Winter, oh I mean, Spring Break 2009

Here are some of the highlights of March 23-28, 2009...

Joseph and I are getting more life insurance. It's never fun to discuss the inevitability of death with your spouse, but it's all about self reliance I guess...

JP and I took the older kids to the Titanic exhibit at the museum. It was really good! I saw the same exhibit at the ZCMI Center in Salt Lake a few years ago. When you are admitted into the museum, you are given a boarding pass with an actual identity of one of Titanic's passengers. The boarding pass gives interesting facts about your passenger such as their age, destination, reason for traveling, people you are traveling the Titanic with, and boarding class status. All four of us had 1st class passengers; in fact, Josh occupied the most expensive suite on the Titanic. JP was a celebrated French sculptor going to Canada to present some of his art work and I was a 23-year old woman who was traveling to get her mind off of her 'impending divorce.' Emma was returning from attending a relative's funeral in London. You don't get to see your fate until you finish the entire exhibit and see the memory wall, which has a list of passengers listed under 1st Class, survivors and 'lost' and 2nd and third Class listed accordingly. The kids' favorite part was the ice wall, where the temperature of the ice was the same temperature of the Atlantic water that fateful night. So your chances of surviving were higher if you were a woman and if you were first class. Incidentally, Emma's person was the only one who perished in our company:( (See the first picture--kids holding boarding passes and replica first class dining plate) After the museum, JP took us to lunch at "Hot Diggity Dog", a yummy little hot dog joint. (100% real beef, might I add, because that's how we roll...)

Thursday we bought a trampoline. So fun! We have yet to get the enclosure put up. JP's waiting for warmer temperatures. (Darn that weather!)

Friday I took the kids to a matinee of "Bedtime Stories." Josh stayed behind to help Daddy assemble the trampoline. Who knew Adam Sandler could have a PG rating?

Friday night our Mud Lake cousins came for sloppy joes and a sleep over. This is a special treat because our family doesn't do sleep overs with friends. And Saturday, after we ate blueberry pancakes, bacon and orange juice, we took our cousins with us to Heise Hot Springs and pizza parlor. Holy cow, that's an expensive bath. Oh well, a good time was had by all, and I love the chance to prance around in my swim wear since I had my tummy tuck and breast augmentation. (just kidding). And I have to admit, after you see my hubster in a camouflage speedo, wet with sulfur-smelling mineral water, you'll never want to look at another man again. Candy for the eyes, I'm tellin' ya. He's my man! (To be said with a sultry southern accent.)

Now we're back in the swing of life again... practicing violin/piano, homework, scouts, soccer and earlier bedtimes. We're looking forward to General Conference this weekend. I'm confident we will find answers to our most pressing personal concerns if we listen with a prayer in our hearts. (And if the chitlins cooperate.)

Tending Roses

"Indian wisdom says our lives are rivers. We are born somewhere small and quiet and we move toward a place we cannot see, but only imagine. Along our journey, people and events flow into us, and we are created of everywhere and everyone we have passed. Each event, each person, changes us in some way. Even in times of drought we are still moving and growing, but it is during seasons of rain that we expand the most--when water flows from all directions, sweeping at terrifying speed, chasing against rocks, spilling over boundaries. These are painful times, but they enable us to carry burdens we could never have thought possible."

That is the first paragraph of the book "Tending Roses" by Lisa Wingate. I just finished the book and loved it. It was effective from the first page. Excellent fiction. I am a cheapskate, but I'm buying my own copy of this book. Has anyone else read it?

March Family Updates

Let's face it. It's expensive to be honest. I'm self employed with 25 violin students, so Uncle Sam doesn't adore me so much. Joseph and I are getting ready to pay our taxes. And it's expensive. I know of other music teachers that require cash only as payment for this very reason... they don't report their income. This is tempting, I admit. However, my temple recommend is the most valuable thing I own.

Joseph and I are going to the temple Thursday night with the Elder's Quorum presidency and their wives. Friday night, we're going to the We Surround Them party at Lezhai Gulbransen's. Everybody's invited! (She gave me permission to invite all of you out there in blogland) These parties are being hosted all around the country Friday the 13th. It will be interesting and uplifting.

As for an update on the kids, we just finished Parent Teacher Conferences; both of which went great. My kids are avid readers. Last trimester, Josh reached 221% of his AR goal and Emma has read every Junie B. Jones book the public library has in stock and is reading at a 4th grade, 2nd month reading level. Now she's on to Cam Jensen mysteries... Today she is excited because her dad is picking her up from school for a daddy/daughter date. Dun, dun, dun... to the library!
(Hey, whatever works, right?)

Caleb has been wearing his boots and coat for 45 minutes already, in anticipation of preschool this morning at 10:00. Yesterday in sacrament meeting, he was very IRREVERENT. That is being polite.

Elizabeth is potty training. There's something so cute about chubby bum cheeks in training pants, don'tcha think? There is nothing cute, however, about cleaning up urine off the floor.

That's the update... now if we could get some warmer temperatures, I think I'd be a new woman! Have a good week, everybody. Carry on!

I've Been Thinking...

My husband and I went to the temple Saturday morning and had a sweet time. I was thinking about ways I feel that Heavenly Father shows His love for us, and one of the greatest evidences of His love is temple work. Have you ever thought that it would be so much easier and more 'efficient' to do work for the dead in the masses and accomplish it so much faster? You could imagine an officiator saying, "You are baptized for and in behalf of..." and then name 10 individuals rather than just one. Or initiatory, or endowments; It really struck me how merciful the Lord is to let it all be done one by one. 3 Nephi 11 exemplifies this perfectly as well-- the Resurrected Savior allowed thousands of individuals to come and feel the prints of the nails in his hands and feet one by one. Wasn't seeing Him enough of a witness? Yet He loved them enough to allow them the time they needed to receive a personal witness. He really loves us as individuals, doesn't he?

Another thought I had recently has to do with handling our burdens. Often times we hear someone say, "The Lord won't give us anything we can't handle." That is a misnomer. Of course he gives us things we can't handle ON OUR OWN--he does that on purpose. For example, temptations, health challenges, broken hearts, death of a loved one, etc. We can, however, handle everything and anything with the Savior and His enabling power. That's the beauty of the Plan. On our own, we are nothing and our potential isn't very great, but with Him, the seeds of our godhood are limitless. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:13

And finally, my favorite words to live by:

Repentance takes care of yesterday;
Faith takes care of tomorrow, and
the Holy Ghost takes care of today.