The Sixth Word - a Christmas story I didn't write

Another great Christmas story.

The Sixth Word

from Especially for Mormons, vol. 2

Just a week before Christmas I had a visitor. This is how it happened. I had just finished the household chores and was preparing to go to bed when I heard a noise in the front of the house. I opened the door of the front room, and to my surprise, Santa Claus himself stepped out from behind the Christmas tree. He placed his fingers over his mouth so I would not cry out.

“What are you doing…?” I started to ask, but the words choked up in my throat as I saw he had tears in his eyes. His usual jolly manner was gone—gone was the eager, boisterous soul we all know.

He then answered me with a simple statement of “Teach the children.” I was puzzled. What did he mean? He anticipated my question and with one quick movement brought forth a miniature toy bag from behind the tree. As I stood there bewildered, Santa said again, “Teach the children. Teach them the old meaning of Christmas—the meanings that Christmas nowadays has forgotten.”

I started to say, “How can I…” when Santa reached into the toy bag and pulled out a brilliant shiny star.

“Teach the children that the star was the heavenly sign of promise long ages ago. God promised a Savior for the world and the star was a sign of the fulfillment of that promise. The countless shining stars at night—one for each man—now show the burning hope of all mankind.” Santa gently laid the star upon the fireplace mantle and drew forth from the bag a glittering red Christmas tree ornament.

“Teach the children red is the first color of Christmas. It was first used by the faithful people to remind them of the blood which was shed for all people by the Savior. Christ gave His life and shed His blood that every man might have God’s gift of Eternal Life. Red is deep, intense, vivid—it is the greatest color of all. It is the symbol of the gift of God.”

“Teach the children,” he said as he dislodged a small Christmas tree from the depths of the toy bag. He placed it before the mantle and gently hung the red ornament on it. The deep green of the fir tree was a perfect background for the ornament. Here was the second color of Christmas.

“The pure green color of the stately fir tree remains green all year round,” he said. “This depicts the everlasting hope of mankind. Green is the youthful, hopeful, abundant color of nature. All the needles point heavenward—symbols of Man’s returning thoughts toward heaven. The great green tree has been man’s best friend. It has sheltered him, warmed him, made beauty for him.” Suddenly I heard a soft tinkling sound.

“Teach the children that as the lost sheep are found by the sound of the bell, it should ring for man to return to the fold—it means guidance and return. It further signifies that all are precious in the eyes of the Lord. As the soft sound of the bell faded into the night, Santa drew forth a candle. He placed it on the mantle and the soft glow from its tiny flame cast a glow about the darkened room. Odd shapes in shadows slowly danced and weaved upon the walls.

“Teach the children,” whispered Santa, “that the candle shows man’s thanks for the star of long ago. Its small light is the mirror of starlight. At first, candles were placed on the trees—they were like many glowing stars shining against the dark green. The colored lights have now taken over in remembrance.”

Santa turned the small Christmas tree lights on and picked up a gift from under the tree. He pointed to the large bow and said, “A bow is placed on a present to remind us of the spirit of the brotherhood of man. We should remember that the bow is tied as men should be tied, all of us together, with the bonds of good will toward each other. Good will forever is the message of the bow.”

Santa slung his bag over his shoulder and began to reach for the candy cane placed high on the tree. He unfastened it and reached out toward me with it.

“Teach the children that the candy cane represents the shepherd’s crook. The crook on the staff helps bring back the strayed sheep to the flock. The candy cane represents the helping hands we should show at Christmas time. The candy cane is the symbol that we are our brothers’ keepers.”

As Santa looked about the room, a feeling of satisfaction shone in his face. He read wonderment in my eyes, and I am sure he sensed admiration for this night.

He reached into his bag and brought forth a large holly wreath. He placed it on the door and said, “Please teach the children that the wreath symbolizes the eternal nature of love; it never ceases, stops, or ends. It is the one continuous round of affection. The wreath does double duty. It is made of many things and in many colors. It should remind us of all the things of Christmas. Please teach the children.”

Our New Cat

We decided to get a cat for Christmas. So, a little early, we got a cat. (We thought of the logistics of getting a cat for Christmas morning and thought better of that.) So here are 2 pictures of our cat. His name is Max (that's the name he came with at the pet store, Maximillion). He's 5 or 6 weeks old (they don't know for sure, he was rescued from a box on the side of the road). He's all white with a little grey on his head. And he seems a good enough cat. He lets Elijah mangle him and has only hissed at him once--well-deserved. He seems very used to Miciah and likes Rob and me already (we purchased him last night).

We'll send more of an update later on Thanksgiving and all that, but just wanted to send this on its way.

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, and Elijah

Oh, sorry about Miciah's weird smile. We took 4 pictures of her and the cat and she was smiling funny or not looking at the camera for all 4 of them. I'd hate to take pictures of kids for a living.

We've moved!

A picture of Miciah with the little bitty fish she caught (and then let go again).

Our House

A hello to everyone out there. Some of you we've talked to recently, and some of you, well, it's been a while. But this is a hello to tell you that we've had a few changes in our life. We decided to buy a house! Well, we're not too excited about the financial junk that goes with that decision, but we love the house. It was built in 1947 and the last owners lived in it for over 40 years. So it's older, but it's in pretty good shape and we've been thoroughly enjoying living here. It's also 2 doors down from R & C, my aunt and uncle that are as much like my own Mom and Dad as you can get without actually being my Mom and Dad. :) And that's fun, too. And convenient: we get to borrow all their tools that we need for our house. Like a rake and a hole digger and a shovel and loppers (big clippers for the tree we cut down).

No other big news to report, thankfully. We'll take our "boring" life for now, cause boring means that life is going well. :) We're pretty settled into the house (we moved in on October 26th) and it feels so much like home that I'm forgetting what it was ever like to be in an apartment.

Miciah

Our kids also really like our house. Miciah, 4 years old, was so excited to see her play room downstairs (which will soon be carpeted) and she got a new big bed and life is good. Elijah was a little harder to convince that this was home, but now he loves it. Miciah is in pre-school and loves it. She talks and talks and talks. She really likes to role play and goes around like a director telling people what their right lines are (word-for-word), where they should be looking, who the other characters are, what they're doing, etc. It's funny. She also watches the same movie for weeks at a time. Hence, why she can tell people what their lines are verbatim.

Elijah

Elijah, 19 months, is addicted to 4 things: food, his blankie, his binkie (which we're weaning from him, slowly), and Baby Einstein. Thankfully we own like 15 of them, so I don't have to be watching the same one everyday. Elijah is the sweetest little boy and life is just good for him. He's always smiling and laughing and has started "talking." You know, saying mumbles that are consistent enough to be called words, even though they don't really sound like anything. He has a word for Baby Einstein, which is really more like a screech, but it's the same screech every time. I thoroughly enjoy the time I get with Elijah, though he has just figured out the whole separation thing and can get clingy at times, even when he knows we're not going anywhere.

That's life here. When there are other big things to report, we'll pass them along. We love you all and hope life is good for you. We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, as I'm sure all of you do. Happy Turkey Day!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, and Elijah

After further research...

Okay, I know I promised not to e-mail anything else about my bottle (at least I promised that to my family), but I am pretty sure I figured out the date of my bottle, and since it was slightly difficult to come by, I thought I'd share it with you all.

I've been e-mailing Chris Weide, my bottle collecting expert, about information about my bottle. He said the date should be on the bottom of the bottle. Well, there isn't a date on the bottom. There is, however, a G with a square around it (as well as a 700 and a 25). He e-mailed back and said that my bottle, then, is dated "in code". G with a square around it is a specific glass company in PA (sorry, S, not made in Cincinnati, really. Probably bottled here, though), and they put a tiny letter below the lip of the bottle that would tell us the date. Chris said they were very difficult to see, and that's apparently even after you KNOW what you're looking for. R stands for 1946. S is 1947. T is 1948, and so on.

So Rob and I examined and re-examined the bottle for both the letter and the number (there's a number, but it's not related to the date, apparently (according to Chris)). We are now fairly confident that it's an R. On the exact opposite side is obviously some number, but we can't really make that one out, it's pretty worn down. Rob thought it might be an 8. I thought it might be a 4 or a 7 (and then we joked about how it really could be just about any number). However, since it's the letter that has the date, we at least have the answer to that: 1946. And this house, I looked it up, was built in 1947 (I think the last owners moved in in 1954, that's where I got that date from). So this house is as old as Dad. Ancient!! Just kidding. But 1947 for the completion of the house would put the bottle just perfect for 1946. So there you have it. My bottle is 59 years old.

Tamra

Well, it's about time for an update, isn't it. We moved into our new house on Saturday, October 29th. Miciah and Elijah had been with Rob's sister, M, for the week, so it was nice to have them back and be into our new house all in the same day. Miciah instantly loved the house. She was able to tell that I'd set up her room much like at our apartment and that seemed just fine with her. And then I showed her the play room downstairs and that was all it took for her to like the house.

When she showed up, her cousin, M, was with her. She proudly said to M, "Come on, I'll show you my new bedroom!" Then she looked at me and said, "Is it this way?"

Elijah was a little harder to win over. The first night was the time change. We gained an hour, but lost that same hour with how many times we woke up with him. I think he'd just wake up a little and then not know where he was. After the first week though, really the first few days, he was sleeping better and now he sleeps better through the night here than he did at the apartment, on the average. He's got a cold now so that gets him up a little bit with the coughing and stuff. Elijah's also been spending some time throwing fits when I tell him he can't touch this or that, but it occured to me, during one of those fits, that he's just figuring out our new house and our new rules, so that made things better for me. He seems to be over most of that now and has things figured out.

We are not completely "settled in" here, but I feel like I can sit down on the couch and relax without feeling guilty, so I guess that's settled in enough. Moving is work, work, and more work. But it's already been worth it. Most of the things are organized, or at least organized enough. We've had a lot of help from family and friends, and I'll have a whole stack of thank you notes to write real soon. R & C, of course, have been a big help. I've made a ton of trips over there to ask for something and then more trips than that to return it (I keep thinking I've returned it all and then find something else, and by the time I return that something else, I've borrowed another thing). They've been very gracious and act like it's all not a big deal. I guess they weren't using the stuff right that minute anyway, but it's still been very nice. I'm going to go rake their leaves today, since I borrowed their rake. :)

We've had a few adventures with getting this house working the way we want it to. Rob and R and V (Rob's dad) did the fence, and one side of it has to be re-done (there's a slope and we're going to need to dig a little trench or something). That's okay, since we had to buy 50 feet of fence to cover 10 feet of yard. We have enough fencing to re-do the fence another 98 times, so we're good. We also have been testing the washer and dryer down here, since we already had a washer and dryer that work fine. We've been trying to figure out which one to keep. Well, the dryer wasn't doing squat and took forever to dry. So we replaced the dryer hose to see if that would work. It was an old plastic hose. It was so full of lint that I don't think we could have even cleaned it all out. We just took it off and threw it away. And then, drying the clothes the same way we'd been doing (on high heat and for the longest time), Rob almost burned his hands off taking them out of the dryer. So I think we'll keep the set down here and give away the set we'd been using (or give them back to who gave them to us).

On Saturday we'll acquire a few more pieces of furniture, given to us by Rob's Mom and Dad, given to them by someone in their ward. We've been truly blessed in our marriage to have many things that we need, and even lots of things that we want, given to us. On this move we received an entertainment center (it's huge), a piano (from Aunt S), the old owners had left several things that were nice or at least useable, including random iron trinkets in our kitchen, and we're about to get more stuff in a few days. A bookshelf, a chest of drawers (so our clothes won't have to be in clear plastic bins in our bedroom), a weight lifting bench and some weights, and a few other things.

I remember now that I promised pictures of our house with our stuff actually in it so you could get a feel for how our house is. Those will come as soon as I get pictures from Dad of his bookcase that he made. No, I'm not bitter that I don't have them yet. :) We love you all.

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, and Elijah

Check out this beauty!

This has been a fun little thing to find. Rob, while installing our fence, unearthed some "barried treasure" (said in his best pirate voice): a bottle of Cheer Up. I, of course, had NO IDEA what Cheer Up was but thought the bottle was cool. We've gotten most of the cement off, but some of it is still on. And, since the bottle has been underground for, oh, say 50 years, it's still pretty dirty and banged up. Believe it or not, there are people who collect old bottles like this. I have e-mailed a guy who has one of the largest soda bottle collections in the world to see if he can help me track down more information on this bottle of mine. Cause I think it's one of the coolest things ever. So I thought I'd send you a picture of it. Enjoy!

Tamra

Our house in the middle of our street

Well, we are officially home-debters. So that's exciting. We signed our lives away in blood on Wednesday and we've been packing boxes and moving things around and trying to pretend to stay organized for the last 2 days. It hasn't helped that Rob has a cold that knocked him out for the better part of today, but it's okay, I didn't mind the excuse to go a little slower. Moving is, needless to say, a drag. But it's fun to have our own house and think things like, "We need to mow the lawn [with the lawnmower we're going to borrow from R & C]," and, "I'm going to cut down that tree [with the tools I'm going to borrow from R & C]," and other such things. The unorganized part is a neccessary evil and will be over soon enough.

That's about all we've thought about for the last little while. Because it's enough to think about. Rob's sister 2 hours north offered to watch our kids for us and so they've been up there since Tuesday and we'll get them back Saturday some time. She's a gem, offering that. She already has twin 3 1/2 year olds, so now she has triplets and Elijah. I'm glad I'm down here moving instead of doing what she's doing. She has the harder job. :)

Umm, that's all. Not very exciting, maybe, but exciting all at the same time. We still like the house. There's a little bit more work than we were thinking to be done on it. Well, a few more projects than we thought, not a lot of work, maybe. But we really like the house. We like that we can turn the heat on and the house is insulated enough to make it warm in a few minutes and not feel like 3 different climates from room to room. We like that we have shelves and space for just about everything that we've been cramming into our little apartment. We like that the kids' room looks HUGE without all the toys in it because they have a play room downstairs. And, of course, we really like our neighbors. :) Being so close to R & C is going to be fun and eventually we will not be borrowing half of their belongings all at the same time. They've fed us dinner 2 nights in a row. Isn't that nice? We like them a lot.

Okay, that's life here. Rob sounds like he's getting a lot better and over his cold, and moving doesn't feel so overwhelming today. It feels like a project that's doable and like it's something I WANT to do. :) Of course, wait till the kids get back and then, ... Oh well.

We love you all.

Tamra and Rob

Family update (per dad's request)

Miciah's Pre-school: Arlitt

The more Rob and I learn about Miciah's pre-school (called the Arlitt Center) the more we like it. They attempt to teach the kids exactly how I think they should be taught. They play games and sing songs and let them use their imaginations. They let them paint (we have artwork covering our wall already) to figure out color concepts. They let them play simple dice games to learn math. They sing songs involving name cards of people in the room to teach them simple reading activities. The preschool (or rather people who teach at the preschool) actually has put out a whole series of books called things like 'More than Singing' and 'More than Magnets' and 'More than Letters' and things like that (you can find the books on Amazon, I just looked). It's a research center, too, and they're right now working with some federal grant thing to figure out better ways to teach and test younger children. I think it's all amazing. We chose the preschool because we liked how lax they are (they are out to let the kids have fun and learn through fun) and come to find later that they're super serious about what they do and they apparently are recognized as being really good at what they do. They were telling us about grants and things they have where they're 1 of 12 and 1 of 5 preschools in the nation to get the funding. Pretty cool stuff.

Miciah loves preschool, but she's really tired a lot of the time. She gets up earlier and goes to sleep a little earlier, but she can get pretty grouchy during the day after preschool. Makes me think we should have done afternoons with her cause then she could still sleep in. But, it's not bad to get up at 7:45, it's just a transition for her. We let her sleep in pretty late on Fridays and Saturdays and it seems to help come Monday. So we often spend a lot of our time at home watching movies and doing things less intensive. Her good friend Norene at preschool that I mentioned last time, is moving to New York. Miciah will be sad. But somehow I think she'll make another friend in about a day and a half. :)

Our House

We have told R & C about the house. They're excited. We went over there on Friday (we're usually over there at least once a week) and R said, "Did C tell you the good news? We're moving in 30 days!" We got a good laugh out of that one. But R did tell us that it was hunting season, so he'd rather not help us move if he can get away with it. :) It was about the cutest thing I've ever seen. R turned into this 5-year-old little boy pleading with his mom to let him do what he wants. :) We told him we have no intention of getting in the way of him hunting. We like the venison he brings home too much. He was much relieved. You could tell, he'd help if we asked, but we're not going to ask for that very reason. It's bow season right now and Thanksgiving week is the start of gun season. R will be gone every weekend from now until December. ... I met someone else today who was all dressed up to go hunting and was able to hold my own about hunting, which surprised me. Rob's going to go with R one of these years when we have $1000 to blow on hunting equipment that we'd have to buy. :) Maybe that'll be never. But I wouldn't mind not having to buy meat for a year.

Kay, that's life. The house still is not final, but they've brought up no problems to us. Just more paperwork. I feel like I'm selling my soul.

And I'm glad, Pop, that you mentioned that you owe me pictures. I was thinking last night about how you've never sent them off! And I really am anxious to see your handiwork. I send you ten or more pictures of a house I don't even live in yet and I can't even get a picture or two of a bookcase you've had completed for over a month. :) Not that I'm bitter.

Tamra and family

Exciting news

Well, now's as good a time as any to announce some exciting changes coming our way. Rob and I are really excited about what this means for our family. And as Miciah nears 4 years old, and Elijah is 18 months, it's about time anyway. So we're going to be pretty busy in the near future, but it'll be GOOD busy, and that's okay with us.

We bought a house. (I wanted the previous paragraph to sound like we were going to have a baby. The two changes are pretty similar--baby and moving--but we're not having a baby any time soon. Just in case you were wondering.) Everything's signed and rolling and unless something unexpected comes up, we'll be moving into the house October 26th. Inspections are clear, so we're just waiting on financing to pull through, which it should just fine.

It's a cute little 2 bedroom house 2 doors down from R & C (who don't know yet). It's about the size of our apartment upstairs, but it has a nice useable yard and a basement. The basement isn't "fisnished", but it's wonderful and will suit our needs well (it's the best unfinished basement I've ever seen). One of my favorite features of the house is the old school retro kitchen and basement tile. Neither of which will be changed while we live in the house.

We have a ton of pictures of the house, most of which aren't very good pictures (I have no idea how to take pictures of a house), but I'll send a few your way. If you'd like more, you know, just let me know.

So now our secret is no longer a secret, at least to you guys. You can share this news with whomever you'd like, minus any Cincinnati people. Take care!

Tamra

Not much to report

I looked back and the last time I've sent one of these out was over a month ago. Probably because not much changes or happens around here. We like it that way. Boring is the way to go.

Pre-school

Miciah is attending pre-school now. She started 2 weeks ago and seems to really be enjoying it. From what I've seen, I'm sure that she spends a good part of the time following the 2 adults around the classroom and bugging them. During group time she has to get the teachers' attention, all that good stuff. She'll learn. That's why she's there. She also talks a lot about a little girl named Norene, I think. Today she told me that Norene told her they could be friends. I guess this is good news. :) Today they sent home an injury incident report (she got hurt on the playground) that I have to sign and send back. It's weird, I'm signing papers for my daughter who is old enough to go to pre-school. It all is just weird to me.

The pre-school she goes to is not very traditional learning focused, and I'm pleased with that. They do a lot of learning activities, but they're not forcing her to read or write Shakespeare. It's like a very organized play group where they do a lot of fun things and I don't have to clean it up. Again, I never thought I'd care about pre-school philosophies and it's all still weird to me.

I am also liking Miciah going to pre-school. :) It gives me a little time to do some things that were just too frustrating to do with Miciah around. For example, my cross stich is finished. And I've got a ton more projects lined up to do that weren't worth the headache before. I also like the time it gives me to play with Elijah alone. Elijah is such a sweet kid and requires very little effort on my part. So it's a joy to have him to myself. He also naps for a good portion of Miciah's pre-school time, generally, so I'm getting used to the house being quiet. The first time she was gone, though, it felt like when I'd come home when I was younger and everyone would be gone (which hardly ever happened) and it wouldn't freak me out that I was alone, just that the house was quiet. The house shouldn't be quiet with a 3 year old around! :) I feel like I should walk around humming to myself and bouncing a ball and watching TV.

Rob as YM President

Rob will be getting a new calling in 2 weeks. The bishop called us both in to talk to us and I was gearing up to get a couple calling and I don't want another calling. I like my calling (YW 1st counselor). Well, just Rob got a calling. He's only had his current calling a few months--he's the 11 year old boy Primary teacher. Which is fun. But he's been called to be the Young Mens' President. I'm excited! He'll do a great job with the boys. The 2 counselors will stay in place, so not much will change as far as that goes. Rob is excited and scared all at the same time. There's some apprehension, as there always is, about if he'll do a good job or not. But of course he will. Rob said his dream calling is the Ward Choir Director, which he did here for a while. I told him that it is probably the last time he'll ever be called to that. He's just too talented and too good at leadership to be the Ward Choir Director. ... All the Young Women already love Rob. I had him do the Gay French Bear for them, along with all his other funny voices (if you haven't already heard him do the Gay French Bear, call him up and ask him to do it. He loves showing it off), so they think he's the funniest thing ever (which he is). He also did a little semi-stand up comedy gig based off the Book of Mormon for a fireside recently. So the youth, in general, like him. Who doesn't like Rob? :)

That's about it for now. Sorry life is boring here and yet I write paragraph upon paragraph anyway. :) Someday it will be something exciting. But, like I said, we like boring. We love you all.

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, and Elijah

Family news will hold off for a while. Not much is going on, but I'll send an update later, anyway. For now I wanted to send off some pictures. One is Miciah as Hercules, one is a good picture of Elijah, I think, and the last is my finished cross stich! I know no one really cares about the cross stich and that some people do like 3 or 4 cross stiches in one week. But this is the first one I've done and I'm proud of it, especially since it took me a long time to do (not time-wise, just in FINDING the time with 2 little ones around trying to "help"). So 3 cheers for me and enjoy the pictures.


Tamra

People LIKE me - a fun chat

This is a chat between me and my lovable brother, C. This conversation took place during a time when I was figuring out about myself and how other people saw me. I'm sure I'm changing all the time, still, and I hope most of those changes are for the better. On to the conversation:

Do you know people LIKE me? Is that weird or what?

C says:
everyone likes you.

C says:
b/c you're sincere and friendly and outgoing. people dig that.

Tamra says:
I guess it still always surprises me.

C says:
in fact, those 3 same things are way people either don't like me or don't trust me. b/c i'm none of those 3.

C says:
why, not way.

C says:
or, at the *very* least, the initial impression i give is that i'm none of those things.

Tamra says:
No, you don't exude those things, do you.

Tamra says:
Sincere is your closest.

C says:
except i come off as sarcastic. there goes my sincerity!

Tamra says:

Tamra says:
Do you know HOW OFTEN people tell me that they really like me, though?

Tamra says:
It's insanity. People flock to me to tell me how great they think I am.

C says:
ah, they *tell* you for an entirely different reason.

Tamra says:
I don't even have to ask.

C says:
they tell you because you're a breath of fresh air. you're straightforwardless, tactless, and guileless.

C says:
straightforward (w/out the less). got thinking about what i wanted ot say next, sorry.

C says:
so they tell you for different reasons than why they like you. in my opinion.

Tamra says:
Interesting.

Tamra says:
That sounded like you've thought about all that before.

Tamra says:
But don't you think it's odd that people should feel the need to tell me repeatedly how much they like and appreciate me?

Tamra says:
I think it's odd.

C says:
nope. that was all off the top of my head. and it's probably all wrong. but it sounds right to me.

C says:
actually, i think that's a natural consequence of being friendly and a breath of fresh air. they can't just think "oh, i suppose she's nice" because you stick out. you're noticeable b/c of those other attributes.

C says:
if you were just friendly they could brush you off as some other nameless, faceless person. and if you were just a breath of fresh air they could dismiss you as kind of weird. but b/c you're both at the same time (which is exceptionally rare, i find), they're led to recognize you for your likability.

Tamra says:
That's very interesting. I'm going to copy that all down. It does make sense. But I guess I just never saw myself as all these things that people keep bringing up to me.

Tamra says:
I told mom the other day: Without knowing it, I have accomplished being you.

Tamra says:
you meaning Mom.

Tamra says:
I just think it's weird.

Tamra says:
It was funny, I told this to someone today and they said, "Like with your siblings." And I said, "Oh, no. My siblings I don't think see me as all that." :)

Tamra says:
I was talking specifically about how I have a ton of friends with vastly different opinions, and they all think I'm on their side.

Tamra says:
Which is fine by me.

C says:
just to be the voice of opposition, i don't think that you're on my side. we've argued to much for that!

C says:
what did you mean, specifically, w/ "like with your siblings"? what did she think was like your siblings?

Tamra says:
Oh, I was talking to her about how people all think I'm on their side. And she said, "Like, your siblings?"

Tamra says:
I ALMOST told her that my siblings knew better or something.

Tamra says:
Or that my siblings didn't really see me as as great as everyone else does.

Tamra says:
I dunno.

Tamra says:
I guess I just have not much of an idea at all of how other people see me or WHY they should really see me like that at all.

Tamra says:
I'm just me, you know?

C says:
i totally know. and you're a good you, so you shouldn't change much.

C says:
*i* think you're great. you think a lot different than i do, and i think it's fascinating.

Tamra says:
Good.

Another note, same topic

Oh, yeah. I forgot to say 1 thing. Remember how on the way up to Grandma and Grandpa's house, Miciah kept saying how she didn't want to leave her parents? Well, the whole way BACK she kept saying that she didn't want to come home. Figures.

Tamra

Nauvoo Youth Conference

Saturday night we got back from Youth Conference where Rob and I were chaperones to 13 teenagers. It was SO fun. I volunteered us (barring schedule conflicts) for next year's Youth Conference, too. They said it's a pioneer trek. How cool! Adults are boring.

Dropping Off the Kids

Tuesday night we met Rob's parents halfway between here and Toledo to give them our kids. They took us out to eat and then took Miciah and Elijah with them. They said the whole way there, Miciah kept saying, "I want to go with my Mom and Dad." We'd been prepping her for this big time for about 2 weeks. Talking about what she'd do, what she could expect, who would be up there, who she would have to listen to, all that. We had a FHE on it and even let her help pack her and Elijah's stuff--clothes and toys and books. And yet she still didn't really get it that we wouldn't be up there with her. But, after the car ride, both kids did fine. We'd call, briefly, to talk to Ciah and she'd say, "Hi, Mom. I love you. Bye, I'm going to go play." :) She had fun with her Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins. They even had a ward youth activity at their house. It was a water balloon fight. Miciah was thrilled.

On Our Way

Wednesday I had to myself, so I got some things done around the house that aren't really possible with the kids around. I had really debated what to do Wednesday, after finding out I'd have the day to myself and could do ANYTHING I WANTED. But when it came right down to it, I'm still a mom and the home is still where my priorities are, with or without the kids around. So I focused my energies there. That night we went on a date and didn't even need to find a babysitter! How about that! We went to the store and packed and went over discipline items for the teenagers--what's our stance on their music or their dress or cell phones or blah blah blah. Turns out, we didn't really have to worry about any of that. No one made a big deal about music (which is really good, cause we decided we didn't really care about their music as long as they had headphones--they all did). Two people brought cell phones. One of them turned it over to us (I returned it a few hours after getting it cause I didn't want to be responsible for losing it or whatever. She didn't use it, though), and the other didn't use it the whole time. At least not that we saw. No one dressed inappropriately. They were all good kids. From what I can tell, there were no major Youth Conference incidents. Yea!

And it was fun. Rob and I had a good time with the youth, and they seemed to really like us. We had the opportunity to bear pure testimony to them about the Gospel. That was awesome. We got to dance at the little dance they had. They liked that and we liked that. We're volunteering to be chaperones at every stake dance that comes up (as an excuse to get out and dance ourselves). We got a chance to really get to know some of the youth in the stake, and particularly, I got to bond with the Miamaids in our ward, cause they were in our group. So I was grateful for that.

Youth Mistakes?

A couple funny things. I was standing in line for dinner with 2 of the girls from my ward. Two of the other chaperones were standing right next to us. So I start talking to them. I don't know who they are, just obviously they're chaperones. One's in his late 30's and the other in his 50's or so. And one of them, after kind of hinting that he thought I was a youth, then flat out asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I smiled and thought for a while. What do I want to be when I grow up? Well, there's a 2 part dillema here. 1- What does it mean to be grown up and am I there? 2- What can I say back to him that isn't offensive, but is clever. So I just answered, "Well, I guess I'll be just a mom." He said, "Just a mom. If I told my wife she was just a mom, she'd be pretty mad." So I just smoothly transitioned into talking about my husband and 2 kids, like I hadn't even noticed he thought I was a youth. So then I didn't have to be in his face about it and we could all pretend that he wasn't embarrased about his mistake. It was cute (and I thought it was very nice of me to give him a polite out. I was impressed with myself).

So he came up to me later, at the temple where we're doing baptisms for the dead. All the youth sat down in an area and I was standing around waiting for instructions for how to be helpful. He came up to me and said, "The youth are sitting over there, if you could please join them." I just looked at him, not knowing what to say. Then he smiled and we talked about how he thought I was a miamaid and that was funny.

Next time I saw him, I told him, "Excuse me, where is your chaperone? You're not supposed to be walking around unattended." He said, "Hey, I look a lot more like a chaperone than YOU do." Stuff like that all the time. I told him that he had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. He had conveniently forgotten that. By then, though, I had thought of that clever reply. "You mean, when I'm as old as you?" But then it was a day too late. So I asked him, "You know, I don't even know your name. Who are you?" "[First name] Ladle." "Oh, Brother Ladle," I said. And then it hits me: PRESIDENT Ladle. The guy I'd been teasing is the 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency! Oops. And the guy standing right next to him, whom I also didn't know, is the 2nd counselor. Sheesh. So much for flying under the radar. Oh well. It was fun, and it was nice to have someone to banter with.

On the way home, he got me again. I was trying to get through a crowd and he hollers out (without me even knowing he was there), "Let the youth get through." As I'm walking through a parting crowd, grateful, I look back to see who said that and there he is, smiling away. I just smiled. I caught him later and told him that he really looked at least 5 years younger than he really was. He was, say, 75 and he looked at LEAST 70. Then it was a sequence of me digging a bigger and bigger hole for myself. I asked if he could be my grandfather or my father. He told him I was getting myself in trouble and that they still needed to get speakers for the next Stake Conference. I thought that was low. He said, "Low? You just asked if I was old enough to be your grandfather! How old is your grandfather? Is he even alive!" :) What a good-natured man. I wrote him a note on the last leg of the trip and handed it to him before he left for home. In the note I told him that when I grew up, I hope I'm as nice and fun as he is.

Most of the other chaperones told me that they had thought I was a youth, too. Just none of them asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. One of them did say to me, though, "Well, hello, little one." I couldn't tell if she was thinking I was a youth or not. Cause we were chaperones on the same bus on the way up and I thought surely she'd remember that. So I just assumed, then, that she was referring to my size.

Dancing Shoes

Rob knocked their socks off with his awesome swing dancing skills. He's so fun to watch. There was a period in the dance when there was no music playing, but Rob doesn't need music to dance, so we were there dancing to the music in his head. We got a LOT of comments on us dancing, as we usually do. It doesn't bother me at all, cause then people think that I'm good, too, which isn't really the case. I just let Rob dance circles around me (which he literally does) and do my best to follow his lead. I know about 1/3 of the swing steps and moves that he knows. But I'll learn more and then it'll be way more fun.

Okay, that's our update. We got our kids back this afternoon. It was really nice to see them again. Rob's parents were super nice and drove them all the way down and then, a few hours later, drove all the way back up. Which was really nice cause we've been pretty tired. There wasn't much sleep being had in Nauvoo.

A Gift for Miciah

Oh, something else that's just interesting and nice. Miciah's always talking to anyone and everyone that walks in and out of the doors to our apartment complex. Our balcony is about chin high from the entrance. One of the people that Miciah really is chatty with is a couple downstairs. He's a cab driver named Herb, and her name is Phyllis. They have some grandkids. This is about all I know of them, other than that they carry on like half hour conversations with Miciah. She tells them about the latest cool things she's thinking of, like what movie she just watched or who she's pretending to be right this second. :) Anyways, when we got back, a note was waiting for us that they had some toys that their granddaughter was too old to play with and would we want them because Miciah seems to have a good imagination and they want someone to enjoy these toys. He stopped by today after church before we could call them back. We apologized for not getting back to them because we'd been gone, but yes, we'd love the toys. So now we have this HUGE Fisher Price doll house (ironically enough, is almost exactly like the one Rob's mom bought last week for the grandkids to play with when they came to her house) with a ton of accessories, plus 2 dolls, and a play stroller with a little baby carrier that comes out of it, and a matching crib. Sheesh. It's like Christmas! Now all we have to do is figure out where they'll all fit in our house. But how nice of our neighbors. It's all in really good condition (other than smelling a bit like smoke), and it's worth quite a bit of money. Miciah's been really excited. ... I have been really impressed, in my life with Rob, at how many times things have just come to us through generous acts of others. We've been blessed.

Well, good night, I'm going to bed. Thanks for reading this far! We love you all.

Tamra and Rob and kids

The Crocodile from Peter Pan

Being the proud parents that we are, and enjoying the luxuries of a digital camera, we thought we'd send a small treasure to you. Miciah has just started drawing THINGS. Not just scribbles that she says are things, but drawing things that look like things. She drew this (she's been on a Peter Pan kick) and showed it to us. It was completely unprompted. She even drew it on the back of an envelope because she didn't have paper in front of her. It's the crocodile from Peter Pan. We just thought it was too cute to not share.

Tamra and Rob

Picture of Elijah

Here's a picture for you. Elijah climbs up onto the rocking chair and sits there looking all grown up and sophisticated. Then he can't figure out how to get down and he'll scream. I'm teaching him how to get back down. Anyways, it took me quite a few shots to get this picture, so here it is.

Tamra

Weekly News

Our family news.

We spent the last 2 weeks with family, family, and more family. It was great, but tiring, and we're glad to be back on a schedule. We're still staying up late nights (we're enjoying our tiny family time), but otherwise, our house is back in order. Thank you, everyone who came, for coming. Anyone who didn't come, you're more than welcome to drop by on us, with or without advance notice. :)

Rob is trying to lose weight, and has already lost some weight. The last 2 weeks, however, were a small setback on working out. We just didn't have a lot of time or priority for that. So we're getting back on track with that, too. It helps Rob's knee a lot to go walking and lifting weights and all that stuff. The doctor cleared him for doing anything he wants to, except things like racquetball and such. It's nice to see him working as normal.

P&G Rotation

Rob's rotation at P&G has been a slight struggle. He's not doing there what he wanted to be doing. But they're going to get him into the lab next week helping with the dead animals (you don't need extensive training to work with dead animals, aparently). He said they are giving him a little training today so that he can be ready for going into the lab next week. In the meantime, he's been helping them edit their data. He thinks it's exceedingly boring, but he's been taking music the last few days and that's been helping. It's also good motivation to get the PhD done. When he has his PhD, he'll be hiring people to do the work he's doing right now. It's grunt work.

Miciah and D

Miciah and D did play wonderfully together. They're enough older that I think they just loved every moment. There wasn't much time where we needed to separate them, as there was in October. I think by the end of 2 weeks Miciah was expecting D to stay forever. She didn't understand why D had to go back home. :) And D finally was liking me and letting me help her do things that originally only Grandma could do. D has a killer smile and such a warm personality that I didn't want her to go home, either. And though I had to keep from laughing during each of her prayers, they were so genuine and so real that I loved every moment that she prayed. Things like, "I can't jump on the bed. Grandma said so." and "I miss my Mom and Dad and that's the truth." and "Today was a good day. A good day." and (my favorite. This one was REALLY hard not to laugh at) for some reason, "Cock-a-doodle-doo." Miciah, after one of D's prayers, said, "Someone needs to teach D how to pray." And I thought, "No, Miciah should pray like that." :)

Thacker Family Stuff

Other than that, our lives are normal and boring, as we'd like them to be for a while. Before the T family came in town, we spent quite a bit of time with the Thacker family. G is off on his mission now. D, a brother-in-law, got really sick around the same time as all the family stuff. He was in the hospital for a week +, and now is home with some in-home nursing care. To help C deal with all this, we scattered the kids. The 2 older kids went with Mom and Dad Thacker to Nauvoo, and I took A, who just barely turned 1. She was a little clingy, but was fun to have for the few days we had her. We took her on a Thursday night and returned her on Sunday, when we drove up and spent time with the family. It was nice to be able to help C out. She often needs help and there's not much that I can do to help, so this was something I could do. And I think Mom and Dad T enjoyed having another "grandbaby" to love on. They sure did a good job loving on her.

So we're just taking some breathing time. Random Thacker family members will probably be coming down to visit us in the next little while, which is fine with us. Our next big outing will be August 11-13, when Rob and I go as chaperones to Youth Conference in Nauvoo! We're really excited about it.

A Raise!

Oh, we got our raise. Next pay period, starting October (I think), they'll be paying us monthly, but for now they paid us in one lump sum. It covers the same period (meaning, we got August, Sept, and October's paychecks), but they paid us early (usually we get paid on the 1st, so we got our normal paycheck on July 1st, and then this lump sum right now, instead of Aug. 1st), so we feel really rich right now. They don't take out any taxes, either, so it'll be interesting to learn a new way to manage our money.

Pre-School

And Miciah is for sure going to preschool in the fall. I was back and forth on the whole preschool thing. But it panned out, and I think Miciah will LOVE it. She's so social that I think it'll be a great outlet for her. Not that she "needs" preschool, but I think she's going to really like it.

We love you all. Take care.

Tamra and Rob
and kids

P.S. to J: Your letters rock! Thank you for sending the postcard to Miciah. She loves it. And thanks for the e-mails. I learn a lot from you.

Elijah's black eye

Elijah incurred a black eye yesterday and I thought we'd show it off. The first black eye is always something to showcase. :)


Also, Mom cut Elijah's hair today and it's a cute picture.




Miciah and D've been having a great time together. They've been playing really really well, and we like that. So I thought I'd send a picture of them together, cheesy smile and all.





Plus, Miciah was sad because D was in the bathroom. It might have been something else equally as traumatizing, though. Anyways, it's a classic face.


Tamra

Obedience is the First Law of Heaven

Obedience is the First Law of Heaven

Jeremiah 7:23-24
Doctrine and Covenants 130:18-21
Doctrine and Covenants 82:8-10
Doctrine and Covenants 59:23
John 14:15, 21
1 Corinthians 2:9

“Obedience, in and of itself, is a source of power. Man can achieve naught of excellence in matters material or spiritual except through the exercise, the utilization, of that supreme form of energy, obedience.” --James E. Talmage

“Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire.” --Joseph Smith

“Obedience to God can be the very highest expression of independence. … Obedience—that which God will never take by force—he will accept when freely given. And he will then return to you freedom you can hardly dream of—the freedom to feel and to know, the freedom to do, and the freedom to be, at least a thousandfold more than we offer him. Strangely enough, the key to freedom is obedience.” --Boyd K. Packer

“We are individuals, but we live in families and communities where order provides a system of harmony that hinges on obedience to principles.”
--James E. Faust

“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” --Ezra Taft Benson

“Seemingly small acts of disobedience can result in longer-term consequences of unhappiness, regrets, and even fatal results.” --Elder Donald L. Staheli

“Freedom and liberty are precious gifts that come to us when we are obedient to the laws of God and the whisperings of the Spirit. If we are to avoid destruction, which was the fate of President McKay’s horse Dandy and his companion, fences or guardrails must be built beyond which we cannot go. The fences which we must stay within are the principles of revealed truth. Obedience to them makes us truly free to reach the potential and the glory which our Heavenly Father has in store for us.” --James E. Faust

If I continue to travel the road I am
currently following, where will it lead me
and what will happen to those I love?

Events to Share

Well, not much of import has happened lately, but we've had events, so I'll share those.

Knee Surgery Update

Rob is not off his brace yet, technically. He goes to physical therapy tomorrow and he expects he will be released from having to wear his brace then. This week is week 6, I think, so he's right on schedule. He's not been ahead, but he's not been behind, either. ... It's been interesting to watch his recovery. First, when he just had surgery, he'd try to flex his quads and they just didn't flex at all. Now they both will flex, but his surgery leg is obviously weaker and he can flex his leg and keep it straight, but it shakes a lot. That's been the slow-up with getting the brace off. His quad has to be "firing." In other words, it has to be responding when his mind and/or body says flex. ... He's been not wearing his brace for a week, though, except to school. Places he knows he won't have to walk very far, he doesn't worry about his brace. Rob can now do exciting things like not walk with a noticable limp and walk up and down stairs one foot at a time (you know, like without having to put both feet on each stair). He went to work out with me yesterday, which consisted of walking without his brace on a treadmill for 20 minutes, lifting weights on his upper body, and doing some abducter machine (I don't really know what they're called. It's the machine where you sit down like in a chair and push out with your legs like you're doing a butterfly movement or something). It was fun and it was good to see him able to do a few things.

Trip to Toledo

Rob's little brother, G, is going on a mission next month, so a lot of our recent activities, and activities we'll be doing later, center around that. I took the kids and went up to Toledo to see Grandma and Grandpa D so that the kids could have a chance to see their great grands that they don't get to see too often. It was a fun trip, but I ended up not sleeping like at all up there, which meant I was just really, really tired the whole time. They had me in a tiny, poorly-circulated room so I was too hot, on a bed not my own, with 2 kids, one of whom wakes up at least once during the night still (despite sleeping, actually, pretty well. He wakes up once, normally, but sleeps usually 4 - 6 hours, wakes up, then another 8 hours or so) and on top of that makes lots of baby noises through the night, and plus, the two kids don't know how to sleep in the same room together, so I had to treat going to bed as a 3 part process: get Elijah to sleep, get myself and Miciah ready for bed, then lay Miciah and myself down after Elijah was out, so that then they wouldn't just laugh at each other and keep each other awake. ... Anyways, I was so tired that on the trip back home I had Rob meet me halfway so I wouldn't have to drive the whole thing. Sad, but safe. I came home, took 3 Advil, 1 decongestant, and slept for 2 hours. I felt better after that. :)

Family Spat at Columbus

The next day, Saturday, was exciting. Rob and I (without the kids) went to the Columbus Temple. G got his endowment out and seemed to really be touched by the whole thing, which was great. We went out to eat afterwards and experienced an all-too-common family spat. There's a particular family member that has anger issues. Anyways, I expressed an opinion he didn't like (imagine me with opinions, I'm sure that'll be hard for you guys to envision), and he got really, really angry. Like, sudden rage. He started talking to me meanly, which Rob didn't like, so Rob told him so. Anyways, it ended with Rob covered in Diet Pepsi (Rob was wearing a nice white shirt and his suit pants), and the other guy leaving the room for the last half hour or so of the meal. So all-in-all, the day was interesting. :) Anyways, the family spat didn't ruin our day and Rob and I have since apologized for our part in the matter. Honestly, I can't imagine anyone being offended by my opinions. I hardly have any and they're so mild at that.

We spent Sunday with R & C, and B & R. It was a blast. We talked a lot about the reunion, which was a good thing, cause all the things I had questions about, they hadn't talked about yet. :) So it was good to talk about them.

Soccer on Memorial Day

Monday we went to a ward Memorial Day picnic. This is the reason I've been working out (lightly) for 3 weeks. Because they played soccer. Which is fun. The guy in charge loves soccer (he's from Columbia) and announced to the whole Elders' Quorum that I was excellent at soccer. Yikes. It ended up being a really good thing that I'd been at least making an effort for 3 weeks. Because I have been so sore that I think I would have died had I not been at least doing somthing exercise-wise before the game. Our team won. 10-9. I didn't score any. I played defense. But I did get to shut down a few of the other teams' best players. I won respect for girls (which has apparently been part of my call in life), scared a few of the guys on the other team, and won several nicknames and possibly a reputation that will follow me in this ward for a while. The best person out of the field was a little kid that my Mom and Dad know (at least they know his family). Drew, Missy's kid. I don't know how old he is, but clearly he's "too short" for his age. I sympathized. But only a little, cause he didn't need the height. He was awesome. Impressive ball control, composure, etc. He was just good. I shook his hand afterward. He wasn't impressed. :)

I'm going to keep exercising, though. Cause I've fallen in love with it again. Like L, I feel better about myself, I like being able to see my muscles when I flex them, I like the way my body looks better, and I'm on my way to meeting some of my weight/image goals. And I like all of that. Also, like L, I'm not working out hard core. Jogging, biking, light-ish weights (any weights for me must, by definition, be light). Rob says he's going to keep working out with me over the summer, so I'm excited. I've been debating finding a soccer league to play in. But it's expensive, apparently, to play. One league showed $425. Sheesh. Maybe an indoor league. I've heard they're only $50 - $100. That's a little more manageable.

Fish Tank

We got fish. Someone gave us an 20 gallon (high) aquarium. We're in process of killing all the fish we've introduced. It's a new tank, and we were told, of course, to wait to introduce many fish. Of course we didn't listen. We started with 6 zebra danios (my fish, if the family will recall from old times). These were the hearty species we decided to start with. Then we decided (I'd like to say Rob decided, but it was really an us decision. He didn't want to wait and I didn't think it'd be a problem) to get a few more fish. So 2 days later we got 6 neon tetras (Collin's fish), a Paul Scum-sucker, and a silver bala shark. Well, we lost a zebra first. Don't know why. Rob says he had an open sore a day before he died. Then we started losing neons. 2 were in the filter, but did they get sucked in or did they die and then get sucked in, we don't know. 2 just lost color and then died. Then, just last week, Ick arrived. Our last 2 neons got a little (one only had a spot or two), our bala was covered in it, and Paul was near-covered. Well, we lost little neon first. The 2nd neon is doing good. No Ick now, which makes me wonder if he ever had it (did we just make it up?). Bala shark died today. Rather, I killed him, since he would have died shortly anyway (he was really acting so sad it was unbearable for me to watch). Paul is going to die, I think, very soon. He doesn't look substantially better after 2 days of treatment, he's not eating, and he's acting really really weird. Like he'll stay in one spot for hours. Last night he was floating upside-down at the top of the tank, like he'd forgotten which way was down. I dunno. Anyways. The zebras are fine and I think they'll make it through the new tank process and the Ick. Plus, we've learned that once they've been exposed to Ick, they'll never get it again. The lone neon looks good, but I have doubts about a community fish doing very well on his own. Our tank will need a Paul, so after this one dies, we'll get another one shortly (after letting our tank chill for a while after the Ick attack). Apparently Rob and I are rather good at killing off fish, no matter the species. ... As a side note, family, which fish were whose? I thought I remembered that Budge's were Angel Fish (they're bullies so we don't have any). Everyone else?

That's our update for now. Next week Rob and I will be going back up to Toledo to do bonding time with G before he leaves on his mission. And a week before everyone arrives for the family reunion we'll go back up for the farewell. It'll all be fun. That's about all that's on our agenda for the next month. Rob's finals are next week, the 6th and the 7th. His 7th is his last final and my birthday, which is a WONDERFUL b-day gift. Being done with classes. Rob will start his P&G rotation, we just found out, on June 13th. We will be paid our increased salary starting August 1st (meaning that will be our first increased paycheck), which is as soon as we could have hoped for. In July he'll start doing stuff for the IGERT, so we're interested to see how all that will go. 3 people out of the 5 in Rob's program that started with him are on academic probation and will probably be gone in a year. Which is a bummer, but makes me feel proud of my husband. I've sometimes thought he wasn't as "bright" as others, but let's face it, to be doing well in Graduate School and get a fellowship, you can't be dumb. So I'm very proud of him.

We love you all and sorry this was so long.

Tamra and family

Two Pictures - a poem I didn't write

I didn't write this poem, but I was struck by it. I don't know if the story is true or not, and I imagine it's not. But I like the moral of the story. Enjoy!


Two Pictures
by unknown

Two Pictures hung on the dingy wall
Of a grand old Florentine hall —

One of a child of beauty rare,
With a cherub face and golden hair,
The lovely look of whose radiant eyes
Filled the soul with thoughts of Paradise.

The other was a visage vile
Marked with the lines of lust and guile,
A loathsome being, whose features fell
Brought to the soul weird thoughts of hell.

Side by side in their frames of gold,
Dingy and dusty and cracked and old,
This is the solemn tale they told:

A youthful painter found one day,
In the streets of Rome, a child at play,
And, moved by the beauty it bore,
The heavenly look that its features wore,
On a canvas, radiant and grand,
He painted its face with a master hand.

Year after year on his wall it hung;
'Twas ever joyful and always young-
Driving away all thoughts of gloom
While the painter toiled in his dingy room.

Like an angel of light it met his gaze,
Bringing him dreams of his boyhood days,
Filling his soul with a sense of praise.

His raven ringlets grew thin and gray,
His young ambition all passed away;
Yet he looked for years in many a place,
To find a contrast to that sweet face.

Through haunts of vice in the night he stayed
To find some ruin that crime had made.
At last in a prison cell he caught
A glimpse of the hideous fiend he sought.

On a canvas weird and wild but grand,
He painted the face with a master hand.
His task was done; 'twas a work sublime —
An angel of joy and a fiend of crime —
A lesson of life from the wrecks of time.

O Crime: with ruin thy road is strewn;
The brightest beauty the world has known
Thy power has wasted, till in the mind
No trace of its presence is left behind.

The loathsome wretch in the dungeon low,
With a face of a fiend and a look of woe,
Ruined by revels of crime and sin,
A pitiful wreck of what might have been,
Hated and shunned, and without a home,
Was the child that played in the streets of Rome.

More of the Knee Surgery Saga

Well, this last week has been trying. :)

Knee Surgery Update

Rob is feeling much better today. The amount that he can move around now as compared to the day of the surgery is amazing. He's doing, I think, as well as expected, but not as well as he expected. He thought he was going to just bounce right back, I think. On the contrary, he has missed school all week, we didn't go to church today, and he's still not as mobile, or out of pain (since you can be in pain, you should be able to be out of pain, too). We've invited a family over this week for dessert and games, more for my sanity than anything, and it should be just about all we can handle. We've had a lot of support from people, but it's still been a little overwhelming for me. I feel like a single mom with Rob just watching me do stuff. :) But every day it gets better and I'd rather have this problem than lots of others we could have. ... There's a trip we're supposed to take on Saturday that involves a one way 3 hour drive. I can't imagine we're actually going to make it. Unless Rob is miraculously better by then. I might just go without him, because he'll be well enough to take care of himself, but I'll have to take the kids with me. And me, alone, with 2 kids for 3 hours? I'm not sure I'm excited about that, either. :) We'll have to see.

Elijah is Sick

On Friday Elijah wasn't doing so well. He started the day with a fever of 99.5 and the last time we checked it before I went to an Urgent Care place at 7:30pm, it was 103. Sheesh. The double ear infections that he had 10 days before hadn't gone away. So we're on round 2 of antibiotics. Elijah is doing better. There's no fever and he's not as fussy, but I can tell he's not back to feeling well yet. He's mostly not fussy, but he's not happy either. And it takes a lot for him not to be happy. So tomorrow I'll be calling his doctor to set up a follow-up visit to make sure we get this taken care of. I'm afraid we're looking at never-ending ear infections and tubes in the ears or something like that. ... From the way Elijah's been acting today, I have a nagging feeling the 2nd round of antibiotics won't work either. I'll keep you all up on how that goes.

Getting a Raise

And we're still really excited about getting a raise. That's been a shining moment for this week. :) I'm holding up okay, but probably only because when it's time for bed I'm so tired that I sleep like a baby. I think that's been God's gift to me this last week. I'm remembering that there are just times in life where you don't think about much other than just getting through. My dishes are perpetually not done, the house is usually a mess, I haven't done any of the "fun" things I normally do to keep myself sane, and just today I finally got together enough to make dinner. :) ... If Rob and I had known how hard the surgery and circumstances would be, we would have done it differently. But, can't change it now, and we're making it. And for now, that's good enough.

We love you all.

Tamra

Knee Surgery and IGERT

I'll send a little more detail later as we get detail. But Rob was in contact with many people today about the IGERT Fellowship. They all were very willing to work with him and get things in order so it's worth everyone's time to take the Fellowship. Rob just officially accepted the Fellowship and is excited about it. What the scholarship means for us is a hefty raise, along with the prestige of the award, as well as hopefully opening more doors for Rob in his career in the future. Rob will still be able to do the Procter and Gamble rotation this summer that he's so excited about. And it looks like we'll be able to work out Dr. R (his mentor) paying for family insurance (the one major expense this scholarship would increase for us). They're also willing to decrease the amount of classes Rob will have to take and they said they'd be willing to let him take them slowly, like one at a time, so he won't miss a lot of time in the lab. So all's looking pretty good.

Other than that, Rob's knee is doing okay. He's still feeling crappy and he's not able to do much at all, but he's feeling better. Not much to say on it. I took a picture of it for you all to see. We just took off all the dressings today. The leg is pretty swollen, but there's not much discoloration yet. I'm sure that will come.

Tamra

Rob's Knee Surgery

Well, some of you already know all this, so forgive the repeat. But here's the news from today.

To start with, I was really bored. :) Okay, that wasn't a tragedy, it was inevitable. But nevertheless, it was beyond true. I was the third person there in the waiting room and not a single person who started there with me (or was there even soon after that) was there when I left. They had all left hours before. I have now seen more soaps in a day than I have in the rest of my life combined (which means I watched 2 today). I saw Ellen (she's really funny), watched the entire process of the Pope being elected, from the announcers saying, "Is it really white smoke?" to the announcement in Latan, to the Swiss Guard and all the ceremony following. It was REALLY cool. I wrote a letter, wrote in my journal, read 50 pages in a book, ate very little and slept not at all (unfortunately on both counts). And all of this BEFORE 2:30pm.

Now, what you want to hear about. Rob went in at 8:30am. He was in good spirits and we were laughing about stuff. They gave him a local block for his leg. (He's just now, actually, finally starting to feel the ice pack on his knee.) They did the surgery. I was talking to the doctor who did the surgery, Dr. Kenter, at noon. He showed me pictures which were cool. Basically, from what he said, there was some more damage in there than they expected to see. Not unusual damage, though. There was a little arthritis in there. And the back of the knee cap was really worn down, which he didn't expect at all. But, he said because of that, it's a good thing that Rob went with the type of surgery he went with (there are 2 options), the hamstring option. The other option that he didn't choose would have taken away some strength from the knee cap, and he said with the damage there it just wouldn't have been good. So, that was nice to hear, that we made the right choice. But in spite of the damage, he said the surgery went really well. He sounded really positive and was impressed with his own handiwork, which is good. He said we'll have to see how it heals, but he expected it to go well and was optimistic. He also showed me a picture that caught my eye. You know how you see like shark attack wounds when they're fresh, and the flesh is just shredded? That's what this looked like. I think that was supposed to be his ACL. I can't be sure about that, and I'm sure he'll tell Rob on Monday when he goes for a return appt., but whatever it was, it was DEFINITELY not supposed to look like that. It just looked like carnage inside the body. Wow.

So all in all, we're glad we did the surgery now before the damage got worse.

As for recovery, Rob has a brace that he's supposed to wear (I don't know until when) that keeps his leg absolutely straight. He can weight bear on it, and he's already done so to get up the stairs to our apt. He is supposed to do minor exercises for now and hobble around and try to get off crutches as soon as he can, like in the next week or two, I think. Really, it sounds good. I guess there are a couple different philosophies doctors can take after this surgery. For instance, my friend's doctor is apparently anti-brace. Thinks people can rely on them too much. Obviously Rob's doctor is okay with braces. And that's okay with me. The drug docs said the pain will be the worst tonight and tomorrow, and if tonight is any indication, Rob should be okay. Granted, he's only sitting on the couch, but that's okay for now. The doc sounded like Rob will really be able to go as full speed as he wants to, within some guidelines. And we now own some cool equipment--crutches, a leg brace, and some rad ice pack that's like a cooler that constantly pumps ice cold water into a pack covering his leg. He's supposed to keep ice on it for at least 24 - 48 hours following surgery.

Other than that, let's see. Rob is not very grouchy now, which is nice. He was pretty out of it and grouchy when he first came out, which wasn't so easy. I guess I just didn't remember that pain and drugs do that (I'm sure I was like that after the 2 C's I had). Oh! That's right. The other thing the doc said was that he was able to repair Rob's miniscus, which is good. It'll increase recovery time, though. He said normally for the surgery they start pretty agressive therapy right away, with full range of motion. Well, with this, it'll be about 6 weeks before they start doing that kind of stuff. He made it sound to me like Rob should not move his knee past 90 degrees for those 6 weeks. I'm sure we'll find out more as it goes on.

Really, right now we're just going with the flow. And hopefully tonight things go just fine sleeping, cause I'm really tired, and Rob's really tired.

And S, don't feel bad. Rob's Mom came down to help us with the kids, or I'd be calling in favors from just about everyone I know. :) As it was, she was at our house to watch the kids from when we left at 6:45am - 5:00pm. And my good friend across the way cooked dinner for us, which was really nice. Even though I told her not to bother, we'd have it all taken care of, it was REALLY nice to have it taken care of by her. And with me and Rob not so emotionally on top of the world, it's nice to have Grandma here to help with everything we still have to do--like be nice to our kids.

We love you all and we'll keep you updated as this goes on.

Tamra

The latest

Happy birthday, J. :)

Well, we're all doing okay here, meaning we're all alive and happy, so that's a good start.

I finally went to a doctor on Saturday for my sinus infection that wouldn't go away. I read a little on sinus infections and was seeing things like "chronic symptoms" and "could last for months to years," and I was inspired to go get an antibiotic. Lo and behold, the doc agreed that I was sick and gave me 2 drugs: an antibiotic and a decongestant-type. I feel much better and on Sunday, for the first time in a week, my ears didn't ring and I wasn't feeling a ton of pressure in them. So I'm well on my way to getting better (I hope). There's still some congestion, but it's so much better than it was, and my head is no longer throbbing when I get tired.

Elijah started getting a fever on Friday night. I didn't think much of it because he wasn't acting really cranky or anything. He was sleeping a lot and acting a little lethargic. I just assumed he was teething. Anyways, he had his 12 month visit yesterday, and by the time we got to the doctor's office his eyes were goopy and swollen and red and his nose was just gross. He still had the same low fever from 3 days ago (we hadn't given him any medicine). The doctor checked his ears and he not only has a double ear infection, but the doctor said it's one of the worst ear infections he's seen this year. So, how about that, my kid is a stand out. :) Luckily we had a doctor's appointment anyways, cause I probably would not have brought him in. ... Last night he woke up screaming in pain, and I felt really bad for him. It's brought back memories of an ear infection I had when I was young. I remember waking up in the middle of the night thinking I was going to die and being really mad at Mom for not taking me to the doctor RIGHT THEN. :) And I remember the pink medicine that I took religiously on time because I didn't want to be in any more pain. ... Elijah also picked up a hacking cough last night, so we set up a humidifier to try to help, again taking me back to my childhood. A humidifier is still a comfort object for me. :) ... After the doctor told us about the ear infection, I started thinking about what Elijah was doing to show us he had an infection. He hasn't been tugging on his ear, but he's been giving us and other people this weird sideways look where he scrunches up his ear down by his shoulder. He's also been occasionally grabbing his head with both hands in some sort of frustrated something (obviously, now, pain). I feel like a bad mom. But at least he's only been really sick since Friday.

As a side note, I called Rob's mom to tell her about how we were sick down here and she told me about Rob's sister and her family. They have 2 cases of strep, 2 kids with upper respiratory infections, and 1 kid (the baby) with an ear infection. So I guess our family is behind. :)

Anyways, the rest of us (meaning Rob and Miciah) are just fine. Rob is anxious for the surgery coming up, and we're semi-battling the insurance company to make sure they'll cover it. They sent him a form asking about pre-existing condition stuff. Everyone we've talked to in person says it should be covered because it doesn't qualify as a pre-existing condition, but they won't give us any guarantee. Well, we're going to make sure we have a guarantee before the surgery.

My friend that had the same surgery Rob is going to have is now in her 5th week since the surgery of being on crutches. She still can not bear weight on the leg. Let us hope Rob is not the same way. Her injury (though the same injury) was worse, and she was on crutches even before the surgery. She has 4 kids, including a 5 month-old. The ward has been helping her out a lot.

That's us. Hopefully next time I write, Elijah and I will be all better.

Tamra

Elijah turns 1!

Here are 2 pictures from one of Elijah's birthday parties. We had cake with icing. It's not as good as Chocolate Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cake, but it makes for better pictures of Elijah. ... It's so cute and yet still SOOO GROSS! :)

Tamra

The start of the beginning...

We went up to see Rob's family this last weekend. Rob was on spring break, so we went up Thursday and stayed until Saturday. His sister and her family were moving into a new house less than a mile away, so in many ways it was an easy move. And there were a lot of people helping. We had a little Easter celebration Saturday, which was fun.

We have missed C, my kids' surrogate grandmother. We went to see R one night so he didn't feel left out. :) He was glad that he didn't go to CA cause all it did was rain while C was there! I went to see C when she got back yesterday. She gave me the gifts from her and Mom (thanks, Mom), and we gave each other big hugs. I also brought Elijah so she could play with him.

Rob's little brother got his mission call this week. He leaves in July for Manaus, Brazil, which, interestingly enough, is the same place Rob's other brother went on his mission (he got back Dec 2003).

Rob just found out that he needs knee surgery, if people don't know that. He has a torn ACL and miniscus (however you spell that), and has had these problems for the last 3 years. It's finally gotten bad enough (and our insurance good enough) that we're having it taken care of. His surgery is scheduled for April 19th. It's an outpatient surgery, and we've been told the recovery won't be horrible, but he'll probably be on crutches for like 2 weeks. So that's relatively big news.
The IGERT scholarship Rob has applied to, which would give us a healthy raise starting this next school year. They still haven't made a decision on it, as far as we know, but they have moved up the deadline on making that decision from April 15th to April 1st. So hopefully Friday or Monday we will have some news for people one way or the other. Rob has told Dr. R that he will be working in his lab for the rest of the time he's here doing his doctorate. He's thinking he'll try to do a collaborative project with both labs he's done a rotation with (Dr. R and Dr. N). They're both real positive about that.

Our entire family, minus Rob, is recovering from sicknesses. Elijah had a nasty something or other for about a week, but is back to 100% happy and healthy now. Miciah still had a cough yesterday and was sleepy, but appears to be fine today. I have some congestion, but I feel much better today than I did yesterday. We were thinking about going to see Julie and baby, but with us all getting over being sick, we'll wait another day or so before we go over. I think tomorrow we'll all be well enough, if they want to come to Elijah's b-day party (see next paragraph), but if they're not there, we'll think about Thursday or so going to see them.

This next week, Elijah's birthday is Wednesday. We're having 2 b-day "parties" (parties meaning we're having cake and icecream and hopefully people bring no gifts at all or really cheap ones). One with R & C and hopefully S (J & J, too?) on Tuesday. Then we're heading back up to Rob's sister's place this weekend (he has 2 sisters that live about 10 minutes away from each other (and less than 2 hours away from us). We'll be staying at the house of the sister who didn't just move). We'll watch Conference on their satelite, enjoy family time, and have Elijah's b-day party. It's exciting for us to have a weekend "off" where we don't have to be in town by Sunday morning.

Anyways, so that's us. Probably more than you all wanted to know, but that's how it goes, I guess. :) We love you all!

Tamra

Application to IGERT Program - Rob

Rob's essay application to the IGERT program, which he got into.

Application to IGERT Program, University of Cincinnati

My senior year at Brigham Young University I took a Medical Parasitology course from Dr. Jim Jensen, known for his research on malaria. As he told me about the lifecycle of the malaria parasite, my thoughts turned to how the immune system could be stimulated to either fight or prevent the 300 million annual cases throughout the world. As I have pondered this I have come to recognize the need for an effective malaria vaccine. I believe prevention is the key to fighting this disease as well as many others, including HIV.

In order to reach this goal I must gain an understanding of vaccine adjuvants. Nearly all adjuvants are agents that operate at interfaces. Liposomes have repeatedly been shown to provide this adjuvant active interface. It is this important interaction between liposomal membranes and the cells of the immune system that I want to research and utilize in vaccine development. Most interactions in the body occur between membrane interfaces. For this reason I must acquire a broad exposure to membrane science and technology in order to become a leader in this field. The IGERT Program at the University of Cincinnati can provide me with this exposure.

I am applying to the IGERT Program as a current graduate student at the University of Cincinnati. I was accepted into the Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine doctoral program and began my coursework in June of 2004. Naturally, as a second year student I would be willing to fulfill any extra requirements expected by the IGERT Program.

During my first summer semester I did my research rotation in the lab of Gregory Retzinger. I specifically selected his lab because of his expertise in liposomal biology, adjuvants, and his understanding of membrane science. I felt that studying with him as a mentor would provide me with the needed expertise to pursue a malaria vaccine. The project that would most benefit me in this goal is the research proposal that was accepted by the IGERT Program as a potential dissertation topic (proposal 05-09). Dr. Retzinger and I became aware of the IGERT Program and felt that it would be a tremendous opportunity to give me a broad knowledge of membrane science and technology, helping me become an expert in the field of liposomal vaccine adjuvants. I would get to benefit from the expertise of the many IGERT faculty at the University of Cincinnati, instead of just one. This broad knowledge will help me understand the many potential biological applications of liposomal technology.

My acceptance into the program would fulfill one of the goals of the UC-IGERT Program, to bring more students into the study of membrane science and technology, producing more experts. The project in the Retzinger lab will help me pursue both the program’s goals as well as my own. I believe that this program will help get us closer to a malaria and HIV vaccine.

Pictures of Rob and Tamra

Rob and I went to a Valentine's Dance at the church last night. Rob wore his tux and I wore my wedding dress which I revised with a ribbon. I love it. My friend did my hair and I was the belle of the ball, which has never happened to me before. It was kind of nice.

Tamra

Exerpt from a Personal Letter

This is an exerpt from a letter I wrote to J after he had a hard experience at the MTC. They're good thoughts and tell quite a bit about me.

I've been told that perhaps I should try to write something insightful or brilliant about your MTC experience. I'm not sure that's in me. :) BUT, I can tell you that a lot of those feelings and thoughts you described, I know them exactly. You and I are a lot alike. Which is probably why we can drive each other crazy sometimes. :) ... All I want you to know is that, when I look back on my life, the times when I KNEW I was right and others wrong, ... I was the one who was wrong. I don't mean that my opinions have completely changed, though quite a few have. ... I spent a lot of time "testing" people. If they were offended or put off by me, that was THEIR choice. They reacted poorly and whose fault was that? Not mine. But over time I have come to realize that in large part, the problem was MINE. Sure, they reacted poorly. But if I hadn't acted poorly in the first place, they wouldn't have had the opportunity to REact poorly. And that's where I was wrong. The problem all along was mine.

My turnaround came when there was a man whose love and presence overcame me (this wasn't Rob). He had the Spirit with him, and I could not deny that. He would say comments I had disagreed with before, but the Spirit confirmed them and so it was me who changed. The man is an ultra conservative Mormon. Imagine that! I realized that even those who I felt could teach me nothing, could teach me a lot. So I started keeping a tally of sorts. I studied people. I found people who were truly happy (in at least one area) and tried to figure out why. And then, when I found enough patterns, I started doing the things the happy people did. Crazy enough I found 2 things out from this: 1 - a lot of happy patterns were simple Sunday School answers. Prayer, scripture study, ... 2 - when I did these things, I was happy, too.

So, moral of my story. When you think you're right and others wrong, that you have so much to teach and others so much to learn, usually, it's you who's wrong and you who has a lot to learn. (I'm using "you" here as a "you" anyone and everyone, not a "you" J.) When you open yourself, your brain and your heart, to the fact (I didn't say "idea." It's a FACT) that every single person you come in contact with has something to teach you (sometimes it's what not to do), if you choose to learn from them, you will be a better person.

I challenge you to do that. If you're already doing this, great. If not, start NOW. And I'll start renewing this also. I have done this in the past a lot, looking for SPECIFIC things, but have not recently. You and I can both be ready to learn a lot. That'll be good for us.

Giving Glory to God - a talk by Rob

This was a talk Rob gave in church. He doesn't write out his talks any more, which is a shame. Writing it out makes it easier to share! (this part written Nov. 2008)

Giving Glory to God

In one of my courses a journal article was suggested. It was a review about the advances of cell biology. The opening paragraph, I thought related perfectly to my topic today.

“The greatest scientific advance of the last 1000 years was providing the evidence to prove that human beings are independent agents whose lives on earth are neither conferred nor controlled by celestial forces. Although it may be more conventional to measure scientific progress in terms of specific technological developments, nothing was more important than providing the means to release men and women from the domination of the supernatural.”

Seeking our own glory isn’t a new plague in the world. It has been a struggle since the beginning.

“And I the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.” (Moses 4:1)

Satan’s goals were selfish. Satan’s approach to the plan of salvation would have completely disregarded the Plan Maker. Now, as I was preparing this talk I thought perhaps a blasphemous thought. Isn’t God really seeking for His own glory? All that we do is to be directed to Him. He should be thanked for all our accomplishments. We are to thank Him for all things. We are to let our lights shine so that the people of the world can see our good works and not praise us but praise our Father in Heaven. We know that regardless of how righteous we are and what kind of wonderful things we are able to do that there are consequences of seeking for our own glory.

“For although a man may have many revelations, and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength, and sets at naught the counsels of God, and follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires, he must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon him.” (D&C 3:4)

So, why should I get punished and humbled by God for seeking for the same thing that God himself is seeking?

Now, before I get struck by lightning allow me to share a familiar scripture, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (read twice)

We, as children of our Father in Heaven, are his glory. We are his work. Leading us to eternal life is what brings him joy. It is incredible to me to realize that God, the creator of worlds without end and supreme ruler of the universe finds glory in me. His purpose is to give me all he can and lead me to eternal life. Is it not in order for us then to recognize him in all we have?

Elder Marvin J. Ashton once told about a successful member of the church. Quoting from this talk Elder Ashton stated that, “This man had been quite successful in land development and everything he touched had turned to gold. He’d also tried to live a faithful life and had been a very active servant in the gospel. Then he’d been called as a mission president. Throughout his life he’d experienced one success after another—he was a recognized leader in his community, had built a prosperous business. Being called as a mission president had sort of cemented in his mind that he’d made it. When he returned from his mission, a combination of changing interest rates and other business factors caused his once prosperous business to plummet. In fact, he’d lost nearly everything. Telling the story, this man said, “I realized that I’d become quite boastful—that while I felt I had a testimony of Jesus Christ, in my mind I had brought about all of these wonderful things through my hard work, intelligence, and so forth. But when hard times hit, I began to realize how offensive I must have been to others and to my Heavenly Father to assume that I had brought all of these good things on my own. I felt like I’d lived a life of arrogance and boasting.”

Elder Marlin K. Jensen once said in a General Conference address, “When our eyes are fixed on God’s glory, we feel the majesty of His creations and the grand scope of His work on this earth. We feel humble to be participants in His latter-day kingdom. If we pause and quietly reflect on our role in all of this, we will come to know that placing our egos and our vain ambitions on the sacrificial altar is one of the most important offerings we can ever make.”

Alma stated this type of attitude perfectly, “this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God,” (Alma 29:9). Gods wants us to be successful. He wants us become known in the world. Successful members of the Church, through tithing and offerings will only advance the work of the Lord at a greater pace, allowing more temples to be built and more help to go to those in need. Influential members of the church play a role in opening doors to the gospel message throughout the world. Each needs to ask himself, “What are the desires of my heart? What is my work and what is my glory?

I learned a valuable lesson on my mission regarding the desires of my heart. I wanted to be a great missionary. I wanted to partake of the gifts of the spirit. I wanted to have some incredible stories to tell people when I got home. You know, things like “I heard the still small voice, or I felt this prompting and then we went down this street and we found a golden investigator or I spoke in tongues one day, or I healed a man with leprosy . . . you know just your usual mission stories. Anyway, my mission president had challenged us all to seek after the gifts of the spirit and pray for specific ones, which I did. Sure, I felt promptings and the spirit and taught people the gospel, but it wasn’t until I realized that my motivation in gaining the gifts of the spirit was wrong that a new understanding of God’s power was opened to me. It was only after I desired to be given those gifts, so that I could better teach the gospel and bring more people back to their heavenly father, that I began to experience and understand the true power of our Father in Heaven. Those experiences became sacred to me and are only shared during certain circumstances.

Quoting from Elder Jensen again he stated, “This kingdom will roll forward with or without us as individuals. Men and Women who even momentarily take their eyes off of God’s glory and seek to exalt themselves, or who become entangled in the vain things of this world, will find that the kingdom quickly moves on without them.

To those faithful Latter-day Saints whose view of their own importance in God’s plan is in perspective, the Lord has promised: “And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.

Therefore, sanctify yourselves that you minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.” (D&C 88:67-68.)

Brothers and sisters; let us glorify our Father in Heaven who has given us all that we have and allow him to fill our bodies with His light and His Glory. I know he will. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.