Quotes

Every once in a while I used to add quotes I liked to my blog. I haven't done this in forever.  I didn't get anything else blogged the other day and now my parents are on their way and I have been trying to get things super clean. It is the first time my family will be able to see my new house.  I am excited.  As I was cleaning I found this quote from a lesson at church a couple of weeks ago.  I can not say who said this because it isn't on the slip on paper so if any one knows who said it let me know and I will add it.  Any ways  Here is the quote!  ENJOY

The "what" and "how" of obedience mark the way and keep us on the right path.  The "why" of obedience sanctifies our actions, transforming the mundane into the majestic.  It magnifies our small acts of obedience into holy acts of consecration.   

I think this was from Presidents Uchtdorf's talk about the forget me nots.  :)  

9-11

I remember this day like it was yesterday...

What do you remember from this day?  I am STILL kicking myself that I didn't save any newspapers from this day or any of the days after.  My husband was in Brazil on a mission for our church when this happened and he saved a Brazilian newspaper from this week!  He said it was really crazy being in another country. He said someone came up to him and asked if he was American and then said his country was under attack.  He didn't really believe him.  I'm glad he kept the newspaper!

Never forget all those who lost their lives that day.  Some willing and some not.  I am blessed to be an American!

Marriage

How many people when reading that title said it like on Princess Bride?  That is how I say the word always!  Isn't it amazing how a movie can have such an impact on so many people.  I am not writing this post to  discuss movies though.  I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about marriage.  What marriage means to me is not the same thing it means to other people.  My husband has a job where he used to travel ALL the time.  It was hard.  Our relationship started out long distance and because of this it prepared us for what our life was going to be like for the next 8 years.

A little back ground about us.  I lived in Southern California and Cody lived in Southern Utah.  My sister and her husband live in Utah where Cody lived.  My brother in law met Cody and they became friends.  They "hooked us up".  We met, went on a "date"  ( the date included both my sisters, my brother, my brother in law and my nephew ) and was something like 10 or so hours long.  After this I went back to Cali and we started emailing each other a lot.  Then we started chatting over MSN messenger.  Sometimes we would talk until 4 or 5 in the morning.  When my semester was over I went up to Utah to spend the summer which was only 2 months.  It took us a while to get the relationship going ( we are both shy! ) but once we did we were both smitten.  At the end of the 2 months I had a ring on my finger and we were planning a December wedding.  At first December seemed SO close.  I went back to Cali to finish up another semester and he worked and went o school in Utah.  It was the LONGEST 5 months ever!  December felt forever away.  We finally were married and we thought, "GOOD!  No more time apart!"  Then about 4 months later my husband got a call and a job offer in Texas.  We went gladly.  They said there was travel involved.  Well, we could handle that right?  Within two weeks of us being in Texas, Cody had to go to Kuwait for a month, come home for 2 weeks and then head back to Kuwait for 3 months.  HORRIBLE!  Our life was like this for the last 7 years.  The longest trip being while I was pregnant with my daughter Kayla.  Cody was in Iraq for 7 months.  Thank goodness we moved in with my parents in Utah while he was gone because I had lots of bleeding my first 2 months of pregnancy and needed the help.  ( My husband knocked me up on his way out the door to Iraq!  haha  We didn't even know I was pregnant until he had been gone 3 weeks or so )

We got the offer to move to California with NO TRAVEL!  We jumped on the opportunity even though it meant working more hours for Cody and leaving our family and friends in Texas.  Cody has a brother who lived around the corner from us who we spent LOTS of time with.  They kept me sane whenever Cody was gone.  And while my sister in law was at work during the day time, my dear friend Sarah kept me sane.  We didn't REALLY want to move but for us to be together and actually get to be a family FULL time was way to good to pass up.  It's funny because Cody's sister Wendy went through the same thing as us in terms of having her husband gone a lot,  He is the one who got my husband his job.  When she found out we were taking the job in California she told Cody that it was going to be really hard on our marriage for him to be home all of the sudden.  We laughed.  I can see how some people would find this difficult but not us.

Cody works with a LOT of people who do not value marriage!  Nor do they value family.  They looked at being on the road as an opportunity to cheat.  The sad thing was that some of them had verbal agreements with their wives that while they were on the road, both of them were allowed to see other people.  I can tell you of the 5 or so people Cody told me about who did this, ZERO of them are still together.  Oh and did I mention that most of them had two or three kids?  Little kids too who were seeing this and being no doubt damage by this tremendously.  How could anyone be THAT selfish?!

Cody and I have always stayed close during this.  We learned from the very beginning of our relationship to communicate through words and not through touch.  Do I get lonely when he is gone?  YUP!  Was it hard on my hormones him being away for a month or so at a time?  HELL YEAH!  haha  But this did not matter as much as how much I loved him.  Sometimes when Cody was gone we talked more then when he was home.  he would call me when he got done with work and we would talk for a while.  Then we would talk on the internet or on the phone after the kids went to bed.  It's hard to NOT be close to someone when you know how to talk.  THIS to me is not only what kept us close, but helped us keep our relationship going.  We knew how to communicate and we knew how to love each other even when we weren't in each others presence.

So what about now that he isn't traveling anyone?  Do we still talk?  Are we getting on each other's nerves?  Well, I can tell you it has been wonderful having him home and in no way has it made our relationship harder.  We still laugh about his sister saying that.  I know she was just trying to prepare us for what might happen but for us it was a blessing.  I value our marriage.  Our value our friendship.  He means more to me then the world and I would never do anything to jeopardize this.  For too many people, they just don't value marriage any more.  They don't love their spouse unconditionally.  They don't give %100 percent of themselves to it.  This is so sad to me.  Why get married then?  Why try and spend the rest of your life with someone and have a family if they aren't the most important thing to you?

I can tell you so many stories!  Another guy Cody works with told him that his career was more important then his wife!  Not only did he say that but he said if he got a promotion and needed to move some where and she didn't want to, he would just go any ways.  SERIOUSLY?!  WHY GET MARRIED?!  Another guy has been with the same woman for years.  Her kids are practically his kids.  They are planning on getting married but aren't yet.  He cheats on his wife every time he goes out on the road.  Recently he had a threesome while on a trip!  What gets me more then anything is that we aren't talking about kissing and holding hands.  We are talking sex.  I have only given myself to one person and that is my husband.  I can not even IMAGINE what it would be like to give myself to someone else.  And for these people he works with they do it and then go home and look their wives in the eyes.  And some of them don't consider it cheating if they don't sleep with them.  They could do ANYTHING else but as long as they don't have sex, it isn't cheating.  WOW

I value myself, my kids and my husband!  I value my marriage and what it represents.  I LOVE and know that he LOVES only me.  This is marriage and I feel sick to my stomach that in  this day in age the word marriage doesn't mean anything.  Well, it means something to me.  It means everything to me.

Bringing Christ Back

A lot of blogs are going up about bring CHRIST back into Christmas.  He is after all what CHRISTmas is ALL about.  Over the years the world has turned the holiday into nothing more then that...a holiday.  I am happy that it seems to still be centered around families but it is all for the wrong reasons.  We have a family at church who are newer to the church.  They decided that this year the kids wouldn't get presents and the kids themselves SAID THAT WAS OKAY!  They are 11 and 12!  Pretty amazing if you ask me!  My kids are just WAYYYY to little to be understanding that one, but maybe in a few years we can try it.

Any ways.  One of our lessons in church this last sunday was all about bringing CHRIST back into Christmas.  I had a strong feeling come over me that it would be important to take notes and write a blog about it.  After all, even if this encourages just ONE of you to put CHRIST back into Christmas I would feel blessed.  So here are my notes and I hope that it is helpful to all who read.  If you have some of your own ideas, leave me a comment and maybe I'll write another blog in a couple of days with more suggestions.

10 WAYS TO BRING CHRIST BACK INTO CHRISTMAS

1.  Study your Bible ( scriptures )  What better way to be more focused on Christ then to be reading about him and his life through the Bible.

2. Pray in the NAME of Christ.  This depends on your religion and beliefs but it we always end our prayers by saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ AMEN"  It helps you remember who you are talking to and WHY you are speaking to him.

3.  Decorate with CHRIST in mind.  Not snowmen and candy canes but the manger scene and things that remind us of his birth.

4.  Christmas music.  Some people start playing this as early as the October but if you don't get into the whole Christmas music thing ( which I do not I am sad to say ) start now with some spiritual songs of Christ and that are centered on his birth.

5.  Entertainment ( I left the room on this one because my daughter was throwing a fit!  haha  so go with your gut on this.  )  Choose entertainment that would help you feel closer to Christ or that would help you or your kids understand the circumstances surrounding his birth.

6.  Leave scriptures about Christ and quotes about him all over your house.  My mom likes to leave sticky notes on her mirror in her bathroom.  Some where that you KNOW you will see and read at least once or twice a day!

7.  Keep a Christmas journal.  I am a journal FREAK!  I love them!  This is a great idea to start with young kids too.  If they are too young to start one themselves, then start one for them.  Then when they get older they can add their own stories and experiences to it.

8.  TALK about Christ!  To any one and every one!

9. Serve others.  There is no better way to feel good inside then to help other people.  For the most part people are more receptive to help during the holidays so get out there and serve people all around you.

10.  Give Christ a spiritual.  What is a spiritual gift you ask?  Well, here is list number two of some of the possible spiritual gifts we can give Him.

Spiritual gifts

1.  Serving  (we talked about it already)  The scriptures say if you are in the service of your men, you are in the service of God!  Would we serve God if he came to our house/town/State ?  HECK YES WE WOULD, so serve our fellow beings and we ARE serving God.  I try and keep this in mind while Christmas shopping since everyone gets so crazy about it.  Smile at people who cut you off and steal the thing you were reaching for.  Maybe they just need someone to be nice to them to help them feel the spirit that they are lacking inside.

2. LOVE  goes along with number one.  You can't help but love someone you serve and vice versa.  If you love someone you WANT to serve them.  Do we love Christ?  Let's show him!

3.  Have a humble heart

4.  Keep his commandments.  "If you love me, keep my commandments"  He asks just a few minor things of us. One of them was to keep his commandments which are pretty darn easy.  I have the whole, "Do not murder" one DOWN!  haha  But seriously, keep his commandments.  I am sure this would make him very pleased!

5.  REPENT-  if you think you have something hanging over you that you have not repented of, turn yourself over to him and repent of it.  Life that ton of weight off of yourself.  I am actually speaking in church on Sunday about this very topic.  Repentance is SUCH an important part of life.  Christ wants us to be happy and it's hard to feel happy when you are dwelling on a past mistake.  Get over it and give it over to him.  Ask for forgiveness and let him forgive you!

6.  Pray with a sincerity!  DO you ever get in a rut where you pray because you KNOW you are supposed to but don't change up what you say?  I do this constantly and I am always trying to change things up so Tyler hears thats I don't say the same thing over and over.  It's important to pray from the heart and not to memorize someone and spit it out every time you kneel down to pray.

7.  Study the scriptures daily!  Boy do I need some work on this one.  It's important.  Give up 10 minutes of blogging and read your scriptures.  Your day will go by some much better, I promise.

8  Lastly, give THANKS in all things.  We owe EVERYTHING to Christ!  He gave up his life for us.  Let's give him thanks by bringing him back into the holiday that is SUPPOSED to be centered around him anyways!  BRING CHRIST BACK INTO CHRISTMAS!

I LOVE Jesus Christ very much.  He is my reason for everything.  Help me bring him back by reposting this or writing your own blog about bringing him back to Christmas.  Don't forget to leave me comments with any other spiritual gifts we could give him or other ways to bring CHRIST back into Christmas! Thanks for reading and I hope every one is having a very blessed day!!!

Thoughts

Elder Marvin J Ashton said,

"Someone has said, 'A friend is a person who is willing to take me the way I am'. Accepting this as one definition of the word, may I quickly suggest that we are something less then a real friend if we leave a person the same way we find him...

"No greater reward can come to any of us as we serve than a sincere 'Thank you for being my friend'. When those who need assistance find their way back through and with us, it is friendship in action. When the weak are made strong and the strong stronger through our lives, friendship is real. If a man can be judged by his friends, he can also be measured by their heights...

"Yes, a friend is a person who is willing to take me the way I am but who is willing and able to leave me better then he found me"

Another quote I think ALL us crafty women can relate to at some point in our lives ( most likely every day! )

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley


Hope everyone had an enjoyable Sunday!

Thoughts

My mother sent me an email recently that I am just getting around to reading and I wnated to share some of the quotes from it. Rather then share them all at once, I thought that over the next couple of days I would share one or two. Today I choose this one because as I am sitting here in my living room with it half cleaned up, with my apron on trying to prepare my lesson for church on Sunday while the kids are napping, before I get to the dinner I need to cook because we are feeding the missionaries from our church tonight, i found THIS one perfect for ME today! Hopefully it will be PERFECT for someone else who reads this too! Have a wonderful day!

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

— Marjorie Pay Hinckley