My Personal GPS

A few months ago Kyle and Aubrie invited me to Coronado Island to watch them take some pre-wedding pictures on the beach.  I was very nervous about this because I am pretty much lost once I leave my driveway.  Also, I was driving our very old Jeep because Savannah hadn't learned how to drive a stick yet and needed to take my car to school.  Since I love my son very much, I bravely made the trip there clinging for dear life to the GPS on my phone (which I could barely hear because the Jeep is so stinkin' loud).  We had a lovely time and then it was time to go home.  It was getting dark and I had to ask Kyle where the lights were on the Jeep.  My phone was now dangerously low on power so I was trying to find my way back on my own memory.  Ha!  Memory?  That's a laugh.  I don't have any.  Our Jeep is very gutless and windy and loud and uncomfortable so I am chugging along trying to remember where I need to go and worrying about my phone losing all power before I get lost and have to call Pat and I don't feel very comfortable driving in the dark anyway and the overwhelming feeling comes over me that I really miss my husband.  So I say outloud to myself, "Pat, I need you".  I realize that if he was there with me we would be having a blast talking about our kids and our life and I wouldn't give a second thought about our dumb Jeep or getting lost because Pat never gets lost.  I then realized that he is way more than a human GPS to me.  He always knows where we are going and how to get there and when I am with him I am never afraid.  I mean that literally and figuratively.  The Spirit guides him to guide our family and I know he would never lead any of us astray.  He is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I am thankful for him every day of my life.

Stripling Warriors

My sons make me very proud.  They are everything I could have hoped for them to be.  They are responsible, obedient, loving, kind and funny.  They have brought me so much joy throughout my time of raising them.  I love watching them together.  They love each other very much.  I am so glad Heavenly Father gave them to me to raise. 

My Sweet Bubba

I came across this picture and just had to show off my very handsome favorite grandson.  He is adorable.  He just turned 2 but this was taken last April at Kyle and Aubrie's wedding when he was 1 1/2.  He loves firetrucks and zizards with long tails and dancing with Money (me) and every kind of sports ball.  He comes home to me in about 2 1/2 weeks and I can't wait to kiss his cheeks till they turn red:)  I love you, Bubs!

How Great Shall Be Your Joy (and sometimes your anguish)

Since I wrote last, over a year ago, we have had 3 of Hunter's friends enter the waters of baptism and join our church.  The first was his best friend, Josh Stephens.  Josh came to church to hear Jensen's homecoming talk and felt the spirit so strongly that he kept coming back and started reading the Book of Mormon and decided to have Hunter baptize him about 6 weeks later.  Fast forward to a year and a month later and Josh is in the MTC on his way to the Philippines on a mission for the church.  Could my heart be any fuller?  I got to take Josh through the temple, help him apply to BYU, help him get ready for his mission, write to him every week while he's in the MTC and love him like he was my own son.  Josh's conversion was an absolute delight to behold.  It wasn't like he was hearing the gospel for the first time but more like he was remembering what he already knew from his life before this one.  He accepted and understood absolutely everything about the church.  He worked in the temple with Pat before he left on his mission.  Pat gave him the priesthood, was his escort in the temple and set him apart for his mission since Pat is in the stake presidency.  Before his mission he spent Sundays with us and because he is so much like Hunter, he helped us not to miss Hunter quite so much.  Josh's mother is Filipino and speaks Tagalog so he will be able to talk to her in her own language when he gets home.  Because of this boy and his decisions, our joy has truly been "great".  The anguish part is watching is mother, who is not a member of our church, try to understand how her son could believe in something so completely that he would leave her for two years.  I know Josh's family will be blessed for his service.

The next person that Hunter baptized was Daniel Murray.  Daniel found Hunter on facebook after playing against him in high school football.  He was so impressed by the things he saw in Hunter that he wanted to become friends with him.  After getting to know Hunter better he came to church and, just like Josh, felt like he was coming home.  He was baptized a week after Josh.  He then left for college in Cincinnati, Ohio where he was going to play football on scholarship.  He missed Hunter like crazy and was concerned about not seeing him for 2 years while he served his mission.  Lo and behold, Hunter got called to the Columbus, Ohio mission!  Murr was able to visit Hunch twice on his mission before he got injured in football and came home for good.  Now he is applying to BYU where he hopes to play football with Hunch in a couple of years.  So much joy!

And last, but certainly not least, is the girl that Hunter hopes to spend the rest of eternity with.  Aleigh Mellinger had Pat baptize her shortly after her 18th birthday this last May after waiting 4 long years.  She came to church with friends to hear Jensen's farewell talk and felt the spirit so strongly that she wanted to come back but her parents are of another faith and didn't feel comfortable with that.  She stayed friends with several members of our church throughout high school and fell in love with our son and adopted our way of life and embraced our doctrines immediately.  She is now a Sunbeam teacher in our ward and faithfully writing to our son on his mission. She is a wonderful, beautiful, sweet and talented girl that has made her way into our families' heart.  This is the "great joy" part.  The anguish is the pain it has caused her parents by her decision to join our church.  That part makes me very sad.  My other sons have married girls that were born and raised in our faith and I always assumed that all the rest of my children would do the same.  It just goes to show that the heart wants what the heart wants.  I pray every night that a measure of peace will come to our families someday and that we will be able to accept our children's choices and be happy for them. 

Raiderettes

Last weekend we went to Oakland to visit Tanner, Alana and the girls.  While there we stocked up on Raider gear and got some for the girls.  We then went to San Francisco to Pier 39 and lo and behold we came upon some real Raiderettes signing posters at a sports store.  They were nice enough to pose for a picture with our junior Raiderettes.  We are obviously not "fair weather fans" because even though our team is STILL struggling, we love them to death and are raising the next generation to do the same.  Just Win, Baby!

My Posterity

The three little darlings on the front of my blog are my sweet grandchildren - Ava Lynn-3, Landon Patrick-2, and Sienna Marie-5 months.  Logan and Michelle are growing another little girl for me as we speak.  These little people bring me so much joy and entertainment.  As I mentioned before, Ava calls me "Grandma Moores" and Landon calls me "Money".  It cracks me up every time they say it.  Ava is hooked on One Direction's song "You Don't Know You're Beautiful" and plays it all the time.  She always wants me and Savannah to dance with her to it.  She copies all of our moves (which, if you've seen us dance, you know those moves are pretty crazy) and has a few of her own.  She is quite good.  She also sings really well.  Lando dances with us too but is not quite as coordinated yet so he is pretty funny to watch.  Lando is my snuggle bug.  He loves to get his bunny and blanky and sit in Money's chair and snuggle.  He falls asleep on my lap and I am in Heaven.  Nothing better.  Sienna just eats and grins.  So cute.  I miss all of these kids.  Lando will be back in about 3 weeks but Ava and Sienna won't be back until Christmas and then only for a week or two.  Here are some pics of my little angels. 

Hello Again!

I let a little bit of time go by since my last post and everything changed on me so that I couldn't figure out how to post anything.  Darn technology.  I hope I am in the right place now even though everything looks different.  I guess we'll see.  The fact that I am writing anything now is a testament to my new and ridiculously boring life.  Here's a little (ha! with the size of my family?) update on the goings on of the Moores. 

Brandon is a history teacher at San Marcos Middle School.  He loves it.  He is also a seminary teacher for the freshmen.  Loves that too.  Lots of teaching.  You can see why he doesn't feel the need to get married and have kids of his own because he has a couple hundred kids already.  They absolutely love him.  They hang out in his classroom at lunchtime because he is so nice and funny.  He really is very funny:)

KYLE GOT MARRIED!!!!!!  HALLELUJAH!!!  After waiting for eternity (and for his missionary) he finally married the love of his life, Aubrie Fillmore, who has fine tuned her name down to just "Moore".  Another local girl (yeah baby) who is beautiful, talented, friendly, spiritual (mission) trustworthy, brave, clean and reverent (mom of scouts?  maybe).  In short, we love her.  They are currently on an internship for physical therapy in North Carolina and will be heading shortly to Louisiana for his final internship.  They have been seeing the whole country since they drove there and are having a blast.  I miss them.

Tanner and Alana had another beautiful baby girl in April named Sienna Marie.  Tanner enrolled in medical school and they moved to Oakland.  While I am quite proud of Tanner for this decision I am nonetheless in deep mourning that they have moved so far away.  I miss my little Ava Lynn like crazy.  She is 3 now and a brilliant little redhead who can sing and dance like no other.  She calls me Grandma Moores because whenever they would come over to my house Alana would say, "We are going over to Grandma Moore's".  See?  Brilliant. 

Logan and Michelle are pregnant with a little girl due in February but who could arrive next month given Michelle's history and they have kidnapped my favorite grandson and taken him to St. Louis, Missouri for Logan's physical therapy internship.  Do you see a pattern developing here?  Everyone has left grandma:(  Thus, the reason I have so much time to blog now.  Landon calls me "Money".  No one knows where it came from or why he does it but that is my name. 

Jensen got married 3 minutes after he stepped off the plane from his mission.  Tracy Franz, a darling girl in our ward who he's known for years just suddenly caught his eye and four months after he got home he married her and they are now at BYU where he is working for NuSkin and she is working at Macy's as a make-up consultant.  She is a wonderful addition to our family and we love her.  If you have been keeping track you will note that I am now 4 for 4 in the marrying local girls department.  Booyah!!!  Of course that isn't helping me right now as all four of these couples and, more importantly, their children, are all gone!! 

And to round out the "Let's Desert Dyanna Club", my youngest son, Hunter, just up and left on a mission.  The nerve! He's been gone for 8 months to the Columbus, Ohio mission.  He's loving it and I'm missing him. 

Thank heavens for Savannah!  She is still with me and I love her to pieces.  She is the light of my life.  She is the most wonderful teenage girl in the world.  She has no flaws or short-comings and brings me such joy that I thank my Heavenly Father every day for her presence in my life.  She is on the varsity tennis team and in student government.  She stays very busy but still makes time for her lonely mom. 

Pat is in the stake presidency of our church and so he stays quite busy.  He has also lost all of his work helpers (to all ends of the earth) so he has to do it all by himself and summer is his busiest time. 

I am trying to find things to keep me busy which, unfortunately, tends to make Pat busier as I start household projects and then lack the know-how or tools to finish them and turn to him:) I need to go to Van's tennis match now so I will try to figure out how to actually get this up on the screen so someone can read it.  TTFN (how cool am I to actually know what that means?)