Decisions

I feel like this time of life is all about decisions...as matter of fact, if I really think about it, every phase of life includes decisions.  It just seems like right now I have some really important and crucial ones to make.  Decisions aren't too bad because I really like having a plan, but making sure I made the right decision is my problem.  I often make my own plan and present it to Heavenly Father to ask if it is right, but really not wanting to be open to changing it.  I have had to learn time after time that His plan is always going to be better than mine is.  I had to remind myself of that today.  Ever since I went to the Netherlands last May I decided that I would save up so that I could go again this May.  Well, I have saved up and I have been planning it as my little after-graduation trip.  If I am not at home or with family, there isn't another place than the Netherlands that I would rather be!  I have been checking flight tickets for a number of months and getting an estimate of the amount of days I would be gone and I have just been so excited about the people I would see...that is the most important thing to me!  However, I have noticed that every time I think about it, I get a little bit confused.  I just feel a little uneasy.  I don't know why!  It is something that I have wanted and planned for for so long!  But I have really thought about it and prayed about it and come to the conclusion that I feel a lot more at peace not buying a plane ticket right now.  That doesn't mean that things could change and I really do end up going.  And even if I don't go in May you better bet I would make another plan to go ASAP!  I just have to trust my feelings that this is the right thing no matter how sad it makes me feel.  Decisions are definitely not always easy!

Healing

Okay, so I have to say first of all that today was a great day!  I just finished reading my post from yesterday and I can't believe just how nervous and stressed I was about beginning student teaching.  I think that I was uber super tired!  After going to bed at 10:30 last night and waking up at 7:00 this morning I was rejuvenated and ready for the day.  I think that I am really going to learn a lot over the next seven weeks in the fourth grade class that I was assigned to.  My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Cazier, is just wonderful and I have learned so much from her already.  Fourth grade is definitely a little foreign to me after all of the experience that I have had with Kindergarteners, but I am sure I will adjust and really love my time.  I didn't leave the school until 4:20 this afternoon and then, after a quick stop at Wal-Mart, I threw together a dessert for dinner.  Our ward had cancelled FHE this week but we were invited by one of the Bishopric members, Brother Love, to go to his house for dinner and the big football game.  There were about 10 girls and 4 boys.  The boys were glued to the game and the girls socialized the whole time...typical and I loved it!  Afterwards, I got a little homework done and then headed to the gym with Katie.  It feels so good to workout and relieve some stress and tension!  I just wish that I could always remember how good it feels, especially at those times when I really don't want to do it!  After I got back I prepared all of my things for tomorrow and settled into some reading.  For the past couple of days I have been reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon in Dutch and then that same chapter in English.  The Book of Mormon is so powerful!  I think that I have been searching a lot lately for some healing for physical pain.  I think that we all do at one point or another in our lives.  Today, while I was eating lunch in the faculty room, I got talking to a few teachers and found that one was struggling with Pulmonary Hypertension and the other with Leukemia.  Oh my goodness!  I couldn't even believe the things that they were struggling with!  And even more, I couldn't believe their faith and optimism and courage!  When I hear of stories like theirs I just desire that they will be healed and I actually know that they will be.  I came across this scripture tonight that tells how we will all be healed.  It is found in Mosiah 14:3-5:

3.  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  4.  Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  5.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

It is only through Christ that we can be healed.  Yes, we will all be resurrected because of Him and we will all receive a complete physical healing.  That is a gift to us that will come after this life.  There is also the possibility of being healed spiritually.  That spiritual healing comes as we accept Christ as our Savior and realize the power His Atonement can have in our lives.  That spiritual healing comes as we turn to Him and try to be more like Him.  We do not have to wait for that spiritual healing.  It will probably not happen all at once but it can begin now.  How thankful I am for His healing power.  How thankful I am for the restored gospel in my life that grants me access to that healing power.  How thankful I am that I do not have to wait until the life hereafter for the healing to take place.

 

 

He is beside us

There is so much I want to tell you but there is too little time tonight!  I am determined to be asleep by 10:30 for the big first day of school tomorrow.  You might be wondering how I feel about starting school: terrified.  I don't know why I have so much fear and anxiety and stress about this semester but I am trying to work through it.  It is my last and culminating semester so I guess I am justified a little but this stress and fear is beyond anything that I have felt before.  Usually I think to myself, "Yeah, this will be hard, but I can do it!"  Right now I am saying, "This will be hard and it seems almost impossible for me to do it."  What?!  Why do I have so little confidence!  As I knelt down to say my prayers just moments ago I found myself being open and honest with my Heavenly Father.  I expressed my gratitude for being blessed to be at this point in my life but I also expressed my fears and reservations.  As I pleaded for His help at this time, a calming and peaceful feeling flooded over me that let me know that the Savior is beside me and that He will remain there this whole semester if I will allow Him to stay.  He knows how I feel.  He knows how to help me.  He will not make it all easy, but He will make it possible.  I began to reflect on other times in my life when I knew that the Savior was beside me, even when I didn't really realize how much I needed Him. One experience in particular stood out to me.  It happened this past summer.  My sister-in-law, Kelly, had just delivered her fourth little baby boy.  It was such an exciting time for my brother, sister-in-law, and their little family.  There other three boys, Ryan, Landon, and Trevor, were staying with us for a few days while Kelly was in the hospital.  Ryan, 7, and Landon, 6, were sleeping in our library, and I was sleeping in the next room over with Trevor, 3.  Trevor was sleeping on the floor and I was in the bed.  I was in a deep sleep until all of a sudden, around 3 am, I heard someone yell out my name with a tone of urgency.  It startled me and I automatically sat up in bed yelling "What?!" back.  There was no reply but I was so shaken that I hopped out of bed to see who was trying to get my attention.  I ran into the room where Ryan and Landon were sleeping and they were sound asleep.  I then ran down the hall to Corbin's room and he was asleep.  I was getting more and more anxious to figure out what was going on.  Upon entering my parents room I said, "Mom!  Dad!  Did you yell for me?"  But they didn't even budge.  I was so confused.  I started to convince myself that I had only been dreaming as I walked back down the hallway to my room and crawled into bed.  Then a thought came to my mind, "You didn't check on Trevor."  I almost brushed the thought off but then got up and walked around to the other side of the bed where he had fallen asleep.  I could only see his little legs sticking out of the side of the bed.  While he was sleeping he had managed to wiggle the top half of his body under the bed.  That wasn't too alarming since the bed is high but when I pulled him out from under the bed I couldn't believe what I found.  The lamp cord that was all the way under the bed had somehow gotten around his neck.  It was not so tight that it was choking him but tight enough that if he moved much more it could have been fatal.  I quickly got him out from under the bed and situated where he was far from harm.  I realized that someone that I could not see had given me that warning so that I could help Trevor in that scary situation.  I laid there awake in bed for what seemed like a few hours being just overwhelmed at the love our Heavenly Father has for us.  He is aware of us.  He is beside us and desires to help us.  I just have to remember that now.  I know that I am going to see His hand in my life over the next few months and that my fears will be washed away.   

Officially Creeped

There are a million more important and significant things that I should be blogging about right now but frankly this is all that I can think about at this moment.  After we got back from IKEA and the Brick Oven we had a little Just Dance 3 party.  We danced the night away!  At 11:45 pm I ran downstairs to put my pajamas on and then joined Brooke, Carli, and my Mom in the family room to chat a little bit longer before heading off to bed.  As I was sitting there, I felt something on my face.  I screamed but then just thought it was my hair until Carli said that she saw something black move across my cheek.  I started dancing around trying to get the unwelcome little guest off of me but saw nothing.  I wondered if it really was nothing.  I am thankful that Brooke convinced me to take off my top pajama shirt just to see if a little creature would fall out.  After taking it off and examining it and my back and seeing nothing I figured I was safe.  I shook my shirt a little bit before putting it back on and out fell this little bugger!  Ewww!  Not so sadly his life ended a few short seconds later (we had to get a picture first).  I can't stop itching all over and I am just about convinced that there are 50 more spiders crawling on me right now.  I don't hate very many things but spiders are one of them!  I am officially creeped!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Goodnight!

I am tired.  Because of that tiredness, I have not blogged in over a week.  It was a bad week to miss since it is such a special time of the year but I am going to try and do a little re-cap of the events that have taken place since Christmas.  It has been quite eventful!

Christmas Morning:  When we walked up the stairs this is what we found!  It was quite a surprise.  My big gift from Santa was a freaking iPhone 4S.  I did not see that one coming and I am still a little stunned.  I am certainly thankful for it and am constantly shocked at all of the things that I can do with it!  I also received many other things and I just can't believe how blessed I am!  

Christmas is always full of excitement and fun and it was increased by a million with Lincoln and Carter.  They were so excited Christmas morning!  I am so glad that they were there to celebrate Christmas with us.  

I absolutely loved having Christmas on a Sunday.  It was so wonderful to go to church and really focus on the true meaning of Christmas.  Can we just have Christmas on Sunday every year?

After church we had a little bit of time to rest before the party started.  I don't know why but my joints and muscles have never ached as bad as they did on Christmas day.  It kind of freaked me out a little.  I don't want this to progress anymore...too bad I don't have any say in it.  Anyway, all of the family came over and there were lots more gifts to open.  Once again, it was the kids who made it so fun and magical!

Monday was pretty chill.  We got the disaster of wrapping paper and boxes and garbage cleaned up and our house put somewhat back together.  We just enjoyed the rest of the day together.  Around 4:30, we met Brandt and Kelly and their boys at the movie theater to see "The Adventures of Tintin."  Animation: amazing.  Storyline:  way too much action for me.  But still fun to just be together!

Tuesday my Mom, Brooke, Carter, Lincoln and I went to our condo off of Jordanelle reservoir to spend the day.  We did a little shopping, went to lunch, and enjoyed playing some games.  It was a fun little get-away!

Wednesday was our "put away Christmas" day.  All of our Christmas decoration boxes go on top of some high cabinets in our hall closet.  My Mom and I usually do the job of putting things away together so that one person can be up on the ladder and the other can be handing the boxes.  Well, I was a little impatient and I thought that I could just do the job myself while my Mom was down at the church doing her Visiting Teaching reports.  I was about 3/4 of the way done.  I had a large box in my hands and headed up the ladder.  About 4 feet up, the ladder flipped throwing me and the box off.  Next thing I knew, I was laying on my back with the box and its contents all over me.  I think I was in shock because I hurry and hopped up and I rushed around doing things and I really felt a lot of energy.  But, all of a sudden, I felt a pain in my foot.  As I looked down, I saw that my sock had been ripped open.  There was a large cut on the ball of my right foot.  I got a little queasy and yelled for Carli who was downstairs in the basement.  She panicked a little bit and called my Mom.  We debated on going to the doctor to maybe get some stitches but decided that it maybe wasn't too deep.  It was sore to walk on for a couple of days but it is getting better now.  It was very funny then but now I think it is quite hilarious that I actually fell off of a ladder!  For the rest of Wednesday, I went shopping with my Mom and had a Just Dance 3 party that night with Brooke.  It was epic!

On Thursday we stopped by to see my grandparents before going back up to the condo.  Phase 10 is our favorite game to play when we are all together and it was quite competitive between Brooke, my Mom, and I.  We just  can't stop laughing as well!  That night my Dad came up after work and we drove into Heber for dinner.  We ate at this cute little Mexican restaurant.  It was delish!  We ended the night with "The Sound of Music."  Seriously, that is one of the best movies ever made.  I love it.  

On New Year's Eve I invited a few friends to come up to the condo for a little New Years bash.  Tish, Katie, Carolynn and Amy came.  We went to dinner at Chick's Diner in Heber, played games, danced, painted our nails, and laughed the whole night away.  It was such a fun way to welcome in the New Year!

Today is my Mom's birthday!  WAHOO!  We had a celebration for her tonight.  It was at LaRae's house and everyone came.  I sure love my Mom!  Happy Birthday!

The Perfect Christmas Eve!

It is Christmas Eve and so this is going to be a short post with lots of pictures!  Today was AMAZING!  It was focused on spending time with family, serving, and thinking about the true meaning of Christmas!  Oh, and I can't forget, it was also spent celebrating Brooke's birthday!  Yeah, she was born on Christmas Eve 28 years ago and she is one special girl!  Brooke, I love you so much!

Here is the run down of the events that took place today:

• Annual Christmas breakfast at Mimi's Cafe.  This is my Dad's little treat for the whole family.  When he sends out the invitations he includes something "Christmasy" that we have to wear.  This year it was funky hats.  Check these pictures out!  It was a hoot!

Lincoln, Brooke, Carter, Derek

Heidi, Jet, Mark

Grandpa, Grandma, Bev...my Grandpa made the hats...SWEET!

Taylor, Jet, Maria

Landon, Kelly, Trevor, Zach, Ryan, Brandt

Zach, Mom

Ella

Brad, Melesah

Taylor, Lance, Mark, Brad, Jet, Maria, Heidi, LaRae, Melesah

Kristin, Ella, Hannah, Jordan, Crew

Rhett, Ryan

Kate, Marianne

Mom, Crew

Zach, Dad

Landon

• After breakfast, we came home and finished our food preparations for tomorrow.  It was so fun to spend time in the kitchen with my Mom making Christmas food and treats.
• We went to visit a widow in the ward.  It was so special to spend some time with her!
• We went to my grandparents house and visited.  We also watched the classic "Return to Snowy River" with them.  
• We went out to dinner for Brooke's birthday to the best restaurant EVER:  Asian Star!

•  We  all opened one present tonight...Christmas jammies!

• We had a gingerbread decorating contest!  It was so much fun!  It really didn't end up being a competition...just a great time!

• Now we are all in bed waiting for Santa's arrival!