Hmmmmmm

I must admit. . . I'm bored at work. How often does that happen? Quite for me lately. I believe I'm in the January slump where I just don't feel like it. Interesting enough we've found a way at work that I won't get caught looking at blogs :) I bet it won't last too long. I also had to make a quick post because my sister says I never post any more. Love you crazy woman!!

Jimmy's Havin' a Blast

So yesterday James got to go hang out with his brother, Daren, and a friend, Jeremy. They chose to put their day to good use and go snowmobiling. They went up Tony Grove. They say it was very nice and warm. The found themselves a jump that was meticulously formed by some snowboarders. It worked well for snowmobiles too:


Daren's height should give you an idea of how big this jump is.


James in flight.


A little tipsy on this round!


James landed safely. So did the sled. See it way up there?


Happy brothers. Look hard. James looks like part of the tree.

Welcome Home, McKenna!

McKenna got to go home this morning! Little swee-ie did so good with her eating and growing. She is home with mommy and daddy now, in Perry. Before they headed that direction, they called me so I could come see her. Here we are!




And here she is in the NICU when my mom and dad got to hold her for the first time.

More McKenna Mae

Yesterday Heather, Mom and I went to Heather's baby shower. The hard part was that it was minus a baby. It was good for Heather to get out a little bit. It was an exhausting trip for her though. Josh and Heather are staying with James and I for a bit. At least until McKenna is released from the hospital. It's a joy to have them around. And I got to see cute McKenna through the NICU window today. She is just adorable. I can't wait to get my hands on her!

Here is a video that Roxy helped me make so we could have cute pictures of the babe.

Ok, So the video was 116 MB and the blogging program only accepts up to 100 MB. Oh well. I'll try to do a slide show instead.

SHE'S HERE!!

McKenna Mae Wilderness has arrived! It came sooner than we expected. She is about 5 weeks premature. But looks very good. I'm so excited! She's such a cutie. She was born on 1/5/09 at 2:03 AM. She weighs in at a whopping 5 lbs 14 oz and is 19 inches long. She is doing so amazing for a preemie. Everyone is doing well. For the time being, McKenna is in NICU. Mom and Dad didn't get to hold her until tonight, but it seems all is going as natural. Here's some sweet pics of the little cutie. . .






Congratulations brother! Much love to Josh and Heather! Way to go!

Where Has the Time Gone?

Wow! The months have certainly flown by. I can't believe I last blogged on Nov 2. My apologies. It's been quite nice actually. Unfortunately, I'm not going to do a lot of back tracking. Our flight home from Korea was very nice. We got to come home! Then the holidays rushed in! Halloween was fun, but we weren't up for much of the day due to jet lag. We had a wonderful party at Daren and Ashlee's house. Then we began the preparations for Thanksgiving. That was a delightful day. My dad went to Cheyenne to visit my sister and the grandchildren. So my mom came with us to James' family for Thanksgiving. It was so nice. Just a perfect setting. Turkey, ham, potatoes, rolls. Pie. Oh the Pie! I was sick the day before and my sweetie got to make the pies. They turned out delicious! That weekend was full of shopping and Christmas-ing. We drove up to the mountains with the family to help pick out trees. The pups had a blast. We followed that up with cocoa and hot dogs over an open fire. Then, of course came the Christmas preparations.

I have been so delighted with this season. I haven't been too sick. I got that over before Christmas. Very nice. Then James and I had a few Christmas parties to go to. We did very well in managing our time while making sure to have enough time for one another. We have felt our Savior in our home and live abundantly. We set a goal to spend less this holiday. And achieved it. I feel like we were able to invite the true meaning of Christmas in, by giving more of ourselves. It's been nice not to be caught up in the commercialism of it all. We are truly blessed to have the savior in our lives. And I'm so very grateful for his atonement. I so blessed to be enriched by loving family members that will always encourage me to go the extra mile and fill me to overflowing with love. What a Merry Christmas!

Wednesdays Wanderings

Up early, Another nauseating ride through the city of Seoul, and the beautiful sites! Amazing!

I didn't have to get up as early for this tour. I left the hotel at 8 am. And believe it or not, sick again. Very quickly. The Korean people drive so differently than what I'm used to. They don't keep a steady foot on the gas. It's push hard and let go, push hard an let go. Add in a lot of speed up fast, slam on breaks and squeeze into a lane of traffic that should not be legal. Mind over matter my friends. Should have just taken the Dramamine!

Our first stop was the Buddhist Temple. October 29th was actually the first day of October according to the Buddhist calendar. There were so many people there to pray! The people take money and gifts and water and food to put on the alters for the monks. I'm glad I asked. I almost took a water!





The buildings were just beautiful! They also had a place to burn candles and incense to allow their prayers to travel further. It was interesting to see people pushing each other out of the way to get their candle and incense burning before the monk started praying and chanting.





People would also put requests and prayers on lanterns. The people who paid a lot of money got their lanterns inside the temple. The rest were just outside.



I think this is Buddah. There were two or three of them in the main temple and that was it.



After the buddist temple we went to the Geyoungbokgong Palace. It was an absolutely amazing place. It was built in the 1500's. During the war with Japan it was nearly destroyed by fire. Then, during the Josan dynasty, the king remodeled the 7000+ rooms. It was so pretty.









I had looked on the internet at this palace prior to traveling to Korea. I thought it was just beautiful. There was a picture of a cute little "hut" on water. It was very enchanting and wonderful. We had gone through with our tour guide. She took us to the places in the previous pictures and was dropping us off at the Folk Museum just outside of the palace. I was uber upset! I had wasted all this time. Add the nausea and I was not leaving until I got to see what I wanted to. I traveled many miles! So, I told our tour guide that I would meet the group back at that spot at the specific time she instructed us. I went back into the palace and walked to the nice quite area. Here are some of the pictures I took. There were only 4 or 5 people there. It was absolutely peaceful and quiet. In a city of 20 million and skyscrapers as far as the eye can see, it was exactly what I needed. I'm also getting better at taking pictures of myself :)









Then it was off to the hotel. I met back up with James and we went on our own tour of Lotte World. James had a nice long meeting with the guys there. It was good to finally have that over with. We were released and free to go on our temple adventure!

We did an awesome job getting to the correct subway station that would lead us to the temple. The instructions on LDS.org said to get off at the Sinchon subway station and walk west ten minutes. So, it was dark. May I remind you that all the buildings seemed to be over 30 stories high. Add the fact that no one at this stop can speak English. We got off the subway about 1 1/2 hours before the session at the temple started. We walked, and walked, and walked. I felt like a pioneer, in high heels! James did all he could to find the temple for me. He's my hero. After more walking and walking, we finally found it. It was off an alley way the first direction we went. We just didn't go far enough. BY HALF A BLOCK!!! Anyway, we found it. We walked in to find that we were 20 minutes last for the last session. The building was small, but beautiful. And the temple president was so kind to us. He gave us a tour of as much of the temple as possible. It was really dark, but we got a few pictures to capture our memories.





Stay posted for pictures from Lotte World, the trip home and Halloween Happenings!