Consider the Blessings

I love General Conference.  I have been so blessed for the last six and a half years to attend General Conference.  I've loved every session I've attended and learned so much, but truly I learn more as I study and listen to the talks after conference.

  Often I do this while I'm running.  I wish that every day I would come home and write down the favorite quotes from each talk and the insight that I receive as I listen to them, but very seldom that happens.  But as I listened to President Monson's talk recently I have been reminded over and over of the sweet message he sent.  The title of his talk was Consider the Blessings...  Pres. Monson said,

"As I have reviewed the past 49 years, I have made some discoveries. One is that countless experiences I have had were not necessarily those one would consider extraordinary. In fact, at the time they transpired, they often seemed unremarkable and even ordinary. And yet, in retrospect, they enriched and blessed lives—not the least of which was my own. I would recommend this same exercise to you—namely, that you take an inventory of your life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received."

This quote initially got me thinking because I had read his talk already and knew so much of his talk was about Service to others.    He then goes on to say

"Reinforced constantly during my own review of the years has been my knowledge that our prayers are heard and answered. 'Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers (D&C 112:10)'"

Again I loved this because I know it is true, but again Pres. Monson prayers were always for his desire to help others.  He then shared several experiences of times he listened to the spirit which helped him to know how to serve.  These were the blessings he shared with us.  As I listened I reflected on my knowledge that "when ye are in the service of your fellow being ye are only in the service of your God"  I know that we love those we serve.  I know that service brings me the greatest Joy.  I then really made the connection of how grateful I 
am for the opportunities I have to serve and how this is the greatest blessing in my life.

The part of his message I am really working on is this:  " I have learned, as I have mentioned in previous messages, never to postpone a prompting." (Pres. Monson).  I pray daily that I will not only hear the promptings but that I will follow through with them.  I am not perfect at this but I am trying diligently to do this.

JOY

As the school year winds down, we find ourselves going to award ceremonies for our children.  Sometimes I wonder is it necessary, are these overrated, do they strengthen us and give us courage.  Then I was reminded of the personal progress program.  All along the way we recognize the young women for their accomplishments.  We honor their commitment and resolve to finish a value.  We rejoice in others accomplishments and that helps all of us be motivated to do better and try harder.  So as we have entered into this time of recognition I find great JOY in the fact that my children SEEK for knowledge, learning "line upon line, precept upon precept".  First it brought us GREAT JOY to receive Christiana's diploma in the mail.  We don't know why it was sent to our home, but it brought us great joy to open it, and see her great accomplishment of finishing college!!!! Congratulations Christiana!!!!

What JOY it brought us and Meagan to learn that she has qualified for a full scholarship at BYU,  She has worked so hard to accomplish this and we find JOY in her diligence and drive to always do better, but I think I received greater joy when one of Sheldon's employees told me she loves having Meagan working in the office because of the sweet spirit she possesses.

We rejoiced with Sarah that she passed her Chemistry class.  This was hard and we loved that she dug deep and studied and returned to BYUI to finish the class a few weeks ago.  YAY for Sarah!!!

Monday night we were honored as Loryn was recognized for her great accomplishments in High School. She received the Centennial Medallion, Advanced Honors Diploma, High Honors Graduate , Millennium Scholarship, and BYU-Idaho Award of Excellence Scholarship.  Loryn has made my job as a mother fun and easy.  I have never had to nag her about school work and she ALWAYS had her projects done before the due date.  She is absolutely amazing

















It was so much fun on Saturday at the State Lacrosse Game to watch Conner receive the Sportsmanship Award for his team.  Not only did he have a fabulous season on his JV team getting stats we could of only dreamed of at the beginning of the season, but he also knows how to control himself on the field when playing the game and does a great job being a team leader.

Then this morning we went to one more awards ceremony for Sydnee.  She like her siblings always strives to do her best and be the best she can be.  She has loved middle school, and again has done well.  We love her desire to achieve.

We have been extremely blessed with our children's desire to learn, both spiritually and secularly

DISNEYLAND/SINGING IN THE PARKS

3.14 Pie Night

The kids reminded me about 4:30 today that it was PIE DAY

Which was a great excuse to make Pies for our FHE treat (Due to lacrosse schedule we've changed our FHE to Wednesday Nights).  They requested ice cream pie and I decided to make one of Sheldon's favorite Strawberry Pie.

Youth Conference "Look Up"

Last Saturday was our Ward Youth Conference,  our stake had asked us to do it as wards this year and to keep it simple and minimal budget.  With those objectives in mind and after ruling out several several ideas we went with the theme "Look Up" and Look up we did.  If nothing else it made us realize how spectacular our Savior is and if but only look to Him we will never have reason to look down.  We had two great speakers.  Sis. Tagliaferri kicked off our youth conference after we had some fun games and jump roping, then we ate a great dinner and headed to the mountains.  Where Rob Lambert helped us look up into the amazing glory of the universe through dynamic telescopes, we saw Orion and clusters of nebulons.  A night hike that helped us learn that the natural man looks down, and Pres. Tew concluded our night by reminding us if we are looking up we can look others in the eyes and BE TRUE.  It was a great day with absolutely beautiful weather, and even better youth.  It truly helped us feel a sweet spirit of gratitude for our Savior

The Runnin' Rebels have returned

This year again Sheldon bought season tickets to the UNLV games.  Each year we seem to make more and more time to go.  We only have 4 tickets, but it seems to work out -- there typically are only four of us who can go.  Because we buy our tickets through a large booster, we get to go to dinner before in the "Redd Room"  we typically eat in the quiet back  room not the Redd Room, but we do enjoy going for dinner (even if they kids typically don't eat).  Then we are always there for tip off.  Honestly the Rebels had a GREAT first half of the season, and I won't deny the second half wasn't quite as impressive, but luckily at HOME we always won and we loved the Rebel Fever.  We went to the Mountain West Tournament until UNLV lost.... but it was still so much fun.  We love our Red Runnin' Rebs

Dinner before the Game

Conner trying to pull his "Conner Smile"

The true Conner Smile

If you look closely you'll see a huge "Moser" cut out -- He's my favorite this year

REBELS

What we look like on the way home from the games

DISNEYLAND

OH WHAT A DAY.  (A few months ago Loryn asked if I could take her and some friends to Disneyland on proficiency day -- I'm always up for a trip so the answer was YES -- proficiency day is a day when the sophomores at high school take a test to see if they are proficient enough to graduate.  If they pass they don't have to take it again their two following years -- so freshman, juniors and seniors can have the day off)

3:30 AM up and showered to leave with 8 of us (6 friends 2 adults) by 4:30 to DISNEYLAND (I wish I had pictures of our good looks at 4:00).  We were on the road at 4:30 and arrived in Anaheim at about 9:15 to pick up Pam at the train station (she had been in San Diego and decided to join the party -- now we had 9 in the car!!!)

What a fun group, Mallorie, Loryn, Elyssa, Jenna, Grace & Kristen

Kristen and I starting the day off at Space Mountain -- FAST PASS

Skipping to our next adventure

Loryn Petting a Duck

Small World

Space Mountain

Grace Answering her prom date Tower of Terrir

Screamin'

TEACUPS

We were in Disneyland early and ready to conquer both parks in 11 hours and Conquer we did.  We had fun running -- yes literally running from ride to ride and laughing, giggling and trying not to run people over in the process.  Ocassionally someone would take a bathroom break and a snack break but those were few and far between.  After riding Peter Pan, Space Mountain (3X), Buzz Lightyear, Small World, Thunder Mountain, Pirates, the cool and wet Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Indiana Jones, and Jungle Cruise, we decided to go to CALIFORNIA ADVENTURES, where we started on Soaring over California, onto Tower or Terror (Sooo fun), Toy Story, then we decided we could eat, Goofy Ride, Little Mermaid, Screamin' (several times), Tower of Terror a couple more times, then finished the night off with Soaring -- Oh what a fun, fun, fun, fun day.  The girls were troopers and kept up with me.  I loved it.  We went back in the car and had a great safe ride home :-) :-) :-) it was a great smiling day!!!

No Regret Photo

THE END