"No, I grew up in this ward!"

When a high councilman comes to speak in the Overton 2nd ward, you can bet that about 50% of the time they start their talk with something like this,"Oh I feel like I am home....I grew up in this ward....."  Every time they say that I think to myself, "No, I grew up in this ward."  Although we moved here over 7 years ago when I was 27, I still feel like I grew up in this ward.  Ashton 2nd ward was an IDEAL starting place, but for some of us, on the slower side of life, we need a few more years than the normal. 

When we moved here, Ally was the only child in our family and COMPLETELY UNCONTROLLABLE during sacrament meeting as she made funny faces to the people behind us with her two little pigtails that looked like bug antennae.  We have finally graduated to a long bench, and we are still uncontrollable, there are just 4 more. :) 

However, there has never been a negative thing said.  Just A LOT OF HELP offered and several Linda Lyons and Pat Leavitts that tell me I will survive (every word they say I take as pure gold).   When we moved, I remember being so nervous....we needed to get to the temple each month, but how could I find anyone to babysit?  The second Sunday we were here, Noelle Rust offered to babysit if we needed to go to the temple, and since then, their whole family has practically raised my children.  And the one day that they were babysitting and Sam got locked in the house, with everyone on the outside.  As he crawled around crying, Donna Noto rushed to the rescue with a Locksmith and a check to pay the bill.  She would never let me pay her back.  She said, "I am your neighbor, I was called in a time of need.  It is my job."  And the Leavitts and Whitings don't even mind when my children show up in their house at, let's say, 6 in the morning.  Eat their fries, let their dog go, pick their tomatoes....

And as a mother with my 4th child just 1 month old, days away from Halloween, completely unprepared, and on the brink of insanity, Ruby shows up with 4 Halloween costumes.  How did she know?

This week we received a fun thing in the mail.  It was a a FALL PASS to all of the sports at Moapa Valley High School.  I am assuming that it came from someone in my ward, and if not, I am sorry.  But they would know that we LOVE to watch high school sports, they would know that things were tight right now.  So I say thank you!  We are grateful to be surrounded by exceptional people.  Every time my dad came to our ward he would come home and say, "There are a lot of Good, down-to-earth people in your ward."  I agree, but I would add kind and caring to this list.  Thank you for raising such an out-spoken, loud me, maybe if we live here forever, I just might get it right!