Our Time to Stand

This morning I had the opportunity to go to the temple with some of my dear sweet friends. As I was waiting for the session to start (We were late, I was supposed to pick everyone up at 6:30 and I was using a clock that hadn't switched to daylight savings time yet - still feel bad about that sorry ladies!) ...I had a thought about an e-mail that I received from several diffrent people based on the HBO show Big Love. My heart felt a little bad for those who are so set on trying to mock something I hold very dear and sacred. I am so very thankful for the covenants that I have made in the temple, and for the blessings and promised that I have received there. It truly is the our Father's house.



This whole week I have thought about how this is as President Hinkley told us it would be the time to “Stand a little taller and work a little harder and value a little greater the marvelous blessing which you have as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That membership will bring with it a strong and moving testimony of the divinity of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“You and I are sons and daughters of God, with something of divinity within us. Let us stand tall, my brothers and sisters. Let us live the gospel. Let us be busy in the Church. Let us learn of its doctrine. Let us feed upon its teachings. Let us grow in faith and faithfulness before the world” (meeting, Cairns, Australia, 26 Jan. 2000).

May we find strength in each other as we stand together and lift those around us.

My HATE HATE relationship with Day Light Savings

I was raised in Arizona where as my dad likes to say (Please don't be offended) we only have White Mans Time - meaning no day light savings. Since I have lived in Utah I have always had a huge issue with the time change. This year I swore it was going to be different, but here I am looking at the clock that says 11:54, but knowing in my head that it is really 10:54 and I have been up since 3am (White Man's Time). Since my body knows that I still have a good 3 hours before I am going to go to bed, but my mind is done thinking science so I decided to finish my taxes and look at my blog. I was successful in completing my taxes (Always fun to get a refund) and decided to attack my blog. I was looking for a fun festive background and somehow managed to delete my entire template. Everything cute and fun about my blog is gone. I think I know how I did it, but it isn't letting me go back and change it. I know there is another reason for my mistake, but I am blaming it on day-light savings I still hate it! It will be better in the fall - I will get to add another hour of sleep :)

I guess it gives me a reason to give my blog a face lift, it just might take me a little while.

Well...

I don't know if this needs a disclaimer or not, but I am not telling you this to make you feel bad for me, but to simply make you laugh! Please laugh with me!

See this lady:



She looks nice right, even has the puppy in the picture to make her seem sweet. Let me just tell you, she isn't very nice! For the last few weeks I have been participating in a contest to get healthy. One of the requirements of the contest is that you exercise 30 min every day. Well I am a big sucker for most things and so a year ago I recieved an advertisment to get fit with Jillian Michaels. I did a little research and decided she had a pretty good program so I ordered her DVD's. Well to be honest they have been setting on my shelf for a year! Anyway I decided to use her program as part of my exercising for the contest. Miss Jillian does not know the meaning of the work easy workout. My favorite DVD is the 30 day shred, which promises that if you do the workout for 30 days you will be shreded and look great by the time you are done. Well I have been doing it for 2 weeks now, and I am still on level one, just barely getting to the full intensity of the program. At any rate - on Wednesday night I was working hard trying to keep the intensity up until the very last minute and I came down out of a little kick boxing move and landed really really hard on my knee and kind of slipped back on it. Not exactly sure what I did but it started to hurt really bad after that. On Thursday I limped around looking like a dummy, and on Friday I was in real pain. The professionals said that I didn't rip anything which was good for me. They got me a brace, told me to take IB profen, Do Ice & Heat Therepy and stay off of it. As you all know I am not very good at listening - I did do the Ice & Heat therapy (Thank you Amy) and I kept the brace on, but staying off of it and & the Drug thing. Yeah I am just not very good with all of that. On Saturday Oliver brought me home another enemy that is supposed to be a friend:



Although I have been able to get around a lot faster, I am not sure if I like them. Now here is the funny part. Last night after stake confrence I was coming home and there are 4 steps to get into my house. I was trying to get in the house as quickly as I could and getting frustrated with the crutches because I couldn't figure out how to get up the stairs with them and my nieghbor was behind me trying to help me up the stairs and I didn't want to make people wait on me so I just jumped or at least tried to. Landing firmly on my dumb knee. Although I wasn't laughing at the time I am now. I am sure that it would have been hillarious for anybody to watch!



Here are a few tips to help you bring laughter to the surface during tough times.

-Find humour in all things. Recognize the absurdity or ridiculousness of situations and circumstances.

-Laugh at yourself. Be a little silly, over-exaggerate your simple mistakes, embellish a few of your shortcomings

-Be spontaneous. The element of surprise is priceless, improvise and act on the unexpected



“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Prov. 17:22). Humor allows us to view our lives in a more positive light, deal with personal conflicts and intolerance, and cope with trials and frustrations that might otherwise seem overwhelming. As we are told in Ecclesiastes, there is “a time to laugh” (Eccl. 3:4)

May you all have something to laugh at. Remember that life is way to short not to enjoy it!

Simple Prayers & Small Miracles

I have always joked used the joke: When they were handing out the brains in heaven I thought they said trains - and I didn't really like trains so I skipped that line. As funny as that is I think it is completely true about my domestic ability. I am very blessed to have 4 sisters who have all of the domestic skills a girl could possibly want, and then there is me. But I have learned that that is okay, we can't all be domestic, there has to be someone to drive the car (Of course I don't do that well either... Oh well:)). At any rate, tonight was our New Beginnings for Young Women and my assignment was the decorations. The Lord gives us opportunities to make weak things strong right. Anyway I found something that I thought would be really cute for a centerpiece for the table ordered and kind of forgot about the rest of my assignment. Well on Tuesday I was starting to worry a little because my centerpiece still hadn't made it yet. I tried to track it down to see if had been shipped and it had but not delivered yet. On Friday morning I prayed pretty intently that my centerpiece would show up, but that if it didn't I would be inspired to know what to do otherwise. On Saturday after the mail came and the centerpiece didn't show up, and I was a little freaked out so I said another simple little prayer, called at least 10 people to see if my idea would be good enough and headed to the store. Of course once I got to the store my idea changed at least 3 times but here is the finished product:




Moral of the story:
I couldn't have come up with something like this on my own. I know that there are alot of other women who could have done a much better job with this, but Heavenly Father wanted to give me the opportunity to grow a little. Though some might think this prayer was a silly and insignificant prayer, Heavenly Father knew it was something important to me and he answered it. I am so grateful for the small miracles that happen when I put my faith and trust in the Lord. Thanks to all those who were patient with me while I called a million times a day, and those who helped me put it all together. You guys are great!

Reflection

On Saturday I was bribing Mirra to let me do her hair and her movie of choice was Cars. I love love this movie and so while the hair job wasn't the easiest (She hates having it combed) I was okay with it taking a little bit of time. Cars reminds me so much of home - (Jackrabbit & The Wigwam). The thing that I love the most about it is the Brad Paisley song that was written for it - Find Yourself. I am not sure exactly when this movie came out, but I don't think I really watched it until after I moved to Utah - so after my divorce. Maybe this is why this song hit me so hard.

When you find yourself
In some far off place,
And it causes you
To rethink some things.
You start to sense
That slowly you’re becoming someone else
And then you find yourself.

When you make new friends
In a brand new town,
And you start to think
About settling down,
The things that would have been lost on you
Are now clear as a bell.
And you find yourself
That’s when you find yourself.

We go though life
So sure of where we’re heading,
And then we wind up lost
And it’s the best thing that could happen.
Sometimes when you lose your way
It’s really just as well.
Because you find yourself;
Yeah that’s when you find yourself.

This weekend I have had a lot of time to think about that. I know that "getting lost" was one of the hardest things I will ever have to face, but I am really a different person because of it. I guess I am still in the process of finding myself, but how thankful I am for the journey.I know that Heavenly Father knows that I am still working on it, and he is constantly giving me opportunities to learn something new about myself, to expand my talents, to grow. Hopefully soon I will find myself as the person I want to be. Thanks to all of you who are patient with me as I get there. You are the best!

"Though no-one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end." - Unknown

Ready, Set, Go!

Yesterday my cute friend Amy & I started on our journey to the Top of Utah Marathon. We did a fun walk at UVU - The NO Snow 5K. It was literally through the halls of UVU. It was a little bit unorganized but still a fun walk, and I think I have caught the running bug again. It is really hard to run during the winter with all of the snow up here and I absolutely hate running on the treadmill, but the snow is pretty much gone. I have 1 month to get in shape before I start running for real with the formal training starting the end of May. I am so exited that Amy is going to run with us!

Days like this

One of my favorite quotes is by Sherri Dew "Mother said there would be days like this, but she didn't mention they would last for weeks or months".

It seems like I have been a lotta bit grumpy for the last few weeks, and I am really sorry for that. I found a story tonight that gave me a little hope and I thought I would share it with you.
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Refiner's fire

Some time ago, a few ladies met to study the scriptures. While reading the third chapter of Malachi, they came upon a remarkable expression in the third verse:

"And He (God) shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver" ( Malachi 3:3 ).

One lady decided to visit a silversmith to learn about the process of refining silver. After the smith had described it to her, she asked, "But Sir, do you sit while the work of the refining is going on?"

"Oh yes, Madam," replied the silversmith; " I must sit with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace for if the time necessary for refining be exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured."

The lady at once saw the beauty, and comfort too, of the expression, "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

God sees it needful to put His children into a furnace; His eye is steadily intent on the work of purifying, and His wisdom and love are both engaged in the best manner for us. Our trials do not come at random, and He will not let us be tested beyond what we can endure.

Before she left, the lady asked one final question, "When do you know the process is complete?"

"Why that is quite simple," replied the silversmith. "When I can see my own image in the silver, the refining process is finished."



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I hope this finds you all well & happy. Please let me know if I can do anything for you.