Here we go

September 18, 2008
Thank you to Karah for helping me with starting our family blog, she's very talented. I especially enjoy reading everyone's blogs now that we're far from home and hopefully you can keep up on us now too.
We are enjoying Montana for the most part, sometimes the weather is a little crazy. September is always a reflective time for me. I always think about what was going on throughout the years as this beautiful fall season begins. Of course, I always think of my brother Brett who passed away Sept. 11 of 1994. I can hardly believe it has been 14 years. He was such a special person and brother. He always was very perceptive and objective. He was never judgemental and saw the best in others. He was a hero to me.
Anyway, we are liking living on the base and military life thus far. It has a few quirks to it, but we like it. Bill has been VERY busy at work. They are really understaffed and so he always has more to do, than he has time to do it in. He doesn't like feeling behind all the time. He just had his first trial 2 weeks ago and it went well, he didn't mess up as he says. Yesterday he got some good news, that another JAG will be coming in November, yeah! That should help out.
As for me, I am adjusting to being home full-time, and it has been an adjustment. I get to go to a lot more church and community functions, and I just finished reading the Twilight series. However, I always thought when I had more time, I would get around to doing all kinds of projects, and be better about cleaning, etc. What I've found however, is that even with more time, my house is still not as clean as I like. At least before I had the excuse of working part-time. I thought I would get my photos out of the archives and get them into scrapbooks, and yet still they sit, either in boxes or on my hard drive, yet to make it to a scrapbook.
I have at least started to do a few things, I always planned on doing. I am making homemade bread! I knew it was in my genetic make-up, and I am finally tapping into it. It is not as pretty as mom's, but it still tastes so good, so much better than store bought bread. Bill and the kids love it, as do I. This is part of why my weight has plateaued, I don't normally eat this much bread. I'm grinding the wheat and everything. It is fun. I even make cinnamon biscuits. I always took mom's bread and biscuits for granted, they are a lot of work!!! Anyone who eats them, should savor each bite, you can't fully appreciate mom's hard work until you make them yourself. Thanks mom for all those years of delicious food. Bill and I bottled some peaches this week as well. We are working on increasing our food storage.
I will be starting a new church assignment next week as the Activity day leader. It is twice a month. I will be working with 8-11 year-old girls. We will be doing activities to help them develop talents and skills in various categories both spiritual and physical. It should be fun. Please feel free to send any ideas you might have for them.
We had a woman's activity at church this week about service, and I was very touched. I hope I can teach my kids how to love to serve others. Some of my best memories are those of service. What a great example mom and dad have been to me. My in-laws are serving a humanitarian mission right now in India, and that has been really inspiring. It helps me appreciate what we have here in the United States. We are truly blessed, and it is our responsibility to help those in need.