For The Love of BOYS!

Ty Salda - 3 years old
Blake Salda and Tyler Asay

Blake Salda and Tyler Asay

Babies....3 year olds....15 year olds.... I love my boys... only 2 of them are my sister Diane's boys. Growing up in a family of five girls, I thought boys were creepy. They were dirty, liked bugs, frogs, snakes and everything a girly girl did not like. Once my sisters and I started having kids, we had boys first. Lynette was first with Justin. Then she had 3 girls. I had Tyler. Cheryl started with Jacob and Jared and 2 girls and Diane has two boys. Boys are great. I would trade all the girls in the world for a boy. There is something about a sweet boy, whether they be 3 months, 3 years or 15 years old. I am grateful to have had a son to teach, raise and love. Tyler has given me the opportunity learn many things, to laugh at him, to cry over him, to fret over, to worry about but mostly to love.


I think about my favorite dessert - white molten lava cake with raspberry sauce, which I discovered at Chili's. I love this dessert... it is delectable. There is something about warm raspberry sauce... I love it. I would love to drizzle warm raspberry sauce over my boy and gobble them up. Is being a cannabal OK... probably not, but loving and oogling over my son is OK. What a delight these boys in my life bring to me.

Blessings

The Family

Terry Packer, Colleen Asay, Lynette Packer, Janet Asay, Melanie Packer, Tyler Asay, Diane & Blake Salda, Justin Packer, Nicole Packer, Dan Salda, Stephanie Packer, Marilyn Asay

Left to Right: Justin Packer, Dan Salda, Tyler Asay, Terry Packer

Front: Brad Packer and Blake Salda

Diane, Blake, Dan and Ty Salda

This past month has been a crazy busy month. Year end is coming at work and there have been several deadlines that have come and gone and are yet to come for get work completed. I have been coming in early and leaving late, hence little time with Tyler. He is a good sport, but there is also a work/life balance that needs to happen. Since I am the sole support of my little family, sometimes I don't have a choice.

Blake was blessed on November 2nd. It was a great day. Here are some pictures I took off Diane's blog (thanks sister!). If you read her blog, these will be a duplicate, but hopefully you will enjoy them anyway.

There are some exciting in the pipeline for 2009 at work. I work for TIAA-CREF in the wealth management area. I support some spectacular financial advisors and they are both gearing up for some large goals in 2009. I will be a part of both of their teams and am excited to ramp up for a year of great work.

I have so many things to be thankful for... a home, a good son, an extended family, a good job and some sweet friends, especially Jean, Bill & Grandma Welch!

Happy Thanksgiving and love to you all!

8 is Great Tag!

I was tagged by my sister Cheryl...

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. What Not To Wear

2. Dog the Bounty Hunter

3. Ghost Hunters

4. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

5. 9News

6. Little People, Big World

7. American Idol

8. Mythbusters

8 things that happened to me yesterday:

1. Took Sadee for a walk

2. Played the piano for the Primary Program at Church

3. Fixed dinner for my mom and Tyler

4. Did 5 loads of laundry

5. Crocheted a baby blanket - not complete

6. Thought about what I needed to do at work this week

7. Packed some old clothes to give away

8. Thought about Thanksgiving

8 Favorite places to eat:

1. At home with Tyler

2. Quiznos

3. Qdoba

4. Chick Fil A

5. Old Santa Fe

6. Chili's

7. Trinity Grille

8. Texas Roadhouse

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. The Holidays and time off of work

2. Quiet weeks at work

3. Snow

4. Time with Tyler

5. Tyler learning to drive

6. Losing weight

7. Staying healthy

8. 2009 at work

8 people I tag!

1. Lisa Rich

2. Diane Salda

3. Jean Burns

4. Lisa Crane

5. Kristiina Burns

6. Cassie Weber

7. Karin Mikawa

8. Whoever wants to play!

Unhappy Tyler :(

Tyler is a social butterfly. He loves to hang out with friends and especially girls. He had a girl that he really liked. She is a nice girl, but about Halloween, Tyler found out that this girl had a boyfriend. He was devastated. It was very hard for him to accept, but she is of dating age, and Tyler won't be able to date until July 2009. This was a tough hard knock life lesson for him, but I am confident that he will be able to work through it and feel better about life. It's tough when you're a single mom and you have a 15 year old boy who doesn't always feel like spilling his emotional guts to his mom. I try my best to not impose, but let him know the communication lines need to remain open. I love my Tyler Scott!

Sweet Baby Blake

Wake up sleepy boy!

Don't bother me... I was happy sleeping.

Tyler and Blake

I love my nephew Blake. He reminds me so much of my Tyler when he was a baby. He is sweet natured, healthy (14.5 pounds - 95% percentile and 24" long - 75% percentile). He is so funny because he has a hard time keeping his eyes open. Maybe he thinks he won't have to face the world if he keeps his eyes open! HA HA. We all went shopping on the 15th of November and these pictures were taken when Tyler was holding him.

Thankful!

Too many times we go through our lives taking things for granted. I have a very good friend who is a convert to our church. I played the piano at his baptism. He and his family were sealed in the temple. A few years ago, their family stopped going to church. I feel so sad inside for them. He told me that he still believes in God, but just chooses not to go to church. None of their kids go to church. He is the only member in his family and her family is very active.

I was inactive in my 20's. All of my friends went to college. I stayed in Colorado to work. The only young single ward was in Boulder. My sister and I attended, but since we didn't go to CU, they asked us not to come back. My friends became those I worked with and they didn't have the same values as I did. I found many excuses to not attend church. It was no fun to go to a family ward when you are young and single.

I knew what I should be doing, but I did my best to justify my poor choices and continuing on the dark path farther and farther away from the truth - all the time knowing in the back of my head the truths I had been taught in my early youth. Satan had the biggest grasp on me and I was headed for the biggest downturn in my life.

To make a long, long story short, I was sent an angel. His name is Tyler. He rescued me from the depths of hell. My life has not been easy, partly because of bad choices, but I know that we are all here to be tested. The results of our test are ultimately what we are striving for. I have a daily reminder of where I want my end results to be. He is 15 and is my angel. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for my special angel!

Come Listen To a Prophet's Voice

In our church, we have the privilege to hear from our church leaders twice a year. We have pajama church at home. October 4th & 5th we listened to our semi-annual conference. I was impressed by a talk by our prophet, Thomas S. Monson and it is perfect for what I have been dealing with.

"Throughout our lives, we must deal with change. Some changes are welcome; some are not. There are changes in our lives which are sudden, such as the unexpected passing of a loved one, an unforeseen illness, the loss of a possession we treasure. But most of the changes take place subtly and slowly. Day by day, minute by minute, second by second we went from where we were to where we are now. The lives of all of us, of course, go through similar alterations and changes. The difference between the changes in my life and the changes in yours is only in the details. Time never stands still; it must steadily march on, and with the marching come the changes." Excerpt from Thomas S. Monson's talk "Finding Joy in the Journey" on Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Changes have come by the handfuls as of late...work has been the most stressful. Our office moved from one building to the other and I had to leave the awesome people I was working with to go with the wealth management advisors I support. I moved to a floor with over 100 people. It reminded me of a prairie dog village - all you can ever see is the top of people's heads popping up over the cubicles. The only thing that is constant is change, but for whatever reason, this change has been extremely hard to adjust to for me.

If we are faithful and "COME LISTEN TO A PROPHET'S VOICE", we will be blessed. This has been a better week. I feel blessed to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am thankful to a mother, who, despite so many obstacles in her life, took us five girls to church every week - faith never waivering, even when the faith of her daughters did. What an amazing woman!