A possible break

So we leave for Las Vegas on Wednesday. WE ARE SO EXCITED! I doubt I will do much blogging in the next 2 weeks. Plus when I get back I will be hitting the ground running... Literally and figuratively. If my knee isn't better by the time I get back I am going to the doctor, even though they will have no way of helping me I am sure. I am icing it and taking ibuprofen. It hits me at mile marker 2. Its this horrible sharp pain right under my knee.

Figuratively... Well, in our Church we do a lot of volunteering. We are asked by our Bishop to do certain things or be over certain groups. Troy and I have done cub scouting. I lead the music in church for a while. We have taught nursery ages 18 months to 3 years old. And various other callings as we call them like teaching the old ladies to being over the men who are middle aged. This past week the Bishop asked me to be a 2nd counselor in the Young Women's organization. This is for the ages 12-18. I am specifically over the 12 and 13 year olds. I HAVE BEEN SCARED OUT OF MY MIND. TEENAGERS SCARE ME! But I am already in love with these sweet girls! Hence while I will refer them to "my girls" from now on. They are really excited to have me there and I am getting more excited too. I will be busy. Like super busy. We have a lot of meetings usually 2 a week. We have activities once a week on top of our Sunday meetings. We have lots of things to prepare for like girls camp, trek, new beginnings, personal progress, baptisms... LOTS of things to plan and put together. I have faith that Heavenly Father knows my needs. I know he knows the specific need I have to be close to my children right now. He knows that my parents are both very busy and active in their callings. My mom is 2nd counselor in the primary a group ages 3-12. And my dad is 2nd counselor in the old mens society or what we call high priest group. See a pattern here?

So if I have periods of no writings or just pictures or such that is why. I am still hoping to stick with blogging. I find it as therapy of some sort. Plus it is a way for Troy to stay up to date on us.

SO YOU ALL HAVE A FANTASTIC 2 WEEKS! Go out and join a book club, pick up that dusty old Bible, go swimming, call an old friend, write a solider, watch a classic movie, go to lunch with some friends. Hug your loved ones and I will see you all in 2 weeks!

MLK=Hiking

Today we went hiking around a National Park today. It is called the petroglyphs. It was really a lot of fun! Our first little hike really was like rock climbing. We saw some some neat petroglyphs and had a few bumps and bruises on the way. I am still having major problems with my right knee. So much so I actually stopped my run today. I HAVEN'T DONE THAT in my almost 2.5 months of training. UGH! I am on the look out for good hiking trails for "my girls" (more on that later) But here are some fun pictures of our climbing experience.

Hinks tripped a few times and scraped his little leg! But he was like a mountain goat climbing up those rocks
Do you see the other mountain goat up high? Yes he is 63 years old and YES he was carrying my baby with him the whole time!
Chandler loved climbing too. Until the wind picked up
See my mountain goat
Can you believe how close those houses are to this National Park? Kind of weird if you ask me.
Hinks liked this cat
Yes Chandler is in Grandpas lap
We liked that warrior guy on the left
Hinks and I climbed all the way to the top. We found this cool masked warrior. And yes he was a mountain goat going down too!

Zooing around

On Saturday we venture out to the aquarium and zoo. If you are ever in the sweet city of Albuquerque you must check them both out. We had so much fun!

Chandler was scared to death at first... clinging to grandpas legs
Hinks wanted to jump on the boat
The old fishing boat
This beautiful swan by the old boat
FAV PIC. He was kissing the tank... Kind of gross but really it was cute
Love this photo
He was ready to jump in and swim!
Here... BITE my finger
Chandler loved this little star fish
A giant star fish the kids could play on... along with a million other little germy kids
The train we took from the aquarium to the zoo
Quite the size difference
Silly photo
The boys loved the chimps.... I wonder why? Probably because they both ACT like chimps!


Hinks was like I SCRATCH my neck too
Looking at the red head
This chimp was really curious of Chandler
This is right before the chimp slammed his hand on the glass. I ABOUT PEED MY PANTS. Scared me to death.
Me and Chand on the train around the zoo
On the train around the zoo
Can you spot the animal???? Look in the tree. HINT: It eats bamboo

I knew you before... I can feel it

So this post will be pretty personal... I hope you will not mind. With Valentine's Day coming up and a few other events in my life I have reflected greatly on the people I love. I know with out a shadow of a doubt that some people are put in our lives to help us, encourage us, lift us, lean on us. I have felt this in my life a few times with friends. When we met it was almost familiar... comfortable... good... very good.

But the greatest "I knew you before moments" has been with my husband. Now I understand that this may sound crazy. Or maybe you have experienced something similar but I KNOW BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT I KNEW TROY AMMON CARTER BEFORE WE MET ON THIS EARTH. When we went on our first date (it was a blind single date) I felt that this boy was familiar but I was too busy dating 2 other guys that I really wasn't interested in Troy. We continued seeing each other and after a few short weeks it turned into a relationship.

Troy and I's relationship grew fast... LIKE SUPER FAST. Remember we were married 4 months and 8 days after we met. I remember the very first moment I recognized Troy as a person I knew before this earth. We were driving down to Salt Lake City and as usual we were dancing, singing, being crazy in the car and we were passing Malad area. I looked over at him and his eyes... His eyes were so familiar to me. I just stared at him. I couldn't NOT look at them (he was driving by the way). In his eyes I could see our children. I felt warm. I felt peace. I was overwhelmed and got very quiet. Troy thought it was odd that everything got so quiet in a matter of seconds. Within a few minutes though we were back to being goofy. Believe it or not I didn't tell him that story until after we had our first child!

I remember the first time I looked at his baby book... Same thing happened. I knew this guy. He was so close to my heart and we really had only known each other 6 months! The pictures made me feel as if I had been there. I felt like all his life I was there with him side by side even though he was living in England and California and I was in Virginia and Maryland.

The stories of his mission, high school, dating, childhood memories were so familiar to me.

The first few months of our marriage well and even now we will talk for hours on our bed. Mostly things about religion, our children, stupid people, you know husband wife talk. This too was so natural as if we had been doing this before. It was like we picked back up where we left off. I remember one time on a Sunday morning we talked from 7am-2pm without even realizing it!

Even now as I look at him from certain angles I can feel this bond that we created before this life. His smile... The genuine Troy Carter smile seals the deal. I have seen that smile before. I know it. Without a shadow of doubt I knew him before this life.

I hear it in his voice when he sings. I can feel it when he holds my hand. When he wears his uniform. I recognize it from his laugh. I sense it... I know it

That was reiterated about a year ago when I received a blessing. In it I was told that I knew my husband before we came to this earth. That we had a unique bond that would be eternally bound in heaven. That we had a relationship that we needed to continue once we received our bodies.

I hope you too will recognize those familiar moments. Maybe you see somebody at the clothing store and you make an eye connection and there is just something more. Maybe you have a similar experience with your own spouse or children or grandchildren. Maybe its your high school buddies or college roommate. Embrace those moments and be thankful for them!

STOP THE LIMELIGHT NEWS!

So in light of last weeks shooting in Tucson I have decided to write about something that bugs the HECK OUT OF ME. What happened in the grocery store parking lot is devastating. Absolutely devastating. I believe that those lives who were taken away and those who were injured should be blasted on the news. I would hope that many news/radio/internet show would remember these individuals and not just the few days after a tragedy like this happens but forever.

SO what is it that bothers me? I hate... I mean HATE (if you know in my family that is a bad word, we do not let Hinckley say it and we are not allowed to say) so for me to say this I practically CUSSING. I HATE when they blast all over the news pictures, facebook information, myspace information, high school transcripts, college information, when he was FREAKING POTTY TRAINED FOR GOODNESS SAKE all this insane information about a KILLER. A man who took 6 peoples lives and injured how many? See I dont even know how many people were injured because that is all they care about is if this kid played too many video games or was an outsider. I mean really America? You need Katie Couric to tell you that this kid was a wacko? Why do we give this insane person so much credit? so much attention? Why do we put his jail picture up every 2.5 minutes on National Television? WHY? Why not lock the kid in jail for life and forget about him? Or better yet I have a WAY better idea.....

I will never forget events like Columbine... Oklahoma City bombing... 9/11... I remember even more the constant news cast that dedicated shows to the wackos behind these hideous crimes. I just wish people would not care so much about these crazies and focus more on the victims.

HELP!!

Okay some how I messed up my blog completely. YIKES! All the side bar info is down at the bottom... I have some funky window thing... HELP! Anybody? Anybody help?

Chuck E Cheese Fun

So it has been a while since I took the boys out together. I decided we would venture to a Chuck E Cheese. I always loved this place as a kid so I thought what the heck right? Well, we had a great time really we did but man that place is kind of nasty. The food is nasty and overpriced. The games are stupid and give you like 1 ticket. The prizes are SO OVERPRICED. I have a picture to show you. For exampled one long tootsie roll like the one you can buy a WHOLE PACKAGE at wal-mart for $2 was 20 TICKETS. A crayon yes I said 1 crayon was 40 tickets. It was just sad. But the boys had a BLAST! Thank goodness we walked away with star glasses for Chandler, a silly straw for Hinckley a spider for Hinckley and a lollipop.... Thats it folks for our 180 tickets we had!

Playing the little basketball game

The cool hydraulic truck



Look mom NO HANDS!
Our cardboard nasty make my stomach churn pizza
Chandler with pizza on his chin
Hinks being a knight in shining armor....
More horse racing
Okay so I was trying to get a picture of the 2 ladies behind Hinks they were so into playing these games. I think there was a total of 5 of them who came together and combined they had that little girl with them. I guess Chuck E Cheese isn't just for kids.
I got this picture of this guy who kept playing this basketball game over and over again....
Surprise meet and greet! Hinks kept calling him Mickey Mouse.
Can you see the grin in this kids face? PRICELESS!
A block game that was not age appropriate.
A shooting game... Chandler even joined in on the fun
Chandler laughed and laughed and laughed at this fire truck with a face
Chandler playing the dog game
Aerial view of Chandler playing the dog game
Hinks kicked my butt at air hockey
A roller coaster ride
Chandler was scared to death of Mickey Mouse... I mean Chuckie
The roller coaster game
Can you spot the 40 ticket crayon? 60 ticket airhead?