Man vs. Nature

I’ve been wanting to write this for a while now. I had this analogy in my head, where yard work parallels our righteous progression. I thought I’d post it here, just for funsies.

Every year, I have the “man vs. nature” classic struggle, of trying to keep up with my yard and its many weeds. There are times that I think I should just give up, and just let the weeds take over. Especially grass-it’s great when it grows, except when it grows where I don’t want it to grow!  

But I realized, no matter how bad it gets -how riddled with sin we are, or how many sins of omission we commit (not reading scriptures, etc.), it is still worth fighting the good fight. Paul Harvey said, “Someday I hope to enjoy enough of what the world calls success so that someone will ask me, ‘What’s the secret of it?’ I shall say simply this: ‘I get up when I fall down.’”

There may be weed upon weed in my flower beds, but if I can pull just one, that’s one that I have overcome. All it takes is that first step. And usually, once I take that first step, no matter how overwhelming or daunting it may feel to get started, it leads to pulling more weeds, and more and more, until I can see the beauty lying beneath, until the bed is clean of the unwanted weeds. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "Let us not give up. Let us be true to our covenants. Let us never lose sight of our Advocate and Redeemer as we walk toward Him, one imperfect step after another."

I also realized that if I get to the weeds when they are small, the easier they are to pull up. If I let them go, wishing they will just go away on their own, they get worse (like grass, or those climbing weeds). They will create a deeper, stronger root. And then the weeds choke out the good things I may have in my garden.

I also realized that there will never be the “perfect” time to start pulling weeds. The day is either too hot, or too cold, or too windy, or too busy. I can always find an excuse to NOT start. But, as they say, there is no time like the present. If I don’t get to it now, then when?

Is my yard perfect? Certainly not. It never will be. But it’s something that I can keep working on, until my weaknesses become my strengths. But that won’t happen until I put forth the effort-no matter how hard it may seem or how hard it may actually turn out to be. “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

Carolee

My friend Carolee died the end of November, 2013. She had been fighting cancer. I first got to know her as my visiting teacher. She was faithful about coming every month. So generous and kind. She was constantly offering me items from her garden and trees, books to borrow, etc.

I got to know her better through playing the organ. She was one of the ward organists, and had been doing it for years and years. Again, she offered to help me, to give me organ arrangement books, showed me the settings she had put on the organ. Just so kind, and so much energy! Even when she didn't feel well she still carried on in her callings.

Her playing of the organ was amazing to me. Though she didn't keep time very well (“It's always been a struggle of mine”, she confessed), the fact that she played at all was an incredible feat. She couldn't see the notes very well because of her failing sight. She couldn't feel her feet while she played the pedals. She also lost some feeling in her fingers after her back surgery. She basically played the organ from memory. I know I could never do that.

I felt prompted to visit her about two weeks before she died. She had been doing so well with her chemo treatments, and then suddenly wasn't. I visited her at the hospital. I know she recognized me, but could only say “okay…okay”, over and over. In retrospect, I think she was trying to tell me that she was okay, and that it would be okay. I think, in a way, she was trying to comfort me. At the time she had a nurse sitting with her, making sure she kept her oxygen mask on (she kept trying to take it off). She said “pray”. That's the only other word I heard her say besides “okay” and “yes” the last few times I saw her. The nurse offered a prayer of comfort. It was such a lesson to me. She was constantly turning to her Heavenly Father in her time of need. And even though she couldn't say the words, she was praying in her heart.

I’m glad that I got to know Carolee. I hope that I can be as stalwart, as faithful, and as strong as she was. Thank you for blessing my life, Carolee!

Photo a Day: How You Feel Today

Today, I feel tired...

...just like my cat.

It's been a fairly busy few days.

I cut, packaged, and froze 80 pounds of chicken.

I had an eye appointment, and my doctor said everything is looking good from my surgery.

I sight-read some piano music for a musical number in our ward on Sunday. A few girls that were planning to sing couldn't make it, so the pianist had to step in to sing. She brought the music to my house 15 minutes before church started, I played through it once, and then played in sacrament meeting.

I also taught the gospel doctrine lesson (that's my current calling; I teach once a month), and had helped Jakob prepare his talk in primary as well.

I cleaned at my dad's office.

I had a short piano recital for some of my students. Jakob did great, I messed up a little (but I hadn't practiced all that much-I decided last minute to play at the recital). I decided to take May off of teaching, which is probably a good thing, because Pete just started working Wednesday through Saturday for 12-hour days. 48 hours of work, plus 8 hours of commuting time. He's a good man, that one.

I did my visiting teaching. Yay!

I went grocery shopping.

I'm totally caught up on laundry.

Pete and I watched "First Knight". "The law will judge YUH!"

I made cornbread for our ward's chili cook-off, which won a little award. Here's the recipe, from my kids' preschool teacher, Miss Karla:

Cornbread

1 cup butter melted

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup cornmeal

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

Mix butter, sugar, and eggs. Add buttermilk and stir.

Stir dry ingredients together and add to liquids. Stir just until moistened.

Pour into greased 9"x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

And, I fed the missionaries last night. They ate SOOOO much food! I don't know what I'm going to do when my boys are that age, and eating me out of house and home. Note to self: quantity, not quality.

Today, I've done pretty much nothing. Even moms need days off every once in a while, right?

Poor Troy-Boy...

When Troy was little, he had a 4th of July...mishap.  You can read a little about it here. The whole time he was getting fixed up, he kept saying, "Poor Troy-boy. Troy-boy got hurt. Poor Troy-boy."  It was so cute.  And so very sad.  It's kind of the story of his life, though.

One fast Sunday, Troy wanted to bear his testimony.  I told him to go ahead and go up after the current person was done.  There was another person waiting their turn on the stand.  I had told him that once he gets up there to wait until the other people up there were done, but he didn't hear that part.  As he was climbing the stairs, the person on the stand waiting his turn got up.  Troy's little face just crumpled up, and he started crying and ran back down to our seat.  I think he thought that that person cut in front of him or something.  Again, just so sad, but so cute.



The other day, he wanted to go play with a friend that lives around the corner from us.  He was begging me and begging me.  I told him that he could go if Brock went with him.  Brock is buddies with the older sibling, while Troy wants to play with the one closer to his age, though I think they all end up playing together.

So Monday after Brock's homework was all done, the boys took off for their friend's house.  Not two minutes later, I heard screaming and crying coming from outside.  My initial thought was that one of them fell down and scraped a knee or something.

The two of them came bursting through the front door.

"MOM!!!!  There was a BIG, SCARY dog, and it WANTED TO EAT US!!!"

"It was chasing us and tried to GET MY PANTS!!!"

My kids are a wee bit scared of dogs, of all sizes.  I peeked out the front windows and looked up and down the road for a dog, big or small.  I saw some neighbor kids out, who happen to have a dog.

"Was it so-and-so's dog?"

"NO!!!!  It was a BIG SCARY DOG!!!!"

"Where was the dog at?"

They both pointed at the house on the corner.

"Well, let's just wait a few minutes, and maybe that dog will be somewhere else, and you can try walking over there again."

That's when Troy piped up: "But Mom, I lost my SHOE!"

Sure enough, Troy only had one shoe on.

Me: "You ran all the way home without your shoe on?"

Troy: "Well, the BIG SCARY DOG was chasing me and my shoe came off-" (bursts into tears) "-and so I just kept running."

I was trying not to laugh.  Because it was just so cute.  But it was just so sad, too. (Also, a little Cinderella-ish.  Running out of the shoe and all.)

So I bundled up and started walking up and down the street, looking for a lost shoe. Shouldn't be too hard, right?  I went up one side, and down the other.  No shoe was to be seen.

I got back home, and asked Troy if he remembered where he lost his shoe, or which side of the road he was on.  And of course, being 5, his story switched around.  "It was in the road.  It was over there in the yard. It was in our yard."

I sighed a big heavy mom sigh, and told him to get his boots on, we were going to go look for his shoe together.  We went up, we went down, on our side of the road.  Then we started to do the same thing on the other side of the road.  We got close to the house with the dog.  You know, the BIG SCARY dog.  And Troy froze in his tracks.

"Mom, the dog is going to GET ME!" More tears. I assured him that the dog would not get him, and is probably really nice.  He wouldn't budge, and was getting ready to bolt for our house again.

The big, scary dog was in his yard, doing scary things like RUNNING, and WAGGING HIS TAIL.  He reminded me of the dog on Up, named Dug.

Now granted, if some animal came bounding up to me that was as tall as me on all fours, I'd be a little skittish, too.

So instead we turned around and started looking the other way again. 

A minute later, out comes a little boy, who Troy recognized as a kid from his kindergarten class.  Because I'm a bad neighbor, I have no idea who lives where, or half of my neighbors' names.  I suck like that.

But Troy knew him, and this little boy was carrying Troy's shoe.  They met, and the boy said, "My dog took your shoe.  Sorry."  I nudged Troy with a "Tell him it's okay, and thanks for finding it."  We went home, and Troy (and Brock) were no longer traumatized by the dog.

At least for now, until they dare venture to their friends' house again...DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

Jake's Baptism

Jakob got baptized over Labor Day weekend.  It was so awesome!

We had many family members come for the event: 3 of Pete's brothers (Mike, Mark, and Richard) and their families, Pete's parents, my parents, and my sister Lexi and her hubby Chris.

The only baptisms that I have attended were where just one person was getting baptized.  In our stake, because there are so many young families, they baptize all the kids that turned 8 that month in one big session.  There were 6 kids that were baptized the same day as Jakob.

Because of that, our stake assigns each ward one month to be in charge of the talks and musical numbers.  So...we just had to show up, and that's it.  Easy peasy.

There was a great talk given, and a musical number: "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus".  Then, it was time for the baptism.

It kind of felt like we were riding a train.  First stop: the chapel for the talk, etc.  Second stop: the font for the baptism.  Third stop: a different room for the confirmation.  Pete preformed both the baptism and confirmation, and he did great.  He was really quiet as he was giving the blessing to Jakob - it's because he was trying not to let his voice crack from emotion.  *sniff* So cute!  What a great dad.

Jakob was so cute.  When walking into the chapel, he had a big old grin on his face.  He was just so very handsome when he came out after being baptized and was in his vest and church pants.

After the baptism was over, we had a lunch at our house - sandwiches, and brownies, and salad, and cool caramel dessert (which I need to get that recipe from my mom-it's DELICIOUS), and jello, and chips.... SOOO yummy.

Then we went to the fair.  When we got there, it was almost dinner time.  So we walked around a little bit and saw a few of the animals.  Then we got dinner.  And then Pete's two brothers and their families had to head back down to Utah, so they left.  I felt bad that we didn't get to spend more time at the fair seeing the different things, but oh well.

And this is the one picture I got from the fair.  It's not even very good-it's of everyone's torsos.  Sheesh.  The nice lady on the left let us pet her sheep.  It was a weird species-it has hair instead of wool.  Weird.  So they don't clip it - it sheds in the spring instead.

(Also part of the crappy picture-taking by Nat - the pic of Pete and Jake is all that I got from the baptism.  Had I been thinking 4th-dimensionally, I would have gotten pictures of everyone there, and of our family all dressed up...Doh!)

One thing I did do, however, was ask family members to write a little note to Jakob for his baptism.  My request rendered a few responses.  My plan is to put the letters into a little booklet about his baptism that he can have to help him remember his baptism day.

I hope people don't mind, but I want to share snippets from each of the letters.

From Lex: Your silly dances, faces, and poses can always make me smile.  And you are also a sweetheart!

From Howard: The very first person in my line was named Andrew; he was my great-grandfather.  He joined the Church in Denmark in 1861....There are many generations on both sides of the veil that are there to help you as you progress in your life.

From Marianne: Jakob, we love you and are grateful that you have made the decision to be baptized.

From Kar: You are such a great kid.  One of the things I love best about you is your desire to make good choices.  You always strive to be a good boy.

From Jim and Jennifer: We're proud of the good choice that you have made and the good example that you are to your cousins.

From my mom: I am still learning things about the baptismal covenant and about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, just like you are.  We have to keep learning so that when we make mistakes we will know how and why we repent.

From my dad: Jakob, you are a good boy and a great brother to your brothers and sister.  Always watch out for them...I want you to know that I love you very much and I am so proud to have you as a grandson.

From me: We can hear the Holy Ghost the best when we are doing things like reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, and attending church.  Remember: he uses a still, small voice, like a whisper or a thought or a feeling.  When we have peace inside of ourselves, and take the time to listen, that's when we hear what we need to do.

I asked Jakob how he felt about getting baptized, and he said he was really glad.  I'm glad, too.  What a cutie pie.

Roadshow Rocks!

Well, it's over.  You know, the thing that's been at the front of my mind, on the tip of my tongue, and the thing that has given me some sleepless nights for the last few months.

Our roadshow.

Sweat, tears, time, energy, effort, heart, and soul went into this show.  It was hard.  It was fun.  It was entertaining.  It was faith-building (for me, anyway).  It was challenging.  It was rewarding.

We loosely retold the story of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah from The Book of Mormon.  We used the parts found in Mosiah 27-28, and Alma 17-19.  Basically, Alma and the sons of Mosiah are tearing down the church and spreading lies.  An angel comes, and the guys repent, and then they all go on missions in their enemy's territory (the Lamanites).  We also told the story of Ammon's mission: he becomes a servant to King Lamoni, and saves Lamoni's sheep from some other Lamanites by chopping off their arms.  Then Lamoni and a lot of his kingdom become converted.

It's a very cool story.

While studying this story again, I came across a really cool scripture.  It's Alma 26: 12-Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I just love that scripture.

I honestly don't think I can pick a favorite part of our roadshow.  We called it CSI: Zarahemla.  We had these CSI guys investigate the crimes that the brothers were doing, including chopping off the arms.  Just, every little bit was awesome, and funny, and amazing. 

Our CSI guys were perfect (and imitated David Caruso in CSI: Miami).  Our brothers each had their own style of picking on the citizens.  The brothers each had a great style and were so awesome in their own way.  Our citizens actually looked like they got hurt by the brothers.  The dancing was amazing.  My set boys were crazy fast at taking off our sets.  Our Alma the Elder rapped!  Our angel wore stilts.  Our Lamoni wore a glittery crown with pride.  We had cute little kids be our sheep.  Our bad Lamanites parodied "The Three Amigos", and sang and danced to My Little Buttercup with fake arms that got cut off by a light saber.  They even threw their fake arms (as they were being cut off) at the stake president who was sitting on the front row.  Awesome.

Everyone in our show did an amazing job.  I was so impressed, and grateful.

Well, right now I don't have a copy of our show, so pictures in a fabulous slide show will have to suffice.  I tried to put them in show order, but I don't know if the slide show thingy cooperated with that idea.  And someday I'll get a copy, but who knows if I'll be able to load it onto a blog-it might break blogger because of its size (25-ish minutes).  Or because of its awesomeness.

Post-roadshow: my body decided to shut down.  Feeling sick, and SUPER tired, and achy.  I've been sleeping a lot, and have been to the chiropractor a few times (my back has been out a long time).  I have much to catch up on, and much to do still.  The end of school is ramping up, with so many things to do and accomplish.  I'm excited for summer and the laziness it (somewhat) promises.  I do promise to blog all about the past, present, and future!

Memory Monday: Roadshow

Sorry I've been hit-and-miss on Memory Monday lately.  I'll try to do better.  However, one of the reasons I've been so sporadic with posting at all (and, in turn, reading and/or commenting on others' blogs) is because of my current church assignment-our ward's roadshow.  It's a lot more time consuming than I originally thought it would be.

But more about that later.  This is MEMORY Monday.  So I'm going to write about one of the roadshows I was in when in Young Women's.

The year: 1996.  Me: in high school drama, thinking that I knew everything there was to know about acting, and writing a script, and all that jazz.

Somehow, the Laurel class got put in charge of writing our ward's roadshow this time.  For whoever doesn't know what a roadshow is, it's essentially a play that a group of people perform in different locations, like three different church buildings. We had roadshows in our stake every other year, so this one was my third.  Anyway, because I thought I was all that and a bag of chips, I kind of took over writing the roadshow.

Our theme had to do with time lines, or something, and it was our stake's 50th...anniversary?  It had been 50 years since its creation, so whatever that would be called.  So we chose doing a Back to the Future theme.  The main plot was that Biff (guy in the middle in the picture, who I dated for a while, actually) went back in time and ruined some roadshows, so Marty (guy on the right) and Doc (that was me, if you couldn't tell from the costume) had to go and fix them.  We went to the 50s, and the 70s, and...is that all?  That's all I'm remembering.  Our youth group was really big, and we had them do some dance/singing numbers with the words changed to songs that were from the different eras.

Yes, it was cute.  But, I was really selfish with it, and because I was so full of my drama self, I thought that my ideas were the best, so I kind of ended up writing it myself.  Also, the lady that they chose as director wanted the guy on the right to be Doc.  But because the script was my baby I wanted to be Doc.  So I kind of forced her hand.  Which, now, if a youth were to try to do that to me, I'd be like, step down, punk.  I don't know why she didn't do that to me, but oh well.
So, very fun.  Well, I had fun, anyway; I have no idea if anyone else had as much fun.  But the other roadshows we did as youth were fun for me as well.
Fast forward to January of this year.  Our 1st counselor pulled me and Pete aside and asked if we would be in charge of our roadshow.  And we gladly accepted.  We wrote our script in about a week, and we've been full steam ahead ever since. 

We've had a couple of dance practices with the youth, which has been fun, and it looks so great.  Of course, we have a lady in our ward who does choreography at a dance studio all the time, so she's made it look great. 

The biggest obstacle we've come across right now has been music.  We picked some different songs, and some of them don't have instrumental versions available.  So I've been trying to write in some accompaniment to one of the songs on the piano, and then I'm going to have to figure out how to record it.  (My piano can record, but for some reason I can't find the cords that connect it to a computer to get it off the piano.  Neat, huh?)  But it's worth it for this specific song.

I want to write more about our show, but I don't want to give anything away (in case there are roadshow spies out there that may come across my blog and steal our ideas or something).  I can tell you that each ward got an assigned time period (ours is Book of Mormon) and a theme (ours is missionary work).

There is still SO much to do, and SO much to think about.  And the show is at the end of April, so YIKES!  BIKES!  Hopefully it just all comes together, and ends up being as cute and as funny as I am envisioning.  I mean, just because I think it's funny, doesn't mean it necessarily is funny, you know?

So, that's my current time-sucker.  Like I said, way more time-consuming than I thought it was going to be.  But it's been fun.  And I'm sure you'll hear all about it in a couple of months!  In the meantime, I'll try to keep up with my blog.  For real, yo.

The Buffalove Vay-Cay, Part 2

And now for the exciting conclusion of our trip! YAY!

On Friday we went to Palmyra and Fayette.

By the way, I need to do a little shout-out to my cute sister, Brianna. If the whole nurse anesthetist thing doesn't work out for her, she could open a bed and breakfast. She was all, "Here are three different towels for each of you. And here are some chocolates for you in your room. And I didn't know which of these three drinks you preferred the most, so I got all three." Seriously, just so accommodating. And even though she's been to all of these things a million times, she still drove us all over the place and went with us to all this stuff.

At Palmyra, we went to the Hill Cumorah, and to the visitor's center there. It was really fun to walk around and see all the things there.

We also visited the Grandin Building, where the Book of Mormon was published. They showed us the whole procedure of making books back then. I couldn't believe that they made 5,000 copies with such an arduous process.

Then we went to the Smith farm. It's so funny that Pete is way taller than the door frame to the Smith home.


All the buildings were just so teeny tiny. I couldn't believe it.


The Palmyra temple is on the Smith farm land.


I tried to take a picture of the stained-glass windows in the temple. Obviously, it would be way beautiful on the inside, but you could still kind of see the pattern on the outside. I love stained-glass windows.

Then we got to go into the Sacred Grove. I had no idea how big it was, nor did I know it was also part of the Smith's property. It was so beautiful, and so peaceful. No wonder Joseph Smith picked this spot to pray.

There's a stone wall running through the property. It's speculated to be part of an old fortress or boundary of some sort, but no one knows for sure.

We drove a little further to see Fayette, where the Peter Whitmer farm. They have a really cool church there.

Attached to the church was a visitor's center. They had pictures hanging up, drawings and paintings from the first Ensign. I liked this one a lot, of Joseph's mom getting ready to be baptized.

Here's the main room of the Whitmer home. Again, crazy small. I couldn't believe that they squished 50ish people in there when the church was organized.

I had no idea that Mary Whitmer, Peter's wife and David's mom, also got to see the Gold Plates. I guess she was a little overwhelmed and frustrated with so many house guests, and she went out to milk the cows. The angel Moroni came down and showed her the plates. How awesome is that?

See? Tiny.

Then Saturday we...just kind of hung out. We saw Shrek 4, and, um, hung out. I hope Brianna wasn't too bored with us. But it was just so nice to sleep in, and read, and play games, and watch movies, and not be time pressured for anything. Very very fun.

So, there you have it! I recommend going to Buffalo and seeing the nearby sites to anyone. Especially if you stay at Hotel Brianna and Spencer. (Love you guys!)

Spring Break Projects

You know how I said I don't have any hobbies? Well, I can think of one. A big one. I like to organize. Okay, so it's not a really cool hobby, per se, but...it's totally me. And I own it.

I'm a nerdy organizer!!

Oh, and I'm also a minimalist. Big time.

Toss that crap out!

Anyway.

I don't know if it's the nasty weather. Or the extra time that I've had this week with not running kids around to activities, or teaching piano lessons, or helping with homework. Or the fact that it's just Spring Break, and my brain thought, "Hey! Spring! Spring = Cleaning!" But something has got me going on projects.

I wiped down my stair well, and both of my halls. I organized my pantry today. I cleaned out both of my hall closets. I made a run to the dump and to D.I.

So refreshing!

But part of my downstairs hall closet held a bunch of disorganized pictures. Seriously, it could keep me up at night. I think I've mentioned about 5,000 times how much I've been wanting to digitally scrapbook. This isn't just one project, though. It's scanning stuff from the last two years to add to the digital pictures. It's scanning my baby pictures, and my kids' "professional" yearly pictures. It's...just so much.

Here's a picture. Tip of the iceberg, my friends.


But, I figure I have a good 8 hours coming my way this weekend. If I just sit and listen to conference, I fall asleep (it's those soothing apostle voices!). If I sit and listen and scan pictures, I'll get double the awesomeness in the same amount of time. And then hopefully I can keep the momentum going until the dang thing is done. (Another thing about me: I hate having partial projects laying around. I like to focus on one thing at a time, and get 'er done.)

To my pictures and my scanner, I have one thing to say. And I will say it using a quote from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs": See this contact? This represents you. See my eye? My eye represents my eye. As in, I've got my eye (sticks in contact) on you.

Bring it on, mountain of pictures.

Bring it on!

New to Me

I got some new Sunday clothes for my kids. Some of their stuff was really craptastic. Now they look so very dapper!


I earned my Young Women medallion. And it has a new design, FYI. Cool, huh?

Saturday I accidentally washed Pete's wallet. Good times with that. Hey, at least it wasn't his phone, too. So he's going to need a new one of those.

I tried a new recipe last night for dinner. I think it turned out pretty good. And it's super easy. Here it is:


CREAMY CHICKEN BROCCOLI SKILLET

½ cup Miracle Whip
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 cups water
1 16-oz. package frozen broccoli florets, thawed and drained
½ pound Velveeta cheese spread, cubed
2 cups Minute rice, uncooked

Cook chicken in Miracle Whip in skillet, about 8 minutes, until done. Add water, broccoli, and Velveeta. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice; cover. Remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes.


I am in love with this new song, by The Script, called Breakeven. It's one of those songs that I could listen to over and over and over right now. Truth be told, I think it came out a long time ago, but I've just barely heard it on the radio this last week.


And finally, a new site, that I think is so awesome, and I wish I'd thought of it first. But I could never write the commentary like she does. Sadly, I think my uterus was the body organ that held my sense of humor, and when that got taken out my amazing wit left with it. I used to be so funny. (Well, to me, anyway. But I am my own best audience.) The site is called Promtacular! ; I've been a long-time blog stalker of the personal blog of the chick that put it together. Hi-larious. I think we all have doozies of prom/dance pictures; she has endless material to work with.

Also, I decided I need to re-new my zeal for projects. I keep looking at all these things that I'd like to do "someday", and go "eh" about 'em. I'd like to do them, but right now I keep not having time. I don't think my life is going to settle down any time soon, though, so I need to integrate them (somehow) into my life. Now.

So, since I've been gone a while, what's new with you?

Gittin Mee Sum Edukaytid

My awesome mom took me and my sister to Education Week on Saturday up at Ricks (a.k.a. BYU-I). It was wonderful-to learn, to be touched by the spirit, and to be very very silly.

We walked by the different statues and took pictures of us imitating them. Then we saw a fountain in a really pretty garden area, and Kar and I posed doing "Three Coins in a Fountain", like the guys in the hilarious play Forever Plaid.

After the day was over, we ate at a little place called Chiz's, in St. Anthony. Very, um, small town. They serve Chinese there, as well as burgers. Who knew?

The first class was on marriage. The speaker talked about finding out your spouse's needs, and trying to meet those needs (and have your spouse meet your needs in reciprocation). Find, then meet, the needs of our spouse.

He also said always ask yourself, "What can I do to be a better spouse?", but you could fill in any word: a better parent, or better at my job, etc.

The second class was on the Proclamation to the World, and he focused on one section: Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

A quote by Russell M. Nelson: Marriage—especially temple marriage—and family ties involve covenant relationships. They cannot be regarded casually. With divorce rates escalating throughout the world today, it is apparent that many spouses are failing to endure to the end of their commitments to each other. And some temple marriages fail because a husband forgets that his highest and most important priesthood duty is to honor and sustain his wife. The best thing that a father can do for his children is to “love their mother.” (Here's a link to the talk.)

The third talk was on raising resilient kids, to teach them I am, I can, and I have. We need to teach children to face their problems, to rely on the Lord, and to let them solve problems themselves instead of us rescuing them. Kids look to us to see how we respond to a crisis or to stress; do they see fear or faith? We need to teach them that behavior=consequences. We need to ask them questions on how they are going to solve their problems, (what have you thought of? have you prayed about it?), not tell them what to do (fix it this way, stop doing that, you must, you can't).

The fourth class was on forgiveness, how we need to look past man's faults to eternity. Forgiveness is an act. The sin of refusing to forgive involves us in the sin of refusing to accept Christ's forgiveness. (Read The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom, for the ultimate lesson in forgiveness.)

Our last class was on family time and traditions. She talked about how everything that leads to meaningful family beliefs and a transfer of values is worth keeping. From family home evening, to family scripture study and prayers, to the things we do on holidays like Easter and Christmas, to teaching children to clean and cook, any time spent with children and with family can become a tradition. We should just do our best; it doesn't have to be fancy or expensive-some of the best times and things are free.

It was a very fun, very fulfilling day. Thanks, Mom!

Wishes

We pray that you'll have a good conference weekend...

Troy's prayer face

...we hope it's full of creativity and productivity, especially if you're up for a challenge...

Jake's lego robot and fake smile

...we hope that you're smiles will be long and your tears short...

cute little Ivy

...and that you'll get a little crazy along the way!

Silly Brocky

Have a great weekend!

Miss Integrity, with her CTR ring, in the chapel!

On Tuesday our Young Women had New Beginnings. For those of you that may not know, New Beginnings is where we highlight the girls that came in the last year, and kind of go over Personal Progress and the values. And because I'm totally awesome, I brought my camera that night, but failed to take pictures.

Anyway, it was super cute. Our Laurels and Mia Maid and the YW Prez were the ones that planned it. They did a Clue theme, where during the night we had to guess the value girl, and the "weapon", and what room. The guests had clues in an envelope, and had to say if they could disprove the accusation. Each of our girls had a little spiel on the values. And I was Miss Choice and Accountability. Which means...

...I got to wear a sweet orange outfit, not unlike the one below. I found it at D.I. for $6. It was polyester bell bottomed pants with a shirt that had cute little flowers on it. When I showed it to Pete, he laughed, then said, "Well, now you have paint clothes."


They had decked the gym out with question marks, and had a dead person outline on the floor. They even found Clue candy to hand out with the invites! The culprit ended up being our Miss Faith, decided because she was the only one that came in last year, so they took the chance to highlight her at the time of accusation.


All in all, VERY cute, and VERY fun!

Where Being INfamous Pays Off

So, you know how I'm practically famous because I know people that are famous? (I like to pretend sometimes.)

Anyway, it totally worked in my favor last night! I asked the current Miss Idaho, Elise Davis, to come and speak to our Young Women. She did an AMAZING job. She talked about the pageant, and the reality show leading up to that. She went through the Young Women values and talked about how each one helped her in her experiences at Miss America.

She told us how Clinton Kelly, from TLC's What Not to Wear, came up to her after the evening gown competition, and told her she looked like Grace Kelly! (Now I'm only two degrees away from Clinton Kelly!) She talked about how when you're modest, people see you, not what you shouldn't be showing. Elise mentioned how faith and divine nature helped her realize that she was enough, and that it didn't matter what the judges thought about her, but what she thought about herself.

Elise did such an awesome job, and the girls and I loved having her for the night. She sang her competition piece for us, she answered the craziest questions, and she even let us wear her crown and take pictures.


Thanks a million billion, Elise!

For the Record

This weekend we had Stake Conference. But it was extra cool this time because we had an apostle come to speak to us: M. Russell Ballard. I got a chance to go to the adult session while Pete stayed home with the kids.

There were several speakers at both the adult session as well as on Sunday. I even took notes at the adult session because I was, you know, not holding kids, or drawing pictures of Wall-E for the kids, or getting drinks at the fountain, or mixing bottles of formula, or settling fights of who got to sit by Mom or on Mom, etc. (Can you tell how much I got out of the Sunday session?)

BUT...I wrote just a few notes on a random piece of paper on a quickly dwindling notebook Saturday night, so I thought I'd put what I wrote down here. These thoughts aren't all from Elder Ballard. But they're all things that I needed to be reminded of. And maybe what I got out of conference isn't what others did, but maybe it will help others out there that read this. So without further ado...

-We need to teach our children to have their own personal prayers and their own scripture study.

-We need to shrink our expenditures to fit our income.

-We can always do a little better.

-We need to fill our time with the essential things. We need to make sure to have family prayer and family home evening.

-We need to gather our children together, and teach them, and testify to them, and be an example to them. Nothing can compensate for failure in the home.

-Keep positive and prayerful through our challenges and our trials. Count our trials as blessings, because they keep us humble.

-We can't teach or discipline our children while in the throes of anger.

-We need to do the best with what we are given.

-The priesthood is so precious and powerful.

-Remain true and faithful and we will be blessed.

-PRAY, and God will watch over you.

Because the Oscars are Actually About the Votes...

...I'm going to talk about my Young Women's Night of Excellence in tally form.



First, Oscar night should be filled with mishaps, great food, and surprises.

I bought some wooden stars and some spray glitter to decorate the display and refreshment table. I thought it was going to spray silver with glitter in it. Instead, it was just glitter. Minus 1.


But my mom came to the rescue; on her way to my house to babysit (thanks a million, Mom!), she stopped by a craft store and bought some silver paint. We painted the stars, and then she sprayed them with the glitter stuff afterwards. Plus 1 for the paint, plus 1 for the amazing mom.

The surprise: I found three lip balms in my purse, when I thought I didn't have any. Plus 1 for luscious lips! (Not that this goes with the night; it just so happened to happen on the same night.)


The good food: A ham and cheese sandwich with bacon for dinner. (I know, that's like saying ham with ham. But I love me some bacon on a sandwich. No, scratch that-I love me some crisp bacon on a sandwich.) Plus 1 for food, minus 1 for the disgusting picture (it tasted way better than it looks).


Next, you have to have the behind-the-scenes people:

Here's Jessica, mixing the raspberry punch. Plus 1 for raspberry punch, plus 1 for awesome Jessica, and plus 1 for cheesecake (the actual good food of the night).


Janae, showing off her pregnant glory, who made these awards for the previous Young Women's presidency. She also made the awards for the young women, which turned out way better than an actual Oscar. Plus 1 for amazing Janae, plus 1 for her ultra talent. And plus 1 for the balloons she got for our night.

The plaques Janae made for the girls. Gorgeous, huh?

Our MC, and ultra president, Jodi. Plus 1 for being so put together!

Jozet, the gift giver. She got each of the girls boas, tiaras, and earrings. Plus 1 for her grace and thoughtfulness.

And me, the one who borrowed stuff from Kar. Her ward ended up thinking of the same Oscar theme for their Young Women's in Excellence, and held it a couple of weeks ago. So I got to borrow her stuff. And I got to borrow my mom's stuff to help decorate. Plus 1 for borrowed decorations. And that dress I'm wearing? I don't wear it often, but I got it pre-kids. Plus 1 for still being able to fit in it! But minus 1 for my crazy hair. I was trying to go all fancy-schmancy, but it turned out a little...spastic. And it started to fall out mid-program. Minus 1 for not enough bobby pins and hairspray.

And what would the night be without technical difficulties? We hung these stars up, and a few of them fell during the night. Minus 1 for falling stars. (Real falling stars are cool; I'm talking about fake stars clunking to the ground.)


Also, our girls were going to sing the song for this year's theme along to the CD. Turns out we had a DVD instead (minus 1), so I got to do a little sight-reading accompaniment for them on the piano. Plus 1 for the girls being so flexible, minus 1 for me only having played through the song once before.

Another unrelated event-though a technical difficulty- that happened last night: Pete's car wouldn't start for him on his way home from work. Minus 1. But thanks to a co-worker and Kar, he got jumped and got home. Plus 1.

And our night wouldn't be complete without our real shining stars. I'm thinking about asking some of them for their autographs because they are so extremely talented and beautiful and will definitely be going places. Plus 7, because there are seven of them, and 7 is the perfect number, and they are so practically perfect in every way! Also, check out some of their poses on our "red carpet", taken by our paparazzi (me and Jodi).

McKaye, who played the guitar and sang:


Alyssa, who played the violin:


Natalie, who played the clarinet:





Katie, who changed a tire:


Megan, who made visual aids for the primary chorister:



Caliece, who played the piano:



Jenny, who did a drama monologue:



Yep, destined for fame.


So, if my tally is correct, we're at plus 15 overall. A win for all involved! I'd like to thank... (Dang, I just got played off the stage!)