Gratitude

This Thanksgiving, I must admit, found me with many different thoughts than I've had in years past. It's been quite a year already, yet it seems we're just beginning. But I find that I'm still grateful, even more so probably. Interesting how adversity helps you to recognize your blessings.

I'm grateful more than ever for family - Jake and the kids, and the wonderful extended family I have. I'm grateful for parents who have taught our family so well that when adversity hits we pull together and keep moving forward. I'm grateful for the gospel plan. Remembering God's plan and His love is what gets me through the moments that otherwise would be impossible. I'm grateful for memories, both past and future. I know future memories doesn't make sense, but I'm grateful for the memories that I know we'll be making and for the chance I'll have to look back on those in the future.

This year I'm also especially thankful for the power of fasting and prayer. Thanks to so many of you who fasted this past Sunday for my mom. It meant a lot to me and my entire family. Many of you who fasted barely know my mom, but were still willing to join in. Thank you so much. That means a lot.

And finally, an update. Since so many of you have been so helpful and supportive I feel like I should let you know a bit more of what's happening. My mom is officially diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer that has metastasized to her liver. They are going to do at least two rounds of chemo to hopefully help decrease the stomach pain. My mom finished the first one last week and she was a trooper. I think she's made it through the worst of it this round, and I know she'll continue to do well, thanks in large part to everyone's prayers.

So we continue to climb our mountain. We learn and grow every step of the way and appreciate all of the helping hands pushing and pulling us to the top. Together we'll make it!

Give Me This Mountain

Life has lots of mountains to climb. Sometimes they're more like hills, sometimes it's like climbing Everest. Sometimes you get a rest in between, sometimes you only make it back down to the saddle before you have to start climbing again. There are times when I climb, times when I sit and rest, and times when I turn around because the mountain's too big, only to try again the next day.

At times I say to God, "No more mountains!" or better yet, "Take this mountain away. I'll climb any mountain but this one." Most days I don't feel like I have the faith that Caleb did. At 85 years of age when faced with fighting giants to inherit the promised land he didn't turn around, he didn't even sit down and rest, he said, "Give me this mountain" (Joshua 14:12). I don't think my faith is strong enough for that, especially today.

Our family's been climbing the mountain of Linz's death. Pretty hard mountain, definitely an Everest if you ask me. I think we've been doing better. Maybe we finally got down to the saddle, but there's no time to rest. There's another mountain ahead and it's bigger than ever. This mountain is my mom's terminal cancer. How does that happen? How can we be expected to climb this mountain when we're still so tired from the last? And then I know. We're not. We're never expected to climb life's mountains alone. There's no way we can do it alone. We climb with the Savior. We climb with Linz and everyone else we love who isn't with us anymore. Sometimes we walk next to them, and sometimes they have to get behind and push. But together we can do it.

How do I live without my mom? She's not just my mom, she's my best friend. I tell her everything. She listens and gives good advice. She laughs and plays. Someday, in my wildest dreams, I'll be a mom like her. So right now I don't know how I'll live without her, but I know I will because I have to. Because at the top of every mountain waits my Savior, my mom, and my sister cheering me on. I have to keep climbing so I can make it back to them. So I will. In faith I will climb on.

This scripture is my testimony and I think the testimony of my family. This is what we believe.

"Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." Mosiah 4:9

So because we believe, we will climb this mountain. It might not be pretty, but we will make it to the top. Because that's what our mom taught us to do.

Another Witchy-Poo Party?

My kids loved the witchy-poo party so much that they decided to do one of their own. This is how it happened...I got a phone call saying that I had left my wallet somewhere in Heber (smart, I know). I didn't want to load the kids in the car for such a quick trip, so I called Jake who was at the house he's building down the street. He assured me he would be home in "two minutes". I should have known better seeing as that house is a black hole that won't spit my husband out once it sucks him in.

About ten minutes later I got home to see Jake's truck still down the street. That meant my kids had been alone in the house. Not good. I walked in the door and followed a trail of white into the kitchen. My kitchen was covered in flour, my kids were covered in flour, and there were various baking utensils on the counter. The kids excitedly informed me that they were making witches' brew. They were sooo proud of themselves. Kate was so excited she was jumping up and down. I don't think it ever occurred to them that they were doing something wrong. What could be wrong with making witches' brew? They got flour from the containers in the pantry into some bowls on the counter. They were in the process of adding water to the flour. They had wisks and measuring cups out. Zack also got four paper cups out so we could all have some brew. After I cleaned up I asked Zack if the brew tasted good. He said he didn't know because he didn't get to finish it. Duh! Of course it would have been good. This was witches' brew after all:)

Witchy-Poo Party!

This is documentation of the third annual witchy-poo party. My parents do this every year and the kids love it. The kids get to dress up in their costumes and my dad dresses up as a witch (I didn't know men could do that). They sing halloween songs and eat more candy than any kid should eat in one night. The highlight of the party is the witches' brew. This is made from dry ice and the kids love it. They take their jobs stirring the brew very seriously. A good time was definitely had by all. We're already looking forward to next years party!


Zack and Kate are wearing costumes Jake wore when he was little. Super cute!



Good looking pirate.


Very focused on stirring.


How cute is that?

England!

I finally got pictures of my trip to England. Now you get to hear all about it! If you come to my house I'll let you watch the twenty minute movie Alicia made:)

It was the trip of a lifetime. Definitely bitter sweet, but more sweet than bitter. This was my first trip to Europe. It was beautiful. It was amazing to see such old, beautiful buildings. Here an old building was built in the 1800's, there an old building was built in the 1100's. Pretty amazing history. I loved the trimmed hedges and trees and the beautiful flower gardens. The little town of Stroud was the best though. I must be a country girl at heart. Beautiful green rolling hills with sheep grazing and narrow cobblestone roads. We toured London in a day. Only Spjutes can see London in one day. The best part of London was seeing Wicked. Amazing! I loved it more than I thought I would ever love a musical. They did an amazing job. Loved it!

Even with all of those wonderful things we saw, the best part of the trip was feeling close to Linz and meeting the people she loved. What an amazing experience to be able to take part in a little bit of her mission. We were able to see where she was running when she passed away. I'm sure Linz couldn't have picked a prettier spot if she'd been able to. That will always be a sacred grove for our family. We saw where she lived, and met wonderful people and families. The Virchande family in Coventry truly found a place in our hearts. They are wonderful people and friends for life now. The Turners and Holly in Stroud went out of their way to make our visit enjoyable. The acts of love people showed us will never be forgotten. We spent an unforgettable night in the mission home with the Mofets. All in all the trip couldn't have been better. The Lord truly poured out his blessings upon us. I know Linz was with us and loving that we were meeting so many people she loved. It was hard to come home. Hard to try to move forward, feeling like we were leaving Linz in England. I will be forever grateful for the memories we made. They will last a lifetime and bring comfort in the days ahead.

Hard-Working Hubby

I just had to send a shout out to Jake, the hardest working husband ever. I always thought I was a hard worker until I married him. He works me into the ground. His dad definitely taught him how to work.

Here's an example of his hard workingness. We have a lot of wood siding on our house. Looks nice, but requires upkeep. It's been needing a new coat of stain, but I was secretly hoping Jake would put it off until next year. Painting is one thing I really, really don't like to do. Well, no such luck. He started working on it a couple of weeks ago. On Saturday he really tackled the project. He worked a little bit Friday night and seriously all day on Saturday staining our house. We were using a bucket thing to lift him up to be able to reach the top, so only one person fit. (I'll put pictures up later - Jake has the camera) He got the whole front section of our house done in one day because he worked so hard, all day, in the hot sun. Get the picture?

Not only that, but he works super hard at his regular job and then comes home and works on the neighbor's house that he's building on the side. The poor guy never gets a break. In the middle of all of that he manages to spend time with the kids and help me out too. So I just had to write this so he knows how amazing I think he is and that I really appreciate everything he does that makes it so I can be home with the kids. What a man!

Fetch

No, we didn't get another dog. We don't need to, we have Kate.

Jake and I had to run up the street for a second, so we left the kids playing outside. When we were walking back I saw that the kids were pretending to be dogs and playing fetch with one of Nestle's old toys. Kind of funny, just figured I would wash their hands. Then I saw Kate get down on her hands and knees and pick it up in her mouth. Ahhh! I was too far away to do anything but think about the millions of germs that just entered her mouth. Maybe I need to get them their own bones:)

Princess Kate

I couldn't resist. I had to buy this dress for Kate at Swiss Days. She loves to wear pretty clothes and walks around all day saying, "I'm a princess." She did look cute if I do say so myself.

On a side note, the excavator Jake's using came by to get his check today. I left Kate outside with him while I ran inside to grab it. After he left Kate said, "That guy's cute." That's right, my two year old is already calling guys cute. This is not a good sign. Hopefully the next one will at least be closer to her age.

Crap!

For those of you who don't know Zack, he is super smart. Like already smarter than I am smart. He's four years old and can already read. This is not because he has a mom who spends hours every day working with him. No, he pretty much taught himself.

Well, apparently he also knows how to write now. He came downstairs yesterday and told me he wrote crap. I said, "I want to see...show me." Sure enough, there on his etch-a-sketch is the word 'crap' obviously written by Zack. This brings conflicting emotions. Amazement that he was able to sound the word out and also able to write letters that I've never taught him. Shock at the choice of the first word he ever decides to write (other than his name). Why in the world did he decide to write 'crap'?!! I wish I could know what was going through his head. He really doesn't say it much, but apparently I do. Anyway, let's hope the next word he writes is not a four-letter word. I love kids!

Our Own Backyard

We are blessed to live in beautiful Midway. The most beautiful valley you could ever live in. Anything you like to do in the great outdoors can be done within about 5 minutes of our house. If you feel so inclined to make a huge long drive of, oh, an hour, then you can be in the Uintahs. Yes, we live in paradise. I tell Jake that there's nowhere we could ever buy a cabin that would be better than where we live. Anyway, I digress...

This weekend we went camping in the Uintahs. We met the Browns and some of there friends up there and had a great time. It was so, so beautiful. Going there is soothing to my soul. We set up our huge tent, and then Jake was off to fish. This just in...Jake Jorgenson, of Midway Utah, caught a fish! He actually caught multiple fish. As much as he loves to fish, he's usually not too lucky in catching fish. Hopefully this will be a turning point for him:)

We had fun around the campfire. The kids love eating more than their share of marshmallows. The night was super cold, but we all survived it quite well I think. The next morning we packed up and headed to Cliff Lake. The kids love to hike and really do quite well. I carried Kate in the backpack and she informed me that she was a good hiker. Right. We got to a beautiful lake and broke out the climbing gear. Yep, we got to rock climb while looking at the beautiful lake and mountains. It doesn't get better than that. The kids loved climbing around on the ground and the adults loved climbing up the wall. A great time was definitely had by all.

PS If this plug for Midway fills you with longing to live here, please talk to me and I'll be happy to help you out. The more the merrier.

Locks of Love

So, I did it, I chopped my hair. And I do mean chopped. I've been thinking about doing it for a while now. Jake tried to talk me out of it, but obviously he wasn't successful. I decided if I was going to cut that much off I might as well donate to a good cause, so I gave most of it to Locks of Love.

It's still a little shocking to have hair this short. I've had short hair before, but not this short. I think I'll like it more when it's grown a couple of inches. I wanted short, but not quite this short. I don't blame the hair lady though. My bangs were still growing out and this was my longest front layer. Kind of exciting though. It's really nice not to have so much hair always in my way. I think I'm going to like it.

I'll tell you all what I told Jake. If you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all:) Jake didn't say anything when he saw my hair. I think he's warming up to it though and he's admitted to having somewhat of a love-hate relationship with it. I think I like it, but if I look to close at the back then I start to hyperventilate. Change is good, right?

By the way, sorry I look so retarded in this first picture. Oh well, you get the idea.

Boating

Our family loves to go boating. We got a boat last year. It's nothing huge or super nice, but it works great for our family. The kids love going fast in the boat. They also love tubing- even Kate. Zack's decided he likes going over bumps on the tube, but only if he doesn't get water in his mouth. Jake's good at everything you can do boating. I finally figured out how to get up on one ski. Now I'm just trying to figure out what to do once I'm up. We live super close to Deer Creek and Jordanelle, so we just hop in the boat a couple of times a week when Jake gets home from work. If any of you ever want to go boating just let us know. We'd love to take you!

Kate's Birthday

The Terrible Two's! I guess it's official. Kate's now two, but she's been acting like a two year old for awhile. She got some fun presents. She's very into Dora and princesses. She loved walking around in her dress ups and told me she was ready to go to church. Maybe if I let her wear what she wanted to church she would act better...probably not:)

Terrible two's aside, I love having Kate in our family. She oozes personality. You can't be around Kate for very long without laughing. She's always had her own, very distinct personality. We love it. I can't wait to see what else this crazy girl will bring us.

Camping at Strawberry

Last weekend we went camping at Strawberry Reservoir. It was our first time there and we had a lot of fun. The kids loved making and eating s'mores and we all had fun sleeping in the tent. On Saturday we spent a few hours on the boat while Jake tried to catch a fish. No luck in the fishing department, but we all had fun. It's a really pretty lake and quite big. We'll definitely go back.

PS Sorry about all of the slide shows. The pictures from our camera are such big files that it's way faster for me to upload them to a slide show than to try to do each picture one at a time. So sorry for all of the moving pics.

Rock Climbing

First, a side note. It's been awhile since I wrote (obviously), but I'm finally catching up. Now that girl's camp is over I can focus on other things. There was so much to write about that I decided to talk about each event in a separate post. So keep reading. There's plenty to read about.

On to rock climbing. The first date Jake and I went on was rock climbing. Most of our dates consisted of rock climbing and we did it tons when we were first married. Then we had kids, and things just seem to get in the way. We've finally gone climbing a couple of times this summer. I love it! We definitely need to go more. These are pictures of climbing in AF canyon with Matt and Mandy Brown. We also used to climb with them in college. Now we climb with all of our kids. It's great. We found a perfect spot in the shade and the kids had fun climbing and running around. Jake didn't climb because he hurt his hand earlier that day. He was very supportive though:) Zack had fun climbing and swinging on the rope. It was fun to watch him trying something we love.

Cowboy Kids

We went to the traditional Oakley Rodeo with Jake's family. Of course I had to dress the kids up. Cost way too much money, but it was well worth it. Memories last a life time right? Kate wasn't exactly cooperating for the pictures, but she's still cute.

Girls' Camp

I made it! Girls camp came and went and I survived! Actually, it was a great experience and I loved every second of it. I admit that I was nervous beforehand, but once I was there it was great. The girls are amazing. I love working with the young women. Everything turned out really well despite the efforts of a bear to stop our camp. We started out Monday at Camp Aerie in Marion, and by midnight that night we were in a cabin in Midway. You can't stay at a camp with bears around. Especially not when you're responsible for everyone. Even with the change of location everything worked out wonderfully. The girls had a great attitude about everything and fun was had by all. I think I would stay with this calling forever if I could. I loved it!

Zack's Birthday

Zack's four! I can't believe it. Time flies. Zack requested a pirate cake for his birthday. He's way into pirates thanks to Grandpa Spjute. We had some friends over for cake and ice cream. Weeks ago he walked into the office and said, "Mom, I want a better batter baseball". Chalk one up to the advertising pros. They had Zack hooked. Even Kate talked about better batter baseball. So of course we had to get him one. It's actually a pretty fun toy and Zack loves it.

I love having Zack in our family. He is wise beyond his years and was blessed to have a sweet, sensitive spirit. I love that he can build better houses with his lincoln logs than I can. I love his curiosity about how things work, even though he ends up breaking everything because of it. I love his contagious laugh and I especially love his hugs. You haven't had a good hug until you get one from Zack. I can't wait to watch him learn and grow through the years.

Farmington Festival Days

I grew up in Farmington, and festival day events are becoming quite the tradition with our family. We do the 5k in the morning, followed by breakfast and a parade. We definitely kept the tradition alive this year. I ran in the 5k along with my sister Alicia, my dad, and my brother-in-law Toby. I managed to pull off first place in my age group. Not too bad for a *& year old:).

After the race we added a new part to festival days. This was the kids bike race. It was great. Zack got to ride in the race with training wheels on his bike. He was so proud to have his own race number. He got off to a bit of a rough start when someone crashed in front of him. He had to wait for them to move before he could get down to the business of racing. It was great fun to watch and Zack loved every second.

The kids race was followed by a delicious breakfast compliments of my mom. We stuffed our faces in true Spjute style. Then we headed to the parade. The kids took home a huge bag of candy, which means the parade was a success.

Then we ran home, did some yard work, and headed out on the boat with the Browns. Super fun as usual. Jake took a crazy tube ride and loved every second of it. The grin on his face was so big he looked like a little kid again. He was super soar the next day, but said it was well worth it. Quite the full day. Play hard, work hard...that's my motto. Even better when there's more play than work.

4th of July

We hung out with our own little family for the fourth. We ended up going to Cabelas (Jake's idea). Cool place for an hour, definitely not cool for three. The one store where men shop and women sit on the benches.

After our Cabelas adventure we drove up AF Canyon, over the mountains, and home to Midway. We had a fun BBQ with our friends the Seitters, and then of course we did fireworks. Zack was so excited for fireworks this year. He couldn't wait for it to get dark. All in all, a good day with the fam.

Ragnar Relay

Last weekend Jake and I ran the Ragnar Relay. It was so fun. I love it. Seriously one of my favorite races to do. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, I'll give you the low down. You get in teams of twelve and run 180 miles from Logan to Park City. Each person runs three legs varying from 3-9 miles each leg. You're split into two vans and each person in your van does one leg and then you get a break while the other van goes. It takes most people over 24 hours, so you can imagine that you're pretty tired when you're done. Run, sleep, eat, repeat. That's pretty much what you do. Although the sleep part is minimal.

Last year we ran the race with all of my sisters. I'm so glad we did it because I have so many good memories from it. Linz was definitely on my mind during the race. This year we ran it with some old friends, the Shipleys. Our team was called Ship's Wreck. We finished in the top 15% overall and fourth in the corporate division. Great times were had by all. I totally plan on doing it again next year.

VikingMan 1/2 Ironman

Well, this is Jake writing this one because I don't have my own blog and I wanted to write this entry...See the video before if you don't want to read the blog. (The music is a song entitled "Dream Big" by Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band.)

Ever since I was in high school, I've had a goal to complete a long distance triathlon. This past weekend I accomplished one of my goals in this by completing the VikingMan 1/2 IronMan in Idaho.

One of the biggest steps in triathlon is racing the 1/2 Ironman distance. It is the longest distance other than the full Ironman that is competitively raced in triathlon. The race begins with a 1.2 mile swim in an open body of water. Upon exiting the water you immediately head for your bike and ride a 56 mile bike ride (or in this case it was almost 57). After finishing the bike you get off and change your shoes to run a 1/2 marathon length of 13.1 miles.

The road to the race...The road to even get to this race can be grueling to say the least. Living in Midway with a race in June you can only imagine the challenge the winters bring. This winter brought 5 feet of snow to the yard (that didn't melt until about 3 or 4 weeks ago) along with -20 degree F temperatures. Living behind Timp also brings challenges because you don't get much daylight in the winters either. The training process begins years before this race as you take time to build up by doing smaller races and a lot of building muscles and bones to avoid long term damages to your body and about 6 months before the race you start your full race specific training, putting my timing right in the middle of 2 foot snowstorms and utter darkness.

Typical training days included running through blizzard conditions wearing mountaineering head socks, two layers of tights, two and sometimes three coats, thick gloves, and listening to lots to music just to keep your mind off the freezing cold temperatures. Biking was long and tedious as a lot of it was on an indoor fluid trainer. Swimming was in abundance during the winter at the local pool and consisted of many workouts nearing 2 mile swims about two or three times a week.

I was more than excited for the temperatures to start rising and be able to ride and run without 5 layers of clothing. Needless to say, it still is only getting up to about 60 degrees most days and has been raining nearly every other day. That still left time in the dry days to get out on my bike though.

The Race...June 7th, 2008 was the date that was set for the VikingMan 1/2 Ironman Triathlon in Burley , Idaho. The race start was only about 35 degrees air temperature. The water temperature was only 58 degrees (mandatory wetsuit on this race). The wind was probably about 25 mph. For the start of the swim, I had to slide down a really steep bank into the water from a vacant lot between two houses. Once you're in, you're in and there no turning back!

The Swim...the swim was a brutal swim with white caps all around you. When I would look up, I got pretty disoriented because the waves were so large in all directions and if you tried to breathe you were just breathing in the water. I tried to keep my head down and that seemed to be the best strategy...like Dora in Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming!" After a while I seemed to get in a rhythm and it really felt pretty good.

The Bike...Ahhh, the incredible bike ride. The most ugly ride of all time!!!! The winds were absolutely incredible. The first 23 miles of the ride were a headwind that would nearly stop you in place at times. I'm guessing 25-30 mpg right in your face and just a tiny bit uphill. Most everybody was rolling at only around 10 mph because it was so brutal. (One thing about triathlon is that you can't draft or you get penalized 4 minutes the first time, 8 minutes the second time, and a DQ for the third.) Taking 2 hours to go the distance I'd planned on only taking about 1:20 was pretty emotionally taxing. I noticed I wasn't the only one that didn't plan to be on the bike that long as towards the end, most of us were out of our nutrition (taking food with us on the bikes). I can now say that I understand when other long distance triathletes say you go from an emotional high to low and back as at one point on the ride I actually said out loud to myself that I was totally high. 10 minutes later I thought I could totally die! The ride back was really nice in places though as it was pretty fast. Every time you had to hit the cross or head winds it was a really drainer on the energy though.

The run...Wow! I'm not feeling too bad right now! I think I may actually finish this race! That was easy to think for the first 7 miles or so. After that first loop I realized I had yet another loop to complete at the other end and the first part of that loop was straight uphill on gravel.
All in all, I ran until about mile 7 and hadn't stopped at any aid stations for anything longer than to grab water. From mile 7 to mile 13.1 it was a complete mental game. Anybody who has done this length of race can attest to that. You are ready to be done at that point. Your stomach says so, your legs say so, your head says so. Then you just start ticking off a block at a time. Then you start ticking off a few steps at a time. Then you get to mile 13 and realize you have enough in the tank to run hard to the finish from somewhere deep inside of you!

All in all, it was a great experience! I smiled most of the way and just tried to enjoy the race. Will I do it again? Laura says no but I think so and I think I'll still plan for the even bigger eventual goal of full IM. Lessons from this race...eat better for several months prior to the race for optimum nutrition and body weight, lift weights for better strength into the wind, train more!

Good luck to anybody out there trying this race distance in the future and thank you to all the volunteers and race staff that made this race possible. Most of all, thanks to my family for letting me do this as it takes a ton of time away from family.

Much Needed R&R

My family got to go to St. George over the weekend for some much needed time away. Alicia had some friends who were super nice to let us use their house. We hiked, ate, swam, ate, played games, ate, and then ate some more. Who says food doesn't offer comfort? Even with not the greatest weather, we had a great time and I wish we were still there. These are the kind of memories I like: happy fun ones. I know Linz was proud of us for having some good ol' Spjute Family fun.

After the trials come the blessings

I title this post as such to strengthen my faith. I know this is true, and as a family we've seen many blessings, but that doesn't mean it isn't still hard. We have definitely been blessed in the midst of our trial. The acts of kindness from family and friends are pushing us through this experience. A big thank you to all of you for your kind words and gestures. They truly mean a lot.

The funeral was wonderful (if you can use such a word to describe a funeral). It felt like we were surrounded by angels. A local newspaper wrote a pretty good article summarizing the funeral if you want to take a look.

So now I'm back home doing normal things, but life isn't normal. It's different. I'm not quite sure how to go about my every day tasks with a hole in my heart. I suppose I just plug along in hopes that some day it will get better. I know it will. Knowing that Linz is happy is a huge comfort. Knowing that she wants me to be happy pushes me forward. So I'll keep plugging along up this mountain in hopes that I can someday reach the summit and enjoy the view with Linz.

Lindsey Spjute

Lindsey's the second one in on the left.

I got one of those calls last night that everyone dreads. My sister Lindsey has been serving in the England, Birmingham mission. Early this morning she went running with her companion and collapsed. Her companion did CPR, but it didn't work. My sister passed away.

I feel like my heart is broken in a million pieces. I thought maybe writing about her would help.

Lindsey was honestly and truly one of the greatest people I've ever known. I keep thinking I'm grateful we had her for as long as we did, but why did He have to take her so soon? She's one of those people who made everyone feel important. I'm sure everyone who knew her felt like her best friend. She had a love for life that was contagious. She was always happy and always willing to serve. She seemed to always befriend those who other people didn't like as much. People were just drawn to her.

Lindsey was my outdoor adventure partner. She was a natural athlete and loved to be outside camping, hiking, snowboarding, etc. I was so looking forward to doing all of that with her when she got home. I know the first time we go out on our boat this year I'll cry because she loved doing that with us. She hasn't been on her mission that long, but I was already counting down to when I could do that with her again.

I'm so grateful for the memories we made together and so sad for the ones we lost. Just having her on a mission has been hard on our family as she has left a big hole. I think God sent her on a mission so that we would be a little used to her being gone. I'm grateful that she died doing what she loved. She was such a good missionary. I know she still is. I can't imagine going through this without the gospel and the knowledge that we'll see her again. Now I need to live better so I can be where I know she is. I keep thinking that the one thing she would love for us to do in her honor is share the gospel. So that's my invitation to all of you. In memory and honor of my sister, talk to someone about what you believe. Tell your friends how it is we can keep functioning when things like this happen. Tell them about the Savior and his plan of salvation.

Night Shifts and Kids

For those of you who don't know, I just took a position as an RN at the Heber Valley hospital. I was just kind of looking at available nursing jobs one day and saw this one. I only have to work one shift a week and it's really good money. I don't want to leave the kids even one day a week because it's just hard on them (these are 12 hour shifts), but I thought if I did night shifts then they wouldn't really even know I was gone.

This month has been crazy with all of the training. They're making me train two shifts/week during the day for a month. My poor kids have had to deal with a lot the last couple of weeks. I would never keep doing it if it was always this way, but I just keep looking ahead to May when I start just doing one shift/week.

So, Tuesday was my first night shift in like six years. The concept of working nights so I can be home with my kids is great, but I had no idea if I would really be able to handle it. Since I got married I haven't been to bed after 11:00. Jake goes to bed early, so I do too. So the idea of staying awake all night was a big change. I managed to sleep for a couple of hours Tuesday afternoon (Kate slept and Zack watched Dora), got the kids fed, and then headed in to work. It actually went pretty well. I was tired, but not so much that I couldn't function. When I got home I was feeling pretty good so I took care of the kids, cleaned the floor, and jumped in the shower so I could take the kids to story time at the library. I was doing great until I sat down at the library, then I started to die. So as soon as we got home I took a quick hour nap while the kids ran around crazy and then I was good to go.

The moral of this long story is that I think I'll be able to handle night shifts. I'm excited to get my brain working again and to be able to get a break from the kids without having to leave them with a babysitter. The extra spending money is also an added bonus. I'm definitely grateful for a degree that allows me to work such crazy hours and still be home with the kids.

Easter Fun

I'm finally getting around to Easter. If I don't do it now it will never happen. Easter was good, somewhat crazy really. On Saturday we took the kids to the Heber city easter egg hunt. It was basically 30 minutes of chaos for 30 seconds of frenzied bliss. I'm sure you all know what I mean. At least the kids were happy with their candy.

Sunday was good, but not exactly what I was hoping for. The kids were both unusually unhappy that day. We stayed home, so of course I had to make a nice easter meal. It turned out well, but stressed me out more than I had hoped. I felt a bit like Martha (or is it Mary?). Next year we'll stick to hamburgers.

Church was good, but I was a little preoccupied. Zack has had long terms issues with diarrhea (skip over this if you don't want to hear more). Well, right during the sacrament, when it was really quiet, he filled his pants and did it quite loudly. Then, of course, he had to tell me that he pooed his pants, again, quite loudly. Luckily he was wearing a pull-up. I was so embarrassed that I seriously considered not returning to the chapel. Zack solved that decision for me when he pulled open the door and ran inside. I followed him and just tried not to make eye contact with anyone.

Anyway, the day ended well. Let's just say I learned what not to do this year. Here's to a lifetime of better easters!

Jorgenson Happenings

It's been awhile since I wrote and even longer since I took pictures off the camera. So you'll have to humor me while I show you some pictures from the past few months.




These are some pictures of the crazy snow we had this winter. We went to our parents one weekend and came home to two feet of snow, no exaggeration. They actually canceled church because we got so much snow at once. Luckily our neighbors let us borrow their 4-wheeler or we never would have been able to clear our driveway. Zack had fun riding with Jake.

This is Nestle (our huge lab) trying to walk through the snow.



Jake and Nestle in front of the huge snow piles in our yard. Jake is 6'1", so you can see how much snow we had. Crazy! We still have snow covering most of the grass. I think it will be at least another month before it all melts. The kids and I would love to be able to go to the park some day soon.









Just some pictures of my cute kids! When Kate's hair isn't pulled back it gets a little crazy.

My handyman husband fixing the brakes on the Jeep. I love that he knows how to do things like that!



My kids love their Grandpa Spjute. My sister has been visiting from Japan and to celebrate her son's birthday they had a pirate party. My dad went all out. They had swords, hats, and eye patches. They went on a walk in search of bad guys and then came back to search for treasure. After the treasure hunt they came back and made "blood red pirate punch". Zack still says thanks for the pirate party in his prayers every night. They loved it!


Ok, this is the last picture, I promise. I'll try to keep up better so I don't have eternally long posts. Kate loves, loves, loves to swing as you can tell from this picture. We were in Provo where there isn't snow covering all of the parks, so we decided to stop at a park to let her swing. However, we made the mistake of choosing a park without swings. When we left Kate started screaming like we'd just cut her arm off or something. Silly girl!