Merritt Memories

I have always enjoyed being in YWs . I met a lot of wonderful girls while I was the Laurel advisor. You are able to become friends with them and impact their lives, hopefully. One of my Laurels is now 21. She got married young, had a baby, and now is divorced. She made some really poor choices and now has lost custody of her little boy. She is the cutest girl! Sometimes I want to shake her and say, "What are you thinking?" Her boyfriend she is currently dating has been in and out of jail for the last 10 years, he is a recovering drug addict. He's been clean since April. They have been dating over a year. I met him today. He seems very nice. His father is the bishop, so he was raised well. He had just gotten back from court. They are hoping that he doesn't have to go to prison. I hope he is able to stay clean for her sake, and his own. She stayed here over night while her mom is out of town. It brought back a lot of memories of all the craziness this girl has been thr...

On one of my recent trips to the DI (I love good deals), all the kids were in the sad little toy section. Kate was so excited by her good find. It was a battery operated Dora sucker holder?! (I guess we are so lazy now we are unable to manually turn our suckers when we need to. Don't worry the used sucker was not included) She was so excited! When she pushed the button Dora's arms would wave up and down. She thought it was pretty cool. "Mom, can I have this please, please, please? I want it!" she begged. After seeing it's amazing trick, and being convinced it was totally useful I said, "Sure. We can get Dora." She jumped up and down and bragged to all present how she was getting this treasure and they were not. I laughed. "You are one lucky girl Kate," I informed her. She smiled in agreement. We got home and she told me this was her magic remote. I asked her, "Really, what does it control?" "You!" she shouted. "You are...

We are sad to see the summer go, but everyone is excited for school to start again. We have tried to keep ourselves busy. I wanted the kids to have a fun activity once a week. I would say we hit our goal almost every week. We spent time at the park having a water balloon fight and enjoying the slip and slide. On the days we didn't do water activities the kids would just have fun sliding and doing whatever. We were able to go to the movies. Thank goodness for the dollar movies. The older kids liked Chronicles of Narnia, the younger Horton Hears a Who. Popcorn was a highlight for all. I'm glad re-fills were only 50 cents. We went bowling and had a blast. The kids really had fun. It was crazy! I was surprised how far they could hold the ball and roll it, even Becca. Ryan didn't even use the bumpers. I was truly amazed at the strength of those wood floors. I believe they are probably indestructible . There are a couple of museums we hit as well. One was the Utah Museum of Natur...

Shandi , Dustin's sister, watched the kids the other night for us. She had gotten some coloring contest entry forms for the kids from a store. She had them color them while we were gone. She was kind enough to enter them for us too. Thanks Shandi . We got a call this morning saying Aaron had won for his age group! He was so excited. We went down later and picked up his prize. He won a brand new Super Soaker . It was good because all of their others had just broken! (a little sarcasm ) We pulled up into the parking lot and were surprised to see his picture under a sign that read: Winners of the coloring contest! On the other side were all the other entries. They all were glad to see them hanging up. We got some pictures. Just thought we'd share. The winning page out of 8-11 years old The prize Ryan's picture Grace's picture is right above her. Becca's and Kate's were at the top. Theirs are the turtles.

As I was getting photos of Dustin and I for the new slide show to put on my blog, Kate pulled out an old picture of my family. I always hated that picture because I was rather "large" from having Ryan. When she was looking at it, I stopped and watched her. She was so focused on one person. I looked to see who it was and realized it was my dad. Her expression was priceless. Her face was saying, "I don't know him. Who is he? Who is this man sitting by Grandma?" All of a sudden that became one of my FAVORITE pictures. It was my dad how I remembered him. It was before he got real skinny, his nose was normal, and he didn't seem aged at all. I stopped what I was doing and pointing to my dad said, "Who is that?" She replied , "I don't know. I don't know him." "That's my dad. That's Grandpa Taylor. He died before you were born." "Did you cry?" she asked. "Yeah I cried, but we'll see him again when J...

Good things come in 3's 3 joys: 1. My Family 2. Volleyball 3. Chocolate 3 fears: 1. Heights 2. the dryer catching fire 3. my children drowning 3 goals: 1. Pray everyday 2. Read scriptures daily 3. Let go and relax 3 current obsessions: 1. Making sure my house doesn't smell like dog 2.trying not to be so uptight 3. getting ready for school to start 3 surprising facts: 1.I'm a clean freak when it comes to my bathroom 2. my right index finger is my "nervous" finger, the nail is permanently distorted 3. I don't like reading, but do love to read non- fiction books especially LDS doctrine books, I once tried to read Mormon Doctrine, but realized it would take forever I still would like to do it

I was playing "church" with Kate and Becca today. Do any of you remember doing this when you were little? I remember I always gave talks and the vacuum was my microphone. I was quite a good speaker. I also remember breaking bread and water and having the sacrament. I was little and didn't understand this was a big no, no. Anyway, it was interesting to see their own little take on one of my favorite childhood past times. Kate was the teacher and Becca was her "dollar" (daughter). I got to be one of the primary kids. We had a good lesson. It showed me what she understood about the Gospel. She taught about the Holy Ghost. He helps us to be kind. Becca let me know that the Holy Ghost doesn't "get you." I'm glad she understands he is not a scary thing. I think this is why Kate calls him the Spirit. Next she talked about the Word of Wisdom. This we do to keep our bodies " strong and healthy," she said. She let us know,"You have to k...

WE got a REAL dog! Everybody meet Ace. Dustin had been looking since Tami's dog came to our house with her son Tanner. We got him 4 days ago. We have been pretty busy with him. I have been a little slow on blogging. He is a miniature schnauzer. He is a fun, loving, mellow puppy. He's 10 weeks old. He has been g reat for the kids. They love having a dog. He is almost house broke. I'm hoping he gets the idea soon. He hasn't been too bad. He is very good with the little girls. He let's them pick him up and drag him. He gets them back when they're playing! He loves to tug on their clothes and nip their bums. He knows they are playing. He only does it then. Our last puppy was irritated by the kids, so it makes us all happy. The boys are so responsible! They have really taken charge (I can't complain). They make sure he's fed, watered, and his poop is scooped. We haven't had to get after them at all. He's really attached to the boys. He gets sad if ...