Good Times

Yes.  I am still plugging along trying to keep this going for family history.  We have had many good times the last few months as a family.  Some of these are not just good times-but the best!  As I have been reflecting on all that is going on these last few months, I have had the distinct impression that I need to not just try to survive all the craziness, but to appreciate and savor these moments.  I admit, this is hard for me to do because sometimes, things seem so overwhelming.  However, life should not just be about getting through, but also enjoying those good times when they come....


Nathanael and Lindsay Ann have been extremely busy with school and work.  Nat is studying and getting ready to take the MCAT in June while also dealing with a chronic sinus infection.  Lindsay Ann has been amazing as she has been working, going to school, and trying to take care of Nat and their home.  I was so grateful and pleased that they were able to come to East Canyon with us in March.  It was wonderful to have everyone from my family there to hang out together and participate  in our St. Patrick's Day traditions.  Those were definitely some good times with them!

One of the best times-not just good times these last few months was that Lindsay Kaye returned home from her mission in the San Diego California mission on February 5th.  I cannot describe the joy that I feel when a child comes home from serving a mission.  She has grown so much in maturity and confidence.  She has made eternal friends and learned to love those she has served.  After she got off the plane, we went to eat at Michelangelo's on Main as a family.  She wanted to try it out because Nat and Lindsay Ann had had their wedding luncheon there.  The food was amazing as always.  Lindsay then wanted to go to Temple Square to see if she could talk with a former companion who spent some time in the San Diego mission.  This sister was leaving the next day to go home to China.  After asking around etc., we found out that she was involved in some of their farewell activities and so we waited for a while in the Joseph Smith Memorial building.  The sister then came out and Lindsay Kaye and she got to talk and visit for a bit before we went  home.  When we got home, we got to show Lindsay some of the performances of her siblings of when she was gone.  Later that night, she was released from being a full time missionary.  When she took her name tag off, she cried.  It is an emotional thing to be able to wear the Savior's name close to your heart and spend all your days representing Him.  That night, we watched Coco.  Lindsay Kaye spoke in church the following Sunday and I was so touched by her strength and testimony.  We then had the family come over to eat and visit.  It was just a wonderful day.  Such good times.  Later in February, Lindsay Kaye was invited to go to New Orleans to spend the week with a former missionary of the male persuasion that she had met on her mission.  He and his family paid for the whole trip and they found that they are great friends and also that there is a spark between them.  More on that to come.....Needless to say, she had a wonderful time in New Orleans.  She then was able to get a job working to take care of children at an after school program.  She seems to be the perfect fit for this job.  Definitely some very good times.

Ethan has definitely had a lot of good times recently.  Of course, we celebrated his 18th birthday in January.  I cannot believe that he will be graduating in just a couple of months!  Another one of his good times was being invited to go to Girls' Preference and MORP.  He has had many good times dating lots of different girls in high school.  As a fundraiser for choir tour, the students performed a Movie Knight and Ethan sang, "Singin' in the Rain" choreographed by his sisters. He was amazing!  Ethan then had the opportunity to go on choir tour to New York City again.  He had some wonderful experiences.  One of them was that he got to perform with the A' cappella choir as the featured choir in Carnegie Hall.  That is a big deal and so exciting!  One of the neat miracles that our family has experienced is that Travis was able to go as a chaperone again and experience some of these really good times with Ethan.  Another neat experience that they shared was one morning, a friend of Ethan's had called and reserved a time to do baptisms for the dead at the Manhattan temple.  You could only have 5 kids in your group and you were supposed to bring 2 Melchizedek priesthood holders.  They had to be at the temple right at 6:30 am.  In order to get there at the right time, they needed to leave at 6:00 am.  Ethan had been woken up to get ready, but when the group was meeting downstairs, they ended up waiting and waiting for him.  He had fallen back asleep.  By the time he came down, they were late and if they took the trains, they would not be able to make it on time.  Ethan felt so bad.  They were discussing  not going when the other Priesthood holder suggested taking Taxis.  So they did.  They made it exactly at 6:30 am.  The temple president welcomed them and talked to them about how impressive it was that they chose to come to the temple when there are so many things to do in New York.  There was another young man there with his 2 sisters, mother, and Grandmother to do family baptisms.  They did not have the 2 Priesthood leaders and so Ethan's group were able to help them complete all their names.  What an amazing experience!  Good times for sure!  Finally, Ethan received his call to be a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Independence Missouri-Spanish speaking mission.  He reports to the Provo MTC on July 10th.  Because he was on tour when his call came in, he opened it the next night at home and we had treats instead of our dinner of favorite mission foods. He had a ton of people come and support him.  I am so grateful for his desire to serve the Lord.  I have to say, I do enjoy being a missionary mom in some ways.  I also know that Ethan will have so many really good times on his mission by serving and loving the people there.

Clarissa has been working so hard in school these last few months.  She has experienced good times with our family at East Canyon and reconnecting with Lindsay Kaye.  Clarissa worked really hard and auditioned for Lone Peak's Musical Theater and Productions programs for next year. We had heard that Sophmore girls rarely make it but she wanted to try out to be "on their radar".  She felt really good about her auditions but did not expect too much.  Weeks went by and finally, she received an E-mail letting her know that she had made both the Musical Theater and Productions classes!  Wow!  She was the only Sophmore girl to make Productions.  This program is very competetive and so this is a big deal.  I know that she will have many good times in high school as she participates in these programs.  I am also proud of her for working hard and trying for something that she didn't think she would be able to do.  Yep.  Lots of good times ahead.

Zachary definitely had some good times in the last few months.  First of all, we celebrated his 9th birthday in January.  We did a Nerf themed party by taking him and some friends to play Blaster tag at a Nerf arena and then had pizza afterward.  He had a really good time.  One thing that I was so impressed with was that he had invited a boy who has some sensory issues- but still wanted to come.  The friend wanted to watch for a while before he joined in.  The young man running the games let the boys have more time than I payed for so that this friend had some good playing time as well.  This year was crazy busy for Zachary's birthday and I try to do a fun cake when they are in elementary school- but I did not have a lot of time.  I decided to make a target which actually was very simple -except for the fact that the cake was too warm and frosting was falling off etc.  It still tasted good!  Zachary did not care-he was happy :)  Zachary has also had many good times watching and playing basketball recently.  He took a fundamentals of basketball class which I wish would have been offered for my other boys.  Zachary has learned to love basketball and is practicing daily-either on his little hoops in the house or on the big hoop outside.  Zachary also earned his Wolf badge in Cub Scouts.  He enjoys Scouts and has had a lot of good times with the boys in his troop.  Zachary earned the Eagle of the Month award for being responsible.  His teacher wrote, "Zachary is accountable and responsible.  He makes smart decisions, admits mistakes and listens to opportunities to improve."  Finally, Zachary participated in the Battle of the Books competition and his little team almost made it to the finals.  I was so proud of him because reading is not his favorite thing.  We spent a lot of time reading as many books on the list as we could and studying for the questions.  He was nervous about participating but seemed to gain confidence in himself and tried his very best.  I am confident that there are going to be a lot of good times ahead for Zachary as he continues to try new things and do his best.

Once again, I have had too many "moments of joy".  I am not able to choose just one so I will just say that Travis and I have had so many good times because of our children.  I am impressed and proud of each of them for striving to do their best in all they do, for having the courage to try new things, and for watching each of them overcome trials and disappointments making them stronger and becoming people that I admire and love.  This deer came to our door at East Canyon wanting to make friends...or maybe hoping we would give him food ;).

Miracles

I don't even really know where to begin....there is a reason (a few) why I have been silent on this front).  It will be easier to go month by month instead of each child.  You then will see our miracles unfold....

June:

-Ethan attended Helaman's Camp for the Priests in our stake.
- Clarissa attended Girls Camp.
- Nat and Lindsay Ann left for his choir tour in Europe.
- Travis and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary.

July:

-Clarissa performed with the Alpine Community Theater in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".  She actually got her first uncredited review in the news!

"...the skirt of one young dancer coming undone.  She bravely continued to dance while trying to also keep her skirt from entirely falling to the floor, and frankly did a great job."

-Nathanael's American Festival Chorus and Orchestra finished their tour and Nat and Lindsay continued to travel in Europe for a delayed honeymoon.  They were able to see England, Scotland, Ireland, and France.  They had a wonderful time and learned to especially love Scotland and Ireland.

-On July 21st, my parents were going to come see Clarissa perform in the musical, but my Dad was injured just before and ended up in ICU for a few days.  He hit his head on the cement when a ladder he was standing on collapsed.  He had bleeding in the front and back of his brain, a stroke, and a skull fracture.  Yet, it is truly a miracle that he not only survived, but has not had any major impairment from his accident.  We were so grateful that he has recovered so well.

-On July 25th, Clarissa and I had borrowed my Mom's car while we were looking for another vehicle.  I had picked her up from the theater where she was participating in a promotional video for the theater.  We were almost home when a young man did not yield turning left as we were going through the green light North.  He ended up hitting us and it was hard enough that our airbags deployed. The diamond from my wedding ring was ripped from the band and has been lost to parts unknown.  The miracle was that my petite Clarissa saw that we were going to be hi-t and instinctively put her arms up in front of her in a defensive position and moved to the side.  Thus, the airbag did not injure her.  Another miracle was that I am alive and well.  Right after the accident, there were a few people who stopped and immediately helped me and my daughter as well as the other young man.    One had a chair in the back of his car that he let me borrow.  Another helped the other young man and directed traffic.  A woman offered to get me water etc.  They were strangers who made a difference in a difficult moment.  We found out later that I had several little fractures on my ribs where the seatbelt was, on my sternum, and my ankle.  I am grateful that that is as bad as it was.  It could have been much worse.

-During May, June, and July, Lindsay Kaye was serving in La Jolla, CA where she and her companions found a lot of success teaching that resulted in several baptisms.

August:

-Clarissa celebrated her 14th birthday by having her friends come over and get ready for a stake dance. The dance ended up being canceled so they just came back to our house and had treats and snacks while they played a Karoake game in the basement.  She seemed to have a lot of fun.  Turning 14 also moved her into the MiaMaid group at church. 

-Lindsay Ann celebrated her 20th birthday.  We are so grateful to have her part of our family.  She is so intelligent, kind, and talented.  I have already learned a lot from her and I can see how happy she makes Nathanael.

-Zachary, Clarissa, Ethan, Lindsay Ann, and Nathanael all started back to school.  Zachary is now in the 3rd grade, Clarissa is in 9th grade, Ethan is a Senior in high school, and Nat and Lindsay Ann are both Juniors at Utah State University.

-One highlight was going up to Logan to drop off Ethan, Clarissa, and Zachary to spend the night with them in their apartment.  Nat and Lindsay showed us many of their favorite places in Logan and it was lovely to spend the afternoon with them.  The kids also had a great time at their apartment.

-Lindsay's one year anniversary on her mission was on August 30th.  She has absolutely loved being a missionary and feels that it was the best decision that she has ever made.  I am amazed at the confident woman that she has become.  She has been a light to those around her and helped many companionships with compassion and kindness.

-On August 2nd, Travis was informed that that was his last day at NuSkin.  I will not go into all the details about the situation- except to say that there are people in this world who claim to believe the same things you do and belong to the true Church of Christ who are actually bullies.  At the time, I was very angry and bitter, however, I can now look back and see that we are in a better situation and right where we need to be.  I will also say that I do not think about his former boss hardly at all anymore-but I still harbor resentment towards her that I am working on.  I am glad that I am not in her shoes.  Karma can be a beast and justice will be served eventually.  As you can imagine, these last months of 2018 have been very difficult for our family both physically and emotionally.  There were times that I would do really well and feel that everything would be okay and then there were times that I had my little melt downs and could not see that it would work out all right.

September:

-We celebrated Lindsay Kaye's 21st birthday and the Chilean Independence Day by going to a new Chilean restaurant.  The food was delicious!  It was a highlight of the month.

-Ethan played in his last season of club soccer with his team, Manchester United.

-Zachary played on a new AA soccer team.  The boys started out really well, and then played some very difficult teams. After that, they seemed to lose their confidence a bit.  Even though Zachary would get upset after losing a game, he continued to be positive and look forward to the next game.  He also became a huge BYU fan.  He loves watching the BYU sports with Travis.  He knows the players names, numbers, and can tell you about their individual statistics. It has been fun for Travis to have another sports buddy.

-Ethan was invited to the Sadie Hawkins dance with a young woman in our ward.  He had a great time.

-I started a new job with the district as an Assessment Tester.  It pays really well and I only do it for a month at a time.  It was a small miracle that Travis saw that they needed testers on Facebook for just a short time and that I was able to get that job.  Every little bit helps. 

October:

-Ethan had invited a young lady to attend the Homecoming dance with him.  He kind of was in charge of the group and he wanted our family to cook the dinner like a Sunday dinner.  They ate at a neighbor's house and I helped to decorate the table and make it nice.  He felt like they all had a good time. 

-Ethan participated in a Disney themed fundraising concert for his choir tour.  He performed a duet from "Tangled"-"Now I See the Light" and a solo from "Beauty and the Beast" musical.  He needed costumes for his performances.  One miracle is that while he was working at Little Caesar's Pizza, he won a gift card to Amazon that would pay for his Beast costume.  Then, Travis' sister helped us with his Flynn Rider costume.  The week of the concert, the choir director had a small stroke and fell and was in the hospital.  Because Ethan is the Chamber Choir President, he was the one in charge to help pull everything together.  As you can imagine, it was extremely stressful for him.  Some of the other parents and Travis and I helped as much as we could.  I was helping backstage on the first night.  Travis told me afterward that it was the best Disney concert that he had seen-which he had seen Nat and Lindsay Kaye do these concerts as well!  The next night, I got to sit in the audience and watch.  The song just before Ethan's solo was all of them singing, "God help the Outcasts".  However, Ethan was not on stage.  I was a bit worried about him.  Then he came out and nailed his solo.  Afterwards, we found out that he had had a bloody nose just before his solo and was trying to get it to stop!  There was also a piece that the boys were performing and it was difficult.  The first night of the dress rehearsal, they were considering dropping it because it was so bad.  They practiced extra and it was amazing for the shows.  That was a small miracle.  It was a big miracle that the concerts went so well!

-We were able to participate in our usual Halloween activities and parties.  Travis' other sister had a costume that Clarissa was able to borrow.  Ethan wore his Beast costume and we had purchased a clearance costume in Logan for Zachary.  I was worried about spending any money on pumpkins to carve or candy to buy to hand out when someone chose our family to do a "12 Days of Halloween".  Among the gifts were pumpkins and a large bag of treats for us to pass out at Halloween.  What a blessing!

November:

-Clarissa was in the dance ensemble for the school's musical, "Singin' in the Rain Jr.".  She can dance!  I have a friend who met her husband in the folk dance performing group at BYU who came to see the show.  He went home and told her how amazing "that Lloyd girl" was and how he was drawn to watching her during the show because she was so good!  When it comes from someone who is an expert in that area-it means a lot. 

-Towards the end of the month, Clarissa was the lead in her show for her theater class.  She was Candy Cane in the show, "Wagon Wheels a-Rollin' ".  It was funny and Clarissa did a wonderful job!  I know I am bias;)  She wanted me to do a Gibson Gal hairstyle for her character in the show.  I watched YouTube videos and it seemed simple enough.  I was wrong.  It was hard and I would get so frustrated that I would almost start speaking in tongues-and not in a good way!  That being said, she got a lot of compliments on her hair and I was proud of how it turned out.  My Mom even asked me who had done her hair and when I told her it was me, she laughed and said that she knew I had many talents-but she did not know that was one of them.  If that really were one of my talents, I would have been able to do it easily and not taken so much time.  Ha! Ha!

-The highlight of this month was that Travis was offered a job with the Church.  That evening, we had been invited to go see the new "Fantastic Beasts" movie with Travis' sister.  They even provided our family with popcorn and drinks.  It was so fun!  I am so grateful to them for their kindness.  This job is a miracle.  He was so grateful to know some that worked with those who were hiring.  It is because of them that he got an interview.  We feel that this is where he is supposed to be right now.  He loves that they start with a song and a prayer.  He loves that this is more than just a job.  He is helping to hasten the work and build up His kingdom on earth.  He is working in the IT department which has always been something that he enjoys.  It is a miracle.

December:

-Zachary finished his 8 month program of desensitizing him to peanuts so that if he accidentally eats one at some point, it will not be fatal.  It has been a long process but it is such a miracle that he can eat peanuts now.  What a blessing!

-Clarissa had her Christmas choir concert.  It was very enjoyable.

-Ethan performed in Lone Peak's Madrigal Feaste.  His character was the king.  He was really stressed about it because the choir director was still out of commission.  He helped hold extra rehearsals and decorate the gym to look like the inside of a castle.  It was amazing!  He did a wonderful job!  I am so impressed by his ability and willingness to go the distance and make things a success.

-Lindsay Kaye was transferred  a week before Christmas.  She is in what the locals call PQ.  It is difficult to pronounce and so our family just calls it Pasemaquade like in "Pete's Dragon".  She was transferred from a small town called Ramona.  She had had some success in Ramona but it was one of the hardest areas of her mission.  She ended up losing her wallet with everything inside of it and so we had to work out getting things replaced like her Driver's License etc. 

-One of the highlights of December was going up to watch Nathanael sing in his Christmas concert.  They were magnificent!  It was a joy to watch him perform.  After the concert, we picked up Lindsay Ann from the studio where she spends a lot of time for her major.  It was impressive to see what she has been working on.  We then went to a local restaurant to "clean the kitchen sink".  We were able to eat a large ice cream sundae that was in a bowl that looked like a small kitchen sink.  It was fun!  We had a great time!

-Christmas, of course, was wonderful.  On Christmas Eve, we had a brunch with just our family and then the kids exchanged their gifts for each other.  I was so impressed that each one put so much thought into what they gave each other.  We were able to relax for a while and then went to my extended family's Christmas Eve dinner.  It was a treat to visit with my brothers and their families and watch the kids in the Nativity.  Nat and Lindsay Ann stayed overnight with us this year.  Christmas morning was fantastic and everyone seemed very happy.  We were able to Skype with Lindsay Kaye-which was awesome-but it always makes me miss her for a while afterward.  Thankfully, she will be coming home in a few weeks!  We then went to Travis' family  Christmas get together and that was really fun.  We then went home, took naps, and finally went to my parents home again to visit.  It was a lovely day.  As Travis and I were sitting on the couch, we were watching the kids and looking at the Christmas gifts and we both felt overwhelming love and gratitude because we had had a wonderful Christmas because of the generosity of others.

It has been a miracle that we have been able to meet our goals for the year and it was only through angels here on earth and on the other side of the veil that we are in the position that we are in.  We had donations of cash, checks, free voice lessons for Clarissa, treats, snacks, gift cards etc.  I cannot name all the donations or all those that helped us, but the Lord knows and I pray each day that they will be blessed for their Christlike generosity.  I am grateful for the greatest miracle of all, Jesus Christ, who is my personal Savior.  He died for me but He also lives for me.  It is only through Him that I can receive mercy in my failings and shortcomings.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity to better know Him these last through months as I have literally had to depend on Him and have faith that He really does love me personally and that He truly wants the best for me in this life and the next.

This has been a very difficult year, but I will always remember that it was also a year of miracles.