Sunday's Spiritual Thoughts - Young Children and Healthy Marriages

Well, I missed last week. It was really hard to think of anything spiritual after teaching the Sunbeam class (and potty training Katie who is VERY strong-willed!)...anyway, I finally decided on young children. They are so fun to be around and speak their minds so easily. In some ways you wonder how that can be good (like when they insult you or tell everyone that their mom's farts stink (which happened to someone I know! :P)) but other times it's great. When they have that innate wisdom that just amazes you or just say something totally sweet (like when they notice that you're dressed up and say you look pretty).

The other is Health Marriages. We just finished the last class of the marriage portion of our Marriage and Family relations class. It's nice to be reminded of things that we need to improve and see how much better we are doing in some ways. It's great to hear how certain lessons have helped people in our class and see the healthy marriages people have. I have noticed that, in some cases, a good argument/disagreement is very healthy to a marriage. I have seen too many people that seemed like they had the perfect marriage end up divorced and everyone around them was shocked. I have also seem some of the other extreme as well. I am so happy to be able to say we have a healthy marriage. We don't agree a lot of the time and both of us have have tempers but we have succeeded in working through all our problems and are very happy together!

Sunday's Spiritual Thoughts - Missions

We went to a mission farewell today. Our cousin Isaac Allred got set apart, gave his farewell talk, and left to travel down to Utah today. It was lots of fun. He is sooo excited to go and you could tell when you listened to him. He said "awesome" and "amazing" alot as he talked about Personal Revelation. It was great to see the testimony that he has. He could teach us all a little something. He talked about the grass and how that was revelation. To know that God loves us so much that he put that grass on the earth for us to enjoy (and that we could look at anything and get some revelation from it.) Another great part of his talk was at the end when he had us all close our eyes and forget what was on our minds and to picture Jesus Christ standing in front of us. What would he say to us? It was so simple. He would say that he loves us and that he is proud of us and what we are doing. I started to cry thinking about that. It is so wonderful to just take a moment and think about it and to Know. After church we went over to his house to have lunch and celebrate his little sister's birthday (Olivia - who just turned eight). It was fun and we are excited for him. He is going to Anaheim, California (Spanish speaking). Good luck Isaac. We know you are ready for this.

Sunday's spiritual thoughts - Friends

Well, there was a farewell in our ward today and lots of people came to show their support. Among those people were a few that I grew up with in Calgary. I saw Delphine, Sophie and Ben Nzojibwami and Luke Sinclair. It was great to see these people that I haven't seen in a really long time.

I also have Amy Johansen in my ward now and it's good to see her and get reaquainted with her. Then there are my new friends. I've been taking a class on "Parenting the strong-willed child" and have met 2 great women that have become friends very quickly - Erin Smith and Colby Fletcher. It's amazing how quickly we've become friends and how much we have in common.

I'm so glad that I have been able to find old and new friends everywhere I go. It feels like I went so long without having anyone close to me that I could talk to like a real friend does....

Sunday's spiritual thoughts - families

Well, lately in our church there seems to be a lot being said about families. My sunday school class is also the marriage and family relations class so I am getting it even more than others. It's nice to hear what the general authorities have to say on this matter. I love hearing what I already know and seeing if there are ways I can do better. This week's lesson was on "Responding to challenges in Marriage" by Lynn G. Robbins. It was surprising to see that the majority of his talk is about anger. I guess we don't realize that at the bottom of every problem and challenge in our relationships is anger.

My dad taught me a really good lesson when I was a teenager that I will never forget. He taught me that "You love the people you do things for". NOT doing things for the people we love. We need to try harder to love everyone. At that point in my life, I was having a hard time with another girl my age and I was hating her at that moment. My dad made me make cookies for her and things got better. I'm sorry to say that I didn't do more. Maybe if I had, we would have become friends. I have tried to keep this in mind when people do things that may hurt or offend me.

I'm not saying that you need to bake something for your spouse every time you have a disagreement. They might catch on and just keep annoying you. :)

This is what I want everyone to do.... I want you to give everyone in your family a hug or kiss and tell them that you love them. People don't say it often enough and everyone loves and needs to hear it. I hope you all take a moment to think about your family and how much they mean to you...

I love you all!

House Virtual Tour

Here is the virtual tour of our new house. I was unable to add commentary to the video because it makes sound go later (so when I'm describing Katie's room, the video is in Dallin's room...)

Anyway - it starts out at the front of the house, then I walk up to the door and go into the laundry room, then through the hallway into the bathroom, around the kitchen, to Katie's room. From there I go into Dallin's room and back through the kitchen to the living room. Then into our bedroom and back outside. Around the side of the house to the back and into the shed (it's very dark in there so you don't see much). Then around the shed to the back and around the other side of the house back up to the front.