Halloween

Halloween has come and gone and the kids had a great time. Catherine and I took the kids trick or treating in the neighborhood and to our surprise, Aubrey was leading the way at each house. She was racing from door to door anxious to see her bucket fill up. School has been good for her and she is becoming more and more a social butterfly. It took Dallin a few doors before he got into the spirit of things but he soon warmed up and had a great time. The picture on the left is the kids with their neighbor friends (Morgan and Sydney).
We are now left with more candy than we had imagined and not sure what to do with it. I need to find some way to get rid of it or I will find myself back in my dentists chair getting another root canal. For those of you who know me and my side of the family, we have a history of soft enamel, a sweet tooth, and frequent visits to the dentists. I think it is fair to say that I most likely paid for my dentists recent wedding, house, car, etc. and have secured her financial future. In the short time (4 years) that I have been in Tennessee I have had 7 root canals and many fillings. Thank you mom for passing this part of your family genes onto me. Of all that you have given me, this is not one that I like to brag about! I must admit however that I don't give my soft enamel much of a fighting chance either. In my office at work I have a large jar of hot tamales that sits on my desk and I catch myself dipping into the jar regularly throughout the day. What can I say, I love those things...I will say however that it has been just over a year that I have had to do anything more than a regular cleaning at the dentist office. (As I am typing this I am knocking on wood)

The kids have been sick all week with a pretty bad cough. It appears that it is sweeping through our ward as most of our nursery and a good portion of our primary were out sick today. Dallin seems to have the worst of it. The countdown clock has begun and I am sure it is only a matter of time before it finds it way to Catherine and I.

Catherine took this picture this morning of Justin and Dallin dressed alike and partnered up for trouble. Oh they may look innocent but this is only a disguise! In all honesty, I have really been impressed with Justin lately. He is becoming a little man. The past few Sunday's, Catherine has had to take Dallin out of sacrament and when she does in many cases Aubrey will follow. This leaves Justin all alone on the bench (when our friend Janie isn't there) and I have enjoyed watching him act all grown up, very quiet and well behaved. He doesn't seem bothered to be sitting there by himself and if truth be told is probably enjoying his moment of being the big kid on the bench alone. This December he will turn 8 and be baptized. We are all pretty excited, especially Justin and it will be the next big milestone in our family.

The next picture is of Catherine and Aubrey. I am holding onto this one as it is a rare moment for me to see both of them smiling together. One is usually trying the patience of the other. I think this is payback for all that Catherine put her mother through when she was a kid. I hope there is no interest attached!
For those that haven't seen Catherine in awhile, she is sporting a new hairdo. It took alot for her to take the risk to try something new. I personally think it looks great...as it always does.

Love,
The Wayments

Trunk or Treat!

Saturday was our Wards annual truck or treat and the kids had a great time. They all wanted to be a cowboy (Aubrey a cowgirl of course) and they had a lot of fun dressing up. Took me awhile to convince Dallin to get into his costume. He didn't want to take his pistols as they didn't make any noises like Justin's and instead he wanted to bring his toy army machine gun which had the sound of rapid fire. The army gun made it to the van but that's about as far is it got. Things as usual are pretty busy and we were lucky to get the Wayment traditional pumpkin totem pole up this year. Justin actually helped me clean all the pumpkins out while Aubrey looked on in disgust. As Catherine says, she is becoming more and more like a "girly girl". I am afraid that as time goes on that phrase will quickly change to "high maintenance".

Before the trunk or treat we took the kids to the Doctor to have their flu shot this year. We missed it last year and they all were hit pretty hard. Of course I didn't get the flu shot this year. For most of those that know me, I am not a big fan of needles (yes I am a wuss) and so far have been pretty lucky to not get the flu. (Knock on wood!) It was a pretty comical experience at the Doctors office as two of them would watch on as one of them got the shot. Justin and Dallin didn't cry at all and Dallin seemed to have a quizzical look on his face as if to say, "what just happened?". Aubrey on the other hand was playing the role of drama queen quite well. In the end I ended up having to hold her while she got the shot.

Justin and Aubrey just completed the Elementary school annual Eagle Run which is kind of like a field day for the kids and they get to participate in various activities outside. I think Catherine gets as excited as the kids for this event each year. She spent most of the day helping the teachers and bouncing between Justin's and Aubrey's class and keeping Dallin out of trouble.

The weather here in Tennessee has started cooling off and it feels great! The leaves have started changing colors and before long will all be in my backyard waiting for me to rake them up. It amazes me each year how quickly time moves on. Before we know it will be Christmas and then on to 2009. Over the past week I have spent time listening to a talk by President Henry B. Eyring entitled "This Day" which he gave during the April 2007 General Conference. The main focus of his talk was to help us understand the need and importance of acting today and to avoid the trap of thinking we can wait until tomorrow. President Eyring stated "The God who gives us each day as a treasure will require an accounting. We will weep, and He will weep, if we have intended to repent and to serve Him in tomorrows which never came or have dreamt of yesterdays where the opportunity to act was past. This day is a precious gift of God. The thought "Someday I will" can be a thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity." This statement has given me a lot to ponder on and has helped me recognize the need to act each day and to try and prevent procrastinating which I have mastered so well. During a meeting at church recently, a member of our ward describe it best for me when he said "Planning pays off in the future but procrastination pays off today!" Too frequently this has been my motto. (Hence the large gap in my blog postings!)

Well it's time to bring this posting to an end. To go along with the President Eyrings comments about "this day" I thought I would leave you with the following poem.

“Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!—

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,—act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

With all our love!

The Wayments

Time Out for Catherine...No she's not in trouble!

On Thursday after work we took off for Missouri to spend part of our weekend with Catherine's family. Catherine, Janet (Mom), Mandy (Sister), Alyssa (Sister), Jennifer (Sister-Inlaw), and Lucresia (Friend) spent Friday and Saturday in St. Louis attending the TOFW (Time out for Women) conference. Catherine had a great time and seemed to really enjoy the speakers and music. She had an opportunity to hear from Cherie Call, Michael McLean, Pam Hansen, Jane Clayson Johnson, Hilary Weeks, S. Michael Wilcox, Kim Nelson, and Jason Wright. Needless to say it was truly a "time out" for her and a much needed and overdue break from regular every day life at home. Believe it or not the kids seemed to survive with just Dad and despite what Catherine may think, I did feed them. What they were feed may be questionable but hey, food is food and they weren't complaining. I even threw in a couple of baths just for fun.

I would like to tell you that the guys partied hard while the wives were away, but unfortunately I can not. I have discovered (with the recent passing of my 32nd birthday) that "partying hard" does not seem to have the appeal that it used to. Not that I ever "partied hard" in my younger days but the thought of a quite and uneventful evening at home brings more excitement and desire then I thought it ever would. A person once said “I used to dread getting older because I thought I would not be able to do all the things I wanted to do, but now that I am older I find that I don’t want to do them". I am starting to realize the simple truths in this statement. Now by no means am I stating that 32 is OLD but it's not 21 either. When you take 32 and multiply that with 3 wonderful yet active children it has a unique aging affect on the body. O.K, enough old talk.

Work at Cardinal Health continues to be busy, however some of the travel has slowed down just a bit. Suffice it to say that I was able to go two months without being on the road. Unfortunately that won't last long with some upcoming trips to Pennsylvania and Ohio. I have been assigned a new project at work in connection with my regular duties. This project has alot of attention from our Sr. Leadership at Corporate and is focused around Transportation logistics. Something I have no experience in and needless to say I feel a little bit overwhelmed. This project will begin consuming a large amount of my time. I am hopeful that I will survive this project.

Well, it is time to end and prepare for tomorrow. As I close I feel it fitting to leave you with this poem. With the new opportunities I am faced with at work, I found that it fit nicely.

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures. -William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar 4.3.218-23

With all our love,
The Wayments