Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Breaking News . . .

My Sister Terri and her husband Rock were just called to serve a two-year mission in UGANDA!!

They leave in June and will be working in the office. They just completed a five year mission in Salt Lake City and I guess thought they were ready for a little more adventure.

I am so excited for them--and a bit terrified as well. They were told they have to bring everything with them as you can't buy anything. How do you bring everything for two years?

And my husband and I have plans to fly to Israel fairly soon as well. Although the news out of Jerusalem this morning was a bit scary. We still feel good about going though. . . However if you want to pray for us . . . :-)

I talked with my mother and her comment to me was, "I sure wish you kids would all just stay home."



Saturday, March 19, 2011

So, It Started Out Being A Good Day . . .

The sister missionaries were moving in today and we were very excited!

Michelle and I spent a couple days this week--during her spring break--cleaning out the room they will use, and getting rid of a lot of stuff collected over the past 14 years.

The only thing I had to do today was finish cleaning the laundry room so we could turn half of it into a kitchenette. A stove was being delivered at noon and a refrigerator is coming on Tuesday.

I went to the sister's apartment early to load up my Tahoe with their belongings and then ran home so I could deliver lunch to a friend whose children were hit by a car yesterday while driving a golf cart across the street and just got back from the hospital. (They are okay, but the boy is pretty banged up.)

Then Wes and I were going to hurry and work on the laundry room before his training meeting at 1--that was to be followed by a baptism and then over to friends to watch the BYU basketball game.

A good day, right?

WRONG!

While moving a box in the laundry room I discovered the wall was wet. The entire wall, actually. I groaned, realizing that a wet wall had to mean we had a plumbing leak. I gave Wes the bad news and he started ripping out the drywall to locate the water source.

A friend came by to help him take the cabinet off the wall (the father of the kids who were hit by a car) and later another friend came to help as well.

This is my basement now. The white spot on the wall is where the cabinet once was.


They have taken out a good portion of the wall and cut two holes in the ceiling so they could reach up and cut out a pipe. We believe the leak is coming from the upstairs bathroom, which could also mean my bathroom floor may need to be ripped out as well.

In the meantime--there is no place to put the oven or the fridge. My husband missed his training meeting and will probably miss the baptism, and our bathroom is off limits until the leak is fixed--which will take a couple days.

UGH!!

But . . . I prefer to think happy thoughts. Like about this cute little guy below who is growing up much too fast!


And of course if BYU wins, it will certainly help to bring great . . . joy to my journey!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Letters to Lisa--or the random happenings of my life

I haven't written on my blog very much lately. I think perhaps it is because when you only write once a week or less, you feel what you say has to be profound, and absent a profound thought, you just don't write.

But I was sending an email to my friend Lisa, and noticed how easily words come when I am writing her. They still lack profundity, but at least they come easily. :-) So I decided to just post a few of the things I write her. . . .

In a desperate measure to find clothes that fit, (I am going on a trip in a few weeks and need some clothes for it) I went shopping at the mall today--something I usually try to avoid, especially during spring break. That is when I discovered that men's shirts are much cuter than women's. I was in the ladies section at Penney's and everything was black, tan and white. I went to the men's and they had all these purple and pink shirts. Seriously. What is happening in our culture when men's clothes are cuter than the women's?!! Although, now I am thinking about going back and buying a couple of those shirts. Really.

I also learned today that I am addicted to sugar and cinnamon coated almonds. I received a package of them as a gift. I was going to save them for an upcoming trip, but instead made the mistake of opening the package for just a taste. Now I have to hide them at the top and back of my cupboard so I won't eat them all. But I realized there "ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no river wide enough"--to keep me from eating them. I am as bad as Wes with potato chips.

But the biggest event of my day today is that my mother had a surgical procedure this morning. It is just one more medical treatment in a long line of treatments that she is supposed to have regularly. But the last time it was done, she was in so much pain afterward, she did not want to do it again. However, she finally gave in and scheduled it.

I was so worried about her that I didn't sleep much last night and stayed by my phone all morning until my father called me with the news that all was well. I am so amazed at my mother. I had a stiff neck for a couple days and was ready to call it a good life and move on to the next, rather than continue with my suffering. :-) And yet my mother suffers greatly every single day and manages to still have a good attitude about life. I honestly do not know how she does it. She is truly amazing. But I really hope my future does not hold the same kind of physical suffering she has had to experience. Although with the way my hips hurt all the time, I am afraid it does. . . . Ahhh aging. As they say, "It isn't for sissies."

Lastly--it appears the sister missionaries are going to move into our house. I was talking with them a few weeks ago when it occurred to me that we have all this empty space in our basement and since neither of my college daughters are planning on coming home this summer, the house will stay empty. So, why not fill it up with missionaries, right? :-) I am very excited about it actually.

So that is the latest from our house . . . not overly exciting, and certainly not profound, but just enough good to bring . . . joy to our journey.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Parenting Tips From Our Conference Visitor

We had our stake conference yesterday and Elder Ballard from the Quorum of the Twelve and Elder David LeSueur, an area authority from Mesa, addressed us. I loved both their talks--on both days---but particularly wanted so share a few stories/insights from Elder LeSueur. I am not printing up the notes in detail, this is just my summary of his thoughts, comments and advice.

Enjoy!

1. It is the role of parents to introduce their children to the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost introduces them to the Savior and the Savior leads them back to the Father.

Therefore, we must create an environment in our home that invites the Spirit. Wise parents will be careful what music is played, what movies are watched and what TV is allowed, etc.

2. The role of parents is not to raise children to adulthood, but rather to raise them to righteous Parenthood.

He then added a saying he likes, “If you want to know what kind of parents you have been, don’t look at your children, look at your grandchildren.” (If your grandchildren turn out well, then you know you raised your children to righteous parenthood.)

3.We should work 10 times harder to find our kids doing something right than doing something wrong, and then celebrate it. When our kids do something good and we celebrate it, we are not only strengthening that positive behavior, but we are also building their self worth. And later in life when temptations come—as they will—their knowledge of their importance in their family and to their Heavenly Father will strengthen them against the temptation.

4. When we read the scriptures we should not do it for mileage, nor for scholarship (as in we don’t have to be smarter than anyone else). We should do it for discipleship. We need to ask ourselves, what am I supposed to learn? How am I supposed to apply it? How will it change my life?

5. Counsel he received before getting married, “You can be right, or you can be happy. He said he had no idea what that meant initially, but after being married he did. He commented that the only times he has been unhappy in his marriage is when he was insisting on being right.

He further counseled that we shouldn’t turn 50 cent issues into million dollar ones and then quoted an African saying, “When two elephants fight—the grass always loses".

6.He told a story of having breakfast with his five year old grandson. He was in a hurry to get to work on the farm, but his grandson was eating very slowly. In an effort to speed him up, Elder LeSueur said, “Did you know that it is impossible for a five year old boy to finish his breakfast before his grandfather?” The little boy then looked up at him and said, “Papa!! We are on the same team!.” And so we should be in our marriage—united, and on the same team, rather than in competition with each other.

7.His last bit of advice was that in marriage as long as you are focused on your needs, they will never be met. It is when we forget our needs and focus on the needs of our spouse that our needs will be filled in a much sweeter way than we ever imagined.