Bonjour!

Bonjour!
I’m a 52 year old mother of five amazing daughters and wife to a caring, sensitive AND sexy husband. I adore my family. I’m dedicated to my faith. I enjoy a good laugh. I'm nostalgic and love to reminisce. "Remember" is my favorite word in the English language. I love life! I’m passionate about music, food and {dreams of} traveling the world. I wanna be a castle and waterfall chaser. I’m fascinated with anything European. {PARIS! Hello!} I love celebrating anything and everything! I love to read, especially a good biography, mystery, Regency Era Romance or Historical fiction novel. I love thoughtful gift giving. To me the gift wrap is almost as important as the gift itself. I have a bit of an obsession with gift boxes and gift bags. As well as old world maps & globes, apothecary bottles and jars! I love being creative…bolts of ribbon, coordinating scrapbook papers, producing a table scape, or planning décor for a themed party puts a smile on my face. I love the details! I’m a freak for anything theme oriented. I enjoy event planning, but oddly enough do not like to host or entertain. I enjoy fashion, but have to really be in the mood to clothes shop. I love purses and funky costume jewelry. Especially big rings! I’d rather wear wedges or heels any day than flats. I enjoy decorating and searching for the perfect decorative pillow or picture. However, you’ll never see me frequent high-end stores. I'm more of a Ross, TJ Maxx, Tuesday Morning kind of gal. My favorite decor style is an old world rustic Italian chateau/Spanish Villa look with a hint of bohemian! OR a vintage shabby chic French country cottage/English cobblestone farmhouse. My #1 cookie-Molasses! Autumn is my favorite season. I’d go through childbirth a million times. I enjoy biking with my man, Pilates, and power walking. You’ll never find me in a gym working out. I love movies, whether watching them in the theatre or cuddled up on the couch with my family. I enjoy a good chick flick or real life drama! I'm a sucker for movies on the Hallmark & Great American Family Channel. I have a tender heart for the elderly. I adore Disneyland. I enjoy being in the canyon on a summer or fall evening at dusk. I love my friends. While I have some extroverted characteristics. I’m a self proclaimed introvert. I’m generally quiet, calm, reserved and pretty darn private. Why in the heck do I blog? It’s a creative way to record family history. I enjoy photography. I really don’t like to write, although I write in my journal often. My journals, patriarchal blessing, scriptures, quote book, and beloved Christmas tree filled with ornaments of family memories are among my prized possessions. I love the beach. I enjoy WWII history. I love a clean, orderly house, but ours usually looks lived in. ;) PBS Masterpiece is my friend. I adore Jane Austen films. They transport me to another time and place. If I had to choose another time period in which to live, early 19th Century England would be my pick. "Sense and Sensibility" is my all time favorite movie. My 3 favorite TV series are...BBC's Larkrise to Candleford, the 1950's Spanish Drama "Velvet," and the travel/food show "Somebody Feed Phil." My biggest pet peeve is people who blow their noses in public. So gross! {Take it to the bathroom people.} I’d go on a wine tasting vacation if it wasn’t against my religion. I’ve always wanted to adopt a baby from a foreign country. I’m an avid BYU football fan. I'm a Educational Support Professional. I tutor elementary kids in phonemic awareness, phonics, reading, fluency and comprehension. I love our campfires at Scofield Lake. I have a 'thing' for fairy gardens, Gallic French roosters, fresh flowers in a vase, pretty bowls & plates, yummy smelling candles & soap. I love summer rainstorms and warm baths. I'm a scripture podcast fanatic. I'm also a fan of several Fox News shows; Hannity and Dave Ramsey Talk Radio. I very much miss Rush Limbaugh! I hate when my kids have homework. I'd rather clean 20 toilets than give a talk or prayer in church. I have quite a collection of Madame Alexander Dolls, children's books, Disney pins, and quotes. My favorite quote is "Don't underestimate me. I know more than I say, think more than I speak & notice more than you realize." True True LOL! I always prefer sitting in a back row versus the front. {I'm sort of a seat snob..yikes} I also have high expectations for my lemonade, salsa, and french fries too. HA! I work well behind the scenes. I love a good Dateline, 20/20 or 48 Hour Mystery. I’m a night owl. I'd rather be cold than hot. I love to budget our finances! I enjoy being a chauffeur to my children. I'm not a huge fan of social media. I don't snap, pin or tweet. All I want for Christmas every year is a ticket to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It's my FAVORITE. I’m an Anglophile…a royal watcher who loves anything English! Especially tea parties! I would like to serve a church mission to England with Jaren someday. I'm queen of paper towel, used kitchen dishrags and sponges kinda make me squirm. You’ll rarely find me out of the house not ready for the day, except when driving the kids to school on the days I don't work. I feel naked without lipstick or lip gloss. Mismatched socks, chipped fingernail polish, chapped lips and brownie crumbs on the floor drive me nuts! I like to organize and BE organized..but not saying I always am. ;) I enjoy hiking to waterfalls, ATV’ing with my family and snowshoeing with the hubs. Although I enjoy collecting recipes and occasionally watch cooking shows... (Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade, Paula Deen, Jamie Oliver, and the Pioneer Woman are my favorites) I’d rather not cook. Eating out is so much more fun. I'm a foodie. I live to EAT! LOL Trying new foods and restaurants is a favorite past-time, and believe it or not so is intermittent fasting. I'm not good at a lot of things... but gosh, if you need help with a themed celebration or someone to enjoy good food with, I'm your girl. I love the joy of anticipation and the celebration of holidays. Family traditions are important to me. I'm a memory preserver. I'm a pathological picture taker ;) a visual storyteller, and a lover of happy lists!

My Fam!

My Fam!

The Hubs and I

The Hubs and I

My Girls!

My Girls!

Kyleigh Dawn (28)

Kyleigh Dawn (28)

Emma Abigail (26)

Emma Abigail (26)

Hannah Isabelle (24)

Hannah Isabelle (24)

Brielle Olivia (19)

Brielle Olivia (19)

Kate Evangelene Lyllie (14)

Kate Evangelene Lyllie (14)

Mr. Charles "Bingley" Wentworth III (5 yrs.)

Colonel Edward Fitzwilliam "Darcy", Duke of Westridge (4 yrs.)

My Man!

My Man!

Good Times!

Good Times!

Wedding Day 5*17*22

Lillian "Lilly" Belle

Disney Food Fun! 2019

Disneyland Tips

What I Believe!

Our Missionary

We Bleed Blue! {Except for the Poppi}

My list of favorite movies!

Learn more about Dyslexia!

Music To My Ears!

Friday, June 12, 2015

What's On My Happy List?


Kyleigh in the MTC week 4

Hello everyone! 
I have a bunch of stuff I want to tell you all about. 
First off....Interesting fact..this past Sunday {June 7th} we had exactly 483 Elders and 483 Sisters here in the MTC. How. Cool. Is. That? 

Then we got 600 new missionaries on Wednesday! 
It was insane.

I got to help host again WHICH WAS SO MUCH FUN! You'll never guess who I saw...So I was pulling luggage around and all the sudden I hear "Kyleigh!" and I turn around. It was Cole Fetzer, my little friend {from high school} who plays hockey!!! I was so excited to see him! I almost ran up to him, but then I remembered oh my gosh, I can't hug you, so we shook hands. :) Then his host whisked him away to take him to class.  He's only here for a week and a half because he is English speaking. I hope to see him again so we can get a picture. 

 I SAW MATTHEW!!!! 
{her cousin who works and teaches at the MTC} 
It's been almost four weeks and I hadn't seen him yet...
I was in a classroom with my companion... we were doing companionship study preparing a lesson.  There was a knock on the door and someone peeked in. It didn't register at first that it was Matt. Then I saw him and I screamed.... WHAAAAAAAA!!! 
I jumped up and almost tackled him. 
I made sure it was okay to hug him. 
I was telling those in my district who were in the hall.... 
THIS IS MY COUSIN! 
I WAS SO EXCITED... 
We were able to talk for a few minutes and take pictures. 
It made my day! 

{I happened to be writing Kyleigh this past Monday morning when this text and picture came through on my phone from my nephew Matt...he said, "Look who I found today! She is doing great! Just talking with her for five minutes I can tell she is an awesome and obedient missionary! It was funny when she saw me she screamed and her district that was in the next classroom came out to see why Sister Cooper was screaming lol. It was good to see her! I kept passing by their class while they were at lunch or dinner so I'm glad I was able to find her!"}

Made this mama cry when I saw the two of them together!

So Kate sent pictures to the Elders. 
THEY. LOVED. THE. PICTURES. It was hilarious to watch them. They were showing off their pictures to each other, and to the other sisters in the branch. Saying oh my gosh, look what this little girl drew for me..they were comparing their pictures. etc..It was so cute!  

The look on Elder Ulrich's face when he saw all his birthday stuff that you sent was so priceless. He really didn't want to celebrate, but what boy doesn't want something on his birthday? For goodness sakes we are stuck here in the MTC. So thank you. 

On Tuesday night Sis. Linda K. Burton {General R.S. President} came and did our devotional. It was really cool.  

I met an Elder from Ireland, he was with our branch for the night as his branch had not arrived yet. Since he was international he came a day early. 

So this {experience} was pretty scary for me... Since this past Sunday was fast and testimony meeting...the day before in class we were going over how to bear our testimonies in Korean. Out of the blue our teacher bore his testimony then sat down and then he was all, "who wants to go next?" He's speaking in Korean to us... telling us to say our testimonies in Korean and if we made mistakes it was okay. People just started getting up and I was all "oh my gosh I think I'm going to have to get up and say something." 
{if you know Kyleigh well...things like this... on the spot sharing of feelings freaks her out! Almost kept her from serving a mission.} 
I was the second to last person to stand up. I was like...Heavenly Father please help me to remember the few simple things I know and how to say in Korean. 
I DID IT! It sounded okay, and it went well. 
The spirit was so cool in that classroom because all ten of us plus our two guy teachers bore their testimonies and we did it all in Korean. :) 

They have great teachers here! I like Bro Chandler's style of teaching. He let's us go out and do field trips, and we do fun activities to remember our vocab words. The teachers are great people, and really nice. So it's a lot of fun. 

I keep forgetting to tell you this....Busan has a different dialect of Korean than Seoul. It's just like in America, how those that live back East, and those in the deep South have their own accents etc. Busan's dialect is like how the Southern accents are in the U.S.  So I'm going to have a deep South, South Korean accent. It's going to be really cool!  

{I asked Kyleigh if she has been able to listen to her church music that she took with her. Kyleigh would listen to her music and bounce around the house dancing practically EVERY DAY. So I've wondered how she was managing not being able to do that any longer...haha} 

We can't listen to music in the MTC.  We aren't allowed to have our i-pods out or anything. They are much more strict here than they are out in the field, but its mostly just because they are preparing us to obey and follow rules out on our own when we have no one there enforcing it on us. So yah, NO MUSIC, which is kind of a bummer. SO I just kind of sing to myself, or do dance routines in my head. 

{I asked Kyleigh to explain more about the Korean alphabet}
The Korean Alphabet actually isn't too hard. We memorized it within the first few days. They don't have that many consonants. They have several vowels. The only ones that are really confusing are the diphthongs. 
{which are two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable.} Sometimes I forget how to pronounce those. But it's really not too bad. Most the time we can read everything. I can pretty much sound out most words which is super nice. Sometimes our pronunciation is a little off. We just don't know what we are saying quite yet. So that's kind of where we are at right now with the language. 

{I asked Kyleigh how her Sundays differed from other days of the week, do you have three hour church? etc}
Our Sunday schedule:
Breakfast 7:20
Study/Read Scriptures/Preparing Talks etc. 
District Meeting 10:10-10:50 discuss goals/spiritual thought
Sacrament Meeting 11:30- 12:30
Lunch
Relief Society 1:30-2:30
Temple Walk for an hour {visit/group pictures!} 
Back to class {visit or study} or choir practice {optional}
Dinner
Devotional
After Devotional we get to watch a movie! 
Which is awesome.

Sunday's are pretty chillax after Sacrament and you find out if you have to give your talk or not. haha. 

Now that we have so many more sisters in our branch they have started to call more people to speak in Sacrament meeting, so they will probably be asking three to four people each week to talk on Sundays {vs. one}. Which is frightening. This next Sunday is going to be pretty stressful. If you could, shoot up a prayer my way. 
I HAVE TO SAY THE CLOSING PRAYER AT THE SUNDAY DEVOTIONAL! 
This is the devotional everyone goes to. There is going to be like 1,500 missionaries there. Plus the Senior missionaries, the branch presidencies, and whoever is speaking on Sunday. Which we don't know yet. The MTC presidency picks the district they want to do the prayers. They look at our names and they say... we feel like we want so and so, and so and so to do it. And I was one of the so and so's. I was all thinking to myself.."I don't know why you picked me, but I'll do it." :) Pretty cool, but also pretty scary for me. I also have to teach Relief Society on Sunday. Yeah!! So I get a double whammy. Just watch me get called to give my talk on Sunday too. But yah, that's okay.  

So we now have 5 districts in our Korean branch. The oldest district {3 sisters and 3 elders} leaves in a week and a half for Seoul and the Seoul South Missions. Then there is my district of 10. {7 of us going to Busan, 3 to Daejeon} As far as the three new districts.... one district has 8 sisters, another has 7 sisters and 1 elder {he is going to Australia speaking Korean-yah you read that right}, and then the last district are native Koreans...3 sisters and 1 Elder. We have a lot of people in our Korean branch. {36} We are getting 24 more in two weeks. It's going to be hard to get to know everyone on a personal basis, but everyone is sweet and we get along pretty well. Nothing too dramatic yet.  

I love you all, thank you for your prayers. I miss you. I hope you have a good week!


Pictures!

My two godsends :)

Temple Walk!

British Elder is the one in the suit. We are buds :) 


In other family news....
My Hannie had a birthday!
#15!
She has a thing for giraffes. A gift from one of her best friends.

Did a little Happy/Candy theme for her. 
Candy is her fav!



I was at my best friend's son's baptism on the morn of Hannie's b-day so Hannie stayed in bed watching movies and waited to open her presents until the hubs and I got home. Emmsie took over mama duties while I was gone and made Hannah breakfast in bed. She had Mexican fiesta music playing pretending it was her quinceanera, like 15 yr old Mexican girls celebrate. 






The hubs and I took Hannie to see Age of Adeline. 
That's an enjoyable movie! 



Out for a Mexican dinner! 


We had an awesome rainstorm that night! 
Hannie was happy. 
She loves a good rainstorm. 
We all do. 

We sat on the porch to enjoy. 

 Hannah started her summer volunteering with her good friend, Emma! 

Emma and I got to see the Celtic Women in Concert this week. 
They have such gorgeous, angelic voices. And we heard the most fantastic bagpiper! 
My goodness. 
It was a most pleasant evening. 


One of Kate's, Brie's and I favorite things to do on a summer night is lay on the front lawn and watch the stars come out. 

My favorite summer read so far...


And my favorite summer watch! 
 Netflix finally added the last season episodes of our favorite TV show the GRAND HOTEL!!! Oh gosh, Emma and I were seriously jumping up and down when we found out that new episodes had been added.  
LOVE, LOVE this Spanish series.  


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