Christmas has come and gone and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I am in denial to tell you the truth.... I still have my tree and all my decorations up, and as you can see, I still have my Christmas playlist on my blog... it's such a wonderful time of year and I am trying with all my might to keep it alive... and failing miserably.... the new year is almost here... I wonder what 2009 holds in store for all of us???? So, to end the season, here are some pics from our Christmas Festivities:
Then on Saturday, Rob's parents arrived and we started the morning off right with Rob's mom's famous Cinnamon Twists and egg casserole! Sooo yummy!!! Shannon did an amazing job on the twists! She's a 'dough ball making" PRO!!!! The kids played in the snow almost all day long! And then we had Rob's dad's birthday dinner.... prime rib, roasted carrots, bacon-wrapped potatoes, Artisan salad, crescent rolls to die for (again, HOMEMADE with love by Shannon), sweet n' spicy green beans and to top it all off, the ALL-AMERICAN Chocolate Cake from Costco with ice cream on top! Whoa is all I have to say. Everything was delicious! Then, sadly most everyone left on Sunday, except for Rob's parents and our niece and nephews who stayed until Monday. We were very sad to see everyone leave. We had alot of fun and all the cousins had a blast together!
Have you read the Presidency Message in this month's Ensign? I love this article. It's even more special because Rob's dad informed us that Margaret Kisilevich Wright is Rob's Grandpa's brother's wife. (LOL Ok, I know it's kind of distant, but still, it's pretty cool!) It's so neat to learn things about people in your family tree. I love that she didn't tell a soul about this experience until her 77th Christmas. She must have been an amazing woman! David O. McKay (1873–1970) declared: “True happiness comes only by making others happy—the practical application of the Savior’s doctrine of losing one’s life to gain it. In short, the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit, that makes our hearts glow in brotherly love and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service. “It is the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ, obedience to which will bring ‘peace on earth,’ because it means—good will toward all men.” Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than things. To catch the real meaning of the “spirit of Christmas,” we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the “Spirit of Christ.”
I just found this on msnbc.com . It was voted "Photo of the Week". Dec. 12 Congratulations to Clay Isbell of Abita Springs, La. His image of a parting storm near the summit of Wyoming’s Beartooth Highway received the most votes in this week’s It’s A Snap photo contest. Isbell was on a two-week vacation and staying at Yellowstone National Park, and decided to take the family for a drive. On their return trip from Montana, they saw the skies part while driving over the 10,000-foot summit of Beartooth Highway. Isbell says he was lucky to see such a stunning image at all. “The whole entire day was dreary — that was the first bit of sunshine we saw all day.” Isbell snapped the photo with his digital camera. He altered the image to black and white, adding, “How you see it is how it was. There was almost no color.”
Hailey played soccer this fall and she LOVED it! She was a ton of fun to watch while she would run up and down the field, trying to get the ball into her team's net. She wasn't shy at all about taking the ball from the other team... must have something to do with being "the middle child". Here's a short video of her scoring one of her goals.. She starts up again in the spring, so watch for more videos and pics!
You Are Chinese Checkers
You are good at juggling many things at once. You are the ultimate multi-tasker.
You enjoy being in a group - in fact the bigger the group, the better.
You are an enthusiastic competitor, and you can be a little ruthless when you play games.
Here's an email my mother-in-law received from her bishop...
fyi
Subject: Re: President Boyd K. Packer 10/12/08
It appears that Elder Packer did speak in his ward last Sunday but the transcription is not completely accurate regarding what he said. It is the transcriber's interpretation of what he said. That is, a well-meaning ward member transcribed Elder Packer's comments and sent it out, but the transcription contains some errors and was not approved for distribution by Elder Packer. Nonetheless, it is a very sobering talk especially when coupled with his conference talk about the sufferings the early saints endured. (name withheld for privacy purposes)
I'm always doubtful whenever I receive anything forwarded in emails-- No matter how truthful it sounds, it's almost never true.
Such is the case with this account of President Packer's talk that I received in an email. This morning I called the church offices and spoke personally with President Packer's secretary to ask about the accuracy of this email.
She confirmed that he did, in fact, speak to his ward last week about basic welfare and preparedness principles. But she was alarmed that this person in his ward took notes and wrote down what he said in the HER words, NOT President Packer's.
They have taken up the practice of recording him every time he speaks because this is something that happens often so they always need an accurate record.
One example of an inaccuracy is in the portion of this email where the transcriber states:
"And as judges in Israel, the Bishop will respond. The time for financial largess in our ward activities is over.' [President Packer then turned directly to our Bishop and counseled him that last year's youth trip to Nauvoo, which was, President Packer said, a great opportunity for testimony building and missionary work, will not happen again. Times of/for that sort of expense in the Church are past.]"
In truth, what really happened is that he spoke of some extravagant homes that have been built up around his rather modest one and how the ward might not be able to go to Nauvoo this year, then he turned to the bishop and said that the bishop was the judge in Israel here, and that decision would be up to him.
President Packer's secretary said that the real Meat from President Packer, and the intended message for the world is in last week's General Conference. And that if we really want to know what message he would have us hear, we need to listen to THAT talk, and throw THIS account of his talk away.
Sincerely,
(name withheld for privacy purposes)
I received this email from my cousin who lives in Utah. This "testimony" was written down by a woman who was blessed to hear President Packer speak on Sunday in her ward where he attends. I'm grateful she had the thought to jot down his words and share them with everyone.
Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Speaking at the Forest Bend Ward, Salt Lake City UT Sunday, October 12, 2008
“Even though I regularly have the opportunity to attend Fast and Testimony meeting, I don’t
usually stand to speak. But today, I feel moved upon by the Spirit to share a message…
Last weekend’s General Conference was different than any before. We felt that down at Church
Headquarters and have been talking about it all week. We live in troubled times. There is great
financial crisis and we’ve seen something that hasn’t happened in the last 60 years: the world’s
financial markets are collapsing. I was six years old when the Great Depression began: the 10th
of 11 children. My father was a mechanic and times were difficult for all of us. Many families
were suddenly out of work all at once. There were large public projects to try and provide
employment – like the great ditch or canal I remember being dug here in our city. It was at least
six feet deep and dug by hand, with pick and ax. Nowadays, we’d use a piece of machinery to
do it. But in those days, people worked with what we had. They were desperate times for
many. There were things as a child that I didn’t understand and was afraid of. I didn’t like to go
into the basement of our home. I thought the Boogeyman lived there. But as I grew older and
we got some lights down there, I realized that the great dark space underneath the stairs was a
large pile of old shoes. As a pair of shoes we were wearing would wear out or break down, we
didn’t throw them out. We would use a shoe from that old pile as spare parts to repair our shoes
or make new ones. It was just the way you did things in those times.
There’s a scripture that says “Yet learn we obedience by the same things we suffer.” It seems
sometimes that we don’t learn until we need to turn and rely upon the Lord. In the Book of
Mormon, well, if you looked in my copy, in the Book of Helaman about chapter 12 or 13, you’d
see that I’ve written-in a swirling chain of circles across the top of the page. It might look like
old cursive, but that’s not what it’s meant to be. It’s meant to remind me of the cycles of the
people. In times when they were blessed with great prosperity and wealth, they forgot the Lord.
Then when they fell to bad habits which led some to wickedness and placed many in peril, the
righteous would turn/return to the Lord in their humbler circumstances. It’s a cycle of prosperity
and wickedness we see repeated over and over again in the scriptures and now again in our day.
I remember once I went deer hunting with Brother Tuttle and some others. We were up in the
mountains, riding on horseback. He went up one side of the canyon, and I went up the other.
As I was riding, I bent over and just nearly kissed the saddle horn as we passed a low cedar tree
that was right by the path. Well as we passed the cedar tree, there was no more path on the other
side of it and the way before us was just a dropping hillside covered with loose shaley rock. I
kicked my feet clear of the stirrups, just in case the horse reacted badly, and it was a good thing I
did. She reared up and I was thrown back. I hit my head on some rocks and got a cut right
above my eyebrow that was bleeding heavily. I’d been holding my rifle in my hand and as my
hand flew back and hit heavily against a rock, it broke as well. So I was laying there hurt and
shaken. My companions on the other side of the canyon had seen what happened and I heard
Brother Tuttle call out “Are you hurt?” I replied “Yes, I’m bleeding!” He called out again “Are
you hurt?” I called again “Yes, I’m bleeding!”, but the wind was blowing the wrong way and
they couldn’t hear me. The fourth time this happened, I yelled in response “No!” And they
called back “Okay!” and continued to ride on up the mountain. That’s lesson one!
I finally got myself up, caught my horse down the mountain where she had gotten caught in
some branches, and managed to get into town where I was bandaged up and my hand was tended
to.
Shortly after that, I was traveling on business and was at the airport. A fellow traveler, an older
man not of our faith, saw my bandaged hand and asked if I was all right. I replied rather offhandedly.
And he responded that it was something I would remember all the rest of my days.
He then told me that he had once worked at digging a canal – now that caught my attention
because I remembered the canal I have mentioned. He said that he was out of work at the time
[the Great Depression] and couldn’t find employment. He saw the canal being dug and knew
that if he asked the foreman for a job, he would be turned away. He saw a spare pick laying
there, so he picked it up and started working. A short while later, the foreman walked by and,
not recognizing him, asked him what he was doing. He explained to me that he told the foreman
he was out of work and stated “I need to work. You don’t have to pay me, but I need to work.”
Well, as you might expect, they worked things out and he was paid for his labors. We then
proceeded to talk, this older fellow and I, and I have remembered his counsel. Now I am the old
man giving counsel to you.
In the Great Depression, people were frightened and growing more so. They began to be very
resourceful. They had to be. Looking forward, we’re all going to learn that lesson, one way or
another.
The Church is in excellent condition. You don’t need to worry about that. But as individuals we
will face difficulty. Some will come to the Bishop seeking financial aid and counsel. And as
judges in Israel, the Bishop will respond. The time for financial largess in our ward activities is
over.” [President Packer then turned directly to our Bishop and counseled him that last year’s
youth trip to Nauvoo, which was, President Packer said, a great opportunity for testimonybuilding
and missionary work, will not happen again. Times of/for that sort of expense in the
Church are past.]
President Packer then shared experiences of providing aid and service after the great Tsunami
devastated Indonesia. He recalled... “I was speaking on the phone with a government minister
who said “I’m standing in Banda Aceh and you cannot imagine what I am seeing. A city of a
million people has been swept away and there is nothing.” A week later, I was standing in area
of Banda Aceh and the need was immense.
“What do you need?” I asked. “Body bags” was the reply. So we found 20,000 body bags in
China and had them on a plane the next day.
A call came, “we need 30 [thousand] more.” We found them and they were sent.
The next call “do you have any motorcycles? We need to get back into the mountain villages
with aid and medical supplies, but the roads are gone. Trucks can’t get through and elephants
are too slow. If we had motorcycles, we could get through.”
“Are they to be found in Asia” I asked. “Yes,” he said. So we found the motorcycles and had
them on their way the next day.
The Church is sound and is able to provide these types of aid as a back-up where there is need.
We [as members and in our individual wards] are the back-up position of the Church. Learn to
apply the old Pioneer adage – “Eat [use] it up. Wear it out. Make do, or do without.” We’re
going to have to learn to do without. Again, “Eat it up. Wear it out. Make do, or do without.”
Even if we have the resources, we need to do more to be thrifty. Others will rely on us. The
Church will rely on us. It is our responsibility and duty to be caring for ourselves, our family,
and those around us. Be watching for need. Set something by that we can be of help to others
when the time comes. Trust in the counsel of our wise elders/older people.
There are nearly 60,000 missionaries serving throughout the world today. The cost to support a
missionary is right about $400 a month today. That’s $4,800 a year. Consider if we have the
resources that there may be others who don’t and who have a need. When Brother Tuttle was a
young man, he had a strong desire to serve a mission. But he didn’t have the money to pay for it,
and his family didn’t have the money for it. So Brother Tuttle thought of who was the richest
man in his town and, after saying a prayer, he approached him. A loan was made, a mission
served, and the loan repaid. Those who need our help may not always ask us.
It’s about time the Lord taught us a lesson. A great catastrophe is coming. Now I probably
shouldn’t say that because then it will happen. But it is going to happen. That’s what it will take
to turn our hearts to the Lord. And we will learn from it.
Our prayers will be different, less selfish. The scripture says “If ye are prepared, ye need not
fear.” Renew your prayers. You can [also] think a prayer. Carry a prayer in your heart
throughout the day. Learn to pray for that which is of worth. Another scripture says “…do not
spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy.” (2
Nephi 9:51) That can be applied both spiritually [to prayer] and physically. Use what we have.
If something is broken, fix it. Our young people are going to see different times than what they
are used to. To you teenagers, your life will be different. Things are changing. You will have to
do without some of the things you are used to expecting. Don’t be afraid. Change your life to do
without the extravagances and luxuries that you’ve expected.
Learn to pray. There’s a difference between ‘saying prayers’ and praying. A wonderful time is
coming – it’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be short. But don’t be afraid.
Brother Tuttle was one of the Seventy when there were just seven of them. Now there are eight
quorums of the Seventy called to go throughout all the world. It’s an apostolic calling to teach
the gospel to every nation, people and tongue. They’ll know what to do and will lead and
counsel where they are called.
Take care of what we’ve got. Begin to save. The rainy day is coming – in fact, the snowy day is
already here [in reference to today’s first winter snow]. Reset our expectations. Give up
selfishness. Wickedness is all around us. In today’s world, it’s not safe for children to be
outside alone. We need to be ever watchful. We need to protect ourselves from the wickedness,
avarice, and greed in the world.
Read the scriptures and the revelations. The guidance and counsel are there. Read with new
eyes, and the scriptures, the Book of Mormon, will take on new meaning.
As President Bush and world leaders gather in the coming week and the weeks ahead, there will
be no easy answers or solutions. Hard times are ahead and it’s difficult for them to see what to
do. It’s important to listen to the Sprit. We are led by prophets and apostles. We can see ahead.
We can be and are prepared.
I pronounce upon you an Apostolic blessing. Comfort our children. Little children can be afraid
of things we might not think of. Comfort them and strengthen our families. Turn off the
television and focus on family. Pay your tithing. The promise is there – pay your tithing and
you’ll be watched over. You’ll be alright. None of us is exempt from trials. If hard times come
upon you and your income dwindles, remember that tithing is equitable for everyone: 10%. If
you have nothing, then it’s 10% of practically nothing. Pay your tithing, do what you’re
supposed to do. You’ll be comforted.
Sure trials will come. Because of them, faith will increase. Happiness will increase. Security
will increase. You’ll be glad to be alive at this time. It’s a good time to be living. To be raising
children. I leave this testimony, counsel, and blessing with you in the holy name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.”
My blow dryer is forcing me to have a new hairdo....
Ok, maybe not THIS bad, but you get the idea. My blow dryer has literally been singeing off my hair! I think it's time for a new one....
(This is seriously just for me to have so that I remember that I actually
did it.)
Ok, I'm really not one to brag about myself (at least not to people otherOn Saturday, I ran the "Colbert Autumn Classic Half Marathon". Never in a million years would I have thought I would ever run one. I've never been a 'runner', or even had an inkling of a desire to do one. But, one of my friends had the wild idea to sign up for one, and so I figured, "When will I ever be in 'running shape' to do one again?"... so I did it. It was seriously such an amazing feeling of accomplishment! I was totally nervous... my primary goal was to just finish. My other goals were, (in no particular order),
* to run the entire thing
* to finish under 13 hours
* to live to tell the tale (and to wear my new sweatshirt!)
And I achieved every single goal! This is huge for me, since I just recently found an old list of goals that I wrote down for myself, back in 2001, and I still hadn't reached a single one! LOL
The course was beautiful, but very hilly, with gravel and paved roads. There was a killer hill at mile 8, (and of course it was GRAVEL!), along with several other really fun hills that needed to be conquered! To top it all off, it rained the entire time. (Which I was totally dreading at the beginning of the race, but once I started running, it started feeling so good to have a little mist on my face.)
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge my Heavenly Father for blessing me with a body that can do things like this! Also, to my AWESOME husband for all the support he gave me through all my early morning trainings and long Saturday morning runs. Without him, I would not have believed I could do this. Thanks babe. I also have to thank my mom, dad and Grandma for coming out IN THE RAIN and wind, to cheer me on! You are marvelous! And of course I have to thank my amazing training companions throughout the past 8 months. Shannon and Candy, thanks for encouraging me and for training on the hills that helped me have the endurance that I needed. Chari, I know I gave you a hard time for choosing such a hard half marathon as our first one, but it was awesome. Thank you for finding a race to do and for running with me! You are AWESOME! Amy, thank you for the 'juicy' topics that helped get us through our long runs! You girls rock! We did it!
To all you 'hopeless romantics', and "LIFETIME MOVIE" lovers, I came upon a great one today. LOL Rob kept asking, "Why are we watching this again?" If you have Comcast, go to "On Demand" and click on "FREE MOVIES". It's called "STAR STRUCK" and it has Kirk Cameron in it.
If you want to know what this song is from, head on over to Robbie's new blog. I promise your life will never be the same again. (Oh, and leave him a comment so he'll feel loved). :)
