One year older and Wiser too.....

Happy Birthday Heather!! I LOVE this girl! I am not sure when our friendship evolved, but somehow over the past few years it did! She's my late night Target companion, my drop in child care (sorry), my quick phone call for anything and everything! We have served together on the Activities Committee and in Primary! Our kids are joint at the hip (or wish they could be)! She is absolutely beautiful inside and out, generous, talented, creative, spontaneous, and a WONDERFUL friend! I am so blessed by her friendship!!! Happy B-Day Heather (and Happy IKEA Shopping)!!

Day of Rest

This weekend my body gave in and I ended up sleeping until 12:30 Sunday afternoon, up for a quick 1/2 hour to sip a bowl of tomato soup (thanks honey), and then back to bed until 4:30 pm! (I am almost embarrassed to mention that I was back in bed for the night by 9:30)!!! I figure that equals at least 3 average days of sleep for me and so I should be supercharged!!

The past few weeks have been kinda rough, I have been trying to discover different ways of coping. I have been walking a lot, I have been gardening (ripping out weeds is rather refreshing), and I have been pondering. Recently, I have been exploring the virtual sharing stations online from the Women's Conference at BYU. I have found some wonderful insights (that are probably better than sleeping, weeding, or walking)!!

My FAVORITE talk so far is by , entitled Steadfast and Immovable in Faith: Solid as a Rock. The handout shares 20 specific ways we can remain steadfast and immovable (all are wonderful), but here are 3 of my favorites:

Let not your mind turn back (D&C 67:14)
Sometimes unsteadiness occurs as we allow our minds to turn back and reflect on hard times, trials, unfairness, hurt, betrayal, frustration or just better days. The scriptures are filled with verses about the mind. There is power in controlling our thoughts and having a firmness of mind, looking forward with an eye of faith.
Jacob 3:1-2
Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction. O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.
Do not take counsel from your fears
There is a great deal in life to weary our souls and create fear within us. Satan would have us take counsel from our fears. This is a sure way to create unsteadiness. Because faith and fear cannot exist together we must dispel fear by exercising our faith in Jesus Christ.
"That is the second lesson of the spirit of revelation. After you have gotten the message, after you have paid the price to feel His love and hear the word of the Lord, go forward. Don’t fear, don’t vacillate, don’t quibble, don’t whine….. With the spirit of revelation, dismiss your fears and wade in with both feet. In the words of Joseph Smith, "Brethren [and sisters], shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!" (Holland March 2000 Ensign)
Submit to god’s will in all things
Why do we submit to God? Is it because we have to if we want to be considered obedient and righteous? No, we do it because we trust Him. We submit to God in all things because we believe that what He wants for us is the best thing. We even submit to God’s timing because we trust that what we cannot see ahead in the path is something that will absolutely be in our best interest. Submission is about trust.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell rightly said: "The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we ‘give’ … are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us." (Ensign, Nov. 95 24)

WOW!

Wow! Ryan has never even read my blog, let alone posted! I had a delightful Mother's Day, the kids were sooooo excited and my fridge is soooo full of treasures!! Props to Gracie for being such a good shopper, she talked Ryan out of a flower arrangement, insisting that I didn't want "dead" flowers, but flowers for the yard! (She may have had a little prompting from mommy dearest:) I didn't get my flowers, but I did get some earrings I desperately needed (yes, earrings are a need especially if you have over 20 mateless varieties) AND the Enchanted CD!!! I still LOVE the show, I think what I love more though is listening to the girls sing out at the tops of their lungs, "How Will She Know"!!! We spent the day with both my mom and Ryan's mom! We are SO blessed to have been raised and taught by such wonderful women! We will never be able to express our love and appreciation for all they have done and do for us!
We gave my mom a bundt cake from http://nothingbundtcakes.com - my latest obsession and may I recommend the pineapple-upside down cake (delish)! We gave Ryan's mom one of my cookbooks my girlfriends and I compiled and I helped his dad put together a little keepsake album for his mom of notes of thanks and love saved over the years.
It was a wonderful day!!!

Priceless Mom

Princess dress and accessories just $12.99

Basketball and jersey only $36.45

keep reading.



Well not to rip off all the commercial totally, but this mom does make these kids feel like real princesses and a all star. She has always wanted them to feel and know they are loved and has worked very hard in letting them know. She is truly a "priceless Mother".

A Sweet"heart"...

Whoosh, I am exhausted, in fact it is likely that I won't finish this post tonight, but I will try.

Here's a little recap of Ry's news. He had his appointment with the neurologist Monday. His MRI was abnormal and their are 2 new lesions from last year, the doc. said that one/decade is okay, so apparently Ryan is an overachiever! She started him on several meds for his headaches and even gave him a little shot in the hiney while we were there (unfortunately it didn't seem to do anything)! Today Ry was sedated again for an echo bubble procedure which detects if their is a hole in the heart, the results are in and Ry's heart is sweet (no hole)! So, we will not have to follow up with the Stroke team, but now we are left wondering what is responsible for the new (and several old) lesions. The Doc. said she is keeping him on a short leash, so we go back to see her on the 12th of May. In the meantime, he just needs to follow up with an ENT to figure out some other symptoms/issues and then hopefully we will have more news in a few weeks. His headaches have been pretty rough the past 2 days, so hopefully the meds will start helping soon!

A big thank you to everyone for all your help with the kids, yummy meals, and constant support this past week - we are spoiled rotten!!