Last Sunday we had a youth nacho night.  We'd done once before and few years ago with random youth.  It was fun but i was hoping to create an actual feeling in our ward with the gathering this time.  After much thought and input from the kids and Sister Gilliland I felt the Spirit prompt me that I KNEW WHAT TO DO!  I was filled with a confidence from my teenage years that i knew how to throw a party.  i know what it takes for people to feel loved and included.  I didn't need advice from anyone I just needed to do it.  So "nacho night, social experiment #1" was born.  I sent an email to the young mens mass email list and posted a small blurb on the YW Facebook page inviting all the youth to come over for Nacho Night from 730-830.  i wasn't sure who would come but i was sure that whoever came would be welcomed and loved by me. 

okay  megan is totally adorable and made this great new logo for her bread business.  she is so creative and i love watching her make stuff on the computer, especially cool videos!!  she rocks!

Sometimes I forget I chose this job.  I forget how much I wanted to be a mom.  I forget the agreement I made with my husband and how we worked so hard as a team to raise our three kids.  Then the scripture that begins, Remember, Remember, comes to mind.  I remember I am a daughter of God; daughter of  a King.  I remember my choice to give my life to raising my beautiful, precious children.  I remember the feelings of love and joy and good times.  I remember our awesome trips to the beach and Disneyland and Sedona.  I remember our nights walking together on the golf course and the cool grass as we ran bare-foot.  I remember my Father in Heaven loves me still.  He cares about me.  He wants to be my friend.  The remembrance of who I was and who I am encourages me now.  It strengthens me to give a little more and try a little harder.  It truly is a fight for my life some days.  I remember the days when medicine worked and then I remember the days when I still had awful thoughts and medicine just wasn't enough.  Understanding the walk with darkness and despair is part of my life.  I don't have many answers but I am living more aware and more purposefully.  I am reading my scriptures and praying and exercising as much as I can make myself.  I have a desire to eat better with less sugar and see if that really helps.  I am trying so hard to fill my life with light.  I need to take care of me so I can love others.  I have so far to go but these are my thoughts for today.  Finding something to smile about makes so much of a difference and thinking of things to be grateful for may be the most important medicine of all.

life is getting a little more normal.  mark has his therapy set in the mornings on monday, wednesday and friday. on tuesday and thursdays we are doing some easy hiking or going to the gym, having lunch with friends or doing other things at home. some of the things he is doing now that he is home is playing the piano, checking his email, making little spreadsheets on the computer, folding clothes, unloading the dishwasher. today he did his first cooking by making some fresh salsa. it took him a while but he picked it up again quickly and it tasted really good.

This is a picture Mark and I in PHX. Mark suffered a severe brain injury from hitting and elk on January 21, 2012 and was in a coma for close to 3 weeks. We were so excited when he started opening his eyes. Now he is in Barrow Neurological Rehab in PHX. Life has been pretty busy and full of prayers with so much love and support from many friends and family. He is trying to get his strength back to walk and take care of himself and mostly he is trying to get his memory back. He is working hard and making lots of progress!

Nothing like having a bull elk decide he wants to ride shotgun while you are driving 60mph on Highway 89.

It's been a good year so far. lots of basketball and lots of learning. I have to leave for the game in 15 minutes. Jason is dividing out equal size bags of Nilla wafers for lunches and i am finishing up a dinner to go in on time bake to help make a happpy family after the game. i do hope we win our game. it isn't all about winning but somehow winning makes it a pretty fun way to end a game! tomorrow is jury duty. wonder if they'll need me. i've never done it so i kind of want to. bye

A favorite hike with some favorite friends.

Jason singing Santa Claus is coming to town

When I hear negativity in my brain I try to stop and feel something positive about the situation. Last night while working on "important" church stuff Jason kept interrupting with goofy jokes. i was getting annoyed when suddenly my 5:1 list popped in my head. Number 7 = tell jokes. I immediately shut the computer, got a blanket and sat on the couch to listen with a giggle ready to rumble from my belly. He was showing me love and i wasn't about to waste another minute of that precious moment!!

(EH = Emotional Health Entry)

The chickens are getting so big!! Only 2 more months until we get some eggs. Jeremy named this one Omlet. or was it Drumstick? i can't remember!

1. show interest

Mark has always wanted to live on a 5-acre farm and have a cow. I know things can happen to a person that makes them realize life is short and it is time to take action because suddenly we have the beginnings of a little farm right under our front porch. Mark and Jeremy decided the time had come and built a coop while Mark was "recouping" from surgery. Now we have 15 little chickies of our very own. Chirp Cheap!

We had an awesome trip to Oceanside. We did the deep sea fishing, sea world, the beach, snorkeling, sea kayaking, temple trip including baptisms for the kids! and some great relaxation. This is a photo of the kids with Aunt Jen and Chase Bohne. This was the day they tried surfing!

mark has cancer again. he found it early and it looks like everything will be just fine as soon as the tumor is removed. he has surgery set for tomorrow morning. we feel blessed he found it so quickly and that were able to get surgery scheduled so quick. thanks for all the love and prayers.

I was so proud of Meg. She was super nervous but she jumped! Slide rock is always crowded and busy but it has been one of our favorite places this summer. It is close, easy and fun for my kids who are growing up on me.

Our family was the best ever!

1. Basketball: Jeremy lost his tournament game today. It was very very sad. He played his little heart out and we are so proud of him. Afterward Mark and I taught the Activity Days girls how to play basketball. It was entertaining and educational.
2. Motorbike: Mark is on his way back from PHX. He just got a new enduro. If he gets the other one working then we will have 3 for this weekend and hope to go dirting with some friends.
3. Owee: Jason came home with a bandaid on his knee. They say bandaids make everything better. Not true. When I took it off I could see why his teacher hadn't want to deal with it. Yuck and dirt and rocks under two big flaps of skin. Cleaning wounds is not my thing but I did my best. He screamed like I'd never heard but I hugged him and it was a sweet thing in the end.
4. Paleo diet: Jeremy started this monday morning. I'm not sure why he wants to do this... Only meat and fruits and veggies. He is the only one truly wanting to stick to it. I just ate a handful of cadbury eggs.
5. Mrs. Michael Phelps: Megan is finishing up her first month swimming with the Flagstaff Snow Sharks. The head coach really wants her to keep swimming because she has the perfect swimming body with her thin body and long arms. This coach is a great coach so I was surprised when she took me aside to talk about Meg. She's sees tons of water coordination and grace and potential. I told her we'd talk more about it in the fall. I had put Meg in for more of the "lessons" to help with strokes but had never considered a sport of swimming for her.
6. Watermelons are $1.88 at Frys. I bought 4 at 11am. We only have 1 left!
7. Scotty or Lauren. I voted Scotty. I loved his final song. I loved Lauren's too but Scotty should win it all. He is such a gentleman.

I couldn't be prouder of Jeremy!! He started tuba this year and worked so hard he made the regional band!! we went to kingman to hear the performance on saturday and i was amazed. at the start of every song i thought, this is my favorite. then the next one would start and i would think, no THIS is my favorite. He is so amazing, awesome and such a hard worker. I love that kid!!

I need a picture of Jason and his lightsaber for this one!

The April 28-29, 2011 BYUWC (Womens Conference) is the annual get away I crave. My friend who is drowning in color-code personality analysis told me I have a lot of yellow; the fun-loving spontaneous color. Yes, it is true!... but only twice a year--womens conference weekend and my annual "honeymooning anniversary" getaway with my hub. I love the freedom of doing whatever I want, whenever I want and NOT HAVING TO MAKE DINNER! Yee-Haw!!

This is the title of a book i am discussion leader for today at lunchbunch. It is a love story between a Chinese and Japanese boy and girl who met during world war 2 in California. There is some great historical info intertwined which made the read very interesting and landed it on my favorite list. i went to the "author talk" at the FlagBookFest and absolutely loved it. how cool to hear the workings of the story from the man who wrote it!

There was also a man there who read some of his poetry. i want to admit i barely understood half of the poems. i am a college graduate but realized my vocab is probably an 8th grade level. i had never thought of that before... what does "reading at a 7th grade level" mean? it must have to do with vocab and comprehension, not just that someone dropped out of school at 7th grade. the poet had great word choice creating vivid images but then he'd use a big word at the end and i couldn't quite get the punch line so i just followed the crowd with a "ha", a clap and a nod acting like i knew how funny it was. i was slightly depressed at my underachiever-realization that i hadn't pushed myself to learn more back in the day and possibly i truly am an 8th grade reader.. YIKES! but i also left slightly motivated to learn new bigboy words and encourage my kids to get into more difficult reading.

This is a shout out to Ruth. Remember when you gave me a recipe for chicken and dumplins way back when we were newly weds in Sure-Man, TX? (probably not but it was the same time as you givin me the pinto bean cannin recipe). Well Yesterday Jeremy found it in my ratty recipe binder and wanted it for dinner. Lo and Behold he made it for us ALL BY HIMSELF!! it was amazin, fantastic, wonderful, awesome--the best thing ever! he peeled the carrots and potatoes and chopped the celery, made the dumplin batter, i mean everything!! it was the most divine thing i've ever eaten. so your love is still bein felt down here in air-i-zona and i thank ya!

Meg took a decorating classe for cupcakes from a girl in our ward and had the time of her life. It is her newfound joy and talent!

Jason walking "on the edge". Actually more like in the middle!

Anniversary Slide Show of two love birds!

thanks to my sister laura, myjobchart.com has changed my life!! my kids are so excited to do jobs and earn little rewards. even if it only lasts a few months it is worth every second i spent putting it together!

thanks to my sis in law debbie who has helped me get my house put together through the virtual world. she can take a pic and help me shop while i am in denver and i come home with great stuff... which is especially great since mark's family is cmoing in a week!

thanks to my friend kelly who took amazing pictures of us all at christmas. i am finally getting them printed and framed for a grouping on my wall. i have never had family pics on the wall and i am so excited!

thanks to my friends who have let me bum along on their morning walks. it has been a great thing for me to start exercising again and have someone to ramble to.

thanks to some friends who are giving us their timeshare in at the grand cayman. i am super super excited to plan a big trip for mark and i for his 40th. life has been good to me lately and i am so glad!!

thanks to everyone who loves me and my family!!!

Now that the fires have burned the hillside the rains have started. There is nothing to stop it from zooming down the mountains. One girl was swept away in a flash flood but her sister managed to get out. What a mess. Mutual was cancelled and many people in the ward went out to fill sandbags.

Moooooo

This was the debut of Mr. Pip (that's what I call him) at the Knoles Talent Show tonight at Sinagua. Everyone laughed so hard they were crying. This is one of the top-ranking numbers in my Hilarious Book. The next showing is tomorrow at the In-School perfomance at 1pm. Don't miss it!

i am off to do masterpiece art in jason's class today. i am soooo not an artist but with the constant urgings and pleadings of my kids to come in to the classroom i have finally started going out of my comfort zone. yikes!! i'll try to get a photo of the surealistic art sculpture we made in jeremy's class. after all my nerves were shot and nails were bit off i can say it really was fun to do!

Guess who we saw skiing at snowbowl this past week!!!

Side-by-side computers, ritz crackers, raman, nesquik, koolaid, dirty socks and shoes.... This is the recipe for an awesome day of spring break!

Quick update
1. We were planning to close on Feb. 12. the lender changed the loan specifics at the last minute so we now working with a different lender hoping to close by march 10.
2. meg and jason are working on their lines for a play with a flagstaff theater group. megan's dream is to be an actress so i am helping out how i can.... then i ended up trying out for 7 brides for 7 brothers so maybe my unrealized dream is also to be an actress.
3. we finally got jason to get a hair cut!
4. our third vacation rental is up and going and we have our first renters in there this weekend. i love this stuff. real estate is my thing.
5. i got jason and jer into NAU for piano lessons. we are working on getting megan in for guitar and i am thinking maybe i will do voice? i'll keep you posted.
6. we have complete olympic fever and cannot get to bed on time at all.
7. $15 is worth it if you can come out of the docs office and your kid says, "yea, i guess you were right."

This is a group of the kid's friends who all got together to share their musical talents. It was a lot of fun! Nothing like a party to encourage the kids to practice!

I am catching up on life and realized Megan hasn't been keep our blog up to date anymore, probably because mary set meg up with her own, so i decided to write a bit. sorry, no picture right now.

the new year is again helping me get back on track with reading scriptures and keeping up with sunday reading. nothing really too new. i am still trying to decide on what to do with my life, AGAIN! the foster care helped fill the baby void for quite a while but it isn't as fulfilling anymore. i mean really, how can full-time "daycare" be that gratifying. so it is leaving me in another delimma, dilemma, diliema, delima? of wondering if there is more for us out there. i shouldn't say "us" since it is really "me". mark is quite fine with the 3 kids we have but i wonder why so many things leave me sad, crying or wondering if there is something, i shouldn't say something, but if there is someone out there for us but i am still not gutsy enough to fill out adoption papers.

in the meantime we are about to send olivia home for good. we had her since aug 3 and she has been such a blessing in our lives. she is 2 and the kids absolutely adore her. she will be with us until jan. 30. her mom is doing great which is the whole plan from the beginning.

jer started the french horn this year and is learning the pink panther on the piano. we'd like to get him an awesome piano teacher but since we haven't found one mark and i are still teaching him. he loves, LOVES being a deacon.

meg loves decorating and HGTV. we've been looking for another house with the basement we have been wanting since we left NY. she loves to go and look at the houses with me. she is "my girl" and i love her so much.

jason is a spitfire lately. he has his own way of doing things and doesn't want to do things any other way. the only saving grace is at nights when he wants to cuddle and read books.

i am running our vacation rental business which i love. mark is working at gore still but really loves having a project so i assume we will purchase a house that needs fixing up or remodeling in some way. it is good to keep busy and working on things.

love ya all!

Jeremy's ordination day

Ok, so lately I have been REALLY BORED. So once again my mom urged me to write a post. Um, well there is this really funny thing and I need to tell somebody, so everybody reading this post, YOU yes YOU are that somebody. So, down to buisness. We have this pad and it heats up. So the Hansen family, (me) thought of this really great thing. You sit on it and guess what?!?!?! It actully warms up your bum!! Great huh. So lately it's just being passed from bum to bum. There are levels for how hot you want it to be. Right now it's on high. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! P.S. Megan wrote this again.

#1 in the middle of the night mark got a washable marker and drew moustaches on all the kids. in the morning i drew one on myself. as i played our wake-up song i could barely keep from laughing as the kids came out one by one. once we started reading scriptures they started waking up more and started noticing the moustaches on all of us. it was pretty hilarious and the hardest i've laughed in a long time. object lesson: if we aren't careful and watching our actions, satan can sneak in and before we know it we are tainted by his mark. they loved it!

#2 megan was trying her best to clean the kitchen all by herself. We rushed out the door and when i got back from the school drop off there was water and bubbles ALL over the kitchen floor and under the fridge and stove. megan now knows the difference between dishwasher detergent and dishwashing liquid.

#3 mark has been out of town this week. he said he was coming home today at 1pm. last night when he called me to check in i was already asleep. i was pretty groggy but still woke up enough to chat. the next thing i hear is a huge crash in the front room and foot steps running down the hall toward my bedroom. i was starting to freak out!! then mark burst in the room. he had finished up just in time to make the last flight back and surprised me by getting home early. (surprised?? more like scared the toots out of me!)

Every boy's dream dessert to help cook!