Sunday Lesson

I had to teach the lesson today in RS meeting.  I wanted to teach something on the Savior, but not about his birth.  I wanted it to be something different.  So I planned a lesson based around a program we had done in our last ward.  It's called a 14-Day Walk With Christ.  I had several ladies in our ward tell their favorite story of the Savior and why it was so special to them.  Then I told my favorite story.  It was an amazing day.  After I told my story, I went over six points to come closer to Christ.  They were taken from a talk given by George W. Pace and are:

• First: To know the Lord is to know that he is literally the Son of God.
• Second: To know the Lord is to know that we can pray through him and converse in prayer as one converses with another.
• Third: To know the Lord is to know in a personal way that he suffered for us.
• Fourth: To know the Lord is to know that we can become like him.
• Fifth: To know the Lord is to know that through him all of life’s problems can be solved.
• Sixth: To know the Lord is to know that he loves us as a loving father.

After I had gone over these points, one last sister told her favorite story of the birth of our Savior.  She had a video and a song and it was beautiful.  I felt very bless to have the help with this lesson.  Everyone was so gracious about helping and more than willing. 

One thing that was truly special was in the closing prayer, the sister thanked our Heavenly Father that our Savior gave us the chance to live.  As I enjoyed the spirit of what was being said, I felt a burning that our Savior really has blessed us that one day we can truly live and be with Him again.  My spirit was lifted and I have been blessed!  It was a great Sunday lesson and I didn't have a thing to do with it!

December

I can't believe it.  Fall is gone and winter is here.  December has already turned out to be crazy.  I usually put Christmas decorations up the day after or at least by the weekend after Thanksgiving, but not this year!  I wanted to do it today, but am finishing up studies for Psychology.  I will be taking my final tomorrow.  But my dear sweet husband said he would help me get things up tonight!  He is so wonderful.  I couldn't ask for a better husband.  He's been so willing to help since I started school.  And at this rate if I don't get it up tonight it won't go up until 2 weeks before Christmas.  And at that point I know I'd say, only 2 weeks, what's the point?  So it's tonight and I'm glad.

Once I finish school, I will begin my Dream Job. And I really do mean my Dream Job.  I have always, since I was little wanted to be like my friend Blanch Gibby and work in or own my own floral shop.  Well, on December 13th I will begin working at Bowcut Floral in Tremonton.  I will be working for a sweet lady named Suzanne Pierson.  She is so sweet and it will be fun getting to know her and the other girls and making some new friends. 

So I guess here we go another new adventure..... I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Gratitude

There are so many things for which I have to be Thankful for.  I'm grateful for my loving family.  That they put up with me and my many failings as a mother.  They know I'm still in the process of trying to become. 

I'm grateful for the friends that I have made in the new area that we live in, and for the one's we left that still know we are friends and are willing to keep in touch and love us.

I really am grateful for the Relief Society Presidency that I have to work with.  They are a bunch of wonderful women that have made my life so much easier through this process. 

I'm grateful for the men in our family.  That they are worthy Priesthood holders and that they take it seriously and keep the commandments of our Heavenly Father.

I'm grateful that we'll be getting a new baby granddaughter in a few months.  I really can't wait for that one.
I'm grateful for a daughter that is so willing to be a mom and walk those paths even though they haven't been easy so far and will be harder at times.

I'm grateful that I've been able to attend school.  It has been difficult, but I've felt myself grow with the experience.

 
I'm grateful to know that I have a Loving Heavenly Father that cares about me and all of my needs, wants and desires.  That He is patient with me and so tender in His loving care.  He heals my wounded heart and is always there for me.  I know I am never alone and for this knowledge I am grateful!

I've been posting my Thanksgivings for the past month.  I hope I can continue to county my many blessings and forever show my gratitude to my Father in Heaven!

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving!!



Opportunities for Growth

This weekend I had the opportunity to go with friends to the local Time Out For Women.  It was a wonderful experience.  I had never been to one before.  We left early Friday and had a fun day shopping (Window) and being together talking and having a fun time.  We tried chocolate at Gygi's in Salt Lake City and that was really good.  I also liked shopping here.  I'm a gadget girl and had a hard time being good and not spending until we were broke.  There was so many different kinds of gadgets, but I digress! 

On Friday night we went to the first part of the TOFW.  We listened to Sister Virginia Hinkley Pierce speak.  Wow!  I was so impressed by this woman.  She talked about how we measure our success by our church callings and how we tend to judge others on that also.  I'd never really thought about it, but we do and it's so wrong.  No calling is greater than another.  I've really learned that this year!  Having been called to RS President, I know I'm in this calling purely for my benefit.  I was called for my own personal growth and it is what Heavenly Father knew I needed.  I don't think of this as success, but as a time to experience things that others before me have had the opportunity to experience.  I only hope I don't hurt anyone in the time that I am growing and learning.  Then someone else will have the chance to grow and I'll help somewhere else.  That 's what it's all about, not the calling.

Then we had the chance to hear Sister Heidi Swinton speak on her assignment by Pres. Monson to write his biography.  Holy cow, I would've been so overwhelmed.  I think she was a little, but she is so amazing!  She took this to heart and now we have a wonderful book that lets us see who the prophet was before he was called. 

It was such a fun night and then the next day we had a fun time listening to others teach us and strengthen our testimonies.  I really needed this weekend!  I needed the time to be with friends and to grow.  I hope I can take the things I learned and share and help other's grow now. 

Today I feel very blessed by having made new and wonderful friends in our new area!!  I also feel blessed from having my testimony strengthened this weekend by wonderful women who are so talented and willing to share! 

Safety in Driving

As many of you know, I travel quite a ways to go to school twice a week.  Well, today on my way home I passed a car that had wrecked.  It had totally rolled and the whole thing was really smashed up.  I quickly became grateful for the safety that I have in my travels each day.  I felt bad for whomever had been in that car and said a quick prayer that they were okay.  But it really made me reflect on how I am so blessed every time I have to go somewhere, and from where we live it's always quite a drive.   So today I am grateful for the blessing I've had of being safe while driving!

Little Old Ladies

Today I am doing more homework and so must do a quick post.  I have totally had a wonderful day though.  We held a RS Meeting at a local assisted living home today.  Let me tell you, those ladies are so totally awesome.  They sang and participated and had a wonderful time.  Our musical number sang songs from years ago.  The songs that these sweet little ladies all knew and loved singing along with.  There was such a wonderful spirit there.  I felt totally blessed to be a part of this sweet experience.  I really appreciated all of those that took part and made it a great morning with these little women.  Not even one of them fell asleep today!  They are so cute.  Last week we had one that snored all the way through our meeting.  Guess we hit it right today!  Thanks to all of those sweet little ladies that made my day!!  I was totally blessed by them!

Quick Blessing

Today I am soooo so Thankful to be done with my Research paper for my English class.  It has really been a pain and a worry.  So today I sat down and made up my mind to get it done so that I no longer have to worry about it.  Needless to say - IT IS OVER!!  I am so happy!  Now all I have to do for my English class is attend for 2 weeks and then I'm done. 

What a blessing.  A great learning experience, but a blessing none the less!

Spiritual Blessings

So I realized that most of, if not all of my latest posts have been about the temporal things in my life.  Today while enjoying the warmth of good friends in RS I decided that I needed to also post about the Spiritual things that I am grateful for.  I have been blessed and would be very ungrateful if I didn't. 

I was contemplating the many things I have been blessed with, and decided that there are so many that I can't list them all.  The most important thing I am so grateful for is the relationship I have with my Savior.  I know he loves me and I have felt his arms around me during the most trying times of my life.  His comforter has been a constant companion at times.  Because of this, I truly know he really knows my heart and cares about me and my life.  That he really did give his life so that we could return to our Heavenly Father someday.  I love Him and hope I can always be worthy of this blessing.  For this I am forever grateful!

Trees Beautiful Trees

So last week we went out and got 25 trees for our yard.  I thought there wasn't going to be enough room to put them.  How wrong I was.  I have a hard time remembering that our yard is as big as it is.  Anyway, we have had them in the yard tied together so they wouldn't blow down until we could get them in the ground.  I've also been afraid that they would freeze, since it gets a bit colder up here than down in South Weber where we came from.  I really hadn't planned on planting them today, but a man from down the street came over with his backhoe and dug all of our holes for us and we got all but 7 in the ground this evening.  It was a bit exhausting, but well worth the trouble.  I'm so excited as to what they will be this summer and when they get bigger.  Our yard will be beautiful. 

So today I am grateful for the beauty of trees and that I'm able to have it so close at hand.

Blessings of the Day

Today I am grateful for friends.  I was able to sit and talk with one of my friends yesterday that I hadn't talked to in awhile.  It was like we'd never stopped seeing each other everyday.  I love it when you can be comfortable with someone and that they know you so well.  She is a dear friend and has been there for me through tough times and through happy times.  She is always cheering me on to find in my life what it is that makes me happy.  She gives great advice and is like the wise owl that is always quiet, but there with great wisdom.  This is one thing I am very grateful for!

I am also grateful for my family.  I was able to see my Maddi today.  She is starting to show with her pregnancy.  Her tummy is so small and I wonder if it will ever seem like she is really pregnant.  It was so fun talking to her.  She told me she is now feeling the baby move and that it likes to kick her bladder.  I guess that's payback for all of the times she kicked mine (JK).  It is just fun to see your daughter grow up and experience things that you did too.  I feel like we have an even stronger bond and can share things that we couldn't before, because she didn't understand and hadn't experienced them.  I love my children.  I love to see them grow and become so much more than I was able to be!  Love them so much!!

Beautiful White

I woke up this morning to a beautiful white yard.  Yep, snow!  It was so beautiful and quiet.  It gave me time to enjoy the beauty I have been surrounded with the past year or so.  I still have to pinch myself everytime I think about where we live.  It seems like a dream.  Truly we have been blessed by where Heavenly Father has put us.  We live in a great little neighborhood, in a wonderful ward, in a beautiful area!  My heart is so full of gratitude for what I have been blessed with.

I missed writing yesterday because of school, so I am adding that to this post.  Yesterday I went to talk to my math professor - fully intending to drop the class because I thought I was failing.  Well, to my astonishment, he told me I am passing.  It isn't with an A, but if I continue to do what I have been, I will pass.  I feel blessed in that I know I couldn't have come this far without my Heavenly Father's help and blessings.  I know when I say a prayer before I go to class or before a test, he will help me to remember the things that I have studied.  Again, I have been so blessed.  I am grateful for a Loving Father!!

Re~evaluation

So this weekend I've had much time to reflect on my life and where it's going and what I really want to be doing.  To start things off, I had a math test on Friday.  I had studied like no other to do well on this test.  It hasn't been confirmed, but I have a feeling that I really bombed this test.  It was like one of those times when you know you know something, but all you can pull from your mind is a total blank.  Anyway it was a bust!

Then on Saturday, we spend alot of time with our kids.  I totally love that.  And I realized that since school began, all of my sparetime (is there really such a thing) has been spent studying.  I leave school and study on those nights and then all the next day.  Then I go back to school and study again that night and the next day.  I usually do take time on Saturdays and Sundays to be with family, but then I'm studying again on Monday.  I ask myself, "why am I doing this and is it really getting me anywhere?"  I've decided that this will be it for the schooling.  I would much rather work a part-time job and be able to leave it when I'm done and spend my spare time with family rather than on studying.  Family time is so much more important to me.  I think had I done this when I was younger or before I had children and Sam it would have been different, but being the age I am my priorities have definitely changed.  So, once again, I will be beating the streets and looking for something part-time to just make a few extra bucks for those times we want something fun and leave the schooling for the younger ones. 

Life is a constant re-evaluation and change.  I think this is something that I am very grateful for.  It's nice that there are opportunities to think about what we are doing and change direction if it isn't what is best for us!  I'm grateful to a loving Heavenly Father that allows us to have these opportunities.

Children

I missed again yesterday, but I totally have a great excuse.  We went with our children, of which I am very grateful for, to take family pictures.  It was so much fun and our photographer was totally great.  She really did a good job.  I would recommend her to everyone.  It was Julie Hess.  She is great and get's booked pretty quick, so calendar with her early.  She was able to catch the personality of our family totally.  The boys had a good time goofing off and us girls had a good time watching.  It was a super fun day.  I always love spending time with our family!

Today I am grateful for the wonderful fall weather that we have been experiencing.  I know there is a change coming and will be sad to see the warmth go.  But, when the snow flys I'll be glad for that beauty also.  We were able to go and get trees for our yard yesterday.  Hopefully the weather will become a little warmer later this week and we'll get them planted.  That will give me more things to be grateful for, a yard!!  It's slowly coming together and will be beautiful. 

I am grateful!!

Gratitude

Shoot!  I can't believe I missed a day to say what I am grateful for.  I will make amends and say 2 things that I am grateful for today.

First and fore most, I'm grateful that my math test will be over in about 3 hours.  I can't tell you how hard this school thing has been for me.  I just don't seem to retain things like I did when I was younger.

Okay with that out of the way, I have to say that today I am grateful for Technology.  On Wednesday evening we found out that we will be having a sweet baby girl coming to our family around the end of March!  I am so excited to hold that sweet little thing.  Babies are such miracles.  My daughter Maddi will be a wonderful mom.  She is so very good with kids.  It will be interesting to see what she learned from me and what she decides she doesn't like that I did as a mom.  So fun to watch! 

I will really be better tomorrow and make sure that I keep my list going.  Such a wonderful way to remember the things we are grateful for!