West Point Bridge Designer update

Parker got fifth place in the West Point Bridge Designer program. I failed to explained what this was. Parker got to build a bridge on the computer. The program stated whether it worked or not when a truck goes over it. If it works you are supposed to make the price of the bridge as low as you can but still have it work. If the truck crashes you try and make it work. The lowest priced bridge wins. You can use three materials: carbon steel, quenched and tempered steel or high strength low alloy steel. You can change the size of each of the tubes supporting the bridge from 30 mm to 500 mm. You can make the tubes hollow or solid. It started out with 647 teams and the top ten get to compete at UCF. Parker was 7th in the top ten, and when they competed against each other he got 5th. Good job Parker!!!!!

Good luck Parker!!!

We are so proud of Parker. Parker participated in the "West Point Bridge Design Contest" at school and made it in the top 10. He is actually #7 in Orange County. This Saturday he gets to compete at the University of Central Florida against the other top ten students. The cash prizes are 1st place, $150, 2nd place $100 and 3rd place $50. He is very excited to participate.

Happy 18th Birthday Alison!!!!!

Today Alison turns 18. She was born on May 14, 1991. She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 21" long. In a few days she will be graduating from High School and in about three months she will be at BYU Idaho. We are excited for her but at the same time is sad to see her go. Alison is such a wonderful young woman we are so thankful that she is our daughter. I remember when she was born just 16 minutes past midnight and her due date of May 13th. We were paying for the hospital ourselves so that same day at noon I left the hospital but Alison had to stay one night in the hospital. I did not like leaving her in the hospital and it was hard to sleep knowing that she wasn't with me at home. Alison has always worked hard in everything that she does. She loves volleyball, choir, piano and tennis.

out of the mouths of babes

About a week ago Conner and I were in the car and as we always do we were listening to the Primary songs when all of a sudden he asked me, "How do we follow Jesus in faith? I answered his question and we went on with our day. Last night I went to bed after midnight, Alison is in a play at school and she got a ride home so I waited up making sure she made it home safely. This morning Alison woke me up at 6:20 am to tell me that her ride to seminary did not come to pick her up. I couldn't take her to seminary because Brent is in Miami and Brittany spent the night at her friends house. So at 7:10 am after I woke Parker and Conner up I took her to school. I got home at 7:40 or so and Conner had not eaten his breakfast. We had to rush out the door so that Parker could get to the bus stop on time, when we got to the bus stop we realized he forgot his lunch. We drove home but when we got back the bus was leaving, so he missed it. I had to go home and get ready since I was still in my pjs and Conner had to eat and get ready for school. We managed to get ready in 20 min. and rush Parker to school (which is 20 min. away). After that I took Conner to school but by this time I was upset, it seemed everything had gone wrong (I also did not sleep good and that makes me grumpy). As I was driving Conner to school he said to me " Mom, you are not following him in faith". I asked him why and he said "because you are mad". Thanks Conner for keeping me in the straight and narrow path.

Happy 21st Wedding Anniversary to us!!!!!

We can't believe that it has been 21 years!!!!! A lot has happened in 21 years, for starters we don't look the same and we are losing our minds. This morning I woke up and as I was getting ready (7:40 am) I got a phone call from Conner's dentist telling me of an opening at 8:00 in the morning (his appointment was for 11 am today). He wasn't going to go to school today for an hour so I was going to keep him home with me, so when I found out he could go early then it meant that he could go to school. I rushed to finish getting ready and get him to the doctor which is 5 minutes away. Brent got up and got ready so he could take Parker to the bus stop at 7:55, needless to say we were in such a rush we forgot it was our "ANNIVERSARY". I remembered after Brent left. I tried calling him but his phone was on vibrate and he did not answer. After the appointment, almost an hour later, I called him and he remembered. We had talked about it last night and somehow with the rush this morning it slipped our minds. Oh well we will go out tomorrow, Friday.

Conner's Field day

On Tuesday April 28 Conner had a field day at school. It was fun to watch him do all his activities. It was a warm morning so they did some indoor activities. Here are some videos of Conner, he is wearing his orange hat, except on the ball toss he took it off and kept trying to go under the tarp and got in trouble.

Stake Conference with Elder Holland

We had a wonderful Stake Conference this weekend. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Bradley Foster of the Second Quorum of the Seventy spoke at our Conference. Elder Holland had never visited the church ranch just south of Orlando before and we were blessed that he chose our Stake to visit while on this trip. He spoke boldly and admonished us to do better and to never leave the church. No matter what trials may come, the Savior and the Gospel are our only means to return back to our Heavenly Father. He recognized the difficulties that many are going through whether emotional, physical or financial but told us to always turn to the Savior. He made the analogy of our lives compared to a ship in a storm that when our boat is beset by waves and we feel in the depths of despair and feel that all is lost we should never consider abandonment of the gospel or our Heavenly Father or Savior Jesus Christ as a viable option. He said that if we were in a boat in a real physical storm we should never consider jumping out of the ship. We should always remain where is safe, that this was no time to be doing a dog paddle. He also spoke to the youth on Sunday and asked them to give a tithe of their lives to the gospel not later in life but now. He stated that a life is approximately 100 years so he asked the youth for ten years of their lives. If they would commit for the next ten years of their lives for example from 12 to 22, to do everything in their power to live the gospel he would not have to worry that they would ever leave the church. He then gave an Apostolic blessing upon those who were present, and he then felt he needed to also bless anyone that we felt was in need of a blessing but was not at conference. I was impressed that he said he had a "Perfect knowledge that the gospel is true". I can't explain how emotional he got, speaking boldly and pointedly much different from a regular General Conference talk. It was like a father telling his children, and he even said to stop the whining and complaining that trials are going to come but we need to endure.

Brent said that at the Priesthood leadership session he told them what we need now to solve the problems in the world is a miracle. The only way for that to happen is through the power of the priesthood and the faithfulness of the members. We should be living in a way that we should expect miracles in our lives and collectively and if we as a church having a faith that miracles will happen the Lord will bless us. It wasn't a talk he had a discussion with the brethren, he walked around the chapel with a mobile microphone.

I wish you could all have been there, it was a wonderful conference.