"Where are you?"

I have to tell you something.

We have one of the best Relief Society group.

Of course, with us being a small branch, there are plenty of challenges, but the blessings surmount them all.

I received a call today from a sister.

"Hello? Sister Sampert?"

the voice said.

"Hi!"

I answered, clueless as to who this could be.

"Hey, you weren't there at church today."

the voice on the other end said.

In our RS, we've been setting aside a few minutes at the end of class to take note of the sisters who were not in attendance that day. We have the sisters look around and tell us (the presidency) who's not there. Then, we encourage them to call/email/text/visit/do whatever they can/want to to let the sisters know we missed them.

I love our RS. The call came from a sister who hardly ever talks and I was flabbergasted by her surprise call! However, I was touched that our sisters were doing their job and got a glimpse of how it felt to receive a "we missed you call." There is most definitely something EVERYONE can do, as in this case of the sister who is extremely shy that called me.

Call, email, text, visit, whatever you feel you can do, do it!

I think that if there were more sisters like ours, we'd have less sisters go inactive!

Thank you Cards

Today, our family wrote out thank you cards to everyone who had sent us something for Christmas.

We received wonderful gifts from so many people and we wanted to teach the kids to say "thank you."

I think that so many kids AND people lack the ability to show gratitude, just assuming that people know they appreciated them, or worse, don't say anything at all!

So, we sat around the table as a family and the kids drew pictures or spelled out their names in cute handwritings and we all talked about each person who had given us things, whether they were clothes, handmade toys, gift certificates or even some cookies.

I hope I haven't missed anyone, but if I have, forgive me!

Thank you!

Happy birthday Jaiden!

Happy birthday son.

I love you so much.

You have come so far.

1,095 days to be exact.

You weren't even supposed to draw a breath.

what a deal.

you've given me hell so far.

From the moment you were born, NO, from BEFORE you were born.

So why do I love you so much?

Because you are mine.

and you will always be mine, no matter what you do.

Now please, won't you grow out of your terrible TWOS and find joy in the TERRIFIC THREES??

Never forget to be the example you were born to be, and always give thanks to your Heavenly Father for the precious gift of life.

May you always be a reminder of what life's really about.

I Love You.

mama

Sunny Side Branch-it's my branch

(our meeting house is literally in a house in downtown Houston)

My branch.

It's filled with crazy people.

Every Sunday is an adventure, that's for sure.

But you know something?

I wouldn't trade it for any other ward right now.

There's something about the members that when I sit in the classrooms with them, I see them as someone very special. Sure, I see some grumbling and complaining and even cursing under their breaths, but hey.

It's people like sister B. who can hardly walk, and yet tries each day to serve everyone else that puts a smile on my face and makes me want to be better, or sister L. who OH SHE'S SO SWEET! Something about her crazy wigs on a 70+ year old lady's head makes you squeal with delight to see her every week. I wished the world could know these two ladies!! (wigs and extensions are a huge part of the culture down here with the African Americans in Houston)

Then there's sister K. who's crazy and well, you really don't know what mood she'll be in from one week to another. Best thing is to not say much to her, just give her compliments!

Then you have sister H. who now really, is a nutcase and you wouldn't want to be on her bad side 'cuz she'll call you to leave a nasty phone message, but bless her heart, she's got the kindest heart, believe it or not. The teeth-less woman really does care. (as long as you're not on her bad side!!)

Then we've got sister L. who's blind as a bat and passes out most Sundays that she gets to come to church, ending up in an ambulance, but boy, does she love this gospel. You never can understand what she's talking about, but you just know her desires are good.

Then we've got a cancer survivor-well, she's still fighting it, God bless her.

Brother W. who won't drink anything else but sugary juice at branch get togethers, and don't even offer him water, he will tell you HOW HE AIN'T GONNA DRINK NO WATA...

Brother N. who is schizophrenic but boy, does he ever have a testimony to blow you out of your seat.

In the corner of our little "dining room" meeting house (it really is a dining room, next to a kitchen), we've got sister M. who hardly ever talks, but if you can get her to smile once in a while, you feel like you've won the world.

The M. family who bless their efforts, IS the branch, next to a few other families.

Brother C. who well, what's the word...seems like a grinch but I'm sure is very nice. He likes his doctrine straight and not ever crooked.

Then of course, there's sister H. who you don't know where her mind is, but who will raise her hand and copy YOUR answer word for word in Sunday School, and sister A. who Kai asked; "um, why don't you have your two front teeth?" to which she laughed out loud and answered, "kid, never get into drugs!"

ahh, great life lessons.

We've got maybe 10 kids in primary, but that's a huge growth spurt from when we came a year ago. The two nursery kids (one being Jaiden) now has their own room, not a CLOSET! You can hear sister G. teaching the primary LOUDLY every week, but don't be surprised if you cannot understand a single word she's saying because her vocabulary is so advanced.

We've got counselors who don't show up, even if it's their week to teach and members who refuse to say a prayer during church or do anything to help out, but oddly enough, I've learned to love everyone's quirks, just the way they are.

There's something about this branch, I tell you. It's loved by the Lord.

Finally, our good president M.

He forgets a lot of things, and he may be despised by more than a few,

but I know that he's a good man. He does A LOT for the branch. I admire his strength and his testimony. His will to stand strong and be the leader the youth needs. He's not perfect by any means, and he can talk your ears off, but I appreciate all that he does.

God bless this branch!

A. Lund

I have many wonderful and meaningful friends.

Friends who give me courage, love, support and well, friends who I am grateful for.

I've decided to do something I've always wanted to do.

Dedicate a post to each person who I've ever felt gratitude for.

I wanted to start with Andrea, who I call "Lundy."

She was one of my very favorite companions in the mission.

We served together TWICE, who knows for how long. President liked how we worked together, so stuck us together for longer than most. (really, I told him I'd go home if he didn't leave me with her) lol

She's so down to earth.

My first impression of her: I would never have anything in common with her!

FALSE.

I don't know how we hit if off, but we did. Now, she's one of those "eternal friends."

She's thoughtful, has great listening ears, giving, forgiving, and she is very ambitious to better herself and to learn all that she can, always. Very admiring.

Her posts on her blog are about life. Her life is simple, and yet, she's able to find those things that matter, like inheriting a harmonica that belonged to her grand-mother, being around old "everyday" people, making cookies or being with her nieces and nephews.

I look up to her and most of all, I give thanks to my Heavenly Father for putting her in my life.

Te quiero Lundy!

Chicken Pillows

This is what we're having tonight for dinner and everyone LOVES it.

Chicken Pillows

350 degrees, 20min.

6 oz. softened cream cheese

4tbsp. softened butter

1/2cups diced olives, onions, celery (soften about 3-4min. in microwave)

2 C. cooked/cubed/shredded chicken/turkey

2 pkg. of 8 crescent rolls

1 can cream of chicken soup

crushed cornflakes/bread crumbs

Directions:

1. in large bowl, add softened cream cheese, chicken and veggies. mix

2. fold mixture into crescent rolls and fold like pillow

3. roll the stuffed crescents in melted butter and crushed cornflakes or

bread crumbs

4. Bake at 350. for about 15-20min. until golden

5. Serve over rice and pour cream of chicken soup

Before and After: The kitchen, dining and family room

The Kitchen: Before

Painted the walls "heavenly blue" to make for a clean and bigger appeal

I painted the white board to be a black chalk board with "satin/silver" boarder

The dining room wall: BEFORE

AFTER

Family room wall: BEFORE

AFTER:

I painted the walls an "egg plant" color and added a few of our favorite family photos

Can't sleep, sick kids

It's the second night in a row that anyone's gotten any good sleep around here.

3:30am

the soft rap at our door,

the little white figure coming in,

white silky blanket dragging right behind him.

"cough, cough, cough"

the little coughs you know must be hard on any little guy/girl.

Being the wonderful wife that I am, I took the little one out by his hand and

into our spare bedroom we went.

"Cough, cough, COUGH."

each time the mouth opens, the coughs get louder.

"hold on a minute!"

And of course, being the loving mother that I am, I rush out to retrieve a handful of remedies.

Vicks, cough drops, and cheery flavored cough suppressant syrups, just for kids.

Before I could reach the bed though, the kid begins to scream.

"Mama! I don't like medicine! those make me 'choke'!" (choke=throw up)

The last time Kai had the syrupey medicine, he indeed threw it up because he was already sick and throwing everything up.

one down.

"okay okay, but look! I have candy!"

I gently placed a tiny cough drop in his hand.

"NOoo!!! Those make me swallow them!!" With tears in his eyes, the little bugger actually RAN out of the room this time.

Just a couple of days ago, Kai had accidentally swallowed a rather large piece of candy, of which he is now traumatized about.

Awesome.

"cough, COUGH, COUGH!"

hiding behind the couch, he yelled out in the middle of the night:

"Those make me choke and swallow them, I DON'T WANT ANY MEDICINE!!"

I promise, he's usually not like this, but since he was being so darn ridiculous about it, I had to laugh.

Finally, after convincing him that he'd be okay, that I'd bite and break the cough drop in half so that he wouldn't swallow it, and he would just have to sit up until the candy melted all the way, he was okay.

Then the fun began.

I thought I would be able to roll over and sleep, but beside me, Kai sat straight up in the bed and began his imaginative pillow talk.

"So the monster was coming and I was the good guy, so I punched him. Then the robot and the rockets..."

poor Ronny, is this what I sound like to him with my pillow talks every night?!

"And then the robot space ship and aliens came to get me. Oh, mama! Look! (pointing at the stars through the open blind) I think I see a real spaceship!"

OH, have mercy!

"cough, cough, space ships...cough!"

Fine, the cough drop isn't working and I need him to go back to sleep fast!

I rubbed on some Vicks.

cough, cough, COUGH

Fine. I'm just going to try and ignore it all and sleep.

4:30 AM

My heavy eyes were getting the best of me and I occasionally grunted to pretend I was still listening to the kid.

Space ships...ghost...aliens...

robots...

monsters...

the engine...

BAM!

I felt the boards under the bed fall out.

REALLY!?

Kai seemed to be oblivious.

now the mattress was slanted, my body seemed to being sucked into the abyss of nowhere, wanting to roll down the mattress.

cough, cough.

"And sooo, mama, you can be the bad guy."

I give up.

I should have just gotten up and fixed the boards under the bed, but I didn't want to have to tell Kai to get off, exciting him even more to get out of bed, so I just crawled to the very corner of the mattress. I rolled under the blankets, placed a pillow on top of that, and somewhere between monsters and aliens who eat dirt, I blinked.

6:30am.

CRASH! BANG!

I awoke to Kai smiling at me, ready for the day.

Did I ever tell you a how much I love these boys?

Why, I wonder, do kids have SO MUCH MORE energy than the parents?!

Why?

Why...

why.......

Our Christmas Miracle

This is a story about our family's Christmas miracle.

His name is Jaiden and he's about to turn three.

but you see, he wasn't born a normal baby.

What I mean by that, is that he was born quite early.

How early, you may ask.

18 weeks, or 4.5 months to be exact.

He was born at only 22.5 weeks (out of the required 40 weeks),

just weighing in at ONE pound, TWO ounces and measuring 11 inches.

How tiny is that?

Picture a barbie doll. And for his sake, let's have you imagine a barbie KEN doll, since he is a boy.

Trust me, he was in fact, as skinny and as tiny as a barbie Ken doll.

Trust me on that one.

He wasn't expected to live.

In fact, he wasn't expected to breath at all.

The doctors had no hope.

They had no hope at all.

Until,

they saw a tiny body gasp for air the second he was born.

JAIDEN WANTED TO LIVE.

He fought, and so did the doctors.

The doctors told us he would never survive.

That there was no use.

They had never seen such a thing.

Babies can be small when born, but NEVER can be this gestationally early, they said.

It just hasn't happened, it just can't happen.

"He has no chance."

Still, through the incubator, I saw a tiny rat like baby, MY baby fighting.

Tubes ran up his nose and down to his stomach and needles bigger than his body stuck out throughout his body, ripping his skin at every opportunity.

I wasn't allowed to touch him, so forget being able to hold and comfort my baby.

I cried.

He underwent multiple serious and life threatening surgeries.

"Let him go in peace," some would even advise me.

"You're putting him through so much unnecessary pain."

I can't tell you how many sleepless and tormented nights I spent, and no doubt it was the same for our family.

but Jaiden fought.

He wanted to LIVE.

and so the doctors dutifully fought too, doing all they knew how.

Most importantly, we PRAYED. We prayed and prayed.

And when we were too tired to pray, our families, our friends, our country, and sometimes it felt as though the whole world prayed for us too.

and so Jaiden fought.

and so we did too.

The barbie baby who fit my wedding ring through his elbow eventually grew to be 6 pounds, just four months later.

"still, he will have no quality of life."

some doctors predicted.

"It doesn't matter, he is still our son, and we will love him no matter what."

Now, it was our turn to fight.

Now it's almost been three years.

Tears fill my eyes as I sit here, thinking back in amazement all that had happened,

and I can't imagine a world without the little guy.

{Dear Jaiden, our little Christmas miracle}

I know I can be hard on you at times, and I know I call you "punk," "stinky butt," or just plain "bugger." But know that you are loved beyond measure.

I am so glad that we fought for you, and even more glad you fought to stay with us.

I love how feisty you are, how strong you are. I admire how determined you are and how you never give up. Sure, it's a pain right now, but I know these are the things that Heavenly Father gave you so that you could be with us today.

You brought our family closer.

You reminded us what Christmas was all about.

The power of the Lord, and the miracles of prayers.

Always remember who is in charge, and always give thanks to the Lord.

May you live your life with no regrets, living each day as precious gifts. Well, I don't think I need to remind you of that, you know best how precious life is. After all, you fought so hard to be here.

We love you very much, my little punk,

Jaiden.

p.s. "Jaiden" means "grateful."

Life without Limits

Also, I've been reading another BRILLIANT book.

Life without Limits

Nick Vujicic

True to its title, this book is simply amazing. If you haven't ever listened to or read his words, I recommend that you do, immediately!

Nick is probably one of the most optimistic happy and grateful people I've ever "known," and I'm just blown away with every page that I read. It truly is a motivational and inspirational book to say the least.

What I've learned from Nick so far:

1. sometimes, God gives us imperfections so that people will listen to us. In other words, trials are given to us and is used properly, we can take the lessons learned from them and help others.

2. Everyone is given hardships in life. Don't wallow in them but look to find ways to help people around you.

3. In all that you have, give thanks and be happy. Life is too beautiful and too short.

I truly love and appreciate people and stories that inspire and better us!

Dave Ramsey

I just started reading Dave Ramsey's "The Money Answer Book."

I've been meaning to learn more about money and how it all works, so I reserved it online at our local library and just started reading it today.

GOODNESS, it's good.

I've never read or listened or studied anything he's said on any of his shows or broadcasts, but since I've heard he knows a junk load about money and finances, I thought I'd give it a try.

I like him.

It's incredible, the society in which you and I live in to spend, to satisfy NOW, and to use credit cards for "good."

Once in a while, a person will pick up and read a GOOD book by someone who has their heads on straight and you (I'm) literally slapped in the face to wake up!

As Dave says, "they are IDIOTS!" if they suggest that "some debt is good."

In Dave's words, "No debt is good, unless it's a PAID OFF DEBT."

I know I have a few things to straighten out in my life, and I'm ready to tackle them!

(although I must admit, it's SO much harder to do anything financially when you're married!

I feel that saving and NOT spending was a much much easier thing to do when I was alone!)

Thank goodness for people like Dave who in a sense, I feel is sent here on earth to guide people to do what our Heavenly Father wants us to do.

1. realize that money cannot buy happiness

2. get out and stay out of debt.

3. save and establish peace for a rainy day

A Mother's Prayer

You know how mothers seem to complain a lot about never having enough time, especially when it comes to taking care of herself or doing something that's JUST for herself?

Here was an example that made me laugh today.

And let's admit it, EVERYONE goes to the potty.

so,

This morning, I went to use the restroom and said "aah, I FINALLY have some peace. I think I may even have some time to myself to say a quick prayer!" (you know, because moms NEED many many prayers during the day just to get through it).

So I began: "Dear..." not before I could say another word, the door burst open and in came a distraught child named Jaiden. REALLY!? NO, REALLY!??!?!?!! I couldn't believe it. I mean, I knew I really meant it when I told people "I don't get much time to myself during the day," but really?! Not even a peaceful potty break!?

gotta love them children.

Two recent stories

We had babysitters over last night!! This is what they had to say (they are two sisters who come over together) when they wouldn't give Kai candy.

Kai: Shayyyy! You're driving me CRAZY!
Me*trying not to laugh*:I'm sorry Kai...
Kai: I want you to go over there *points out the window*
Me: Outside all alone?
Kai: No. Never mind its dark and scary out there...dont go Shay ok?

What a child!

Another story:

When I went to pick up Kai the other day from preschool, Miss Annie his teacher said to me;

"We all loved those Japanese treats Kai brought today!"

He had what's called the "snack bag" for the day, which means it's his turn to bring a snack to share with the class.

"HUH????"

I asked, puzzled, because I distinctly remember handing a bag of animal crackers for Kai to put into his bag.

Immediately, Miss Annie's face turned cloudy, as if to realize she had eaten something she wasn't supposed to.

"The animal crackers??"

I thought, Kai must have said these animal crackers are from Japan!? I was confused.

Miss Annie explained to me what they had. Yup, they were snacks I had bought from Japan alright.

It turns out, that Kai had packed himself a few bags of treats that I had gotten from Japan (for the kids)!! I laughed so hard.

I ended up asking him to please ask me before stuffing his bag, but couldn't get mad at him...something about being responsible and taking the initiative made me happy.

Funny kid.