Preview of my talk

"The Lord knows our bearing capacity, both as to coping and to comprehending, and He will not give us more to bear than we can manage at the moment, though to us it may seem otherwise. Just as no temptations will come to us from which we cannot escape or which we cannot bear, we will not be given more trials than we can sustain." --Neal A. Maxwell

And I stole this from the Sheltonites blog (good quote Emily!) from Elder Holland...I think it is perfect!

"If we constantly focus only on the stones in our mortal path, we will almost surely miss the beautiful flower or cool stream provided by the loving Father who outlined our journey. Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God's goodness. Joy in the gospel is not something that begins only in the next life. It is our privilege now, this very day. We must never allow our burdens to obscure our blessings. There will always be more blessings than burdens--even if some days it doesn't seem so. Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Enjoy those blessings right now. They are yours and always will be." — Jeffrey R. Holland

So if you're in my ward and you are reading this, you just might hear these quotes being used in my talk this Sunday (it's on adversity). But I was touched so much by these that I had to share them now!

I'm on Google Maps!!!!

Check this out! It's so cool! I was messing around on Google maps just now, checking running route distances, etc., and discovered that the picture of our house has a picture of me in it! It was from last summer when we were starting the pergola project, and I was staining all the wood in our driveway. Okay, so if you click on the link below and then double click on the "C" destination (our house) and then in the top right hand corner, click on street view. You kind of have to click and drag the frame around so you can see our house full-on, and you can click the full-screen option, you get a sweet ol' view of yours truly hard at work in the garage! Isn't that awesome? But the street-view tool that Google offers is pretty sweet too, if you click on the arrows, you can virtually drive down the street and check out your neighborhood online! Maybe you all knew this already and I'm a little slow when it comes to techno savvy stuff (I know, I know, not quite worthy to be in the GGF club...).

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=W+Harmonica+Way&daddr=W+Banjo+Dr+to:6037+S+Moonridge+Ave,+Boise,+ID+83709&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=43.548334,-116.291174&sspn=0.005482,0.009613&ie=UTF8&ll=43.550251,-116.290884&spn=0.005482,0.01369&t=h&z=17

Lifeline

This song found me the other night...seriously, I was supposed to find it. :) Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but check this out...so I never watch tv, and one night I randomly flip it on to the WB and caught all of five minutes of this show (One Tree Hill or something like that for any that might watch the show) but they featured this song during the few minutes I was watching, and I totally loved it! Lifeline by Angels and Airwaves...just wanted to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWds_R5wcBQ

And I'm proud to be an American...

Tonight I took Mitch and Luke to a flag retirement ceremony put on by the scouts in our ward, and it was such a cool experience!! I got choked up so many times: seeing the flag, putting my hand over my heart, saying the pledge of allegiance, singing the national anthem, seeing pictures of men and women in uniform, and hearing the stories of those that have served. At the end of some talks and presentations, we went to the field behind the church and watched as scouts laid the flags on top of a fire, one by one, respectful in thier demeanor, and listening to a trumpet playing taps.

I'm so grateful to live in this country and to feel such love and respect and patriotism for the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy. I had the same choked up feeling as I was voting, which I was laughing at myself because I didn't necessarily feel like my individual vote would make much of a difference (especially living in Idaho), but I think it was just the fact that I could vote, and feeling so blessed to be a participant in a functioning democracy.

I feel so blessed to be where I am, when I am, and I'm so excited to be a part of the work of the Gospel in the latter days!

Happy Veteran's Day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9_fDEsv-Q

Sunday Dress up Day

A couple of weeks ago, we pulled out the costume box for the kids to pick out their costumes. As you can see, they had a blast trying everything on and posing for the camera!

Scripture of the day

I read this scripture last night and want to share it with the world because it is so true (well, all the scriptures are true, but you know what I mean!)

2 Tim. 1:7

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

ps, Happy election day...Go vote!!

The Big 5-year old

Luke's birthday was on Thursday, the big man turned 5! I also happened to have the Halloween party at my house for the coop preschool I'm apart of. So it kind of functioned as a birthday party for Luke, all of his friends got to come over for a party...at least that's how I let him see it. Never mind that there weren't presents to open. (Actually, two of his friends brought presents for him anyway).

So yeah, preschool was crazy! My first time teaching ever, and it felt like a complete disaster! I put so much time into it, and on paper it looks like it would have been a pretty sweet 2 1/2 hours. But I underestimated the four/five-year olds' excitement level and attention span. Oh well, a learning experience for me as well. The hardest part was watching several hours worth of time put into the cutest and most creative snacks get thrown in the garbage with only a bite or two taken out of them. Oh, the funniest thing though: so I made this witch's brew and for the ice I put in these frozen hand molds. But as I was trying to extricate one of the frozen hands from the rubber glove, I accidentally broke off all the fingers except the middle one...so the frozen hand in my witch's brew was flipping us all off! It was hilarious!

For this party, Luke was a ninja, Elise was a cheerleader, and I was a wizard. The next day for real Halloween, we were all something different! Luke was Nephi, Elise was a fairy princess (same thing she was last year, but hey, you've got to choose your battles, right?), and I was an airline stewardess. Mitch wore the ninja costume and Loren was the wizard.

This picture is of Lizzy right after she gave "the perfect present for Luke!" She knew he loves transformers and also has a thing for tarantulas, so when she saw this spider Transformer toy at the store, she knew Luke would absolutely love it! (The unfortunate ending to the story is that in trying to transform the toy for him...I accidentally broke the arm off! Oops...Luke was so mad at me!! I'm still holding out some hope that super glue will come through for me!)