Nie Nie

It's 11:14 at night and I'm sitting on my couch waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in and eating german chocolate cookies. On Friday (mind you while I was at work) I decided that I would look at some of my friends blogs to read new posts. After looking at my friend Taniels blog- I wished I hadn't, because I found myself crying and blocking out work.

I found her newest post about Christian and Stephanie Nielson a young couple with 4 young children (who were luckily not on the plane) and how they had been in a tragic plane crash in Arizona on August 16th 2008. Christian was burned on about 30 % of his body and Stephanie was burned on 80% of her body. Taniels blog directed you to the nieniedialogues.blogspot.com Stephanie's blog about her family and motherhood. I have spent the last 2 days reading every single post (and going through a box a kleenex) from 2005 to just recent.

It has left me very emotional. I already am emotional when it comes to tender moments of greatness so tragedy with triumph makes me even more emotional. It awoke in me a sense of change to be better, make every day great, make mental pictures of every small thing. It makes me excited for kids of my own some day and excited for the hope of a companion who will love me always and unconditionally.

I may never meet Stephanie (nie nie) or Christian but they have touched me and I hoped that I could pass their example to others by posting this on my blog. I hope that you find an hour or a day here and there to visit Stephanie's blog. I at first felt like I was intruding on someone else's family privacy but soon found myself feeling a part of her family. Thousands read her blog before her accident and now over 20,000 read her blog. I will from here on out be one of them. So go ahead and make the effort to read, and become a fan of the nie nie dialogues.

Nephew #5

So I'm an Aunt again! Nephew #5 makes a total of 7 nieces
and nephews for me. Tripp Tanner Bird was born on
September 21st weighing in at 8 lbs. This little guy is super
good during the day but keeping mom and dad up all night.
He has great projectile when it comes to throwing up and
I've already been hit! These are pictures of him at 4 days old!

A Sad Goodbye

It is a day of saddness and joy. I am getting rid of my jeep (sorry uncle Darrell I know you loved yours) but it was time to get something that gave me better gas mileage and less car repairs. So here is my new baby! I am picking it up tonight in Pocatello.

Canning Green Beans

I'm spending the night trying to catch up on all the blog posts that I'm behind on from what I've been doing the last month and found that I missed posting about the Saturday in July that we canned green beans in Cache Valley.

Since mom broke her arm it's not possible to do a few things especially french style the beans. I have a picture of her with her cast but I feel that I would be taking my life in my own hands by posting a picture of her that she hates!

When I was a kid I didn't really like eating the green beans. One of our young women activities we had an etiquette night and I ate french style beans and loved them. Being ignorant I came home and asked mom if she would plant french style beans rather than the the whole ones. She was nice to inform me that you grow a bean and then cut it yourself to make it french style. Since that day I am often made fun of for my ignorance!

The funnest thing about beans this year was Brackston's help!

Brackston showing me a bean

Another Bean!

Brackston's job was to take the beans from the fridge drawer to the bar counter so we could put them through the french style machine

Busy doing his job and maybe too much!

Done doing his job and on to putting the beans in the cutter.

While doing beans, Katelyn was in the play/sewing room and was going through boxes and found my old dance costume. She didn't know anyone would see her and when she saw that I had my camera ready she took off running. Here is what I captured in her embarrassment!

She found what she could to cover her face, this reminds
me of mom and Grandma Scott when taking pictures!

Red Butte Gardens

I have a great love for gardens mostly flower gardens, and have wanted to see Red Butte Gardens since I moved to Salt Lake but never found the right time to go. Last Saturday Kathy one of my co-workers and I took 4 sisters 2 of which attend Rowland Hall to Red Butte. I think I was more excited then the girls but that's me. There were constant words of "wow look at that one" "look Amy there's a cow, made you look!" "Oh that one smells good"

It was one of the hottest Saturdays and we enjoyed the water fountain for playing in twice while we were there. The girls even got into a water fight and it was so fun to watch and not participate in!!!

After Red Butte we went to Jamba Juice to rehydrate from the hot day and then headed for home!

Sitting on a bench under a trestle with vines.

There were Grasshoppers everywhere, this one was the first we saw

A Bush shaped as a Moose at the Entrance of the Children's Garden

The Girls on the Bridge of the Children's Garden

The Girls playing in the water fountain

The cutest little area with log seats just enough for the girls!

Walking down a path that lead to large sculptures and a lake with fish