The journey begins...

with a missed flight. Seriously. I looked at the email sent to me by Alaska, and honed in on 10:42 am as the departure time out of DCA. I even checked in online and printed my boarding pass the night before. I woke up and got ready, finished packing, and took the Metro in. When I arrived, I checked the board to find my gate number. Huh - there's only one flight to Seattle, and it's not Alaska. Maybe my boarding pass has some other information on it. Yes it does - and boarding started at 7:30, for an 8:00 departure! CRAP!!! That's right - 10:42 am was the time the flight landed in Seattle. I have to tell you that the people at the counter were very nice and didn't laugh at me while I was standing there, PLUS they immediately found a new flight for me to still get to Boise that day. Needless to say, 5 hours after I was supposed to get there, I finally did. I'm bummed because I missed the BBQ to meet all the new family members. However, when I finally got to Boise, Meridee, Allie and E were there to meet me with a sign and ribbon (which I ran through). Allie took a video of it, so hopefully I can post it later. I love being with my family! We stayed up way too long talking, especially with my 2 hour time change. The start was a little crazy, and it got crazier from there...

Relay for Life

Aubree participated in the Relay for Life on Saturday night. As I dropped her off at 5, it started raining. Luckily, they had forgotten to do my mom's luminarias, so Aubree was able to do them and set them out later, so they weren't all soggy. I headed over with the boys around 8 and we walked a mile before the luminaria ceremony. They had a mother of a 4 year old with cancer speak, then a 15 year old girl that has had cancer 3 times. Their stories were incredible, then they led us on a walk around the track with just the luminarias lit. I told the kids that as we walked silently, it would be a good time to think of Grammie and remember all the good memories. We had walked almost a quarter of the loop when Chris and I started crying. It was so powerful to walk with so many people whose lives had also been touched by cancer. I'm so glad that we got to participate in such an incredible event. I hope that we'll be able to do it again.

Anyway, back to Aubree. Her team raised $1126.72! They had lots of fun walking and playing in the rain. Her friend turned 12 at 12:06 a.m., so we allowed Aubree to stay for cake before we picked her up. She slept in until 11:30 on Sunday! Thank goodness for late church! Since it was raining (and because I didn't remember), I didn't have my good camera. So, all the pictures are taken with my phone.

Translation

We are having fun with Macedonian! Well, Mike is, and we just ask him how to say things. We downloaded a font, so that it's easier to write things that look cool - like the banner on the top of the page. It means "The Wandering Davidsons", but is directly translated as "Wanderings (or Travels, Journeys) the Family Davidson". Fun, fun, fun!!!

Good News!

My dad is getting married! We are very excited that my dad has found Arlene to spend his life with. He makes her laugh, and she makes him happy. Could they be any more cute?

Time Out for Women

A couple weekends ago, I went to Pittsburgh with my friend Melissa, and we attended Time Out for Women. It was SO incredible!!! We had so much fun, and I want to share just a couple of things I learned there. The theme this year was Infinite Hope, and all the speakers presented their messages in so many different ways. Hilary Weeks performed throughout the day - she has such a beautiful voice! Everything she sang was so powerful.
Me with Hilary Weeks

DeAnne Flynn spoke of patterns in our lives. Our children follow the pattern we set for them. Heavenly Father has given us a pattern for our life, and we need to choose to follow it. She said, "Obedience in non-transferable". I love that! We need to establish patterns in our lives and stick to them, because shortcuts rarely pay off.
S. Michael Wilcox told us that hope is something we have to look for or create. When we have a problem, we need to look behind us to rely on what we have already been able to overcome; we need to look forward to see what we need to do while relying on the Lord; and we need to look beside us to realize that we are not alone in our struggles - that Christ is there to give us hope.
Mary Ellen Edmunds was SO hilarious!!! She talked about resilience - bouncing back. She sang the song "High Hopes" to us! She shared with us one of the old commercials the Church put out with the message, "When everything says you can't, believe in the part of you that can". Hope is an anchor to the soul, and she really made me think about my resilience. Do I let things get and keep me down, and if so, how can I increase my resilience? What can I do to increase my hope? I have "High Hopes" that as I ponder and pray about this, I will be able to find the answer that is right for me.
Me with Mary Ellen Edmunds

Kris Belcher is such an inspiration!!! She said, "The worst thing about being blind is not being able to see". As she was still recovering from the surgery that took her eyesight completely, it was around Christmas and she couldn't see the lights. So, everytime it brought her down, she thought "LIGHT" in her mind.
Love - Jesus Christ is a God of Love.
Intelligence - He created all, and can comprehend all.
Grace - We don't have to handle everything on our own; that's why we have a Savior.
Hope - Hope comes from our Heavenly Father.
Truth - He cannot lie. We can depend on Jesus Christ - He will not let us down.
She let us know that even when things are bad, there's still reason to rejoice and laugh and live and struggle, because there is hope in our Savior.
Of course, there's a lot more, and I am very happy that I was able to go. I'm going to challenge each of you as they challenged us - make a list of all the things you hope for, then make a second list of things you hope in.