are trying to close up a project. He looked at the calendar the other day and said, "I have only spent 4 night at home in the last 30 days." I has shocked. I knew he had been gone a lot but didn't realize that much!

Each year over the first weekend in December I fly to Utah to attend the company Christmas party. At first I was very uncomfortable, but have since gotten to know a lot of the people in the office and their spouses and really enjoy visiting with them and catching up.

This year was no exception. I did fly over a day earlier so I could stay with Joel while he had a conference at the Stein Erickson lodge.

This is a swanky place and is a 5 star resort, the only one in the Northwest I believe. The guys meet you out front and get your luggage and park your car...valet parking I believe it's called:) They take you to your room and show you around. And they like TIPS.
I hate eating at fancy places and trying to pronounce the menu. The food is weird and I always think I must look like a hill billy. We were disappointed when our room didn't have a fireplace, last year he had a fireplace. And I was disappointed when I went to go running and the fitness center was closed due to remodeling. I had a lot of time to burn while Joel was in meetings and was looking forward to burning some calories. But ended up laying around and watching TV, which was nice too.
The next day we left at noon to shop at the Park City outlets. I love these outlets and we were having such a wonderful time we forgot that we both only had 2 small carry-on suit cases and we flew here! So we had to tame it down a bit, but got most of our Christmas shopping done.
They rented a beautiful home in Draper on the hill. We arrived there and helped Vicki the secretary set up and the caterer bring in the food. The party was lovely and we enjoyed it a lot. We snuck away at 10pm to go catch a movie, The Blind Side, which we liked a lot. We stayed at the home in Draper and slept in the next morning until 9:30am. It was so nice!
We drove to a wonderful restaurant called Paradise Bakery in Sandy and ate a nice breakfast and TALKED for like an hour about nothing at all. I felt like I found my best friend again!! We went to Temple square and walked around when it started to snow. It was so beautiful. We flew home a little while later to find that Coelton had done a great job in taking care of everything while we were away.
Friday night he did call and tell us that it was 58 degrees in the house and the kids could see their breath in the air! The furnace had broke. Boise has been setting record low temperatures. -10 degrees and such. We were worried and called our neighbor who fixes furnaces and he went over and had it fixed in no time. He was a tender mercy.
I am so thankful for a faithful husband who works hard to provide for us and always finds time in his busy life to love us too.

So much to be thankful for!

I didn't get many pictures in the month of November. I either forgot the camera or the battery was dead. Having this blog definetly makes me take pictures, or at least wish I did.

Harvest Dance

I love to see Coelton enjoying his high school years by going to fun dances with cute girls! He was asked to Harvest 3 times, however, the first asker gets the date. Marnie Strasser in our ward asked him. She was very creative in how she did it. She set up a little scavenger hunt and at the end was a cake that had a hidden message. They had a cowboy theme for their group and they went horse riding during the day and ate dutch oven.

My Birthday

This year I was fed breakfast is bed at 7a.m. I had to bag the popcorn at the school, but did get to go out to lunch with my friends. We all went to Sizzler for dinner as a family. Then Caden and Joel made me a yummy birthday cake with reese's peanut butter cups on top! 39 and strong!

Nike Cross Nationals

Coelton competed in his last xc race at eagle island. The coach put their team in the championship division. They raced against many schools from all over the northwest. They did well taking 19th place. When I asked Coelton why he put them in the champs and not the varsity division he said, "Cause we could either race against the best and see what happens or take first place." It was a bitter sweet day. Last high school race, but also a great ending to a great season.

Student of the month
Both Chloe and Hailey were the student of the month at Mary McPherson Elementary. Their teachers said they were hard workers and always do their best. They are kind to everyone and help when others need it. Good job girls!

Wisdom Teeth


Coelton's wisdom teeth have been coming in and giving him trouble, but he didn't want to take them out during XC, so we waited until it was all over. He was very nervous as we watched wisdom teeth extractions on youtube. Uncle Jason took them out on a early Friday morning. I got to watch ad took some pictures. Coelton was given a few shots and was awake during the whole thing. He swelled up on his right side, he looked like he had a golf ball in his cheek, but handled the pain with ibuprofen and tylenol.

New Moon
The highly anticipated movie New Moon was released this month. Joel went to England to do business and was away for a week. He flew in on a Saturday afternoon and we went to the show with Coelton and Caden. Joel hasn't read the books, but I would tell him about them as I read them. Coelton has read them all and Caden has read the first 2. We enjoyed this movie better than Twilight. Although my guys wanted to see more vampire/wolf fights. Stephanie Meyer is Melissa Hammer's cousin. It is so interesting to me to see her fame and fortune over a story that she created with her sister.

Operation Christmas Child

The Hammer family does a Christmas service project every other year. During a service year we don't buy gifts for eachother, we put that money towards a service. We all take turns being in charge of the service project. This year Jordan and Melissa were in charge and they chose Operation Christmas Child. I took the kids shopping for FHE and we bought toys, hygeine items, learning items and candy. We wrapped shoe boxes in christmas wrapping paper and filled our boxes. We put tags on the boxes that said if it was for a girl or a boy and what age. The boxes had to be dropped of at a designated place by Nov. 23. The following Monday for FHE we drove to the Baptist church and dropped off our boxes. It was neat to see so many others there unloading shoe boxes. These boxes will be shipped over seas to countries where children are poverty stricken. It will bring a smile and much happiness to children with nothing. As we brought our boxes into the church there was many pictures and posters of children across seas with their boxes and simple treasures. It touched our hearts, and helped kick off our holidays in a wonderful way.

Eagle Scout



Caden had his court of honor this month. It was a wonderful night with LOTS of friends and family. Grandpa Judy and Grandma and Grandpa Hammer came over. I put together a slide show that was a lot of fun to see. Caden has worked hard on achieving this goal, scouting has been a good influence on his life. His scout leaders spoke and presented his eagle award. We served pumpkin pie and had a good time visiting with everyone. The Barson's and the Mortenson's our home teachers who are both in their 80's came, also most everyone who volunteered on the project was there too.



Thanksgiving


This year was a Hammer year for Thanksgiving. We all made the long journey to St. George to have thanksgiving with the Hewards. We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove to American Fork and stayed with DaNae and Randy. We got up early the next morning and made our way to St. George so the guys could play in the Turkey Bowl.
We had a wonderful meal together at a church house. Everyone was there except Julie, Jordan, Josh and Chantelle's families. We did get to see Chantelle and her cute little family later on Friday. It is wierd to see our nieces and nephews married with children of their own. We had never seen Chris, Chantelle or Andrew's little ones. It was also good to see Chad, Casey and Taylor.
We enjoyed shopping on black friday, going to the Tuacans to see the Nativity play, we also made a couple crafts and had lots of time to visit...and eat.


We split up the 9 hour drive by stopping in American Fork and staying at the Slade residence. The kids loved playing with Macey and the Cat. Collin had grown so much since the last time we had seen him. He was a little unsure of all the visitors and when I held him his lower lip stuck way out like he was about to cry. He is adorable. Joel and Coelton went with Randy to play basketball and enjoyed that. The highlight of the weekend was when the boys and Joel got to go to the BYU vs. Utah game, and when BYU won 26-23 in over time...the boys rushed the field. Very Cool.

I do believe in S p O o K s!

I love this time of year. It is my favorite season. We started out the month with General Conference. It was very inspiring for our family and made each of us want to be a little better and try harder. We went to Jason and Stephanies house and ate breakfast with them and watched the first session together.

Family Pictures






Homecoming
The XC team was supposed to run in Bend Oregon on the same day as prom. When the meet was canceled 2 days before homecoming, due to swine flu, coelton hurried and found a date. He took a stuffed animal monkey and some bananas with a poster that said "Sorry I've been monkeying around, but I would go bananas if you would go to homecoming with me." He asked a Junior, she worked with Coelton at Meridian pool. The next day we found peanuts all over our porch with this poster. They all had a great time, and even came over to our house for the chocolate fountain after the dance.




Hailey turns 11
Hailey celebrated her 11th birthday. She had a fun day. Dad went to the school and had lunch with her and played at recess with her and her friends. She also had a pedicure and a manicure. She loves her new coat.


Barber to Boise 10k
Joel and I ran the Barber to Boise 10k. It starts at Barber Park and ended this year on the blue in Bronco Stadium. There were 880 10k runners. Joel's time was 45:21. He was 13th in his age group and 79th over all. His pace was 7:18.
I ran it in 53:13 and was 24th in my age group, 107th over all. My pace was 8:34; which is really great for me. There were over 2,000 runners at the event. They served a fun pancake breakfast afterwards. It was a lot of fun.


Pumpkins
We enjoyed going to the pumpkin patch and corn maze at linder Farms for FHE. It was fun to see the animals they have there. The baby camel loved Joel.
I went with Chloe on her kindergarten field trip to Farmstead pumpkin patch. It was VERY cold, but we managed to find a good pumpkin that she and Joel carved that night at the annual Pumpkin carving with Dad event.

STATE XC


Coelton and caden competed at the district xc meet. They did well, and Coelton secured a top 7 spot allowing him to compete at state in couer d' alene.
Joel and I flew to Spokane with his folks and drove over to Couer d' alene. Coelton rode the bus a long 9 hours with the team. After the state meet was all done, the girls team took second behind Boise. The boys team took 4th, behind Boise, Couer d' alene, and Eagle. It was a big upset. The kids did not perform to their potential, and had a rough race, they were tired and some were sick. Our teams have beat all those teams before. Unfortunately, it just wasn't their race. But they still trophied and were recognized.




Halloween
State just so happened to be on Halloween. It was hard to miss trick or treating with the girls. They stayed at the Johnson's house and had a wonderful time with them. Caden stayed at the Eastman's. Chloe dressed up as Cinderella and Hailey wore her clogging costume from last year and was a 70's girl.

H a i l e y

October of 1998 was a special time for us. We welcomed a new season and a new child. Our first daughter was born into our little family. I remember when she cried for the first time. Her cry was so high pitched, nothing like her brothers. She was ALL girl.
Hailey weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I just stared at her and couldn't believe she was mine. Her daddy was SO proud and loved the "little girl" thing just as much as I did. We dressed Hailey to the nines. She was always decked out in ribbons, bows, lace and ruffles. She was never seen without something in her hair. When she was a toddler she would ask for a "pretty" in her hair. To this day she is very much into fashion and the way she looks.

When Hailey was in kindergarten her Dad wanted her to play baseball, so we signed her up for T-ball. She was not excited, but thought it would be fun to wear a new shirt. When she got her baseball shirt she thought it was ugly and didn't match her pants (I don't think she owned a pair of blue jeans). when she put the baseball glove on she said "eew, do I have to wear this, I hate it." Needless to say baseball season lasted about 2 practices and she was done.

Hailey took ballet and loved it. She danced for 3 years and performed in the nutcracker, 2 times. Once in Pocatello with her studio and once in Boise. She tried out for the professional nut cracker and made the audition and was an angel.
Hailey also performed in Alice and Wonderland and Cinderella.

She saw some cloggers perform and wanted to learn to clog. I jumped at the opportunity and began the search for the right instructor. She is now in her 3rd year of clogging and is on the Advanced competition team at Idaho Rhythm. She loves it and looks forward to dancing at a pro level. She is constantly clogging around the house.
Hailey also plays the piano, and is in her 3rd year of lessons. She loves to make things and is very crafty. She took a year of art lessons and loved that. She made some lovely paintings. She is in the fifth grade and is on the student council as the vice president. She also recently won a poster contest for red ribbon week.
She is a wonderful big sister to Chloe. I often find them playing school together or some other exciting game. Hailey is very sweet to Chloe even though there is 5 years between them.
She loves her big brothers and I love to see them get along. Caden can make Hailey verry angry, but then he can also make her laugh like no one else.
Hailey always asks me if I need help. She helps me cook, clean and what ever it may be that I am doing. She also is a very good student and does her best at school. She is very creative and scored 50 out of 50 points on her practice pace project. Her teacher asked her if she could keep her poster to show her class next year.
Hailey also loves to sing. I often hear her singing in the shower and is always singing a song at the top of her lungs.
She is a wonderful daughter and we are so proud of her and the way she lives her life. She chooses the right and is a good example for her friends and family. We love you Hailey.

Fall is here

Our month of September was eventful and busy as usual. We had unseasonably warm weather with temperatures in the 90's and then today, the last day of September our high is 57. (only in Idaho)

Senior Pictures
What? I have a senior in high school? When did that happen.








Cross Country
Meets, meets and more meets. Septmeber was full of them. We went to caldwell, Wieser, Idaho Falls (all in one day), Eagle Island and Nampa. The Varsity flew to Portland to run in the Nike Pre-Nationals. Both the boys are doing very well. Coelton continues to improve with a PR of 16:48 to date and Caden's is 21:13. Caden has struggled with asthma issues and Coelton had a little struggle with Poison ivy. (it's not toilet paper:) Coelton has kept a top 7 spot which has allowed him to always race with the Varsity. We are proud of their accomplishments this season, and are hooked on XC!




BYU Football
Joel, Coelton and Caden love to watch football. I get a little annoyed with it after several weekends of it. Joel reminds me that it is his "hunting" time. (please) We don't have cable TV so it's hilarious watching them scramble to find someone to invite them to watch the game at their house. So far, they have found a way into some poor souls house for 3 hours every week. I like watching the game, from about half time to the end:) I really like wearing our BYU shirts on game day just to make people in Boise mad...they are obsessed with BSU, and we hate BSU.



Labor Day Camping
I really wanted to take the trailer out another time, Joel refused to go over labor day because BYU was playing. So I found a camp ground with cable TV. We went to McCall and stayed at a very nice KOA. We had a delightful time being together, riding bikes and playing games. It was a great weekend.







Sisters race/get-away
My sisters and I have done a race together for the last 3 years. Our first race was in Idaho Falls May 2007. When Mom passed away, we decided that we needed to spend more time together. We all live in different cities/states. Last year I hosted our first get-away and they all came here and we ran the womens fitness celebration. This year Shalean was in charge and we ran the Simplot Portneuf greenway. We stayed at the Holiday Inn, and enjoyed being together; laughing, shopping, TRYING to sleep, eating, and more laughing. My sisters are my best friends. DaNae had some shirts made that we wear when we race. They have Mom and Lori's pictures on them and say "running with angels". It is a nice tribute to them, I'm sure they were there too. We hope to run a race every year together, even when we are 90.



Daddy Daughter Date
I am the activity days for girls leader, so this year I got to attend the date too! We had a Mexican Fiesta, complete with taco bar, chips and salsa, frieds ice cream and piniatas. We played the mexican train game and also learned about all the Dads and the funny stuff they did when they were kids. It was lots of fun. Joel is very happy to retire pine wood derbys for daddy daughter dates!

Picture coming soon.

End of Summer Vacation

August is always a busy month for us. We try and finish up all the things we said we would do during the summer. Cross Country starts the middle of August and the kids start school the last day of August, so that leads to school shopping etc. And the garden is producing way too much, which leads to lots of canning and freezing. Amongst all the business it is HOT too. We hit 100 plus temperatures a few days in August.

Cousin Swap
My sister Shalean and her family live in Pocatello. They are the closest Judy family to us. She has daughters that are Hailey and Chloe's ages. Last year we met half way in Jerome and picked Strawberries for the day. It was so fun we decided to make it an annual event. This year the strawberry crop wasn't good, so we decided to make a cousin swap. Chloe went to their house for a few days while Makayla came here. They had so much fun. We took the boat out and Kayla got up on the water skis (for a few seconds). They went to Wahooz and played miniature golf and then to Roaring Springs for a day. We drove to Twin Falls and swapped them back and spent the afternoon shopping and eating at Target.





Cousin Campout
Joel's parents had the girls cousin campout at their house in Shelley this year. They have a boys and a girls campout each summer. All grand kids ages 8-12 get to go. Aunt Jill teaches home economics at the junior high. The girls got to go to the school and use the sewing machines while Grandma taught them how to make a pillow case.
When we swapped kids in Twin Falls, Shalean took Hailey and Maiya to Pocatello and Grandma Hammer picked the girls up there.

Garden Goodies
Our garden has produced lots of stuff for us this year. We froze lots of zucchini, green beans and corn. We canned some spaghetti sauce with our tomatoes.

snapping beans early in the morning



Hammer/Johnson Camp
We got together on Wednesdays for a fun "summer camp" with the Johnson's. Jordyn, Treven, Hailey and Chloe enjoyed making crafts and playing together. One day they made quite a bit of money doing a lemonade/Cookie stand.




Hike to Bogus
We had planned to finally take the boat to Owyhee, and woke up Saturday morning to cold tempratures and wind. So we drove to Bogus Basin and went for a hike to the top. We heard there was a cave up there so we wanted to find it. It was a beautiful (cold) day.





Boating on our own
We got tired of waiting for Joel to have time to take us boating! He is usually working out of town during the week, so I got brave and started taking the boat out on my own, (with the kids) Coelton is a great help and I couldn't do it without him. He helps hook it up then we drive it to lucky Peak. I back it down and he unhooks it and drives it off the trailer. I park the trailer and then he usually drives the boat. Caden has become a good boat driver too. We have a lot of fun, but I learned I will not ride the tube with coelton driving anymore;)
When we are ready to head out I get the trailer and back it down and he drives the boat on and hooks it up. The tricky part is getting it backed in the garage. There is only about 1 inch of space on each side. It takes me a while, but it eventually makes it back in:)




Eagle Scout Project
We set a goal to get this done during the summer. It was hard to find a good project but we finally did. Caden organized about 55 volunteers to paint fire hydrants for the city water dept. It was even better when we found out that the fire hydrants were located in our neighborhood. We ended up painting nearly 100! He logged 113 hours, and did a great job!

BEFORE


AFTER


Instruction on how to paint a fire hydrant


Cross Country


Both boys are running cross country this year. Coelton has earned a spot on Varsity. He ran a 4:50 mile and at his first meet he ran 17:39 in 100 degree temperatures. He came in 2nd for mountain view and 4th over all.
Caden has been training with the team and ran a 6:15 mile, but had a bad athsma attack and has been out for a week.


Varsity boys posing like Steve for year book.

Our awesome 1-2-3 punch! Agida, Coelton and Parker

It's a dangerous sport!



Back to School
This year we have a kindergartener and a Senior. (both ends of the spectrum) Hailey is in 5th grade and Caden is a Freshman. We have 2 in the Elementary school and 2 in the High School. Caden is happy to not have to ride the bus, since coelton drives the ranger to school most of the time. I'm happy that Chloe can ride the bus to school with Hailey and she can help her get to her class. I hope I don't get too lonely during the day without a little buddy around. For 17 and a half years I have always had little buddies with me. Now what do I do?