June 5, 2015  What a great day.   I got up at 5:00 AM, because I got to make 13 dozen + 4 cinnamon rolls for the missionaries.  I was on my feet from 5:45 AM until 2:00 PM.  They all turned out perfect.  All of the missionaries Loved them, but by the time I finished I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to see another cinnamon roll again.  Around 3:30 I ate my cinnamon roll and that was the first thing I had eaten all day.  Boy are my legs and back sore.

Our stake came up today.  They are staying in a different camp than ours, but we went down to see them.  It was so fun seeing all of our friends.  The kids as well as the leaders made us feel so good.  They invited us to have dinner with them so we did.

June 6, 2015  The weather is beautiful.  The sun is shinning with a cool breeze.  We have a youth conference in from Cedar City.  They have been fun to see and listen to.  Last night they had the woman from "Meet the Mormons" movie that talked about having two children out of wed lock.as their guest speaker.  The Balls and the Webbs went to hear her talk, but dad and I stayed home because I was hurting so much.  I slept great.

Dad's blood sugar dropped to 35 today and that wiped him out.  There is a mamma deer that comes into our camp everyday that is ready to have a baby anytime.  I can't wait to see the new fawn.

Looking forward to seeing Kim & family tonight, and Sean's, & Richy's families and Dennis tomorrow for Ethan's becoming a priest

I love you all tons.  Mom
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June 3rd on the mountain

Today was awesome.  We have loved seeing the girls and hearing them have tons of fun.  Tonight I gave the "O Women of Faith"  presentation to the Vernal Ashley stake.  I cried while giving the presentation.  I could really feel the spirit.  Dad bore his testimony.  It was great.  There was lots of hugs and high 5 after the presentation.  It really made dad and I feel good.  The girls from the stake gave us a really cute flower pot with a bouquet of candy bars.  YUM!  They invited us to dinner so we joined them and loved being there.

 June 2, 2015  We are home for P day.  I will be going to see Dr. Calton for my knee!  Boo!  I am a big coward.

I have been called to cook cinn. rolls for 156 missionaries this Friday!  We have been asking all of our kids here in Ogden & dad's sisters if we can borrow their cookie sheets, so I have enough to make all of the cinn. rolls.  Wish me luck.

We got girls as well as families.  What fun.  We put on our skit telling all of the rules.   Dad has to talk trash and is having a hard time.  He needs to get in the groove.  I tell about the wrist bands and then I put on a silly  moose hat while dad tells about the animals.  The other two couples are better at telling their rules.  When the buses came up to camp I got all choked up seeing all of the young women.  I just hope and pray that I can be an instrument in the Lord's hands in influencing some of the girls.  I want them to know that the Lord loves them.  When you go through the gates to the camp there is such a beautiful spirit, you can really feel the difference.  The camp is sacred grounds set apart for bringing the testimony of the Lord and His love for everyone that comes to the mountain.

We see tons of deer, chipmunks, ground squirrels daily and some rabbits, and moose each week.  It is so fun.  I am still in awe at the Lord's creation.  The camp has come to life with leaves and colors.

Church is wonderful.  The spirit is awesome.

I want you all to know that I know that the Lord lives and loves all of us.  We have the truth and it is our responsibility to share that knowledge with everyone we see on a daily bases.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-dad Saints is the Savior's church here on the earth.  It is a guideline for us to follow showing us how to return worthy to our Father.  I love you all more than words can tell.  I pray for you all several times a day.  Be happy and keep smiling.  Love you tons.  Mom

Every 1st & 3rd Sunday we have a pot luck dinner with all of the missionaries. It is a lot of fun. We have a get together on the 4th Saturday of the month. On that day we eat and then play games. This last Saturday we had Dutch Oven dinner and then played some very fun games. First game was wrapping two people in your district with toilet tissue. I was the one that was wrapped by the ladies in the district. The next game was hitting a ping pong ball with a carrot that was hanging from a rope. You would swing the carrot between your legs and try to hit the ball until it crossed the floor to its finish line. Dad & I were the couple that played the Rudolf game which was to put Vaseline on our nose and pick up red cotton balls with our nose run to the other end of the table and shake them off into a bowl. There was a ton a laughter going on in the room. On Friday last week we were invited to dinner at a place called Timber Lake Moose Lodge. It is a big lodge that has 13 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. It can sleep 64 people. They supplied the meat and we brought salads, potatoes & desserts. Then the kids gave us a tour of the lodge. Very beautiful. Everyday we get the privilege of seeing Gods creations. Between the animals and the scenery it is so awesome. This last week was our first time of having campers that we were in charge of. We enjoyed them, but it was hard to get them to were they needed to be on TIME. Dad said it was like herding cats! They were to be at the lake at 2:45 PM so they could be on the water from 3:00 - 4:00 PM. However they were all finally there at 3:50 PM. Luckly the lake wasn't busy so they let them stay out for their hour. Normally that will not happen. That is one thing that the camp has to stick to following a schedule. So if you are late you will miss your time at the activity. Bye for now. We love you all tons. Mom

The time has flew by and I haven't taken the time to update the blog. We are leaving in 20 minutes so I will give you a brief update. For weeks we have been going to meetings and cleaning the camp. We have made some awesome friends. May 16th was a open house for the stake camp leaders to come and check out the sites. In the morning we went to the Welcome Center and had our flag ceremony. The wind was blowing. It was icy cold with some snow falling. I got so choked up when the Young women's colors were let down. It was so spiritual. Then we went to our camps and awaited the arrival of the leaders. We had at least 100 (could have been 200) leader come to our camp. We showed them around and answered questions from 12:00 - 4:50 PM in the freezing cold weather and wind. But that got us excited for the arrival of the campers. Dad and I went to dinner with 6 couples from the camp. Sunday was awesome. Dad taught the High Priest and I heard from tons of high priest that he did a fantastic job. He of course thought that he did OK, but all of the others felt the spirit and came away feeling uplifted. Monday we had a wonderful meeting about how to do the orientation for families, because the Webb's and dad & I will be doing our first orientation on Thursday and the Balls who are the only ones who know what they are doing in camp will be on their P-day. Cross your fingers that we do ok. While driving around after the meeting we saw 3 moose, and around 20 deer. I just love seeing all of the animals. Love you all tons. Miss all of you. Mom

Weight Tracking 5/12/2015

 I missed a couple weeks so I'll give a quick run down.

Week of 4/27/2015 I was down to 369.2
Week of 5/5/2015 I was up to 371.0
Week of 5/12/2015 down to 368.4

So a little bit of a set back last week but back down today.  All told in the last 5 months I am down 33 pounds.  My Fitness Pal is only listing it as 16.6 pounds since I didn't track any weight at all last year and 387.8 is the last weight I had entered at some point 2 years ago(or more).  I still haven't started any kind of exercise regimen it has all been diet.  I do find I am getting hungry a lot lately. Maybe I need to start exercising and increasing my caloric intake.  I was hoping to get down to about 350 before I started exercising in earnest but I will have to look at it as time goes on.

Mom & Dad's Mission Log: May 5, 2015

We had to come home once again so I could post for the last week at camp. The week started off good. We went to the SL Temple as a mission, then to eat at Joseph Smith Bldg. It was good, great!!!!!

Thursday we started cleaning and meeting with our other camp hosts. Friday we cleaned some more cabins and had more meetings. Saturday we cleaned some more cabins and had more meetings. Sunday we had 3 wonderful meetings at church. The spirit was so strong. I cooked a pork roast, potatoes, carrots & onion in the crock pot. Boy was it good! I also made cinn. rolls and took them around to some of the missionaries close to our trailer.

This is the story of last Sunday which was "terrible" (see last week's post): We ran out of propane so dad ran to Walmart and purchased a bottle of propane and a couple of electric heaters. He hooked up the propane, came in plugged in the heater and sat down and put his feet up. The propane sensor started blaring over and over and over, so dad went out and shut the propane off. We thought that would stop the blaring, but it didn't. Dad had also turned the hot water heater switch to electricity. Then the breaker flipped and we had no power in the trailer. Dad's recliner was up so I helped him climb out and he went back out side and flipped the breaker. The sensor was still blaring and we were shocked. What could we do. We couldn't sleep through that noise. Dad had a smart! thought. He had also bought an electric heater and plugged it in to help heat up the trailer. It was the fumes from burning off what they put on the heater bars that were causing the sensor to go crazy. When dad sat down in his chair he put the foot stool part down and broke his computer. Needless to say Sunday night was not good. 

Monday we cleaned some more cabins and had more meetings. Tuesday we went to a meeting and cleaned some more cabins. Then we got ready and left for P-day. On the way out of the camp we stopped in at the office and picked up dad's new computer. We stopped and bought a new printer on the way home. Tomorrow will be fun getting dad's new toys up and working. I will be doing the wash and shopping for food to last the next week. I love you all. Thank you for being the best family ever. Mom

Mom & Dad's Mission Log April 29, 2015

We have had a wonderful time so far on our mission. Here are a few highlights of the week of training.

Tuesday the 21st: First speaker was the stake president. He told us to remember the 3 L's Listen to the spirit, Log it (write it down) and Live it (go forth and do what the Lord ask you to do). Offer your whole sole to the Lord. Come to the mountain to be healed (teach, preach, testify & heal).

Next speaker was Sister Greenouch. Heavenly Father is guiding someone to camp for you to touch. Crank it up a notch- to make a difference..

Next speaker was Bro. Whimpy. Who am I, & How did I get here? Life goes by fast. He told how Zion's camp was to help the Lord test and prove His chosen apostles. 9 of the 12 men chosen to be apostles were in Zions Camp. He showed a video how Brigham Young was converted by a simple testimony being born.

Next was Bro. Riddle spoke on Listen, log & live as the Holy Ghost teaches you. When thou art converted strengthen thy brother. You will succeed as you learn to receive by the spirit. Divine aid can be ours everyday.

Pres. Brown asked are you Sheep herders or shepherds? He told a story about a bully who was 5 yrs old who stood in front of the steps to go up a slide and wouldn't let anyone go up them. while everyone was afraid of the boy who was large for his age his 3 yr old went up to him and HUGGED him. The bully's heart melted and allowed the other kids to use the slide. Then he told a story about him and his son being in a car driving when his wife speed past them. He was shocked and started to try to catch up to her and their green Cambry. His son told his dad "That isn't mom" But he was certain it was. And decided to teach his son a lesson on humility and prove that he was right. He started to drive recklessly in order to catch up. After a long time he finally caught up to the green Cambry and to his surprise his son was right. He asked "How did you know that wasn't your mom?" His son's reply was, "Because we are in the Green Cambry".

Next was Bro. Randall of the 70. Teach with the Spirit. Make this a full time mission and a branch. D&C 56:17 There is a pattern in all things. Rather than Quarenteen them Immunize. them so they know what to do. He old a story about a little girl who was in a plane crash whose name was Sailor. Everyone on board was killed but her. She was hurt and it was starting to get cold and dark, so she started to walk. She got to the top of a hill and saw a light in the distance. That gave her hope and she walked to the light. She was saved and her family and the others were found because of her courage and faith. Help others to begin to believe. We need to focusing on the lost, less active etc. It is easier to keep them active than to reactivate. teach to deepen testimonies. by 1. How to keep Sabbath holy at church. 2. How to keep Sabbath holy at home.

 Wed. 22nd Carry pink cards always. Young Women's theme & Mission of the camp. Then we separated into learning about the different positions (callings) at the camp. Because of weather problems the schedule was being changed.

Thursday 23rd more classes on positions up at camp. At 3:00 pm we all went into the chapel and were told where we would be serving. Elder & Sister Holliday are camp host at the Reeder camp. then we along with all of the other camp host were moved to the mountain.

Friday 24th Elder Holliday left at 7:30 AM to help move other missionaries to the mountain. Then he worked on getting everyone hooked up to the sewer, water and electricity. Hooray! we have water and sewer! Elder Holliday and I covered our 50' hose with insalation. It snowed on us 3 times today. I hung the family picture. Hooray!

Saturday 25th It snowed all day. Elder Holliday was gone most of the day helping hook up the last of the missionaries.

Sunday 26st Church was wonderful. The rest of the day was terrible.

Monday 27th We went to meetings all day for Camp Host only. Being trained on our duties as camp host. Elder Holliday is converted to being a camp host. We are watchmen. Be the handle on the door, not the lock. Be open - listen to other's ideas and work together. D&C 88:119 organize yourselves. Get expandable folders, get to know your camp. P-day started at 5:00 PM so we headed home. Spent the evening with Rich, Kari and kids, Den, and Jared, Holly & kids. It was so much fun.

Tuesday 28th. Elder Holliday and I did some shopping for things we need for camp host. We packed the truck so we can leave early tomorrow morning for the Salt Lake Temple. All of the missionaries are going to the temple tomorrow, then to lunch at the Joseph Smith memorial building, then back to camp.

I want you all to know that I love you all very much. Be Happy :) be healthy :) and remember that you are loved. It is late and I need to go for now. Love Mom Holliday

Spencer Holliday Announces His Candidacy for President of the United States

This is actually Sean, not Heather.  Apparently I am not allowed to post to the family blog, but I have my ways...

A couple of months ago, Spencer was asked to give a speech at the annual (?) Franklin Covey Leader in Me symposium.  The Leader in Me program is a Franklin Covey initiative to teach leadership in schools.  The kids' school (Ogden Preparatory Academy) got involved with the program last year and is having very positive results. The symposium was meant to showcase the program and share experiences to a collection of teachers, school administrators, and public officials from around the country/western states.  Of course we got this information from Spencer, so we were never 100% sure what the event was or which topic exactly he was supposed to address.  We decided to go generic and prepare a speech on leadership.  Spencer provided the content and Heather and I helped him put it into words.

That was Monday evening.  On Wednesday, we went to the symposium.  Spencer was one of 12 (?) kids (ranging from 3rd to 9th grade) to address the conference and then participate in a panel discussion.  After the the panel discussion, all the kids except Spencer left the stage.  Spencer was had been stopped by a lady who wanted a copy of his speech so she could quote him, and who---we later found out---was Justice Nancy Saitta of the Nevada supreme court.

A few weeks later, Ogden Prep hosted a similar event for local officials (city, county, and state) where they had students speak, toured classrooms and had a panel discussion.  As the student body president, Spencer was the MC.  He also gave his speech on leadership again.

Based on that event, he was invited to speak at today's county commissioner meeting. 

Here is a link to the video.  They refer to Spencer occasionally throughout the meeting, but unless you're really interested in county government I'd just watch the introduction, speech, and follow-up which run from minute 16 to minute 23.

Enjoy!

Weight tracking(4/21/2015) and fun

Well not much to report on the weight loss front.  I weighed in at 370.8 this morning.

The fun is that the Barry Manilow concert last night was amazing.

Weight loss for 4/14/2015

So as of this morning I am down just over 30 pounds.  371.2 and only hating the diet sometimes.

Well it's been almost two years since I tried posting my health goals on the blog.  They did not end up going too well.  I did walk a fair bit but I didn't really keep things up dated and then I ended up hurting my knee playing laser tag and stopped walking.  I then gained a lot of weight.  Over the year and a half until January I ended up at 401.4 lbs when Kim was starting the weight loss challenge.  The challenge ended up not going anywhere but I had decided to get my weight in check and so I started to tracking my food and using myfitnesspal.com(and the app).

So far I have lost 27.4 lbs (374.0 on Tuesday).  I'm feeling well and I am a lot happier with where things are heading.  I weigh myself every Tuesday and I'm going to try to post on the blog that day as well with my progress.  If any of you want to use myfitnesspal as well my name is blessedexchequer and you can send me a friend request.

I have also started some light exercise and will start walking again as the weather improves.

The start of our mission

The day of our setting apart was a miserable one for me. I woke up with stomach flu. I spent the day in the bathroom. It has been years since I have had this kind of sickness. Just before leaving for the church I called Kim and Dave and asked them to say a prayer for me to be able to keep control over my stomach and bottom, then I asked Dad and Dennis to give me a blessing. When the blessing was over I ran for the bathroom. But the blessing worked and I had control until the setting apart for both Dad & I was over. Then it was back to the bathroom. Bishop Hadley took all of the family that was here to a large room. He asked the grandchildren some questions about why we were here. Then he asked Richy how our mission was going to affect him, next he asked Kari, Dennis, Sean and Heather the same question. They talked about how this mission was a perfect fit for dad and I, how we loved teenagers and they loved us. How we would have the opportunity share our testimony more than we did on our first mission and how we would influence more people this time too. Sean mentioned our helping to shape future mothers on the gospel and rearing children. I went first for the setting apart. The thing that I remember most about my blessing was that I knew it came from God. Things were mentioned in my blessing that were concerns for me that only the Lord knew and He answered them through Bishop Hadley. One thing of concern was my knee and back. He blessed me that they would not be a problem. I have been concerned about not being able to help in what we were called to do, but he assured me that I would be able to fulfill my calling. I had not gained a testimony that this was the mission that the Lord wanted us to go to. I wanted to turn in our papers and go where ever the Lord called us. To put faith in the Lord that He would call us somewhere that He needed us to go and that we would be able to afford. My blessing told me to have faith that this is where the Lord wanted us to go. I knew that dad had a strong testimony about going to this mission, but I had not been convert until last night. Then dad was set apart. The one thing that I remember about dad's blessing is that he would be a great influence on the girls threw his story telling. He was also blessed that he would not have any health issues. In dad's blessing he was told that this was the mission that the Lord wanted us to go on. That dad had been led by the spirit. I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man who hears and listens to the spirit. I have no more worries. I know that we are meant to go to the Heber Valley Camp. I know that the Lord needs us there. I know that we will be able to help and strengthen many young girls while serving there. And I know that we will be able to influence more than the girls. Our blessings mentioned influencing young men, priesthood holders, leaders etc. I want to be an instrument in the Lords hand to strengthen testimonies and to let everyone know that they are loved by the Lord and Heavenly Father. I want all of my children, children in love and grandchildren to know that I love each and everyone of you with all of my heart. I will miss you all dearly. Be safe, be happy and know that you are loved. Mom Holliday