Daughters in My Kingdom

The LDS church recently gave a copy of this book to every woman in the church, for free. "Daughters in My Kingdom" is a book about the history and heritage of Relief Society.

Relief Society is the largest women's organization in the world. Every woman in the church over 18 years old is automatically a member of this great society. There are no membership fees. Each woman is a part of a great worldwide sisterhood.

This book opened my eyes to the great work Relief Society has been doing since it was founded in 1842. Relief Society is so much more than a meeting we attend during our 3-hour church services. The organization of Relief Society was an important part of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Prophet Joseph Smith said that "The Church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized." The Relief Society and the Priesthood work hand in hand to build up the kingdom of God on earth.

After reading this book, I have never been more grateful to be a part of Relief Society. The heritage of Relief Society is rich, and I am excited to do my part to carry the work of Relief Society forward!

If you don't have a copy, you can read it online here.

The Fruits of Our Labors

Remember when we planted our first garden back in March?

What was supposed to be 70 days has ended up being closer to 250 days, but our pepper plant finally has peppers!!!

We're guessing we have 3 yellow bell peppers and 1 green bell pepper.

Also, our gardenia and marigolds have flowered again:

And our tomato plant finally has blossoms!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, there are only a couple blossoms and we don't yet know if they will make it all the way to tomatoes, but we were excited to see blossoms! We had pretty much given up on our pepper and tomato plants ever producing fruit, but we still took care of the plants. PE has been faithful and diligent in watering them and trimming down the tomato plant so it doesn't take over our second bedroom.

We had good/fast success with our green beans, so it was easy to get discouraged with the pepper and tomato plants. But even though it seemed like the pepper and tomato plants would never bear fruit, we still kept them and watered them in the hopes that they might bear fruit.

Everything grows at its own pace and not always within the timetable we had in mind, but with patience and hope we will see the fruits of our labors.

Changes

Just as the seasons are changing, so are our lives! A week and a half ago, my little sister got her mission call!!! We are thrilled to have a missionary in the family! A lot of family and friends predicted she would serve state-side, but none of us guessed it would be in Alaska!!! The Anchorage, Alaska mission covers all of Alaska and part of Canada. She reports to the MTC on January 11, 2012. We are super excited for her! However, it feels really weird to have my little sister going out on a mission...When did we all grow up???

Another good change in our lives is that PE got a new job! I am super proud of him!!! This is his third week at his new job. PE is a Civil Engineer for the company MWH Global. They deal with a lot of water/wastewater projects around the world. The office he works at is in South Jordan, but they will be relocating their office by the end of the year. We were not too excited about the commute from Bountiful, but it really hasn't been as bad as we thought. It looks like we will at least be living in Bountiful until February, but after that we don't know. It seems to be a good job that will allow PE to get the experience he needs to take the P.E. exam and get his professional engineering license.

On my end of things, I am submitting a 200 page thesis to my professors tomorrow. They get 4 weeks to look over it and suggest revisions, and then I get to DEFEND!!! It's been a long process, but I am really happy with how my project has turned out! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!

"Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice"

How blessed we are to be able to listen to a living Prophet today! General Conference was full of wonderful and uplifting messages. We live in a troubled world, but we need not fear for God is with us. The messages shared in Conference were truly inspired words from our Father in Heaven who knows us personally. I know that some of the messages were meant just for me. I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ; it continues to bring great peace and happiness into our lives. I love our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson; and I know that he speaks the word of God.

"A Family Affair"

A few years ago I was going through my Grandma's recipe book. She passed away when I was little and I have few memories of her. Her recipe book contained more than recipes, it contained some of her thoughts. This was my favorite, and I was reminded of it today:

"In the 'good' old days, mealtime was a bond that held a family together. I will admit that life was simpler then. For one thing, the mother was usually in the home. For another thing there was no TV. Think about it. When all members of the family knew they were expected to be present -on time- for 2 or 3 meals a day, there was confidence in the stability of the family. There was security in the good meal the mother had prepared. Ideally it was a time to share the day's experiences and help each other with problems. It took a lot of love and concern from everyone to make it fun, educational, valuable.

I wish everyone would try hard to make at least one meal a day a Family Affair."

Thanks for the wonderful advice Grandma!

The Joy of Change

May was a crazy month! Finishing up our last college classes, apartment shopping, celebrating our 3rd Anniversary, packing, moving, unpacking, job searching, interviews, etc. So here are some highlights:

Although we've lived in Logan for 3 years, this is the first year we actually got to celebrate our anniversary in Logan. We ate a delicious dinner at one of our favorite places in Logan, the Indian Oven. We highly recommend their chicken coconut kurma!



We really love Logan, and were sad to have to move. Especially after doing some apartment shopping in Bountiful, we really didn't want to leave our nice yet inexpensive apartment in Aggie Village. But we finally found a reasonable place to live.

We really dislike moving...





We ran into a few difficulties in our new place. First we noticed we were missing one of these:



(The rod, not the curtain)

And then we discovered we were missing one of these:



(the rod, not the toilet paper)

And of course, the apartment complex forgot to get our gas turned on and since we moved on Friday, we couldn't reach Questar until Monday, and then they didn't come until Tuesday to turn our gas on. Having no hot water stinks, but fortunately our parents live close by so we were able to shower and wash laundry.

It also took us a while to get our dishwasher to work. It wasn't doing a very good job at cleaning our dishes, so we discovered that if we add Lemi-Shine with our detergent it works much better. It also works better when there are not 2 baby spoons jammed in the bottom sprayer. I wonder if the previous tenants knew where their baby spoons ended up...

Our new place:

Love is a Choice

When we were dating, I remember one night PE asked me "How do you know when you're in love?" PE and I were each others first boyfriend/girlfriend, so we had never "been in love" before. We talked about it that night, and we both expressed how we felt like a large part of it was a decision. That you had to choose to be in love.

Love is a choice. I know that now. We choose who we love, and we choose the people that we don't love. Love does not just happen.

I believe man was created to act for himself, and not to be acted on by others. Circumstances don't make the man, rather the man makes his circumstances.

To believe that love just happens or just dies is to believe we are puppets who have no control over the relationships in our lives. I do not believe that.

I understand that there is an actual physical/biochemical process that we call attraction that can occur. But to base love solely on attraction is absurd. Physical attraction is where a signal molecule acts on us to trigger a physical response. And the signal pathways in our cells can become desensitized to the signal molecule over time, which means that this type of attraction can disappear.

Do we let tiny molecules that we cannot even see dictate who we love? And do we let those molecules decide when we stop loving someone? Absurd, right?

I chose to love my husband, and he chose to love me. I choose to develop that love by serving him, by supporting him, and by listening to him. And if I ever speak ill of my husband, that is me choosing to not love him.

Love is a choice. How are we making that choice?

General Conference

General Conference was amazing!!! It is so nice to be able to dedicate a Saturday and Sunday to listening to our living prophets! Their messages are truly inspired words from God. I especially loved Elder Scott's tender testimony of the blessings and happiness that come from celestial marriage. I too have a testimony that celestial marriage is an incredible source of happiness. It is a key pillar in the Plan of Happiness, and is an essential step in our eternal progression.

Our Garden!!!

PE and I started a garden over Spring Break!!! PE read the following article in the Ensign and it inspired us to try container gardening in our apartment.

http://lds.org/ensign/2011/03/seeds-of-self-reliance?lang=eng&query=gardening

These are the seeds we decided to plant:


We used a seed-starting kit:



It was really fun to see them start sprouting!!!

Day 5:


Day 7:



Day:11

Wax beans grow really fast!


Peas!


Tomatoes!


Day 17:

The peppers took the longest to sprout, we worried that they weren't going to!



Day 21:

Is there a Doctor in the House?

Life is full of twists and turns. It has a way of taking us places we never expected to go. This semester my #1 goal was to finish my Masters. In order to achieve this goal, I am taking 17 credits of graduate coursework, and I am working 30 hours a week on my thesis. On top of this, PE and I are Resident Assistants, so we have those duties to fulfill as well.

So far, I have had a very productive semester. I am doing well in all my classes, and making progress on my thesis. But it is so busy that days feel like weeks and weeks feel like months. I am very grateful for the Sabbath, because I truly need a day of rest from my labors.

Well, even with all this hard work, it doesn't look like my thesis will be finished by May. I will have all the credits I need, but my project won't be finished which means no graduation. :( But I have been expecting this to happen since no one in my department has EVER finished their Masters in one year.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was meeting with my professors about my thesis, and they told me that I was really close to getting a PhD. My thesis is really PhD material, and so the only thing that stands in my way is 60 more credits. Going into the Master program, I knew that my professors would try to get me to stay for a PhD (I had been warned by students that had gone before me), and I was convinced that nothing they could say would make me even consider a PhD. Boy was I wrong!

Now, I'm not saying that I will get a PhD, but I am saying that it is a possibility. And no one is surprised more than I am that I am actually considering this route. Now a lot of things will depend on if/when/where PE gets a job. But knowing that my project will probably take another year, then why not take extra credits and make a PhD out of it? Most students spread the 30 credits out over 2 years, but I did the 30 credits in 2 semesters. And the nice thing about the PhD credits, is that most of them can be research credits (so I get credits for working on my project). Also, my tuition would be completely covered, and I would still get paid a monthly stipend. And I get good health insurance for a really low price!

By my calculations, I could graduate with a PhD by Dec. 2012. I would be 24 years old with a PhD in Biological Engineering. I would also be the only one on my side and my husband's side of the family with a PhD (that I am aware of).