CHANGE IS COMING..........

With the support of my super awesome friends, kids and husband I will begin training as a Dental Assistant on the 26th of August. I will be working for an awesome Dentist here in Morgan part time. This will make it easier for me to be accepted into the Dental Hygiene program when the time comes. I am really excited/nervous to start this journey. I could not have done it without help from my family and friends!!! I love you all!!!! Soooooo wish me luck......... I'm going to need it!!!!

Happy Early Birthday Dave........SURPRISE!!!

Dave left for Arizona yesterday. :( He will only be gone about six weeks but we are still pretty sad to see him go. We miss him every single time he is away. People often say, "I could never do what you do...... or "are you miserable with him being gone so much." You get the general idea. My answer is always the same. Dave and I prayed hard about the decision to go to Flight School and we both had the same answer...... yes we should! I knew that there were sacrifices that would be made by our entire family. Is it hard..... yep! Is it lonely and miserable at times...... yep! BUT there is also a very sweet peace in our home and I ABSOLUTELY KNOW that Heavenly Father will bless us and has blessed us when we are separated.

ANYWAY..... Daves 35th Birthday is on July 30. I decided to throw him a little surprise birthday party before he left. It was soooooo much fun. We have AMAZING friends that will do anything for us. We sure love you guys!!!!!!!

I love this picture..... this is when he walked out and everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him....... doesn't he look thrilled? :)


Our good friend Janice and Rob gave him his very own birthday hat with his new age printed right on front!!!!
Rob and Dave
Dad and Colton

The outside crew

The inside crew
Porter, Jessie and Lindsay

He loves a good cowboy hat!!!!
Dad fixing an inury.... I just love this picture.

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We truly were shocked at the amount of people who came to his party and how much love they show us!!! Atleast every fifteen minutes someone would come and offer to help the boys and I while Dave is away. I've always loved my friends...... but love them more and more every single day.

Welcome Home Colton

This last week Colton has been gone to Scout Camp. He left on Monday morning and returned home this afternoon (Saturday). I was sooooo happy to see him and so were his brothers. Kaden started asking how long he would be gone about 5 hours after he left. It was nice to see how much the little boys missed their big brother.

I had to take a picture of Colton and how dirty and handsome he is. :)

YUCK!!!

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I was so fortunate to have a friend's husband up at Scout Camp with Colton. I asked him to keep an eye out for Colton (just to make me feel better.) He sent me the sweetest email about Colton.

Brother and Sister Patterson:

Following the first day of scout camp, all is well with Colton. He has emerged as the leader of the group even though other boys hold the title of Patrol Leader. I spent three hours on the rifle range with Colton during his merit badge class and witnessed some great maturity and shooting. During the day there were multiple times when the boys got out of hand, but Colton chose not to participate. In one situation he verbally challenged the boys to stop their behavior and in another he left the situation and found something else to do. Your son is a wonderful addition to our Troop and it is a blessing to have him and his priesthood at Camp Tomahawk.

Colton is having a wonderful time, he has been caught smiling ear to ear on more than a few occasions.

Brother Garritson

I am so grateful for Colton. He is such a great example for our entire family. I know that he was sent to me to teach me how to be a better person. We sure love him!!!!

Fourth/Third Of July 2010

We LOVE the 4th of July!!!! This year like most of you we celebrated it on the 3rd. We had a fireworks show in our back yard, ate yummy food and watched The Lightening Thief. It was low key but a ton of fun. I let the boys each pick a food that they wanted to have so we had quite a variety of food. Colton chose hot wings, Kaden chose Chocolate Cake and Porter chose pizza. :)Colton
Kaden

Porter and his cheesy grin

I love this picture of Colton and Dave....

Colton looks like a giant

Who doesn't LOVE sparklers.... they are a must have in my book!!!

Powell Family Reunion 2010

This year the annual Powell Family Reunion was held at the City of Rocks State Park. We have missed the last three years of reunions because we have been so far away. Dave was gone for annual training so the boys and I decided we would still go. Here is a little recap..... We started the day off watching Jessica (my sister) free climb a rock. I was sooooo not happy about this. Number one I am a freak about safety and I'm super afraid of heights so watching this was pretty much torture. After she climbed down we had a little talk...... so happy that she listens to me!!! (NOT AT ALL) In spite of my annoyance with her dangerous ways I was pretty impressed with her climbing abilities.

Here is Jess and Colton getting ready for Coltons first climb. Of course he was completely equipped with all the safety gear.

He's loving every minute!


This is just a cute picture of Kaden and Jenna. Love them both!!!!
Kaden getting his turn at the big climb!
And then there is Porter!!! I have to say that this was not the best place for the mother of a 4 year old boy who has no fear!!!

He spent most of his day being held like this........ and when he refused to sit still.......
We tied a rope around him!!! :) (This is Creighton.. Jessica's friend)
My dad decided that it was his turn to make the climb........
This picture pretty much sums it up!!! He was so funny!!! I'm thinking I may be able

to get something great if I use this as blackmail!!! :)

I absolutely love this picture. This is my Grandma. She is such a sweet and wonderful lady! I have never heard her say an angry word or something unkind to anyone. I think she is pretty special!

Me and my boys!!! I sure love them!!!

Lessons Learned

I can't even believe that in 5 days a huge truck will be parked in front of my house waiting to be packed with all of our belongings. We have been here at Ft. Rucker 2 years and 1 month. I have learned so much about myself and about my life while we've been here.

Lessons Learned.....

1 :
"Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same." - Francesca Reigler

Oh how this statement is sooooooo true!!!! I'm sad to say that I spent the first year of our lives here dwelling on the things that I missed. I missed home, family, friends, good restaurants, shopping, walking into a grocery store where I was bound to see a familiar face, all the things that made me feel secure. I found myself over looking all the wonderful things that I've been blessed with. I changed my way of thinking and made the choice to be happy. It made all the difference in the world. I began to look at things in a completely different way. Of course I still missed all the things I mentioned before BUT you can miss those things and still be happy..... DUH!!! Sad that I am a slow learner. :) Better late than never though..... right???

2 :
"Dwelling on the negative only contributes to its power." - Shirley MacLaine

This goes hand in hand with lesson #1. I learned that negative attitudes truly are contagious. I now realize how grateful I am for the friends that truly practice positive thinking. That attitude is also contagious. Surrounding yourself with positive people is key to living happily. I have set a new goal to be a positive thinker.... this is actually very hard for me. I'm not necessarily as much a negative thinker as I am a worrier. I find myself always planning for the worst and hoping for the best..... time to work on that I think.

3:
"Criticism is an indirect form of self boasting." - Emmet Fox

Living on a military installation brings people from anywhere and everywhere. Sometimes those people may think or act differently than me or have completely different priorities.

Sometimes it can be hard to look deeper and see past the differences. I have learned a lot about myself while dealing with a vast variety of people. I have a particularly hard time with people who portray themselves as "better than" or "smarter than" others. It may seem hard to believe but until now I did not know that this particular characteristic in people bothered me so much. It is extremely easy to take a look at those people and point out every single thing that does not make them "better than" or "smarter than" others. I realized the other day that in doing that I was in no way acting any different than those people. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Who am I to point out flaws in anyone? I definitely have plenty of my own to work on.

I am actually extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to learn this lesson about myself.

4:
"If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever permanently go wrong." - Howard W Hunter

This is a lesson that I am just beginning ... and will continue to learn through out my life I am sure.

Those of you who know me very well at all know that I am a girl who needs a plan. I have nicely formed lists in designated notebooks that I keep in my pantry. I am not spontaneous. I rarely do something that I know nothing about. Because of these characteristics I have found it particularly difficult to leave here and embark on our next phase of life with a very sketchy plan.

I can't tell you the feeling of peace I felt when I read the quote from Howard W. Hunter. Tears filled my eyes and I overwhelmingly felt that my Heavenly Father loves me and he loves my sweet family. He wants me to be happy and successful. He has given me everything that I truly need to be happy. What more can I ask for? We may have struggles.... let me rephrase that.... we WILL have struggles but, "if our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever permanently go wrong."

5:
"Crisis or transition of any kind reminds us of what matters most. In the routine of life, we often take our families—our parents and children and siblings—for granted. But in times of danger and need and change, there is no question that what we care about most is our families!" -M Russell Ballard

We have definitely not experienced anything closely relating to a crisis while we've been here. However we have experienced many times of transition and change. One of the greatest lessons that I have learned is .... that within the walls of my own home lie the things that matter most. I will try my hardest to make sure that there will never be a time where I let "things" or "circumstances" that I cannot change take my focus away from the people who matter most.

I'm so grateful to leave here knowing that I am stronger than I think and that I can do hard things when I have to and I will be ok.