Michael turns 14

There are lots of birthdays that come, and many have lots of significance, but I usually don't think of 14 as one of those significant birthdays. Well, Michael turned 14 recently and it was the hardest birthday he's ever had for me....why...who knows, but I found myself ready to cry several times. He can't drive, can't date, can't start some new and exciting activity that requires you to be 14, but he really seemed older somehow to me. It may be that he's finally taller than me, it may be that he works so hard around here and is so helpful to me that I realized his days with me are numbered, or it may be that I'm just getting so old that I realize my kids are zooming by. I don't really know, but Michael has definitely been a blessing in our home. He's a tease, responsible, kind, and believe it or not sensitive to other's feelings (it must be being raised with so many crazy girls). Well he's a one of a kind and we're so glad he's ours....so Happy Belated but Remembered Birthday Michael!

We're still here

Ok - I admit I've neglected our family blog for a bit, but not because nothing is happening, but because the volume of what's happening is a bit overwhelming. I had a Stake Young Women's Auxillary Training this past week and it took up a lot of my brain space - and when you are working with limited brain space - it can really hinder everything else in your life. The training went well - but I work with such great ladies that it's hard to fail. We presented next years YW theme "be thou an example", showed a video clip of President Monson's council about sugar beets about making sure we go back to get the "ones who fall off the truck", ate some delicious desserts, and gave out these boards that Michelle B had made for each ward. They turned out so nice, she always does great work, and the wards were very excited to take them home. They were chocolate brown, long, with the metal on them, underneath had "be thou an example" and the metal was surrounded by "faith, spirit, word, conversation, etc". I would show you a picture, but alas, I gave them out before I thought of it. If you're in need of a YW prop, you now know where to go- Michelle !! The best part of the meeting though, was when I was off the hook and the ward leaders shared their "successes". Good ideas were exchanged and feelings were tender. Wow - do I ever admire and love these ladies!
Ok - that's Sally's life. My children had some great happenings this week. Emily had her post volleyball banquet and received lots of awards. Top blocker, Most Improved Player, and more to name a few. She had a great season and we are glad her volleyball career ended on a high!

Michael had more basketball, fouled out at a game (we still don't know exactly how many fouls he had that game), and was ordained a teacher by his father. It was an extra special evening since his cousin Bill Despain was ordained a deacon the same night. These boys are together everyday and qualify as each others brothers since neither of them have another brother. And yes, they fight just like brothers too!

And then to top off our week, Melissa went to her first baptism at the temple. John went to do the baptising, Michael and Emily went as youth from our ward, and I went to see the wonderful moment. It's our family tradition to have John be the first to baptise our children when they are 12 and old enough to go to the temple. It was great watching the last of this tradition play out. Yes it brought tears to my eyes and my heart was full. If only Aly had been there it would have been completely perfect!

And here are the girls with Aunt Meredith - she's in YW's with them and they love having her. A GREAT Week at the Bernhisel mansion.

Halloween in Casper

It seems lately that we've been living weekend to weekend. That's what happens when you have kids in sports and your husband is a coach... we really do have more in our lives than sports, but our usual blog will be the sports update around here.

Here is Emily with Kelsy V., the co-captains, meeting with the Sundance captains to discuss the rules of the tournament. It's always sweet and good before the game starts! We lost this game, but won the next one against Lingle-Fort Laramie, and then lost to Tongue River in 5 games. Boy was that game a great one, with Emily hitting at her best and the rest of the team really working hard. We thought we had it at one point, but then you know how tournamet goes.I really wanted a good picture of a team huddle - they happen so often and this was a "happy" one.Not to be out done, John and Melissa worked hard at announcing the games live over TCT. Melissa took this picture so she's not in it but she became an expert at all those volleyball terms like "shank", "kill", "block", and "dig". It has taken me 7 years to understand this game, but Melissa has got it already. And now that I understand volleyball, our family looks to be done with the sport. Oh well, maybe some future Bernhisel will take it up and I always have neices!!!

Michael also had fun playing 2 basketball games while the rest of us were gone. We hated missing them -and it always seems that he makes those great plays when we're not there. Why does that always seem to happen? He made a couple buzzer beater shots, scored several points each game, and was king of assists as usual (at least I think he's king). His coach bragged on him a bit to us when we got home, which made us feel great that he's trying so hard , and bad that we missed it. You never win!

And last of all, we may have missed Halloween this year (Melissa and I went to High School Musical 3 that night in Casper) but we had a special visitor a little early so we wouldn't feel bad. Megan Weinand came by and made our night. She's Esmerelda from the Hunchback of Notredame movie. We gave her enough candy to last her awhile and it made us feel good to still be a part of a great holiday. So although we're late, HAPPY HALLOWEEN.... and have a fabulous November (my personal favorite month of the year).