Courtney's Mission call....You'll never guess

Okay...so around March Courtney came home for college for the weekend and comes in our room and sits down and tells us she wants to go on a MISSION, and she feels she needs to go now. You could have knocked us over with a feather. What happened to the 4-year plan...she only has one more year of school and she will graduate. Well, of course Courtney had already checked and she can put her scholarship on hold for up to 2-years. So she had her plans already figured out she just needed to get her paper work in. So her mission call came today....a week later than expected. Courtney is on the directorship at the Oakcrest Girls Camp this year, and she lives up there all week, for the next 3-months. So I called everyone and they said they could make the drive up to her and surprise her. So, here she is with her call before she opened it. Reading where she is going.....WHERE.....YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING!
Kandace telling Courtney DON'T GO! Man, we never expected this one, but then Cameron's call took us all by surprise too!
The family is in SHOCK, and I think Courtney is the most surprised! Soo....where is she going???Watch as she opens her call and lets us all know.

And when does she enter the MTC????

And who won the family guessing pool, and wins dinner for two on Steve....NO WAY... Cameron, how did he know?

This is a testimony that someone else is really in charge of these mission calls. The gospel is TRUE! Congrats Courtney, you will make an AWESOME MISSIONARY (Hope she was able to sleep after this)

Oakcrest 2010

Where has the year gone? Really, it has been a year since we all went up to see Courtney at "Friends and Family" night last year, and here it is again. Last night we all went up to see Court, at her "Home Away from Home". She is on the directorship at Oakcrest this year, so she has been heavily involved in planning all of the activities for camp this year. She is the official "Head Cook". Steve and I drove her up last Saturday night to for her "Trial Week" at camp. This is where they only have staff, and do everything they will be doing when girls arrive. She is totally exhusted after her first week. Who knew that cooking 3 meals a day, 5 days a week for 400-500 girls could be soo exhusting??? We felt so bad for her when we left her last week, but if anyone can do it, Courtney can! I am sure in a few weeks she will have a routine and be able to have a break during the day from all the cooking. This is our gang..Lexi, Bridget and Tasha in front, her bestest buddies! We are all in the back also, Little Bridget and James are on Courtneys' lap.
Us...at the zipline. Wow, Steve looks so thrilled to be with us!
James coming down the Zipline. He LOVED it! It was a long wait to go, but he laughed all the way down!
Courtney and James on the Obstacle course.

Waiting patiently in line at the zipline. "Cheese"

So the video below is the song that the directorship wrote for their theme this year, "Come Unto Christ". It is such a beautiful song. The spirit was soo strong, we all had red "Allergy Eyes" when it was over. It was a wonderful way to spend the night! Enjoy the video, and Courtney's mission call didn't come, so maybe next week we will have some BIG news to share!

Man....What a Slacker!

Okay, so last week I went to Orlando for work and I got to see my LITTLE SISTER Linda(notice I didn't say younger since she is having double knee replacements this summer) and her family. It was wonderful to get together for a few hours and visit. They even drove all the way out to me. I felt so honored that they made room for me in their busy lifes to come to see me, THANKS LINDA and family. Love you all! So while I was there, me and my friends that I went with took a few hours to stop by SeaWorld. This is all of us at the end of the day at SeaWorld. We kinda cut out the last hour of our fun there, because the down pour that shut everything down. I did ride the "Manta", Holy Cow....I almost tossed my cookies on that one. It was one of the craziest rides I have ever taken. If you go to SeaWorld, make sure you check it out!

Here is the DOLPHIN show at SeaWorld. It was amazing. I can't wait for my next meeting in Orlando, I think I will head out a few days earlier and spend more time with Linda and her family. I really wish I could have brought the sunshine home with me...I loved it!

So....here is my SLACKER part. While I was looking at these pictures of Orlando, I found all the pictures from the last month. So here is the run down of what we have been up to lately...hope you dont get too bored.

This is me at the "One Thing That is GREEN" sponsored by JetBlue. We helped the comminity clean up the trail near 1600 S. and Jordan River. It was alot of fun.

This is the new walk bridge over the Jordan River near our house at 11400 S. I run this trail every time I run, and now I will be able to run over the bridge into South Jordan...a BIG Wooo Whoo!

This is the new 11400 South overpass. This will make our lives alot easier to zip up to Casey's house. Getting around our neighborhood now is aweful because of all the road construction, but it is suppose to be done this fall! Hurray!

So every year for the past 7 years I have been in charge of the "JetBlue Health Challage" Month. This year the weather really was stinky for our bonus point activites. This is me with the brave souls that showed up for the "Thanksgiving Point" walk. Yes, the white flicks are snow flakes. Who would have thought we would still have snow every week in APRIL! At least it was a beautiful day for our TIMP Hike. Just a fun thing I do for my job!

So, the Monday after Mother's Day, I have a bright Idea for FHE. Let's make Strawberry jam! So Courtney, Tineke and I spent a couple of hours making freezer jam. Another interesting adventure. I only ran to the store twice for new jars and more pectin. We ended up with 45 jars of jam. And Courtney had to make us pancakes for dinner to have some of our STRAWBERRY JAM on! YUMMY!

Did I ever tell you that we are one of the offical sponsor of the REAL soccer team? A couple of weeks ago we had an off site training at the REAL Stadium. On one of our breakout sessions we went outside to chat and warm up. Funny thing, Kyle Beckerman was on the field shooting a commercial. Ahh...another perk why I LOVE my JOB!

Finally, This is a picture of Steve and me as we head out to my "JetBlue Royale" party. We had a blast at the party, it was a casino night, fake gambling for prizes. I have NEVER gambled before, so we headed to the craps table because it reminded me of BONCO! We were the first to arrive, and the table guys taught us how to play. I won...I SCREAMED...I won more..I SCREAMED more! MORE people came over to join us and they SCREAMED too! I have the best job ever! Such a fun night. Now I think I am caught up on my busy life. Until next week...When COURTNEY gets her MISSION CALL! Stay tuned!

Race for the Cure

Yesterday was "Race for the Cure" This was my second year doing this race. This year I signed up and ran for my friend Jenn Jewkes that passed away las year. I was on "Jenns Angels" team, and met her family and friends bright and early for a group shot. I also was there to support my sister Vicki, who was diagnosed last spring with breast cancer.

This is me and my sister Vicki after the race at the Surivors Pink Cafe. They had a "Survivors Parade" after the race. They line the breast cancer survivors up by number of years survivied and have a parade. The news reported that there were over 25,000 in attendance to the race, and there were near 1,000 in the survivor parade. Here is Vicki and her supportors. Her family.

Autumn kept the kids entertained while we waited for the parade to start.

Can you see Vicki on the steps at the Gateway with all the survivors? They take a group picture and then release white doves for the survivors. Such an amazing sight.

Here is the whole group on the stairs waiting to start.

These are the boyz I saw last year at the race. They loved everyone wanting to take their picture. What great support for all these ladies. We had a great day, both with all the people there to support "Race for the Cure" and the weather was actually the best it has been for a while. I will definitely be there again next year...who wants to join me???

Courtney's SSU Institute Graduation

Last weekend Courtney moved home from SSU. She will spend the summer at Oakcrest then head out for her mission. It was an exhusting weekend, but always fun. I headed down to Cedar City Thursday afternoon, and got there in time to attend her Institute Graduation. As I sat waiting for the program to start, I noticed something a little strange. I leaned over to Bridget and said "Why are there soo many Girls Graduating"? There were about 60 GIRLS and only about 4 GUYS graduating. Then it occured to me. I leaned over again and said "Oh...I bet they are all on missions". We laughed. So here we all are after graduation. Courtney has such wonderful friends. I will miss coming down to visit and sleeping on the floor. They are such a part of our family.
This is Courtney, Bridget and Lexi. My GIRLS. We had a great night together. Did you know that Ceder City pretty much closes at 9 PM. We tried to go eat after graduation and the first restrurant was just putting up their CLOSED sign. We tried a couple of others, they were closed. We ended up at a cute pizza place and had some great giggles and laughs. The GIRLS stayed up late together, spending their last night as roomates together. Where did the time go, I swear I was just moving Courtney down to school yesterday. We know that although the GIRLS are not together everyday now, they will be friends forever!

New Appliances....How many Leavitts Does It Take....

Okay, so two weeks ago I was home alone and decided to bake some cookies for my nephew on a mission. Those that know me, know I don't bake alot anymore, I leave the baking to Courtney. So I mixed the cookies, and turned on the oven, went out of the kitchen and heard a "POPPING" noise. I came into the kitchen and looked in the oven and saw what looked like 4th of July sparklers shooting out of the top of my oven. The top element was on fire. So, long story short, we got all new appliances on Saturday. Little did we know what a project it would be to switch out the OLD and install the NEW. This is attempt #1 of installing the new OVEN. Steve was smart enough to bring in his big car jack to put the oven on to lift it into place. Should just pop it in, no problem right..... WRONG! It took us countless times to get the oven to FIT, not to mention all the adjustments to the back wall. Attempt #4...I think we lost count how many times we had to pull this oven out . We took a lunch break after this....The crew was getting hungry!

Notice that each attempt has a new operator of the JACK. It was actually getting a little bit funny to hear Steve tell us that the fit wasn't good enough, and pull it out again. This definitely was a FAMILY affair! Our couple of hours Saturday project turned into a 6-hour ordeal, but the outcome was worth it! Here is our mini-kitchen MakeOver!

Everything has been switched out to Stainless Steel. Steve has been wanting this since we built the house.

We love the new appliances, but now Steve is threating to pull out the floor.....RUN Leavitts....RUN!

P.S. Jake, I will get you some cookies made and mail them this week.....the crew ate the ones I made and put in the freezer...they found them on the Fridge switch.

Michale Buble...I have the best Husband ever!!!

Okay, so for Christmas my wonderful husband totally surprised me with tickets to see

"Michael Buble" in March. I just mentioned that I had checked on tickets and they were too expensive. So needless to say, I was totally surprised by the tickets. I was one "Happy" Gal!

Yep, the concert got here way too fast, and went by even faster. You should be able to tell by my crazy "Non-Stop" smile how excited I was!

My wonderful husband not only got me tickets, but sat through the concert with me, I did have several friend offer to take his place if he became too ill to attend. Did I mention how amazing my man is?

This is the group that started the concert. "Naturally 7" They were absolutly amazing. They not only sang in accapella, but used their voices for the percussion, Drums, guitar, bass, microphone, ect. They reminded me alot of what Cameron and his accapella buddies could do. They will all have to get back together after their missions and see if they can pull this off.

Finally, the moment I had waited months to hear "Cry me a River", the first song of the night.....screaming of girls...."I love you Michael"......Steve was thinking about making an early exit.

Michael braved the crowd and came out and stood on a platform right by where we were sitting. He sang my all time favorite, right there in front of me..."HOME" The crowd went crazy, screaming girls everywhere swormed in. I kinda felt sorry for him being boxed in by all the crazy fans. Luckily his body guard helped clear a path to get back on stage.

"Crazy Love" and "Just Haven't Met you Yet", oh man, was this just a dream? Heck no, it was just a little bit of heaven for me.

"Everything ", ahhh. this was eveyrthing I could every dream of. I could have sat there all night and listened to every song he has ever sang. Sadly for him, this was only stop nine of his 309 city tour for the year. Poor Guy will be exhusted by the end of the year.

Good thing MIchael came back to give us an Enocore and release the confetti on the crowd. The crowd went crazy again as he sang "Me and Mrs. Jones" He was such a down to earth guy. He acknowledged that he knew the tickets were expensive and that there are tough economic times, and many had to save to be there. Nice to know that he appreciates us little guys out there. Okay, so this is how wonderful my hubby is, he even bought me this cute shirt to remember the night. I just had to share. Thanks Steve for a fun night I will never forget!

Okay, I have the best hubby ever!

Enjoy my clips of the concert!