The Wisdom of Hot Chocolate

This was sent to me as an email. It hits home for me because of some things a few people in my life are going through, and continue to go through because that is what they chose for themselves. Enjoy!

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While its normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have." Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.

Donovan's Birthday

Yesterday was Donovan's birthday. I CAN NOT believe that my baby boy is already three years old. Kids grow up too dang fast. He had a fun day and has really been enjoying his train he got from Grandma Great. I will have to post pictures of that later. Here are a few from his party.

Rainy Day

Between rainstorms last Saturday the kids played outside on the trampoline. It started to sprinkle a little so they got the tent to protect them. (Too bad there is a big hole in the top!) It started raining harder and Donovan didn't like it one bit. He got out and started crying!
I like these two pictures cuz you can see the rain coming down. Nathan went out to save Donovan.
We went out front to see if there were any good puddles so that I could teach Addison the joy of puddle jumping, and we saw these two rainbows. What a beautiful day! I love autumn rainstorms!

Big Helper

Two of Donovan's favorite things to do are be with Dad and play in the water. So when Nathan was cleaning the driveway Donovan really wanted to help. Nathan had the hose from the front of the house and Donovan had the hose from the back of the house. I thought it was really cute so I took some pictures! Donovan kept accidentally spraying Nathan....well one time wasnt an accident, I told him to do it.

Nathan got tired of being sprayed and so he sprayed Donovan back. Well he started screaming. I was trying to get a picture but he kept coming over to me because he wanted his clothes changed. After we changed him he went right backout to help. This time he was very careful to not spray Daddy! I thought I would also include this picture instead of doing a separate post. He is like his dad in so many ways. His story book reader wasnt working right so he got a screw driver and took the battery cover off to check the batteries. I didnt think he would get it off, but he did. This is when he was putting it back on. I just thought it was crazy that he could do that and he is only three!

Bear Lake-August 2008

My Awsome Hike

On August 16th I did the annual Fenn family hike. We hiked up Timpanoke and down Timpanogus. It is a 12 mile hike to the lake or 14 miles to the summit. We only went to the lake and that was enough to kick my butt. I was pretty sore the next day. It was fun though.

This is our group. I am in the middle(ish).

This is my shoes before the hike. Arent they nice and white?
This is one of many waterfalls along the hike.
This is at the cut off to either go to the lake or to the summit. Its Timpanogus Basin.
Here is the lake and what used to be the glacier. It has shrunk a lot. The lake is clear and beautiful. It is actually bigger than this picture makes it look. The picture doesnt do it justice.

This is a waterfall just over the other side.Here is the after picture of my shoes. Pretty dirty huh?

Paper Airplane Fun

My favorite thing to do after dinner is sit on the swing on our back porch and watch the sunset while the kids play. The other night Nathan was teaching the kids how to make and fly paper airplanes. They had a lot of fun and Addison even decorated one of them.