Thanksliving

So, today in church, Brother Ray Smith, gave a talk about service missions. He said that when we serve others we take our life from the level of Thanksgiving - to actually Thanksgiving. I just thought of the great dinner we had yesterday. (Those of you who live out of town - we noticed that you weren't there.) It was a huge success. And it was only a huge success because of the service that each person gave. I especially noticed all the little elves staying to clean until the very end. You kids are awesome.

I talked to Aunt Marcy about our dinner next year - the Saturday after Thanksgiving - so mark your calendars. We want to celebrate all the Thanksliving every does through the year. Not to puff anyone up, but to inspire our kids and because sometimes we just need to hear another idea. So as you serve, whether it is Vici staying in a job she hates because of the long hours, but she knows that it is the best thing for her company or Serhana staying up nights with a new baby or Andy letting Rachel hang out with him - and there are tons more bits of service you all do - tuck it into the back of your head. If you see someone else serve in a way that impresses you - it might be the simplicity that impresses you - tuck it in the back of your head. We are going to use your awareness somehow next year. We have time to think about it.

We are loving our new place. I am without a computer, I get on Dad's occasionally, but it has been a big blessing. Because I don't sit down and lose track of time. Things are looking better every week. The car is on the fritz - hopefully, it won't take too much money to fix it. It goes in the shop this week. Dad is now serving in the temple all day on Fridays - he does get the next two weeks off, which is great.

Nothing too exciting. But, I thought I would catch you up anyway.

Love, Mom

Changes in our life

We are moving tomorrow. We have a new place across Gilbert. It will be in Granny & Grandpa's ward. That should be fun. Moving isn't fun - but the good parts are a really nice house, cheaper rent, very responsive landlords, going to church with Granny & Grandpa, and not having to cross Gilbert in the mornings for the carpool.

Grandma is having surgery on Tuesday. She is doing pretty darn well right now. The surgeon sounded very optimistic about the outcome. We will keep you informed.

Alaskan Summer

Alright, so our summer was pretty busy, so this is going to cover our whole summer!

June was pretty fun - Beth's little sister came and visited us all the way up in the frozen tundra.  We made trips to Girdwood, downtown Anchorage, and went to Girl's Camp on Porcupine Island.  It was an awesome time, and made Beth wish she could see Rachel more often!

Rachel was able to find out just how awesome we are, and admitted that Troy is her favorite brother in law, because he's SO funny.

July was great as well - Troy's Dad and Step-Mom came up and visited us over the fourth of July weekend.  They had a great time, and we went on a day-cruise out of Seward.  Alisia and I decided next time they come, we're sending them golfing and we're going to a spa!  :)  We also went and ate at Seven Glaciers, a four diamond restaurant in Girdwood.  The food was divine and the presentation was incredible.  We had no complaints there!

 Doug and Alisia (above) and Troy and I (below) at the top of Alyeska.

 

We also went to a Wildlife Reserve, and celbrated Troy's Birthday.  It was pretty awesome.

August was also TONS of fun.  Troy's littlest sister was getting married, so we made a trip to Utah, and had SO much fun with his family.  It made us realize just how far away we are, and just how much we love them and spending time with them!  It helped to seal the deal that we won't stay here more than the three years, as we just want to badly to be near our amazing families.

 Whitney and I were excited when we found out that we both still had our wedding dresses at Troy's mom's.  We decided to make the best of it, and since Courtney told us we could wear whatever we wanted to to the temple, we wanted to freak her out a bit.  Whitney and I put on our dresses so that when Courtney came home from her hair appointment, she'd come home to us.  We were in luck, because Alex came through the door just before her, and she came in to the above scene!  :)

We took family pictures, and this was one of the pictures of Troy and I.  We LOVE it.

Courtney on her wedding day!  Hooray!  :)

End of Summer, (sigh)

Can't wait for school to start around our house.  It seems like it has been one long summer and our kids are so ready to get back to see friends and "learn things".  We have had a fun summer though.  We went camping in June at Ponderosa Campground, enjoyed that but need to do it again soon for a longer period of time.  We had lots of fun when Jake and Serahna's Family came down in July.  I think we got our swimming fill in that week and as the week was winding down Emily and Max decided all we needed to make it better was Aunt Vici to come down for the family reunion (sorry Beth, guess that means you need to visit more frequently so they know how fun you and Troy can be too).  They were convinced that if Vici knew that it was only a 12 hour drive that she would hop in her car that day and come down.  They would take care of everything she needed when she got her, she just needed to bring her toothbrush and they would handle everything else.  

We have been getting Charlie ready to join the Navy Reserves in July and hopefully in the next month he will be official and have everything lined up to start.  He is very excited to have something different to do and not feel like he has the most boring job on the planet but actually do something more exciting too on the side.  We both keep having weird boat dreams.  Hopefully he gets through training and such quickly and won't be gone from us too long!

Emily and Max are busy getting ready for school.  Max is hoping not to get Ms. Crackwhip for 1st grade (Charlie has him convinced that there is a mean teacher with this name in 1st grade).  Instead he is hoping for Mr. Smith the Janitor as his 1st grade teacher, not sure how either of those are going to work out for him but I am pretty excited to tease him about getting Ms. Crackwhip today when we find out who teachers are.  Emily is SO excited about going into 4th grade, mostly because she got some cute Van's that she wants to wear but also to see friends.  She is my social butterfly, hopefully she has lots of friends returning to her school this year and we won't have so much drama.  Asked the kids what they wanted to do on one of their last days of summer before school starts Wednesday, Max's reply - "Rent a helicopter and fly around the Statue of Liberty." He thinks BIG.  

It is now just August and Emily is already getting her Christmas list solidified in her mind.  3 reams of copy paper so she can draw all she wants and an I-pod touch (or she will take a nanew - yes it should be nano but she can't pronounce it right, or shuffle if that is all we will let her have).  We asked Max what he would like and he said Avatar and A-team Lego's, when we said I don't think you can get A-team lego's his reply was "Its not like santa buys the stuff, he can make anything you want."  Oh will he be heartbroken someday!

Well that is about it for us, just working lots and killing plants unlike Ben the gardener, hopefully when the weather starts to cool down more we will be able to try again and be able to eat more than 2 tomatoes from our "garden".

Ben is actually a gardner now

Its kind of a relief to know that we can actually grow a garden. We may be a little less likely to starve to death if the stores shut down :)

We have been working hard (ok, Ben has been working hard) but it is doing well and we have been blessed with a few tasty "fruits" (and veggies) of our labor.

Soon there should be summer squash and some early bird tomatos.

Now if we could just get some grass started, our "Barren wasteland" theme isn't working out.

Love the other Bennetts

Update from the Head Household

It is May 29th and the temperature is not even approaching the warm category. It rains and rains but somehow, some way, we have not floated down the river. Weather.com claims we'll see an extended period of sunshine w/ temps on the 70's starting Tuesday. That will be nice....if the forecast doesn't change yet again. (You can call me Eeyore.)

Chan and I have been busy getting the yard into shape. After the snow melted it was clear that there were many things we didn't get done before winter hit last year. The tulips already bloomed and have started to die. So did the grape hyacinths. The phlox are beatiful right now, in spite of all the moisture. My hens and chicks seem to have somehow grown exponentially under the snow.

The back yard has been under construction during the last 2 weeks. The rain made it hard to get the work done but the landscapers finished late Friday evening. Now the perimeters are ready for me to finish putting in new plants. We may do a few more this year but the bulk of them will be planted next year. If you want to see photos, go to my FB page.

We got our garden planting done several weeks ago. If they ever get any sunshine they might actually grow! We are trying zucchini, cucumber, several varieties of peppers and a few tomato varieties. We don't know if everything will live but we're sure going to do our best to make things live. :)

Well, hopefully by the next time I blog I'll have a "sunnier" outlook and more interesting things to write about. Hope everyone is well. Take care!

The Griffiths: April & May

The Griffiths: April & May: "So sorry that We've been bad about blogging the last two months. Well, what has happened...? First off, Beth got her wisdom teeth out at ..."