I have read some amazing blogs just now. I am surrounded by incredible wives, women, brothers, sisters, husbands, men, friends, co-workers, neighbors... I drove through my neighborhood on my quad today on my way to the little house I've been working on all summer. Down the street there is house with a flag pole and upon the top there flies our nations flag. It's funny how seeing one thing can begin a thought process that takes you somewhere completely off topic from the original thought... have you ever done that? The trick is to stop the thought process and see if you can take it from where you are BACK to where it began... that will make you laugh. Anyways, I saw the flag, had the wind blowing in my face, driving home from a productive day and thought to myself; man!! what a great coutnry we live in. Despite the turmoil, the darkness that reigns in some parts of the world, country, state and county-- here on this street in this moment I felt completely happy. I breath fresh air into healthy lungs, on a clean street, where I get to vote, and worship whomever I please, own land, work freely. I woke up at 9am after a late night staying up with the kids. I didn't have to get to a "JOB", I got to choose what I wore, what I ate for breakfast. I just had a moment where I thought, I am so blessed. I just wanted to recognize it, enjoy it, praise my Lord for it. I know this isn't that exciting for being gone for 7 months. But it's a start today.

THis set of pictures give you NO IDEA about the effort it's taken to make this progress with this one project and there have been a dozen that are all this big!! hhaha It is super gratifying for me to show the progression. SOON a finished picture of the tub. but I may save it for the open house. or at least an album. :) Thanks for stopping by.

In the face of evil...The truth will set you free.

Who will ever know if it is the truth that set him free or a direct miracle from the Lord. When a lunatic is waving a gun in your face you don't stop to ask him, "why does it matter if I'm Mormon?"

If you live in Washington State you may have heard on the local news that a man was shot and killed in Poulsbo at the Les Schwabs today. If you didn't have a brother that works at the Les Schwabs in Poulsbo this would be just another sad story of police doing their jobs and a mad man losing a gun fight somewhere in Seattle.

But I do have a brother that works there and for me that news was shocking to hear and it hit so close to home. Poulsbo is typically a quiet town that stays off the radar for most gang violence, murder, and trauma in general. It is full of old time antiques stores and is pretty mellow most the time.

So imagine my little brothers surprise when a man come into the work bays at his shop hollering profanities. waving a revolver in his face and starts asking him questions. one question was "are you mormon?" why we have no idea...

I got a text from my friend asking if the poulsbo store is where my brother works, I answered yes it was, and got the news that shots were fired there today.

I hadn't heard anything from my family so I took that to mean that no news is good news right? Right. He was fine.

I asked Joel what happened and he began to tell me. He literally came face to face with an armed gun man. Not knowing what the man's state of mind was. Suicidal? homicidal? angry? vengeful? Had he lost everything and had nothing to lose? Was he on drugs?

I can imagine that your whole world stops... I can imagine you get to see just what you are really made of. This isn't a movie where you begin to wrestle and try to disarm him flinging the gun across the car bay and pinning him down for the police. This was a man who could take your life in a flash before you had time to contemplate a solution.

I'm sad the world has come to be a place where you now have to wonder will I come home from work alive? Did someone snatch my baby girl off the street to keep her and harm her? Why would a man kill and stash his wife and then 2 years later blow up his home with him and his 2 boys inside. These are all questions I have had to contemplate this week.

Amidst all the turmoil, and heartache good still exists all around us. What a crazy world. We know it has to come to this for the end to come. Is the time we've read about for hundreds of years in the bible finally coming to pass? Is it possible that the revelations seen by the prophets of old really are these latter days?

This weeks events make me REALLY stop and ponder life and if I'm living it in a way the Lord would be pleased. Tomorrow I get to help a friend in need whose daughter is in the hospital, that makes me feel like I am doing some of the Lord's work and that makes me happy. If you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.


"There are chances for work (service) all around just now, Opportunities right in our way, Do not let them pass by, saying sometime I'll try, But go and do something today.

Tis noble of man to work and to give, Love's labor has merit alone... Only he who does something helps others to live. To God each good work will be know.
Will we cheer up the sad? make someone feel glad, then go and do something today.

Then WAKE UP!!! DO SOMETHING MORE, Doing good is a pleasure- a joy beyond measure- a Blessing of DUTY and LOVE.

Jennis

It's been a very tumultuous week, I'm ready for some peace and love. :)

Don't judge me...it happened so fast..

I don't want to write this as an attention getter but I do want to remember this story for years to come and read it occasionally as a reminder of how easily life can change.

Taylor and I were busy around the house yesterday... just her and I while the kids were at school. I was sitting in the sun leaning on the sliding glass door, working on the computer doing taxes... and I saw Taylor in the living room hiding behind my new ottoman with a bright red sucker... a second later she was gone and very quiet... I figured she knew she was in trouble for sneaking the sucker and went to eat it quietly in hiding.

So a minute later I got up and went to find her. "Tayyylooor". no answer. NO BIG DEAL there are lots of places to hide with a sucker.

"TAY!!" I began scanning bedroom doorways, still calling her. "Taylor, answer me! please"
I'm curious where she went?? I began looking behind the doors, closets, behind curtains, in beds, my bedroom, the garage... At this point I think she must have gone outside. I am still relatively calm at this point.
"Taayyllorrr"
"taylor, where are you?" The street is earily quiet. Normally there is a neighbor home, someone walking a dog, something. Today there was NOTHING... no cars, no mail man... she wasn't in the street, no shoes were missing, the garage was closed- so no bikes were out... She must still be in the house. Back in I go for a 2nd look...

NOW I am getting a little tense. "Taylor, answer mom right now, I can't find you... TAYLOR!!! Mom's getting scared, where are you? TAAaayyyLLLORRR JANE!! ANSWER ME!! RIGHT NOW!!" My voice is noticeably screechy and agitated... Now I am triple searching things and places that aren't even possible to hide in, like cupboards, bath tubs, my office, the back yard (I was sitting in front of the sliding door so she would have had to walk past me to get back there. plus it was locked with the dowel in the door jam still)she couldn't be in the back yard. STILL, I checked. NOTHING... So I went inside and stood quietly, listening.........

Then panic really set in... my pace quickened as I called and called, now on the verge of tears, calling- almost screaming.. begging her to answer me.. yet no sound at all came.

Maybe it had been more than 1 minute. Maybe she did go outside and I didn't hear the door... What if she was in the road when a strange car drove up.. what if she'd been missing for real these last few minutes I had been searching for her and I had done nothing yet to find her??? She can't really be gone from the house can she? Maybe I'll walk around the block and be sure she didn't wander down the street. My rational mind was quickly turning to every news broadcast I'd ever seen with missing babies, every CSI I had ever watched, it only takes one lunatic to ruin my life... could she possibly sit still and quiet this whole time hearing me crying and run throughout the house searching for her?? She couldn't possibly be that quiet, that long... It's only been 4 minutes... IT FEELS LIKE ETERNITY.

I grabbed my keys, my purse and my phone... I grab the local police department number off the fridge put it into my keypad and walk out the door. I still don't see her in the street... and I make the decision. This is serious. I AM SCARED. This is NOT a prank. I DO NEED HELP... I press "CALL".. as it rings I realize-- I am panicking and as the dispatch officer answers it hits me. Tears, and terror.

"I can't find my 3 year old." I told her.
"I can't find her, I've looked everywhere." I began listing the places I've looked so she'd know I had been thorough...

She told me in her- "I hear this all the time tone"
"ma'am, please stay calm, I'm going to transfer you to dispatch (or whoever it was)"
"ok", I breathed.
I began walking around my block looking in every yard, as I gave the officer her description.
"what was she wearing?" he asked me.
"I don't remember", now I felt ultimately worse.. I wanted to help him so bad but I couldn't even give him the details he needed...
"ummm, she was... ummmmm... I don't know.." I couldn't focus, I wanted to go back into my memory of the morning and thing about what I had put on her today, but I couldn't make myself walk through the entire mornings events.. I didn't have time. I had to find her.

I saw a man in the road with his son playing, he looked concerned at my state of panic, I asked if he's seen a little girl and he said he hadn't but looked around him as if he wished he had. He didn't know how to help me... I kept walking and talking and came around the 3rd turn which would put me on the home stretch of road back to the house... then I see it... my front door opened.
"There she is." I said brightly. "She's in the house." "I have her. She's here."

I don't even remember how the conversation ended, I know I hung up. Did I even say thank you??

I went in and held her and cried, and then she cried when I asked where she was... Where could she have been that I didn't see her??
"Why didn't you answer me? Where were you?" she was crying with me at this point and nothing was going to be solved until we both calmed down so we just sat and cried with her on my lap.

My phone rang again it was my little sister. Sobbing I tell her I have to call you back. (NOTE TO SELF. DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE WHILE SOBBING AND TELL THE OTHER PERSON YOU CAN'T TALK. IT MAKES THEM PANIC AS WELL.) But the police had just arrived on my front porch to confirm everyone was safe. I was happy to see them knowing I no longer needed them. What a relief. They could be of NO assisstance to me. They left assuring me it happens all the time and not to worry. I wanted to hug them for their timing. I was relieved, and still shaken from the heavy moments I just endured.

It was over. I didn't have to call Justin and tell him his daughter was missing. I didn't have to call my mom and tell her I lost her grandbaby...

I was relating the story to a friend and they said, "I'm surprised she's not dead, or beaten!" and normally I would be furious, but in this case I was so scared that anger was flushed out and all I felt was gladness to have her back. Happy to hold her and see what she was wearing...Relief.

Life would have changed forever if she wouldn't have been behind that door. How many hours of sleep would I lose, how many senario's would I run through my head? How would I forgive myself? I would wish death for her over the alternative.
Life can change instantly from one minute to the next. Cherish each moment.

Jennis

P.S. She said she was hiding under my desk, in my office. It is a deep "L" shaped desk with very dark corners. She may have been behind a box, between it's dividers... I looked under there and didn't see her... I will definately sweet talk, bribe, cajole, and pretend to leave before calling the cops next time. I don't regret doing it though.