Things I Appreciate Right This Minute

  • Energetic school teachers
  • A garage free of mice and clutter
  • 82 degrees by day 62 degrees by night
  • Birthday lunch Plans with my sisters mom and maybe my brother(Felicia your on the sister list)? !!!
  • fresh salsa and peach crisp

Friday, April 29, 2011

Life



Dear family and friends;


It is important that we share with you some untimely but joyful news. Becca is expecting a baby. We have ruminated for some time as to how we would go about sharing such a sensitive and personal message. Becca cannot bare calling each of you to discuss this . We know there will be many feelings, insights and questions all very normal responses. In all honesty we are hoping you can work threw those thoughts and emotions and approach her with love and support. This choice comes with many consequences, some already very profound and painful, all are Rebecca's to carry. I expect she will move threw emotions and decisions continuously over the next several months and years.


Shawn and I are prepared to support her decision. She feels at present that she wants to raise her baby, even if that is a task she has to do without a loving partner. Becca had a sonogram recently and it appears that we are expecting a grandchild in December. That part is beautiful and exciting. There is nothing shameful or disappointing about a precious child. Becca is our precious child and we love her immensely. Please keep her in your prayers. We will keep you updated and now Shawn can post his true baby countdown on his facebook.

Sunday, April 10, 2011



Up at 5:30 to see his first patient and then off to BYU for ward council. Conduct church, share his testimony . Count tithing for a couple of hours. Have some dinner and a cinnamon roll or two with a candle in it. Watch Tarzan for movie night because Becca wants to. Walk the dogs. Walk with Taylor so he could talk. Give a child a blessing. Rubs my achey foot, plans to talk to a young man in need over breakfast at school in the morning. Study for a test and write a paper . Go to Sushi with Kate after school tomorrow.


This is how my husband spent his 46th Birthday. Doing or planning to do good. I love you Shawn . You are a luxury in my life.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Our Personal Savior


A long while ago Kenz posted this wonderful talk. It was so moving to me I transfered it to a file. I feel impressed that I need to reshare its content. It beckons to the heart in need . So if you are the one this is meant for , please know Heavenly Father is very mindful of you.


"Well, my dear sisters [and brothers], the gospel is the good news that can free us from guilt. We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It's our faith that he experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don't experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy. He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion. His last recorded words to his disciples were, "And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20) He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He's been there. He's been lower than all that. He's not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don't need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He's not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.You know that people who live above a certain latitude and experience very long winter nights can become depressed and even suicidal, because something in our bodies requires whole spectrum light for a certain number of hours a day. Our spiritual requirement for light is just as desperate and as deep as our physical need for light. Jesus is the light of the world. We know that this world is a dark place sometimes, but we need not walk in darkness. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the people who walk in darkness can have a bright companion. We need him, and He is ready to come to us, if we'll open the door and let him."(Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up, Preface, p. 174)

Monday, April 4, 2011

Conference April 2011



I love Conference every bit of the idea is perfect. Sleeping in, sweat pants, fleece blanket, the smell of warm muffins,heavenly choir voices, (Loved The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning). Talks about service and more service.The purpose of suffering and pain, Love more love. Its so good I just get full up with its testifying power and the spirit that whispers continually that it is true. Soup, Wendy's blondies the non brownie treat, dog asleep across my feet, orange juice, snowy blanket over everything outside, perfect for a day spent inside. Wake up, sit up, the prophet is speaking, more temples, more members, more welfare doing good everywhere.


Saturday morning we were there. Just like sitting on a green hillside right at the masters feet and they pass around the loaves and fishes. Exquisite opportunity to stand with my arm around my daughter and sing I know that My Redeemer Lives and feel his presence in my personal life. I hear her sweet voice singing a testament of truth that I know, she knows. Iclose my eyes the water squeezes from eyes down my cheecks. Just want to stay in the softness of the moment. Parenting class section 500 not so bad, fear not so consuming, life has more color after a weekend like this. When will my May Ensign be here?


Now it is Monday and Im dizzy from all the reminders of being more loved more deserving than I remembered, more needed, more responsible, more committed. But the snow is still here and I want to stay warm inside with the memory's . Time to do, time to dress , time to go, time to serve, time to follow the Prophet.

Friday, April 1, 2011

The Adventures of Kate and Gab







The last couple of weeks Helga G and noodle have been out seeking new adventures. I doubt that my Helga (Kate) knows what this means to Gabrielle. She loves spending time with any of her siblings and especially when they are 7 years older it can be a real treat to be included. Even with the years they share a lot of the same adventureous qualities. So yesterday I got a laugh when the two of them came bustin in the door at dusk carrying fishing gear and their days catch. After about an hour of empty luck they asked a man at the reservoir what he was using to catch fish. He sent his sons on ahead and set with them for 20 minutes teaching them the tricks of weighting their line and the right bait. They came home with 4 fish and promptly went about cleaning and cookin up their mess of fish for dinner. Their was some bloof curdling screams when Kate touched the eye ball and Gabby started screaming cause kate was screaming,but other than that it went really well. I love that.