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).

What a weekend!

We had an great Thursday through Saturday that we can't wait to share. It all began Thursday evening with Michael's first basketball game of the year. He's waited anxiously for this year, you know, the big 8th grade Middle School sports year, and couldn't wait to get on the court. His team did well as we had all hoped and Michael had a great game. Of course, we think that Michael is a fabulous player, no prejudice there, but he did score several points and had lots of assits. They won by a lot (I can't remember the score, but it was big). It looks to be a great year for RMMS.

Melissa is on the student council and got to sell concessions at Michael's game. She actually enjoyed the job and will be doing it again this season. Unfortunately, as the mom ,you feel like you need to buy junk when your child is the one selling it. Everything your children do seems to cost you money!!!

Then John took off for Cross Country state in Sheridan and Melissa and I drove down to Lander for Emily's regional volleyball tournament. I'm still so excited about our volleyball team that I'm shaking just typing this. They got third place and qualified for state. The last time Rocky Mountain qualified for state was 2003, and that downer info can really stick in your head. The girls really worked hard, and with 6 seniors on the team, it all payed off. My voice is a little worse for the wear today (lots of yelling encouragement) but boy is our house one happy place to be.

Here is our awesome child going up for a kill. Yes, I was yelling "That's my girl" over and over during these games.Here is the whole team looking very excited. Emily is a team captain along with Kelsey (who is holding the trophy placard with her). This is a great moment!!And these are the 6 seniors - the girls who stuck it out all four years to get here when it really mattered most to them. To make a great weekend even better....Emily got to meet Josie for the first time. Johnathan and Becky came to watch Emily play and we got to enjoy the baby. She is growing so fast and is just adorable. My highlight was walking around to show all the people from Rocky my beautiful and precious neice. She is a keeper.

Essential History

For quite awhile John has created a blog with a collection of cool history facts. He finally told me about it. Here it is for all of you to see:

http://essentialhistory.blogspot.com/

College Fun!

I am still havin' a great time at Utah State! On my last night as a teenager, some friends and I went to the Homecoming Paint Dance on the hyper field. People were dumping paint on our heads left and right while we were dancin' around, but it was dang fun. It definitely made for some great photo opportunities, and getting it out of my hair wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I miss my family and Cowley Wyoming tons!

Michael's mission training

Michael has never had to learn how to tie a tie. I've either gotten him zipper ties (when he was little) or he has had his sister Emily tie them once and he's never taken the knot out. Well, today he had to break down and learn the process since Emily was too busy to help and he had to get to church. I loved this teaching moment between father and son. It reaffirms to me how lucky I am to have married such a great guy and father. He loved showing Michael the ropes and made him do it a couple of times for "insurance" that he had it. They have developed such a great relationship these last couple of years that it confirms to me the cousel from our leaders that children need 2 parents, 2 parents that take active roles in their lives. I could never do this without John, because I couldn't care less about sport scores, college rankings, running in the "wild", and all those other boy things that are not interesting to me. Luckily for both of them though I do care what color of pants Michael passes the sacrament in and how long his hair gets. See...it really does take 2 parents.