Trek

I have a lot to say, and....I don't know where to start. I have posted this same thing on facebook. But for those who are not friends of mine on facebook will know how my weekend at trek was.

Lets start backwards, with Squeezy Pete.
Squeezy Pete was my family's little baby brother. He was a baby doll, and on the first day we were told to take care of him, and love him. We did love him, and take care of him, but we also got sick of him....REAL fast. On the last day of trekkin', we got a note that told us his life story. Peter was a baby who was in the Martin handcart company, as most of you should know, the Martin handcart company struggled with snow, and bad handcarts, and they ran out of food. He had 6ish siblings and his Ma and Pa were very ill. Him and his Pa died while sleeping in his Pa's arms in the middle of the night. Becca, my sister was very attached to Peter. She loved him, and had a hard time with Squeezy Pete dying. Since Peter died, we had to bury him. Chris, Drake, Josh, Becca, Pa, and I were the only ones there for his "Funeral". It was a very humbling experience for me, because it made me thing about what I go through if I had to bury my baby sister Jainna on the road to Zion if I were a pioneer. Most of us were crying, and it was very difficult. We weren't even that found of Pete! But we still loved him, he was our baby and he entertained us a lot. As we buried him, we sang "God be with you till we meet again"

Next. The womens pull. My favorite part of the whole trek.

The womens pull represented what the women had to do when the men had to leave. Us women had to pull our hand carts up one of the hardest hills in the whole trek, by ourselves. It was very steep. I am yet to find a picture, but you will be amazed when you see it. We sisters of the church combined two families to make it easier to pull up the hand carts, which meant we had to pull two handcarts up there. Before we trekked up the hill, my sister Amber offered a prayer. She asked Heavenly Father if he could take the burden, if we would do the walking. Us women, using all the power and will we had, got closer and closer to the top of the hill. It was, indeed, the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. All of my brothers were standing up at the top of the hill, singing "Come, Come Ye Saints". When I heard them singing that, I started to crying. Everyone was crying. The Spirit was so strong. When we finally got to the top, my big brother Josh was up there, and he gave me a big, giant, big brother hug. And we just cried. Then we had to go get the other handcart. I am just going to say that on the second handcart, we did none of the work. Heavenly Father did it all. It was easy. Very easy. We got to the top and we just sat down and rested.

My testimony grew bounds that day. I knew, right then and there, that my Heavenly Father, knows me, loves me, and is willing to help me if I have the faith. He took the burden, and we just walked up the hill, just as Amber had asked. I am so thankful for that experience.

Last but certainly NOT least. My family. I had the best family anyone could ask for. Ma and Pa were so great and so caring. They were the best anyone could asked for. I had the sweetest brothers ON THE PLANET, and I love them to DEATH, and my sisters.....well, lets just leave it at that. I can't describe how great they were. I was so glad we had no drama, or fighting, or crankyness, and everyone was happy all the time. I love my family so much, as my sisters and I say "Trek family's are forever as long as you get sealed in the dust of CRAZYNESS"!! I can't thank them enough for letting me have an amazing time.
WE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!! And you will double win if you climb aboard the Mormon ship.

Love,
Brianne

Jainna Lydia - 3 months

Jainna at 3 months ... featuring her cousin Tyler Whipple!

Book PRE-view: "Starved Stuff"

I went to a Blogging Conference this last weekend. They had many classes pertaining to improving my blog (familyscratchcooking.blogspot.com, still a work in progress) and I learned many things! But I was surprised to see myself learning a lot about myself in my personal life as well. The opening Keynote Speaker for the second day was a relationship counselor, Matt Townsend, who spoke to us about developing a great relationship with our blog readers. But I was really drawn to the comments and examples he gave about husband and wife relationships - many things hit home for me. I bought his book as soon as the class ended.

The book is called "Starved Stuff: Feeding the 7 Basic Needs of Healthy Relationships" and I am very excited to read it! I read the first chapter this morning and passed it over to Brian and asked him to read it. We plan to read it together, yet separate, one chapter at a time.

The first chapter was about the three types of LOVE: Yearning Love, Earning Love, and Enduring Love. VERY INTERESTING STUFF! The first type of love (like when we are dating and falling in love for the first time) is the chemical stage of love - its all about the hormones! It has high chemicals, but low clarity (reality). He compares Yearning Love to a space shuttle launch where massive amounts of chemicals (fuel) are used in order to get the rocket in the air. Once the shuttle is in the air it transitions to the long journey. Similarly, our Yearning Love loses it's initial boost, and we must give way to the next deeper stage of love, Earning Love.

Earning Love is where each partner must earn the love he or she desires. There is much work involved. It's where the majority of couples spend most of their long-term relationship. The Earning Love stage has low-chemicals, but high clarity. It's a hard transition, and many people confuse it for "falling out of love"


The final stage is the Enduring Stage. It's the type of love (i.e. grandma and grandpa) where you are content with each other and committed to the end. Chemicals are no longer the source of your love, and the clarity is crystal clear. You literally CHOOSE to be with each other. It's the goal of the entire book - helping people reach that Enduring Love.

Doesn't that sound AWESOME?!? and thats only the first chapter! The rest of the book is about recognizing problems that arise during the Earning stage and how to solve them in order to reach the Enduring stage.

I'll let you know when I finish the book and about other highlights I enjoyed. If you decide to get the book, I'd love to hear what you learned from it! TTYL!!!

my virgin attempt at PhotoShop

are you impressed? LOL don't be too impressed, its from a template and I only added the text. But I had fun doing it and will attempt to do more. Here is the header I made for my food blog.

my girls inspired me!

It's something I've been thinking about doing for several months, but never had the guts to do it. Well, now that part of my "guts" have literally been removed (had my gallbladder out yesterday) I decided now is the time! I'm going off candy for one year! I have an intense addiction to candy - particularly chocolate. Peanut Butter M&M's are my biggest weakness. But I must admit, the Lifesaver Jelly Beans at Easter were DELISH! In addition to candy, I am also going to get rid of all obvious high-sugar desserts: cookies, cake, pie, and dare I say . . . ice cream!

So it looks like sugar free jello (with a possible splurge of whip cream) is in my future for treat time. Any other low-fat/sugar free ideas are appreciated :) I hope I dont go crazy in the meantime! Wish me luck!

Jainna Lydia Kirkby

Family Scratch blog

I've started a new blog about cooking and incorporate healthy eating for a family of 8. I'm going to be updating it 2 or 3 times a week and adding recipes on a regular basis. Please pass it along to your friends and feel free to make comments and suggestions.

http://familyscratch.blogspot.com/