Beauty and Tragedy

The day started so beautifully this past Wednesday, the 4th ~


My friend Laura and I went hiking about 10am. We headed up to the 29th St. trailhead and hiked up to the "boulder fields" as Ben calls them. It's an area that has massive boulders perched seemingly haphazardly on the side of the mountain.
We explored a little bit then found a boulder to sit on for awhile looking out over Ogden on a beautiful, clear morning. The world felt right in that moment. We prayed together and chatted about life.

Hiking along the Ogden bench ~ Regretfully I have to say that ribbon of pukey yellow in the distance is pollution. Gotta love Utah's air quality!

Looking up towards Taylors Canyon

These boulders are massive ~ Their color and texture is amazing!

Rugged Beauty

Later that night Heather and I went to see "Sherlock Holmes". Very good movie :)
We drove home about 8:30pm. 10 minutes later the first shots were fired a block away that would take the life of Officer Jared Francom.
The Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force did a knock n serve and were fired upon by a lone suspect. It resulted in 6 officers being shot. Officer Francom was killed, 2 are still in critical condition, 2 are in stable condition and one was released.
The lone suspect was shot and is in the hospital also.
Heather and I were in the computer room when we heard cars that were going at very fast speeds with sirens. We ran out to the living room and realized the flashing lights were stopped a block away. At that point there were cop cars from different surrounding cities screaming up and down our road. They did a road block in front of our house.
We couldn't imagine what was going on. We thought maybe there was a hostage situation. DJ came home from school a bit later and then Dani and Ben from youth group after that.
We watched out our living room window for the next 3 hours as the local news channels set up and did broadcasts by the road block outside our house. We went online and read what had happened.
It was sad and surreal that this was happening in our neighborhood.
Please pray for Officer Francom's young wife and 2 children, ages 3 & 5, as well as the other wounded officers and their families. We appreciate the sacrifices they make each and every day. They are truly HEROES.


Beauty and tragedy all in one day ~ 
Hold on to each moment you have been given! Purpose to live with gratitude the moments God has blessed you with!

Blessings,

JanMarie

The Journey Begins :)

Happy New Year!


~The poster is made
~Goals are set
~First weigh in is come and gone
Our family Biggest Loser~ish contest is on a roll!

This is my portion of the poster we made.  No one else is real excited about me blogging  on their journey so you are just stuck with me :) 
In case you can't read the inspirational quote here it is :
"The only one who can tell you that you can't is you. You don't have to listen!"

Heather and I decided to join a local gym. It's a smaller fitness center. Warm and inviting. Friendly staff.
I made the commitment to work with a trainer once a week for the next 6 months. It will help me be more accountable in getting to the gym 5 days a week. It will also be very helpful because I'm lost when it comes to weight training!
Yesterday was my 2nd session with my trainer ~ he's great! Very encouraging. I need that ~ alot :) This journey to losing 50 lbs. won't be easy. I won't always want to go workout. I won't always want to make better food choices.
BUT....I do want to feel better.....stronger! I don't want to sit around waiting for health problems to fall into my lap because of being overweight.
So. The journey begins :)
I'm hoping to blog each Monday about this journey. That's the day I meet with my trainer. I think it will be helpful to blog about this journey. Writing is a powerful tool. Maybe someone else will be inspired to take the first step towards their own journey!

DJ and I took the dogs hiking along the bench Sunday morning. It was so beautiful. Not to cold. So quiet and the air was clean :)

Persevering With Purpose,
JanMarie

Christmas Week

Only 2 hours left of 2011 ~ Where on earth did this year go?
Hello 2012! I'm excited about this coming year :)


Christmas week was fun and eventful. My mom and dad came for a week and we had a wonderful time with them :) 


We took the FrontRunner train down to Salt Lake City. We ate dinner at the Blue Lemon ~ great food :) We also walked around Temple Square and looked at the lights. Amazing. I think every twig on every tree was covered in lights!
We went to the 11pm Christmas Eve service at our church and opened stockings.
Christmas day was relaxing. We got up and opened presents. Then we had our traditional Christmas breakfast ~ sausage gravy and biscuits. Both made from scratch. Yum!
The girls both had to work after breakfast. We had a simple Christmas dinner of ham, baked sweet potatoes, raspberry applesauce jello, olives, pickles and homemade rolls, steamed broccoli and corn. Delicious!

DJ and I saw this at TJMaxx and had to buy it for Ben. It's a traditional Italian cake.
We had these at Christmastime when we lived in Sicily. Ben especially loved them. 

These next pictures are Ben snowboarding last Monday. He was so happy to be on the slopes again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our church, Alpine Church, did Missions Week again this year. Not everyone can go on a missions trip so  Alpine Church decided to give people the opportunity to "go" on a missions trip right here in our hometown.


This past Monday we packed boxes for pastors in Mexico. There are 298 indigenous groups in Mexico. They each have their own language ~ some of them also know Spanish.......some not. The pastors in these areas have next to nothing to work with as they reach out to their own indigenous group. The boxes we packed have a variety of items in them such as toiletries, school supplies, food items, etc. The pastors are so grateful to receive these boxes.


Tuesday morning found  a semi truck from Feed My Starving Children pulling into the church parking lot! Exciting!
We did this last year and it is FUN!!
FMSC is based in Minnesota and is a non-profit Christian organization.
Basically how it works is this:
~ Our church paid for 200,000 meals
~ A truck brings all the supplies needed to set up stations so we can package those meals
~The meals consist of 4 components:  
  1.   Rice, the most widely accepted grain around the world.
   2.   Extruded soy nuggets, providing maximum protein at lowest cost.
   3.   Vitamins, minerals and a vegetarian flavoring to give growing children the critical nutritional elements they need.
   4.   Dehydrated vegetables for flavor and nutrition.
 ~Tables are set up and it runs like an assembly line. Scooping the food into bags, weighing it, sealing it and boxing it up.
~People sign up for 2 hour shifts.


You know that you are being a blessing by doing this but believe me...you will leave feeling blessed and grateful to have played a small part in FMSC's outreach!
For more information on Feed My Starving Children go here: http://www.fmsc.org

The truck is here!

Time to unload

soy and rice

Tables ready for stations to be set up

This was at the end of our shift but you can see how the stations are set up

32 bags in a box  ~ this is life saving food for so many children. This food is shipped to nearly 70 countries around the world.

~~~~~~~~~~

There's no better way to spend Christmas vacation than reaching out to others sharing the love of Christ! I'm so grateful my husband and kids enjoy doing this as much as I do. It was wonderful that mom and dad were here to help too. They loved it.

I hope you are excited about this coming year.

Happy New Year!

~JanMarie

Dreaming of a White Christmas..... & Pinterest :)

It gently snowed all day yesterday ~ 
It gave us a couple inches or so. I'm hoping it hangs on stubbornly because our 10 day forecast is pretty clear with highs in the upper 30's. Hopefully the mountains got dumped on!!


I'm sharing my new obsession with you :) It's a good one I promise!
The name of my new obsession is Pinterest www.pinterest.com  It's an online community version of what I've been doing since I was a senior in high school (1989). It's a wonderful place to get inspiration and ideas on just about any topic!


I took my first interior design class in high school and have been infatuated with it ever since! I started tearing pages out of magazines of things that inspired me. Several years ago I organized those pictures in 3 ring binders. I have one for each room of the house. I slipped the pictures into clear protective sleeves.

Pinterest is the same idea. You can create different boards ~ for example I have a board for each room of my house. As you come across pictures while surfing the web you can pin them to your boards.
Maybe you aren't interested in decorating but maybe you love travel. You can create boards for all the places you've been or want to go.
You have to be invited to join Pinterest. If you are interested let me know ~ I'll invite you :)
You can follow other peoples boards and repin their ideas and pictures to your own boards. It's amazing!! 


Dani will be home soon and we're going to make Scottish Shortbread.  Melt in your mouth Yum :) 


                     dreaming of a white Christmas.........
                       JanMarie     

Happenings....

DJ and I had a chance this week to get away for a couple of days. Friends offered us the use of their condo up in Eden. Gratefully we accepted :)
It was nice and relaxing. One of the days we drove down to Draper to explore IKEA. It was DJ's first time there. He was really impressed with what they had to offer. So many options and ideas!
Cabelas was only a few more miles south so we went there also just to browse ~ seriously! no purchases were made :) One can dream though, right?


Today I took Ben and Heather down to Union Station to take their yearly pictures since we don't buy school pictures anymore (they are too pricey and predictable). I like how Heather's turned out ~ I need to take Ben out again though.

I'm working on a project in the kitchen. As much as I want it done I dawdle and procrastinate as always! I'm going to go work on it now so hopefully in a week or so I can show you the end result.  

I've been encouraged lately in my morning devotions. I'm reading Colossians 3 every morning. It's amazing what you start gleaning as you reread the same passage everyday. Along with that I'm reading through Jeremiah ~ one chapter a day. 

God so desires to shower us with His mercy, grace and love. To often we forget that He is also a Holy and Just God! He will allow us to bear the consequences of our choices yet continue to love us through it all.  His heart cries as we flop around like fish out of water determined to make it on our own. No matter how we flop and fail it never changes who God is. He is constant. He IS. 

Redeemer

Savior

I AM

Counselor

Faithful

Just

Holy

Cornerstone

King of Kings

Emmanuel

Lord of Lords

& so much more.

Have a beautiful day :)

~JanMarie

Biggest Loser...ish

Christmas cards are in the mail! 
I'm so glad I won't be rushing around at the last minute trying to get those done :)


Last night we as a family decided to create our own version of the Biggest Loser. We are going to  make a poster  with all our names on it and our goals whether it's losing weight or for Ben it will probably be a running goal or something.  Starting January 1st we will weigh in and then continue to do so on the 1st of each month. June 1st will be the final weigh in. If everyone has met their goal we will take a trip ~ nothing to extravagant but somewhere we haven't been. The destination is still undecided.
We are all pretty competitive ~ no one will want to be the one who let the family down so to speak!
I have to be honest and say I'm a bit nervous. I was 123 lbs. when DJ and I started dating in '90. 4 pregnancies later and not exercising led to quite a bit of weight gain. Almost 100 lbs. Not cool! My goal for now is to lose 35 lbs.
I'm very undisciplined and that's what makes me nervous. I can do this though ~ with lots of prayer and hard work. It will have to be in His strength not mine.


We will all approach this differently. 


DJ hates working out so he'll probably ride his bike to work ~ about 24 miles round trip. Heather's been going to the gym with a friend and has her Zumba dvds. 
I will mostly exercise by walking, hiking and snowshoeing (if it ever snows!). I know I need to do some strength training too. I'm not sure yet what Dani and Ben will be doing.


Today Bing Crosby is filling the house with sounds of Christmas while we bake Cinnamon Nut Biscotti :)

Have a beautiful day!

~JanMarie

Let It Snow!

I finally have my blog looking the way I wanted! Simple :) 

Computers and I aren't the best of friends so it took a little doing.

So, are you decorated for Christmas? I'm about 90% done. Christmas cards are ready to mail ~ A very stubborn, bloody nose kept me home today instead of going to the Post Office. Hoping tomorrow is a more productive day!

Last night was the annual Christmas Concert put on by several area high schools. The choir Danielle is in did a wonderful job as always. The evening ended with all the choirs (500+ students) singing "Still, Still, Still" ~ a beautiful Austrian Christmas lullaby dating from 1819. Words can't describe the full, rich sound of so many voices harmonizing together. Awesome :)

We are still waiting for snow! Oh Please, Oh Please, Oh Please!!! We love wintertime ~ with snow that is :)

I hope you are taking in the sights, smells and sounds of this special time of year wherever you are!

                                                                                            ~JanMarie