It isn't just in California

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1815820715?bctid=1822459319

Please watch the above link. I was living in Boston when this happened. Another family in our ward there joined with the Parker's and filed suit against the school. The following links are a couple of articles regarding the judges ruling. Please read them both. I remember reading an article right when it happened and realizing the last days are truly here. We can not wait to decided where we stand or how we feel or what we will do. Even if "we" win on Prop 8 the adversary will not stop there. The war has begun and we have to stand firm. There is no time for a casual commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear" (Doctrine and Covenants 38:30) There isn't enough money or food in the world to prepare us for the war that is raging. This is a spiritual war, and we have to be spiritually prepared. We will not fear because our faith will be firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Things will be hard I am sure. But I know that no matter what life throws at any of us, with our Savior by our side we can endure them all and come out the better for it. The adversary would have us so afraid that we stand motionless, fearing that even our best efforts are not enough agaisnt the noise of the world. Let us remember the Prophets of old, the pioneers, the beloved Prophet Joseph Smith and our Savior Jesus Christ. They stood firm and immovable in their faith and in their beliefs of what was sound truth. Let us stand with them now and forever more as we prepare for our Saviors return.



http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54420

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022604.html

Share a memory

I found this on a blog and I thought it was cute idea!


1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!


2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave a comment about you on my comments.

Its working!!! Its working!!!

I think we have done it!!! Well for now at least...he has been dry for two days!!! AND he woke up this morning with a dry pull-up and instead of freely using it, he made his mother proud and unprovoked used the toilet!! Hallelujah!!!

Probably the turning point came Monday when I broke down in tears and in a desperate tone telling him I knew he knew how to do it, and I needed him to just do it. It wasn't just him that day, it was just one of those mommy days where if you hear any more complaining, or have to bargain with another person to do their jobs, or feel like you have to go to battle with any else you will just burst into a puddle of tears. it was an emotional moment for us all :) ...it was probably more of an accumulation of days. But none the less I think the tears worked, because since then he has always made it to the bathroom. I am definitely counting my blessings!!!

What a morning!!!

So today I am on the phone with my sister in law and I walk up to my kitchen I glance out the window over my sink and notice there are two boys hauling it out of my bishop's backyard. I hang up with her and I call Raym. I tell him what I saw, and that I think someone broke into the bishop's house, and would it be weird if I called to check on Lynette. He says no, so I call. I tell her I am sorry to bother her but I just saw two boys with hoodie's sprinting from her house and it may sound weird but was she robbed? She says that yes infact those boys just tried to break in. My heart jumped to my chest. I ask if she is ok. She says the cops are coming, well in fact they are there now. So I do what any good neighbor would do. I throw my kids in the van to go hunt down those punks. What would I do if I found them you ask? Beat them and then call the cops - in my ideal world at least! The idea that some self absorb punk kid would try to break into one my friend's home just gets my blood boiling. How cool are they? Breaking into someone's home to steal what they are too lazy to work for...whatever...break into my house lets see how far it gets ya! I drove all around Syracuse I couldn't find them. I have give props though to the Syracuse police, when I left my neighborhood to do my own search and squash, there were a gazillion cops around. It made me feel good to see that so many took it seriously. I saw one cop walking through the near by corn field. After a bit of driving around I came home. I called Lynette to make sure she was ok. She said the cop needed to talk to me to confirm which way the kids went and what they were wearing. She said she was doing good. For those of you curious how the attempted break in went I will share what she said. She said they started ringing the doorbell like 20 times in a row, as she was walking to answer it she just felt something was weird about it. Then they started pounding on the door and ringing the doorbell. So she didn't answer because it seemed so weird. Then the two boys went around the back patio door and attempted to open it, she peaked through the blinds and saw one of them looking for something heavy on the ground to throw through the door. She then opened the blinds and yelling asked them what they thought they were doing. She got a good look at their faces and then they ran off. That is when I see them running across the lawn and down the street. Had she not been home they would have broken in. Why her house? I don't know. As she said it is one of the more modest homes in neighborhood. After speaking with her I called the officer. He just wanted to confirm that I saw them running, what they were wearing and what direction they went. I thanked him for the great response that I saw with all the officers around. He said they had set up a perimeter but came up with nothing, and that they would check the local schools to see who had skipped class.

CRAZY!!! just CRAZY!!! my neighborhood is so calm. It truly has been just such peaceful place to live. I have felt for the most part really safe. I guess I still do :) I have a gun...and yes if you know me even an inkling you have to know I would use it...I have vowed to never be a result of some selfish souls bad day...you won't shoot me, hurt me, rob me, punish me or anyone near to me because you are having a bad day, can't control your passions or are mad about something that some therapy could probably take care of...

I am so grateful that those kids just ran away, and that nothing happened to Lynette. Stay close to the spirit, keep your doors locked and make it look like some one is home. She did say that with her blinds closed and with no visible signs of occupancy it could have made her home more of a target.

ANOTHER Potty Training Day

I am outta my league on this. He knows what to do...how to do it...and yet he isn't consistent. We may have a great morning, with an awful afternoon. Or just a bad day over all. My girls were not this hard. Is there joy in potty training? or is it more of an endurance thing where you just try to maintain hope? and if you are thinking you have suggestions I will truly will be surprised if I havne't tried it...thoughts are always appreciated...but right now probably what would be the best for me is if you just came and actually did it all for me :)

It snowed and some other stuff

So this first picture is from last week. On Thursday we had lots of family over to watch BYU get creamed...I forgot to take pictures but I am kinda glad I didn't because they would be very sad ones. On Friday Gramps and the kiddos made a movie so this is them sitting around watching it on the computer.

It snowed last Sunday...lots of snow...so Monday morning, first thing literally, the kids rushed out to play in it...

I am sad this picture is a little blurry...I think the kids look really cute...

I have noticed that since I have been taking so many pictures of still things to practice my photography I haven't been taking as many of the kids because well they are not that still :)

I am sure I will figure something out though...

A conversation with Alora

Mom: lora-dora (my nickname for her) you should be losing a tooth or some teeth here soon!

Alora: yeah! that is why I am eating so much!

I have been thinking about my previous post these past couple of days. I do that. I think a lot about a lot of things. I wrote that I had nothing. But I do. I have lots. I have a home. I have a great marriage. I have terrific amazing wonderful beautiful children. I have my van that runs great. I have a great ward. I have fantabulous friends. I have a wonderful extended family. I live close to mountains. I have my testimony. I still have my table that I love :) (It hasn't sold yet.) I get to homeschool my kids. I have my camera.

All these things I knew in my heart when I posted on Saturday. What I could have said was...I have no money :) which feels sometimes like not having anything...but I have everything I need. It was a hard transition not being able to run to the store for this and that...and saving for those things that we really needed and all that comes from having a temporary financial depression.

One of the many things I have prayed for is to be able to find joy in this time of hardship, finding peace in not knowing and finding true happiness in life and not in things. The Lord has blessed me with that. That is what I meant by a happiness that I never imagined. As I look for things to be grateful for, as I pray for others and truly desire for the Lord's blessing upon them for their specific needs, and as I forget myself and serve when and where I can I am finding that happiness. Elder Nelson quoted in General Conference a week ago," President Thomas S. Monson has said: “To find real happiness, we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves. No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow man. Service to others is akin to duty—the fulfillment of which brings true joy.” ". I loved it, especially the part of surrending ego! I have been learning that these past few months and I look forward to learning more.

I know from whom I receive my peace. I know from whom my ideas or inspirations for how to move forward through this time come. I know from whom I receive from strength. My Savior, Jesus the Christ.

I just have to write tonight. We went to the BYU game tonight. It was so much fun. It was cold, and the game was good, it was football season at one of its best. I am happy right now. Happy in a way that I am not sure if I ever thought I would arrive at.

I have started losing weight. I remember after I had Alexa I wanted to do weight loss differently. I didn't want to count calories, I didn't want to be obsessed about my workouts. I wanted to enjoy my life and have my body just be the weight it was supposed to be at. Alexa hatched almost 16 months ago. The Lord promised in many blessings that I would lose the weight. As I prayed about it I always asked the Lord to help me patient with the process, b/c I wanted to get it right this time. I want to find that balance where I never have to "lose" weight again. I have posted before about getting to know myself. That has been such a key part in where I am now in losing this weight. A couple of months ago in a blessing the Lord mentioned that "all things were spiritual unto the Lord, including weight loss". I have prayed and pondered on that. I am not sure I could yet define what it means to me, but I can see how I needed to grow spiritually and emotionally to be where I am at now. During these past 16 months I have told the Lord, if counting calories was ultimately what I would need to do, I needed to be prepared and I would need strong confirmation. About two weeks ago as I was praying this very calm yet reassuring feeling came over me. I knew I needed to do the Weight Watchers program. I had the at home kit, so it would be easy to start. It has been a natural thing. I don't feel like I am wrestling myself, or babysitting my diet. The Lord has prepared me truly for this time. I have had powerful insights about the impact of environmental eating habits when I was growing up (eat because it is time eat, and eat everything on your plate), voids I have had or have and how I turn to food with out realizing it and more. This weight loss thing for me is so much more than just being thin again. I wanted to have a good relationship with myself and with food. I wanted balance, and I am finding that. As far as weight watchers goes, I think I will be doing it until I become more in tune with what is the right amount of food for me, and more in tune with my own hunger signals. The Lord has been on my side through all of this. He has truly blessed me with what were the deepest desires of my heart. It didn't happen over night, but what would I have learned if it did.

And if you are still wondering about that happiness thing. Losing weight is just the tip of the ice burg. Going back to what I have mentioned in an earlier post, if you were to know the very intimate details of my life you might say I would be justified in being forlorn. But I feel exactly the opposite. It may sound cliche...I have nothing, but I have everything. A testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly enough to sustain you. Truly if we drink from the fountain of the gospel of our Savior we will want for nothing because we will be filled with the light of Christ. I am who I am, I have what I have and I will be what I will be because I have a Father in Heaven who loves me and Savior who gave everything so that I might have eternal life and so much more.

Proposition 8

I watched these ( http://www.preservingmarriage.org/ ) videos this morning. I wish I could vote. I wish I could do more. My husband's Aunt, who lives in California, mailed a phone list to Steph, and she gave me part of it. We call the number's to remind, encourage and inform about Prop 8. My Alora Leigh-Ann is singing 'I love to see the Temple' as I write this post. Listening to her sing stirs so much emotion in my heart. I know that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God. I want a future for my children where that knowledge is preserved. Who ever you are, where ever you are please try and reach out to do something so that we may preserve the sanctity of marriage.

My patient subject

Photography has been a secret passion of mine. Recently I have decided to take it more seriously. My Dad, who is an amazing photographer (mscottphoto.com), is currently taking a course from the New York Institute of Photography and has been kind enough to share his instruction manuals with me. Thanks Dad! So I have been reading and I am loving it. There is so much depth to photography. There is so much that goes into taking the "right" picture. I am loving the learning. I am loving developing this hidden talent of mine :)

Alora one day was kind enough to sit and allow me to photograph her so that I might practice the things I am learning. I think she has such beautiful eyes, and I love how her hair drapes over the side of her face. You might just being seeing more of her in the future :)

A New Do

So here it is...the new do! I took these photos for my sister about a week after so it isn't as red as it started out. I really like it...sometimes though my own reflection startles me because I am not used to it so much yet...Alexa just stared at me forever, even after I picked her up she still just stared...someone told me "it really makes your green eyes stand out"...my eyes are actually hazel...interesting what red hair does...

I love Rainbows

Rainbows are one of my favorite things. On this particular day I almost crashed on the freeway trying to see all the rainbows...and I truly mean ALL the rainbows. Sometimes there were two...if you look closely in one of the pictures you can barely see one above the other. I truly get emotional when I see them. I have to pause, gather my kids and absorb the beauty.

Cute Kids

Alexa Nicole

She sat so still I just had to take a million pictures...I only posted a few...isn't she cute?

A blessing of peace

We have applied for food stamps, WIC and Medicaid. We have sold just about everything we can. There is not a whole lot of money coming in, if any. We are at a point in our life that I could feel despair, but I don't. I feel peace and happiness. I am not scared. I am hopeful. I know the Lord is not only taking care of us now, but He will provide a job in time that will allow us to pay our own bills, and to buy our own food. It is incredible to me how you truly can feel peace when the storm is raging. I know that the peace I feel is from my Savior. I don't know when we will have a better income. Truly my list of "I don't know's" is longer than my list of knows. I know that my Savior lives, that he loves me and that he will never fail me or anyone. The peace I feel is truly not as the world would give. My peace is something so much deeper, richer and purer. I am not sure that I will ever be able to put into words what I have learned and what I am learning through this trial. I actually feel like it is more of an opportunity. I know that the lessons I am learning I could not have learned any other way. Somethings only come from experience. I know we will not be poor forever, the Lord has promised that in blessings. I don't want to 'waste' my time during this trial wishing it away. I remember conversations I used to have with a friend where we would discuss the fact that during a trial we wanted to learn everything we could so as to gain as much as we could. All of my needs are met, and one day when the time is right I will be able to consider my wants. I know that my happiness is important to the Lord. I also know that he can show me a happiness greater than I ever imagined. I love my life. I love what I get to learn. I love what we are learning as a family. I love the relationship my husband and I are building. I love it all!!! and I look forward to more growth, more memories, and more life!

Pictures from Amber's wedding

I had forgetten to add some pics from Amber's wedding. These were all taken by her friend Kim.

Don't forget to pray

My sister just called. She was sharing with me something that I had also heard about in emails. I believe there was a show that Oprah did about sexual predators. The things I have heard about the show disgust me. First of all I believe she could have done the show without any of the graphic nature. My sister said the women in the crowd were turning their heads and bawling. I am disappointed that someone of her stature would subject people to such things proclaiming to inform. There are more tactful ways to talk about such a sensitive subject. Second, the response to show was very interesting to me. I never saw the show, never will. But for my end of the deal I got a lot of emotionally charged emails. I appreciate and am grateful that so many are concerned for the increasing darkness of sexual abuse. My thought today as I listened to my sister was "we can't forget to pray". Our discussion began about politics. She made a comment about sometimes wanting to give up. I know she did not mean that literally, but that lit a fire in me. That is EXACTLY what the adversary wants us to feel. Overwhelmed. Discouraged. Outnumbered. How many times in our scriptures do we read about people who are for sure going to lose the battle? What do they do? They PRAY! And not just your standard answers pray. They PLEAD. We can't forget that. We can not forget our God. Prayer is so powerful. Yes! let's work for stronger laws for perpetrators, let's increase awareness and teach people who to watch out for and how to protect their families, but let's pray with that same zealousness. If we forget to pray for each other, for our country and for the world we will come out on the losing end. Things are getting darker, harder and thicker in regards to the evil in the world. But what an incredible opportunity for us to become more humble, more teachable and more reliant on our Father in Heaven. We can't forget!!!!...the church is growing....there is more light, more good, more opportunities to be spiritually fed than ever before. Our beloved prophets have testified of this and the fact that we WILL win this battle against the adversary!! We are all in this together. We have to pray for each other. That spiritual connection will carry us all through and beyond more than we ever imagined.