I'll miss it when...

Lift up my covers on any given day

Tell me I won't miss these moments one day

Little treasures hide here and there,

I step on them and yell,

I stub on them and hell, I feel I could kick some booties

But in the end, I ask myself;

will I ever be so happy one day, when I don't find little tinklinks hiding in my bed?

or my shoe or my purse?

I think it will be the saddest day when the house stays clean and I don't have little things to remind me of who loves me for me!

Sister Beula Allenof

Introducing to you, one of my favorite sisters in our branch.

Sister "Beula Allen"

How old is she? I don't even know!

But a heart of gold, she has.

She's got all the desire to learn and progress.

She's been asking me to teach her some computer skills.

BAh, HAH!

I laughed in my head, ME, TEACH COMPUTERS?!

But this humble lady, all she knew was...NOTHING.

So YES! I will teach you, come to my house!

I picked her up and we began.

"This is the on/off button, let's start from zero."

"I'm in cloud nine, I'm so happy!"

Beula Allen exclaimed,

I've never done anything for herself in this life, she said,

and I believe her.

"let's practice typing now. Send Jill an email," I said.

Three hours later, she wrote:

"Hello jill, hou you doin." and a little more.

I drew her out a picture of the computer keyboard and took her home.

"Now you practice everyday," I told her with a wink.

Two weeks later, I asked her "how's it going?"

pulling out her keyboard drawing I gave her and with a twinkle in her eye,

"I'm gettin' it baby, I'm gettin' it."

She said, teethless as can be.

I truly love this branch, so many humble sisters to get to know.

I hope to share the little I know, and learn from them, the lots that they have to offer.

Jay-man loves to draw

My little Jay-man loves to draw.

He's writing nana and papa and Jiji and Baba a letter too!

A fun idea for the parents:

as the kids write letters/cards, write down on the paper, the things they say:

it is truly hilarious, and no doubt it will be cherished by those who receive them! :)

Kai and his letters

This is Kai. He's been fixated with letters lately, ever since watching BLUES CLUES :)

So, he decided to write nana and papa and Jiji and Baba letters.

Then, a few days after mailing his letter, he got a reply from nana!!!

Hmm, what is this??

A letter for meeee??

I don't think I need to write how much he loved the letter... :)

But OH, how he loved it. :)

Thanks, Nana!

Funnies't

Hope our friend Greg Doesn't mind me posting this, but I just couldn't resist!

thanks for a good laugh! :)

I just love how Greg is doing whatever he's doing, and Jaiden responds! lol

Brothers

Kai and Jaiden have always been best buds.

May you always stay that way.

I love you both, more than heaven knows.

Little People

Today, I smashed Kai's little finger in the front door. REALLY HARD. Of course it was on accident, but I felt TERRIBLE. After the real tear cries and holding my baby for a good long while, he was already smiling and laughing with me. Then, a sudden realization hit me; Kai hasS NEVER. let me repeat: Kai has NEVER yelled at me! Even when I do something stupid to hurt him (although it was really his fault for sticking his finger in the door), or when I am just grumpy and mean to him, he has NEVER yelled at me the way I do at him for every little thing. Now, please don't picture me as this big old monster, but really, I get it. "Be like little children" the scriptures tells us. These little people are AMAZING. I am truly humbled, even remorseful for my shortcomings and imperfections. All I can say is that when I grow up, I want to be like Kai.

Just for Fun

"Good mor...ning..."

I stop and sigh.

My kitchen!

Dishes piled up sky high in both sinks.

Condiments and food scatter and pile around, you wouldn't know that I had countertops.

With every step, I feel crunching of crumbs and occasionally stop to grunt, pull my foot up to peel off mushed bananas or rice.

I clean my foot off and walk out into the dining room.

Little toys strewn everywhere.

It's never ending.

Dirty laundry scattered everywhere, dirty tiny super hero undies and nasty diapers are thrown every which way.

I walk into the hallway; toys and junk to take upstairs lay stacked on each step of the stairs. The idea was that every time I went upstairs, I'd take it and put it away...not happening yet. I look around, Every room is MESSY.

I look at my "To-Do" list, all covered in little black scribbles; things I felt were important to get done today. A sigh.

I wonder...thoughts begin to swirl in my head.

That's usually a bad sign.

I wonder...

I wonder if my friends who aren't members of the church (LDS) have their kitchens cleaned everyday?!

I wonder if their homes get cleaned up everyday? Maybe it doesn't even get THIS bad?!

Then a thought pops into my head.

Not at all what I'd call an inspiration, but it's a thought, more like an excuse.

Well, if I didn't have church assignments...and

if I didn't have to read my scriptures everyday...and meditate, and ponder and plan FHE lessons, and prepare talks and lessons for Sundays, if I didn't have to help my kids prepare little talks and practice the piano for a special musical number...if I didn't have to be a missionary to my neighbors and bake them cookies...and give service and make meals for the sick and if I didn't have Homework to do from the University, if I didn't have to do my Visiting Teaching and remind Ronny to do his Home Teaching...if I didn't have crazy ideas such as writing a book...then maybe...just maybe I could be like my nonmember friends who put their children in daycare and spend the day cleaning? Or if I were them and could drop my kiddos off at grandma's and grandpa's house every day and take them to have sleepovers at their houses every weekend...OOOOWEEE!

Just for fun, I got carried away :) But in reality, I am truly blessed and happy. I have many things which occupy me and so many more people who need me.

What a blessing it is to be depended on, what a great thing it is to be BUSY, even if my house is a ...well, a MESS :)

HELP!

Family Home Evening

I felt the need to plan a Relief Society activity around this topic.

March 27, 2010

about two more weeks

It really wasn't my idea, but now I'm stumped

I just feel that it's important

and I will do it.

(I'm not complaining, BTW :)

I'm thinking about having the sisters put together packets of FHE lessons and activities.

I might have 12 folders with recipes for treats, lesson ideas, quotes and teach WHY FHE is so important and share the promises...

We have a lot of sisters/families who are at the "pioneer" stage in the gospel...and I'd like to help teach the importance of it all...most of them also live with generations of families/non-members/less actives.

They are all different types of ages and a mix of people living together, but FHE is something everyone can do and enjoy, right?

I think it's all a good idea, but WHAT and HOW?!

Does anyone have any suggestions to what I could do?

Please help!

God Bless!

The stadium darkens,

the music softly, but powerfully begins

red, blue, white,

the thin flag slowly begins to show its majesty

from the ceiling, the flag unravels itself

There's at least 6 stories worth of rope hanging

slowly, uniformed men come down with it

true heroes in camouflage

a reverent silence hushes the crowded stadium

6,000 people slowly stand up

Tears fill the eyes as we watch these heroes come down,

the flag gently leading the way

Our thoughts go out to those who have served us

Our prayers go out to those who are serving us

they are the young women and men

courageous and bravely fighting

so that you and I can be free today,

so that you and I can cherish our families and friends.

I quietly place my hand on my chest,

I gently wrap my arm around my husband,

He is one of them.

I'm so grateful to be an American

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

A Friend

YAY!

Lundy's here! The Kids call her "Tia" (aunt).

Isn't that cute?!

Tia's been coming to visit us every year.

Isn't that wonderful?

I am so blessed.

She came in last night from Penn State to spend a week with us.

We just stayed up talking about boys and life. (Ok, no boys for me, obviously ;)

I remembered how great we worked together.

Did you know we were companions in the mission TWICE?! And for about 6 months all together!!

Yes, we worked very well together.

We're really different in personalities and the gifts we are given are completely different...and yet, we somehow work so well together.

And don't doubt it.

We're planning to do more great things together in this life.

The WHAT is what we've been trying to figure out.

But something.

Something good.

How about a camp/conference type thing to help women?

Kind of like Time Out For Women?

I'd love it.

I am really glad she's here.

What a great friend I have.

Planning

I've always been a planner.

I always carry around with me a small notebook and I have a million lists.

Lists for everything, really.

Lists to plan out my day, my week, my menu, grocery shopping, teaching plans for the kids, goals I want to set, etc etc.

It's quite ridiculous, or so I thought;

Listen to this and see if you don't start making lists and start planning everything too!

"No one generates more power than the planner, the thinker, the organizer, the doer. He is the one who draws the blueprint for success. He is the one who builds the roadway on which every accomplishment will travel." Elder Sterling W. Will

"It is foolish to believe that you can accomplish what you were sent to do without a specific, detailed plan. By having a vision of a building does not get the job done. As important as goals are, they do not get skyscrapers built. A blueprint is needed...a blueprint consists of many pages of minute detail...for every phase of the building. Builders keep their plans in front of them at all times." Randall Wright

And Finally,

"Plan your week, plan each day. Plan where you want to spend your time and with whom, doing what. Planning is faith. Panning is setting goals and a program to achieve them. Planning is thinking. Planning is serving 'with your mind.' Half an hour in daily, careful planning will double or triple the effectiveness of your ten hours of work. Planning requires mental discipline, patience, and a lot of practice...you must plan your day as guided by the Spirit of the Lord." Stephen R. covey

half way into my mission we received a new rule.

we were to start using Tuesday mornings to plan out our week.

WHO were we going to visit and teach?

WHAT were we going to teach?

HOW were we going to teach? Was there any special needs?

WHERE were we going to knock on the doors?

etc.

Obviously, sometimes, the Spirit led us another direction at the LAST second, but that hardly ever was the case. As I posted before,

"chance always favors the prepared life." pte. H. W. Hunter

And so it is with the Spirit. The Spirit always favors the prepared life.

The Spirit has a harder time guiding us, if WE are not prepared and have not studied and planned out our life/days.

It's true.

Before these so called "preparation morning" became a rule, we simply used to get up on Tuesdays, the day after our P-day, and went out into streets.

Yes, AIMLESSLY, wondering WHERE we were going to go, thinking WHO are we going to visit and WHAT will we teach?!

ahh, but the spirit will guide!

No, Not really.

So, I remembered WHY I have my blueprints with me everyday and all the time. :)

Do you have yours?

Interesting

Has anyone ever set 100 goals for themselves?

goals to accomplish during his/her life time?

How about thinking about what they want accomplished in the next 1/5/10/20+ years and then writing it down? A goal not written down is merely a wish.

Have you every made a list of your WEAKNESSES?

Has anyone ever written a paper about WHY you are the way you are

or WHY you DO the things you do? Esp. referring to your weaknesses? (i.e. why do I yell? where does that bad habit come from?) I think pinpointing why you do the things you do could definitely help you break the bad habit!

"A target, to be hit, must be seen."

"chance always favors the prepared life" Pte. Howard W. Hunter

"Not failure, but low aim is often our greatest sin" Elder LeGrand Richards