I'm Bored!

I'm so bored that I have to do and do something about it. Today was such a beautiful day and boy did we make memories. Look at some of the beautiful pictures I took today.

This one is looking out our condo window.

This is my dear son Chris basking in the sunshine and flakes

I'm told this is the lift to Ridge Rocket

And this is my dear sweet Jessie.

This smile hasn't left her face all week and it is only Tuesday.

But I'm still bored I'm might have to do something about that tomorrow.

Making Memories

Everyone in my family knows how to snow ski and this year we spent a week in Big White Ski Resort in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada enjoying the most fantastic snow on earth. The first day there the day was a bit foggy and snowy, but it was "good snow" or so I'm told. The next day started out a bit foggy and then cleared up to be one of the most beautiful days I've seen up in the mountains during the winter.
My younger four children spend the first part of the day in ski lessons so my husband can go to the top of the mountain and ski some of the difficult runs. My oldest two are very good skiers, in fact they are assistant instructors for a ski school closer to home, so they are free to spend the morning using good judgment skiing where their hearts desire. I gather the children from their lessons just before lunch and we spend lunch time together. After lunch the family skis some of the not so difficult runs together. I'm very pleased this year because Kray and Jason (my oldest
children) are helping out by taking some of the younger children down the slopes and back up the lifts. It really makes my heart warm. When the younger skiers are worn out, I greet them at the door with a cup of hot cocoa, a warm smile and listening ears. To hear them tell their tales they skied through thick forests, "got feet of air" when they went over a jump, skied to the edge of a cliff and lived to tell me all about it.
I'm the only one who doesn't strap on ski boats and hit the slopes. I hope that will change as the years go by, but for now I’m content to just to help make memories for my children. I hope they look back on their child hood as one full of great memories and skiing at Big White being a high light of those memories.
Snowball fights in the hot tub.
Snow angels in the snow banks.
Hot cocoa mustaches.
All the junk food snacks one could eat.
Foot warmers in ski boots.
Games all evening night.
Spectacular views from the condo.
Even all the chick flicks I watched while waiting for them to return from their adventures.
As their mother my biggest wish is that as they grow up and move out that they remember that their dad and I did all we could to give them good memories. Memories that bring smiles to their faces, a desire to call and share those memories with each other and myself. This is a sacrifice I will gladly give to my children because I hope they call me too and share in their memories.

Painted Toes.....

The short version

After I wrote the last entry, I asked my wonderful husband to read it and his comment was, "It was kind of long and you sure did bare your soul for something so public." Well, I've taken it off the public stuff, so if you are reading this then you must have been invited (at least I think that is how it works--I wouldn't know because my husband isn't helping me do this). And second here is the short version of who I am……

I verify that all the facts here are true or were true or will be true eventually.

I have blue eyes.
I weigh 120 pounds.
I'm 5'5".
I have blonde hair (because I have a great colorist).
I love my family.
I'm six of seven siblings.
I grew up in Richland, Washington.
I met my husband my freshman year at BYU.
I have five boys and one girl (she is the last one).
I didn't graduate from college (yet).
I homeschool my children.
I'm the President of WALDSFE
I am a member of the board of the National LDS Homeschool Association.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons).
I want to be a writer.
I love to cross stitch.
I hate to cook.
I love to sew.
I love watching movies.
I love to read books.
I love to collect/buy books.
I love sports.
I hold the javelin record at Richland High School.
I love to take pictures.
I love the outdoors.
I love scouting.
I love music.
I love to sing.
I love to travel.
I always have painted toenails.

Doreen

The Intimidator

In our church there is a body of people who help run the congregation; each with a responsibility over part of the congregation. One sister helps run the organization for the teenage girls. One sister runs the organization for the young children. One brother runs the organization for a group of men. I sit on this council over parties for our congregation. Now I haven't been in this congregation very long, just six months, but they asked me to do this so I'm trying my best.

One night while my husband and I were out to dinner I was asking him about ideas for parties for our congregation (we call them wards). I told him a few of the ideas I had on my list. He added a few more and we began talking about them. We had fun joking around with silly and goofy ideas. We then started talking about one of the hardest and most challenging part of the job: the Christmas party.

I told him my ideas and also the conversation we had just had at our council meeting. I wanted to do one type of party and during the meeting it was brought up that there would be no Santa at our party. I personally did not think there should be a Santa at our party, it was a party about the birth of the Savior not Santa Claus and eight tiny reindeer. They talked about how sad the children will be and disappointed the parents would be. I stiffened my backbone and said, "NO!" I would gladly do a breakfast with Santa if that was needed, but I didn't want to have Santa at the party I was planning.

My husband looked over the table and said, "You know Doreen, you can be intimidating." I asked where he got that idea from. (Of course living with me for the past 16 plus years might have had something to do with it.) But he had heard that in the council meetings I was a bit intimidating. I was flabbergasted! ME! Intimidating? You've got to be crazy.

Well, I guess I'm not all that stupid. I am intimidating. I have certain ideas and I want them done the way I want them done. No "if's, and's or but's" about it!

The Intimidator

PS: there was no Santa at my party!

It's a Wonderful Life

The other day I came home from my early morning physical therapy session to a house full of wonder. My 8 year old son was enthusiastically playing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on the piano in the living room. I was hearing, "Mom's home" from my 5 year old daughter as she bounded down the stairs in her princess dress of choice for the day. I saw my 14 year old son at the breakfast table with his elbows firmly planted on the sports section of the newspaper, empty bowl pushed aside and glass half full of room temperature milk. His 12 year old brother was downstairs talking rather loud about how it was his turn for the washing machine and "someone needed to get his clothes moved over." My 6 year old son was on the family room floor with his eyes stuck to the comics asking his 10 year old brother to read them to him as he is just beginning to read and needs help with the big words. I heard a burst of laughter as the joke was read. My sweet little dog came rushing from his look out on the back of the living room couch begging to be petted and welcoming me back home. My dear sweet husband walked up from downstairs, planted a kiss on my lips and smiling said, "Good morning. They are all yours."

I stood in the front hallway with my purse still on my shoulder, little princess arms wrapped tightly around my legs with her rosy cheeks begging for a good morning kiss. I wanted to open the front door and yell, "IT IS A WONDERFUL LIFE! EAT YOUR HEART OUT GEORGE BAILEY!"

I truly live a wonderful life.
Six kids
One husband
One dog
One bird
Countless fish
One warm and safe house
Food on the table
and bells ringing continually telling me "It's a wonderful life."

Doreen

The fire is warm

I love a fire. I love looking into a roaring fire. I love watching it burn down to wonderful coals and I love looking at the white hot coals left by a fire.
When I was a little girl my house didn't havd a fireplace (talk about confussing a little girl who believed in Santa. Thankfully we left the front door unlocked on December 24th) but I didn't let the lack of fireplace from stopping my imagination. I remember getting a box and drawing a fire on the box so I could have my fire. I loved going camping and getting the fire roaring, warming up each side, smelling like a good wood fire as I slipped inside a sleeping bag and then waking to a warm fire in the morning. Talk about heaven!
I remember one camping trip when I was still rather young where a spark from the fire landed in my eye. My older brothers held me under the ice cold running water flushing out my eye. You would think that would stop me from being close to a fire, but no, I love getting close to a fire.
Now that I'm big and own a mortgage we have a fire place. Living where the eletricity is guaranteed to go out at least three or four times during the winter we have put a gas insert into our fireplace. One would think the romance and atmosphere of having a fire would be lost. But it isn't lsot or even diminished. With little children it was a safe choice as well. We can be safe in the winter, warm when the power goes out and always have a warm fire to cuddle in front of.
The only thing better than a warm fire is to have someone you love share it with you. Thankful I have a housefull of people to share it with. Of course my favorite person to share it with is my husband and way too many times we don't get to sit in front of the fire just the two of us, but that is the price you pay when you have six children in the house. Next on my list are my children. I love having my little ones snuggle in my lap as we talk around the fire. My older children are physically too big to fit in my lap anymore (they will soon crush me) but I can sit next to them and talk.
What a great picture; parents and children talking. I think conversation is a lost art. We are too busy to sit down and just talk. It is one thing to go through the check list of places to be during the day or week, but it is still another to just sit down and share feelings, emotions, testimony, concerns, worries, dreams and desires.
When was the last time you sat around a warm fire with your children just communicating with them?
I think I'll put it on my schedule to do with my children....let see.....maybe next week...yes, I see a day free.

Doreen

Welcome Home

My husband has had a blog for quite some time and I've been tinkering with the idea of doing one myself. SO......I decided I would try my hand. After tinkering with other blog designs, I choose this style and my title, "The Back Dor." When I was a young girl my nick name was "Dor" but more importantly I wanted the feel of a back door friend. You know the type (or at least we use to have those types of neighbors). They were friends who just opened the door to your home, walked in and "helloed" and they were more than welcomed in the house.

Well, I want to be that type of friend....one that can walk into your home and feel welcomed and likewise, I want you to feel that you are always welcome at my home.

So grab a cup of cocoa or lemonade and let's chat and have a great time becoming "back dor" friends.

Doreen