Men are that they MIGHT have JOY.

So I haven't written for awhile now and it isn't really that I haven't had a lot happening maybe it is the opposite and I wanted to make sure I recorded what was happening in our lives and our constant pursuit of happiness.  As the Book of Mormon says "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they MIGHT have JOY".  I love that scripture because the Lord doesn't guarantee our JOY but rather we have to find it for ourselves and as stated in my description of the blog my goal in life is to find my own promised land in the everyday moments of life.  

We were lucky enough to have a visit from our cousin Ross from Florida a little over a week ago.  Ross has always been close to my family and in many aspects, I think, looks to my dad as an older brother or dad figure to the tune that he bought his burial plots next to theirs and he visits us every year.  My girls love Ross and immediately remember him even though they are so young and when he is here they are glued to his side.  Sophie cried when he had to leave saying "No I want my Uncle Ross".  I hope that he knows how much he is loved. 

  Us siblings got together for dinner with Ross and his sister Diane and our Uncle Jerry to make sure he got to see everyone.  It is a blurry photo but you get the idea.

I have also been working, to what feels like non stop, to finish our Master bedroom and have it painted in time for hosting our Aunt Karin and Uncle Jerry for dinner and having B's family up for the weekend and to dinner.

Here is the before shot of what the room looked like...again great bones.

 We painted the back wall and then stenciled this garden flower pattern over the top (yep it is paint not wallpaper) and then painted the rest of the room a similar color as what was there before but a little less green and more creamy yellow.  At least that is what B told me the difference was it just looked a little lighter to this color blind fool.  B made the black and white pillow before we knew about this stencil and we are so happy to see how closely they match.  The lamps are from a garage sale...yeah you know it saving money.  The bench at the bottom of the bed we inherited from my Grandpa Nielson who had it in his old shed behind his farm and we love the mix of old and new.  We still need curtains but B is working on that. 

 Here is a detail shot of my night stand so you get a better view of the wall.  The painting is an original that I love and yes scored it at a Garage sale as well.  The clock was the first thing I purchased when I got home from my mission and has stayed with me all this time.

 B and I have also been working hard to keep our yard up to par even though I feel it looks no where as good as when my dad lived here and took care of it.  I do love walking the yard and just feeling it around me.  I may be one of the only people in the world who loves weeding but to me it is a sense of meditation of being alone and making an instant difference in the end. 

 

 

In the garden our Indian Corn continues to grow higher then an elephants eye.  Here is a photo with B standing amidst the corn...keep in mind she is 6'2".

We also planted cucumbers from seed and I told B as they started to fruit that we got the crappy cucumbers because they were coming out like the round cannon ball type not the long ones like we like.  Well a week later we checked on them again and low and behold we planted Cantaloupe not cucumbers. That is to say I planted the cucumber packet but Cantaloupe grew so we had a mislabeled packet so no cucumbers for us.  Now our dilemma is we trained the vine to climb thinking it was cucumbers and we now have Cantaloupe hanging and don't know how to prevent them from falling off the vines because of their weight.  Good thing we like cantaloupe right!

 

 As I mentioned earlier, B's siblings stayed with us over the weekend.  One night while they were here I looked over to see B sitting with her sisters and decided I needed to capture the shot.

  B and Laurel then decided to take one of themselves and show how good looking they both are. 

 So Becki, who happened to be there that night doing laundry because of a broken washer and back ordered part, said "Daniel let's show them what real beauty looks like and we took our turn taking a photo.  You be the judge but I think we win hands down.

 It was fun having them and they were helpful in getting our house in order for the Aunt and Uncle dinner so we decided to treat them to frozen yogurt one night and then on Saturday we went to garage sales and then into Farmer's Market and City Creek.   The girls loved having free reign to run and play at City Creek.

 

 

So again, just like at the beginning of this post "Men are that they MIGHT have JOY".  We aren't perfect and neither are our lives but we are trying to find those hidden nuggets of joy in our own promised land.