Where have I been?

I have no idea if anyone reads my blog. They certainly haven't read anything new for 4 months. I am still dazed at how different my life is from 4 months ago.

Here's the reader's digest version of what has been going on. Early in February I wen to Colorado for a conference for facilitators of Becoming a Love and Logic Parent course. I came back with grand ideas of how to get going with classes and such. I was still subbing at the kids' school as well. They called me to come and substitute again, and they asked me to work full-time as an Instructional Aide. I said yes, since it would only be a few more months until school got out.

Life got exponentially busier then. I have never had to go to work and then still do all the mom and house stuff when I came home, I was exhausted. Then, just as I thought I was getting the hang of it and the end of Spring Break was coming to a close, the Bishop and 1st Counselor in our ward visited our home. They extended the calling for me to be the new Relief Society President. WWWhhhhhaaaatttt? Somebody upstairs has a sense of humor, huh? In a daze, I accepted and the days have all started to run together even more.

I have wonderful counselors and a truly great set of sisters in the ward, but sometimes managing just a lot of details at once can be a bit crazy. Now, I am learning to keep my life planned out on my Ipod touch, and learning to delegate the things I can.

I make no promises of more and frequent blogging. I will, however, be writing a talk I will give in church in a little over a week and preparing my lesson for Relief Society the first week of July, amongst other things.

Pray for me, I need it!

Sun, The Starfarer, and the Lucky Gold Star

Have you ever wanted to write your own book and have the characters emanate people from your life? Have you ever wanted the main character to be a girl instead of a boy? Do you know anyone that's ever published a book? Well, if you know us, you know someone who has a book published. John and Sidney have been working on a book for some time and last summer they held a book club with a few of Sidney's friends to go over the manuscript and see if they liked it. They did.

John approached his publisher that published his first book ("The Endowment") and they said that they would publish this book as well. The news that it would be published was announced in mid-November and we received our copies a couple weeks ago.




Sun, the Starfarer can be ordered through Amazon. However, they list that the book is out of stock. Order one anyway. The publisher has only been printing what they have requests for. It may take some weeks to get it, but it will be worth it!

The book is science-fiction, the main character is a girl and it's geared for young adults. Sidney was recognized at her school for getting a book published and many kids have been asking about it.

We bought a few books to sell to friends, but we only have a few left over if you're really interested.

So, when my husband and daughter are famous, you could say you knew them when.

Project Life

I enjoy scrapbooking, but it takes up more time than I have available now. A couple years ago a favorite scrapbooker started a new system of recording events of every day life. It started as Project 365. Now it's called Project Life. I have never found scrapbooking so easy. I take a picture every day. Average stuff. Funny stuff. Messes. Projects. Events. All kinds of stuff. Then I journal a small bit about each day, each picture. Then I slip it into my book, and ta da, it's done. I'm already done with last year's pictures! Isn't that great?




This year's albums actually came in two different designs. I got one for our family and the other design for a friend and their family. I love that my kids and family and friends want to look through it and see what's been going on. It's funny how the everyday stuff is just as interesting as the great big events.






Bottom line...an easier way for me to capture the moments that will mean the most to our family.

Muhlestein Surprise Day of Fun

On the early morning of January 17th, we woke Hayden and Sidney up, told them to get dressed and that we were going on an adventure.

We drove to the airport, got in line to go through TSA security and watched the kids have perplexed looks on their faces as we told them just before we got to the gate that we were going on plane ride to San Diego.


They were astounded! Hayden's never flown before and Sidney only flew when she was two or younger and doesn't remember.


We ate breakfast at a superb restaurant in San Diego, right off the beach

Then we headed over to Sea World for a full day of great fun!




It made for a very long day, but it was GREAT!

It's synchro season again...

Now that Sidney has joined the competitive team for synchronized swimming, from now until the middle of June or so, there is a meet at least once a month. This season started off in Tucson a weekend or so ago. Sidney is swimming a team routine and a trio routine. The suits are so great.


Sidney is the 2nd one in from the right.



Sidney is right in the middle.


Sidney's trio, she's in the middle. These suits are so cute, right. I helped design then and them the team seamstress made them. I tried to get a better picture during the routine, but none turned out great.

Way to go sweetie!

Aren't Grandmas Great!

Early in October, it became evident that John's grandmother was not going to hang on to this life much longer. She passed on October 5th. Since she lived in Utah, we made the trek to attend the funeral and spend time with family there.

It was wonderful to see family and nephews and nieces that have grown in the time since we've seen them, some more than a year.

All of John's siblings were able to come, and we were only missing a few of the grandkids because they were either to young to enjoy the funeral services or not in the country. It was more like a reunion than a sad event.



Here is all of John's family. It was his mother's mother that passed and she was the oldest daughter.

John's Grandpa is a rock of a man. He spoke at his own wife's funeral and bore testimony of the gospel and making choices that will bless you and your family. It was great to witness that.



Here is John's parents and all their children. No spouses or grandchildren just their immediate family. They are each different in their own way, but you can see just a few similarities amongst them.



We had to take the opportunity to capture our own family while we were dressed up and together.

We will certainly miss Grandma Graff. She was a sweet, wonderful woman. She truly loved her family and the stories of her life were evidence of that. She loved to have family close-by and have get-togethers at their home. She was a simple, unassuming woman who cared so much about each individual. She listened well and asked with sincerity about how you were and what you were up to. She loved to give. She was a wonderful example to her family of genuine love. She will be missed.

Fall baseball

Baseball is pretty big here in Arizona. So, when Hayden's friend's mom asked if Hayden would like to play baseball on the same team, Hayden said yes. At first, the practices were twice a week which was difficult to schedule in, but we did. As of now, there is only one more game to play and I think Hayden has enjoyed himself. In the very latest game he got walked twice to first which both resulted in scoring runs, he slid into 3rd base..."safely". AND he got an out at 3rd base. He had a really awesome game and he was awarded a game ball by his coach. The coach chooses someone each game to award the ball to that demonstrated effort and heart in the game.



Hayden is so unethusiastic about all the sports we've encouraged him to try. It's hard to tell whether he will ever be excited about something. Baseball was good though since his friend was there to enjoy it with.