The one sure thing in life is that it is ever changing!

(Spencer and Avery showing off their muscles - 2007)


Tonight was Family Home Evening. Nate came by after work today and ate dinner with us and stayed for Family Home Evening and for the activity. He just left a few minutes ago. After a long hard week of not knowing what he should do next and loosing eight pounds due to the stress, he broke up with Kristen yesterday. He has really had a hard time coming to that decision. Nate loves with all of his heart. When he finds someone that he likes, he throws himself wholeheartedly into that relationship. It will take him some time to recover. I support him in his decision and hope he finds that love he is still searching for!

Ken gave a lesson tonight on tithing. Ken and I have a strong testimony of tithing. I think that I already had a testimony of tithing as a youth but when Ken and I married I was able to strengthen that testimony. When we were first married I was the breadwinner of the family and carried the insurance that we needed. Ken went to school full time and worked on the weekends. I worked five days a week at an insurance company. I really enjoyed working but knew that when we had children, I wanted to be home. We were always able to pay the rent, pay for school and our basic needs. We didn’t have a lot of excess but we had everything that we needed. We were able to put money away in savings and build a decent food storage.

I gave birth to our first child a month before our second wedding anniversary. I was able to work up to the day before giving birth. In fact, I went to the doctor the day before and he told me to go home and put my feet up until Monday. He said that on Monday he would decide if I needed a C-Section. My blood pressure was rising to an unsafe level. Instead I gave birth early the next morning, which was a relief! From that point on I have never worked full time. I have worked seasonal jobs, night jobs and part-time day jobs.

The month after Amanda was born, Ken started his student teaching. The only income we had coming in was the $300.00 a month Ken was making sweeping parking lots on Saturdays. The three months of student teaching we lived off of our food storage and our savings account and the $300.00 a month. The money seemed like it would be gone but then something would always happen that we had enough money for our needs. Ken got a teaching job just days after finishing his student teaching. It was in December and not a common time for a job opening.

When he interviewed for the job at Viewmont, they needed a Senior English Teacher. English was his major and he was well qualified. They also wanted someone who could be the Senior Class Advisor. Ken was senior class president his senior year and felt very comfortable with that. They also wanted someone who could be the assistant wrestling coach. Ken wrestled in High School and knew he could do that too. Each of the extra curricular activities brought in a little extra money. He has never left the Davis School Dist. He taught English until he earned his Master’s Degree. At that time he was appointed Assistant Principal at Viewmont High School. He did that for a couple of years. Being an administrator for the High School took him away from home a lot at night. When he saw an opening for a Junior High he applied for that so that he could be home more at night.

He was Assistant Principal at Kaysville Jr. High for a couple of years. When the Principal position opened up he was appointed as Principal of Kaysville Jr. High. He was there for 15 years. During that time he also earned his Doctorate Degree. Just last February he was appointed Principal of the newest Jr. High in the District. He worked towards hiring all of the teachers and staff and over saw the construction of the new school. The school is in West Layton and is named Legacy Jr. High. It has only been open since August but the school has received several awards for the design and building of the school. It is really an exceptional Jr. High!

Things have always seemed to fall into place for us. Sure there have been many challenges and up and downs but as a family we know that we have been blessed. We can feel the Lord’s hand in our lives and that of our family. One hard experience for us was when Avery was born. He was born with Lung Disease. He was Life Flighted to Primary Childrens Hospital when he was two days old. The hospital he was at did not feel like there was anything else they could do for him. Primary Childrens knew exactly what to do for him. They put surfactant into his breathing tube. It is an artificial lung coating. One of his lungs had collapsed due to the speed in which they had to run the respirator. We were able to take him home when he was 11 days old. He was attached to a size D oxygen tank for five weeks. He was attached to it by a 50 foot cord. I could get around the upstairs of our house but I couldn’t make it downstairs with him. He was also on a sleep apnea monitor. The first year of his life were filled with worry, sickness, Dr. Appointments, etc. When he was 3 months old he came down with RSV. When I took him to the hospital, his oxygen level was 54. They told me he would have been dead in an hour if I had not taken him to the hospital. They immediately put him back on a respirator and into the ICU. I cried and felt like a terrible mother! After a couple of weeks he was able to come home again but was sick most of the winter with pneumonia.

The neat thing about a child’s lungs is that they can repair themselves with a couple of healthy years. Kids continue to grow lung tissue until around the age of eight. Looking at Avery today it is hard to believe he was ever that sick! When he was three he was run over by a car in our circle. We hadn’t lived here for very long and nobody really knew about his health history. Luckily the car wheels never ran him over. He was on a skateboard and when the car dropped down into the driveway apron, the skateboard he was sitting on, flipped up and hit the underside of the car, which made the car stop. The teenage girl driver got out of the car to see what the noise was only to find Avery under the car. Later he talked about the heat of the exhaust coming out of the car. He also talked about the people under the car with him. He mentioned that there were lots of people with him under that car. When I told him he was under the car alone, he insisted that he was not alone. I told him they were his guardian angels. Someone like Avery needs a host of guardian angels to keep him alive! He walked away with cuts and scrapes. He was monitored at the hospital to make sure there was no internal damage.

Like I said there have been challenges in our family and in our lives. Some of them have been too hard for me to ever share but I have always known that we are blessed. We pay a full tithe and that is a priority for our family. We also have always contributed to other church funds. We were promised by our church leaders that if we doubled or even tripled our donations, that we would see even more blessings in our lives. I am here to testify that those blessings have flowed for us. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. I know that I am a daughter of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that President Thomas S. Monson has been chosen to lead our church today just as was Joseph Smith. This life is a test and I am not sure how I am doing on that test so far, but I know that through the Plan of Salvation I will be reunited with my parents, brothers, sister, uncles, aunts, grandparents and children if I but live my life worthy of such blessings. These things are true and I leave them with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!